Mage

March 20th, Imperial Year 879
Mercenary Campsite

"Ooh!" Anya shouted, in amazement. "Again, again!"

An unbeatable smirk crawled up over my face as I heard the cries of a very excited Anya. The other mercenaries looked in awe as I worked my magecraft.

Almost every noble family that's old enough tends to be decent at magecraft of some kind. The old Baseli dynasty was known to be rather potent mages, at least by Galerian standards. The Galerian people aren't exactly the most adept mages in Andoria, but if there was a peak in Galerian magecraft, it was my family, around a century ago.

Small metallic strips of raw mana spread across the spear in my hands, like so many roots on a tree. The spear went from a wood and steel construction, to something resembling bronze.

"Ta-da. And unlike a spear actually made completely of bronze, it's completely lightweight too."

Projection of bronze, as we say in my family. It's been one of the many Baseli magecraft capabilities for centuries, and if you trace my ancestry through non-Baseli maternal lines, for millennia. Legends say that long before House Baseli, when men once fought riding chariots and wielding weapons of bronze, my distant ancestors ruled the nation through this ancient magecraft.

Or so the story goes.

Anya clapped. A few of the mercenaries genuinely seemed impressed, but a young scruffy looking man - around my age, likely - rolled his eyes.

"And what good is that going to do in battle?"

"Well-"

I bit my lip. Yeah, it's completely useless, I will admit.

I flooded my crest with mana, dissolving the bronze from under my fingertips. Once upon a time, we Baselis could apparently use our abilities to shape bronze, and not just the ones we created. Had we retained that same level of power, I'm sure I could make some money as a part time artisan. Or maybe being a castle builder would be more prestigious?

"Can I have some more food?" I asked sheepishly. "Magecraft takes up a lot of mana-"

Especially if your crest is as dogshit as mine.

"We're leaving, unfortunately. You didn't use up all your energy doing just that, did you?" I shrugged.

"Eh, my mana reserves are massive. I'll be fine." 

Well, at least there's that. The other mercenaries began to leave.

"Aww, I thought it was cool." Anya told me. "It's nothing big, but it is cool you can do magic at all! Can you do anything else?"

"I have mana detection, so I can detect magecraft." I paused. "And I'm actually not that bad of an alchemist."

"Alchemy?" Anya looked at me, her eyes wide like that of a child. "That's really impressive!" She happily skipped off, pulling me towards the carts as they set off to leave. "Come on Jason, we have to go!"

I'll leave out the part that even a crestless and manaless commoner could do alchemy if they knew the instructions.

"So, where is the camp headed to now?" I asked, twirling the spear. The soldiers had already begun to pack up their tents. A few horses and oxen from the makeshift stables began to plod forward along with the soldiers, who were busy leading them to carts.

"Rendezvous with our patron." Anya said. "Pretty big army we're linking up with, or so we've heard."

I gazed around the campsite. Most of these people didn't appear to be military. That was to be expected, of course. Total fighting strength was what...300 men? A modest force considering they were largely light and medium infantry.

"Whoa, whoa!" A stablemaster yelled out as a horse bucked and reared. I recognized the horse. It was a grey stallion with a pink spot on his nose. The same one I had stolen from the rider, the day before. The horse attempted to kick the stablemaster, and, after failing its little murder attempt, ran over to a patch of grass, running around it without a care in the world.

Now, I wasn't really the best horse caretaker back at the academy (turns out riding and caretaking are two entirely different skills), but I think I know what I have to do here.

"Hey, hey!" I ran over to the rampaging horse, waving my arms up in the air. A few horse caretakers had gathered, trying to calm the wild steed down, but it was a war horse - much larger than the ponies or mules they must have been used to.

A crowd slowly began to gather before the horse, causing the beast to back up further out of fear.

"Hang on a sec, I got this." I moved past the crowd, towards the agitated stallion. "Everyone, give me some room!"

My methods have often been criticized for being...rather unorthodox, but it sometimes got the job done. I walked up to the horse, and planted my hands into the ground.

"Neigh."

God, this is dumb.

The horse stared at me head on, quite uncharacteristically of a horse. I think I recall learning during my cavalry lessons that horses prefer to look at you from the side, because they have poor frontal vision. There wasn't the same panic in his eyes he'd shown around the crowd, and replaced with a strange kind of curiosity. I stood up. That other bit wasn't going anywhere.

"Hey~" I snapped my fingers and pointed at the horse. "How's it going?" Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see a very exasperated Anya staring at me from the sidelines, which I elected to ignore. "What's your name, buddy?"

The horse neighed.

"I'll call you Goldie." I said. "Cause, I used to have a dog when I was little, called, Goldie."

Uh oh, I feel like crying all of a second! Better bottle up those feelings so they can explode at a more convenient time.

The horse exhaled.

"Alright Goldie." I gradually began to approach the horse, one hand held out.

I inched closer and closer, maintaining eye contact. 

"It's alright. I'm friendly." I put my other hand out too, where the horse could see it. As I took the final step, I noticed that the horse seemed quite rather calm.

Happy, even.

I put my hand on his nose. The horse accepted.

"Heh, I told you so Goldie. I'm not going to hurt you."

Anya was the first to start clapping. Then another. And another. I turned back towards the crowd, soaking in the applause.

"Thank you, thank you." Though I tried my best to maintain a heroically stoic demeanor, I could not stop the smile which crept up upon my face. So absorbed was I in the moment, that I did not hear Anya's calls for caution.

In fact, I didn't even see Goldie reaching his mouth towards my hand. He took my spear in his  mouth, and snatched it out of my hand before running off like a dog.

Everyone groaned.