Mage of Silence

Chapter 3-2

“Come on, Castien, you can do this. Try again.” Daeron leaned on the wall behind him as he watched.

Castien was crouched in front of the chest to study the lock. A small touch of magic told him it was well and truly trapped, both normally and magically. He placed one finger on each side of it just beyond the area that the traps covered and projected the words of a Cantrip of Untrapping. It was a somewhat complicated bit of magic that took all of his concentration; he wanted to undo both traps at once just on the off chance they were linked. This time it worked, he could feel the magic one dissolve and the mechanical one slip apart. With a small sigh of relief Castien went to work opening the lock. He could have used another Cantrip, one for Unbinding, but he needed the physical practice. He had to be certain his fingers had regained their full sensitivity and would do what he required of them. Sword fighting was one thing, but to manipulate the small tools needed to open a lock as tricky as this one was another. Castien began to sweat as he maneuvered the pick. He couldn’t feel the movement of the tumblers as well as he should have. Then just when he was ready to give up there was a click and the lock fell open. Behind him he heard Daeron sigh in relief. Castien turned to look up at him, chuckled and arched an eyebrow.

“Oh I knew you could do it, I never doubted,” Daeron said with a laugh. Then he looked at Castien. “I don’t understand why you can make sounds but not talk. It’s not that you don’t have what it takes because with Ange’s help you do speak.”

Much as Castien hated to do it, because it would leave him silent later when he might need to talk again, he took Ange out and went through the ritual.

“It’s a long story, Daeron, but to make it shorter I got caught by a mage I was sent to rob. I was the best and no one could catch me so I had become over confident.” Castien smiled slightly at his own stupidity, he could do that now. “He found the whole thing quite amusing but wasn’t about to let me go without giving me a reminder of what had happened. We debated, he and I. What would be a good punishment, to lose my hands, my sight perhaps, a leg so I couldn’t climb, which is rather a prerequisite for a thief of my caliber? In the end, we compromised. I offered to do a job for him and he decided that, for a thief, silence was golden. In the end I agreed, better to lose my ability to talk than, well…” Castien shrugged.

“But what about Ange, where did she come from, why do you have her?”

“Let us just say the mage took pity on me after I completed the job he had assigned me. I almost died because I could not speak a spell that would have saved me from harm. The guards thought I would be good for target practice and I couldn’t raise a shield of protection as I was escaping. The mage spent several days patching me back together. He wasn’t a bad sort, all things considered, and while he wasn’t about to give me back my voice on a permanent basis, he did the next best thing, he created Ange.”

Daeron thought about that. “Ange, and a time limit, depending on what you are doing.”

“Yes, for each minute I speak I am relegated to anywhere from ten to sixty minutes of silence, depending upon what condition I’m in and how necessary it was for me to talk in the first place.”

“Then damn it, shut up.” Daeron had the effrontery to put his hand over Castien’s mouth to quiet him. “Why didn’t you tell me when I first found out what, how…” His mouth tightened in frustration and a bit of anger. Then he shook his head. “Don’t answer that. No more talking until you have to. And next time I ask a stupid question just ignore it.”

Castien pushed his hand away to say, “It wasn’t stupid, you need to know if you’re going to use me effectively.” Then he shut up. Daeron was right; this small bit of conversation could cost him.