The HaRT Knight Decaverse

Heir of Magic

Chapter 40

Forbidden Magic

Worry and haste hung in the air as Alexander walked through the army camp still being erected on the farmlands behind the Pensilisurbis walls. He made his way to the largest of the tents, the one set up near the very center of the camp. Men ran in every direction as they prepared for the impending battle that approached just over the horizon.
The tent that housed the war council was a regal looking white and bronze. Outside the tent Kohr stood talking to Jared, Merrick just a few paces away from them.
“Very well then, blacksmith. I’ll have the forge set up near the edge of the camp. Please bring as many weapons and armor from your workshop as you can,” Kohr said to Jared.
“Yes, Grand General,” Jared said before setting off to comply with his new orders, Merrick right beside him.
“Alexander. You’re back,” Jared said.
Alexander nodded. “Yes, and as soon as these abominations have been driven off, I’ll show you what I got on my adventure.”
Jared gave Alexander a mousy smile before he vanished among the crowds of moving bodies.
“Commander Alexander. Good, the war council is ready,” Kohr said.
Alexander nodded to Kohr as he moved through the flaps of the tent. The inside of the tent was very elegant. There were drapes with the eagle of Pensilisurbis hanging everywhere, and the skins of bears and foxes covered the floor. There were wooden chairs placed all around a large table that a map of the city and countryside was resting on. Burley, red-cloaked men occupied the chairs, each of them clutching a golden ruby-encrusted goblet. About twelve generals were sitting around the table, all of whom stared at Alexander with curious expressions.
“Who is this whelp, Kohr?” asked a broad-shouldered man with a beard tied into knots.
“He is the Special Commander Alexander you must have heard so much about by now, General Uthor,” Johan said as he strode into the tent. Everyone leaped to their feet, making small bows to the King as he made his way to the end of the table. He had removed his underwear from his head and substituted it for a finely crafted helmet with a crown worked into it. The sight reminded Alexander of the helmet worn by the White General. His armor was polished bronze covered in beautiful depictions from top to bottom, and on the chest the eagle clutching the dagger and scroll. The King also wore a cape of deep purple silk. “He is also the one we have to thank for warning us about the army that approaches.”
“Good for him, but what is he doing here?” General Uthor realized who he was speaking to and quickly added, “He still has his mother’s milk on his lips, Your Highness. He has no business being here.”
“He has already proven himself a capable leader and a powerful warrior, Uthor. It is he who fought against the Black General who tried to assassinate me,” Kohr said, coming to Alexander’s aid.
“This is your protégé then?” Uthor said, staring at Alexander.
“Special Commander Alexander, wielder of the legendary Sword of Balance and of magic that can reduce any normal warrior—or general—to ash,” Delphi added.
The eyes in the room fixed on Alexander, flitting now and again to his sword. There he goes again, proving himself to be a little too knowledgeable, Alexander thought.
“Ah, he’s a battle mage.” Uthor said. “Anyone who can stand one on one against one of Cain’s Generals and come out in one piece deserves respect. Welcome, Commander Alexander.”
Alexander inclined his head. “Thank you, General Uthor.”
“Now that introductions have been taken care of, let’s begin with the briefing, shall we?” Kohr said, pulling the map closer.
Alexander moved to take the open seat next to Kohr before the Grand General gave him an expectant look. Taking the stones that would represent the enemy, Alexander began placing them on the map. “I only had time to do a rough count. The bulk of their force is made up of abomination infantry, hundreds of thousands. They also had twenty, maybe thirty-thousand cavalry riding on lizard-like steeds that climbed all over the Stonelite Bridge—I have to think they’ll be able to climb the walls as well. There were a lot of trolls pulling siege engines, I don’t know how many though, they were still marching out of the Veil Gate.” Alexander placed the last stones representing the siege engines on the map and said, “All in all, we’re looking at a force between five-hundred-thousand to eight-hundred-thousand strong.”
The Generals murmured in concern.
“There is a small Silver lining, though,” Kohr added and the entire room fell silent. “The entire army seems to exist only of abominations, accompanied by a few trolls and celecarta. On the whole, nothing with true power.”
“Actually,” Alexander said as he placed three more stones onto the map. One red, one white, and one black. Everyone stared at him. “Three of Cain’s four generals lead the army.”
Everyone looked shocked now, even Kohr and—Alexander was happy to see—Delphi wore masks of shock and concern.
“Has Cain ever sent all three his Generals to take a single city?” a man with an enormous flat nose asked.
“Only a few times. It has never ended well for the other side when he did,” Dante said as he entered the tent and took the seat on Kohr’s other side. “There is a bright side here. Instead of focusing on the generals he sent, let’s be grateful for the one he didn’t send.”
“The cloaked one,” Kohr said.
“Yes. Cain only sends the Cloaked General out when he wants to wipe a place off the map, like what happened at Inti,” Dante explained. “His absence—coupled with the presence of all three the other generals—tells us Cain would like to take the city in one piece.”
“Why, though?” the man with the graying temples asked.
“I have been keeping a close eye on Cain ever since his ascent to power. His movements have seemed odd to me. When you view everything he has done together, it seems like he is merely conquering Primoris, but when you view his movements separately, a pattern emerges. To me, it seems more like Cain is looking for something, something he desperately wants more than anything else in this world.”
