I’d volunteered to help Darine to the dormitory, eager to put as many walls between myself and the two leaders as possible. It was self-absorbed to think they’d care about finding me for no reason, but I felt my paranoia was warranted. My patient insisted she was fine and wanted to be left alone after I laid her down, so I took my leave without argument.
The girls had stayed outside to tell the whole story, and Ulia was nowhere to be found, so I lay in my bunk, gazing at the patterns on the ceiling. Ulia was possibly across the hall stuffing her face in the kitchen or off in the city, fixing our mess with the warded corridor. Either way, I wouldn’t be disturbed for a long while.
Everything I cared for was packed inside a knapsack at the foot of our bunk, plus a good chunk of the jewellery I’d scavenged. The gauntlet was too big for the bag and bulged out through the top flap, almost chewing through the surrounding mana faster than replenishing it. The upkeep of the armour while wearing it had gotten more difficult to sustain as we exited the inner district, but it wasn’t strenuous yet.
A knock at the door made my heart skip a beat, but I took a deep breath, convinced I was worried for nothing since the person outside wasn’t a mage.
“Yeah,” I said, confident it was Andria or Maisie, knocking to make sure I wasn’t changing since Ulia wouldn’t care for that sort of courtesy. The doorknob turned, and the frilled sleeve of a deep green dress was the first clue that this wasn’t any of the girls. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge, readying to flee.
The Ambuya’s piercing green eyes froze me in place, and my lips twitched as I put on a calm smile to match her own. A shiver went down my spine at how the mana in the room sang for her, eager to shift at her whim. It pushed away my dread, telling myself it was all in my head because no witch should have that close of a relationship with mana.
The older woman strolled into the centre of the room and tilted her head, not having to look far up to scrutinise me. Her gaze slowly trailed down my body to land on the knapsack below my dangling legs. “Preparing to move already?”
The mana that infused her voice barely held back from forming the basis of a curse, giving her lighthearted question a frosty undertone.
“I haven’t unpacked yet… from the trip with Darine.”
“Ah, it’s unfortunate what happens to our most promising when we’re forced to live like this. A label I would extend to you since you’ve helped us immensely for someone joining so recently,” she said, picking out the gauntlet to examine. “They tell me you prefer the Werl dialect over ours despite the lessons.”
“Sorry,” I replied in their language, not finding the headspace to care about finding the proper translations.
“No need to fret,” she said, shaking her head, flicking short locks of blonde hair about her face. “The simple act of learning Tehban is resistance enough. They once sought to squash our ancestors who saw the coming reality and destroy our way of passing down knowledge protected from their thievery.”
“How do you all speak it then?” I asked, comforted by the familiar ramblings the other elders usually gave at length.
“Hidden books and the brave few who passed it down through the generations. Long enough that we argue over our different pronunciations, mind you.”
The conversation faded into silence, and I searched for a topic to move her away from any awkward questions. None came to mind beyond the most pressing: Why was she here?
“Eudralia tells me you’re from the north, apprentice to an executed witch she didn’t recognise. Not many of our kin chose to stay near the border with Oclar; I think there was simply too much animosity from the near war. Perhaps you know others who live there? One perhaps a decade younger than me with my eyes and a lighter hair shade?”
The blood in my veins turned to ice, and my grip on the bunk frame tightened. It felt like a mana shield went down around me, cutting off the room's sounds, smells and sights.
“Ah,” I hummed, worried about how pale I’d turned. “Not sure. We, ah, kept to ourselves mostly. Would she have been well known?”
The Ambuya put down the gauntlet and sat at Ulia’s desk, crossing her legs under the long skirt. She took an annoying length of time smoothing it out and picking off a stray leaf from the ruffles at the bottom. “To me… in a way. But to us, she was irreplaceable, an unparalleled researcher who resurfaced to say she was working on something important. I do not know what role she took in whatever region she settled in.”
My skin was sticky, and the extra layers I wore under my robe were stifling. “What was she working on?”
“It’s quite adorable how your voice shakes at the most basic questions,” she said with a sickly sweet smile, daring me to look her in the eye. “It’s almost nostalgic… from a time when we actively brought in outsiders. In front of the coven, you will remain courteous, but alone, you can call me Deirdre.”
