The Mage's Deception: A Sword and Sorcery Novel (The Orzare Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. All names, places, and events portrayed in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to actual names, places, and events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2021 Richard H. O’Toole

  All rights reserved.

  CONTENTS

  MAP OF ORZARE

  CLASSES

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  MAP OF ORZARE

  CLASSES

  Paladin – A magic class that uses magic primarily for defense. Paladins are often utilized as guards for figureheads such as renowned nobles, royalty, or High Priests.

  Primary Element – Earth

  Secondary Element – Water

  Combo Element – Caementicium: A perfect combination of rigidity and flexibility; the strongest defensive mana type in the mage arts.

  Juggernaut – A magic class that uses its magic for heavy physical strikes with some complimentary defense. Juggernauts are the most sought-after mage class on the warfront, though, most of their nonphysical enhancing spells are known to be rather mana intensive.

  Primary Element – Fire

  Secondary Element – Earth

  Combo Element – Metal: A very rigid mana type good for both offense and defense.

  Berserker – A magic class that utilizes its magic in almost a purely offensive manner. Berserkers are the only class that can interlace their primary or secondary elements on top of their combo element. They are the hardest hitting mage class there is.

  Primary Element – Fire

  Secondary Element – Wind

  Combo Element – Lightning: with the option to lace another element into the spell-form.

  Warlock – A magic class focused on middle and short ranged magic attacks. Known for their ability to manipulate nature.

  Primary Element – Water

  Secondary Element – Earth

  Combo Element – Wood: The Warlock’s wood spells are extremely mana efficient, costing almost as little as the class’s base elemental spells.

  Sorcerer/Sorceress – A magic class focused on long and middle ranged casting attacks with little to no physical combat abilities. Most mages of this class prefer to use wands or staffs to assist in their ranged spell focus.

  Primary Element – Wind

  Secondary Element – Fire

  Combo Element – Lightning: This class is the only class known for using lightning at a distance.

  Ranger – A magic class that uses its magic to enhance agility, accuracy, and senses. Rangers have the longest ranged attacks out of all classes, with the Sorcerer/Sorceress and Elementalist classes following closely behind.

  Primary Element – Wind

  Secondary Element – Earth

  Combo Element – Crystal: The Ranger’s crystal spells are extremely mana efficient, costing less than the class’s base elemental spells. Crystal mana is also very rigid.

  Seer – A magic class that is the perfect portrayal of versatility. Seers have a wide variety of uses, none of which are for combat, though some Seers utilize their enchantments to do so, nonetheless. The Seer usually falls into one of three categories: an enchanter, a mender, or a scholar.

  Primary Element – Water

  Secondary Element – Wind

  Combo Element – None: Though the class has no combo element to speak of, what Seers do have is an abnormal amount of mental mana.

  Rogue – A magic class that uses a magical shroud to hide in plain sight. Rogues are seldom used as warriors in the north, instead they are often utilized as spies or assassins.

  Primary Element – Earth

  Secondary Element – Fire

  Combo Element – Glass: The Rogue utilizes glass mana to reflect/refract light allowing them to perform stealth spells, and on occasion, shadow spells.

  Elementalist – A magic class with solely long ranged spells. The Elementalist is the only class who can take flight and has the least mana intensive spells of all classes.

  Primary Element – Earth

  Secondary Element – Wind

  Combo Element – Sand: A unique mana type that can more easily be reshaped and redirected midflight than any other mana type.

  Sage – A magic class in perfect balance between offensive and defensive capabilities. The Sage is mostly a middle and close ranged casting class.

  Primary Element – Water

  Secondary Element – Fire

  Combo Element – Mist: A mana type that can easily change in density, allowing it to store great power within its bounds. Many Sages have also been known to use the mist as a form of stealth.

  Wizard/Witch – A magic class known for its middle-ranged casting capabilities. Wizards are more known for their spell potency and prefer to use staffs to focus their spells, while Witches have slightly less potency with deeper mana pools.

  Primary Element – Wind

  Secondary Element – Water

  Combo Element – Ice: At lower levels, ice spells are used commonly as sharp projectiles that can cause nerve damage if they pierce the skin. At higher levels, ice spells are known to seep into skin and armor upon contact, causing great pain and slowing effects.

  Summoner – A magic class with mid-ranged casting spells of weak quality. A Summoner’s true power comes from its pacts with powerful creatures, allowing the class to summon the beasts upon the battlefield to fight alongside them.

  Primary Element – Fire

  Secondary Element – Water

  Combo Element – None: While this class has no combo element to speak of, the Summoner can call upon the aid of beasts it has made a pact with.

