Chapter 3: Tutor Beldin

Zane sat perfectly still, back straight against the velvet cushion of the chair carved by a master couturier. In front of him was a large desk made of polished black wood. The desk, just like the chair, was also carved by a master couturier. Castle Noxus, and all of its ancient bricks, stones, and rooms were extravagant to say the least.

Zane found it a waste of wealth, but then again, kings and queens had to make a display of their wealth lest they are found wanting by their peers. It would be a loss of face for the kings if their nobles were much more extravagant than themselves.

Castle Noxus, in all its dark glory, was the tallest castle in Noxus Kingdom and all of its lands. And the castle could have been taller if the very first Noxus had not built most of it deep underground. The dungeons of Castle Noxus were twisted with aged cobwebs and a small army could have marched themselves into the catacombs and stayed lost inside for well over a month.

To the surrounding kingdoms, the Noxus Kingdom came with many names. The Forsaken Lands, The Desolate Lands, and other similar names. It was quite an amusing fact to Zane. The only reason the Noxus Kingdom were called these names was due to its many necromancers, including the famous, or rather infamous Noxus royalty.

The lands of the Noxus Kingdom, in fact, had many fertile farmlands, greeneries, forests, fields of flowers, rivers, and many other colorful landscapes. Then again, the names did hold some truth. Noxus Kingdom was at the very southern edge of HavenFall with its back faced toward the ocean. Its borders were also guarded by many necromancers and their various grotesque servants.

Beside Zane in the study room, there was always the lich and the ever constant nudging of the bond they shared. A week had passed since Zane had transferred the soul of the sacrificial maiden to the dead female body of the mage, a term the commoners used frequently to call a Magus. A week that had passed since he took her chastity away—that is, if one could even take a dead woman’s chastity away.

Zane glanced at the lich beside him just a few steps away. Well, he thought to himself, it was more of an eye for an eye situation. Or in his and her case, a chastity for a chastity.

The lich was now dressed in a black robe with the Noxus insignia emblazoned on the threads. The robe was tight-fitting, and did nothing to stop the curves of her breasts. It was a distraction for others, but for Zane who barely held any passion, a mere curious glance was all it took to satisfy his urge.

In the lich’s memories, she now held both the memories of the sacrificial maiden and the memories of the female mage whose body acted as the container for the soul of the maiden.

“Did you enjoy fucking my cold dead body?” the lich suddenly asked. She had noticed Zane’s curious glance.

At the moment, the Omnus in control of the body was Tertius, Quintus, and Sextus. Tertius with his Conduct, Poise, Disposition, and Quintus with his Cunning, Intelligence, and Practicality. Lastly, Sextus with his Aptitude, Talent, and Prowess.

The personality that resulted from the combination of Tertius, Quintus, and Sextus was the one in control most of the times. And with the agreement of Omnus, the resulting tri-personality had been nicknamed Perfect Gentleman.

“Not as much as I would have thought,” Zane said with a sorry nod and a hand over his heart, a motion that looked so natural one would think Zane had practiced it thousands of times. It was all due to Tertius, who was always in his domain practicing such…necessities as he would like to believe himself.

Zane laughed wryly to himself mentally. Perfect Gentleman was not so perfect after all, for Quintus had a smart mouth on him, along with his crude humor.

“Bastard,” Lina growled.

The name Lina was a simple name Zane had given to the lich. He no longer wanted the lich beholden to the baggage attached to her previous name. She was no longer a human, after all. She was a Third Rank lich Magus of the Fifth Foci. It was the rank that the twenty-three years old female mage had achieved in her lifetime.

Through the part of her soul that existed inside Zane, they were now bonded in a master servant relationship. Zane owned both her body and soul. This was the main reason why the Noxus always used a lich to serve them. They held the utmost loyalty, albeit forced.

And although Lina had a mouth on her, she was still forced to obey Zane’s every command. In truth, Zane could have commanded her into being polite toward him, but logic suggested otherwise. Honesty was much better than subterfuge. Zane didn’t want Lina to find, say, creative ways of circumventing his orders.

