Mage Assassin 2 Chapter 9

The siren and the Ember Priestess sat on the edge of the bed, and both pairs of eyes ping-ponged back and forth as they watched me pace around the ivy-covered room.

“Ephy, we need to know exactly what happened to you after my last visit to the pond,” I said and clutched the end of my chin with my fingers.

“Yes, we do,” Cinis agreed. “We’ve been so worried about you. Especially Dex. You should have seen him, Ephy.”

The siren tried to smile, but I could tell from the way her brow bowed in the middle that she had far too much on her mind to have the endearing charm she usually did.

“Well, all of the sirens were forced to remain in the depths of the pond,” Ephy started. “The water goddesses didn’t tell us why they had made us stay under there, which is a good thing, really, otherwise my siren sister probably would have turned on me.”

“Was it dark?” Cinis asked. “Dex told me they knitted the lily pads together.”

“No, the plants in the depths give off their own glow,” the siren meekly replied. “The pond of the water goddesses is vast beneath the surface, it’s only that having to breathe under the water for so long isn’t very fun. We’re made to flourish at the surface, where we do most of our work, so it’s uncomfortable. I still can hardly believe I’m breathing air again.”

“Were you hurt at all?” I asked with concern. I quickly glanced over her body to look for any knicks or wounds, but she was as flawlessly smooth as ever. Sill, she did look a few shades too pale, and her lips were plumper than usual while her eyes looked sallow underneath.

“No, the water goddesses would not wish to harm me,” she confidently replied. “They were only angry.”

“Ephy, they’re containing you where you’re not meant to stay,” I argued. “You need air. How did you manage to escape?”

“I… I may have portalled through the water when all the others were having a big argument,” she admitted and twisted her fingers together. “The sirens are all getting rather snippy down there, and I thought I could slip away before the goddesses come to check on us again. I am not sure if anyone saw me, but I was so frantic, I ended up portalling all at once and came out in a bathtub somewhere upstairs.”

“They’re not even letting you all travel through the waters?” Cinis scoffed.

“Well, no, we’re being punished.” Ephy furrowed her brow, and my Ember Priestess crossed her arms.

“Well, you look unwell,” the fiery woman huffed. “You shouldn’t be stuck in the water with nowhere to go. Even if you are a water being, I just… it’s not right.”

Ephy smiled softly and stroked the priestess’ arm. “I missed you, too.”

Cinis managed to relax her posture a little bit as she smiled back, and I would have been amused by the pair if I wasn’t so wound up myself.

“I don’t understand why they have such an issue with this,” I muttered. “I know you have told me that you’re bound there, but I don’t see why they can’t let you be happy while you are. I was only visiting, and--”

“Dex--” Cinis sighed.

“No, it’s bullshit,” I interrupted. “We have spent, what, three weeks together? That’s it, and it’s not like I cause trouble when I’m at the pond. I don’t take Ephy away from her duties, and I make sure she stays near the waters, but they refuse to even let us have a simple month together.”

Ephy’s eyes were becoming watery, and she pushed her knees together and rested her palms on her light green knees.

“I know,” the siren murmured. “But I did briefly talk to them after you left.”

“What?” I gasped.

“I was really mad,” the dainty siren said, but her soft voice made it hard to imagine her ever arguing with someone. “I… I demanded an audience with them. They refused many, many times, but finally, they allowed it when I started crying a lot.”

“And what happened?” Cinis asked.

“I told them how very much I love being with Dex Morgan, and how very good he is to me, and they…” she weakly trailed. “They told me I was just too valuable. They said I’d gotten silly over him and that there were more important things to accomplish in my existence. They wouldn’t even consider allowing this to carry on.”

“And to think, they used to seem so sweet-natured,” I mumbled.

“They’ve never been sweet, and they’re not being vicious either,” Cinis reminded me and wrapped her arm around the siren. “They’re only doing their jobs. The sirens are their wards.”

The heat that radiated off the Ember Priestess must have prickled the siren, because she flinched, and condensed steam was rising from between the both of them. But Ephy didn’t move, and she seemed to find Cinis’ heated touch comforting.

