The Abjurer: Chapter 42-43 (Patreon)

“The third year tournament will be simple,” Eira announced. “Be it by fate or fortune, there are forty members of your year. As such, the first round will be one on one elimination matches, to cut us down to twenty.”

I bit my lip and hoped I wouldn’t have to face any of my friends.

“As some of you are likely aware, we have ongoing peace negotiations with Zheren. As such, the second round will involve breaking into halves – one group will represent Zheren, while the other represents Paerús, and will serve as protection for a group of faux delegates. I will be sending repeated assassination attempts after both sides. The first side to fail to stop or negate an attack will be eliminated.”

That reminded me of the mission that Franklin Roark had used last year, and I wondered if Eira had meant to do that, or if it had been sheer happenstance.

“Our final round will consist of monster waves. I will send wave after wave of elementals at the ten remaining contestants until they fall and are pulled from the fight. Now, onto our fourth years…”

I tuned her out as I sorted some basic strategies out. There wasn’t much I could do for the first round – my seven sets of seven wouldn’t be ready before then, so I’d be relying on the tools I’d already made.

For the second round… It was a bit devious, but Eira hadn’t forbidden us from messing with the other team’s defenses. If I could shut down their wards or defenses, it could allow an assassin to slip through.

The third round… Maybe if I rushed, I’d be able to have the seven sets of seven ready for it, but I wasn’t entirely sure.tirely sure. We’d definitely be able to complete the physical set up, but the charging time? I had no idea how much time it would take to bring the spell into completion, and even Tara wasn’t sure, since it was so different from hers, and she had a different first arch-star than I did.

“Think we stand a chance?” I asked Osheen. He considered for a moment, then shrugged.

“I think we can win the first round for sure. The second round is anyone’s game, honestly. And the third… I think if we make it into the third, we stand a good chance, so long as we ration our power well.”

“So long as I ration my power, you mean?” I teased him. “You’re an endless wellspring, after all.”

“I’m not,” Osheen said.

“Rage and Heat?” I asked. “If I got stabbed, I guarantee that you’d decemate the rest of the match…”

We teased one another for a while as we headed back towards our room. As we turned the corner that led to our basically empty branch, however, I froze.

There was something wrong.

I flicked open my third eye, but I was too slow. I felt a hand thump down on my shoulder and flinched.

“Well, boys,” a voice said. “It’s time to pay your dues.”

My cloak spun out around me, and Osheen’s armor was up. We spun in unison, and I had a knife in my hand as fire shaped into Osheen’s. When I saw who it was, I tensed further, but didn’t attack. Osheen, on the other hand, went stiff as a board and let all of the magic he had built up vanish.

Franklin Roark stood there calmly, utterly unconcerned about my knife as he smiled at us. He touched his ear slightly, and I focused on it.

There was spellcraft there. Delicate, tiny runes, too small for me to read, but not too small for the vision of an owl.

There were sound and sympathetic runes there, as if… Someone was sending sounds from their own ears? His witch, no doubt.

My cloak was flaring around me, and I tapped into the rune identification section, allowing it to take all the time it needed to analyze the spell.

“Clever, to put so many defenses around your room. If my witch hadn’t warned me, I would have certainly wound up tripping at least one layer,” he said. “But how about you invite me in, okay?”

Osheen’s lip quivered for a moment, and then words burst from him.

“Leave,” he said. “Neither of us want you here.”

A look spread across Franklin’s face, one that I didn’t entirely understand, but it was gone before I was able to dissect it.

“Take us inside,” Franklin said in a flat voice.

“Fine,” I said, before nodding at Osheen. “But your compact was with me, not with him. Leave Osheen out of this.”

Then I tapped my spell disruption and tore the spell from his ear, then smiled sweetly at him.

Franklin, to his credit, was only thrown off for a second before he nodded.

“Of course,” he said. “I wouldn’t dare go back on a compact.”

“Go,” I told Osheen.

“I… but… no… You need me?” he said.

“I’ll be okay,” I said. “I killed a spring queen when something happened to you, so you will be too.”

“I mean… I guess that’s true,” Osheen said, fumbling over his words in a way that I never saw when he wasn’t thinking about his father.

“Go,” I said. “Take some deep breaths and relax. I’ve got this.”

It felt odd to be the calm and confident one for the first time, and in truth, I wasn’t calm or confident.

I was angry. The kind of anger that ran so strong that it wrapped around to being cold and calculating.

I opened the door and strode into our rooms, then took a seat in the center of our couch, spreading my arms to rest along either side, and crossing my legs. I gestured with two fingers at the small chair that was at a slightly offset angle from me.

“Please, take a seat, Frank.”

I saw his eye twitch as he strode in and shut the door behind him with more force than was strictly needed.

