Please keep going, this is really awesome, post as often as you can, this is one of the best stories on here

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

Thanks people.  I post every weekend, and this story is actually a sequel to my first: http://community.lionhead.com/forums/thread/2846206.aspx .  It's seven pages long and finished, so you can read it at your leisure if you like my writing.  Orakaius made a nice thread with a lot of fanfic, check it out if you are looking for a read.  Last I checked, the links weren't clickable, so just copy-paste the link into a new tab(or window).

 

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

come on keep me going its really awesome

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

Been meaning to read this for awhile to catch up, just have done. I love it, the contracts was a idea, hope they are like this in the game. Can't wait to hear more about this hermit.

Hermits are cool.

Hermit

---

~~~~Thanks for the commentary, I will do my best to post at least once a week.  Classes and weather might affect my schedule as the season changes, but I'll do what I can.  Just another month and a half until Fable 2 comes out . . . forgive me if the end of October finds me MIA.  On the other hand, playing the game should give me some more material to draw from.  For the time being, however, I'll continue from what I have.~~~~

   Peter Vex, as it turned out, was a researcher of Albion's past, and had learned some Will techniques from his archaeological digs.  "Lucien eventually learned of my work, of course.  He tried to hire me to help him build some sort of secret project that would gather Will energy for him.  He never told me why he wanted to focus Will energy, or what the device would be, he just wanted me to advise him on construction without asking questions.  I grew suspicious, and told him that I wouldn't help him until I knew what was going on.  He refused, and I left.  Unfortunately, I saw a diagram on a map table before I left.  I didn't recognize it then, but I do now.  Sooner or later, his men will come for me and I had better be gone before then."  Maze considered the information carefully, and decided to ask a question.  "This diagram you saw, what was it?"  Vex looked at him appraisingly, but decided to answer.  "from what little I have uncovered, it appears that Lucien is building a Spire."  Maze recognized the name from his own research on the Old Kingdom, and that of the Archaeologist of his own time.  "That would be an ideal conduit for focusing a massive ammount of Will energy into one place, but why would he do that?" he mused aloud.  "I don't know" said Vex.  "it could create a vortex into the Void, but what would be the point of that?  Does he  want to enter the vortex for some reason?"  Maze was awakened to a none too pleasant relevation.  "It seems more likely that he wants to take something back out . . . something that ought to stay lost forever." 

   "The Sword of Aeons?" Vex asked incredulously.  "It seems logical, but there are other possibilities as well, none of which strike me as particularly pleasant." replied Maze.  "Normally, I wouldn't take someone your age seriously on such matters, but there's something strange about you."  Vex looked at Maze through his glasses.  "I'm a bit older than I look" Maze replied.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

   ~~~~I had noticed that some writers used Notepad to write, then pasted here. I have decided to try it out, so that I can write whenever I have extra time and post quickly when it is convenient.~~~~

Maze did not elaborate on his comment.  There was no real reason to tell Peter Vex that he was "the wizard of the old tales", and there was little chance Vex would believe him anyway- especially since he had no proof.  Instead, he decided to ply Vex with questions, hoping to extract some information about the Guild and any relics that may have survived its fall.  What he learned was that there was little information on the Guild, including its whereabouts, and that Vex had spent years searching Albion for the fabled Guild Library, hoping to discover its lost secrets.  Maze decided to once more tell part of the truth.  "Peter, Lucien's men sent me to find you and give them your position.  They told me that you were a drug dealer.  Since you aren't one, there is no reason for me to go back.  As for the Guild...I think that I have seen a place that matches the description outside Bowerstone, when I was walking in the woods."  A gleam appeared in Peter's eyes.  "If what you tell me is the truth, then we should leave immediately.  Lucien will no doubt send others if he sent you, and finding the secrets of the Guild may be our only chance of stopping him.  Grab a pack and fill it with camp gear and research tools.  The Guild may be buried or overgrown, so digging and cutting tools will come in handy.  I'll take some special items in case we are followed."  Maze began to pack his backpack with rope, cooking equipment, blankets, and other necessities.  Vex started opening cabinets and putting colored vials in various pockets and pouches on his clothing, including several on his belt.  He also procured a pair of sheathed silver daggers, tossing one to Maze.  "For balverines or undead, the latter being more likely" he explained.  "Do you have a firearm?" he asked. Maze produced his pistol from under his shirt in reply.
  ". Take these" Vex sid, tossing Maze a pouch filled with silver rounds and a small sack of black powder.  In about twenty minutes, they were fully packed and equipped, both armed (in addition to the dagger, Vex owned a musket for hunting, which he strapped to his back) and ready to go.  "Lucien's men will suspect something immediately if they don't find your body" Maze said grimly.  "It's a thing that there's one here, then" Vex said cheerfully, kicking Mog's headless body.  They went outside and Vex punted the bandit's head through the doorway.  "Bandits.  They always loot and burn, don't they?" he said, charging up a fireball.  "Too true" Maze agreed.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

