A Short Story

The Wizard Tower trains gifted youth to cast magic. After a long period of Apprenticeship, they take a battery of tests to graduate into full Magehood.

The Temples to the Gods of Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Air and Earth train youth touched with the Divine Gift of that sphere to act as Clerics on the field, or Priests in the temple. Paladins are ungifted but dedicated fighters serving the temples.


Kael spurred his horse to keep up with Jared. However, his mind was still hovering over the events of yesterday and he couldn't help but smile.

"So who's the girl?" asked Jared, with a twinkle in his eyes. He slowed down to make conversation easier. Kael looked confused for a second, then grinned. "There's no girl. Just that I overheard my teachers praising me behind my back."

"And one of them is the guy who teaches that Heck class?"

"FEC, not Heck, you idiot," said Kael, leaning out of the saddle to land a punch on Jared's shoulder, "Fire Elemental Control." He was amused that Jared had remember that much from his incoherent tirade last week.

"Whatever you say, oh mighty Apprentice. I'm sure the Arch Mage himself is jealous of your power!"

This provoked another punch that Jared neatly evaded by swerving away and pressing his horse to a gallop. Kael gave chase but couldn't catch up until Jared pulled up on reaching a spot close to a stream he knew. The conversation resumed as though there had never been a break.

"So, they were giving you a hard time not because you were bad but because you were good huh?" pondered Jared as he teethered his horse to a tree, "Well, fortunately, we know you're bad at this, so you know exactly why I'll be giving you a hard time!"

Kael groaned. He hated these hunting lessons, but Jared seemed to think that it was critical that he know how to survive in the wild. Fortunately, the Gods seemed to have heard his silent prayer and it began to rain. He looked up and was rewarded with a lightning flash, boding a good long storm ahead.

Jared swore. "I remember seeing a cave near here. We can take shelter until the storm blows over," he said, and got back on his horse. Ten minutes later, soaked to the bone, they arrived at their destination.

Jared immediately set himself to the task of starting a fire, but the driest brush he found was still too wet to catch fire, even when doused in oil. He sighed and sat down, resigned to a cold evening until the brush dried out. Kael snorted and waved his hands theatrically, and the brush started crackling with fire. He held it until he was sure it would continue to burn, the sat down near the fire.

"Show-off!" grumbled Jared, but he couldn't hide the admiration in his face. Then, he frowned and stood up abruptly. "Did you hear that?" he said.

"Hear what?" asked Kael, as Jared prepared a make-shift torch and started walking further inside the cave. Kael sighed and followed him, and then heard it himself - a muffled call for help - and suddenly, they were both running, and came to a barred steel door.

The call was coming from behind the door, and they could make it out more clearly now: it was a female voice, frantic and pleading. "I don't understand it," said Jared, examining the floor, "Nobody's been this way for years. Maybe whoever is inside came in another way."

Kael's mage sense told him a different story. There were residues of conflicting magics on the walls and on the door, but he didn't have sufficient training to make sense of it. He shared his fears with Jared, but that merely made up his mind to go through the door. "If magic is involved, someone must be in deep trouble." He examined the lock. "I can't pick this lock. Can you unlock it with your magic?"

"I can try," said Kael doubtfully, and took a deep breath as he let his mind quest into the workings of the lock. He patiently worked one tumbler after another as Jared paced the floor. Five minutes later, he announced, "Done."

They lifted the bar and pushed open the door. As they walked through, Kael sensed that they'd triggered a weak ward spell of some sort, but he was distracted by the sight in front of him.

Miles away, Cleric Penedra stiffened as the breaching of a secure location sent warning bells ringing madly inside her head. She was already in full armour; her job demanded that she be ready to head into a fight at a moment's notice. She grabbed her mace and set off at full gallop in the stinging rain, the distance and direction of her target spell-burned into her mind.

