Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) by Donald Wigboldy Read Free Book Online Page A

he assumed by the colors of her uniform like Gefflen and one of the other wizards. The last two were clothed as a fire and earth wizard.
    All five were easily guessed as being much older than the mage and his team.
    Maura slipped in finding a chair in front of one of the windows. She appeared as little more than a silhouette thanks to the light behind her. Sebastian guessed that the woman hoped to hide as much as she could, which was odd for the normally confident woman. The Red Hall wizards had apparently ruffled her feathers in some way with their first visit, but she was his go between with most of the wizards in the research staff of Hala as well as those chosen to test their aptitude with these new paths of magic.
    "As your Wizard Maura stated, I am Wizard Gefflen of Red Hall. I lead the team here. We are experts with runes, metals and magical artifacts of various kinds," he stated gesturing to the other wizards who remained standing on the forge side of the table.
    "Wizard Orlen," he pointed out the earth wizard with his dark hair and scraggly beard, "is earth leader of Red Hall and an expert in all metals. His expertise should help in creating strong swords for your Hollow Sword process. Wizard Hassar," he said of the tallest wizard, a blonde haired man with a strong widow's peak and goatee as if that helped offset the hair lost from his forehead, "is one of our fire wizard teachers. Like Orlen, he knows metals and adds a smithing background. He knows how fire helps metal and can work the forge as well."
    His hand moved to the next man and introduced him. "Wizard Vareen is an expert in artifacts and runes like me. Wizard Erethia is capable in both as well as many ancient languages."
    The last man was about the height of Sebastian, though the older man wore more weight. A typical researcher in that many of their kind tended towards a static life where weight accumulated on a body. Sebastian was both younger and quite active as a battle mage.
    Erethia, though a research wizard, was fairly thin for her size and was barely taller than Ashleen or Serrena. If one trait of the research wizards was to sit without burning calories, the opposite of that characteristic was for a wizard to forget to eat enough. She wasn't grossly thin, but was actually slimmer than either of the younger women who were both on the slight side.
    "We will need some Hollow Swords for examples, drawings of the runes you use and the current mixtures used in your steel," the man said getting straight to the point of their visit.
    Sebastian didn't mind his direct nature since it saved time. He was often brief in his teachings, but that came from disliking talking to larger groups. One on one, the owl mage could often impart his theories on magic in depth enough to teach a fellow mage or wizard, if they had the affinity for the magic being taught.
    "If you want a Hollow Sword to take with you, we will have to build one. Currently three are being used in Litsarin. The fourth is in Raven Leros care and the last is my original, personal blade."
    Looking surprised, Gefflen explained why as he complained, "You have had months to build more and there are only five in existence? What is this forge doing here? There are dozens of workers and wizards in that room. What are they working on in there? They should be making more Hollow Swords!"
    Sebastian held a slightly bemused look on his face, which was placed there to annoy the wizard. It wasn't a slip; but as he replied to the complaint Sebastian's words echoed the look, "I have had other duties distracting me. If you hadn't noticed, we've been at war with the Dark One to save Litsarin for Sileoth. I have also been finalizing protective gates for the towers along the wall. There are still towns and cities which require more gates yet. At the moment, I am the only one capable of making the pieces needed to build them.
    "Raven Leros and King Alain have chosen their security over building the Hollow Swords up to this