Enter The Hedge Witch (Part I)
Notes:
Warnings & Disclaimer: see Chapter 1. Nothing's changed. I still don't own Tsubasa or Fai.
Major "Original Character" alert. The new OC has more screen time than our dear Fai, but such was unavoidable since I'm trying to "flesh out" Celes and the only canon Celes characters are Fai, Chi, and Ashura-ou (so far.) No need to worry about a Mary Sue, though... please read carefully because it does all pertain to Fai.
I split this chapter into two parts. It got too big and I don't like to scroll too much. Hopefully the length makes up for my delay in updates, yes? ;; More notes at the end of Part II. Thank you very much for reading!
The toboggan flew across Lake Ozerov as the huskies raced across the moonlit ice. The familiar, rhythmic sounds of their paws striking the ice and the warmth of the dog at Magmeteva's knees began to lull her into sleep, and she shook her head sharply to jar her senses. Sitting in a toboggan reminded her of childhood comfort and security, yet the lake was anything but; they couldn't afford for her to be dozing off. The witch slipped a mittened hand from under a pile of furs and patted the injured dog reassuringly, and the dog whined slightly, his soft eyes still fixed longingly on his comrades on the ice. Silly dog, Magmeteva thought affectionately.Huskies were bred to love racing and pulling, and they would keep running until they dropped dead if they had their choice in the matter. Saadak had opted to basket the dog after a rock sliver had pierced one of the dog's paws. The dog had kept running as if it weren't injured, but Saadak's keen eyes had spotted the flecks of blood on the ice.
Still, he couldn't see everything; that was her job. The witch unfocused her eyes as she concentrated on the magical atmosphere that perpetually hung over the lake. Its appearance was rather akin to a gauzy shroud composed of thousands of veins of magic. Usually the magic behaved itself and merely pulsated sluggishly in the freezing air, but occasionally a vein would tangle up on itself and the magic piled up on itself until the strain was great enough that it snapped. That was when the fun started, Magmeteva thought dryly. Ozerov was already a naturally dangerous lake, but when the occasional magic charge broke free, it could crack the ice or stir up waves or incite gale-force winds. If waves and winds were already present, it would amplify their effects.
Yet this magic was still a rather low-grade type and thus visible only to magic-talented people. Magmeteva considered scolding Saadak again for being reckless enough to cross the lake without a witch or wizard accompanying him, but she knew he would simply seize the opportunity to invite her to join his crew again. Or ask her to marry him again. She clucked her tongue reproachfully to herself. Stubborn men, all the men of my town are so stubborn and proud. They're lucky any of them manage to get married!
Suddenly Magmeteva's skin prickled and the hairs on her neck stood up. "Stop!" she said, reaching behind behind her shoulder to rap Saadak on the knuckles.
Immediately, Saadak yelled out "Whoa!" and the team halted to an abrupt stop. "What do you see?" he asked.
Magmeteva frowned as she squinted into the night air, her eyes still unfocused. "Nothing yet, but the surge I just felt was major. There's bound to be more accompanying it."
"We should halt for now, then. Even if the surges aren't close it could spook the team."
As if in response, Bacha let loose a blood curdling growl that sent a shiver down Magmeteva's spine. She stood completely still, her ears flattened against her head and fangs bared against an unseen enemy. The other dogs, sensing their leader's fear and anger, began to whine and twitch in their harnesses. "It's okay," cooed Saadak as he hurried to stroke them and calm them down. He removed the protective wrappings from their paws and rubbed ointment onto the huskies' paws.
