---- Magic ought to have been more... Magical. Two books dangled from Evara's pack: a novice grimoire, and her quickly filling tome.
Ash parted the spell guide's first pages. She couldn't understand much, but for the most common symbols and basic diagrams. The thing spoke of the natural facets. Beneath the pictogram of each was the writing which must have been their true names.
The image of a candle flame marked the most obvious, ishnir: the facet of energy. Beside was the diamond rune of creation, and the orb that meant destruction. At the bottom of the page was the last one she could decipher. Tramir: Transformation.
There were other facets, even Ash knew that, but they must have been a step too advanced for this novice guide.
A strange part of Ash worried that the book would quickly prove too rudimentary for Evara, but even just a quick scan through the text proved otherwise. The huntress had expected fanciful depictions of old men whispering wonders into being. She saw nothing within that could be described as a spell. Instead, she slogged through tables and formulae, numerical calculations and listed preparations. Very little of the book even seemed to use writing in any way Ash could recognise. Symbols – unlike those of Evara's other scrolls – marked out entire chapters. Swirls and slashes – depictions of formless men and gaseous women. A two-page spread depicted a half-man, half-woman, with whole sections of its anatomy demarcated with daggers and stitched wounds.
The book unsettled the huntress. She decided to stow it back in her sister's pack in favour of Evara's own writings. She peeled it open and was left awed at the ocean of ink spread across its pages. Crimson scratchings filled page, after page, after page. All written in a dense – but fairly neat – hand.
She scrolled through from start to current and noticed the writing change. It was becoming less frantic, more purposeful. She wrote less densely with much more intent behind every letter. Her penmanship seemed more confident, though less fervorous.
"It's rude to go through other people's shit without asking," came a sleepy chuckle from beneath Evara's cover.
-- "You swear a lot nowadays."
-- "I've got a lot to swear about 'nowadays'."
"I guess," Ash admitted. "Are you feeling okay?"
-- "I'm fine. I think I'm getting better with my healing; it's just so draining."
-- "Maybe you'll find some spell in here to help you?"
-- "Maybe... There's some scary shi- stuff, in there."
"Like what?" Ash hesitantly asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.
-- "Like... corruption. It says that reckless use of magic can... hurt."
-- "Hurt?"
-- "Cancer, like dad, and that's the best of it."
"What?" Ash shouted. "Magic gives you cancer?"
"No... Not if you're careful," Ev protested.
"Then be – fucking – careful." Ash sternly held her sister's gaze, expectant of a vow.
"I will," Ev promised.
"Good," Ash huffed. "Now read me something. Put me to sleep," she smiled, handing Evara the crimson tome.
-- "I don't know, this is pretty interesting stuff. You'll struggle to sleep through it."
---- The dawn cracked the canopy and the sapphire sunrise caught in amethyst eyes. She couldn't remember who had fallen asleep first, but it was clearly Evara who had been first to rise. Bacon sizzled over the morning dew. White smoke pillared over the fresh flame and carried on it, the scent of breakfast.
Ash rolled from her nest and effortlessly came to the ground while Evara prodded at her meaty feast.
"Do you eat meat, Sujin?" Evara asked of the barely risen man.
He crawled from beneath his tent, groaning as his hand sunk into the soft mud. "Often and gladly," he croaked. He wiped the wet from his hand. "Did it rain?"
"No, it's just the morning dew. Have you never slept outdoors?" Evara laughed.
-- "Not in the forest, no. I'm a city boy born and bred."
-- "Well then, city boy. Sleep well?"
"Lightly and well, as instructed." The enchanter shifted his pack close to the flame and sat atop it, warming his hands as Evara lay three rashers of fatty bacon around a small metal dish. Her novice guide lay open at her side, and one eye seemed to scan it over while the other kept at her cookery.
"If I may ask, what are you reading?" Sujin said with a curious smile.
-- "A novice guide to magic. Ash got it for me."
-- "So that's how you healed the bear? That seemed an advanced spell for a novice."
"Oh, no. That wasn't a spell. I don't know any yet," Ev chuckled. "Just trying to grasp the basics first."