“I hold a lot of value among my kind,” the siren told me. “All sirens are cherished, of course. We’re so closely related to the water goddesses, and we do such important work. I heard of a siren who found a way to leave the pond, and I guess the water goddesses want to make sure that could never happen again. I guess if someone else leaves, or falls in love, then who’s to say that the rest of us won’t all want to do that, too?”

It was a legitimate theory, and I nodded along, but all I could think about was how furious I was. Still, I forced myself to maintain a purely sympathetic expression, and I crouched to meet Ephy’s eye line while I placed my hands on her thighs.

“They must love you as much as I do,” I humored her.

“Uhhh, I think you mean we?” Cinis said with a pointed look.

That made the siren laugh a little, and she leaned her head onto Cinis’ shoulder as a dusting of steam rose from her periwinkle hair.

“The goddesses do love me,” the siren continued. “But not only because I am a siren. I have healing powers that not many others possess. Actually, nobody else does, that I’m aware of.”

This information took me by surprise, and Cinis and I exchanged a quick glance.

I’d known that Ephelia was strong, delicate, powerful, and dainty all in one, but not for a minute did I consider that she might possess more power than the other sirens. She was certainly more beautiful than all the rest, but she behaved so modestly, and I didn’t know very much about her kind.

I thought back to the first time I met Ephy, and how she was the only siren who didn’t dive under the water and startle when she saw me. Instead, she told me that she could sense that I was hurt, and she wanted to help me. One look at her proved how deeply she cared in that moment, and although vengeance was the only thing that could have fixed me then, she made me feel better when I was around her.

“If that is true,” Cinis led, “perhaps the water goddesses feel that if something happens to you, then nothing could replace you.”

“Ephy…” I trailed. “Are you irreplaceable to them?”

The siren bit her lip and nodded at me. The small dapples of her cheeks puffed out slightly, and then she made a feeble attempt to smile.

“Sirens can’t learn their powers,” she divulged. “They are born with them, and we all have different strengths and abilities. Some of the sirens you’ve seen at the pond can’t even travel through the waters. They can only help when water beings come to them at our pond, and even when someone does come, it’s never to see them specifically. Water beings come seeking the guidance of the water goddesses, and we help them when we can. I guess that’s why they’re even more skittish than other sirens might be. There are sirens at the pond who have never even been able to practice their healing powers on anyone else apart from themselves and the little amphibians that creep around the ponds in the night time.”

“But you?” I asked.

“I am able to do more than the others.” Ephy smiled like she was recalling a happy memory. “I can read through the waters, I can travel through them, I can walk on human legs… ”

“But seeing Dex hasn’t hindered any of that,” Cinis pointed out.

“There’s more,” the small siren hummed. “I can heal more complex injuries than the other sirens, and the water goddesses rely on me quite a lot because of this. I’ve travelled anywhere they need me to. I’ve swam the lakes, seas, and streams of this world for thousands of miles in any direction. I have visited islands that Ocadia doesn’t even know exist. I have floundered around with fish that have the oddest little colors, and hung around the brightest underwater rocks I have ever seen, and even dived with the bad sirens, because they also needed my help during one time, too. I have travelled to the deepest points in the south of this land, far past Altaya, and Leera, and Salvara, and to the farthest areas in the north. The water goddesses need me to heal more than only those in Ocadia. The entire land and beyond require my help sometimes. That’s my purpose in life, and now they’re probably scared that if I go, then who will heal the wounded?”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” I asked and pushed a small part of her periwinkle hair out of her face.

“Because we were having such a good time together, and I thought the goddesses would see this and understand,” Ephy replied. “I tried not to think about what might become. I liked that we didn’t have a care in the world. Sometimes, I’d even forget about my duties to the goddesses. I thought they were fine with us spending so much time together because they didn’t say anything, but now it’s clear that they’ve had enough of us being together.”

“They can’t just make up rules to suit them,” Cinis blurted. Her sudden agitation made the siren and I jump, and the Ember Priestess shot up from her seat to storm around the room a bit. “They can’t just tell you who you can and can’t see, not when you’ve travelled so far and done so much. How could Dex possibly hinder you after all of that? It’s infuriating that they’re not even going to consider letting you choose what you want for yourself.”