The witch unfolded her legs and dug herself out of the mountain of furs, shuddering as she tried to acclimate to the drop in temperature. She rooted around the supplies that had been snugly lashed to the toboggan. Most of the supplies were for the village: medicines, tools, metal, and rubber. Magmeteva removed the frozen dog food, a small portable stove, pots, and oil. However, several attempts to start the stove failed because the wind had picked up and kept blowing the light out. Magmeteva rolled her eyes in irritation and tried to shield the stove by placing it between her body and the toboggan, but that was also unsuccessful. Finally she removed her sealskin shoulder bag from the toboggan and pulled two small bottles and a bag of powdered plants out. With precise movements, the witch mixed the items and then walked a circle around the toboggan, whispering quietly as she spilled the mixture out. As soon as she had completed the circle, the wind inside the enclosed area ceased. Magmeteva smiled triumphantly as she successfully lit the stove; being a witch did have its little perks, especially if you liked to have your way. Which she definitely did. She scooped handfuls of snow into the pots. When the snow had melted, she added the frozen livers and fish to it. The resulting mixture was a fat-rich stew that provided the huskies with both the moisture and calories they needed after running for dozens of miles nonstop.
"Nice trick," Saadak said admiringly as he walked into the circle, carefully stepping over the line. He exhaled slowly, watching his breath crystallize in the moon-drenched air. "Could you do a heat spell?"
Magmeteva arched an eyebrow primly. "Those require a lot of magic – the spells would probably tap into the magic around here. It might draw the surges towards us. I'm supposing that you don't want to be electrocuted while you nap, correct?"
"Ah, nevermind. Can the dogs sleep inside the perimeter of the circle?"
"If you can get them to walk inside without stepping on the circle." Magmeteva poured the stew into bowls, remembering to set one inside the toboggan for the injured dog. She spread out straw beds for the dogs and then began to prepare human food. Saadak led the unharnessed dogs into the circle carefully, instructing each to jump over the line in a different dialect or language. Magmeteva watched him quietly, impressed. She knew that he spent as much time as possible raising and training the dogs, but he was the only handler that she knew who had taught his dogs to respond to different languages (other than sled commands, which were all given in their native tongue.) Saadak told her that he had done this so he could have the team hunt like a wolf-pack would – if each dog had learned the same command for "circle right," then when he gave the command, all the dogs would execute the command at the exact same time. By using commands specific to one dog, however, Saadak could control each individually and have the dogs perform different functions.
Bacha gingerly stepped into the circle last and ignored her food. She let out periodic growls as if she expected an assault at any moment. "Bacha, calm down. It's just a little wild magic," the captain said firmly as he knelt beside the lead dog, staring her in the eyes. The two stared at each other until Bacha whined and licked her master on the face. Saadak patted her head. "She's a good girl, yes she is. A little headstrong, though."
"I wonder where she picked up that trait," Magmeteva said, thrusting a cup of scalding hot tea into Saadak's hands.
Saadak widened his eyes. "Ah, you're still mad that I wouldn't tell you everything back in Volshin."
"Surely you can appreciate why I'm not particularly thrilled, Mr. Saadak. I don't appreciate having to cross three hundred miles of ice during the coldest month of the year when it's pitch black all the time and you won't even tell me exactly why."
"We still get four hours of sunshine," Saadak mumbled weakly into his cup. "It wasn't my decision to hide the particulars from you. The priest said it would be a bad idea to risk letting any outsiders know about our predicament; you know how nosy the Volshins are, they probably invented eavesdropping and they'd let everyone else know and then we'd have people trying to take advanta--"
"--What predicament?" Magmeteva interrupted.
"The crystals are out. No Fence."
"Out? As in, their output has weakened?"
"No, out as in dead. You know my house's closest to them. I woke up in the middle of the night a few sunrises ago because the dogs were howling and carrying on. It was freezing to death and then I realized that I didn't hear the humming anymore. The crystals were just standing there, no magic web or anything. We waited a sunrise to see if maybe they'd restart themselves. But they didn't so the priest and elders decided I should come fetch you. I rushed straight into the Volshin and found you as quickly as I could and here we are." Saadak tipped his cup back and swallowed the rest of the tea in one gulp, wincing at the heat.