“I see you’ve been taking lessons from Draven,” Frank said, putting so much emphasis and vitriol on Draven’s name that it was clearly an insult.

“What can I say?” I said. “The man’s got style, power, and composure.”

I was tempted to add an ‘unlike you’ to the end, but I thought that it was better left unsaid.

“You know why I’m here,” Frank said after a moment.

“You want me to help you kill the most powerful mage in the nation,” I said. “Bad idea, really. Who are you going to pin it on?”

That must have been the comment that pushed him too far. His hand snapped out and a force beam erupted from his tattoos.

But even though this was the three sets of five cloak, rather than the seven sets of seven, I’d spent a lot of time around Osheen, which meant my cloak had ample time to analyze the spellwork in the tattoo and store it in the memory bank.

All of which meant that it took only the barest sliver of the cloak’s reserves to break apart the force beam.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Done acting like a child?” I asked.

“Your cloak has improved, I see,” he hissed. “But you should remember what happened the last time. You held up against my force magic just fine, but the moment I broke out my fire mag–”

He cut off as I yawned, and I saw a vein in his temple pulse – literally, physically pulse.

He thrust his hand out and unleashed an immolation spell, the secretive attack of the Roark family, the spell that improved on the basic fire orb and fireball spell in every conceivable way.

The power he packed into it was impressive. It was a lot stronger than the ones Osheen threw.

But the spell itself was the exact same array, one my cloak had been exposed to dozens of times already. All that extra power flowing through it only meant it was moving a metaphorical plank, rather than the pencil of the force beam.

I caught the spell and broke it apart, then glanced at the table between us. The varnish on the table had started to melt and char a bit under the heat of the flames before I’d dissipated them.

“You’re paying for that table. Also, stop being stupid, Frank. If you were able to kill me, then who’s going to help you kill Eira? And if you failed…”

He clenched his fist, and I saw force rippling around his tattoo, but I just gave him my broadest smirk, channeling every bit of Draven I could.

Inside, of course, I was still panicking. I’d much rather have waited for my seven sets of seven to finish.

But I thought Frank was kind of like a wild dog. If I showed weakness, he’d bite me. But if I make it clear that he wasn’t able to steamroll me, he’d back off.

I just hoped I was right.

“Fine,” he said after several tense seconds. “I’ll pay for your table.”

“Good,” I said flatly, trying to keep the relief off my face. “So, who are you blaming the murder on? Obviously not Zheren – after the accident that happened with House Elide earlier this year, that would just relaunch the very war you argued so persuasively to stop.”

“Johnathan Castor,” he said smoothly. “He has established and well documented vendettas against nearly every other archmage in the nation, and as a member of the senate, the framing would wind up with him being ousted from power.”

I vaguely recognized the name – he was the storm mage from the archmage meeting, and from the little I knew, he was highly conservative, pushing to maintain Paerús’ empire-like tendencies.

“When are we moving? Obviously not now – too many eyes on her,” I said.

“Agreed. I have a strike point located along her flight path back to her home. We’ll follow and hit her there.”

I nodded. I’d have to ask Tara to do some scrying to find the site, but it was valuable information.

Especially because I didn’t trust him to not be setting up a trap to kill me there, as well as Eira.

“And how do you actually plan to beat her?” I asked.

“Eira’s known for her flame drake and her thunderbird,” he said. “She prefers the thunderbird for combat, and she’s capable of using an advanced technique to fuse with it.”

“Her fifth arch-star, same as yours,” I said with a nod. Franklin tensed, but nodded.

“Exactly,” he said. “Iggi and her flame drake can more or less cancel eachother out, which means I have to face off against her thunderbird. But they’re not her only bond, I just don’t know what the other one or ones are – it’s hard to tell at times, and she’s taken great pains to obscure it. That’s where you come in. Whatever other familiar or familiars she throws out, you counter it long enough for me to kill her.”

“So, if I counter her other familiar or familiars, you’ll consider our arrangement complete?” I said.

“Yes,” Franklin said.

“Swear that in a compact to me,” I said, lighting up my aura. Frank looked incensed, but lit his own.

We swore a compact, and then our auras flickered away. Frank rose and put his hands in his pockets.

“You should be careful,” he said. “You’re strong, no doubt. Stronger than I expected. But you’re acting like an archmage, and you aren’t there yet. That’s how people wind up dead.”

I just smiled and waved to him as he left. Once I was sure he was gone, the panic set in.

