AO 4 Ch 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2

Aurelia knelt over the bodies with shaky breath. The two mages had been laid out in a neat row, their bodies made as whole as possible while a pile of mage-forged corpses were set aside.

She brushed the ash and soot off their hair lovingly, revealing their Virel red hair.

“Can you confirm their identities?” A guard pushed her.

She wanted to snap, draw her blade and crush his skull. And her thoughts were not necessarily in that order. Yet she reined in her temper and let out a heavy sigh that seemed to take her fire with it. “Yes, they are from my house. Two mages, four anchors.” She glanced at the mage-forged corpses. “What the hell are those doing here? They couldn’t have come cross-country. Has anyone found the boat?” Her emotions drew on her magic and she had to hold back the fire.

The guard held up his hands, but a little anger flared in his eyes. “We haven’t been able to even start a search. Nearly two thirds of the guards are missing or dead. What the fuck do you want us to do?!” His voice rose to a shout by the end.

Aurelia let everything out with another sigh. “Right, we all just went through battle. Calm down, and I’ll stop throwing around my own anger. Two of my shrinking house lay dead. I’m upset. It doesn’t make sense that there were mage-forged here, but the evidence is hard to deny.” She traced some of the wounds that bit into their bones.

It took enhanced strength to cut into bone this easily. Sure, many anchors could do it, but the simpler answer here was more likely.

Aurelia cut open one of the mage-forged and stuck her hand into his gut, feeling around for the liver. It was still warm and not cooked by a fire. They weren’t some dead corpses carted here.

She pulled her hand out and a little fire burnt the blood off her hands. “Alright, tell the guard to assume there might be mage-forged in the city. As for these bodies, I’ll have someone come and collect my family. They should be interned back at the capital.”

“Yes ma’am.” The guard saluted, more respectful after her small show of magic.

Dusting the ash off her hands, she stared at the bodies with emotions surging inside of her. The Virel House was on the decline. It shared that trend with House Aldis. Three Virel’s sat on the Enclave’s Elder Council of thirteen. Yet, all of them were aging seniors.

Once upon a time, being a Virel was an honor above anything else. Having one as your anchor was a sign of pride among the nobles. That respect had dwindled.

None of her mother’s generation had shown the same incredible talent as the generation before. The Royal Family had been pushing hard into the matters of The Heldrin Enclave with the talent of the First Princess. Options for marriage to improve their magic dwindled sharply as they stood firmly against the Royal Family’s takeover of The Enclave.

She shook her head, seeing another piece of House Virel crumble with the two laid out in the street. Death was no stranger to a Virel. Yet this hit differently.

Aurelia dipped her head and cried for them before she cried for her house. In the moment, she wanted comfort, and without meaning to, her mind flashed to Arden.

Yet, her father’s insistence on her fulfilling some promise between him and Elder Aldis had been a sticking point for Ard. He wanted nothing to do with duty and everything to do with love.

If only it were that simple.

To her and every Virel, duty came first and foremost. It wasn’t that simple feelings weren’t growing between them, but Aurelia found it impossible to put her duty aside and be the blushing maiden that Ard wanted.

She shot a prayer to Ard’s little goddess to take care of her kin and to lead her down the right path to restore her family’s magic. And at the moment, her whole family had pinned their restoration on her bearing one of Ard’s children.

Her mother’s advice in seduction flitted through her mind, but she pushed it aside. It wasn’t that easy, damnit.

“Anchor Virel. Trouble with your mage to the north.” He pointed off in a direction and all of Aurelia’s thoughts vanished.

Instead her training kicked in as she shoved off the ground with the full strength of an anchor and launched herself in that direction. She would happily bury her feelings in killing something.

Hopefully there was something to kill.

***

The first mage-forge’s body hit the ground and my magic welled up. Since I’d been moving so much earth, I was filled with lightning magic and let it pour out. My fingers crackled with power as I pointed and released a swelling bolt of lightning.

