If ever a wise man comes forth and tells you that the gods are ill, and the world is dark; tell him what Ash knew from her first step. Tell him to look out at the sky above the canopy. Tell him to drag a lung of flowered air. Tell him to feel the crimson grasses beneath his feet and the rain-scented winds against his bare face. The cruelties of war, and the strife that makes progeny of life, fades behind the sapphire sun. It drowns beneath the hope of sunrise, and the warmth of sunset.
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She had no place in a city, this first march confirmed it. They had made quickly for Duke’s crossing, and hadn’t tarried even there. They didn’t know when they would be made the devil, but they held no intent to face the false retribution the Veytors offered them so gladly.
Duke’s crossing seemed tiny on the horizon already. She had never seen it from this side. She supposed she had never seen anything from this side. Ashtik had lived at the westernmost edge of the northernmost kingdom and had never deigned to look out beyond her wooded hunting grounds. Now she stood a world away, little more than a week after her world had begun to shatter. It had been a slow process till now. A hint at destiny here, a suggestion of struggle there. Now?
Now she fled her home with an army of zealots at her heels and her baby sister at her arm. Now she raced off to build a worldwide alliance against some nebulous, world ending, threat. Ashtik, as she had been in the weeks prior, now known more so as the Sparrow-Knight; the Black Champion. What would be next? The Black Heretic? The scourge? Maybe ‘the mild annoyance’, if she proved lesser than her fate-weaver might hope.
Sujin, the apprentice enchanter, had told her the trek would be short. Maybe two or three days. The first began in silence. Even Evara’s tireless tongue tripped and twisted as she tried to talk of matters beyond their ongoing trials and torturous tribulations.
It was only as they reached the first forest that Ashtik remembered her final gift for Evara. She looked over at Sujin whom she had claimed as some sort of pack animal. He marched along with the chest purchased at the blacksmiths.
“Enchanter.” She whispered quietly enough that Evara didn’t hear. He stopped in his tracks at her slightest beckon and seemed almost ready to bow despite his heavy load.
“Ashtik, how can I help?” He asked, matching her hushed tone. She motioned for him to keep walking as she ruffled around in the chest mounted to his back. The book had been gently placed at the very top and she drew it quickly.
“Thank you.” She whispered to the slightly confused man.
Ash sprung along the crunchy forest floor as she closed the gap between herself and her unusually pensive sister.
“Pssst,” she whistled an inch from Evara’s ear.
“Huh?”
“I forgot to give you your present.” Ash beamed.
Evara cocked a brow at her sister as she unslung her crystal string bow. She half chuckled as she said, “no you didn’t.” Her smile was quickly wiped, however, as her eyes came upon Ash’s hands. The dusty, musky, little old book seemed held together by sheer stubborn pride. It had the spine of a cowardly worm and seemed steeped in twice as much dirt; yet Evara looked upon it with eyes reserved for an engagement band or the keys the world’s greatest castle.
“Magic?” Evara muttered breathlessly.
“Don’t blow us up, ay?”
“I-” Evara tried to say. She took a steadying breath before her little steel eyes fixed within Ash’s own. “Thank you.” She whispered with power in the words. It was a thousand thanks in a thousand languages, all spoken in a single broken breath. It was awe, it was elation. It was fear, and all things fearful. It was joy, and all things joyous. If beaming eyes could light a fire, the world before her would be but a simple sconce.
She tore through the pages with the fervour of a mad prophet. She consumed each letter as though they dripped with the only water in a vast desert. She could barely contain the words within her mind and found herself reading them into being, into words aloud. She muttered every line and sang every spell. She recited every sentence and prayed with every footnote.
The whole day slipped by and she only stopped her worship of words as the sun failed to light the words any longer. She broke her avaricious gaze from the bountiful tome some place deep within the quickly darkening woods.
Ash noticed that her sister had finally re-joined the little party and said with a smile, “we’re settling down for the night.”
“Oh, how can I help?” Ev asked, her voice hoarse from her constant mutterings.
“Gather some sticks and leaves, I’ve got the rest.”
