July 2023 ver.
More walking. Devin yawned. There wasn’t much to do. Not even talk when things felt so strained. Her brother was still angry with Rowan. Maybe he would have been able to work past it by now, except, as soon as they were out of the high traffic, they had resumed his mental training. The usual foul attitude followed. Her cousin on the other hand…
Her eyes drifted from Avery’s back to his. Was he really okay? Sure he acted as cheeky and cheery as usual, but they were following a lead based on his mother being dead. She may have been the one to point out a decade is a good chunk of time, but she still wanted to hope Aunt Luci was alive.
Rowan hung back to walk next to the younger male instead of out front, “Avery, are you really going to be mad at me all day?”
“Yes.” He didn’t look at him. “No? I don’t know, okay?” Her brother was being a little extreme about it. “You still could have said something even if I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
“Did you really like Phoebe that much?” the older canted his head.
Now Avery was glaring, “Of course! Who wouldn’t like her? She’s nice, but not too much or fake about it and she knew a lot of neat stuff!” The teen blushed. “I’d like to think she’s my friend now.” He hunched further, “I haven’t really had any friends before.”
She could see it all coming together on Rowan’s face, “Oh. Avery, I’m sorry. It’s one of her quirks. I’m used to it and I didn’t give enough thought on how it’d affect you and Devin. Or how much of an impact Pheebs had on either of you.”
Her brother was leaning side to side more than necessary with each step as he mulled over the response, “Thank you for apologizing.” He didn’t outright say he forgave him, but the tension halved. Rowan seized the moment to scrunch them together. The little scholar acted annoyed. His tail told a different story. She wondered if their cousin had one if they’d be swinging in unison as she watched them saunter along together.
“We’ll see her again soon. I promise you’ll meet more people. I’ve even been thinking we should squeeze a visit to Frani and Retha if we can. I’d love for you to meet them again. But, you know what? You’ll probably be befriending a lot of people all on your own too.” Yeah, it’d definitely be swaying in perfect tune with Avery’s if he had a tail.
“Heh, you think so?” Her brother was all smiles finally.
“Heck yeah! But there’s still some things you have to master first.” He peered down.
Avery met his eye, “Like what?” Hook. Line. Sinker. Devin rubbed a temple.
Rowan winked, “Sleep.”
Her brother stared, then eventually laughed, “Very funny, Rowan. You had me going for a second.”
She stopped. So did their cousin. Both watched Avery. He went a couple steps before realizing they were awestruck with him, “What?” The poor teenager was quickly panicked by their sudden intense attention. He clutched his hair, “Did a huge bug land on my head again? I’M NOT A FLOWER!”
“You… did it.” Devin informed him.
“Huh?” he tilted his head.
Rowan gave him his signature slap on the shoulder, “That was a real spell! You didn’t even get drowsy!”
Avery went slack jawed as that slap wobbled him where he was planted, “Wait, what? Really? You weren’t pulling a prank on me?”
“No!” The suggestion made Rowan snicker, “When have I ever pulled a punch before? You finished your training!”
Devin gave him her own wallop of congratulations, “You didn’t even have to shake it off like I do! I guess all that torture paid big dues.”
She felt Rowan’s elbow at her side, “Maybe I should resume your training too, upgrade your resistance.”
“Uh, hard pass, thanks.” She wouldn’t wish that hell on anyone, especially herself.
Meanwhile, Avery’s ears were so high she thought they might pop off for a second. He was brimming with pride, but also excitement, “Does this mean I can start focusing on other training?”
The eldest resumed down the road, “Sure! What’d you have in-” Avery practically jumped the young man’s back to get into his bag. Rowan was one nudge from falling to the ground, “H-hey! Some warning maybe!?”
“Like you gave me so much with all that training…” His tone was harsher than teasing, but still mostly said in jest. Avery flipped open his book he’d attacked for. “I want to practice some magic!” He might as well have been drooling over the reading material. “There’s just so much fascinating stuff in here. I can’t even stop rereading some of it. Like, remember when I talked about the pitfalls of anima magic? Oh! Or remember when you mentioned Devin’s circana?”
