I yawned as I watched the green butterflies I conjured float through unseen air currents above me. Sunset, the tavern’s resident Cockatrice, snapped at them playfully from where she was coiled around the rafters. I leaned back against the tavern bar, absently tracing my finger around the rim of my apple juice glass. Several hunters watched them, fascinated by my magic.

Magic wasn’t uncommon at all, but out here, on the edge of civilization, we didn’t have much of a need for it beyond the occasional potion or relic. Some hunters used magic to trap certain beasts, but learning magic wasn’t the easiest thing to do for most of us, unlike those who lived in the city where they had access to grand libraries and even an elite, albeit very small, school for magic. Generally, it was frowned upon out here, but I’d been practicing for most of my life, so they hardly bothered me about it anymore.

“Hey, Riv.” Rinko, one of my best friends, said as she slid onto the stool next to mine, sharpening a knife blade.

“Hey,” I said, lazily reaching up to allow one of my butterflies to land on my finger. The shimmering ocean green and silver wings glinting in the afternoon sunlight.

“You feeling okay?” She asked, poking me in the forehead with the knife handle.

“I didn’t sleep the best again, but yeah, I’m fine.” I yawned again, feeling completely rundown. I took another sip of my apple juice and absentmindedly swirled the straw around the cup.

“Have you heard the news?” She asked, in a hushed voice.

“About what?”

“I know you avoid politics, but you need to know this. Apparently, the Astral Order is getting their way.”

I froze and lost all concentration, my blood running cold as my butterflies faded.

“Yeah, it’s bad, Riv.”

“They’re not… they’re not really going to outlaw magic, are they?” I asked, suddenly getting dizzy. There’d been talk throughout the capital for months now, but I really didn’t think they would go through with it.

“It’s hard to say, but Torgrud’s worried. Lord Silvo has too much sway within the King’s Council.” She said, nodding to her adoptive father, the Dwarven owner of the tavern.

Sunset lashed her tail and snapped her beak in annoyance, so I remade one butterfly for her and she happily went back to snapping at it.

I turned and rested my chin in my hand, elbow on the bar and finished my apple juice. Rinko was quiet, other than the snick of the blade on the whetstone.

I felt sick to my stomach thinking about what the loss of magic would mean for most and my entire future I saw for myself as one of the few magic knights. I looked at the tome laying open in front of me that I had spent the last 12 years or so filling with spell diagrams, circles, and conjurations. Did that include magic artifacts? I thought of Lady Emilia, an old lady who lived alone and watched over the fae sanctuary in the Deepwood Forest. She had a hard time moving around and picking things up, but with a Bloodstone, Amethyst, and Tiger’s Eye amulet infused with earth magic, she was able to get around easily without help. If they took those… how many others would be left to suffer?

“I can’t believe King Edvard would go for a plan like that.” I snapped my tome shut in frustration and twirled my straw around in the cup. “It’s bad enough we have a war going on at the southern border, now this?”

“Here.” Torgrud said gruffly, pouring more apple juice into my cup from a glass pitcher. He wiped the counter down, pulled his stool over and sat across from us, a pint of beer in his hand.

“Lord Silvo has more influence than you think.” Torgrud said, his bushy eyebrows scrunched together. “Queen Elincia would never go for it, but word is, King Edvard hasn’t been his usual self. What do you think of his recent behavior, Rivienne?”

I thought back to the last time I was there a few weeks ago. “When I was there last with Princess Igraine, she seemed to be really down and out, it’s true King Edvard isn’t himself. He’s been… distant. Even towards Igraine. There’s a lot of tension between those three. Oh, and Silvo’s son. He’s not exactly the person I remember him being. He’s been rather… cold.”

“You mean worse than normal?” Rinko smirked. It was no secret that he and I couldn’t stand each other, but this was a whole new level.

“He’s always been mean, and sour since I knocked him flat on his ass during our duel a few months ago, but he won’t even acknowledge me anymore, he’s cold to everyone.”

Torgrud chuckled and chugged some of his beer. “It’s probably all the pressure his father is putting on him, and you’re all just angsty teenagers right now. He’ll come back around to insulting you one day. All I can say is to be on your guard Rivienne, and I wouldn’t practice your magic in public for a while. At least until they finalize a decision. Like you said, we already have a war going on that the king shows no interest in stopping, there's no telling what he’ll do next. When living in uncertain times, always be cautious.”

