There was a knock on Erin’s bedroom door early the next morning. She raised her head, blinking sleepily, and saw a woman in a servant's uniform entering the room. The woman moved quickly over to the closet and pulled something out of it, then came over to the bed.
She said something in Silmarith. The only words Erin could understand were 'sorry' and 'Emperor Sil-Isáran.' But from that, plus the fact that the woman pointed toward the door as she spoke, Erin's groggy brain was somehow able to work out that Arturyn was there to see her.
She nodded to show that she understood and allowed the woman to help her get out of bed and put on the item from the closet, which turned out to be a sort of dressing gown made from a silky blue material. The woman tidied Erin's hair a little and gave a nod and a small smile before going back to the door and opening it. Then she stood to one side as Arturyn entered the room.
The sight of him was enough to completely rid Erin of her drowsiness. He was obviously in a terrible mood.
“I’m sorry to disturb you so early,” Arturyn said, coming over to her. His eyes were flashing, but his voice was controlled, and she could tell it wasn’t her that he was upset with. “But I only have a few minutes, and then I’ll be in meetings the rest of the day. I just wanted to let you know that I arranged for you to go with me to Zeiryn tomorrow morning. We both have appointments with healers there—me for my eye and you for your leg.”
Erin perked up at that. “Oh. Right. Will they really be able to fix my leg completely?”
Arturyn shrugged. “I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it, so I can’t give you an unconditional guarantee, but it’s very likely. The Zeiryn healers can fix almost any physical injury as long as the patient isn’t already dead.” His expression softened a little at the elated look on Erin’s face, and he actually gave her a small smile. “I’ll have someone come here tomorrow morning to make sure you’re up and get you some breakfast before it’s time to go, all right?”
He was just turning back towards the door when he paused, and his face darkened again. Erin, following his gaze, saw that he was looking at the rose on the table.
“Who gave you that?” he asked, nodding at the flower.
Erin hesitated, not sure what Arturyn’s reaction would be when she told him.
“Jechrin Sil-Talinde,” she finally said in a small voice.
“Jechrin gave it to you?” Arturyn looked astonished. “Jechrin? He’s got to be the most unsocial boy I’ve ever met. I can barely get him to talk to me.”
“That’s almost the same thing Tabitha said about him,” Erin said, frowning. “But he was being perfectly friendly to me last night. I was talking with him for a couple of hours. We went out for a walk in the garden together. Then he gave me that rose on our way back in.” She looked at Arturyn curiously. “Is that supposed to mean something? Jechrin just said it was a tradition here.”
Arturyn sighed. “Yes, it means something. It can mean quite a lot, actually, so I hope Jechrin realized you wouldn’t understand all the possible implications.”
“What do you mean? It wasn’t wrong of him to give it to me, was it?”
“No, not really,” Arturyn said, shaking his head. “If he knows you just came to Silmar for the first time, he probably did it without any real expectations. Even if he didn’t know...well, a rose that color isn’t anything too serious. It’s the color that matters, you see. Each color carries a certain meaning.”
Erin walked over to the table to look at the rose more closely. “There’s more than one color, isn't there? So what is it supposed to mean?”
“Well, it’s mainly cream and yellow. That means goodwill and friendship. Coming from most people, it would just be a sign that he wants to be friends. From the crown prince of Aner, though...it could imply something like a political alliance. And by accepting the rose when he offered it to you, you were agreeing and returning the sentiment. But like I said, he must have known you weren’t familiar with the tradition and wouldn’t understand. He probably only meant it in the general friendship sense, anyway.”
"Oh." Erin still didn't entirely understand. But Arturyn didn't seem to be angry with her or Jechrin, so it was probably all right.
Arturyn sighed again and turned away from her. “Rather than that one, I'm more worried about what color rose Kirchel got last night...” he said quietly, almost as though he were speaking to himself.
“It was pink,” Erin said, remembering the rose she had seen in Kirchel’s hand. “I saw her with it on the way back in from the garden.”
Arturyn turned quickly back to face her. “What shade of pink?”
“About like the pink leather ballet shoes that newer dancers wear...oh, but you've probably never seen those. Um....kind of a light peachy pink, I guess?" She watched his face tentatively. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Arturyn looked away. "Pink is...romantic interest," he said in a flat, strained tone. "A deeper color indicates a more serious relationship...until you get to red, which is for marriage proposals...."
