189 Old Ways

Doevm drummed his boney fingers on the armrest of his throne. He felt along the crack, formed when Arthur had accidentally thrown him at it. He couldn't blame Arthur. It had been less than a year since they had met each other. Accidents were still common; painful, bone breaking accidents. He winced at the memories, but even more annoyed than he had been then, today he was fuming. 'He's late,' he thought. He sent mental commands to his guards, but they had not seen him.

He kept waiting, remaining completely still until the full moon's light pierced through the long-broken stain glass window of the back wall. His eyes, the twin blue flames, lit back up as he finally moved. He cast his mana outwards over the library, over the land, over nearby villages, over castle walls, until it reached the very edges of the Acrin kingdom. A single point resonated in his mind, Arthur. While he usually had a slight mana signal, now it was faint, like a candle's flickering flame in the wind. 'Damn war and everything it stands for - which would be nothing. Fucking humans.' He sent a mental command for all his guards to kill any who approach.

A magic circle appeared at the center of his library. After retracting his mana from every corner of the kingdom, the magic circle lit up. Through its many blue-ish transparent symbols, he could see the swamp behind Draken Capital. One second, he was in his dim library and the next second, he was on an Amphiboard just outside of a large, broken white structure at the west side of the swamp. The biggest around for the matter of fact.

Blood and wails of the injured escaped over the heavily guarded walls. Men were running around on Doevm's Amphiboards, trying to adjust to the new technology. Fresh corpses of both demons and humans surrounded Doevm. He debated taking some but he had plenty at home. If he needed to, he could always make more.

Doevm cackled at the guards' pale faces. He paused however, when they shot a bolt at him. It went straight through his black robe, through his empty, hollow body before finally piercing into his favorite Amphiboard. "That's enough of that," Doevm waved his hands. The bolts snapped, the strings unhooked themselves, and the wood handles caught fire. The guards' swords sunk into the stone. They fell as a weight pushed them down.

Doevm didn't paddle his Amphiboard. With a simple spell, it paddled for him. Anyone who acted as like the guards fell, then promptly forgot about his existence. That was part of the deal Doevm had made with Arthur. For no hero could be allowed to associate with a Lich. So naturally, with the help of a little magic, Doevm was never there. Thus the terms were never broken.

…

…

The healer had clasped her hands together in prayer to that fake goddess. A quick spell made her spit out where Arthur was. Unfortunately, when Doevm passed a corner, the one he wanted to see was unconscious. He was tucked into a bed and wrapped in fresh bandages like a mummy. His blue eyes were closed. His soft, shaky breaths were deafening in the quiet healing wing. Hovering over him was the young girl that Arthur had introduced Doevm to a little over a month ago. She picked at her nails with an absent expression.

She glanced at him and, even though he had cast no spell on her, she fell to her knees. She rubbed her eyes which leaked dirty, salty water. "He couldn't make it to the sparring session," she spoke in a hoarse voice. "He went up against a captain or something of the demon army. Our men couldn't back him up because they were too weak. I told him not to do it. I-I."

"Relax," Doevm snarled, his two blue flames brightening for a second. "Nothing can happen yet. He can only die after fulfilling the prophecy, like all the other long dead heroes. Even if he does perish, death is nothing more than a temporary state to me. Out of my way." He pushed her aside and waved a hand over Arthur. His clothes, the bandages, and his flesh all became transparent. In Doevm's eyes, all that was left were the wounds. 'He is a fifteen-year-old boy, stronger than the men he leads. Even without meaning to, humanity and all their incompetence interferes with my plans.' "What did the healer say? When will he wake up?"

…

Doevm ran his hand along the hallway leading down to the medical unit. The long shelves were typically stocked with bandages. When he yanked open the rusty-hinged door, clusters of moths flew out.

…

"I-I don't know when," Gwenivier walked to the foot of Arthur's bed. "The healer said that it's a miracle that he's alive."

