He stood up and proceeded to move the furniture of the room against the walls to create a cleared area in the middle. Once there was enough room for what he planned to do, he walked into the cleared area and took a calming breath. Then in his mind’s eye, he imagined several attackers spaced about the room. Casting his first protection spell, the battle was joined.
Imagined spears of fire would hurl at him only to be met with a quickly conjured field of protection. The fire spears would be deflected away only to be replaced with the arrows of a bowman. Another protective field would materialize to deflect that attack. Over and over, Kevik cast his protective spells as quickly as he could. His master had stated over and over that such practice was vital to a magic user’s continued existence. If in a pinch you were unable to quickly and accurately cast your spells, you were dead. So over and over, fields of protection would materialize only to disappear and be replaced by another.
After a quarter hour of this, he began to feel fatigued. ‘Are you tired?’ his master used to ask during similar practices back when he was alive. Not giving in to the fatigue, Kevik began incorporating more spells into his practice. Lights would flare, bobbing spheres began dancing about the room, as more and more imaginary attackers joined the fray. Sweat began to form upon his brow.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened and a figure appeared. So caught up in his ‘battle’, he reacted without thought. Firing a bolt of energy, he took the figure square in the chest. The force of the blow was such that the figure was thrown back across the hallway and slammed into the wall on the other side. Riyan’s cry of pain brought Kevik back to reality.
Bart ran into the room with a dart in hand. “What’s going on?” he demanded, fully expecting an attack to materialize.
In the doorway, Chad and Chyfe stood with swords drawn as Soth bent over Riyan and inspected his chest.
Kevik was shocked by the fact his magic had struck out at Riyan. “I…I was practicing,” he said.
From the hallway they heard Soth say, “He’s alright. Though his chest is a bit red.”
Rushing past Bart, Kevik shouldered his way between Chad and Chyfe on his way to Riyan’s side. “I’m so sorry,” he said as he knelt by his side.
Riyan opened his eyes and looked up at him. “Forget it,” he said. He sat up against the wall and groaned.
Kevik produced the red healing gem and said, “Let me take care of it.”
Shaking his head, Riyan waved him away and said, “That’s alright. It isn’t that bad.”
“But…” Kevik stammered.
“Just some stinging is all,” he said.
Coming up behind Kevik, Chad said, “You better be more careful next time.”
“Yeah man,” Seth said. “Lock the door or something.”
“I’ll do that,” agreed Kevik. He looked on as Riyan got to his feet. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
Riyan nodded in reply. “Can barely feel it,” he said with a grin.
“Liar,” Chad said. “I saw how you flew across the hall and hit the wall. You can’t tell me it’s nothing.”
“It is, now let’s not say anything more about it,” Riyan said.
Chyfe had made his way into the room. He then glanced back out to the hallway where Kevik still knelt by Riyan’s side. “You sure did a number in here,” he said.
Everyone moved into the room and saw how black marks scored the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. “Got a little carried away did you?” Bart asked when he saw the state of the room.
“I guess so,” he said. With everyone looking at him, he continued. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to practice like this. I guess I got more into it than I had planned.”
“I would say so,” agreed Riyan. He clapped him on the back. “From now on, let us know when you’re doing this and we’ll stay away.”
“Okay,” replied Kevik. He still felt bad about what he did to Riyan and was glad he hadn’t done anything very serious to his friend.
Kevik and Riyan remained in the room as it was the one they were sharing. The others began filing out to theirs.
While Riyan made ready for bed, Kevik put his spell book back in his pack and propped his staff against the wall by the bed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you practice that way before,” Riyan commented. Crawling under the blanket, he glanced over to Kevik.
“To be honest,” Kevik admitted, “I’ve been a bit lax in my practice.” The light from his staff kept the room illuminated as he too crawled into bed. “The spells I knew when we first met had been repeatedly worked at and ingrained into me by my master. Now with these new spells I have to keep ‘honed’ I guess you’d call it. In an emergency I’m not going to have time to open my spell book. I’ll need to react fast, and react correctly.”
Riyan nodded. “I guess our two crafts aren’t as different as one would think,” he said.
“Both require hard work and determination if one is to succeed,” agreed Kevik. He then canceled the staff’s light spell and they settled down to sleep.
For Kevik, sleep didn’t come right away. His earlier practice of working on spells and the pronunciation of symbols had left him wondering about the five symbols they found on the island near Catha. He still didn’t have a clue as to what they were or the affect they may produce. But he got to thinking that maybe they were like the symbols that he could interchange for his protection spell. If so, then all he would need was a sufficiently powerful spell in which to plug them in. He was certain that the current one he was using would be insufficient. There could be one in the other libraries of the Tower, but it may be years before he gained sufficient rank to be allowed access to them.
Thoughts of wondrous magic coursed through his mind until sleep finally claimed him.
After the morning meal in the common room, they split up as Riyan, Kevik, and Chad went in search of the cartographer, while Bart and the rest headed back to Kell Plaza and the Orack trading house.
Riyan led his group through the streets as he followed the directions given to him the night before by the group of locals he talked with. “They said it was located next to a park on the eastern side of town,” he told Kevik and Chad.
After working their way through the streets of Kendruck for half an hour, they made further inquiries of other locals when they hadn’t come across it yet. It didn’t take long after that before the small park came into view.
It wasn’t much, just half a block of grass, bushes, and trees with cobblestone paths running through them. A couple benches could be seen spaced about the park where people could take their ease.
“Must be something in the springtime,” commented Kevik. Indeed, with winter in full force, most of the trees were barren of leaves, and snow still held a presence in the shadier areas.
Riyan noticed a building off to their left which bore a sign depicting a quill superimposed over a boot. “That’s it,” he said. Quill and boot was the cartographer’s sign. Quill for the drawing of the map, and boot for the traveling done in acquisition of the information.
Most cartographers have many apprentices who are sent out to gather pertinent data of an area which was then added to maps. Another way cartographers gained a variety of maps, was to copy them from the existing maps of others. Some maps have been around for a long time and can at times not be very accurate. An honest cartographer would tell his customers of maps in his possession which may be less than reliable. Usually if one has a good reputation with the locals, you could trust his maps.
They went up to the door and entered. The shop wasn’t very large, it held but a single table situated in the middle of the room and a door in the far wall leading to a rear room. Scores of shelves dotted the walls with rolled maps stacked in neat piles upon them. Several maps were displayed on the walls between the shelves. Other than the maps, shelves, and table, the place was deserted.