Chapter 9

  “We’ll keep them north of the Zambesi, tell that rivers runnin’ dry...” Mike turned the stereo down as we began to slow our approach to the gate. Every time Mike played this song, I had to make the obligatory quote, “we say Zimbabwe now don’t we?” He just shook his head, “My grandfather was RAR all the way until the ceasefire and his move to South Africa, it's Rhodesia and you know it!” I laughed. Mike was proud of his family's military tradition, and the history always got him riled up.

  We slowly approached the gate. I was surprised by the lack of reaction; we for sure got odd looks from the guards, who were armed with trapdoor rifles like the patrol I had met. They were clearly watching our approach, but none of them were panicking—it was more like a super car pulling up to a McDonald's, surprising but not earth-shattering. One of the guards held up his hand in what must be the universal stop signal: “Greetings, Sir Magi, may I please ask the purpose of your visit today?”

  Mike looked at me to take the lead, since he couldn’t understand the man. “Greetings, I assisted Mage Toalson and his patrol a few weeks ago and was told I could come here to collect the reward?” One of the other guards came over and whispered to the one who stopped us, pointing at Igni, who was sitting on the trailer attached to Mike’s bike. The first guard nodded and looked back at me.

  “Yes, sir, we were told to be on the lookout for you; the Adventures Guild is in the middle of town. Just follow this road and take the second left; you can't miss it.” He stepped out of the way, and we thanked him and passed into the town.

  The streets were paved with cobblestones and were surprisingly clean. As we got to the second intersection, we saw why the guards were only mildly surprised: a wagon passed us with no horses and a man on the front bench seat, apparently steering with two levers that connected to the wagon's internals. We stopped to let the wagon pass, and the man politely tipped his hat to us as he passed.

  We turned left and saw a large building halfway down the street on our left, with a large sign that, while I could tell wasn’t in English, I could also read as “Adventures Guild.” Mike and I parked our bikes on the side of the road. “This place looks peaceful, but I don’t want to leave the stuff on the bike unattended,” Mike said, and I nodded. “Cool, I’ll head inside and pick up the money and see if we can find you one of these translator devices,” I said while tapping my necklace.

  Mike nodded and slung his rifle over his chest. I left mine with him, but did check my pistol before heading in.

  I opened the door for Igni and followed her in. The room was divided into two; to my left, and down a short two steps, was a tavern right out of any fantasy book. To my right was a wall filled with papers that all seemed to be in the same format. Directly in front of me was a counter where I saw what I assumed was my first beast kin. A lady wearing some kind of green uniform with a logo the same as the one outside the building, with orange fox ears, was standing at the counter, looking at me and Igni with professional curiosity.

  “Good day, Sir Mage, how may I help you today?” I smiled. “A few things. First, I was told I should come here to redeem this.” I pulled the slip from one of the grenade pouches I used to store my wallet and other items I normally kept in my pockets. The receptionist took it and looked it over.

  “Oh, the emergency quest from the Military patrol—we were told to expect you. The local commander has authorized an increase to cover some of the other costs of gear you donated. It's not as much as it was worth, but the note says it's the maximum he's allowed to authorize. We were asked to pass along his thanks for your assistance and an apology that that is the best he can do. But your total would have been 75 gold, with the standard one gold guild fee for any payment over 20 gold, your total is 74 gold. I will just need your guild card in order to finish the payment?”

  I rubbed the back of my head. “About that, Ms. I’m not a registered adventurer yet.” She smiled. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Aurelia, and that's okay—the registration fee is one silver. If you're unable to afford it, it can be taken from your first few quests.” She paused, clearly abandoning her regularly used speech, and blushed slightly, realizing that the reason I was here was to collect enough money to register an entire town as adventurers.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  She blushed slightly, then went on, “I will just need you to put your hand on the orb here.” She pointed at what looked like a fortune teller's ball between the two reception desks.

