Stealing Sorcery (7 page)

Landen leaned over the table, whispering to her. “These are dossiers on all the applicants.”

Velas gave a low whistle. “Okay, Sal. I take it all back. That does sound interesting.”

“Sal?” Taelien raised an eyebrow. “Never heard that one.”

“I think it’ll stick. Taelien is too pretentious, and Salaris is a mouthful. Sal is cute, though.”

“Uh, thanks, I suppose.” He blinked, looking uncharacteristically stymied. She flashed him one of her usual grins, then turned back to Landen.

“So, when do I get to see?”

“When I’m finished,” Landen replied. “After all, you told ‘Sal’ they sounded boring.”

She sighed. “You could at least read me the highlights.”

“I’m not sure we’re even supposed to have these.”

Taelien shrugged. “I already asked the trainers.”

Both Landen and Velas turned to stare at him.

“What? I didn’t want to get in trouble later. And they said something about information gathering being a useful skill, so it was fine.”

You are so naïve sometimes, Sal. I’m not sure if it should be infuriating or just adorable.

From Landen’s expression, she could tell he was thinking along similar lines.

“Never mind. If you want to discuss this, we should do it elsewhere,” Landen said. “You two done eating?”

Velas thrust her spoon deep into the gruel, and then pulled upward, lifting the bowl. “Yeah, I think I’m done.”

***

Landen’s apartment was much better furnished than Velas’. She never understood why people needed fancy things like rugs, tapestries, and the like – even though her family had always had them when she had grown up. Practical things she could understand; additional colors and artistic flourishes were just noise.

Nevertheless, she had long ago learned to pretend. “Nice painting, Lan. That new?”

She pointed at a random portrait on the wall. It was a depiction of General Therin, white-bladed sword in hand, looming over a vanquished Vyrek Sul, the former ruler of the Xixian Empire. Therin was bare-chested and looked more like a sculptor’s model than a swordsman.

“Yeah, it’s my new favorite. You like it?”

Velas nodded. “Yeah, it’s a good one.” She could appreciate the male form, at least, and the detail on the ancient sword that Therin carried was impressive. The artist had put some work into researching the artifact, at least.

She took a perch on the side of Landen’s bed, cracking her neck to the left and right while the others sat down at the nearby kitchen table.

“Okay, so who are we up against?” she inquired.

“Well, it’s not really that kind of test,” Landen pointed out. “There are teams, but it’s not a direct competition.”

“Aww, that’s bullshit and you know it. The judges are definitely going to compare the performance between different teams, even if we’re not literally fighting each other. And, by the end, I fully expect we will be literally fighting each other. We’ve got a god of swords, remember?”

“Don’t get my hopes up,” Taelien said with a grin.

Couldn’t be any higher than mine.
She squirmed a little on the edge of the bed.

“Are we all even on the same team?” she asked.

Landen shrugged. “Not sure yet. We need to make it through the preliminary rounds first. We’re likely to end up in the same platoon if we make it through, though, since we’re all classified as melee combat specialists. Also, I’m anticipated to have the highest score.”

“What? Let me see those!” Velas sprang to her feet and reached for the stack of papers, which Landen deftly swept out of the way.

“When I’m done,” he said. He pointed at the bed. She sat back down, folding her arms.

“He’s telling the truth,” Taelien said. “I skimmed them last night. I’m projected to have the lowest scores of the three of us.” He sighed. “Apparently I ‘lack discipline’.”

“That’s true,” Velas said.

“Definitely true,” Landen echoed.

Taelien glanced at Landen, smacking him playfully on the shoulder. “Hey, whose side are you on here?”

“Oh, picking sides now, are we?” Velas grabbed a pillow from the bed, glancing at the two swordsmen with a menacing expression.

“Just read, Landen,” Taelien said with a sigh. “I want to hear your assessment on the biggest threats to our group.”

“You can read these,” Landen passed a smaller stack to Velas. “I’ve already read them.”

