The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

[36] The Servant of Riots

Tanisha and Helina sat facing each other across the now empty wooden tub.  Small, glowing water droplets, controlled by Helina, levitated around the pair. Helina held out the colored orbs for testing someone's magical affinity. She pushed her magic into them, and the green orb lifted into the air. It glowed brightly along the intricate carved ridges in the sphere. This indicated she was an elemental mage, which was no surprise to anyone.

“Okay, I had a few of the wendigo give it a try. They don’t have any mages in their number, but I did get a better sense of wendigo magic,” Helina said as she reached out her hand for Tanisha.

Tanisha took the orbs and with a breath said, “Same as last time I am assuming.” She watched Helina nod. “Well, here we go.”

She focused mana into her cupped hands and, just like that morning, both the green and blue marbles rose into the air. They glowed with the same intensity as Helina’s own test, and began to orbit around an imaginary point over the center of Tanisha’s cupped hands. 

The other orbs rattled in her hands as if they wanted to float up too, but none of them did, no matter how much mana Tanisha put into it. Tanisha stopped the flow of mana and the orbs indicating elemental and nature magic fell back into her hands. Helina looked confused, then concerned at the same result.

“So what does this mean?” Tanisha asked.

“Do you know the different types of magic casters?” Helina asked in return.

Tanisha furrowed her brow, wondering where she was going with her question. She cleared her throat. “Wizards, which can tap into magic but have no affinity. Then there are mages who can use magic. They have an affinity to one of the disciplines and can master that discipline to its apotheosis. Then there are sorcerers that have magic tied to their blood, but they can’t use any other magic beside that. Finally there are those like Joha that get power from higher planes.”

“Yes, those are the basics. And people like Joha are called arcanists,” Helina corrected. “There is another one, though, that you didn’t mention.”

Tanisha raised an eyebrow at that. There were only the four types of magic casters; at least that was what she had been told her entire life. She ran through the list in her head just to make sure she said all four.

“I think you are mistaken. Wizard, mage, sorcerer and arcanist,” Tanisha counted on her fingers. “We are just talking about magic and not chakra, life-force, prana or ki users, right?”

Helina chuckled at that, “An argument can be made that those are also magic casters but no, not them.”

“Then what did I miss?” Tanisha questioned.

“The magic casters that make magical disciplines; the creators of how we know magic today,” Helina said with some excitement in her voice.

“Oh, you are talking about myths now,” Tanisha said with a nod.

“Yes and no.” Helina took a breath. “I believe you are the fifth type of magic caster, a sage.”

“Sages don’t exist,” Tanisha laughed, expecting Helina to start as well. “You already got me with your prank on Joha earlier but I’m not falling for another one.”

Helina’s expression was serious. “I am not joking, no one has more than one affinity. No one except for you and the sages from legends. You aren’t a mage; you are something entirely different. That is the reason I wanted to do this away from everyone else, especially Sabec…”

“What, why?” Tanisha was more apprehensive now that she mentioned Sabec. 

“The gnoll trades in more than just his tools. He’s a war merchant and follower of the Queen of Riots. They sell anything valuable, including people with unique magic. He has been Infernal Planes bent on keeping Bjorn in his wagon. He wanted you too, but Joha stepped up as your master and Sabec stepped down.”

Tanisha thought about it for a long while. It didn’t make sense; someone was lying about the other, or both of them were just suspicious of each other. Helina and Sabec were both really nice to her and seemed like good people. Sabec just wanted to provide for his wife and child; Helina and Owen wanted much the same for their sons.

“I doubt Joha will know what being a sage means for you, but if Bjorn has a target on his back because of what he is, so do you,” Helina said as she held Tanisha's hands in her own. “I wouldn’t tell anyone about your dual affinities. Choose one and only claim to be a mage of that.” She snorted a little. “Tanisha Scalebound the Sage, hmm… The Scalebound Sage sounds better but Scalebound is your last name. They don’t call me Helina the Jaraldson Water Mage.” 

“I-I need to get some air,” Tanisha said. She gave Helina the orbs and walked off.

Tanisha walked back into the field aimlessly. Sage, her? That’s ridiculous, but was it? She was someone with an unusually chaotic magic core. Hjalmar, the Sage of Nidavellir and mythical wendigo hero, was the Father of the Darkness Discipline of magic. He was a man of honor and action, but started out ridiculed and enslaved by the druids when they held the Diredian Forest. He fought his way to power and could wield multiple magics.

