“Still seems to work, a bit.” Tizzy observed. “Should be a quite dinner what with all those wizards scurrying around.”
“Well we are under siege.” Edwyrd told him.
“Yeah, don’t know what they’re up to, but they got teams running around buying up all sorts of crazy stuff in town and heading off to the basement with it.” Tizzy told him.
“Well, good then. I really don’t want to have the Rod, or the Sky Fleet coming in here. So whatever it takes to keep them away, the better.”
“Yeah, don’t like the Rod. Very high and mighty. About the only thing they were ever good for was kicking Ramses off the plane. But even that only lasted a thousand years.”
Edwyrd perked up. “Ramses the Damned? The one Maelen and I have been talking about?” Tizzy shrugged. “A Time Warrior? Dresses in leather straps, wears two swords.”
Tizzy nodded, “Yep, same one. I disliked him then, he was a real pain. Good thing Exador had him killed, for a while at least.” Tizzy seemed to be getting bored and floated out into the hallway. “He built himself a nice place there in the Abyss after that. Funky looking demons and all.”
Edwyrd shook his head. Tizzy was a treasure trove of information, if only there was a way to get it out of him more consistently and on demand rather than as an odd after thought. At least now, Tizzy seemed to have confirmed that the Ramses running around here was the same one with the palace in the Abyss.
Rupert and Edwyrd headed to the cafeteria; Tizzy had drifted off somewhere, again. When they reached the cafeteria, Maelen and Gastropé were there, so after picking up their food, they sat down with them. They both confirmed that wizards from the palace were running all over town looking for various spell components, particularly rare elements and gems. Edwyrd told them of Tizzy’s confirmation of Ramses.
Maelen shook his head. “Do you ever get the feeling it would be a lot easier to just ask Tizzy first?”
They all laughed at that. “About 80 % of what comes out of his mouth makes absolutely no sense; the other 20 % is pure gold.” Gastropé shook his head. “The trick is...”
“Knowing which is which.” Maelen finished his sentence with a laugh.
“Rupert, you’re a wizard.” Edwyrd stated to Rupert later that evening in their room.
“A junior apprentice.” Rupert acknowledged.
“What do you know about links?”
“A bit. The basics I guess.” Rupert replied. “Jenn or Gastropé could tell you a lot more. Jenn’s a thaumaturge and Gastropé does conjuring. Both of those specialties do a lot with links.”
“Yeah, well I’m not about to ask Gastropé. He’d assume I was trying to break my link with Lenamare and kill everyone.” Rupert laughed as Edwyrd grinned. “And Jenn,” Edwyrd continued, “she’d ask more questions about why I wanted to know, then she’d actually answer.” Rupert grinned.
“I guess you’re right.” The boy admitted. “Well, there are all sorts of links, object links, familiar links, wizard links, binding links, and more I don’t know anything about.”
“Well, tell me about those.” Edwyrd asked.
“Well, I can’t really do many, other than maybe a simple object link if I get lucky. An object link is a link applied to an object. You use Magic Writing to engrave some special runes on an object so you can attach a link to it. From then on, you know where the object is, and can follow it, and maybe do more advanced stuff over that link. Again, this is just what I’ve been taught.”
“OK, what’s a familiar link then?” Edwyrd asked.
“It’s a link to a living creature, typically your familiar.” Rupert said.
“Familiar?”
“Yeah, like a black cat, a bird. Wizards use them, specially trained and prepared animals that the wizard links to and he or she, if skilled enough, can use that animal as a second set of eyes, or command it to do things. Typically spying, alerts, or scouting. Birds are very good for that.”
“Can a wizard do that to a person?” Edwyrd asked, somewhat concerned.
“No, humans have too much mana, too much intelligence and willpower. You’d have to really overpower them, and sending that much power through this type of link would break it.” Rupert explained.
The boy got a sudden thoughtful look on his face. “What is it?” Edwyrd asked.
“I suppose, well... I just got to thinking, the way a wizard uses a familiar sort of sounds like demonic possession.” Rupert shook his head. “Maybe that’s what demons do when they possess people?” He looked at Edwyrd curiously.
“Don’t ask me; I’ve never possessed anyone.” Edwyrd shook his head and smiled. “What was that last one you mentioned, a Wizard Link?”
“Yeah, I have no idea how that’s done. But it’s how wizards link up to each other to share mana and cast spells. For example, in demon conjuring or setting up these wards...” Rupert gestured at the glowing ward light outside the palace. “They all link up and share their mana and sort of cast the spell in unison; not sure if there is any telepathy going on or what, but they can share their power.”
“Hmm,” Edwyrd murmured. “That’s interesting.” It certainly explained how a bunch of wizards no single one powerful enough to capture or defeat a demon could combine together and capture and bind one.
“Do you mind if I practice putting a link on you tonight? I won’t try to possess you, I just want to experiment and learn how it’s done. Plus if I can make it stick I can find you next time you pick a fight with a knight in glowing armor.” Edwyrd smiled at the boy.
Rupert laughed. “Yeah, that would be convenient. I could have used some backup.”
Edwyrd and Rupert spent the next several hours practicing trying to make links. Rupert showed him an object link and Edwyrd tried to follow it. It took some doing, the Magic Writing thing the most confusing; but he could see the link was attached to the runes, not the object itself. The link basically had to be linked to either mana or animus apparently. That sort of agreed with what he’d read. Since the link was mana based, generally, it stuck best to animus, but could also stick to mana with some work.
Edwyrd didn’t know anything about wizardry; he’d had luck faking Animagic or maybe demon magic, so he thought he’d stick with that. He tried various things where he tried to hook a bit of the animus cloud around himself into Rupert’s mana and/or animus and then sort of spin it out in a thread.
It didn’t work particularly well; at least not at first, but he eventually got something to sort of work before Rupert pooped out and went to sleep. While Rupert was falling asleep, Edwyrd worked on trying to create threads out of his mana. Once the boy was asleep, he’d try attaching again. Rupert had agreed with that, and Edwyrd had a few more ideas to try.
Chapter 78
Damien answered the knocking on the door; Antefalken was heating his bath water; demons were really good water heaters, Damien reflected. He’d slept like a log after yesterday’s insanity. He hadn’t done that much physical work and labor in a decade; it had worn him out.
At the door was one of Gandros’ pages. “Are you ready?” The page asked surveying Damien in his dressing gown with puzzlement.
“Ready for what?” Damien asked.
The page blinked in surprise. “The purge.” The page answered.
“What is ‘the purge’?” Damien asked, waking up.
“The huge ritual the Council is doing this morning to evict all the demons. You were sent a missive from Gandros. The rest have been working all night getting ready and they sent me to get you when you still hadn’t shown up.”
Damien shook his head. “What rest? The entire council?”