Magmeteva felt her stomach squirm as she began to run calculations in her head. At top speed Volshin was roughly three sunrises away from Ozerov. They had waited a full sunrise to fetch her, so that was four sunrises before Saadak had arrived in Volshin. She and Saadak had traveled for the better part of a sunrise, so they still had two more left... by the time she arrived in the village, the crystals would have been out for seven sunrises. A week. The magic could have strayed very far from the crystals by that time, and it wasn't improbable that the magic had simply chosen to rejoin with a larger source - like the damn lake, for example. Magic called to magic, and weaker magic was drawn to stronger. It was one matter for her to attempt to coax wandering magic back onto its proper path, but she could never separate the spells from raw magic.
"Ah, Magmeteva, you're twisting," Saadak said, his tone strained yet amused. "That bad, huh?"
The witch looked down to find her right index finger tangled up in her scarf's bright tassels. She felt her cheeks heat up: she never had managed to break that childish habit. "Ms. Magmeteva, or Hedge Witch, please. And yes, it's that bad," she replied curtly. "You came directly to find me in Volshin, correct? You didn't stop to talk to anyone else or deliver any messages?" Saadak nodded. "Then why did you not consider sending a sealed dispatch to the capital requesting an emergency relief team?"
"But Mag—Ms. Magmeteva—isn't it better for you to examine the problem before we go off bothering the capital about something that might not be a big deal? You're our region's expert. They might want a report from you before they go to a lot of trouble and expense for some stupid villagers."
Magmeteva narrowed her eyes. Saadak was playing dumb at her expense: the man might certainly act bashful and dumb around her, but she had known him for long enough to know that he was shrewd. He couldn't possibly expect her to believe that he thought proper protocol had to be followed in an emergency, not that he'd ever been particularly enamored with paperwork in the first place. The captain was risking his life and his dogs to come fetch her; why not make all efforts to make certain the village would be taken care of? Magmeteva decided to fish. "You know full well that this is probably the most serious problem our village could possibly face," she said, jabbing the air with her tassel-wrapped finger as she leaned forward. "I think... you're protecting someone. You're hiding something."
"What are you talking about? What would we have to hide?" Saadak kept his voice nonchalant and calm, so Magmeteva knew he was lying. She had loathed her initiation period in the capital, but she had managed to learn a few useful tricks simply from trying to navigate the system. Lies, for example, always sounded somewhat practiced because the liar feared that he would be questioned eventually and thus prepared an explanation. An honest person, in contrast, made no preparations and was usually shocked by the question and often offended. Saadak was neither.
"Hmm... maybe you don't want any interference from the capital because you're worried that we'll get in trouble after they realize how little progress has been made in establishing the state religion."
Surprise flashed across the captain's face, then he looked oddly relieved. "You haven't visited the village in almost four years. How could you know that?"
"I am a witch, after all. Or I just know you all too well," she replied dryly. "I bet the priest hasn't even attempted to pay any lip service. I bet he removed the icons of Ashura-ou that I hung up in the temple last visit." Magmeteva wondered about Saadak's relief. The priest had probably browbeaten him into not making any requests while in Volshin, and Saadak was relieved that now she knew he wasn't completely to blame.
Saadak exhaled slowly. "Well... he's just an old man, set in his ways. Things are changing too fast for him. He doesn't mean any harm."
"He might not mean harm, but that doesn't mean he can't cause any." Magmeteva tried to feel indignant with Saadak but failed. There was something cute about him protecting the priest when he didn't even bother showing up to services other than Midsummer Eve's and Yuletide. "They might let us slide with keeping the temple if we could at least fake that we were somewhat interested in the state religion. And it's his responsibility as a village leader to discourage the graffiti. And it's my responsibility to report on whatever I see. I really don't appreciate having to be creatively negligent with my reports whenever I visit."
"I know... it's not fair to you, being put in that position. Some of us have tried to talk some sense into him, but he's got enough die-hard types egging him on that he doesn't listen."
