Chapter 13

As Aric and Brianna made their way downstairs they headed to the den and saw Galen sitting in a chair at his desk making some notes with his back to the doorway.

Just as Aric was getting ready to knock on the door frame Galen said "About time you woke up boy. We need to have a talk. I should have had it with you long ago, but I put it off thinking that what I was seeing couldn't be true. But now I understand it is."

As Aric and Brianna came into the room and took a seat on the couch Galen turned his chair around and looked Aric over. Then he looked over at Brianna.

"I'm going to take a wild stab here and guess that you infused Brianna with some of your magic and used it to heal her. She told me that you healed her after the Dragon badly burned her, but as of now she has not a scratch on her and she looks as lovely as the day I first met her," smiled Galen at Brianna.

Brianna blushed when he said that.

It had been a long time since someone blatantly said something like that to her.

People might have said it in conversation with her over the years lately, but they had not made it a point to seek her out and say it as they used to when she was younger. She didn't even realize she missed it until Galen did it just now. To be honest she never thought she would miss it at all.

"But how does my healing Brianna have caused her change?" Aric asked.

"For most mages it wouldn't. You would have just been repairing what existed. But Brianna, based on how badly she said she was burned, was beyond saving. She should have died. But you interfered with that didn't you?" asked Galen looking at Aric.

"Catch this," said Galen as he tossed a much bewildered Aric the globe.

"It went through its normal gyrations of colors, but they don't seem as bright as they normally do," thought Aric.

"Yep I thought so. You gave Brianna some of your magic to keep her alive. I already gave her the globe as well, but she isn't a mage," said Galen as a matter of fact to head off Aric's next question.

"But then what..." started Aric.

"Brianna is what we would now call a "physical adapt" in the magic world. She now has magic, but she can't tap into it to use it. But her body can use it to enhance her abilities. She will be able to run a little faster, move a little quicker, hear a little better. All her senses will be enhanced. She won't give off the effect of magic usage to those who can detect magic because it's now part of who she. But it's now there," said Galen.

"But her change in age?" began Aric.

"Yes that is what we should have talked about earlier. Normally I would have waited till you were on your very late 60's to 70's to have this talk. But you didn't appear to be aging normally," said Galen.

"What did my aging have to do with anything about Brianna?" asked Aric.

"How old would you say I am?" asked Galen.

Knowing this was important, Aric didn't try to pull any punches.

"When we met I harshly thought about 300, but if I had to guess I'd say 80 or at the outside 90, from your appearance," said Aric. "But you always seemed like that to me."

"I'll be 193 next spring," said Galen with a smile. "And if you think about it I don't appear to have lost any steps do I?"

"WHAT!" Aric said.

Brianna just stared at Galen in quiet shock.

"How is that possible?" asked Aric.

Galen leaned forward and stared hard at Aric and Brianna.

"What I tell you now can not be discussed with anyone. Not now not ever. And once I fully explain why if you do you will do more damage than good you'll understand," said Galen.

"Haven't you ever wondered why mages tend to live alone? Why mages almost always seem to either be young or old but barely anything in between?" asked Galen.

As he asked his questions, but Aric and Brianna seemed to be lost in thought. Once they thought about it, they did seem to realize there was a pattern, but they never really thought about it before.

"Now that you mention it..." began Aric.

"See magic has the ability over time to change an individual. But only if the mage is very powerful and willing to let it. If a powerful mage routinely exhaust his or her magic they will age as normal and it won't matter what they do. But if the mage uses it sparingly then it will tend to build up over time. Once that starts to happen it will eventually slow down the aging process," said Galen.

As before, once he added this information Aric thought back to his professors at the academy and how when they dropped off the boys, Professor Greenwell seemed to still be the same age as when he last saw him almost 40 years ago. Suddenly it all made sense.

"This is why mages tend to be loners. Some even go as far as to move far away from others to prevent them from finding out. As long as they aren't too visible most people ignore them in their day to day life. But once a mage starts to become too visible they eventually need to move to keep the secret. If they didn't people would be trying to figure out how to do what you just did to lengthen their lives," said Galen

"But what about the academy? They have Professors all over the place I know I saw when I was younger there," said Aric

"Yes they do, but think about it. Most of the people that would put that fact together are dead now right? Since the academy is basically a city unto itself, there is no reason to keep most folks who aren't mages around.

