System Of Desire: The Mage's Burden

Chapter Seven: Broken Family 2

To whatever entity it was that Roka was attached to, he'd just be a bigger ant, easily crushed with a single finger. By all that was sane in the world, Roka was just a first-tier mage, and yet, he had enough power residing within him to help a seventh-tier mage back to the peak of her power. If he repeated this anywhere else in the magic world, he'd either be thought mad or killed for looking down on seventh-tier mages. And yet he'd seen it with his own eyes. Any thoughts of going back on his word and breaking the contract had gone out of the window the moment he felt that power. Lothar had thought that going up against the Draknar alliance would be suicidal. With this new revelation, however, Lothar liked his chances against the alliance far more than whoever it was that Roka had channeled.

"Roka," Lothar replied to the taunt by Roka with a slight bow of the head. This was the fitting gesture of respect that a lower-tier mage showed one of a higher tier. Lothar was perfectly aware that Roka was only at the first tier and he currently in the second. However, even if he'd been a ninth-tier mage, he wouldn't have acted any differently. Only if he ever grew to be suicidal would Lothar try to act like he held a higher rank than one who could channel a literal deity. Until then, his little life was far too precious to lose to such folly.

From the corner of his eyes, Lothar didn't miss the way Roka rolled his eyes at his reaction. In the magic world, strength was everything. If you were powerful enough, then you could do whatever you wished. It thus wouldn't have come as that much of a shock to Lothar if Roka turned out to be proud and arrogant because of his power. After all, Lothar had encountered mages far weaker than him who were far more prideful. The shock, however, turned out to be that there wasn't even a hint of arrogance in the boy. That isn't to say that Roka was obsequious or anything, he just didn't put on airs as Lothar would have expected of one with as much power as he had. To his pleasant surprise, Roka seemed more keen to learn from Lothar than anything.

But while he didn't seem to think too much of himself, Lothar couldn't rid himself of the ingrained fear and respect he had for the powerful. Forget himself, not even his father would have dared raise his head in the presence of someone so powerful. To do so was just seeking death. For three months after he was exposed to that unfathomable power, Lothar hadn't even been able to look the boy in the eye. He didn't speak unless first spoken to and answered to the best of his ability anything he was asked. Some small part of him knew and understood that the boy didn't think of them as orders, but whenever Roka asked something of him, they might as well have been edicts from an emperor. No matter how small or trivial it may have seemed, he'd do it to the best of his ability.

The boy had noticed his fear and rather than inflate his pride, Lothar could tell that it made Roka uncomfortable. This is part of why Roka had taken to calling him by the moniker of 'old man' when he found out that Lothar was actually seventy and not as young as his outward appearance might suggest. In a bid to try and bridge the gap between them, Roka had shared about himself and his life in the little town in the mountains and how he came to be the healer's student. He'd also asked about Lothar's past, and at the time, Lothar wouldn't have dared to not answer...

***

They were gliding on an arrowhead-shaped flying vessel controlled by the boy's familiar when Roka questioned him. "So, is there a reason why a fifth-tier mage would go through the trouble of poisoning you rather than just outright kill you?"

"Because she didn't have any grudge against me," Lothar had replied darkly, unable to hide the murderous gleam in his eyes.

Confusion had been all too clear to see on Roka's face when he asked the follow-up question. "Then why would she want to poison you?"

"Because my coward of a father doesn't have the balls to do it himself. Mage Shia is just the borrowed blade he used to do it!" Lothar had replied calmly unable to keep from growling the answer.

His answer had been followed by silence from Roka and Lothar had tensed thinking that his ire had somehow displeased him. He, however, was wrong. "I get the sense that this is a sensitive topic for you. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to," he said, with a look of understanding on his face.

They both knew that if he had demanded it of him, Lothar wouldn't have been able to say no. The memory of the power the boy had displayed had been too fresh in his mind for Lothar to even consider raising any objection against him. That's why Roka's verbal permission not to say anything more if he didn't want to had meant so much to Lothar. Despite his easily discernible fear, the boy hadn't chosen to take advantage.

"Sanz Aran, that's my father's name," Lothar found himself talking now that he had an ear willing to listen. "A fourth-tier mage and head of the Golden Trident merchant group. Both those achievements, however, are only because he married my mother. You see, Mother is from the Jareth family, the most powerful family in the city of Varun. Before he married her, father was just a small-time merchant at the third tier, with a few successful businesses under him. Knowing the man, his pursuit of my mother probably began as a calculated move to get in with the Jareth family. After all, with them, he'd have the resources to take both his business and pursuit of magic to the next level. Somewhere along the way, however, he fell in love with her."

"At the time, however, it wasn't just my father that was after her. Tallen, a scion of the Rotha family also had eyes for my mother. And unlike Aran, the small-time merchant, the Rotha family is the only other family in Varun that comes even close to rivaling the Jareth family in terms of power. Worse yet, Mother had already been familiar with Tallen for far longer than he'd known Aran, so he had his work cut out for him. He went to great lengths to try and win her over but from what information I could gather, he would have failed if not for the intervention of my mother's grandfather. Having been at the head of the family for almost two centuries, my great-grandfather saw the Rotha family as upstarts that were trying to encroach on their domain and consume them from within. To him, they were an eyesore, and he would have never agreed to any union between the two families. And so, with his support, Aran got the woman that he loved. Not a man to dally when an opportunity presents itself, Aran married my mother just a month after he got the blessing from my great-grandfather. It would have been the perfect ending to his love story, only... my mother was already pregnant with me." A bitter smile had crossed Lothar's lips at this point. "Do you want to guess who the father was?" He posed rhetorically.