Chapter 5

Wager?

"You stand in the presence of Tobias Frejer heir to the Fejer Consortium of the Merchant City Masin. Son to the advisor of Masin’s king, a noble far above your station. What is your purpose in the Antarian Desert? "

The young man observed them with his nose tilted upwards.

He’s a quite a high ranking noble and arrogant bastard. Obviously we are traveling merchants Faerwald thought, realising the man was trying to provoke them.

Slightly agitated, Maia responded;" as you can see good sir, we are travelling to sell our wares in Denari."

"I can see that, you common merchants. All merchants are required to pay a fee to the Frejer Consortium to travel the trade route."

Faerwald noticed Maia was becoming increasingly angry with the noble.

“This route is a toll-free route and has been for 100 years," Maia said while whispering under her breath; 'be calm, be calm'.

I think that’s more for herself than for me.

"Used to be! We purchased the rights to the trade route for merchants two days ago." Not bothering to hide his full blown smile anymore he said; "don't worry, for a small fee of 50 gold you can be on your way."

Maia began fuming; " You scoundrel, that price is too much. We won't be able to pay for entrance in the gates of Denari".

So much for staying calm Faerwald thought at the tone of his companion.

Disdain filled the face of the young noble. He began to raise his voice. “You WILL pay. In return for the small fee, merchants are given full protection along the travelling route. A full fighting force roam the route. Temporarily including even two master class combatants. They hunt monsters along this road so scum like you can travel in peace.

If you can't comply with the requirements of our recent trade agreement we will relinquish you of all your items and gold."

Deciding to speak out, Faerwald added; “You haven't even protected us, we were just attacked by a master class beast a night ago!"

The nobleman’s eyes widened, surprised that they managed to survive. At that point a deep calm voice interrupted the heated argument. It was the mage.

“Did it happen to be a Triple Threat blood Lion, like these two", pointing to the two Lions reined in by Tobias.

The man showed no deference to his employer and ignored the look he received from the man for interrupting him

"Yes, it was." Maia's shoulders sank, she realised she had no choice if the mage or the young warrior got involved. Even the nobleman couldn’t boss the two top class combatants around, after all, any other kingdom would gladly have them.

"Unfortunately, that would be our fault. Tobias wanted to add the beast to his little collection of master class Lions. This one was strong enough to resist completely submitting, even to us. You don't have to pay anything and we will escort you to Denari..." The mage was cut short by an indignant shout.

"That's their own fault. We only hunted it because it was on the trade route anyway. We are going to detain them under my authority as the ..". Tobias began to escalate the consequences in anger.

The warrior spoke out for the first time. “You will do nothing of the sort. We hold all the authority in this envoy. I, the great Red Flame can easily leave your employ and join the Denari kingdom. The very place we travel to. What will the adviser to the Masinian* king, your father, say when you tell him that you lost him his most renowned fighter, let alone his greatest mage?"

(Authors Note: Masinian, the people of Masin; The Merchant City)

The young man’s face paled at the threat and realised he had to concede to the two men. A short strained "fine" burst out of his mouth, he turned around and ordered the procession to begin moving again. As he turned back Faerwald caught his gaze, his cheeks red, humiliation and a fire clouding his eyes.

This is definitely not over.

It had been two days since the two travellers had joined the procession, which functioned as an escort to Denari. After an unknown beast hidden in the cover of darkness was scared off by the master mage using scroll magic, progress had halted and the traveller’s had stopped to rest.

Maia and Faerwald sat together under the night sky and close to the fire, laughing at the two Rawls, Ripa and Rapa. Faerwald was surprised to discover that they were in mating season and watched their antics.

The Rawls had found some males in the procession. The two female birds preened their feathers and nuzzled against them, while their handlers watched on angrily.

They had given up on chasing away the birds or asking Maia for help. Every time the birds would run back, she and Faerwald would burst into laughing fits.

The two birds had become attached the young boy as they travelled and began to gravitate towards him until they became - preoccupied. However the travelling and other distractions didn't stop Faerwald from practicing mana control with Maia. He realised he had no problem using the current magic system and decided to try and convince Maia to allow him to use Antarian glyphs, under the guise of scroll magic.