real nice, shame we got to wait another week for next part.

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

Awesome

---

Your story keeps getting more and more interesting! Keep it up

---

...

~~~~As it turns out, I apparently have a lot of free time when posting is inconvenient.  I'd better put this up now, before it gets too big to read through.~~~~

   The trek through the woods was slow in the dark, with only moonlight peeking through the trees to guide them.  When dawn approached, it became easier to see, but the area they traveled through was now unexplored and overgrown.  Work with machetes kept them going forward, but at a slow pace.  What few landmarks Maze had been able to spot in the beginning were now lost in vegetation, and he worked entirely from memory.  He judged the Guild to be southeast of Bowerstone, and used the sun's position at dawn to travel accordingly.  Finally, they encountered a moss-covered fallen statue in the basic shape of a man next to a roughly hexagonal stone, presumably the base of the figure in the distant past.  A broken off arm, extended outward, pointed to the left in a familiar way.  " This is it. We're at Lookout Point, the Guild lies due east.  It shouldn't take more than a few minutes" Maze said, now quite sure of his bearings.  "Lookout Point? I've never heard of such a place" Vex muttered.  Hearing him, Maze clarified. "Lookout Point is where the Boasting Platform and the Guild entrance were, and it used to be the border of Brightwood, but it was called Greatwood then."  Vex looked oddly at Maze but reserved judgement on the boy's strange knowledge of the ancient past.  He could ask questions later- he would finally see the fabled Guild of Heroes soon.
    The entrance turned out to be an overgrown hole leading into the ruins of the Guild; the doors had long been rotted away.  Stepping inside, Vex and Maze saw what remained of the main chamber.  Shafts of light came through openings in the ceiling where once there were windows.  The walls were stone, blackened in many places by the fire that burned in the Guild's last days.  The Map Table was cracked, with weeds growing in the spaces.  A dandelion grew right in the center of Bowerstone, while the Guild was obscured by crabgrass.  "It doesn't look like anyone has disturbed this place in hundreds of years, we may be able to find artifacts of value here; it didn't get looted, which I had feared" Vex spoke excitedly, looking around as Maze pored over the Map Table.  Maze walked over to the Cullis Gate, but it did not glow as he came near.  Like the Guild, its power was long gone.  "We should set up camp here and explore later, we need to be prepared for a long stay, and we need to do it before dark"  Maze called to Peter Vex, who looked like he might go running off through the nearest archway at any moment.  "Of course, you're right. I just got a bit excited, but it would be foolish to get lost at night here, especially if the place is haunted."  Vex and Maze quickly started unpacking their bags and setting up their tents and bedrolls, as well as laying out tools on the Map Table.  By noon, they were fully prepared to explore the Guild.
    The Guild Library was a disappointment, and the first sign that the Guild had been at least partially emptied prior to its abandonment.  Almost all of the valuable books were gone, but copies of some more common texts remained.  A dusty copy of "Hierarchy of Weapons" caught Vex's eye, and he quickly bound it in cloth and went back to the Map Room to copy the text before the book fell apart.  Maze stayed to look for any sign of a different book, but to no avail; the Thaumaturgica was not there.  A copy of "Creatures of Albion, Vol. 3" gained his attention.  Pieces of paper, likely notes, were sticking out at odd intervals.  Opening to a page with one of these, Maze read the paper that fell out.

   "Nymphs like jewels, hmm? I might be able to get one in Greatwood with some colored glass.  Poison gas should stop its flight...it'll fall like a leaf to the ground, then I can extract some dust. Or maybe cut off the wings instead? Why not both? yes, both will do nicely." 

   The wording seemed familiar, and Maze flipped to another page.

   "Those villagers are still giving me dirty looks, even after I gave that annoying Trader the Pixie Pox.  He deserved it, the noisy lout.  Knocking on the door and disturbing my nap, rude pig!  He won't be doing that any more...Blast it all! That stupid Thaumaturgica isn't anywhere in the library!  Weaver must've left it lying around somewhere else.  How am I supposed to build a miniature Spire if I don't have the directions? Ah, well... there's still the explosive powder kegs I found that need testing. So much force, what if it could be focused in one direction?..."

   Agatha.  Maze groaned inwardly. No wonder the place was scorched in so many places.  Almost turning to go back to the Map Room, Maze spotted an envelope in a book.  A sealed letter was in place as a bookmark in a copy of "Creatures of Albion, Volume 2" that lay on the same shelf as the third volume that he had just been leafing through.  Wondering who would write to the slightly mad old bat, Maze took the letter from the book and put both books under his arm.
    Back in the Map Room, he found Vex still busy with the transcription.  Peter looked up, and instantly saw the sheets of parchment sticking out of the books.  "What did you find?" he asked.  "Notes from the last resident of the Guild, apparently a witch named Agatha" Maze replied.  "Hmm, I'd better take a look at those, you never know what valuable information might be found in a few sentences."  Maze handed him the books, then opened the letter.
 "Dear Agatha, I'll need to keep that Thaumaturgica and those other references until I can make copies for my research.  William was also interested in any of those old atlases you found; he seems to think that they might bear locations of significance to his collection of Old Kingdom artifacts.  He and Elvira are expecting a child soon. If you don't hex any townsfolk, you should go visit them some time.  You did blow off the wedding, after all.I found some odd fungi in the back of a cave last week.  It was glowing when I found it, and I decided to keep it for you when you come to pick up your books.  Scythe hasn't been seen since he left, and Maze still hasn't appeared.  I think that he's gone for this time. Regards, Briar Rose"
 Even though his body could not have been more than ten years of age, Maze felt as ancient as the Old Kingdom stones as he put the letter back in the envelope, folding it carefully.  If this was any indication of what the rest of the Guild held, he had a lot of catching up to do.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

Awesome glad you could right again

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

