When Bez arrived at the garden, he saw a woman in a brown coat, which covered her entire body standing amidst the flowers. The woman had shoulder-length gray hair and a very wrinkled old face. Her cheeks were hanging down and big sleeping bags formed under her brown eyes.
The woman looked around the garden with a smile as she slowly walked towards the house.
Bez looked at the woman warily as he examined her. The increased gravity around her did not seem to affect her at all.
“She is strong. Very strong. Is she the one sent by the mage families? No, it can not be. Even wind and a light mage would need three days if they ran at their full speed to get here from Relazak. Besides lady, Solana said, that a mage dressed completely in gray would be coming, and she is alone. It is probably the court mage of the queen of Sulios. Dammed. That is the worst kind of situation. I cannot move the mansion since lady Solana's friends would not find us, but I also cannot let this mage get into the mansion,” thought the spirit with worry.
Bez speculated that since they were far too close to the city this time, people noticed the mansion and reported about it. The royal family was interested in where the hell such a rich mansion came from since it suddenly appeared in just one day. Bez knew that there were rumors about the mansion since it appeared and disappeared periodically. It was sometimes seen by people, but nobody was able to find it, since it moved very frequently. In the end, the whole thing remained just a rumor. But now, the mansion was stationary, because Bez used the space elemental crystal his master left behind to tether the mansion to a point in space in order to stop the teleportation. The royal family of Sulios controlled their kingdom with an iron grip and probably wanted to know why such a well-built mansion appeared on the outskirts of their capital. It was not one of their nobles or a wealthy merchant since they needed a permit in order to build something like this on the outskirts of the capital. Even the mage families requested permissions if they did something like this. They were powerful enough not to do so, but they did not want to sour the relationship between them more than it already is.
They probably send their court mage to show them who is the boss around here was. Bez was already feeling a headache.
"This arrogant moron will probably demand to be let in and served. Then they would see the nice things in the mansion and get greedy. Normally I would do something about this in a more discreet manner, but now I do not have the time to be patient. Sorry, old hag. You guys just found the mansion at the completely wrong time."
Bez immediately appeared behind the woman and struck with his fist at her back. Before his fist connected, the woman turned around and blocked it with her raised leg. A loud sound of impact produced as the two clashed against each other. Before Bez could react, the woman struck his arm with her ring finger of her right hand. Bez felt his arm shattering the second it connected.
“Crap,” thought the spirit as he disappeared from his position and appeared a few meters away.
The spirit looked at his limb arm with a sour face. He underestimated this enemy. Since Bez had only a human form but was not really a human, he could simply reconstruct his arm if he used a tiny bit of earth elemental energy. The childlike spirit needed only a few moments to heal up.
Bez looked at his opponent, who opened her mouth to say something, but before she could do so, the spirit quickly knelt down and grabbed a bit of earth. The earth solidified immediately and formed rocky gloves around Bez's hands. The spirit once again disappeared and appeared to the left of the woman. Once again, he struck, and once again, the woman in the brown coat effortlessly blocked his punch. The woman was just too fast. Bez could not surprise her at all, and the spirit understood that he changed his attack patterns. Instead of trying to catch the woman off-guard, he started trying to overwhelm her with pure strength. Every one of his strikes could destroy a small house and level a small hill to the ground. At first, it worked pretty well, and the woman was being pushed back step by step as she blocked less and less of the strikes and started to evade them more and more.
"Listen, child, I did not come to fight here!" spoke the old woman in a tired voice as she stepped aside in order to dodge another strike from the enraged spirit.
Bez did not listen to her and just kept attacking. In his opinion, she was far too dangerous to be left alone.
“Very well. Those who do not want to listen have to feel. I will just heal you up after the beating,” sighed the old woman as she once again dodged one of the strikes.
Her speed immediately increased, and she started to counterattack. Bez once again felt an arm shattering. He noticed his rocky gloves were destroyed by a simple touch of the old woman. Bez knew, that at his current strength, he was unable to create something this old hag could not destroy in a single touch. In that case, he just had to take something instead of creating something himself. The spirit disappeared once again. The woman looked cautiously around but did not manage to detect anything.
Meanwhile, Rild was in the kitchen preparing a few rations for his journey.
“A few apples, this loaf of bread...” murmured the young mage as he put the different things into his bag.
Suddenly Bez appeared next to Rild and grabbed the staff, which Rild left leaned on the kitchen table.
“I'll borrow this,” was the only thing Bez said before he once again disappeared.
“Alright,” answered Rild in a confused voice.
Bez once again appeared next to the old woman and immediately struck with the staff in his hands. The intruder once again blocked it. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise as the staff did not break. It did not even bend a little when she struck it.
