AO 5 Ch 8

Chapter 8

After giving Old Man Trevis and Melida an exhaustive explanation of everything that had happened, I found myself finishing up the wall and rebuilding parts of the fort. We were going to be stationed here a while. It would need to be livable. 

The first thing I had to do was dig out the cellar.

Meanwhile, Melida got pulled aside and reamed out by the general before being put to work trying to reclaim what supplies she could from the collapsed fort.

Unfortunately for her, every time I unearthed something, it was either bent or broken. Numerous swords, spears, and armor were all mangled messes. Then again, quite a bit of stone had dropped on everything. I almost felt pity for her, knowing that she was going to have to give some rather unfortunate reports to her grandfather, who she was spectacularly and clearly afraid of. 

I finished squaring out the cellar and began putting up the exterior walls of the fort, making them just as sturdy as the wall guarding the pass. Aurelia's aunt stepped in where I was working. 

"It seems we have two guests of yours, here." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder and I floated myself and Maribelle up above the wall I was working on, only to see the familiar form of Uncle Valken and Princess Eva. I gave them a short wave from where they stood, which was currently facing off against Old Man Trevis. 

"Lord Valken, Princess Eva," I called out loudly as I headed over with Maribelle to join the discussion.

The old general glanced over his shoulder. "Yes, I assumed this had to do with Ard. But it's always nice to get confirmation before letting someone into my fort."

"Your fort," I said. "I'm pretty sure I'm the one building it."

"Yes. You are building my fort, Ard." The general gave me a placating smile. “I believe you have collapsed my fort twice now.”

"Only once. The first time it was definitely Garrish forces." I replied.

Lord Valken seemed relaxed. Meanwhile, Eva was fretting. The princess was a petite woman with short, straight, black hair and a pair of piercing blue eyes. Blue, after all, was the color of magic. Her eyes were nothing less than the windows to the soul. 

"Mage Aldis." Lord Valken held himself up straight and gave me a curt nod. "I went back and confirmed that our supply train is indeed still waiting for us."

"Right," I cheered, smacking the side of my head. I had forgotten about them. Somehow, in all of the chaos, they had really slipped my mind. "Thank you for that, Lord Valken." I nodded to him. "As you can see, we have successfully retaken the fort."

"The light show last night was something spectacular," he nodded at the general. It was fair of him to assume that's who wielded the spell. However, I felt the need to correct him. 

"Yes, the general spun up a fantastic spell. Unfortunately, he was injured before he could fully utilize it." I let out a proud breath and grinned. 

"Yes, unfortunately, Arden took over the spell. When you get a chance, you can see the devastation of that poor control as you look at the pass. He will likely be cleaning it up for some time," the general said, giving me a knowing look. 

My elation deflated instantly, only for both of the old men to begin laughing at my expense. Uncle Valken and the general grabbed hands and shook vigorously. 

"It's been a while, General Trevis," pat Lord Valken on the shoulder. "Perhaps you and I should catch up and share a bit more about what we know. I'm sure your charge will be safe for the moment."

"I think Arden's half the danger," Lord Valken joked, but he moved on with the general, the two of them suddenly seeming like fast friends. 

I frowned in utter confusion at the two walking away before turning back to Eva, hoping for an explanation. 

"What," she said. "Both of them are military leaders, several hundred years old, and live in neighboring kingdoms. Of course they know each other."

"Ah, actually, that makes perfect sense," I said, tilting my head to the side. "Now, Eva, I don't suppose you have a bunch of lovely experience and tips on how to quickly create a fort? You know, some sort of soul magic trick to just blink and build it?"

"No, fort building is about as dreary work as you can do. Honestly, all earth magic is stupid," she said.

"You don't have the wolf sphere, do you?"

She scowled at me. "Raven and Serpent, which you know."

I gave her a tight smile. "Well, seeing how you always favor Raven so heavily, I actually wasn't sure."

She shrugged, putting on her best innocent act. "Now you know."

I frowned.

She clicked her tongue and walked up to Maribelle, putting her hand on my anchor. "I hope you don't mind, but I need to discharge some of my magic." 