“Surely, they can’t keep you there until you’re old and withered,” I added, “and just expect you to not have your own thoughts and opinions.”

“Dex Morgan, you do know that I will never get old, right?” Ephy asked with a curious smile.

I stared at her for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I will be exactly as I am for as long as I have my source of energy, and if I always retain enough energy from the goddesses’ waters, then I will live forever,” she told me with a shrug. “I have been around for centuries, and I have nearly always looked like this, and plan to continue doing so.”

“Really?” I asked and raised my eyebrows. “How old are you, then?”

“I wouldn’t even know how to count the years,” Ephy giggled. “We never keep track of things like that. It’s nicer to just swim about and do all we can to help others.”

“I see,” I muttered, and I sat down beside her on the bed.

I stayed silent for a moment while I tried to figure things out, but I had just learned so much that no thoughts were sprouting. The only thing I could do was clutch Ephy’s hand and tell her that everything was going to be okay, even though I wasn’t sure if it was going to be.

The siren said that she wanted to be freed, but how could I do that if the pond was the only thing she depended on to survive? She needed those waters and the goddesses, and I had no power to provide the same for her.

Then a brief thought ran through my mind, and I decided this was simply another challenge ahead of me. One siren had managed to leave the ponds, and if one could do it, then another could. I breathed in deeply as my resolve settled, and then I nodded.

“Okay,” I finally said. “I will find some way, any way that I can, to free you.”

I didn’t know why I said it with such certainty when I had no idea of how to achieve so much yet. Maybe I knew that deep inside I couldn’t walk away from Ephy, or bear the thought of her being trapped by the goddesses and never living the life she truly wanted. No matter what it was, I had vowed to save her now, and I was a man who kept to my promises.

“How can you be sure?” Ephy asked.

I gave her a reassuring smile and then pressed my hand on her knee and rose from the bed.

“There’s always a solution, Ephy,” I returned with a soothing tone. “There’s a way, even if it doesn’t seem obvious right now.”

The siren stood up, and I hugged her tightly.

“I hope you’re right, Dex Morgan,” she sighed against my chest. “I don’t ever want to say goodbye to you again. It broke my heart into a million pieces just saying it today, and you can see how well that went.”

“Trust me,” I whispered to her. “I’ll fix this.”

The siren pulled away from me after a moment and then looked at me with longing eyes.

“I have to leave now,” the siren said through pouted lips. “The longer I’m gone, the more I get worried that the water goddesses will find out what I am up to, and I don’t even want to think about the possible consequences.”

“You should go,” I agreed. “You need to stay safe, but I will come for you.”

Ephy nodded sadly, and then she quickly turned away, put her toes into the waters of the fountain, and slipped into the watery oblivion.

“We have to figure this out, Cinis,” I said the moment she was gone. “Ephy will be with us again. There is no other option.”

“But be careful about this,” Cinis warned. “You are dealing with goddesses now, and their kind are notoriously--”

There was a knock on my door.

“Who is it?” I called out.

“Maz,” the bubbly receptionist hollered from beyond the wooden door.

“Come in,” I said.

Mazne came in looking as fresh as ever, but she stalled her steps when she saw mine and Cinis’ expressions.

“Are you both alright?” she asked in a confused tone.

“We’re fine,” I muttered. “What is it?”

“I was going to let you know that Elis is ready for his training session,” she informed me. “He’s been waiting in the reception area for a bit because he didn’t see you outside…”

“Shit,” I sighed. “I’m sorry, I got caught up in something. Tell him to wait in the indoor training ground, and I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Certainly, Master.” Mazne quickly hurried away, and her shoes clicked on the wooden floor all down the corridor.

“Guess I have to leave, too,” Cinis sighed. “So much to do, but… should we discuss what just happened? With Ephy…”

“Cin, I don’t even know what to say at the moment,” I admitted. “I need to get my thoughts straight and figure everything out. To be honest, I’m still shocked that I never knew she wouldn’t age.”

“I didn’t either,” Cinis snorted. “For an ancient being she is adorably innocent in mind.”

“Have you found out anything about those fire entities you mentioned?” I asked. “The ones you thought were similarly bound in the way Ephy is?”

