The Wizard

Introduction to the other side of this story.

Dust covered the books on the table. Large books containing knowledge very few had, or could even read. The volumes had been taken from the southern wizard’s tower when he had led this company from their home. Yes, it was his leadership, his research, and his guidance that had brought them here. They had left the known for the unknown, but they had not traveled into new lands completely blind.

     Nahhir had also brought an apprentice with him. An impressive lad really, but no cunning, the apprentice was not worthy to wear the red robes as he did.  

     He pulled at his dark goatee as he watched his apprentice through the flap between the two tents. The young wizard had his nose buried in a tome reading by the light of a candle, the palm of his left hand turned up in front of him. After a few carefully spoken words a small ice crystal appeared in that upturned palm. The apprentice looked up, the concentration apparent on his face as well as the delight of having cast the spell. He carefully molded the crystal into various shapes until several magical symbols floated in the air in front of him. The apprentice’s ability was growing, but his mind did not. He was young, ignorant, and would never know what true power was.

     Spells could be read from a book or scroll but this only served the mage once. Spells must be memorized, committed to memory so as the wizard could call on them when needed. This apprentice just did not have the ability to memorize enough spells to be great. This was unfortunate because the youth had such power at his command. That and he had other plans for the apprentice.

     He stepped into the tent to look over his apprentice’s shoulder. As he had surmised, the large dusty book on the table was a volume on elemental control. He cleared his throat startling the apprentice causing him to lose his concentration and the ice form fell from the young mage’s hand crashing across the table.

     Naldo quickly looked over his shoulder. “Master Nahhir, I… I did n-not hear you come in,” he stuttered.

     “I was passing by and my curiosity got the best of me I guess. You seemed to be concentrating so hard, I came to see what it was you studied at,” he said with as much concern as he could muster into his voice.

     Naldo pushed his chair back and stood. “I was just attempting to form magical symbols from the elements. In case, well… in case writing utensils were not available.”

     The older mage nodded. “Useful skills indeed, if the need arises to create barriers of protection or even use them to capture.”

     He thrust both arms outward fingers splayed apart. Fire danced from his fingertips quickly forming symbols that circled around him in intricate patterns.

     “You see a barrier can be quickly formed, but this type of protection will not last you long. Magic quickly formed may be quickly crushed from the right opponent.”

     “Yes, I understand,” Naldo nodded eagerly wanting to learn.

     “If protection is your current concern, I will show you a relatively simple, but very powerful shield.” He grinned as the apparent excitement spread over Naldo’s face.

     “Thank you Master Nahhir. I am honored.”

     “Come, let us step over here where there is more room.” He waved his arm and more candles in the tent lit. He then reached into his robes to produce a scroll and handed it to his apprentice.

     Naldo bowed his head and took the scroll. As he held it up before him a look of confusion crossed his features. “But master, how could you have known I was working on protection magic?”

     “There are things a master always knows and many ways to find them out.” He waved his hands impatiently. “Come now, open the scroll. Let’s see if you can make this magic work for you.”

     Naldo quickly broke the wax seal around the scroll and rolled it open. Nahhir of course, already knew what spell was contained in the scroll. Naldo glanced up at his teacher’s impatient face and went back to reading the scroll. His eyes grew wider and his mouth dropped open as he read. When he had finished reading through the scroll he looked up, the doubt apparent on his face.

     “Master, I do not think I can use this magic. It looks to be beyond my…”

     “Nonsense, you are more than capable. Now quit doubting yourself and read the spell.”

     “I will try master.”

     As Naldo looked back down at the scroll in his hands his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. His eyes scanned the spell’s instructions quickly, and then he began to read the spell aloud.

     “An Ex Por, Des Mani, In Jux.” The words rolled off the apprentice’s tongue easily. He looked up to write symbols in the air with his fingers repeating the words of magic three more times.

     As he finished repeating the words, the scroll vanished from his hands. He looked up at his master his eyes, dark and full of pain. “Master…I…what is happening?” His words strangled from the pain.

