Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (35 page)

Handing the letter to the guards manning the outer wall of the healer's guild, Sebastian knew that the men were there more to help direct people in need than to restrain anyone from entering a place dedicated to healing. Still, they were the first pair of two leading into the hospital and would probably be enough to dissuade most who might seek to do harm inside.

A younger man in apprentice white with yellow bands came to lead them to a small meeting room. To Sebastian's surprise, half a dozen wizards were there to greet them.

One he had met before. Wearing yellow with silver bands at his neck and on his long sleeves, Wizard Hegrone was the leader of his guild. The silver bands were a rare distinction given to wizards of ability within the guild. Though they had no affiliation with the diplomat wizards, who also used silver on their uniforms and robes; the fact that such wizards had risen to positions of power meant that they had some skill in leading others.

Three more full wizards ranging from two, who appeared younger than Hegrone, and a third man, who was gray and thin, appeared much older, stood with two apprentices. Both of the younger men were muscular and dwarfed the women, though they were both above average height for the women of Southwall. The women were slender in comparison to the men giving their advantage in height more importance to the mage's mind as he gauged this gathering.

Only the eldest of the wizards seemed to hold a frown for him, though he tried to hide it from the guild leader, if not from Sebastian his target. The mage had no idea why the man would have any anger towards him, though some wizards just naturally hated the mage who had crossed the barrier between his kind and their own.

"Good morning, Falcon Sebastian, and to your companion, a Kardorian, if I remember correctly," the wizard greeted nodding towards Ashleen, who had been at the hospital with him after his mishap with the sword's testing.

"Wizard Ashleen from Kardor is my companion and sort of my apprentice as well. Good morning, Wizard Hegrone. I am sorry if this hour is a little early for some of you. I know not everyone wakes up with the sun as well," he said noting the eldest wizard with a flick of his eyes which made the man start at his attention. The frown faded, if only for a time, while Sebastian returned his concentration to the guild leader. "I'm afraid that I am not quite sure why I am here. Your note said little more than that you requested a meeting with me."

"He has been healthy and shown no other issues since your team finished healing him," Ashleen added thinking of the incident and the last time he had been to the hospital.

Wincing with the statement more to show it as a joke than a need to worry, Sebastian nodded saying, "She has been monitoring me since then to make sure that I do not blow myself up in my experiments anymore."

Light laughter passed among the younger wizards, though Ashleen's slight frown at being dismissed so easily seemed echoed by the elder wizard once more.

Hegrone shook his head replying, "Oh, it has nothing to do with his accident, though I am glad that someone is worrying over this odd mage. What were the names for you that I have heard, mizard and owl, I believe?

"Anyway, the reason we requested your presence is because you have made it known that you are willing to share the knowledge you have acquired on your journeys and since your return as well from what I hear. Wizard Helmar," the leader gestured to the muscular wizard to his right, "has heard some of the magic you have discovered and was hoping to ask you more about a specific set of spells."

The man nodded his head covered with thick brown hair. His eyes showed passion that he rarely seemed to see in wizards that were beyond their apprentice years. Only wizards finding new magic seemed to have such a look in their eyes, Sebastian thought.

"These tattoos, or maybe we should call them runes, that you have passed on to some of the soldiers and battle mages really interest me. I would like to request being able to test out a theory that has been mulling around in my mind since I heard about them," Wizard Helmar stated with contained excitement. There was something to the magic that the wizard found enticing. That was obvious to the mage.

"What theory is that?" Sebastian questioned curiously.

The frowning elder wizard interrupted replying for the younger man, "Helmar seems to think that your runes can circumvent the illness combat has on a healer!"

Sending the older man a glare, Helmar nodded as he looked back to Sebastian, "What Wizard Gotleim is trying to say is that I believe our inability to use magic that might kill could be skirted by using your runes. You know that healers find using magic to harm or kill physically repugnant. A healer needs to be pure of such things, or so it is said and believed."

Sebastian knew of the belief that healers couldn't use their magic to take a life without penalty. For most it meant having trouble tapping into their magic to heal or even becoming physically ill from hurting another living being.

The mage also had a feeling such a penalty was just enforced by the wizards on themselves. He could heal and a few other battle mages as well. No one had been unable to fight or even kill. They also could still heal, which made him believe that either balancing the two natures helped or the complete belief of the healing wizards was just in their heads.

"I've fought and killed, though I try not to when I can. I can still heal as well, but I know that is the belief," he replied briefly acknowledging the wizard.

As Helmar moved onto the next part his green eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement. "I and my apprentice Nefen along with Ilira wish to work with you to see if we can use the runes to work around this issue. We will risk whatever penalties to using our magic in this way to hopefully help our guild evolve beyond the problem we face.

"No longer should we have to hide behind soldiers and battle mages. If we could at least defend ourselves properly in the face of the enemy, we would have gone from being the weakest of the wizards to a group willing to do what was needed to stay alive and protect others."

"Bah!" Gotleim scoffed and explained better than his simple reply of disgust adding, "We are not the weakest wizards, Helmar. If not for healers, there would be many more casualties. We endure their pain to heal and give our energy even when soldiers and mages are on death's door. That doesn't make us weak!"

Shaking his head as he spread his hands looking like he knew refuting the old man was useless, Wizard Helmar countered, "Perhaps that is true also, but what if we could both defend ourselves so they didn't have to and remain capable of healing others?"

The younger wizard looked at Sebastian and asked, "You have both defensive runes and those that can be used to attack. How does your magic contribute to them?"