This moment was reminiscent of the time when I awakened, and I couldn’t help but compare the two.

Then, I had been relying on natural lightning to give me power. Yet, this time it was all my own. My control was on a completely different level now.

The bolt of lightning broke around Emlyn, only to come back together and slam into the mage-forged’s head, popping it like a grape before bouncing to the next one behind him and doing the same.

Emlyn jumped back to give me a clear path.

I didn’t waste my breath trying to capture one of them. Instead, I let lightning rip and tear through the mage-forged that kept pouring from the tunnel.

Their numbers seemed endless as bodies started to get in the way.

An explosion of wood and ash a block over announced another tunnel that mage-forged were using to emerge.

“Watch.” Eva pointed a finger at the new stream of mage-forged and a tiny thread of light shot from her to the mage-forged. As she dragged her finger to the side, all of them that had come out were cut in two and fell to the ground before she raked her finger back the other way killing any more that had escaped. “You are still all brute force and no finesse.”

Valken stood by her side with his arms behind his back. “A decent showing, Eva. However, I believe that you should stop as people are coming.”

The thin beam petered out and the mage-forged took to the streets in droves.

I watched as a living meteor of fire crashed down into them, throwing mage-forged to the cobblestones as Aurelia dove into the fight. She quickly began cutting them down.

Her sword flashed and arcs of fire followed her movements as she moved through the mage-forged.

“She really would do well with an ax I think.” I watched her bluesteel sword slice through the abominations.

“I agree. Plus, axes are great for thick monster hides.” Emlyn stood by my side, vigilant, but willing to banter.

She would always banter, except for those mornings where she woke up and chose violence.

I shuddered at those thoughts. My lightning continued to pour out over the mage-forged. Despite what Eva said, I was still happy that I was much improved from my last clash with mage-forged.

Pushing my magic harder, I made it hit those visible and then encouraged it to branch out after passing the entrance.

The number of mage-forged coming out instantly dropped and the area became eerily quiet. Mage-forged didn’t scream when they died, and it weirded me out. The only noise was the collapse of their bodies and the ping of their weapons on the ground.

Most of the noise was coming from Aurelia. Fire roared off her blade and her hair danced like a bonfire with how much fire magic she was putting out.

“She’s really hot headed today, get it? Though I wonder what’s wrong.” Emlyn joked as Aurelia cut off both of a mage-forged’s arms and then grabbed his head to crush it with her grip.

It squirted a small fountain of blood straight up into the air.

“I don’t know. When we are done here, I’m escaping. Right now she’s scarier than Maribelle.” I gave a fake shiver.

“I’m going to tell her you said that.” Emlyn kept looking around us for another surprise.

“Don’t you dare.” I upped the lightning and turned one of the mage-forged into a crisp.

Eva glanced between the two of us. “Do you always banter? Like, does it ever stop?”

“Of course it does.” I shook my head.

“Nope never.” Emlyn countered and flashed me a smirk before continuing her vigilance.

“Huh.” Eva’s brow pressed down. “I think I understand.”

Aurelia wasn’t the only one to appear. A Brighthaven and Graystone mage joined her as well.

“Get back to your mage, Virel.” The Brighthaven shouted with a ball of light in his hand waiting for her to get back.

Aurelia lept backwards, doing a backflip to land by me and flick blood off her sword and to the feet of the mage who’d shouted at her. She looked about ready to kill him.

I put a hand on her head and rubbed it.

She snapped out of her anger at the other mage and her face flushed red. “Can you not do that?!” Her scowl was replaced by a blush before the scowl returned.

I smiled, satisfied that I had broken her from whatever thoughts had possessed her for a moment.

“Calm down, let him work and relax. I mean, he’s doing your work for you, don’t complain.” I glared at her, and it wasn’t a fun one like I used with Emlyn. “Now, what’s wrong?”

