Roland staggered to his feet. Despite the fact that Haflor was in control of his body, Roland still felt the pain. Haflor gestured with Roland's left hand and extended the right hand, which was wearing the ring.
Two things happened at once. The man/possessed person in front of Roland was tossed back to the ground, and the ring emitted a fiery beam that hit him in the chest. Roland heard a thin scream, and then nothing.
The man they were fighting got to his feet with a grimace and jumped first one way then another. Roland's body turned each time, and Roland noticed that the man was getting closer to the ax he had dropped.
Roland tried to communicate this to Haflor, but it was already too late. The man swept up the ax, pointed the ax at Roland, and a beam of light left the ax head. It hit the magical cloak that was protecting Roland.
Two things happened. One, Roland's cloak failed; and two, Haflor left Roland's body. Finding himself in control of his own body so suddenly was disorienting. Still, Roland dodged, and then looked at what was happening.
A light, shaped vaguely like a man, was attacking the other man. The light had to be Haflor. The man was now ignoring Roland, which was fine with him. He retrieved his bow and got an arrow. This might be a magical fight, but an arrow in a psychical body would hurt or kill a flesh and blood man.
Having been inhabited by an exterior force, Roland was giving the man the benefit of the doubt. He did not want to kill an innocent person, if at all possible.
Things were happening with Haflor and the man. Flashes of light, and the smell of burning flesh all combined to make Roland sick to his stomach. Roland took final aim, and loosed his arrow. It flew straight, true, and hard! It thunked into the man's upper left leg. Roland reloaded his arrow.
The man screamed and fell. Haflor's glowing being settled over the man. With a final burst of light that temporarily blinded Roland, there was silence. Roland staggered around, trying to make himself a hard target, until he got his sight back. Already he was seeing a bit. Roland got a sense of elation, and a goodbye that he knew was from Haflor.
The glowing form of Haflor was gone. The man on the ground was unconscious. Roland was not sure what happened. He was about ready to shoot the man on the ground when he heard a voice, as if from a vast distance, tell him that all was well.
Roland relaxed his pull on the bow. The figure on the ground groaned.
"Kill me!" he gasped to Roland.
"Why?" Roland asked curiously.
"You don't understand. I was possessed. I can't take the chance of that thing coming back. Please, kill me now," the man repeated his request in a pained voice.
"No. The thing that had inhabited you is gone. That is why I came here, to see it killed," Roland said calmly.
"You know what it was?" The man asked, wincing in pain.
"Yes. They both seem to be gone now," Roland said while checking on the man on the ground.
So while Roland prepared to remove the arrow from Kovalty, he removed a powder from his backpack. The powder caused the leg wound to go numb, when it had been sprinkled on the wound liberally.
In the meantime, Kovalty explained how he had lost his wife. The thing inside him drove her away. Roland pulled the arrow out while Kovalty was explaining his life after his family left him.
He had been hunting in the woods, a half day to the south, when he had stumbled into a cave. Inside, had been the remains of a dead man. He seemed to get real hungry, and he saw that there was a bag containing food. So he took it, and ate everything.
After that, the thing took him over. Roland explained about 'essence seeds'.
"The feeling of being very hungry must have been planted in your head. You ate something in the bag, that contained that being's essence. When you did that, you gave it permission and the ability to take over your body," Roland said
Roland spent about an hour with Kovalty. He then went out and made sure everything was packed up. He mounted his horse, and rode north. He stopped at the village, and told a couple people that Kovalty had been wounded, and that he would need looking in on.
For the next several days, Roland made his way back north. He did not have the urgency that had driven him south, nor did he have the magical help for him and his horse that had been forthcoming from Haflor.
He did notice that he could detect magical things. The ring on his finger was a blazing source of power to his new sight. A couple times on the trip, he noticed people who wore magical items on themselves, or had them close by.
He saw magical lines in the very air, sometimes. It was going to take him a bit to get used to this new ability he had. When he knew he was alone, he pulled off the ring, and placed it back in the silk pouch. He put the pouch back in his backpack. The ring on his finger was drawing too much attention.
He finally made it to the barge landing, and booked passage north. It took much longer on the trip north than the trip coming south had taken. The barge crew had to fight the current the whole way, as the river ran from north to south.
Finally, they arrived at Three Rivers. Roland refurbished his food supplies, and bought a few more items he thought he might need. He exchanged two more gems, and then mounted his horse and rode north until he got to the east-west King's road. He turned his horse east, and headed toward Frontek.
It was getting toward late afternoon the first day on the east road when he came across an Inn. Stopping, he asked about a room, and stabling for his horse. While he dickered, he asked how far it was to Frontek. He was told it was ten days ride from this point.
During the next few days, Roland became aware of some abilities that were either new to him, or just improvements of what he already could do. One example, was that he seemed to know when someone was hiding off of the trail.
He found he could light fires when camping out very easily. He had only to gather wood, dry or wet, and he would just concentrate on the pile of wood. If the wood was wet, first it would steam. Then shortly, it would burst into flames. Roland was stunned, then impressed with this ability.
