The Burning Blue Mage

18

   I trained until my body physically couldn't spare any more stamina, and even then it was late in the afternoon and near evening when we finally went back into the castle. I say we because Rook surprisingly stayed the whole time. I thought he would get bored watching me do the same thing over and over again or that the use of magic would make him feel awkward but he stayed all the same.
     When we had gotten back to the castle, I was tired and worn so I headed to my room immediately and ended up falling asleep as I tried to read the nymph book on dryads.
     Waking up at 6:30 the next morning, I had my head and arms sprawled across my desk, half falling off the chair I was sitting on. I didn't remember falling asleep but my book was turned to the same page I was reading last night so I must have drifted off pretty quickly.
     I drowsily got up and got changed into a fresh pair of clothes, having fallen asleep in the clothes I was wearing yesterday. And here Rook says I'm never tired. I should make him eat his words.
     Once I got dressed I headed out if my room, too lazy to comb my hair. What was the point of combing it anyway? It wouldn't help with it's wildness.
     I headed towards Rook's room. I hope he was still there. It was a lot later than I'm usually up and Rook often trains in the morning. If he's not in his room I'll have to go check the training grounds.
     I walked up to Rook's room lazily, still trying to fully wake up, and knocked lightly on the door. I heard a bit of scrambling and shuffling inside the room. So someone must be in the room.
     Rook opened the door a second later and get looked as tired as I felt. Light bags traced his bloodshot and half open eyes. His hair seemed like it gave up on being a prince as it spiked in every which direction in a spiky mess that somehow reminded me of a porcupine. I had to smile at the thought.
     "Sage, it's too early for this," Rook mumbled drowsily.
     "It's already 6:30," I said simply.
     Rook's eyes widened and he poked his head out if the room frantically, trying to spot a window. Once he did, he stared for a few seconds. "I think we should have a new rule where we can't wake up anytime before 7," he said finally.
     That offer was surprisingly tempting. "Get ready. We're heading to the map room as soon as possible."
     "What? Why?" Rook asked confused.
     "Do you have a brain in there?" I asked, taping my temple. "We need to discuss how to prepare for the dryad. Last night's training session is far from enough preparation."
     Rook sighed. "Right. Go tell all the knights inn gold to go to the map room. I'll meet you there in a few minutes."
     I nodded. "You got it."
     I walked off. Telling knights to go to the map room seemed like a hassle. Especially since I doubted all of them would listen to me. Even with Rook ordering them to listen to me, I'm still just a low ranking servant and a lot of knights don't appreciate taking orders from servants.
     I took the long way to the map room. Not that it was the designated "long way" to get there but just not the quickest way for me to get there. Whenever I saw someone in a gold uniform, still hazy with names and faces, I would tell them to meet in the map room. Many asked why but I didn't want to keep repeating myself so I just told them it was the prince's orders. I didn't bother to see if that was enough to convince them to go, as I was already moving on.
     Gold ranking knights weren't particularly few in numbers, but I was certainly surprised. I always thought that there would be more of them when you considered how many knights were in the castle, in the kingdom, but I don't think I talked to any more than 25 knights.
     I showed up at the map room just seconds after Rook had. The room was getting all settled in to hear why they were summoned and I saw that my estimated counting was correct. There were 23 knights in the room.
     When the room grew quiet, Rook motioned for me to speak. I guess this was my idea, and fault, so it made sense for me to explain our delicate situation.
     I took a small step forward so that everyone's attention fell on me. Though I'm pretty sure about half of the knights were still paying attention to Rook. Not perfectly half, of course. You can't have someone who's paying close attention to both me and Rook at the same time. Or can you?
     I cleared my throat. Is was more to clear my off topic thoughts than gain anyone's attention. "Yesterday, Rook was able to take down the naiad that infiltrated the kingdom," I said, the lie slipping so easily onto my tongue. I sometimes scared myself on how easily I could do it with no tell of if I was lying or not. I learned to get rid of my tells a long time ago and before that I would randomly do my tell even if I was telling the truth so people didn't think much of it.
     The room was still silent. I continued. "We believe that this Sunday a dryad will attack and the Sunday after that, a maenad. We believe that these nymphs are being sent, most likely from a powerful mage. We don't know the mage's aim but with all the attacks from the burning blue mage, I think it's safe to assume this mage is trying to take over the kingdom and won't settle to do it peacefully. Nor show mercy."