“Not yet,” she answered. “But I will make this my top priority.”

“Thank you,” I replied. “In the meantime, I’ll--”

“Be figuring everything else out?” Cinis prodded me.

I laughed at her and then nodded my head.

“Exactly,” I replied. “I’ll be figuring everything out.”

Cinis gave me a long, tender kiss before she left to go back to the Ardere, and I quickly turned to the collection of weapons I had displayed on the marble, wood, and ivy racks along my wall.

I chose a simple longsword, shortsword, and a set of nunchucks today. This was because I was training with a junior, and we were still learning elementary skills. The flails weren’t the best weapons to use in actual combat, but training with them taught the user about kinetic energy and repercussions. I didn’t bother packing the items away, instead I held them under my arm while I walked out the door and toward the indoor training ground. It was only a hundred yards down the hall from my sleeping quarters, and I pushed the thick double doors open and walked inside.

I rarely used this area after advancing in my skill set, and normally, come rain or shine, I would train in the outdoor training ground since I preferred the feeling of fresh air on my face. Most of my jobs would be outside, too, so it replicated tasks more naturally to adjust to any inclement weather.

The indoor training grounds would usually be kept for these special one-on-one training classes with the Master of the estate. I hadn’t needed such a lesson from Master Abbot in so long that the grandness of the place took me by surprise every time I entered it, but it was nice to return to it once again.

The room was large with windows lining the right side of the wall, and the natural sunlight filtered through them and shone onto the floor. A huge roll mat made from woven straw was laid out in the middle of the room, and running along the edge of it was the same deep-red wood that was seen throughout the rest of the house.

Panels of light paper that looked like they belonged to a dojo stuck to the walls, but decorative accents of red, gold, and black could be seen around the large space. The entire perimeter of the huge hall was an elevated level while the central training area was dropped at a lower level, much like the outdoor training area. This perimeter acted as a place for onlookers to view the training without the chance of getting hurt, but I couldn’t remember the last time it had been used, if ever.

The main floor below was broken up with a few tools that sat toward the back of the room. Pommel benches, bars, weights, and even a barre for leg stretching were neatly positioned together in a line, and everything was pristenly kept.

In the center of the room was the youngest member of our estate, an eleven year old named Elis. He had a dark mop of hair that hung over his eyes, and he wore the same ratty overalls he always wore that were stained with dirt.

Elis was a conjurer mage who had been in the estate for around seven months now. He was shy at first, but we had managed to build up a good relationship over the past few weeks. Others in the estate were still somewhat uncomfortable around him, especially Pamphrus, because he possessed a power that was dark and chaotic, and it only seemed to be gaining in strength.

From what I could tell, Elis conjured spirits, but they weren’t necessarily good ones, and what was worse was that he didn’t choose when they came. This hadn’t been happening too much recently, I think due to our added training together, but it still made working with him a little tense.

I never knew when a dark and chaotic spirit might appear to attack either me or the kid.

It would be different if I knew more about conjuring in general, and most conjurers studied at the Conjurers’ Estate for this very reason, but I did what I could for him. The main objective was to help him face the shadowy spirits head on, because if he couldn’t master that, I couldn’t let him out into the field with the other trained killers here.

“Hi, Elis,” I called out as I walked in. I put my weapons onto the floor and rubbed my hands together. “Right, what are we going to work on today?”

“Well, first I want to talk to you about something that happened earlier,” Elis said. “There was an incident… with one of those shadows again, and it was bad.”

“Why didn’t you call for me, or any of the others to help?” I asked, and I instantly expected the worst.

“Because it didn’t hurt me this time!” Elis said with a gaping grin. “I didn’t ask them to come, but even though they did, they just hung around me.”

“What?” I asked in shock. “Then what happened?”

“Well, they stayed for a while, but I did what you keep telling me to, and I didn’t panic,” Elis chirped. “I think it helped a lot. I went on with what I was doing and ignored them. They started making the plants in my room die a bit, and I kept on ignoring them, and when they got really close to my face, I just looked straight at them.”

“And they didn’t attack?” I checked as my nerves heightened.

“No, but it was odd to look at them like that.” Elis furrowed his brow in thought. “I felt… cold. I could feel this connection between the spirits and me, and they made me a little angry the longer I looked at them.”