Maribelle took the anchor's hand in hers, and there was the slight crackle in the air of magic passing between them. It was a slow endeavor. There was not much love between Maribelle and Eva. In fact, Eva appeared to be trying too hard to give Maribelle her magic. Though Maribelle did her duty and grounded it for her.

Eva often used my anchors to help her with grounding her magic. Zuri being the most frequent, given Eva's penchant for dark magic.

"But is that all they have you doing? Building forts?" Eva asked as I began waving my hand around and making more giant blocks of stone.

"I expect that for the next little bit I will be used as an incredibly overqualified architect," I said. "But what can you do? My commanding officer happens to be a jerk."

"Your commanding officer is Melida," Maribelle spoke up.

"My commanding officer is under a lot of pressure right now, so I better do everything I can to make her look good," I said. Every time I saw Melida talking to the general, she walked away as if a dark cloud was hanging over her head.

The general had stayed in the fort, however, both of his wives had disappeared, along with several of their anchors. I was unsure what missions they were being given, but I had a feeling I would learn soon enough.

"I hope you aren't mad," Eva blurted out.

I turned to her and frowned. "For what? Being dragged off by a man who could probably kill me with a toothpick? No, not at all," I said. "Besides, you are a princess of Zenovia. It's only fair that you don't throw your life away protecting Avente land."

She pursed her lip. "Still, I was a companion here with you. Leaving during the battle was unacceptable."

I shrugged. "No big deal. It ended up being one less person that I needed to cart around." I tried to put a better spin on the concept, but my words only made the princess frown further.

"I would not have been a burden," she insisted.

"No, that's not what I meant at all." I stumbled over my words. "What I mean is that I had it completely under control. Your help would have been appreciated, but it wasn't necessary. And again, this is Avente land that we're defending. If we are honest, it was a rather dangerous situation. Melida's desire to hold the fort was reckless and dangerous and could have killed Avente's greatest asset," I gestured towards myself.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, and I smiled at Eva. "She's right behind me, isn't she?" The princess's eyes were wide, and I already knew the answer, turning with a charming smile towards my commanding officer.

"Oh, Melida, I didn't see you there. You should announce yourself." I told her.

"What, and ruin the fun of hearing you put your foot in your mouth? I think not. Hmm, that wall you're working on? I think it needs to be at least two times the size."

I glared at her, and she only smiled. "Once you're done with the fort, don't forget, you still have the mountain to work on."

"Of course." I gave her a sharp salute. "Did you come out here for something?"

"Just to greet the princess of Zenovia," she gestured at Eva. "I am sorry I did not have time previously to greet you properly."

"Oh, it's no problem," Eva said.

"Nonsense. You should be treated better. I managed to unearth a little tea set. Why don't we go have tea?" Melida offered, waving to Finley.

"What about me?" I looked between the two women.

Melida pointed at the wall. "I think you have a little bit of work to get done before you can take a break, Ard." I glowered back at her, realizing, for once, this might be how Emlyn felt.

"While I appreciate the offer, I must decline," Eva bowed to Melida. "I would like to accompany Mage Arden, if that is acceptable."

"He's not going to be doing anything exciting." Melida pressed.

"Be as that may, he is the reason that myself and Lord Valken are in Avente." She gave a polite refusal, but also gave me a little bit higher standing. So I flashed her a thankful smile as Melida clicked her heels together as she turned and marched off.

"She's a little stiffer than you described," Eva said.

"She loosens up, especially when the general isn't around. I swear, everyone suddenly has a stick up their ass when he's here,” I observed.

“In fairness, you should probably have a stick up your ass when dealing with a general too," Eva said. "He is famous even in Zenovia as a tactical genius and leads Avente's armies for a very good reason."

I gave her a blank stare. "He's just an old man."

Eva rubbed at her forehead, finally disconnecting from Maribelle. It had taken her quite a while to discharge her magic into my maid, who bowed slightly and moved closer to my side.

"I really don't think you should be treating the general quite so lightly. Then again, you are Arden Aldis, or Arden Zenov, and a four-sphere mage. If you really look at it, you do have some qualifications to be dismissive of a general. Though you haven't really claimed your Zenovian heritage." She gave me a hard look.

"I doubt I will anytime soon," I said quickly. "However, being part of House Aldis has given me quite a bit of purpose in my new life as a mage. I understand where my father came from now, and I appreciate the thought. One day I think I would like to visit Zenovia with you, and at least explore my roots."