I nodded and forced the corners of my lips to curve more, having no interest in being alone with her ever again.
“My sister, Keeva, was never fond of our extreme answer for the capital’s corruption. She never saw the necessity of it—the inevitability of the final form of the mage’s supremacist philosophies. Regardless of that naivety, she was still a witch, and we are not one to waste a resource. She wrote to us several years back, from somewhere we know not, that she was on the verge of discovering a way to handle the ghouls running amok.”
“Did she say how?”
Deirdre shook her head slowly. “Only that there had been setbacks in the creation, and she would find us to present it. We’re struggling to replicate her work without at least a starting point and do not know if she is still alive. You understand more than most why we cannot go around asking for the whereabouts of witches.”
“I’m sorry, I haven't heard that name before,” I said, my racing heart mollified by the unknown name.
“It’s bastardised in common and written the way it sounds, but in old scrawl, it would be C-a-o-i-m-h-e. Perhaps you saw some correspondence? Your teacher may have traded with her?”
I licked my lips and turned to the ceiling in mock thought, my mouth dry. Deirdre clasped her hands over her knees and nodded expectantly when I finally shook my head. “The north was too cold for her liking anyway. Too far from the comforts she grew up in. Do you have anyone else to ask for information?”
“No,” I said, not caring to elaborate on any of the questions. In the ensuing silence, I was nervous I’d been too blunt. “It was only us.”
She stood and rearranged her dress, which already looked pristine. “I truly did want to get acquainted with a promising young witch, so I hope you do not see this as me barging in here solely for personal questions.”
“Not at all,” I said, happy to watch her leave. She had the door open and one foot out in the hallway when my mouth decided to betray me. “Could we take Darine to the settlements outside to heal her legs?”
Deirdre turned on her heeled shoes in a single motion. “You think their magics are superior to our methods?”
“No…I, ah, heard from the other girls that it wasn’t possible. I wouldn’t have suggested otherwise.”
She grinned mockingly. “I only jest. I will think about it. You would be a good pick to go with her. New to the area, but your time in the cities will be helpful. Many of these girls don’t spend too much time with the other folk, and the elders are seen as suspicious at first sight.”
“Thank you.”
Deirdre left and closed the door behind her. I held my breath until her footsteps disappeared down the hall and the outer door closed.
I groaned quietly, falling back into the mattress. Deirdre, my supposed aunt—I breathed deeply and swallowed, trying not to retch.
She’d opened up a vault’s worth of turmoil to plague my mind. The most prominent feeling cutting through all the disgust and confusion was that Mother hadn’t supported The Fall. And while that wasn’t something to be proud of, it helped me feel less affiliated with this mess.
There had been a number of different experiments that she’d been working on. I didn’t know their effects, but I did know their recipes and wondered which one would be involved in dealing with ghouls. None jumped out to me, but there were so many I didn’t fully understand the combinations of ingredients.
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I was too proud to lie to myself about it possibly being a different Caoimhe. Deirdre didn’t have my mother's sharp features, but there was enough to guess they were related. I ran my hands through the tangled mess of black curls that were getting increasingly in the way, happy not to have inherited her blonde hair and green eyes.
A single extra detail could have ended the meeting very differently. If they knew she was dead or from the north, my excuses would have rung hollow. Not knowing how to pronounce my own mother’s name was carrying most of the burden, and it was only a matter of time before Elder Eudralia and her stumbled upon that fact.
…
“Please,” I whined, hanging over the edge of the bunk to look down at Ulia lying back on her bed, trying to read.
I wanted to forget Zara existed. Especially after spending yesterday morning in a jitter after Deirdre’s chat, scrutinising each person who opened the outer door. Ulia had returned later in the day to fetch me for a visit to Darine, who had drunk so many potions that she struggled to hold a coherent conversation with us.
The entire abbey was fussing over our perilous outing, yet more so for the mage amongst us. A meeting in the courtyard was called, not to announce the completion of the warded street but to welcome Zara. For a group of people taught to hate mages their entire lives, Deirdre’s words of him being an ally in her speech were too readily accepted.
