July 2023 ver.
They had settled where they hoped the sun wouldn’t be a problem until at least noon. Devin took full advantage. Eventually she woke up in a haze. A yawn and a blink then she was upright. She scratched a side rather unceremoniously. Avery and Rowan had both beaten her and were already up. Kind of. Her cousin was nowhere to be seen while Avery was sitting and staring intensely at a flower. Odd.
She inquired of him through another yawn, “What are you doing?”
He didn’t look at her, “Trying to learn how to draw.”
“Uh, why?”
“I’ve been up for hours and I got bored. You’ve seen grandpa’s sketches of mom and dad, right?” She may or may not have taken one when they left. “He started off drawing plants and whatever else would stay still for him. I thought it’d be neat if I could draw like that.”
Okay then, “As gramps would say, ‘I wish you the utmost luck in this endeavor’.” Devin started combing through her hair with her fingers. Maybe she’d wear it swept to one side today. Rowan soon returned from over the crest of one of the hills. He was yawning and his hair was pointing off in all the wrong directions. He must have only been awake for a few minutes too.
“Good noon, family.” He sighed as he laid back down. “Everyone sleep okay?”
Her answer was lukewarm, but Avery’s was a cold, “No.”
A tip of her head, “Is that why you’ve been up so long?”
He was stealing glimpses at her from his journal, “Yeah.” The boy was tired and frustrated at himself. Maybe even embarrassed, “You know that nightmare I used to have?”
She didn’t expect him to dig that old story out of its grave, “Oh…”
Rowan merely stated, “It was that village.” Then he glanced Avery’s way, “It was the one where everything turns black, yeah? Until there’s nothing?”
The fledgling scholar nodded with a slouch, “Y-yeah, and no one but me.”
Their cousin resumed watching the clouds, “You don’t remember when you started having that dream either, do you?”
“No? Do… you?” Her brother finally turned his head as Rowan seemed to be leading them to forgotten memories.
“Yeah. It was after everything. All of us had trouble sleeping, but it was hardest for you. Every time you tried to sleep you had that nightmare. Which it’s funny, you don’t remember the cause, but you remembered the cure.” He actually did smirk a little over there.
Avery only had a befuddled, “Huh?” for him.
Rowan sat up with an even bigger smile, “The only way you’d stay asleep was if all of us were in the same bed. Also known as:” he splayed his hands in the air, “The cat pile. I always acted like it was some big favor to gramps. Because, ya know, I’m older than you guys. But… I could leave once you were out so.” He ended with a shrug.
Her brother was thinking over this before slowly asking more, “So it’s because of what happened? And that village reminding me of it?” Avery stopped drawing. He leaned back onto his hands. “We’re just going to sit around today, right?”
Their cousin confirmed, “I think you’ve both earned a lazy day. I know it might be kind of hard to fill the day laying around, but,” Rowan stuck a hand into his bag to soon produce a deck of cards, “we cooould start with a game of Battalion?” Eyes shone atop goofy grin. He was actually excited to relax and play a card game with them. It didn’t sound too bad to her either. Avery was growing twitchier by the second. She guessed he had something else in mind.
“I was hoping I could actually ask you something serious? Really serious.” He was hesitant, “I know it’s not great for starting off a relaxing day…”
“Oh?” Their undivided attention was his.
“Th-there’s things I’ve been too afraid to ever ask. We… we don’t ever talk about what happened. I know it’s because it’s painful.” Avery kept his eyes on his hands in his lap. His ears drooped, “But I don’t remember it at all. I mean, part of me does, I guess, if it gave me nightmares, but that’s not the same as actually knowing. I wouldn’t ask, but it’s important for me to know, isn’t it?” He finally picked up his head to meet their elder’s eye, “Please, Rowan, what actually happened?”
The response was delayed, but eventually he adjusted his position to sit with legs crossed like Avery, “It’s probably a little fuzzy for you too, right, Devin?” Blue drifted to her.