I sighed, pulled my legs up on the stool to cross them under me and rested my head on my arm on the bar, twirling my straw around in my cup. I couldn’t imagine a day without magic. Doing chores around the house without it? I’d had to on a few occasions, when I’d gotten in trouble, but I’d always found a way to get around it, as soon as my sister turned her back and quit making sure I was doing what I was told. Mom never breathed down my neck, I never could quite understand why Elidyr insisted on doing that.

“Hey.” He said, tapping me on the head. “Don’t get caught up in the negative thoughts. We’ll be fine.”

“You’re right.” He knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. I had a bad habit of getting in my own head and thinking the worst of everything, creating problems that weren’t really there. I sat up far enough to drink some of my juice, before I rested my head back in the crook of my arm, intending to close my eyes for a few minutes. I jumped and looked up at a commotion by the doors.

Hunters by the door stood up and started cheering as an elf and a centaur came in, carrying a massive horn almost the size of the door between them.

“They killed it?!” I asked, sitting up, gaping at them in awe. I instantly regretted moving however, when the room started spinning again. Notably missing was their friend Inigo. “Maybe he’s just outside still.” I thought to myself.

“Hell yeah!” Rinko said, pumping her arm in the air.

For several years now, much of the forest was off-limits to anyone who wasn't a hunter, due to a massive basilisk that had been terrorizing many. It was bad enough traveling anywhere with the bandits, direwolves, and other various beasts that we had to be on the lookout for, but this monstrosity had quickly become a nightmare worse than anything else.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Torgrud got down off his stool and went to the back, bringing back an assortment of barrels in preparation for the celebrating. Knowing the hunters, they would be drinking the rest of the afternoon and night away, and quite possibly even the rest of tomorrow. Rinko and I sidled closer, trying to hear the tale of how they managed to take it down.

“-and there it was! We thought it was asleep, but it’s odd for it to be sleeping during the day, so we didn’t take any chances. Turns out the thing was just so old, it wasn’t moving as often.” Basiss, the centaur, was saying.

“It still managed to get Inigo though. Nasty, nasty fight.” Shalana said, her dark brown braids swinging as she shook her head. It was then that I noticed their wounds. Shalana had a nasty gash down the side of her face, continuing to her shoulder and across her torso. Basiss wasn’t in much better shape, deep gashes down his flank, deep purple bruises on his abdomen.

“We can’t thank you enough for taking that beast down.” Someone off to her left said, murmurs of agreement followed. We’d lost many good hunters to the beast. All they’d been able to do so far was destroy any eggs they found, doing their best to keep the population down. Even the dragons hadn’t dared go near it, the basilisk was so ancient, they hadn’t been able to kill it. There were tales of roosters killing a basilisk, but this one was immune somehow. The only thing Torgrud could think was that it was deaf, which wasn’t an impossibility as old as it was.

“Oh, hey Riv. Mind helping us out?” Shalana said when she noticed me, motioning to her arm and Basiss.

I shook my head, went back to the bar to grab my tome and sidled back through the crowd, holding my breath to smell as little of the sweaty hunters as I could. Bathing was never high on their list of priorities. I thanked one of the guys who pulled a chair up to them for me, and sat down, getting to work. We had potions, but they were rather expensive, besides, why use a potion when you had a healer right here? I hummed to myself, happy I could save them some gold.

I didn’t really need my tome for this, as I’d cast the spell so often, but I was really tired and it made me feel better knowing it was next to me. I set it down on the table and held my left hand out, palm up, feeling for the mana in the air. I laid my right hand on the magic circle I’d drawn in my tome, using it to help me stabilize any mana I could grab. It was hard to pick out from the emotions flooding the area, but I found a wisp of mana and pulled at it, drawing more to myself.

It was a simple thing to convince the mana to do my bidding, but gathering up enough was a different story. It felt very thin, more than normal. I could feel Shalana’s worried confusion, but I blocked it out, grasping at other wispy trails of mana, pulling more together.

“Riv-”

“Sh!” Shalana said, shushing Rinko.

Suddenly there was a massive influx of mana added to what I had gathered and I was able to bend it towards both of them, healing their wounds in a matter of a couple of minutes.

When I was done, I slumped in the chair, suddenly more tired than I’d ever been before.

“Rivienne, what happened?” Shalana asked, leaning forward, placing her hand on my forehead.

“I… I don’t know.” I said, shaking my head and immediately regretting that, as I’d made myself dizzy again and was seeing spots. “It’s never been that difficult. Were you the one that added the mana to mine?”

“Kid, you’re running a fever.” She said, leaning back in her chair, inspecting her arm. There was a thin scar in the middle, where her skin had knitted itself back together, but it would fade in time. “No, I felt it when it was added, but it’s not a color I recognize.”

