{"id":5242,"date":"2026-01-04T01:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-painter-mage-04-stolen-compass-holmberg-d-k\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:14:11","slug":"the-painter-mage-04-stolen-compass-holmberg-d-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-painter-mage-04-stolen-compass-holmberg-d-k\/","title":{"rendered":"The Painter Mage 04 – Stolen Compass – Holmberg, D K"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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T<\/span><\/span>he air held<\/span> the bitter stink of burned ink that came from the painting I had attempted. It was a controlled painting, but one without much energy. I didn\u2019t dare draw too much through the orb, not until I knew if it would work for me. Even then, I wasn\u2019t certain it was a good idea.<\/p>\n

Every attempt I made to use the patterns etched into the smooth orb fizzled out, leaving me with nothing more than fatigue and my head swimming from the effort. Oh, and failure. Always failure.<\/p>\n

I sighed and pushed back from the simple wooden table I\u2019d dragged down into the lower level of the shed. There wasn\u2019t much room for it, so I\u2019d shoved it against the back wall, almost forcing me to stare at the orb while I sat at it. Like pretty much everything else in the lower level of the shed, the orb was a creation of my father\u2019s, created with painter magic so that the patterns were trapped beneath the surface, leaving the rest of it smooth and cool. Every attempt to power it by pushing my will through the patterns failed. Not only was I getting tired, I was feeling annoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy won\u2019t this thing work for me?\u201d I said, setting it carefully back on its little wooden pedestal. I might be annoyed, but I wasn\u2019t about to damage it. If I did, I might not know enough to replace it, and then, any hope of using its power would be gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably because you\u2019re not the Elder.\u201d<\/p>\n

I twisted in my seat toward where Devan sat along the wall. She hadn\u2019t moved from her spot since we\u2019d come down here, determined to keep me out of trouble and unwilling to leave me to study the orb alone. Not that I blamed her. Attempting to use the orb\u2019s power\u2014or anything of my father\u2019s, really\u2014always carried danger.<\/p>\n

She pushed some strands of dark hair away from her eyes. In the time that we\u2019d been on this side of the Threshold, her hair had grown longer. She still had some of that pixie look to her. As one of the Te\u2019alan\u2014creatures much like fairies or elves\u2014she\u2019d always have that, but now she had more exotic features that mixed in, as well. In the last week, we\u2019d discovered that we were a bit more than friends. Okay, maybe I\u2019d <\/i>discovered. I suspected Devan had known all along, which was why she so often called me an idiot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made this thing work once before,\u201d I said, running my hand over the orb. There was no doubting the power that hummed within it. There was also a faint glow to it, as if the orb trapped power inside that could only be released by the Elder.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that one, Ollie. You said it yourself. The orb you used with Adazi had an arcane pattern that you\u2019d placed on it. That was why you were able to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re saying I keyed it to myself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan clutched one of her small figurines in her hand and turned it side to side, making the little troll figure almost dance. \u201cWhy are you so hell bent on getting the orb to work?\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced at the miniature statue sitting on the desk. It looked like Nik, down to the furrowed brow and the way his hand pressed out from him, like he was trying to stop a car barreling down on him. Considering what it was, it should <\/i>look like him. I\u2019d used another device of my father\u2019s on Nik, shrinking him into this statue and trapping his magic. This way, he couldn\u2019t do any more harm, but nor could he teach me what he\u2019d learned from the Druist Mage. If I was to have any hope of challenging the Druist Mage, I would need what Nik had learned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know why I need it. You don\u2019t want to get drawn into the crap on the other side of the Threshold, either, so why are you giving me a hard time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan shot me a look that told me, once again, that I really was an idiot. \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we all nearly died stopping Nik the last time. What about the shifters that had been practically useless against his power?\u201d She jabbed a finger in my direction. \u201cReally, Ollie, if you release Nik\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not <\/i>going to release him. I\u2019m just going to unfreeze him a little.\u201d<\/p>\n

