The burning sensation in his hand had died down by the time they made it back to the tower, but his hand stung from hitting the ground. He had surreptitiously tried to inspect it on the way back, and found a scrape, and an area where the lines appeared damaged. He ignored it though, preferring that Sarah not find out he managed to hurt himself casting a simple light spell while chasing off people that were bullying her. She would probably insist on looking at it, and the sooner he got away from all the gawking witnesses and their muttering the better.
After they got inside, Sarah turned to him and gave him a hug, murmuring, “Thank you.” Then darted up to her room. Sebastian immediately raised his hand to look at it closer, and the first thing he noticed was that the portion of the pattern that looked damaged before was visibly restoring itself. It did nothing for the scrape, but after feeling like his hand was on fire again he barely noticed the sting. It was more than a little disturbing to watch the lines slowly shift back into position, and the blackened rough portion of them slowly fade back into a pale white that matched the rest of it.
He went to the kitchen and made a pot of tea. All he wanted to do now was relax and think things over. The day had been filled with far too much drama and stress for his taste, first with having to go out at all, then that stupid confrontation and finding out that he can’t cast spells normally anymore without injuring himself? He took a sip off his tea and tried to think of the last time he had cast a spell normally. He realized that it had actually been some time, he simply hadn’t had to cast anything since Sarah got to the tower. Most things he had a spell for were easier to just do by hand with his abilities, and he had grown fond of using his light disk in the library.
He looked at his hand, absently studying the swirls and patterns that flowed across his skin. Why couldn’t I cast that spell though? My ring enchanted just fine, and so did my bracer. Is it that it only lets enchantment spells through? How does it know? Is it the physical contact? Or did it stop me from casting anything at all and only just recently finalized that portion? He had to know. If he had somehow rendered himself useless as a mage he needed to be able to tell Owdel sooner rather than later. As much as he hated the thought of leaving the tower in this crisis and trying to find a different role to play, it would be truly foolish to allow the others to rely on him, possibly place their lives in his hands, only to fail because he lied about his condition.
Only one way to find out though. He pulled out the pendant he had bought, and held it in his right palm. Focusing his mind on the cooling enchantment, he modified it slightly so that it also caused the blue stone set in the pendant to glow gently. Its brightness was independent of the amount of mana fed into the amulet, and would simply glow as long as the pendant was being powered. He felt the familiar surge of power well up in his chest, and tensed as he felt it flow down his arm. He was so focused on making sure that it would work that he barely even noticed the pain, and he didn’t relax until he saw the now-familiar glow flow up his arm and into the necklace he was holding, then fade out.
He sighed in relief at the confirmation that he could still enchant, then froze. His chest ached a bit from the enchantment, but not his arm. Not a single part of it. He frantically pulled his robes free of his chest, letting them hang from where his sash was tied around his waist. He groaned, unsure of how he should feel about the fact that the lines now stretched all the way to his shoulder, a few delicate lines flowing onto his torso slightly before they faded. It seemed that the enchantment fed off of some of the mana in his light spell while it had been trapped and used it to grow.
He had a sudden thought, and before he could change his mind he chanted his light spell again, this time channeling the mana through his left hand. It worked just fine, seemingly not having any trouble passing through the patterns on his left hand and a little orb of light sprang cheerfully into existence over his palm. Since he had been watching so closely though, he noticed that the lines on his left hand spread slightly as they were filled with mana, creeping oh-so-slowly down his arm.
He frowned, and absently took a drink of his tea, then immediately spat it out and started swearing as he burned his tongue. While he was in the middle of his tirade, the door to the kitchen crashed open and Owdel stormed in. He stopped mid stride and glared at Sebastian for a second, before continuing to the teapot and pouring himself a cup.
“Why the devil are you half naked in my kitchen boy? And what did you do to your bloody arm now?” He glared at the considerably larger pattern on Sebastian’s arm. He was very clearly in an extremely bad mood.
Sebastian tugged his robes back up, taking a moment to get them settled right before answering, “Had to check something, I got in a bit of a disagreement with one of Sarah’s old friends today, and discovered that the patterns block me from using normal magic. They seem to have fed on some of the trapped mana and spread.” He took a careful sip of his tea, grumbling at the carelessness that made him burn himself.
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“So the enchantment isn’t actually complete then, curious. You said normal magic? I take it you can still enchant through that mess then? I heard about your little spat, well done.” Owdel’s inner scholar was clearly beating whatever had him so angry when he first came in.
