13.8

The bridge between her sister and Jewel was not fully repaired. She was still hesitant sometimes when Jewel came into the room or raised her voice suddenly.

But it was a start on mending.

She practiced Valasect Cant with Gwenn as Gem. She spoke to her sister about what it was like to fly with their brother. Her sister was ultimately a very young child and Jewel had quite a lot of experience with Children.

All the boar festivals and Gem’s friends in Valasect made her confident in how to help sooth her sister’s fears now that they had time together.

Now that the first wall of terror had been torn down.

Mother and Father had wanted to admonish Gwenn for her outburst but Jewel had insisted that no harm or dishonor was done to her.

She’d insisted that Gwenn promise that she would not act like that with any man or beast besides Jewel. She was soft spoken and gentle and although unwilling at first Mother and Muriel eventually agreed and then helped to further explain the need to her sister.

Another exciting moment however was what she had found after the Longest Night’s ritual was complete.

Although it had taken a day for it to finish settling, Jewel’s wyrmflame had once again fully replaced the lines of divine miracle and mortal sorcery that had taken hold in Gem’s flesh. Even better, Gem could even gently shape, restrain or express the flame within herself!

Even when Jewel’s wyrmish body was not present!

Tsulogothulan was making an effort to see if one of the few workings they had bothered to shape into a practicable spell could be enacted by Jewel’s spawn. Some kind of test of the nature of Wyrmish Sorcery and how it may or may not differ from other methods such as wizardry, invoking of the divine and even simpler minor spells.

“Hmmm, no you need to spin the finger like this while twisting the wrist and splaying the other two fingers out.”

The Bog Weird extended a hand not much larger than Gem’s own and made the gesture that was not exactly different from Flight Cant but also not quite a match. When Jewel watched with her larger eyes she could feel the faux flame trying to catch and pull into shape like a thread.

But it tangled in the wyrm flame that ran along Gem’s own scales.

Causing it to require slightly modified motions to compensate. Ones that Gem couldn't quite make without Jewel’s direct supervision.

The second hardest part after managing to grasp something in your fingers that you could neither see nor touch was getting the shape of the sounds right. Uloghai was significantly harder than the tongues of the middle Ridgetail valleys.

At least in Gem’s mouth.

And the spell absolutely would not work spoken in any language but Tsulogothulan’s mother tongue.

Jewel thought there was actually even more to that than merely the words themselves. As she watched the Weird performing the simple sorcery which could pull the water from the soil and air to fill a vessel.

There was a subtle presence being left behind in the faux fire of the room before Gem was guided to move her hands through the very same air.

When Gem said the words which were a Uloghai rhyme asking for rain to wet a thirsty throat the shape of the faux fire did not just simply move in the tugging thread, or form in the swirling net carried by her words.

The act of learning the spell was not only a calling or changing of the flame within the world.

Or even drawing on the wyrmflame that pulsed and moved through her own flesh.

No, every repetition under Tsulogothulan’s careful guidance was catching pieces of the flame in the air onto Gem’s fingertips. Every proper recitation of the spell’s rhyme drew some of that specific faux flame into her lungs before releasing it out again shaped by the words and tongue.

And with every syllable and breath it stuck to Gem’s teeth, to her throat.

Something was happening that was more then Tsulogothulan’s instructions suggested.

There was so much to potentially get wrong in even this simple spell.

Every slight correction by her friend for the actions, posture, breathing rate, rhythm, exact enunciation, tilt of her head.

It left further traces of sorcery upon Gem.

Jewel was not sure of the providence of it, she’d only observed so many workings done by someone who was neither wizard, god, or a caller of either.

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Her own sorcery felt almost invisible in how intuitive it was. Accidental as much as intentional. The acts of even Jaksa and the other lesser wizards she saw were direct and immediate, yet also seemingly subtle and inherent.

Weirds barely even seemed to do anything but the workings themselves.

There was the whispery, not words they might use to be specific, but as often an act from a weird could be a suggestive glance or undercurrent of meaning as much as a clear declaration.

The spell that Gem was slowly working to enact by rote felt like none of these things.

It was not even like the rituals she had seen performed in the temple.

There was a precision to it.

It reminded Jewel much of producing a full manuscript page. As opposed to the messenger script used for missives by birds. Or the even greater expedient of speaking.

