Shaman Chronicles Ch. 04

Caedes was actually as surprised about the boy's determination as Thorus and Zodus had been although he didn't show it.

"Now that was your first lesson!" he said his voice as ruthless as his face, "The next time you underestimate someone and I'm around to see it you won't be able to walk for a short time."

"So be it..." Jarko said. For a short moment the hint of a smile flashed over Caedes face.

'I wonder if my lessons are going to break him...' Caedes thought to himself before he went in for his first attack which meant that he vanished from Jarko's sight to reappear right in front of him with his right fist an inch from Jarko's face. Fortunately for the boy the blow didn't connect.

"Always be cautious. You're enemy won't let you know before he strikes."

And with that Caedes retreated again sparing Jarko from his beating. At least for the next two minutes if not less.

Their training session went on, Jarko never landing one hit ,but was receiving lots of them. Everytime he got beaten to the ground it was followed by an inspirational quote or sometimes a pointer on how to refine his fighting style. But the demon was simply too fast for the boy, inhumanly so and he wasn't even remotely as gentle as Thorus had been with his lessons. Of course Jarko was making progress although it was unbeknownst, but Caedes didn't miss it.

'He's already becoming faster.' he thought to himself. Of course it were only fractions of seconds but sometimes this was the key to winning a fight. Jarko even managed to block one of Caedes attacks once or twice although he was far from beating the immortal creature. When they were finished Jarko was lying in the ashes trying not to suffocate or black out from pain. Caedes really hadn't been gentle to him. Having caught his breath again he looked up to see the demon standing above him with his trademark smile back in place slightly chuckling.

"That was fun! I really enjoyed it and I think you did too once or twice but I am sure you'll regret it tomorrow. Ha!" the demon laughed and just disappeared in purple smoke. It took Jarko quite some time before he was able to get up and a little bit more to mount his black stallion to ride home.

The next couple of days were a haze for Jarko. He fell into a daily routine which consisted of getting up, going to his classes, having his afternoon nap, sparring with Caedes and going back to sleep. And sadly Caedes had been right the little Maguswasregretting his decision to train with him. Every morning.

'No pain no gain I guess...' Jarko thought to himself when he walked out of his last lesson of the day. It was ten days since his first nightly training session with Caedes. Around this time his muscle aches had become regular to him already. His trail of thought was interrupted, when Broth elbowed Jarko in his side.

"You see that?" his friend asked him.

"What?" the sleepy boy asked.

"That!" Broth said pointing at the Academy gates where a big crowd of students and Masters had formed.

"Let's see what's up over there!" Broth said and ran over Jarko being right behind him. When they reached the crowd the gates opened letting a four pairs of horses rode through it with Thorus being one of the first riders covered in light armor.

'Thorus! Thorus is back!' Jarko thought to himself suppressing the urge of running to his giant friend. He decided to wave to get the big man's attention. Thorus was happy to see Jarko's face a smile creeping on his face when he waved back.

The other men wore uniforms and helmets. Behind them rolled a carriage drawn by four horses and with an golden crown in front of red painted on it. Jarko didn't recognize it but obviously Broth did sighing out a shocked "Oh no..."

The carriage came to an halt and Jarko could see Headmaster Zodus making his way through the crowd over to the carriage's door and as he stood in front of it it opened. Stepping out was a boy around Jarko's age with baby blue eyes and dirt blonde hair behind him a hairless man clothed in white robes. His bald forehead was decorated with the tattoo of an open eye. On his face he wore a smug expression which turned arrogantly amused when he saw Headmaster Zodus whose face contorted to a mask of pure disgust for a short moment before he was able to control his emotions.

"The heir of the emperor! Crownprince Ezmaril!" one of the guards yelled. That told Jarko who the boy was but not why Broth was so upset that he was here.

When the guard finished his declaration Zodus bowed down slightly.

"Welcome to the Academy your majesty. But may I ask a question?" Zodus said to the little prince.

