“Ashter?” asked Vreil.

“Tell me, child.”

“I think the horses are getting tired. Why don’t we take a break?”

He didn’t want to sound grumpy, but they had been riding their horses for many hours and certain parts of his body were under some serious strain.

“Are the horses tired, or are you?” the old wizard raised a brow, blowing a puff of smoke out. He was currently enjoying the company of his beloved pipe. “There is nothing to be ashamed of. If you want to stop, just tell me. Do not use our horses as an excuse.”

Vreil sighed. “Fine, can we take a break, please?”

“Now, that is more like it”, Ashter smiled, pulling on his reins.

After Vreil had agreed to join Ashter’s revolution, at least temporarily, they had walked to a wide forest path and waited for some soldiers to pass. When two came running on their horses, probably messengers about them, Ashter ambushed them and used a spell to knock them out. He said it was a wind spell, but to Vreil it looked more like an actual hammer had appeared out of thin air and hit them. The old man was clearly showing off.

They’d then tied the two guards to a tree a little deeper in the forest and took their horses and money. The unconscious guards were also kind enough to lend Vreil a sword. He was feeling a little bad for them, but he knew that tying them up was the best move they could do. Not only did they get horses, money, and a weapon, but they stopped Daybreak from warning other towns about them, at least temporarily.

Vreil got off his horse, admiring it all the while. It was a beautiful, brown horse, with warm and soft fur. It was small in size, but sturdy and fast. Apparently, its previous owner didn’t take good care of it, since it wasn’t too upset to see the man tied up and left behind. As Vreil observed it, the horse neighed happily. They liked each other.

“I will name you Thunder”, laughed Vreil.

“Do not be stupid”, shouted Ashter, who had already walked to a small stream next to the dirt trail they were following. “You could not imagine how many people name their horses Thunder, or Storm, or even Rudolf, depending on nose color. You could not find a more cliché name. You might as well name it Mud, since it is brown.”

“You don’t have to be mean”, Vreil mumbled. “I will name him Boom, then”.

“Boom? How come?”

“I don’t know, he kinda seems like a Boom”. The horse neighed, perhaps saying "yes" in horshish. Vreil briefly wondered what the horse would call him if it could speak. Did he also seem like a Boom? Or a Rudolf? He hadn’t really gotten the part about nose color.

Ashter laughed. “Anyway, come here. I want to show you something.”

Letting Boom familiarize himself with the new name and the nearby grass, Vreil approached Ashter by the stream.

“I told you I would teach you magic, did I not? Listen up”, the wizard was still chewing on his pipe, smiling contentedly as he crossed his legs on the moist grass next to the water.

“Magic is not something all people can access. If you did not have magic inside you, I could never teach you to use it, even if I tried for years. Strange as it may seem, the magic in your body is gathered mainly in your stomach. That is your magic storage, in a way. When you want to use magic, you draw it from there. How much magic you can utilize before running out relies on the size of your storage, which is different for each person. Naturally, more powerful and more complicated spells draw more magic.”

Vreil dipped his feet in the stream, enjoying the feeling of cold water running through his toes. The sun was bright, the breeze was cool, and the sky was clear. Today was a pleasant day. He took a deep breath, savoring the stream’s moist air before speaking.

“Those spells you used on the soldiers back in Daybreak, and the one you used on the ones who gave us their horses, how powerful were they?”

“They were not powerful, but they were not too weak either. I could throw a lot of them before running out”, Ashter said proudly.

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“How many of those could I use?”

“I do not know, that depends on the size of your storage. We could measure it if we were in Waterslide, but without the proper equipment it is impossible.”

“Can’t I just use spells until I run out?” Vreil raised a brow. “Then we can determine the size of my storage.”

“Its official name is ‘source’, by the way. But very well, that is an excellent idea, I must surely be dumb for not thinking that. Cast spells until you run out”, Ashter nodded, stroking his beard as he raised his head and exhaled a ring of smoke towards the clear sky above.

