Eyes on Me #2
With a clench of his jaw, he simply said, “Gone.”
“Gone like from base, or gone like from the land of the living?”
Before he could answer, Aerie burst through the door, making me jump. “What the fuck happened?” She looked worried, and my fondness for her grew.
“Aerie, not here,” Drayce warned.
“It’s a good thing you took care of them, Dray, because I would love to kick their—”
“Aerie! Not. Here.” Drayce’s voice had gotten very stern and growly.
She fumed but stopped talking and nodded to Drayce.
“You two go get breakfast. I’ll send a note when I talk to Bramick about your lessons.” He looked at me for another few seconds before leaving the healer’s house, Elene nowhere to be found.
Aerie sighed. “I’m sure you’re hungry. No dinner two nights in a row.”
I got slowly out of bed, still feeling no pain anywhere I’d been kicked. Big fan of Elene’s work, I thought. “What? Is everyone keeping tabs on my every move?”
“Pretty much,” she said.
I sighed. At least she was honest.
We headed to breakfast, and I felt eyes on me everywhere. I had no idea how I would keep my anger in check with so much outward hatred and fear toward me. Maybe the blacksmith and the males from last night were right. Perhaps I was a danger to everyone here.
When we sat down with our trays, Aerie reached out and gripped my arm.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. I’ve been in loads of fights here.
It happens when you get a bunch of angry misfits together under a common goal to rebel against the monarchy.
Hate to break it to ya, but you’re not even that special in that regard—in my first week, I ended up in a brawl that left me with a broken rib. Should have seen the others, though.”
I gave her a small smile. “I know what you’re doing, Aerie, and I appreciate it. But I’m different, and you know it.”
“What I know is that, even without a shadowy being inside me, I still wouldn’t have shown as much restraint as you did with those pricks last night. I mean it. We’ll figure it out. You, me, Dray, Bram and…Sevrin.” She shuddered when she said the Arcanum leader’s name.
Restraint…restraint was what I needed, not a complete magical shut down.
“Aerie, that’s brilliant!”
“Obviously,” she responded with an air of superiority, clearly thinking I was referring to her support.
“I mean restraint. I have an idea, but I’ll need some help. Come with me.”
We left our trays at the table and exited the mess hall in a hurry, drawing more stares and whispers.
Aerie kept asking what we were doing, where we were going, but I just shook my head and said, “You’ll see.”
I could feel her questioning stare when we arrived at Sevrin’s and I knocked on the door.
He opened it with a creepy smile, but I ignored it and pushed inside, Aerie hesitating before following.
“Sevrin, I’ve had an idea. The base has dampener tools for each element. I know you said shadow isn’t an element, but could we create something like that for me? That would dampen my shadow ability to controlled use but leave my fire and everything else intact?”
He studied me for a moment, raising one hairless eyebrow. “I think the theory holds merit, but it would be complex, requiring difficult glythyr work on your part.”
“Can’t you help me here? I’m just now learning about glythyrs, and I think we can all agree I need this like, yesterday.”
“I wish I could, Naci, but I do not have shadow magic, nor does anyone else here. I can guide you when you’re ready, but I cannot create it myself.
Finish your books, and this will be your first assignment.
I must warn you, this will be entirely experimental.
It may even be the first time it’s ever been attempted. ”
Well, that was frustrating. I was beginning to despise being so unique.
“Got it, thanks,” I said with a hint of sarcasm.
I turned to leave with Aerie in tow, but before I could close the door behind me, Sevrin spoke once more. “Naci, don’t forget. Make friends.”
I still didn’t understand how to “make friends” with a shadow monster that didn’t speak, just felt extreme emotions, and lived in my heart. But I nodded.
The magic-blocking ring was still needed for emergencies, but if we could make a dampener for my shadow magic, maybe I could learn to actually use the shadows. There had to be something useful about them other than killing, severing limbs, and dangling people in the air…right?
Images of Thraxxus and a continent on fire followed that thought, making me shiver.
* * *
After an hour of practicing fire magic with Bramick, during which I successfully split a fireball into two and launched each at separate targets, he said I was ready to try without the flicker.
“Start tiny, no joking around, Naci. The first attempt without the flicker isn’t to burn a mountain. Just light this match.”
He handed me the small wooden stick and took the flicker from me. I focused on sending the smallest amount of fire magic from my open palm to the match held in the other, only for the entire thing to erupt in flames over a foot tall.
With a cry of shock, I extinguished the flame, leaving nothing left of the match at all.
“Not to worry, happens to everyone on their first try. What you’ll learn is that most of using elemental magic is keeping it contained as opposed to trying to make it bigger. The elements are powerful by themselves. They don’t need much magic from us to do…stuff.”
Bramick was right. It took barely a twinge of thought to get the flames to do what I wanted without a dampener. By the end of another hour, I was doing everything I’d already done with the flicker, noting how little magic I actually had to use.
“Excellent, you’re learning faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
“Don’t most fae learn this when their magic emerges as a child?”
“Well, yeah. But still.”
I snorted a laugh. “What a kind thing to say, Bramick, that I learn faster than a child,” I said, drenched in sarcasm.
He thumped me on the back, and we left the magic there for the day, spending the whole time on fire and none on raw magic.
“We’ll start working on combat magic tomorrow, so bring an extra pair of eyebrows. They’re known to get singed off with newbies to fire combat.”
“Can’t someone just glamour them back on or whatever?”
“I don’t know what fantasy books you’ve been reading, but glamour is deception magic, considered an Umbrathren ability. Not common and not my cup of tea either.”