-- "That wasn't a spell? Then... soul magic? You are a natural healer?"
-- "Is that what it's called? Soul magic?"
"Is it an innate ability that gets better with practice, like running or swimming?" he pointedly asked.
-- "Aye, I suppose. I've always been able to do it. Like Ash and her beast-speak."
-- "I wondered about that. I was unsure if she was a zoanthrope or just very experienced with taming beasts."
"I think it's a bit of both. I don't get how it works entirely, but it isn't so simple as conversing," Ev explained.
"It seems somewhat ironic, doesn't it?" Sujin suggested.
-- "How so?"
-- "Well, I haven't heard her say a full sentence since we met, yet her soul magic makes her able to chat with any creature under the stars."
From behind her tree, the huntress called, "It's not the same as talking." She stepped out into view having removed her armour and wearing only the rags beneath. "Animals can't talk – not like us. It's... Communication."
"I'm sorry... I don't understand," Sujin admitted in a near reverent tone.
"Some creatures – like wolves and sheepdogs – can be quite smart. Smart as a child, even. If I talk to them slowly, they can understand simple ideas and words, but it's not worth the effort."
She spoke from strangely far away and made no attempt to come any closer. "Simple animals, like deer and rats, understand only three things: dominance, aid, and threat. If I seem confident enough, they treat me as a parent and do as I command. If I seem kind enough, they see that I want to help and allow me to do so. But if somebody is a threat to them, I can make them see so."
"But that bear... You had a conversation with it," Sujin recalled.
-- "Aye, she was old. With age comes pain, with pain comes wisdom. She might not be intelligent enough to understand my words, but she was wise enough to know what I meant."
-- "Can you understand what they mean? The bear responded to you."
-- "I can. It's easier to understand than it is to speak. She had lost her cubs to a beast some years ago. Evara reminded her of them, so she wanted to protect her."
"That's fascinating! I've never heard of a zoanthrope understanding a beast so well. Usually only the most basic communications are possible," Sujin awed.
-- "That's cos animals think differently than you lot. People assume that means they're stupid. They aren't."
---- "East! Till the Avik River," the Forgelander called once they were mounted and moving. "Then downstream till we reach the port-town."
Midday came before the river did though its mountain spring blocked the northern horizon. Ash rode a fair pace behind the others as they nattered on about the world and its wonders. She heard tales of the beast-men of Telek Aob, of their war with Xio Vien and the armadas of the Xao sea. Sujin told of a poet he had once known who hailed from the dark steppes of the Bloodlands. Evara countered with a tale she had read of the heartbeat mountain and the dwargon ruins nestled at its base.
She spoke in great detail, but in the words of other folk. Sujin spoke in simpler terms, but of the experience through his own eyes. He seemed a well-travelled man, but one used to much finer means of transit than tents and campfires.
"Have you ever met a true magician?" Evara asked with brimming curiosity.
"My own sister had some considerable talent in transformation magic," he answered with a wisp of pride.
-- "Truly?"
"Indeed," he sighed. "Twas' remarkable. She saw the world through a lens of magic and helped me see in much the same way. I... remember her first true spell. I remember the exact words; Kovato et Hope. It was... beautiful. Her mirror frosted over. I watched it freeze and crack before... poof, it crumbled to snow. It was remarkable." His voice was joyful, but his eyes were heavy, burdened by the memory. Even as far back as she was, Ash could see him tense up.
"Kovato et Hope..." Ev reverently repeated. "That literally means glass into snow, right?"
-- "I believe so. Masloq, she called the tongue."
-- "Aye, my book talks about it in great depth. The original language of the Conclave."
"It is impressive that you would have memorised such a mundane term," Sujin flattered.
"Thank you," Ev blushed, "where is your sister now, if I might ask?"