The only conditions Zane had made her accept was to not harm him in any whatsoever means and to call him by his proper name when she was in the vicinity of others. King Gladius Balan Noxus ruled with a cold formality and he expected the utmost respect from his servants. And neither would he allow anyone to besmirch the Noxus name.

For a long time, Zane waited for Tutor Beldin to arrive inside the study room.

And when Tutor Beldin arrived, he entered the study room with a flair, and with the fat jiggling of his girth which Zane found to be almost taller this his height. A height that would have certainly made a tree green with envy. Tutor Beldin was a monstrous man of seven feet, and almost every inch of it muscles and fat, though the fat won out in the end.

As Tutor Beldin sat down on the chair, Zane almost thought his fat girth would fling the heavy desk away. Siting face to face with Zane, his beady black eyes scrunched up at Lina. “So that is the lich you fucked, Prince Zane?” Tutor Beldin chuckled loudly. “I don’t blame you for fucking her. She is pretty enough for a dead thing.”

“Who is this fat pig, Master Zane?” Lina said sweetly.

“Now, now Lina. You certainly do not mean that. A pig is already fat enough. You need not add another similar description. Instead, you should say Tutor Beldin is an intelligent pig,” Zane said with a graceful smile, a chiding in his voice.

“By the gods, your lich has a mouth on her. If your father, the king, were to hear this, she would certainly be turned into ashes,” Tutor Beldin said. He grinned, a motion that shook his double chins. “Well, her mouth is almost comparable to yours, Prince Zane.”

“My mouth was as innocent as it could be before Master Zane turned me into a lich with the memories of a dead mage.”

Ignoring the lich, Tutor Beldin looked around, studying the room with its many shelves of books in distaste. “Let us have a practical exam today at the courtyards. The sun is out and it will be a warm afternoon. And to be frank, you have an uncanny ability for memorization. In fact, I hold no doubts that almost all of the books in this library has been read by you already.”

He stood up, his jiggling girth hitting against the table once. “Now let’s get out of here.”

Standing up to follow Tutor Beldin through the doory, Zane turned toward the lich. “Stay here and read a few books, Lina.”

“Did you know, Master Zane?”

Zane paused, turning around again to meet Lina.

“I was illiterate before,” she said. “A simple daughter born in a village who only knew of the lands she could walk to in half a day. And that was to another neighboring village or town. But I was happy. Food was aplenty and there were no mages in our outskirt of a village. My family was large and my siblings. Then a mage slaver came and kidnapped most of the girls of the village. Until that day, I had never even seen a mage before. And now that I have seen them and am one myself…Fucking mages.”

Lina shook her head, her lips curling into a sad frown. “I do not even know why I bother telling you this. In the end, a dead prince like you would not care. How sad that I did not even know the names of the prince and the king until I came here to this castle.”

Hearing those words, a strange feeling picked at Zane’s heart. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but was quickly gone before he could even begin to identify it. Zane met the soft blue of her eyes.

Following alongside Tutor Beldin, Zane passed the twisted dark turns of Castle Nox. The corridors were many and the rooms likewise. And as if the castle itself wasn’t dreary enough, the walls were made of stone and wood painted black. Thankfully, the floor was white, one of the few bright things in Castle Noxus.

As for the windows of the castle, they were mostly blocked by heavy black drapes and curtains that barely allowed the sun to exert its reach inside. With a total of ten floors and four wings, Castle Noxus could easily hold a large army of two thousand. That is, if one didn’t count the outer wings and garrisons.

Finally, after many twists and turns, greetings from the maids, guards, and servants, they arrived at the end of the southern wing and with it, a flight of stairs that led to the bottom floor. Zane admired the sight of Tutor Beldin descending the stairs. It was a wonder how his weight did not break the stairs.

Normally, Father would have never allowed such a disgraceful appearance into Castle Noxus. Make no mistake, however. Tutor Beldin may not have looked it, but he was a competent man. A genius of genius, in fact.