The girl looked up at the sky and again tugged at the magical connection she had to Bjorn. He was still asleep, just like he had been for several days now. She looked back at the merchant camp from her position. She couldn’t see the fire but the outline of the wagons let her know where it was. She looked at Sabec’s wagon, directly where the bond told her Bjorn was.

She turned her head to the side; something was off. Sabec’s horses were hitched to his wagon. Tanisha was getting a bad feeling, maybe a mixture of what Helina told her about him and the unusual sight. She knew frightfully little about gnoll war merchants, or really gnolls in general. She didn’t want to believe he had any ill intentions, but why would he hitch his horses at night unless he was getting ready to bolt.

Tanisha ran over to where she left Helina at the bath site. As soon as she opened the privacy curtain she saw Helina was face down on the ground bleeding from her side. She looked to still be breathing but there was a lot of blood. Tanisha tried to scream but a large clawed hand grabbed her by the throat.

Tanisha’s eye traced the form of her assailant, a large gnoll warrior she’d never seen before. They were taller than the six-foot Sabec by at least four feet. The warrior was clad head to toe in armor, and had a beautiful khopesh that hummed with enchantments at their side. The gnoll was staring daggers into Tanisha while they growled and bore their teeth.

“You are Tanisha, yes?” The voice was female. “You match the description. Scream, use magic or maya and I kill that one.” She placed her clawed foot on Helina’s neck. “Do you understand?” 

Tanisha nodded feverishly. 

“Good, good.” She let go of Tanisha’s neck. “Go to Sabec’s wagon and goblin lives. Understood, yes?”

“Who are you?” Tanisha asked.

The gnoll woman punched her in the side, causing her to topple over but not doing much damage. The adrenaline running through Tanisha caused Mana Muscle Saturation to strengthen her body. The points in constitution once again prove their worth.

“No questions,” the gnoll warrior growled. “Now go.” 

Tanisha was scared, yes, but she couldn’t leave Helina with the warrior. The gnoll warrior was another Ulfar Salstar, another troll, another steel wolf, another druid, another insurmountable monster here to beat and humiliate her. What could she do? The gnoll was trained and deadly. She could snap Helina’s neck with a thought.

Tanisha’s mind raced for a solution. She thought about maya and its application. Everytime she had used it so far it was visible as blue smoke. However, she had seen Joha use the maya while it was invisible to the eye. She saw the formulae despite how complex they were. She doubted the gnoll could sense maya; one would have to be connected to the Infernal Planes to do so. She thought about her wind hands; the last time she used them maya had responded to help form them. What if she did so again, and this time cloaked her mana deep inside the maya to be undetectable?

The gnoll warrior growled again. “Did you not hear? Go now.”

Tanisha mouthed the words to the spell, creating the formula for the magic but this time allowing maya to flow and interact with the forming spell. She felt maya and magic flow out of her, creating the two constructs. 

Mystic Wind Hands
Magic cost: 3
Speak the words of power and call forth the mystic hands created from the wind. These hands can interact with the world and act out the caster’s will. (II) Infernal Hands, Maya cost: 1, Infuse mystic wind hands with the breath of the Infernal Planes. These hands will burn any that oppose you.

The Infernal Hands were invisible to the eye and to magic perception. She stood up and looked the beast of a woman in the eye. Tanisha directed them; one to grab the gnolls feet and the other her face in hopes of blinding her. The gnoll woman reached for her khopesh when she saw Tanisha was not following directions. An intense heat at her feet caused her to recoil back from the captured goblin woman. She drew her sword, prepared to kill Helina and remove a limb or two from Tanisha. 

Then the same blinding pain grabbed her face. She screamed as the invisible thing burned with no fire or magic. She felt her eyes boil and her face blister as she pulled her sword and swung in the direction she remembered the wendigo girl being. When she felt no impact she swung all around in anger and pain. 

“Intruder, intruder! Someone help!” Tanisha screamed.

“Fuck,” the gnoll woman muttered as she took out a health potion and drank.

Her sight returned, and she saw Tanisha running away with the bleeding goblin in her arms. More and more of the wendigo warriors were already converging. It would be difficult to kill them all alone, but not impossible. Her main concern would be the Rakshasa. She’d wanted to take him later, but now was as good a time as any. She licked her lips in anticipation then howled into the night. More howls joined in from all around the camp. Sabec’s wagon sped off with half of their prize; at least the other half would die tonight.

The gnoll warrior bared her teeth, “Queen of Riots smile upon Losi tonight. Let Losi’s hunt be bloody.”