Having already experienced her feats of rage before, Lothar immediately knew that this wasn't like one of those. Yes, she'd fly off the handle but usually, she had a good grip on her aspect. This time when she turned around, there was murder in her eyes. "Are you trying to get me killed?" She growled through gritted teeth. In an unexpected twist, Lothar who'd been fearing the worst, found himself feeling confused when the look of rage landed on Deina. Crossing the distance between the railing and his now confused sister, the sound of flesh meeting flesh resounded as her teacher backhanded her across the face hard enough to send her sprawling to the floor! Turning to Lothar she pushed the runic lens painfully into his chest. "Study the very edge of that clearing!" She growled. Lothar, who still felt like he was drowning, didn't argue. Trying to reason with Mage Shia while she was in this state was a lot like trying to convince fire not to burn you, or more accurately for water not

An unallied high-tier mage is almost impossible to find. If they can find one, that liaison will earn great merit with the alliance. This place is far enough away that it'll take a few weeks, perhaps even a month or two for them to arrive. You can be certain, however, that a delegation from the Draknar mage alliance will be coming.." His teacher explained "As a form of respect and sign of goodwill, the Draknar mage alliance will send a seventh-tier mage as the head of the delegation. This is both a sign of the alliance's strength and an indication that they are taking the prospective member seriously. The reason we can't leave immediately is because it'll be all too easy for such a mage to track us down. Regardless of which particular school of magic they belong to, seventh-tier mages usually have a wide repertoire of means that they've garnered through the cycles. I'll need to wipe away every last trace of our existence from this town if we don't want them tracking us down to where

You should visit the young man in the mask," A voice had sounded from beside him. Lothar didn't bother turning in the direction knowing that he wouldn't see anything. For reasons that Lothar didn't know, the man never dispelled his invisibility. The man's words were exactly what Lothar had been planning to do, but to hear Romin tell him to do so had given him pause. Had he noticed the same thing he had or something different? "Why is that?" Lothar had asked. "I can't be certain as he passed all my tests right after, but I have a very strong suspicion that the boy could see me!" Romin had revealed, much to Lothar's shock. Having had the man as a guard for close to three decades now, Lothar knew just how good his stealth was. Even among third-tier mages, those who weren't already aware of him would have a very hard time picking up on his presence. And yet, the young man pretending to be a servant to the Town-head had seen through his strength. Unbeknownst to his long-time guard, his w

Shalia's eyes fluttered open as sleep escaped her. Some small lazy part of her was tempted to just let her eyes drift back closed and let herself sleep in for the day. Given that she was almost always up before the sun, it'd be hard for most to guess just how much she hated early mornings. Still, the old woman who had been her master for years before she died had inculcated into her the idea that she needed to be up before everyone else, and much to her chagrin, it had stuck. With a sigh of resignation, she rose and began her morning rituals. After a cold bath to fully wake her up, she donned her clothes for the day and started towards the front door ready to head toward the infirmary. "Mother, you should be resting" Shalia spoke when she found her mother in the living room laying out two bowls of broth. Her mother wasn't sick, but given that she had given birth just a month prior and was taking care of her younger brother, she needed all the rest she could get. After his injuries f

Just because mages belonged to the same alliance, didn't mean that there weren't factions in them. The whole point of joining an alliance was to gain more benefits than one could accrue on their own. And where benefits were involved, factions motivated by self-interest were the natural consequence. This was why it was important for any alliance that didn't want to fracture to balance out the growth and power of those factions. That's one of the reasons Grenad had been sent alongside her. It was not an iron-clad rule, but whichever faction did a recruitment, usually gained the new member as a part of their faction simply because they were already familiar with them. By having more than one faction take part in the recruitment process, the one being recruited is given a broader choice of where they want to land. The other reason for having two seventh-tier mages come was because one was there to back up the other just in case the negotiations turned hostile. After having lived so long