"You may." the prince answered although he wasn't looking at Zodus but scanning the crowd.

"Why is one of the 'Holy Brothers' in your company?" Zodus asked indicating the presence of the man behind the prince.

"Because" the man answered, "his highness wished for an advisor so... Here I am." he said spreading his arms and smiling.

'What are the "Holy Brothers"? ' Jarko asked the voice.

"Honestly? I have no idea."the voice answered.

Jarko wasn't satisfied with the answered and started checking the layers with his sight. What he saw was quite surprising. The tattooed eye somehow had a magical aura. He carefully looked down to his right sleeve and pulled it up slowly. His tattoo actually had the same aura.

'A blood mage?'

Just as Jarko wanted to think about what that meant the prince interrupted every thought he had by screaming "Kneel before your prince!" in his high pitched voice. As he had done that everyone in the crowd knelt down in an incredible speed except Jarko who was too stunned , Zodus who just looked very, very pissed ,the guards and Thorus and the so called 'Holy Brother'. The prince was just laughing without control until he saw Jarko who was still standing.

Before anybody of them could comprehend what had happened Zodus' reached out quickly and slapped the prince. Hard. Surprised he looked up to Zodus, his eyes filling with tears.

"Don't you dare to cry!" Zodus yelled, his voice sharp like a whip.

"You abused your gift and mistreated your co-eds. You deserved it now release them from your spell and apologize!"

"But..."

"APOLOGIZE!" Zodus yelled with a voice which sounded like thunder echoing from the Academies walls, due to the spell he casted on it. The little prince nodded. Suddenly every student and mage were able to stand up again. Jarko looked at the prince and his advisor that both looked visibly annoyed.

"Jarko!" Zodus shouted angrily, "come with me!"

Jarko cringed. Somehow he knew he was in deep shit although he couldn't quite put a finger on why. He fell in behind Zodus who was nearly running to the main building of the Academy. Zodus didn't speak a word to Jarko who was wondering how deep he was in trouble. Eventually they reached the main building. Apparently Zodus' rooms were at the highest floor so it took them another while to reach them. When they reached Zodus' door the Headmaster turned to Jarko.

"When we're inside you'll only allowed to say something when spoken to. Understood?"

"Of course, Headmaster." Jarko answered, trying hard not to show his nervousness.

Zodus sighed then he opened the door. Jarko had to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. The room was HUGE! Bookshelves lining the high walls. In the middle of the room was a huge circle from several runes and glyphs and a pentagram in the middle. Behind it was Zodus' desk made from solid wood covered in all kinds of open books and paperwork and behind that a big fireplace. Zodus slumped down in his chair which equaled a throne with all kinds of wooden ornaments. There he reached to his head, closed his eyes and slowly massaged his scalps as if he was trying to get rid of an evil headache.

Jarko did as he was told and didn't speak, letting his eyes wander through the room. Where did Zodus sleep? Jarko couldn't find a door to another room. He dismissed the thought with a shrug. There probably was a magically hidden entrance to Zodus sleeping chamber. Curiously he wandered to one of the shelves with his hands behind his back as if they were trying to grab the next book Jarko saw. Studying the books he wandered up and down the shelves reading the titles that were written on the books spines.

'Advanced Arcane Entchantments, The Big Collection of Magical Creatures and their Habits...' Jarko read the titles in his head. Then a book without its title written on it revealed itself to his greedy eyes. Again seized by curiosity he took it not able to control himself. It was rather big and nearly to heavy for Jarko with a blood-red binding. He sat down on the ground and opened the first page. He nearly gasped.

"The Compendium of Names of all Lesser and Greater and Royal Demons collected by the Archwarlocks Groch and Lowtar."

Jarko glanced to Zodus, who was still sitting behind the desk with his eyes closed. The curious boy browsed through the pages.

"Jarko... You really shouldn't do that."

Ignoring the voice for the first time he continued to flip through the pages until he came to a name he was quite familiar with.

