Most of what little we do know about the origin of magic in humanity was passed down by word of mouth for many generations until someone finally saw fit to record it. Other pieces of knowledge are conjecture, guided by logic and rooted in stories and legend.
Excerpt: A History of Magic – Galen Cletus
Standing across from Erin, Sammath held his staff lightly in his hands. Across from him, Erin had settled into an unfamiliar stance, holding her hands up above her face. “You make the first move.” She told him, and Sammath shrugged internally. It wasn’t normally his style but, if she was confident, he’d see how she backed that confidence up.
Sammath jabbed forward with the end of his staff, aiming for Erin’s ribs, and she slapped it away, almost contemptuously, with barely a glance. Testing blow blocked, Sammath began to circle the girl and jabbed his staff forward towards her head. Erin swayed to the side and the staff brushed past her hair, swaying the strands with its passing. Sammath decided to begin taking the training more seriously and he activated his Motion Sight.
Sammath whipped his staff up from the ground, its bottom half aiming for Erin’s hip right, and he stopped it right before it impacted with Erin’s form. Or at least where Erin would have been, if she hadn’t moved. At the last possible moment before Sammath’s blow would have been guaranteed to hit, Erin had stepped back and to her left and Sammath hadn’t been able to see her Motion in time. Erin’s Motion wasn’t there and then it just… was. Sammath felt his eyes bulging and the light smile on his face straightened out. Erin was dangerous.
Still resting lightly on the balls of her feet, Erin waited for Sammath to attack. Sammath attacked Erin with a flurry of thrusts and strikes. No matter where the staff came from, whether it was above, below, or the sides, Erin managed to avoid it like a tree swaying in the wind. Every attack that Sammath sent out was avoided with ease and he felt something building up in his chest. Sammath swung down towards Erin with a shout. Pushing on his Motion harder than he had before, Sammath slammed down his staff towards Erin, who frowned lightly.
With a tiny burst of heat and orange light, Erin pushed off to the side and avoided Sammath’s strike entirely. Sammath’s staff slammed into the ground and dirt flew everywhere from the force of the impact, spraying both Sammath and Erin. Sammath stood for a moment, panting as he held his staff down, until Erin broke the silence, “I didn’t think you wanted to kill me that much.”
“I don’t,” Sammath panted, “But I had a little more emotion pent up than I’d thought. When you seemed to fight me without even trying… I don’t know. I got frustrated and that just burst the dam.”
“You felt helpless.” Erin filled in for him, “You have no ability to control or affect anything happening to Ashe right now and your inability to hit me gave you that same feeling of helplessness.”
“Uh… yeah.” Sammath sat down, “Hit the nail right on the head.”
Erin shrugged and leant against a tree, “Well, to be honest, it’s not that hard to understand people’s motivations once you know what’s happening to them and what’s driving them. What is hard is actually reading people in the first place. For all you know, what looks like an angry face to you may just be their resting face or even their happy face. Whatever you may think is going on in their life, unless you’re deeply connected to them and an integral part of their life, you cannot know for certain. There are exceptions, of course, such as your frustration,” Erin smiled lightly, slightly forlornly, “but when you grow up the daughter of a Grand Duke and you’re surrounded by people who want to use you for their own gain, you learn not to trust emotions shown freely.”
Sammath nodded, “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, and I have no desire to. What you’re describing; a world in which I have no idea who or what to trust; doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy so I won’t live in it. Instead, I will continue to denounce your monarchy and willingly remain ignorant of your customs.”
Erin snorted out a laugh, “I don’t think that’s the best way to go around living your life.”
“Why not? People say that ignorance is bliss, right?”
Erin shrugged, “I guess… but I still don’t think that’s quite what they mean. I mean you’re not ignorant, just ignoring it.”
Sammath waved his hand dismissively, “Same difference.” After that, the silence lingered for a few minutes before Sammath’s nerves got the best of him, “You think he’s gonna be alright?”
“Of course. I trust Lu and, if he says that there’s nothing wrong with Ashe, there’s nothing wrong with him.”
“I… I don’t mean that.” Sammath felt himself hesitate to speak up but knew that the longer he put it off, the less likely he’d be to say anything. With a sigh, he spoke up, “I mean you saw Lu after he looked through Ashe’s body. You saw Ashe’s eyes go red and black. You saw and felt the power of that energy running through him. You saw the way his skin paled and the wicked smile on his face as he tapped into that strength. He’s possessed, Erin, and we both know that the possessed need to be put down.”
