Chapter 16

“What now?” Gwandere asked.

After they left the lift, with the receptionist for some weird reason missing, they found themselves on the steps of the Mage’s Tower/Academy/Dragon’s nest.

Jason looked from left, then right, before plopping down on the steps. “I honestly don’t know.” He sighed “This is usually the moment where something drastic hap-”

BOOM

A giant explosion interrupted their conversation as the ear shattering sound rocked the very foundations of the street they were standing on.

“Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. Come on!” Jason grinned before sprinting towards the source of the sound.

“I’m getting really tired of all his crap.” Ilios grumbled as the rest ran after Jason.

“But we can’t really do anything about it can we? We can’t just say no to the guy that made our life ten times better.” Nasha said reprimandingly.

“Well we should!” Ilios shot back.

“I don’t mind.” Peyton chimed in.

Ilios scoffed “Of course you don’t. You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”

“Yeah!” Peyton smiled a manic smile as he pumped his fist in the air.

The group jogged around the building and came in sight of the catastrophe of what occurred. A warehouse was ablaze, even though the explosion happened only a few seconds ago, nearly the entire thing was covered by the fire. People screamed as a supporting beam collapsed inside, letting the flames roar even higher, cows and sheep charged out of the open doorway as a few desperate farmers tried to hold the archway intact.

And among the chaos of sparks and ash, grinning like a madman, was Jason.

His arms were turned to literal pillars of water as he directed the massive amounts of liquid onto the surrounding walls and roof, he flailed about left and right, extinguishing the fires while looking as happy as a schoolboy playing in a puddle.

The fire was quickly beaten back by Jason’s fire hose like arms, in his over enthusiasm, he probably did more harm than good, destroying wooden supports and whatnot with the force of the water. Nevertheless, the people were grateful

“Thank you sir!” One bedraggled farmer said as hecame up to Jason.

The man was covered from head to toe in soot, his beard had still hot embers in them and his shirt was puckered full of holes.

“Without you, we would have lost three months’ worth of harvest.” The man continued, clasping Jason’s hand.

“Do not worry my man, helping those who can’t help themselves is what my responsibility is.” Jason replied giving the man a friendly pat on the back.

“Halt!” Someone cried out from behind them, prompting Jason to immediately change his clothes to something simple and peasant like.

A troop of armed guards with spears and halberds approached the duo, they wore a strangely pompous uniform, with a bright red plume stuck into the top of their helmet while wearing sandals, making them look like a cross between Roman legionnaires and Greek spearmen.

“We’ve seen there’s a fire, what happened?” The guard with a slightly bigger feather asked.

“It was quenched.” Jason replied jovially.

The watchman glanced at Jason suspiciously before turning over to the man with the still smoking beard.

“How was the fire put out?” He asked.

The smoking farmer merely pointed at Jason, “It was him sir, all him.”

The captain once more turned to Jason, “It seems I owe you a thank you, without you, the fire would have probably burned down the entire district.”

It was obvious he wasn’t happy to keep talking to Jason but the man in question happily ignored his attitude, opting to say instead,

“Of course captain, it was least I could do as an upstanding citizen.”

The plumed captain’s scowl deepened in response. He was not liking this arrogant man in front of him, saviour or not.

“And how, might I ask, did you manage to douse an entire warehouse with water in the space of a few minutes without any assistance and equipment?”

“Oh that?” Jason waved his hand. “I just used magic.”

As a demonstration Jason once again turned his hands into water, two torrents of liquid the power of a water spout spurted on to the cobblestones seemingly coming out of Jason’s wrists. The audience gasped in awe at the sight, but the captain’s face contorted into something much darker.

“Sir may I see your licence?”

“Licence?” Jason parroted back as he made a trick with the water.

“Your magic licence” The man stepped closer to Jason, grasping the hilt of his sword.

Jason smiled as he made a figurine out of the water, it was a depiction of the guard captain doing cartwheels in the air. “I assure you sir, I have no such thing.”

That was all the invitation the captain needed.

“Men! Arrest this man!”

Much to everyone’s mounting horror, Jason happily held his hands out as the guards shackled him with some sort of magical handcuffs, it was surprisingly heavy.

“I, Kurtis Tanner, Captain of the City Guard, arrest you for the unlawful practise of magic in public, you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your deference if you do not mention when questioned with something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do or say may be given in evidence.”

“No! You can’t do that.” Ilios cried out.

The kids rushed over to the commotion only to be stopped by the guards surrounding Jason.

“Girl, do you know this man?” The captain asked Ilios.

Ilios was about to respond when a strange voice entered her thoughts.

Don’t worry about me, go home to your mother and tell her what happened, I expect to see you guys by the end of the day. Before you ask, yes I’ll be alright.

“Girl? I ask again, do you know this man?” The captain was getting very annoyed at the whole ordeal now.

Ilios was gaping at Jason, trying to wrap her mind around what just happened. Fortunately for her, Nasha was there to intervene.

“No we don’t officer, in fact, we’ll be leaving now, come on Ilios.”

Nasha grabbed her arm and smoothly led her away, followed by Peyton and Gwandere.

“Why did you do that?” Ilios asked once they were out of earshot.