"When the time comes, I would be absolutely honored to show Harry's son every nook and cranny of the palace if he wished," Eva said.

Eva was my ticket to Zenovia one day. I knew that. I was going to play nice, maybe even curb my sarcastic tongue towards her. But that was the princess treatment.

"You know, you're an entirely better princess than the ones I've met in Avente," I said, continuing to work on making stone blocks from the rubble and stacking them up for future use.

"Well, that's because I'm from an actual royal line," Eva said. "The Avente royal family were merchants who took over in a time of strife. They don't actually have the poise and the heritage of royalty." Eva was obviously proud of the Zenov family. "Besides, they weren't the ones that defended the kingdom from the Hollow Mage on multiple occasions."

When she said the words, it rang a bell. It felt like I'd heard of the Hollow Mage before. "Hollow Mage?" I asked.

"Yes. It's why the Zenov family, despite having an incredible lineage and multiple true mages throughout history, never really grew beyond this corner of the world. Despite the magical superiority they wielded. Every so often, about a thousand years or so, a being known as the Hollow Mage would appear and fight Zenov's descendants. The Hollow Mage is described as a soulless mage able to suck the magic and the power out from every mage in existence. When attacked with soul magic, the result is awful. It's like sticking your soul into a void only to lose it. The Hollow Mage is supposedly incredibly powerful."

The more she talked, the more my brows rose in the air. That is powerful. Kind of sounds like that monster Colin that we fought."

Eva scoffed hard. "Perhaps there were some inspirations from the legends of the Hollow Mage that were used to create Colin. But if so, he is a poor imitation of what the Hollow Mage is supposed to be. After all, this is a being that reappeared many times and killed several true mages with each visit."

"So a thousand years," I said. "That sounds like the time between the last true mage and me," I said, a brittle smile growing on my face.

"That would be accurate," Eva said, glancing to the side. "It would also be accurate to say that Lord Valken believes the Hollow Mage is somewhere at the heart of the war with Garrish."

"Garrish. So some unbelievably powerful ancient mage killer is in Garrish."

"Yes," Eva said, not dodging the subject. "It was something we needed to have a conversation about sooner or later. I suspect even some of the Elder Mages in Avente were aware of this history."

"History makes it sound real, but a moment ago you had just called it a legend.”

“A thousand years is a lot of time for a story to grow beyond its reality," Eva spoke as if she was quoting someone famous. "Not even Lord Valken is old enough to have been around during the last supposed sighting of the Hollow Mage. Legends say that the Hollow Mage injured the Zenov King prior to the Merchant Revolt that caused the Zenov family to lose their grip on the vast part of Zenovia," Eva continued. "However, records of that are incredibly scarce. Instead, any record of the Hollow Mage's actual accomplishments are going to date back at least 3,000 years."

"It's a lot of time for embellishment," I said, continuing to work.

"Agreed. However, some people think that the King of Garrish, this Martin, is the Hollow Mage. Yet other scholars believe that he is borrowing the title. So far, while he has been shown to know significant soul magic that we haven't been able to trace to any of the Zenovian family knowledge, if he was truly the Hollow Mage, his exploits would have been far more grand than they have been now. The Zenovian palace has discussed this topic ad nauseum the last few years, and at this point most people believe rather than being the Hollow Mage, Martin likely has discovered relics or information left by the last Hollow Mage."

"Why would they return every thousand years, though?" I said.

"I asked the same question. Who knows?" Eva shrugged. "It could be some vendetta. It could be some magical ritual beyond our understanding. What we do know is there are several records from ancient Zenovia all the way back to the founding mentioning a powerful mage adversary that had a bone to pick with Zenov and his descendants."

"And if the timing is right and I am a descendant of Zenov, does that make me the chosen one?" I asked, a giant grin flashing on my face.

Eva gave me an unamused expression. "Possibly, though I wouldn't throw around the word 'chosen one' unless you want to piss off some people. You're certainly the first true mage in the last thousand years, and that has enough significance of its own. I for one hope the records of the Hollow Mage are vastly exaggerated, because if not, the horrors that have supposedly been wrought by this mage are something I don't think the current era is ready to handle."

