Of Bonds Forged Ch. 02

Vale felt the difference. She knew when she was being lied to many people looked up and to the left. When they told the truth, as he had with mention of his romance in Volis, their eyes went to the right. They did so again, but the added brevity told her that feeling in her gut there was something he didn't want to remember.

Or perhaps he wasn't supposed to, so he didn't and moved on.

Something in her told her that someone needed help. Either it was him or the woman who somehow never and always lived here. Vale's magic took some time for her to learn here and there, but her instincts were always there, always sharp as a blade, and she knew to trust them. She had to know if she was right or not, and, if she wasn't, she would leave this seemingly kindly man as she found him. She tilted her head, allowing herself to sound flirty, "Are you trying to charm me?"

He grinned from ear to ear, "Is it working?"

"Maybe."

Sylanna's groan was audible, "Could we please just...?" The question died on her lips, replaced by surprise, which was something of a feat since it took a lot to genuinely surprise the woman. For a moment, it looked to her eye that she was suddenly closing in to kiss the man. "Exactly what are you doing?"

Vale closed in on the man and placed her hands on either side of his head as she began to mutter the beginnings of the spell that would open his mind to her, so that, by the time Sylanna's question found the air, Vale was in no position to hear it.

* * *

The man answered the knock at the door, wondering which of his neighbors it was. That sort of thing really wasn't all that unusual. Some came in need, but often they just came to visit. They had sort of become each other's extended family out of need, and then simply because they liked each other and shared the view that there was such a thing as a little too much civilization. Friends within reach but distant enough to be able to look outside your home and see nothing but the magnificence of nature was just civilization enough.

He found that he was surprised after all, seeing a stranger on his porch, but even that wasn't entirely unheard of with healers, traveling salesman ,and the simply lost making their way to his door from time to time. Everything about him was average and not particularly worthy of note one way or the other. From his height, to his appearance, to his overall manner just standing there suggested someone you forgot about almost immediately after meeting them. Yet he had a pleasant aura about him. One could almost feel the raw charm, as if it were part of his being. He returned the smile sent his way. "Hello," he began. "What brings you out this far?"

Vale studied the face the eyes not hers saw no one that she recognized. It wasn't a mage that she knew, not that that proved anything one way or the other. It wasn't as if she knew every guild mage, freelancer, and outlaw on the planet, but this was definitely someone with magic. She could feel it around the man because she could feel it pressing against Nic's mind, so she let herself follow Nic's memories and the magic.

"Oh, I'm a trader of sorts," he said cheerfully. "I have odds and ends that I pick up in my travels. I thought that perhaps I might come visit and see if there was anything you might want to buy at a very reasonable price. Perhaps a trade instead, if we each has something the other might want."

Nic looked the man over and responded with the same friendliness that he offered anyone that came to his door, "Well, I'm not sure we're in need of anything. We do all right for ourselves even if we're not in some manor hose somewhere. But I suppose I can..."

"You'd really like it if you liked me."

Vale felt the push on his mind. His subconscious remembered it when his conscious mind did not. It was blunt and unfocused without the slightest hint of finesse. Where most mages could and did shape and direct their magic with precision as a mark of skill, pride, and even creativity, this one just bashed his power and will into their minds.

Nic blinked at the psychic impact to the point where he wasn't sure he even heard the words. "What?"

"You'd really like it if you liked me. You'd like it if we were best friends. It'd be nice to see an old friend again and be with someone you like a lot."

He struggled to hold on to thoughts. "But.. we haven't."

Vale felt the hit to his mind again as the other spoke. "It feels good to be with a friend like me. It feels good to want to be with a friend that you've known for years that you want to spend time with like me."

She felt Nic's mind soften as she expected it would. It was probably the simplest form of corruption to be had. Make people feel good and they would do things that kept them feeling good. So long as they didn't immediately try to get the person to do something against their survival instinct like drive a knife through their eye it worked out well enough, though even that was possible if one kept them in the fugue long enough.

