The Archmage: Chapter Two

There was a gentle wind that swept across the ritual circle, and a moment later, a tear in the fabric of reality opened. I leaned up and gave Osheen a quick kiss on the cheek, then stepped into the rift, appearing in the now familiar halls of Awell Meddal’s court. 

Halls… wasn’t the most apt description, though. They had no roof and no walls, and not even floors, merely grass underfoot. The only reason I could tell that this was an actual structure was the pillars of intricately carved marbles interspersed throughout the space, forming the corner points of the ‘rooms’, and more importantly, the ritual that made Awell Meddal one of the harder to defeat queens of the Court of Air.

There was a near constant flow of wind that swam from pillar to pillar, creating an active, permanent wind ward, a ward that reduced every opposing attack to nothing more than a warm spring breeze. 

It wasn’t three dimensional, like my cloak or Tara’s luck spells, but it was certainly at the same level of complexity. In some ways, it reminded me of the ritual Draven was helping me set up – just as complex, but spread over a larger area with less efficiency, due to being an outdated design.

That wasn’t why I was here, of course. I was far from being a master wardsmith, and even if I was familiar with three dimensional spells, I didn’t possess Awell’s own familiarity with wind magic. 

No, the bolt of lightning that crossed the space in an instant and turned into the shape of a short young woman was the reason I was here. 

“Lady Mellt,” I said, bowing slightly. “Pleasure to see you again. How does your ascension to lady of storms go?” 

“Thanksthanks!” she said cheerfully. “Same to you. And good! I’m confident in being called a maestro of storms now, but not a lady yet, so I’m still a lady of lightning for now. Hopefully by the end of a mortal year!” 

I nodded my agreement, and Mellt wasted no time in pulling out piles of papers from her satchel.

Mellt was the best enchanter in Awell’s court, and I was the best human enchanter that Awell had easy access to, so a significant portion of the time I’d sold to her had been spent working with Mellt. 

Faeries didn’t have as easy of a time creating versatile enchantments as humans, since their magic was limited to what aspects they had dominion over, but Mellt was taking essentially the same approach as me – combining in magic from other worlds to help you overcome the flaws of your own native magic. 

She was just approaching it from the opposite side of things. Rather than using human magic with faerie aspects mixed in, she used faerie magic with human aspects mixed in. 

“Let’s take a look,” I said, taking the papers from her and scanning over them. They seemed to be designs for something rather like my own staff, but instead of using material from the court of land to make a glass sphere, the enchantment would be woven in flows of air that laced through holes within the wood of the staff. 

It was an interesting idea, and would let her fit more functions in, but instead, she’d gone with cramming in more power.

“Why more power?” I asked. “You could achieve that using the Tracktath method, just like I did in my own staff.” 

“True,” Mellt said, “but! But but but! That loses the efficiency that my own runes have over yours, so this brings in my own power more directly.” 

I considered that, then pulled out a pen and began to make marks. 

“I see the advantage,” I said, “but how about we flow the Tracktath method’s output through your own power runes to re-aspect it using something like the stained glass spell set? That should get you the best of both worlds…” 

The two of us worked for several hours, moving from the staff onto other weapons – swords, axes, daggers, all enchanted with lightning, wind, or water spells to make them hit harder. 

“Why are you making so many weapons?” I finally asked as she pulled out a design for a spear that would use guiding winds to make it more accurate and hit harder. 

“Oh! Cuz the Court of Autumn is buying a bunch, and since they’re doing that, the Vernal Court is doing it too, just in case they’re building up for an attack. And then that makes Winter and Summer both want to shore up their borders, so they increased their demand…” 

She waved her hands. 

“Politics,” she concluded, and I frowned, my eyes narrowed. 

My erstwhile creditor, the Silver Queen, had recently rejoined the Autumnal Court as a Queen of Change, and I was willing to bet she was working her way up to a lesser Autumnal Queen. 

Was she the reason they were arming themselves? 

A moment later, I let the thoughts go. Even if she was, there was nothing I could do about it, even if I did stand to profit. 

“Hey, Mellt, if I were to make weapons, would you be willing to sell them for me? I’d be happy to take components, Silver Crowns, Zherenian Slips, or favors bound into physical markers.” 

“Sure!” Mellt said. “What’s my broker’s fee?” 

“Ten percent,” I said, and she considered for a moment, then smiled. 

“Deal!” she said, and we shook on it. I felt the familiar magic of a compact or faerie deal slide into me, and she tilted her head. 

“Oh! I forgot to ask, how’s your attempt to stay human going?” 

“Not as well as I’d hoped, but I haven’t given up,” I said. “Let’s get back to work.” 

When I finally got back to the mortal world, Osheen was asleep, but he’d left out a series of letters for me, from a handful of Elide servants, all attesting that Edward Elide was a terrible person. 

