Sorcerer… Cyborg???

Chapter 66: A Breach of Trust

"You should return to Trinquile, Son. Ursten and its neighbors are going to be a very tumultuous place in the near future, and I think it would be best that you train to become more powerful before you get tied up in any more conflict." Tam and Kothar were resting in the courtyard after a morning training session, seated under the battered tree that Kothaar had practiced his first spells on.

"Of course, Father." Kothar assented, even though he wished he could stay and fight, he had realized how lucky he had been in the battle with Kultas' army, if anything it was a mock battle, with soldiers who were reluctant to truly injure each other.

"A carriage will be here this evening. Take anything you need from the house, especially any mementos, I'll send someone for you when things settle down." Tam gave Kothar a warm smile and grabbed him in a friendly half hug, tousling his hair.

"Stay safe, son, I'm needed at the keep." Tam left without too much fuss.

"Farewell, Father." Kothar watched Tam leave, wondering if this would be the last time he would see Tam.

No excursions to break people out of foreign prisons either, you hear." Tam laughed as he yelled out from inside the house, stirring Kothar who, thinking Tam had left, had sat down to meditate.

Without Tam, the house was deathly quiet. Simon, as usual, had disappeared in the middle of the night, off to some mysterious location or on some mysterious business.

As he packed, Kothar remembered days when Ophil had always been at home to brighten up the house, singing, painting or weaving in every corner of the house that had even the slightest hint of sunlight.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, and before he knew it, Kothar was in the carriage headed for Trinquile. He fell into a deep sleep, still exhausted from the past few weeks of nightmares and disrupted sleep.

Before long, Kothar disembarked into the main square of Trinquile, unlike Balin, where the people had looked haggard and tired since the war, the people of Trinquile were just as jovial as before, if not more so.

Many had realized that with the academy so close, few nations would dare to invade the town, and furthermore, nobody would want to invade a town so close to the Fidour Mountains. It was only the fact that Trinquile held so many accomplished battlemages that the town was able to exist to begin with.

[Shall we go see Utna?] Silane asked a decidedly groggy Kothar, who was still fumbling with his bag.

[Yes, let's do that.] Kothar started walking towards the warehouse, receiving curses and yells from horsemen and passersby he almost walked into.

Realizing how sleepy he was, Kothar shook himself awake and slapped himself on the cheeks, waking up to a satisfactory degree.

"Kothar! Glad to see you back in Trinquile. I was sorry to hear about your mother, Ophil was a wonderful woman." For once, Utna's forge was cold, and the smith herself was reclining in a large wooden chair, built specifically for the tall smith herself.

"Thank you, I'm surprised to see you not working, I didn't think I'd see the day." Kothar set down his heavy bag and took a look at the blueprints Utna was looking at, they were for a mana powered battering ram.

"I'm taking a well deserved break, the war didn't come anywhere near Trinquile, but Jotun had plenty of work for me. And looking at these blueprints, it seems your father has plenty of work lined up for all the blacksmiths in Ursten." Utna rose to her feet, running a hand through her cropped scarlet hair.

"I've finished that other design you gave me, but it doesn't make much sense to me, whatever are you going to do with it?" Utna handed Kothar a small black box, which neatly fit in his palm.

"It'll be useful, that's all." Kothar said cryptically, stashing the box deep into one of the pockets on his cloak.

"Alright, keep your secrets. Don't do anything too dangerous with that though, I told Simon I'd look out for you, and I'm not sure making these odd devices is doing that exactly." Utna said with a faint grin.

"I'll be alright. Thanks, Utna." Kothar said as he rushed out the forge, he was eager to get a good look at the plasma blade unit that Utna had made.

The Gatekeeper gave Kothar a nod as Kothar rushed past and headed towards the deep black tower in the distance, with lines of bright purple energy crisscrossing its walls, and the familiar rift at the peak.

Once back in his room in the tower, Kothar sat down at his desk and reached into his cloak, excited to test out the plasma blade, when he was interrupted by a soft cough.

"Kothar, you've been gone for over a month, and you didn't think to send word that you were still alive, even with a war raging on in Ursten." Krieg stood at the door, his long white brows drawn down into a stern frown.

"Sorry, master, I assumed you would be in the lab, and didn't want to disturb you." Kothar internally cursed himself, in his excitement to see the plasma blade, he had completely forgotten about Krieg. Whether it was his hormone addled brain or the lack of sleep, Kothar realized that he had been acting extremely irrationally.

"No matter, follow me, I have something to discuss." Krieg cut Kothar's explanation short and gave him a complicated look, peering at Kothar carefully.

He led Kothar up the tower, and through the enchanted door that barred the way to his laboratories. They passed odd convoluted contraptions, rooms filled with strange plants and cages with odd animals within.

Kothar lost himself in a spinning array of twisted metal and humming energy before Krieg pulled him away with a soft 'tut'. A massive bear-like creature snarled at them through bars of black metal absolutely glowing with runes in what sounded almost like words.

The top floor was almost completely bare, with only a small cushion below what would be the absolute center of the tower.

"Over here." Krieg called from a narrow staircase near the outer wall, climbing up to the roof of the tower. They emerged onto the roof, it was surprisingly quiet and still, without even the slightest breeze to disturb them.

A low humming, interspersed with distorted buzzing sounds, was the only sound, emanating from the rift. Kothar gazed into the wound in space, entranced by the colorful worlds he glimpsed as they flashed by, each disappearing everytime the rift buzzed.

"Kothar, I have called you here because I have finally acknowledged you as a true student of mine. This rift is perhaps my greatest achievement, it allows spatial mages such as ourselves a great source of spatial mana, and an exceptional anchor point to explore other worlds." Krieg announced in a grand voice, the humble battlemage replaced by a grandiose scholarly figure.

"Now then, I know you've conducted explorations of your own, I detected the spatial fluctuations from you the moment you walked in here, be honest Kothar, what level have you reached." Krieg gave Kothar an odd look, his eyebrow twitching.

[Something seems off about him, Kothar, be careful.] Silane said as Krieg walked closer to Kothar, pulling at his thin white ebard.

[Yes, but we're at the very top of his tower and who knows how powerful he is. What's the worst that could happen?] Kothar responded, swallowing nervously.

"Master, apologies, but I haven't advanced much, I actually chanced upon this artifact." Kothar drew the diamond shaped crystal from a pocket and showed it to Krieg, who's eyes immediately lit up.

"Absolutely amazing!" Krieg exclaimed, his eyes wide and glowing with greed.

'Please, you must let me take a look at it." Krieg grasped for the artifact, and Kothar handed it to him happily.

'Well, this is simply exceptional, good, good. Well done, boy." Krieg babbled as he began to examine the artifact closely.

"Hmm, it seems to have bonded to you, no matter." Krieg's voice changed, suddenly becoming quite flippant and lighthearted. Kothar felt a crushing pressure weighing down on him, and he fell to his knees. Krieg looked down at him, a sad look in his eyes.

"Master, don't do this, you can have the artifact, what's wrong!" Kothar began to yell, as Krieg dragged him to the center of the tower, towards the rift.

"I'm so sorry." Tears streamed from Krieg's eyes as he pushed Kothar into the waiting maw of the rift.

"Another student, lost to the terrors of Spatial Magic." Krieg began to weep loudly atop his tower, clasping at the crystal that was all that remained of possibly his most talented student yet.

A soft buzz rang out, and Krieg screamed in fury, the crystal had disappeared from his hand, he had lost not only a student, but a precious artifact also.