Nic smiled and visibly relaxed. It really is good to be with an old friend like him. His mind liked the warm, comforting, safe feeling that came with acknowledging it.

"It feels good to be with an old friend like me."

It truly did. In that sudden rush of joy he grabbed Kel in as much of a bear hug as he could manage given the man's pack. "How are you? By the Goddess, it's been forever."

The other rode out the hug just as he heard a woman call after him, "Nic, who's at the door?"

"Come I, come in." Nic's excitement was so overflowing at the feeling of being with an old friend again after all this time, he fairly dragged the other man across the threshold and into the house. "You just have to meet my family." His voice lifted to match hers, "Rose. Rose, you just have to meet an old friend of mine."

"Do I now?" she said, her voice carrying some amusement as she came from the kitchen to the front door. "He'd have to be a good old friend to head out this far for you of all people."

As she approached, Nic was more than pleasantly surprised by the view of loveliness she afforded him. She was neither tall nor short. Her blonde hair was pinned behind her head in a loose bun, but the size of the bun implied that it might fall well below her shoulders. Her eyes were brown and playful. The light behind them seemed like that of the stars themselves. With her high cheekbones and delicate jaw, she could have been mistaken for one of noble birth. And, despite a few laugh lines, she still had her youth. The Goddess and time were kind to her. "Hello..."

In his excitement, Nic spoke over her as he patted the man on the shoulder, wanting to hug the man again, enjoying the feeling of being with a friend like him, "Rose, my heart, this is..."

Kel stepped in just as the pause began to linger so that Nic wouldn't be in a position to perhaps ponder the fact that he didn't know the name of this great friend. Nic had found that the feelings the magic could create were so intense that they seemed to make up things within themselves to paste over incongruities or gaps that appeared, but he didn't want to risk Nic trying to think. "Kel is my name." He admired the view before him as he offered his hand. "I had no idea Nic managed to marry so well."

She took it, giving it a firm grip. "It still shocks me, too," Rose said with a gentle smile at her husband. "But he's a charmer, and, by the sounds of things you are, too." She raised her voice loudly enough to be heard through the home, "Ladies, dinner is almost ready. What are you doing anyway?" She hadn't lost the good humor she'd let Nic, see.

"We're finishing the cleaning up you asked us to do," a voice called back as if stating the obvious.

"An hour ago."

"We're coming."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking to the men for understanding. "One's three months away from having a husband and the other not much behind and I swear both of them are going to have to live in a manor with servants or husbands who don't mind a house that looks like a storm blew through.

"Or have husbands all right with housekeeping?" Nic offered.

"They have no example to draw from in that regard," she explained with a humorous bite.

Nic winced. "You wound me."

"Only because sometimes the truth stings, dear." She turned her attention back to Kel, "I assume you'll be staying for breakfast."

"Oh, I don't know. I'm not sure I can stay long," he demurred as he allowed his eyes to glance down at Rose's tan dress and the outline that a pair of full breasts beneath it created, "It's a long day ahead, and I have a few more visits to make on the route I've chosen, so I'm not sure I have the time."

"Nonsense," she said quickly. "How long does it take to eat a good meal that's all but served?"

He didn't reply beyond a smile for a moment, a smile that broadened noticeably when he saw Nic's daughters enter the room. Rose gestured them over, "Come here, young ladies. Come meet a long lost friend of your father's who happened upon our doorstep this morning." As Kel took each hand in turn, Nic introduced them. "This is Alix," he said of the slightly taller of the two. They were both lovely. Alix was a true combination of her parents, having the darker eyes and hair of her father while eschewing his slightly more rounded face in favor of Rose's more finely sculpted ones, but she looked enough like each that no one would doubt who her parents were if they were all together in a room as they were now. "Hello, Kel. It's a pleasure to meet any friend of father's."

"And this is Rianna."

Through Nic's eyes, Vale saw him take Kel's breath away and it wasn't hard to see why, as she appeared to be as one would have imagined Rose at that age. Her hair looked as spun gold, her eyes had a lively sparkle to them and her lips had a perpetually adorable pout. "So pleased to meet you, Rianna."

