Disruptive Elements by Niall Teasdale

Author:Niall Teasdale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

~~~

‘Is this a good idea?’ Roman asked. ‘The guy says he’s the “King of the North.” That does not seem like someone we should be messing with.’

‘I want to get a proper look at his sword,’ Calista replied. ‘It’s magical.’

‘Yes, but–’

‘It doesn’t use elemental magic.’

‘Oh.’

Hrothgan’s village was basically a collection of huts surrounded by a wooden palisade. The huts were made of mud with wooden posts forming the skeleton. The place was universally beige. Calista and Roman were walking into the place because Calista had turned down the second offer of marriage and Hrothgan seemed disinclined to take no for an answer. And because Calista wanted to get a good look at that sword.

The place was kind of what Calista expected of a tribal village. The people appeared to be a little nervous of outsiders. There was the classic moment where a child was dragged into one of the houses by a worried mother. Adults watched the passing of the foreigners with expressions between bewilderment and mild hostility. Most seemed a little perplexed, rather as though they were wondering what could possibly bring these strangers to their village.

Calista could sense magic, but it seemed to be mostly personal magic. People were working spells, summoning elementals to do things, but there was little in the way of magical items around the village. At first glance, the magic did not seem any different from the elemental magic practised in Maritania. Then again, she had been told that it was the way they performed the spells that was different. Maybe once the magic was set to its task, there was no way to differentiate.

‘Chief Zima,’ Hrothgan called out suddenly. An elderly man, somewhat bent but clearly still fairly fit, turned at the shout and began ambling toward them. ‘This is Erlantz Zima,’ Hrothgan said, ‘the village chief.’

‘I thought you were the chief,’ Roman said.

‘I’m the warrior-chief and King of the North. Chief Zima takes care of the village.’

‘Welcome, travellers from afar,’ Zima said in a clear voice with just a hint of humour. You could sort of tell that he was laughing internally at Hrothgan’s explanation. ‘We saw your airship fall. I assume that you are from the same ship?’

‘We are,’ Calista said. ‘It’s going to take our engineers a little while to fix what went wrong, so we decided to pay a visit to your village. I’m sorry about the guard. They wouldn’t let us come on our own.’ It had taken several minutes to persuade Major Correa to only send eight men with the two heroes. Hrothgan’s assertions that Calista would be quite safe with him had hindered negotiations rather than helping.

‘To be expected, I’m sure. I’m not sure how we can be of help…’

‘Well, I’m looking for a sword which was lost in the northern lands a long time ago. A magic sword.’

‘I see. And you believe Hrothgan’s Skullrender might be that sword?’

‘Oh, no. It doesn’t fit the description at all. It is very interesting, however. It’s not like the magical weapons and devices they have in Maritania.

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