City Of Sin

41-50

Subject

The grey dwarf proposed a six month grace period for both Steven and Richard, after which the two would compete again in a subject of Sharon’s choosing. Hopefully, both would use the extra time to improve on and refine their preparations, the outcome of the battle determining which of the two would eventually inherit Sharon’s runecrafting expertise.

The grand mages all realised that Blackgold’s proposal for a six month grace period was self-serving. In all honesty, this proposal would give him an extra half year of fees from Steven. Could it be that Her Excellency’s finances had deteriorated to that extent? Yet, such doubts were immediately rebuffed. The legendary mage’s finances were robust; it was only the Deepblue that was struggling to make ends meet.

For many materialistic people whose primary objective in life was to amass wealth, time was an extremely precious resource. This was especially true for time in a primary plane like Norland, so without a split second to spare in the legendary mage making decisions a delay was inconceivable. The subject of the competition was decided in that very meeting.

Both this decision and the topic of the competition were sent to the participants the same day, a copy sent to Minnie as well. Of course nobody harboured any hope for Minnie; the top hierarchy of the Deepblue had long since received news of Marquess Niall’s defeat. The news had spread from the grand mages to the outer circle of disciples, and Richard was starting to be viewed in a new light. Before he’d just been a fellow with some talent who’d had the good fortune to win Her Excellency’s affection. Now, with the explosive rise of the Archerons, nobody in high society would dare look down upon him. At the very most, they would only scoff behind his back about his upstart origins.

As day turned to night, explosive cheers burst forth from within Steven’s mansion. Clutching the documents with some disbelief, the dragon warlock read over them again and again to confirm that it wasn’t a dream. For the first time, he felt Sharon had affection for him as well. Forget any penalties, the bloody conspiracy hadn’t even been brought up once.

Just like that, the affair he was most concerned about passed. Since the top hierarchy of the Deepblue had agreed upon the result, the Archerons or even Richard himself would not pose a threat of retaliation. The thing giving him most jubilation was that the doors of runecrafting had been opened to him once more, giving him and Richard a fair fight.

Was that even fair? Steven didn’t think so for a moment.

He was a seventeen-year-old dragon warlock over level 10, with the financial backing of his entire family. More important was that he had a true blue runemaster backing him, and while the competition was six months hence the subject had already been made known. Everything worked to encourage him to cheat! He could leave any manufacture of components and purchase of materials to his family, and the development and design of the rune itself to Saint Klaus. Six months would be enough for him to improve on any weaknesses and manufacture a proper magic rune!

Two metal cages were added to his residence. One was built to contain magical beasts, specifically a powerful winter wolf. The winter wolves of the north were two metres long, and this one was amongst the most ferocious of its kind. It had tough flesh alongside the natural ability to cast frostbite and ice arrows. Old, powerful wolves could even spout freezing breaths!

In the other cage were a few strong, stout, polar snow rabbits. This particular type of rabbit had snow-white fur that gave it excellent defence against the cold, and they bred extremely quickly. However, apart from being lightning fast on their feet, they did not have any real means of attack. Snow rabbits were a common beast in the north, amongst the most elementary of prey on the food chain. They made up most of the winter wolves’ diet.