nemorosus

Chapter 41: Looking for a Quarter, Found a Bag of Dimes

“Hmm…” Rowe grunted as Argrave set down the quill, leaning over the parchment Argrave had been writing on. Anneliese was on the other side of him, just as interested.

“That’s the simple illusion spell, [Muffle].” He pointed at another diagram. “And there is how you translate [Muffle] to an Inscription. Once you will magic into it, the enchantment will be complete. This one will muffle sounds, naturally. Higher-ranked mages with larger magic pools like you can partially res...

Chapter 40: The Marketplace of Ideas

Argrave took a drink of what Muriem had provided him. It was a warm drink, but it was quite bitter and potent. It left a pleasant aftertaste, though, and Argrave quickly enough took a second drink and placed the stone cup gingerly back on the table. Anneliese sat beside him, listening to their conversation in silence.

“It sounds like Galamon has a big task ahead of him,” Muriem said, staring at the table with her hands on her lap. “I thought that… well, I don’t know what I tho...

Chapter 39: Darker Skies

Argrave stared up at a sheer wall of ice. The two suns far above dropped their light on the wall. It travelled through it, illuminating it and sending rainbow-colored rays in odd directions. Though the light made it seem magical, Argrave was searching for enchantments. It was a wonder such a thing could persist throughout the ages without help from magic; a hundred-foot-tall wall made of ice could not be a simple endeavor.

He reached a hand out and touched the blue ice. Even through his...

Chapter 38: Scorched Earth

Argrave swished water through his mouth, and then spit it out into the snow as he walked. Ahead of him, a neatly carved stone road winded across an endless field of white snow. His cane clicked against the stone as he moved.  The center of the road had black crystalline objects embedded in them, faintly shining in the daylight. Argrave put his feet on one of the black crystals, and he felt heat emanating from them.

“You clean your mouth every morning and night. A human ritual?”...

Chapter 37: Songs of War

Explosions, crackling lightning, and blades of wind collided above the sea like a grand display of fireworks. The air around Mateth echoed with the sounds of war. The sea itself had caught fire, most of Monticci’s war caravels sinking into the sea. Corpses and wreckage alike drifted, carried by the fierce tides. The snow elf longships waited, anchored and filled to the brim with potent spellcasters.

Magic changed the face of siege warfare. Nikoletta’s father had taught her that, and...

Chapter 36: Leave it to Fate

Argrave adjusted the white fur coat over his leather gear, covering himself well. He had no mirror to look at himself in, so he briefly looked down and examined himself. He rapped his knuckles against the bronze hand mirror in his breast pocket, and then turned to the door. Anneliese stepped forward, handing him a simple brown cane.

Argrave took it and set it against the ground, grinding it against the wood to test it. “Thank you. Let’s not leave the Patriarch waiting, even if he so...

Chapter 35: Promising Prospects, Grim Guillotine

“Damn it,” cursed Duke Enrico as he stared out into the distance at his domain. Now that war was upon them, he had donned his plate mail, the blue swordfish of Monticci embedded on its chest. He stood atop the walls of Mateth, right beside one of the giant marble statues, as he stared out at the rising smoke in the distance. “If only we had more time… if only I had placed more importance on that boy’s words…”

Nikoletta stepped forward to stand beside her father, arms cross...

Chapter 34: Damned, Their Fate

Argrave walked out onto the docks with Anneliese supporting him. Being half a foot shorter than he, she was the perfect height to stand beneath his shoulder. Though he disliked touching others, of everyone, he was the most comfortable with Anneliese as she had the decency to clean herself off of blood. Even still, she smelled of sea salt, sweat, dirt, and blood, so it was a very unpleasant experience. He supposed it would be strange to expect her to smell like flowers, though.

Argrave t...

Chapter 33: Stowaway Jackal

Argrave sat up, breath rapid and face drenched in sweat. His body was rocking. He looked around, seeing an unending tide of blue. Feeling a rising blackness in his stomach, he turned over, grabbing the side of something wooden and vomiting into the water. The putrid substance slowly faded away, falling into the ocean and drifting behind them.

He took a second to catch his breath, clearing his nose and spitting out what little remained of the vomit. His whole body was aflame with pain. A...

Chapter 32: Blood Drive

Galamon rode his horse onwards, leaning on its head. He felt the exposed flesh on his torso burn, and now that the archers had perished and deprived him of distraction, he could feel the pain of the sunlight. He tried to focus on the pain to drive away the bestial curse of vampirism swirling through his blood like a mystic tide of rage and bloodlust. He kept his eyes fixed on the wooden palisades ahead. It was not much longer before his task would be finished.

When he came near, he jump...

Chapter 31: Machine Learning

If one was suddenly placed in a situation where they needed to dispatch near a hundred animated corpses coated in metal and capable of bending steel with their hands, they might not be able to come up with a solution. That was doubly true if they were entirely out of magic when confronting this situation.

Argrave had faced worse odds. Granted, it had been within a game, and there was no imminent death in the case of failure.

One of the main reasons people were able to do much more...

Chapter 30: First Contact

Anneliese watched the four survivors run to rejoin the detached group of better-armed men. That the defending force had a mage was an unexpected variable, but she adapted to it as best she could. The man was formidable. He killed the former commander and led to the deaths of dozens of others. Those thoughts gave her a pit in her stomach; Patriarch Dras had given Anneliese command to evaluate her after she spoke up at the gathering, and her first task was not a clean victory.

