Serka tucked his tail between his legs and ran, the prospect of offending, or even worse, fighting a rank two mage clouded his mind, and made his blood run stale.
He had no thought left to spare to consider his reputation, or how the mayor would reprimand him upon his return.
Deserting was a grave crime, but he wasn't really part of the mayor's forces... surely, he couldn't be held accountable for his actions!
The commander looked at the fleeing man, the light of Serka's torch grew smaller as he increased the distance, he was filled with a mix of confusion, anger and fear.
'So what if the woman is a rank two mage? Where is your backbone?!' the commander cursed Serka in his mind.
He turned back to the woman in question, "Miss, you are a suspect in the recent disappearance of two treasured artefacts... In the name of our mayor, I ask you to comply and come with us, so we may clear up whether you were involved!"
"And if I don't?" the woman countered.
"Then... then we will have no choice but to forcibly arrest you!" the man threatened, but he couldn't even convince himself that such a feat was possible after how Serka had fled.
Agnes scoffed, "I am not interested in killing innocent people if I don't have to. Turn back now." along with her voice, a cold breeze swept over the soldiers, they looked to their legs in horror, as a sheen of ice had grown over their feet.
Their faces warped as they were forced to utilise the entirety of their strength to pull their feet out, and free themselves.
"Return to your master and tell him that I will gladly face retribution, that is, if he is capable of sending someone that is skilled enough. I will be waiting inside of the Land of Fog."
"Now go." her monotonous voice carried a hint of danger, and just like Serka, the soldiers, along with their commander, began to flee.
Agnes yawned, then looked behind herself, towards the direction of their camp, "How much did you hear?" her question echoed through the surroundings.
Except for the hooting of an owl, there was silence, Agnes continued looking into the same direction, still expecting an answer.
"Too much. I guess." Matilda's voice came from within the darkness, she stepped closer, then stopped in front of Agnes.
"What now?" she asked, her grip around her hammer tightened.
"Relax. I am not going to silence you. I am already on bad terms with the Ironhoofs, and I even let the soldiers all leave with just a scare. They will come for me, no matter what you decide to do." Agnes words made Matilda's grip lighten.
"...So you are the rank two mage I have heard about?" Matilda asked.
"I am not sure what you heard, but yes." Agnes nodded.
"Urgh, that puts us in an awful spot... I assume they initially came all the way out here to question us, but instead they were met with you. Now they will probably think we are in cahoots." Matilda scratched her head.
Agnes stayed quiet, curious where Matilda was going with this, "Since you are the one that inconvenienced us, how about making it up to us?"
"What exactly do you have in mind?"
"Hm. Well, what's done is done, and I don't expect you to return to the city and surrender yourself... how about... you join my party and help us with our objective?" Matilda offered.
"Haha." Agnes chuckled, "How can I help you if you are unable to disclose the contents of your contract?"
Matilda shook her head, "Once you are a part of my crew you obviously are involved in the contract and are allowed to know everything."
"There was such a loophole?"
"Of course, and even if there wasn't, who would ever find out?" Matilda smirked at her, then held her breath as Agnes considered her request.
"Alright. I will 'make it up to you', as you have put it."
Matilda quietly exhaled, an attempt to hide her relief from Agnes, "That settles it, now, let's head back to the camp, I woke Sarah and asked her to step in for me while I was gone, I don't want to keep her up for too long, she gets grumpy when she doesn't get enough sleep, especially if she is expected to work the morning after."
The two trudged back to the camp, Sarah returned to sleep after reporting to Matilda that nothing had happened during their absence, the remainder of the night passed quietly, the sun began to rise, and Matilda woke every member of her party, they put out the fire, rolled their sleeping bags back up, and stored them in the back along with the leftover firewood they did not need to burn.
Afterwards she gathered everyone and gestured at the hooded woman, "She is now a part of our party, for the duration of our commission."
A resounding, "Huh?" spread through the air.
"How do you want them call you?" Matilda ignored the disbelief of her allies, as she spoke to the woman, "It's fine. The cat's out of the bag, so I don't mind anymore." the woman answered as she pulled her hood off her head, beautiful, silky smooth white hair fell onto her face and down her chest, it was long enough to reach all the way past her shoulders.
She combed through her hair using her fingers, it was dishevelled due to the hood she had been wearing; everyone, even Matilda herself couldn't help but stare, she had only ever heard about her, never seen her for herself, "Nice to officially meet you. Please call me Agnes."
This revelation stunned Till the hardest, he took a while to process everything, captivated by Agnes' face, "A-Agnes? ...From Aventia? White... hair... You couldn't be...?!" he stammered.
Agnes smiled smugly, "I see my reputation precedes me. Yes, I am indeed that Agnes."