“Eh?” Devin chimed when she heard her name. “What about my circana?” She tweaked an eyebrow at that rather nondescript book. “What even is that book?”
“It’s an introductory to magic that grandpa wrote.” That explained the lack of writing on the outside. Gramps was always recording and cataloging, but not describing contents very well on the exterior.
Although, “An introductory book? That doesn’t seem gramps’ style when it’s been done plenty already. Did you ask him to write it for you or something?” Gramps was more of a journey to isolated areas and meticulously record every aspect of the experience type.
“Uh, w-well.” Why was he so self-conscious? “No. It was mixed in with all that old junk he has. I kind of found it and took it.”
Devin was rather surprised, “You stole from gramps?”
“Weeeeelll.” He somehow became even more flustered. “Not exactly?” Avery was flipping pages again. All the way to the front to display the first to them.
“Eh!?”
Rowan squinted at it to read aloud, “‘For Rowan, from Grandpa’? You stole from me?” He was baffled. Taking it from Avery’s hand, he rifled through at random. Eventually he peered at the front then the back. She could have told him they wouldn’t help before he bothered looking. In the end, he threw out his free hand in defeat. “Why the hell don’t I remember this book?”
They shrugged. Devin suggested, “I guess he never actually gave it to you?” The mage handed the book to the fledgling. Avery was the one who needed it more. She also had a hunch it was a tiny baby bit more detailed than a standard introduction and would take him farther than something off a regular shelf.
“A-anyway!” Now that they were past the fact he was a thief, he went on, “Circanas! After you mentioned Devin’s, I got curious what grandpa wrote on them.” How did this kid not trip on anything walking with his nose in a book? “It’s actually really fascinating. When Miss Phoebe and I went for a professional reading they talked about them too, but I think grandpa explains it best.”
Their cousin was already lost since he had spent so little time with them while in Marion, “Wait, back up, professional reading? Reading of what?”
“It’s a type of divination with elven playing cards that Miss Phoebe was teaching me about. It’s really fun, now shhh!” Rowan’s face went deadpan at being hushed, but the boy was clearly excited to share all this delectable knowledge. “So every living thing has a circana. Right? Plants, fungi, animals, people. It’s basically our essences.” This wasn’t really news.
“My doppelganger also copied my circana, and that’s where all this curiosity started, right?”
“Mhmm! That’s what takes it from an illusion to an off-shoot of anima magic. An important component of anima magic is manufacturing circanas.”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Okay, so what do they do?”
“Huh?”
She thought it was a simple question, “Circanas. What do they do?”
“I… they-. They don’t do anything. They’re just a part of you. It’s your literal energy, but what grandpa wrote about them is still neat! They’re not usually detectable to someone that’s untrained. Being a magic user can help you feel someone’s presence, even who specifically, but being one also makes your presence stronger since more mana is more energy in your body. Some people are also just sensitive though. Grandpa also noted there are ways to not just feel them, but actually see them.”
“He describes it as seeing a glow inside a person. Swishes of energy weaving through like additional muscles around bones. He also went into details about differences. More mana, of course, means a brighter glow. There’s also, for some unknown reason, a large variation of colors. That’s what the reader talked to Miss Phoebe and I about. Grandpa said there isn’t any truth to it from what he can tell, but there’s a whole personality concept based on the color of one’s circana. As well as destiny predictions. His educated guess was it’s more linked to eye color than anything else. On the reverse, one different than your eyes can actually be so strong it visibly stains the irises. Even from the perspective of a layman.”
Devin tried to act interested so as to not hurt his feelings, “That’s… neat?” She didn’t do a great job. What was she supposed to do with all this information? Knowing it seemed pretty inconsequential.
“Wanna know what color yours is?”
He got their attention with that one, “Mine?”
Avery grinned wryly, “Grandpa recorded everything ‘notable’ about our entire family’s circanas.”
“The whole family? Our parents too?” Rowan asked.
“Yup! Our dad’s was yellow and mom’s was green. That’s what color yours is too, Devin. Mine is white and grandpa’s is red.” He looked at Rowan, “He wrote extra for your parents.”
