Chapter 24: Giant Mages

~~ Delta - Aug/02 - (Earth - Feb/2095) ~~

They filed into the room.

It reminded Jahn of a bank vault with lots of boxes in little Pigeon-holes. Each wall displayed a different set of boxes. Since he was on the right side, he stepped up to the boxes and laid a hand on one.

“Novices boxes,” he told the group. They were not what he needed. He moved to the back wall and touched a new box. “Boxes for shield mages,” he told them.

“Why does that one glow?” Snorre suddenly said and walked close to one of the boxes in the wall near where Jahn stood.

“Do any of the others glow for you Snorre?” Jahn asked. Snorre looked around the room again before he stepped closer to the box and stared at it.

“No, just this one. I can hear it call to me,” he said. They all watched as he reached out and pulled the box out of its depression.

A metre cubed block stood in the middle of the room. Jahn indicated towards it, “Put the box on the table Snorre, and then place both your hands-on top with your fingers splayed and say ‘open’.”

Snorre did as he was told without hesitation. It felt right to follow Jahn’s instructions. They all heard the clicks and gasped when it opened. They were very similar to Lee’s boxes but didn’t have the new bracelets she had added or the minder/pads that she now called Mads, only a thin book.

“Congratulations Snorre, I believe you just became a special type of mage, called a Shield. You are a protector of Truth, Justice and the People,” Jahn told him.

Jahn did think it was kind of ironic the first of Rah’s boxes to be opened was a shields box. He then said, “Put the items on, and I’ll explain shortly what they all do. Does anyone else see a glowing box?”

Yves pointed to a box that was beside the one Snorre had just removed. Jahn nodded at him to take it. This time no one was surprised when it opened for him.

“Anyone else?” Jahn asked again. Hador pointed to a box on the wall he hadn’t touched yet. Jahn moved to this wall and touched the box. He agreed that it was for Hador. It too was a form of shields box. However, it included manipulation of metals and non-metals, making it a full mages box, so he removed it and placed it on the block for Hador to open.

He was an Armourer Mage. This meant Hador could make devices to protect other shields and wizards. One of the five mage boxes they had found in the caverns is Wales, could do something similar. It hadn’t always had an owner either.

Rah had been their Armourer Mage before he became the Gold Wizard. Jahn wondered idly if this was why he had been able to make these boxes when he’d had trouble even fixing the contents of a box even though he had been the Lord Wizard.

Gemma and Alec looked at the boxes again. Alec spoke, “Jahn, there are three that glow for me. He pointed at one and said, “This one seems the brighter, but it is hard to tell.”

Jahn touched the box and gasped, it was a Healer’s box. Even he remembered from reading the history books that this box had been rare even on their home world of Keltria. It was probably one of just two of the two hundred mage boxes on this wall.

He asked Alec to point out the other two boxes. He couldn’t see the glows like they could. He had to touch the box to find what was in it. This too worried him, he should be able to see a glow on the boxes and the Giants, but he didn’t.

Alec pointed to a second box, and Jahn touched it. It was for Earth magic. Good for people who wished to make medicines and potions, an Apothecaries box.

Alec then pointed to the last. Jahn found it was for mental energies, a Psychic’s Box. It would help a healer find what was wrong with his patients and do many other things. The three combined would let Alec claim a wizard’s box, Jahn realised in shock.

He had been able to reclaim the mages box he did because he had claimed it once before and no longer wore the Lord Wizard’s bling. Even if Alec claimed one of these boxes now, he would still be able to give it up to claim his correct box when Jahn got them free. He now believed the other room did contain a full set of wizard’s boxes.

“Pick the one that calls to you the most,” he said to Alec. Alec took the one he had first pointed to, and Jahn was not surprised. “You truly are a healer now Alec,” he said and had to hug him.

“What about you, Gemma?” He asked. She pointed to two boxes, one with each hand. Jahn touched them. The left one was more for controlling energies for heating and forming of metals the other to moving and shaping non-metals. She was a potential apprentice for sure.

“But I can’t really pick one. They both seem to be the same. They are not as strong as the other call I heard in the other room, off the main tunnel.”

“What do you like doing with your time?” he asked her. “Do you like playing with smelting and making things from metal?”

“Sometimes, but I also use a lot of other mediums. I like making things in general.”

“Then possibly the one on your left will cover you for now,” he said.