It didn’t take long before their little patch of dirt became a homely little camp. Evara erected a little mound of dry kindling and Ash lit it with a single strike of her dirk. They both followed their father’s training and made up some mossy beds atop of sufficiently sturdy trees. They stopped in their work as they noticed Sujin erect some strange tarp and twig construction.
“It’s a tent,” he explained.
“A what?” Ev scoffed.
“A tent. You know, for camping?”
“Looks cramped.” Ash laughed.
“Tis’ longer than head and toe, though not so long as your tree; I suppose.” He awkwardly chuckled. “It keeps the rain from me.”
“So does a cover... That’s why they call it a cover; it covers.” Ash said.
“Indeed, and yet I fear no tree will quite support a man as... dense, as I. The ground and tent will suffice.” Sujin said with a smile.
“You Forgelanders are strange.” Ash hesitantly said before returning to her own spot atop of the tree.
“Shall I place some beast defences for the night?” Sujin called up after he was finished with his ‘tent’.
“Beast defences?” Ev repeated.
“Indeed. These woods are thick with creatures, I’m sure.”
“Don’t worry about it, bud. Ash has us covered on the ‘beast’ front.”
“Very well, if you are sure.”
The night came quickly, and a traveller sleeps deeply when her travels take her afar. A warning, though, for those who sleep too deeply in the dark and natural world. Sujin was right, beasts did lurk in those woods. Not animals, like we might fend off with flame, but creatures of myth and shadow. One such beast, a lesser of its kind but all the greater than a sleeping man, crept upon their camp.
It might have been a wolf, had its fangs not been so fleshy and tentacled. It might have been a spider, had its thousand, thousand eyes not seemed to peer out in such a strangely human way. It wore no fur, but chitinous spikes shivering over its canine-like body. It did not walk on paws, but completely human hands that shattered and stretched into feet at the end of every step.
It silently jolted and bolted; crawled and clawed across the forest floor. No noise dared ring out as it crunched over fallen leaves and carelessly snapped each branch in its path. It might have panted, or maybe it was screaming, as its head rose and found the man. Cruel and beaten magic oozed from his fingertips. He didn’t deserve his lying soul, but this creature did. It took one single step forth before it was sent flying off in the other direction. Something had hit it, something all too large. It looked up and saw a beast of a grizzly bear which bore its pitiful fangs and it growled its guttural threat.
It was enough to wake Evara, which was enough to wake Sujin. She dove from her tree to the safety of the flame while Sujin took up his battle axe and stood between the girl and the beasts.
Through the darkness of the night, all they could see was the nearest creature. The proud and strong grizzly. Ten-foot tall and near as wide. It didn’t seem bothered by the little humans behind it, but entirely occupied by something else within the night.
The man wasn’t worth the fight. The beast made off into the night.
“Is that a bear?” Sujin shaking voice whispered to Evara.
“She’s a beauty.” Evara smiled from his back. “Put the axe down, Sujin.”
“What? Are you mad?”
“I told you... Ash has this.”
That was when they could see her. Ashtik Sai-Weleg, draped in black steel. She stood before the great towering bear in her brand-new armour. Her hair shimmered with the night flame and her spear caught the very stars above her. She didn’t wield it, though. Ser Stabby had been planted into the dirt at her back, while she stood silently staring this great beast down.
“Ashtik!” He urgently whispered. He tried to rush to her side, axe in hand, but Evara caught his shoulder and held him back with a smile.
“Just watch.” She grinned.
The bear uncoiled on its hind legs. It stood as a mountain over the short woman, though she barely seemed to notice. It stomped down before Ashtik and the Champion simply raised a hand to its nose.
“Thank you.” Ash whispered and the bear calmed in an instant. What had been a warrior, a beast of battle, seemed now a cub with its mother. The bear fell to its side and snuggled its massive nose against Ash’s relatively tiny body. It sneezed and sniffed about her but seemed utterly content to just lie on the ground before her.
Ashtik ran a gentle hand across its furry belly. She withdrew and found a fount of blood buried beneath a matted tuft.
“Ev.” Ashtik whispered. Evara slipped past the stunned enchanter as he stood with his mouth agape and his eyes dumbly dancing across the spectacle. He finally flinched simply because the bear lazily struck out at Evara’s gentle approach.