“He is using the range of this hard staff, so I would not be able to hit him. Ah, I did not want to hurt him too much, but alas...” thought the old woman.
Bez was still striking her with the staff when he felt a burning sensation in his arms. He felt an intrusion of light elemental magic in his arms, so he immediately opened a gap between himself and his enemy. The spirit slowly lowered the staff as he started to expel the light magic out of his body.
Bez looked at the woman with a grave face.
“I underestimated you, old hag. I wanted to protect this little paradise of my master. But to defeat you, I do not have a choice but to abandon all forms of caution and self-control. Forgive me, master Sen. I promise I will replant the garden just as it was,” said the spirit more to himself than to the old woman.
“Wait a moment! I...” started the old woman but shut immediately up when she felt an immense danger to her life.
The woman turned into a flash of light as she jumped away from her current position. When she looked back, she saw spears made out of earth coming out of the ground and puncturing the air where she just had been. Before she could do anything, she felt her feet slowly sinking into the ground. The old woman looked down, and before she noticed what was going on, she felt an impact on her body as she flew across the garden. After she slammed onto the ground, she immediately turned into a streak of light and disappeared. The next moment a gigantic boulder crashed down the place where she was lying just a moment ago.
The woman appeared a bit to the side of the impact side. She lost her brown coat, and Bez could see that she was wearing completely white clothes under that coat. She was wearing a white robe, typical for a light mage, and a very long snow-white mantle above it. Even Bez, who did not know much about tailoring, saw immediately that this mantle was a true masterpiece.
The woman looked at Bez and noticed that he also had a change of appearance. The innocent-looking child was gone completely, and instead, there was a three and a half meter big giant made out of rocks. The giant looked like a poorly made clay doll. There were just massive rocks pulled and pressed together into the loose form of a human. The staff which the rock giant was holding in his right hand looked minuscule in comparison.
Before the light mage could do anything, the giant suddenly appeared before her and smashed down the staff.
She barely evaded the staff, but could not counterattack since the force produced by the impact was strong enough to throw her away. Just as she landed, she saw a gigantic fist in front of her face. The woman panicked and attacked the fist with her own out of reflex. She was expecting it to shatter like the previous times she attacked her enemy, but to her surprise, she was pushed back, and the bones in her fist were broken. As she retreated, she noticed she did no damage or even left a dent on the giant's fist. It was clear that she could no longer hold back in order to not cause serious harm to her opponent. She was sure she could defeat the spirit if she had the ability to use her powers properly, but those were suppressed in this place.
Determination flashed across the woman's face as she stared gravely at the stone giant running towards her. Suddenly the space around her started to twist and distort. Multiple sabers made out of pure light appeared around her. The white-robed woman began to radiate a massive amount of magic around her. The magical energy coming out of her held the earth elemental magic away from her.
When the stone giant saw that, he halted immediately.
“You are able to force the earth element out of your immediate proximity? You have to be at least at the sixth gate. And even then...” sounded a hollow voice from the vicinity where the mouth of the stone giant should be.
Suddenly the giant started to crumble, and big stones fell from its body to the ground. The falling rocks did not crash into the earth as they were falling but fell right into it and merged with it as if the earth was water. Bez's child form appeared once again. The earth spirit looked at the old woman with a complicated gaze as he asked.
“Are you perhaps one of the hidden archons of the mage families? Are you perhaps Agatha Sorlis, The Merciless Light?”
The woman retracted the light she was dispensing and absorbed the sabers made out of light back into her body. She looked at the spirit in discontent as she answered his questions.
“Yes, I am. There would be no need for the scramble just now if you just let me finish talking!”
Bez looked at her with a complicated expression. The old woman in front of him was the mother of his master. The spirit slowly bowed before her, and before she could react, he turned around and walked towards the house.
“Please follow me!” he said without turning back.
The woman looked one more time around the now partially destroyed garden and followed after the earth spirit.
–
When Agatha entered the house, she immediately smiled. She recognized the structure and layout of the rooms the second she entered. It seemed like her son has copied his childhood home she raised him in. That was something quite touching for her because it told her that even when Sen left the mage families by faking his death, in order to join the worldmages, he still remembered his roots and thought about his family. He had to dedicate himself utterly to his new calling and could not remain in the mage families, but he did not forget them.
