Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 6: The Fall of Teirrin

Chaos magic. Celestial magic. Whatever the hell she wanted to call it, Kommora had known one day it would come back and bite her in the ass. There was too much unknown about it. Nithercott claimed she'd removed all of Harred's ability to harness celestial energy, but how much of that was true? She barely knew anything about chaos magic — much of its true nature was hidden to Loren Rummage, her predecessor. Kommora hadn't felt the tingle of magic when she grabbed Harred afterwards, but just how permanent was the magic removal? Was it like a nullifying rune, operational for as long as the creator intended, or was it permanent like severing a limb?

History had merged hearsay and interpretations with exaggerations and cultural barriers to the point where the original effects and limitations of celestial magic were little more than bedside stories. She didn't even think the original celestial magic existed any more, until the Teirrinese uncovered the burial sites of the original twins about twenty years ago and the Teirrinese mages attempted to revive celestial magic. And succeeded.

A hundred metres away from her, down the corridor, was where history would repeat itself six months ago if they hadn't stopped Harred in time. Karma, destroyed, its citizens sacrificed to propagate the biggest genocidal attempt in history to once again recreate celestial magic. Kommora's finger paused over the spine of one of the tomes, its painted letters gleaming in the filtered light from far above. The restricted library was empty, quiet, just the way Kommora liked it. No screaming children, no whining mages, and nobody talking back. It was bliss. The circular room with its tall, domed ceiling, coloured glass in a circle at its apex, and thousands of ancient tomes had been restricted to king's mages only. With all the tidying that had to be done after the Harred fiasco, Kommora finally had time to sit and rifle through some of these rarely-touched books.

Cronin Sallows's records would be here, amongst all the other classified information of international relationships, secrets, tactics, and military information. Bolliver Woodbead had been through the military section recently, after amalgamating his father's old troops with the new and reorganising after the casualty numbers stabilised. Kommora paused at the 'S' section, glancing at the next bookcase over. There was a whole shelf dedicated to Teirrin.

A gentle squeak of the thick wooden door at the far side alerted her to an unexpected arrival.

"Ah, Kommora." Marya Bonneville spotted her and gave a respecting nod her way before shutting the door with a click. To Kommora's ire, Bonneville strode over to her, likely to instigate polite chat instead of shutting the hell up and letting Kommora do her business. "I haven't seen you since that incident. Should you be out of the hospital so early?"

"Incident is an understatement," Kommora muttered. Every breath she took was a reminder of the trick Harred pulled. Every stab of pain spearing through her chest, every hitched inhalation, every muscle spasm down her spine made her fingers itch to introduce Harred's face to a chair. Repeatedly.

The silence that came gave Kommora too brief a break from unnecessary conversations.

"I take it you've recovered?" Bonneville said casually. Kommora's eyes flicked over to her face. Same white-blonde hair as her sister, swept back into a messy bun. Piercing blue eyes that showed curiosity, without any obvious hidden agenda. None of those ridiculous piercings her sister sported. Her large mouth spread into a faint smile.

"Not as young as I used to be." Kommora's lip twitched, adding the humiliation of the lie onto Harred's tab. "Fancy seeing you here? I thought overlooking magical registrations has kept you locked in your office."

"It has." Bonneville's face turned rueful. "Quality control. Citizen protection. Endless legislations. There's been a lot of civil complaints over the years and I don't think the last lot of king's mages have paid them much attention, so the relationship's soured even more. People need to know their complaints are heard, changes are happening, and past mistakes don't happen again."