A Long Time from Home Ch. 24

A man dressed in a blue mage robe walked around in the room, looking at the walls with a happy smile on his face, as he whistled a little tune.

I reached out and touched Varro's arm, before sending the images of what I've seen to him.

"< Shit. That's Magus Dominus Lartius >" Varro sent to both of us, causing Narses to nod. "< And he looks pretty insane >"

"< Agreed >" I sent back. "< We need to... >"

The whistling suddenly stopped, and we heard the Magus Dominus say. "Ahh Young Narses. Stop hiding behind the door, young man, and come out. I won't tell your dad."

I resisted an urge to hit the scholar. To go into an infested city without any magical anti-detection item or spells, was stupid and now, that thoughtless behaviour had put all our lives in danger.

Varro looked at me "< Shit. Fuck. Think of something, Spectre. We can't take a Magus Dominus, Disease or no Disease >"

Narses must have thought the same because his face had become completely white.

My mind started to speed up and I sent to Narses. "< Go in there and play a confused student. That should soothe him, while we think of a plan >"

He shook his head in near panic and said out loud. "No way!"

"Ill-mannered brat!" said the Magus Dominus in an insulted voice from within the room. "Very well, I shall teach you manners!"

The scholar looked at me wide eyed as we heard Ars Magical spells being cast.

I was puzzled. During my time of pacifying insane mages, I had learned to recognize the most common attack spells, and this wasn't one of them. However, coming from a Magus Dominus, it was most likely more dangerous than a simple elemental spell.

I dragged Narses close to me, as I reached out with my mind and ruthlessly entered his memory in search for mental images of the things we were looking for. Unless I missed my guess, Narses would be dead shortly, since insulting an insane Magus Dominus is just another way of committing suicide. If you were lucky, it would even be over quickly.

Finding the pictures, I let go of my grip and made a sign to Varro, who nodded and almost disappeared as the camouflage made him blend into the fresco on the wall.

"< Say something! >" I sent to Narses. "< Say you're sorry! >"

"Sorry, Magus Dominus Lartius!" shouted Narses. "I was talking to a slave and not you!"

"Come inside." Said the Magus Dominus loudly.

Since slaves weren't allowed to carry swords, I quickly handed Shadow Fang to Varro, before I pushed the scarf up, so it covered my hair instead of my mouth. Very few slaves had white hair and it might be enough to fool the insane mage for a little while.

Narses composed himself and walked inside, with me following three steps behind.

At least that was what I tried to do, but Narses stopped just inside the door, almost causing me to walk into him.

The Magus Dominus wasn't alone anymore. By his side, a creature was being formed from a pool of goo that had been lying on the floor.

Superficially, it looked like a mix between a man and a wolf, but the huge claws and ditto teeth were clearly not from a wolf and its body seemed to be covered in some sort of armor.

"Ah Young Narses." Said Magus Dominus Lartius with a slight smile. "So nice of you to join me."

"A-a-always a pleasure." Stammered Narses nervously. "Have you been well?"

Keeping my eyes down I took a closer look at the Magus Dominus or rather the equipment he was wearing. Under the robe, he had some kind of armor, but considering it was one of the artifacts that we were looking for, it was probably some form of magical item.

To make matters even worse, he was wearing another item we were looking for as well: A magical belt that made the wearer immune to just about any of the normal elements, such as fire, heat, ice, cold and lightning.

I sent that information to Varro and kept silent as Narses and the Magus Dominus kept talking.

"Of course, I haven't been well, you idiot!" sneered the Magus Dominus in the sudden change of mood that most victims of the Disease had. "Do you think that I would be here if I was well? Would I?"

N-n-no." stammered Narses, sounding completely baffled by the change in mood.

The Magus Dominus sighed. "It's 'No, Sir' to the likes of you."

He glanced at the creature and as I looked, it suddenly seemed finished in the same way that a statue is finished. Narses sensed it as well and panicked.

Normally when people panic, they run, but in my experience, most mages threw the first spell that pops up in their mind.

Narses wasn't different since a bolt of concentrated sound howled through the air and into the Magus Dominus. At least it wasn't one of the usual magical elements, which was clever since the magical belt would have stopped that.

