06. Friend from a high place

Mattheia kept running through the forest, trying to reach his house as soon as possible. The problem was that he went really far away, so he needed to pass a couple klometers, running down the hill. While he was already using magic to strengthen himself, it still required a few more minutes before he would get to the goal.

However, as he was about the middle of the distance to the house, he heard a loud scream.

"Watch ooooouuuuuut!" it was a female voice, but he could not find the source.

His sword, on the other hand, managed to pick the energy of the person screaming.

"Look up!"

Mattheia did that, and in the very last moment used a wind spell to slow the female's fall, though not enough for her to not receive damage from hitting a boulder.

"Fankh hugh fer hwelp" she was barely speaking. It seemed she lost most of her teeth in this fall.

"How in the hell did you get up there?" the boy was looking up, not seeing any mountain "Where you testing some kind of magic?

Only after he got closer, he noticed that the girl had really nice facial features, even after getting bruises and losing teeth. But what caught his eye more were unusual white feathered wings.

"Who are you?" Mattheia changed his question.

"Kahsheeha oph skie peeple" she still had trouble speaking, and started writing on the ground.

The boy could not understand the letters. However, he knew one specific magic Nine taught him, allowing to decipher languages. Fortunately, it worked for this one.

"Kashia of Sky People" he said that aloud "So, wait, you are one of these angel people?"

She nodded, tears flowing into her eyes.

"Calm down, now, please. I have no time for this now, need to check on my close ones."

Angel girl caught his arm.

"Meh cohmeen too"

"You do what you want, just don't get in the way."

He started running again, looking behind from time to time to check what is this angel doing.

Kashia was flying instead of running, or rather she was attempting to do so since it looked more like zig-zagging in the air. Mattheia could see that she is trying really hard, acting strond - her face was damaged bad, and for sure the rest of the body got hurt too when she fell.

"You should hide somewhere safe and rest" he shouted to her "I'll get to you or send someone to help you once I'm sure we are done with this fire."

However, despite his suggestion, the angel girl just shook her head and showed him a thumbs up.

The boy actually knew some recovery magic he could help her with, but was intentionally avoiding that to keep as much strength as possible in case someone in the village is in need.

The more they were progressing the worse he was feeling for her, and started using magic on her as they were approaching the first buildings by the border of the village.

"Okay, you did enough" Mattheia heard Kashia speaking the normal way out of a sudden "I got enough energy to heal my wounds."

The boy had a quick look behind and he immediately stopped, unconsciously - once Kashia healed most of her bruises, she was so beautiful, it made Mattheia speechless.

"Weren't you saying you need to check on your close ones?" she asked him "I can see there are people fighting. We'd better hurry."

Her words woke him up and they both rushed into the village.

The area was in pure chaos - fire spreading, people being attacked by mayorcs and trying to save their lives and belongings. Mattheia was cutting his way through, aiming for his family house, and Kashia following, using magic to limit and repair the damage where possible - it turned out that she had good affinity with air and water elements, which were perfect for helping in this circumstances.

"Slow down boy, at this pace you may run out of steam before you get to your house" the sword started making comments, noticing Mattheia breathing heavily "Or get that winged girly use some magic to give you a boost."

"I'll manage" lad did not want to listen, and just pushed forward.

Finally, after a long run, he could see his home, and the sight in front of him was by no means positive - there was an extremely large group of mayorcs in the area, but it turned out these creatures were not the only ones there as Mattheia noticed at least a dozen of humanoid figures on horseback, definitely different race than mayorcs.

In the middle of this large group of opponents, the boy caught a glimpse of his teachers fighting back, and wrecking a great havoc around the enemy forces - numbers of mayorcs were falling with each attack, and even support from mysterious figures was not allowing for the defensive line to collapse.

While his teachers were indeed impressive group of people, Mattheia knew they cannot hold this on their own, they needed support. However, what could he do in this circumstances on his own?

"Hey, sword, do you have any ideas?" he asked the weapon he picked up in the cave "You fought in many battles, anything you can suggest?"

"Ok, first of all, if you want me to become your comrade, it would be good if you called me by name" the voice replied to him.

"So, now you are saying you actually have a name? Why didn't you say it from the beginning?"

Sword's voice sighed.

"Because telling you my name is equal to forming a contract" he said that as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "I need to assess whether the wielder is worthy..."

"And here you still allowed me to carry you before, saying that you cannot walk on your own, complaining about being alone in the cave. You wanna go back there?"

"Ok, ok, I got your point. I guess I have no other choice. But I warn you, it can take a toll on your body in exchange for lending you my full strength."

"I don't care. If it's going to help, I will take anything."

