Araniel.
Chapter one: the wards are laid.
The castle of the charter's guild was a draughty even in high summer. It would have been the work of minutes to alter the stones to alter this, however the stones were so intensely layered with charter spells that even a mastermark would whither in the mere influence.
Araniel contemplated this flaw in the castle as she sat in the main hall. It was the weekly meeting of the guild which she almost always found excessively dull. The one consolation of these meetings was that it gave Araniel time to look in detail at the great hall itself. It was a magnificent hall. Oak beams arched over the ceiling to form a remarkable structure which the joining on the mood seemed to elude vision. Thus it seemed to flow. The theme of flowing was common in the great hall, it had been built that way in order to represent the eternal and infinite flow of the charter.
As her mind wondered onto the subject of the charter she thought back to her lessons of the morning. Her class had been studying how mastermarks could be linked to form imperial spells. She had gotten the impression that even the older guild members did not grasp her concept.
Then in the conversation she heard a name that made her mind snap back to the talk: Abhorsen. "she will be visiting for four days," the guild master informed, "she is coming to visit so she can overview the distortions. Now we all know that the Abhorsen has many enemies so we will be increasing security around the grounds. The guardian spells have not been renewed for over a year now so we will be relaying them over the next few days, the more senior guildsmen will be required to attend the wall at the eleventh hour. Now, we have received the new parchment shipment from Belisaire ......"
The voice seemed to trail off into the distance as Araniel again lost interest, but now she had a great deal to think of. The Abhorsen before Sabriel had only visited once when Araniel had been alive so now she had the chance to approach someone who could help her.
The next morning at the ninth hour, she went to the chambers of the advisor. She knocked on the wrought oak door, then realised that there was no echo on the other side. She traced a mark on the door, she saw light flashing out form under the wood, so her signal had definitely been seen. She heard the receding hum of spells and then the creaking of the door.
"Araniel, greetings. What can I do for you?" asked Ekrael, his wizened eyes creasing into a smile.
"Greetings Ekrael, I have come to ask you about the new spell layers." "Carry on then." "Well I wanted the approval of the guild to lay new spells. As you know I have recently been able to form imperial marks, I would ask that I am able to add their protection to the spells already present."
"As you know I am a great supporter of your new abilities, and doubtless you are the most powerful mage here who is not of the Amkr," he began supportively, then sighing, "however, It is my belief that the council will not consent to the placing of new spells. They are slow to trust new methods of magic. Why then I remember when the mastermarks were first used, they did not defend with those for over a hundred years."
It was moments like these when Araniel remembered that Ekrael was not a man. He was a sending. The original founders of the charter guild had created him as a advisor and he had grown in strength ever since. A respected guide and the only sending to receive an Amkr, he held a strong will within the council. Though the wisest being in the guild, the masters did never forget that he was not a human. Thus they did not allow him to hold real power, only as a councillor did he have influence. Araniel talked with Ekrael for some time until she heard the bell of the eleventh hour, reminding her that she was late. She bid her farewell to Ekrael, bound as he was to the castle.
As she ventured out through the grounds, it was the end of summer so they looked particularly picturesque. The willow and rowan trees were turning a rich golden brown and the scents of the flower gardens wafted towards her. She looked to the east of the grounds where the armouries and the stables were located. She saw the rising column of smoke followed by the quick flash of charter spells for water, indicating that an apprentice had again fumbled his iron whilst his master was at the wall. As she turned from the inner grounds to the outer areas, which included some accommodation for guests not of a charter mark, practicing fields for archery or powerful charter magic and the many defences, Araniel saw the wall.
Unlike the wall of the Old Kingdom border, this wall glowed with flowing charter marks. This was because it was not built by the wallmakers but by the founders of the guild who had first built the castle. It was added to regularly by the masters of the guild; the layers of spells encased within the stone gave great protection and wrought terrible destruction on the enemies. The aura given off by the charter marks was occasionally brightened by the more offensive mastermarks.
As she arrived, the masters were waiting. She knew they would. They had to stop the spells in the wall in order to renew them. As it was the most important defence of the castle, they had every mage not renewing marks on the duty of watch.
"Araniel, we need you to lead the watch!" called one of the masters. Araniel nodded, she had expected as much.
As she did not possess the Amkr, which was a symbol of power and dedication to the guild, she was not trusted to place spells. She thanked the apprentice who brought her, her bow and axe and ascended to the top of the wall to overview the area.
From her viewpoint on top of the wall Araniel looked out to the blue green waters of the sea of Saire surrounding the island. She looked down the spit of land that connected the guild island to the mainland. It was over 500 metres long and was covered at night by spelled tides. It had been built to provide a barrier against the dead. However, it was not the only sea based defence, only one of many.
Araniel watched as the great white breakers crashed down on either side of the split. Occasionally, one of the pure white stallion sendings leapt all the way across the spit into the receding wave on the other side, the frothy waters swallowing the horses before rearing them up again in the new wave.