      “I was right Naldo, you did have the power. Unfortunately I can not let you keep it.”

     Nahhir just stood there watching his apprentice suffer from the agony of the spell.

     Naldo’s body was now stiff and began hovering a few feet above the dirt. His hands were balled up, the knuckles growing white.

     “Why have you done this Nahhir? What purpose will it serve?” His words were thin and quiet as he spoke. “I…don’t understand.”

     Nahhir chuckled, “You do not understand, because I am a wizard, you are only a student. Let me teach you one last lesson.” He circled around his paralyzed apprentice as he spoke. “You possess a vast amount of power in you, one of the most powerful I have ever seen. I cannot let you keep that power Naldo because I am greedy. You could easily surpass me as a wizard and I cannot let that happen. I am the master, the teacher, and soon the most powerful.”

     Naldo’s eyes looked as if they would burst out of his head. “You…want…my…ability?”

     “Yes, but unfortunately to take your powers I must remove your soul.” He stopped in front of Naldo to look him in the eyes. “I am sorry I had to trick you, but you see the spell is much more effective when read voluntarily. Now I have you and I will remove your soul to this crystal,” he explained holding up the brilliant blue crystal that had been hanging around his neck.

     Suddenly the air about the apprentice began to glow and his robes began to ripple as if caught in a strong wind. The candles in the room all wavered and went out as a dull humming began to fill the room.

     Quicker then the spell had taken shape it winked out with a flash leaving the apprentice’s body disintegrated to ash with only a small sparkle of light remaining.

     Nahhir held up the crystal and let the small sparkle of light be absorbed into it. 

 

 

**********

 

     He stood outside of the tent trying to control his breathing. He didn’t like the wizard, no, that wasn’t accurate. He feared the wizard. He understood hand-to-hand or combat with a sword. But death from an unknown source, or even cause, made him shudder. He had never liked magic or those who chose to manipulate it. Maybe it was from the lack of understanding or maybe because those individuals tended to be so dangerous.

He had been asked to come to the wizard’s tent though, so he came. Not because of the need to obey the wizard or even from the fear, but because this quest was supposed to be a partnership between the two of them.

     He took a deep breath once again and went in.

     “You asked for me Nahhir?”

     . “Yes Captain.” The wizard looked up from his worktable. “We need to send some scouts out into the forest on the southern side of the valley.”

     “And just why do you think we should send men out into a strange forest?” Garrett replied skeptically.

     “Because I have sensed a presence there.”

     The wizard stood and walked around the table to stand in front of Garrett. The wizard was quite a bit taller than he was, though much thinner.

     “My apprentice went to do some scrying in the forest and has not yet returned.”

     He approached the table trying to forget that this man could burn him to a cinder with the flick of a finger.

     “So what you want is for some men to go looking for your apprentice.” He stated plainly. He had to be firm but he didn’t want to push his luck with Nahhir.

     “Well, that would be helpful. I would rather the magical protection of this little quest not fall completely to me,” Nahhir replied.

     He sighed, “Fine, I’ll send half a dozen men into the forest with orders to bring back anything they find.”

     “That’s all I ask Captain,” Nahhir said waving a hand as if dismissing him.

     He controlled the anger rising inside him from the wizard’s lack of respect. He turned on his heel and left the tent without another word. The wizard was too arrogant for his own good. He had started this journey and had wanted a wizard to come along to counter any unseen magical difficulties. Now the wizard was starting to make decisions he wasn’t sure were the right ones.

     He walked across the massive camp searching out his next in command. Lieutenant Hogue was a good man and a good soldier. He followed orders without question but was willing to give good advice when it was warranted as well. A much better partnership than he had with the unpleasant wizard.

     He found his Lieutenant chatting with some of the men around a large pot of hot beans. He was always laughing and joking with the men and was quite good at keeping the men’s morale up. He held the rank of an officer and the men respected that but he was able to joke with them as if he held no rank at all.