“Oy!” Ash scolded. She gently smacked the beast atop of its head before saying, “she’s here to help. So, be nice.”
“Hello.” Evara whispered to the bear as she slowly approached. She seemed almost as expert at handling the creature as her sister. She walked as slowly, and as small, as she could. Her eyes fell to the floor and her hands stayed balled in gentle fists as to keep her fingers protected from any nipping.
The young sister finally managed to come upon the beast, who gave no protest as soon as she began her efforts. Evara’s eyes flittered between their natural silvery steel to some divinely golden flame. Her hands lit up the forest around them and Sujin could make out individual veins beneath the bear’s fur due to its newly found internal golden glow.
The shine was shaky, she clearly struggled to hold it. Her powers coursed through the bear’s wounded body but drained at her own. It was a full minute of wilful effort before the girl grew too feint to continue. Her golden flames extinguished into steel droplets. Evara wobbled and nearly collapsed until the bear itself caught her. She moved her head beneath Evara that the young girl might rest her weight against it. It rose, and Evara came with it. The young girl ended up draped over the great bear’s neck like some squishy scarf.
It carried Evara to the campfire and set her down with an impossible delicacy for an animal of its heft. Ashtik followed along with a gentle hand stroking the great beast’s hind.
“You shouldn’t have come, girl.” Ash whispered to the great beast. It snorted at her in response. “It was a dangerous thing to do. Thank you, but you need to be careful.”
“Ah, Ashtik?” Sujin whimpered. His voice broke at his single intelligible word and his eyes dared not linger on the beast beside him. He managed, at last, to gather his jaw from the fallen leaves and continue his intended question; “what the hells are you doing?”
Ash must have only now remembered that she travelled with a third. A dirty glare found the meagre stranger in her camp while a gentle hand combed at the she-bear's tangled fur. She had the grace, at least, to shrug before going back to her beast and her sister.
Ash bundled the young girl beneath a blanket and a hug while the bear seemed to lend some of its great warmth to Evara. It encircled the sleeping girl and made a pillow of its belly for her.
“You can stay the night, if you want?” Ash whispered. The bear snorted again and nestled its nose against Evara’s leg. “Then at least take some food before you go.” Ash insisted. She dug within her leather pack and drew out a paper wrapped ration of salted fish. The bear took it gladly, though she didn’t eat it. She held it in her mouth as she nuzzled against Evara.
“She’s not hungry, don’t worry.” Ash whispered.
“Speak for yourself,” Evara meekly sighed from beneath her great fur blanket.
“Then we’ll cook you a second breakfast.” Ash chuckled, wrapping her steel hand around Evara’s rosy little face. The bear noticed that she had awoken and took it for permission to leave the party as they were. It nipped at Evara’s shirt and gently lifted her enough that it could stand without disturbing her.
“Thank you for helping us.” Evara whispered, reaching a weary hand out to the bear. It met her halfway and nuzzled itself against her before bowing to Ashtik and fading into the darkness of natural night.
“I- You-” Sujin stuttered.
“Go back to sleep, Enchanter.” Ash ordered. “We won’t be disturbed again.”
“How could I sleep after that?”
“Lightly and well.” Ash snipped. She took Evara’s weight and helped the girl up to her little treetop nest. She had barely lay beneath her cover before her dreams took her. Evara slept so softly, even after the ordeals and pains of the past weeks. Ash sat at her side for a moment. She wrapped Ev in her coverings as tightly as she could and watched the little shakes of her littler eyes beneath and the quiver of her lips as she doubtless dreamed of victory in some grand debate.
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Her open pack dangled from the tree and at the top, she saw the two most vital items in Evara’s arsenal. Her brand-new spell book and her self-written tome. She half mindedly flickered through them both but couldn’t understand much but common symbols and basic diagrams. One page of her novice grimoire held diagrams of the natural facets and the writing beneath which must have been their names spelled out.
