THE THIRD MAGE

He walked through the servant"s pa.s.s undetected. He pa.s.sed by the garden by hiding in the shadows of the bushes. And then he made his way to the secret pa.s.sageway he found with Denaire when they were frolicking around the old crafting school.

He ambled the rest of the way silently, like a cat catching its prey. As soon as he arrived at the crafting school, he noticed light shining inside one of its buildings.

Curious, he walked towards the source of the light. He hid behind a tall shelf, squinting his eyes to see clearly what is in that light. But then he felt wetness on his cheeks.

"Ew, what is this?" He looked up and there he saw Raj.

"Oh, Raj! You scared me! Is that Denaire over there?"

Raj nodded and pulled his clothes. Amon walked helplessly as he was being guided by a stone lion.

When the light faded, he saw Denaire holding a thin dagger. He couldn"t help but ask, "Who will use that?"

Denaire jumped at the sound of a voice. She spun around, and when she saw it was Amon, she ran to him and hugged him tight.

"Woah, woah. What"s wrong my love?"

"I"m afraid."

"What are you afraid of?" He then heard little sobs and felt some wetness on his shirt.

"Hey hey. It"s okay. Just tell me what"s wrong."

"Amon, I heard they took Lyra into custody. She was the source of that light yesterday wasn"t she?"

Amon was shocked. "How did you know about that?"

Denaire looked up and wiped her nose. She sniffled and averted her eyes. "I made a spy to follow you."

Amon laughed. "You don"t have to do that. I will always tell you what I know."

"I know. But I just can"t wait. I have to know, so that I can be ready of what would happen."

Amon held Denaire"s face. "You know I won"t let anything happen to you."

Denaire rubbed her face on Amon"s palm; a warm feeling spreading all over her body. She rather liked this feeling: close to Amon and just be in his arms always. But it would never happen.

"So," Denaire broke the silence. "What happened to Lyra?"

Amon smirked. "You would never believe what happened. Let"s first sit down and listen to my story."

When they sat down, Amon relayed everything he learned during the meeting.

"So, the no-mages before had magic?"

"Yes, and they said, no mages had 4 types of magic: Light, Dark, Life and Death. It"s opposites of each other. I bet Lyra"s could be the Light. And yours would probably Life."

"That"s wow. I don"t know what to say. This is a shock for me."

"But, isn"t it amazing? You all have powers too!"

"I don"t know. It"s like a far-away dream for us."

"But everything"s possible. And I think yours is Light. It"s what the son of the old man was. He created that crystal ball. Hey, why don"t you create one? I"ll show it to them and test it on Lyra."

"Won"t they be skeptical about it? Most especially the scholars who believed what are written on the books."

"They will change their minds. Everything is bound to be changed one of these days. And, it"s only a matter of time before Exosha eyes our lands."

Denaire nodded. "Well, I discovered something too."

Amon raised his brow. "Oh, surprise me, my lady."

Denaire giggled; then she called Raj. "Raj, come over."

The stone lion who was lounging near the furnace stretched his legs and came bounding towards the two.

"Raj, show your surprise."

Raj smiled; a feat that Amon was surprised the King of the Beast can do.

And then, "Good evening, Crown Prince Amon," Raj said in his baritone voice.

Amon went rigid all of a sudden, his whole body showing surprise.

"The-the-Raj talked?"

"Uh-huh," Denaire said.

"Yes, Your Highness," Raj said approvingly. "It was a good thing my Master discovered the hidden uses of her powers. And that includes letting her creations talk."

"Master?" Amon asked incredulously. "You are his master?" He pointed at Denaire.

Denaire nodded, obviously enjoying the scene. "Yes. It only takes a little bit of tweaking in the commands. So, there you go."

"So, you could let Raiyukii talk too?"

Raj answered the Crown Prince, "No Your Highness. Only creations derived from living creatures could have the power to talk."

"Then, if you make plants Denaire, they could talk to?"

"In theory, yes. I have never tried it yet. I first tried it on Raj, by accident of course."

"That is so wonderful," Amon exclaimed. "I can"t wait to see your experiments in the future."

Denaire giggled. She was always giggling when she"s with Amon. "Uh, so, shall we make that crystal ball now?"

"Let"s go."

***

She made one middle-sized crystal ball from the gla.s.s she prepared the other day.

Amon was completely shocked at how Denaire could cope with everything. "You could make gla.s.s objects now? I thought only in Perifaenia could you make gla.s.s?"

"Well, supposed to be. But I read a book, the ones you"ve provided for me, about gla.s.s making. And it listed down there the materials used. The sand, silica and so on, we have that. It"s just that we import it from Perifaenia, who has the most abundant supply for it. They literally live on it. So, I bought some materials and tried my hand on it. And voila! Look, I made a swan out of it. It really doesn"t require magic."

Denaire pointed at it. Amon followed and there he saw the magnificent swan. "Well pinch me. I must be dreaming."

Denaire pinched his cheeks.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You told me to pinch you!"

Raj laughed on the side, which earned a bewildered expression from Amon. "He can laugh too?"

"Of course he can! I made it so."

Amon covered his face. "Oh G.o.ds! I don"t know if I should be amazed or terrified at this power you have. But all in all," he put down his face to reveal a handsome smile. "I am still proud of you."

Denaire was getting fuzzy inside. Her cheeks were reddening from the compliments she received that night.

Amon could only laugh at his love"s expression.

After some moment, Raj cleared his throat. "Uhm, ehem. Let"s focus now guys."

The couple jumped at Raj"s voice. They both replied, "Sorry."

Denaire held the ball and asked Raj, "So how am I gonna do this? I still have to name it?"

"Of course Master. Naming a thing is the first step of giving it power. The conditions you will provide shall be the basis and limitations of what it can do and can"t do."

"Hmmm, so what should I name this thing?"