The next hour passed with minimal conversation as they each devoured the details about their potential competitors. There were hundreds of candidates, but Taelien only had paperwork for the locals and a few others that had arrived and registered early enough for Lydia to make copies of their dossiers.

After finding one particular dossier, Landen frowned and handed it to Velas. “What’s a ‘Bladecaller’?”

Velas glanced over the sheet detailing the capabilities of Keldyn Andys, the local swordsman reported to be blessed by the god of blades.

Keldyn Andys

Human Male Age 23; Hair: Blond, Eyes: Hazel

Height 178 cm, Weight: 76 kg

Experience: Priesthood of Tae’os 14 yrs., Tournament Duelist 1 yr.

Languages: Velthryn

Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Teris, Velthryn, Aayaran), Dagger, Bow (Velthryn)

Sorcerous Proficiencies: Gifts of Aendaryn; Bladecaller

Expected Performance Rating: 88

Description: A third generation paladin. His mother, Sarellia Andys, was one of the Arms of Therin and deployed in the final push at Xixis. She was killed in action along with the rest of her unit in the aftermath of the battle. Keldyn was raised by his father, a blacksmith, and sent to train as an acolyte at 8 yrs.

At 16 yrs., Keldyn applied for a transfer from the priesthood to the Paladins of Tae’os. At the time, his application was denied due to his lack of experience.

Applicant Andys employed a private fencing trainer while continuing with his normal responsibilities as a priest, entering private tournaments and displaying progressively improved skills. He continued to serve in the priesthood until 22 yrs., at which point he manifested the Gifs of Aendaryn during a duel.

With Aendaryn’s favor clearly displayed, he was permitted to begin accelerated paladin training to prepare for the Trials of Unyielding Steel.

Finished with reading the document, she looked back at Landen. “A ‘caller’ is the local term for a sorcerer who specializes in summoning raw material. We’d call it a dominion sorcerer back home. They’d call me a Motioncaller, for instance.”

Taelien chimed in a moment later. “The other side of it is a ‘shaper’, which means someone who specializes in changing the properties of a material. Most sorcerers have some ability at both shaping and calling, but many of us specialize. They’d call me a Metalshaper here, for example.”

Velas nodded. “Or a core sorcerer of metal in Orlyn.”

Landen scratched his chin, glancing at Taelien. “What can you do with that? I’ve seen you magnetize things in Orlyn, or shift the mass of your sword. Can you turn copper into gold and make a fortune?”

Taelien shrugged. “Haven’t figured that out yet. I can only switch one or two things about an object at a time – and the appearance of a metal is derived from other characteristics, which makes that sort of thing tricky. I’ve heard it’s possible, but I’d imagine it would be very taxing on the body. Reshaping something into a material that has vastly different properties – like my magnetism trick – costs my body more than just redistributing the mass. Magnetism is tied to lightning, for example, so it’s like casting both a metal spell with a little bit of lightning involved.”

Landen tapped a hand on his leg. “But you can’t cast lightning spells, right?”

“Unfortunately, no. Not strong enough – but everyone has hints of every single dominion, and some spells can draw subtly from dominions that you’re not actually strong enough to cast from.”

Velas passed the dossier back to Landen, who handed it to Taelien. “Anyway, about Keldyn. There’s no known Dominion of Blades – no plane that’s just made up of a bunch of floating swords. Being a Bladecaller means that Keldyn somehow manifested the ability to summon swords out of…something. People think it’s tied to the god of swords somehow, since that’s something Aendaryn did a lot of in the old stories.”

Landen raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that something Sal could do?”

Taelien shook his head. “I’m no good at calling metal – but even if I was, I’d just be making a normal metal sword appear in my hand. This guy apparently makes floating, glowing swords that can fight on their own.”

Velas’ former Queensguard partner nodded appreciatively. “Okay, that does sound pretty impressive. Guess the god of swords
does
like him, then.”