The image of a candle flame marked the obvious, ignis; the facet of energy. Beside was the diamond rune of creation and orb that meant destruction. Beneath both was the rounded diamond that must have been the facet of transformation. Even Ash knew that there were other sources of magic, yet they must have been too advanced for novice pages. A part of Ash worried the book would quickly prove too rudimentary for Evara, but even a quick scan through dismissed the notion. She had expected some fanciful depictions of old men saying words and causing wonders. She saw nothing within that could possibly be described as a spell. Instead, she looked over tables and formulae. Numerical calculations and listed preparations. Very little of the book even seemed to be in usual words. Symbols – unlike those of Evara’s other scrolls – marked out entire chapters. Swirls and slashes. Depictions of formless men and gaseous women. A two-page spread depicting a half man; half woman, with sections of its anatomy demarcated with depictions of daggers and stitched wounds.
Ash deigned to stash the somewhat disturbing study book in favour of Evara’s own writings. She peeled open the pages and awed at the vast crimson scrawling. Page after page after page, written in a dense – but fairly neat – hand. She scrolled through from start to current and noticed the writing change. It was becoming less frantic, more purposeful. She wrote less densely with much more intent behind every letter. Her penmanship seemed more confident, though less fervorous.
“It’s rude to go through people’s shit without permission.” Evara sleepily chuckled.
“You swear a lot nowadays.” Ash whispered.
“I’ve got a lot to swear about ‘nowadays’.”
“I guess... Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine. I think I'm getting better with my healing; it just so draining.”
“Maybe you’ll find some spell in here to help you?” Ash chuckled, pointing at the book.
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“Maybe. There’s some scary shi- stuff, in there.”
“Like what?”
“Like... corruption. It says that reckless magic can... hurt.”
“Hurt?”
“Cancer, like dad, and that’s the best of it.”
“What?” Ash shouted. “Magic gives you cancer?”
“No... not if you’re careful.” Ev meekly protested.
“Then be – fucking – careful.” Ash warned.
“I will.” Ev promised. She finally opened her beautiful little eyes and matched them with Ash’s own to seal the oath.
“Good. Now read me something; put me to sleep.” Ash smiled as she handed Evara her crimson tome.
“I don’t know, this is pretty interesting stuff. You’ll struggle to sleep through it.” Ev laughed.
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The dawn cracked the canopy and the sapphire sunrise caught in amethyst eyes. She couldn’t remember who had fallen asleep first, but it was clearly Evara who had been first to rise. Bacon sizzled over the morning dew. White smoke pillared over the fresh flame and carried on it the scent of breakfast. Ash rolled from her nest and effortlessly came to the ground while Evara prodded at her meaty feast.
“Do you eat meat, Sujin?” Evara asked of the barely risen man beneath his tent.
“Often and gladly.” He groaned. The enchanter crawled out to meet the crisp morning air though he quickly seemed displeased as his hand came to the grass beneath him. He wiped the dew against his shirt and asked, “has it rained?”
“No, it's just the morning dew. Have you never slept outdoors?” Evara laughed.
“Not in the forest, no. I’m a city boy, through and through.”
“Well, city boy, how’d you sleep?”
“Lightly and well, as was instructed.” He laughed.
Sujin squoze his bulky shoulders through the flaps of his leather tent and joined Evara at the flame. He sat across from her, warming his hands at the flame while she moved pieces of fatty bacon around a small metal dish. Her novice guide lay at her side and one eye seemed to scan over it while the other kept at the cookery.
“If I may ask, what are you reading?”
“A novice guide to magic. Ash got it for me at the smithy.”
“So that’s how you healed the bear? That seems an advanced spell for a novice.”
“Oh, no. That wasn’t a spell. I don’t know any magic yet, just trying to grasp the basics first.” Ev chuckled.
“That was no spell? Then it was soul magic... You are a natural healer?”
“Is that what it's called? Soul magic, huh?”
“Is it an innate ability that gets better with practice, like running or swimming?” Sujin asked.
“Aye, I suppose. I’ve always been able to do it, like Ash with her beast-speak.”
“I wondered about that. I was unsure if she was a zooaphone or just very experienced with taming beasts.”
“I think it's a bit of both. I don’t get how it works entirely, but it isn’t so simple as conversing.” Ev explained.
“It seems somewhat ironic, doesn’t it?” Sujin suggested.
“How so?”
“Well, I haven’t heard her say a full sentence since we met, yet her soul magic makes her able to chat with any creature under the stars.”
