Chapter 120: The Bishop

"The responsibility is mine. I'm his teacher."

"So what spell was it, exactly?"

"Mage Armor."

"Mage Armor? That's a very advanced protective spell, if I remember correctly. To tell the truth, I haven't seen many mages use it, even on the battlefield."

"It's not as useful in battle as you might imagine. No matter how much effort you waste building up your resistance to the elements, once enemy soldiers reach you, you'll wish you'd spent that time throwing more fire and casting more whirlwinds to keep them back."

"By the Light, I've only just noticed that badge. He's only an apprentice?"

"Yes." A sigh. "He's been an apprentice for less than a month. He was determined to learn Mage Armor, and I saw that he had an unusual talent. I thought a difficult spell like this might help him find his way into the school of abjuration a little sooner."

"Clearly, he doesn't have enough mana."

"His mana... Oh, forget it. I don't particularly want to get into the details with you. I know what you're trying to say, Bishop, but you weren't there. If you'd been in my position, you wouldn't have been able to resist letting him continue either. It was his very first attempt at Mage Armor. Frankly, it was astonishing. I hoped he'd succeed on the first try and give me something to talk about at the Wizard's Sanctum for the next twenty years. I never would have grown tired of that story. Unfortunately, I wanted him to succeed so badly that things ended up like this."

"That's not like you, Marin. Taking such a reckless risk in pursuit of an achievement? We've known each other a long time, and I've never seen you do anything like it. Then again, I haven't spent much time at the Wizard's Sanctum, so perhaps I don't understand how you people think. Maybe every teacher wants a student who can surpass him. There's nothing strange about that."

"Perhaps you don't know me as well as you think."

"I'll admit that. After the war brought about by the Dark Portal, I don't dare claim to understand much anymore. Too many things have taken me by surprise. Some have even overturned what I once thought were the basic rules of the world... Hmm? I think he's waking up. Have we been talking too loudly?"

"You sound almost as though you were hoping he wouldn't wake up."

Jess struggled to open his eyes through the sound of their conversation.

A terrible headache greeted him at once.

He grimaced, clutched his head, and groaned for a while, until someone rested a hand on his chest.

"Holy Light, I ask you to free this young man from his suffering, to release him from his pain. He suffers because he worked hard and tried his best. His pain came from a setback on the path toward a higher goal. Light, I know that you value courage, diligence, and the will to prevail. This young man has been following the path you teach..."

As the quiet prayer continued, Jess's headache eased almost miraculously. Compared with the warm hand against his chest, the hands he had pressed to his head felt utterly useless.

"Good," a deep voice said beside his head. "He's awake already. At least you haven't made a terrible mistake, Master Marin."

"Thank goodness," Marin's voice answered from near Jess's feet.

Jess tried to open his eyes again. The light was painfully bright.

He was lying in a well-lit room. The walls were made of white stone, giving the whole place a clean, almost holy appearance. It was probably a hospital near Cathedral Square.

Beside him stood a church priest in a gray robe, holding a silver ceremonial cap in his arms. Marin was sitting at the foot of the bed.

Jess tried to sit up. The movement sent another dull ache through his skull.

"Don't get up so quickly, Mr. Jess Seso," the priest said, supporting him. "Right now, the most important thing you can do is rest."

"How long was I unconscious?" Jess asked weakly.

"Not long," Marin said. "A few hours, perhaps."

Then he turned to the man beside the bed. "I told you, Bishop Benedictus. It wasn't as serious as you thought."

On the NovelPhoenix site, the author publishes this chapter; this copy was made without approval, while the official version supports the writer.

"That only means the Light continues to watch over this young apprentice," the bishop said with a smile.

"Thank the Light," Jess muttered.

As his thoughts finally began moving again, he suddenly realized what name Marin had just said.

He turned and stared at the priest standing by his bed.

The bishop looked to be in his fifties, perhaps not yet sixty, around Marin's age. He had thick, dark-gray hair with a hairline that had receded surprisingly little, a neatly trimmed beard, and wrinkles around his eyes and across his forehead.

Although he was past his prime, he was still powerfully built, with a broad chest and shoulders and hardly any extra weight. He looked almost like an old warrior who had survived more battles than anyone could count.

*Benedictus? The Archbishop of Stormwind came to treat me himself?*

No. Not yet. He wasn't the archbishop at this point. The leader of the Cathedral of Light and the Church of the Holy Light should still be Archbishop Alonsus Faol. Benedictus was Faol's student.

Faol would die during the Scourge invasion more than a decade later, and Benedictus would inherit the office of archbishop.

But what happened to Benedictus afterward was troubling.

