The Archmage: Chapter Three

“Hi dad,” I said softly as I entered the tailor shop. It had been far too long since I’d seen Aldvarri. With the craziness of the faerie party the year before, we had missed being unable to come to the capitol to see him, and school had occupied my time during the actual year.

Now, though, I had time. Six weeks until I had to be back at Yesgol to begin lesson planning, and about three weeks until the array was charged. I didn’t know if the weeks in between would be safe enough for me to return to Aldvarri or not, but I planned to relish the time I’d spent with him.

“Evan?” Aldvarri said, turning around, and then his wrinkled face split into a wide grin. He stomped his way over, his cane clicking against the floorboards, and then pulled me into a hug. “It’s been too long.”

“It has,” I agreed, holding him back and squeezing – though I squeezed gently, not wanting to bruise him. He was getting old, after all.

He released me and walked to Osheen, pulling him into a hug as well. Osheen looked surprised for a moment, then also hugged him back.

Once they were finished, I gave a curious look to Aldvarri.

“Where’s the kid you took in?”

I felt a bit ashamed that I couldn’t even remember his name, but in my defense, I had only met him once.

“He’s moved on,” Aldvarri said with a smile. “He got an offer to work as the tailor in a nicer part of town. Don’t blame the boy in the least, of course, and he was very kind and polite about it. I’ve taken on a new employee, Sarissa, she’s out today, though.”

“Another down on her luck orphan?” I teased him, and he smiled, moving his hand in a so-so gesture.

“Not an orphan, no, but her family’s had some trouble with debts and been forcibly drafted, leaving her alone, with little support. I do what I can for her.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Osheen said, and Aldvarri smiled.

“But my, my, you two look fearsome, quite a bit tougher than when I last saw you,” Aldvarri commented, poking me slightly. “Where’s the boy who’s scared to run to the market?”

“He grew,” I said. “Though it’s not gone… Exposure has helped. But so has becoming competent in my own style.”

“Competent,” Osheen said with a snort. “Evan’s produced by my count, no less than four archmage level items.”

“He always was sharper than he gave himself credit for,” Aldvarri agreed.

“I’m right here,” I said.

“And you know it’s true,” Aldvarri admonished. “Now, I heard in a letter that you were going to become a teacher at Yesgol?”

“I am,” I said. “Both of us are, actually. I’m going to be teaching novice witchcraft and novice enchanting, and Osheen will be handling a specialty class on aura shaping and novice fire magic.”

“That’s wonderful!” Aldvarri said, waving us towards the back as he headed to the table. I used a glyph to light the fire in the wood burning stove, and placed the kettle on to boil.

The simple action reminded me just how much I really took Yesgol’s warm and hot water taps for granted. Not that Yesgol’s hot water was hot enough for tea, we still had to warm it, but I’d grown used to the luxury, rather than taking it as the luxury it was.

Did it need to be a luxury, though? In Zheren, in Elderglass, maybe even in Tracktath – though I had never spoken to someone from Tracktath – they had these things.

I was sowing the seeds of a revolution, but perhaps there were seeds of a different sort of revolution I could begin to sow.

So many of Paerús’ mages that weren’t able to graduate were forced into the military. But what if, instead, there were more common mages? Mages to run the enchanting of day to day life.

Sure, not everywhere had an aura pillar and an aura tree to support the hefty enchantments, but even smaller things and basic artifacts could massively increase the quality of life for people.

Then again, wasn’t that one of the explicit goals of the Ligature? To spread knowledge? If the library was opened up to allow those sorts of simple rituals to anyone, it could create an entirely new class of working mages.

But there was nothing of that sort now, and… it wouldn’t come until those at the very top were shaken to their core.

“Evan?” Osheen asked, and I jerked slightly, then glanced at them.

“Head’s still in the clouds, I see,” Aldvarri said with a small smile, and I sheepishly nodded.

“Sorry, can you repeat that for me?” I asked.

“I had asked how things really were going? You were hiding pain up front. You hid it well, but I know you.”

I took a second to activate my cloak and spread it out around me, then I took a seat next to Aldvarri and slowly breathed in.

“It began during the party,” I said. “I got into a fight with a faerie, because she’d kidnapped Osheen…”

I told him everything – the fact I was turning into a faerie, the fact that I was going to have to murder someone to turn back, the fact that I’d helped Eira Talik and Draven kill Frank, and that Draven was now helping us.

By the time I finished, I was crying. I wasn’t even sure when I’d begun to cry, but somewhere along the line, I’d started, and I wasn’t able to stop. Osheen put his hand on one side of my back, and Aldvarri put his on the other side, and they were simply there for me.

It wasn’t some ritual, some deeply magical principle with the power to shake the world. It was just emotional support, but… that was enough. In some ways, it was better than any grand working of magic could ever be.