For two years now, Tutor Beldin had been teaching Zane a smattering of Geography, Languages, History, Arithmetic, Geometry, Philosophy, Astronomy, and Agriculture. One can simply go on naming them and Tutor Beldin would have his fat fingers dipped into them, and teaching Zane.

Any other man or Magus would have been hard-pressed to hold so much knowledge, but Zane suspected that Tutor Beldin’s formidable reserves of fat acted as some sort of container for his knowledge.

But that wasn’t all there was to Tutor Beldin. He also knew a smattering of many of the diverse fighting arts, magic scriptures, and magic arts in HavenFall. With him, he had brought anatomical diagrams to show the pressure points of orcs, human bodies, goblins, and many other different bodies of various races.

But why had such a man come to pledge his allegiance to Father, Zane had wondered many times before when Tutor Beldin had first arrived. The answer had been intriguing, to say the least. Tutor Beldin had explained the story behind that with a laughter.

He had been caught impregnating the cousin of the princess in Whitria Kingdom. Sixteen years old and pretty as a red flower, Tutor Beldin had seduced her with his knowledge that had been gained from forty-five years of living and traveling. Fleeing from the Whitria Kingdom, Tutor Beldin had made his way across to the isolated Noxus Kingdom, gaining amnesty from Father.

Zane doubted that story though. It was simply unimaginable to imagine Tutor Beldin grunting on top of a woman, and a noble at that. The horrors that came along with that unimaginable image could even make Quartus with all his fury grow cold.

Out on the courtyards which numbered in the dozens, Tutor Beldin stood a few steps away from Zane. “Before we start on the practical side of things, let us truly test your knowledge.”

“Very well,” Zane said with a nod.

A finger scratching at his double chins which were always cleanly shaved, Beldin said, “In HavenFall, what is comparable to the power of the Magus?”

Zane frowned a little at that. It was an ambiguous question. A trick of a question. “There are many things comparable to the power of the Magus. For example, the power of a single normal man.”

Tutor Beldin arched a brow. Just a single brow. It made for a strange gesture to Zane. “That is an interesting notion. Do explain,” Beldin urged.

“A Magus is not an all-powerful being. Taking the words from the diverse religions of HavenFall, a Magus is not a God, Goddess, or the Three Fates. A normal man, if he is cunning enough, can kill an unsuspecting Magus easily. A warrior can also do such a thing. There is also political power, the power that can control the masses and influence others. One can use such a thing to overcome the power of the Magus. Then there are the dragons and the various races. They have no need of Surges. They have their own unique magics.” Zane paused for a breath. “Need I go on?”

Beldin shook his head. “No, that is enough. You are correct as usual most of the times, Prince Zane. There should be no arrogance in a Magus, nor should there be in any other people. Everything is fallible, prone to the urges of time and death. Now then, let us test you on simple calculations. Give me your best estimations on the speed of basic magic spells of Magus at different ranks. Then enlighten me on the controlling of basic magic spells.”

Zane frowned a little. It was a loaded question full of various answers, calculations, and dependencies on the situations. He had read many books that had given answers to this same question, but none of them had ever given similar answers. Not wanting to believe everything he read, Zane had conducted his own experiments using various tools, a few of which had been quite expensive. Tools such as the runic hourglass and machine clocks were quite hard to come by.

Thinking some more, Zane decided to answer the question by taking into consideration of all the answers and experiments he had learned from.

“If we are going by normal or average standards,” Zane began. “A First Rank Fire Magus could theoretically throw out a fireball that can travel at a speed of twenty five feet per second. However, the speed of the fireball could also depend on the affinity of the Fire Magus and his knowledge. For example, the Fire Magus could manipulate and shape the fireball into something faster if he was skilled or talented enough.”

Pausing a brief moment, Zane waited for Tutor Beldin to say something, but there came no affirmation or chiding.

Tutor Beldin only said, “Continue, Prince Zane.”

“Now, if the Fire Magus becomes a Second Rank, his Surge will devour the ten Foci, increasing to a total of two spikes and likewise, also increasing in size. Theoretically, that would allow the Fire Magus to cast a basic fireball that could travel at twice the speed, at a maximum speed of fifty feet per second. And each increase in rank will add another twenty-five feet per second to the maximum speed. Of course, this is only theoretical as there is the wind, terrain, and the basic talent and affinity of the Magus to consider. There are many conditions affecting the theory.”

