Chapter 11
“Jonah.”
That was the name of the wizard that led the group. He was given responsibility of the border in situations like this.
A portal led from the small island they’d washed up on. It was a sort of link to this city in the sky. After the arrest, they led them up a platform which ported them upwards.
It seemed like this ‘sky city’ had a form of a neighborhood watch program. Not unlike the ‘elves’- the wizards who had captured them were actually just citizens who had been nearby when the distress signal called, trying to protect their part of the city.
Anyone who triggered the barrier’s alarm would be rounded up to be judged by one of the ‘Seven Warlocks’. Without the right incantation, a passport of sorts, they were all assumed to be intruders.
Narice looked around to see an impossible sight. Below them, clouds, above them, a shining sun and a magical barrier. The city was solid. Quite a lot of activity- and he couldn’t see an end in sight. It seemed quite futuristic in its design. Like a tourist hotspot, except, who would come here anyway?
It actually seemed kind of like a paradise as he looked around. Floating sea turtles and other creatures with people on them rode up sea currents that were held in the air. Different waves going from building to building as a form of air travel, some sort of ride almost.
But besides that, flying machines seemed to travel around. Almost like cars that were from the future- quite advanced compared to modern earth.
He and the rest of the group was quickly escorted after Nick had shown his ‘jewel’ as a proof of guardianship. It seemed there was some knowledge of the rights of ‘guardians’ and the consequence of holding them unlawfully.
At least they had a jewel as a sort of passport, but it seemed that ‘that’ may not be enough to get them through in the long run. As they were being escorted to the ‘wizards’ council right away rather than let through the entrance and accepted.
Narice looked around he noticed what looked like goblins and humans that were walking around carrying the wizard’s things. it seemed they used them as slaves here. Narice wondered if that’s what happened if you came here unawares.
“What’s up with all the slave labor?” Nick asked the group.
“Don’t ask insolent-” one of the wizards spoke jabbing Nick.
Jonah cut him off, “Quiet-it’s a legitimate question. Don’t treat a ‘guardian’ with disrespect.”
He then continued, “One thing that is respected here is ‘power’…” Jonah spoke. “Long ago, we claimed the rights to certain species as rulers in a gamble of power…”
He kept on directing them through the city. Narice watched the scenery, noticing more details now- there was quite a hierarchy system it seemed- and despite the magical influences, he wondered if the governing system was primitive.
‘Everything here is determined by power. if you come here without a permit and can beat a wizard in contest of strength, then you receive rights to live here and the wizard you beat- if you can’t, you get taken as slave. The same rule goes for other wizards, but wizards aren’t foolish enough to challenge each other generally… but matters of pride…” He drifted off.
Narice noticed that some wizards seemed to be under the service of others.
“What about if you don’t want to ‘duel’?”
“you have the opt out if you want depending on the circumstances such as yours, but duels are the general consensus for determining the rights of an individual.”
“So… might makes right?” the elf said.
“Basically… with restrictions. The rules are quite detailed…and it has to follow a code of ethics determined by the ‘seven’ of old. The old ‘code’ would only be changed if a wizard was able to conquer the ‘seven’.”
“What happens if a wizard broke the law,” Narice hoped this society was a little better than dictatorial.
“They’d get judged by the seven great wizards- unless they wish to challenge the law itself, then they have the right to challenge one of the ‘seven’. Eventually when i get strong enough… but otherwise, they could be stripped of their rights, lose everything they own, put in human world… or given up to the ‘warlords’.
“How does one determine that good prevails in this society?”
This led to a philosophical turn.
“What is good? When it comes to ‘good’, the ‘great laws’ set by the ‘seven of old’ are first. After that, the will of the wizards succeeds all. All wizards take pride in promoting the will of wizards and those who have the most power have the right to enforce that. If you don’t like it… you would have to overrule it through conquering the seven- but isn’t that every society? Wizards just accept it easier so as not to get involved in petty wars,”
Narice wasn’t quite sure he liked this, but supposedly the ‘wizards’ in this city were the good ones from the ‘great war’- even if there was a slave trade and a ‘dueling’ gambling system. He wondered if it were a good place to live.
Eventually they were taken to the big building in the center of the sky city- which Jonah called Arelias.
From here most of the wizards surrounding them stood outside or left.
Jonah escorted them to the ‘center’.
“‘The Gate’- it nullifies all magical powers upon entering…” he said as they entered past a ‘gate’ into the main opening.