Aurelia was a Virel, and she was the whole package. The House was famed for being monster hunters and very capable anchors and mages.

Her hair was a bright red, the same color as a manticore and I often thought she was just as ferocious as the monster. Squeezed into her kingdom blues, she was a lovely sight.

I pulled my eyes back up to her brilliant blue eyes rather than the other generous blue curves on her. “So?”

She still had a little blush dusting her cheeks and turned herself sideways as if to avoid my question before relenting. “Guards just brought me over to two corpses to identify them. My relatives that went to put out the fires were killed by mage-forged. It seems they were ambushed and overrun.”

I grimaced at that statement. “Damn. I don’t blame you for being pissed. Want to crush a few more of their skulls to cool off? I hear manticores like to decorate their dens with corpses. Maybe we can get you something to call a de—“

Emlyn interrupted me with a gentle, but firm slap up the side of my head. “Don’t antagonize her right now.” Unsaid in her glare was a reminder that Aurelia had just suffered a personal loss.

“He does it everytime he opens his mouth. I don’t think he can help it.” Aurelia smirked.

Emlyn didn’t appreciate how well my distraction had worked, but that was normal. Sometimes my brilliance was so bright it blinded people to its worth.

I took the slap in stride. The whole situation was pulling Aurelia away from the emotional edge she’d been driven to. “Hey I was going to offer to go bugger that mage so she could do it. I don’t know how to deal with manticores. Maybe you could give me some advice, Aurelia?”

Emlyn mouthed ‘smooth’ behind the other anchor while rolling her eyes.

Around me the tunnels were being heavily suppressed by multiple mages.

It came as no shock that people were more than willing to crush an enemy at present. Everyone in the city had a belly full of fire and nowhere to vent their anger.

“Let’s go back.” She said, staring at the chaos unfolding. “I just want to get my family settled and rest.”

I didn’t need to be an expert on manticores to know this was not usual behavior. Normally she’d want to go crush something or make it bleed terribly. “Alright, we are heading back. Emlyn was just complaining that she couldn’t stay on her feet much longer anyway.”

There was another glorious glare for my collection.

“Your focus is probably so butchered that you’d only make noses now.” Emlyn tossed her long braid over her shoulder and marched forward to lead us.

“Noses?” Eva asked.

“Ah…” I scratched my cheek. “You see, when I first started, my first challenge was a young woman who had a badly mangled nose. So to refine my magic, I spent hours and hours making noses with earth magic to get the hang of it. Then when things got dicey, noses were the most focused image I could make and you know what that means.”

Eva chuckled to herself. “Yes, the better your focus and imagery of something the stronger the magic holds. So, noses became your strongest weapon?”

“Pretty much.” I shrugged. “Though, I’ve completely and utterly broken my habit of accidentally making everything into noses.”

“Uh huh.” Emlyn didn’t sound convinced ahead of me.

“She’s a hard one to please.” I apologized to Eva. “Give it time and her faith in me will be restored.”

The Zenovian maiden covered her mouth and let out a tinkling laughter. “Uncle Valken, this was just the break that I needed.”

“Oh. Is it? Well, I’m glad that crossing into a hostile country to teach a bumpkin like myself magic is a nice break for you.”

“If you are a bumpkin, then I suppose I’m one too. You are nothing like four sphere mages in our history books.” Eva offered.

“I’m sure they were brilliant mages who were absolutely insufferable. Probably thought they were always right and were stubborn as a mule.” I nodded along with my assessment.

Emlyn deadpanned and stared at me.

I raised an eyebrow and pointed at myself in question.

She nodded.

“Oh. Apparently, I must be like them in some ways. Doubt they were as funny as me though. That’s my own little trick.” I winked at Eva, eliciting another of her bell-like laughs.

We tromped through the ruined city, but now I was on high alert for enemies. People were everywhere building the place back up.

My eyes settled on a woman with an easel out and mixing soot from the fire with some oil.