“Because Jason asked us to.” Nasha responded calmly, leading them back to the mage tower.

“But he just got arrested by the City Guard!” Ilios cried, desperately trying to claw back towards Jason.

Nasha stopped and looked Ilios in the eye. “You do understand this is Jason we’re talking about?” She asked, “Do you think that a group of guards can stop him? After all you’ve seen him say and do? He is practically best friends with an Arch Mage!” She said waving her hands towards the dragon still resting on the top of the nearby skyscraper.

“Well… I guess that’s true.” Ilios hazarded, still reluctant to let the matter go.

At that moment Fletcher on the back of the carriage came up to them and motioned for them to get in.

“Where are we going?” Nasha asked.

The chauffeur remained silent however, taking them ever onward into the city.

Jason watched the group walk back the way they came, prompting him to send Fletcher a command to pick them up with a thought.

The captain followed his gaze and asked “Do you know them?”

Jason shook his head. “Na, but it was nice to see someone standing up for me.”

Kurtis scowled at Jason and began marching away, motioning to two guards, they grabbed Jason by the forearms and hauled him forward, Jason, content to let the guards do the hard work, dragged his feet on the ground behind him, forcing his carriers pull his entire body weight, which Jason increased a bit just for good measure.

They seemed to be heading to another wagon, but this one had none of the elegance his did, opting to have spikes and bars instead of comfortable seats.

“I suppose that’s for me?” Jason asked.

The guards ignored him and kept dragging him towards the iron monstrosity, one of them opened the door and together they shoved Jason into the behemoth of steel.

“I guess it is.” Jason continued, “And I’m guessing we’re gonna go to the barracks where I’ll spend a day in the hold before you release me with a spank and a warning.”

The cart started moving, they trundled along at a snail pace through the streets but no one paid them any mind, actually, there wasn’t anyone there to pay them any mind, it was past noon and the streets were deserted.

Jason made a stone and threw it at one of the guards, it clanged against the helmet before bouncing harmlessly onto the street. The furious guard whipped around at Jason and looked like he was about to beat the shit out of him but Jason started speaking before he could even take a step forward.

“Hey tin can! Why are the streets empty?”

The man went over to the cage and unlocked it, dragged Jason out of the coach and threw him onto the ground.

“Listen here roach! You don’t get to do that here! I don’t care what hole you sprang from but I’ll beat you so hard that a punching bag will feel sorry for you!”

The entire squad stopped to watch what the commotion was on about, no one really bothered to try and stop them though, even the guard captain was just sitting behind the reins, grinning slightly.

The guard tried to follow up with his previous threat, and he tried really, really hard. But for some reason his foot never managed to land on Jason, always missing by the tiniest of margins.

Jason on the other hand was spewing with laughter, rolling from left to right in the grime and dust, moving just enough for the bystanders to think their fellow was truly missing by accident.

“So anyway… *stomp* you don’t happen to know… *stomp* why there’s no one around… *stomp* would you?”

A few of the guards were sniggering at the spectacle, but none volunteered any information except Kurtis.

“There’s a festival on, it’s the birthday of one of the daughters of the king.” He said, chuckling.

“Oh really? Which one?” Jason asked still on the ground.

“Dunno, there’s so many of them, really makes you feel sorry for the old bastard.” The captain replied.

“How so?” Jason wasn’t even rolling now, just sitting there, ignoring the man whose stamps and kicks were getting more and more frantic.

“You see, he’s got all these daughters, but not a single son! Makes a man think if he’s cursed or somethin’.” Kurtis replied, scratching his chin.

Jason hummed to himself, “That sounds interesting I’ll go have a look.”

And without further ado, he jumped up and sprinted away into an alley.

“Sto-” the guard who was still standing with his foot in the air cried but it was already too late.

“Why’d you let him just leave like that.” He cried in outrage, turning towards his captain, desperate to be angry at someone.

“Because, you idiot, he was using a spell that stopped you from hitting him, now I don’t know much about magic but I think it would have been way easier for him to just zap you and be done with it, he probably could have killed you but refrained from doing so, and that speaks volumes in my book. We’ll let him off this time.”

“But…” The indignant guard gaped at his commanding officer. “That’s not our decision to make!”

Tanner looked around the rest of the company, some of his men were grinning, others whistling and looking away, while others were just plain bored. “Men, does anyone remember capturing a rouge mage?”

His question was answered by a modicum of snorts and wha?’s. Satisfied he turned back to the guard and said, “No one saw anything. I guess we’ll just have to go back to the watch house empty handed.”

“No! I refuse!” The guard by now was frothing at the mouth. He was the one who asked the questions! He was the one that beat the criminals! The scum are supposed to beg and grovel at his feet! His!

Kurtis growled at that, “If you don’t stand down I’ll arrest you myself for insubordination and for the attempted assault of a civilian, understand?”

Against all odds, the furious watchman managed to get himself under control, thinking it would be very bad if his career had such an ignoble end.

“I understand sir, no one saw nothing.” A gritted through clenched teeth.

Tanner grunted and patted the man on the shoulder, “Good, you’re learning. Now form up and lock that bloody door!” he gestured towards the still open prison door the man opened to get Jason out of his makeshift cell.

“Yes sir.” The man said sighing.