After the laughing had subsided into a comfortable silence, he broached the topic.

"Maia, how did that master mage make the scroll use magic?" Referring to the chasing of the beast just before.

Maia turned to him and laughed. " It wasn't the scroll using magic, it was the master. The concept is pretty simple. The caster has to imbue magic into a scroll and then activate it when he wants. At a certain skill level, you can leave a scroll to activate it after a period of time, but that eats away at the mana in the scroll. Sounds easy right?" Maia asked Faerwald.

"Yeah, not too hard.” I thought so, all I had to do was write the glyph and imbue it with mana, almost exactly what I did.

"Wrong, it takes a lot of mana precision. On top of having the advantage of creating traps and other uses, if written on high-class scrolls it will amplify the spell. If it was that easy, all mages would be using them. Your magic might be large for a beginner, but you probably lack the control to do such a feat."

If using Antarian glyphs with sand is for me, I must have some talent in the field. I still haven’t convinced Maia, well there’s no harm in asking to try scroll magic.

“Can’t I try it.” Faerwald pleaded, looking his friend in the eyes.

Sighing, Maia shook her head. “Of course you can try, but there’s no guarantee that you will be able to. Most people lack the talent to use such fine control at beginner level. So don’t be disheartened when you aren’t able to use it.”

At that moment three figures emerged from darkness. Tobias, the noble, approached them with an arrogant smile plastered all over his face. At his sides were two twin gorgeous attendants, dressed in all white robes.

They faced him his he spoke out, directing his scorn towards Faerwald.

"You can always try, but a peasant beginner like you would never be able to perform such high class magic."

Not giving Faerwald the chance to utter a rebuke, Maia threw caution to the wind and responded. "You don’t need noble blood use scroll magic. I see you don’t even have any magic to speak of. You can only rely on your father’s expensive guards to tame those beasts you seem so proud of."

Tobias laughed. “You think you can insult me baby dragon? At least I can use my father’s authority. What about you?"

Strangely, Maia became even more agitated at the quip and jumped up.

What is that about? Does the noble have some connection to Maia's father, Faerwald thought while looking up at Maia who had her fists clenched.

Responding with an equal fire she said; “You just watch, Faerwald will easily be able to perform the magic."

Now she had a smug look on her face her arms crossed over her chest.

Still a spectator to the ongoing argument, Faerwald smiled.

Did she just forget what she just told me? Scroll magic is supposed to be an extremely hard form of magic. I’m not worried, I already know I can do it, but it’s still funny to see her so worked up. Faerwald saw another side his usually jovial friend, looking at Maia's downturned lips.

"So you’re saying you have confidence in your friend’s ability. Then you wouldn’t mind conducting a little wager on if he can or can’t use scroll magic? Each side can set three conditions." Tobias smirks.

Maia's eyes widen as she realises that she was lured her into a trap, and begins to refuse.

"Ok!" Faerwald speaks out. Maia turns to him in shock and begins to shake her head, turning back to Tobias obviously trying to stop the wager from continuing.

“It’s too late to back down now, you have to accept the wager unless you are honourless as well as a peasant. State your conditions and name, then I will state mine, and we will bind the wager with magic. We will limit it to three conditions."

Defiantly staring back Faerwald laughed internally. Tobias’s petty taunting did not make him accept the wager. I’m sure he’s going to state some crazy terms to get over his misguided anger. Fortunately, it is impossible for him to win in this wager, even if it is bound by magic. Why not go big on my own conditions?

“My first condition is that upon winning the wager, you have to pay us 1,000 gold pieces as soon as I win. Second you cannot harm us after the wager is over. Third you must get on your knees and apologize for your behaviour in front you entire envoy. ”

The two attendants and Maia gasped. Not only was the amount of money so exorbitant that only someone the position of Tobias could agree, it would further humiliate the proud noble.

Not even fazed he confidently responded. “That’s it? State your name, peasant, so I can show you what real conditions mean!”