“Shit,” I said and shook my head.

“It wasn’t so bad,” he insisted. “I wasn’t angry like I wanted to hurt someone. Just angry that I didn’t know what to do with them. They kept floating there like they were waiting for something, and I finally asked them what they wanted, but they didn’t answer. Then I felt kind of tired all at once, and they rushed forward at me and vanished just like that.”

I crossed my arms and thought on this for a moment.

“Tired?” I asked. “Did you go unconscious?”

“I think so.” Elis shrugged. “I kind of ducked when they came flying at me, but then I woke up on the floor, so I’m not sure what really happened.”

“That doesn’t sound very good,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t sound like they were as unbridled as they have been in the past. Almost tame.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too!” Elis said with a proud grin. “Loads better than before, I think I’m really getting the hang of it!”

I forced a smile. “Yes, this is… an improvement. So, is that what we’re going to work on today?”

Elis’s smile became apprehensive all at once, and I could tell he’d been acting confident just to impress me.

“Actually, I don’t want to work on conjuring today,” he said and shot his gaze toward the floor. “It was all just an accident, really, and I don’t want to get tired again.”

“But you stayed calm, Elis,” I pointed out. “You woke back up and were alright. That means that you’re learning to interact with these spirits in a better way.”

“It’s still scary, though,” he admitted in a mumbling tone. “Will the shadows ever be my friends, or will they always just want to lurk about and make me feel strange?”

“I can’t say for sure, but conjurers work with their elements, not against them,” I reminded him. “This time, you weren’t attacked by the spirits. They existed with you, or so it seems, and that’s a sign that there will be a day when you are able to work alongside them. One day, they should be a power you conjure in order to put them to good use. It seems like forever away, but just remember what you were like a few weeks ago, and how much you’ve learned since then.”

“Yeah.” Elis sniffed and nodded his head. “You’re right. I’m just waiting for the day when I can train without worrying about them.”

“That day will come,” I promised him. “Should we try and hone some of those skills today?”

“Umm, we could…” he trailed. “But, I guess I’ve had enough of the shadows for one day. Can we work on something else instead?”

“Sure.” I smiled. “But if you change your mind, then I’m ready.”

The boy shook his head, and then excitedly ran to the left side of the room and kicked off his shoes so that he was barefoot. I followed suit and prepared myself for the session.

Elis didn’t know that I was a mage like him, and although I wanted to tell him because it might help, he was a very young boy, and it felt too soon to divulge so much to him.

Luckily, conjurers already existed in the land, unlike mirror mages, and through constant training and advice from others, I was sure he would shape up to be a fine young conjurer mage in no time at all.

“I think I want to work with nunchucks today,” the kid said.

“Okay, let’s do it, then,” I agreed.

Nunchucks were never used out on the field, at least I had never used them. We used them more for agility purposes and reactive skills, and I’d noticed Elis playing around outside with his quite a lot lately.

I grabbed my nunchucks from the floor and took them over to where the boy was. Mine were made out of stronger metal than his, and they were bronzed and had small indentations from where I had whacked them against shit for years. The pattern on the metal resembled snake skin, and the connecting chain in the middle was bright red.

Elis, however, had lower level nunchucks. He could still do some serious  damage with them, but far less than what he could achieve with a set like mine. His were wrapped in soft, cobalt velvet, and this was so he couldn’t accidentally injure himself during training. The connecting chain was made from simple steel, but even though his junior-level weapon wasn’t fancy, it also wasn’t going to break anytime before he advanced to the next level.

“Okay, let’s get started,” I suggested and bounced side to side on my feet. “Show me some of the moves you’ve been practicing.”

Suddenly, and without any hesitation, the boy whipped the nunchucks in front of him and started flaunting them around his body. Elis kept his feet firmly planted and his body rigid, and his face was strained while his teeth clenched as he swiped the weapon from side to side. He twisted the nunchucks around his small frame before he threw it over his shoulder, and the weapon folded in half and then slipped back into the palm of his hand.

He didn’t lose his focus once through it all, and it was rare to see such determination in someone of his age.

Elis’ form really was impeccable.