“I’m one of the future ‘guardians’ – a trainee… If you were wondering… I’m responsible for the little stuff like this,” the young wizard said.
Narice looked at ‘Romani’ and ‘Nick’ as they went through the gate. They looked surprised and paused before they were pushed forward by the wizards outside.
Narice felt a strange feeling as he passed through ‘the gate’, like he was being suppressed- but how could he be when he didn’t have any magic? Although… this wouldn’t be the first time he’d been told to have magic.
Narice followed the others.
—
“Take a look at this…” one of the council wizards looked at the readings of one of the incoming humanoids of the gate’.
“It seems that ‘Ancient’ has a pretty powerful aura… it may not be possible to fully nullify his powers whatever they may be…”
“How strong are his powers after the nullification?”
“Well, with all seven of us, it can almost nullify it… so quite powerful…”
“You mean the nullification field can’t suppress his powers?”
“Not when it’s on an aura field like it is,” one wizard spoke.
“Hm… who’s the weakest on the board?”
“The human ‘guardian’…”
“Very well…we’ll rule this as a ‘one-for-all’ ruling, and challenge the human,” the lead wizard spoke.
“Right…” the other spoke.
—
Narice followed behind the others as they were all brought to the ‘grand chamber’. They went inside of the room.
“Do you guys feel anything strange?”
“Well…” the elf said.
Nick spoke, “I think they drained our powers… my ‘jewel’ doesn’t seem to be working.”
Narice looked at the ‘finder’, “it seems that all our magic is being nullified… somehow i can read a little bit on the finder and i feel a little with the sword.”
Romani looked at Narice, “that seems unusual considering we’re in a nullification field.”
“Please enter inside…” the wizard spoke.
They did. A large circle surrounded them- above them a group of seven wizards surrounded them. The one in the center spoke for all of them.
“You all are on trial for entering ‘sky city’ without a proper license.”
“i didn’t know any better…” Narice spoke.
“Is this rigged?” Romani said.
“The ‘guardian’ should have informed you the proper protocol. While ‘guardians’ have amnesty, you two are supposed to go through proper authority before entering.”
Nick spoke up this time, “I was not a fully trained ‘guardian’… and was not informed of this protocol.”
“Can’t we challenge someone for our rights?”
“Under normal circumstances… yes… however, with the threat of ‘Ka’atra’ we can’t let people walk around doing whatever they want without a trial.
We’d like to offer you a proposition. In turn for your ‘jewel’ we’ll grant you all amnesty and let you leave within the next three days… Seeing as ‘Ka’atra’ would never do that.”
“Do we have an alternative?”
“Your ‘guardian’ can challenge our ‘wizard’ for rights for both of you… seeing as Ka’atra would never have the humility to let another challenge for him…”
Narice spoke, “if we win, then we get your jewel- seeing as we didn’t know any of this.”
“Hm…” the wizard spoke. “A jewel for a jewel… servitude for rights… a proper ruling.”
“Let us do the vow…”
A binding spell linked between the wizard and the three. Narice felt the knowledge that for some reason he ‘must fulfill the spell’.
“Somehow, it seems that these ‘wizards’ get the better chance at this deal…” Romani said.
Nick looked at Rome, “I got this.”
Romani looked at Nick and then Narice.
“They get countered by ‘elf’ magic- and they sense that you have powerful magic…they’re doing this to give themselves the advantage and take our jewel…”
Narice looked at Nick, he felt that it was best for him to let Nick give it a go… “Ok, Nick. You can do it…”
“Cool…” Nick spoke with a sense of energy that Narice had seen in him a few times before.
“The challenger is a mid-level wizard. It’s only fair against a human. If you can’t beat our mid-level wizard- you have no right to be in our society… or even a ‘guardian’,” the head wizard spoke.
Narice watched as Nick held onto the sword and a few magical objects that he could use as well as the ‘water’ jewel.
“I’ll do what I can.”
The ‘wizard’ came up. He was equipped with a robe and it seemed a ‘wand’.
“The rules of the duel… you may use any objects currently in your possession… you are limited to your own powers and nothing else. Whoever is first to force the other to ‘give up’ is the winner. ‘giving up’ is determined by either surrender or death…”
Death…
Narice watched onward.
Nick and the wizard circled around each other.
“3”
“2”
“1…”
‘Begin!”