“Naturally, the different elements of the spells, such as a water blade compared to a fireball will result in different speeds. Usually, the water blade will travel much faster. The same varying conditions are inherent in the other basic magic spells also.”

“As for your enlightenment on the control of basic magic spells,” Zane said calmly, not even putting the slightest sarcasm into his words, “a First Rank Fire Magus can usually control up to eight basic fireballs, though that depends on the capabilities of both his Surge and his mind.”

“Hmmm,” Tutor Beldin hummed. “I will give your answers seventy marks out of a hundred marks. And that is only because I am being gracious. Oh yes, and five marks subtracted for your sarcasm.” Tutor Beldin smoothed out his raven hair which was always well oiled and greased backward, showing off his all-too prominent features. “Now, for my third question, how many Surges do you believe a Magus can have or be born with?”

At that question, suspicion quickly entered Zane’s mind. He thought of his own five Surges, but everything he had ever read or heard about only said that a Magus could have up to three Surges. It was a simple question with an easy answer, yet why had Tutor Beldin asked him this question?

Could it be that Beldin suspected him of having five Surges? But that was strange. It had already been two years since Zane had created the four other Surges in his Magus Domain. If Beldin knew of them, then he would have certainly asked Zane this question earlier. Zane had only told Beldin of his water Surge and fire Surge. He had never told him of the two extra Surges he had created.

Could there be some magical means of detection Zane wasn’t aware of? It was a likely possibility. Zane had taken all the countermeasures he could to the best of his knowledge, but he knew that his knowledge was still lacking.

“Three at the most,” Zane said. “But even if a Magus is born with only one Surge, the Magus can still create two extra Surges in his Magus Domain depending on the capabilities of his mind, his talent, and his affinities.” Zane paused briefly, inspecting Tutor Beldin’s unchanged face. “But of course,” Zane continued, “the Surges that a Magus is born with is always the most powerful and the ones the Magus have the most affinity with.”

As Zane glanced at Tutor Beldin, he found his face unreadable. “There is also the matter of lineage. If both parents themselves are Magus, there is a greater chance of a Magus being born.”

Tutor Beldin nodded his fat head, the double chins quivering. His beady black eyes sharpened a look at Zane. “What I want to know, however, Prince Zane, is not that. I want to know of probabilities that should be impossible. Can a Magus be born with more than three Surges or have more than three Surges? For example, can a Magus have five Surges?”

Zane did not freeze at his question and answered without hesitation and calmly as always. “That could be a possibility, Tutor Beldin,” Zane said with a calm, ponderous voice. “I have always been inclined to believe in the impossibilities. Anything can happen, after all. Even a Magus being born with five Surges, though four Surges would be more likely. A Magus could perhaps even be born with a Surge that could control five Essences, two more Essences than our family’s unique Surges can.”

“Indeed, Zane. But I wonder what would happen if a Magus were to have five Surges. Fire, Water, Earth, Light, and perhaps darkness. That would be a wonderful combination, would it not be, Prince Zane?” Tutor Beldin said, his face still unchanged.

He knew. Tutor Beldin even knew the specific Essences his Surges were for! But Zane didn’t give up his façade. “That does sound intriguing, Tutor Beldin. In the history I have read, there have only been one Magus born with three natural Surges that could each control up to three Essences, making for a total of Nine Essences.”

“Very good, Prince Zane,” Tutor Beldin said, a red auric flame shrouding his left hand and a blue auric mist shrouding his right hand. Tutor Beldin was a Sixth Foci Fire Magus of the Sixth Rank and a Fifth Foci Water Magus of the Sixth Rank.

“Now let us begin the practical exam.” A large grin lit his face. “If you can make me even move one step away from this position, it will be your victory. Another method to defeat me is when enough time has lapsed that I deem the result to be your victory. And my silent defeat,” Tutor Beldin stated, emphasizing the second to last word.