"Caedes" the caption of the page read, written in deep red ink. "hells prince of war and descendant of the first demons. Only very advanced Warlocks should try to summon him. Very skilled in both demonic magic and physical combat. Incredibly smart and dangerous..."

The text went on about Caedes' general appearance which Jarko was quite familiar with, his history which bored Jarko so much that he didn't even try to memorize it. But what was really scary was Jarko's tattoo. Painted in black ink on the page of the book he was holding. Apparently it was called Caedes' sign. Although Jarko would have liked to go on with his reading he was disturbed by a polite coughing. He turned his head to see Zodus standing above him looking ... amused?

"Don't you think you're a little bit to unexperienced to even think about summoning a demon?" Zodus asked with a slight chuckle.

Jarko closed the book and held it out to Zodus trying to keep a straight face while the voice was suffering from laughing fit.

Zodus took it and walked back to his desk indicating Jarko to follow him. He summoned a plain wooden chair for Jarko to sit down. Then they sat down. The Headmaster studied Jarko's face as if he was contemplating what to say. Eventually he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"You're allowed to speak again. Ask your questions." Zodus said.

Jarko was confused so his first question was quite simple.

"Why have you brought me here?"

"I intended to explain to you what happened down there but I don't know where to start." Zodus answered.

"Ok." Jarko said hesitantly, "so who is this boy?"

"The crownprince, son of the current ruler of the Empire and your future Emperor. His name is Ezmaril."

"And why did everybody kneel before him but you, me and the guards? I mean he is just a little boy..."

At that Zodus had to laugh.

"Yeah you could definitely say that!" he answered, "Let's see... Do you know how our Empire came to be?"

Jarko shook his head.

"Ok, where do I start... Sometime ago the District's of our beautiful Empire were independent countries with own rulers. No Empire, no Emperor, but wars. Many, many wars. The rulers were in each others hair all the time, about nothing mostly and somehow Rolyaris, the smallest of the countries kept losing and losing. But then the sons of the king of Rolyaris found a way to sudue all the other countries. Somehow they gained a talent which allowed them to control the magic in other Magi. Through this they were able to let them do what they wanted. Which meant that when they told the other rulers and their Magi surrender to them they had no choice because they had to obey. In just a week they were able to conquer the whole Empire we know now. But then something happened. A simple question which turned the two brothers against each other..."

Zodus made a dramatical pause enjoying how smitten Jarko was with his storytelling.

"Who would rule over the lands they conquered? Who was going to be the Emperor? That was the question that let them break apart. They were twins which meant none of them had the privilege of age. So they started to argue and the argument became a fight. For days they fighted both of them being very cunning Magi their talent working on neither of them because they somehow were immune to it. In the end one of them won due to pure luck. Nobody really knows what happened to the subdued brother the most logical conclusion is that he was killed. Now the brother that was left ruled over the country with an iron fist. He married a beautiful woman, they had children and the eldest son made a discovery. He had the same talent his father and his uncle had he inherited it giving it on to the next crownprince over the centuries.And that's what happened on the yard. The little crownprince abused his gift for his own amusement letting everyone kneel in front of him."

Zodus finished his little speech and leaned back again. This really had to sink in. Jarko contemplated what he just heard.

"And why didn't it affect me or you?" Jarko asked Zodus.

"Well I really don't know why you were immune. But I know for sure that Ezmaril won't like you. You are the only student that isn't noble ,for him you are probably a stain on the Academy's reputation but you are also the only Magus besides me that doesn't ask "how high?" when he says "jump". As for me I know I am kind of immune to it." Zodus answered.

"And why is that?" Jarko asked his Headmaster.

Zodus looked consideringly into Jarko's eyes.

"Because... I am the defeated twin."

Thanks again for reading my friends! I again thank A.L. for her awesome editing, motivation and feedback. You really are the best! Also I would appreciate some feedback as always and I hope you like the story so far. If you don't just tell me.

Sincerely WorldWarWalther