17 Work
Chapter 17
Reskeme opened the window to let in some fresh air. He Undressed out of his wool cloths and shivered as his body was covered in goosebumps, the early morning was chilly on his skin. He stooped down and picked up his underwear followed by pants and his belt, Next, he put on was the shoes he had been given by the messengers guild.
Reskeme put on his undershirt and his coat completing his work attire. The boy then channelled his mana focusing on dark brown skin when he completed the spell he kept channelling and changed his hair to a light blond.
Reskeme has decided he should keep changing his hair colour as that would make it seem normal for him if he couldn't channel mana anymore.
Reskeme was a little startled that it felt soo quick to cast the second spell this time. With a smile on his face at his improvement the boy walked over to the window before looking at his familiar and telling it to stay put again.
The troublesome familiar didn't even bother to look at him pretending he wasn't even there. Reskeme shrugged to himself if the little jerk of a demon was going to behave itself and stay here he wasn't going to complain.
Now with spells in place, he climbed thru the window on the roof and made his way to the gutter. Climbing carefully down the boy banged his knee and scraped his hand. All in all, it wasn't too bad. The boy looked down at his slightly dirty knee and winced it was throbbing and hurt.
Reskeme knew he couldn't keep climbing up and down the gutter eventually he would fall or rip his clothes and that would be expensive. The boy was dreading the thought of what they would cost to replace. Hank would surely force him to buy new clothes if he wrecked the old ones.
Reskeme decided he needed to make more money, what he was getting paid was enough for food but Reskeme wanted other things. The thought of a magic book that showed new patterns made him giddy with excitement. He decided that at the end of the workday he would go to the merchant quarter. Surely there he could find a shop selling mage books.
With a spring in his step and a new excitement for the day, the boy made his way to the messenger's guildhall. All the while he was nervously checking over his shoulder in case of guards or other trouble. Reskeme has no desire to get mugged or stabbed and being unaware was the best way to let that happen in the alleys.
Reskeme passed a homeless-looking man that had a knife in his belt, the man looked to be deciding if he should attack or not. Reskeme glared at the man his bright green eyes made the man pause. The man with the knife began stepping foreword. Reskeme a heart began beating quickly and his first idea was to channel his green fire. The flame covered his fingers he channelled the flame soo it was outside of his illusion. The fire glowed with a dark green light. The man was clearly startled at the display of magic, the man turned and ran down the alley as fast as he could.
Reskeme stopped channelling mana and his flame died. The boy was glad he hadn't burned his sleeve that would have sucked. The man had run the moment he seen the boy had magic the boy was startled at this surely the flame wasn't that terrifying was it he thought?
Reskeme Considered the almost fight, the man had a small knife and had run away quickly the boy had turned around putting his back to where the man had been. Reskeme didn't realize his mistake the man hadn't given up, he had simply waited for the boy to lower his guard. An intense pain sprouted from Reskeme's leg causing him to fall over and lose his breath trying not to scream from the pain. The boy looked down at the short knife was protruding from his leg the knife was buried halfway in.
The knife was odd it was a long piece of metal with no handle it was a throwing knife. If the boy had been more observant he would have been able to notice this. Reskeme channelled his mana and focused on wrapping it around the wound. Reskeme pulled out the knife with a scream of pain. If it weren't for the adrenaline Reskeme couldn't have forced himself to pull out the weapon from his leg. He looked up eyes blurry from tears with the pain and noticed the man behind him in the alley moving forward. The man noticed the boy looking at him and froze the boy's eyes were blazing with a green light.
The man was close and reaching towards Reskeme when the boy wrapped mana around the hand not holding the knife and grabbed the man's wrist. The man seemed startled and was even more startled When the balefire ignited into his skin. The man's face was horrified and one of instant regret. Reskemes leg wound had stopped bleeding although it wasn't completely healed, Reskeme clearly hadn't used enough mana to heal it completely.
Continuing to channel his mana, Reskeme stood and was horrified as he watched the man's arm blister and cook with an infernal heat. The man began screaming and fell to the ground grabbing his wound. This was a mistake as the fire spread to his other arm and began to cover the man's entire body. The fire seemed to burn from the inside out, The balefire was burning the man alive and seemed to have a mind of its own.
Reskeme stopped channelling his mana in horror the man's arms were blistered husks and the flames were reaching to take his life. The flame died when its fuel source was stopped, The man had stopped screaming and had passed out from the unholy fire. Reskeme was scared he had almost killed the man by only grabbing his arm and channelling his mana.