Sebastian noted the two warring sides of an issue that dated back to the founding of the healers' guild, he was guessing. "We can place the runes on soldiers with no magic and their life force powers the runes, which means that it could in effect use no magic what so ever.

"On battle mages, we have discovered that pushing some of our magic into the runes can achieve greater affects. Whether that would fall under the mandates on using harmful magic, I am not sure, though some of the runes work instinctively drawing on our magic to defend or attack."

Helmar looked at Gotleim and nodded as if that answer solved the problems they still faced. The elder wizard threw up his hands saying, "Hegrone and the high wizards have already given you permission, Helmar. Why bother debating what you have already decided?

"You will draw these two children with you harming them or not. What I believe, and many other wizards too I might add, means little here. If you are wrong, the damage will be limited to you three. Such minimal losses can be ignored whether you succeed or fail."

The younger wizard was joined by the two apprentices hearing the old man's opinion on their worth.

Wizard Hegrone chose to stop the bickering as he looked to Sebastian and asked, "Differing views aside, would you be willing to take these three on to try and teach them the runes? I have heard that even if we don't use the markings for combat, you were looking for others to help protect our soldiers and mages.

"I can see that trying to give every man and woman going into combat the tattoos would be a lot of work for just one or two mages."

Nodding to the leader of the guild, Sebastian replied, "I have been looking for likeminded wizards and mages capable of reproducing them as well. Our regular soldiers face the same danger the rest of us do and without magic to protect themselves. An armored vile or troll can easily kill a dozen soldiers even wearing full plate. I've heard of a vile's claws cutting through steel as easily as they can cut through a stone wall."

Hegrone attested, "I have been in the killing fields after some brutal encounters with the Dark One's larger monsters. Even battle mages are often killed in large numbers. Our healing can't save those skewered by a vile."

"Or those without heads," Gotleim added without mercy. Though the old man seemed unwilling to believe in Sebastian's found magic, he seemed willing to give reason to passing as much protection to the soldiers and mages as they could. Wizards used their magic at longer distances to win battles. That meant saving soldiers' lives as well after all.

Hegrone managed to avoid rolling his eyes, though two of the younger wizards couldn't stop themselves. Older men and women tended to voice things that other ages would hold back to sugar coat a situation. Sebastian had a feeling that Gotleim had been like this for most of his life however.

"Reports on their use in the field fighting some of the Dark One's newest creatures said they were a success. There were still casualties, but many survived what would have killed them normally since few wore more than heavy leather armor to protect them," the guild leader stated from reading the information given by the leaders of the expedition.

Sebastian nodded replying, "The fire urchins couldn't be stopped by the nomad warriors, but with the runes and battle mages helping our men they were able to kill several of the monsters. There was too much of a learning curve for the first battle using the runes when facing an unknown type of enemy to accurately gauge the improvement in combat though."

In a brief lull in the conversation, Wizard Helmar added, "If we could, I would also like to have some combat training for us as well. Anything that would contribute to being able to use the runes you give to us would be helpful.

"I am hoping that these will bring new life to our guild. Being healers is important and we save many lives, but too many die trying to protect our wizards. If we can defend ourselves and feel safer in the field, then that will free up the rest of our soldiers and mages to fight without having to defend us as much."

Sebastian gave a crisp nod and moved to shake the wizard's hand or so it seemed to Helmar. When they touched, markings on the mage's forearm began to glow. They had remained hidden until that point and while the others watched, his magic cloned the defensive rune from his left arm sending it like a snake across to the healer's forearm. He left them the blue of a normal tattoo causing the man's eyebrows to rise in both surprise at the transfer of magic and the visible markings.

"Since this has been agreed upon, then let this be the first lesson," he stated and released the wizard's hand turning to the male apprentice to do the same thing. Sebastian explained as he worked the magic, which required no gestures or magical words to create, "This is the defensive rune, which will guard your body and, if you push your power into them, they can create a powerful defensive shield large enough to cover you and perhaps two or three others. I'll leave them visible, but you can use your magic to make them seem to disappear. The markings can be any color. You can make them the color of your skin, so they will seem invisible.

"Your job is to discover how to make the shield and make them disappear. If you can use your healing skill to feel the ink and clone the runes, then you will be able to at least transfer the runes to other people."

When he placed the rune on the female apprentice, named Ilira, the girl frowned as the blue markings marred her lightly tanned skin. She was naturally darker than many northerners and he guessed that the coloring wasn't from time spent in the sun, since healers spent most of their time in the hospital in Hala. Sebastian guessed that the young woman didn't like the idea of marring her skin with the tattoo now that she had witnessed what she was getting into. If vanity helped her discover how to manipulate the runes, then the mage figured it was a good bit of motivation.

After admiring his own markings, Wizard Helmar asked the mage, "When can we join you for more?"

That was a good question, the busy mage thought. "I am working in White Hall using the portal for just two more days. We could work before I go or you could even join me, since I am training at the school anyway."

He felt Ashleen tense slightly at the idea, but Helmar didn't seem to notice at all as a grin crossed his face. "We would love to travel through one of the portals. White Hall would be the perfect place to learn more from the owl mage, as I've heard others begin to call you. When do we need to be ready to join you today?"

"In an hour at the fire wizard guild portal," Sebastian stated realizing that he was about to have three new students and companions, at least for awhile.

The meeting was quickly agreed upon and after ascertaining what kind of clothing they should wear for such training, the three younger wizards hurried from the room. Before Sebastian and Ashleen could think to follow, Wizard Hegrone said, "Thank you for coming, Falcon Sebastian, or is it now owl?"