Forge Sorceror

FORGE SORCERER BRINDOLLAN AFFAIRSBOOK 1CHRISTOPHER JOHNS Copyright © 2023 by Christopher JohnsAll rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. CONTENTS NewsletterCatching UpChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32Chapter 33Chapter 34Chapter 35Chapter 36Chapter 37Chapter 38Chapter 39AfterwordAbout Christopher JohnsAbout Mountaindale PressMountaindale Press Titles This book is dedicated to someone very special and though she has yet to make her way into this story, she was excited about it and followed along these very pages with all of you until she couldn’t anymore. I cannot wait for you to find your way through this world once more, my dear, dear, Kaz. Know that Cornelius and I are so much better for you having been here. Him for your love and company, and me for your friendship and caring heart.Thank you. NEWSLETTER Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life. CATCHING UP Sometime long ago…Well, not too long ago, really. More like a stone’s throw on the timeline of things that recently took place—okay, got it. I’ll shut up and just get on with it.Brindolla was in danger and there was little-to-nothing the best fighters that we had at the time could do to stop this galactic entity called War from taking over other than to keep him and the rest of his horde out. For a while, things were bad. Generals and minions who served him slumbered as the gods gathered what little strength they could spare to call forth beings from a neighboring planet called Earth, just across the veil from us.Eventually, they willingly answered the call for aid, and the gods whisked away their souls, allowing them to choose living avatars here on Brindolla so that they could grow stronger and level up to fight back against War’s band of miscreants. There was controversy about it, sure. Some didn’t like that these Travelers had come to interfere, and thought that the fate of the world should instead depend on the true sons and daughters of Brindolla. The gods knew that their people stood no chance, so they ignored them and blessed these beings as much as they could.With these blessings, Zeke, Bokaj, Balmur, Jaken, James, Muu, and Yohsuke were able to slowly but surely foil attempts to distract the gods, and eventually faced the malformed avatar of War himself in a battle that nearly brought the void into the world in a way that could have eaten the continent. They weren’t aware of it at the time, but it did almost happen.But before their brawl with the big bad, there were tender moments. Love blossomed and vows were spoken and, from that love bloomed the lives of two very special children. And it is these children that I have been tasked with watching over, as an impartial overseer of sorts. I am to record their lives as a favor… CHAPTER ONE “You are certain this will work?” I was careful to make my voice as icy and terrifying as I could before it echoed across the frozen hall toward the woman shrouded in a long, green flowing dress. Four tails stuck out of her backside and all of them whipped back and forth, but my guest dared not speak as to what forced them to move so frivolously.Rather, she bowed her head and simply stated, “Yes, Queen Maebe. Your children will remain under the spell until I unbind them again when you feel they are responsible enough to control themselves and their powers.”I, Queen Maebe, the Lady Darkest and the Void of the Snow, watched her from my throne as my oldest living companion Winterheart stared down at the bundles next to me in an icy cradle. The two slumbering children cuddled together in warmth and comfort. He hadn’t let the two of them out of his sight in the weeks that they had been alive, he wasn’t about to begin now. Luckily, I had been able to convince Vrawn to go and rest to recover herself from her latest bout of depression at the loss of our love and her daughter’s brutal birth, but this woman’s presence was a blessing more than the nuisance I allowed it to seem.“It will not bind their magic, just their ability to shift their form?” I watched my visitor with interest, my blue-gloved hand rising to support my chin in an effort to suppress my desire to touch and coddle my—our—beloved children.At least, more dangerous physically. I could ruin someone’s life before taking it a thousand years from now, where she would just kill them outright.“Correct, your Majesty.” Farin F’arine bowed her head once more. “This will be but two more of the hundreds I have done already. Provided they do not grow strong enough to break the binding themselves, they will not be able to change form, and their magic will remain intact.”I