"And since anyone who works there is used to seeing magic daily, they would assume the mage is using a spell to hide their true age. So they just accept it as matter of fact. Once another mage understands why to keep the secret they aren't going to be spilling it all over the place," smiled Galen.

"But you said young or old, no in between. Is that a problem?" asked Brianna.

"Well most of the young mages tend to get themselves killed early on overestimating their abilities. And if they are powerful enough and don't exhaust their abilities, then they usually grow to be old mages but hide out of the public eye as much as possible," smiled Galen.

"But why did you want to tell me this?" asked Aric.

"Well normally you would have aged to the point where you were in your late sixties or seventies then stopped aging. But you didn't. Your body appears to have stopped at thirty! I kept waiting for it to start aging again, but it never did.

"Powerful mages tend to age about 1/3 as fast as a regular human once they reach that point. But I'd have to guess that you aged about ¼ as fast because of how your power worked and because you had so much of it. But now after sharing your power with Brianna I think you are now back on track with the rest of us, but you reset Brianna to the same point you are at now." said Galen.

As Aric sat there stunned, Brianna whispered "So that's why it was happening. I always wondered but it didn't make any sense that he never looked any older."

"Throw in the fact that he always fell back on his hand to hand training, not to mention his great strength. And the fact he was hiding from his true power ever since he was hurt by that girl. Yes I know about it boy so don't try and pretend you weren't," said Galen to a blushing Aric.

"That combination had Aric storing his magic for years trying to keep from evoking the stupid legacy," said Galen.

"But now you have to be content with the known world knowing you by everything you've been up to lately when you decided to quit hiding from your potential.

"So far in less than six months you went from only having that rumored battle of 10,000 from when you were a kid to destroying part of a city, freezing a harbor, freeing slaves, and now slaying a Dragon.

"It seems that once you had sufficient reason too, you quit being concerned about that stupid legacy," said Galen smiling at a blushing Brianna.

"But what about Brianna? What about the kids?" Aric asked.

Galen stared at him a minute then said "In Brianna's case, given that she now carries magic she can't use so she will probably age slowly at about the same rate as a normal mage from this point forward.

"And the fact she can't really exhaust her magic means she will has no way to deplete it like you or I can to cause her any problems. That is one of the dangers of infusing magic into something. But if I had to guess I would say that you will still outlive her, but not by much."

"But understand this, neither she nor are you are immortal. You can still get sick. You can still be cut, stabbed, and killed. You will eventually die. All the magic does is allow you to live a little longer, but not forever. But we have to keep this from being found out above all else or your lives may be in danger from everyone trying to duplicate what you did.

"That's why you couldn't find her once you healed her. Once I saw her behind you as you were fighting the Dragon, I couldn't let anyone see her. So I made her and I invisible and went to get her while you were distracted. If I didn't we would now have more questions than we could comfortably answer," said Galen

"But in the case of the kids. Brianna, answer me a question? When you worked with the kids before when they were smaller, did they just see you do something once and then copy it or did they have to work at it every day?" asked Galen.

"They seemed gifted, but they learned it as they went. They did seem to learn fast, but yes they had to practice and work at it. We've been training since they were old enough to hold a weapon," said Brianna.

"If you think about it I bet that was similar to how you learned weapons over time. How about Aric the first day you worked with him until now? Did he have to learn it like that?" asked Galen

"Now that you mention it, no. It was like he saw me do it once then he could almost pull it off exactly as I did it. What we always worked on over the years was different ways to put into practice what he saw me do.

"There are literally millions of combinations that can be used with a weapon, and at some point he just physically couldn't do some of what I did, but he tried to mimic it best he could and the practice let him see how best to defend or attack against what he couldn't," said Brianna as she turned and stared at Aric as if seeing him for the first time.

"And that is the key word you used. Mimic. It didn't really matter before so I never said anything, but now that we're covering everything you should know that your kids while they are really gifted they technically aren't Battlemages. Well a better way to say it is that they are Battlemages by hard work and skill, but not by abilities," said Galen.

Both Aric and Brianna turned and stared quiet mouthed at him for a second.

"That doesn't make any sense. How can they use a sword and steel and then magic if they aren't Battlemages?" Aric finally asked.

"How strong would you say you are?" asked Galen.

"I don't know. I would guess that I'm pretty strong, a lot stronger than average I would say," said Aric.

"How about learning? Has it always come easy to you?" asked Galen.