Quick to the action, but for reasons I hope become apparent. I will try to post timely, short installments to make reading easier.
Enjoy. And please please comment, I absolutely love comments.
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Scripts from the Great Library in Nycene:
From the introduction of "Basic Rune Etching":
Seals printed in special ink can be used to manipulate energy in the environment. This manipulation is known as 'magic' and these seals are known as 'runes'.
Runes can be either printed on paper or etched into other, sturdier materials such as clay or stone. The more solid the material the rune is etched onto, the more powerful its effect. Simple runes may be quickly written on paper, used, and discarded while more complex runes require more effort and skill to create and utilize with their effects being more permanent and reusable.
One form of rune etching is used only by dark mages and is expressly forbidden for state-licensed mages. This method places the ink of the rune directly into the skin of the mage in the form of a tattoo, allowing the mage to always have a steady supply of ready to use magic at his disposal. This method also carries with it the potential for unlimited power. Because the runes draw energy directly from the body of the mage, their limitations only extend to the complexity and design of the rune itself.
Any mage caught utilizing tattooed runes will be branded as a dark mage and subject to spot-execution by order of the King of Nycene...
The darkness settled in around me in the saturnine woods. Crickets sang loudly while in the nearby pond, frogs competed for dominance of the nocturnal din. Somewhere in the thick underbrush a twig snapped, too lightly to be anything bigger than a rabbit while closer to me, a log in my carefully stoked fire popped, sending sparks high into the warm summer night air.
I was just finishing my dinner of roasted rabbit, picking off the last of the meat with satisfaction. It had been a long day's walk and my muscles were just beginning to unwind after hard use.
I was at peace, alone near the fire in the small, but cozy clearing I had decided to use for a camp that night.
I was also being watched.
I could not physically see my watcher, but a small patch of tattooed skin on my right forearm was burning lightly, alerting me to the presence of an intelligent being nearby. It was a crude ward, without the ability to discriminate between friend and foe, and it usually burned with its magic warmth constantly whenever I was around civilization. But for the week I had been out here in the thick, green forests of the northeast, it had been quiet. Except for now. Now it burned.
Pretending I was unaware of my intruder so as not to scare him into attacking or running away, I began to prepare to turn in for the night. Dressed only in a light tunic and breeches, I unrolled my blanket out near the fire. It was summer time and even that far north, the night would be hot and humid for the most part.
Next I removed my boots, placing them a safe distance from the fire so that they dried, but not so close that the leather got hot and cracked, ruining them. They were my only pair, and I still had a long trip ahead of me. Losing them would almost certainly leave me stranded and quite possibly dead.
Lying down, I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh, listening to the wind in the leaves, the crickets, the frogs, and the fire, trying to pick up any sounds that did not belong to the woods, but rather to my secretive interloper.
There were none for five long minutes, though my ward continued to burn. Then a rustle, too close to the ground to be the wind in the treetops. Fifty feet to my left, on the other side of the fire.
Another rustle in the undergrowth, and a loud snap of a twig. Suddenly another ward activated. It felt like tiny pinpricks near the base of my right wrist.
This one was more sophisticated. It only activated when someone was within thirty feet of my body, and only when that person was carrying a weapon.
Concentrating, I tried to control my breathing so it came heavy and slow, feigning sleep. I would have to confront whoever was in the forest, but first I needed him to get closer.
Ten minutes passed, and then fifteen before my watcher moved closer again. He was being cautious despite his possession of a weapon and his obvious advantage over me. Whoever he was.
After another ten minutes, he moved once more, this time slowly and cautiously forward, through the underbrush as quiet as he could until he was twenty, then ten feet away and then finally he stepped into the light of my fire.
Without hesitation I murmured a single word. My forearm burned fiercely for a split second. There was a flash, a high-pitched yelp and then a heavy thud followed by the sound of something being dragged across grass and dirt.
I opened my eyes and stood, facing my now incapacitated stalker, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dimming firelight after being closed for so long.