Even further away, Paladin Ferarthor was in prayer at the Temple of Elnys, when the spectacle of several senior priests jumping to their feet simultaneously drew him out of his meditation. "To the High Priest's Chambers!" one of them barked, but Ferarthor was already running. A handful of Clerics and Priests, including a visiting Priest of Pyr, were gathered. The High Priest looked grim. "Where?" asked Ferarthor. "About 20 miles south-south west. An old one, we didn't even know it was there until the wards were breached just now. Penedra should be there before us. Hurry!" said the High Priest. Ferarthor's heart sank. Penny. Elnys protect her! He ran to the stables, the rest of the team a step behind him.

Jared and Kael stood transfixed by the sight of a cylinderical, magical cage of crackling scarlet energy, holding a solitary prisoner. She looked up as they entered. She was a young woman, with delicate features and rich clothes suggesting noble birth. On seeing them, she burst into tears, "Oh! Help me! Help me please! They killed my father and imprisoned me here! I don't know how long I've been here, it must be years!"

Jared moved to console her, taking care not to touch the wall of the cage as he cajoled the full story out of her. She spoke between sobs, and he gathered that her father had been a nobleman, and a magician to boot, but had many enemies. They'd kidnapped her and lured her father to this cave, where they killed him. For some unknown reason, they spared her life but put her in a magical cage where she never felt hungry or thirsty, and had no sense of time passing.

Jared's face was a mask of rage as he turned to face Kael. "Can you break that spell?"

Kael shook his head. "It's too powerful. I doubt if the Arch Mage himself could break that one."

The young woman spoke, "My family ring had a powerful protective spell on it. Maybe if I put it on, I could walk through these bars unharmed."

"And where is this ring now?" asked Jared.

"It might still be on... on my... father's body," she shuddered, and pointed towards the far corner of the cavern.

Jared wasted no time in rushing to that corner, and found the body exactly where she'd pointed. It had been picked clean to the bone, and only the skeleton remained. Nevertheless, it had a ring on one of the fingers, and Jared prised it off. "Ugly one," he commented, and started walking back to the cage. Kael stopped him. "Look there!"

Jared looked and took in his breath in a sharp hiss, as several dead bodies lay strewn around the area where Kael pointed. He called out to the girl, "Was there a battle here?"

"Not a battle," she replied gravely, "Treachery. They fought amongst themselves."

"That explains it," he muttered, and continued walking.

"Jared, wait!" hissed Kael, "This doesn't make sense. Why would they spare her, and then go to all the trouble of fashioning that cage? And a spell to keep her from feeling hunger or thirst? I've never even heard of such a spell, leave alone think of a way of creating one! And I found traces of magic on the walls of the cavern we came from, can you explain that? Jared! Are you listening?"

Too late, he noticed the vacant expression on his eyes, and the insidious signature of a charm spell on Jared's mind. "No!" he screamed and tried to pull Jared back from the cage but being the stronger man, he just shook him off and proceeded to hand the ring to the woman. His fingers could not go through the magical barrier, but the ring did, and the woman snatched it out of his hands as soon as she could.

Inhuman laughter reverberated around the cavern as she put on the ring. Jared had snapped out of the spell, and was looking a little dazed. "You witch! Who are you?" asked Kael. The woman looked amused. Her voice changed to the deep one of a middle-aged man, and her appearance changed to that of a cadaver. "Not a witch. A Lich. A hundred years have I languished in this prison, the key to my freedom lying but a few feet from my grasp! A hundred years did it take to weaken the wards and erase the warnings! At last, you blundering fools walked in!" She - or he - or it, broke into another paroxysm of laughter and then started chanting a spell, and the magical barrier visibly thinned to a light pink in a matter of seconds. Then, realizing that they were still there, the Lich said, "Oh! I don't need you anymore," and waved its hand. A dozen of the dead bodies in the corner stood up and walked slowly towards them.