The wizard began throwing spells. Narice watched as Nick did the best he could just to block them with the sword which somehow seemed to ground it. A spell hit him in the shoulder paralyzing it. Nick was pretty badly injured, it seemed like there wasn’t a way he could win now. The wizard pointed at him again while Nick changed hands with the sword grounding it and then threw it at the wizard.
Nick threw down one of the elf’s ‘smoke bombs’- which seemed to make the field into a haze.
Narice watched as the wizard couldn’t see to cast things out of his wand and started to chant something while holding an orb instead.
However, Nick ran up to him in the smoke and hit him with a fist. It began to be a brawl where Nick backed up and began to hold up his hand at the wizard. All of the sudden the wizard seemed to be picked up. Narice wasn’t sure how. The wizard seemed to be struggling in the air and grabbed for his wand again pointing it at Nick.
Nick ran up to him and kicked away the wand and picked up the sword.
“I surrender…” came from the wizard.
Nick fell to the ground and a group of wizards ran to the room casting enchants on him.
“Don’t worry… they’re just healing spells…” Johna spoke.
After explaining what was going on he continued, “The paralysis/poison spell that hit him was a strong one-he has some strong willpower and intuition to be able to stop it.”
Narice looked at Nick with more respect than before.
“That was a good fight…” Johna said thoughtfully, “that human… is very resourceful. I wouldn’t mind helping you all. You seem to have a unique knack for power. Plus if you’re going to capture ‘Ka’atra’ I feel obligated support you.
Narice could only say what he saw, which was that Nick somehow turned it around somehow.
Narice walked inside where he was told ‘Nick’ was after the duel to find Nick on a medical bed.
“Well how did I do?” Nick said.
Romani walked in… “You’re quite the dangerous human,” he said, “you impressed the wizards.”
“You’re all free to go for now. You can pick up your items at the front gate in an hour,” the wizard said.
—
“Wait,” Rome spoke, uncharacteristically aggressive, “what about what you owe us?”
Narice in conjunction, “Right, “you owe us a jewel right?”
“We’ll discuss that with you. You’ve earned it. However, we can’t just let you have it without discussing the proper regulation in protecting it. When we’re done we’ll call you back.”
Narice bowed to the wizard.
“There’s no need to bow…” Rome said- a fierce anger emanated outwards towards the wizards. Narice seemed to find this out of character for Rome- but he realized that it was coming from a sense of justice. He seemed to have a dislike for the wizard life, “There’s a history to wizards they’ll probably not acknowledge. Wizards were initially human- given magic by begging for the help of ‘elves’. This land is an abomination to the path they promised to take.”
Narice thought this news surprising: however, nothing he’d be able to change as of now, “we need their help to stop Ka’atra.”
Romani stated his disdain, “I do not enjoy it here…” he said thoughtfully, then looking down at Nick recovering acquiesced, “but we should rest…”
“Alrighty then,” Narice said and walked to the gate where the supposed meeting was to take place.
A wizard rushed toward a sealed room and shut the door. He scanned the area- making sure that no magic spells could relate what was spoken inside of it.
“My lord.” a wizard looked at the shadow of an image as it appeared before him in a chamber. The chamber was a means of interacting between two locations- howbeit
“What do you have for us?” A younger man’s voice and silhouette appeared in front of the wizard. He had a commanding presence as he spoke.
“You must get your master… we have something important to discuss with him…”
“Narice has appeared…”
—
Narice was able to get a better site of the lobby now that he had time to wait. He watched an interesting character pass by, someone of a nature that took on a ghostly appearance, solely a hooded figure in a black poncho-esque shape.
As it looked at him, the scary appearance took on a more curious nature with the tilt of its ‘head’. Perhaps it was a mask or something so the character couldn’t be assumed.
The figure redirected its attention in front of itself as it was escorted into the dueling chambers.
“This way, Vega…” Narice heard the cautious tone from a wizard as he watched the figure with the black robe, staff and hunched appearance move ahead.
—
“Next in line,” “Vega.”
Whispers were heard amongst the elite wizards. The same hooded figure walked up with a staff in hand.
“Someone challenged the head wizard…” one wizard spoke to another in the backgrounds.
“Who is it?” another wizard replied.
“Vega…”
“I’ve heard of Vega… Isn’t he the famous ‘wanderer’?” yet another joined in the conversation about the new arrival.
“What’s the request he gave?”
“Only the sacrificial orb…”
“There’s no point in that item… it’s strictly a rarity item isn’t it…?”
