The journey must have been very hard. One thing was traveling accompanied by dozens of mages, displaying your power in every corner of every city you visited. Another was traveling alone in black robes that were not yet recognized or appreciated in the cities. Yet the Blackcap leader was here, at the entrance of the most important Redcap tower in the heart of Bloody Coin, as if he owned the place. Impertinent!
I was a secretary, just as the stories said he had been. For me, it was a privilege to be in this position. No one fought you for your position, and even less were you affected when some mage from another town sought to take over the tower. I was merely level seven. Yet I was a little worried as he passed—not by his power; that could be measured by the devices the Whitecap himself had provided us. It was more the structure of his field. It did not seem powerful. To my delight, it reminded me of a child making bravado, always trying to look bigger or stronger than he was. The result should be surprising to those who did not understand power. But I was beginning to suspect such a person should not be leader of anything.
He had just passed in front of me. His field, as if alive, tried to push me. I imagined not seeing a very large field from me led him to think it would be easier. He must have thought I was some servant here. His field tasted like presumption, like bravado. Mine, out of respect for the tower's owner, I always kept contracted. But we learned in a place as competitive as the magic orders that depending on luck was for fools. So my power was condensed to such an extent that his felt like a breeze. That confirmed my impression of ignorance or weakness in the supposed leader of the newest order. Yet I introduced myself, even though I wanted to strike him and hurt him. But my master discreetly waited for him. I think he wanted to know how his pathetic enterprise was going.
Rendesgast was the supreme Redcap mage. I could not say anyone considered him so outside this tower, but it was well known that his power far exceeded that of all the Redcaps who had come to try to bring him down. He arrived here twenty years ago. I was young. His aura was so powerful that for the first time in the order's history, the resident mage did not wait. By the time the invader arrived, no one remained in the castle. So he announced to the poor apprentices who stayed that this was the beginning of a new era—that the war of stone against stone was over. It was time to face life with intelligence and understanding of the damage we could do if we committed ourselves. For some reason, his eyes never looked dull despite his advanced age. Now they looked amused at the Blackcap from the comfort of his work chair.
I brought the tea, prepared in the traditional way because those were the orders. "One cannot depend on magic for everything," he would tell us. "Magic is for when your muscles fail." So I did not hear the whole story the Blackcap told—only caught the feats, if that could be called triumph. My master listened with a bored air, but his eyes betrayed him; he was always attentive to stories, even the pedestrian ones.
"Our battle unit advanced in delta formation. No one offered sufficient resistance. Upon reaching the Dark Forest, huge anti-magic formations stood no chance. While the attack took place, we sent raiding squadrons to divert the attention of the nearest enemies. The orcs were being harassed, though they generated many casualties. We lost none. All enemy bodies were annihilated. The few who fled took refuge like rats. I can well say that few mages like us could have achieved such a massacre of the enemy."
I stopped listening while I went down for lean bread. Should he be proud of that? I knew from a firsthand source—one of the mercenaries he called a raider managed to survive and told us the truth. How they attacked an incredible force and were torn apart. But the mages did not support them; they only killed goblins... goblins! Little ones who were barely a challenge for any magic apprentice. The orcs, on the other hand, were beasts capable of resisting level five attacks and crushing your skull before you could make even the simplest invocation.
When I returned, I caught the reason he had come. Apparently, they had managed to capture the Queen of the Succubi. That must have been a stroke of luck. My master was more frightened than surprised by the news. Six months ago, we saw from afar the activation of a permanent magic—an artificially forged field at the keep. We were barely reviewing its extent and effect, besides the incredible amount of magic used to generate something that, according to our first estimates, should last about a hundred years. No one from our order could achieve something like that and remain alive. The implications, the knowledge, the resulting weakness—according to my calculations, it took this individual two months to return to his lair. Midnight Raven was not even close to a city worthy of that name, much less a center of arcane arts. But it was only about three months from there to Bloody Coin, so I imagined he spent another month trying to do something about it.
When he finished explaining the damaging magics he had used, the devastating effects on a cocoon of concentrated magic—incredible to think how much magic was required to materialize a protection of pure magic—there was a first-level mage. I even noticed my master wanted to meet her. Then he dropped the bomb. He did not want us to see her; he wanted my master to teach him some magic strong enough to dissolve the cocoon and eliminate her. Such nonsense made my master's hand tremble. He seemed about to vaporize him, but he calmed down. He asked for his tea, ate a slice of bread. The Blackcap was not happy. He accused him, saying he was the greatest mage in his society and was a level nine mage when he was among the Whitecaps. At that point, my master told him that was where his error lay, and he asked me to face him. If he won, he would tell him what he wanted to know. At that moment, I felt the flames coming toward me—the Blackcap leader wanted to kill me without asking if it was right!