Book of Kings

Chapter 27

War. War. War. War. War. War. War.

I sat there in the library, absentmindedly holding a book in my hands.
It has just been a day since I accidentally eavesdropped on the conversation between the Grand Magisters Arno Eeming and Efrain Estoff.

I looked up where Kriot was on an atlas, a book of maps which I could never have gotten if I did not have the privilege of access to the guilds' library.
It was the capital of Grennen, the state furthest south in Eizo. On the maps it was huge but due to the descriptions of it being covered in mountainous areas and drylands, I believed not that many people lived there.

I couldn't keep what they said out of my mind.
I knew about the attacks, I was there when one of them happened.
But what Estoff said disturbed me.
War on another scale, with such destructive magic.
What did Eeming mean when he said that mages are not useful in combat?
Spraying fire in a mans' face even when he is wearing a helmet should be a devastating attack.

Fully trained mages and students were not exempt from mandatory enlistment, and I was almost of the age but I did not want to join.
I hated the violence, what it does to people, what it would do to those who are exposed to it.

My mother...

I had fled violence once already, I wouldn't not call myself a fighter but I was not a warrior. Shedding blood was not in my nature, I didn't even want to look during a festival when they would publicly slaughter a cow in my village and let its blood drain.
I didn't believe that killing another person was in the nature of any human, yet it was a daily occurrence.
It was the devils' work.

"Hey," the blond boy, who was the other person who listened to the conversation of war between the two Grand Magisters, said and sat down on the other bench across the table.
He was nervously playing around with the pages of the book he had with him.
We had not talked since yesterday.
"So...?"
"So?" I said angry and annoyed, my mind still wandering.
He got closer and whispered, "what are we going to do?"
"Nothing," I sighed, "there's nothing we can do."
"Nothing? There has to be something, anything."
"Like what? Are you going to go to the Grand Magister and talk to him about it? 'Oh excuse me Mister Eeming, I spied on your conversation with Grand Magister Estoff and I don't think we should go to war.' You and I are just students, the only thing we should be concerned about is studying. What was even so important that you would steal into the Magister's office?"
"I... I'm not sure," he looked down. He breathed in deep and began, a kind of gloom was in his voice, "unlike you I'm not rich, I was given a sponsorship. I'm originally from a little village, Oredon. It's all the way west of here and my family is still there, I haven't seen them since I traveled to Dralett," he looked at me with sad eyes, "they stopped sending letters three weeks ago and I heard rumors about an attack and I needed- I don't know, closure?" He let his head fall down again in defeat.

I grimaced, "I know exactly how you feel."
There had been a small pause before I said anything else. Getting his mind off his family is the best thing I could do right now, "could you tell me about how you got your sponsorship? Are you that talented?"
He sniffed once, "I don't want to brag but I'm skilled in water magic, ice specifically."
He waved his arms in the air and then had a little sheet of ice in his hand.
I was amazed, I looked at him wide-eyed, now was my chance.
"Could you teach me? I fear my magic is inadequate."
"Um, sure," he held his hand high and the ice vanished, "I trained even before I joined the guild. Then I was a year in school in the guild, they told me I was good so they gave me a sponsorship but have to repeat the first grade. It seems like the stuff they teach is somewhat similar but strangely more difficult."

"Do you understand the math they're teaching us?"
"Yes, why?"
"Could you help me out with that too? I'm almost embarrassed to say but I think I was undereducated in the subject. I just cannot quite grasp the formulas and whatnot."
He was hesitant.
"I'll buy you something to drink if you do," it was obvious that using a tactic that Eeming might have used wasn't enough to convince him, "and I could talk to Magister Eeming. Believe it or not, he actually is a friend of mine."
"Really? Are you being serious right now?
"I swear," I raised up a hand.
"Deal. I'm Amou by the way," he held out his.
Taking and shaking it I asked, "tell me, Amou, any reason why you choose water as your specialty?"
"You most likely know about the monsters in the ocean, right?"
I was sure he meant the gargantuan sea monster that made seafaring almost impossible.
"Of course I know, who wouldn't?" I said in an obvious tone.
"What you may not know is that there have been people who could just flat out kill them. Haydent the Prophet, Otmar the first king of Eizon, Ferrand, founder of the Adventurers Guild, and so on. But one of them I admire was a mage, do you know who I'm talking about?"
"No, I never looked into the matter."
"Verrill Rab, he was a Grand Magister a few hundred years back. He froze one in place in never-melting ice when it attacked the small island of Trabury, it's still standing there. I don't think that such a feat could ever be topped but here I am still trying to. Rab is just a hurdle I want to overcome and get into the history books like him."
"That's a weirdly high goal, don't you think?"
"Shouldn't dreams be even bigger?"