Also the acts were exhausting.

Not in physical stress or any sapping of inner power.

But in the sheer drudgery of the attempts.

Gem had moved her tail in a way that Tsulogothulan had not agreed with and that had caused the air to barely grow damp around Jewel’s spawn and her practice.

They had not even managed more than a few drops of water on a plate for hours of effort.

If she didn't see the fauxfire of the sorcerous working herself and knew that Gem did not sweat Jewel would have been suspicious that the few drops of moisture on the earthenware plate were from simple exertion.

Before Gem could take another try at calling water forth into a plate Smithson walked into the dining hall with a plate of honeyed pork.

“It’s time for the littlest lady to have her mid day meal!”

Tsulogothulan nodded at that, rolling their violet eye all over Gem, then with barely even a whisper of sorcery the drops of water were pulled back into the air.

“I think this is a good point to stop anyway, I don’t think this spell is a good fit for Gem. I’ll make another one that makes better use of her tail and that hand speech she knows. Being able to say the intent in both voice and fingers while you cast the net to draw the water so you call should make for a better working.”

Tsulogothulan gave a sharp nod in emphasis.

“Also it's a waste to not use your tail as well. It muddles this spell but it is a good appendage for swamps. We shall try again in the spring when there is more wet to the air as well. But this was a good first attempt with so little dampness in the air.”

And then like that the entire figure splashed into the stones of the floor, seeping between them while soaking up all the faintly rotten water that had been dampening under the wizard.

Jewel nodded to Smithson with her larger head while Gem was taking up her place at the table. Smithson settled in to have some of the pork himself with his dining knife. Dutifully ignoring how much buzzing excitement was overwhelming Jewel and manifesting in a kind of quivering anticipation in Gem’s thighs and neck.

“So the little one, that is you are learning sorcery? Don’t you already know sorcery?”

Jewel huffs and shakes her head. Speaking with the throat she was more comfortable with. Also she might choke on spit if she tried to do something as complicated as words with how full of drool Gem’s mouth had become.

“Wyrmish sorcery is different, And none of Tsulogothulan’s spells ever worked at all for me when we tried before Gem hatched.”

Smithson hummed.

“Oh. Is that why you were so upset on your twelfth hatching day?”

Jewel huffed and nodded.

Finally all the pork pieces were cut up into proper throwing portions and Gem’s hips and tail could not help but wriggle. The new clothing was far more comfortable for her tail than the simple infant’s smock had ever been.

It didn't get in the way of moving at all!

Not even the tail!

Smithson tossed a piece of honeyed, crispy pork into the air over Gem’s head. A short lunge and the snap of her jaws closed around the absolutely star blessed crispy sweet-salt of Rochford pig roasted in honey!

Dariusz was really perfecting the way to add a dash of spices to improve the nuance.

“So, if you could not perform any ‘spells’ I am assuming ‘Gem’ can?”

Her Nurse Knight licked the honey from his fingertips and popped his own piece of candied pork in to chew before sending a few more through the air over Gem.

Jewel just didn't understand why this was so much fun. She’d never wanted to snatch food out of the air before Gem had hatched. But the first time she’d done it as her spawn the thrill of it had filled both her hearts with an unfathomable amount of joy.

“Yes, we first noticed a hint of it at the last Longest Night Celebration Gem attended in Rochford.”

Smithson nodded, trading off feeding himself and her daughter.

“And she, that is you, can in fact do it?”

Jewel nodded.

Her once squire hummed and nodded before he began tossing the rest of Gem’s mid day meal into the air for her to snap up with her jaws.

The young Countess of Viznove would never have imagined that she could so viscerally understand the delight that hounds had doing this. The act of it felt incredibly improper, and yet her daughter, her spawn, her smaller self was undeniably having such a delightful time of it that she could not muster the effort to care.

The feeling of contentment and happiness welling up in both her chests demanded further acknowledgement.

It was tricky to get the words together right and time it so the voices spoke in unison. Even harder to keep the stumbles from Gem’s tongue.

“Thank you, Smithson.”

Jewel had long since learned what it meant when her knight’s face flushed bright pink like that.

But the memory of her youthful mistakes caused Gem to burst out into laughter.

Jewel’s lips merely smiled at how she was embarrassing him.