“Um.” She was quickly uncomfortable. Devin pulled her knees to her chest, “I remember hearing a scream and going to look for mom. Then being with gramps and Avery… and…” She hugged herself tighter, “the bodies…”
They both looked to Rowan to fill in more blanks. His mouth opened, but nothing came. Then he breathed deeply and rubbed over his face rather violently, “Sorry. It’s-.” He slumped. His gaze lowered, “I’m sorry. It is important, but I… I can’t… find the words.”
Avery wasn’t faring much better, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Don’t apologize. You should know. You have a right to know.” His hands clenched. “It-. It was… it ate mana. It was just… there. And once it noticed mom, well… everyone else was simply in the way.” They waited for more, but that was all he could manage.
It was a beautiful day and the three of them sat in silence, still unable to talk about what happened ten years ago. Yet they couldn’t move past it either. Most of Rowan’s face was hidden by the way he hung his head, but a glimmer of sunlight fell from his chin to the ground.
“Grandpa,” Avery pushed aside what to prod at why, “always said that Aunt Luci had an unmatched well of mana and that she could replenish it faster than anyone else he’d ever met.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t expect her cousin to start laughing, darkly, at his misfortunes. “While she wasn’t versatile, she was still extraordinary. The others used to say the gods themselves couldn’t protect you better than my mother.” His hand opened and he stared into his palm, “That thing could see it in her blood.” His fingers curled in on at a time, “So it took her.”
The girl flattened her ears like she could push the realization back out. It took his mother to eat and she was worth more to it alive. If she could replenish her magic that fast and it possessed any intelligence then it’d keep her to do so again and again for as long as possible so it’d never have to hunt for another source. It’d never outright kill her. But that didn’t speak to all the possibilities. Would it have been smart enough to piece that together? To feed her? To guard her from outside threats? A person was essentially helpless drained. Devin pressed her thumbs together.
“That’s how we know she survived the initial-” so many words came to mind and all of them stuck in her throat like burs. She’d have to skip ahead, “But, that was ten years ago. I don’t want to be this person, but so much can happen in that amount of time.”
“And she could be dead by now anyway, right?” Devin flinched at how harshly he put it. He kept his gaze from them as he continued. Instead his eyes wandered off into the distance at his side. “I know. It doesn’t matter.” A finger nudged the crystal necklace at his chest. “I have to know what happened to her after that. Even if she’s dead.”
Avery had one more thought to point out, “So that’s why we didn’t find her, but isn’t it true we didn’t find your dad’s body either? Couldn’t he still be alive too? He’d probably even be looking for her.”
Rowan sighed, “He… He’s dead. There just wasn’t anything left of him to find.” The younger male recoiled at this answer.
This was too much. It was always too much. They couldn’t face each other. Her ear swiveled as she heard their cousin taking a deep, shaking breath. “So!” He clapped once. The cheer was grating. She snapped to him in astonishment. The mage flashed them his dumb grin again. His slightly flushed face the lone indicator he had even been upset, “How about that card game?” Devin stammered nothing comprehensible.
Was he serious?
“Guys, there’s no need to be so gloom and doom. Let’s enjoy our free day.” She didn’t know how to react to his flip in demeanor.
It didn’t seem Avery did either, “But, are you okay? I mean we were just talking about-”
“I’m fiiiine.” He dragged the word like that somehow made it more true. “Don’t worry about it.”
‘Bullshit!’ No matter how sure of himself he sounded, Devin wasn’t ever going to believe he was ‘fine’.
Before they could process or protest further, Rowan was dealing the cards. She watched in dismay. Realistically, what else were they going to do? Refuse so they could wallow in their bitter agony some more? She grimaced at the stack accumulating in front of her. The siblings had no choice. They relented and took up their hands.
The game was straight forward. For the most part. It technically had a list of rules making it seem complicated, but once one had the restrictions down it was easy to blast through. However, it was also infamous for being radically varied in the amount of time it took to play. It could potentially take the entire day or one could clean the others out in an hour.
The forty numbered cards of the deck were first divided as evenly as possible. More cards was typically better, but there was also an advantage to having an odd amount. Since Avery had fourteen, they would be allowed to look at up to seven cards for each hand.
