Chapter 6: Blood Red
Marina woke to the smell of lavender, her favorite scent. She was tucked into her bed, and as she looked outside, she saw that the sun was rising. Stretching, Marina sat up, pulling on her shoes and running a brush through her hair before she headed down to the dining room. Peeking her head into the kitchen, she saw Nyoko and Zarifi, eating their breakfast.
"Good morning! How long did I sleep?" Marina asked worriedly. "Are the creatures okay?"
Nyoko smiled indulgently at his ally's concern. "They're all fine. Here, eat. You've been asleep for three days." He passed Marina a plate of hotcakes and syrup.
"Three days!" Marina took the food, eating voraciously when she realized how hungry she was. "Anything new?"
"Tarel sent you a letter – it's on your writing desk." Nyoko conceded reluctantly that he guessed Tarel was all right after all. Marina giggled, and Zarifi smiled. The centaur rarely laughed.
When Marina finished her breakfast, Zarifi pushed her back into bed, telling her to rest. "Read that letter from your boyfriend."
"Zarifi! Tarel is not my boyfriend!" Marina protested. Zarifi just smiled and winked, handing her the letter before leaving.
As Marina read it, she grew more and more concerned. Tarel had burned the two vampire's bodies and scattered the ashes. That was traditional for vampires, according to a book he had once read. Since the daughter was already turning to dust, he left her in her grave. The vampires were no longer a concern, but he had found a blood red gem, as large as his fist, in the ashes of his home. It felt evil, he said, and his dark magic had no effect on it. Then, one night as he experimented on it, it had burned his flesh and left an evil-looking wound that refused to heal normally. Had she ever heard of something like this?
Trembling slightly, Marina put down the letter and tried to think if she'd ever heard of a gem that harbored dark magic – powerful dark magic, for no normal magic could inflict the kind of wound Tarel described. Then she stood and looked out of the window, where several ice phoenixes were racing each other.
"I wish Mother were here," she whispered to herself, touching the silver locket she wore. She'd never known her father, and her mother had died when she was only fourteen from an incurable disease. "She'd know what to do." Marina's mother had been a very educated scholar; even though she was a weak mage, her knowledge of things often allowed her to use what little magic she had to her best advantage.
Turning from the window, she sat down at her desk and wrote back to Tarel, asking him if she could visit and see the mysterious gemstone. Giving it to the amarth alagos that had delivered Tarel's letter, she asked him to take it back to his magi. The alagos complied, and Marina sighed, heading inside to the extensive library her mother had kept to see if she could find anything that alluded to or spoke of a flesh eating gemstone.