There was also a go-ahead from the Ligature to kill him, and they’d even provided some hair samples from a member of House Hasting for us to plant. 

I looked over it, but it didn’t make me feel any better. 

Then I finally got to the last letter – Liam had gotten back to us, and wanted to meet us in a mid-sized city in the plains in between the Capitol and Yesgol tomorrow. 

I did actually cheer up a bit during the flight. Flying was fun, and I didn’t see how Osheen resisted having his wings out at all times. 

We landed in a small cafe, where Liam and his parents were sitting, and I flared the power of my cloak out around us to help catch and divert any scrying attempts – it wasn’t perfect, of course, since my cloak could only stop scrying spells that either I’d already added into its memory bank, or that it had the time to analyze. But while I wasn’t as good at divination as Tara, I was still decent enough that I thought my cloak should at least be able to detect someone spying on me. And if not, Oracle, who flew in the sky above us, should be able to keep an eye out.

“Nice to meet you,” Osheen said, smiling broadly as he held out a hand to Liam’s parents. “My name is Osheen, and this is my husband, Evan.”

I was about to protest we hadn’t technically gotten married yet – or even had a real proposal – but I thought better of it. 

“Oh, very nice to meet you,” Liam’s mother said. “I’m Olivia, and this is Frank.” 

I must have flinched at that, because Liam’s dad quirked an eyebrow at me. 

“Bad experience,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m sure you’re lovely.” 

“How much do you two know about what we’re doing?” Osheen asked. 

“From what I understand, you two need to fit a spell into a clock tower, in order to help… Expose something about human sacrifice?” Liam’s mom said. 

She may have introduced herself as Olivia, but it felt weird to me to think of her that way. I’d thought of Archmage Roark as Frank because it was a mark of disrespect, but I actually respected Liam’s parents.

“I admit, I didn’t believe it at first,” Liam’s dad said. “But… Our dau–Our son doesn’t lie.” 

Liam smiled at that, flushing a little bit, and I smiled back. 

“Here’s the problem, as I see it,” the mom said. “There are three major clock companies in Paerús, and we only work for one of them. While any clock produced by our company is going to have relatively similar insides, the other two… Don’t.” 

“That’s where I’m going to come in,” Liam said. “I can get my ghosts in most places that my parents can’t. I’m going to use them to sketch out the designs of the other two companies, then mom and dad will get a design for you.” 

“I see,” I said, nodding.

“The real question is how much space your ritual needs,” the dad said. “Neither of us have… much of any idea. And Liam said he didn’t know, because it wasn’t his branch of magic.” 

“A good bit,” I said. “Maybe… Five feet by five feet?” 

The pair exchanged glances, and then looked back at me. 

“And you need this to be able to go undiscovered?” they asked. 

“Yes,” Osheen said. “If even one part of the relay is discovered, then the whole thing could blow up in our faces.” 

The pair bit their lips, then the mom spoke. 

“Is there any way you could condense the size?” she asked. “Some of the lids and bottom platforms of the gear boxes are fairly large, but we’re talking two feet by two feet. Not five by five.” 

“I’ll do what I can,” I said. 

Liam smiled and lit their aura, displaying the Ligature’s knot now emblazoned within. 

“If you can manage it, then send me a message through our co-workers, and I’ll let them know.” 

“We’ll think if there’s anything else that’s easy to hide,” the dad said. “But I can’t make any promises.” 

“We understand,” Osheen said, nodding, then the mom pushed a key towards us. 

“This is the repair mechanics key for our company’s clock towers. My husband has one too, so we can afford to run with only one for now. Just try not to use it on any doors that don’t belong to Howard and Jackson Co.” 

I took the key and placed it inside one of the internal pockets of my cloak. 

“Thank you both,” I said, meeting their eyes and trying to add as much sincerity as I could. “Know that I consider myself to be deeply in debt to all three of you.” 

There. That should help, in case of the worst happening. I wanted to be in debt to the people who I liked, and who had helped me.

They shifted uncomfortably, and I realized they must not know, but to my relief, Osheen was already smoothing things over. 

“Sorry, he can get a bit formal. It’s due to the faerie magic he weaves into his spells.” 

“Ah, alright then. I guess I shouldn’t thank you, then?” the dad said, and I gave him a thin smile. 

“Probably for the best.”

The four of us spent a while longer going over places to potentially hide it, but most of them came back to the same fundamental problem – the spell was just too large, even with my Rune Compression arch-star. 

Eventually, we finished our drinks, and Osheen and I flew off again, this time headed to the Capitol proper – it was time to see my dad.

I smiled at the thought. It had been far too long since I’d been home to see Aldvarri, and I missed the old man. I just hoped he’d be receptive to what I had to say.