Free Magic (complete)

Chapter 9

The anxiety sat in Anders's stomach and kept him from sleeping. Would Jak really be back? What exactly was he out of time for? If Jak didn't come back, would he be able to finish his experiment and write up all his findings again? Despite being up all night all Anders could do was lay on his bed.

Eventually after growing frustrated with tossing and turning, he got up and left his room. He let his mind wander while walking nowhere in particular. He lapped the floor, then he took the stairs to one of the big libraries and lapped that too.

"You look troubled." A voice broke through his concentration, rolling with a light northern accent. Looking around he was in a lounge with plush chairs and a crackling fireplace. There were a few tables with books around, but not walls of shelves like the libraries had. Sitting in an overstuffed green chair was a little man dressed in a white and gold coat with brown leggings. He was maybe sixty, with a trim salt and pepper beard and a shiny bald head.

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." Anders wasn't used to seeing someone in Whitethorn that didn't have either mage robes or armor. His neck was concealed by his coat collar and Anders couldn't tell if he was marked.

"No disturbance young man, I was just taking a cup of tea in a quiet room. I am always interested in solving problems though, if you would like to talk about it." The little man gestured to a matching green chair nearby and took a sip from his mug. "It couldn't hurt, right?"

"A cup of, what?" Anders took the seat, he wasn't sure what tea was and he lost the rest of what the man said after that. Anders couldn't stop fidgeting with his sleeves, he was still anxious about everything that had happened in the past two days.

"Ah, tea. A plant dried and seeped in hot water, I take mine with honey or sometimes cream if I can get it. Would you like some? or a dried apricot?" He offered a small plate of the snack to Anders who politely declined. "Call me Harlow, everybody does. So what could have a young mage so down?"

"Well," Anders shifted in his seat uncomfortably, trying not to reveal the things that would get him or Jak arrested. "The assessments are coming up, and I've... lost part of my presentation."

"Dear boy, you don't have to do a presentation until the advanced tests! You can certainly still participate." The man beamed at him.

"I'm taking the advanced tests." Anders said stubbornly. "I know I'll pass red, I need my shot at purple."

"Well now, such confidence. But they all say that. Give me a moment here, now where did I put those." The little man patted his coat pockets and produced a pair of glass lenses in a wire frame that perched on the end of his nose. "Ah! That's better."

"What are those?" Anders squirmed in his seat as the man stared at him intently.

"They do two things, they correct my fading vision for one." Harlow wiped a smudge off the glass with his coat sleeve. "And they help me measure a mage's power."

"Sage bless it. Those must come in handy." Anders said.

"They certainly do." He stared at Anders a moment longer, eyes wide and focused, studying intently. He then placed the lenses in his pocket once more. "Firstly I owe you an apology, I thought you were much younger than you are. Bad eyes you see, runs in the family. Should have known a boy of ten or so wouldn't be so tall. Secondly, I'd be very curious to know when your powers surfaced, if you don't mind my asking of course."

"I was seven, I'm fifteen now." Anders's face reddened. "I...missed the last time the assessors were in Selstad."

"I see. Well my dear boy, I dare say you have enough power for a purple robe, I hope you have the control. May I ask you name?" Harlow tilted his head to the side, still looking at Anders with curiosity.

"Anders." He decided he liked Harlow enough to tell him.

"Anders. I'll be sure to remember it. Now, what is the nature of your power? It seems to wriggle around quite a bit." Harlow asked as if it were perfectly normal to have wriggling power.

"Er, lightning. I suppose." Anders lifted a hand and demonstrated with a few sparks.

"I see. Well Anders with the lightning, I hope you can get your presentation back together. You do have a month after all." Harlow smiled. "I'm actually in Cliffside to see the assessments, as are many of my colleagues. I look forward to seeing what you can do."

"Thank you Harlow." Anders felt relaxed. Finally. Harlow's words helped a lot, though he wasn't sure how he felt about the lenses that measured his power. Anders stood from the chair and gave Harlow a small bow.

"I take it you are leaving then? " Harlow sipped his tea.

"Yes, I've got work to do. I'll show you what I'm made of, I promise." Anders walked back to his rooms with a light heart. He spread everything he still had out on his desk, and began to write what he could remember. Within a bell, he was asleep on his notes. 

     Jak was a man of preparation. His room was usually kept packed up, his possessions in the locked chest. He had a supply of magical tools for every situation, and a slew of daggers for anything else that could come up.

He made sure his room was ready to vacate at a moments notice, and sat at the small table to take care of his arm. He used up all the cream he had left and bandaged his arm. Thanks to the magic in the expensive salve his arm was much farther along than it would be naturally. The pain was better and his skin wasn't as tender, but the white streaks of the lightning's path still scarred his arm from wrist to shoulder. He stared at the puffy white marks and resolved his body to another climb up the blasted Whitethorn cliffs.

The book was out of his hands, but it wasn't in the hands of Magnus Hughes. His funds had certainly taken a pleasant jump from the job, but there were still certain things you didn't' want in the wrong hands. There was definitely resentment towards Anders for his arm, but at the moment it was still a relationship of mutual cooperation.

With his cloak on, you couldn't see the gear tucked all over Jak's body. He walked calmly down the main road and towards the rocky beach to the side of the keep without so much as a second glance from any passerby.

The climb was getting easier, but was still strenuous even under normal circumstances. The sun beat down on his back, a welcome warmth from the dreary Selstad spring. Mist from the sea tickled his skin and turned cold in the late season breeze. It was still afternoon when he reached the lowest windows of the keep.

Jak dawned his brown robes and stuck a book in front of his nose. The few who would glance his way would ignore him, but for the most part the mages were too absorbed in their own business, and unless you were actively causing trouble, the soldiers just didn't care.

He pulled the torn parchment from his pocket. He had taken it from Anders's desk, and its what he used to write down names of possible suspects for the stolen notes. Jak grinned like a cat in a fish market. If that meant he got to know his way around a fortress of valuable knowledge and rare magic, so be it.