Kanick tried to relax and enjoy the next few days at Dorran. Predictably, Bera had declared he would be ready to ride for Aaton after a day but Kanick simply told him to rest. Still, he could sympathise with his apprentice's restlessness and he was worried that there would be no point in investigating Regius's death by the time they arrived. If he had been murdered, whoever started the fire could already be long gone. He wondered why the Arch-Mage hadn't entrusted the investigation to the local enclave; if he had wanted to get Kanick out of his ways surely there were more immediate ways of going about it?

Despite his fears over the investigation, Dorran was a pleasant place to spend a few days recuperating. He spent his mornings at breakfast with the Lord, who, despite being Kanick's polar opposite, had proved entertaining company, in a slightly uncouth kind of way, as well as being a breath of fresh air compared to the diplomatic niceties of the Order.

If Dorran was a breath of fresh air, then Xixi was a hurricane. She was openly scornful of the order, and Kanick's attempts at teaching his apprentice anything.

"You could at least begin by showing him some more complex runes," she chided him over a cup of wine on the second evening, though her tone wasn't too harsh.

Kanick examined the contents of his own cup, thinking about his failed attempt to draw even the simplest rune. He took a swig, the cup loose in his grip, and placed it deliberately on the table, sighing. He brought a gloved hand to his mouth and pulled on the leather fingers, exposing the molten flesh beneath. He displayed his hand in the soft candlelight, attempting to wiggle his fingers but succeeding in only slowly closing his hand slightly.

"My rune-writing days are a long way behind me," he told her.

Xixi paused, the wine cup halfway between the table and her mouth. "The Scar?" She asked, her voice uncharacteristically hushed.

"The Scar," he confirmed. "The spell Regius crafted was powerful and revolutionary, like nothing before." Kanick thought back to those moments, the figure with wings of fire. "Well, nothing since the primordium, anyway."

"Do you believe that?" Xixi asked.

Kanick sucked on his teeth. He knew, but was debating what to tell her. Blast it, he thought.

"When I used the spell, there was a great glow, but everywhere," he told her. "Then a woman with fiery wings appeared, coiled together with fire from the light." He took another draught from his cup. Xixi hadn't moved. "She meant to kill me," Kanick was almost talking to himself now, unburdening. "I felt it.

"Instead, I begged for my life. She told me that no one could wield such power without cost, but I didn't care. I didn't want to die, I was afraid. Even before I woke up back in the Grand Temple, I knew my hands would be useless."

"The woman? You think she was Sanqia, the Pimordial spirit of fire?" There was more than a touch of scepticism in her tone. "You know the primordials destroyed themselves in the creating of the world?"

Kanick blinked and suddenly remembered that Xixi was there. The image of the winged firewoman had been so vivid.

"Not quite, they diffused themselves into the creation of the world... Or so the legends go. The Straits of Sunder were apparently created by the Primordial of Water, and that was only a few thousand years ago. You should read Creatures of Power," he told her with a grin. "Anyway, who knows what she was?" he waved his hand dismissively. "Perhaps she was Sanqia, or perhaps she was just a hallucination. She was right, though, you can't wield magic like that without a cost, and it cost me the use of my hands."

Xixi put her wine cup down with such haste that it almost spilled. "Wait, but you cast a mark to destroy that demon."

"True, with my sword, in the damp earth." Kanick shook his head. "It's not an efficient way to draw runes though. If I could use paper and ink, Bera might not have been wounded."

"Who gives a shit?" She said, annoyed. "It doesn't matter if it's slow, or if the rune isn't as precise, you can still trace them in the ground for him to learn." Kanick immediately saw she was right, and he chided himself for not seeing it. "By the gods, you really are a battlemage! You're all too obsessed with how powerful your magic is that you miss inventive ways to do it."

Kanick, noticing his glass was empty, refilled it from the bottle. "You're right," he told her. "That's a good idea and I should have thought of it."

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"I am right," she confirmed, "and you should have thought of it." She drank more wine. "But I must admit, tracing runes with a sword; it's a real skill. You might impart that one to your apprentice too," she told him with a wry smile.

Kanick grinned back at her, "Rare praise indeed," he laughed.

"I am simply honest," she said.

The next morning Kanick woke in his room, a mild hangover behind his eyes. After a quick wash in the basin, and a change of clothes, he descended from Xixi's apartments directly to the infirmary. Bera was sat on top of the bed clothes, fully dressed, reading Creatures of Power. From what Kanick could tell, he had almost finished it.

"Come," Kanick said, throwing a sword and scabbard onto the boy's lap. "It's time for some lessons."

Bera followed the Mage out into the courtyard.

