What kind of Magic?

Chapter 7

For a moment when Langia woke the next morning she didn't recognize where she was, then the memories of heroism mission came flooding back to her. She got up and conjured up her hairbrush as well as a small breakfast for herself. She didn't figure the warlock would be one for hospitality. Langia quickly got ready and ate her breakfast. She had plans for the day.

Langia headed out into the hallway carrying a few of her spellbooks. There has to be something in this castle that will help me. Langia thought as she ventured down the hallways. It occurred to her she didn't know where she was going, but she could always use a spell to find her way.

The first thing Langia did was go to the front door. Here she laid her books on the floor and studied the archway for runes. "There might be a rune or something scratched into the door." Langia muttered to herself as she peered closely to the doors. Its was too dark for her to see anything on the doors. She glanced around the open foyer. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him." She said as she cast a small ball of light.

It was awhile later when Langia finished and she still hadn't found anything. She stood in front of the doors with her hands on her hips and huffed. She thought she might find something. Whoever had done this barrier spell had done a very good spell. Langia made a motion with her hand and her spellbooks rose from where they layed on the dusty floor to her hands.

Langia ventured through the hallways some more slightly irritated by the fact she had found absolutely nothing that might lead to what was going on here. She had extinguished her ball of light and walked through the dim hallways.
At this point, she didn't know what she was looking for.

Then she heard loud noises from a room to her left. She stopped for a second. There was the familiar sound of metal ringing on metal. Her curiosity took over and she quietly pushed the door open.

Langia opened the door to a large, open room with leather padding on the floor. There were few furnishings in the room, with the exception of a couple benches pushed against the wall near her. Langia didn't enter the room because she saw the warlock and his Minotaur in the middle of the floor. She stayed hidden behind the door, covering up her white clothing with the black door. She peered through the sliver between the door and the wall.

The warlock and Mino were standing in the middle of the floor. The warlock wasn't wearing his Cape, it was draped over one of the benches. Langia vaguely heard the warlock say something to Mino and the two of them moved to face each other. Langia to barely make out a circle drawn on the leather. She heard a ringing sound and saw the warlock draw his sword from its sheath. Across from him, Mino gripped his axe. She knew now what they were gonna do.

They were going to fight. Not really, though. Langia saw, even through the sliver in the door, that they were going to great lengths to not harm each other.
They fought with real purpose, struggling to get past their opponent's defense, only to stop their blades an inch away from a harmful blow. As he fought, the warlock was really agile and light on his feet. His sword was like a snake darting in and out, sometimes being blocked by Mino's axe.

The fight was equally matched, Langia could tell. She had watched her father training the kingdom's troops at the palace, so she had seen many mock fights like this. It was Mino's strength versus the warlock's speed agility. It was obvious that these two sparred often.

There was a ringing as both blades clashed. Mino caught the warlock's blade in the crook of his axe and twisted it out of his grasp to land on the floor some distance away. Surprise flared in the warlock's purple eyes, but then he ducked and rolled under Mino's blade. He grabbed his sword and got back on his feet and faced the Minotaur again, smiling.

Langia had never seen the warlock smile. It transformed him into a strangely...kind looking person.

The warlock started to do an overhead cut, causing Mino to bring his axe up to block it. The blow however, was a feint and the warlock took advantage and did another blow, stopping his sword an inch from Minos chest. Had they really been fighting, it would have been a killing blow. The two instantly broke their fighting stances.

"Good job, Mino." The warlock said, still smiling. He wiped the sweat off his brow. "I must say, you caught me off guard with that one move. Besides you won last time." The warlock slid his sword into his sheath and took his cape off of the bench and swung it around his shoulders.

Langia quickly headed out of the hallway and into a nearby staircase. She didn't want to make it look like she was spying on them. She heard the door of the sparring room open and she came out of the staircase trying to act like she was coming down the stairs. As she walked past the warlock, she was reading a random page in one of her spellbooks.

"What's with the books?"

Langia pretended not to notice him for a moment. "Huh?...Oh, just... researching."

He raised his eyebrows at her, then sighed. "If I help you find what you're looking for, will it get you out of here quicker?"

She was slightly taken aback by this. "I guess it might."

He nodded once, then turned around.
"Follow me."