Chapter 14

When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Boyd had calculated they had gone down some 30m.

He knew that a standard riser for a step was 17.5cm. These steps felt about that distance apart. He determined that, on average, the sixteen steps plus the 150cm long landing between dropped him down about 3m.

They had gone down ten sets of steps, so 30m was his rough guess. That was a lot of stairs. He wondered how they got all his people up them without them remembering.

When they got to the bottom, neither he nor Mathus was amused to learn that the central shaft they had walked around had a cable drawn elevator in it.

“Why didn’t we use the elevator?” he asked in exasperation when told.

Catia grinned, “That’s my exercise. Normally I just blink.”

“Blink?” Boyd asked, ignoring Mathus’s and Julia’s groans.

“Yes, I guess you would call it teleportation. It’s the best way to travel, but we do have to do some exercise, or we get lazy,” Catia told him primly while trying to keep a straight face at the consternation of her family.

She led them through a single doorway to a new area that looked like a large office space. It was twice as long as it was wide. The eight desks were set butted against one of the two long walls. The desks were set, so they faced each other in pairs. A door set in the centre of each wall led to other places and split the pairs from the others.

Boyd couldn’t help but chuckle as he followed Catia with the other two behind him.

“So can any mage just blink?” he asked.

“No, most can’t. As far as I know, only me and the five that have High Mage status and are members of the High Senate can,” she informed him as she led her small party over to the right and a woman who was sitting at a desk with her back to the sidewall.

A row of cabinets took up the wall space behind her to just short of the door. Some of the spaces were protected by a door. Some were drawers, while others were open shelves.

Boyd noticed that both short walls were set up this way. He wondered if the pairs shared those cabinets. He also noticed that three of the inner desks were being used for junk. It made him wonder where Catia’s desk was.

“High Mage Hadriana, I have someone for you to meet. This is High Mage Boyd Flynn. Boyd, this is High Mage Hadriana Aulus, Hadi for those she likes. She is also the leader of the Mage Guild of Tye Island.”

Hadriana looked at Boyd in surprise and exclaimed, “He is an Earthman!”

“Yes, he is. For some reason, the medallion we gave him has changed into a magical artifact. He even has an entity.”

Catia turned to Boyd, “Generally, it is considered rude to ask a mage to show their magical items. However, in this case, I think you should show Hadi your medallion. I trust her.”

Boyd knew that Catia had told him that small fact for a good reason. So, he mentally told his medallion to appear and let Hadi inspect it. He got that same tingle when she touched it and felt his entity approve of Hadriana.

He decided that if his entity, whom he had decided to name, Heidi, didn’t approve of the person, then he wouldn’t trust them either. He did wonder why the entity felt he needed this level of protection.

“Oh, my! That is most unusual. I didn’t make them so that they could do that,” Hadi said in consternation.

Catia explained, “Traditionally, a High Guild Mage can fix magical items. Hadi had proposed that your people did need some protection as slaves and new to our society, so she made the medallions. We as a team then spelled them all.”

Hadi smiled at Boyd, “It is amazing what we can do as a team. However, we are more limited than a sextet of wizards. It would be nice if we could find some owners for the other five boxes.”

Boyd looked to Catia with raised brows. She sighed and said, “Quite some time ago, I found a hidden space down here and discovered what the Pix people call a sextet of High Wizard magical boxes. One of them wanted me to open it, and so I became the Opal Wizard.”

“The Genteli race prefers to have decads of wizards. They have a Lord Wizard, four wizards, and all five have an apprentice. The Pix people tend to prefer sextets of High Wizards. Each is weaker than a Lord Wizard, but they are stronger than a normal wizard.”

“While both sets had a Queen Wizard to rule over them, the sextets don’t have a Lord Wizard. If they have apprentices, they are normally from the mage or High Mage class. I guess they prefer to operate as a committee rather than having a series of leaders.”

“So, the other High Mages haven’t been able to upgrade?” he asked.

“No, not yet. The boxes don’t believe any of us other High mages are ready,” Hadi replied, even though it didn’t seem to trouble her that she hadn’t been selected.

“Hadi, we have to stop the release of the people from Earth. Boyd has some serious concerns that must be addressed before any more are distributed.”

“Well, that is easy enough to do. They had some problems today at the auction in town, and they were halted when several of the men became very unruly. Stupid Flavia zapped one of the women, and the men reacted.”