I frowned at her. "Are you saying I'm not up to the task?"

"I'm saying you have zero training where the past generations of Zenov's descendants came from a line of mages that could train them and teach them magic. You, on the other hand, have…”

“You!" I interrupted her. "You're my training. You have Zenov magic."

"I have a fraction of a fraction," she said. "So much was lost when we were pushed down to the peninsula, and though we attempted to preserve as much as we could about soul magic, there hasn't been the development and the mastery of it that existed previously. I mean, you said that you wielded that giant light show last night."

I nodded at her. "I ran the lightning through my soul, because now the fortress of my soul is made largely of blue steel, and I channeled it through the blue steel and then back out to gain some form of control."

Eva shook her head in disbelief. "That was a lot of magic to put through your soul, even with the belief that the blue steel in your soul was actual blue steel, thus able to be a conduit for the magic. It's an interesting idea. Not once have I read about that in the topic of soul magic.” Eva let out a deep sigh.

“This is what I am talking about. I'm sure in the past there would be multiple experts who could take that concept and tell you if it was a good road to go down, or if it was one that was ultimately flawed. Today, we don't have that information. Yet, if the records are correct, then when the Hollow Mage returns, it will be more powerful than before."

Some part of me felt that the legendary adversary, the Hollow Mage, should make me worry, should make me concerned for my future. However, after growing up in a village and then fighting nobles, fighting monsters of legend like manticores and facing down something like the Colossal Wyrm, not to mention pirates, nobles, and even vile princesses, somehow the idea of a legendary mage was somewhat anticlimactic to me. I wasn't overly concerned with them. Instead, the first thing my mind went to was ensuring that I continued to improve.

"All right. Well, just another challenge to conquer," I told Eva. "I guess I'll just have to get stronger." I touched my chest. Underneath my clothes, there was a necklace that contained my mage's medallion, my father's restored mage's medallion, and Missy's symbol. And I could use Missy’s symbol to continue strengthening myself. However, to do so, I would have to fight through monsters, mages, and anchors. If I was joining the war front and played an active role, there shouldn't be a shortage of opportunities.

I didn't like the idea of killing others for power, but at the same time, I believed I would need it in the future, especially to take on the likes of these Garrish forces. That counselor I had seen in the past was a powerful mage, and one I would need to continue to grow in order to fight another without having to sacrifice the people that I loved. After all, there was no way in hell I was giving up any of my anchors, nor letting the forces of Garrish flood Avente and harm the Aldis family that I had come to take as my own.

"I thought you'd be more worried," Eva studied my face.

"Me too," I smiled at her. "It just doesn't hit as hard as I thought it would. I mean, even as you told me, I sort of expected myself to shake in my boots and worry about some grand mage coming and sucking my soul through a little bendy straw like the ones they have in the fancy cafes. For a vaulted ancient mage to come and gobble up my soul like Emlyn does ice cream. But I'm not too worried. I have continued to grow to face the challenges ahead of me thus far. What's another little bump in the path? Well, besides having to build forts and restore mountains," I glanced around me. "Then again, not all of us get to go on adventures every day of our lives. A little bit of hard work won't kill me."

"I'm glad you think that way," Eva said. "Because I'm fairly certain she's coming back with more work." Eva pointed over my shoulder at Melida, who was walking this way with a purpose.

"What now?" I asked.

She came up short and paused. "My grandmother will return shortly, most likely with news of the base by the desert. I thought you should know so that you can help comfort Zuri."

My amusement fell from my face and I nodded. My mind was completely empty of jokes for once. Instead, I was fully focused on how I could help Zuri in what was likely about to be a turbulent time of sorrow.

"Thank you for letting me know. How long do we have?" I asked.

"Less than an hour," Melida said. "I just learned from grandfather when she would be back."

I bowed to her. "Thank you for letting me know. If you'll excuse me, I think I'd like to take a break from building the wall to make sure my anchor is ready to handle the news."

"Of course, take your time. Morale is one of the most important resources a soldier in the army has to manage. Oh, and grandfather told me he needs someone to go collect the supply caravan you guys left behind. I think that would be a wonderful task for you to take Zuri on."

"I appreciate it," I said, dropping the most recent stone that I had formed into place. "I will get on it right away."