“We’ve ...

Chapter 29: All Rather Dead

Galamon grabbed the large mass of stone with both of his hands, using his legs to put pressure on it from below. It shifted upwards easier than he thought it would, and he tossed it into the mineshaft behind him. A few fragments of rock fell again, but there was an entryway large enough for him to enter. He had taken off all his weapons except for his Ebonice axe, completely adhering to Argrave’s directions.

He crouched low, walking awkwardly forward. He did not need to do so for long...

Chapter 28: Confronting the Long Sleep

The oars on the longships churned the sea, pushing forward towards the shore. There were three of them. The skiffs, adrift on the tides, were pushed aside, some filling with water and sinking. Other got caught in the oars, and some were beached, but the effect was achieved—the leading longship slowed greatly, stopping just before the shore. The militiamen by the palisades launched a volley of arrows, and the snow elves aboard had to block them with their shields and duck low. Only a few wer...

Chapter 27: Dread Breath of War

Argrave spurred his horse forward. He had his satchel wrapped in blankets so that the glass bottles within would not shatter during the ride. Riding again after so long brought back memories. It was a solid split between pleasant and unpleasant. He knew the terrain well after years of wandering about in ‘Heroes of Berendar,’ and Argrave stuck near the coast as he headed for Barden. Galamon rode beside him. It had been a challenge to find a horse that could support his weight, but they had...

Chapter 26: The Holy Fool

Argrave opened the door to the abandoned house. He was greeted by a harsh smell. Galamon stood at the table, a fire heating up a large glass bottle that had been turned black by the flames.

“Jesus,” Argrave said, coughing. “I forgot how bad that stuff smells. You get used to it when you live next to it, but…”

“You’re back,” Galamon said. “Sleep well?”

“Better than usual.” Galamon nodded at Argrave’s answer, then picked up the glass bottle. He smothe...

Chapter 25: The Swordfish Prepares

A knight pushed open a set of double doors that had the symbol of House Monticci in the center. The swordfish split open, and a small office lay ahead. A few faces turned towards the new entry. Argrave walked in, looking around the room. It was an office and a library in one, and a big round table filled the center of the room. Many documents were splayed out across the table. Argrave recognized them—they were from the druid’s camp.

Barring Nikoletta and Elias, there were two people...

Chapter 24: Changing Wind and Reign

Argrave awoke, inexplicably with a song stuck in his head. Midday sunlight poked at his eyelids, forcing him to turn. The action awoke him further, and he sat up. He conjured simply water magic, cleaned his hands diligently, and then rubbed his eyes. The cold wetness brought him from the dreamworld.

“Ooh there ain’t nothing you can do; I got, I got my eye on you,” Argrave sang the chorus quietly, humming the words he forgot to the rest of the song. He went to his luggage and retri...

Chapter 23: Insomnia

“Must you go personally, Master Castro?” A gray robed figure followed behind a short old man. Though the figure was mostly shrouded by the robe’s cowl, locks of light blue hair barely peeked out.

The old man smiled and turned. His face was sagging, but he looked genial and charitable—the very picture of a sweet old man. The robe he wore was gray, but it glowed with enchantments, and a grand image of an owl shone like a diamond on the shoulders.

“Yes, I must. I have to ha...

Chapter 22: Sick Tension

“…so, which cup has the coin?” Mina asked, arrayed before a row of cups. Elias was sitting in a chair at a rickety, yet clean table. Mina sat atop the table. Argrave was buried beneath blankets in a bed at the corner of the room, forming a shivering hump as he peered at a book dimly lit by sunlight through a boarded window.

Galamon sat at the foot of the bed, watching fumes rise into the air from a brewing potion. It was a potion that calmed the mind—Argrave considered it the re...

Chapter 21: Sick in Heart and Mind

Nikoletta leaned over a map of Mateth, Mina and Elias standing across from her. The map was drawn in a very peculiar style, one that Nikoletta did not recognize. It was not fully completed. Beside it, there were detailed reports about the knight’s schedules, their composition and weaponry, and other such comprehensive military information about the Dukedom of Monticci.

The silence dragged out as Nikoletta read through the information. Mina paced nervously, but Elias stood firm with hi...

Chapter 20: Royal Road to Misery

A black carriage travelled down the road, the light from the setting suns reflecting off its lavish gold decorations and brilliantly illuminating the road. Induen lazily slumped on the carriage’s window, staring at the great capital Dirracha far ahead.

Dirracha was called the City of Dragons. Detractors called it the City of Snakes, in reference to the Vasquer’s heraldry. The banners of the royal family hung from the walls; a great golden serpent coiled around a sword on a black fie...

Chapter 19: The Sad Clown

The druid’s haven had grown very quiet. With all of the druids dead, the animals would be free from their magical control. They were probably fleeing, having abruptly been given freedom. Argrave still stared blankly at the scene of carnage, as though committing it to memory. Galamon tended to a few of the bodies, slicing wounds in them to fill his flasks of blood.

I’m pathetic, Argrave thought. Faltering here. Faltering at this. The first step of the stairway, and I’m...