Dark Magic Ch. 04

Scripts from the Great Library of Nycene:

From "Tales of Forbidden Magic":

Among the blackest of dark arts is the drawing forth of entities from an unknown and unexplored world that is, through great exertion of power, accessible from our own plane of existence. These beings are known as the Summoned, and were instrumental in the near defeat Nycene's forces during the Magic Wars.

The Summoned are human-like in anatomy and speech, but are physically stronger and more powerful in the area of magic, able to cast without the use of runes. How the first human mages learned to bring forth the Summoned is unknown, for the elves, who taught humans magic in the first place, do not possess this ability. Or, if they do, they do not claim knowledge of it publicly.

When a Summoned is called forth, he, or in some rare cases, she, is at the command of the caster until it is dismissed. There are no degrees of control. If a mage has the ability to cast forth a Summoned, then he or she will have total control of it. Failure to cast results in failure to control in an all-or-none capacity. That is why the ability is, thankfully, limited only to the most skilled rune crafters and casters.

To call forth a Summoned is considered the greatest crime in magic, both at the state and private levels. Any mage caught summoning will be executed immediately as will any mage found designing runes to be used in summoning...

Chapter 4 - The Road to Nycene

The old farmer looked at me with obvious skepticism, his eyes narrowed to slits beneath his broad rimmed hat. I had just informed him that I was a mage and asked if, in exchange for any reasonable service that I could provide, he would give two horses to Celeste and I. We had been walking for just over a week now, picking our way through thick northeastern forest and had just come into farm land, which was outside of Green Seo and on the road to Lancaster, where we would turn east and continue on to Nycene.

"What do you mean any service?" the farmer asked. We were standing outside his modest but biggish house, his small barn and sizable horse stables were located to the right and a large, unplowed field to his left. He must have been a pumpkin or squash farmer if he was planting so late in the season. Either that or he had fallen on hard times. Either way, the farmer could use the services of a mage like myself.

I shrugged, "You name it and I might could do it. We mages have untold amounts of power, you know." I was playing it up a bit, trying to mystify the country man.

"Hmph," the farmer grunted, and scratched his head through his hat. Celeste stood to the side of me, trying not to draw any attention to herself. Elvish racism ran deep in the county and she did not want to alert anyone of her heritage if she could help it. Even thousands of years after the Elvish Wars, families still remembered the countless human lives lost on these very lands.

"How about that field?" I offered, gesturing at the unplowed land, "Looks like it could use some work. In exchange for your horses, I could plow it in one day. Guaranteed."

The farmer arched an eyebrow, "All by yourself? I doubt your girl there would be much help, seeing how small she is."

I nodded, ignoring his ignorance, "You'd be amazed how much I can do with a simple rune. What do you say?"

"Hmm," the farmer thought on it for a long while and then laughed out loud at some secret joke, "If you actually plow that land in one day like you say you can, I'll give you them horses. I'll even throw in a place to sleep in the barn for the night. But," he chuckled again, "Something tells me you're full of it. Looking for a place to sleep. But I've got plenty of room for lonely travelers."

"Thank you, but I promise I'll earn my keep," I said in response. I had set up numerous deals of this type while on the road. Farmers and town folk were always looking for the skills of a mage, whether they knew it or not. Most of them, like this particular farmer, were skeptical of my skills. But many of them begged me to stay longer after I had finished. The wonder of magic rarely made its presence known outside the illustrious walls of Nycene, and the common people were always mesmerized by it, if not a little wary of it.

"Go ahead and settle up in the barn's loft," the farmer jerked a thumb toward the building in question. It was late and we were both exhausted. The sun had already begun to set behind thick clouds when we arrived and were now all but disappeared. Lights flickered on in the windows of the farmer's house. His wife getting dinner ready perhaps.

I nodded in thanks and shouldered my pack, walking across the expanse of packed dirt in front of the farmer's house, toward the barn. Celeste followed and then fell in step with me once we were out of the farmer's earshot.

"Can you really plow that whole field?" she asked in a soft voice, "With just magic?"

I nodded, "I've done harder. Come on, I'll tell you how once we're settled."

