A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

is why Seer Caspur said something about unreliable messages. And the spell involves magic, so no one can communicate with me?”

Brother Yvan nodded. “Dryden must think a magicless messenger might be better. There are benefits and disadvantages either way.”

Trevor thought about it for a bit. “I’d make my way.”

“I don’t think anyone who knows you and what you’ve done disagrees.”

~

The head seer held up a simple, dull gold ring from behind his desk. “This is why I hurried back here from our meeting with the pontiff. I knew it was in our treasure room, but we finally found it.”

“It is important, I imagine,” Volst said.

Lister Vale glared at Volst. “Would I be holding it if it weren’t?”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Volst said.

Trevor wasn’t so sure. “What does it do? Is it a charm?”

“We don’t exactly know,” the head seer said. “It uses old magic. The messenger should wear this since it facilitates communication between the wearer and another ring.” He held up a duplicate ring. “This artifact is supposed to work with today’s magic. Since no one could use the old magic, we could never test them.”

“You still can’t. I can’t use old magic. I still need a magician to get this cuirass to work.”

“You can think better than that,” Brother Yvan said. “We will have to test them.”

Trevor sighed. “I’ll need a magician to make this work too?” Trevor said to the head seer while he stared at Brother Yvan.

“No better time than the present?” Lister Vale said.

Trevor stood and took the offered ring and asked Volst to accompany him out the door. They walked to the end of the corridor before Trevor slipped the ring on his finger. The ring glowed briefly before turning dull again.

“At least we know it works,” Volst said.

“It glows,” Trevor said. “It might not work.”

He wanted to tell Volst about the inter-church communications, but he had promised Brother Yvan to keep that secret. First, Trevor thought of the seer and the other ring and tried to send a greeting through the ring on his finger all by himself, but nothing happened.

“Hold onto my wrist,” Trevor said.

“What should I be feeling?” Volst asked.

Trevor tried to come up with something. “Perhaps how it felt when I used your magic to transport to Jilgrath.”

Volst frowned. “It is hard to remember a feeling you’ve never had. I just stood next to you.”

Trevor sighed. He didn’t know if this was going to be easy or hard. He concentrated on using Volst’s magic to establish a channel of communication with the head seer. Trevor thought of the same greeting. As he focused on the sending, the ring pulsed with a glow and then went dormant again. He waited for a bit, but nothing happened. They returned to the head seer’s office.

“I sent a message.”

Lister Vale frowned and repeated Trevor’s message back to him.

“It works!” Trevor said.

“One way, only,” the head seer said. “I tried to acknowledge your sending, but nothing happened.

“Perhaps we will need another’s magic,” Brother Yvan said. He held out his hand.

Trevor tried the same pattern over but changed the words in his greeting. When he returned, the situation was the same. Brother Yvan could receive the message, but he couldn’t send anything. The next time Brother Yvan went out into the corridor with Trevor. The results didn’t change, but when Volst tried to use the receiving ring, he could only hear garbled words in his mind.

The failure to return communications started an afternoon of using the strongest magicians among the staff and the seers-in-training. Most couldn’t do any better than Volst.

After the latest failure, the head seer shook his head. “We’ve tried everyone,” he said.

“Not everyone,” Brother Yvan said. “There are four more powerful magicians who we can test. Glynna Bostik, Gorian Custik, Lissa Caspur, and Reena Corulu. Reena is here so I will fetch her.”

The head seer looked at Trevor. “I don’t think I can entrust one of the rings to a magician who isn’t a seer.”

“You did to me,” Volst said.

“That was for the experiment,” Lister Vale said.

“Isn’t she the equivalent of a seer?” Trevor said.

Lister pursed his lips. “Maybe.”

They dropped the subject and waited in silence until Brother Yvan brought in Reena. Trevor stepped out into the corridor with Volst again and repeated the experiment. While he waited for a reply, Reena’s voice rang in his head as if she stood next to him. “Can you hear me? I can hear you. Are you going to embarrass me by not listening to my voice?”

Trevor grinned. “Success!”

They walked into the head seer’s office, where Trevor repeated Reena’s reply.

“That is it!” Brother Yvan said.

“One other experiment,” Lister Vale said. “Use Reena as your magic partner, and let’s see if I can hear her.”

Trevor nodded. He clutched the ring on their way into the corridor.

“Lister wants to be able to participate,” Reena said. “He thinks your story will persist for ages, and he would like at least a mention.”

“I still don’t know how any of this works.”

Reena shook her head. “Neither do I, and neither do Ivan or Lister.”

Trevor used different words, and he didn’t have to wait long before the head seer’s voice spoke in his head. Trevor repeated the words.

Reena sighed. “Now he can become part of history,” she said. “Let’s give him the good news.”

Trevor frowned. “It isn’t good news for you.”

“What?” Reena asked.

“You will have to be by my side to give Lister Vale the fame he wants. You don’t have to come with me. It will be dangerous wherever we go.”

“As long as you allow Brother Yvan to come along, too, I’m fine with it. Jarkan shares a border with Maskum. Consider me a Jarkanese patriot.”

“And Selara