42th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

I'm currently sitting at a round table along with other 5 men. In front of me is Aving, on his right side is his oldest son and on his left side is William Wylcey, The captain of the first legion under the king control. At my left is Margaret Lyne. She is the leader of the mage's association within the kingdom. And beside her is Raffin Reeve, the leader of the mercenary guild. After the marquis introduced them to me, he starts talking:

“We all know why we are gathered here. The kingdom is under a possible threat, so the king chose us to lead the army who will destroy the threat.”

“I understand that. What I don't understand is why this child is here?” William spoke revolted.

“Zephyr is a great asset for our army. He is a third tier mage and a great swordsman. Beside that, he's the one that is making the weapons for two of my legions.”

Everyone other then Aving son is watching me with surprise.

“To think that he is a third tier at his age is pretty amazing” Margaret added.

“Let's keep this matter for another time. Marquis Aving how much troops do we have in total?” Raffin asks.

“We have six legions from our neighbours, all my four legions, another six from nobles's army and six legions from the king's army. The total is twenty two legions. Each legion is made out of 25 knights, 100 soldiers, 50 archers, 5 priests and 10 mages. So, the total army that the kingdom can detach is 550 knights, 2.200 soldiers, 1.100 archers, 110 priests and 220 mages. The priests and mages are first and second tier. They are not so powerful but they numbers it will help us.”

'Those are quite some numbers if you ask me' I thought myself.

While everyone is thinking, Margaret Lyne starts talking.

“The mage's association can send at most 100 second tier mages and 15 third tier mages. We would send more but right know half of our mages are at the barrier.”

“So the things really got worse there. I thought it was only a rumor.”

“No Raffin, unfortunately it's not. Right now we do all we can to resist until the reinforcement from magocracy are arriving.”

Raffin stood a little to think and then spoke: “Well anyway... the mercenary guild will provide you with 1.000 troops, 50 mages and 25 priests.”

"That's good" Aving added.

Thinking for a while, I stood up and start speaking: “Why don't we ask the help from the church?”

“Why did you bother to get this child here marquis Aving?” William spoke in disgust.

“We tried Zephyr but the church sustained that they don't have enough trained priests to help us.”

“By the way, when will you finish the weapons?”

“There should be ready in five days.”

“Perfect. We will start moving one week earlier. That will confer us a great advantage. We will depart on the 48th day of Finore.”

After all the people left the room, Aving took me close to him and started talking.

“What do you think?”

“Well, I will join you, but I don't like the lack of magical power.”

“I know how you feel, but this is all I can do.” Aving said this with a sad expression.

I left the room and got to the forge where I worked all day.

***

46th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

I finished the weapons one day earlier and now I'm going to shops for some new armor and maybe some magical items. Well, not that I really need magical items, but you never know when they will be useful. I'm walking down the road and I stop in front of a armor shop. From outside I can see a armor that awakens my interest. It is a black leather armor with three red crystals of its chest. I entered the shop and asked the seller to tell me more about that armor.

“You got a good eye boy. This armor was worn by the King Gery the third. It's a powerful enchanted item that blocks strong physical attack as long as there is aether within the crystals.”

“What do you mean aether within the crystals?”

“You don't know? Well I will tell you but i'm not very knowledgeable about those things, so I my be wrong.”

“Don't worry, please explain me.”

“All I know is that some crystals can be combined with aether, and the crystals resulted can be add on a item to give him magical power. When the aether within the crystals is gone, there are two ways to refill it: First method, is to let the crystal to absorb the aether from nature, with it would take a while. This method is mostly used by normal people. The other method is working only if you are a mage or a preist, and you need to use your own aether to fill the crystal.”

“There are more advantages for mages or priests. For example, if you have a good amount of aether you can keep refilling the crystal, and the magic stays active always.”

“So, why are three crystals on the armor?”

“Well, the armor was made to be worn by a normal person. One crystal is for the protection against physical attacks, the other two are simple aether crystals that are only storing and refill with aether. “

“A normal person can wore this armor for one week before it's run out of aether. Then it take two weeks to recharge the crystals. The bad side of his technology is that you can't use a crystal that is recharging from nature. You must wait until it's fill up and then you can start using it again. It's the same with recharging it, you can't recharge it from nature if it's not completely empty. The good side it's that if you are a mage, you won't be restricted by those rules.”

“There is any way to remove some of the crystals?”

“Of course that there is. A good enchanter can remove them. But if the enchanter is not skilled enough there is a chance to broke the crystal in the proces.”

“Young man are you a mage?”

“Yes I am.”

“Then this would be a very good armor for you. A mage is weak at physical attacks, but with a armor like that you won't have any problems. Unfortunately there is a little to expensive and I don't think that you can afford it.”

“What's the price?”

“2.500 darns.”

“I will buy it.”

“Do you have the money?” The seller asks amazed.

“Yes I have.”

In the next moment I take my money out and start counting them. When I finished he took the money and counted them again. Then he gave me the armor and told me that there is a enchanter down the street if i'm interested.

As I'm walking down the street I start thinking

‘I'm very lucky that I found this. Right now I don't know a spell that can protect me from physical attacks. At the battlefield this will be very useful.’

‘All I have to do know is to change those useless crystals with some goodies. I'm curious what can I add on the armor.’

I stop in front of a building. The windows were like crystals and over the door, was a big red stone shaped like a crystal. I'm going in the building and a little old man is comes before me.

“What can I do for you ?”

“I'm here to remove two crystals from my armor and to add another two.”

“Come with me”

I followed him in a chamber where is a huge white crystal on a table.

“Give me the armor” I take the armor from my bag and give it to him.

“This is a pretty good armor kid. The material must be quite resistant to hold three crystals. It must had cost a fortune.”

“Yeah I know”

“He puts the armor on the white crystal and then a light flashed from it.”

“So, which crystals should I remove?”

“The simple ones”

“As I thought” He said that with a funny face.

He puts his hands on the armor and starts chanting a spell. In the next moment, two crystals are detached and they fall on the floor. I picked them up and he asked me if I want to sell them for 150 dinars each.

I accepted and told him that I want to buy some powerful crystals. He took me to another room. In this room, the wall are full with crystals. He guide me to a place where are the powerful ones.

I seen a lot of different crystals: high fire protection, light object, high steel skin, and other. I decided to choose high poison protection and high magic resistance. The old man took the crystals and fused them with the armor. I took the armor and paid 1.200 darns. I only have left 1.800 darns and I will use them to buy a good weapon.

After I few hours I found a good black sword with two crystals on it. One of them is light object, which removes the weight of the enchanted object. The other one is high heat which heats the blade at hundred of degrees without damaging the sword. I paid 1.200 darns and got back to the marquis's mansion.

***

46th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford – cathedral

“Did you found something about the event that took place two weeks ago?” Ephes Payne asks the man before him.

“Yes. Tracing the signature of the aether we found out that it was only one person.”

“That's no good. Where did this sixth tier mage come?”

“We don't know. Not even the mage's association or the magocracy's leaders don't know nothing about another sixth tier mage. In fact those events worried all of them.”

“That's not good Slaine. A mage so powerful couldn't just appear from nowhere. Someone must have trained him. If this person decides to interfere with our plans we would have big problems.”

“Maybe it's better to ask the kingdom for help as long as we are still in a good relationship.” Slaine added.

“Indeed, maybe those retards can do something. They are still asking for troops?”

“Yes sir!”

“Good. We will give them some priests and in exchange they will help us with the mage. In addition to this, the priests can report to as what would happen on the battlefield.”

“By the way, send the message: - When this war is over, the operation begins ."