Steel Magic

Chapter 2

“I know, I know,” Syri said. “But untrained mages are dangerous.”

“They won’t go untrained,” Toria said. “But Dana sounded like sending them to the school in New Angouleme would be cost prohibitive.”

“Of course it would be,” Kane said. “The mage school here is subsidized for Limani residents, like the university. She is a single mom on a nurse’s salary. It’d be different if the kids were bonded, but we’d have heard of another warrior-mage pair.”

“True,” Toria said. “Any school would snap them up in a heartbeat. Or we’d have already been training them.”

Warrior-mage pairs such as Toria and Kane were rare. When they had joined hands at age twelve, their magic had clicked together, forever linking Toria’s affinity of storm with Kane’s potential with earth. Mage schools as far away as Europa had fought for the honor of teaching the rare bonded pair. But their parents were in Limani, so they had stayed. Master Procella and the other local mages had managed to muddle through teaching them just fine.

“I’m surprised they’re not bonded,” Syri said. “Twins and all.”

“They have the same element,” Toria said. “I’ve never heard of a pair bond with the same element. Just a quirk, I guess.” Her plate was only half empty, but she nursed her glass of wine until Kane kicked her ankle.

“Time to eat, not stress,” he said. “We’ll go by the school tomorrow morning and see what we can find. There’s got to be a list somewhere of all the other mages in Limani. Maybe one of them is interested in taking over.”

“I slaved over a hot stove for you,” Syri said. “Don’t let it go to waste.”

Toria laughed, but ate another bite of pasta. “Fine, fine. We need a cheerier topic. So. We’re still going to Europa soon?”

“Nope,” Kane said. “I told you, we’re going south first. For once in my life, I would like to be in a place where it does not snow in the winter.”

This debate was almost half a decade old, but still no closer to a resolution. Time was running out. While they had received field promotions two summers ago, Toria and Kane still needed to complete eighteen months of travel to officially move from mercenary journeymen to full status. Max had checked the regulations, and their short summer trips with Toria’s grandfather Asaron didn’t count. Eighteen months in a row, unaccompanied by a senior mercenary, accepting and completing their own jobs and contracts.

Kane was serious about the warm weather, but Toria had grander plans. Her adopted parents originally hailed from Europa, and she was determined to visit their old stomping grounds. The world was a big place, and she had no plans to spend her whole life in Limani, or even on one continent.

“I’m with Kane,” Syri said, and she and Kane clinked wine glasses. “Hell, the only reason I’ve stuck around the last two years is you kids. If you head south, I’ll come along until I find a nice beach to park myself.”

“This isn’t over,” Toria said, brandishing a fork at each of them in turn. “We’ve got eighteen months. I’ll get us to Europa somehow.”

#

The next morning found Toria and Kane on the stoop of Limani’s local mage school. It had started life as an old manor, but rather than remaining rural, the city had grown in its direction. The land was bracketed on either side by a bakery and boutique. The school owned the large field that spread behind it, and there was still space for many more extensions to be added to the already sprawling building. The patchwork structure looked like a contented cat, shading itself under the large oak that spread over one side of the building. The welcoming feeling it exuded could only be the after-effect of decades of excited students.

The local businesses were used to the sort of havoc that untrained mages could create. Toria had once summoned a train of floating pastries from the bakery. That had embarrassed her more frying the large oak. Before mages learned to tap into the power in the world around them, magic ran on their internal energy. A young, growing mage was often a hungry mage, and a hungry twelve-year-old within nose range of baking sweets was a mage who might accidentally perform a summoning charm.

“It’s been awhile,” Kane said. He knocked on the front door. The rain that had threatened the day before had fallen overnight, but today the heat had returned with a vengeance.

They didn’t wait long. The door opened a crack, and a young face peered out. “Hello?”

“Maggie?” Toria said. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t let the cold air out.” Maggie opened the door farther and gestured them in.

Toria and Kane entered the school’s large foyer, and Maggie shut the door behind them. As Toria remembered, a small office sat to her right and a lounge with comfortable sofas spread to the left. She saw a new scorch mark in the hardwood floor of the hallway, but someone had finally repaired the water damage on the plaster walls that had occurred shortly before she and Kane graduated. The air inside indeed felt cooler than the summer heat, present even during the early morning hours.

“I’ll get Miss Lukis,” Maggie said. She dashed down the hall, leaving the bewildered pair in her wake.

“If there aren’t any teachers left,” Kane said, “what is she still doing here?”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Toria led him to one of the couches in the lounge, but before they could settle in, Maggie ran back.

A woman a bit older than Toria trailed Maggie. She stood even more petite than Syri, with curly red hair that contrasted with her dusky skin. Though the red hair was a bright color not found in nature, Toria noted in a flash of magesight that the woman both possessed mage talent and her primary element was fire. Cliché, but the color suited her.

“Good morning,” she said. “I’m Misty. You must be Toria and Kane. Maggie and Reed have been raving about you all morning.” Misty shook both of their hands. “Why don’t we talk in the office? Maggie, go keep an eye on your brother and Ian for me.”

The young girl beamed at the responsibility and darted away again. Toria and Kane entered the office, and Misty shut the door behind her. Rather than sit behind the desk, she perched on the edge of a filing cabinet to the side of the room. “To have her energy again,” Misty said. “I’m so glad you’re both here.”