Sarah, Sinnah, Tomalta, and Miser exchanged glances, they appeared to be the only ones unaware of what that name was supposed to tell them.
"I can attest that she is the real deal." Matilda's words lit a flame in Till's eyes, "A rank two mage is joining us?!"
Miser coughed; some saliva had gone down the wrong pipe as he heard Till's excited shouting, "A WHAT?!"
The way they looked at Agnes immediately changed, it was a mix of respect and fear, Till was a part of the former, as he was greatly interested in artefacts and mages, hoping to someday become one himself, but the majority of the party belonged to the latter, as a rank two mage was practically a god compared to them!
Someone who could snuff out their lives without any effort on their part!
"Boss... aren't we fine on our own?" Sarah tried to intervene, perhaps change the situation if it wasn't set in stone yet.
"No can do. With her along our chances of surviving suddenly look so much better..." she shook her head in Sarah's direction, then turned to Miser and whispered, "... and I got her to do it for free!"
"Alright, let's finish packing up and be off. I want this request to be over as soon as possible."
They mounted their horses, while Agnes and Till sat together at the back of the carriage, "Are you going to fill me in on what you are looking for now?" Agnes asked Matilda.
"Till." Matilda just said his name, and yesterday's scene replayed within his mind.
"Are- Are you sure?" he lowered his head.
"Yes. Agnes is now a part of our group, even if only shortly, so it's fine to let her in on it. I don't think someone as strong as her has any need to take the artefact we are searching after for herself." Matilda assured him.
Till heaved, "Okay, well, as I was saying yesterday, I borrowed this book that lets me understand most artefact's powers, because we are looking for one particular magical staff, that our contractor-"
"Sir Blass." Matilda interjected.
"Right." Till nodded, "Sir Blass has already sent out a party to explore the Land of Fog in the past, though only one of their members returned, and he told Sir Blass that they started killing each other after finding the staff. The survivor left to ensure he stayed alive, and now we are being sent in either find the staff itself or discover any kind of clues as to where it was taken, and by whom."
"The staff can supposedly cast several spells from different elements-"
"Wait! What?" Agnes stopped him, "Is this true?"
"Y-Yes, according to the survivor, those that held the staff managed to unleash several different elements, uhm, I think he mentioned fire, earth... and air?"
"Three?!" Agnes burst out again.
"Three." Till nodded, "I knew that three elements in a single artefact are strange, but could you maybe tell me more? Since you probably understand, or at least know more than a regular human like me."
"Yeah, sure. For starters, I am not an expert on artefacts, pretty much all I know are bits and pieces my master, Cykrus, mentioned here and there, but according to my knowledge having more than one element in a single artefact should be borderline impossible! Not to mention three at once!"
"Heh, what did I expect? There is an artefact that makes even a rank two mage flustered, and it's us no-names who this job falls unto." Matilda sarcastically complained.
"There is no way the artefact you are looking for is of rank one, if it even exists in the first place." Agnes continued.
"Higher than rank one... Ha, my fingers are shaking just thinking about it." Till nervously admitted.
"Do you know what this 'Sir Blass' has planned for when he gets the staff into his grasp?" Agnes probed.
Till shook his head, "Not really, he did mention trying to curry favour with Baron Ironhoof, but that's all he revealed about that topic."
Agnes frowned, handing the Ironhoofs another artefact at this point in time didn't sound like a smart idea for her and all of Aventia.
She went silent and had seemingly no more questions, Till took the chance to begin asking questions of his own, "Lady Agnes, please excuse me for asking this out of the blue... but how does one become a mage?"
Agnes took a breath, "From my understanding there is only one way for a human to become a mage, and that is to be born as one."
Till bit his lip, a wave of despair washed over him.
"But I am not sure if there is any real way of telling who was born a mage or not." Agnes added.
"I- I am not sure what you mean by that? Isn't it obvious if someone can cast spells?" the boy racked his brains.
"Yes, and no. There are people who are born as mages, that immediately show their aptitude, and affinity for an element, they are usually those born into families that have a long lineage of giving birth to mages, like my master's family, or the Ironhoofs, or well, the royal family. Every major mage-family is like that, it's how they manage to continue existing and sometimes flourish over several generations."
"But there are also people who were born mages, who show no signs of it. Me for example. Several others come to mind too, but I can vouch for myself that there were no signs of it beforehand."
Till's wave of despair passed, he calmed down enough to consider the possibility, "Then, how did you learn of your gift?"
"Gift... huh. That is one way of putting it." Agne scoffed as she looked at her palm, in her mind it displayed a calm and serene surface; she shuddered and glanced back at Till, "I cannot say with certainty 'how', but I uncovered them during what I consider to be the single most traumatic event of my life."
