Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 8: A Celestial Infusion

Kommora had just slotted the last book back onto Sallows's bookshelf when a curt knock at the door alerted them of Edgard Woodbead's arrival. Sallows opened the door.

"You're lucky I didn't return to Sarre tonight, Sallows," Woodbead said, strolling in and removing his heavy, long black coat and hat, revealing slicked-back salt and pepper hair and curious blue-green eyes, which skimmed over Edden Rummage, now sitting in a chair by the fire, then Kommora, and then back at Sallows as he shut the door. Kommora had heard much about the esteemed military general Edgard Woodbead, although she'd never had a chance to work with him until now. "Whatever can be so urgent you need to summon me at midnight?"

"Celestial magic." The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. Kommora's heart skipped a beat at the words. It got Woodbead's attention as well. Frowning, he sat down in the armchair beside the fire and tilted his head, indicating for Sallows to continue.

"The Teirrinese royal family attempted to resurrect celestial magic and succeeded. They sacrificed their country."

"I thought it was an energy resource explosion," Kommora said, leaning forward, her lower back pressed against the bookcase behind her.

"That's what we're telling the public, but it's just a cover. Teirrin was hit by the equivalent of a magical bomb. Wiped out all life."

Kommora's mouth dried. The last memory of Bovaria and Solmin, waving out of the window taking them towards Cliffe, came back to her mind's eye.

"Where did they get their hands on celestial magic? I thought that was the stuff of legends?" she said in a hoarse voice.

"That's not the issue right now." Woodbead's eyes narrowed at Sallows. "You're saying Kristen Harred, the king's mage, sent this man to kill you."

"Not kill," said Rummage weakly. "She just wants his reapings from Teirrin, but at whatever the cost."

"Harred wants the celestial magic. I've been watching her." Sallows stared at the fire, hands clasped behind his back. His king's mage's cloak lay on the back of his plush armchair behind the table. "I've been watching her since she apprenticed with that Ebanon Fernard. She's aspiring high — in the most sinister way possible."

"She's only been a king's mage for a month," Kommora said, taken aback. Sallows was a veteran, with over thirty years of magic use under his belt.

"Harred graduated King's one year early. For two years she'd been apprenticed with Fernard; she'd taken his research and given it a spin of her own. She created a type of organic magic that could irreversibly bind a mage's magic capacity, effectively stripping his magic ability. Given what we've heard about the potentials of organic magic, it was only our luck she was pregnant and unable to attend Acrise when Hanna invaded two years ago. We can only guess at what she would have tried out on the battlefield, given the chance."

"Perhaps if she'd gone instead, we'd be rid of one liability and still have Berrycloth with us," Kommora said with a grimace.

"My point is: there is something very concerning about that woman and I have a bad feeling about what she's capable of. Celestial magic must not fall into her hands, especially now she knows I have access to it and she is evidently not averse to using whatever tactics at her disposal to get it." Sallows turned around, his weathered face dark.

"Forgive me, but I'm not magical. What is so special about this celestial magic?" said Woodbead.

"It's the origin of magic. Unlimited potential. It could create, destroy, even breach the limitations of life and death — it's the mother of all the magic we know of today."