“It’s not talking.” Ashtik quietly called from behind her tree. She stepped out into view having removed her armour and wearing only her cloth scrubs. “Animals can’t talk. It’s... communication.” She tried to explain.
“I’m sorry... I don’t understand.” Sujin said in an almost reverent tone.
“Some animals – like big dogs – can be quite smart. Smart as a child, maybe. If I talk to them slowly, they can understand simple ideas and words but it's not worth the effort.” She stood strangely far from the duo and made no attempt to come any closer as she shuffled in place beneath her nested tree. “Simple animals, rats and deer, understand three things; dominance, aid, and threat. If I seem confident enough, they treat me like a parent and do as I say. If I seem kind enough, they see that I want to help and let me do so. But, if somebody stands as a threat to them, I can make them see so.”
“But that bear... You had a conversation with it.” Sujin recalled.
“Aye, she was old. With age comes pain, with pain comes wisdom. She might not be intelligent enough to understand my words, but she was wise enough to know what I meant.”
“Can you understand what they mean? The bear seemed to respond to you.”
“I can. It’s easier to understand than it is to speak. She had lost her cubs to a beast some years ago. Evara reminded her of them, so she wanted to protect her from the creature.” Ash said.
“That’s fascinating! I’ve never heard of a zooaphone understanding a beast so well. Usually only the most basic conversations are possible.” Sujin awed.
“That’s cos’ animals think differently to us, people assume that means they’re stupid. They aren’t.”
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With their breakfast greedily gobbled, and their camp quickly packed, the trio made for the rising east. Their Forgelander guide told them to so until they came upon the Avik river, then to head down stream until they came upon the port city.
Midday came before the river did though its mountain spring blocked the northern horizon. Ash walked a fair pace behind the others as they nattered on about the world and its wonders. She heard tales of the beast-men of Telek Aob, of their war with Xio Vien and the armadas of the Xao sea. Sujin told of a poet he had once known who hailed from the dark steppes of the Bloodlands. Evara countered with a tale she had read of the heartbeat mountain and the dwargon ruins nestled at its base. She spoke in great detail, but in the words of other folk. Sujin spoke in simpler terms, but of the experience through his own eyes. He seemed a well-travelled man, but one used to much finer means of transit than tents and campfires.
“Have you ever met a magician?” Evara asked with a brimming curiosity.
“My own sister had some considerably talent in transformation magic.” He answered just a wisp of pride.
“Truly?”
“Indeed,” he sighed. “Twas’ remarkable. She saw the world through a lens of magic and helped me to see the same. I remember her first spell. I remember the exact words; Kovato et Hope. It took a moment to work, but then the glass mirror before her turned to snow. I watched it freeze over and crack before it simply crumbled to snow. It was remarkable!” He spoke with glee but his heavy gait suggested something was amiss with his tale. Even as far back as she was, Ash could see him tense up.
“Kovato et Hope...” Evara breathily repeated. “That just means glass into snow, right?”
“I believe so. Masloq, she called the language.”
“Aye, my book talks about it in great depth. The original language of the Conclave.”
“It is impressive that you would have memorised such mundane terms so quickly.” Sujin flattered.
“Thank you,” Ev blushed, “where is your sister now, if I might ask?”
His broad shoulders shrunk at that. He nearly stopped in place, but managed onwards with a choked breath. He smiled without joy and said, “Lilliana would all day and all night steeped in her magics. She would have the cutlery dance across the table as she made breakfast. She would turn a pinch of sugar into fireworks as she sprinkled it across the room.” He sighed deeply before meeting Evara’s eyes and saying in a shaky breath, “magic gave her meaning, but it also took from her. Slowly at first. Some days she would stay abed till far past noon; other days she wouldn’t be able to stomach a single bite of food. It never concerned me, however, because she was simply so lively; so full of wonder every other day. I didn’t notice her cheeks hollow, nor her eyes sink. I only realised how far things had gone when she started pulling clumps of hair out. When every sneeze came with a clot of blood. When her tears turned almost to milk, then later blood.”
“Sujin, I- I'm so sorry.” Evara whispered.
“It was inevitable. Her mind was so full of ideas and wonder, but her body had always been frail. Her capacity for magic became greater than her capacity to control the magic. It destroyed her from within.” He shakily said.