“Well… maybe not. There are cases of demonic possession not degrading the mind and body of the possessed. You’ve heard of the Hellsong Archmage, right?”
“Of course.” Who hadn’t heard of the Hellsong Archmage was a better question. The most powerful person in the world around three hundred years ago, she was an Archmage of Incantation Magic. Her most powerful spell, the Hellsong, was known to drive people insane and create false memories that would give people night terrors for years after being exposed to them. The worst part was, that wasn’t even what the spell did, just a side-effect of being exposed to it. No, the real purpose of the song and the reason why it was called the Hellsong was because it literally brought part of the hell dimension to life, though it was unknown if it actually brought part of the hell dimension into the real world or if it was just an imitation of the hell dimension. It didn’t matter, though, when you were facing it down. Legions of demons, imps, hellhounds, and more would crawl from the ground and attack the Archmage’s enemies, every hit carrying enough physical force to kill an unwary Monarch.
“She was possessed by a demon. I don’t know exactly what sort of demon it was but I do know it was low level. When she was young, someone tried to use her and her blood in a demonic ritual. It backfired and she was possessed instead but, rather than losing her mind to the demon, she was able to fight it off and steal its power for herself.
“I believe Ashe to be the opposite case. He is possessed by an extremely high-level demon, one who isn’t inferior to a Monarch in power, but who is aware enough to realise that killing a small number of people, with an interval between each killing, over the period of Ashe’s life is far more beneficial long-term than murdering a large number of people as soon as it took control of Ashe’s body. As such, he has been able to remain under the radar and has probably murdered a couple of hundred people, depending on how long Ashe has been possessed. We shouldn’t be in any danger for at least a few more days and, if Ashe has made a deal with the demon, we may not have to take any action at all. Not that our efforts would do anything to a demon as strong as Ashe’s.”
“So that must have been why he was so sure he’d survive when he told us to leave him. He knows that he’s possessed, and he also knows that the demon would have killed anyone who tried to kill him, just so that he wasn’t sent back to his dimension.”
“Exactly. We don’t know much about demons, but we do know that they feed on the lives of the people they kill, so the demon wants to keep a constant source of food accessible and it does that by possessing Ashe and keeping him alive. The demon must also be why Ashe managed to survive and grow in power by absorbing the core. I think both of us are aware that my method didn’t work so, when Ashe’s eyes turned red, the demon must have been using power to preserve Ashe’s life.”
Sammath nodded, “So he’ll be fine, but… what about us?”
Erin shrugged, “To be honest, I don’t know. My guess is that nothing will happen to us. Considering we’re helping to keep Ashe alive, I think the demon will let us live for now. I also think that, so long as it doesn’t benefit him, the demon won’t go through the trouble of eating us and getting Ashe mad at it. Ashe may not be able to do anything to harm the demon, but he should be able to make the demon starve for a while, which few living beings enjoy.”
Sammath found himself nodding again as he thought, Okay, we can use this. We can probably convince the demon to get it to eat the people in the camp rather than us… Or just anyone that’s strong enough to be concerning. With that in mind, and after airing his concerns to Erin, Sammath felt a little better about his and Ashe’s chances of making it through the times ahead. For a second, Sammath wondered if his attachment to the boy was a manipulation of the demon, but quickly cast that thought aside. Wondering about such things was bound to lead down paths of paranoia and doubt that Sammath didn’t have room for in his life.
“Alright,” Erin stood up, “We came here to do some training, so training is what we’ll do. Or at least you.”
Sammath took the proffered hand and Erin hoisted him up without any apparent effort. Sammath admired the strength that Bloodlines gave their wielders as he picked up his staff and faced the girl, “What did you have in mind?”
Stupid. Fucking. Question. Sammath thought to himself in his head. Erin and he had been training for two hours and he’d still yet to land a hit on the girl. For every strike he’d missed, Erin had landed the exact same hit back on him and the worst part was that she did it with a makeshift staff. She wasn’t even bothering to use an actual weapon, instead choosing to use a crooked branch that she’d snapped off a tree.