     The heaviness in the words seemed to weigh down on everyone in the room.
     "Are these claims from a reliable source?" One of the guards asked. At first I thought he was being skeptical but then I realized he was just fearful and wistfully wishing what I said mustn't be true. Oh, how I wish I could believe it wasn't true myself.
     "Yes," Rook said, stepping in. "These claims came from a mage analysis expert who has proven to be very trustworthy."
     I could help but feel something like pride. It was silly, I know, because Rook was just making up a story but all I could think of was the fact that Rook called me trustworthy.
     "It would be in our best interest to prepare for the next attack, the dryad.  Dryads are unfortunately quite the opposite of naiads so are tactics for taking the naiad down will probably not work for her."
     "How do you know this dryad is a her if it's yet to even come?" One of the knights asked.
     "Nymphs are always females, never males, so it's safe to assume all of the attackers will be hers," I said briefly.
     "Dryads are super observant, patient, and calm. You won't be able to trick them, at least not easily. They take in their surroundings carefully and don't miss any detail. You won't be able to trick her like the naiad. Our best chance is to consistently change things up. Psychologically, people tend to stick to a certain power or switch between two. This is what the dryad will expect because it's in our nature so constantly changing your pattern can throw them off, if only for a few seconds."
     "So our only strategy is to continuesly change our attacks?" One of the knights asked, the worry hinting in his voice.
     "Not necessarily. Iron will hurt dryads and maenads. Dryads use earth magic and more importantly, they themselves are made of trees, roots, branches, vines. Anything in a forest. The magic counterpart is fire, but fortunately for us, dryads are unique in that the fire doesn't have to be magical to do heavy damage. So we'll need to set up many fires or torches in the area we meet her in. If we're careful about, we might be able to pour small amounts of gasoline on the ground so that we can light it on fire."
     "That could be risky. Flames aren't easily controlled and they may do more harm to us than the dryad," a knight commented.
     "I can't deny that it's risky but with any luck it will still be just me and Rook and we'll be able to contain the flames or at the very least be able to escape."
     That weighed heavily on everyone. I took the silence to study the map on the table. Where would the dryad attack? Where to start to set the battlegrounds?
     "Dryads live in sylvan areas, as far away from civilization as possible. We can assume that they'll be attacking from out if the woods. Unlike the naiad, I think the dryad won't just randomly attack the first villages she stumbles upon. She would probably watch them for a few hours before striking and will probably only attack where she can cause the most damage, if not life wise than with the size of the village."
     I stared at the map. The largest forest area was nearly opposite of the ocean. Naiads and dryads couldn't be more different if they tried. I looked at the most likely path to get to Azmar from the woods. Small villages scattered the outer rings of the kingdom but I was sure the dryad wouldn't bother with them. In the fourth outer right I saw the first real big village.
     I pointed to the village. "Here. I think this is where the dryad will attack."
     "You think?"
     I didn't answer, clenching my jaw. I wasn't meant for this, to tell royal knights what to do, to make battle strategies. I wasn't even meant to be in the castle, around people who's job was to hunt me down.
     "All the outer villages are still evacuated and we should keep it that way until the dryad and maenad are dealt with. We'll need iron and gasoline along with torches," Rook said.
     "Wouldn't the dryad see the torches?" A knight asked.
     "Yes, but it's normal for fire to be in a village, and I think the dryad will be cautious not to get too close to the flames but will still come to the village," I said.
     "What good will a torch do, anyway? They're too observant to use it against them and it's so far from the actual battle."
     It'll help me use less magic to manipulate the flames instead of summon them.
     "We need to add as much things that could be useful as we can. If I'm far from the dryad, I could probably grab a torch and drop it into the gasoline before the dryad can do anything," I explained. It was a BS explanation but no one called me out on it.
     "Dryads can also bring trees to life, turning them into magical wood golems so once the dryad comes on Sunday, everyone should be cautious in the woods. Dryads don't have the longest reach of power so I'm sure the woods near Azmar will be fine but everyone should keep their guard up and should try to avoid going into the forests if at all possible."
