Chapter 35
Alexander opened his eyes to see light streaming through the little window. He sat up carefully and looked around the room. He had passed each of the three tests and he still had one vial left. Mason had told him to drink all seven vials. He told Alexander that he would come on the morning of the eighth day to release the spell that kept him confined within the magic circle. Alexander drank the seventh and final vial of Wizard’s Dust.
He spent the rest of the day in meditation. Just before dusk he felt his awareness slip from the confines of his body and flood out into the whole of the world, but this time there was no despair. He was detached and watched time unfold from the perspective of the whole of reality itself while still maintaining a distant awareness of his immediate surroundings. It only lasted for a moment before he came snapping back to his limited awareness delivered to him through his conventional senses, but in that moment he glimpsed the potential of magic. The firmament was everywhere all at once. To touch it was to touch the essence of reality. He spent the rest of the evening meditating on the possibilities that now lay before him.
When the next morning came and Mason opened the door, Alexander was dressed and sitting on the edge of his little cot. Mason entered the circular tower room and dispelled the magic circle with a word, walked to him and placed a hand on his forehead. He murmured arcane words under his breath and closed his eyes. A few moments later his eyes snapped open with a look of confusion and slight alarm. He flipped the lid of the case holding seven, now empty, crystal vials. He looked back to Alexander with a frown.
“You drank them all?” There was worry bordering on alarm in Mason’s voice.
“Yes, one a day like you said I should,” Alexander replied.
Mason’s brow drew down even further and he looked deep in thought. He shook his head. “Did you experience pain, fear, and despair?”
Alexander nodded soberly, “More than I believed a person could, on all three counts.”
Mason looked more perplexed now than worried. “That just doesn’t make sense. Do you feel any different?”
“No, but I can see your colors now without shifting my vision. It’s like my second sight has merged with my normal vision.”
“Huh.” Mason looked back and forth slowly as if he was searching for the answer to a question that he couldn’t quite frame correctly. “Well, I guess it can wait. I’m sure you’re hungry.”
Alexander nodded emphatically, “Now that you mention it, I’m starving.”
“I thought you would be. Hanlon’s had a brunch prepared for you in the family dining room.” Mason turned to lead him out of the tower but then turned back with a little grin. “Oh, and there’s a surprise waiting for you down there.” Mason walked out of the room with Alexander trailing behind.
“What kind of surprise?” he asked.
“The good kind, but I promised I wouldn’t spoil it,” was all Mason would say.
They made a detour by his room so he could wash up and change into some clean clothes, then hurried to the Alaric family dining room. Everyone was waiting there for him. All were anxious to see that he’d survived the mana fast. The surprise Mason had spoken of brought a lump to his throat.
His mom and dad were there.
They beamed at their son as he rushed into his mom’s arms. His dad put a hand on his shoulder. For a long moment he just held his mother and struggled to keep from crying.
“I was so afraid you were dead,” Alexander said. “The last thing I saw was the manor burning.”
“We’re fine, Son. We fled in the direction of Highlands Reach to throw any pursuers off your trail. That’s why it took us so long to get here,” Duncan said while Bella held her son out at arm’s length and looked him up and down as if to make sure he wasn’t broken.
She sniffed back tears and wiped her cheeks clean. “Come on, have something to eat. You look like you’ve lost some weight.”
Alexander stopped and found Isabel with his eyes. She was looking at him but had been quiet. “There’s something I have to do first.”
He walked over to her and held out his hand. She took it and stood, looking a little confused but happy for his attentions just the same.
He looked at her with a sense of confidence and certainty that he’d never felt about anything in his whole life.
“Isabel Alaric, I love you. Will you marry me?”
She blinked, then her face flushed and she smiled radiantly as she threw herself into his arms and the room burst into applause.
He held her for a long moment. “You saved me again,” he whispered for her ears alone.
“Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Isabel,” he introduced his fiancé with an unabashed smile of pure joy.
They ate and then talked and then ate some more. Duncan and Bella recounted how they’d gone east away from Valentine Manor in an effort to lure the enemy after them. Their ploy worked almost too well. They’d been attacked and chased by something that prowled in the night. They hadn’t even been able to identify the thing but they knew it was out there from the inhuman sounds it made. Bella kept it away with her magical light. When they discovered that it didn’t like water, they were able to escape it by crossing a series of streams.
They made their way along the southern edge of the forest and encountered a squad of Rangers when they came to the forest road. They arrived a few days ago and had been worrying about Alexander since they learned what he was doing. Both Bella and Duncan had been through the mana fast. Both knew the dangers and the difficulties of the trials. Both were relieved to see him safely through the ordeal and both were proud of his accomplishment.
Erik reported that the Rangers from the fortress gate had scattered the Reishi hunting party. Most had been killed but both Wizard Rangle and Truss escaped. Alexander silently hoped that wolves had found them lost in the forest and had their way with them.
Alexander felt like he spent the bulk of the day eating. He hadn’t eaten anything for a week and now he was making up for it. No sooner did he finish a meal and relax for a few minutes than he started to feel hungry again. The kitchen was more than happy to oblige him. His friends and family took the opportunity to tell stories of their recent experiences and generally enjoy each other’s company. Alexander knew it would all end soon enough. He meant to set out for Blackstone Keep by way of New Ruatha within the week. He knew the journey would open him up to attack by Phane and his minions but it was a necessary risk. He’d accomplished most of what he could here in Glen Morillian. It was time to move on to the next challenge.
Late in the afternoon Mason handed him a slip of paper. It read: “Bloodvault one of three belongs to the one who is marked in service to Old Reishi Law. You have a right to your life because you are alive. You have a right to your liberty because you have free will. You have a right to your property because it is the product of your labor. You forfeit these rights when you take them from another.”