Erin’s ‘staff’, though it was generous to call it that, was bent about two thirds up its length, or perhaps down depending on the way you looked at it, and grew progressively skinnier as you went along its length. Small nubs, from Erin snapping off small side-branches, made the surface of the staff rough and difficult to wield and, yet, Erin somehow managed to use the makeshift weapon with more skill than Sammath wielded his custom-made, perfectly balanced staff that was exactly the right height for him and was the weapon he’d trained with for years.
Bruises covered Sammath’s body, only in places that would hurt but would cause no permanent damage, and Erin’s staff whipped around to give him another on his side as he missed a thrust by millimetres. “That’s enough,” Sammath called, “I can’t take any more of this torture.” Sammath flopped to the ground, accidentally avoiding a second blow that was aimed at his head, though he knew that Erin had let it miss.
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“This is not torture,” Erin replied coolly, “It’s only a warmup.”
“Nope.” Sammath immediately got up, “Nope. No. Nah. Thanks but no thanks. Training is a hot rock that I don’t even want to touch right now if this is only a warmup.”
“A… hot rock?”
Seizing the opportunity with vigour, Sammath immediately began to explain the childhood game, “Hot rocks is a game that I used to play on Volkar. We’d grab a rock, chuck it over a fire for a minute or two to heat it up, and then someone would grab it and throw it to the next person as quickly as possible so they didn’t get burned. If they were too slow, it was remarkably obvious as they’d end up with burns on their hands and scream loudly. Our parents hated the game, but they couldn’t exactly say much as they’d played it too. That didn’t stop them from teaching us a lesson, though, and leaving our burns for a few days. I was the best in the village. Never got burnt once…” Erin opened her mouth to cut in but Sammath barrelled onwards, aware that stopping might mean that he’d have to train again, “Well maybe once or twice but I was still the best, especially after I got my concept.”
Erin opened her mouth to speak again, and Sammath was too slow to prevent her from speaking, “I thought the game was meant to be hot potatoes.”
Yes! Sammath shouted triumphantly in his mind, I distracted her, “Maybe in central Volkar but we were smart enough not to play with boiled water.”
Erin didn’t speak for a few seconds, “How is playing with fire any better?”
“An excellent question,” Sammath began, wracking his brain for any way to escape the conversation and, hopefully, any more training, “And one that I would normally be happy to answer but I think I hear someone calling my name right now.”
“I don’t hear anyone, and I have better hearing than you.”
“Well, that’s your issue, Erin. Perhaps you should get it checked out by that healer in town. For now, though, I fear I must go.” Sammath immediately began hobbling off, the pain from his bruises making walking difficult, and he nearly got away.
“Is that just an excuse to get out of training?” Erin called after Sammath.
“Yeup.” Sammath raised his middle finger and lifted his hand above his head, pointing it backwards at Erin, “Fuck you. Fuck your training. And fuck your hellish, sadistic idea of training people.” Sammath made sure to speed up, hoping that Erin didn’t take offense but not willing to push his luck with the monster.
Sammath felt like Erin was going to say something in response, but he didn’t stick around to hear it, heading into the village to find somewhere he could bathe.
It took six days, nearly a full week, before Ashe woke up again. During that time, Sammath did, against his personal feelings, spend more time training with Erin. Begrudgingly, and only if pressed, Sammath would have admitted that Erin was actually teaching him a lot. The day after their first training session, she’d come to him of her own volition to talk to him. “You rely too much on whatever ability you have that tells you what’s coming. As you can see with me, unless you can see into the future, you won’t be able to predict everything that someone is going to do. You need to learn how to react to attacks, not just predict them. You need to learn to react so quickly that people think you do know what’s coming, even when you don’t so that, when you go up against someone like me; someone who has mastered their weapon, you might just stand a chance.”
Erin’s words had rung true with Sammath and he’d found himself a lot more motivated to train with the girl after knowing what she was pushing him towards. That being said, Sammath’s motivation was only enough to start each session and quickly petered out for the day as he continuously failed to strike her. Sammath did find that, by the end of the last day, though, that he’d managed to decrease the number of bruises he was taking. Sammath also managed to spend some time out on the water in one of the boats of the village. When he’d found out that they were a fishing village, Sammath had quickly run to the chief to ask if he could go along one day with the fishermen and had then been directed to the head fisherman.
