Chapter 7: Off To See the Wizard

The weighty gaze of Isidore Fireforge, the mighty elemental wizard, Lord of the Obsidian Tower, the sage of ancient knowledge, and Azura’s bond master held us with a single bushy brow arched, questioningly. His long white beard was as unmoving as the snow caps high up in the mountains.

Azura’s beautiful rose-red hair hung long and neatly brushed behind her. Fluffy curtains of her soft hair draped beautifully over her ears and cheeks. Her amethyst eyes gleamed in the sunlight from the open window behind and over the wizard’s shoulder.

Azura looked good with her braided hair and black overalls. She looked magnificent without her braid, more relaxed, natural, and even vulnerable, all of which just made her more attractive than normal. So attractive in fact that she was completely distracting, given the gravity of our situation.

He eyed us over the massed clutter of his study desk. Candles, papers, scrolls, books, instruments, and metal measuring tools are cluttered and crowded. Some weighty tools held stacked papers down, to keep the wind from the open light providing window behind him, from blowing stuff away. Other paper documents and books were just loose and fluttering in the breeze.

Other concerns and interests flushed away to the oblivion of irrelevance, the powerful mage-lord, demanded of us, “So, you’re the reason Azura has been stealing Human-sized tools.”

Azure flushed instantly and slumped recoiling from the blow some prior masters must have unleashed upon her. Still slumped downward, submissively, in that cute caught naughty puppy posture she had, Azura muttered, “Yes, bondholder, my Lord-Wizard.”

I eyed her, curious.

Fireforge’s eyes flicked to me and back at Azura and asked next, “And is your friend the cause of our improved culinary situation?”

Azura recoiled, her head suddenly jerked, cocking to the other side, confusion gracing her face.

I could not help it!

It was rude of me!

But I just laughed! I laughed out loud, inappropriately for the seriousness of the situation, like the idiot I am.

Everyone hated Zephyra’s cooking!

The Wizard snapped his gaze from Azura to me.

Azura stomped her cute little foot and cuffed my arm, flushing a darker shade of green. Turning whatever color her pretty soft green makes when you add the red of severe blushing from embarrassment and frustration.

That just made me lean to the side and laugh more at the absurdity of it all!

The wizard’s eyes snapped narrow, hard, and appraising.

Azura was drawing breath to scold me while I struggled to bring my laughter under control.

Isidore Fireforge slammed his frail-looking old hands down onto his desktop and rose from his studies. The light bending around him as his irritation reshaped the very elements of the world around him, he snapped, “Silence! Both of you!”

By then my brows were high, and I was well and truly shut the fuck up, because this man just made a light bend and wrapped a black hole effect around himself.

Fireforge sidestepped from his seat to my side of Azura’s and my duo, and while trailing a finger along the edge of his table kept his eyes locked on me. Those ancient learned eyes seemed to bore into my soul.

Azura trembled slightly beside me, a tiny piteous whine escaping her throat, probably too small for the wizard to hear, but I caught it only slightly.

Rounding the corner of the table used as a desk, Fireforge’s eyes left my body proper. His finger still trailed the shorter vertical run of the table, but his eyes changed from a piercing narrow focus into an open ethereal glance that encompassed more than looked at me.

It was the weirdest thing!

I remembered to snap my gaping jaw shut! No point catching flies in my big dumb open-mouth gape after all.

It was like he was rolling back the filters on a camera lens in his head. That was the best way I could describe it. It felt like he was looking and seeing in a different spectrum.

His finger dropped from the corner of the table and the mage stumbled to a halt. Isidore’s eyes opened and that filter peeled back somewhere in his head, he weaved side to side, tilting his head this way and that as he swayed.

Through his snake-like undulation, it appeared to me that wizard Isidore’s vision was slipping deeper into, around, and through the air on my sides. It was like some normal person might do running their hands over the rough skin of a cantaloupe melon looking for imperfections in the fruit they were considering for purchase.