  Chapter 1

  Elena was flush, sweating as she hurried to the keep, still exhausted from her battle but moments ago. She walked into the great hall, surrounded by white painted pillars. She walked along a long carpet, leading to the elevating room at the end of the walkway, not quite certain of her own intentions. The Head Mistress from the Temple of Yarm was here, and that scared Elena. Elena had special interests concerning the Archangel Gabriel, and if Mistress Shultz was alone in the room with her, that undoubtedly spelt trouble for Elena.

  Elena began her climb up the staircase, seeing as the doors to the elevating room had been damaged earlier. By the third floor, she was breathing heavily. Her entire body was sore, and she began cramping due to dehydration. Mistress Shultz’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Elena had just been enjoying some much-needed recovery time when Flynn brought her word of the Head Mistress’s arrival. Elena could feel each step sap the energy out of her legs but pushed her exhaustion to the back of her mind. Instead, she would focus on the next step and nothing else.

  When Elena finally reached the sixth floor, she stood there for a moment to gather her breath. If she were to keep herself hidden from the Head Mistress, she couldn’t go stomping around, gasping for all to hear. Elena gathered herself, then continued down the hall, heading toward the doorway of the throne room. The door was cracked.

  Elena leaned in close to the crack of the door and peaked inside. She could see many people, several of which were wearing mage cloaks. Elena shifted a bit to her right to peer further into the left-hand side of the room, where the throne was. The Head Mistress was leaning over the body of the Necromancer as Gabriel was speaking to her. Mistress Shultz walked over to the head of the Necromancer, just out of Elena’s view, while still conversing with the Archangel. Gabriel turned to meet the Head Mistress’s eyes when several of the mages behind her pulled out daggers.

  Elena gasped, causing Gabriel to turn, but not in time. A group of mages penetrated the Angel all over with silver tipped knives. Elena watched in horror as the Angel’s wounds began to sizzle and her eyes burned out of their sockets, as one last knife was thrust into her skull. Elena, realizing that others must have heard her as well, began to step away from the doorway as a man in full plate armor came blasting through the door with incredible speed. He grabbed Elena by the throat and lifted her off the ground. Elena held the man’s black plated forearm with one of her own hands and lifted her other to cast a spell. As a swirl of wind began to form in her palm, another man walked up and placed a cuff over her arm, then on her second arm.

  Elena wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Every time she tried to cast magic, she felt as though all her mana was being sucked out of her. The feeling was familiar in a way. It was similar to using an enchanted item, in that it pulled some mana out of the user’s body each time the item was activated. Only, the user could not choose when to activate this item. Instead, it sucked the mana o
ut of her any time she attempted to cast a spell.

  After the plated man had a degree of confidence that the cuffs were doing their job, he dropped Elena from his grasp. Elena looked down at the charred body of the Archangel Gabriel. Bloody holes seeped liquid out onto the floor from various spots of her body. Her beautiful, thick, black hair now stained red and ragged. Hair clumped all around the Angel’s face, and burnt, fleshy holes peeked up at Elena where there once existed eyeballs. Elena turned her gaze in disgust as Mistress Shultz began walking in her direction.

  “Well, what do we have here? Elena… Flynn has told me so much about you,” the Head Mistress spoke.

  Elena attempted to speak but could only let out a whisper, “What have you done?”

  “Sorry dear, but you’ll need to speak up.”

  “Why?” Elena asked, more clearly now. “Why would you kill an Angel? After she had saved all our lives?”

  “She is not here to save our lives silly girl. She is here to destroy them. To destroy the places of power; the only connection that we have to the spiritual world.”

  “The places of power are what’s allowing the Demons to take form in our world though.”

  “Oh, there is no doubt in that,” Mistress Shultz said as she began moving in closer.

  Elena looked into the grey eyes of the woman. As the Head Mistress grew closer, Elena could now see that she wasn’t actually a woman though. She had scales on her forehead, suggesting that she was actually part Dragonborn.

  Mistress Shultz caught Elena glancing up to her scales. “Yes, I am part Dragonborn, girl. And no, that has nothing to do with what happened here today whatsoever. I assure you, I am not your enemy. No, what I just did was for all our benefits. I don’t side with the Angels, it’s true. Neither do I side with the Demons. No, in fact, I side with mortals and our future. Up until now, we have been nothing more than pawns in the Creator’s game of life. He made Angels and mortals. He gave the Angels all the power they could want. Even enough power to come to our realm and take the body of an innocent young girl. The Creator gave them everything, and they turned on him anyways. The Creator didn’t want to disrupt the order of the realms, so he tried to tame the fallen Angels and place up barriers, which he knew wouldn’t work. He didn’t care. He could’ve ended our suffering at any time, he could’ve ended the Demons had he wanted to.”