“But I don’t know how!” Vreil complained. Was the wizard making fun of him? Asshole.

“See? That is why we cannot do that. And besides, running out is not so simple. Spells use up a lot of mental strength as well, so you could become mentally exhausted way before running out. If despite that, you manage to run out, you will probably die”.

“What? Why?” Vreil exclaimed in horror. Dying was not on his list of priorities.

“If you try to draw more magic power than what you have, your body will try to dig deeper into your stomach and then your other organs until it finds enough of it. Simply put, once you command your body to “draw magic”, it will not stop until it has drawn it, even if it kills you in the process. Do not worry though. Your magic will slowly regenerate with time. You will not run out so easily”.

“Shouldn’t the body have some way to protect itself in this case? What if I’m stupid?”

“It does have a way to protect itself. Using magic exhausts you mentally so it is difficult to run out. See how we came full circle? But again, you need not worry. You are an Arknas, so your storage is guaranteed to be quite sizeable.”

“Oh", for some reason Vreil didn't feel too pacified by the wizard's assurances. "How does my magic regenerate? I would prefer not to die, if possible.”

“There is some magic power circulating your body along with your blood. When you breathe in, a tiny amount of magic is drawn into your lungs, which is then infused into your bloodstream in the same way that air is. That excess of magic is then deposited in your storage”.

“Wow. That all sounds so…”

“Magical?”

“No, natural. So how do I cast spells?” Vreil asked excitedly.

“It takes a lot of practice. One of the easiest things to manipulate is the air around you. You have to empty your mind and focus on it. View the air as being made out of millions of tiny particles, then imagine those particles all moving towards one specific spot, let’s say my head. If you do it right, I will feel the wind on my face”.

Vreil sneered in his mind. The air made of tiny particles, what a crazy notion. But he did as Ashter told him, he cleared his mind and then imagined lots of tiny pieces of air heading towards the magician’s head.

“Nothing happened”, he said disappointed.

“Of course nothing happened. I just told you that it takes practice”, Ashter puffed out some more smoke. “So, did you get tired?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I mean, I do feel a little tired, but I’m not sure whether it’s due to the magic.”

“This is a good first step, then. Okay, lesson one is over. Drink as much water as you can and get back on your horse. I want us to reach the next village before nightfall.”

Vreil did as Ashter told him. Before he hopped on Boom, he grabbed the sword that one of the soldiers had unwillingly gifted him. Having it strapped to his belt as he was riding was uncomfortable, so he’d hung it on the saddle. Now, he put it back on his belt, as he figured it would be better that way.

If we are approaching a village, I may as well have this on me just in case, he mused.

As they were moving, Vreil was thinking about magic. My stomach, huh? How strange. Does that mean I puke magic?

He tried to visualize the innumerable particles in the air being pushed to the side by his horse as it was walking, and then closing again behind it. He looked up with the intention of observing the clouds float on these supposed particles, but there wasn’t a single cloud to be seen. He was disappointed at first, but then he imagined himself travelling in the rain for hours and then, suddenly, he didn’t mind the clouds’ absence.

Suddenly, a fly landed on the right ear of his horse. Vreil raised his hand to send the fly away, but then he had an idea. He put his hand down and then frowned, once again trying to visualize the air as being made out of many, tiny particles. He imagined the particles next to the fly and commanded them to push it. The fly took off! Was it his magic, or did the fly decide to leave on its own? He wasn’t sure.

🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️

The village of Mantlis was particularly small. Vreil observed it as they were riding through the main street on their way to the inn. The village was built atop a small hill but, even though it should have some military value given its position, it looked neglected. There were less than a hundred houses, much like Vreil’s village. A notable thing was that everything was made out of wood. Even a small fire getting out of control could burn the entire area to the ground.

Vreil was busy looking at the village itself, so it took him some time to notice that the streets were empty. He took a better look at the houses and saw people, with scared looks on their faces, peeping at them through the windows.

