Magician Prince (43 page)

“Sir Cordwainer,” the cloaked figure nodded,
“It is time.” The man entered the room without being asked. Another
Kenzai who was similarly attired in a non-descript brown cloak with
the hood pulled over his head and the husky Constable Ragnit
followed him.

“It is good to see you again, Josef,” the
constable said to the boy’s father, “although I wish it was under
better circumstances.”

“As do I,” replied Josef. He spoke like a man
resigned to his fate.

The first Kenzai stood before the boy and
pulled down his cloak revealing the face of a man who was probably
in his mid-thirties. To Sane, he said, “This is scary, I know, but
I promise that nothing bad is going to happen to you.” He
cautiously took Sane’s backpack from him and handed it to the other
Kenzai without looking. His focus was always on the boy and
maintaining eye contact.

The other man rifled through the bag and
pulled out the slingshot. “A weapon,” he said devoid of any warmth
in his deep voice. That was probably why the first Kenzai had done
all of the talking up to that point. He handed it to his
partner.

“You can’t take this,” said the first Kenzai,
“I’m sure you understand.”

“It was a gift from my parents,” Sane told
him on the verge of tears, “It’s all I have to remember them
by.”

“Rules are rules,” the baritone Kenzai told
him stoically.

“Let him keep it!” his mother wailed to the
surprise of everyone there. “Let him keep the slingshot!” She
lunged at the Kenzai holding the slingshot and made a grab for it,
but the Kenzai was a battle hardened warrior and flung her to the
ground with his free hand causing her to cry out in pain.

Josef went for the man next, but the
apathetic Kenzai who pinned him by the throat with one arm and
freed his sword with the other pressed him up against the wall.

“Easy,” Constable Ragnit cautioned pulling
his own sword, but it was unclear whether he was warning the Kenzai
or Sane’s father.

Sane was unsure of what to do as he looked at
his mother crying on the floor and his father turning red from a
blocked windpipe. He felt the blood pumping through his small body.
He wanted to fight these men and save his parents. Instead he
turned and he ran down the hall toward his bedroom. He had a hand
on the doorknob when he remembered the dreams about these men
catching him in there. He ran into his parents’ bedroom on the
opposite side of the hall instead and climbed out of their bedroom
window with an ease only possessed by those that were both young
and swift.

Fear carried his feet forward as he dashed
between a pair of Kenzai that clearly hadn’t expected the boy to
come their way, but they lost little time before calling to their
brethren and following in pursuit. Sane wondered how well his
pursuers knew the streets that he tried to lose them on. The sounds
of more boots on cobblestone came from behind him. It would not
take long for the men with their longer legs to catch the boy. He
had to hide.

His eyes flashed around him peering into
shadows as he looked for a safe place to hide from the hunters.
Magic!
he thought,
Magic! Magic! Magic! Come to me! Help
me!
The boy felt a second wind come to him, but if there was
any magic behind it, he could not tell.

A hunter appeared before Sane causing the boy
to veer down another side street to avoid the Kenzai’s grasp.
Another hunter came from the right and two more appeared on his
left, but Sane continued to run darting out of each man’s reach in
turn. He was getting tired again, but pushed on. There was no
stopping now. He knew that if the hunters caught him, then they
would kill him.

Still the hunters gave chase and followed him
or tried to cut him off. Then he saw what he had been looking for.
An unattended merchant’s cart was parked outside of a house. The
boy risked a look behind and saw that he lost the hunters- at least
for the moment- and slid underneath the cart. It was a perfect
hiding spot for this time of night as long as he stayed curled up
in the shadows. The cart appeared to be too exposed to make a good
hiding spot and Sane thought it might only get a cursory glance
from the hunters for that reason, but within the shadows he would
be difficult to see.

The moment of truth arrived scarce seconds
later as one of the Kenzai ran past. Then three more followed suit.
The boy wondered how many hunters there were. It did not matter he
was too weary to run any farther. It took all of his concentration
just to control his exhausted breathing.

A fourth and fifth man ran past, but they
enjoyed a more leisurely jog rather than an all out run. One of
them stopped terrifyingly close to the cart.

“Why are you stopping?” asked the other.

“Need… to catch… my breath,” the one near the
cart huffed.

A minute or more passed as the hunters
rested. One was actually sitting on the cart now. Every nerve in
the boy’s body called out for him to move his feet, but he could
not overcome the fear and weariness that kept him rooted to that
spot.

“Do you feel that? It is like a pooling of
magic,” asked the one that stood at the end of the small side
street.

The one sitting on the cart did not respond
leaving the question hanging in there. Then a sudden jerk of the
boy’s tunic pulled him out from underneath the cart and the grim
face of a Kenzai hunter greeted him. In a movement so swift that
the boy could barely even see the blur of the strike in the night
the Kenzai hit Sane in the face with his ham sized fist driving the
boy to the ground.

“That is for making me run,” the hunter told
him.

“Calm down, Marcos,” said the other hunter,
“He is just a boy.”

“You make me run, you get hit. That is the
rule,” the bruiser reminded his partner.

Sane rubbed his cheek. “What are you going to
do to me?” he asked looking at the one who hit him.

The bruiser jerked the boy up again and began
dragging him along until the boy was able to regain his footing and
walk between the men.

