Beyond the Void

Chapter 54, Don't push a mage

of Shattering 202 - Realising it is impossible to fight a war divided, the D'yer, the Humans and the Alyar form a tenuous alliance.

An excerpt from the diary of Pia...

CYNRIC

Three moons and three tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

"Look here! I am telling you he is not well enough. Even if he is, how are you going to talk to him? Yell at him, like you are doing right now?" This village and its people were really getting on Cynric's nerves these days.

"He needs rest! A little more and he will be much better." Layla pleaded. "Ior. Please. Talk some sense into your idiot old man."

"Layla, get back inside!" Cynric barked. He did not need the girl here right now.

She made a shocked face, but went back inside all the same.

"Listen mage, you might have an imperial mandate to meddle in our lives as you please, but that does not mean you get to take my village away from me. That house belongs to the people here. The criminal is awake. If you will not try him, then I will, as the Empire's laws demand." The village elder scolded with impressive outrage, considering the man's age. With every word he seemed to shudder and Cynric wondered if Gaven might do him a favour a drop dead the next moment.

"How are you going to send a man on trial without knowing whether he is guilty of anything?" Cynric retorted.

"The bloodseal, mage! Why would an unknown person hold such power? I know what you two are calling him. Northman." The village elder looked towards Sethian and spat on the ground.

Sethian did not even flinch, but stepped on the mess Gaven had made. The idiot's grandson looked on in silence. Cynric secretly hated the child. Headstrong and too stuck to his grandfather. It was the trouble with these small country places.

"Believe me when I say this Gaven, I take no pleasure in this. With my mandate, I am entitled to a residence among other amenities. Foremost, it is a sanctuary for ailing people. Don't worry. You'll get your house back. But as long as I remain in this village, it is mine. Don't interrupt me, please. How are you going to judge a man who can't even understand why he is being tried? If you are spouting the Empire's laws at me then, you should first know all of them. If the defendant can't speak our language, we must provide him with aid." Cynric rattled off.

"Then why have you not found anyone?" The elder raged.

"He does not speak eldertongue, nor Alyar, not even D'yer or the languages of the Ereko! I do not know which language he is talking in!" Cynric shouted.

Old men. Old stupid men, so convinced that only they are right. How many of those idiots he needed to fight. It was the only reason he had taken this job, roaming the Empire. To escape the hell of old, conservative people.

"There is no such thing as a human language that no one knows! Our patience is wearing thin, mage!"

"My patience with you has shattered a long time ago! Stay out of this house until I tell you to come!"

"You are not taking my village from me!"

Before Cynric could organise his thoughts Sethian intervened. "He might do that, you know. As the saying goes. Do not push a mage, elder. They always push back."