Chapter 11
Noble was doing his damned best to keep his mouth shut. As he really should be careful with giving away how much he actually knew. But it was hard. While Red wasn’t outright lying to Ollie, it was definitely bordering on a lie, given what he was omitting.
As, yes, one could use magic under the domain of other affinities, but to use it to such a degree as to bring someone back from the brink of death, that usually took years of practice, and required building up your own magical pool to even stand a chance of succeeding. Neither of which Ollie had done.
It honestly would have been less shocking if the little witch had managed to pause Red's imminent death, instead of actually healing him, and even that would have been advanced magic for any Death Caller.
Noble couldn’t even guess as to what it meant that Ollie had managed to not only heal Red, but heal him so completely that it was like the injuries had never happened.
Ollie scoffed. “Okay…good to know so little, but what else is new? I guess we’ll just go with…I somehow managed to do that. But what about the fact that there are four instead of three? You did say only three.”
He grimaced. Yeah, that was the other issue. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard of a new witch having four affinities right off the bat. He knew of witches who had managed to develop others after many, many decades, even centuries, of hard-won practice, but not someone this new.
“Apparently, not for you,” Annabel rasped, the ghost’s voice filtering through the static of the spirit box.
“Why do the three of them look like that is a bad thing?” Jahla asked.
Noble had to say, it was a bit off putting to be the only one who couldn’t see the ghost in the clearing.
“Probably because it likely is. Well, rather than bad, again, just not normal, but welcome to my life. When have I ever been normal?” Ollie sighed as he straightened up from his crouching position. The man wound his hands together and winced, likely from rubbing the new cat scratch on his palm.
Noble pulled the little librarian to his side, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Normal is overrated.”
Ollie hesitantly smiled up at him, before stretching to give him a peck on the lips.
“None of that,” Red hissed in disgust. “Don’t make me separate you two.”
Annabel’s giggle came out of the spirit box, before she said, “Let me quickly give a brief overview of the other two affinities, so we can get started on practicing some magic.”
At her words, the witch turned to face the direction he could only assume Annabel was standing.
“The Ceaseless Hunter is very straightforward.
It brings with it heightened senses, a keen ability to hunt, and a strong connection with other living creatures.
This includes the ability to control and communicate with said creatures, along with channeling their energies and fierce wills of existence.
“The Unknowing, on the other hand, can be described as darkness personified, and has a strong connection to the mind, memories, and hidden past events. Though control of the darkness is one of the abilities associated with The Unknowing, the powers are very much about fear of the unknown, and uncovering, often unwillingly, all that hides in the dark.”
“So literally animal-like hunting for the first, and…possibly mind fucking for the second?” Jahla drawled.
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “Did you have to word it that way?”
“What?! Does it not sound like it fits?” she huffed.
“It fits well enough,” Noble agreed. “The Unknowing has a strong association with bringing one’s enemy to their knees in fear. And the ability is mostly mental.”
He just smiled when Jahla eyed him suspiciously. What else could he really do about the look? Nothing, that’s what. The woman had looked at him that way since the beginning, so he was sort of used to it by now. Besides, suspicion was usually a witch hunter’s best friend.
“Okay, enough talk, time to train. And since you’ve already used your first two affinities, we might as well start there.”
“Okay, I’m ready!” Ollie said, with possibly a bit too much cheer, bouncing a bit in his hold. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m guessing this is my time to just back up and stay out of the way,” Jahla mused as she stepped back.
Noble pressed another kiss to Ollie’s forehead, murmuring, “You’ve got this, Baby,” before releasing his hold on the witch’s waist and moving back to stand beside the man’s best friend.
“Why not try to have him burn something?” Annabel suggested.
Ollie frowned. “Burn what exactly? Also, did anyone think to bring a fire extinguisher? As I didn’t, and I’d rather not accidentally set this forest alight.”
“It’ll be fine; I can put out whatever fires you start,” Red said dismissively. “But fire is as good a place as any to begin. Or we could rot something? Either ability can be performed through a worded spell, but also with just thought alone, and even then, it’s not exactly considered advanced.