After he’d wheedled down the man’s resistance with hours of targeted pestering, Sammath had been permitted to ride with the fishermen on the condition that he didn’t get in the way of their fishing. Contrary to their expectations, though, Sammath was an old hand on a fishing boat and quickly proved himself the best on his boat at actually fishing. The rest of them were better at handling the boat, having been fishing since he was young and having the advantage of being able to actually see the fish through the use of his Concept.
While on the boat, he learnt about some new Bloodline abilities that were particularly useful, at least in his opinion, and it made him wonder just how they’d come about; whether they were there before someone had invented things like boats or whether they’d come about after and just how much of an effect human need had on the abilities. One of the men had the ability to absorb and release wind and he used it on the sails of the boat, pushing the boat along at nearly full speed even without the wind at their stern.
Sammath would have thought that the man would have been pushed backwards by the force of the wind being released from his hand, pushing backwards on the boat and effectively anchoring it place. What actually happened, though, was that the man just seemed to be a storage that froze time for the wind, releasing the wind exactly as it was when he absorbed it, as though he never interfered in the first place. The other ability that Sammath found particularly interesting was the one that allowed someone to absorb cold and then release it. They used it to freeze some ocean water in a box, which allowed them to keep the fish cold as they brought it back.
Finally, Sammath had spent some time with Erin’s cousin, Lu. Lu was a fountain of stories and knowledge and Sammath found that he was a lot more fun to be around – a lot more laidback and casual – not to mention attractive. They didn’t really do much, just talking and challenging each other to games and stupid dares, but Sammath enjoyed the time immensely.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, no guards from the slave camp turned up and both Erin and Lu deemed it safe enough for Lu to go back to fighting monsters at the end of the week.
So, Sammath was talking with Lu, daring him to try and climb a tree without hands or his Techniques, when Sarena found him, “Your friend is awake!” Sarena called out to Sammath from the distance. Immediately, Sammath’s head snapped in the direction of the healer’s hut, and he altered his Motion, pushing himself to a full sprint immediately. Slowing down only as he reached the hut, Sammath walked inside hurriedly; he would have run if he was sure that Erin wouldn’t make him regret it later. Erin did seem to like the healer, though, so if she had asked Erin to give Sammath a few extra bruises in training, Sammath wouldn’t have been surprised if Erin had obliged.
Feet thumping heavily on the wooden floor of the hut, Sammath made his presence known to the healer who poked her head out of the room she was keeping Ashe, “Grab him some water and then you can come into the room.”
Sammath immediately grabbed a cup and filled it from the bucket of drawn water sitting in the corner before bringing it into the room with Ashe and the healer, Lelia. Ashe was laying down but had his eyes open when Sammath brought the cup of water into the room. Immediately, he tried sitting up, but Lelia held him down by pressing on his forehead, “Lay back down. I’ll help you sit up to get some food and water into you. We managed to get some into you while you were unconscious but you’re probably still extremely hungry and thirsty. Ashe just nodded without speaking, rubbing at his throat.
Sammath handed the water to Lelia and, true to her word, she helped Ashe into a seated position. Passing the cup to him, she supported it lightly with her hand to make sure he didn’t drop it. As Ashe pushed the cup further back, she placed a hand on top of it to stop him from gulping the water down, “Slow down, boy. There’s plenty of water for you to drink but you need to slowly trickle it down your throat. If you drink too much, too quickly, you won’t actually hydrate yourself and you’ll just end up filling your stomach with water which would be unpleasant. You don’t want to throw up, do you?”
Ashe immediately started slowing down and, when he was done, he offered the cup back to Sammath. Lelia nodded to Sammath and he immediately fetched some more water for Ashe. After drinking most of the second cup, a feat that took a few minutes with how little water was trickling down his throat at a time, Ashe spoke.
“Thanks, Sam. I needed that.” Ashe’s voice was rough and husky, clearly something that needed a bit more than one and a half cups of water to fix. Ashe looked around properly, taking in the room and looking out of the small window for the first time, “Where are we?”
“I don’t know the name but we’re in a small village on the Northern coast of Arikar. I don’t think it’s on any actual maps, but the people here are nice.”
Ashe nodded, looking out the window, “How long was I out?”