“I don’t know what to tell you to do,” Aldvarri said. “I know what I would do, but it’s not what I’d want you to do. Perhaps it’s selfish of me, but I want you to remain you, rather than sacrifice yourself. If you would be happy as a faerie king, I’d tell you to become one. But if I understand you right, once you step into that role, you wouldn’t still be you, you’d become some sort of… Other.”

“Yes,” I said, “and even if I managed to fall back down to being a human again, I’d have changed and changed deeply.”

“I see,” he said. “But people change all the time. You’re not the same Evan that left on the train those years ago. But it isn’t magic. It’s growth. Would this be different?”

“Very different,” I said. “It would…”

I struggled for a moment, looking for a good analogy.

“Think of it like this. Let’s say I’m an oak tree, right? Those grow naturally, just like me. But this is like someone lopped off all of my branches and roots and used magic to fuse in the roots and branches of an elm on. Right now, it’s still fairly fresh, so if I can cut off the elm bits and grafted back on oak bits, I’d remain an oak tree. Otherwise, I’d turn into an elm tree. A transition, but not a natural one.”

“I don’t think that replacing the branches and roots would change the trunk of the tree,” Osheen said. “But otherwise, it’s a good analogy.”

“I see,” Aldvarri said. “And in this analogy, you’d be taking the limbs and roots from an oak who was beginning to decay in their trunk? One who’s poison might, and has, spread to others?”

“Well,” I hedged. “I guess.”

“Yes,” Osheen said.

“But death is rather extreme,” I said. “I mean, I’ve killed before, but that was to help out a lot more people, and I wasn’t… It wasn’t like this. This is selfish murder.”

“I don’t envy you,” Alvarro said. “But do you think you could help Paerús as a faerie?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I’ve sworn to do it, but my magic would be completely different, and I don’t know how I’d be able to set up the same arrays with spring magic. If I even could. Aspecting into change might be able to do that, but I don’t have any info. Even if it did, I’d need to figure out a ritual on that scale, and join under the Silver Queen – err, Autumnal Queen, since .”

“So, no,” Aldvarri said. “At least, it isn’t likely.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess… Yeah. You’re right. It doesn’t make this all okay or anything, but…”

Osheen pulled me into his lap, and I made an eep.

“I’d rather have you by my side as a dark lord than not have you at all,” he said. “And it isn’t like you’re going to become like that. It is murder, but the mere fact you’re so torn up over it is a good sign, isn’t it? After all, it means that you do see the problem.”

I swallowed, and Alvarri chuckled, then reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, looking at me very seriously.

“Evan, I’ve known you longer than just about anyone else on Cré. I know that you’re not going to leverage this into going on a killing spree. You’re doing something very bad for the greater good, and while yes, many people have used ‘the greater good’ as an excuse to do terrible things, this isn’t that. The reason that tactic works is because there are times, like this one, where doing the bad thing is needed. Sometimes you need to lie to your husband and tell him he looks great, even when you don’t like his haircut. Just know where you’re going with it, and you’ll be fine.”

Osheen put his hand up to his curls and Aldvarri shook his head.

“It was just an example, I like your hair. But do you take my point?”

“I do,” I said, then sighed. “I do, I really do. But for now… Let’s move onto a lighter topic?”

We did, and the next three weeks were some of the best I’d had in years. We took Aldvarri out to eat a few times, with me being able to pay, thanks to my selling of spell bottles – an act that wasn’t even illegal anymore, since I’d graduated.

I did my best to stay away from work while I was there, but I did have to do a few things. I upgraded the curtains that I’d made to protect Aldvarri, as well as gone around and rechecked the wards that I’d applied. I wasn’t enough of a ward expert to make any real revisions, but I did touch it up.

At night, while Aldvarri was asleep, I laid down a half-dozen minor enchantments throughout the house. None of them were anything too complex, just simple planes of force that could project out if the door was broken, or a water enchantment that could put out fires.

Well, I didn’t think any of them were too complex, but I was integrating the switching function and ambient recharge function to ensure they were all topped off as best they could be, so they were moderately complex, but still, none held a candle to my cloak, or even Osheen’s armor.

But all good things must come to an end, and before any of us were ready for it, Draven darkened the doorstep.

“Hello Evan, Osheen, Aldvarri,” he said, smiling. “May I come in?”

“No,” I said. “Let’s get one thing straight, Draven.”

I stepped forwards and met his eyes firmly, projecting as much confidence as I could.

“You can scheme and work all you want, but if you ever so much as think about pulling my dad into one of your plots, you’re going to make an enemy out of me.”

Osheen stepped forwards and put his hand in mine.

“An enemy of us.”

“I see,” Draven said neutrally. “Well, the spell is ready, and Tara and I have a plan. It’s time you returned to Yesgol.”