“When... how long ago did she pass?” Evara asked as kindly as she could.
“She hasn’t. The magic wasn’t so kind as to take her life. Her heart still beats, her lungs still draw breath. It's her mind... it took her marvellous mind. Now she just lies in bed, drooling and staring up at the roof. I refused to believe she was gone for many years. I summoned dream walkers to visit her as she slept, but they said she had no dreams to visit. I summoned mind readers to hear of what she thought, only to hear nothing. No physician would give her a chance; it was a terminal fate they had seen one too many times. A feeble body that cannot act upon the extraordinary will of a brilliant mind.”
A cloud passed over the crimson midday sun. The only cloud in an otherwise clear sky. It cast a grim shadow across the northern mountain, and a cold shiver over the trekking trio. Ash had closed the gap between herself and the two others, not by her own pace increasing but by their own stoppage. The young girl looked up at the enchanter, her ashen hair fluttered in the breeze and slapped against her muddied garbs. She wore an outer robe of heavy lilac cloth stitched with black and white seams and embroidered by Miel with a little snowy owl over her heart. Beneath, she wore what must have been huntress’ armour. In fact, it was Ashtik’s own armour from when she was Evara’s age. It didn’t quite fit Evara’s somewhat less toned frame so she seemed to have stuffed the shoulders with a padded cloth. Her robe covered the white cloth bootcut pants and black shin-high boots beneath.
The man, Sujin, towered over her though he himself didn’t stand much taller than 170cm, even in his boots. He wore a thin and patchy stubble that must have been clean shaven in the days before their travels. His hair was short and black with wisps of brown at the edges. His shallow hazel eyes closely set beneath his sparse brows battled back a tear. He wore a thick black smithing apron over a set of fine brown velvet garments and a pair of pale leather boots. He was pale, but not in the way Carolet had been. His skin carried a golden hue despite looking as though he had spent all too little time in the caress of the sun.
“Take care with your studies, young Evara. Magic is not to be taken lightly.” Sujin darkly said.
“I will.” Evara promised.
They came upon the river at last though not a word had been spoken since. They heard it first; the rushing torrent splashing against rock, the quickening breeze in the slowly eroding trees, the bees buzzing between bellflowers and hives. Then came the taste of waterlogged wind and the warmth of humidity.
“Now downstream.” Sujin mumbled at the sight. They followed along for some time, passing the occasional wildlife seeking water and even a pair of elderly women out fishing by the far bank. Ash made sure to keep hidden from their view in case news of her ‘heresy’ had already come to this corner of the kingdom.
“Evara,” Sujin quietly said as they passed over a set of steppingstones. “Might I... Show you something?”
“Nothing good has ever come of a man asking a fourteen-year-old that question.” Evara quipped while her focus remained on keeping her footing on the slippery steppingstones. It caught Sujin off guard, he nearly ended up falling over as his head span to look at her. “I’m joking.” She chuckled.
“Right,” Sujin awkwardly laughed. “Then, watch this.” He stopped on his stone and scanned over the shallow waters around him, finally settling upon a single smooth pebble just beneath the surface. He traced a finger along the surface of the stone and somehow carved into it, a small ignis symbol. Sujin then threw the rock out into the water downstream. A heartbeat passed before a little POP bubbled up from beneath the surface of the water. To call it an explosion would be to call a firebug the very sun; yet the rock fractured and scattered across the river, mildly disturbing the surface of the water around it.
“Wow! Was that a spell?” Evara asked.
“Keep moving.” Ash ordered from the back of the steppingstones. Sujin quickly bounced on towards the riverbank and Evara followed along behind with a cheeky grin. She stopped dead after one jump, but Ash didn’t notice in time and ended up slipping sideways into the icy cold river.
“Come on Ash, keep it moving!” Ev smirked as Ash thrashed in the shin-high water.
“You little-” The Champion of Black, hero of prophecy and soaked from head to toe, dove out with a hand reaching her little sister.
“No!” Ev half laughed; half screamed as she was dragged into the water. Ash pushed her head under for a brief moment before running off the nearby shore. “Bitch!” Evara gasped as she rose from beneath the water. Her bright beaming smile came quickly back as she stood with her shoulders hunched for warmth. “It’s so cold.” She laughed through chattering teeth.