Unfortunately, the bolt was badly aimed and hit the Magus Dominus in the shoulder.

Narses might as well have spat on him and magical energy started to form in the air as the Magus Dominus started to cast a spell with a look of fury on his face.

I threw myself away from Narses and landed behind a marble table as the world exploded behind me in the form of a ball of lightning.

The electrical energy made the hair stand on my head as I looked over the edge of the marble table.

Amazingly, the sage was still standing, encased in a protective magical field of some kind, but the door and the wall behind him had been turned into rubble.

Narses send another sonic bolt into the Magus, hitting the same spot as before and while it looked pitiful compared to the massive attack from the other, it made the Magus stagger as his right shoulder was shattered.

I suddenly realized that I had been mistaken. Narses sonic bolts weren't badly aimed. Quite the opposite. It's almost impossible to cast spells if you can't use the arms and Narses was clearly trying to handicap the Magus Dominus. That he aimed for the shoulder and not the head, which I would have done, had to mean, that the Magus Dominus was wearing a magical item that protected the head.

"You little whelp!" screamed the Magus and cast another spell that caused the roof over the sage to collapse and forced Narses to use a short-range teleport to get out of the way.

He reappeared at the other side of the room, staggering slightly for a moment, before both mages started to cast spells again as they looked intensely at each other.

Since the Magus ignored me, I pondered what to do.

Using anything directly on the Magus Dominus was almost certain to fail. Not only was he a lot more experienced than I was, but after having been driven insane by the pain of the Disease, he would be almost immune to most mind affecting Ars Mentalis. Physical Ars Mentalis was also out of the question as the Dominus Grande would most likely resist them, insanity or not.

That left Vis Vitae and physical combat. In that order of priority, since the thought of going into close combat against a Magus Dominus gave me the chills. I don't mind dancing with the Goddess of Death, but I do like to have a fair chance of surviving the dance.

Looking at the top of the marble table gave me an idea.

First, I used my natural ability to levitate the top off the marble table, making it hoover in the air just above the rest. Then I slipped into Vis Meditation, gathered the energy, and released it in a mighty push that sent the heavy slap of stone flying towards the Magus Dominus, who were exchanging more attack spells with Narses. The Sage with the sonic bolts and the Magus with some huge form of lightning that I had never seen before.

The heavy slate of marble hit the Magus Dominus in the side and slammed him to the ground.

For a heartbeat, I thought that the battle was over, but then the Magus lifted his head, pointed at me, and shouted, "Kill him!"

The wolf-man creature suddenly moved towards me, and it moved fast, clearing the rest of the marble table in one mighty jump.

Dodging left, I avoided an attack as Ars Mentalis ran through my body, making me stronger, before I drew my daggers and cut it across the chest.

That only made it angry and only a desperate parry saved my head from being ripped off by a huge, clawed hand.

Clearly, the dagger wasn't going to be enough to harm the creature and they were too short to effectively parry any attack from it.

Slipping into Vis Meditation again, I used a Vis-push to get the creature away from me and then activated a power called Vigor Gladius (Baylon: 'Energy Sword'). A heartbeat later a sword made from concentrated Vis appeared in my left hand, just in time to parry a new attack, as the creature came charging.

Dropping the knives, I took the energy sword in two hands and flowed into Mutatur Tempus Mente as the creature came at me again. The energy sword was a nice backup, but it really wasn't as good as my adamantine sword and I vastly preferred the heft and cutting power of a real sword, to the lightness of the Vigor Gladius.

Easily avoiding a seemingly slow claw attack, I hit it in the shoulder, slashing tendons and cutting bone. It howled in pain, but still moved fast enough to avoid losing a leg, as the next strike only gave it a superficial wound on the thigh.

Dodging right, I avoided a bite and cut its stomach open, only to be hit in the side by it claws. Luckily, the jacket took the most and it didn't bleed.

Adrenalin hit my nerve system and the energy sword made a glowing arc in the air as I hit the creature in the leg and as it turned to bite me, I hit it under the jaw with an upward slash, cleaving the head. That made it go down in a heap and a moment later it turned back into the goo it had been made from.