~~~~Due to my new habit of using Notepad to make drafts, I have been making more posts than usual.  It is not, however, a sure thing.  I will still keep to a once-weekly base schedule, and will probably not write/post every day.  ~~~~

   Day two began shortly after the sun's rays pierced the cracks in the Guild roof.  Peter Vex found that the Guild Shop still held items of value; although the food stores had long since been eaten by vermin or rotted over time, some chainmail and a few rusted swords were found laying on the ground.  Maze noted that the swords were warped by the fire as well as rusty, and would be useless in a fight, but this did not curb Vex's enthusiasm for "a significant archaeological find."  Maze then suggested that the hallway off the shop once led to a courtyard where Heroes were buried.  This cought Vex's attention immediately.  The chance to excavate the remains of an actual Hero was too much for him to pass up, even if it meant leaving the weapons be for a while.  Maze's real intention was to 'discover' his tower, which he reasoned might have avoided the flames due to its stone construction and height.  If it was intact, there could be a great deal to learn there.  He and Vex wasted no time in chopping through the brush that had grown from the once carefully trimmed bushes of the courtyard.  Following the inner wall(where the bushes  were the least thick, and more easily dealt with),  they managed to uncover the archway leading in to Maze's former abode. 

   The stairs that followed the curved wall and the old suits of armor lining the edges tipped Peter Vex off.  "This... this is Maze's Tower! It doesn't seem too badly damaged, either- there could be some real discoveries to be made here!"  Without further ado, Vex ran up the stone steps at top speed, Maze straining his young body to keep up. The top floor of the tower had aparently been Agatha's favorite room, as well as Necromancer's, and Maze before him.  A myriad of arcane equipment was set up in the center, and the bookshelves were still full of Will-related tomes and research references.  Vex looked about to explode with joy, opening his mouth but unable to make words come out.  Maze walked over to the main window, still mostly intact but with a few pieces of tinted glass missing, and peered out at the Guild grounds below.  The Guild woods and the unchecked shrubbery had combined over the centuries into a small forest in their own right.  The trees were cut only by the river between the training areas and the Guild proper.  The bridges had fallen apart, leaving almost no traces of evidence that they had ever existed.  The servant's quarters could not be seen through the trees, but there was little chance that anything of value was there anyway.  Maze turned his attention back to the contents of the Tower.  The letter from Briar Rose  mentioned atlases or maps... he remembered, and started scanning the bookshelves.  He managed to find a standard Hero's map, scrolled up in a corner of one shelf.  In her spidery handwriting, Agatha had 'edited' this particular map with the locations of various herbs and fungi, as well as a few other locations.  "Briar's Place" was scrawled over a cave in Greatwood that Maze recognized  as a previous hidout for rebel Heroes during weaver's campaign to control Albion.  Hobbe Cave.  Briar's letter said that she had not returned the Thaumaturgica yet, and Maze now knew where she had resided.  Of course, getting Peter Vex to leave the Guild would be nearly impossible.  Maze would have to wait, at least for the time being.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