She looked back to the wall, its golden flowing aura was slowing, then the symbols stopped, carved symbols, grey and dead in the black obsidian. The masters then worked immediately, drawing symbols in the air, linking marks into master symbols which sunk into the rock.
About half an hour into the ceremony, Araniel saw a dark spot on the spit, just coming onto it from the direction of the northern city of Annden. From what she could see, it was about 20ft high and darkly coloured, probably black. Araniel reacted to this in two ways. First a high ringing sound emitted from the symbol that Araniel traced into the air, alerting the masters to the possible threat.
As the sea breeze whipped up her hair, in it's hazel waves, she gave a low whistle, another breeze then flowed from the west as she had wanted. With grievance she received what she had been dreading, the metallic tang of free magic, which instantly urged her to initiate her defensive spells. But before she drew the powerful chains of mastermarks, she stopped herself. She had instructed many of the apprentices who now stood before her on the ground, straining their power for a long distance sight spell, she knew that it was beyond many of them, sight spells were complex, the masters not renewing spells looked on. They could see something that Araniel also saw through her spell, it was a war wagon coming onto the spit. This wagon was moving fast, it would arrive before the ceremony was over. There seemed to be around fifty dead accompanying it, although they were behind the wagon, protected.
"It's a wagon!" Araniel called out to the apprentices, "Accompanied by fifty dead! Everyone call marks of purity and shielding send them to around a hundred metres down the spit!" In a flurry, apprentices began to trace marks in the air, fingers or blades leaving a thin, golden trail.
As the more experienced added to their spells, the apprentices sent their spells to the spit. The congregation of around 30 spells made a golden barrier. A few held as the wagon crashed against the shield, but most of the weak spells were broken by the sheer size of the weapon. The spells of purity however seemed to have no effect, the dead walked straight through them. Marks for purity usually expolded into flame when the dead passed.
"Battle marks!" shouted Araniel, these were no ordinary dead, she did not want to take risks. "On my count, "alerted Araniel, "release blades! Aim for the wall of the wagon!" with this order, apprentices started to call marks with a new urgency, holding them in the air and filling them with power.
As Araniel reached her final number the whole multitude summoned the extra power to their marks and incanted, "Anet! Carlew! Ferhan!" Over a hundred and fifty silver blades of charter fire flew at the wagon, stripping the outer layer of wood from the structure, revealing a layer of metal. This was too much for the weak power that cast the marks and they failed. Withering down into nothingness.
Araniel could sense that this was the only other layer of defence, rather than further tiring her students, she chose to demolish the layer herself. "Anet Carlew Ferhan Hailas Laignu!" she summoned, the marks materialised in the air. Five shining blades of golden charter fire, each equal in power to a hundred of the apprentice's spells. They shot through the air at incalculable speed, shredding the wrought iron like butter and demolishing the remaining tiers of wood to expose the dead. Work done they returned to the charter leaving only trails on the eyelids of the apprentices as evidence.
With a shock, Araniel saw what else had been shielding behind the metal, the free magic she had smelt had been the spells disguising its presence. A construct. Before Araniel had time to react spells of sleeping and paralysis hit the apprentices. These combined forced the apprentices to fall unconscious. Araniel deflected the spells but was confused, how could the free magic being know that spells of death would not work next to the wall's protection. However, she also realized that it was not of great intelligence as these wards did not work when the wall was down. She looked down to her left and right only to see that she had only 3 out of five junior guildsmen still standing.
"Defences for the masters!" called Araniel. The guildsmen then started to draw a diamond wall between Araniel and the masters with fallen apprentices. She had taught them this drill for when she was going to use powerful marks, in the case that enemy fired back to fast for her. Once the wards were complete she started to draw a chain of marks form the charter, linking them together into a circle of charter marks which included marks for spinning, attraction, water, strength, purity and many more. Once a circle of marks shone in the air in front of her, she set it spinning on a circular pattern, it increased in speed until it formed a solid sphere of spinning marks. She then shaped it so it was long and would be around the length of the spit. Then she released it.
The shining cylinder raced down the spit, drawing torrents of water from the sea into its trail until it formed a wave wielding the raw power of the ocean. The added force of a new mark, forced the wave to form a curve, and then a circle when it reached the construct so it imploded within throwing up a fountain of water, sparks and steam. But the falling water that landing on the spit did not seem to affect the dead. Araniel then thought that the dead had not been affected by the sunlight that fell after the wagon had been decimated. These were obviously no ordinary dead, and thus by the rules of the guild, a threat to be destroyed immediately. Araniel reached for one of the arrows in her quiver.
It was an arrow of rowan, the feathers were red and white, indicating its use to a person without the sight. The white represented purity and the red, fire. The marks in the arrow combined into the creational spell of true death. The marks were contained in the metal and would spread once they hit. Araniel strung her bow and fired an arrow at the host first in the approaching line, the arrow she expected would wipe out most of the dead.
Just before the arrow struck, it flashed with a white spark and vanished. The cause of this was an arrow ward cast around the dead. About to cast a spell that would completely destroy all of the approaching dead in an instant Araniel was distracted.
She was distracted by the high ringing sound, of Ranna.