Erin frowned. “So if Kirchel took the rose...does that mean she…?”
She didn’t finish. The look on Arturyn’s face was enough to answer her question.
There was a long moment of silence.
“Did you know...?” Arturyn said softly, still not looking at Erin. “Kirchel and I made a bargain five years ago, when she left her position at Zeiryn. We agreed to both move on, find someone else, fall in love, and get married. But I guess I never…never really thought it would happen.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “This has got to be one of the worst weeks of my entire life….”
“It has been pretty bad, hasn’t it? I mean, almost getting eaten by a sethien, then getting beaten up and nearly killed by Mataiths, and then…well, then all this with Kirchel. It would be hard to get much worse.”
“That wasn’t even the start of it,” Arturyn said bitterly. “Even before all that happened, I had the very great pleasure of finding out on the way back from Suviel that two of the guards in my escort were actually members of Noquana and having them try to slit my throat. That’s why I was alone when I met you.”
Erin stared at him, shocked by this news. “What’s No—”
She was interrupted by a soft chime from the clock on the mantle over the fireplace. Arturyn whipped around to look at it and spat out several angry words in Silmarith.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“I was supposed to be in the council room ten minutes ago.” He walked quickly towards the door, looking extremely harassed. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he called over his shoulder before he disappeared.
The concerned-looking servant woman gave Erin a hasty curtsy and then hurried after him, closing the door behind them.
----------------------------------------
“I don’t really get how magic works. So I have it in my blood, right? But how are you supposed to actually make it do something?”
Erin was sitting on a bench in the palace garden with her left leg stretched out on the bench next to her and her right leg tucked up against her and serving as a chin rest. Since she wasn’t attending any formal occasions today, she had been able to wear a tunic and pants again.
Jechrin was seated below her on the grass. At Erin’s request, he had produced a small, illusionary version of an anaurian so that she could see what they looked like with their legs intact.
“Well, no one’s sure exactly how or where magical energy is stored inside the body,” he explained as the anaurian climbed up his arm. “It’s just usually described as being in the blood. But the important thing to know is that ‘blood magic’ means a type of magic that’s generated naturally inside a person. It’s a lot like physical energy that way. And it operates basically the same way, too. You can only keep doing magic for so long before your energy runs out, and you have to rest for a while before you get any more. But the more you use magical energy, the greater capacity you’ll have for it—like exercising a muscle to make it stronger.”
The anaurian had reached Jechrin’s shoulder. Spreading its large, feathery wings, it leapt into the air and flew up to perch on the back of the bench. It was a dark metallic green, though Jechrin had said anaurians could be other colors as well. It had a long, snake-like body with short legs and a slender, tapered head, rather like a deer’s.
“I guess that makes sense,” Erin said. “How do you actually use it, though? Most stories about people using magic in my world say that they have to use spells or gestures. I haven’t heard anyone casting spells here, though—unless you count telling the lights to go on and off.”
Jechrin shook his head. “No, the lights are just a kind of trigger magic. The gesture and words set it off but don’t create it. You don’t need spells with blood magic. Gestures can be helpful, but they’re not really necessary. It’s more….” He hesitated, frowning. “It’s kind of hard to explain—or to really understand if you’ve never done it before. But it’s kind of like there’s an invisible fire inside of you, and you can learn to move it and shape it into different things. You can turn it into a hand, say, that can pick things up and move them around. Or you can make some of the flame turn into an image, like that anaurian. Or you can move some of the energy from the flame into an object and make it do something.” He paused and looked at Erin uncertainly. “Does that make any sense at all to you?”
“Well…no, not really,” Erin admitted. “I think I kind of understand the part about the magical energy being inside of you…and how you can use it to do things. But I still don’t get how you’re supposed to get to the energy to make it do anything. You know, how you tap into it.”
“Like I said, it’s hard to explain. Everyone has to mostly figure it out on their own—kind of like learning to talk. But there are exercises you can do that help. And once you finally catch onto it, it seems easy. The magic is just…there.”
“What are the exercises?” Erin asked, sitting up and looking at Jechrin with interest. “Do you think you can show me?”