“Maybe,” Velas shrugged. “Maybe he’s just picked up a neat trick. Anyway, enough about Keldyn. I want to see what some of the newcomers look like.”

The details on most of the foreigners were sparse, but Velas quickly found the ones she was most interested in.

Susan Crimson

Human Female Age 22; Hair: Brown, Eyes: Brown

Height 166 cm, Weight: 54 kg

Experience: Pre-Thornguard 4 yrs, Thornguard, 6 yrs.

Languages: Veltrhyn, Isendri

Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Sae’lien), Spear (Sae’lien), Dagger, Lance, Bow (Isendri)

Sorcerous Proficiencies: None Declared

Expected Performance Rating: 52

Description: The third daughter of House Crimson, a lesser noble house in Selyr. Sent to Thornguard training at 12 yrs., most likely due to the family lacking sufficient lands to allocate to all children. Served 6 yrs. in the Selyr region and on deployment to the Lissec region. Combat experience in multiple encounters with Xixian forces while on deployment. Disillusioned with Thornguard politics, she chose to leave them after serving her mandatory years.

Velas put that dossier back in the pile, skipping the rest of the information. The question of the unusual heraldry solved, she didn’t find anything of particular interest about the young woman. She skimmed over the file on the armored man who had followed Susan into the mess hall next.

Bertram Colt

Human Male Age 24; Hair: Brown, Eyes: Hazel

Height 182 cm, Weight: 79 kg

Experience: Pre-Thornguard 4 yrs, Thornguard, 8 yrs.

Languages: Veltrhyn, Isendri

Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Sae’lien), Spear (Sae’lien), Dagger, Lance, Bow (Isendri)

Sorcerous Proficiencies: None Declared

Expected Performance Rating: 43

Description: A former servant to House Crimson, Bertram Colt entered Thornguard training at age 12 yrs. After completing his training, he served for several years before being reunited with Susan Crimson, who he had known in his childhood. The pair left the Thornguard together after serving on deployment in the Lissec region.

Slipping that paper back into the file, she tapped her fingers on the table, considering.
These are awfully vague. Not enough to really evaluate their motives or weaknesses. Still, neither of them sounds like much of a threat. Let’s see about Mr. Cloaky.

The Wandering War

Classified Species Male Age Classified; Hair: Copper, Eyes: Crimson

Height 194 cm, Weight: 85 kg

Experience: Details Restricted

Languages: Veltrhyn

Weapon Proficiencies: All conventional weapons

Sorcerous Proficiencies: Details Restricted

Expected Performance Rating: 100

Description: Bound servant of House Crimson. File restricted on the authority of Arbiter Stone. Observe with extreme caution.

Velas raised an eyebrow at the page.
Expected performance of 100?
All right, that one is far more interesting than I gave him credit for. “Classified Male?” Does that imply he’s not Rethri? If so, what is he? I finally find something amusing and all the details are locked away. Figures. Going to need to see if I can get some better data on him later.

She frowned, passing that dossier over to Taelien, and began searching through the pile for the one she was most interested in.

Jonathan Sterling

Human Male Age 25; Hair: Blonde, Eyes: Blue

Height 185 cm, Weight: 74 kg

Experience: Soldier 4 yrs., Bodyguard, 2 yrs., Haven Knights 5 yrs.

Languages: Veltrhyn, Teris, Old Valerian

Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Sae’lien), Spear (Sae’lien), Dagger, Lance, Bow (Isendri)

Sorcerous Proficiencies: None Declared

Expected Performance Rating: 71

Description: Born in Valeria, Jonathan Sterling served in the local military for the standard four yrs. After this, he spent two yrs. as a professional bodyguard to the Stalwart family. After saving the life of the family heir, he was offered a position in the Haven Knights, a prominent local knightly order. Several years later, he chose to apply to the Paladins of Tae’os following the departure of his grandfather, a former paladin.