The barn was neatly kept, but bereft of animals. One lonely cow swished its tail lazily in the middle of the first floor, a metal bucket laying on its side next to a wooden stool. There were piles of hay for the horses that lived in the stables next door and a myriad of farm tools. A ladder led up from the floor to a loft that ran the length of one side of the barn. We climbed it, and found a few forgotten or broken tools but not much else. The floor was wooden, and would be less comfortable than the ground we had been sleeping on for most of our journey. But the sky was threatening rain, and it would be nice to be out of the elements if indeed the weather came.

"No fire tonight," I grimaced and cast my light orb, uttering an additional word to change its color from a hard white to a softer yellow-orange. "We won't be able to see as much," I said, setting down my pack, "But it'll be nicer at night. Besides, I don't plan on lasting long tonight. I'm beat."

"So what's the big plan tomorrow?" Celeste asked as she fished out the last of our food from my pack. I would need to stop and get more tomorrow before we set out again, after I was done plowing the field.

"Simple," I said, "Remember the first night we met?"

"How could I not?" Celeste grinned, "You tied me up and then had your way with me. It was all very erotic."

It was hard to believe that two and a half weeks had passed since the night I had sensed Celeste lurking in the darkness around my campsite. It seemed like only a few days ago.

"Well," I said, pulling up my sleeve and pointing at a medium sized rune near the juncture of my elbow, it was etched in green ink, "This is the secret to my success then and now. I designed it while treasure hunting in the swamp lands far south of here. There were vines and roots everywhere, and I was getting sick of cutting them out of my way. So I made a rune that can manipulate vegetation so I would be able to just move them instead. You can't manipulate living things as a rule, but with a few clever modifications you can alter a simple manipulation rune like this one," I pointed to smaller, similarly designed tattoo etched in black ink, "Into something that bends the rules a little bit. Namely, make it so you can manipulate really, really unintelligent living things. Like plants. Very dark magic, according to the state mages."

"That's amazingly clever," Celeste said in awe, "But how does that help you with all that dirt? Even that manipulation rune won't be enough to move all of it in one day."

"Did you notice all that grass and weed growing in that field?"

She nodded.

"I'll just use the roots of those plants to till the soil. If I form a chain of command through the complex system of them beneath the ground, I only have to do a few castings at the most. It will be done within two hours."

"How do you come up with this stuff?" Celeste laughed, "That's insane."

"But effective," I had just finished off my dinner and was stretching, my eyes growing heavy even though it was still relatively early, "Watch. You'll be just as amazed as that simple farmer at my skills."

I lay down and closed my eyes, smiling when Celeste came next to me. I was asleep in minutes, more exhausted than I thought and the only time I awoke that night was to pull a blanket over our bodies and extinguish my orb of light, shutting us away in total darkness.

"It's better than I thought," I said excitedly, "These weeds have had a nice, long time to get grow and get closer together."

I stood in the middle of the farmer's field. It had rained the night before, as predicted, and the ground was hard with moisture. But the water had also invigorated the plants and I could sense them easily through the threads of magic that bound all things together in the universe and to which all mages are trained to be attuned to. It was all very spiritual.

Or something.

Off to the side of the field the farmer's wife, a tall scarecrow of a woman who wore a cotton dress that went to her feet despite the hot mugginess of the early morning. They had only one child, a daughter, who stood by her mother, watching Celeste and I.

"She likes you," Celeste teased, jerking her head toward the women, "I can tell by the way she looks at you."

"She just likes me because I'm the only man she's seen besides her father and old farmers he chums with," I retorted, "Which is fine. Any other time and I would be all over that, trust me. But now I have you. And you're perfect." I grinned, letting her know I was just teasing.

"Ha!" Celeste laughed, "I'm a nymph, remember? I don't do the ties that bind. You want her, you can have her."

I gave her a quizzical look, "You mean that?"

She looked me dead in the eyes, "I'll watch."

My cock stored in my breeches, and I cleared my throat loudly. "Let's talk about that later. Right now I need to concentrate on getting this plowing done." But Celeste had thrown me for a loop. She was serious. I didn't doubt the tone of her voice for a moment. It was not surprising that she was willing to share me, and truthfully I felt no guilt at the notion. She was a nymph after all, and I had never experienced love myself. But our relationship still seemed to run deeper than pure companionship and I found myself wondering what I would say about sharing her with another man...