They took their time laying out their formations. It was a combination of luck, memory, strategy, and, once they started, speed. No more than ten columns or five rows. No having more cards in front than in back. The card directly in front of another had to be played before the card behind it.
Avery arranged his into the shape of a castle for no reason other than art. Rowan and Devin did what most experienced players did and made their rows as long as possible. Having an odd amount of cards permitted them to stagger the three that formed their front row. When a staggered card was played then either card behind it would be available the next round. From there it was mostly just a matter of picking a card to flip out into the center. The higher number would win and its owner would get to collect all the cards.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Soon came the point where Avery was the only one with a card still in play and the race began. Rowan and Devin frantically threw down cards, not bothering to peek at any of them. If one of them managed to lay out a new formation and battle with Avery’s last card then they would get to take a card from anyone still reforming. The rule of thumb was if they still had a card in their hand or an illegal formation then it was considered ‘incomplete’.
“Fuck!” She spat the word. Rowan flipped a card and Avery was obligated to follow. Devin had one lone card in her left as her right was setting the previous one into position. Her cousin looked at her like an arrogant overlord swooping in to force troops to his side of the fray. Since she had all but one card laid out her entire deck was ripe for the pickings. However, since they hadn’t spent any time memorizing and taking a strategic approach, it was also completely up to luck what he would get. He had to pick at random.
Meanwhile Avery got to take his sweet time reforming his army. She simply replaced the card Rowan took with a sour expression. There was no way they would get through each other’s decks before Avery was done so they continued at a brisk, but comfortable pace.
This went on for a couple hours. Devin found herself ejected first. She watched for a little while, but it wasn’t exactly fun from the outside. She stepped away enough as to not disturb them so she could practice her moves. Even if she didn’t have a target to hit, it was still important to drill.
“And with that, I win!” Rowan threw a fist into the air, “Praise me, peasants!”
They both stared before giving him simultaneous sass, “Yeah, right.”
He scoffed, “No need to act like such sore losers. I am a benevolent king. I will treat my new subjects fairly.”
“We’re not sore losers, Rowan. You’re an obnoxious winner.” Devin pointed out.
“Whatever do you mean!?” He lifted his chin like how dare she suggest such a thing. “And you shall address me as King Rowan henceforth!”
She groaned. Loudly. For an extended amount of time.
“I order you both to play again.”
“No-”
“-thanks.”
He acted wounded by their adamant and immediate refusal, “B-but it was fun, right?”
Devin crossed her arms, “Yeah, it’s fun… until you’re out. If I get knocked out first again, I’m going to be pissed, so I think maybe one game is enough.”
“And it was kind of dragging at the end there, wasn’t it?” Avery added.
“A different game then?” He attempted to negotiate, almost begging. The lukewarm stares told him they weren’t going to budge. He was forced into concession.“Okay, okay, we’ll do something else. But what?”
The youngest chomped at the bit, “Actually, Devin has me thinking. I want to practice too.”
She cocked her head at him. Practice fist-fighting? Wait. He was giving Rowan the big kitten eyes. That made a lot more sense.
Avery launched into unprompted explanation, “You two know what to do in a fight. I know some spells, but I’ve never actually applied them as an attack. I want to be able to pull my own weight. I don’t want either of you to get hurt because you have to protect me.”
Rowan got up, “Sounds like a good idea to me. But that’s not how you ask royalty for a favor.”
The teen rolled his eyes, then asked in monotone, “King Rowan, will you please help me practice my magic?”
Their elder’s face lit up, “That’s more like it! Come, my loyal servant, we shall run through the basics.” He was killing her with that. Slowly and painfully. Was it going to be all evening with it?
They navigated to the edge of their camp so Avery could throw spells into the open field. It was a good day to ask since he’d been given a break on his mental training. Once that started again he’d be too brain dead to do anything.
They ran through the basic elements first: fire, earth, water, and wind. She planted herself a foot or two behind them. It was wise to understand the limits of your traveling companions after all. Not to mention she really had no idea the extent of Avery’s abilities either and was curious. Her tail flicked with interest.
The first four were the easiest. Rowan noted though that Avery didn’t give them much oomph. Despite encouragement to do so at water, the display still wasn’t particularly impressive. A couple comments on how to tweak them to utilize each better as an attack were also given. They pushed on to the advanced elements: anima, light, dark, and void.