She took his hand as firmly as her sister had, "Is Kel your first or last name, if I might ask?"

He recognized it as the voice he'd heard calling back from the bedroom. "First, though, please, it's all I ever really go by."

That smile lit the room, "Of course, Kel. No offense intended. I was just curious."

He shook his head. "None taken, young lady. He took another look at his surroundings made his decision. "You know, I think I might take you up on that breakfast after all if that's all right."

"Then, as I all but said a moment ago," Rose began, gesturing to the family table, "sit yourself down and enjoy breakfast."

Nic grabbed a seat from the living room, leaving a friend like Kel his place at the head of the table, before they all sat to partake from a platter of thinly-sliced ham and a large bowl of scrambled eggs, with milk. It was simple but tasty. The eggs were fluffy and the ham was cooked just right. Nic was always fond of her skill in the kitchen, and, judging by the way Kel attacked his meal, he was, too. "Been awhile since you've had a good meal?"

Kel looked at him, suddenly realizing how he might have looked as he continued to dig in, "You know me, Nic. I can't cook work a damn."

Nic laughed as the magic placed within his mind added a certain heft of reality to the things that he imagined were true because of Kel's words. "You don't have to tell me twice."

Kel had done the best he could do delay and deflect any serious questions. Indeed, Nic was unintentionally helpful with that. He could simply make a comment, then allow Nic to embellish while he nodded along and added bits that he thought might amuse. It kept the family entertained while he ate his fill. It was a simple question when he'd almost reached that point that caused him to pause mid way through a bite of food.

"Did you two grow up together?" Rose was as enamored of the grand stories as everyone else had been. "All of these grand adventures the two of you have had and I never heard any of them before this morning. And I thought I knew everything there was to know about this one," she said, jutting her chin in her husband's direction. "How many other lives have you lived that I know nothing about?"

"Just the one," he answered with a blush. He did feel a little badly about having kept their adventures from her, but there were simply things that belonged to him and a friend like Kel.

Rose turned her attention back to this new found friend, "So, did you?"

Kel looked at her in askance, "Hm?"

"Did you two grow up together?"

"No, but you needn't worry about that."

The amusement began to leave her features and the girls stopped eating before glancing at one another, a little unsure that they heard what they heard, and even more uncertain as to how they should react to it. "Pardon?"

Nic jumped to his friend's defense, not concerning himself with the validity of the question because that might interfere with the feeling that came with being with a friend like Nic. "That's right, Rose. Really, there's no need to get bogged down in all sorts of silly details like that."

She looked at him in more than a little shock that Vale didn't need to be a mage to read. It was all well and good to this friend simply show up at their door, and he certainly seemed a friendly sort even if it were more than a little off-putting to have this complete stranger fill in aspects of your husband's life that you were completely unaware of until literally that moment, but then to hear them both brush off the simplest direct question was more than uncalled for.

"Silly details?" She looked at him in anger and bewilderment, as though she didn't know him at all which was seemingly the case. "Some man just happens by that has apparently known you for years, though you've never mentioned it to me or your children and somehow my asking the simplest question is silly and out of line?"

Nic was at a loss to provide an answer. He didn't know what to tell her without thinking of something that would require him going into their history together and using what he knew of her in their time together to come up with something to say to quiet her anger if not put her at ease. But to do so meant having to disrupt the happy feeling that enveloped him to collect thoughts and string together words, and it just wasn't worth the bother. Kel would know what to say to her anyway. He was so right about everything.

Since life was an integral part of magic in that it helped form the pools from which mages drew upon it and minds shaped and directed it, it wasn't completely unfair to say that magic had a life of its own, even if it was more of an instinct than anything else. Some mages compared it to a leashed animal that could be trained to heal, destroy, or a nearly infinite number of other things depending on the skill of the trainer.

