Now that Sean was in motion, he was positively driven and had to force himself to a pace that preserved the health and endurance of his troops. Once again, he picked a likely route that would take him around the entire country in the shortest amount of time, but even so, the distances he had to travel between each district seat left next to no time to achieve what he needed to do and each district presented its own problems.
Fortunately, he learned magic that allowed him to cover great amounts of distances simply by stepping through a door. This piece of magic was taxing, but it gave him more time to do what he needed to do. Thanks to his uncle Ludwyn’s efforts, the royal families were difficult to find, if survivors could be found; and once found, some were reluctant to resume their former duties.
Another thing Sean decided to do, based on the success he had with the man who taught him how to manage a warhorse, was redeem those warhorses and their riders, men and animals that had become known as demons and death-horses, as he came across them and Ludwyn required each garrison to have some. He added their numbers to his ranks, naming them knights. He also took more mages under his wing, despite their young age and tried very hard to become as strong as he could with his magic, a task he was driven to do every bit as much as he was driven to cover the distance in such a short time.
In the mountains, Sean was introduced to a much older magic and was afforded the opportunity to use it when he had to untangle magic that had forced a valley to produce twice as much as nature allowed. The spell was killing the district since it also affected its people and animals, causing them to age twice as fast. Women and female animals of every sort were dying in childbirth far more often than not as the infants grew and developed too fast for their bodies to make the necessary adjustments required for birth.
In another district, someone had been kidnapping child mages and Sean used more of the old magic to lay a trap for the kidnapper. The land knew who belonged; if a stranger came and tried to use magic to effect anything here, they would be caught in it. Unfortunately, the ‘stranger’ part of his spell included himself and any of those mages who were with him so he was forced to travel the hard way for a while. It wasn’t as satisfying as personally looking for and hopefully finding those kids, but it was all he had time for.
Fortunately, he learned magic that allowed him to cover great amounts of distances simply by stepping through a door. This piece of magic was taxing, but it gave him more time to do what he needed to do. Thanks to his uncle Ludwyn’s efforts, the royal families were difficult to find, if survivors could be found; and once found, some were reluctant to resume their former duties.
Another thing Sean decided to do, based on the success he had with the man who taught him how to manage a warhorse, was redeem those warhorses and their riders, men and animals that had become known as demons and death-horses, as he came across them and Ludwyn required each garrison to have some. He added their numbers to his ranks, naming them knights. He also took more mages under his wing, despite their young age and tried very hard to become as strong as he could with his magic, a task he was driven to do every bit as much as he was driven to cover the distance in such a short time.
In the mountains, Sean was introduced to a much older magic and was afforded the opportunity to use it when he had to untangle magic that had forced a valley to produce twice as much as nature allowed. The spell was killing the district since it also affected its people and animals, causing them to age twice as fast. Women and female animals of every sort were dying in childbirth far more often than not as the infants grew and developed too fast for their bodies to make the necessary adjustments required for birth.
In another district, someone had been kidnapping child mages and Sean used more of the old magic to lay a trap for the kidnapper. The land knew who belonged; if a stranger came and tried to use magic to effect anything here, they would be caught in it. Unfortunately, the ‘stranger’ part of his spell included himself and any of those mages who were with him so he was forced to travel the hard way for a while. It wasn’t as satisfying as personally looking for and hopefully finding those kids, but it was all he had time for.
RSS Feed
