Revelation (Seeds of Humanity: The Cobalt Heresy) by Caleb Wachter Page B

second option: apply to whichever House held a patent for that particular spell effect and pay for a license according to a predetermined value, which was set at the time of the patent’s initial approval. That number was reviewed periodically by the Inner Circle of High Wizards, with adjustments made as they saw fit.
    The problem with this option is that the House holding the patent was the final arbiter of who could or couldn’t carry licenses to use their proprietary magics, and while there were laws on the books to prevent the Houses from simply charging more money if they wanted to gouge a prospective customer, there was nothing to prevent them from skirting the letter of the law and requesting a new client to undergo an evaluation of sorts.
    There were certain extenuating circumstances which allowed for limited access to a House’s magic assets, but they required a fairly significant commitment in one form or another, and the only House with whom I currently had such an arrangement was House Listoh (otherwise known as ‘The Guild’), and they had made it pretty clear that I wouldn’t be receiving further access than what I had already been granted.
    So, the long story made short goes like this: no member of House Wiegraf (which wasn’t even as old as its Master, Magos Antolin) had researched any magics to aid in travel over great distances at speed, so we were stuck with walking.
    Aemir continued his grumbling after a while. “We should have at least acquired fresh horses. We would have already been there if we had ridden,” he complained.
    “No horses,” Dancer quipped. “Horses weak; not go this way,” he elaborated with a tilt of his head toward the mountain.
    I nodded. “Besides, there’s nothing for them to eat,” I said, waving my arm at the barren landscape. “It doesn’t look like grass has grown here for years, and we can’t afford another mule train disaster.”
    Pi’Vari snorted, probably in agreement. Our previous venture into the wilds to harvest some of Antolin’s private fungus gardens had been planned around a pack of mules, and while they had actually helped at first, eventually they provided too tempting of a target and more than half of them had been killed in an ambush.
    Defeating the brigands had been no great test of our abilities, but afterwards we decided that the mules presented too great of a liability, so we opted to travel light this time. We were faster this way, but the food was also considerably less desirable.
    Fortunately, Aemir was pretty good with spices so at least our food had a little bit of flavor to it.
    “Night falls soon,” Aemir observed, and I was surprised to find that he was right. It seemed like we had only eaten lunch a few hours before. “We should find a site for camp,” he said, pointing toward a small copse of dead shrubs down a nearby gully.
    I was forced to agree. We needed to get a fire started quickly if we were to avoid the harsh onset of night’s freezing winds. It was unnatural just how far out of balance this entire region had become, and frankly it was amazing that Coldetz had held out as long as it had. Plummeting morale should have been enough to bring them down, but they defiantly stood their ground in the face of an implacable foe.
    It was exactly that defiance which made me want to help them. Their struggle to maintain their independence was something which I desperately wanted to be part of, even at great personal risk. My life had been turned upside down even before I had been mysteriously brought here, but I had gained new perspective since arriving. I had gifts, and I needed to use those gifts to do what I thought was right, and helping the people of Coldetz was clearly the right thing to do.
    “We should start a fire,” I suggested, “an early winter night would be bad enough even without the unnatural decay here.”
    Dancer shook his head. “Fire no good. Easy target,” he argued.
    “It’s a risk we have to take,