Till's expression soured again; the pace of his heart picked up as he imagined what could have possibly befallen someone like her.
"It wasn't until I met my master, and then some more time, until I learned my first actual spell, and how to properly control my magic."
"Using an inheritance?" Till questioned.
Agnes nodded, "Correct."
"Many of the books I read mentioned their existence... Is it true that only a mage can make use of an inheritance?" Till's back straightened out as he focused on Agnes.
"You are correct. An inheritance is usually some kind of record of runes, like a book, that detail a singular spell, or a bunch of them that form one big spell. A mage can dedicate some time to deciphering them, and incorporate them into their own way of fighting, but a regular human can look at them all they want, and never see what's beneath the surface." Agnes answered.
Till's eyes gleamed as he asked questions, he never expected to get answers to, "What is the difference between the two? Do mages see something regular humans don't?"
"It seems you don't know about the particles then?"
But Till shook his head, "Books written by mages cost a lot, especially those that reveal anything at all. The most I could get without selling my artefacts and soul were some epics that told several mages' journeys. No book like that ever mentioned 'particles', or anything of the sort."
"Is that so? Well, particles are the foundation for casting spells, without them even the strongest mage would be just a regular human." Agnes revealed.
Till nodded his head up and down, "Particles... What exactly are they?"
Agnes gestured with her hand, "Particles are very small bubbles that the corresponding elements give off. Take yesterday's campfire for example, the burning flame produced fire particles, which a mage could use to cast spells. Usually, one particle is enough to cast one spell, but depending on the spell itself, or what it intends to do, a mage might need more than one."
"Does that mean they are all around us? Even now?" Till squinted his eyes.
"They are. Though you might not see them. Our world is full of them." as Agnes spoke, the remaining party members looked around themselves, but none of them could see these particles she was talking about.
"...Could you... demonstrate?" Matilda cautiously asked.
Agnes scanned her surroundings, "I suppose I could..." she held open her palm and a single dark blue particle was drawn in.
Till and Matilda observed her hand, at the centre of her empty palm suddenly formed a white snowflake.
Agnes reached out her hand to Till, who raised his finger, moving it closer to the snowflake, he could feel the air around his index finger get colder, hesitantly his hand jolted backwards, but after another glance into Agnes' eyes, he moved his finger closer again, and touched it.
"How beautiful..." Till spoke, captivated by the sight and the sensation he had never experienced before.
"Magic is such an incredible thing." he added as he pulled his finger away from the icy creation.
Agnes nodded, she closed her fist around the flake, then yanked it out the side of the carriage, the lone snowflake flew for several meters, before bursting apart into many tiny needles that glistened under the sun.
"...Both beautiful... and deadly." Agnes spoke.
The hair on Matilda's neck stood on end, a few of those and Agnes could send her whole party packing... unless Till managed to use that scroll of his in time, but even then, once the rank two mage decides to go all out...
A shiver ran up and down her spine, she shook the thought out of her system, along with her head, but where the first one disappeared, another popped right up, yesterday's exchange between Agnes and Serka, "I always wondered, how much stronger is a rank two mage compared to a rank one? Is the gap insurmountable, or can a bunch of rank ones bridge it when working together?"
Agnes pondered for a few seconds, "The answer depends on the circumstances of their fight. Although a rank two mage is much stronger, we are still humans, we don't get any stronger physically."
"Meaning?" Miser spoke up.
"Meaning, that anyone can kill a mage, even a regular and plain human, if they manage to succeed with a surprise attack. An arrow to the heart, throat, head, take your pick, and it's lights out." Agnes answered him.
The entire party was stumped, an existence they considered nearly immortal had such a glaring weakness?
"Now, if those rank one mages try to gang up on a rank two, but give them enough time to react, that's a different story." Agnes continued, "A rank two mage can gather a whole lot of particles to increase the strength of their spells, both offensively, and defensively, and the average rank two mage has both of these types of spells covered."
"Once the rank two's defences are up, they can buy themselves enough time to conjure a spell that will wipe out all the rank ones, no matter how many there might be." Agnes' eyes displayed the cruelty that was necessary to survive a fight between such people.
"Unless they run out of particles, right?" Till posed a possibility.
Agnes readily agreed, "Yes. When a mage runs out of particles, they become useless, they end up as a regular human, no, perhaps even weaker, since they have come to rely on their magic a bit too much to ever consider the chance of such a thing happening."
"Running out of particles is the greatest blunder a mage can make..." she stared off into the distance while remembering her fight against Hodwan, "And at the same time one of the best strategies to ensure your victory over another, that is, if the two don't share the same element, which might make things awkward."