  “No, he couldn’t. Whatever he does to the Demons would also affect the Angels.”

  “Did she tell you that? No, it is not true. I am very old, and my master was much older than I before he passed me the torch. No. No, we know the truth. The Creator has more power in the spiritual realm, or at least he did. No, he could’ve rid the realms of Demons whenever he wanted. He simply did not want to destroy his creation. And for that matter, Angels really are no better. They allow the Demons to visit Purgatory with no consequence, giving no regard to how it may affect us. Did you know that our spirits go to Purgatory when we die? I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen much of the spiritual realm. More than the Creator ever wanted us to. But enough about me. What are you doing here? Why were you spying on us?” asked the Head Mistress.

  Elena was stunned. She wasn’t sure how much to believe of the Head Mistress’s story. Although, some of Jolly’s own story agreed with the Head Mistress’s. He saw Purgatory, or what they believe to be Purgatory, anyways.

  “But Gabriel was doing something about the Demons. Wasn’t she?” Elena thought to herself.

  “Heidi,” Seer Pedro spoke. “Her armor…”

  Mistress Shultz took a step back and set her gaze upon Elena’s armor. It was composed of several leather pieces with the traditional mage cloaks underneath. There were pieces of silvery-bluish tinted plates that covered several key areas such as her chest, thighs, forearms, and the like. The Head Mistress took her time studying the gear as her eyes began to widen.

  “You’re the Atlantean with the other Seer Stone,” Mistress Shultz realized. “You’re the one who’s been slowing our efforts all this time. That’s why you’re here.”

  “I thought you may try to interrupt the Angel’s mission. Never would I have thought that you would kill her. What kind of monster are you?”

  “So naïve child. You still don’t see it. What is an Atlantean doing here on Orzare, though? I have never heard of an Atlantean leaving their homeland. Not since long ago, long before me. So why now?”

  Mistress Shultz waited, but no answer came.

  “Is it because of me? Is it because your people can no longer communicate with the Creator and you have suspected me? No, then why would you still be doing the bidding of the Angel rather than hunting me? No, something has happened to Atlantis hasn’t it. When we lost communications, something happened to your defenses. That’s it, isn’t it?”

  Elena’s eyes betrayed her for but a moment.

  “You don’t know this yet, but you have just saved me a good deal of time girl. There are three Seer Stones in this region, and seeing that I need all three, I would’ve had to locate your home on my own. Instead, you will lead me right to it. Chain her up, she’s coming with us,” Mistress Shultz ordered.

  Master Pedro interrupted, “And how will Flynn react as we carry out his companion, chained? We must be careful how we affect the public’s perception here. And let us not forget their other companion, a mage of the First Order. What about him?”

  Mistress Shultz answered with a grin on her face. “She has already provided us an answer for that problem as well. After all, Flynn has reported that he doesn’t know what her involvement is with Gabriel. And seeing that she killed the Angel…”

  Chapter 2

  Kwame had passed through Guoine before but passed is really all he had done. The outer edges of the city were much like the other cities in the north, decorative, displaying the city’s colors, but also full of life. As Kwame ventured deeper into the city though, the colors grew paler, and the energy grew staler. The stench too, the stench. The smell that emanated from the slums of the city was one of urine and feces and…body odor. Although, there was another smell, a smell Kwame couldn’t put his nose on. It could be old food, or bodies, Kwame would rather not wonder.

  Kwame was walking down the street whilst dodging the occasional wagon. Although, as he ventured further, wagons were no longer seen, and the street narrowed to the point of making them an impossibility. The hour was growing late as his stomach reminded him. A couple blocks away he could see a red and yellow sign hanging off the side of the building with images suggesting it to be a food establishment. He crossed the street, stepping in some odd form of sludge that stuck to his boots. Kwame stopped and looked down. He pulled up his boot and watched as the sludge stretched to the point of tearing.

  “What is that?” he said out loud, though nobody answered.

  Kwame continued on without an answer to his question, growing closer to the food establishment he had been aiming for. As he closed in, the lettering in the sign became readable. The Sweating Onion.

  “Not exactly the most appealing name,” Kwame thought. “But very befitting of this city.”

  Kwame decided to enter the establishment regardless. He looked around before entering, hoping something else would stick out. Nothing else in the area appeared to be any cleaner though. Kwame had grown up in the plains of the Dohashi Desert. Much of his food was freshly hunted and freshly carved, it was true, but some of his food was also aged. The tribes would like to age their food up in trees and let the sun deal with it, or occasionally even steal the food from larger predators that had already gnawed on it. To most people, this would be considered disgusting and unhealthy, but that was worlds better when compared to the lifestyle of the outer layers of this city.