I quickly looked around. The Magus Dominus was back on his feet with his back to me as he used his non-wounded arm to send another huge lightning into Narses, who lay wounded on the ground.

However, the sage's shield was still holding, and he was struggling to get on his feet again, while the Magus Dominus stance told me, that the marble tabletop had hurt the mage more than he was letting on.

Something reflected in the light from the elemental spells, and I discovered Shadow Fang laying on the floor by the destroyed wall.

The Magus Dominus started on a new spell and even with my limited knowledge of Ars Magica, this one sounded like a complicated one, meaning that the Magus attention was focused on Narses for more than a few heartbeats.

Taking the Vigor Gladius in my left hand, I reached out with my mind and called Shadow Fang to my right hand. The Magus Dominus was still chanting his spell, when the adamantine sword flew past him and seeing my chance, I attacked.

The Magus must have noticed the flash of Shadow Fang flying to my hand because he was turning towards me as I swung the Vigor Gladius and instead of hitting him in the back, I hit his arm and the Vis sword just bounced of the arm as he instinctively raised it to protect himself.

Unfortunately for him, Shadow Fang hit the arm a moment later and cut halfway through both arm and armor. As the other arm was already useless from Narses sonic bolts, that left him with no useable hands to cast spells with, not to mention aiming the lightning he used.

It also had the effect of interrupting whatever Ars Magica he had been casting and the backlash from the unused energy made him twitch.

Visible shaken and confused, he tried to back away, but I followed him step by step, swords weaving a deadly pattern in the air, as I hit him time and again, aiming at the parts of his body that wasn't covered by the magical items. He was already bleeding from numerous cuts, when Shadow Fang severed an artery in his leg, causing him to scream as blood started to spray out.

I could feel the magic thunder around me as the scream turned into a word: "Sanguinis!" (Baylon: Bleed)

It was a Word of Power: A magical word that didn't need any gestures and this one normally caused blood to violently erupt from the openings in body of the target, swiftly bleeding the target to death. I was sure I would die when a wave of magical energy hit me.

Fortunately, the energy washed over me without taking effect and I could see the surprise painted on his face a short moment before Shadow Fang hit his neck and took his head off. Both head and body hit the floor a moment later.

Still shaking from adrenalin, I looked around. The Word of Power might have washed over me, but it had hit Narses with full force and the sage was laying in a big pool of blood on the floor. From the twisting of his limps, he was barely alive but at least he wasn't dead.

Something by the door caught my eye. It was Varro's right arm, but there was no sign of the body.

"Fuck!" I mumbled sadly. "Why didn't you stay out of the room?"

Trying to sneak into a room where a magical combat was taking place and doing so behind a target of huge balls of lightning, was being overconfident to the point of being stupid.

"Because I'm stupid!" sounded Varro's voice from the hallway outside and a moment later he walked into the room, filling me with a feeling of relief of him being alive. The huge ball of lightning that had caused the wall to fall, had somehow sliced his arm off, but his healing magic must have kicked in, because it didn't bleed. His clothes looked like he had walked through a fire and most of his hair was gone, but at least he was alive.

Varro staggered to the severed arm and bend down, using his left hand to pick up the arm from the floor. The sight was so grotesque, that it made me laugh, causing Varro to look at me with a crooked grin on his face. "If I ever complain about having to learn Magical Healing again, just kick me."

"Will do." I nodded and walked over to examine Narses, releasing the Vigor Gladius before I kneeled beside him.

He was in a bad shape: Besides the serious blood loss, broken ribs, and a multitude of electrical burns, one hand was completely gone and the fingers on the other one was broken in so many places, that I doubted that there was a complete bone left in the hand.

That was bad news, since that meant he couldn't cast any spells. At least not without the risk of blowing himself up since most Ars Magica is dependent on forming or directing the magical energies with the hands. I didn't even know how the sage could have cast the last sonic bolt without frying himself.

Fortunately, Ars Magica healing is one of the few types of spells that don't need motions of the hands to work and as I looked, some of the wounds were already healing.

Judging that he could heal most of the wounds himself, I looked up at Varro. "He'll live, but we will have to carry him out." I sighed as I stood up and sheathed Shadow Fang. "That was way too close for comfort."