Jared was still dazed from the spell and caught a swipe from the lead zombie full on his leather armour, and went sprawling. Kael snapped out of his shock just in time to fashion a shield of air to stop the first blow. "Elnys!" came a roar as a cleric came charging in through the door, in full battle armour and wielding a mace that looked too heavy for the young woman to swing. She bashed the skull of the zombie that had struck Jared and it crumpled to the floor. Meanwhile, Jared had come to his senses and was chopping away with his sword. A zombie lost both its arms but persisted in its attack. "The head!" shouted the cleric, "Chop off the head!" Jared complied and was rewarded with the headless body crashing lifeless to the floor.

Kael blew two zombies into the far wall with a powerful blast of air that should have knocked any human dead. But the zombies merely stood up and began their ponderous walk back to their target. He shook his head and cast a ball of fire into the midst of a closer pack. This brought a more satisfying response as they screamed as they burned. Then they fell, and didn't get up.

The Lich stopped his casting to wave at the burnt bodies, and they rose again - this time, only their skeletons were left, their rotting flesh having burned away completely. "Delay them!" barked the cleric, and started casting a spell of her own. Jared kept the undead creatures at bay with broad swings of his sword. Kael just stood there, all blows bouncing off an armour of air he'd cast around himself. It took a whole minute for the cleric to finish casting her spell, and then the cavern was filled with a searing bright light that caused Kael and Jared to cover their eyes, even though they had their backs to the cleric. When they opened them again, not one of the creatures still twitched.

She turned to the Lich behind the barrier - now down to a faint translucent sheet. As they watched, the barrier winked out completely and the Lich bent its neck as though amused and said, "Now you die!" The cleric dropped her mace with a clang and sunk to the floor, gasping for breath. Jared lunged with his sword but the Lich batted him away like a bug, and he went flying across the cavern.

"No!" screamed Kael, and flung a magical bolt of energy at the creature. It hit an invisible shield inches from its body and disappeared, but it drew its attention and it released the cleric, who lay unconscious on the floor, but breathing. Kael tried a different tact and started a fire right on the Lich's body. The creature laughed its inhuman laughter again. "Boy!" it said, "You cannot destroy me that easily!"

But Kael's eyes blazed with fury as he thundered, "You will not harm me, nor my friends, nor any mortal soul upon this Earth. Foul creature! You will not leave this cavern alive!" The fire increased in intensity, and crackled nearly as loudly as the creature's laughter.

At that instant, the contingent from the temple piled in through the door, but they could do no more than gawk at the spectacle in front of their eyes. The Lich threw a bolt of energy that was absorbed by a shield Kael had magically erected around himself. "Go back to the world of death, whence you came to our blessed land. This cleansing fire shall rid the world of your evil presence!" The fire now turned white hot, and the creature screamed in pain. It started throwing one spell after another at Kael. His shield weakened and gave out, but it was too late for the Lich. The fire waxed in a final flare, and all that was left was ash. Kael stumbled, dizzy from his expenditure of energy, and collapsed unconscious to the floor.

Ferarthor rushed forward first. "Penny!" he cried, on seeing her body. "She's alive!" he cried, with relief. "There's another boy here. He's unconscious as well, and might have a broken rib." came the shaking voice of one of the clerics. The Priest of Pyr was bent over Kael.

"It is fortunate that one of your Order was here," observed Ferarthor. The man shook his head. "He is not of Pyr. Look," he said, and pointed to the crest of the Wizard Tower on Kael's robe. "A Mage. That explains it." replied Ferarthor. The Priest shook his head again. "Look closer. He is an Apprentice."

"Impossible," scoffed Ferarthor, "Only a powerful mage or one touched by Pyr can command fire the way he did."

"You are right," replied the Priest under his breath, but Ferarthor was already busy supervising the healing and transfer of the three unconscious bodies to the temple.

(Ah well, that didn't quite come out as gripping or adventurous as it was supposed to. Looks like I have a long way to go before I can call myself a writer of any talent - or even just a writer! *sigh* )