It was the one who showed Sane some small
mercy that answered. “You would have been going to a domain to live
out your days, but now that you ran… it will be up to the
magistrate to decide. You will either continue to the domain as
planned or be sent to the prison of Baj as a rogue magician.”

Warning: If you skipped ahead to this
addition, there are a few spoilers contained in this section. So go
back and finish
Magician Prince
before
continuing on.

Magic is split into several disciplines. Each
discipline has its own strengths and weaknesses. Knowledge in one
discipline does not equate to knowledge in another. The various
disciplines are necromancy, restoration, elementalism, enchantment,
and manipulation. In addition there is a form of magic used solely
to negate or weaken other magic forms. For lack of an official
name, let’s call it Kenzai.

Most spells are cast simply through a
combination of concentration, focusing on the intended results, and
energy. In this way it is possible to cast a spell simply by
thinking of it. This can be a double-edged sword for novices who,
lacking control, could conjure any number of spells without meaning
to and cause harm to himself or others. As spells become more
complicated the requirements of greater concentration and greater
energy escalate. Some magicians find it necessary when casting
powerful spells to draw a rune that allows them to improve their
focus like during the summoning of an elemental. When greater
energy is required magicians will often invoke the power of one of
the gods to aid them in the casting of a strong or unfamiliar
spell. The risk to that is that the god in question might decide
not to help, causing the spell to either fail or produce a weaker
effect. For example, Alia can cast a very powerful enchantment
without much difficulty, but when summoning even a relatively weak
spirit like a war wraith she still finds it necessary early on in
the series to invoke the god of war, Vailon.

Staves, grimoires, and wands can power magic,
or if no other tools exist magic found within the blood of the
living can be used. However, this can be fatal to both the user and
those around him. Grimoires are also used to store complicated
spells and enchantments for later reference or use as an
educational tool.

While these devices are always needed for
spell casting (with one notable exception being Byrn) it is
occasionally necessary to have other items present depending on the
spell being cast. Transportation runes are needed for safe magical
travel. Atmari crystals are needed for soul transference.

Necromancy-
Necromancers are mainly
known as summoners. They can summon the dead and spirits back to
the world of the living. Necromancers are also able to raise armies
of the undead and speak to those that have already died.

At higher levels necromancers can begin to
practice what is known as death magic. Death magic revolves around
taking life energy from one person and giving it to another
(usually the caster). The natural progression of this is that a
necromancer can also drain the soul and that is how soul
transference originally began. The drawback of death magic is that
it can kill very easily and that tends to cause other magicians to
give necromancers a bit of a wider berth. Death magic can also be
stored for short periods of time and used to create vastly powerful
spells of destruction that a magician would normally never be able
to attempt on his own.

Restoration-
The healing discipline.
Restoration can be used to heal injuries, stave off death, and
promote fertility in people and nature. However, the process can be
taxing and no amount of healing can reverse death. Healing magic is
largely considered to be the province of Ashura’s priests, but
there have been rare reports of other magicians using the healing
arts to great effect.

Elementalism-
Elementalism harnesses
the very elements in the world and uses them for offensive magic.
The wielder can summon the elements from his very fingertips with
little effort, but the environment itself can be manipulated at
higher levels for far more powerful magic. It is also possible for
a magician to alter the environment to cast a more powerful spell
like when Byrn casts several smaller flame spells to heat the air
in preparation of creating an even more powerful spell near the end
of
Fallen Magician
.

As the warriors of magicians, elementalists
have also learned the art of constructing elements into various
weapons and forms of armor. Always at the front lines of
confrontations, elementalists are considered the most short-lived
of magicians and few ever reach the rank of master, let alone
grandmaster.

Enchantment-
Enchanting is commonly
used to enchant items to give them special properties. Many
grimoires are enchanted to give mages a boost when casting
difficult spells related to their disciplines.

Enchanters commonly can use their
higher-level talents to affect others' minds. They can confuse
people, implant memories, compel them to act against their wishes,
and even convince someone that they have been killed with such
certainty that the victim could really die.

Manipulation-
Consists of spells that
manipulate the world around the caster. Manipulation is often a
more finesse type of magic for opening locked doors and making
objects lighter/heavier. It is most commonly used to enhance the
caster’s physical attributes and senses and over time those effects
can become permanent. At higher levels it can be used to transport
great distances with runes, make someone more durable, turn almost
invisible for short durations, and speed up reaction times to the
point where it seems that everyone around them is moving in slow
motion.

Kenzai-
Kenzai is the anti-magic art.
Most do not consider this to be a form of magic at all as it can be
used by just about anyone and its only use is for the cancellation
of other magics. Kenzai magic shares some familiar characteristics
with other forms of magic and in some ways seem to be a combination
of them. It can absorb energy like necromancy. However, it only
affects magic and cannot be used to kill. At higher levels the
anti-magic can be focused into a blue flame that can be very
destructive to any magic spell it makes contact with.

Kenzai also use enchanted items to build up
their resistance to magic cast at them or, in the case of less
talented users, to drain magic through the use of runes and
specially crafted weapons.

Magic Rank endings are:

Apprentice- None Example: (Fire Magician)-
None

Journeyman- Kin (Same)- Firekin

Adept- An (Same)- Firean

Master- Mas (Same)- Firemas

Grandmaster- Os (Same)- Fireos