Ripples answered by ripples

Lucius of the Velainus, tenth month of the year 1032 Ab Teoria Magica; somewhere between Annessus and the hamlet from which a new magic was detected

The winter had arrived in this forgotten corner of the world, far from both the Franks and the Romans, from the Order, the clericals and the imperials, and I was riding a horse, a small cantrip making sure we remained mostly warm while I rode, slowly, towards my own destination.

It disgusted me, and should have disgusted my brother too, to be relegated in such position.

We, of noble and holy lineage, stuck being barely more than knights, when we had at our fingertips the control of the very fabric of the universe.

One who had followed the king of this forsaken nation against the southern barbarians, while I had been taught, and had taught at one moment, many mysteries that would make even old spirits green with envy.

And then, all for the demand of someone with longer ears and more years than intellect, and because I refused to even consider such a thing, he had fallen down with me, and we both were way below what we deserved.

While the true culprit of the denied request stood eating the good food of Schola Petri, we could not have feasts even on the seventh day, and barely when the great holidays came.

While many servants toiled under those thrice damned, in soul, mind and body, hypocrites, our middle brother was reduced to be a steward.

While those professors spoke again and again of old theorems, I had done more in this Order forsaken hole in ten years than what they did in hundreds.

And this new finding, this new type of magic, something that I had never seen, that would show them.

It would give us back our rights, spit on due to our father loving our mother, and it would give me a place again as a professor, while my brother would get his own duchy, as he highly deserved.

Now, if only it was not so cold, it would be easier, but it was the season of cold after all, and if I had waited more the risk of losing the possibility of studying this and, above all, being the first to do so would have waned more and more.

This was the reason I took off immediately.

The reason why I did not ask for my brother, my liege, was because he, unlike me, did not understand the injustice of our situation and was simply happy at being a lowly noble, unlike what he and I and Marius deserved.

I would have had to hope that he did not send a “rescuing” party for me or, even worse, go for Order itself to “find” me.

The horse under me, while I was ruminating on the injustice befallen on my family, trembled slightly.

I huffed but, against my own council, decided to go towards a patch of trees, maybe apple maybe pine, that as of little matter, and, stopping there, I dismounted and, with but a gesture, a fire sprouted in the middle of it, heating all around it for around ten steps..

It was the same sight that had greeted me at each stop, barely any houses, only the cold and the snow being my constant companions.

Barely an inconvenience for someone like me, but if the horse fell down, it would be more time wasted than if I stopped.

I also did feel somewhat hungry and, while the horse simply dug grass and anything he could put inside his stomach, I simply took out some brown bread, some cheese, and a cheap wine.

Yet another reason to wish to return to the status quo, I thought while trying to keep down the absolutely poor meal.

After that, while the horse rested in the barely warm day, I took out the only, and what an insult it was, paper I had been able t scrounge, and continued my own observations.

Which, since I started my quest for this newfound magic school, had barely been written.

It was, after all, a short ritual, for maybe small effects, and which had not created neither good and bad in the soul of a person.

Other than the elation I felt, despite not being able to see it if not through a stained window, alongside that feeling of loss I had not known nor understood.

I started walking back and forth, the paper kept dry from the falling snow by the same kind of cantrip, while I tried to find more information to add.

Unfortunately, other than “I am getting closer to the place”, there was not much else.

Locals weren’t present while this light appeared, and I was still far from the village closer to where this happened, at least a day if this kind of weather, the weather usual for this forgotten corner, continued.

Meaning that even when I did ask to the barbarians that called my brother “lord” what had happened, using both my position and my abilities, I had barely been able to get more than a few string of words before their own intelligence expired.

I could not even find spirits willing to submit, their behaviour becoming more and more rebellious the closer I got to the position this beacon had appeared.

I had already written it down, something similar had happened when I used the cantrips, but due to the situation, I was not aware if it had been caused by the beacon itself or another, completely different, reason.

And if it had been caused by a different reason, what was it?

Maybe it was a thank by the spirits, making sure to follow the wish of the Mage using such a spell?

Maybe it had been my own nature, the shadows being antithesis of the big pillar that was created scant a few hours ago.

Maybe, even, it was simply them being, for a reason I was able to entertain, terrorized by my presence.

Mages were not liked by those weaklings, after all, but for their duties, their own happiness was not necessary.

After adding some corrections to the theories themselves, and after making sure my shadow protected the paper, the ink and the feather, I mounted the horse again.

By that night, we would reach that village.

If the horse fell, well, I had ways to get it up, and it would do so, because I would not suffer failure, not anymore.

Let the order continue upon the slavery they created, but I will not be denied knowledge, nor the reward such knowledge would be.

So I, Lucius of the Velainus, swore, and so it would be.

In the meanwhile this horse would have had to do to keep me, and itself, warm. I just would have had to make sure to not... take too much.