Nethermost Realm: Prisoner of Arlunn

Chapter 16

Please note: I am updating this draft of The Prisoner of Arlunn. The most important change is that the main character's name has been changed from Philip to Rian.

16

Without his older brother, Rian, around—the days in the Sky Tower on Arlunn were gruesomely long. In the mornings, Rian would come down from the College about two hours after breakfast. For Kyran, this was before any of his tutors arrived. But by then, Rian had been up for four hours. Two hours Rian spent on meditation, as his magic teacher, Emmara, insisted that the key to being about to do magic was a calm and disciplined mind.

This wasn't Kyran's experience. Not that he was a magic user. But he was a magic-spawn. Had been, anyway. As a magic-spawn, his mind had merged with one of the greatest wizard's of the age. An evil wizard—there was no denying it. But still, Molan had magical powers greater than many wizards in the Seven Worlds ever had or ever hoped to have.

Kyran knew right from wrong. He knew that you shouldn't kill—usually. He knew that Molan enjoyed harming others. That was wrong. But that didn't mean that Molan's wizarding knowledge was wrong or flawed.

And Molan had never been calm.

But maybe that was part of the difference between dark magic (or blood magic) and what the Arlunni liked to call "Cyrian Magic" (light magic), as though you could neatly divide dark magic and light magic down the middle. The difference wasn't always recognizable, not to Kyran anyway. But maybe that's why the Arlunni wanted him locked up in a tower.

The Arlunni told Rian that the magical energy was disconnected or immaterial and that a mage could draw it out of the air, but it took a great stillness of mind and heart.

That could be one way to do it, though Kyran had his doubts.

Nonetheless, Rian spent a half hour each morning walking with Kyran up to the lake and back. They would talk about unimportant things. Chitchat. Kyran wasn't fond of chitchat, but he didn't mind it so much with Rian. He liked listening to the details of the College and interesting facts about the other students.

Then Rian would come back in the evening, exhausted, frustrated, humiliated and convinced that he was an idiot. But Kyran didn't believe that. His brother was unbreakable. Stubborn. He would find a way to do whatever he wanted.

Rian didn't like to fail.

For four days Rian had tried to cast a single spell, to create light in a stone. A simple spell, probably the simplest the teachers could think of. And Rian hadn't even managed a spark of light.

Meanwhile, Kyran read a book on the history of Ashilan. Chuness had been settled by Kaythan of Thune 2,000 years ago. But it wasn't until 900 years ago that the world of Jarlan was settled. While Chuness had a climate an atmosphere similar to Earth, Jarlan might have been more like frigid and without atmosphere. To build a city, they had to create a magical shield to cover it, in order to keep in the oxygen. Then 600 years ago they had attempted the same thing on Ashilan.

As far as Kyran could tell, all three planets were in the same solar system, though that wasn't such an important fact for them, since they used teleportation to get there. Rian had mentioned that one of his peers had been from Ashilan—Prince Arryk.

Kyran thought he might like to travel to some of these other worlds and see them., someday. But he had the feeling that he might just be a prisoner in this tower for life. Even Rian, ever the optimist, had agreed. Not very promising.