Tori and Kane exchanged worried glances. Sounded like Misty had the wrong idea. “We just came by to get some information,” Toria said. “There’s got to be some sort of list of other local mages, or those with ties to Limani. We’re certainly willing to contact them on your behalf.”

“If there was such a list, I’d have found it by now,” Misty said. “I’ve looked, believe me.”

“Maggie’s mom said the school was closing?” Kane asked.

“It pretty much has closed,” Misty said. “I’ve been the house mom since my son started attendance here last year, but he’s the only resident student since Maggie and Reed live with their mother. My contract runs out at the end of the summer, and Master Procella’s estate will take care of selling the house.”

“Why can’t you teach them?” Kane said. “You’re a mage.”

Misty snapped her fingers, and a flicker of flame appeared. “Because that is the extent of my power,” she said. “And my son and the twins are air mages. I have nothing to teach them. I promised Dana that she could keep dropping her two off in the morning so she doesn’t have to find childcare for the summer. But I’ve mainly kept them occupied with arts and crafts and nature walks. I can supervise a bit of their shield practice, but I’m hesitant to try to teach them more. And there’s only so much magical theory you can have ten-year-olds read from the library. I can’t explain much of the theory myself. I never attended a school like this when I was young—my training was from my grandmother outside New Carthage!” Misty slumped back against the wall as her tirade wound down. “Sorry. This is a bit stressful for me. Not only am I worried for my son, I’m also losing my job.”

Toria felt metaphorical lightning strike. “Wait a sec,” she said. “I don’t remember exactly getting a summer break. That was when we did more work, when we didn’t have to worry about regular school. Where are the rest of the students?”

Misty gave a short shrug. “There are no other students. It’s just my son and the twins. Two graduated last summer, and another left with her parents for New Angouleme a few months ago. There are no new apprentices scheduled for this year. Hell, apparently there haven’t been any incoming apprentices for the last three years.”

When Toria had first shown signs of magical ability at five years old, she’d received her rudimentary training at home. At eight years old, she’d joined the school as a formal apprentice, the youngest in the school.

While she attended the mage school, there had always been around a dozen students at any one time. All of them split their time between the mage school and the public school system. Though the warrior-mage bond allowed her and Kane to breeze through most of the necessary training on power control, they had stuck around for further lessons until formally graduating with the rest of their “class.” They’d crammed to bring up their grades senior year of high school, and then started college at Jarimis University. Five years ago, there had still been half a dozen students. Toria had figured it was a lull of some sort, a gap between the generations.

The population of Limani hadn’t drastically changed in that time. Not growing at a huge rate, but it certainly not declining. Toria’s mother, from her position as a member of the city council, had mentioned a few weeks ago that they would have to look at redistricting soon to take into account some expansion west.

Kane spoke before she could bring herself to think the same scary realization. “The mages are disappearing.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Misty said. “They’re just not coming here. Maybe word got out that the school was shrinking, and parents found other places to send their kids.” But she couldn’t hide all hints of the doubt in her voice. “I have to figure out where to bring Ian, and how I’m going to afford it.”

“Yeah, that was the same thing Dana was concerned about,” Toria said. “She asked Kane and me whether we would train her kids.”

Kane held up his hands against the flash of hope that crossed Misty’s face. “We are in no way prepared to take on students. We are not experienced teachers, and we have other commitments that need to be fulfilled that we have already put off for too long.”

“But you’re storm,” Misty said, turning a pleading look to Toria. “That can’t be too different from air.”

“Oh, it’s different. Very different,” Toria said. A bit of overlap, especially concerning weather manipulation, but air mages focused more on kinetic energy. Toria could call a bolt of lightning, but one of the major air tricks that came naturally to the youngest of apprentices, mimicking telekinesis, had been outside her purview until she’d figured out how to manipulate static electricity closer to graduation. “I’m sorry, Misty. But even if we could teach them, we couldn’t leave them on hold for eighteen months while we finish our mercenary training.”

“Have you or Dana approached any of the other mages in Limani?” Kane asked.

“Believe me, I’ve tried that. You two and Master Procella were the only master-level mages left,” Misty said. “The rest are more like me. Limited power, limited skill sets. And no air mages.”

“What about the elves?” Toria said. “Untrained mages are bad for all magic users. They use different power, but it all essentially comes from the same place.”

“Master Procella mentioned a few months ago that he had sent them some messages,” Misty said. “But I never heard anything come of it.”

Odd. Kane touched Toria’s hand, and she felt his own surprise echo through their link. The elves had always been intimately involved with the training of the mages during their time as students. They’d been especially interested in the prodigal amount of power Toria had shown as a child, then in the education of Limani’s warrior-mage pair, with elves traveling from both the British and Roman colonies to meet them. The idea that the elves had cut themselves off from the school troubled her.

Maggie burst into the office before anyone could continue. “Reed and Ian are fighting again!”

“I’m sorry,” Misty said. “I have to go see what the boys are up to this time. But please reconsider. You might be these kids’ only hope.” At that, she let Maggie tug her out of the office.

Toria met Kane’s brown eyes and saw the worry that must be reflected in hers. “I wonder whether the first mercenary contract we sign can be hiring ourselves,” she said. “We’ve got to find a teacher for these kids.”