  I walked over and set my hand on it. The ball lit up teal, with the bottom half shot through with red. Aurelia made a surprised squeak, “A green mage with one of two bonds.” She looked down at Igni. “Would that be this lovely lady? Oh, she thinks I’m lovely! Thank her for me!” Her tail started wagging happily.

  “Igni says thank you!” Aurelia’s eyes opened wide. “You two can communicate telepathically? She's not an ordinary dire wolf, is she?” Igni and I looked at each other, then looked back. “We have no clue. Do direwolves breathe?” An image of what happened in the armory flashed into my memory, but from a low angle I knew instinctively was Ignis' perspective. “Really hot stuff that consumes wood and you can use to cook with?”

  She gave me a funny look, then looked back at the orb I hadn’t yet taken my hand off.

  “Oh, oh, you're a green mage; she's an elemental wolf! You have no experience with magic before meeting her?” I agreed. “Okay, just nod if this happened: you said something about a fire and suddenly fire randomly shot out—no one was hurt, but it surprised you?” I nodded. “Alright, wait here a moment,” she said while going through a back door.

  A few moments later, she came back out carrying a copper bracelet. “This is a spell Codifer; a copper one is the most basic, but they are free to guild members and cheap to replace if something goes wrong. Put it on and follow me.” I slipped it on, and she kept talking as she came out from behind the desk.

  “Most Magi use a spell Codifer besides sorcerers and druids. They work by activating them with a code word, then registering a code word along with a very specific mental image that you decide. It's recommended to use an image similar to what the magic does, but not the same; the Codifer locks up the mana signature of the magic and that mental image, making it into a spell. This means you will be able to say the spell name or think about the image, but without both together, you won't have any accidental magic slippage.

  This Codifer can only store one spell pattern at a time. If you choose to upgrade, you can store more, but my first recommendation is getting a model with a mana pool indicator—it shows a little blue bar on top of the wrist that tells you how much mana you have left when you have, like, 10% mana left by the killer headache, but it helps to know how close you are to that.”

  We entered a room that reminded me of an indoor pistol range, but about a hundred yards long, with odd patterns on the wall.

  “This is one of the guild spell ranges; they are enchanted to keep from taking damage from spell testing. This is one of the private rooms that can be rented, but we use them for first-timers to walk them through the process.”

  I stood behind a line on the floor, and Aurelia walked me through the process. She pulled out a small copper rod, the size of a ruler.

  “Okay, when you're ready, I will tap this against the Codifer. The next two words you say will be the registration phrase going forward. It's recommended to use something other than 'Codifer' and some kind of action word. When you're ready, let me know.”

  The entire process reminded me of the system from 5e, so I nodded, and Aurelia tapped the Codifer.

  I took the time to make sure my pronunciation was accurate: “Spellbook Activate.”

  The Codifer glowed a dull white for a moment. “Good, okay, next make the mental image of the effect you want the spell to have. Remember, it's something similar, not the exact result; then, when you have it, say the activation phrase and what you want to name the spell.”

  I thought for a few moments about what happened in the armory; that made me think of the military hardware. Glancing down, I noticed one of my grenade pouches.

  My mind flashed to some videos Mike had shown me of some of his marine buddies playing with frag grenades, and with that, I had my answer.

  “Spellbook Activate!” The image of the marine throwing the frag and the explosion filled my mind, but in a panic, a corner of my mind remembered that frags did their damage with shrapnel, not the explosion. My mind flailed even as I started speaking.

  I latched onto some footage from a Vietnam movie I had watched with Mike last night, specifically a napalm strike. “Fireball!”

  A ball of flames, the size of a softball, shot from my hand. It wasn't all that impressive as it arced down the range, but I was new at this.

  Then the ball impacted the ground around fifty yards down the range, and it was clear it had been very condensed. The ball exploded in a circle about twenty yards in diameter. The flames lingered for over a minute before some of the wall patterns glowed, and some kind of suppression system kicked on.