19. Making a Cover Letter

“So, a little while ago I figured out a few tricks to my magic. I've been messing with it a lot recently since I’ve had to use it more.” She nods, looking off into the distance, I don’t really know what she’s looking for, but it’s clearly something. It’s a bit weird having one side of this conversation, but whatever. I wonder if I can use dark magic to cure a curse … it feels unlikely, and if I could I should probably work on my own curse first. Then again curses in concept feel somewhat similar to enchantments, just enchanting a person’s soul rather than an object so maybe I’d be good with them. Right, my explanation. “Anyway, after messing with it for a while I figured out how to make illusions that feel like they’re doing something, even if they don’t actually injure people. The only times I’ve actually used it it’s to make illusions feel like they’re heating an area up, and that’s only happened twice. You just saw one of them, but the first time was to scare away some Great Vultures while everyone was sleeping.”

Elizabeth stops moving and seems to be thinking about what I just said. I’d rather get ahead of her realization though. “And it was what Johannes said that made me think that the trick might … possibly … be dark magic.” It’s not the exact truth, but it’s close enough that it can’t be proven wrong. Regardless, I brace myself for Elizabeth’s response. She stops looking around for a second, and thinks about something before taking the wax tablet out again, and writes on it for a few minutes, clearly scribbling parts out and writing over them repeatedly. It takes all my self restraint not to look over her shoulder as she does. Eventually she hands me it. “It’s a bit hard to be properly angry at you at the moment since you probably saved my life with it. I’m also kind of glad you have an actual reason to hate both your guild and the church, otherwise it’d be really hard to convince you to break the law. That is to say, I’ll just let the guild members who actually get what that actually means handle it, because you will be telling them.” Well that’s at least better than it could be … even if it’s mandating I figure out how to tell Johannes about all this without getting smote.

After a few minutes of walking, boredom overpowers the awkwardness. “So … do you have an actual method of figuring out where they are or are we just wandering back towards our pursuers randomly?”

She rolls her eyes before writing something out on the tablet. “A few, but they’ll probably find us not the other way around.”

I just shrug. I don’t exactly have a better method, and I’d really rather not try to deploy my strategy of running off into the forest and hopefully retracing my steps at this point, so I’ll go with this until it threatens to go really wrong.

It takes a few minutes of walking before I hear a voice I recognize, and luckily it’s not from the guild or the church. “Hey we’re over here.” Gwendolyn yells from inside the forest.

Meeting back up with the group they’re clearly not in the best of states, Gwendolyn’s completely lost her plate armor and is using the equivalent of light armor whose only enchantments are to make it better padding under her real armor, Willard’s armor is missing about half its runes and both the arms like they’d been torn at the shoulder, and Johannes is sporting enough blood that anybody other than a Light Mage would probably be dead. That’s ignoring the simmering fury on Willard’s face as Gwendolyn puts on a smile. “I’m glad to see you two made it out, it’s a bit hard to keep track of your magic Jez, but it was certainly an effective combination. Unfortunately we had to extricate Will here, and now that we’ve dealt with the important act of reuniting we should certainly talk about that particular extrication, and the way that situation came about.”

Elizabeth gives me a look, and while I don’t think it’s for the same reason I have to agree on the timing. I’d rather get this over with while there’s still someone else’s mistake to handle afterwards. “Before that … I might need to explain some things. Especially that last attack I made. Besides, it’s something that will come out eventually, I should probably get ahead of it.”

Gwendolyn raises an eyebrow at that. “How ominous, well I don’t have any objections to giving you the floor, it might give Will some time to calm down.”

Maybe, I wouldn’t be surprised if Willard is a bit more accepting of Dark Mages than I originally thought if a member of the church is calling him a ‘known associate to Dark Mages’. “It’s a really long story, but I learned pretty recently that I might be a Dark Mage. I think I was the source of the dark magic you found after you woke up in the Great Vultures area. Obviously I didn’t know all this until after I joined this group, but that’s what that last trick I pulled was … with dark magic I can make illusions that feel like they’re real, and with the situation it seemed like the only option.”

I keep a close eye on the group, if somebody takes a swing at me I really want to be ready for it, but nobody makes an immediate move, Gwendolyn seems to be deep in thought, Johannes looks like he got slapped in the face with a fish, and Willard actually starts chuckling. “Oh, that’s something. I put so much work easing you into potentially doing something illegal, and it turns out your magic is just completely illegal on its own. That’s the best.” Ok? Didn’t see that one coming, still I’m mostly worried about Johannes.