     "I'll go make an announcement," one of the guards offered, leaving the room when Rook gave him the go ahead.
     I thought about the best course of action for the next few days. I didn't want to pour the gasoline too soon so it didn't get soaked up or dried if it's hot, washed away if it's raining, even freeze if it's cold. No, we had to pour it freshly before the dryad attacked.
     Including all the time we have before Sunday, it was a good days walk from the forest to the village, even for a mythical creature, and I imagine a dryad will wait and study the village for at least a day before attacking. So I don't think the dryad will attack any earlier than Tuesday. So we had a whole week to prepare.
     "We should rest and train until Friday. Saturday we'll set up any iron we can as well as any fire. If we don't finish on Saturday we'll continue on Sunday. Depending on when we finish that, gasoline will be poured on Sunday or Monday," I said.
     "Shouldn't we start preparing earlier?" A guard asked.
     "No. We can't have it prepared too early. The dryad probably won't attack any earlier than Tuesday so we have a weeks worth of time. We shouldn't rush this."
     "So we'll meet back here on Friday to further discuss the plan and how we need to set up. Until then, your time is your own. Use it wisely," Rook said, dismissing the group.
     The knights left the room, leaving me and Rook alone. We were quiet for a few minutes, both of us deep in thought.
     "What if I'm wrong?" I asked suddenly.
     Rook turned to me, surprised. "What?"
     I swallowed. "I... I'm not sure about anything. I can only surmise what the nymphs will do. But what if I get it wrong? What if the dryad attacks sooner? What if she just heads straight towards Azmar while we're all away? What if people die because of my decisions?"
     Rook was silent. It was silly of me to complain to him. I was preaching to the choir, after all. Who knows this fear and guilt better than a prince?
     I walked towards the door. Rook took a quick step towards me. "Sage..." His voice drifted off.
     I paused and turned slightly to face Rook. "I'll be in the woods if you need me."
     Rook didn't reply. I turned and walked out of the room. I needed to burn away my worries before they consumed me. If there was one thing Nirvana understood about me better than anyone else, it was my conscience.
     I made my way to the training grounds and walked into the forest. I wasn't sure why I wanted to train in the woods instead of just the training grounds. I just did. Maybe it reminded me of before Nirvana. I would always train in the woods surrounding the village so I didn't bother anyone.
     A fiery sword appeared in my hand as soon as I entered the forest. It annoyingly reminded me of Nirvana's sword, the one she used to burn my shoulder. I healed enough that my skin where I was burned is only a shade or two darker than normal and the rest of my injuries we're completely healed by now. Though my arm was slightly weaker than normal still but I had full use of it and the soreness has already faded to a mere whisper.
     I slashed the sword three times, sending off beams of fire with every movement. The bursts of fire hit three separate trees and flickered for a few seconds before burning out. I made sure the flames didn't burn the tree and I seemed quite successful as the bark didn't so much as darken. I've trained my fire control well.
     I couldn't help but run different plans, different scenarios in my head. How would the dryad react? What could go wrong? Where's the most likely place for error? How many people could die?
     My hands soon lit fire as well as the sword. I kept slashing the swords, kept sending bursts of fire at the trees.
     How could  my decisions hurt each other? How will Nirvana trick me?
     My fire started to grow more vicious and bright. It was getting harder to keep it from burning the trees.
     What if we get through this? Nirvana will just find some other way to torture me. What will be next? A banshee? A ghoul? A gargoyle? A dragon? Heck, even a unicorn could be a possibility.
     It was hard to tell whether my flames were originating more from my beckoning or from my anger. Why can't it be a little bit of both?
     I trained long into the evening. I kept training my fire as the sun went down, streaking the sky in orange and pinks. I trained as the sky grew to a faded gray, and only my flames illuminated the night. Even the stars refused to shine, shrouded in mist. And I trained throughout the night and into the morning where my flames matched the sky as the sun rised early. Even as the sun came up, I kept training.
     My flames were weak, as well as my body which suddenly felt painful and heavy. My stamina was stretched thin but I didn't care. I kept training and training and training.
     I'm going to kill this damn dryad and the maenad that comes after that. And when I'm done, I'm going to kill that bitch Nirvana if it's the last thing I do.