whelp i hit the world limmit here's the rest of it
“Borris?” Eurn asks standing over his pile of clothes mace in hand.
The door slams open revealing Borris almost bulging out of his armour. Muscles clearly visible between his armour plates.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to listen to you before killing you. Numira sent the others into frenzy.” He says squeezing into the room and closing the door. At his side I see a similar mace to Eurn’s the decoration is slightly different, it’s also three times the size.
“This is all just a misunderstanding.” I begin before Eurns panic slaps me back into the tub.
“I came here...” Borris says quietly “TO LISTEN TO MY FRIEND! WITCH!”
he’s very emotional...and right now he’s worried, angry and afraid. Unfortunately he’s only smart enough for one at a time.
“Eurn. Talk.”
Eurn sighs before beginning his story. “I was inside a collapsed mineshaft looking for survivors. I found her siphoning a soul from a dead body with two undead in attendance. I attacked and broke the vial she was using to store the souls. All the energy came out at once and she put it where ever it could go. Which included us? Now we’re bound together, she dies I die...I made the only choice that made sense.”
“You chose a necromancer over justice?”
“She doesn’t kill. And I know she has no undead minions.”
“how.” He demands.
“I know what she’s thinking. Right now Tina’s wondering how you fit inside your armour.”
“I grew into it.” Borris replies. “You want to go away from here. The high zealot is coming.” He says before squeezing out of the door. A moment later a maid runs in see’s Eurn naked and me still in the bath before leaving.
we are very dead.
“What?”
“The zealots police the riders, Numira’s mother belongs to them.” Eurn replies hastily towelling himself dry whilst kicking his trousers onto one leg. “They don’t ask questions, they don’t discriminate, if they go out it’s to kill a high priority target or to intervene in a larger conflict. The high zealot has only ever been out once... when he was assigned to kill a rider.”
Understanding arriving all at once I leap from the tub and with two spells dry myself and then my hair leaving a cloud of steam in my wake as I pull on my travel clothes. “I have a place we can go to.” “The academy, I know.”
Right. The arch mage will protect one of his own...I hope.
now isn’t the time for hope, you go and get us some food, ask the mayor if he has a decent roll of canvas. Eurn replies pulling his shirt on.
I use a little more magic to completely dry him off singing his hair in the process.
“Thanks.” He says waving away the cloud of steam and grabbing his mace and running out of the room. Slipping on my shoes I run after him down the stairs, between the remaining patrons and through the door where I catch him watching Borris flying away on a great black dragon.
“there goes my best friend.”
“saving your life.” I point out, not without sympathy.
“I know, come on. We should get some supplies then head to your house. We have maybe a day.” “why my house?”
“your research. Frank. The herbs? Don’t you want to keep any of that?”
“The academy has all the herbs, frank...” in my mind’s eye a summoning circle forms and franks imp form appears in it. I break the circle and feel the demons tether vanish. “Is gone now. Or he will be as soon as he finishes burning the house down I expect.”
“demons.” Eurn mutters dragging me into the general store.
Inside he grabs a large travelling backpack and a medium one dumping them on the counter before running around and grabbing a seemingly random selection of items dumping them on top of each bag until there’s enough to half fill both.
“The mayor agreed to pay for this.” Eurn says to the shopkeeper. Who nods scribbling a sign onto a piece of paper along with a price, I sign my own name and take return the piece of paper. “Thank you for your business.” The keeper replies helping Eurn pack the items into the bags.
“Ok then, we should head to the inn and get some food that will last.” Eurn says handing me the smaller bag.
I can deal with that, let’s go and get a bit of a head start.
ok, how? And why are we thinking again?
I don’t like reminding people I use magic. Anyway we head north to the college.
“ok then. Uhh how are we going to eat? Im not a good hunter without numira.”
“Conjured food. It’s a little tasteless but it keeps you going.”
Eurn nods and sets off at a brisk walk heading roughly north through the town. A few villagers wave at us as we pass and somehow Ellen is there to give us a quick hug and a fresh loaf of bread with bacon bits baked into it.
