The Autumn Mage

Chapter Seven

     Aki ran for days unsure if he was going to be apprehended again or not. He had stuck to the woods and ran towards the opposite side of the mountains that they had scaled. His first night he continued until he was ready to collapse. Using sloppy Wind Magic he had dug a trench and lay inside, piling leaves and snow on top to insulate him. He awoke the next day with pains in his neck and back, forcing him to walk a little slower. His anger motivated him, and by nightfall he had already made it back onto the flat roads. He again rested outside, his rage making sleep difficult as he curled up behind a boulder and shivered. He had it figured that, although a little further away from this starting point, it would be best to regroup back at his favorite inn that he started out just last week. The next nearest town was two days on foot; at least he could reach Friedlich by evening.

     Beatrice looked concerned as he limped in after throwing the door open. He did not say a word but slammed a handful of coins on the counter and walked into the dining hall. That night he angrily stared at the ceiling fuming as he replayed the events of the past few days over and over in his mind. He did not have much money, but he had enough to keep the room two more days. He would eat just enough to not feel starved and then spent the rest of the day in bed. He left the window open to let Aran come and go as he pleased, feeling too upset to go find his pet food. He spent the evenings turning the tiny blue envelope over and over in his hands before throwing it aside only to pick it back up again minutes later.

     When he was finally ready to leave he packed his belongings and stared at the envelope once more. He looked at it in his hands and sighed before opening it for the first time. He removed a small piece of paper that felt like the cool side of a pillow and felt less like paper and more like silk. He shoved the paper back into its envelope and shoved it across the table. He walked around in a slow circle with his arms crossed before coming back to it. He swore under his breath and took it back, cramming it into his robe pockets.

     He left for Serenity, a small retirement community to the south just a few hours away. He walked through the quaint town, passing the lake on the outskirts where the locals would walk and feed stale bread to ducks and geese from the green wooden benches that lined the coast. He continued past the tiny downtown of cramped thin stores and bakeries housed inside white wooden one-story buildings. The roads here were paved with blacktop and most streets looped around in a circular pattern making traveling around easier for the older residents. Most of the homes were of similar size to the shops and were painted yellows and pinks with well-manicured green lawns and white picket fences. Aki eventually reached his intended destination, the town's library.

     The library was also one-story as was as long as three of the local homes put together. It had a steep deep blue pointed roof with a weathervane of a silhouette of a witch riding a broomstick wearing the traditional black pointed hat worn by the original Circle of Hecate. The exterior walls had originally been white, but the local tradition was to paint a heart in the favorite color of a librarian that had passed on and they formed a chaotic mural of clashing colors. Outside the entrance was a copper statue of a young interpretation of Athena depicted as a school-aged girl. She held a sword in her right hand which was pointed toward the sky and a clutched open book in her left. She was dressed in armor but had no helmet on so that her face and braided ponytails would not be obscured. Her mouth was scrunched into a confused expression, as if trying to work out a difficult problem.

     "Where do they not put up one of Her dumb statues," Aki scoffed as he passed by. He jogged up the small cement steps that led to the door. The door was made of dark tinted glass and had two long gilded wands as door handles. He wrestled the door open and was met with a rush of cold air. The building was nearly silent forcing Aki's eyes to scan the room out of paranoia. It was far larger inside the library then the outside, with stairs leading up to a third floor and the open space had tripled in size. Aki breathed deeply the musty smell of old books and could not help but to smile. His hair moved slightly; an enormous ceiling fan's blades swirled softly, its hum barely audible. It did not move fast enough to rustle papers, just enough to keep the air circulating. The building was carpeted with deep navy blue carpets and grey runners leading to the reading tables, wooden rows of books, and the ivory spiral staircases wide enough for three people to climb at once.

     Aki gingerly walked towards the large round wooden information desk to a look at a map resting on a black metal stand. He found the "Black Magic" section and tapped it decisively with his finger before trying to locate it with his eyes. He walked up to the second floor and stopped at about the fifth row. As he walked down the aisle seemed to stretch and grow slightly as he scanned the spines.

     "Ah, here we go!" He was met with five disembodied voices shushing him, all from different parts of the library. "Oh, sorry!" he called out, being met with more. He shut his eyes in frustration. "Sorry," he whispered; silence. He carefully pulled the book out from the top of the spine and let it fall back into his hands. He admired the front cover: Mastering the Elements: A Introduction to Black Magic by Vanessa MacToad. "How can you 'master' the elements if it's just an introduction?" he quietly pondered to himself. He shrugged and walked the faded red leather tome to the nearest white wooden reading table. He produced a small paper notebook, a quill made of a grey owl feather, and a small phial of black ink and began to study.

     Occasionally a small trio of gnomes would walk by struggling with a squeaky cart that was much larger than they full of books to be returned to the shelves. They were less than a meter tall and wore pointy red caps bent at different directions, white shorts, and a white shirt with tight red vests pinched at the buttons, their bulbous stomachs protruding from underneath. Two had long flowing white beards that they almost tripped and caught in the cart's wheels, and kind grey eyes that stayed vigilante for wayward books. Aki did not notice them until it was already sunset and they were on top of the table silently conveying that he had overstayed his welcome, their feet tapping impatiently, their arms crossed, and several humps coming from the youngest. Aki looked up as if woken from sleep and tried to take the book back to the shelf; the youngest gnome jumped onto the book and tried to wrestle it away.

     "Alright, alright, it's all yours," Aki said softly. "Have a good night, boys." The three beamed as he left, headed back towards the Bent Ladle Inn and took part of their namesake's hearty stew before heading to bed, only sleeping a few hours. When he awoke before the sun the next day he made his way towards the outskirts of town, sleepily nodding at the sparse early morning joggers he passed. He made his way to a small cluster of trees and retrieved his notebook. He produced a small orb of orange light that danced above his shoulder so that he could read what he had written down. After running his eyes over his scribbled writing he tossed the notebook on the ground and closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of the trees and moist earth into his nostrils. With his eyes still closed he raised his arms with his palms outstretched and continued breathing, picturing the air filling his body.

     Black Magic is at its strongest when the practioner has established a connection with nature, the author had written. Barrowing energy from the earth rather than trying to bond a connection uses less Mana and makes the spell stronger. After breathing a few times he felt a little lightheaded but energized and excited. He closed his left fist and slowly opened his eyes. He breathed out and silently prepared a Fireball, launching it from his right hand into the center of the tree in front of him. It launched as usual, and he felt no joy as he watched the embers fizzle out from the crater he had just made. Envision green earth energy moving into your body, and let it flow all the way to the end of your wand, he recalled and exhaled a frustrated breath through his nose and shook his head, preparing to try again. He drew another deep breath, envision the energy entering his body and surging through his hand. He fired off another Fireball, and this one did feel slightly stronger, striking his target with a louder thud before sizzling out. He launched several more, burning a small hole in the front of the tree, the area filling with the smell of burnt wood and the bark softly glowing orange. When the sun finally rose he decided to head back for fear of the elderly citizens thinking that he was vandalizing. He walked away with a grin and looked at his sore hand as he closed and opened it.