Curselock

Chapter 102: Reasons to Leave

A small stone flew through the air before hitting and bouncing off Leland’s face. His reactions were slow, and he threw up his arms to block late. He tried to maintain some level of dignity, forcing the awkward movement into that of a deep stretch.

“Ahhh,” he purred, hoping that Jude and Glenny didn’t question him.

Jude, who threw the rock, squinted suspiciously. He threw another one.

It hit Leland in the face, again. “Stop that,” he uttered.

“I thought you wanted to practice your reflexes.”

“No, I wanted to test out Shield of Water. Which I haven’t even cast yet.”

Jude rolled his eyes and signaled to hurry up. The boys were still in Frostford but were somewhat hesitant to stay much longer. They stood in a small courtyard behind the local adventuring guild. Designated as a training area, the space was one of the few in the town that allowed for open use of magic and abilities.

However, even with the rules stating that they were clearly allowed to be there, the town’s guards patrolled by every few minutes and questioned them. It was starting to get tedious, and Leland assumed it would only get worse when he actually started casting spells.

With a sigh, Leland pulled his grimoire out of his hand tattoo noting that the fresh ink circle around the crow was still wiggling a bit. The new magical tattoo had progressively slowed down in forming whatever it was going to depict. At this point, unless he was specifically looking, Leland didn’t outright notice it was still moving. If he inspected the design after a few hours, there would be noticeable differences, mostly in the intercept runic patterns running the length of the circle.

But that was for future Leland to figure out. For now, he flipped the page of his grimoire to his newest contract. His meeting with the Lord of Water was rather uneventful, at least, it was after the Lord showed up and allowed him to breathe underwater. He shuddered at how weak his muscles felt after treading water for so long.

I need to go on a run or something… he thought as a violet halo formed above his head.

Palm pressed into the contract’s page, mana and lifeforce bled to life all around Leland. Quickly the pull of the spell rendered his life force incompatible and began to redouble its efforts on his mana. Soon a spring of water swirled around his outstretched hand, creating a horizontal umbrella of clear rapids. Faster and faster the water spun, growing in size and hardness before completing.

Leland felt the shift in his mind, his Legacy telling him the spell was complete. His breath caught at that, his mana reserves suddenly dipping unlike ever before. While expected, the effects were still troublesome. As a Legacy of Curses, Leland’s lifeforce was used in tandem with his mana. He had grown used to the untiring effect, even with a spell like Touch of Regeneration in his arsenal.

“This spell takes a bit out of me to cast, but once it's up and running, it doesn’t require much mana,” Leland said to his friends.

Jude and Glenny stalked around him, inspecting the spell in its entirety. The spell was exactly as its name implied, a shield. It hovered just beyond Leland’s outstretched hand and rapidly spun, creating a tapered circular barrier that expanded enough to protect his head and chest. It was decently transparent, but for some reason Leland couldn’t be seen through the water.

“Can we throw rocks now?” Jude asked, his hands filled with different sizes of stones.

Leland let out a sigh. “Go ahead.”

Glenny jumped at the offer, taking a rock from Jude and throwing it decently hard at the shield. The rock collided with the water and was swiftly deflected into the ground. Jude threw the next one a bit harder. Again the rock pinged off with a wet splash.

They threw rocks one at a time, each time with more power than the last. Eventually Glenny conceded defeat and stepped back to allow Jude to really let loose. The berserker wound up and launched rock after rock.

At first Leland didn’t even notice the rocks were hitting the shield, but once Jude started to tap into his Legacy’s additive strength, things started to take a turn. Each rock felt like they were fired from a cannon and he could feel the shield cracking under the force. Luckily, the water never stopped flowing, and would quickly repair any and all damage at the cost of mana.

Eventually Leland had to stop. The spell fell to the ground with a splash before the conjured water disappeared with a tinge of blue magic. A headache was forming behind Leland’s eyes, along with a pit in his chest. Mana exhaustion was something he wasn’t quite used to, not like a true mage at least. He collapsed to his butt, landing in a small patch of snow as his halo faded.

“H-how much strength was that last one?” Leland asked Jude.

“Oh, maybe sixty percent.”

“Sixty?! I felt sure you were going much more than that…”

Jude gave him an amused smile. “Hopefully those new fancy robes and hat will help out. Maybe next time I can get to seventy percent.”

Leland groaned. While his robe and hat were nice and comfortable, he didn’t see the point of always wearing combat gear like Jude and Glenny. They were in a town, one that currently wasn’t under attack… Well, if you went by what Frostford said, the town was under threat. The blizzard had scared the locals quite a bit, apparently.

Glenny suddenly cursed under his breath. “Heads up, we’ve got guards coming our way.”