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After a few seconds Johannes seems to come to a decision, “Can you show me? I can at least confirm if you’re right that it’s dark magic. Maybe it’s light magic, or something else.” Ugh, I used up all my dark magic with that last attack, even without having used magic since then I don’t exactly have a lot of it back. Still, I can whip up something. I create an illusory fire in my hand and use the tiniest hair of dark magic to make it feel hot before holding it closer to Johannes. “Here you are, I used most of it up earlier, but I can still mix it with a normal illusion if I’m not trying to do anything fancy with it.”

Johannes spends some time examining the fire very closely before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. “That is, indeed, dark magic. Not very much of it, but that does make sense if you’re new to that type of magic. That’s … bizarre, especially since you seem perfectly normal. I don’t exactly know why Dark Mages attack people so often, but I can confirm it happens with abnormal frequency. Just to be safe you should avoid using that magic in the future in case it has a corrupting element to it.”

I … see. Well it’s not exactly how I’d rather things go, but I can still practice at home or something. For some reason though Willard’s the one to chime in. “Wait, we get attacked by Light Mages all the time, and don’t tell you to not practice your magic out of fear you’ll suddenly join the church.”

Johannes turns to glare at him, but Gwendolyn interrupts. “Alright, both of you calm down. John you’re right that we don’t know anything about this situation, and Will you’re right that we’ve taken risks on people that’ve worked out for the better. And before we decide anything impactful, Jezebel, what does dark magic even feel like to use?”

I shrug. “About the same as my illusions, it’s really nice to use, and I enjoy the extra challenge. To me magic always feels like putting together a puzzle, and like the satisfaction of getting it right.”

She nods. “Then the important question, up until now we’ve been more or less treating you like a member of our group, but you’re still a member of a different guild. That was part of the original agreement, but the understanding was that we would avoid fights with the guild. If that’s not possible what are you going to do?”

“Ah right … that was the other thing I wanted to mention. That group we just fought was a part of my guild. I can at least promise you that I’m willing to help you escape, beyond that I honestly don’t know.” I’ve been really trying to avoid thinking about how being a Dark Mage would affect my relationship with my guild … and I will continue to do so for as long as I can help it, that seems like a miserable train of thought.

“Ah … then apologies that we failed to keep up our end of the bargain. Don’t worry that particular complaint will be addressed in due time.” She very clearly looks over at Willard. “Regardless, if you do come to a decision, we’d be happy to take you in a bit more officially. With that in mind, I’m going to set a few ground rules for your magic while you’re traveling with us. If you’re practicing magic on one of us don’t use dark magic, and I’m going to ask you to stop practicing on other people with any magic while they’re sleeping, for now also don’t use it in combat unless you need to. Finally, Johannes will keep an eye out for anything unexpected like if you start turning evil without knowing it. Are there any objections to those as the rules?”

Johannes seems a bit conflicted, but ends up shaking his head no. It’s honestly a bit better than I expected, she didn’t even seem opposed to me practicing it on my own. “I’m fine with that.”

She nods. “This is a really good opportunity for us to learn a lot more about dark magic, it’d be a waste to forbid you from messing with it sight unseen. With that settled, Will. What the hell happened back there? Forget attacking a member of the church without even trying to talk our way out of it, what was with you after your sword broke? The fight was lost, forget the difference and strength from him having light magic, he was clearly absurdly strong for a Light Mage. Why did you draw a dagger and act like stabbing him with that was going to work any better? Why did you try to punch him? It took a liquid life just to get you out, and you very easily could’ve died if he wasn’t toying with you.”

Will sighs. “Yeah … I know. I’m going to kill him, but I focused on it too hard … he was right in front of me, I thought I’d be able to do it this time, but he’s a lot stronger than last time … and I don’t have the edge I would need to take him. Not by a long shot.”

Gwendolyn inhales deeply before putting a hand on Willard’s shoulder. “Will … what happened between you two? You said before that you got into a fight with an apprentice at the church and accidentally killed them, but that’s clearly not the whole story.”

He shrugs her hand off his shoulder. “Yeah … I guess I can’t put it off any longer. Frankly I’d rather have explained it before Jezebel’s revelation. Maybe I could have clarified a few things, but … well here we are now.” He takes a step away and stares off into the forest. “It all started with Bridget.”