His broad shoulders shrunk at that. He nearly stopped in place but managed onwards with a choked breath. He smiled without joy and said, "Lilliana would spend all day, and all night, steeped in her magics. She would have the cutlery dance across the table as she made breakfast. She would turn a pinch of sugar into fireworks as she sprinkled it across the room." He sighed deeply before meeting Evara's eyes and saying in a shaky breath, "magic gave her meaning, but it also took from her. Slowly at first. Some days she would stay abed till far past noon; other days she wouldn't be able to stomach a single bite of food. It never concerned me though. How could it? She was just so... alive. So full of wonder. I didn't notice her cheeks hollow, nor her eyes sinking. I only realised how far things had gotten when she started pulling out clumps of hair; when every sneeze came with a clot of blood. When her tears turned milky white, then later bloody red."
"I- Sujin, I'm so sorry," Evara whispered.
-- "It was inevitable. Her mind was so full of ideas and wonder, but her body had always been frail. Her capacity for magic became greater than her capacity to control it. It... corrupted her from within."
"When... How long ago did she pass?" she asked as kindly as she could.
-- "She hasn't. Magic is not so kind as that. Her heart still beats; her lungs still draw breath. It's her mind; It took her marvellous mind. I refused to accept it for years. I- couldn't believe that she was gone. I refuse to. I summoned dream walkers to visit her as she slept, but they said she had no dreams to visit. I summoned a mind reader to hear of what she thought, only to hear nothing. No physician would even give her a chance. It was a terminal fate they had seen one too many times: A feeble body that cannot act upon the extraordinary will of a brilliant mind."
--- A cloud passed over the crimson midday sun. The only cloud in an otherwise clear sky. It cast a grim shadow across the northern mountain, and a cold shiver over the trekking trio. Ash had closed the gap between herself and the two others, not by her own pace increasing but by their own stoppage. The young girl looked up at the enchanter, her ashen hair fluttered in the breeze and slapped against her muddied garbs. She wore an outer robe of heavy lilac cloth, stitched with black and white seams, and embroidered by Miel with a little snowy owl over her heart. Beneath, she wore what must have been huntress' armour. In fact, it was Ashtik's own armour from when she was Evara's age. It didn't quite fit Evara's somewhat less toned frame, so she stuffed the shoulders with a padded cloth.
"Take care with your studies, young Evara. Magic is not to be taken lightly," he said darkly.
"I will," she promised.
---- They came upon the river at last though not a word had been spoken since. They heard it first; the rushing torrent splashing against rock, the quickening breeze in the slowly rustling trees, the bees buzzing between bellflowers and hives. Then came the taste of waterlogged wind and the warmth of humidity.
"Now downstream," Sujin mumbled at the sight. They followed along for some time, passing the occasional wildlife seeking water and even a pair of elderly women out fishing by the far bank. Ash made sure to dismount and keep hidden from their view in case news of her 'heresy' had already come to this corner of the kingdom.
"Evara," Sujin quietly said as they passed over a set of stepping-stones. "Might I... Show you something?"
"Nothing good has ever come of a man asking a fourteen-year-old that question," Evara quipped while her focus remained on keeping her footing on the slippery stepping-stones. It caught Sujin off guard, he nearly ended up falling over as his head spun to look at her. "I'm joking."
"Right," Sujin awkwardly laughed. "Then, watch this." He stopped on his stone and scanned over the shallow waters around him, finally settling upon a single smooth pebble just beneath the surface. He traced a finger along the stone and somehow carved into it, a small Ishnir symbol. Sujin then threw the rock out into the water downstream. A heartbeat passed before a little POP bubbled up from beneath the surface of the water. To call it an explosion would be to call a firebug the very sun; yet the rock fractured and scattered across the river, mildly disturbing the surface of the water around it.
"Wow! Was that a spell?" Evara asked.
"Keep moving," Ash ordered from the back of the stepping-stones. Sujin quickly bounced on towards the riverbank and Evara followed along behind with a cheeky grin. She stopped dead after one jump, but Ash didn't notice in time and ended up slipping sideways into the icy cold river.
"Come on Ash, keep it moving!" Ev smirked as Ash thrashed in the shin-high water.
"You little-" The Champion of Black, hero of prophecy and soaked from head to toe, dove out with a hand reaching her little sister.
"No!" Ev half laughed; half screamed as she was dragged into the water. Ash pushed her head under before running off the nearby shore. "Bitch!" Evara gasped as she rose out. Her bright beaming smile came quickly back as she stood with her shoulders hunched for warmth. "It's so cold," she laughed through chattering teeth.