"Brian?" Celeste called, "Are you ok?"

I shook my head to clear it, then nodded, "Yes. Just finding the best place to...got it." I muttered a casting and bonded with a largish weed that grew about five feet from where we stood. Its roots were thick and long, connecting with a number of other systems. I followed these and the ones that they connected to, feeling my bond grow and spread throughout the field.

The rune I was using grew hot on my arm as the link became larger and larger, until it was almost painful. Finally it stopped, and I could feel the edge of the field where the system of roots was interrupted by the fence that ran the perimeter and kept out all but the smallest of animals.

After a moment's thought, I made my move, commanding the system of roots to move. They did, and I could feel the earth beneath my feet start to move with them, barely. I moved them another way, and then another, careful to apply enough force to affect the dirt but not enough that the roots tore themselves apart.

It was slow going at first, the roots were deeply entrenched and the dirt was hard, but after fifteen minutes of slowly manipulating the entire system I could feel the dirt beneath me start to shift more obviously. Celeste could feel it too and let out a small gasp of wonder.

Closing my eyes, I focused on job more completely. It was slow going. All told I stood in the middle of that field for just over an hour, working the dirt looser and looser by the minute until at last I opened my eyes and saw to my satisfaction a completely tilled field. The roots had loosened the dirt plenty and their host plants now lay toppled over and broken, victims of my manipulation.

I smiled at Celeste, who clapped and laughed, "That was amazing!"

Coming across the field and leaving footprints in the newly softened dirt was the farmer and his family, all three with wide eyes and wider smiles.

"You really did it," the farmer was saying, shaking his head in disbelief and chuckling to himself much the way he had the night before, "And a deal's a deal." He turned to his daughter, who was staring at me with large, brown eyes in open admiration, "Maggy, go saddle up two fine horses for these two. They've earned it."

Maggy nodded and walked off without at word, glancing back at me every few feet as she made her way to the stable.

"Now there's no chance I could get you to stick around a little longer?" the farmer asked with little hope in his voice, "I've got a lot a work to be done and not a lot of time to do it. My son ran off with his girl last winter and I'm starting to feel the hurt."

I shook my head, "Sorry. We need to keep moving. We've got a long road ahead of us yet."

"Well then," the farmer nodded, "I guess you should go meet Maggy in the stables. She should have you all set." He stuck out his hand and I shook it, "Pleased to meet you, mage. Even if we never got to first name basis."

"Likewise," I said, "And you'll understand if I'm cautious with my name. I have a lot of enemies."

"All mages do," the farmer shrugged, as if he understood the half of it, "I've got no problem with them myself but I can see how they might rub some folk the wrong way."

"Thank you," Celeste said, the first words she had spoken directly to the farmer, and turned to walk away.

I raised a hand in departure and followed her across the field, admiring my handy-work. It had been an easy job and we had gotten two horses out of it. Not a bad hour's work at all.

The stable was dim, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust after the bright sunlight. Maggy was just finishing up with the horses, two healthy-looking animals, one white the other brown. I knew very little about horses, only how to ride them, but these two looked adequate.

"Thank you, Maggy," I said and saw her blush, "Do you know where we could get some supplies for our journey? We're fresh out."

"There's a trading post just inside town, to the east," she offered shyly while Celeste looked on with a bemused expression.

"Thank you, beautiful," I smiled and approached the brown horse, letting it get used to me, while Celeste smoothed a hand over the neck of the white, still watching me.

"Y...you're welcome," Maggy was as red as a beet.

I smiled slyly and looked at her with what I hoped were lust-filled eyes, making her squirm a little under my gaze. Then without another word, I pulled myself up onto the horse. "Come on Celeste, we have to go."

That's when I felt it. Disappointment. Coming off of Maggy in waves. I fed on it, refueling my reserves of energy with a small satisfied sigh. It was my favorite emotion to syphon. The disappearance of hope, no matter how small, was one of the most powerful negative emotions in existence and it provided a wealth of dark energy.