“They’re a collector…”
“I guess we’ll see what happens from here, what are they offering?”
“A wish token…”
“Oh a great value, Vega must be pretty confident.”
Narice watched the crowd of Magicians rush to the arena.
Narice followed suit.
–
The merchants seemed to pass around things as the crowd watched on the match. Despite the short notice, it seemed that a moderate amount of the arena’s seats were full, as if this form of entertainment were the standard form of entertainment in Aurelia.
–
“You challenge our head wizard, ‘Vega’,”
“As requested, we have put a sphere. No magic can penetrate in or out of the arena to ensure a fair battle.”
The head wizard walked in. A bold figure stood a good nine feet high in the Colosseum. But not only that. An aura of magical prowess matching his stark figure also surrounded him as he entered.
Vega in comparison had a similar aura however his stature was more five-foot three.
Vega could only be determined as a dark cloak. Even the location of the face was shrouded in a dark covering.
There was nothing in particular that masked it, but the face was somehow not human.
He held up his wand while the head wizard began prepping his spells around himself- both countering and trapping spells that would be highly difficult to work around at his caliber.
As the head wizard, it was no small force to be reckoned with- all elaborately developed into the massive bulwark of spells that made a seemingly impenetrable fortress.
In fact, one lone spell had killed a high level wizard with overwhelming force of its actions.
Vega however seemed unaffected by the display of wand movements. He lifted up his wand and circled it around itself in a ready motion.
“Begin!” the commentator spoke.
The head wizard began his offensive- an elaborate display of actions began to move spells into an overall force of nature.
A turbulent rupture quaked, the shrouding of visibility, the illusions of grandeur and shrinking,
“You may have underestimated your offense- I have yet to meet an equal in knowledge of the art of magic.”
“If you had no equal…” Vega replied with an action as it swiftly gathered a hurricane around itself and the arena suddenly began to become a tundra.
The head wizard replied and spoke, “the powers of ice. You’re an ‘Ancient’!”
The head wizard began prepping a counter to the ice with a fire spell to hasten himself and maintain body temperature.
“I see you’re familiar with ice… although I think you may have underestimated my powers a bit…”
Vega moved forward with its hurricane of force that pushed its force into the arena edge and an array of the forces the wizard had cast seemed to crack in place and turn into dust.
The wizard motioned his strongest spells into a being.
“You’re too late, Vega…” as a giant serpent-like being came forward from his aura and circled itself around Vega, “I began this unspoken spell long before the rest, it’s tied to my core as the catalyst, as it reaches you you’ll be drained of all magic until your life-force vanishes. It only takes seconds to drain its victims and I have too many counters in place… surrender now…”
Vega seemed to be in straits as the hurricane of force that was surrounding her seemed to be eaten away. It seemed that it ‘ate’ magic.
The snake had fattened itself upon the hurricane as it reached Vega’s person.
“There’s nothing else but to surrender now!” the snake seemed stronger now, as if having engorged itself seemed to put its pressure onto Vega.
“You’re a-”
Before the wizard could finish speaking… he was silenced with a finger- Vega’s hand was close to the wizard’s mouth in a motion of silence.
To him and the audience, Vega suddenly appeared to teleport.
“I appreciate your concern…”
“Did you just haste yourself? That wasn’t teleportation…” he whispered with a quiet breath.
“No… Nothing so elementary.”
“But that would mean you froze time itself…-”
Vega put its finger to the wizard’s lip and the wizard suddenly became lifeless and statuesque.
“Ah… you’re quick. Perhaps I underestimated you just a little,” Vega mused aloud, “but I’ll just make you forget that bit of information.”
Vega placed a hand around the lifeless body’s aura- something around its person changed.
The crowd itself was in a hush. Its strongest wizard had been beaten by a cloaked stranger.
The commentator looked on through the fog to find it dissipate. Vega stood at the edge of the dome with hands behind its back looking through towards the commentator- the wizard frozen in the center.
“Vega has won…” the commentator spoke as the wizards spoke in hushed tones.
–
“Your wizard will be okay. He isn’t weak. You’re just no match for the likes of me…” Vega reassured one of the wizards as he took the object from the trading post.
Vega looked into the yellow and orange circling hues of the ‘orb’ and carefully tucked it into its cloak.
Ignoring the whispers of the wizards it moved into the city.
Now… where did he run off to?
JP NOVELS 