"Here!" Sujin shouted to her from the bank. He held in his hands two thick winter cloaks for the women. Ash gladly wrapped herself in hers and even managed a smile for the man as thanks. Evara came over much slower, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her long white mane dripping over her face with every unsteady step.
Evara took the cloak into her hands and stroked the fur lined inside against her cheek before wrapping it around herself. Her grin never faded for a moment, especially not when she noticed that her own cloak seemed noticeably thicker than Ashtik's. "Thank you Sujin, I don't know what we'd do without you," she wickedly grinned.
"I'm sure you would manage," he laughed.
The trio made along their route yet again until Evara seemingly remembered Sujin's display.
"Sujin," she enthusiastically said. "What were you going to show me earlier?"
"Oh, of course," Sujin stammered. He reached for another little rock and knelt at her side. "You asked if it was a spell," Sujin began. "No, this is enchantment."
-- "What's the difference?"
"Magic is a feeling, an art. One spell performed twice will never have the exact same effects. Magicians channel magic, but they don't truly control it. Enchantment is a science. Something done once will always work in the exact same way. Cause and effect, something sorely missing from your magics." He traced his finger along the rock and carved in three wavy horizontal lines.
-- "What does the symbol mean?"
"The symbols are a language; they mean what you believe. These three lines have no inherent meaning, but when I carve them in, I infuse them with the complex ideas I assign to the symbol." He dropped the rock and, much to Evara's amazement, it didn't fall. It levitated exactly where he had released it. Gravity seemed meaningless as it gently floated in space. Evara poked it. It looked as though it might just float off into nature until, like the other rock, it popped into dust and little fragments. "An item's ability to hold enchantments is determined by its quality. Silver holds enchantments the best, pebbles evidently don't hold up very well at all."
He rooted around in the fallen leaves before finding a branch with a few leaves still attached.
"Take this," Sujin offered. She took the branch and a small carving knife from his belt. "Carve an Ishnir with the intention of burning the plant."
-- "That's all it takes?"
-- "Well, no... But I'll help with the rest."
"Okay..." Evara carved a crude little flame into the branch and twisted her little face up with violent intention. He wrapped his hands around hers and both closed their eyes.
"I'll channel my mana through you. Just say the word," he whispered.
-- "What word?"
"Burn."
--- Copper flame rose from the pyre walls. Ash could see the men burning. Evara could see it too. She stood atop the elder's home, flaming crossbow in hand. A whitehaired beacon whispering the word that Ash had been too far away to hear. The girl, afraid and powerful, said the little word, "Burn."
Power flooded her bolt. It wasn't the crossbow that had lit the wall. It was magic. It was Evara's first spell.
--- The branch lit with a copper hue. No... It detonated. It burst high and hot as a pillar of copper-gold flame, searing a hole through the canopy far above them. The explosion of magic cast the huntress and enchanter far into the trees. Ash landed back into the icy river while Sujin found himself slamming into a tree, near impaled by a branch. Evara didn't budge. Once vision had come back to Ash, she saw her, bursting out at the eye of the storm.
The flame didn't slow, nor did Evara falter. Her eyes lit with a purple passion of light. Screams erupted as a quaking beneath the very earth. The little white beacon had become a towering pillar of copper flame.
"EV!" Ashtik tried to call through the blistering torrents. "Evara! Look at me!"
It was no use. A wildfire of copper green flooded the forest. All that could be seen of the girl at the storm's eye was a faint purple glow.
--- Ash didn't hesitate. She charged into the flame, covering her face with her cursed gauntlet. The heat caught her cloak and seared her back before she could tear it off. She kept pushing all the same. Had her hair not been soaked, she'd have lost it already. She worried that her new steel plates might melt in on her, but they were still cold to the touch. The flames whipped at her cheeks and scorched her neck, but she kept moving.
"Ev!" she called through choked breath. She realised then that it was her last breath, the flame had stolen all the rest. She choked, gagged on flame, but she marched on. "Ev!" she cried, but it was more a whimper. "Please."