awesome its been a quadripal whammy of awesome posts, great job

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

Your doing great! Keep it up

---

~~~~I'm beginning to wonder... how long can I keep this post schedule up?  Probably for a week.~~~~

   A week had passed since Maze found the letter in the ruins of the Guild.  Peter Vex was still fully occupied with his research, and had made several Will related discoveries.  One of these was the premise of the Cullis Gate system.  He theorized that the network of gates needed a large power source for sustained operation, comprised of an initial major investment of energy coupled with small, regular deposits  of energy over time.  Although he could not say much on the subject, Maze privately agreed that this would explain how the Darkwood Cullis Gate had functioned in comparison to the others.  Once it had gained enough energy from undead souls, it could be active for a short period.  The energy was not sufficient, however, for sustained activation.  This, and a lack of regular travel through that particular Gate (Maze suspected that the Gates drew small ammounts of Will energy from Heroes through their Guild Seals to sustain themselves) caused it to shut down after a brief period.  A Spire would certainly be able to focus enough energy to jumpstart the process, and control of Cullis Gate travel would be a powerful weapon indeed.  On the other hand, it seemed more likely that Lucien would be after the Sword of Aeons, now lost in the Void, which the Spire could open a portal to.  Examining Vex's notes, he began to see a pattern emerge.  Almost everything Vex noted was practical in nature, and related to the Will.  Explanations and training instructions for various spells and plans for devices were put down in excruciating detail, while cultural and historical information was only lightly examined.  Anything relating to the Guild and its operation were also very detailed, an exeption to the normal lack of background information.  Everything from its architecture to the Aprentices' schedules were written down in depth.  Vex's research was very focused,and Maze believed that the wizard's plans exceeded stopping Lucien.  It was too early to tell the purpose behind Vex's search for information on the age of the Will, but he seemed intent on restoring it, either for the greater or his own power.  To find out, Maze needed to get closer to Vex's mind.  He had a plan to do just that, and the sooner he started, the better.  It was time to stop hiding his powers.
    When Vex came back (he had been hunting in the forest behind the Guild) with apples and a pair of rabbits, Maze had a surprise waiting for him.  He opened his fist, palm up, and conjured a tiny fireball, barely the size of a strawberry.  Peter Vex dropped the food instantly, and Maze could see the flame reflected in his glasses.  "Everything in this place is full of secrets, isn't it Maze?"  Maze extinguished the flame, and waited for a further reaction from Vex.  "If you can do that at your age, I shall waste no time in starting your training; you are too talented a Will user to ignore. We'll begin once you've rested; a fireball can take a lot out of you, especially if you're inexperienced."  "I've been practicing for a while on my own; normally I just get sparks" said Maze, testing Vex.  His honesty could be a valuable sign.  "That, boy, would be a rudimentary form of Will Lightning, the first spell taught to potential Heroes, according to the training manuals I've found.  We'll work on that quite a bit, since you probably already know the basics."  *so far, so ... Maze thought.  Vex turned out to be an apt teacher, and had Maze not known much of the will, he would have learned quickly.  As it was, Peter's strict training regimen kept Maze's mind in top shape with Will excercises that he had long forgotton and a diet compriesed heavily of fish and apples.  Vex also made a point of teaching the basics of melee combat and ranged attacks as well, so that Maze could have something to fall back on should the Will be inadequate in a heavy combat situation.  Maze found that the focus gained from aiming with the pistol at longer ranges and predicting the flow of melee combat sharpened his mind, aiding his Will training by helping him to concentrate his energy more efficiently.  I suppose this is how Paladin managed to grow powerful so quickly- he always did try to learn everything he could about all combat... once he managed to wake up, that is...