The Scourge War and the destruction of Lordaeron would deal a devastating blow to his faith. He would come to doubt the Light more and more until he went to the opposite extreme, fell into darkness, and was used by an evil god. He would become one of the leaders of the Twilight's Hammer, a group that worshiped those dark powers.

By then he would be a powerful shadow priest—a priest of darkness. In fact, his dealings with the shadows would begin while he was still serving as Stormwind's archbishop. He wouldn't reveal his true faith until Deathwing shook the world.

*But right now, he should still be quite devoted to the Light, shouldn't he?*

While Jess was thinking, Bishop Benedictus exchanged a few more pleasantries with Marin and left the room. Even if he wasn't yet the leader of the Cathedral of Light, he was a busy bishop. He couldn't stay here long.

As he reached the doorway, he glanced back at Jess.

It almost seemed like he'd deliberately turned around for that one last look. Given Jess's present condition and what he knew about Benedictus, he couldn't help reading more into it.

After all, Jess was a warlock now.

The first time he'd gone to a priest to be treated for undead poison, he'd barely stepped through the door of warlock magic. These days, he could use Fear with ease and had learned several kinds of shadow magic. He was probably one of the more experienced shadow spellcasters in Stormwind—at least among the people at the Slaughtered Lamb.

He had no idea what treatment he'd received while unconscious or what Benedictus might have noticed. Still, Jess was certain that even if the bishop had sensed the shadows, he hadn't told Marin.

Jess could only hope that look had been an ordinary doctor's concern for his patient.

"I don't know whether to say you're lucky, Mr. Seso," Marin said, "or whether we should thank the bishop's devotion."

"Did I pass out because I used up too much mana?" Jess asked.

"You didn't have enough mana to support the arcane power you called up, Jess. It became more active than expected," Marin explained. "In short, you forced yourself to cast advanced magic despite my warnings. You didn't have the strength to sustain it, and you pushed your will beyond its limits. Passing out isn't the worst thing that could have happened. That's why I say you're lucky."

"When did you warn me, Master Marin?" Jess asked. "I remember you looking very hopeful while I was casting."

Marin touched his chin. "That's the version you should tell other people. Apprentices are allowed to make mistakes. Nobody will blame you."

An accident during Jess's training would land squarely on Marin, his instructor. Even if Jess told everyone it was his own fault, surely Marin would still be responsible for teaching him the spell.

Luckily, the accident hadn't had serious consequences, and probably not many people knew about it. If Marin tried to shift the blame, he likely wouldn't face much trouble.

But after this, would Marin refuse to teach him Mage Armor anymore?

"Wasn't I almost there, Master?" Jess asked. "I really felt like I was one tiny step away. Such a shame. I was almost in the state you were in when you finished the spell, wasn't I?"

Marin neither agreed nor disagreed.

"Nobody knows whether you would have succeeded if you'd had the strength to cast Mage Armor all the way through," he said. "Only another attempt will tell us. If you want to improve before you go to Dalaran, come see me in the mornings. I'm not giving you the incantation to memorize on your own yet. I hope you remember our agreement."

"I have to practice Mage Armor in front of you," Jess repeated.

"Exactly. You practice only under my supervision," Marin said. "Suppose I taught you the method and you secretly practiced on your own. What if you passed out again, just like today, with nobody there to care for you or get you treated? Think what might happen."

He had a point.

Especially if Jess practiced at home and set the house on fire—or if someone found him unconscious in his room. Everything he'd hidden there would be exposed for the whole world to see.

Marin went on, "Next time, we'll begin with the basics of the school of abjuration. It will prepare you for studying at the Wizard's Sanctum in the future. You can't run before you can walk. Today's accident was clearly the result of trying to go too far, too fast."

"But we're leaving Stormwind in just a few days. Two or three days at most," Jess said.

"Then we'll continue after you return," Marin replied.

*After I return?*

Jess didn't want to wait that long.

"All right. I understand, Master," he said with a sigh.

He wanted to leave, but Marin insisted that he stay with the priests for another day and make sure his mind had fully recovered before going anywhere.

Jess wasn't sure exactly where he was in Cathedral Square, but that evening he could hear hymns drifting in from somewhere nearby, through what sounded like countless walls.

Lying in bed, he kept thinking about the incantation Marin had taught him that day.

"Lokpoto, Arkanua..."

Just speaking the first couple of phrases from memory made the headache begin to return. Remembering what came next was completely out of the question.

Marin was right. Jess was still a long way from recovering. He should stay away from the ley network for now and get a good night's sleep.

But there was absolutely no way he was going to spend the two or three months away from Stormwind without practicing any magic.

He'd already learned half of Mage Armor. How could he possibly stop halfway through?