Overshadowed as it was by the four walls of the keep, it was a dark and ill-maintained spot. A marble statue of a baby pouring a jug of water sat atop an old dry fountain, rust seeping through the stone while the basin was choked with old weeds. In places patches of dirt showed between areas of abundant nettles and dandelions and sticking weeds. The ramshackle wooden stables built against one the Keep's walls gave the whole area the stinking smell of a farm.

"Here?" Bera asked in disbelief, looking up at square of distant sky, boxed in by the tall keep.

"Here," Kanick confirmed, drawing his sword, Bera doing likewise.

"Are we going to fight?" Bera asked, puzzled. "I thought you were going to teach me magic?"

"I am," confirmed Kanick and the apprentice loosened the catch on his satchel. "You won't need that," Kanick told him. "Watch me."

Kanick placed the tip of his blade on the ground and, gripping as hard as he could with numb hands, began to draw out a line. He walked around, tracing a few more until a very simple rune had been carved into the dirt. The mage inspected the rune carefully and stepped back.

"Using an unstable medium, like dirt," Kanick explained, "It is best to use only simple runes – a smudge, or crumble could render the spell useless at best."

He focussed on the rune written in the dirt. It was difficult to locate the energy behind it; it was faint and subtle like the fading tickling sensation of a dying sneeze. But then, as though pepper had been blown up his nose he sensed the magic within and activated the marks.

The lines on the ground exploded into purple sparks, accompanied by energetic fizzes from the dirt, which danced around Kanick's body, concentrating at his left hand. He held the appendage up towards the sky and with a booming crack released a lightning bolt that whipped up at the clear blue atmosphere.

"Now you try," Kanick told the apprentice, who was looking over the ruins of the mark on the ground.

Shadow had settled across the courtyard, and the blue sky had dulled to a grey-pink before Kanick allowed his apprentice to activate his first mark, traced on the dirt. The afternoon had been fraught with frustration and anger as Bera would trace the mark and Kanick would point out sections that were not straight enough, or where minute crumbs of dirt had fallen in the lines.

Each time, Kanick made Bera repeat the mark, rather than correct.

"Again," he instructed.

Eventually, after one sulk over Lunch, and many further hours tracing the lines Kanick wondered if he should have made the boy just trace straight lines with the blade instead.

"Done," Bera said. His face was red and sweating as he leaned on the pommel of his sword, the tip anchored in the dirt. Kanick almost chided him for that but let it go as he knelt to inspect the rune.

It was passable. The lines were clear, though the angles of the main character were off slightly. Kanick almost told him to redraw it, but it would only affect the efficacy of the spell. He passed on his critique but then stood back and gestured that the mark should be activated.

"Concentrate now," Kanick instructed, "It'll be difficult to feel the rune."

Bera stood, his legs slightly apart and breathed in and out deliberately slow, eyes closed. The mark blazed to life, an outline of purple sparks dancing above the ground.

"Draw it in, and direct it!" Kanick barked, feeling irrationally nervous for him.

The sparks drifted, moving sluggishly to Kanick's eye, but move they did, like a carpet of fireflies, towards the young apprentice. They swathed his body and suddenly condensed around his clenched fist.

"Aim..." Bera unclenched his hand to point at the sky. "Release!"

With a crack, quieter than Kanick's, the bolt shot into the air and dissipated in less than a second.

"Well done," Kanick congratulated.

"It was weaker than usual," Bera observed, seeming slightly disappointed.

"It's a less efficient way of tracing runes," Kanick reminded him. "Good for if you don't have a mark to hand, but certainly not to be relied upon." Bera sheathed his sword. "Now, I think we have earned dinner, but we shouldn't stay too late. I want to be away early tomorrow."

The meal, as was predictable, had been a raucous affair with all Dorran's retainers in attendance and even Union officers from the nearest garrison. The food had kept coming, course after course, and rivers of wine flowed. Xixi, who had been his dining companion for the evening assured Kanick that the meal was lavish by Dorran's standards, but not uncommonly so.

The next morning, slightly sore of head though with Bera coping much better, the two mages prepared their horses. Xixi came to see them off, but Lord Dorran was still in bed.

"I have bread, cheese and salted meats," she said, handing over a saddlebag heavy with food. "And I brought some books that I think would be useful." She handed over a heavy satchel to Bera.

"Thank you," replied Kanick and Bera, who had opened the bag and began to examine the titles. "I've included Agents of Chaos and their Binding," she told Kanick. "Much more up to date than Creatures of Power."

Kanick smiled and repeated his thanks.

"I wouldn't delay, if I were you," Xixi continued. "Attacks along the west road are rare, but the Sons are out there and you might not be so lucky next time," she warned.