Vale studied Nic's mind carefully as his story unfolded. This magic was barely contained. Vale could see that in how it flowed from Kel and the talisman and swirled around him. There were a few old mages in a line of work that generally didn't make it easy to make it to be old mages, and so old apprentices were fewer still. That being the case, that left that this was a man who found magic and had learned how to use it in the most elementary way, making the magic something of a wild beast that attacked, pummeled, and subdued anyone Kel set it against.

And all Vale could do at this point was watch the memories Nic had buried and the remnants of the magic left behind as Kel continued to unleash the beast on this family.

"Does it really matter?"

"Of course it matters," Rose said, looking at him with growing annoyance, all hint of hospitality gone. "I know perfectly well that he existed before I met him and lived a life but..."

"It doesn't matter," Kel said with more force, and, with her mage's eye, Vale saw the otherwise invisible threads of magic reach for the woman and close in around her. "Why are you making such a fuss over things that don't matter?"

"They matter to me," she shot back with zeal.

"Sure they do, but wouldn't it feel better if you just stopped caring about any of what you've made so important in your mind? Give it a try, Rose. Just stop caring about it and imagine that the relief that will be. Give it a try."

Vale watched the threads tighten around the woman's mind. They pushed inward and her body gave the slightest jerk in shock as the magic touched her. She took a full breath as it penetrated her mind more deeply and the timing made it appear to Vale's sense as though she was inhaling it into her being.

Kel smiled as the visible signs of Rose's annoyance smoothed. See? Isn't it better when you stop worrying? Don't you feel better when you don't worry about things like that?"

All she could manage now was a look of calm placidity as the magic tightened its grip.

"See? You feel better when you don't worry, don't you? You feel relaxed and calm, and don't you like how that feels?"

It was hard from this perspective to see how much the magic overwhelmed her and how much Rose embraced the bliss, but Vale did see the smile form slowly on her face, which Kel mirrored. Vale knew that look. He liked the power he had and what it could do. She'd seen it in the eyes of students when they first truly mastered a spell, any spell. They liked the rush of power that came not only with the power itself, but with the fact that they controlled it.

That, however, was the time to begin teaching them in earnest the need to tread carefully. Humans liked power and magic was power distilled into a formless essence that waited to be used, and some scholars said, wanted to be. Feeling that magic flow through them as something they could command was power of a different kind, and it, all too often, lead mages down dark paths as they sought reasons to use it just to feel the power course through their bodies. One had to have the will to control magic. One had to have the will to decide the where, the when, and the why and not be urged solely by the thrill of its use.

Many could be taught to use magic. It was more rare to find those that could resist being used by it.

"Yes."

"It feels good, doesn't it? When you don't worry, everything feels warm, and safe, and peaceful."

Her daughters exchanged looks as they saw their mother's smile broaden. "It feels good." Her response came with an exhalation of breath that sounded like a physical release, and it was. She wasn't slumped forward as if boneless, but she was at ease now, as if her body were floating on the same cloud of joy that her mind was consumed by. It was impossible not to notice and Alix, the eldest, spoke, "Mother?"

"Quiet, dear," Kel said gently. "Let your mother feel what she's feeling."

"Quiet, Alix." Nic's tone was far more harsh as was his glare at the girls. It was so intense that Rianna recoiled ever so slightly as she reacted like a daughter whose father almost never took such a tone, so when he did, it had that much more impact. Her lips parted ever so slightly before clamping together once again, though the young women did exchange glances that each said the same thing.

Something was very wrong.

And, for the space of several heartbeats, that's all Kel did. He let Rose just feel what the magic was doing to her. He let her drown in it. He watched her eyes, searching for the right emptiness before he acted, searching for the one moment after which he knew that enough of her will was blown away by the currents of magic that he'd sent through her that she would do as he pleased.

He watched her fall and Vale watched him get hard watching her fall. It wasn't that through Nic's eyes she could see his cock press against the fabric that covered it, but she could see everything else. She could see from across the table all the other signs that went with it. She saw the dilated pupils. She saw the smile pull at his lips even as he tried to hold it back that came from the rush of power and Rose's surrender to it that urged him to take physical ownership of the body now that the mind would be his. She saw him shift back and forth ever so slightly in his chair.