Chapter 51 #2
Draugr thundered into Veridas. Elizabeth rode astride, her cloak billowing behind her. She ignored the stares from the guards and the disapproving looks she received from women on the street.
She didn’t have much time.
She dismounted, snow crunching underfoot, and stared at Draugr. Behave.
Draugr blinked, swishing his tail, and allowed himself to be passed to a waiting stable hand.
She hurried into the city, looking for the witch.
Seeing the lights still on in the witches’ shop, the roof capped with snow. She breathed a sigh of relief. She knocked sharply on the door, and Risna’s face appeared.
“Hello, Elizabeth. I wasn’t expecting you today,” Risna said, peering at her curiously.
“I need … I need your help.”
Risna took a moment to take in her serious expression and gave a crooked smile, opening the door wide.
After she explained what she needed, Risna presented her with two stones—one striped black and brown, the other a shiny curl of darkness. Both hung on a leather cord.
“How much?”
Risna gave her a quote for the tiger’s eye, which she thought was expensive but not outlandishly so, but when she told her how much it would be for the obsidian, she gasped. “Surely, not that much!”
Risna smirked. “Obsidian being extremely rare, plus the powerful ward I’m going to give you for a magical shield…” Risna gave her a look. “Aren’t you playing host to the princes of the Seven Hells tomorrow? Better to be beggared than dead, I say, but the choice is yours.”
“Do I really need both?”
“Are you worried about a demon of immense power attacking you?”
She cringed and eyed the two stones warily.
“Then you will need a physical shield, as demons are stronger and faster than you, and a magical one on top of that so that if they attack you with magic, you might last long enough to get away.”
“Fine,” Elizabeth said, sighing in exasperation. “Do what you must.”
Risna handed her a steaming mug of herbal tea, then strolled around her, muttering in the Godstongue and waving her fingers. The whole process took over an hour, and when she looked down at her hands, they seemed no different.
“I look the same,” she couldn’t help but say.
“Tsk.” Risna threw a sphere of molten purple fire at her chest. The barrier sucked the sphere of purple fire into nothing, leaving her unharmed.
“Wow,” Elizabeth said, slightly awed.
Grinning wickedly, Risna manifested another ball of purple flame and launched it. Too shocked to do anything, Elizabeth watched it collide into a layer of air in front of her chest and then dissipate into thin air.
She looked at Risna, and gratitude welled in her eyes. “Thank you.”
“I have also spelled the wards to contain the scent of your mortal blood and the scent of your fear, so if you become afraid, they will not immediately devour you. Just make sure to keep your breathing even.” She nodded, and Risna continued, “The wards will last until their power is exhausted and the stones crack and break.”
Risna clasped her hand, smiling. “I hope we meet again, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth fastened the silver clasp on her cloak and was about to leave when Nasera walked in, loudly clearing her throat.
Nasera opened her hand, and in her palm rested a labradorite pendant. “For you.”
Risna looked at her daughter in surprise.
“It was mine when I was learning.” Nasera turned it in her fingers. “And my mother’s before me. And her mother’s before her.”
Elizabeth blinked in surprise. “Are you sure?”
Nasera nodded and handed her the stone.
The labradorite was turquoise and about three inches in length. As she shifted the pendant in her palm, patches of the stone shimmered dull yellow or bright blue, depending on how it hit the light. She turned it back and forth in her hand, mesmerized by the way the stone’s colours shifted.
Her very own student stone.
Usually a woman of few words, Nasera gestured to her mother to explain.
“This is a labradorite, also called the student stone if you recall,” Risna explained.
“I will remind you that it is used to help broaden the mind of the wearer and will also give you a bit of protection against small magical mishaps. Essentially, it will make it easier for you, a beginner, to access your magic and cast spells.”
Gesturing impatiently for her to return the stone, Elizabeth handed it back to Nasera, feeling bewildered.
Nasera stood in front of her and twisted her fingers into a strange gesture on her chest. She bowed deeply, maintaining eye contact all the while.
Confused, Elizabeth tried to copy the gesture, curling her fingers and placing them on her chest. She bowed low, and Nasera nodded approvingly.
“Rise.”
She lifted her head, and Nasera formally put the pendant around her neck, slipping it under the front of her dress. The labradorite pendant rested against her skin, next to the necklace of obsidian and tiger's eye, over her heart.
Amusement coloured Nasera’s voice as she said, “May this help you survive the next few days, and if you show this pendant to a witch anywhere in Asteria, she will know we have accepted you as one of us.”
Elizabeth felt the stone, feeling touched. “Thank you.”
Nasera offered her a rare smile. “Try not to die tomorrow.”