“Now, move,” I instructed after a moment. “Keep your upper body more fluid as you go.”

The boy’s movements started to change, and his body looked looser and more free. He had definitely been practising in his spare time because there was no way he could possess that much talent naturally. I made a mental note to move him up a level soon, but for now, I wanted to see how far he’d gone to this point.

Elis started to jump and twist, and the nunchucks followed him as he flowed as smoothly as a river from one stance to the next. He bounced, turned, and flicked his leg up, but not once did he lose his stability. He remained calm and focused, and once he was done with his demonstration, he stopped and stood with his feet planted in exactly the same position as they were when he started.

Then he looked at me with a massive grin on his face.

“How’s that?” Elis asked.

“I thought you said it was something you needed training on,” I chuckled.

His face was flushed red, and he laughed in response.

“S-So, it was good?” he stuttered.

“I see no room for improvement at the moment,” I replied. “We’ll be advancing you to a proper set of nunchucks in no time.”

“Really?” Elis gasped with a gaping smile.

“Really,” I chuckled. “So, let us move on to other skill sets for the day.”

“Oh.” Elis smile dropped. “I still don’t want to work on my powers. Not right now, anyway.”

As a master it was important to foster people’s abilities, and only push them when they themselves were ready. Elis obviously wasn’t to do that today, and I could see it in the secretive pleas from the quick glances we shared.

“Let’s do sword work,” I said in a chirpy tone. “Shortsword.”

I knew he was pretty skilled in this area, too, but there was never an end to training. Work like this had to be a continuous endeavour, and I would rather try and put him to good use than dismiss the training entirely because he didn’t give me the answer I wanted.

The boy skipped over to the side of the indoor training ground again and dropped the nunchucks on the floor. The soft material bounced against the woven straw mat, and the chains rattled and echoed in the room. Then Elis picked up his elementary sword. It was made from steel, but this time, it was no different to mine. Practicing with a weapon like this was always far more dangerous because one wrong move, or one sudden dissociation, and everything could have gone awry.

Respecting those dangers was a key part of training with a weapon like this.

I got my own sword, and we stood opposite each other as we raised our weapons at the ready.

Elis only came up to my chest, and the shortsword on him was so long that it jolted up past his head. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I did the same.

“Now, usually you wouldn’t have the chance to get in a position like this,” I reminded him. “But whenever you can center yourself out in the field, then do it, or at least take a deep breath before jumping into action. Don’t get cocky.”

“Okay, I’ll remember,” Elis said and determination shone in his eyes while his mouth twisted in concentration.

“Three, two, one!” I shouted and then struck out at him.

With new starts, I would usually take it more easy, but Elis was good already, and he didn’t need me to shy away from my skills too much. Of course, I could still outfight him and kill him if I wanted to, so I had to hold back in that aspect, but he could keep up with me pretty well.

Elis grunted and pushed himself out of the way, and he waved his weapon above his head and tried to swipe me from the side, but I was more agile.

I ducked to the side and swiped again, and we fought back and forth for several minutes until I could finally see the boy’s energy flag. Still, just because he was out of breath, didn’t mean I was going to let him win. I found an opportunity to get his weapon out of his hand, and with one quick swipe, the metal fell to the floor with a soft thud.

“And without a weapon you would have been dead,” I said to him with a smirk on my face.

Before, when Elis lost, he would get angry and sometimes accidentally conjure the shadows, but he was getting better now. Instead of looking at me through narrowed eyes, he simply wiped the beads of sweat off his head with his forearm and went to retrieve his sword again.

We sparred another two matches before he was finally worn out so much, he dropped his sword just from fatigue, but when we moved to the edge of the mat to take a break, Mazne ran through the double doors.

“Master Morgan!” she yelled as if I was standing on the other side of the estate. “You have to come quick!”

I immediately rushed toward her as I registered her panic.

“What is it?” I demanded.

“That volatile witch, Nara, is outside,” she exclaimed. “She’s tangled up in the ivy and refuses to leave until she sees you.”

“Shit,” I growled. “She’ll end up strangled if she keeps it up out there.”

Then I offered a quick apology to Elis for cutting our lesson short, and I went to deal with the zany witch.