The man glanced at him, unnerved by that tidbit, “Extra?”
“Yeah. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised for Aunt Luci. He wrote that hers was near blinding. But your dad’s was weird too. He put down that while your mom’s was bright, your dad’s was dim. ‘Near non-existent’ to be exact.” He lowered the pages like Rowan had an answer.
Unexpectedly, he did, “Oh. Yeah. That. People usually call it broken mana. It’s a magic disability. In the sense that you can’t learn or do magic at all. If the person were to successfully cast something they’d die. I don’t mean they might die either. They can’t store mana. Their bodies even actively discard it so it can’t be stored forcefully either. Casting would consume their life instead which is actually an extremely small amount of energy. So, they’d die. It’s uncommon.”
“O-oh.” Her brother wasn’t so ecstatic about the subject anymore. “You know so much about it.”
“Well, yeah.” Rowan briefly flicked eyes to him again. “My dad had it. Mom wanted me to be able to understand what that meant for him.”
Avery outright shuddered, “I can’t imagine not being able to use magic…”
“Trust me,” their leader seemed to be recalling a happy memory for once, “My dad did just fine without it.”
Devin asked the obvious question to bring them back around, “What about their colors?”
“Oh, uh, Rowan and his parents, theirs are all-.”
“Avery move between us,” Rowan cut him off. Within the next second she peeked a shadow darting between the trees at the edge of her vision. She barely managed to stop herself from snapping her focus to them.
Her brother didn’t notice a thing, “Wh-what?”
It was her that their cousin addressed, “Do you see them?”
“Yeah. We’ve definitely got company.” They kept their eyes ahead, not wanting to tip off their pursuers.
The boy wedged himself into the center of the line as told and closed his book, “Could you guys maybe clue me in?”
She sighed, “Maybe try using your nose?” Some sharp inhales from her brother followed.
“That musty smell?”
“It’s wolves.” Rowan clarified.
“W-wolves?” His head started to turn toward the treeline.
“Don’t make eye contact.” Devin knocked her shoulder into his to stop him. “They’ll take it as a challenge.” The lithe bodies kept slipping through the trees beside them. A pack trying to stay in their blind spots and mostly succeeding.
The mage added on with extended index finger, “We want them to think they have the element of surprise. The first move will be predictable that way. And when they do, do not run. Stand your ground, running will make the entire pack go for you. They don’t really want to fight all of us, they’re hoping we splinter. Depending on it even.”
“Keep your ears open, but don’t twist them like you hear something specific.” Devin suggested to him with a palm up, acting as normal as possible.
Their cousin reassured him, “Devin and I got this, okay? They just need a show of strength and then they’ll run with tails between their legs. We won’t even need to kill them.”
“All right.” He sounded spooked, but confident in his family.
They swapped to strategy, “You’ve got better ears than me, Dev’ so signal when they’re about to strike. Avery, keep clear.” Not that there was much to go over.
The brawler nodded, “Got it.”
They kept walking. The woodland still seemed so empty and quiet. Especially after they’d stopped talking. She couldn’t even hear any birds. Not that she could enjoy their absence like this.
“Now!” Devin whipped herself around on a heel. Three coarsely haired, lanky beasts barreled toward her. Her knee slammed into the jaw of the lead, flinging the whole creature sideways with a yelp. The other two skidded to a halt in panic.
Rowan met his with a roaring flash of fire. A big spectacle, but after they scrabbled backward, flipping over themselves, it was apparent it hadn’t actually done much lasting damage. The five fanned out around them with snarls that bled into growls. The one she had struck stood, blood dripping from its shattered jaw, and very poorly stumbled away. She’d dazed it considerably.
Ice exploded on Rowan’s side followed by cries from the wolves. He’d used the attack to catapult them from the ground. A couple of them hit tree trunks before falling defeated.
Thinking she was distracted by the initialnoise, one sprung at her side. Their eyes met in the brief heartbeat it spent sailing toward her. She swore she could see regret in its eyes. The brawler easily grabbed the animal’s throat mid-air, ending its forward moment in an instant, and slammed it to the ground.
“Devin!” The girl didn’t need anyone to tell her where the last had gone.