I’d hidden behind as many people as possible in the crowded courtyard to avoid the greyish eyes of the tall mage standing beside her. His dark blonde hair had gotten longer since I’d last seen him, but he’d opted to tie it back. I doubted he could distinguish me from among the crowd with his senses. However, I also had to worry about being recognised from our brief interaction near the gates of Tamil.
Most of lunch and dinner in the dormitory were spent in speculation about who the man was and why he was here. I kept my more knowledgeable guesses to myself and instead chose to take the outlandish speculation of Maisie a step further: that the Ambuya had found a partner.
Zara had made a brief remark at the end of Deirdre’s spiel about us being welcoming to him, expressing his eagerness to explore the once-great capital. Andria took that to mean we would have to escort him around tomorrow, which killed any semblance of calm I’d tried to maintain.
“No,” Ulia said, flipping to the next page in her novel, barely awake after Andria woke us up earlier than usual.
“Why not?” I asked. “You’ll get to meet the mage.”
“I don’t particularly care. Why are you so eager not to go? You’re usually volunteering for every outing with the other three.”
“My ankle hurts from yesterday,” I said, shifting around to hang my foot wrapped in a makeshift bandage over the edge. “Please?”
Ulia pretended to read, but her eyes no longer trailed across the page. “What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll get you whatever you want when I take Darine to the settlements to get healed.”
She slammed her book shut, looking me in the eye for the first time this morning. “You need permission for that. Not just from the elders, but from Ambuya.”
“Which I have… or am in the process of getting. Aren’t you curious why he’s here? Taking the mage on his little tour might be enlightening.”
“Then you do it if it's such a privilege.”
I groaned and flopped back into bed to wait. Ulia was abrasive and combative, but—
“Fine,” she sighed, getting up to change after huffing.
I smiled to myself as she started to dress and tried to hide the relief I felt from spilling into my words. “Thanks.”
Ulia grunted and refused to speak to me while she got ready to go out into the city, slinging a bow over her shoulder. It wasn’t the favoured weapon against the ghouls because of their tough skin, but an arrow to the eye socket was an easy kill if you could make the shot. The only way I could successfully make it was with a bit of nudging of the arrow, and the girls didn’t want me even to try.
An elder had confirmed Andria’s suspicion early this morning, passing along a mandate to help achieve the desire of the mage. He wished to see the city as he’d only had a view of the abbey and the tunnel system. Andria had decided I was to join and came to inform me, and I subsequently foisted that responsibility onto Ulia.
She closed the door behind her after one last side eye while I did my best to look sufficiently guilty at her going in my place. As soon as I was sure she wasn’t returning for anything, I leapt out of bed to get dressed. I left behind the gauntlet and slipped on the new shoes they’d given me, along with the lecture on not losing scarce items.
I wasn’t convinced the mage simply wanted to see the city. My interest in accompanying him and finding out was only smothered by the fact he’d instantly recognised I didn’t exist to his senses.
However, I could always use that advantage to follow them. Lying awake at night, haunted by the conversation with Deirdre, was torture enough, and I wasn’t about to repeat that for the rest of the morning.
I quietly opened the door and stuck my head out to listen for anyone in the kitchen before tiptoeing down the hallway. Ulia had a head start, but unless Maisie was suddenly on her best behaviour, she’d delay the group by a few minutes. I went out the back through the kitchen and stuck to the edge of the wall shrouded in shadows.
They hadn’t left yet and were talking to a group of elders. Zara looked uninterested and kept walking towards the door before stopping, getting dragged into the conversation again.
Once every cautionary tale and word of warning had been uttered, the group left.
I crouched within the shrubbery as the drawbar was replaced across the door, and the elders stood around to chat. I rocked on my heels, hopelessly trying to predict their route as they got further away.
The elders left for a more formal meeting, and I dashed over to the door. Most of the space I had to cover was still within the shadows, which were easy to hide within, but the area near the door was wide open, bathed in sunlight. I chose my opening primarily out of frustration with the number of people in the vegetable gardens who needed to be turned away.
I lifted the drawbar and floated it in place as I squeezed out, slowly dropping it behind me. The sounds from inside died away from the many runes meant to keep the abbey hidden, and I was left to the whistling of a windy winter morning. There were no clues as to where Zara and the three girls had gone until a foul stench hit me before being carried away.