The fence to the training area was magically imbued, making entry and exit much more difficult. The idea was that a curious child could watch from the outside where it was safe, rather than enter and be at risk of being hit by a runaway spell. But, unfortunately for the boys, such a fence didn’t stop the patrolling guards.

“Halt! You three!” one of the guards yelled. “State your business here!”

Leland, still wiped out and nursing his aching head, looked to Glenny to answer. The rogue said, “Just testing a spell.”

“And what spell might that be?” another guard asked, his tone being more than smug.

“Shield of Water.”

“Water, eh? Sounds softly close to being a blizzard spell.”

Glenny blinked a few times. “No it doesn’t.”

“We’ll be the judge of that,” the first guard said. “Now, show this spell to us before we arrest you.”

“Is this really necessary?” Jude asked. “He’s the caster, and look at him. He’s about to pass out from mana exhaustion. There’s no way he could create a blizzard when he could barely hold up a shield to some rocks.”

Leland paused at his friend's words and almost retorted. But instead he played into the exhausted mage and closed his eyes and leaned back. “I’m out of mana…” he groaned out.

The guard squinted at him, then the others. “Names and Legacy,” he stated.

“Glenny Red, Legacy of the Chameleon.”

“Any blizzard spells?”

“No.”

The guard scoffed and turned to Jude.

“Jude Brown. Legacy of the Berserker.”

“Ah, a warrior type. I think my nephew might have the same Legacy,” the third guard who hadn't yet spoken said. “You don’t know Tomas Urgrid?”

“No.”

“A shame, nice kid.”

The guard in charge gave his subordinate a glare. Finally he turned to Leland, who still had his eyes closed. “Name and Legacy. We don’t have all day.”

Taking a deep breath, Leland said, “Leland Silver.”

“Legacy?” the man repeated a bit louder.

“I do not have to answer that.”

The guard huffed, stomping a bit. “Son, I will arrest you for contempt if you do not answer.”

Leland cracked open an eye. “No, you won’t. Not unless you want an Inquisitor down here asking why you arrested some random kid without pretext of a crime. It’s not illegal to refuse to give you my Legacy.”

“No pretext you say?” the guard asserted. “There was an illegally cast blizzard over the town just two days ago. The culprit hasn’t been caught. And you are casting water spells. Seems like enough pretext to demand your Legacy, does it not?”

“Sir, with all due respect, water spells are not weather spells. They are completely different categories of—”

“Don’t care!” the man cut off. “Last chance. Are you going to tell me your Legacy or do I have to arrest you?”

“Guess I’m getting arrested,” Leland said before leaning to the side to look at the other two guards. “These two are my witnesses that I complied with the law exactly as the Queen has put in place.”

The guard with the warrior nephew nodded along solemnly. The other was awkwardly stiff.

“What do you know about the Queen?” the leader guard spit.

“Well, quite a bit actually,” Leland said before adding. “My parents say she’s a stickler for the rules. Won’t even let her children bend them. I’m sure she’ll be informed of this.”

Truthfully, he didn’t know much about the Queen. Most everything his parents had told him about the woman was well known and documented. True details of her life were heavily guarded, and those sworn to protect her wouldn’t break such rules for the sake of telling their children fun stories. He did know that his parents, and Jude and Glenny’s for that matter, had more than a simple business relationship with the Queen. They were friends, something that had been forged after years of service.

Although, if he was arrested, Leland did surmise his parents would tell the Queen. Not so much so that she could do something to this random guard in this random town, but because his parents would find it humorous.

The stiff guard’s face then scrunched. “What did you say your last names were?”

“Red, Brown, and Silver,” Glenny supplied.

“Sarge,” the guard leaned into his superior’s ear. “Those are the names of Royal Inquisitors.”

Leland sighed and stood, making sure to hide his tattoo. He hated using the name of his parents to get out of his messes. So, instead of letting the conversation progress into uncharted waters, he decided to lie. “My name is Leland Silver, I am a Legacy of Water. I am out of mana, but if you want to wait around for a few hours for my reserves to replenish, I’m willing to demonstrate my Shield of Water spell.”

“Hours?!” the head guard echoed.

“Indeed. The spell requires all of my mana to cast, I am after all only a rank one mage.”

“Sarge…” the stiff guard warned.

The man gave Leland an unamused look. “See? Was that so hard? You should listen to your betters. Some respect would do you well.”

“Of course sir, I apologize,” Leland said, stealing a glance at the stiff guard. It seemed like he wanted to leave the conversation just as quickly as Leland did.

The guards left at that, passing through the guild building rather than dealing with the magical fence. Once they disappeared inside, Leland spoke up.

“I think we best head out to the Lord of Nature quest a bit early.”

“Agreed,” Jude and Glenny said at the same time.