“Eight days. We spent another two days travelling north and have been staying in the village, here, for another six since.”
Ashe hesitated to ask his next question and Sammath nudged him gently with a small smile, “Come on, Ashe. You can ask me.”
Ashe glanced at Lelia and the experienced healer, sensing the oh-so-subtle indication that her presence wasn’t welcome, stood up, “I’ll go out and make some soup to get into you. It’ll do you good to get some food in you.” As though that was a cue, Ashe’s stomach rumbled lightly, and Sammath had to grin at the timing.
“Well it looks like someone’s got an opinion on that.” Ashe blushed slightly and Lelia just gave an annoyed glance at Sammath.
“Don’t tire out my patient, Sammath. I’ll make sure to have a word with Erin if you do.”
Sammath gulped lightly and nodded, his mind suddenly very focussed on the 24 bruises spread around his body from his training with Erin, “Of course not, Lelia. If he gets tired, I’ll make him go back to sleep myself.”
“What was that about?” Ashe asked after the door softly thumped into the doorframe.
“I’ve been uhhh… training with Erin and it’s been eye-opening, to say the least. I’d thought that you’d exaggerated her skill when you talked about how quickly she killed those guards. Now I wonder if you’d actually understated her skill.”
“How badly is she beating you?”
Sammath fought the urge to grin at Ashe’s choice of wording, “What kind of beating are you talking about?” Ashe opened his mouth to respond as Sammath paused but Sammath barrelled on, “Actually, that doesn’t matter. I’d say she’s beating me quite thoroughly,” Sammath pulled up his shirt, showing Ashe the bruises on his ribs and stomach, “in both ways. Suffice to say, I’m suitably terrified of her ability to whack people with sticks.” Sammath’s grin widened as he realised just how literally he meant that.
“Oooh,” Ashe hissed, “that looks painful.” Ashe paused to take another sip from his drink before making a weak crack at humour, “Need me to teach her a lesson?”
Sammath laughed, “No, no. I think I’ve got it.” Sammath then flexed his arms, “Soon enough, I’ll stop perfecting my punching bag act and exact my revenge on her with all of my mighty power.”
“And who exactly will you be exacting your revenge upon?” Sammath’s head turned to catch as Erin opened the door and leant against the doorframe.
Sammath coughed, “Well… you see…”
“Actually, I’ve decided I don’t care.” Sammath winked at Ashe and mimed wiping sweat from his forehead and Ashe gave him a weak grin. “Ashe, we need to talk.”
Ashe’s smile faded and Sammath turned to frown at Erin, who just shrugged. Erin ducked a bit further into the room and closed the door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. No… Sammath peered closer, Erin’s arms weren’t crossed. One of Erin’s arms was folded over the other, but they didn’t form the typical ‘x’ shape of crossed arms. Erin’s right hand was fiddling with the rope that she’d been using to tie her hair as it rested on the outside of her left bicep and the other hand was resting against the inside of her right bicep. Erin’s were placed in a way that seemed natural but left her ready to respond to anything.
Wanting to test her reactions, Sammath grabbed Ashe’s empty cup and chucked it to her. Faster than Sammath could see and much faster than Sammath would even be able to process the flying cup, Erin’s hand was waiting in the air, perfectly placed for it to land in her palm, even including the rotation of the cup moving through the air.
“Ashe needs some water before anything is said. Think you can grab some?” Erin just left the room, cup in hand, as her response and Sammath leant over to Ashe, “And that right there is exactly why Erin is an absolute monster. I’d be willing to bet you didn’t even see her move or process that I’d even thrown the cup.”
Ashe’s eyes flickered between Sammath and where Erin had been standing, “And I wouldn’t take that bet.”
Sammath laughed wryly, closing his eyes and using his Motion Sight to look at Erin through the wall, scooping water up from the bucket in the cup. “I wouldn’t either, buddy. I wouldn’t either.”
Erin came back in a few seconds and handed off the water to Sammath, who dried the cup with his shirt before passing it to Ashe. Ashe took a sip from the cup and Sammath watched Ashe’s throat bob up and down as he swallowed slowly, “Now, Ashe. You’ve had your water. I think it’s time we talked.” Erin closed the door and leant against the wall and Sammath could practically hear Ashe’s gulp that, this time, had nothing to do with drinking.