The boy was scared he couldn't believe what just happened the man had attacked him from behind and Reskeme had defended himself. He had not killed the man although he wasn't sure the man would actually survive the burns they looked terrible. Reskeme decided he needed to leave, with the knife in hand he wiped off his own blood on the man's garment. Reskeme limped away someone must have heard the fight and the guards would be around shortly.
Reskeme looked at the knife and realized it was for throwing he thought with a smile this was a good weapon he thought. The weapon fits perfectly inside his coat and didn't show thru his clothes making it perfectly concealed. The boy was lucky his clothes were red and other than the tear in his clothes there was almost no sign that he had been stabbed by the knife. The boy could always just say he got it caught on a gutter if hank asked.
Reskeme couldn't see the hole very well it was at the back of his right leg. The cut in the clothing was about the size of his thumb. Luckily he had healed it as he pulled it out soo it didn't bleed more then a couple of drops. Reskeme was cursing as he was limping away his leg was burning in agony it clearly wasn't healed yet the magic wasn't able to heal a wound like that instantly.
Reskeme Was running away from the man who was passed out. The horrible stench of cooked flesh and burned cloths was in the air making the boy gag. Reskeme was in trouble he was sure guards would be here soon. This wouldn't normally be a problem, the problem was they might detain him for questioning and that would be bad.
The illusions the boy was using only lasted around 20 to 30 minutes and would break when the time ended. The thought of being tortured and brutally murdered by guards was not a pleasant one. When Reskeme made it two alleys over he slowed and took in a deep breath, he needed to calm his nerves.
Reskeme was panting and sweating from the effort of the walk He was nervous and a little scared. In the distance he heard a loud whistle it was the call for more guards. Someone must have reported the sounds of screaming to a patrol and they would soon be to the injured man. The boy really hoped the man had died, or in this case, stayed unconscious.
Guards wouldn't believe most of what a vagrant said. If the man got himself injured by what appeared to be fire they would assume a mage burned him. Most mages were of high station in life so a beggar appearing almost dead wouldn't cause to much hassle.
Upon realizing this one fact of the slum areas Reskeme began to calm down and slow his rapid walk away. The man had clearly been trying to rob Reskeme and the guards would punish the man for that. Once they talked to the man and seen his clothing they would assume the man had tried to rob a mage and got punished.
Reskeme felt guilty when he remembered what happened to people who tried to rob mages and nobles. The penalty was a swift and brutal death. The boy feeling queasy at the man's inevitable demise while he made his way towards the messenger's hall. Reskeme took a roundabout root to calm his nerves and make sure he was healed while travelling in a wide route around where he had been attacked.
The boy kept glancing nervously at every person he passed and especially at the less fortunate. Reskeme was nervous and scared he had almost died today and he was beginning to realize he was still in shock from that.
The wound on his leg was healing at a rapid rate and Reskeme could feel an ooze trickle down his leg as his spell removed the waste from the wound. Reskeme made a detour to one of the city's wells and upon arrival pulled on the rope to get a full bucket of water.
He pulled up his pant leg and used the cold refreshing water to clean what he could from the mostly healed wound. Reskeme marvelled at the small line on his skin, the boys magic had almost completely healed the knife wound in a matter of minutes.
The boy was still shocked at the fact he could actually heal such wounds. Normally that would take weeks to heal and even then he could die from the rot. Now all he had to do was channel mana and create a spell of his life mana around the wound.
A man by the well asked, "what did you get that scrape from"? The boy wondered if it would scar before he said "its just a scrape I brushed against a gutter."? Maybe he would find out eventually if he could fix Scars. The man seemed pleased with his answer as the small gash looked like it wasn't an attack at all anymore. For now, he used his hand to scoop water on his leg and scrub up and down groaning whenever he pressed too hard. When he felt it was clean enough he dumped some water over his leg to clean off the blood and other stuff. Now, much cleaner Reskeme stood pushed down his pant leg and made his way to the guild.
By the time he arrived in front of the massive building Reskemes leg was not sore anymore it appeared the spell had done its job. The leg felt a little wobbly and reskeme felt exhausted from the effort but it felt good to run cold water over the area. Reskeme Took in a deep breath to regulate his breathing and walked down the street to the door to the messenger's guildhall. When he slowly climbed the stairs and with some effort opened the doors. Hank was standing behind a counter writing on something. The stare He gave Reskeme Made him shudder the man was clearly unhappy at Reskeme lateness.
The boy decided he should hurry. Reskeme made his way over in a quick walk trying not to show the man-made him scared with a look. Hank said," We have an urgent letter being delivered to the church inquisitors From the noble lord it is your job to get it to them in a timely manner". Reskeme went pale. Hank seeing the boys look said, "don't worry you will only half to wait around for them to wake up for around 2 hours."