“Why are they looking at us like this?” he whispered to Ashter.

“I do not know, maybe they are afraid of us”, the wizard attempted to whisper back.

Vreil sighed silently. With his deep, booming voice, Ashter couldn’t whisper even if he tried to.

“Or maybe they are afraid of someone else”, he replied. An old man and a teenager couldn’t be too scary. And he was making sure to always keep his eyes half-closed, hiding their dual coloration as much as possible.

“We can always ask the innkeeper”, said Ashter as they reached their inn. It was a small building with no extra floors, and it looked barely able to accommodate more than five people.

The two hopped off their horses and a blonde boy who shouldn’t be more than twelve years old led the animals to the barn.

“Welcome, travelers. I am Teder, your innkeeper. Would you like to stay here for one night or more?” said the person behind the counter, a middle-aged man with a healthy belly, when they walked through the door.

“One night, please”, Ashter replied and passed him some money.

“Follow me to your rooms then”, Teder the innkeeper nodded, walking towards a door on the far side of the building. As they were heading for their rooms - it wasn’t much of a walk, really -, Vreil couldn’t contain his curiosity.

“The people here seem scared of something. Was it us, or someone else?”

Abruptly, the innkeeper stopped walking, turning around to shoot Vreil a strange look.

“No, no, of course it’s not you. But a lot has been going on lately. People have been disappearing only to be found later as piles of blood and bones. We’ve never had shortage of crime in this village, but this… They look as if they were torn apart by wild animals. Wolves don’t usually come to this area and, even when they do, they don’t bother with the villagers. A rumor has been going around lately. They say it's a werewolf. But werewolves are only supposed to appear during a full moon, so… Everyone’s afraid of the worst.”

Ashter snorted. “Werewolves are nothing but bedtime stories. It is much more possible that one of the villagers has snapped.”

“Why don’t you ask the Green House for help? They are the ones responsible for your village”, Vreil recentered the conversation.

“The Houses have become pretty unreliable lately”, the innkeeper shook his head, stopping in front of a door. “The Green House says that they cannot spare the manpower. We even tried asking the Red House, god save us, and they replied they would send someone, but it’s been weeks and nobody has shown up yet. People are afraid he was attacked by the werewolf in the forest”, Teder shook his head. "But, as you said, werewolves are stories."

The man sighed, his attitude revealing he was tired of this conversation.

“Breakfast will be served in the morning. When you wake up, let me know and I will get it ready. Have a nice sleep”, the innkeeper informed them, waving them goodbye and handing them the keys.

They had separate rooms. Vreil didn’t have any luggage he needed to leave in his own room so he followed Ashter into the other one.

“I don’t like how the Houses ignore this village. Shouldn’t we do something?” he asked.

“Like what?”

“We could find the killer ourselves. You are a wizard. Don’t you have a way to track him?”

“Magic does not work that way”, Ashter replied without looking at Vreil, instead checking the room. “Unfortunately, finding him would take a lot of time and we do not have that luxury. The soldiers from Daybreak will catch up to us in two days at the most if we stay here. The villagers can ask for their help when they arrive.”

"I thought you protected the weak", Vreil frowned deeply. "I hope coming with you wasn't a mistake."

Ashter stopped what he was doing and looked at Vreil, a flicker of pain hidden deep in his eyes. Vreil didn't notice. "We cannot save everyone, Vreil. We just do what we can, and trust some people to solve their own problems. There is no other way, as much as I would have liked to."

Vreil snorted angrily. "Well, this is not what I signed up for", he declared and, before Ashter had time to reply, left the room and banged the door behind him.

The wizard sighed. "Teenagers..." he mumbled to himself, continuing his search for hidden traps in the room.

He hoped it would be a peaceful night, but he knew better than that. Fate's wheel had already started turning and even he, for all his immortal power, could not stop it. What will you choose to do, Vreil?