16. Magic
“ A re you sure this is going to work?” Aeden closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“ I think so ,” Nyra said, not quite sure herself. “ I am going to attempt to reach out to you through our bond, Aeden. When you feel this, let me know .”
Aeden wasn’t so certain messing with magic he knew nothing about was the best idea, but at the same time, Nyra’s confidence settled his anxiety. The only other option was to sit in the woods with his injured ankle and simply hope that someone would come along and find him.
“Okay,” he said, nodding to Nyra. “Let’s try it. I trust you.” The words naturally spilled from his lips as comfortably as a song. Here he was, putting all his trust into a hatchling that he had only just met.
Aeden continued to keep his eyes closed and focused on his breathing until he saw faint tendrils of lights in front of him.
The more he focused, the more he started to see, until the light that formed was right in front of him.
It was shaped like a large ball, close enough that he could reach out and touch it.
When he did, his hand was greeted with the body of Nyra, and the ball of light started to pulsate.
“I see it!” Aeden said, excitement in his voice. “Is that your heart?”
“ Kind of? It is my core and what binds us .”
“Is this what you see of me?”
“ I think so ,” she said.
Aeden focused on the orb in front of him as it pulsated in time with his own heartbeat. Then one of the tendrils stretched out slowly towards him, slow and fragmented.
“ Keep concentrating ,” Nyra said.
As the tendril of light grew closer, a warming sensation returned to his ankle, but this time it was more comforting.
The tendril wrapped around his ankle like a snake.
It squeezed gently, with Aeden bracing himself for a swell of pain that didn’t come.
He was half-tempted to open his eyes and see what it looked like with them open.
“ Don’t do that ,” Nyra said, as if reading his thoughts.
The tendril flickered, as if the connection between the two of them had been disrupted.
“ Concentrate ,” she told him, and it sounded like she was biting her tongue.
Aeden continued to focus on the light. It gently pulsated around his broken ankle, and he could feel the pulsation around his leg. It was like nothing he had ever felt. There was a familiarity about it though, and Aeden didn’t understand why .
After a few moments, the light stream retracted, and the light orb centred in Nyra continued to pulse slowly and rhythmically.
“ You can open your eyes now ,” she said softly.
Aeden blinked his eyes slowly, transfixed by what he’d just seen. A haze of light caused them to squint as he adjusted to the light beaming in through the mouth of the open cave.
“That was amazing,” he said with bewildered smile. “What did you do?”
“ Our bond isn’t strong enough to fix broken bones, but I was able to take away some of the pain ,” Nyra said. “ For now, anyway. It should be enough to help us get back to the academy. I would advise against putting too much pressure on it .”
“Thank you.” The intense throbbing in Aeden’s head had all but stopped, and although he could see that his ankle was visibly swollen, there was much less pain radiating from it now. Reluctantly, he placed his foot onto the ground and pressed down slightly before taking a step forward.
“Shit!” he cursed as a flash of pain seared up his leg, not as bad as before but still enough to send a rush of blood to his head. “I thought you said it would stop the pain?” Aeden said, frustration in his voice.
“ I said it would help with the pain. Our magic is limited, I have only just hatched.”
“Sorry, Nyra.” Guilt weighed heavy on his brain.
The Aer-Kin was sitting in a defensive position, like she was ready to curl up in a ball.
“I didn’t mean to snap. The sooner we can get back, the sooner I can get this fixed and we can get some answers as to what has happened.
See if anything can be done to help you with your wings.
” Aeden placed his hand out towards Nyra, who chirped gently as she pressed the crown of her head against his hand.
She was warm to the touch, and Aeden felt like he could spend all day petting her.
That wasn’t going to help him with his ankle, though.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said, turning and hobbling towards the cave’s opening.
A sense of anxiety came over him that he didn’t recognise as his own.
It wasn’t all-consuming, but it was present enough for him to recognise.
He knew that this was going to take some getting used to.
His feelings weren’t his own, and Nyra had already confirmed that this bond worked both ways, meaning she could feel what he was feeling, too.