“Here!” Sujin shouted to her from the bank. He held in his hands two thick winter cloaks for the women. Ash gladly wrapped herself in hers and even managed a smile for the man as thanks. Evara came over much slower, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her long white mane dripping over her face with every unsteady step.
Evara took the cloak into her hands and stroked the fur lined inside against her cheek before wrapping it around herself. Her grin never faded for a moment, especially not when she noticed that her own cloak seemed noticeably thicker than Ashtik’s own. “Thank you Sujin, I don’t know what we’d do without you.” She wickedly grinned.
“I’m sure you would manage,” he laughed.
The trio made along their route yet again until Evara seemingly remembered Sujin’s display.
“Sujin,” she enthusiastically said. “What were you going to show me earlier?”
“Oh, of course,” Sujin stammered. He reached for another little rock and knelt at her side. “You asked if it was a spell,” Sujin began. “No, this is enchantment.”
"What’s the difference?”
“Magic is a feeling, an art. One spell performed twice will never have the exact same effects. Magicians channel magic, but they don’t truly control it. Enchantment is a science. Something done once will always work in the exact same way. Cause and effect, something sorely missing from your magics.” He traced his finger along the rock and carved in three wavy horizontal lines.
“What does the symbol mean?” Evara asked.
“The symbols are a language; they mean what you think they mean. These three lines have no inherent meaning, but when I carve them in, I infuse them with the complex ideas I assign to the symbol.” He dropped the rock and, much to Evara’s amazement, it didn’t fall. It levitated exactly where he had released it. Gravity seemed meaningless as it gently floated in space. Evara poked it gently and it pushed away from her. It looked as though it might just float off into nature until, like the ignis rock, it popped into dust and little fragments.
“An item’s ability to hold enchantments is determined by its quality. Silver holds enchantments the best, pebbles evidently don’t hold up very well at all.”
He rooted around in the fallen leaves for a brief moment before finding a branch with a few leaves still attached.
“Take this,” Sujin offered. She took the branch and a small carving knife from his belt. “Carve an ignis with the intention of burning the plant.”
“That’s all I do?” Ev doubted.
“Well... no, but I’ll help with the rest.”
“Okay...” Evara carved a very crude little flame into the branch and imagined it catching alight. She stared at it with an almost violent glare. He wrapped his hands around hers while she gripped the stick and they both closed their eyes briefly.
“I’ll channel my mana through you, you just need to say the word.” Sujin whispered.
“What word?”
“Burn.”
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Ashtik could see it. She could see the fear, the panic. She could see the little white-haired beacon stood atop of the elder’s home, flaming crossbow in hand. She could hear the whisper she hadn’t been close enough to hear back then. She heard her sister say, “burn.” Then the whole world burnt. It wasn’t the flaming bolt that lit the pyre wall, it was magic. It was Evara’s first spell.
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The branch lit with a copper flame. It burst high and hot, searing a hole through the canopy far above them. The explosion of flaming magic sent Ash and Sujin hurling backwards. Ash nearly ended up back into the river while Sujin found himself nearly impaled on a tree branch. The flame didn’t slow, nor did Evara falter. Her eyes lit with a violently purple light as her screams of anguish erupted as a quaking beneath the very ground. The little beacon of white had become a towering pillar of power.
“EV!” Ashtik tried to call through the torrenting winds. “EV! Look at me!”
It was of no use, the flames spread across the forest floor into a whirlwind of green fire. All that could be seen of Evara was a faint purple light at the eye of the burgeoning storm. Ash didn’t hesitate. She ran forwards into the fire. She rose her black gauntlet before her face but the flame caught in her cloak and seared at her flesh. She kept pushing all the same. Had her hair not been so soaked, she’d have already lost it. She worried her new steel armour would melt in on her, but it still felt cold to the touch. The flames whipped at her cheeks and scorched at her neck, but she kept moving on.
“Ev!” She called through choked breath. She realised then that it was her last breath. The flame had hogged all the rest. She choked, she gaged on flame, but she marched on. “Ev!” She cried, but it was more a whisper. “Please...”