Mages and Sages.

The three of them walked guided by an iron through the many halls of the royal palace. Approaching one of the many doors, double and tall as the others.

The guard guiding them was tall, even for iron standards, thing that was beginning to be uncomfortable for Darren, unaccustomed to look up for so long.

When they arrived the doors, Darren notices that Rita's expression was somewhat curious. She looked uncomfortable and ill, like someone about to hear terrible news.

Elias in the other hand was laughing softly in a low voice. By now Darren was starting to look at Elias laugh as a bad omen. Unfortunately for him, that was a right assumption.

When the doors opened, they where received by a cacophony of chants, spells and and arguments.

The room was large and spacious, with long rectangular tables of many chairs, seemingly used as an events room for the parties and feasts of the royal family. Now however, it was fill with mages of all kind.

Some of them where casting and practicing their spells, while others where having sounded arguments, menacing to turn into an uproar at any moment.

"It looks like the queen invited half the kingdom. That explain how you managed to get here, Darren" Rita said, looking physically ill after the reveal.

"At least i'm not the only one having troubles with crowds." Darren thought, taking a deep breath before entering the hall, trying to hold his determination and not to flee in panic among that chaos. He almost failed entirely after stomping with one of the many faces in the crowd, Elias was laughing softly behind him.

"Well, is time for me to find my seat. I wish you luck boy." Elias said laughing while leaving on his own.

"Wait, Elias, you can't leave me alone in this madhouse. Elias, ¡ELIAS!" Darren tried to catch him without success, as Elias moved with surprising agility for someone with just one leg, loosing sight of him in the chaos in a matter of seconds.

Darren felt like if his worst nightmare had become reality. Lost in an unknown please, surrounded by unknown and strange people. Not to mention that none of them looked like an academic of any sort, they all have the appearance of people experienced in practical magic.

Darren knew he would call the attention if anybody noticed his presence, the thought alone terrified him.

He walked trough the hall, searching for a dark corner where to hide unnoticed, but the place was full with the only exception of a little space at the far end of one of the tables that everybody seemed to avoid.

There, among many free seats, was a woman wearing a long black dress with ornamented long sleeves. She was using a hat of long wing that covered her face behind a black mourning veil with the exception of her red painted lips showing an elegant smile.

Darren was doubtful about what to do. In one hand there was the perfect spot where to hide away from unwanted attention. In the other he didn't knew what was the matter with that woman that everybody was so deliberately avoiding her. Nothing he wanted to discover from first hand experience, that was certain.

There was something, strange, about that woman. She played elegantly with a wand in her right hand, making it dance with fine and precise movements while humming a tune of melodic notes, tapping with the fingers of her left hand in the table to follow the rhythm. All in very coordinated movements, like directing an orchestra only she herself could hear in all it's splendor. Occasionally whispering a verse in voice soft enough so Darren couldn't make out any of the words used.

One of the many mages among the hall pushed his back unintentionally, ending with that all doubts about whatever he should do, deciding at last to bet in the good nature of the strange woman and find a seat nearby.

At least whit her there was the possibility she was too immersed in her composition to notice him at all, or that much he hoped.

When Darren managed to approach the woman, (taking care of not interrupt her) he discovered in horror that the chairs didn't share his sneaky intentions as the later make a horrible screak against the floor wen he tried to sit, taking the woman out of her trance.

Now that he was closer, Darren could notice some more things about the woman. For starters she was young, but still at least a couple of years older than himself, judging by the serene and mature expression of her bright blue eyes, but more importantly, he noticed something he never expected would be worthy of mention.

Different to all the mages in that hall, she was intact, with no noticeable scars or missing parts. Something extremely strange among mages, since, sooner or later, all of them would pass trough the compensation effect, most of the times deliberately. After all, that was the only way to approximately calculate how much Mana you had to spare without getting into actual risk, by sacrificing some portion of your body while trying to keep the damage to a minimum.

Darren signaled the chair in a silent gesture to ask without the need for words if he could seat. The woman answered in kind, nodding with an equally silent gesture and returning to her melody son after Darren returned to his book.

Darren read, concentrated now in the words before him and forgetting, at least momentarily, the place and company he was surrounded with.

Different to other books about magic that looked for discovering random spells and enchantments and explain them in detail; Elias work focused in the behavior and properties of Mana as a whole, trying to, if not explain, at least point some of the different qualities this element possessed.

In it, Elias explained how the weight and mass of an object was directly proportional to the amount of Mana and effort it would take to change it or transmute it. Metals where the hardest ones, while Gases and Liquids would be more easily malleable, to the point where some Gases would change entirely to another if meet with the appropriate spell and Mana.

However, metals where more susceptible to acquire permanent effects once embedded in Mana and carved with the right words. This whole process was the one called enchantment and Elias leave the whole field open as he changed the subject with ease.

The only field of study that Elias seemed to have invested time into was the conjuration field, in where he studied the effects of Pure Mana on itself when meet with the appropriate combination of words of power.

The results where mostly unpredictable, but if Elias was to be believed, they where also the most extraordinary. Unfortunately, it was also the most risky. The Mana consumption was unexpectedly high, resulting in the lost of Elia's left arm. It was no wonder to see so few mages willing to experiment in this area. There was too much risk, with no guarantee of finding something useful for the sacrifice.

-If we had a way to reduce the Mana consumption and quantify exactly how much we are spending and how we had left, there would be no limit to what we can accomplish- Darren thought, during a moment of quiet consideration.

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU FUCKING BASTARD"

The thoughts of Darren where suddenly interrupted by Rita's battle cry at the other end of the hall, giving him the impression that the world was conspiring against him so he didn't finish the book.

Darren give a long sight of resignation before closing the book and prepare to stand up and go to see what was happening, stopping mid way through to considerate if that was really a good idea.

After all, even assuming Rita was in trouble, there wasn't much that Darren could do in that case. In any case Rita might have been even more capable than him to take care of her own, Elias treated her with caution and respect. No one that had ever spend more than five minutes with her could think of her as vulnerable. In fact, judging by Elias actions, she was a force to be reckon with.

Those considerations where further more proven when Darren saw a man of wide shoulders and average height fly towards his table till he landed with a heavy hit that give him a backache by the mere sight of it.

-This doesn't look good- Darren thought when the man begin to stand up.