“And you think whatever he is looking for, it’s here?” Kohr asked.
“No. I believe whatever it is, Cain thinks it is here,” Dante said.
“So, Cain won’t attempt anything which he believes might damage the city for fear of damaging whatever it is he is looking for.” A grin spread on Kohr’s face.
“This is just a theory, mind you, but I am certain I am right,” Dante said.
“While I find it immensely comforting that Cain won’t just blow us to dust, we still have the problem of the biggest army Primoris has ever seen marching on us,” a heavyset man with a face like a pig said.
“Yes, about that. I might be able to help there.” Dante took out a book he had brought with him and opened it on the table. “I found this in the library. It once belonged to Alhazred Hermidus, the wizard who once betrayed Pensilisurbis. While he himself was a reprehensible person, he was a genius septim who created many powerful spells. There is one in here, a spell that could turn the tide of the battle in our favor. If I can manage it, the numbers outside that gate will decrease so greatly that we will outnumber them.”
“You think it is that powerful?” Johan asked, looking impressed.
“Yes, Your Majesty. It is so powerful that the Mage Orders forbade anyone from teaching the spell ever again. They grew afraid that if too many septims knew it, a war between them could become so destructive that it could wipe out all life on the continent. Knowledge of how to cast it has been lost for ages. It will require a great deal of time to prepare and an unimaginable amount of thaumaturgic energy, but if done right, it will wipe our enemies out in a matter of minutes,” Dante said, not looking up from the book.
“How long do you need?” Kohr asked.
“The key is the most complex I’ve ever come across. Seeing as there is no time to memorize it, I will need to prepared a casting site where I can recreate it as a mold for my thaumaturgic energy. There can’t be a single mistake made so I’ll have to work alone.” Dante looked up from the spell tome. “I should be able to do that by sundown, but I’ll need another two days to create the concentrated thaumaturgic energy needed to activate the gate.”
“It seems to be our best chance at survival,” Kohr said. He thought hard for a few seconds then nodded. “Very well, wizard. We’ll do our best to give you the time you need to cast this spell.”
“It might not even take that long,” King Johan said. “I intend to enter the battle myself. I should have victory firm in hand before you have even finished your casting sight.”
“That would be a great help, Your Majesty.” Dante rose from his seat and turned to Kohr. “Will you mind if I borrow Jared? I’ll need one person to stay with me for the entire two days.”
“He’s yours. However, if his duties as smith are needed, I will have young Hammond sent to assist in his stead,” Kohr said.
“Thank you, Grand General. And Alexander, I would appreciate it if you could spare me some of those invigoration draughts of yours,” Dante asked Alexander.
“Of course. Here, take all of them. I won’t be needing them.” Alexander nodded. He untied the four vials of golden liquid from his chest and handed them to the wizard.
“One more thing, gentleman,” Dante said as he took the potions from Alexander. “Keep them outside the gates. The spell I will cast will only affect the area outside the gates, so anything that gets in will be unaffected.” Without another word, the septim wizard strode out of the tent.
The council of generals stared at the map with the stones on it in silence, all of them thinking the same thing. How can we keep an army of that size out?
“This will require a few gutsy moves on our part if we want to keep them out long enough for the wizard’s spell to take effect,” Kohr said.
Everyone was staring at Kohr now. None of them could come up with any strategy worth mentioning, so now it was up to the legendary Silver General who always had a plan.
“We need to delay the actual siege part of the attack for as long as possible,” Kohr said, looking up at his generals again. “The siege towers will be a problem at some point, though.”
“Don’t worry about that part, Grand General,” the pig-faced man said, looking at the men to either side of him. “Baldwin, Gains, and I have been practicing with those catapults on the walls. We’ll be able to shoot any of those towers down before they get too close. Leave it to us.”
“Very well, Darras. You three will be in charge of that then. It is imperative to keep those towers as far away from the walls as possible,” Kohr said, placing three copper disks on the map where the wall was.
“Don’t worry, General. Baldwin became so accurate with that thing he can hit a dove five miles away,” the pig-faced Darras said, looking confident.
Kohr nodded, not taking his eyes off the map. After a few minutes of thinking, he took three blue stones and three copper disks and placed them in two rows before the gate on the map.
“Surely you jest?” the man with the graying temples said, his eyes almost popping out of his head as he stared at what Kohr was doing. “Who will be the unfortunate among us you will condemn to that suicide mission, Kohr?”
“I’ll go,” Alexander volunteered.
Kohr nodded his thanks.
“Ah, then I shall take the second legion out,” Uthor said with a hardy laugh at Alexander. “We’ll show those abominations, won’t we lad?”
Alexander grinned at the old warrior and nodded. Uthor knew he was probably going to his death, but there was no trace of fear in his voice.
“Then I will take the—” Kohr tried to say, but the king silenced him.
“No, Grand General. I already said I intend to enter the battle myself and end this war before sunset. I will take the third legion out myself.”
“Your Majesty, it’s too dangerous. You can’t,” the generals shouted. Even Delphi looked taken aback at the sudden suicidal behavior of the king.
“I am the king, and I shall do as I see fit,” Johan announced. “I am the greatest warrior this world has ever seen. No abomination can ever hope to strike me down. I am like a god; I shall show you all my greatness.”
Everyone at the table became silent, their faces as white as ash, the Royal Advisor just shaking his head.