“There are a lot of different things you can do, and different ones work better for different people. For most of them you need someone to help you—a trained mage who really knows what they’re doing. They have classes at Zeiryn especially for emerged mages and people who have never learned to use their magic before. Most people can’t get it right away—it can take weeks or months of trying.”
“So I have to go to one of those classes or find a teacher to help me?” Erin said, feeling slightly let down. “You couldn’t teach me?”
“Well, probably not in only one afternoon,” Jechrin said, laughing. “You need to have a little patience. But maybe I can help get you started.” He stood up, brushing bits of grass off his pants. “Scoot over a little bit, will you?”
Erin swung her legs down off the bench so that Jechrin could sit next to her. He rummaged in his pocket for a moment and pulled out a small white candle, which he put on the bench in between them. The anaurian jumped down from the back of the bench and took a swipe at the candle, but its illusionary claws went right through the wax. Jechrin waved his hand at the anaurian, and it vanished.
“I suspected you might be curious about using magic, so I came prepared,” Jechrin said, nodding at the candle.
Erin stared at it. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“You’re going to light it—using magic, of course. Lighting a fire is very easy to do with magic, so it’s usually one of the first things that beginning mages try.”
“But I haven’t learned how to use magic at all yet. I don’t have any idea how to light a candle with it.”
“I know. But it’s all right, I’m going to help you. Once you know how it feels, it will be easier to do it by yourself. Here, hold out your hand.”
Nervously, Erin held out her right hand. Jechrin took hold of it and positioned it so that it was over the candle, palm down. Then he covered Erin’s hand with one of his own.
“Good. Keep your hand there, but look up at me.”
Erin raised her head to look into Jechrin’s blue-grey eyes. They were like the color of storm clouds, she decided, or of the sky just before sunrise. The two of them looked at each other in silence for a long moment. Then Jechrin smiled.
“You know, I won’t be surprised if you can do it right away,” he said quietly. “I have a feeling that you and magic are going to get along very well together. All right, don’t worry about trying to do anything with the candle for now. I’ll take care of that part. You just concentrate on what you feel. Understand?”
Erin nodded, not taking her eyes off his.
“Good. Now, close your eyes.”
She closed them, trying hard to set aside her apprehension of what was coming so that she could concentrate on what she was feeling throughout her body. For a minute, she couldn’t feel anything unusual at all. She wondered a little if anything would happen or if they would just sit here until Jechrin gave up and told her that there had obviously been some kind of mistake and she didn’t have a single drop of magic in her after all.
Then it happened, so suddenly that Erin let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. At once she realized what Jechrin had been trying to describe to her and why she hadn’t understood him. She could never have imagined a feeling quite like this. It was, as he had said, as though there were liquid fire running through her veins. It didn’t feel painful, or hot, or like any other sensation Erin could have described in mere words. But it had the same kind of radiant, dancing energy as a flickering flame.
It was simply…well...magic.
Although her eyes were still closed, Erin could sense the magic reaching out from her hand to touch the wick of the candle and could almost see the flame bursting into life on it.
Opening her eyes, she looked down. Sure enough, there it was, a small flame glowing inches underneath her hand. She could even feel the heat beginning to rise from it. Jechrin had released her hand, and she drew it slowly away from the candle, staring at it. The fire inside of her had faded, but now that she knew it was there, she could still feel it glowing very faintly underneath her skin.
Jechrin reached forward and took Erin’s hand in both of his. She looked up at him, realizing for the first time that she was trembling.
“Very good,” he said, smiling at her. “Now does it make a little more sense to you?”
Erin nodded and swallowed hard. “Yes, I...I think so.”
Jechrin leaned forward and blew the candle out. “Why don’t you try doing it by yourself, then?”
“By myself?” Erin said in alarm.
“Don’t panic. It’s only lighting a candle. Nothing terrible is going to happen if you can’t do it right away. It’s just for practice.”
“What if I try too hard and blow it up or something?” Erin asked, looking at the candle apprehensively. “Or blow us up?”
“You won’t. You haven’t had any practice or training yet, remember? You’re not strong enough to do any damage. Just getting the candle lit today will be pretty impressive. Even doing that much usually takes a week or more of practice.” Jechrin smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “There’s no need to be nervous. Just give it a try.”
“I...okay,” Erin said reluctantly.
She took a deep breath and moved her hand back over the candle.