Mages of Buldoun (Aether’s Revival Book 5)

The fights for the rest of the day weren’t as dramatic as Nick’s had been. Hayworth won within seconds— he just extended his sword when Stallo charged, then opened a portal between them. Stallo ended up directly on the tip of the wooden blade before he was expecting to be.

That left a lot of empty space to fill, much the way Gregory’s fight had. Instead of waiting, they gave a few minutes before calling in the next fighters. Yukiko took her shuriken with her when she faced Lukas. The dwarven fire mage gave her a worried look, knowing what had happened between the last fire-shadow match. It went similarly to Nick’s fight with Jessica, but Lukas didn’t throw a tantrum when he lost. He lost when one of Yukiko’s throws caught him in the neck.

Jason dismantled Westley, the water mage of Boar House. Unlike normal, he did just enough to win, bowed as he should, then walked off the sands. That stark difference from what Nick had done got attention.

Kang went up against Adriana, the spatial mage, giving a mirror face-off of Hayworth’s match. Kang didn’t rush— he advanced carefully, always ready to step aside when Adriana opened a rift for her spear. The fight ended when Kang failed to account for what happened when he got close enough to attack her. His downward slash vanished, hitting him in the back of the head, instead. The two chatted for a moment before they exchanged bows, clearly showing a vast difference between Swift Wind and the Eternal Flame.

Jenn faced off with Pavil Cutter of Eagle House. The wind mage had beaten Binder in the first round, but he lost in his fight with Jenn. She went with pure speed, zigzagging in while he tried to hit her with magic. She went under, then over his few wide slashes when his many smaller ones missed. He staggered back from her first attack, which threw his shield arm to the side. When he tried to stab with his gladius, she merely blocked with her wakizashi and stepped inside. Her hand locked on his throat and he threw up both hands. Jenn let go of him, then backed up and had him stab at her. The crowd was confused, but then Jenn adjusted his arm to show him why the new position would have worked better. That moment made Nick’s outburst even starker.

Parks was grim-faced when he walked out to face Ivan Armstrong. The physical enhancement mage of Wolf House watched his opponent carefully. Their two magics were nearly negated by the other. The fight took far longer than most had— Parks used his barriers to give himself a chance, but Ivan’s attacks hit hard enough to shatter most of them in a single strike, though they did slow him down. The fight itself was over when Ivan finally reached Parks. Parks fought as well as he could, but Ivan’s strength was on full display. Ivan’s attack snapped the haft of Parks’ maul and the zweihander’s blade. Parks wasn’t ready for it, so Ivan landed a hard right hook to Parks’ jaw, that dropped the magi to the ground unconscious.

Binder was breathing a little fast when he left the waiting area. He was the last fight of the day again, and had ended up paired against the Boar House earth mage, Brian Digger. Wind against earth was a very different fight. Brian’s spikes failed to land as Binder used just enough air to jump over them, while Brian threw up earth walls to absorb the wind blades. It was a great fight from a magic standpoint; the crowd loved it as they watched two determined magic users stay at range to attack. Binder managed to land a couple of deep cuts on Brian, but none in bad locations. Brian won in the end— Binder used more aether than Brian did, and an earth spike hit him in the hip. Binder gave up, letting the arena heal him.

As if to punctuate the difference of the day, Brian jogged over to Binder and took a seat beside him to talk while Binder healed up. Binder lay there and let the arena heal him, more than happy to congratulate Brian.

Gregory frowned as he watched the moment. He’d noticed that Brian’s wounds healed up before Binder’s even started to heal. Since Jason and Parks had left the waiting area after their matches, he debated bringing it up.

“Armsmaster… a question,” Gregory eventually said. “How does the healing magic decide who to heal first?”

Egil frowned, then looked back at the two chatting in the arena. “I don’t know if it was ever stated.”

“Digger healed before Binder even though Binder had the worst wound,” Gregory said.

“Hmm… I will bring this to the overseer,” Egil said with a nod. “We might have to make sure Willof has some potions on him to help if things go wrong.”

“Oh, that could be bad,” Yukiko nodded. “We have a few things of our own, but we might not have taken them if we expected to be healed quickly.”

“It might give the overseer a point to make with the archmage,” Hayworth said. “Maybe it’ll even the scales for the black mark Shun gave us.”

“I’d hoped he’d make up for my loss,” Kang sighed. “He did well. Just another inch or two to the side and one of those cuts would’ve ended the fight.”

“They won three fights today. Four, if they count Nick’s as a loss,” Jenn said. “We’ll have to work to keep winning.”

“I didn’t even think about her opening a portal for my own weapon to brain me,” Kang sighed.

“It’s difficult to do, as you have to open it at just the right time,” Hayworth told him. “If she’d been a second slower, you would’ve crushed her, instead.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t,” Kang grunted. “I’ll win next time.”

“Pettit nearly lost, too,” Hayworth said. “He won’t win by throwing his weapon again.”

“True,” Gregory admitted, “but it worked today.”

“They still have a second fire mage,” Kang said.

“Yes, and if he can manage that same barrage, I doubt I’ll win,” Gregory said. “Be that as it may, we will do our best every time.”

“As it should be,” Hayworth said, looking back to see Binder getting to his feet. “We’ll see you for sparring tomorrow.”

“We look forward to working with you,” Jenn grinned. “Think you can get me across the arena?”