"It's always miracles with these people," Doevm shrugged. "Goddess's work this, God of Evil that. My trip was wasted." He gathered his mana and a magic circle formed on the ground beside him. Through it, one could see his library. Before he could feed enough magic into the circle however, Gwenivier latched onto his skeletal leg and buried her filthy face into his robe. Before she even got a word out, Doevm prepared a spell to both cleanse his robe and her pitiful existence from this world. "Speak or die."

"Please, can you teach me some magic." She pulled her face away.

Doevm would have raised an eyebrow but for him, it was a slight flicker of one of his flaming eyes. "Interesting. You dirty my robe, waste my time, and then ask for a favor when I barely know you." He raised his leg before kicking her off into the foot of Arthur's metal bed. The base clanked and a leg bent inwards.

…

Finally Doevm arrived at the medical wing. All the empty bed frames were sunken into deep layers of accumulated mud, all but one with a single, bent leg. 'If only I'd known,' he thought. 'If I'd been a little more trusting of his decisions.' He chuckled, knowing that he had no reason to trust anyone back then. 'But above all, I should have kicked her again.'

…

Doevm waved his hand over his robe and the single tearstain vanished under a collection of pressurized water streams. "But it seems I have some spare time so I'll give you a chance to either give me a very entertaining explanation on your actions and why you think you deserve my help, or I'll use you as my sparring partner. By that, I mean I'll beat you to death, then do it again."

"I-I want to help him," Gwenivier cried, pointing to Arthur's unconscious form. "But I'm useless. I just stood on the sidelines. When I went to attack, the demon just flicked me away." Doevm chuckled. She got to her feet and glared at him. "This isn't funny! All I did was get in his way. I am probably the reason behind a few of those wounds. I need to be better but I am not good with a sword, nor any other kind of weapon. I don't have any skills but I have magic. I want to grow but the magic academy won't accept me because I'm a woman."

Doevm's eyes flickered. "Now you have my attention. The study of magic, the thing that governs the entire world and has been studied for thousands of years, is being held back because of the type of genitals one has?" The teleportation magic circle on the floor changed. The view of his library blurred. The intricate runes shifted until a view of a stuffy office with books as far as the eye could see came into focus. Hovering over stacks of papers was a decrepit old man, who fell limp. Blood poured out of the side of his mouth and onto his unfinished paper.

Gwenivier backed away from the magic circle and covered her mouth. "What is that? What did you do?"

"That is the current leader of the magic academy." Doevm waved his hand and the man began to move again. He jerked upright with an absent look. Doevm ordered him to continue as usual except accepting everyone who wished to learn. The view of the office faded, replaced with Doevm's library. "Problem solved. Go to the academy and learn. Hopefully my actions will help with their inefficient system." He stepped onto the magic circle but halted before fully activating it. "Are you coming?" He glanced at her.

It was a long time before Gwenivier made another sound. She didn't know what to do, simply stuttering out a mix of curses and shock. "Y-you killed him. I didn't mean for that."

"I did," Doevm said. "He was doing half a job. Any spells developed by them become mine. Halving their output is not beneficial to me, so I fixed the issue. Now…" He clasped his hands together. "I have been meaning to pay back the debt I owe Arthur, and teaching you magic will alleviate me from that burden with the greatest ease. Now come on. We'll start with the basics because I will not teach you anything past that. Our sessions will be an hour a day starting today, once a week after sparring. Then you can learn healing magic from someone else and heal Arthur for sparring lessons when I need them." He glanced once again at Arthur's unconscious figure. "Today started bad, but it's turning out pretty good. Hurry up."

"You're a monster."

"Human filth. Call me that again and I'll erase you from this world. "Master" is what you will call me from now on."

…

"Doevm, let's go," Doevm stood up and glanced down at the rusty bed one last time before turning to his friends.

"Frey, did you ever get to know your grandmother?" Doevm asked, making Frey scrunch his eyebrows.

"Why do you ask all of a sudden?" Frey glanced at the bed, wondering if he recognized it from any of his grandfather's stories. "No, I never met her. She died a long time before I was born. All I know is that Gwen was named after her and her resistance to poison. She and my grandfather never fought once."

'So that's what happened.'