Chapter 18

Hadi sighed and got up.

As she walked to the other end of the table, she said, “I’ll have to put them on display in the choosing room.”

The others nodded as Hadi went to pick up the items. They were surprised when she moaned and dropped the medallion she had picked up.

“They are dead,” she explained as she looked at the items in disgust.

“Well, that certainly puts a different spin on things,” Felix commented as he eyed the items.

“How are they dead?” Boyd had to ask.

“The entity has left them. Unless Catia can get a new entity to take them on, they are useless,” Hadi explained.

Hadi sighed, picked them up again and carried them back to give to Catia. Catia touched them and grimaced.

“Hadi, I have never been able to call the spirits to empower a magical item,” Catia replied.

Boyd couldn’t help himself, and he picked up the ring. He noticed that the five gems formed a square with the square Quaz crystal mounted slightly higher and at ninety degrees to the other four gems.

A smoky diamond was beside a pale blue-grey stone he guessed was a topaz. Beside the topaz was an emerald, and beside it was a green and blue speckled white opal. The way they were mounted didn’t really hint at which represented the primary stone.

The others gasped when he slid the ring over the middle finger of his left hand, so the emerald and opal faced his fingertip. They watched as it flashed, and then the stones all faded and disappeared to leave a gold band on his finger. They all knew he had put it on backwards to how Flavia wore the ring.

Boyd looked up and said, “Oops!”

To his surprise, Catia handed him the medallion and told him to put it on. With a lot of trepidation, he slid the chain over his head. His other medallion appeared, and then the two blurred, and he was left with one medallion.

The medallion was now longer, a little thicker and more oblong to allow for both Quaz crystals to be under each other with a small space between them. It was silver on one side and gold on the other. The chain also appeared to be interlinking gold and silver links that were a bit thicker and wider than before.

What surprised everyone was that it still had the flaming torch on it. However, it now had an eye symbol under it, and the tree had moved to be under the book and in line with the eye. The symbols were also on the gold side.

“O ... K! What the hell does this mean?” Boyd asked.

“Welcome to the High Senate, Wizard Boyd,” Antonia said and then gave him a grin.

Boyd turned to Catia, “But aren’t I supposed to be your apprentice?”

Catia shrugged, “You can still apprentice under me, but you can now do well at magics for five of the disciplines. You are only missing Physics. I think your entity is setting you up to claim one of the High Wizard’s boxes that we have here.”

“We can manipulate all of the disciplines, but we still have a primary one. I’d say the Emerald Wizard’s box is probably waiting for you to prove yourself before it will call you. I hope it will give you time to gain some experience before it does.”

“In some sextets of wizards, you would qualify as a High Wizard. They only have five gems and symbols per wizard. However, the set we found here has six-gemmed boxes.”

“I have no true idea why they are different. I can only guess that it all depends on which Keltrian planet they originated from, and which Queen originally made them.”

“So back to my other question, does this mean I now have to accept Flavia’s responsibilities? She and the Queen are going to be pissed if that is the case.”

“Well, previously, I looked after the eastern half of the island, and Flavia had the west. That also includes Hay Island now,” Hadi said. “Personally, it is getting a bit much as Tye island has half our total population.”

“So, you and Flavia had over a million people to look after, but the other islands had what, half a million each?”

“Not quite,” Felix responded. “Sage Island is the smallest, but between it and Moss Island, we have just under a million. Patrina keeps an eye on the city called Hera for me. It is the southernmost city on Moss Island and not that far from her two major cities.”

“I’m based in Ostia. It is located in about the centre of the island on the longitude but on the east coast. Ostia is also more central to the other cities and small towns on my island. Our western coasts are mostly unpopulated.”

“Most of the islands are poorly populated on the outer sides of the islands. This is mostly due to the storms we get. Joh and Ino Islands are a bit more evenly split population-wise, but their population centres are more spread out.”

“So realistically, we really need two more High Mages for Tye,” Hadi replied.

“Is there any reason Catia can’t take over some of the load?” Boyd asked.

He noticed that Antonia and Tullia looked down, and both fidgeted.

Antonia looked at him and then at Catia, “I’m sorry, High Wizard. Saying I was coerced is a poor excuse. In all honesty, I think you should have kept your own region when you upgraded.”

“Me too,” Tullia spoke up. “I think Boyd is going to need your help, and if you take back your region, it makes things easier for him. The northern region of Tye Island is less populated, and he has the earthlings to worry about.”

Catia looked thoughtful and waved her hand over the table. A large map of the islands appeared as if taken from a satellite. She waved her hand again, and it now took on more a topographical look with the cities clearly marked.

She put her palms down and near each other and then pulled them apart, so the map now centred on Tye island.

“Show the previous borders for the mages on Tye Island,” she said.

Boyd was fascinated to observe the map. He stood to get a better look at the island that was now his home. He noticed one area was above the line that was marked as thirty-point-five degrees of latitude.

It split off a city on the north-north-west coast called Anilii and a city called Valii that was north-north-east. Between them and further south in the mountains was the third city called Calii.

The other two-thirds of the island was split down the middle along the longitudinal axis. Going from the north towards the equator in the western half were Bolii and Poolii to the west and Marlii in the south.