Magical Essence Ch. 07

You can stop salivating already. Here's the next chapter! I hope that you are enjoying the series. Please don't be too sad when it ends. I'll still be around, and hopefully, on a better schedule. School sure is a downer when you are trying to keep readers satisfied.

"You will be the death of them," the voice croaked through the perceived darkness of his veil. The black robes that he once worn were tattered, torn and charred at several distinctive places. The voice came through his burnt lips again past the increasing gurgle of the thick red fluid building up on his lungs, "To deny that fact would deny your existence."

The weight of Gavin was firmly planted on his right foot. The same foot that just so happened to be lodged in the throat of his assailant. Gavin's face showed no emotion. There was absolutely no mercy and would be no repent for this action. The decision was made and the gears were set in motion.

He looked up at the crowd forming around him as the body below him slowly burnt to a delicate crisp. Gavin let out the breath he was holding inside of his chest and pushed back his bangs so his face was in clear view.

....

"I know what you are thinking," the old man spoke as he cracked open a walnut with a specialized tool. Gavin blinked his eyes once or twice looking up from the bed towards the unknown man. His beard was a single shade of white with absolutely not a single speck of peppered gray in sight. The most immediate and prominent feature was the chiseled face in which seemed to dispel any wrinkle in sight. Gavin propped his upper torso up on his elbows and studied the room a little further. There was nothing special about this room, but the feeling of security seemed to radiate from the careful craftsmanship of its walls. This was a safe harbor.

"As I was saying, I know what you are thinking," the old man spoke again after giving the young ArchMage a chance to take in his surroundings, "Why am I using this nutcracker when I could just as easily slice it open with one snap of my finger." The old man shook his head back and forth looking down at the tool in front of him and the basin of walnuts. He spoke again after a few moments of silence, "After so many years sometimes you just want to do something the old fashioned way."

Gavin tilted his head slightly before he spoke, "Are they okay?"

The old man tongued a piece of walnut from his gums, "Of course they are. Did you have any doubt? That in and of itself would be the most interesting," He stood up from his seat and walked over to the side of the bed while looking down with his cold gaze, "Gavin, you have been given a gift, but with any gift of such magnitude there are rules," he paused to scratch his nose, "And of course a trial run to be sure that you are suitable for such gift."

Gavin looked at the old man and his cryptic comments with a blank face. The man put his hand on Gavin's shoulder and winked, "We will have time to talk later. But now, you have a certain someone that wishes to see you." With those words the old man made an immediate departure from the room leaving nothing but a soft blink of light. The opening door creaked as if the hinges had not been oiled in a thousand years. Meredith walked through the thin opening and closed the door behind her.

The smile of relief was one of the most beautiful things that Gavin had ever seen in his life. It was a genuine sign of love. He leaned up to embrace Meredith with a tight hug further evolving into a passionate lashing of tongues. With one strike of the second hand on a face of a clock the two lovers showed their love for one another in that single moment of time.

His hands found their way down her modestly covered back and gripped on to her round bottom. Their tongues were tied together creating mischief Meredith's hands trailed down the front of his body. The outcome of the prior ordeal had left him scantily dressed although wearing the proper attire for the current occasion. She had to make little effort to get her hands wrapped around his growing manhood as a coy smile crossed her face.

"Our little friend here has been waiting to get out for a few hours now hasn't he?" Meredith planted kisses down his chest as her hands began to massage his balls. She had become a very quick learner and picked up these techniques quicker than Gavin could even imagine. Half of the time he thought he was dealing with a sex goddess in the form of Meredith. She knew exactly what buttons to push, when to push them and precisely what he outcome would be.

The knock on the door startled the both of them and Meredith quickly regained her composure as Eliza peeked in the room. She shot a quick gaze at the two of them and pushed the door wider open walking in without any though. Gavin let out a loud sigh while blinking quickly to allow his eyes to adjust to the newest light source. Eliza made a quick motion for Meredith to shoo off the bed as she led in the same old man that appeared before.

"Gavin, I want to introduce you to someone special. Someone that you can relate more towards," Eliza moved aside as the old man gave the young man a quick and subtle wink, she continued, "This is Esterme."

Esterme gave a quick nod and smiled at Meredith, "Would you mind darling, could you give us a few moments in peace? We must speak about some things that might be sore to your ears." Meredith glanced at Gavin questioningly but would not defy an order from Esterme himself. She had seen the wrath of an ArchMage before, not only from what Gavin had shown her, but also from Esterme himself. There had been more than one occasion in which the old man had to teach a lesson to some young apprentices and even some mentors themselves. The truths had been lost and turned into nothing but stories. Eventually, all that was left was the folklore of an ArchMage that had a healthy and verbose heart but an iron clad fist.

As the door shut Gavin glanced between Eliza and Esterme and he planted his hands down on each side of his body twisting it until his feet crossed over the side of the bed. He let them dangle for a few moments allowing the blood to rush to them. After feeling the numbness evaporate from his muscles he tested his feet and stood up on his own. This whole process took no more than a minute, but in his mind it could have been an eternity.