Hayworth considered it, then chuckled. “Taxing, but possible.”

“Which means they can, too,” Kang pointed out.

“Yes, but they don’t have anyone who can see the future,” Yukiko laughed. “If they tried, Greg could be there to meet them.”

Hayworth chuckled. “Just our two clans might be able to win. Can you cover us all in shadow to confuse them?”

“Possibly? I’ve never tried to create a plane of shadow. I assume you’d like rather not be in it yourself.”

“All things for us to figure out,” Gregory said as Binder opened the door into the waiting area. “Good try.”

Binder exhaled. “Sorry, Hayworth.”

“You did fine,” Hayworth said. “Tomorrow, you’ll win. Now, we need to go speak with Magus Harrison. I’m sure he wants to reiterate the rules to us.”

“We should go, too,” Jenn said. “See you all tomorrow.”

“As long as Harrison doesn’t balk,” Kang said.

Hayworth’s clan was out the door a minute later.

“Why did you offer that to Jason, Greg?” Yukiko asked softly.

Gregory looked at Rafiq, but the archivist was already packed up. “Because I hoped. It risks nothing to ask. His refusal to such an offer is likely going to be known eventually.”

“Yes, it doubtlessly will,” Rafiq said with a smile.

“Oh… Did you think he would really accept?” Jenn asked.

“I didn’t give it much hope. I was more worried he’d say yes, then turn around later to break it.”

“That would darken their clan more than Shun already did,” Egil said. “To do that, they would need clear provocation on your end.”

“Yes, they would,” Yukiko agreed with Egil, “and they wouldn’t get it easily. No doubt that is why he refused.”

“Are you ready to go, Rafiq?” Egil asked.

“Yes, Armsmaster. Do you think dinner will be better tonight?”

“I’m going to insist that idiot find a different vendor to buy from,” Egil said as he left with Rafiq.

“Time to see our friends,” Yukiko said. “I’m sure they have questions.”

“Elsa will have a lot, too,” Jenn said. “Should we go out and find a different type of food tonight?”

“Yes,” Gregory said. “I want to try different things while we’re here.”

“Very well, dear one,” Yukiko smiled. “First, we need to go bathe and change.”

~*~*~

They were quiet on the way back to the encampment, as Hemet had asked them to be. Once they were inside Gregory’s tent, though, they all wanted to know about what’d happened in the waiting area before and after Nick’s fight.

They discussed that, along with giving Elsa a review of the matches. Once they were clean and dressed, they left to go find food and browse any new merchants that had appeared.

They did take the time to hit up the vendor who’d had bane cores for sale. The man had set aside a stockpile for them and, between them, they purchased everything he’d had. He was happy to promise them more when the next fighting day came around.

As they left, Clover snickered. “He must have a family member who works on a bane beast farm. That’s the only way for him to get so many so easily.”

“Or he’s getting them from other means,” Yukiko said. “That doesn’t matter to us, but if he is, I’m sure the guards will be cracking down on him soon.”

“Aether’s Guard!” The shout had many people looking around for the source of the voice.

Claudia Firetongue smiled happily as she advanced on them. Her fellow members of Eagle House trailed her, with the chaperone scowling at the tail end of their group. The crowds parted for the small group of Buldoun mages even more readily than they did for Gregory’s clan.

“We didn’t expect to see you out here,” Claudia said. “What are you shopping for?”

“Looking over the new vendors who’ve shown up, and maybe finding dinner,” Yukiko said.

Claudia looked at Elsa in the middle of the group and smiled. “Hello! Oh, you’re their servant?” She hadn’t seen her uniform at first, but quickly adapted.

“Yes, mistress,” Elsa said, looking down.

“She’s with us so she knows if we find a food vendor that’s acceptable, and to carry anything we need her to,” Yukiko said.

“Ah, of course,” Claudia nodded. “If you don’t mind, might we walk with you?”

“Not at all,” Gregory said, “but I think it’s more than that.”

Claudia’s eyes shifted to him and her lips twisted. “Hmm… if only,” she sighed. “Yes, that’s true. Maybe we can discuss it over food?”

“We agree,” Gregory said. “Showing the crowds that clan and house can be civil is good, considering what happened earlier.”

“Damn him!” Claudia snapped. Her face briefly showed true anger before the happy smile came back. “Yes. Shun’s a prat. Sadly, he chose what he did. He could’ve just told me.”

“You want us to help find out your answers?” Yukiko asked.

“Yes,” Claudia smiled, “but unlike others, I’m willing to make sure it’s a balanced deal.”

“We can work with favors owed,” Yukiko said.

“Excellent. I knew when I saw you all that we would find a way to work together. Something just felt right.”

Both of the other mages of her house looked uncomfortable.

“We can set it aside for the time being,” Yukiko said. “Let’s just be friends for right now. You both had good fights today,” she directed toward Adriana and Pavil.

“Really didn’t,” Pavil sighed. “You’re amazing,” he told Jenn.

“Thank you. You made me work on my speed.”

“And that win against Kang!” Clover clapped. “Was it difficult?”

Adriana nodded. “Very. I can try to explain when we sit down to eat.”

“Let’s go, then,” Gregory said.

“Yes, let’s.” Claudia put herself between Yukiko and Gregory. “I’d also like to hear more of your clan. Rumors say that it’s new, while others say it’s old, but broken.”