We keep going through the remainder of the day nibbling on the bread. That night we make a simple camp and I conjure up a cheese mash for us to eat.
“So tell me how this works exactly. You form a physical circle and the summoned thing appears but there’s something in your head as well?”
“We have time I guess.” Say around a mouthful of mash and bacon bread. “So magic is essentially a two or three part process. There are actually many more steps but it’s easier to explain this way. To cast a spell you need a physical matrix to hold the energy. A fireball or ice shard only needs your hand for example. Then there’s the mental matrix. You need to visualise the energy from nothingness and give it form. The clearer the visualisation and stronger the physical matrix the stronger the spell.” Taking another bite I smile. “My teachers always said I had strong hands. I often broke whatever I was casting my practice spells at.”
she doesn’t smile enough.
“Heard that.” I say watching as he turns bright red. “Anyway. With conjuration a stronger matrix is needed than just a hand to hold the energy. So you draw a circle, or a pentagon and so on, and channel the energy into that. The third step is the dangerous part, if a spell needs more energy than you have it feeds off different things, some high class spells are designed to draw heat and moisture from around you for example, but if you do it wrong it draws life force. Like a necromancer does. Too much and you die.”
“And the little bits?”
“Each spell is made from anywhere from 1 to 100 different...blocks I guess. A simple flame has two, field and heat. To protect your hand and create the small flame.” I say demonstrating by creating a free flame in my hand.
“can I learn this?” ice shard on my mace would be cool.
“depends. Watch.” I say bending down and drawing the heat and field symbols in the dirt. One is a circle with a small line in it. The other a swirl that rises and falls mimicking a flame from a candle. I add a third a oval with two lines in it. Protect.
“hold out your arm in front of you, now this spell is a protection from heat. Visualise barrier then heat besides it then protect. It should form a heat barrier around the physical matrix, your arm.
“ok then.” He says closing his eyes, doing the same I watch as he slowly forms rough versions of the three symbols.
“Stop, again.”
why? he asks as two symbols shatter in his mind.
“It wouldn’t have worked.” Again.
“Is it really this easy?”
“No, imagine doing this with 100 symbols.”
“Ah.” barrier, fire protect...barrier, fire protect.
“stop. You just cancelled your spell.”
We carry on like this as the darkness surrounds the camp, whilst he focuses I cast several spells to warn us of intrusion and a pair of trap circles to snare any animals that might venture into the camp.
barrier, fire protect.
“Good.” I mutter gently taking his hand. “It seems to have covered your arm properly.” I say before yanking it into the fire.
“HEY! WHA...it tingles.”
“Then you probably still need to work on your visualisation.” I say pulling his arm from the flames. He wipes off the ash and soot clinging to his arm.
“now remember, simple spells break the second you stop concentrating on them...keep practicing if you want, I’m going to sleep.” I say lying down on my bedroll.
The next morning I wake up to a slight buzzing in my ear telling me one of my snares has worked. Checking it I find a fox which I promptly release, no point killing a scavenger of the forests.
morning
Morning.
any catches? Just a fox. Where are you?
at the camp behind a bush. Give me a minute please.
Ok. Instead of returning to the camp I create a simple circle and begin rune inscribing it in the dirt. A few minutes later I have a proper summoning circle and a protection circle. Standing in the protection circle I take out the soul vial and begin the summoning. Feeling strands being pulled from the vial and into the circles I begin the summoning process. Frank would be nice but in a fight he isn’t strong enough. A fire elemental is too reckless and imps to weak, ice elementals are good for butchering everything similar to death hounds...perhaps a void walker or stone elemental. Making my decision I focus the tendrils letting them probe the nether until they snag on something and begin pulling, pumping more energy in, this time arcane I begin dragging the demon into being. Inside the circle smoke starts boiling from several points, guided by the arcane energy into a semi solid apparition. The process accelerates with more energy until a 5 foot tall floating torso is facing me two yellow orbs floating inside it work as eyes. I snap a tether and wrap it around the Voidling forming a glowing arm, another tether makes the other arm and the rest I release one by one to wrap around the body and eyes pulling them from the torso into a featureless face.