I spent a long time curled up in a ball, shaking and crying. I wasn’t sure how long – the only thing I knew was that sometime later that evening Osheen found me, and we held each other for even longer.

~~~

Before I started the actual spellcasting work for the spell that should save me from turning into a fae, I laid the book Draven had given me down and drew a circle around it. I added runes, lines, and eventually built it out into a full divination spell. I closed my eyes and allowed the magic to build and charge.

It was difficult. There were defenses emplaced, and I didn’t have Tara’s skill at bobbing and weaving around them. My scrying was shunted to a wardstone multiple times, and even thrown into the elemental fields and dreamscape. Each time it was shunted, I had to re-open my eyes and change my spell to account for the variable.

But eventually, I got something close to the image I needed. It wasn’t complete – I had no idea where Draven was, or what he was doing, but I could see his face, at least.

With that, Oracle scratched out a sympathetic connection while I kept working on stabilizing the image. Once he was finished, and that section of the array was charged, I swatted the air in front of me.

The mental image of Draven jerked and spun wildly. Runes swirled through his eyes, and his pupils turned silver, and then he looked straight at me.

“I’m assuming,” he said. “This is an attempt to get my attention, rather than an attack. Tap once for yes, twice for no.”

I tapped the air once, and Draven nodded.

“Who is this?” he asked. “You can’t be Chris, and the runework… It looks almost familiar. Is that you, Evander?”

I tapped him once, and Draven arched an eyebrow.

“I can’t think of many reasons you’d go through the effort of contacting me… I’m assuming you either need help with components, with the soul magic, or with Frank, is that correct?”

I tapped him once again, actually kind of impressed with his reasoning. Draven nodded slowly, as if thinking.

“I’m occupied shifting certain assets at the moment. Give me three hours, and I’ll show up and we can talk.”

Then his aura flickered for a second, and my vision was warped into the dreamscape again. I disconnected from the spell and let out a slow sigh.

I wasn’t entirely sure that Draven would be able to help me in the fight against Frank, but it wasn’t entirely uncertain either.

Eira, Draven, and Frank were all tossed around as some of the strongest archmages, now that the king was gone, and I believed it. I may have been able to throw Frank off his game a bit, but that hadn’t been a real fight. If it had been, I wasn’t sure I’d have done nearly as well – I'd probably have been forced to retreat, or else just die.

Eira was stronger, and Draven… Was a wild card. I didn’t know if he was stronger than both, somewhere in between, or at the bottom, but I’d handed him two major power ups now, between getting access to his grave back and being able to redo his final arch-star.

Still, even if he was weaker than the other two, turning the fight onto a three on one dogpile against Frank would help.

I only said a three on one because I didn’t want to force Osheen to be there. I wouldn’t stop him if he insisted, but there was no way that it could be good for his mental health.

I cleaned up the scrying spell and started working on laboriously copying out the spell from Draven’s little book.

It was absurdly complex, and I had no idea at all what it was. It wasn’t quite a three dimensional spell, but I thought that was just because of how old the spell was. I got the sense that it could be reworked into a more compact three dimensional format, but it just hadn’t been.

There was no way I’d be trying that, though, because I didn’t remotely understand the magic that I was working with, even with the knowledge I’d absorbed about death magic from the fae and having seen the lifeline spells that were used to create aura sparks.

Those felt like novice level spells to this archmage level spell.

Half the spell was in a spell language I didn’t even remotely recognize, its runes consisted of swirly, curving characters that included a lot of circles and strong flourishes. The other half was a mix of four languages – I recognized Old Bradlewyr, Ancient Paerus, and the runic language that had been used in the test that Franklin had set up the year before, but the other one was yet another totally unknown one to me.

If it weren’t for the fact that the spell had a long and solid pronunciation guide, I would have been unwilling to cast a spell that directly connected to my lifeline and aura.

As it was, I felt like I did when I was first making the assassin’s cloak spell – in over my head, grasping at power I didn’t understand, just to stay alive and with the rest of my peers.

I just needed to make sure I didn’t mess this spell up the way that I had my first attempt at the assassin’s cloak.

As I feverishly measured out lines, weighed components, and painted in swirling runes, I heard the door open.

I looked up, expecting it to be Draven, but instead, Tara and Osheen stood in the doorway.

“Babe,” Osheen said. “You’re not alone. I appreciate you working to protect me, but that doesn’t mean you have to do this alone. I can help you set up the spell.”

“And I’m not exactly powerless,” Tara said, a small smile on her lips. “You’re working on a spell to help kill an archmage, according to your boyfriend. I can help.”

I stood up and pulled both of them into a hug, then pointed at the book.

“This is the spell I need.”