Did that mean she could read his thoughts?
Aeden glanced at the green foliage outside of the cave. “Outside there, just you watch. Everyone is going to be so excited to meet you.”
Deep down he hoped so, but he knew how seriously the academy took their breeding process with the hatchery, keeping the bloodlines of the Aer-Kin pure.
“ You don’t mean that,” Nyra said, “but thank you for trying to reassure me. It makes me know that I have bonded with the right human .”
She padded her feet, like a babe bracing itself to take its first steps, and surged forward, although it didn’t look intended.
She wobbled from side to side, shaking her body and head simultaneously.
Aeden’s heart fluttered with concern as he feared that Nyra was about to topple over, but she stopped just beside him before puffing up and giving her body a shake.
A handful of softer scaled feathers fell from her body as she winced.
She turned her head to inspect her tightly pinned-back wings.
“Are they still hurting? ”
“ It’s more discomfort than pain. I’m sure your healers can help when we get back to the ” – she paused for a moment while she searched for a word.
“Academy?”
“ Yes, that’s the word. Sorry, it’s all new to me .”
“That’s understandable,” Aeden said. Nyra was barely out of her egg, and she was able to hold a full conversation.
That was far beyond the realms of anything he had ever witnessed before.
He had read about the bonding process, but now he knew that it was something that needed to be experienced rather than read about to get a true understanding.
“Here, we can help each other.” Aeden moved to stand closer to Nyra before pressing his body against her side.
Her breathing was steady and calm, but when he rested his hand at the base of her neck, he swore he could feel the fast beating of her heart, as well as his own.
“This way you can help stop me from putting too much pressure on my foot, and I can help you keep steady, until you feel more confident.”
“ Thank you ,” she said, her chittering a sign of her happiness.
“Come on, we have a lot to talk about on the way back.”
They had been walking for what felt like hours, to the point where Aeden was grateful that the fitness test had been first thing in the morning. Any later, and it easily could have been dark now, which would have made navigating their way back even more difficult than it already was.
They didn’t move at a brisk pace – they couldn’t even if they wanted to – but aside from a few trips and stumbles, they had made what Aeden felt was good progress .
They followed the steep embankment, which remained on their right as Aeden continued to search for a way back up onto the path he had fallen off.
He was sure if they could get back up that, he would be able to navigate his way back.
Although the more he looked around at the vast network of trees and the overhead canopy of leaves above, the more he wondered just how deep this forest went.
The forest itself was calm and quiet, save for a light rustle in the leaves from a soft breeze and the crunching branches that Aeden and Nyra stood on.
The ground was hard, which actually worked in their favour.
If it had been wet, the terrain would have made their journey back even harder than it already was.
They walked, sometimes in silence, sometimes in conversation.
Nyra listened with intent as Aeden told her all about the academy, absorbing every ounce of information that he shared with her while intermittently stopping to ask questions about anything and everything, such as why lessons were scheduled in a certain order, or why the dining hall was split into sections rather than arranged as larger, communal groups that blended the classes together.
Aeden found the whole conversation astonishing.
He still couldn’t believe that he had an Aer-Kin.
He was certain he would have made it to the bonding ceremony – after all, he was quietly confident in his skills – but never in a million years would he have imagined being bonded to one so soon after joining the academy.
His mind raced with thoughts of how the academy would react to him turning up with an Aer-Kin.
He had no idea what the process was for this situation.
As far as he knew, this had never happened before.
Would they be accepting of her, with her not coming from their hatchery?
All he knew was that he and Nyra were too weak to try to make it on their own, too inexperienced.
Aeden still had his injured ankle to contend with.
Logically their only choice was to return to the academy and hope that they would accept her and that Lyric or someone else would be able to help Nyra with her wings.
Eventually they reached a section of the embankment that was blocked off by a fallen tree.
Upon closer inspection, Aeden realised that there was a further drop on the other side, meaning they had walked around as far as they could.
Stopping, he looked around a little more before letting out a frustrated sigh.