"I cannot assure you it's going be enough. Either way, the name is Ardbolg."

Mattheia felt as if gust of hot wind hit him, and it was definitely unrelated to numerous fires around. Energy was circulating through his veins, but moments after he got this initial rush, the boy weakened and had to sit on the ground, sweating a lot.

"Are you okay?" Kashia approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder "Your energy flow got disrupted, it's dangerous."

"I don't have time for this" lad tried to stand up, but started shaking like crazy "Someone needs to help them."

"You are in no shape to do that right now" angel girl helped him sit down "I may be able to help you under the condition that you first sit quietly, and listen to what I tell you. Are you okay with that?"

Mattheia, who was getting pale now, looked at her.

"Are you sure it's going to work?"

"Putting you back in shape? For sure. Breaking through so many opponents? Likely. Defeating all of them with us two? Unlikely."

"Okay, do your thing. We already wasted too much time."

Kashia started doing some chant, unknown to Mattheia, which was pretty unusual since his teacher - Nine - was magic specialist, who taught him about majority of magics and languages these rely on. As angel girl was chanting, he felt cool sensation spreading through his body, strangely refreshing and regenerative. In a matter of minute, he got better enough to stand again and move around, and with every second his body seemed to be recovering more.

"Good, I guess now we can..." he barely made a single step and angel girl stopped him.

"You agreed to do what I say, so no rushing. Listen to what I tell you."

She got closer to him and whispered something. Mattheia looked at her with a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face. Then, he turned and looked around.

"I'm not sure, there's so much damage already..."

"Buildings can be rebuilt, but resurrecting people? I think it's worth a try, the enemies are closing on your friends and I'm not really sure how longer are we going to be safe."

"Okay, screw this, let's go."

He created flames to burn a nearby shack, and his companion used air magic to create a tornado.

"Here we go!" Kashia shouted, sending the tornado towards the encirclement "It's now or never!"

Mattheia started running with angel girl, following now fire tornado through the mayorcs forces, which were spreading in fear of this magically-created phenomenon.

Suddenly, the tornado disappeared, and both Mattheia and Kashia ended up in front of the teachers trio - Nine, Junie and Galhardt.

"Mattheia, it's you!" Nine hugged him "We were so worried! Why didn't you run from here?"

"Wait, first you were happy and now you are scolding me?" he looked as his main teacher, confused "I was worried about you."

"Not sure if you noticed, but we are in quite a bit of trouble here!" Galhardt was standing in vanguard, holding a huge pavise in one hand and a longsword in the other, fending off several enemies at the same time "Your action just now disrupted their lines, but it's only temporary. While I hate to say that, we should consider retreating."

"Where do you think we should go, Gallie?" Junie asked him "If it wasn't for the structure of the walls, we would've been dead by now. We can only get inside as things stand! Nine, any ideas?"

Nine was working both defense and offense, using her magic prowess. Unfortunately, being outnumbered like this, even for such a high level mage with two supporters it was problematic to get out of this situation.

"Mattheia, I've never seen you using air magic, so I guess it was your companion" Nine focused on angel girl "You are from Sky People, correct?"

"Yes, my name is Kashia" angel girl confirmed.

Surprisingly to everyone around, Nine laughed.

"I didn't think it would come useful in such circumstances" she said, stopping spell-casting for a moment "Junie, Gal, Mattheia, please hold them for a moment."

"Nine, what are you...?"

Junie started asking, but Nine used a hand gesture to stop her.

"Please, focus on the fight in front of you."

Though confused, they did as instructed. While they were keeping the line, Nine took out a pendant she was carrying under her robe and approached Kashia, whose pupils widened at this sight.

"How do you...?"

"There is no time for that, Kashia" she took the pendant in her right hand and touched Kashia's right hand with it, as she said "I, Aukkleia of the Nine Magics, by the right granted to me by Archangel, request the favor to be returned. Please, lend me your hand in chasing off these vermin."

Nine smiled to Kashia, who was just standing speechless, looking at the pendant.

"Please hold onto it for me" she told her, and turned to the other three "I called for help, we need to wait now."

"Nine, what was this about?" Mattheia asked her "Aukkleia of the Nine Magics?"

"It's not the perfect time for this conversation. We will talk about this after we are done here."

They held in the deadlock for a longer while, and suddenly heard a booming sound coming from above. Seconds later, a flying ship emerged from between the clouds.

"Kashia, cast barrier on the pendant!" Nine instructed and angel girl did what she was told.

Booming sound stopped, and enemies in the encirclement stopped, looking above. From the inside of barrier, Mattheia could see the hooded figures running on horseback - some mayorcs noticed and started retreating too, but most did not manage to react before a stream of light embraced them. The light was too strong to see what is happening, and only after it stopped, everyone could see the burnt ground.

