“Aggan is the life-giver, Addie.” Addie looked up at her father’s face from his lap. She remembered the black stubble dotting at his chin. He smiled down at her and rustled the hair on her head. “Servus takes advantage of him. Once, they lived together peacefully, each giving light and life to our world. But Servus was corrupted by greed. Even now, you can look up at the sky and watch as he devours his brother. All bonds can be like this if we aren’t careful.”
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Mr. Owlcharge led the way, with Christena walking alongside Addie. It had rained the night before, so Addie constantly had to avoid particularly troublesome puddles in the mud. They were walking through a relative clearing. What should have been wet swamp mud had been packed down into an established dirt trail leading into Mr. Owlcharge’s area. Most of the swamp plants were growing off to the sides, though occasionally some grasses or other swamp weeds grew in the path. Addie wondered if Mr. Owlcharge maintained it.
Clouds had started rolling in, and the darkness of the sky made Addie wonder if it would rain again today.
“Are you ready, Addie?” Christena asked.
Though she had been confident the night before, now that their plan was getting closer, Addie started to feel the nerves getting to her. Her hands were slightly shaky, and she felt like she needed to jump around just to burn off the extra energy.
“I’m ready,” she said. A bit of nervousness wasn’t going to stop her.
Together, she and Christena had gone over the plan a dozen times. Addie had the whole thing memorized. It would be easy.
“Hey, Christena?” Addie started.
“Yes?”
“Do you think that some cascades are like the Binary? When one side of the bond just keeps using up all the magic?”
Addie watched as Squishy pointed his ears toward the conversation.
Instead of Christena answering, Mr. Owlcharge spoke up, “That’s exactly right, Addie. You are a smart girl, figuring that out. Do you know why only the sons and daughters of Area Lords can become bonded?”
“I don’t know,” Addie answered.
Addie looked up at Mr. Owlcharge. Since she wasn’t paying attention to her footing, she got caught by surprise for a moment when her foot fell into a particularly deep puddle, splashing a bit of mud up around her booties.
“Those at the age of twelve should get their first bond,” Mr. Owlcharge began.
But, Addie knew about this already, “That’s because if you get a bond too early you could cascade, right?” Addie said.
“That is part of it, but it’s also true that it’s best to get bonded when you are young, while your soul is still growing. Adults have very rigid souls, and while not impossible to do so, it is very difficult to have a successful bond once you reach your twenties, and your soul is fully developed.”
“But why can only Area Lords get bonds?”
From ahead of them, Mr. Owlcharge nodded his head. “Another problem with children getting bonds is that without a guiding hand, it is very likely for their first bond to end in a cascade. Bonded create bonded, and only bonded can become Area Lords. Does that make sense, Addie?”
Addie had to think for a bit. Mr. Owlcharge’s explanation seemed to make sense, but Addie wasn’t sure if she fully understood it.
“What I believe he is saying, Addie, is that it is best for a bonded adult to help the next generation receive their bonds, rather than letting children do it unsupervised. And since only bonded can become Area Lords, naturally, it is the nobility that make up most bonded.” Squishy’s ethereal voice came across their soul bond.
“Doesn’t that mean that regular people can still become bonded too?” Addie asked.
This time, Christena spoke up, “Correct, it is just much more dangerous for them to do so without someone experienced to guide them.”
Something about that explanation really bothered Addie. “But why don’t Area Lords or other Bonded help more regular children become bonded?”
Christena sighed, “Unfortunately, Addie, I think you will learn that in this world, families do not want to give up their power to outsiders so easily.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if everyone could use magic?” Addie frowned.
“Maybe, Addie. Maybe, you could be the one to help spread more magic when you are older, if you still feel the same way.”
“Why don’t you do it?” Addie asked, probably in a sharper tone than she wanted to.
Christena didn’t seem to have an easy answer ready for Addie.
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“Ask me again when you are older.”
Addie hated it when adults told her that.
But, her original question hadn’t really been answered, Addie thought.
“Why do cascades happen? Squishy wouldn’t ever want to suck away all of our magic, and I love him too much to hurt him.”
“Not all people are as kind as you,” Christena answered immediately, “There are those out there who follow in Servus’ footsteps, and want nothing but power, and to take and take.” Christena paused for a moment and looked up at the thunderclouds forming overhead.
“Sometimes, cascades are accidents— human children trying to bond with a magical creature who has little intelligence and overwhelms them by taking over the bond. Even in that case, one side of the bond is forcefully taking more than they should.”
“Ok,” Addie said. There wasn’t much else to say.
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When they reached the wooden dome that Auntie made, the scenery looked even worse than Addie thought could be possible.
“How come the trees are on fire?” Christena asked hurriedly, “I thought you said it was just the barrier?”
“It was just the barrier,” Mr. Owlcharge’s tone turned dark.
“There’s no reason to delay. One last time, Addie, are you ready?” Mr. Owlcharge looked her right in the eye
Addie nodded her head.
“Good. Give me five minutes, then go.”
“Hesitation means defeat, my lady.” Squishy reminded her.
Addie plopped right down into a crossed-legged sitting position and focused on her soul.
