Chapter 8 - the nature of MagiC and deMons

Tarn hurried through the streets of Traazon Keep,hoping his worry didn’t show. His long, loping strides ateup ground quickly, and soon he rounded the corner ontothe street where the

Happy Orc

was located. As he walked,he went over his meeting with Sir Alec in his head. Or, moreaccurately, his lack of a meeting. When he arrived backat the keep, he discovered Sir Alec had left the day before,leading a column of two hundred men-at-arms to stop anorc war band that was reported to have captured the villageof Greywall, two days down river. Tarn had left the Keep with a heavy heart, unsure of what to do next. He felt that the information they hadobtained from the Shaman was important enough to riskchasing after Alec, but feared the knight wouldn’t know what to do about it anyway. He also worried that Alec wasriding off into a trap. He had no reason to feel that wayother than gut instinct - but he couldn’t shake the feelingthat Alec was riding into trouble.He looked up at the sign hanging over the door of the

Happy Orc

. The picture of an orc dancing down the street with a beer stein in on one hand, ale of some sort sloshingover the side, never ceased to amuse him — even today.Smiling, he pushed open the door and saw Nyla sittingat the table, poring over scrolls of some sort, ignoring thebarrage of questions her uncle was throwing at her, rapid

re.

Bear looked at him as he entered the shop, a half-scowlon his face. “I see you brought my niece back safe. But nowshe has these notions of going off to duel some creaturefrom the hells? What nonsense have you put into her headnow, Nohmahl?”

Tarn stammered out a reply saying he had no idea whatBear was talking about, and Bear was about to start inon him again when Nyla cut him off. “Tarn doesn’t knowabout this, Uncle. He has no idea what you’re talkingabout, beyond what that Shaman told Logan. You shouldapologize.”

What’s gotten into her

? Tarn wondered.Then, to hiseven greater amazement, the big barman did apologize.“Sorry, Tarn. It’s just that with what Nyla told me, and whathappened, and these new spells she’s been poring oversince she got back an hour ago….”

New spells?

“Nyla, what did you nd out from your

teacher? And have you seen Logan yet?”She let the scroll she had been reading curl up. “No,I haven’t seen Logan yet. More to the point, what MasterUlric told me was enough to frighten me terribly. Hence thereason I am studying so hard.”“Studying?”She took a swallow of water from a glass on her table.“Um-hmm. This

soul stealer

is some sort of ancient orcishdemon. Very ancient. Very powerful. Very evil. Very nasty.” Tarn sighed. “Wonderful. So what are you studying?Something he gave you about the demon?”She shook her head no. “Something better. Third circle

spells. Elemental magic. Stuff to help us ght this thing.”

Tarn realized how little he knew about magic at thispoint. “Elemental spells? Third circle?”

Nyla’s heavy sigh lled the room. “Third Circle, yes. Therst circle of spells —like the one I used to put that oaf to

sleep last week —affect only single human minds. They can

put you to sleep, imagine things that aren’t there, minorillusions —that sort of thing. Second circle spells affectother races, or individual people in minor physical ways. The spell I used on that warg, for example —I can sapsomeone‘s strength, or conjure a puddle of grease undersomeone’s feet—minor things of that nature. These spellscan become more powerful as the mage becomes moreskilled, but they can still affect only a single person or avery small area.“Third order spells, however, are where magic gets fun. Third order spells affect the elements of nature. I can evoke

a ball of re that could kill a dozen orcs with one blow. Or, Ican summon a wall of wind to deect the arrows of a score

of archers. Or, I could even conjure up a ball of acid andburst a troll apart from the inside out.” She sighed. “MasterUlric doesn’t know that spell, though. I’ve merely readabout that one.”“What about things like teleportation, or some of thespells I saw the magic engineers use to shape stone while I was in the army?”“Stone shaping and wood shaping spells are fourthorder spells. Anything that allows you to reshape a giventhing —be it making a door in a stone wall, or transforming yourself into a tree, fall into the fourth order. Spells like

teleportation —those are fth order spells. Fifth order spells

allow dimensional travel. They take a tremendous amountof energy from the caster, and a great deal of skill to pull

off.” She paused briey. “ The only thing more difcult than

that is planar travel —spells that allow you to leave our world and travel to the realm of the gods —or of demons.”She shuddered. “That’s why what Master Ulric told mescares me so. If this thing truly is a demon, whoeversummoned it is extremely powerful —and even more