Sebastian thought he had a way to use the kinetic blade effect he had accidently discovered. He could enchant a bow to produce an arrow shaped barrier when mana was channeled into it, and just pour in enough mana to make the barrier last until it hit something. By tying off the effect as the arrow left the bow, it should have enough residual energy in it to remain solid long enough to hit targets in normal bow range. Depending on what it hit, it should be able to do a fair bit of damage before vanishing.

The only thing that was making him hesitate was that he didn’t want to carry around two bows. Which left him with trying to add the effect to his current, already enchanted bow. He tried to find records of enchanters adding onto enchanted items, but had only found one. It was phrased as a dire warning against trying such a thing, experiments done by other mages had determined that adding spells from other mages to an existing spell resulted in unpredictable consequences. An enchanter had gotten ahold of an amulet that produced a light above the mages head, and attempted to add an additional effect to it, the mages that found him didn’t know what effect he had tried to add though, since they found his workshop coated in a fine mist of his remains and the shattered remnants of the amulet scattered about the room.

He was ready to just accept carrying around two bows, but another bit of knowledge he had found in that book was about enchanting living things. Evidently, it had been attempted before, mages saw a clear benefit to enchanting warriors to defend them from physical attacks. Magically improving a warrior’s capabilities on the battlefield would indebt them to the mages and, should they select their subjects carefully, would inspire a fierce loyalty to the Guild and fill one of the major weaknesses of the magi. Unfortunately, the results had been a spectacular failure. The survivors that hadn’t been warped into horribly disfigured monsters and driven into insanity, were typically missing limbs or left with conditions that prevented them from ever fighting again.

Fucking Owdel, he really should have given me this book a long time ago. He flexed his right fist, watching the lines covering it shift as he moved. I wonder if that is going to happen to me? Turn into an insane monster that the town is forced to put down? He shook his head, that wasn’t a productive line of thought, instead he forced his mind back to whether he should try to add to his bow or not. Well I was the one who enchanted it in the first place, and I’ve already managed to do the impossible by surviving a personal enchantment, even if I don’t know when or how I did it. His eyes had wandered back to the pattern on his arm. He sighed, I’ll try it if I have no other choice. For now, I think I should work out some of the-

Sarah burst into the library interrupting his thoughts, “A caravan came today!” She declared excitedly, which made Sebastian roll his eyes. The fall rains tended to close the pass, and then the winter snow, followed by the spring thaw kept the pass closed for the most part. At least as far as merchants were concerned. The majority of them had no desire to lose their wares to a mudslide, or flood, or avalanche which meant they typically didn’t start coming through till late spring, and never came later than early fall. Since their town was amongst the farthest north, and definitely the farthest west, they didn’t come often. Which lead to the town having a small festival of sorts when one showed up.

“Go make yourself presentable, we are going to go be representing the Guild, and demonstrating that it has a strong presence here.” She started to shoo him out of the library.

Sebastian gave her a wry grin, “You say that, but you just want to go shopping, don’t you? Why exactly do I have to come watch you browse through the random trinkets the merchants brought us?”

She blushed a bit when he asked the first question, but glared at him when he continued, “Because I said so. A woman should never have to shop alone, and it’s the duty of a gentleman to shut up and go with her.”

Sebastian looked all around, “Where did we get a gentleman? How come I haven’t met him?” Her expression turned dangerous, and he figured she was on the verge of enforcing her commands with violence, so he relented, “Alright, I’m going, I’m going. Stupid festivals are going to be the death of me though.”

He changed into more formal mage attire. Stupid bloody Guild and its stupid bloody robes, why do I have to put on a pile of thick fabric in the middle of summer? He put his glove on over his new ring and fed some mana into it. Excellent, doesn’t glow through the glove, and still cools the air around me. The sleeves of the robes hid the patterns on his arm too, so he didn’t have to worry about people pestering him with questions about them. Nobody would know what they were or meant, but they sure as hell would ask him about them. The downside of living in a small community I suppose. Oh well, let’s get this over with.

When he got downstairs he noticed that Sarah had on lighter linen robes that would be far more manageable in the summer heat than his thick woolen ones. She looked at him and started laughing, “Are you trying to get heat stroke? Don’t you have anything that won’t broil you?”

Sebastian glared at her, “Oh haha, very funny, we aren’t all the daughter of the towns best seamstress, besides it doesn’t matter what I wear, I won’t get hot.”

She started laughing harder, “You, ha, would make, haha, a hideous daughter! Won’t get hot!” she doubled over trying to catch her breath.

Sebastian felt his face heat up, he thought back to what he had said and realized he had put his foot squarely in his mouth that time. He sighed, “You win that round, nothing I can say to salvage my pride after that one.”

She moved to pat him on the back, “There, there, we all lose some-” she cut off midsentence, “What the hell? Why is it cooler near you?”

Sebastian grinned at her, “At least the loss was temporary! I win that round!” he held up his gloved hand, “New ring cools the air around me when I feed it mana.”

