Chapter 50 - Freeing Slaves (1)

"Hey I'm Geld, Silver-fox's captain and vanguard tank." said the biggest man in the group patting Arya on the shoulder. He was about 1.85m tall with chestnut shoulder length hair tied into a tress and had the build of a tank with strong burly arms and a thick wide chest. He had a strong dependable look to him that gave him an authoritative demeanor. Arya looked like a child when he stood next to him, well he was a child but to the group he was just a particularly small midget.

"That there is our main damage dealer Arian. He's good with the bow but terrible with women." said Geld pointing to a slender man with an athletic build about 1.76m, he had blonde hair and a laid back demeanor. He gave a slightly embarrassed smile and said, "Hey there sorcerer."

"This is Gizem, our secondary damage dealer and assassin, though don't worry we aren't that type of group." continued Geld pointing to a petite woman, out of the group she was the only one dressed in black. She was about 1.65m and wore a mask that covered the lower part of her face and her hair revealing only her eyes. She remained silent and bowed to Arya in greeting.

"This is Abigail, our healer. She can use magic but sadly her mana pool is quite low and her only affinity is light so she can't do much out of minor healing. Though she is good at raising morale." said Geld as he pointed to a voluptuous woman about 1.68m tall. She had an alluring look to her, her luscious black hair seemed to be calling to Arya and her smile made Arya's heart flutter. "What is my four year old brain thinking?" thought Arya as his imagination ran wild. "Dangerous, I have to stay away from her."

Geld then proceeded to introduce the others, most of them were hired mercenaries that were just a temporary part of Silver-fox to help with the current quest. After they were all done they looked to Arya waiting for his introduction.

"My name's Arya and this is my apprentice Teressa." said Arya introducing himself to the group. The group seemed to be waiting for a little more information, some of them even came a bit closer to hear what he would say. "I'm an ice mage?" said Arya almost as if he was asking a question.

"An ice mage? So you're a variant as well , those are quite rare." said Abigail seemingly impressed by Arya's revelation.

"What do you mean?" asked Arian confused by the word variant. "Well there are four basic elemental affinities: fire, water, earth and air, these are the normal affinities that most mages would have. Light and dark are acquired affinities that can only be inherited if it runs in ones blood line. Apart from these six there are variants that are even more rare than the acquired affinities. These variants aren't a part of the six basic affinities but share some of their properties." said Abigail in a way that reminded Arya of a university lecturer.

"Ice is a variant of water. Lightning a variant of air, light and fire. Healing a variant of light and water. Gravity a variant of earth and finally necromancy a variant of dark and light. Among them the rarest are necromancers, followed by gravity mages, then ice mages, then lightning mages and healing mages being the least rare. However healing mages are one in a thousand, so that says a lot about how rare the others are. Of course I never went to a formal academy so my information may be lacking" said Abigail finishing her lecture.

Everyone felt properly informed, even Arya himself. Although he studied magic he didn't know much about affinities. "If ice magic is so rare I best watch how I use it from now on. Drawing too much attention to myself while I'm still so weak will just result in an early grave." thought Arya as those around him began to look at him in a new light after discovering just how rare his abilities were.

"Can you show us a spell? Just a cantrip." asked Gren, seemingly more interested in Arya than he was before. "Not now Gren. You can ask him after we've had lunch." said Raghnall pulling Gren away.

The group quickly dispersed and everyone continued with their duties leaving Teressa and Arya alone. "I haven't agreed to anything. We are simply staying for lunch." said Arya as he walked past Teressa towards one of the white tents. "You won't regret this." said Teressa as she followed close behind him.

The group had made a make shift camp in a clearing surrounded by the trees of the forest. There were several tents arranged in a circular order with the biggest tent being in the center.

Arya walked into the tent he had seen Raghnall enter, if he was going to stay he would at least get some information out of them. "Teressa could you wait outside, I have to discuss a few things with Raghnall." said Arya. "Oh okay sure." replied Teressa a bit saddened by her exclusion.

As Arya entered the tent he found Raghnall preparing something in what looked like a tea pot. The inside of the tent was like a make shift living room. It had a table and a few chairs and was cozy enough to have a nice afternoon session with a group of friends. "I wonder how they carry all this around." thought Arya as Raghnall came towards him.

"Say, back in the forest I could've sworn that the trees grew so tall that they blocked out the sun." said Arya hoping to make small talk from his earlier skirmish. "How did you do that? Was it some sort of spell?"

"Ahh yes. Though I am not proud of the method used, we had Gizem poison the air around you while you slept in order to weaken you. You see we could never be too careful after all, had you woken up while we tried to kill you you would've wiped everyone out with but a single wave of your hand." replied Raghnall noticeably ashamed at the method they had used to incapacitate Arya.

"Then how come you took Teressa first and left me alone?" continued Arya as he began to grasp just how feared mages were on Merrum. "We lured her out at night while you slept. After all even if you woke up you wouldn't have thought much of it since she was walking of her own free will. If things went sour with our plan we planned on using her as a bargaining chip. Again I am not proud of the methods we used but out here we have to do anything we can to ensure survival."

"Now that I've answered some of your questions, would you care to humor me with some of my own?" asked Raghnall as he poured a cup of black liquid into a cup for Arya.

"Sure. And thank you but I'll pass on the drink." said Arya as he sat on a nearby stool. "Its jasabelle tea. I promise we didn't poison anything this time, see." said the old man as he took a sip from the cup relieving Arya's paranoia. "First I would like to start with a rather silly question.. You see I've explored a good part of this kingdom though you're the first person I've seen with white hair. Where exactly are you from?"