Free Stealing Sorcery by Andrew Rowe

of thing tricky. I’ve heard it’s possible, but I’d imagine it would be very taxing on the body. Reshaping something into a material that has vastly different properties – like my magnetism trick – costs my body more than just redistributing the mass. Magnetism is tied to lightning, for example, so it’s like casting both a metal spell with a little bit of lightning involved.”
    Landen tapped a hand on his leg. “But you can’t cast lightning spells, right?”
    “Unfortunately, no. Not strong enough – but everyone has hints of every single dominion, and some spells can draw subtly from dominions that you’re not actually strong enough to cast from.”
    Velas passed the dossier back to Landen, who handed it to Taelien. “Anyway, about Keldyn. There’s no known Dominion of Blades – no plane that’s just made up of a bunch of floating swords. Being a Bladecaller means that Keldyn somehow manifested the ability to summon swords out of…something. People think it’s tied to the god of swords somehow, since that’s something Aendaryn did a lot of in the old stories.”
    Landen raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that something Sal could do?”
    Taelien shook his head. “I’m no good at calling metal – but even if I was, I’d just be making a normal metal sword appear in my hand. This guy apparently makes floating, glowing swords that can fight on their own.”
    Velas’ former Queensguard partner nodded appreciatively. “Okay, that does sound pretty impressive. Guess the god of swords does like him, then.”
    “Maybe,” Velas shrugged. “Maybe he’s just picked up a neat trick. Anyway, enough about Keldyn. I want to see what some of the newcomers look like.”
    The details on most of the foreigners were sparse, but Velas quickly found the ones she was most interested in.
     
    Susan Crimson
    Human Female Age 22; Hair: Brown, Eyes: Brown
    Height 166 cm, Weight: 54 kg
    Experience: Pre-Thornguard 4 yrs, Thornguard, 6 yrs.
    Languages: Veltrhyn, Isendri
    Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Sae’lien), Spear (Sae’lien), Dagger, Lance, Bow (Isendri)
    Sorcerous Proficiencies: None Declared
    Expected Performance Rating: 52
    Description: The third daughter of House Crimson, a lesser noble house in Selyr. Sent to Thornguard training at 12 yrs., most likely due to the family lacking sufficient lands to allocate to all children. Served 6 yrs. in the Selyr region and on deployment to the Lissec region. Combat experience in multiple encounters with Xixian forces while on deployment. Disillusioned with Thornguard politics, she chose to leave them after serving her mandatory years.
     
    Velas put that dossier back in the pile, skipping the rest of the information. The question of the unusual heraldry solved, she didn’t find anything of particular interest about the young woman. She skimmed over the file on the armored man who had followed Susan into the mess hall next.
     
    Bertram Colt
    Human Male Age 24; Hair: Brown, Eyes: Hazel
    Height 182 cm, Weight: 79 kg
    Experience: Pre-Thornguard 4 yrs, Thornguard, 8 yrs.
    Languages: Veltrhyn, Isendri
    Weapon Proficiencies: Sword (Sae’lien), Spear (Sae’lien), Dagger, Lance, Bow (Isendri)
    Sorcerous Proficiencies: None Declared
    Expected Performance Rating: 43
    Description: A former servant to House Crimson, Bertram Colt entered Thornguard training at age 12 yrs. After completing his training, he served for several years before being reunited with Susan Crimson, who he had known in his childhood. The pair left the Thornguard together after serving on deployment in the Lissec region.
     
    Slipping that paper back into the file, she tapped her fingers on the table, considering. These are awfully vague. Not enough to really evaluate their motives or weaknesses. Still, neither of them sounds like much of a threat. Let’s see about Mr. Cloaky.
     
    The Wandering War
    Classified Species Male Age Classified; Hair: Copper, Eyes: Crimson
    Height 194 cm, Weight: 85 kg
    Experience: Details