I let out a short laugh. That would explain why I hadn’t been feeling the best recently. “Color?” I asked. Mana wasn’t really something she talked to me about, just occasionally asked about my latest spells I’d figured out and on occasion, if I could heal her various wounds she inevitably came back with after a long hunt.

“Mhm.” She nodded. “Mana by itself is a light blue, from the mushrooms that purify it, but once it’s manipulated by someone, it takes on the color of their soul. Yours is a lighter color than your hair, mine is orange, and the mana that was added to yours was a darker blue than pure mana. Here, try manipulating mine, see if you see any colors.” She said, as she gathered some in front of her.

I closed my eyes so I could focus on it more and block out the sounds and emotions around me. When I pulled her mana to me, I felt it, rather than saw it. It felt warm, like the summer sun. Mine was always like a cool spring breeze and the mana that was added earlier felt like a cold water current in a lake. I pushed her mana around to see if I could see the color of her mana, but no such luck. I released it and slumped further down in my chair, feeling like I’d been run over by a herd of centaur.

“I couldn’t see any colors.” I said, shaking my head.

“How do you see mana, then?” She asked, genuinely curious. She watched as most of the hunters around us went back to their respective tables, no longer interested in our conversation.

“Well… it’s like… more of a feeling, I guess? Yours feels like the summer sun.”

“Huh, interesting. You feel it rather than see it. It’s not uncommon, but I can’t say I’ve met very many who can. That just goes to show how differently people view the world. Now that Basiss and I are healed up, we need to go collect our reward from the guild. You need to go to bed and stop staying up so late at night.” She said, standing and grabbing her broadsword from where she’d leaned it against the table. “Are your parents still in the capital?”

“Yeah, they won’t be home for at least another day or two.”

“I’ll stop by later and check on you, are you going to be here or in the tree?”

“She’ll be here.” Rinko said, coming back over to us. “Her parents asked Torgrud to keep her here until they returned. Not that he’s keen on letting her go anywhere like this.” She said, giving me a pointed look.

“Good.” Shalana said, shaking her head at me. “Aren’t you planning on joining the King’s Army in the spring?”

I nodded, knowing what she was going to say next, but I beat her to it, holding up a finger for every point I made. “I need to take better care of myself and I need to stop practicing magic so often. I also need to stop forgetting I have a spell still in use.” I added, mostly to myself. I turned around and waved my hand at the butterfly that was still floating around where Sunset was coiled around the rafters, napping.

“Rivienne.” Shalana said, exasperated, as she watched what I was doing. “At the rate you’re going, you’re not going to last long in the army. Enjoy your freedom while it lasts.” She said, waving a hand at me. Basiss never once took his eyes off me. He’s never really said much to me and it was rather unnerving sometimes, especially not knowing what he thought of me.

“Go sleep.” Shalana said as she and Basiss turned and left the tavern.

Rinko and I went back to the bar, and sat back down in our seats. I pulled the bowl of stew closer to me. “Thank you.” I said to Torgrud, who only nodded, his mouth full of stew.

“What kept you up last night?” Rinko asked, dipping bread into her bowl of stew.

“Bad dream.” I said, shaking my head. “It hit a little too close to home and then I stayed up too late designing a new sword.” I flipped my tome to the sword I’d drawn last night, it was simple, but the design worked better for my style of fighting. With a slightly curved blade, it was more of a cutlass, but it was shorter, making it easier for me to move quickly with. Amazonite in the hilt for clarity and intuition that I was planning to infuse with wind magic to help me move even faster and think clearer.

Torgrud turned the tome towards him so he could look at it. As a former blacksmith, he had a passion for weaponry still, but preferred his quiet life he’d built for him and Rinko here. “The design, in theory, should hold up to most weapons, but you won’t be able to directly block an attack, otherwise it’ll break right here.” He said, pointing to the narrower part of the blade by the hilt. “If you continue to just let their weapons slide off your sword, you should be fine.”

I flipped to where I kept my pencil and pull it out of the page where I’d drawn one with some charcoal. I flipped back to the sword and widened it up some more, earning me the Torgrud nod of approval.

After I finished my stew, I put my bowl in the sink and Torgrud shooed me away, telling me to go nap, so I did. Sunset slid down from the rafters and followed me upstairs to one of the rooms at the end of the hall next to Rinko’s room. I slid into bed and Sunset coiled around me, instantly warming me up and I drifted off to sleep.