“What usually is more advanced, when it comes to rotting, is to what degree, how fast, and so on… While with fire it is how hot, the speed of the spread, and the amount of control. But conjuring a simple fire, and a bit of rot, isn’t considered difficult.
As for what to use…one of the stumps, possibly? ”
Ollie gasped in horror. “The stumps!? But we use those!”
“Ollie, they’re stumps. They can be replaced!” Red huffed.
Ollie knew he could find other stumps, but the question wasn’t if they could be replaced. “Yeah, but will the replacements match the rest? No, they won’t, because all of these stumps, and the ones in storage, were bought at the same time, and therefore, have aged the same.”
“They’re stumps!” Red hissed.
“They’re MY stumps!”
“What about one of the trees? There are plenty of those, and one being gone wouldn’t be super noticeable?” Noble suggested.
Ollie glanced back at the man, his eyes narrowing when he noticed Noble was struggling to keep a smile off his face. “If I use the trees near here, we will then have a partly burned or rotted tree near the camping area. That’s a safety hazard!”
And an insurance nightmare.
The man held up a hand with a hesitant smile. “It was just a suggestion.”
“Ollie, just sacrifice a few stumps!” Jahla snapped. “You literally have an almost endless supply in the damn shed back here and you know it!”
It didn’t matter that he was well prepared.
It didn’t take much to go from well prepared to stump-less!
Like, why weren’t they understanding that the more they sacrificed in the name of practice, the closer he was to having to replace every single one, just so they would match when he needed to use them all!
Ugh, even Annabel looked as if she was confused about what the problem was.
After a moment of them staring and waiting for him to cave, he let out a whine and cried, “Fine! Two, I am willing to sacrifice two, and that is it! And there better be something else for me to practice on next time! Or at the very least, we go to a different area where I don’t mind damaging the trees! ”
Though…they were his trees, and he still didn't feel good about the idea of rotting or actually lighting one on fire.
Eyeing the stumps, he pointed toward two that happened to be side by side. They were a little worse for wear, and looked as if they needed to be replaced anyway, as both had large cracks in them that appeared to be widening. “Those two. I’ll practice on those two.”
“Okay,” Red sighed. “Fine, let’s start with rot. As I said, it can be done with just a thought, and it often is, but as you are new, we’ll try both ways. First, though, touch whichever stump you want. To note, generally, when rotting something, touch is required.”
Setting his notebook and pencil down on a different stump, after quickly writing that info down, he moved to the two practice ones and placed his hand on top of the right one. “Okay, I’m touching it, now what?”
“Think about what it means to rot something. Think about the action, the process. Picture it in your mind if you…” Red trailed off, for some reason, his eyes growing wide.
Ollie blinked. “What? What is it?”
“Look down,” Jahla choked.
He did, his own eyes widening as he pulled his hand away and stared down at the now very rotten stump that had a perfectly intact silhouette of his hand in the middle, as if the rot had spread out around it. The wood had darkened and crumbled, and some parts had even collapsed inward. “B-but…I…”
Annabel cleared her throat. “I guess thought is enough, but more importantly, his control is concerning. Ollie, did you feel anything when that happened?”
“Feel…anything?”
He…well, as Red had been talking, he’d done just as he asked.
He began to think about what it meant to rot, and how the process would begin.
Ollie had a pretty good idea about it, considering the books he often read to children about the process, and just the various books he’d read on the subject.
Rot was something he generally did his best to avoid, considering his love for preservation.
But feelings-wise…cold. He’d begun to feel cold.
There had been this chill that had started at his center and traveled out, seeming to build in intensity the longer he thought about it.
“Cold?” he said hesitantly, as he was unsure if he should have felt more than that. Surely he should have, right? Like, it was magic, shouldn’t there have been so much more?
“Did it trickle through you, the feeling? Or was it overwhelmingly all at once?” Red asked.
“Like it was sliding through, coming out from my center.”
“Under his feet.” Jahla pointed.
He looked down, stumbling back when he saw what he’d done. There was now a circular spot where the grass had died and rotted away, leaving dry, cracked soil in its place. “Ugh…my grass…”