“Who dares to deceive Benok the Great, guardian of the town of Kleas, with simple cloaking spells?”
The guardian mage hung in the air, his black robe flowing with the wind. His hair was snow-white and flowing along with his robe. He mumbled magical verses that hall through the air and light rings appeared around the city that seemed to be there all along. From where Siem was, she could only imagine what would had happened when Eldana and Hermon touched them.
She had misunderstood the situation. There was only one mage guardian at the gate, not because this place was poor but because he was as strong as ten mage guardians put together. Hermon turned around and cursed in the direction of Siem. She ran towards them faster than she had ever run, knowing what could happen next. A mage guardian knew no mercy, his only mission was to protect the town.
Siem screamed to draw attention to herself, but the mage was just focused on Eldana and Hermon. Hermon was already changing into a Berserker; but Eldana was still tired from the previous fight and therefore moved slowly. The more of the power of magic moved through the body of one, the more the person is affected. Eldana’s physical body and mind were severely weakened. Siem flashed through all possible spells in her mind as she ran. One of them was called Tawoub - the earthquake to swallow them from the earth and a shroud of earth to protect them from the mage’s attacks.
Siem was about to cast the spell, the symbol on her coat glowed and magic flowed through her, at the same time the ground below Eldana and Hermon mirrored drift sand. The guardian mage seemed to sense the plans of Siem, and suddenly moved his attention towards her.
“Good, focus on me!” Siem mumbled to herself, abandoning Tawoub and instead pulled one of her demon arrows out of her quiver while running. She was ready to shoot in seconds. As she mumbled the words that would channel the souls of her ancestors into the arrow, with the arrow aimed at the mage, she was only able to shoot at the guardian, he floated to the right and let the arrow drop into the lightning surrounding the town where it just vanished. The mage’s attack followed immediately. A volley of lightning circles came towards her after he raised his hand just slightly. But Siem had learned to deal with strikes like this in the past and was relieved that she knew what to do. She did a roll, jumped into the air and floated at the same height as the guardian mage. She uttered just one word.
“Midri!” A wave of sand gathered from the ground and spun around in the air, circling, and forming a wall. The energy circles crashed against the wall of sand and disbursed into the air… but the shock of the airwave pulled her lightly out the air. The power was immense for what was just a little flick of the hand. Siem knew this was not a fight she would win. But that was not the goal; she had to protect Eldana and Hermon.
Siem steadied herself and was about to shoot the arrow just as the mage raised his hand once again. But at that moment, Eldana lifted her hand to the mage instead. He saw the movement and looked down at Eldana.
“I am a traveller seeking shelter. My powers are fading, and I have been betrayed by my dearest. The magician that you are fighting wanted to smuggle me into your beautiful town to sleep and have good rest before we travel on. We can pay, and we are ready to give the shelter of our choice double of what they are asking for!” Eldana said in a soft tone.
The guard stopped his attacks. Where the eyes of a human should have been, two opaque, emotionless pebbles stared back at her. A couple of seconds passed. Siem floated back to earth. Hermon just held his breath. They did not understand what was happening. Hermon was slowly returning back to his normal self, sensing that the danger no longer existed.
The stare felt endless, but it must have been only a few minutes. Then the gate opened and the light surrounding the town disappeared, without another word from the mage. It was a long wooden gate that made the earth tremor a little as it moved. The guard raised his head again and stared straight ahead. Eldana also seemed to wake up from her trance and said, “Thank you, guard,” before walking forward. Hermon looked puzzled but followed without another word.
Siem was still confused. She did not understand why the mage had so suddenly stopped attacking her. The demon arrow was still on the bow. She put it back and walked slowly towards the gate. As Siem passed the guard, she heard a soft, gentle voice from far away.
“You have a lot to learn my child, you will have to protect Eldana to death, and your powers must become stronger than the strongest magician ever. This will be your destiny.”
She paused and looked up, but the guard did not pay any attention to her. She knew it came from him. They were both children of the Middle Kingdom; only he had fallen in the battle of the first hour. It was a battle between magicians and old elves who thought themselves gods. “Why me?” she whispered, more to herself than to him, then went on without waiting for an answer.
Once inside, she met with Eldana and Hermon again. Siem wanted to ask so many questions. How did Eldana know how to deal with a mage guard? Hermon beat her to it in a rather unconventional way.
“Wow, Eldana, what was that?” He still looked red from his exertion. Hermon was stronger than many Berserkers, who would have taken longer to regain their strength, but he walked along with his
