Read Online Techromancy Scrolls: Adept by Erik Schubach - Free Book Online Page A

“Rogues.” It was a single word that was frightening to all that herd it. She expounded upon it, “When commoners started developing the gifts that once only the nobles possessed. The lords of the realms deigned they were not to utilize those gifts. They were under some misconception that a serf was not worthy to be included in the conclaves of magic users in the keeps.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Those who broke the edict would be subject to public floggings and imprisonment or execution. This of course did not sit well with those magic inclined who had the audacity not to have noble blood in them to 'deserve' the gift.”
    I was noticing more and more that even though she was a noble and held the bearing of one, she disapproved of how nobles behaved. She got the same look whenever I was being disciplined by someone. My eyes went slightly wider as I realized it was because she had once been a commoner like me, like she had confided.
    She didn't have that noble blood she spoke of. She was a woman of two worlds and she didn't believe they should be separate. I could see her reading my eyes and I caught an almost imperceptible nod from her, knowing I had come to that realization.
    Her voice had no emotion. “This caused an uprising and secret societies five hundred years hence. Magic users would flee the keeps to avoid punishment. Large groups organized and were labeled rogues. They may have started as frightened people but they quickly became more dangerous than the marauders and would wipe out entire outlying villages with their magics to raid for supplies.”
    She closed her eyes, “This put the lords in a no win situation. They had to maintain the archaic rules restricting who could wield magics in order to stop others from rising to power with ill intent inside the walls of a keep, but it also perpetuated magicked people fleeing the keeps. The lords of the keeps were damned if they did, damned if they didn't.”
    She opened her eyes and looked at me. “It all came to a head fifty years back when the leader of the rogues, Rydell, decided that raiding was not enough. He decided to assault the walled keeps to take them as their own and end the rule of the lords. They first struck Far Reach, killing every man, woman, and child. The Techno Knights, Knights of the Realm, and Techromancers of Far Reach put up a valiant fight but were massively outnumbered and the magical assault was relentless.”
    I knew of this story from the bards, it was the Great Mage Wars that ended six years before I was born. She gritted her teeth and spoke the next through them, “They mounted the bodies of the fallen Techno Knights and Techromancers on pikes at the main gates as a warning to all. This began the great Mage Wars. All of the realms united under Prince George of Highland Keep to stop the rogues. Their numbers only grew as they swept up from the South, laying waste to all villages and keeps.”
    She was noticeably aggravated now, “They didn't care who they killed in their wake. Tens of thousands of innocents died with the defenders. The wars raged for over thirty years until one man, from Wexbury. Sir Tannis, Hero of the Realm, lead an assault deep into enemy territory, directly into the heart of Far Reach. The most powerful Prime Techromancer to ever hail from Wexbury. He handed his station down to father to don the mantle of Techno Knight.”
    She had pride on her face now and her voice was strong. I loved hearing this tale every time the traveling bards traveled through the realm. “He was one of the three Adepts known to live past igniting in that time. He could control all metals and channel electricity, combining magic and raw power. After both sides were decimated, with the keep in ruins, only Sir Tannis and Rydell were left alive. They stood for two days and nights, locked in a battle of raw power. Then it is said Sir Tannis called upon the earth itself to vanquish the Arch Rogue Rydell.”
    She looked sad as she said the