    The life of isolation and training in the Guild went on for some time, but fate did not permit it to continue indefinately.  About four months after they arrived, a group of bandits stumbled upon the entrance in the night.  Maze and Vex heard noises coming from the Map Room (they had taken up residence in the better-preserved tower a few days after they had found it) and awoke before the bandits found them.  It was not long, however, until the bandits figured out that the guild already had occupants.  Seeing the cut down brush outside the shop, one bandit called out to the others. "Get over 'ere, there's someone around here- these bushes are freshly cut!"  It didn't take long for the others to heed the call.  Maze and Vex, not wanting to be trapped in the tower to face about fifteen to twenty bandits,  hurried down the stairs to get out through the side entrance with what gear they could grab quickly.  Maze got down first and made it through the archway that led into the forest, but as soon as  Peter vex hit the lower landing, the bandits burst through the entryway.  Turning to see why Vex wasn't behind him in the brush, Maze could only watch what happened next.  Vex managed to lob a fireball at the bandits, roasting five of them instantly.  He managed to get a shot off with his rifle, but by then the rest of the bandits had arrived and he was gunned down by the hail of a dozen bullets.  The last thing Maze saw of Peter Vex was a ring of flame surrounding him, burning down nearby bandits and catching the brush on fire.  Maze ran through the smoke- filled night until he could no longer hear the bandits and the Guild was a reddish glow in the darkness behind him.  He was alone once more, but not for long.
   

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

This is great

I demand Moar lawl

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

~~~~I demand better spelling, hehehe..~~~~

   Maze somehow managed to make his way back to Bowerstone in two days, as he had inadverdantly fled in the direction of the city during the first night, then simply continued his course when he got his bearings.  He decided to risk appearing to Lucien's guard, as Peter vex was taken care of and the contracts completed.  His story was corroberated by the report of another guard, who had investigated a house fire in Brightwood and found a body "decapitated and burned, bandit style" when he arrived at the smoking ruin.  He explained his long absence by saying that he had gotten ambushed by bandits, escaped, and was lost in the forest until found by traders, who pointed him in the right direction.  The guard fulfilled his word and took him to meet Lucien in his castle study.  Lucien thanked the guard and shut the door after telling him to leave them.  "The guards believe that you are an innocent child trying to 'do the right thing'.  I rather doubt that. Nobody is completely innocent.  Even the saints seek rewards from the gods.  I am doing things that I would rather keep private until they are ready. You wouldn't try to tell anyone, would you?" he said, his back to Maze.  "Of course not, sir..." Maze answered, scanning the room.  It was richly decorated, with many finely carved shelves and furniture.  A large stained-glass window completed the feeling of grandeur.  "It's too bad that I can't trust you to that, you seem like a bright young boy. Oh well."  Maze was taken by suprise as Lucien charged toward him with a speed that he had not expected.  The next and last thing he would remember of that day was a powerful force hitting his midsection and the sound of shattering glass.
   