Together, she and Squishy began forming a layer of the transcendent loop around Addie’s soul. Then, they moved onto Squishy’s soul and formed a separate layer around him.
Passingly, barely on the edge of Addie’s perception, she felt Christena’s palm on her back, and with it came Christena’s dexterous magical help. After Addie and Squishy finished forming the transcendent loop, Addie followed along as Christena grabbed onto Addie’s soul and cocooned Squishy and Addie’s entire soul bond in another layer of magic. This was different than normal, though. The layer of magic extended even across their soulbond, not just limited to either Addie or Squishy’s soul.
After Christena withdrew her influence, Addie formed a third layer around her soul, and then she and Squishy worked together to form one last layer around Squishy, too.
Addie opened her eyes. Christena was holding onto Addie’s shoulder, so Addie turned slightly to look over at her.
“Fluffy and I will put one last layer of magic around you, to protect your body too. Next time, I’ll teach you how to do it yourself, ok?”
“Squishy figured out how to do it. I can figure it out too.”
“But for today, Fluffy and I will take care of it, ok?”
“Ok.”
Christena let go of Addie’s shoulder and stood up tall. Fluffy chittered for a moment, and then the pair of them both exhaled in unison and closed their eyes in concentration.
Fluffy and Christena opened their eyes together, both sets of eyes glowing a brilliantly ruby red. Then, Christena waved her hand at Addie, in much the same way as she often did when casting illusions. An ethereal red cloak with a matching hood formed around Addie. Running her fingers along the fabric, Addie was amazed at how real the fabric felt, even though she knew it was magic.
“That will last you for the whole time you are in the dome. I’ll keep concentrating on it to make sure it doesn’t run out of magic. Do you have your ribbon?”
Addie moved her hand up into her hair to feel where Sen’s blue ribbon tied it up into a neat ponytail.
“I have it.”
“Good. If you need help, go to Realmspace and call for Sen.” Christena didn’t need to remind Addie about that.
“I will. But, you are coming too, right?”
“That’s right,” Christena confirmed.
Moving her gaze over, she saw that Auntie’s wooden dome could no longer be seen. Instead, a solid stone dome covered all of the wood, which also meant that the ghostly flames that infected the wood had been smothered out, or at least that’s what Addie assumed since the rock dome was not on fire.
Mr. Owlcharge wiped away a bit of sweat from his forehead, “I haven’t used that much magic in years! Ok you two, I’ll keep everything contained from the outside.”
Christena grabbed onto Addie’s hand and gave her a nod. “Let’s go.”
Those sudden words jolted Addie. The nervousness was coming back with a vengeance. She wiggled her toes because they had gone numb out of nervousness. She wiggled her fingers too, just to make sure. Then, she clenched her hands into fists.
“Squishy, are you ready?” Addie asked over their bond.
In response, he simply nuzzled his head against Addie’s leg. He really was a silly cat.
Fluffy chittered at Addie as if to tell her to hurry up.
Together, the four of them walked up to the now stone dome, and Addie put her hand against it. She expected it to be warm, maybe from the ghostly flames. But it just felt like regular stone. Maybe a bit wet from being formed from the swamp.
A crack of thunder shot through the clearing, reminding Addie of the coming storm. It was time to move, she decided.
Despite the giant dome blocking her, Addie took a step forward while drawing on her bond and sending the four of them out to Realmspace. It took fifteen steps through Realmspace until it noticed the intruder’s presence. Despite that, Addie held onto her magic for a moment longer, then let go.
Returning to reality disoriented Addie, as her eyes struggled to understand what she was looking at. Luckily, Christena was still holding her hand, so she didn’t fall over. Unluckily, Christena almost fell over too, stumbling probably due to the same strange, nauseating scenery that Addie was looking at.
The entire space was blocked off from the Binary, but the ghostly flames seemed to light the area up in a pale glow, regardless. Now in enemy territory, Addie checked on her soul for just a moment, but she and Squishy’s layers of the transcendent loop still held strong.
With that confirmed, Addie once again tried to figure out what exactly she was looking at.
Addie tried to contextualize the scenery with something she was familiar with. For starters, there were no plants, even though this should be mostly swamp. The dilapidated building that black cloak was hiding in had crumbled further, with the remaining structure looking as dark as charcoal, and all of the dirt on the ground had been replaced with ethereal ghostly purple clouds. No, those weren’t clouds, Addie realized. She was standing on flames. Even now, their roiling nature made her balance feel unsteady. It was like standing on the ocean, if its tumultuous waves could be solid enough for that.
The color coming up from the fires seemed to reflect harmoniously against the white floral patterns on Addie’s dress, almost making them seem to have some kind of strange glow. Christena’s maid uniform was even worse, all the white accents taking on an unearthly pale purple.
“Why are our clothes glowing?” Addie asked.
“I’m not completely sure...”
Fluffy began chittering again, almost incessantly, making it hard to think.
“Quiet, you,” Christena chastised her. “We’ve dealt with worse.”
Ignoring them, Addie asked aloud, “What even is this? What happened to the ground?”
“This, Addie, is what happens when an Area Lord cascades.”