Agatha sighed as she thought about all the years she thought of him as dead. She understood why he cut all contact. The knowledge he had obtained by being trained by the worldmage would have brought chaos to the mage families. A lot of it is probably specific knowledge of the worldmages, which they are not allowed to share. And Agatha knew that it would not stop a lot of people from desiring it nonetheless. Even if he disappeared after things went out of control, it would still damage the mage families quite heavily, since everybody would accuse everybody of being his favorite in the family and therefore being in possession of some knowledge they wanted. Agatha was sure she would have been killed or abducted by someone envious had Sen remained in the mage families. It would have happened long before she could have become strong enough to protect herself. Although the families were united, the reason for that was, that most of the knowledge was available to anyone, who reached a high enough rank. A person with a lot of unique, powerful, and secret knowledge, which he would not share, in their midst, could break the unity quite easily apart. Mages were always greedy for new knowledge.
“Lady Agatha?”, sounded a female voice interrupting the old woman's musing. Agatha looked up and saw another old, but not quite as old as her, mage. She looked at the mage with furrowed brows.
“You are Solana, aren't you child?”, Agatha asked after thinking for a moment. She was basically a hermit nowadays and did not know all the people, occupying the higher positions of the mage families. She, of course, knew their names, but since only the members of the council were allowed to visit her, the only faces she knew, were those of the council members. During her time, the council members have changed quite a lot of times.
Solana bowed to Agatha without answering. Although she had quite a high rank in the mage families, she understood that she was unimportant to an archon. That was the first time for her meeting Agatha. In fact, she only met one archon before. It was Neln's grandfather who visited his grandson quite a lot. Solana knew him even before he became an archon. Suddenly Solana noticed something peculiar.
“My lady, where is Neln? I thought he would be coming too,” she asked in a perplexed voice.
Agatha snorted in discontent as she answered.
“He was too slow, so I left him behind. He should be here tomorrow.”
Solana's lips twitched. That was the first time she has heard someone calling Neln slow.
Just as Agatha wanted to ask about the body of her son, an aggressive voice coming from the direction of the kitchen was heard.
“Bez, you walking stone, where is my staff?”
A young man walked into the entrance room where the two women were standing. Agatha looked at him with a curious gaze. Neln told her what was going on before she dumped him, so she knew that the young man could only be either Tyler, a priest, or Rild, the worldmage, and her son's apprentice. Since he was not wearing a priest's robe, she surmised that the one before her was indeed Rild.
Agatha looked the young man up and down a few times and could not detect open magic gates from him. Although Neln had told her that the worldmage lost his power when they resurrected him, she still expected something more grandiose. He was someone who was heralded as the absolute evil throughout the whole world for countless generations. Agatha smiled when she thought about it. The archon was a strong advocate against the worldmages in the past. But right now, the worldmages and especially the young one before her were the legacy her only son left.
“Well, you are the worldmage? Somehow you are not very impressive or threatening. Are you sure you are who you claim to be? Maybe you are doing something wrong,” she asked the young man half-jokingly to break the awkward silence.
The young mage looked at her expressionless. There was no fury, no anger, no other negative emotion on his face.
“I am so sorry to disappoint you. I will strive my best to improve myself. You know what? I will take you as my role model from now on. While I did not need the help of a shitty artifact to open the sixth gate of magic, unlike you, who needed, goddess knows how many years, AND the stupid mantle you are wearing right now, to force open the sixth gate, I am certain, that if I follow your footsteps, I will at least also open the fifth gate of water just like you,” Rild answered in a calm and collected voice. From one moment to another, his face turned thoughtful as he continued his speech. “But wait! I already did it once! I DID open the sixth gate of fire and the fifth gate of water in the past! And earth. And wind. And light. And darkness. And Space. And void.” A self-content smile appeared on the young mage's face. “No. I think I better stick to what I do right now, and you do not give your opinion when nobody asked or wanted it.”
Rild nodded in content when he finished his monologue and walked into another corridor shouting for Bez to return his staff.
Solana stood horrified on the spot as she looked after Rild's disappearing figure. She immediately started apologizing to Agatha for the young mage's rude words. Agatha cut her off with a wave of her hand.
“Don't. He was telling the truth. What am I compared to how he was in the past? A shame he was not born into our families. With someone like him, we would have been able to herald a new age of magic throughout the world.” The woman sighed as she thought about what could have been. She lived for a long while, and magic did not make any significant advances in her entire lifetime. She felt regretful about that.
“As for his rudeness,” Agatha closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and smiling proudly. “He is the apprentice and heir of my son! Of course, as such has the right to be arrogant and proud! It would laughable if he were not! A great teacher would produce a great apprentice!”
Smiling, she nodded her head as if to agree with her own assessment.