I held out a finger to my group and quietly walked around behind her. It wasn’t the first time we had met, but I wanted to confirm what she was doing before I bothered her.

Already on the canvas was a thin layer of blue on one side.

“Taking the time to paint it?” I asked her.

She jumped and nearly dropped her fresh paint.

I used an earthen arm to reach up from the ground to catch it for her. “Don’t want you to lose that. Who knows when you’ll be able to make more.”

“Ah. Mage Aldis.” She bowed to me. Her face had smudges all over it. Though, last time I’d seen it she had practically used it as a canvas. “I didn’t see you there.”

“I snuck up on you to see what you were working on. Painting the city in its current state?”

She was the painter that had made my new favorite pieces hanging back safely in the manor. When she’d first painted the harbor as I’d asked, it was without all the natural grime and labor. She’d made it unrealistically pretty.

Never fear, I had that fixed and the painting displayed the beauty of hard work alongside that of the ocean.

“Yes. I enjoyed making your prior commission of painting not just the beauty of the world, but the mundane… reality?”

“I think the work of everyone is vital to making the scene beautiful, otherwise it’s a false facade.” I nodded and made a decision. “How about I commission another? No, two more. I want to see the city burnt down. Use some of the pigments we can find from the wreckage to really be this moment in time. Finally, I want to know what it looks like once it’s rebuilt. That along with my first commission would make quite the set. It would tell a lovely story of people’s hard work and their perseverance. Don’t you think so?”

She smiled. “Here I thought you were going to finally ask for a portrait like the rest of nobles.”

“No you didn’t. Not after I had to correct you on our first meeting.” I booped her on the nose.

She blushed, remembering when she wasn’t actually listening to my request and told me to sit on a stool for her to begin. “Still, now that I know that you are the first four sphere mage in a thousand years, maybe I want to be the one to do your portrait.”

I shrugged. “If someone wants to gaze on my beauty they should find me so I can soak up that admiration. Actually that’d be bad, I’m rather shy.”

Emlyn snorted and cupped a hand over her mouth to stop from laughing.

I gave her a bored expression. “Really? Another random giggling fit.”

The painter didn’t quite know how to take our jabs so she remained stoically still. “As for payment…”

“How about I build you a lovely storefront with an apartment on top?” I offered. Building those structures was going to be my life for another week at least.

She nodded rapidly. “That… that would be better than I could hope.”

“Great. You’re an artist. If you draw something up, I can make it in that image. Otherwise you can get one of the standard ones that I’m making for everyone.”

“A sketch with charcoal is fine?” She asked.

“Yup. I had a store owner with the drawing skills of a toddler and I was able to make it today. Whatever you draw up I can make out of stone.”

She nodded with a new determined expression on her face and then back at her easel, clearly torn on what to do next.

“Draw it up first. I’m sure you’ll work better on the painting once you have a space to sleep and manage your process.” Pausing, I tapped my chin. “Just come drop it off at the Aldis manor when you are done. Someone will give it to me. I’ll get to it first thing tomorrow.”

It wasn’t quite dinner time, but we were still all tired from the day before. And I was finding that even being in the ruined city applied some sort of tension to my mind all day.

Adding mage-forged to the mix had worn me out in a way I didn’t know was possible.

I turned and headed home with the others.

I cleared my throat as we approached House Aldis. My mother was sitting in her wheeled chair waiting for me.

“Ard.” She spoke as soon as I was close enough. “Come join me in the study. Our two guests too.”

I hesitated. That tone struck me as dangerous.

Emlyn nudged me. “Hurry up. You aren’t afraid of her, right?”

“As my anchor, aren't you supposed to protect me?” I huffed.

Aurelia glanced between the two of us with a furrowed brow.

“Don’t worry, go rest. If you see Maribelle though, send her my way.” I told the fiery haired anchor.

“Of course.” She nodded, fully serious again.

But I was satisfied that she wasn’t looking murderous.