Chapter 3

“She’s pretty badly hurt Reynesh, you’re just a Machinist, what can you do?!” The voice was warbly,

“If she’s anything like her mother when she was younger, she pull through. What I was taught in the Mechanist Guild may be secrets to outsiders, but we have our tricks.”

“You sell your dusty scrolls what are scrolls going to do to help her.”

My head throbbed, as my eyes opened my vision swam. “Ah, looks like your waking up Elandra.” The second voice was so familiar, I looked at him and my heart dropped. My body started shoot up, but I was held down.

“I'm…” my throat was scratchy and could barely get a word out. “Sorry master.” But I forced it out I would have been yelled at if I didn’t.

“Enough of that, you’re not my slave anymore. So I won’t treat you like one. Just lay down, you fool.” His voice was so, docile.

“Now I need to go grab something Torrel, watch over the girl and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.” His voice ended with held back anger.

“What you did out there was reckless Elandra,” he said with a smile, “gotta say, not many people have the guts to do what you did on that stage.”

He leaned back against the wall. I was above Spellbinders, Reynesh would only let me up here if he needed something.

“Now, the Alleyway, that was impressive. How old are you? 16 - 17?”

“I’m 23.” I managed to get out.

“Wow!” He let surprise slip out. “For a street urchin and a slave, you look way younger than you should!”

My throat burned, all I could do was stare daggers at him. He waved his hand at me.

“I mean wielding the magic, and staying alive as you did is quite impressive. Untrained, but a lot of potential there.” He got up, and vanished into a cloud of smoke and popped back up near a bottle of wine. “We will get you healed up, may take a few days. But, once you’re good and healed, I’m taking you on as my apprentice.”

I coughed hard, I tried my best to sit up. I looked at him, he rose an eyebrow. “You know Reynesh is going to be really upset if he sees you trying to get up, right?”

I rolled my eyes and nodded. My stomach ached from the kicks, and eased myself back down. “Why?”

Torrel looked confused. “Why what? Why am I taking you on as my apprentice?” He smiled and got close.

“We need more people in the world to make it stronger, I came here to give hope, and to train you so you can fight for those who cant fight for themselves.” It was subtle, was he speaking heresy? I tilted my head. The look he gave me in return confirmed it.

I coughed, “Then, at the stage?” Reynesh what's taking so long, I could feel my body ache in rebellion to stay awake. My eyes betrayed me again, as my vision blurred and my eyelids created a dark abyss.

…

I awoke not at spellbinders, but a different realm? Water came up to my waist, a mighty storm raged above me. Lightning struck, but the sound of thunder was non-existent. I tried to move, but it was like trudging through mud.

“Well, if it isn’t a daughter of Anthurium & Atropa.” A Voice echoed around me.

“What is this? Who are you?” My voice was back, my body no longer ached. I checked myself for the wounds, nothing.

I felt it, the connection to the Entangled Stream. I beam of light shot through the dark clouds. Tendrils reached out. The Swelling? What is it doing here? I was no longer on Arisaema.

“I am what was born from them. You would call me The Entangled stream.” The Tendrils formed into a silhouette, “This is the in between. Elandra, you are a key to restoring the balance between Anthurium and Atropa.” It walked on the water towards me. “Spellweavers are corrupted by Atropa, but you are born from both. You are not like other Spellweavers, there is a balance in you.” The being formed tendrils in the water around me. “Your connection has been severed, allow me to restore you.”

I felt warmth, then a shooting pain course through my body. Every inch of me was like lightning shooting through my veins. It then turned into a raging fire. I fell into the water screaming, the water rushed down my throat. I breathed it in, the fire soothed into warmth. A calm washed over me, and I shot up.

I was back in Spellbinders, Reynesh’s eye were wide. The Fat man smiled. The pain was gone. I shot daggers at him. His reflexes kicked in, and anger filled his face and he raised his hand. “You ungrateful girl!” He dropped his hand stood up and waddled to the kitchen.

“Well, that was a surprise, You are looking like new!” Torrel said in a chipper tone, “How do you feel?”

I moved my body around, I looked beside me to see a pile of ash of a spellscroll. “Reynesh, isn't that an eternal scroll?” Reynesh grunted.

“Yeah, a good friend of mine gave that to me, and to use it on you. Such a waist. You’re ungrateful, why did I even bother using it.” He reached into the cold box and pulled out a block of goat cheese.

“Well, you owed me Reynesh,” Torrel said, He walked over and grabbed the cheese out of his hand. “Right, Master?” Torrel mocked Reynesh.

“What?! You are kidding!” I sputtered out.

“Yeah believe it or not, this old codger was once a teacher. When I was younger, he was hired by my family to teach me magic.” Torrel smiled, “Trust me Elandra, he may be tough and short tempered, That much has not changed, But he really is a huge softy.”

“Yeah, yeah… Well you showed a lot of promise,” Reynesh said as he shrunk down. “But Torrel, she's got something special about her, you saw what the Spellscroll did.”

What were they talking about, I reached down and touched the ash. A flash of the In Between tore through my vision. The ash climbed up to meet me. Then floated away.

“This is what it was like when I tried to rob you Reynesh.” I looked at him. He sat down at the counter.

“That's why I took you in Elandra, I’ve never seen anything like that. I wanted to see if you were like me.” He placed his head in his hands. “That's why I called Torrel here to find out what kind of magic you wield. You defiantly have a Mechanist in you.”

I looked down hand my hands my fire and ice glyphs were gone. I searched inside and I connected to The Entangled Stream. I felt my glyphs and more. “Reynesh, you say you channel The Entangled Stream through you and it guides your hand to make scrolls. Can you give me scribe paper?”

He opened up a drawer, he put a corse paper on the counter, then a feather and Ink well. I grabbed them and began to write the Glyph of Fire. As the glyph was finished, it creeped off the page and crawled up my arm. I felt it burn. I dropped the quill and opened my palm. A calm fire rested in my hand. It danced gently, I reached inside and took a deep breath. I pushed on the flame and it grew.

“See what I mean Torrel, but Elandra, you are controlling it?” Reynesh said with confusion.

“Yeah, I saw a vison when I blacked out and when I woke up, I think the Eternal Scroll fixed something in me.” I said with excitement. I took a deep breath and pulled the flame. It shrunk down until it disappeared. “I think I am an elementalist.” I could help it, but a smile creeped across my face.

“Well, I know how to use shadow Magic, I think I can teach you control Elandra. The rest you need to figure out yourself. Now come with me.” Torrel headed out into the city. “I want to show you a place that is special to me and where I learned in secret.”