She twisted, ready to meet the third set of teeth woefully thinking they could out flank her. A fist flew up to connect with the wolf pouncing at her. A mere inch from its fur.
Red exploded.
Devin flinched as her face was spattered. ‘What…?’
She blinked. Her vision of the trees was tinted by the color. The sensation of fluid beginning to roll down her face seeped in through the shock. Devin slowly found the ground in front of her. The bottom half of a wolf laid there. It’s entrails were spread over the dirt, pointing off in the direction the torso had landed. Blood and bits of flesh and organ painted her dress. She was vaguely aware of her cousin swearing.
The girl rasped, “Why…? Why did you do that?”
“I-. I’m sorry.” Rowan came to put a hand on her shoulder, but she jerked it from him.
“I-I thought you said we didn’t have to kill them,” Avery’s startled voice cut in from somewhere.
Her breathing grew heavier and heavier as she stood, but her question was breathless, “What’s wrong with you?” The distress on her face cut him when their eyes met.
The mage tried to explain himself, “I thought-. I’m sorry, Devin, I panicked-. I-”
Her gaze drifted to the fist she still held. Her bloodied, quivering fingers uncurled one at a time. His words muted out, drowned by the ringing in her ears. The red wove its way into a pool in her palm. Her other hand came up. The color consumed more and more of her arm. Drops fell from her face between her hands.
The blood was overtaking her flesh.
She gasped for air. Her arms blurred. Black edged her vision. The world dimmed until it was only her standing there. Her and-. The girl stumbled as the stained blonde hair and pale skin at the toes of her boots came into focus.
“…Mom?”
“Devin! HEY!” She finally exhaled as Rowan violently shook her by the shoulders. The teen stared. Tears poured down her face in silence. He had crouched slightly to be eye level with her. “Hey, come back, it’s okay! You’re not hurt. We’re not hurt.” As her gaze started to tip downward, he grabbed her face instead to keep the focus on his, “Don’t-. Don’t look at all that. Look at me. You gotta slow down your breathing, okay? With me, deep inhale.” He held the breath for a full second before breathing out. “Exhale.”
Her cousin lead her through this a couple times, eventually relinquishing one hold on her to take her hands. “Keep going.” He turned them, “Step carefully this way. Keep your eyes up.” Devin couldn’t process anything outside the directions.
Once he’d navigated her a few paces from the viscera, her cousin finally felt comfortable straightening up. Right about now she noticed that Avery was watching them with worry. Rowan was relieved by her fading hysteria, but unease was creeping in as he looked her over. They only had the clothes on their backs at the moment.
“Let’s… step over here for a minute.” It wasn’t very far to the edge of the road at all. He picked a random tree deemed tall and thick enough. “Devin,” he hooked a thumb to point behind it, “take off your dress, let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll get you rinsed off. Just… keep your eyes closed and-. Tr-try not to think about it.” Don’t think about the wolf blood all over her. Got it. His ‘advice’ was shit and they both knew it.
“Yeah.” She walked from view and took another deep breath before undressing. “Ready!” She shivered as water crashed down on her. She did, in fact, choose to keep her eyes closed for as long as possible. Eventually though she’d have to check to see if it had all washed off. “Wh-what now?” She was sopping wet, holding her dress dripping with blood-water in front of her. Devin jumped as an arm appeared with some black cloth. Rowan’s tunic. She threw her dress on a branch and crawled into the cleaner dry clothing. The girl sighed at herself in it. He was something like six foot and she was just shy of five and a half, so it covered okay, but fit like a potato sack.
She rejoined them looking like a drowned rat. They both clearly didn’t know what to say to her. The mage made an attempt, “It looks better on you than me?” Devin just handed him her ruined dress. He took it with a frown, “We’ll make a detour to buy something else for you.”
“With what money?” They’d spent his reserves on luxuries like food back in Marion.
“I will fix this. Whatever it takes. Okay?” Her cousin dumped more water magic through the material, hoping to lift the stain. It wasn’t going very well. Avery grabbed the bottom corners of it for him.
“Whatever,” Devin trudged back to the road.