Alexander sighed in frustration as he stepped out of the War Council tent. The generals had wasted hours to convince the king not to place himself in danger, but in the end the narcissistic fool would not budge.
Kohr will probably place someone in his regiment to mitigate any damage the fool might cause, Alexander thought. He stopped and stared over at the cleared area where Dante was busy preparing his spell.
“This seems a lot more complicated than any spell you’ve taught me,” Alexander said as he came up behind the septim wizard.
“That’s because you still need another hundred years of experience before you’ll be ready for a spell like this. Shade, I might still be a few years too young for this.” Dante looked up from the outline of the pentacle key he was drawing on the flat stone surface with a piece of chalk. “Not only is the gate key the most intricate and complicated I’ve ever come across, but I even need to alter the properties of the thaumaturgic energy into five different signatures. That’s not even mentioning the sheer amount needed to begin with.”
“If you need that much thaumaturgic energy, shouldn’t I—”
“No!” Dante snapped. His deranged expression fell away and he looked sorry for a second before his face froze in a stern mask. “There are certain lines that if you cross them, they will leave a stain on your soul that will last forever. Such a stain acts as a magnet for darkness.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This spell is on the Abracomas List, a list of forbidden spells.” Dante held up a hand and a small dimensional gate opened in the palm of his hand. Brownish-red light shined up out of the gate and took on the form of a stone tablet on which a list had been carved. The list grew larger and passed over the spells until it came to number eleven, Celestial Rain. “The lower on the list a spell is, the more dangerous it is, not just for the caster, but for the world in general. As you can see here, this spell missed out on being one of the top ten by just one.”
“Why? Just because of how destructive it is?” Alexander said.
Dante shook his head. “That is only part of the truth. The man who created the spell—” he held up the book to show the cover on which the name Alhazred Hermidus was written in dark red “—was an evil man. His mark is all over it and I will feel it quite viscerally when I cast it.”
“And that will leave a stain,” Alexander said, understanding.
“Yes,” Dante said.
“And yet, you still plan on casting it?” Alexander said indignantly.
Dante nodded. “Just another reason I don’t want you to have any part of it. Once you know it, it becomes tempting to use in desperate situations.” The wizard gestured to the war camp around them. “Like this one. This is the only way I see us surviving this. But I am not willing to risk you for it. I am, however, willing to risk myself. Because if this is my first step in my fall to darkness, I at least know you will be there to stop me. If you fall, no one can.”
Alexander frowned. “You’re the second person to express concern that I might end up like Cain.”
“People like us, people who battle darkness daily, we are constantly in danger of becoming infected by the very disease we wish to cure.” Dante placed a hand on Alexander’s shoulder. “Which is also why we need someone to be the light. We’re not concerned that you’ll fall so much as we are that we will fall without you. We need you. You have the potential to be the beacon of hope we can look up to in our darkest hours.”
“Ah, no pressure then,” Alexander said sardonically.
Dante laughed. “I believe in you, my boy. As do they.”
The wizard pointed where Merrick and the regiment of soldiers under Alexander’s command stood, fire in their eyes as they looked to him while waiting to march out beyond the city walls.