I urged the horse forward, exiting the stable, Celeste close at my heels, leaving Maggy in the darkness.

"That was cruel," Celeste said once we were off the farm and traveling toward the small town nearby.

"It was," I agreed, "But I needed energy. And I just couldn't pass that delightful opportunity up. It was just too perfect."

"Mages," Celeste shook her head.

I barked laughter. Mages, indeed. Never what you expected.

By late afternoon we had left the small farming community far behind and were making our way down a wide, tree-lined road, heading east. We had restocked our food supplies using the money I still had left from my last sell-off of treasure. I had also bought a new black tunic and matching breeches, deciding that my old ones were officially too worn to be any good. Celeste had gotten her dagger sharpened as well. Finally we had purchased a few extra blanket rolls, knowing that the air would get cooler the closer to Nycene we got and also aware that summer was slowly drawing to a close, making the nights cooler by the week.

"How come you don't carry any weapons?" Celeste asked as we traveled down the road.

"I don't need to," I said, "I'm a mage. I captured you without any didn't I?"

"Yes," Celeste frowned, "But I was unawares. What happens when you get into a real fight?"

I drew my horse up suddenly, and held up a hand. "You might get to find out sooner than you think," I said softly and listened close, hoping the trumpet I had just heard was a figment of my imagination.

"What..." Celeste began, but was cut off by the loud, blaring sound of what was unmistakably a heralding trumpet of the King's guard, one of the few instruments I could pick out from a half a mile away with no problem.

We were in trouble.

"Shit!" I swore and peered down the road. Three horses were coming toward us at a fast trot. They bore three armored riders, the metal gleaming in the sunlight that split through the trees. One of the riders held a banner that made my blood run cold. Embroidered in green and gold on the gray background was the flaming torch of the King. "King's guards," I told Celeste, "Just walk forward and don't make eye contact. They might leave us alone." But I doubted it.

Within moments the riders were upon us and were slowing down, a very bad sign for us. The leader had long, greasy, dark hair that was swept back from his forehead and combed over his scalp. He stared at us with cold, grey eyes while his men, both brutish looking thugs with shortly cropped hair and violent eyes, stayed back.

"State your name and business on this road," the leader said, "By order of the King of Nycene."

"My name is Seth," I answered with a low voice, using the name of my frequent-buyer from the south, "And this is my wife, Celeste." There was no need to use a fake name for her. It would mean nothing to these men.

"Where are you traveling?" the guard asked.

"To Nycene," I admitted. There was no other plausible scenario. I could have said I was visiting relatives in one of the farming towns between here and Nycene, but the lie would have quickly unraveled.

"Why?"

"Work," I said, "We're recently married and are hoping to start a new life there."

"I'm with child," Celeste added, and I admired her ability to play the commoner, "And we have no family to support us or land to farm so we figured we try to make it in Nycene."

"Hmm," the guard said, "You know what I think? I think you're full of shit."

"Excuse me?" I tried to sound indignant, but was not at all shocked that the guard had seen through us. They were trained to spot a lier from a mile away. Celeste was too pretty and I was dressed too nicely to be simple farm folk trying to struggle our way to Nycene. To top it all off, our horses were healthy and our supplies well-stocked. We had money and it was obvious.

"Listen up," the guard said, "It's our job to protect the fine people of this land and when we get wind of some mage and his whore traveling through towns, casting dark spells, we have a duty to investigate. And right now," he smiled sinisterly, "You're our prime suspects."

I should have seen this coming. Word of what I had done at the farmer's would have gotten around that town fast. And there were scrying mirrors in almost all villages that even the most common of common folk could use to contact the King's guard. Not to mention how I had treated poor Maggy. I bet she had gone off to tell about the handsome, but unkind stranger who had plowed her daddy's field using magic.

Every time I had used magic in exchange for goods I had kept it small and used perfectly legal castings. This time I had been sloppy. Used a rune that was against the rules of the state to manipulate living things on a large scale. With witnesses. It was foolish in hindsight. Perhaps I had been trying to impress Celeste. I didn't know. All I knew is that the King's guard were experts in sniffing out even the smallest of rule breakers and I was in trouble.