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

Woo I like the way your slightly but not completely copying the start of the fable 2 story, its got nice changes and it isnt spoiling anything

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

Lucien really has a thing for tossing kids out the window, huh?

looking forward to more

---

Enjoying Life

Great story, finally finished reading your first story, took me a while but im finally done excellent jon, nice ending fits perfectly

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

My original intent was to use the same basic story but I went beyond what was confirmed and took a bit of a side path, leading to certain elements being changed and/or in a different order.  Now I'm at a point where I can finally bring in a canon character I planned to use early on, but had no place for.  On the other hand, I am also going to hit a bit of an information wall soon, since I will have to move beyond the first three hours of gameplay eventually.  Next month (late October), I will probably try to bring in more elements from the game as I play through it.  Until then, I consider anything devs put out as fair game.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

I think you should just be make it up as you go along, but base it on information as you have done so far then just go with your imagination. Its been great so far

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

   Images faded in and out of view: a fire under the full moon, dark skinned traders moving about with their wares, a hooded woman with a familiar voice reassuring him.  Maze awoke on a pallet with a cast on his right arm and a splint on his left leg.  His torso was wrapped in bandages and everything hurt.  He tried to speak, hoping someone nearby would hear him. "unngh... where... where am I?" he croaked.  It even hurt to talk.  The hooded woman spoke soothingly. "Don't try talking yet, give the medicine more time to work. You'll feel better soon.  Just rest for now."  Maze closed his eyes and slept.  A few days later, shifting his weight did not hurt as much.  He sat up and looked around.  He was in a small trader's camp.  Several wagons formed a perimeter and a firepit lay at the center.  Seeing him, the hooded woman came over. "Feeling better?" she asked. "A bit, yes. How did I end up here after. . . I met Lucien, then he. . . He tossed me out a window!"  Maze remembered the window, but not landing.  "How did I survive?" 

   The woman looked at him oddly, then he realized that she was blind.  A cloth wrapped over her eyes hid them from view, but the depressions gave her away- her eyes had been gouged out.  "It was a bit of a miracle really.  You should have died on imact with the street, but you didn't.  Something shielded you from the fall."  Maze didn't remember casting any spell, let alone Physical Shield.  It might have activated as a defense mechanism before he lost conciousness, but it would have seriously strained his mana to do so.  "You were completely drained, and seriously injured.  We have been feeding you healing potions for a few weeks now.  Most of the time, you were unconcious.  Now that you're awake, we can finally discuss why you are here."  Maze remembered her voice from when he awoke in the graveyard.  "Who are you?"  She smiled grimly, the corners of her mouth barely turning upward.  "I am Theresa, and you are the wizard Maze.  I brought you out of the abyss, but it cost you a great deal.  It took your life experiences to fuel your escape and bring  you back into Albion.  It is not a permanent loss, however.  You now have a new life, and a new world."  Maze rubbed his slightly throbbing temple.  "Why exactly did you bring me back?  I somehow doubt that you would have done it just for my benefit." The blind seeress paused a moment before speaking.  "Lucien is trying to gain power over Albion through the Spire he is building.  If he succeeds, his dominance will be complete. He is  ruthless, cruel, and self-serving. Albion would not fare well under his rule.  You have to stop him, Maze."  Maze smiled wryly.  " If you haven't noticed, I am in the body of a wounded ten year old. There's not much I can do at the moment."  "Actually, you're probably eleven now.  You've been in this age of Albion for about five months.  In any case, I certainly don't plan to set you against Lucien now, you would be killed rather quickly if I did.  You will stay with us, and I will train you for the day you are ready to face Lucien."  Another week passed before he had recovered completely.  The next morning,Theresa came to him and handed him a shortsword.  Training had begun.  

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .

Ohh nice turn on things.