Finally, he was there. Frontek! It was a city teeming with people. More people even, than were in the Duke's city. He asked a guard after entering the city proper where the 'Forrester's Inn' was located. He received directions, and started off. He was getting excited. Shortly, he should be rejoined with his father.
He finally arrived at the Forrester's Inn, and queried the innkeeper about his father. The innkeeper said Berandal would be back in two days. So Roland paid for two night's stay in advance, and then wondered about the city.
His first stop was at a merchant house. He wanted to know how to set up credit and transfer money if he had to. His dad had told him that the big merchant houses would honor letters of credit up to certain amounts of money, even for people they didn't know, if the 'letter of credit' was authentic.
Roland's father had told him that he would be dealing with the House Of Lorvan, but Roland wanted to have money placed elsewhere, just in case. He chose a house, that while not as big as Lorvan, was very reputable.
He had given the majority of gems and diamonds to his father, but had kept out some of the choicest pieces for himself, as well as a small handful of other quality gems.
House Of Motavis was pleased to get young Roland's business. Roland deposited most of the gold he had received from the diamonds and gems he exchanged. He knew he was young, so he exchanged a few gems, deposited this money with his new house, then he gave the house a major portion of the gems he had left, to exchange for him. They were pleased to do it for him, for a fee of course.
Now he was a man of means. He not only had several thousand golds on deposit with a reputable house, and had money in his belt pouch. All that he had to do was wait for his father to show up.
In the meantime, he asked around for magical training. He was told of several good schools which taught magic; or, if he had the money (which he did), he could hire private tutors. He wanted to have a good basic working knowledge of magic before he tackled the book Haflor had left him. Haflor had told him it was a very dangerous book if not used properly.
The next day Roland presented himself to the three different schools of magic which were located in the city of Frontek. He had asked a representative from his new merchant house to go with him. The house's representative would assure the school that payment was not a problem.
Roland was told at two of the schools that no space was left, and he could leave his name for admittance next year. The third school had room, but it was not what he was looking for. He decided to hire a private tutor and hope to get into one of the other schools, the following year.
His agent from Motavis House said he knew where Roland could apply for a tutor. So on the morning of day two, Roland and his agent found themselves at the guild hiring hall for magic users. Roland explained his need, and was passed on to a different section of the hiring hall.
Roland and his House's representative sat outside an office for some time, before being invited in.
"Good day. I am guild master Parvon. I hear you are asking about a tutor? Have you not inquired at the local schools? I understand there is room in at least one of them," the guild master said, after introductions had been made.
Roland explained his wants, and why he had refused the school with the opening. When he entered a school, he wanted to be on even footing with the other students. The feeling he had gotten from that school was that they were only interested in Roland's money, and not his ability.
"Yes, I can understand your feelings. The school you mention, just barely qualifies for our endorsement," the guild master said with obvious contempt.
Roland took a deep breath and told the guild master a shorter version of what had happened to him. He told of having his magical abilities opened, just recently. He spoke of finding the ring, and a few other things.
The guild master pursed his lips, and asked if he could see this supposed magic ring. Roland reached into his pouch, and brought out the silk wrapped ring. The guild master gasped when Roland opened the silk wrappings.
"May I hold your ring for a moment?" the guild master asked.
Hesitantly, Roland agreed. As the guild master reached for the ring, it brightened and a spark shot off it and touched the guild leaders palm. He winced and drew his hand back.
"That's a True Spell Of Ownership! How did you do that? That is a truly high level spell!" the guild master asked, astonished.
"I told you, the entity Haflor did it. I was just along for the ride, except he changed me. He had to be able to work through me, he said," Roland replied.
They talked for a while. Parvon finally agreed to provide a tutor for 5 days a week, for six months. This would ensure Roland that he would be placed with older students, if he chose to go to one of the more reputable magic schools when they opened their doors again next year.
After the agent for Roland made arrangements for payment, they left. Roland headed back to the Inn, pleased with how the day had gone. Roland was sitting in the Inn, eating lunch, when he saw his father enter. Roland stood and waved. Berandal saw him, and went to his son.
"Roland! I am so pleased to see you!" Berandal exclaimed.
"I'm glad to see you, too. I see your break seems to have totally healed," Roland commented.
"Yes... Well, I paid a healer to heal it with magic. Cost me a bit, but seems worth it, to me.
"Roland, I got the castle! I picked it up for back taxes. I already have a crew out there working on it. It needs a lot of repair, but it could have been worse, though.
"I also bought out a valley of farmers a bit north of here. We own the whole valley. Taxes on the whole valley will be 23 golds a year. While that might seem expensive, after you take in the harvest, split off what we pay the farmers, and then..." Berandal went on in detail.
Roland sat back. He listened to his father, and thought that this was going to be a good life. He had yet to tell his father about the magic school, but there was time.
He wanted to go see the work being done on the castle. Then he wanted to go see this valley that they now owned.
Imagine... owning an entire valley!
Edited By TeNderLoin