She slapped his arm, “That wasn’t a round! And magic cold rings are cheating. Can I have one?” He just shrugged and gestured for her to lead the way. She pestered him about it until they got close to the town square, where the caravan had set up. He was granted a reprieve then, since she was distracted by going from wagon to wagon and looking at the stuff they had on display.

Sebastian started to think that this would be a complete and utter waste of a day after a few hours of watching Sarah go from wagon to wagon, sometimes back to wagons she had already been to. He was certain that she had seen everything by now, and was only looking to annoy him. He had only idly glanced at the various wares, not having anything he wanted or needed at the moment. Then his gaze caught on a small pendant on a light silver with a vibrant blue stone set in it. He glanced in Sarah’s direction, before approaching the man and inquiring about the price. He had brought his savings with him in case he saw something he had to have, but it wasn’t much. Fortunately, he was wearing mage robes. The man quoted him a price, and Sebastian stepped closer to him, wearing an ominous expression, the step put the man inside the range of his ring, as he upped the mana flowing to it.

When he was struck by the blast of cold air that billowed out from the glaring mage, the man promptly offered a considerably lower price, which was well within Sebastian’s range. He cheerfully paid the man, smiling and letting the temperature return to a more normal level. The merchant realized he had just been had, and ruefully shook his head, “Well played son, I honestly thought you were going to blast me. I hope your lady likes it.”

Sebastian opened his mouth to say it wasn’t that kind of gift, but changed his mind. It didn’t matter what a random merchant thought, all that mattered is that he had something he could enchant like his ring for Sarah that she would be willing to wear. Which would get her to stop pestering him about it. For now he pocketed the necklace and went to find her, since she had wandered off while he was distracted. God I hate crowds. Stupid festivals and their stupid crowds.

When he found her she was standing near one of the little stands selling food and looked rather unhappy, he glanced around to see what was wrong, and it didn’t take him long to spot it. Not far from them, a group of her old friends were talking animatedly to each other. The girl that had been one of her closest friends was hanging all over one of the more muscular farm boys, and if he were forced to guess from Sarah’s sour expression she probably had had a crush on him.

She saw him approach and stood close to him when he got to her. He figured she was taking advantage of the cooler air surrounding him more than anything else, but he put his arm around her and started to turn and lead her away from the group. No need to pour salt in the wound after all. Unfortunately, it seemed her old friends were also massive idiots, and had spotted them. He pinched the bridge of his nose when he heard one of them call out.

“Why if it isn’t Sarah! How nice to see you again!” He turned to see the girl hanging from the huge farm boy leading him towards them, when they got a few feet away she continued, “I’m glad to see you finally enjoying your new social status.” She looked Sebastian up and down with a smirk, then at Sarah with a smug grin, “Me and Thomas are to be wed next month, isn’t that wonderful?”

Sebastian was perfectly willing to let the slight go. He had never particularly cared what others thought of him, and since he was a mage now, nothing that these idiots thought mattered. He felt Sarah tense under his arm though, and realized that while he didn’t give a shit what the village idiots thought of him, Sarah was more than a little upset at one of her old friends insulting both her and Sebastian, and then taunting her about marrying the boy that didn’t want to be with her after she became a mage.

Sebastian sighed. Drama. This is exactly why I don’t bother with people. Now I have to teach morons lessons in morals before Sarah loses it and incinerates them. He took his arm off of Sarah’s shoulder and took a step towards the girl. “It would appear that your parents neglected to teach you proper respect for the Guild.” He lifted his right hand and began slowly removing the glove a finger at a time, “Did you really just walk up to two mages and insult them? Knowing full well that anything we do in retaliation would be judged solely by the Master of the local tower? Who just so happens to also be her personal master?”

The girl was staring at his hand, covered in runic swirls and glowing slightly, since he was still powering his ring. She looked considerably less confident in herself now, he guessed that she had done similar things to tease Sarah, and Sarah hadn’t been able to stand up for herself. Weird since she seems to have no problems whatsoever standing up to me, or bossing me around, or, wait, am I her friend or her lackey? It didn’t really matter, he could understand Sarah not wanting to face the girl that basically took her old place in life.

Time to really hammer this lesson home so I can be done with this shit. He began to chant his simple light spell he had made so long ago. As the mana rushed down his arm, the lines glowed brilliantly, slightly visible through the sleeve of his robe, and his palm began to emit an ominous red glow. The girl and her idiot didn’t wait to see what would happen next, they turned and ran as fast as they could, which was good as far as Sebastian was concerned. He had just learned another drawback to his fancy magic arm marks. He grit his teeth as his hand glowed brighter, the mana unable to escape. His hand started to feel like it was on fire, and he bent over around it, groaning. He tried to pull it back and let the spell out somewhere not covered in magic lines, but couldn’t. The spell had been cast, and it wanted out the way it had been told to get out.

He slammed his fist against the ground and was relieved when the light burst out, leaving a small scorch mark where his fist had hit. He shook his hand, the lines swirling and rippling with light as the mana dispersed back through him and leaving his skin tingling. He looked at Sarah who was staring at him in shock, and held out his other arm, “Let’s go back to the tower, I think I’m done shopping for now.”