Perturbed that he didn’t get a reaction out of the conceited man, a thought came unbidden to his mind and he had to stop himself from blurting it out. So that was the memory I unlocked when I created my mana pool, my name. Lewis Fitzwilliam. If only I could remember my parents instead.

“Faerwald” he said, deciding to keep on using the name he obtained*.

“My first condition is that you become a slave to me for interminable amount of time. Second every waking moment you spend is in pain. Third you are unable to harm me. My name is Tobias Frejer.” Smiling he nodded to the twin on his right, and she began chanting under her breath.

“You see, Alise and her sister here are intermediate magicians, despite their obvious beauty. Alise specialises in contract magic. Her contracts are so strong that you will physically not be able to disobey the conditions set upon you. Of course that will also apply to me, but it won’t matter since you will never win.”

The attendant magician finished and spoke the final words of the contract.

¿NÂmès FÏnd, Condìtìons Bind?

" The bet begins at sunrise tomorrow before we depart."

Tobias turned on his heels and left without another word, his attendants trailing after him.

Maia sat down with her hands on her head. “I can’t believe I made you do that. What was I thinking? I am an intermediate level mage and I tried for two years to perform scroll magic without success. You’re just a beginner.”

“Don’t worry about it Maia. I think I’ll be able to do it. I have a secret, you don’t have to worry about tomorrow!” Faerwald smiled knowingly.

Looking up from her downcast position she responded with the beginnings of hope. “What is it? Do you have the support of the master class magician? He will be able to break that contract magic for sure.”

“I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me what the nobleman meant about you father.” Faerwald said.

Maia’s face stiffened and she responded with silence, unwilling to tell her friend about her father, but still perplexed on how to stop him from losing a bet with such horrible terms.

The two master class combatants shifted uncomfortably around the makeshift circle surrounding the young merchant boy. Although they made a show of being in control, they both knew that it was impossible to resist the young master’s father. Cero Maine looked at the warrior combatant and sighed.

Although they had the most power of all the forces the advisor had in his possession, they could not rebel. After all, not only were both their villages patrolled by the advisors loyal officers. Their loved ones where kept under lock and key, treated well, but imprisoned all the same. In most cases master class mages and warriors would be treated with respect, especially warriors since they were much rarer. Unfortunately that was only on the surface in Cero’s case.

He had come home from a day of meditation to find officers in his house and his family missing. They told him of the conditions to get them back and emphasised he would never see them again if he would become violent.

Of course he slaughtered them all, why wouldn’t he. He was the one of the twenty master class magicians in the Masinian kingdom. There existed some sage’s but they were too powerful to be trifled with, he was not a sage.

His son was killed and wife blinded, only his daughter was unharmed. Cero realised, to get back his broken family he would have to obey. So Cero went under the employ of the advisor to the king.

The advisor could not easily reveal his machinations to the other high nobles of the kingdom. It wouldn’t damn him in anyway, only make him lose face to his colleagues who had sons or relatives with advanced rank power. After all, to a noble, a powerful commoner was still a commoner. Not long after he was assigned to guard the man’s son as he travelled to Denari, as well as guard the trade route. It wasn’t from the beasts as it appeared, but to guard it from possible competition to the trade agreement.

How bad he wanted to kill the boy and get revenge, but his two attendants were loyal to the advisor. One false move and a report would go magically and his family would be slaughtered.

He could kill them of course, he was much more powerful than two mere intermediate level mages. But if contact to the advisor got cut off, they would get slaughtered. No matter what he did, if he didn’t stay in line, he would not keep his family. So he walked the thin line between having pseudo-control and being a servile retainer. Cero was able to control the devil that the advisor had for a son, until the boy realised he was just a pawn to his father.

He had to maintain control, if he couldn’t save the boy he would have to watch as the boy become a slave. Cero doubted the boy could use scroll magic. Clenching his hands he observed the boy writing on the top quality scroll that even he could not obtain, and waited.

//I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

//Please show your support by commenting, following and all that!!

//Apologies for any mistakes I couldn't go through the chapter as much as I would like.

//Until the next Chapter!!