She snorted. \u201cA little. Like you know how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I picked up the statue of Nik and held it up to the light. Could he feel me touching him? The idea made me kind of want to bash him on the desk a few times for what he\u2019d done, but his imprisonment was more than enough torture for him now. His power was trapped. Hell, he <\/i>was trapped. I didn\u2019t know if he would age or change stuck in this form, but he couldn\u2019t hurt us. The problem was, he couldn\u2019t help<\/i>, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured the orb could help.\u201d I\u2019d been studying it the last three days straight. Devan had come with me each time, sitting with her little figurines, prepared for the possibility that I might unleash Nik back into the world. At least with her miniature army, she could protect us, probably more than anything I could do. She still hadn\u2019t shared what it was she did to bring her figurines to life, but I suspected it was similar to what I had with the statues my father made, the prison that he\u2019d created, but Devan didn\u2019t elaborate for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told you that using the orb is risky. What if you bring him all the way back, rather than only partially like you intend? Before you try, you need to be able to control<\/i> the power of your father\u2019s orb, so you can access Nik in such a way that he\u2019s not fully released.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the challenge. And maybe that was the reason it didn\u2019t work for me. I wasn\u2019t trying to fully power the orb, only partly. In some ways, that took even more strength because I couldn\u2019t simply blast through the patterns etched into the glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you\u2019re here,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Devan glared at me. I didn\u2019t expect anything different. \u201cI\u2019m here to make certain you don\u2019t go doing anything too stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than releasing Nik?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shrugged. \u201cThat, or other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

I smirked at her and turned back to the orb. It was a creation of the Elder, but then again, so was I. I had managed to figure out some of his patterns, and part of me assumed that\u2014because I was his son, I was meant to. Like it was my destiny. He had given me the golden key that granted access to this place, after all.<\/p>\n

Placing my hands on either side of the orb, I focused on the series of patterns that were barely visible in the layers beneath the glass. If I stared long enough, I could make out the patterns well enough to know what they were, if not what they were intended to do. That was a trick of my father\u2019s, a master painter of such skill that I\u2019ve never known anyone to rival. There were other magical beings out there capable of throwing around more power than my father, but he had a unique skill, one that I needed to master, or Devan and I would end up dead. It was why I was willing to risk releasing Nik back into the world, however briefly that might be. If Nik could teach me some of the tricks he\u2019d learned from the Druist Mage, I might actually come up with a way to keep us alive.<\/p>\n

The orb started glowing as I pressed my will through the pentagram. I split my focus, a trick few painters ever managed, and pushed through the intersecting stars, as well. Then I added the triangles, focusing on the isosceles triangle pointing toward my feet. There was a complete series of patterns stretching around the other side of the orb, but if I used them, I would end up fully powering the orb. With all the little miniature prisoners stationed throughout the lower level of the darkened shed, I was pretty certain I didn\u2019t want to do that.<\/p>\n

Power surged for a moment and then fizzled out. The energy it took from me was more than the patterns should have taken, probably more than it would have taken even a few months ago when I was flexing my magical muscles on a daily basis. Lately, I\u2019d needed to do it in bursts, taking days to recover in between.<\/p>\n

I let the power ebb away and stood up from the table. It didn\u2019t seem to matter which of the patterns I used, I couldn\u2019t figure out a way to partially power the orb. I suspected that if I were to charge them all, the orb would work, but then again, I had never even tried that. And didn\u2019t want to, at least not down in the shed where there was the risk of accidentally freeing one of the prisoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t work?\u201d Devan asked.<\/p>\n

I shook my head and wiped an arm across my face. Taking Nik carefully, I carried him over to the shelf\u2014the cells of this prison\u2014and set him gently next to what looked like some sort of samurai warrior. The man had long hair tied up in a knot atop his head and carried a sword slung over his shoulder. His eyes were slightly widened, making me think he\u2019d been surprised when the Elder had captured him. I wished he had kept some sort of record as to why <\/i>these creatures were trapped here. So far, I\u2019d found nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they\u2019re not all bad guys?\u201d I asked, turning to Devan.<\/p>\n

