Chapter 1
Working from Within
AN 1213 (AZ 1450) - Early Spring
Maximilion, Notos
One of the reasons Scipio was accepted into the Promethean Alliance was because he promised to recruit his fellow hermits at the Tower. Over a year had passed since he had joined and only now was he making the journey back so that he could extend the offer to whomever would listen to it.
To avoid the trouble of going through the capital, Scipio chose to skirt around the outer ring of the city. By staying outside the walls, he did not have to go through Zephyrian guards, which he had more reason to avoid now than anytime else.
Outside the Archidamian Wall were the newest buildings, but they were occupied mostly by poorer side of the population either drawn to the city to claim a share of its prosperity or undesirables driven outside the walls. In a place like this, Scipio did not expect to draw much attention, but this was not to be.
"You there, halt!" a voice cried.
Scipio pretended not to listen, but he was not going to get off that easily.
"You with the staff, halt, I say!"
Attempting to flee or hide were poor courses of action, so instead he turned to face the problem. There were two mages and four legionaries escorting them. These were not ordinary battlemages either. Their robes were more ornate and their power was greater.
"Can I help you?" Scipio asked, trying to sound innocuous.
The elder of the two mages said, "I see you are a mage of no mean ability. Have you not heard of the order from His Majesty the King conscripting all men of magical ability into his service?"
Even suppressing his power, Scipio could not entirely hide his ability from the mage's keen senses, so he tried his hand at playing ignorant.
"There is no King here," Scipio replied. "There has not been one in some three hundred years."
"I speak of His Majesty, Solon, King of Zephyr," the elder mage replied.
"Since when does Zephyr levy the people of Notos?"
"Do you know nothing?" the elder mage balked. "The Chaos Dominion has returned and His Majesty has elected to fight them in their own lands before they can strike westward. All the resources both in the homeland and here in the Protectorate are being massed for that purpose. That includes human resources. Surely you have heard the stories of the perils of the Darklands. We need mages, as many as we can find, so service has been made compulsory."
"I am but an old man, nearing the end of my days," Scipio replied, affecting a frail quavering to his voice. "What possible service can I perform?"
The elder mage did not seem moved by the show of weakness and said, "For now, you can help train others in the magical arts. Over there, every day you live is a day you help bring us closer to victory."
Ordinarily, he would have dismissed the Zephyrians out of hand, but if what they spoke of was true, the danger to Notos could not be understated. He gave voice to these very thoughts as he mused, "If the Dominion has indeed returned, it is a grave threat to us all..."
Scipio weighed his options. If he took the two mages by surprise, he perhaps could use his powers to escape, but if the Zephyrians were conscripting everyone with magical ability, he would find few recruits for the Alliance out in the wild, as it were. However, from within he could draw recruits from among the conscripts and smuggle them out when the time came. Also, if Zephyr truly meant to venture to the Darklands to combat the Dominion, it was certainly worth his while to lend a measure of his talents and experience training the mages who would cross the sea.
Would Rowland understand his purpose, though? It would be difficult to communicate with him as the conscripted mages would no doubt be kept under close watch. It was a gamble he would have to take.
"Then I trust you understand and will come along quietly?" the elder mage said.
"Yes, yes, of course," Scipio replied. And so the die was cast.
"I am called Damianos," the elder mage said, "a master mage of the third rank of the Royal Mages' Circle, and this is Lysimachos, an adept of the first rank."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Master Damianos," Scipio said with a slight bow. "I am called Scipio."
"Come along then, Master Scipio," Damianos said. "We have much work to do."
"Yes," Scipio said, "indeed we do."