The other four ‘elements’, Rowan gave them air quotes with his fingers, were conceptually harder to grasp. Anima essentially creating life. Empty life, but life nonetheless. “Don’t sweat over this one too much. Being able to cast it is enough. No matter how small the effect.” He threw out a hand to spring forth a well of vines like he had done to Devin during their spar. The plants soon faded as if they had never existed in the first place only leaving behind some upturned earth as evidence. “Mastering it is a life commitment for people like us. If you’re looking to be a jack-of-all trades mage, like myself, it’s best to get a handle on the fundamentals purely to increase the efficiency of your healing magic and move on.”
Avery nodded and expanded beyond that, “According to grandpa’s notes tons of mages get trapped in the temptation of it. Especially in older days. Being able to create any life, even if it’s empty, makes you look like a god to the ignorant, you know?”
Their cousin’s eyebrows lifted, “I don’t think I did know. Maybe you should be teaching…” The other was both abashed and flattered by the suggestion.
However, skill wise, all Avery could do was bloom a flower. Probably still had them on the mind from earlier. As Rowan’s spells had, the plant faded from existence not long after appearing.
“Have you tried to cast any of the last three?”
“Mmn-mmn. Not the pure elements. I’ve only studied on those, never actually tried. Dark and void magic kind of… scare me.”
Their cousin bobbed his head to the right with a shrug, “They’re the hardest to control. We’ll start with light and dark. What do you know about ‘em?”
“I remember reading that light and dark magic is considered to be the biggest obstacle transitioning to advanced magicks. Initial skill in them is partially determined by the caster’s personality and emotions.” ‘Huh.’ She really didn’t know shit about magic conceptually. “Usually a person is attuned to one or the other. Thus one is incredibly easy, but the other is difficult. Positive emotion manifests in light energy and negative in dark. To do both requires a significant amount of emotional balance or control. Even heavy practitioners often can’t or won’t learn their opposite, but to be able to cast each element even to the tiniest degree…” The determination that came over him piqued her interest. Why was he so up in arms about it?
“That all sounds right to me.” Rowan nodded along by the end. “Most people are tuned into light magic. The fact you can cast healing magic already is a pretty good indicator that it’s the same for you. Just give it a go and it’ll probably be fine. Focus your emotions into a ball.”
Avery seemed hesitant, but did as directed. What came forth was the most basic of light magic. Light itself. A both comforting and off-putting light. It was basically positive energy, as they had explained. It made her feel better like it was prying off the last hooks of their earlier conversation, but at the same time there was no heat unlike the light from a fire. It was mildly disconcerting in that way.
Rowan cupped his chin examining how Avery handled the spell with relative ease, “Yeah, I’d say you’re better than me with pure light magic. Maintaining it, that is.”
Avery near burst with pride, “R-really?”
Their cousin affirmed prior to offering warning, “Don’t get too excited. That means you’re definitely going to have a bad time with dark magic. I’ll give you a demonstration of the other so you know what feeling to hunt for.” As the younger’s spell dissipated, the older conjured up a blue-black ball.
Devin took a couple steps back. Avery took one himself. Just being close to it made her anxiety spike. A thought occurred. Was Rowan attuned to dark? He didn’t hold it for as long as Avery did. He commented on the spell, “It’s admittedly nasty stuff. It’ll also probably take you a while to conjure it for the first time. We might as well hit void magic first, actually. Do you know what void magic is?”
“The use of magic with the distinct absence of an element. Right?” At least she knew that one before her brother spilled it.
“Right! It feels, well,” the mage lifted hands in nonchalance, “like nothing. Emptiness. It’s also a bit interlinked to a person’s personality because either you get it conceptually or you don’t. For most who don’t get it, typically no amount of training will help since you’d have to basically change your entire perception of the world. I believe in you though,” he patted the fledgling scholar’s shoulders from behind. “Okay, now, give it a try. Actually lets get a target this time. Like that rock there.”
Her brother glanced at him in confusion, “Uh, okay, but what exactly am I trying to do to it?”