She dropped her head and looked at him covertly but didn’t question his words. The mage was not telling them everything. She would keep an eye on him. Alec was that befuddled by the man, she doubted he would question him.

Her eyes flicked to her brother. He was looking at her and then double blinked. It was their ‘okay’ signal. She blinked back and then faced back to the wall and chose the box the old mage had selected.

He was happy she had gone with his choice. Those abilities with Hador’s should help him reactivate the lava pools. Snorre and Yves had placed their boxes back in the wall. They had removed the contents, so couldn’t see a reason to hold onto the boxes.

Alec, Gemma and Hador placed their boxes on the block and opened them. Their items were similar to the twins, but several of the gems were different, and they were all larger. Their books were thicker as well.

They removed the items, looked at them and then put them on. As they did, Jahn told them all basically what they were for. He showed them how to activate the wand and told them it would just clip to their sides.

Once they were finished, the bling disappeared except for the band of the rings on their middle fingers. He told them, “If you need the wand, just say ‘wand’, and it will appear again. Say ‘open or close’, to extend or retract the wand.”

The three new magicians felt comfortable placing the boxes back in the pigeon-holes rather than taking them with them. Once they were completed, Jahn closed the door and took them back upstairs. He walked to the other room he knew of and asked Gemma and Alec if they sensed or heard anything.

Both nodded, and Alec said, “Actually, the call seems louder now like it knows I’m here.”

Gemma nodded in agreement and then said, “Yes, it’s like they are singing, but I don’t understand what they are saying.”

Jahn was pleased, “Your true box is in that room. But the items you currently wear are like a sub-set of your true potential.”

“In the old scheme of things, when you would have been around twelve to sixteen you probably should have gotten a novices box first and aged normally. We didn’t have novice boxes. I’m surprised Rah went to the trouble of making them.”

“After ages twenty to twenty-five, you would have aged even slower. Some go up to their mage box, some don’t. Some mages don’t get a box until much later in life if they ever do, you two would have. You would have found that sometime later, the box in that room would start calling to you.”

“If the box were already claimed, you would have had to wait for it. If it were not, it would have called for you to come to get it sooner. The boxes are not claimed, so they are calling you. Once we get in there and you touch the box, the items you’re wearing now will disappear and return to the other boxes for the next recipient.”

Jahn was a little surprised he was telling them all this. However, he could see no reason not to, so stopped worrying about it and almost immediately forgot he had. If he weren’t so tired and ill, he would have felt the compulsion from Hador and the twins wishing the truth about the boxes.

They were not even aware they were doing it. Truth Seeking was a natural ability of shields. Hador double blinked once at Gemma, and she nodded. She had decided to play along with the old mage because the choice had the feeling of rightness about it. He may have other motives, but they were supposed to help him for now.

Jahn wobbled and put his hand on the wall, “I need to rest and eat. I will give you all lessons later. Read your books while I rest. And get some sun, you will feel more refreshed. There is one other essential job, I wish us to do later today, but I must rest first.”

Alec supported him, and they all headed back to the village. As the warm mid-morning sun hit them, the group all started to feel better. They all ate heartily and slept for a few hours. The new mages woke and studied, while Jahn continued sleeping.

His age and illness were affecting his abilities, and the energy required to break the spell had really taken it out of him. Alec even lay with him for a while and pushed power at him to help him recover, but he couldn’t heal what was wrong with him, only reduce his pain. He was saddened by this.

Jahn found himself lying in Alec’s arms, wool-gathering again. He was thinking of why he couldn’t see the new mages glows. He hadn’t seen Lee’s, Allan’s or Kyle’s glows either.

Jahn’s thoughts flicked to Allan Ubobo. He had felt Allan’s energies when he met him, but he knew he wasn’t a full wizard. He had been attracted to the man, but it soon became apparent that Alan was strictly into the ladies. He also suspected he was one of his descendants.

It wasn’t until he shook Lee and Kyle’s hands the day, he met them, that he recognised them for what they were. Kyle hadn’t bothered him as much, but Lee had. He had sensed the strength of her energies and got an instant hard-on for his troubles.

He thought back; further, he knew he had been lucky that the Lord’s box hadn’t chosen Rah’s wife Jade over him at the time. What a vindictive cow, she had turned out to be. But Lee was a different matter. She had different priories, and he knew his old box would like her very much. He had decided he didn’t want her on the GJ10 Expedition.