He was up against a large tree, his arms held straight up from his body, hands tied securely together by a length of rough vine that had been fortuitously growing from the tree, lending me a tool for which to bind my attacker with. In the dim blurriness of my adjusting vision I could tell that he was small and thin, with long blond hair and sharp, angular facial features.
It was only when my eyes had adjusted enough to make out his wide, feminine hips that I realized that he was a her. This shocked me a great deal. It was one thing to encounter another person out here in the middle of the wilderness, and quite another to find out that that person was a woman.
"Please let me go," she said, her voice light and melodic although laced with obvious fear, "Please, mage, I meant you no harm."
"Then why were you watching me?" I asked, now able to make out her more clearly. She was startlingly beautiful. Possessing a feminine yet strong body, with a strong jaw and hard, green eyes that danced in the firelight. She wore dark green matching tunic and breeches, both tied tightly to her thin, supple body, outlining her small breasts and shapely legs.
"I was curious," the woman admitted, lowering her head in mild embarrassment, causing her golden hair to fall in front of her face, revealing two small, pointed ears.
"You're an elf," I stated the obvious, "Interesting. And what, might I ask, was so curious about me?"
She shrugged, looking up at me with those mesmerizing eyes, "The fact that you were out here."
I paused, considering her answer. It was reasonable, I supposed. Not many people ventured out this far into the forest. It was considered the far frontier, only the Ancients had ever populated it. Which was exactly the reason I was out there, but the elf did not need to know that. The less people that did, the better.
"Do you live out here?" I asked, stepping closer toward her, trying to guess her age by her face, but having no luck at it.
She nodded, "I do. By myself. I'm a wanderer."
"Ahhh," I smiled, "A nymph. Very interesting. I guess this is the part where I ask you what you will give me if I let you go. I hear nymph elves grant wishes to those who capture them and then let them go."
"Those are nothing but children's stories," she said indignantly, "I do not have that power."
I chuckled at her reaction, "Of course not. Then how about a name? Mine's Brian."
"Celeste," she responded.
"Well, Celeste, let me ask you a question," I crossed my arms in front of my chest and took what I assumed was an authoritative stance, "Why would you think it wise to spy on me so loudly while carrying a concealed weapon? How do you know that now that I've captured you I won't rape you and then kill you, leaving your used carcass for the wolves?" I smiled my most predatory smile.
Of course I would never dream of raping the nymph. I preferred my women very ready and willing. But kill her? When it came to that, I never did discriminate.
"I...I...," Celeste struggled for words, "Don't...don't know...oh please don't!"
This time I laughed out loud. I wasn't labeled a dark mage for nothing. Fear and other unpleasant emotions amused me, and I took great pleasure in eliciting them in other beings. They also fueled my magic, as I was able to use empathic links to syphon off the energy they created.
"Relax," I said, "I won't rape you at least. But unless you can give me a good reason to keep you alive, I might still kill you," I paused, donning a straight face so Celeste knew I was serious this time, "How do I know you're not a threat to me?"
"I swear," the nymph said, staring straight into my eyes, demonstrating that strength I suspected she possessed, "I was only curious. There aren't many travelers in these parts and it's been at least ten years since I last saw anyone. You know wandering elves," she turned her gaze downward, suddenly shy, "They're naturally inquisitive. Among other things..."
That last part was a clever plea, thrown in for good measure, and I admired Celeste's cunning. If she couldn't appeal to my humanity, then she would try to appeal to my manhood.
I smiled, this time less predatorily, and murmured two words. The first casting undid the vine that bound her to the tree. The second elicited a sharp cry of pain from Celeste, who quickly lowered one side of her breeches and removed the small dagger tied to her hip that had suddenly grown white hot.
"No surprises," I noted as she threw the dagger to the ground and rubbed at the red welt that had risen on the creamy white flesh of her thigh.
She pulled up the material again and gave me a hard look, but then moved away from the abandoned weapon.
The ward on my wrist stopped tingling. She had no more weapons. So it truly had been curiosity rather than harmful intent that drove Celeste to watch me like that.