She looked up from her figurine. Unlike the little statues here\u2014my father\u2019s little prisoners, I\u2019d seen Devan carving the one in her hand, using fine metal rods to shape the troll\u2019s features. She did it with an almost loving way, but had methodical movements. I had wondered why she remained so intent on making the figurines until I learned what they really were. Then I had been thankful. If not for her little figurines, Nik might have defeated us.<\/p>\n

Devan tucked the figurine into her pocket and wiped her hands on her jeans. They were faded and had rips across the knees, no longer the style, but I suspected she\u2019d picked them up at the thrift store, sort of like the T-shirt she wore with an inverted pyramid on it. Any lettering that had once been on the shirt was long since gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told you about those my father holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. That\u2019s the reason the Druist will be your hubby.\u201d<\/p>\n

She glared at me. \u201cDon\u2019t say it like you don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

I flopped on the ground to sit beside her. I took her hand and squeezed. Her skin felt warm and tingled where I touched. Even in the musty space of the lower level of the shed, she smelled like grasses and flowers, sort of like I remembered spring in Conlin smelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I do. How did the Druist take them, anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan shook her head. \u201cMy father never spoke of it. Something happened, and they were gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced to where Nik sat on the shelf. He had gone to the Druist Mage, but there wouldn\u2019t have been any way for Nik to have reached her father\u2019s warded rooms. I had been the one to seal part of the room, and Nik hadn\u2019t had the same skill with arcane patterns back then as he displayed recently. He wouldn\u2019t have been able to get through.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot Nik,\u201d Devan agreed. \u201cAs far as I can tell, it happened years ago. My betrothal to the Mage has been out there for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

I squeezed her hand. It bothered Devan that her father would use her like he did. That was the reason for the betrothal. She was meant as a trade: Devan for the Trelking\u2019s little toys. Only, they weren\u2019t really little toys, they were prisoners, much like the ones my father kept trapped here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if the ones here are not what we think?\u201d I asked. \u201cI mean, we assume they\u2019re the same as what your father keeps, but what if they\u2019re not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdazi wanted one of them badly enough to make a play for it here. I think that tells us all we need to know about what kinds of beings we\u2019re dealing with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

I studied the figurines along the shelf. The samurai was the only one that looked anything like someone we\u2019d find on this side of the Threshold, well, other than Nik. There was one that looked like a stack of rocks with arms. Another looked something like a roach. I didn\u2019t want to imagine what it might be like when fully animated. What kind of power had it had? There was another with long pincers for arms, but a somewhat humanoid head. If all of them were really alive, only held in some sort of magical suspended animation, then I didn\u2019t really want to see any of them out of their current state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really going to need to work with him,\u201d I said softly.<\/p>\n

Devan turned toward me. Her skin took on the soft glow that it did when she pulled on her magic. The medallion I wore around my neck went cool at the same time, her way of telling me when she used her power, as if the light coming out of her flesh wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only thing I can think of that will help. We\u2019ve been in Conlin for what? Three months now? And what have I learned?\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan punched me in the shoulder. \u201cYou\u2019re an idiot, you know that, Ollie?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep telling me that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have you learned? Let\u2019s see, only that you can reproduce patterns made by the Elder. That you can create devices of power just like the Elder. That there are shifters living in Conlin. And you\u2019ve stopped a shifter painter and mage apprentice. So it\u2019s not exactly like you\u2019ve been sitting back on your ass since we\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed. Hearing her say it like that did make it sound a little more impressive. \u201cWe came here to learn from my father\u2019s work, to learn what it would take to keep you alive, but doesn\u2019t it seem like the more we learn, the deeper we\u2019re getting into something more than simply the Elder?\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan\u2019s face clouded slightly and she nodded. \u201cYeah. I\u2019ve been thinking about that. What are the chances that Conlin is the center of all this activity? Given everything we\u2019ve come across, how likely do you think it is that my father actually wanted <\/i>us to get here?\u201d<\/p>\n

That had been my fear, as well, but hearing it from Devan made the concern that much more real. Her father was one of the Te\u2019alan, beings of great power, but her father was more than that. He was the Trelking. With power and magic greater than anything I could imagine, he also possessed the gift of prescience, the ability to see potential futures. Nothing was fully set, at least he had claimed that nothing was ever really set when I once asked him, but there were pathways that he preferred to nudge the future to follow. I\u2019d never fully shaken the idea that the Trelking knew <\/i>about what we planned, and that it fit somehow into his <\/i>plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what now?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