---

Being nice is strange, I can see a lot up here on morale highground

   Theresa may have been blind, but she showed no signs of it in battle.  Weilding a staff, she hammered at Maze's defences relentlessly, the spinning ends seemed to be an unending blur.  He could barely block her strikes, let alone strike her back.  He was tiring quickly, and his sword started to waver more and more each time it stopped the staff.  Before he could blink, she knocked it flying out of his hand.  "You were defeated because you tried to wait out your opponent.  You need to learn how to block without wearing yourself and your blade down.  Directly hitting your weapon against your opponent's may block it, but it wastes energy and dulls the blade."  She then showed him a blocking technique she called the slanted roof.  By holding the blade at an angle to the attacking strike, Maze learned that he could divert the blow without expending the energy to stop it.  This left his blade free and opened the opponent's defence for a second as they pulled back into an attack position.  After spending the better part of an hour learning how to use the technique against a variety of blows and angles, they stopped for lunch.  A stew was cooking over the fire pit in the camp, and it smelled better than anything he could think of in recent history.  It ended up being as as it smelled, and Maze was just starting to relax on a stump when Theresa told him that it was time to try again, advising him to use anything he could think of to gain an advantage.  Maze now found blocking a bit easier, but Theresa was still faster, stronger, and more experienced in melee combat.  Maze decided to put some of Vex's training into practice.  Focusing his Will, he waited to block Theresa's blow, then sent a jolt of electricity through his sword.  The short arc of lightning was not intended to be fatal, and it achieved its true purpose.  Caught off guard, Theresa quickly channeled the lightning through her staff into the ground.  For a moment, she was vulnerable, and Maze took the opportunity to strike.the *** of chainmail under her robes told him that he had succeeded.  "That was much better, Maze.  Integrating your Will abilities with melee combat will greatly increase your effectiveness.  Add in ranged combat, and you will be a much more versatile fighter."
    The training continued.  Within a few months, Maze became a competent swordsman, but competent would not be enough.  His basic training with Peter Vex had set him on a course of balance between the combat disciplines, something Theresa encouraged.  They did not always spar in the camp; Theresa often took him to secluded areas of the woods or a pond, once he found himself sparring with her in an abandoned mine, where light was low and the small space hampered his striking ability.  Theresa told him that there was a reason for each area.  "If you are attacked in the forest, use the trees and bushes to your advantage.  An enemy  cannot slash at you if you have stabbed their sword into an oak.  The water is a dangerous area for combat; your footwork is slowed, and if your enemy can knock you down, they can drown you.  Also remember that a soaked gun is useless until the powder dries.  Caves will keep you from utilizing wide slashes; you will need to stab forward and make shorter hacks.  A downward slash is powerful, but it also leaves your torso open to attack; Use it only when the enemy cannot hit you first."  Melee combat wass not the only skill Maze  practiced; one of the Romani traders was a crack shot, and helped Maze improve his accuracy with the pistol.  This training took the form of shooting a bandit-shaped target drawn on a tree from various distances and reloading as quickly as possible.  "If you don't shoot first, they will" Darius often said.  "You don't want them to make the first hit; it's often the last."  Without Vex around, Maze was on his own when it came to magic.  That did not bother him unduly, as he had been the Guild's most famous wizard.  He practiced Will in much the same way as ranged combat, and constant practice slowly increased his power and endurance.  Seasons passed, and each brought its own set of combat challenges.  Winter's cold required heavy clothing that hampered quick movements, and trudging through snow made combat tiring.  Rain and mud in spring meant that weapons were often slick and balance on wet surfaces became an issue.  After slipping on wet stone in a cave, Maze learned an embarassing lesson about watching his footing.  Summer initially seemed to be an easy season, but the draining heat of July and August proved otherwise.  When fall came around, so did rain and wind.  Although not as miserable as winter, Maze sometimes wished that Theresa would stop training for certain weather conditions, like torrents of rainfall amidst gales and lightning.  Maze did not return to the camp cheerfully those days, as he was covered in mud and dripping wet.
    His life was not completely focused on combat, although he did spend  a lot of time training.  Everyone in the camp did their part to keep it running and Maze was no exception.  He learned to cook food, mend cloth, hammer and sharpen weapons, as well as the rather less glorious washing of dishes.  All in all, his life was a lot of work, but he was learning a lot and making a difference.  The traders treated each other like a family, and he and Theresa were part of it.  He had never been happier.

---

Has the world ended already? Oh dear, I must have missed it. . .