Their elder shrugged, “Erase it.”
“Wh-what!?” He gaped at Rowan over such a daunting sounding task. “Like, from existence?”
“Void effects are typically in relation to time and space. Time magic is actually the more dangerous. And a much harder metric to measure on a rock. Don’t worry about it too much, unless you’re the prodigal void mage of the century, then the effect will be small and likely to reverse on its own when you release.” He chuckled, “Which, I’ve already met her so I’m fairly confident you’re not.” They tipped their heads at him, but he urged the teen on, “Hop to!”
They all stood staring at the rock for a long, long time. Eons maybe. Avery was concentrating so hard he was sweating. Exhaling and inhaling the word ‘empty’ like a mantra. Devin glanced at the sky wondering about the time and if maybe she should try hunting for something before dark. It’d been forever since they had meat. Thinking about it had her stomach growling.
“I-I did it!” She looked back to see a coin-sized half sphere of the rock was simply gone. A blink though and the effect reversed. Rowan gave him a good slap on the back, enough to make him squeak, “I knew you could do it! Now we can focus on the real challenge: dark magic.”
Avery sighed, “I forgot we skipped it.”
“Yeah, but once you can do it you’re going to be leagues above a mere novice. You’ll be able to cast anything.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” She was lost now, “Anything? But there’s an insane amount of spells you haven’t touched on at all.”
Her brother was the one to answer, “Well, yeah, they’re called the elements for a reason. All spells in existence are either one element or a combination of them. Healing and ice magic is the best example. They’re both the easiest, but are still a combination of anima and light, and wind and water. Respectively.”
‘When the fuck did he pick all this up?’ Her book for her spells didn’t talk about this sort of thing at all! It mentioned the elements by name, but nothing about essence or combining them. Only how certain poses can evoke certain effects. “Then my magic is just re-configuring those elements too?”
Her cousin gave her a, “Yup! How you cast is fundamentally different so you didn’t need to learn the feel of each type of element to be able to start using or combining them.” That explained why it wasn’t in her guide. Why hadn’t gramps explained this to her? Then she realized he probably did only for her to get bored and zone out. He was so painfully long-winded and she had trouble absorbing and retaining raw information. But this made her wonder, “…what ones have I been using?”
“Well, that move that makes you faster is definitely also a combination of anima and light magic. Things that enhance your body are extremely similar to healing magic. However, that doppelganger move was surprising because I’d call it the opposite. Things like illusions, things that alter your opponent’s mental state or perception, are dark magic.”
“WAIT!” Her brother exploded, “Devin can already use both light and dark magic!? But she didn’t even get that most spells are elemental combinations? How is that even possible?” Rowan gave him the take-it-easy motion.
“The way she does magic is just different. It’s physical, there isn’t a full mental aspect to it so personality and perception don’t restrict the user. B-besides it definitely wasn’t pure dark magic. There was another element involved. I wouldn’t have struggled to tell which one was real after you shuffled if it was just an illusion. It copied your circana too.” A term that didn’t come up often in regular conversation. If she remembered right, it was a fancy one for the flow of energy in an individual, combining circle and mana. Rowan finished with, “So it had to be anima and dark magic. Unfortunate it was so unstable. If only it could copy your durability. Now that would be a spell.” He was lost to his thoughts for a minute at the idea.
Avery complained in the meantime, “That’s completely unfair that your technique is so much easier.”
“H-hey! Who said it was easy?” Devin rounded on him to defend herself, “If you don’t do it exactly right then you’re just standing in a weird pose looking like an idiot. Worse, if you’re too wrong then you’ll make something else happen by accident. Not to mention it leaves me wide open to attack and getting hit will throw the whole damn thing off.”
“Guys, guys, they’re just different with different challenges, okay?” Rowan returned from his daydream to referee them. “So knock it off.” A raise of a finger, “Let’s focus back up on training, okay, Avery?”
Devin huffed, “Yeah, you have some catching up to do.” Her barbed comment forced Rowan’s palm to his face. She threw them a wave goodbye, “I’m going to find a rabbit or something. I’m starved.”