His jaw agape now, Isidore absent-mindedly demanded of Azura, “Girl, you told me you bought a slave for your clan.” His eyes suddenly going deep and piercing at me, he finished with his real question, “And how much did you pay for this one?”

Bound by oath to her master, looking down, Azura humbly admitted, “A whole gold piece, Lord-Wizard.”

His eyes shot from me to Azura, and he asked innocuously, “Really?” Eyes snapping back to me he asked speculatively, “I’ll give you ten for this one’s bond.”

Genuine anger shot whipcord out of Azura’s little mouth before she caught it, “No! Alex is mine!”

That made me turn my head questioningly, looking down at my little green lover, and momentarily away from the wizard.

Her eyes went wide when she saw me look down at her too. Azura quickly added, dropping her gaze, “My Lord-Wizard.”

The damage was already done.

The wizard looked up at me, this time a smirk cut his face. This time he asked, staring into my eyes, obviously teasing Azura, “How about a hundred gold pieces for him?”

Azura, keeping her temper in front of her Lord this time, calmly said, “Your offer to enrich your humble Goblin clan is appreciated, my Lord-Wizard. But, no. I do not wish to sell my Alexander. I freed him! He is mine!”

The wizard’s eyes went narrow, blinking a few times in broadly spaced intervals while he appraised me deeply. Considering matters above and beyond me while remaining statue-still and unbreathing while thinking.

Isidore Fireforge finally spoke, his voice absent, while his mind raced, “You did not call him ‘Hummie’ this time, as you have previously in my presence. You called your bondsman by the familiar name, little Azura.” Eyes trailing down to my neck the wizard added, “You have removed his collar, which tells me you control him in some other way. And yet, you freed him but claimed him as yours. That is something of a contradiction.”

Closing his mouth and considering, the wizard’s eyes on me kept me still and silent.

Fireforge continued, “I knew you had purchased a Human from the market.” He looked briefly away from me and reminded Azura, “Taking the human-sized tools is acceptable, as long as they are used to improve Tower grounds. That’s what they are there for.”

Isidore looked back at me and then speculated, “Azura has taken you as her lover.”

I do not like to kiss and tell but told anyway by glancing down at Azura, who was blushing back up at me. I immediately realized what I had done and looked back up at the Wizard. I told with a single glance.

Isidore was nodding.

Telling me, and reminding Azura, Isidore Fireforge slowly recounted, “Two seasons ago, my little Servant-Queen asked how to expand her clan numbers,” he added marginally sarcastically, “In my service of course, without pestering me with bringing in the bothersome males of her species.” Asking me obtusely, he fielded what seemed to him an obvious question, “And do you know what I told her was the only way?”

Realizing I was being asked a leading question, I had no idea what the answer was, I just shook my head that no I did not.

Azura groaned slightly.

The wizard smirked at her discomfort and promptly ignored her. He told me, “I said to my little Servant-Queen that the common knowledge way is to sire with a Human.” Baiting me the wizard then asked, “And do you know what she told me?”

I shook my head that I did not and shrugged my shoulders questioningly, feeling dumb and used.

Azura slumped with a deep sigh, her head down and hiding behind her fallen hair.

That just amused the wizard more, as his genuinely amused and newly informed smirk grew huge. He informed me, “Little Azura, Queen of the Shadewind clan offered me the insult that, ‘All Hummies stink almost as badly as the goblin males that her female clan was at war with.’”

The wizard rolled his hands between us, illustrating that we were moving the conversation along as he continued, needling deeper into Azura, telling me, “She of course apologized realizing that I as a Human wizard fell into her ‘stinky Hummie’ pile. I then reminded her of the common knowledge that half-elves, half-orcs, half-dragons, and half-everything come from Humans and other matings, either Human male to other females, or female Human to male others. Because Humans are a versatile base race.”

The wizard eyed me.

I eyed him back, shocked to my core at the tale.