Solana had a forced smile on her face as she listened to Agatha. It was crystal clear that the archon only had that reaction because Rild was the apprentice of her son. If somebody else had mocked her like this in the face, he would be ripped and sliced apart within mere moments. Agatha held the title of “The Merciless Light” for a good reason. In fact, it was because of that title, that church did not try to seize the power in the lands of the mage families. She earned this title when the church started a full-scale invasion into the northern part of the continent. Back then, the mage families helped the northern realms from behind the scenes to not let the church get too powerful. Except for Agatha. Back then, she was 100 years old, and she just recently opened the fourth gate of light. At that time, she was exiled from the families because of political intrigues, but nobody knew exactly why. Since she officially was not a member of the mage families at that moment, she could openly enlist as a mercenary in the armies of the northern realms.
She participated in many high-risk missions during that war and killed two of the church's seven paladin initiates. In the end, the church had to dispatch a true paladin to bring her under control. That in itself spoke high volumes about her abilities since it was not sure that a fifth gate mage would be able to cope with one of the church's paladins.
Since then, she reached the sixth gate of light with the help of an artifact and acted as a deterrent to all outside forces.
Solana forced her feelings about Agatha's favoritism of Rild down as she noticed something peculiar about what Rild had said.
“Lady Agatha, Rild just mentioned something... It is not known that you are also a water mage. How are you able to open the sixth gate of light if you are also training water magic?
Are you perhaps...”
“Yes, yes, I have a dual soul. 'Blessed by the goddess' or whatever you are calling it. It is a little secret of mine. I use a magical ring to hide it, but that boy managed to see right through it. His magical power is way too little to feel it, so... He must have an extraordinary strong soul!”
Agatha looked at the hallway Rild disappeared with a thoughtful look before looking back at Solana.
“Enough of that! Take me... Take me to my son's body.”, the old woman said in a shaky voice.
Solana nodded and led the archon into the cellar.
–
Everybody was standing around the crystal coffin in which Sen Sorlis was lying. Nearly everybody had a different expression on their faces when they looked at the man in the coffin. Rild and Bez were excited since their master and teacher was about to be resurrected. Solana was curious about Sen since he was a mage far stronger than anything the mage families could bring to the table. Fai and Reston were expectant, Tyler was calm, and Agatha had tears streaming down her face. The archon took a deep breath and tried to calm down her nerves. The resurrection spell needed a calm mind to be executed, so she tried to distract herself from the fact that the dead body of the son, she had not seen for over 150 years, was lying in front of her.
She looked around the group, and her gaze stopped at Fai.
“So you are the fairy who was living in our city. You are lucky you are famous, little girl, or else you would have ended just like the rest of the fairies coming to Relazak.”
Fai looked surprised at the archon. She wanted to ask something, but before she could ask something, Agatha continued to speak.
“Don't worry. There are always spies trying to sneak in every half a decade or so and always failing. When we catch them, they tell us quite a lot about the fairies and their news, which is why we know about you,” the archon laughed as she looked at the young fairy. ”Because of that, we are confident that you are not a spy. That is why you were allowed to stay in Rezalak as Solana's and Neln's guest.”
The fairy raised her eyebrows at these statements.
“How did you make them talk? The only people getting out of the forest are those who are fanatically loyal to the royal family.”
“Oh... we have our ways. Most of the time, they have no way of knowing anymore, that they are telling us all their secrets,” a secretive smile formed on the face of the old archon “, but I can not tell you more. Some information is secret.”
Agatha once again looked at the corpse of her son. Taking a deep breath, she started to concentrate. Agatha did not need to draw magic circles with her hands or sing magic incantations anymore. She did not even need to make gestures, like mages who opened the fifth gate did. As a sixth gate mage, the archon only needed to concentrate on the desired spell. She still required quite some time since the resurrection spell was a pretty difficult and complex one, but it was still faster than needing to chant and draw it.
Slowly but surely, a whirlpool of magical energy started to form around her as the spell was nearing its conclusion.
“Now THAT is a real resurrection spell. Not like the one that used to get me back. This one will not even leave any fatigue. The person will wake up, as if they were not dead, but simply took a little nap,” mumbled Rild as he gripped his staff tighter. As a magic fanatic, he was pretty excited to see high-level mages perform high-level spells. He looked intensely at Agatha. He could not see the flow of magic, but he sure wished he could. Suddenly all the magic power formed a tiny ball made out of light. Agatha immediately pointed her finger at the corpse, causing the ball to fly straight through the coffin and enter the chest of the man lying inside. For a few moments, nothing happened, but suddenly the corpse started to move. Without opening his eyes, Sen pushed aside the lid of the coffin and sat upright. He began to stretch his body and finally opened his brown eyes.
“Brilliant idea, but still a stupid one! While resurrecting me is somehow useful, it has one major flaw,” Sen looked around with a smile. “Now. Who can tell me what the flaw is?”