The three of us set to work then, with Tara skimming the book and directing both of us. Osheen and I worked together to lay it out as quickly as possible.

I was glad for the fact that I’d spent a boon on getting components for the spell now – some of these were things I didn’t think I’d have been able to lay out on my own.

Blue Bloodcap was one thing, but there were also deathcap, water from a well that hadn’t been opened in at least twenty years, gold, salt, roses, liquid shadows from the elemental fields, demonic blood, the skull of a pixie, and other components besides.

With how complex the spell was, if I’d been working alone, it would have taken me several days to set up, just as a one time use array.

With another Archmage and Osheen, however? We were already a decent way into the spell when there was a knock at the door.

Tara tensed, and I glanced at her.

“Keep an eye on things in here?” I asked. “A contact I have is here. Osheen and I need to talk to him.”

Tara gave me a suspicious glance, and I just smiled. Eventually, she nodded, and Osheen and I slipped out of the room.

“Ah, Mister and Mister Tailor,” Draven said with a slight bow that somehow managed to come across as mocking. “Good to see you both.”

“My father is going to attempt to kill Eira Talik,” Osheen said. “Soon. I’m guessing after the tournament?”

I said nothing, not wanting to risk it.

“Of course,” Draven said, nodding sagely. “And… Why should I care? Worst case, they both live. Better case, one of them kills the other and eliminates one of my rivals. Best case, they manage to both kill each other off, and I’m out two of my rivals.”

“You said you might help,” Osheen said.

“Might, my dear, is not will,” Draven said. “But you’re right. I might. It would be good to get Frank out of the way. With you gone, there’s no heir apparent of the Roark house, which means the seat of the treasurer will be out of control. That sets up well for chaos I can use to my advantage.”

Osheen opened his mouth, but Draven had already raised his hand.

“I’ll stay within the bounds of our deal, Mister Tailor.”

“We’re not married yet,” I pointed out.

“Medb would disagree,” Draven said. “And she’s of more import than any human judge.”

I glanced at Osheen, unsure what to think of that. He smiled slightly, and shrugged, which… Did not help.

“Back to the point,” Osheen said. “Will you help, or not?”

“I’m undecided,” Draven said. “Why should I?”

“For the reasons you just outlined?” I asked.

“Hmm,” he said.

“I get that you’re trying to extort us,” Osheen said. “But we’re going to do this anyways. It’s just going to be with you, or without you.”

“I would greatly expand on your odds of victory,” Draven said.

“Perhaps,” I said. “Or perhaps you’d decide that it was in your best interest to eliminate Eira Talik as well – didn’t you already say that was your best case scenario?”

Draven just gave a dry chuckle.

“True enough.”

We stared at one another for a long time before Draven shrugged.

“If I see the opportunity to help without risking my life, then I’ll step in. Otherwise, I’ll likely sit it out.”

With that, shadows swallowed him and he slid away. I stared at Osheen, then shrugged, and we headed back in.

“Draven?!” Tara shouted the moment the door was open, and I winced.

“He’s–” I started, but Tara cut me off.

“The worst of the lot! He’s a money-grubbing, power-hungry sociopath who’s willing to sell out half the planet to give himself a half an inch more power, and is just as likely to betray you as he is to help!” she shouted.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“But he’s necessary,” Osheen said. “Think about it Tara. There’s no way to excise everyone from the current system of power. He’s been in power for a long time, and has agreed to limitations on those powers. If we can strike down the worst archmages, then the better ones, like Eira Talik, Zachary Dormer, and you, can do good for the world.”

Tara opened her mouth to snap something, then closed it.

“He’d be the face of the old faction,” Osheen said. “By making him the head of that faction, we’re guaranteeing that they’re already better than the current system. You, or Evan, or Talik, or Dormer can be the face – or faces – of a new way. We have connections to Zheren, and if Evan and I are put in a position of power, then we can leverage that. Take down the Aura pillars.”

Tara considered that, then shook her head.

“No. You’re right, but I’ll only agree to this on one condition. Evan and I have been reviewing our memories of the pillars, and he’s given me some information. I’ve got an idea. What’s the core of all sympathetic magic?”

“Linking,” I provided. “As above, so below.”

“Exactly,” Tara said. “You two will be going clock tower to clock tower, setting up these rituals all over, spreading power far and wide. You’re already using sympathetic magic so that when one triggers, they all do. I want to leverage that, and expand on that part of the ray. When you launch the spell, I want to include a simple bit of ward breaking and abjuration. Shut down all of the aura pillars across Paerús. All of them, all at once. I want more – I want an attack on all of the archmages. But I know you won’t go for that. So I’ll settle for destroying their pillars.”

I looked at Osheen. Doing that would definitely make a lot of people mad, there was no doubt. It would inflame the inevitable conflict even more.

But… It was doing the right thing, too. The pillars needed to go down.

Osheen was thinking, running political calculations, then he nodded.

“Fine.”

“Swear it in a compact to me,” Tara said, “Both of you.”

All of us lit our auras and intertwined them.