Isidore glanced down across me at Azura, drawing my eyes too. Azura’s eyes were pressed shut, cheeks hidden behind fallen hair, and face embarrassment flushed a near greenish purple.

Isidore Fireforge looked back up at me directly, locking my eyes with his own, and directed, “All Humans from our world know that.” His eyes narrowed, cutting back into me, and he demanded, “But you are not from this world, are you, Alexander the Human?”

Taken aback, shocked to my core, I just shrugged.

Reaching across me with his right hand, Isidore rapped on Azura’s skull with one long and bony finger until she looked up. Her embarrassment turned to irritation.

The wizard dexterously looped and swooped his hand into her loosely fallen hair over her left ear and threw his hand up, exploding her fine soft hair up into a fountain of red over her head, that drifted down in a giant mess over her shoulder.

Azura grumbled in her throat.

The wizard reminded his servant, “That is revenge for calling me a ‘stinky Hummie’ those months ago.” He then added blithely, “And little Azura is wearing her hair down and flirty for you, Alex, as the only change in her uniform appearance after years in our service and many hundreds of audiences.”

Azura sighed, pushing her hair back, admitting and accepting her punishment silently.

He then looked back at me and told me, “All Humans know that. But you are not only not from this world, but you are Pure-Blood, aren’t you?”

That made me raise a brow again. Confusion had to be evident on my face.

The wizard demanded, “How did you get here, Alexander, bondsman of the Shadewind clan?”

I spoke for the first time that I could remember in our visit and told the wizard, “I, ah, think I was kidnapped, abducted somehow.” That raised the wizards’ brow and Azura’s curious look up. I glanced at her big beautiful amethyst eyes and returned my gaze so I was speaking to the wizard, “My jackass friend was throwing a Halloween costume party. He had this gorgeous woman with him. While he was dressed as a wizard or druid something-or-other, the girl was dressed like a devil, with yellow-green eyes, reddish-purple skin, long black horns, and a working animatronic tail.”

That last word made the wizard recoil, misunderstanding ‘animatronic’ apparently.

But I continued, “I forgot to bring the Treat like the party invitation instructions required. My jackass boss was picking a fight before I left work, I was late, scrambling to get my costume together, and just plain forgot.” I shrugged, gesturing down at my scuffed and well-worn lumberjack costume’s clothes. I felt myself smirk and told my audience, “I guess I’m just glad that I picked a costume out of real clothes instead of the cheap skimpy stuff that the other women and men were wearing.”

I shrugged glad I was not in some superhero costume, and glad I was not a girl and dressed as a sexy nurse!

I went on, “So anyway, fucking-Liam and Nyx made a big deal about teasing me for not bringing a treat.”

While Azura looked curiously shocked, the wizard interrupted, saying, “Lilitha Nyx?”

I shrugged and answered, “Yeah, that’s what she said her name was.”

Both people with me groaned. Azura was in a jealous rage. Isidore like he was receiving unwelcome news.

I asked, “What?”

Isidore glanced down at prompted, “Nyx only told you after she had harvested your mana, didn’t she?”

I had to think about that.

The fizzling little light bulb in my head went on and I agreed, “Yeah, I guess. One minute she was walking me through the house. I was looking out the back window at the movie-quality special effects of a bunch of druids summoning a demon over a bonfire. Then it was like time skipped and I was in the kitchen with her handing me a drink that tasted like every fruity concoction known to man, and a delicious Ol’ Fashioned drink.”

Azura shuffled irritably.

Isidore eyed her, then back to me, nodding.

I shrugged, and told them, “She did not exactly harvest my mana. I have no idea how that would work. But after that first bit of drink I, um,” remembering Azura next to me I hesitated.

Isidore rolled his finger between us prompting me to continue.

Azura growled in her throat.

I knew I was in deep shit when I got back home with Azura!