     He stopped several feet away and let the lieutenant finish his conversation. “Lieutenant, can I have a word with you?”

     “Of course Captain.” Hogue waved to the men. “You guys save me some of them beans now.”

     He smiled as the men laughed and threw jeering comments back at the lieutenant.

     “What was it you wanted to see me about sir?” the lieutenant asked as he fell into step with him.

     “Duncan, I need some of that advice you’re always willing to give me.”

     The lieutenant chuckled making his hat bounce on his head. He was slightly taller than his second in command and sported quite a bit more hair. The lieutenant kept his head clean-shaven.

     He led the way into his tent holding the flap open for the other officer and waved him into a chair and the long wooden table occupying the center of the makeshift headquarters. He set a pitcher of wine on the table and Duncan poured himself a glass and waited.

     He didn’t sit but paced back and forth on the other side of the table.

     “I’ve just come from Nahhir’s tent.” He stated.

      “The wizard?” Duncan arched an eyebrow. “What in the world were you doing there?”

     “You know I’ve never trusted him from the start. I don’t know why he ever changed his mind and decided to join us in the first place but you and I both know there are excursions that require certain risks. This was one of them.”

     “Sir…Garrett, I already know all of this. We’ve already had this conversation numerous times. Now how about you get around to what’s really bothering you.”

     He sighed. “The wizard is becoming arrogant or maybe he was always arrogant and I just didn’t want to see it. He seems to slowly be taking control of this quest and I seem to be letting him do it.”

     “What do you want me to do?” The lieutenant raised his palms up in the air in helplessness.

     He walked around the table and dropped down in the chair beside his next in command.

     “The only thing I need from you is understanding. I need you to be clear on our plans here regardless of what that crazy magic user wants.”

     The other officer squirmed in his chair. He was making Duncan uncomfortable but this conversation was necessary.

     “Duncan, we have over five hundred men that aren’t entirely sure what we’re doing. Most of them have never seen real battle but they are willing to follow anyone who will bring them there. We have even more civilians who are just looking for a better life. If this wizard starts going after his own gains then we need to have a counter plan.”

     Duncan leaned toward his commander and smiled. “What do you have in mind?”

 

**********

 

     Nahhir threw a black cloth over the scrying mirror. It seemed the captain was going to be more trouble than he had first thought. He was hoping it would be easy to keep Captain Garrett Catheridge under control but he seems to believe himself the leader of this little quest. Nahhir had other ideas. He would have to keep the magical tracker on the man in case the good captain made a move he did not approve of.

     He had not spent a month preparing for this journey without cause. He had done some scrying over long distances, a project that had sapped much strength from him. He was however quite sure that this land is where the elves had fled to so many years ago. Elves that not only had magical resources most men did not even know of, but who were themselves creatures of magic. Creatures even more powerful than the witches they had tracked down in their homeland. 

     Nahhir was positive this is where the elves were and where they were hiding their magics. Elven magics and their magic ability were far beyond anything the red wizard’s conclave might have tucked away in their library. The library he no longer had access to.

     What right had they to expel him from the order? Jealous, that’s what they were. Jealous that Nahhir had tapped into a power they could never have.

     The red wizard’s tower was far from a holy order. They had committed their own misdeeds as individuals and as an order. They had said he had gone too far and shed too much blood for the sake of knowledge and power. So his followers and he were ejected from the tower and no longer allowed to wear the red robes. It didn’t matter that he had found the ability to drain the magical soul from a magical being in the library in their very tower. They were repulsed by this practice and would not tolerate it.

     Now he had the means to become more than any of them would ever be and he would reclaim his place in the red tower once the time was right.

     Captain Catheridge and his little quest to save the people from a tyrannical king was only a means to an end. He would need them to subdue the elves. It had been done before and led to the elves fleeing to this land in the first place but now they had nowhere to go. They belonged to him.