Sebastian smirked, he rather figured that Owdel would feel less than favorable towards someone who had been bothering his sole apprentice. He held up the pendant he had just made, “Works just fine, if anything it was easier to do.”
Owdel pointed at the floating ball of light, “Left hand I’m guessing? Probably won’t last long, if the lines spread any time they are exposed to your mana I expect you will eventually lose the ability to cast normally from that hand as well. Unfortunately, we may have to accelerate its progress.” Sebastian gave him a confused look, and Owdel elaborated, his anger rising again. “When we first got confirmation that the threat we face is most likely the Twisted I sent the kingdom a priority message requesting troops be sent here to assist in the town’s defense. I also sent a message to the guild. The king, in his great wisdom and limitless foresight,” Sebastian grinned at the sarcasm in Owdel’s voice, “has deemed it pointless to waste resources to defend a small frontier town, regardless of the strength of its walls or the fact that it occupies a natural chokepoint that drastically reduces the role large numbers play.
“The guild, has sent word that without support from the army any assets it possesses are at an unacceptable level of risk, and has issued a mandate that any and all resources are to be relocated to Clearlake as soon as possible,” he angrily pulled a crumpled missive from his pocket, “and I quote, ‘to include books, enchanted equipment, and magi.’” He threw it onto the table. “The guild has commissioned this caravan that arrived today to transport all of the equipment and books from our tower, to the tower in Clearlake for safekeeping. Fortunately, as master of this tower, I am required to aid in the town’s defense and can request assistance from nearby or resident magi in times of crisis.” He gave Sebastian a pointed look.
Sebastian glared at him, “As if I would abandon my mother to the monsters that killed my father?”
Owdel nodded, “Sorry boy, I’m in a bit of a mood right now. Moot point anyways, we are going to order an evacuation. We can still take our time, as nothing has changed yet along the front. If am to be forced to abandon my tower and town, I will damned well see that they make it away with as much of their livelihood as possible. We will meet with the captain and mayor tomorrow and work out a plan. Which brings us back around to your… condition. Enchanting living beings has been tried boy. It never ended well.”
Sebastian nodded, he had read about it earlier after all, “I found a book about it, really wish you had thought to give it to me when I was starting.”
Owdel waved it off, “Not important right now, what’s important is that I said ended well boy. You are somehow in between. Unfinished as it were. I thought you were somehow the exception to the rule, but if the enchantment is still growing, you might not be.” He paused a moment, “You are still an exception to the original tests though, in all of those the process was quick, a few hours and they had a result, usually bad. This leaves us with a choice. We can either accelerate the process by having you channel mana into it, hoping you survive and that we don’t have to kill what is left of you at the end.
“Or we can try and prevent it from spreading further, which would mean that you would be restricted from using magic, and you would have to evacuate with the rest of the normal townsfolk. In that case you would report to the tower in Clearlake and in all honesty, they would probably accelerate the process there, just to see if you somehow made it work. Your only other option, is to continue on like normal, hoping that you don’t turn into a homicidal monster in the middle of an enchantment, or combat should things go badly.”
His tone clearly implied that the last option wasn’t one he found acceptable, and Sebastian was forced to admit to himself that he didn’t care for it either. He refused to put everyone’s lives at risk by refusing to face his problems. He briefly considered the option that Owdel had left unspoken, evacuate with the others and then run, flee and never use magic again in hopes that he could live a normal life. He discarded the thought. What kind of life could I live never using magic, hiding from the guild, never seeing my mother again, or Sarah. He blinked in surprise, not sure why never seeing Sarah again would be one of the main factors against running.
Owdel cut into his thoughts, “Take a day or two to think it over boy. I can’t imagine it’s an easy choice to make.” He stood and walked out.
Sebastian sat and stared at his tea for a long while as it slowly cooled. He rubbed at the lines on his arm absently. Then he batted at the ball of light that still floated near him, and watched it drift across the room, he paused, remembering his first successful spell, and walked over to where it had stuck to the wall. He gingerly stretched his hand out to it and pulled it off the wall, then just as gingerly, he pressed it against his left arm where there were no lines, watching as it effortlessly passed through his skin. He pulled it back out and tossed it again, this time ignoring it. It was interesting that the lines allowed him to interact with the thing without actively using any mana, but it didn’t have anything to do with his current decision.
He needed another perspective. Firming up his resolve, he picked up the pendant from the table and went upstairs. He knocked on Sarah’s door, “Can we talk? I have something I need help figuring out.”