He nodded and despite his seemingly good mood, he was leaning against the wall. Stopping the blood from the arm and the pain from the wound, must have taken more out of him than he let on. Reattaching the arm would be a job for the healers later.

Leaving Varro to conserve his strength, I walked over to the headless Magus and took the items we had come for, putting them in a bag. After a quick search of the study, I found the books on a shelf. They were a bit scorched from the magical combat, but otherwise looked to be in perfectly good shape, so I put them in the bag as well. Varro's dagger went the same way, since he had sat down to meditate, and I didn't want to disturb him.

Then I quickly checked the adjacent rooms for enemies, but as there were nobody there, I sat down and waited for Narses to finish healing and Varro to stop meditating, while I drank tea and ate two slices of bread to get energy back.

Eight glass later, we were ready to leave, after Varro had left the meditation trance and we had double-checked that we had everything that we came for.

The sage wasn't completely healed as the wounds of his hands were beyond his healing skills and while I could have healed them using Vis Healing, it would have taken at least four days, which was time that we simply didn't have. Instead, I levitated his body into the air, so it would float behind us, as we walked out.

"You know, he was a good man once." Varro said sadly, as we stopped by the remains of the Magus Dominus on the way out. "He was married to my cousin."

Slightly surprised I looked at him. I hadn't known that those two were family.

Seeing the look, he sighed tiredly. "He was a friendly man back then. You never met him, did you?"

I shook my head. "No, I never had the chance."

"Too bad." He sighed. "I shall inform the rest of the family of our loss." He looked at the remains and his voice were thick with emotions as he quietly said, "Have a good trip to the afterlife, Magus Dominus Lartius." He touched the holy symbol on his neck. "Greet the Angel of Death when you see her, Lartius. Pax et bonnum (Baylon. 'Peace and Salvation.')"

Varro looked at me with a nod and I finished the ritual by using an Ars Mentalis trick to turn Magus Dominus Latius's body into dust.

With that, we walked away, trailed by the floating sage. It was time to leave the city before it went up in flames.

---------------------------

We didn't even make it out of the Ordo Ars Magica quarter, before we heard somebody talking. I signalled to Varro to stay where he was and used the Chameleon Vis-Power to make me harder to see, as I silently sneaked closer.

This part of the Ordo Ars Magica quarter had been reserved for the higher-ranking mages and had been beautifully decorated, with colourful frescoes on the wall and mosaics on the floors, while the hallway had statues of past mages to go with the wall and floor decorations.

Now most of that beauty was shattered, the frescoes and mosaics smashed by elemental spells, the few statues that was left standing, were missing bits and pieces, and most of the doors had been torn of their hinges, with one prominent exception: The open door leading into the Magus Dominus' room looked to be in pristine condition and it was from that direction the voices were coming.

Sneaking closer, I took the small metal mirror from the belt pouch and used it to look inside the room.

Unlike the rest of the villa, the room looked to be in perfect condition and much to my surprise, there was two women in there, looking relaxed, as they sat in chairs opposite each other, chatting quietly.

One of them looked to be middle aged and so much like Varro, that she almost had to be a member of that clan. The other was younger and quite a sight, with pitch-black skin and gleaming white hair. Baylons comes in many colours, but normally black wasn't one of them and that marked her as a Tenebris (Baylon: Dark or black).

Also known as a 'Blessed one', Tenebris was always the result of natural occurring magical forces interfering with the development of an unborn child. It was rare, only occurring once or twice in each generation, and happened seemingly at random. One Tenebris could be the child of a low status couple in the capitol, while the next could be born by a noble in the south.

Tenebris were always highly talented in both Artes Potentia (Baylon: Skills of Power, meaning Magica and Mentalis), and they were some of the few that could reach a high level in both arts. Since the status of a family in Baylon greatly depended on their ability in the Artes Potentia, having a Tenebris in the family was a source of great pride and status. So much that it was called a blessing and was believed to come from the Goddesses themselves.

That haven't stopped various noble families from trying to find a way to ensure that some of their children were Tenebris, but as far as I knew, they had failed every time. The randomness of the blessing was a plot device in numerous plays and stories, and in general the Tenebris were well-known by the public.