I exhaled, calmed, and began again, “Well, I, ah, sort of blacked out again, and the next thing I knew she was bent over the kitchen counter and I was nailing her from behind.”

Azura’s beautiful eyes were suddenly narrow slits of hard amethyst, her teeth grinding pushing out her jaw with rage.

Isidore calmly shared, “She harvested your mana through your sexual energy.” To my little lover, he reminded, “Azura, he had nothing he could have done. He was bewitched by the brew Nyx gave him. There were powerful energies at that ritual.” He then reminded, “And that act was before he met you, little bondholder.”

Her head cocked to the side as her eyes and jaw relaxed. She blinked a few times, considering.

I demanded, “You know that bitch?”

That drew a smile from Isidore, and a smug smirk from Azura, but Isidore Fireforge nodded while he answered first, “We are all familiar with the demon succubus, Lilitha Nyx.” He shook his head mournfully and offered, “She is a dangerous foe. She is devious and intelligent, ruthless and powerful. She is a demonic servant who helped her master take the upper hand in her master’s fight against the light, in many campaigns over the millennia.”

I must have looked really confused.

Isidore stepped back so his butt leaned against the edge of his table. With a sigh, he drew a line from between our noses down to between our bellies. The line appeared light at the top and dark at the bottom.

He quickly bisected the line in the middle, making it a neutral grayish-tan. Then capped the line with two more quick slices through the air, making white and black disks appear at either end.

That was making sense so far. It was just like every religious description of Heaven, Hell and the mortal plain ever uttered by man.

With a sigh, Isidore the Wizard threw his hand in a broad universal sweep out and around the central grayish-tan disk that represented the mortal plain.

The newly scribed circle carried great detail!

I was flabbergasted as the colors in the opaque circular plain under my nose mixed into intricately scribed lands, tiny to the eye, but to the mind, they represented whole continents. Entire worlds embedded in that floating hoop representing reality were crammed onto that multi-colored disk. Some worlds were large and fleshed out the sizes of marbles, the representations of those worlds, or realms, the details shooting into my mind as I glanced at them. Others are tiny and almost invisible, but no less detailed.

Azura’s eyes flit back and forth between me and the representation between us, waiting patiently, but her curiosity bubbled through her eager eyes.

Isidore Fireforge slowly, gently, reverently, began again, gently tapping the grayish-tan representation of Earth, “This is your home, Alexander. You are Human-Pureblood. An originator.”

I was feeling confused, but waited patiently.

Next, he regarded the broad hoop of color encircling the central axle of good and evil. Then he tapped very gently on a section of the face, where if I was the twelve o’clock, and he the six, his finger would have touched around the four o’clock. He muttered, “And this is us. Our world.”

That piece of my distractible nature injected the question, “Why is your world? I mean the big disk on the outside is so much bigger than my little disk universe in the middle. And what do you mean calling me ‘an originator’?”

Nodding with the slightest smile the ancient Master-Wizard admitted, “Observant questions, Pure-Blood Alexander.” Looking up slightly, the Wizard stroked his long white beard considering how to answer. And then he began, sounding marginally distracted like someone using different words to explain some professional concept to a layperson, “Our Universe of Legends is so much larger because it is constantly being built upon and expanded by those Pure-Bloods in your universal plane of existence. As imagination and visualization are used by Pure-Bloods, this Universe constantly expands and becomes more coherent on the edges. Pure-Bloods are ‘Originators’ because they tap directly into the creative potential of this Universe.” He nodded at me and mentioned casually, “With training, you will be able to reshape this Universe with much greater ease than those of us like myself born to this Universe.”

I felt my mouth hanging agape, as the most intelligent thing that escaped immediately was, ‘Hum’! When I closed my flapping jaw, thoughts stopped falling out and I managed to collect enough to ask, “So, the visualization, and creative imagination of my Universe builds this plane in real-time. Isn’t that like what those woo-woo manifestation teachers talk about? The ones who say, ‘visualize your reality and it will become reality’?”