Nine took the pendant from Kashia and went towards the open plain by the Kabanos family house, followed by the others. The ship started slowly descending and landed.

As they were approaching, they noticed a number of figures with similar traits to Kashia flying down from the ships deck and attaching the ropes to the ground in addition to two big anchors they lowered to keep the ship on the ground. Once done, they lowered an accommodation ladder.

To Mattheia, it looked amusing because Sky People who were using it to go down were still rather flying then walking. However, Kashia who was next to him looked rather agitated, and he was not sure why was that.

Nine stopped, and so did others. They were approached by five angels, four of whom were wearing matching, silver armors, escorting one wearing a gold armor, walking in the center of the formation. Each of the escorts held weapons.

"Be at ease" the man in the center instructed others, went to the front and spoke to Nine "Aukkleia of the Nine Magics, it's been some time since our last meeting."

The way he spoke was dignified, same as his gestures. Mattheia could feel an extraordinary presence from this man.

"Ten-handed Eukleis, or should I call you Eukleis Magna now? It's been many long years" Nine replied to him, doing a handshake.

The man smiled so honestly, it completely destroyed the previous feeling of dignity coming from him.

"So, you've heard about it? I didn't know such news reach the ground so easily. But indeed, I'm currently known as Eukleis Magna, but you can still call me Eukleis, taking into account our pasts."

"Thank you for replying to my request, Eukleis."

Man called Eukleis shook his head.

"No, the pleasure is all mine. It was for returning the favor after all. Honestly speaking, I was worried I won't be able to complete that duty before one of us passes away."

"You should've made that pendant better, so I wouldn't have to use one of your kin to make that call."

Eukleis looked at her, confused.

"So, it didn't work for you? Can I have a look?" he asked, and Nine passed him the pendant "It's surely weird, it shouldn't be set that way. I will investigate what's happened here. Here, you can have this one now."

"Do I need this anymore though? You returned the favor, so I don't need to..."

"It's to stay in touch. We are friends after all. Who knows, maybe it will be me needing a hand sometime in future?"

Nine felt it was a weird thing for him to do, but she knew denying him in this situation was not a good idea, so she accepted.

"Great" he said, smiling at everyone, and then his eyes stopped on Kashia "You, you are one of our kin Aukkleia used for activating the pendant. I'm grateful as this granted me an opportunity to repay her, but how did you end up here?"

Kashia looked a bit worried, but she replied:

"I fell during the trials."

Eukleis' face seemed surprised.

"And you survived? That's an achievement in its own regard. How did you manage that?"

"This man helped me," she pointed at Mattheia "he slowed my fall so I ended up with slight injuries, but I'm fine now."

"I'm grateful for your help in saving one of my kin" he thanked the boy and turned to angel girl "Since he saved your life, you own him a favor. You know what that means?"

"Yes, sire, I'm aware."

"That's good. Our laws need to be obeyed. While I know it's unusual for someone as young as you are to stay with grounddwellers, there is a lot to learn here. I hope this lets you grow before you return to us."

"I thank you for the wise words, sire."

Eukleis replied her with a smile and a nod, then he turned to Aukkleia.

"With today, the favor I owed you was returned, so I have no obligation to reply to your requests for the future" he told her in official tone "However, as I consider you a friend, I may consider them regardless, and I would much appreciate if you could do the same if situation calls for it."

Nine was a bit confused, but nodded and said:

"Of course, to the extent I will be able to."

Eukleis received that reply with another smile.

"I understand the lad who helped our girl is with you, Aukkleia. Could you please introduce him?"

Nine did not seem eager to continue this, but before she said anything, the boy spoke himself:

"Mattheia Matos del Ros Kabanos. I'm heir to these lands, and Nine is my teacher."

The dignified angel's face changed. He was no longer smiling, and - rather than that - he started looking curious.

"Nine? So you are not using your full name, Aukkleia? Is there a reason for it? Are you hiding?"

Nine clicked his tongue.

"No, I just don't want people to bother me, that's about it."

"But taking a student? That's quite surprising. You were going on about power balance and dangers of having individuals having too much. Isn't passing your knowledge too risky then?"

"Aren't you doing the same?"

"I do, but I'm not the one who was so idealistic about power balance. I guess you grew wiser, and I don't think it's bad. Either way" he looked around "I consider our work here being done. Apologies, but I don't have a capacity to help with the cleaning at the moment."

"No worries, we can handle that."

Eukleis took leave with a slight bow, while his guards made bigger bows and followed - Nine replied with a slight bow.

With that, Sky People left, leaving Kashia with the grounders though.