Alexander read it and then read it again. “This is the writing on the Bloodvault?”
Mason nodded.
“It says ‘Bloodvault one of three.’ That means there are two more out there somewhere.” He handed Isabel the piece of paper.
Mason nodded again with a knowing smile.
“There’s another one at Blackstone Keep,” Alexander whispered.
Even as he said it, he knew it had to be the truth. He felt a sense of urgency well up in the pit of his stomach. After reading the skillbook, he was nearly certain that the Thinblade was in one of the other two Bloodvaults. It only made sense. Why would Mage Cedric give him a skillbook that taught him how to wield the Thinblade if he hadn’t preserved the ancient sword for him as well? When he looked at the heavy gold ring on his finger, he felt even more certain that he had to get to Blackstone Keep sooner rather than later.
Mason nodded yet again. “I suspect there is as well. The contents may prove quite useful. Blackstone Keep itself is a treasure. It’s a near impregnable fortress with powerful constructed m
agic built into its walls.”
Isabel was sitting next to Alexander, listening quietly. “So when do we leave?” she asked.
Alexander thought about it for a moment. “I’d like to have a few days with Mason to see what the mana fast did to me. After that, we should be on our way. I’d say by week’s end.”
There were little pockets of conversation around the room that all dwindled when they heard Alexander’s plan. Alexander went to the table and took his seat. Everyone else joined him. For an hour before dinner was served they discussed their plans, evaluated their options, and explored the threats they knew were waiting beyond the barrier mountains of Glen Morillian. By the time dinner arrived, Alexander felt the sense of order he always got from having a plan. He knew what he intended to do for the foreseeable future and that was half the battle. Now all he had to do was go out and do it.
He spent the next several, very frustrating days working with his parents and Mason, trying to learn more about magic and his connection to the firmament. He attempted all of the mental exercises they taught him but was unable to make a reliable connection to the firmament. He read a few minor spell books that Mason offered him as starter spells but was unable to make them work at all. He didn’t understand and, to make matters worse, no one else did either. Mason and his parents talked about how they worked with the firmament to manifest their desired outcome but when Alexander tried to follow their instructions, he got absolutely nowhere.
He was starting to wonder if the mana fast had been for nothing. It had been a trying ordeal. In some ways he felt like it had been a trauma but in other ways he felt like the experience of the trials had prepared him for what was coming. He had a better understanding of his limits and just how far he could actually push himself when he had to. If for no other reason, he was glad he’d endured the trials of the mana fast for the confidence he gained as a result.
Three days later when he’d all but given up on mastering the spells Mason had recommended, he was sitting on a cushion on his balcony just after sunset, practicing a meditation that his father suggested. It was supposed to hone a wizard’s ability to visualize the outcome he wanted the firmament to manifest. But Alexander was tired and he let his concentration slip and allowed his mind to wander.
He thought about Phane and the struggle that lay ahead, wondering how he was going to face such a powerful wizard, let alone defeat him. Abruptly, he felt his awareness separate from his body. For a moment, it felt similar to the sensation he’d felt at the end of his mana fast. He was adrift in the firmament, experiencing the moment of now from every perspective all at once. It was disorienting and confusing. The cacophony of events, thoughts, and voices were too much to assimilate or understand.
But a moment later, he was rushing impossibly fast toward one point in the present moment. His awareness coalesced in one single location. His vision was free of his body. His eyes were closed but he could see as clear as day. He found his awareness floating near the ceiling in the corner of a strange room. He looked around and saw a long table with nine men sitting along the far side with their backs to a stone wall that was stained with a large dark splotch. Eight of the men wore armor with a gold-embossed, stylized letter R emblazoned on the breastplate. The man sitting in the center chair was dressed in a simple brown robe with delicate gold filigree lining the hem, collar, and sleeves that looked like writing in an ancient and arcane language. Alexander thought he recognized some of the symbols from the magical circle in Mason’s tower room. The man’s wavy brown hair was shoulder length and his face was almost too handsome. He looked perfectly proportioned in every way. But it was the eyes that caught Alexander’s attention. They reminded him of the last time he looked in a mirror. They were soft brown with gold flecks glittering in the irises.
Alexander focused more intently on the scene and started to hear the voices of the men in the room. The men in armor were reporting to the man in the brown robes on the status of an army. He was listening politely while he sipped dark red wine from a fine crystal goblet.
The man to the right of the robed man was speaking. “We’ve set your plan in motion, My Prince. The attack will begin on the night of the new moon. Karth will finally be ours!” He spoke emphatically and with enthusiasm as he made a triumphant fist with his gauntleted hand to punctuate his pronouncement.
The man in the robes smiled so honestly and with such genuine joy that Alexander began to think he would like him if he met the man. Then the man suddenly stopped smiling, cocked his head for a moment like he was listening for some faint sound, turned and looked directly at Alexander.
Alexander’s heart skipped a beat. The man in the brown robes stood abruptly and the look of murderous glee that ghosted across his face was enough to make Alexander’s blood run cold.
He waved to Alexander as if to say “I see you” before he stepped up on the table and cocked his head with a smile. The men in armor were all standing and looking for the threat, but the man in the brown robes ignored them as he peered more closely at Alexander.
“I see my nether wolves have failed,” he said. Alexander felt the icy tingle of cold dread flood into every recess of his soul. The man in the robes shrugged. “No matter, what I sent next will succeed.” He chortled impishly and then a look of comprehension overtook his maleficent glee. A broad smile slowly spread across his face and he tipped his head back and laughed. Still smiling in pure joy, he pointed at Alexander. “You don’t even know what you are,” he guffawed again before his unwholesome elation turned to joyous malice, “but I do.”