Devan leaned against me. In the ten years that we\u2019d known each other, it felt both strange and fantastic to have her this close to me. More than that, it felt right. I\u2019d never allowed myself to view her as anything more than a friend. Partly because I knew what her father would do to me if he learned that I did. Better to die a different way than to face the full wrath of the Trelking. Partly, it was fear of ruining our friendship. Devan had been the first person I met when I crossed the Threshold ten years ago. Now that we were on this side, it had taken nearly losing her twice for me to realize what an idiot I\u2019d actually been. Devan had known all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou already know what you need to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means working with her again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you liked her. You pretty much fell over yourself the first time she showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor was probably at my house, though with the barriers Devan and I had placed on reaching the basement, at least she couldn\u2019t go shuffling through my father\u2019s stuff anymore. It didn\u2019t keep her out of the park. There wasn\u2019t much I could do that would.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was before I knew she\u2019d been lying to us from the beginning. Now that I know what she\u2019s done, I\u2019m not so sure I can trust her to help me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t make it about helping you, make it about something she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think we can trust her then?\u201d I asked. I\u2019d be surprised if Devan did, considering what we\u2019d been through with Taylor so far.<\/p>\n

She nearly destroyed my house the first time she came to Conlin. The force of the blast from whatever painting she\u2019d used\u2014and I still hadn\u2019t figured out what she did\u2014nearly peeled the paint off the house. Off my father\u2019s <\/i>house. That by itself was pretty hard to do. And I figured I could blame her for the Nizashi attack on the house, too. Had Nik not come to Conlin, would they have ever attacked the house? Even with the additional protections Devan and I had placed around the house after the last attack, it wasn\u2019t going to be quite the same, not as it would have been had the Nizashi not <\/i>attacked. At some point, the damn place was inevitably going to come crashing down. Either that, or it\u2019d be my fault that magical power like that was unleashed in the city. Already, I was feeling uncomfortable with how much shit I\u2019d brought upon the city. Most of it was my father\u2019s fault, but the longer we stayed here, the more blame I\u2019d have to shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. We probably won\u2019t be able to trust her. Not with anything that matters. But she\u2019s an artist. We might be able to use her, sort of like she used us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that I like using anyone, Devan. Not like that. Seems a little to close to what your father would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. My father would force you to work for him. What we\u2019ll need to do is give her a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t create the orb without her help. I knew my limits and that was a part of them. But I wasn\u2019t sure I could use Taylor like Devan intended. Regardless of what she said, it did <\/i>feel too much like what the Trelking had done with me. Oh, he\u2019d offered to teach, to provide me with instructors able to show me the arcane patterns. With their help, I\u2019d learned more than I ever would have learned had I stayed in Arcanus, but there was a hidden price. When dealing with men like her father, there was always a price.<\/p>\n

I turned to mini-Nik, considering my options. If I didn\u2019t manage to make the orb work enough that I could partially unlock him, then my options were either not having his expertise, or freeing him completely and trying to convince him that he wanted to help. Neither of those options was any good. That left using Taylor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right. We\u2019ll see if she can help. I can\u2019t promise I won\u2019t like it, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devan shot me a look. \u201cYou\u2019ve drooled over her enough don\u2019t you think? And I don\u2019t think even your power would be enough to withstand the beating you\u2019d face.\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced down at where she had tucked her figurine. Nope. There wasn\u2019t much I would be able to do against what Devan could throw at me; sort of like how there wasn\u2019t much I could do if we ever were forced to face the Druist Mage.<\/p>\n

It was why I had <\/i>to convince Nik to help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Book Preview 1 The air held the bitter stink of burned ink that came from the painting I had attempted. It was a controlled painting, but one without much energy. I didn\u2019t dare draw too much through the orb, not until I knew if it would work for me. Even then, I wasn\u2019t certain it … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[342],"class_list":["post-5242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-d-k-holmberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}