"I see that you have healed quickly," Eliza shuffled around the room finding a seat to pull for her mentor. Esterme broke a smile and sat down slowly, as an old man would, and squeezed his white palms around the armrests of the chair. Gavin took a few moments, looking between the two and finally let out a sigh.

"Listen, I don't think its safe for you and Meredith to return with me Eliza," he barked the statement out as a slight order that he knew would be contended. Eliza did not have the time to file her complaint, because Esterme broke in suddenly before the two could exchange their words.

"That would not be a wise choice," Esterme reached again for a walnut from the pewter bowl, cracking it instantly with his magical grip, "you may be ten fold powerful than the two of them, but you need someone with the wise of the land on your side."

Gavin shook his head vigorously, looking down at his feet and then back up at the ArchMage whom of which had changed, briefly. The chiseled face had been replaced with an evil ear-to-ear grin that quickly faded when Gavin gave a forced blink. He shook his head back and forth looking towards Eliza for some confirmation of the sight, but none was there.

"My boy, there are things about the gift that you do not quite understand yet," the elder ArchMage waved his hand towards Eliza motioning her towards the door. "Let me have little while with Gavin, privately please, we will meet you and Meredith in the courtyard for breakfast."

Without the slightest form of resistance Eliza moved towards the door and Gavin felt his wall of inhibition slightly crumble. This was the first time he truly got a glimpse of her beauty. She was no longer wearing the heavy ornamental robes that were required in Tevrin; instead this outfit was more liberal in both the design and exactly what was shown. Her figure was nearly perfectly curved and she had the most amazing natural body that Gavin had ever seen. The door shut with an audible thud, and his line of thought went with it.

"This world is in a forever balance of both good and evil," the ArchMage stood up quickly from his chair. The figure of the old man quickly loosened and he gracefully walked over towards the window that Gavin was looking out of, "we must balance ourselves accordingly as well, my friend." The older mage grabbed the boy by his shoulder in an embrace, "Oh, this shall be delightful!"

...

The crowd roared as Meredith wiped her sweaty hands against her own garments. There was blood flowing freely from an open wound on her left shoulder, but while training with Gavin she had learned to put pain to the back of her head. He did not understand how hard he was on her, and she decided not to let him know. She wanted to be the strong woman that he hoped she could be, and thusly, she overexerted herself past the point of exhaustion. This time was no different. Eliza had sprung the news on her when Gavin was nowhere to be found on the ride back to Tevrin.

"That Jordan, he is on a warpath," Eliza watched the young mage tear into the opponent that was in the ring with him, "girl, do you think you can handle him?"

She had taken down six opponents to get to the position she was now standing in. The mage that she would be facing, almost indefinitely, was seemingly gunning for her. At the start of the Olympics she was made a mockery of in front of the crowd of thousands. Jordan had publicly humiliated her, Gavin and Eliza.

The crowd roared louder as Jordan received medical healing after the brilliant finale. The poor opponent of his had no chance and was forced to physically crawl out of the rink writhing in pain from the curse that Jordan had casted upon him. The mythical announcer walked into the middle of the rink and announced the grand finale.

Meredith vs. Jordan.

"He's mine," Meredith fumed, breathing heavily through her nose, as she broke past Eliza and moved towards the center of the battlefront.

...

"Boy, you will have to do better than that!" Esterme said quickly, expelling the attack spell that Gavin had just casted. He had been playing this mind game with the elder mage for what seemed like eons. Every time that Gavin thought he had obtained the upper hand Esterme simply pushed him aside with a swipe of his hand.

"How is this helping ME any?" Gavin breathed heavily, his body was now visibly scarred from head to toe with spell burns. He had been channeling some of the attacks against him directly through his body. This was an ability that perplexed Esterme. The spells that he had been attacking with were some of the strongest that he had ever used on an opponent, and as a result had been getting hit with spells of near equal strength.

The strength of Gavin was nothing of a mystery to Esterme. Normally, the power of a Mage is a product of his (or her) mentor. There are very few Magi that are able to achieve an absolute power from nothing. These tend to be the magical prodigies, such as Gavin and Esterme. These ArchMagi, as the have been coined by the community, are simply the remainder of the equation. As there exists "all powerful" Magi such as Gavin and Esterme; there exists someone at the opposite end of the spectrum that contains absolutely no magical essence whatsoever.

"Each and every individual in this land contains the ability to perform magic, Gavin," Esterme deflected another one of his attacks into the abyss, "there are some more adept than others and then there are the polar opposites: You and I. We are consumed with magic. We are one with magic."

Gavin was listening, but grunting and groaning as he was forced to dig deeper into himself to keep up with the more attuned Mage.

"Don't be mistaken; there are evils in this world and we must be aware of them," the older Mage put his hands up to signal a stoppage of play. The room slowly faded in around them and they both were as they were when they left, "You do have a purpose here."

"What is that purpose," Gavin's voice echoed into the hallway as the old man made his way to breakfast. He shook his head, slicking his hair back moving towards the door himself. The old man never answered him.

Gavin sat down to eat breakfast with the three of them. The meal was amazing, but the whole while he had something on the tip of his mind he just wished to scratch. Esterme was involved in conversation with Eliza and Meredith as he reached for the walnut from a bowl in front of them, cracking it magically with his hand once again, and winking back at Gavin.