I sniffed around the street like Sweeka when she was looking for a scrap of food that had slipped between the couch cushions.
In the end, travelling upwind was more effective than sniffing the source. A ghoul lay sprawled out on the ground with burn holes in their chest and forehead. It was the result of the same type of spell that had hit me in the back outside the walls of Tamil, except at a close enough range to bore part way through the body.
The trail of bodies continued towards the warded street, with the groups of ghouls having different injuries. Some were sliced in half, while several were more ash than ghoul, but most had the same burn marks.
It wasn’t a sustainable strategy, which was why we avoided getting into fights. Very soon, they would attract too much attention to fight off quickly and quietly, which would only serve as a beacon for more. I could imagine the girls quietly seething at the stupidity of the mage as he flung out magic wherever he felt.
Or were they happy for the easier journey, not knowing that spells weren’t endless?
There was a faint flash of mana in the distance that coalesced into a spell. I couldn’t tell what it was from here, but the explosion before the roar of a building crumbling to the ground gave it away.
I ducked inside as the ghouls lurking behind me flew past towards the disturbance. More groups joined them, keeping me from leaving. I wasn’t far from the wards, but with every passing group, it got more complicated.
Explosions echoed down the street without any following destruction beyond the screech of ghouls. I found a break in the throng of ghouls to get a street closer before being forced back into hiding.
Ulia’s muffled shouts were coming from the upper floor of a building next to a smouldering ruin. The new zone of destruction lay next to the structure that I’d collapsed, and I supposed someone could blame me for weakening the foundations first. The girls were at least on the other side of it and not stuck inside the lone building we’d found ourselves on.
Out of all the days we’d travelled in this region of the city, we’d only gotten in trouble once—the inner district didn’t count. There were no remnant knights, looters, or territorial ghouls to thin the numbers. The explosions had stopped now that they were inside, replaced by flashes of light pulsing through the windows, but the damage had already been done.
Ghouls swarmed the area in numbers we hadn’t seen before, uncaring for the wards.
The slanted window set into the roof flew into the air from a blast of air. Zara clambered out, followed by the three girls who were more sure-footed on the sloped tiles. Glass shards rained down on them and across the cobblestone, offering a brief distraction to the ghouls throwing themselves at the walls of the buildings.
Some of them found openings or intact windows to tumble through.
Ghouls pushed through the new opening, crawling after the mage still hurling spells. Others watched from the street, a crowd blocking them from getting closer.
Zara had his arms out for balance as he scaled the rooftop, flapping them about for stability. He barely kept up with Andria at the back, who was moving slower for his benefit.
He looked back at the ghouls crawling towards him and put too much weight on his back foot. Windmilling his arms didn’t help. His tall frame slowly tipped backwards. Andria reached out to help, and Zara gripped her wrist, pulling her off balance to save himself.
Andria stumbled down the tiles, trying to stop her momentum as Zara fell forward over the ridge. I moved away from the window towards the door, ready to catch her. Andria fell backwards and halted as I reached for the handle.
Zara stood on shaky legs, only to have Ulia hit him in the chest with an arrow. My eyes widened as he tumbled past Andria, almost taking her with him. He twisted in the air, the ghouls below already reaching for him.
I had no intention of catching him, but he didn’t need my help. A spell formed to cushion his landing, pushing the snarling ghouls away. Despite that, Zara didn’t land on his feet, and the arrow shaft snapped against the cobblestone as his body hit the street.
His hair was out of its tie. The ghouls hadn’t been pushed far away, and the mage was sluggish getting to his hands and knees. Blood dripped from the arrowhead, still stuck in his shoulder. Zara stumbled to his feet, arm out with a spell already tied together.
The spell ignited the air around its impact on the closest ghoul. It pulled those nearby into its flame before flinging them away with a deafening boom. Maisie helped Andria back up while the ghouls crawling after them were more interested in what was happening below.
Zara limped across to my row of houses and broke into the one next to me, rays of light searing through the ghouls that tried to follow. Those who were hit fell closer and closer to the entrance after every spell.