Magmeteva scowled. After she had thoroughly examined the crystals, she would call the village to the temple to discuss her findings. Clearly, she would have use the opportunity to mete out a few well-earned verbal flayings, she thought as she sipped daintily at her tea. It had been awhile since she'd gotten to indulge in such an exercise.
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Saadak spoke again. "How's your book? Gotten any good recipes lately?"
Magmeteva swallowed her salmon jerky and dabbed at her mouth before replying. They might be miles from civilization and surrounded by dogs, but that was no excuse to let table manners lapse. "Yes, actually. Remember that elderly lady's house you found me at in Volshin? She is a veritable treasure trove of information. She's probably forgotten more herbal remedies than those healers at the court ever learned. After we get the problem fixed, I'm heading back to her house as soon as possible. I think with a few more months' research, I'll have enough information to start compiling the book. I'm really hoping that this book will encourage people to look to traditional methods instead of simply throwing them away. New is not necessarily better."
"It's bad enough that most city folk look down on 'natural' magic, and now we've got some of our own people who think they're too good for it now," Saadak agreed. "Although Faina's pretty good at keeping people straight about it. You don't think you'll have any problems getting published, do you?"
"I don't see why I would. I'm not giving people recipes for poison or encouraging insurrection in code or anything crazy like that. I'm just encouraging people to look to their heritage. Hedge Witches are expected to publish anyway, although usually the material's a bit more fawning towards Ashura-ou and the war. But such a discussion has no place in my book."
Saadak furrowed his dark brows. "About the war: I've been hearing all sorts of rumors up and down the river about some of Ashura's... new wizards."
Magmeteva stared at him for a long moment, brown eyes sharp. It was obvious that Saadak had been waiting for an opening to broach the subject. "What exactly are you asking? You do realize that I'm rather limited in what I can divulge, so I hope you're not asking something that would put me in a spot."
A hiss of annoyance escaped from Saadak. "Magmeteva, I have no idea what sorts of weird rules and oaths they make you swear to. I know you've got to do your job, and I'm not going to hassle you like some folks do when they're pissed at the government. I'm your friend: If what I ask is off-limits, just tell me so. I won't get mad. Promise." Magmeteva nodded once, and Saadak continued: "Is it true that the capital's encouraging the combat wizards to use torture on common people to break the spirit of the resistance?"
"That is not the sort of question you should be asking, Mr. Saadak. Please tell me that you don't go around asking questions like that at your ports of call."
Saadak shook his head.
"Now I'll answer as best as I can: I don't spend much time at the capital, and most of the places on my route are somewhat rural. Most of the information is on a need-to-know basis, and someone in my position apparently doesn't need to know very much." Magmeteva laughed suddenly, a self-deprecating, derisive sound better suited for mockery than pleasure. She knew that her laughter had been sounding like that a lot lately so she'd been avoiding laughing. "I get these sorts of questions all the time. People expect me to know the answers, and why shouldn't they? I'm the only 'government official' they usually see. But I probably know less than you do. I do know that the capital's been having trouble recruiting new magic apprentices, though. Not that they said so in as many words, but they've been putting the pressure on us to identify new conscripts." She gave her scarf a fierce yank. "As if I could create new recruits just because they need more! There simply aren't many magic talented people on my route: it's just not in the gene pool here. Not that most here would want to leave anyway; it's really not an easy sell."
"Is it possible that maybe the shortage has resulted in the less desirable sort being sent out to fight?" Saadak asked, his tone wary.
"I know that a number of wizards have been killed. The resistance has coaxed a few very powerful wizards and witches to switch sides and it's not easy to recover from that loss – which is only exacerbated when said wizards and witches end up killing their former colleagues," the witch replied grumpily. She thought for a moment. "I haven't been back to the capital lately, but I suppose it's possible that some of the more... unrestrained types have been removed from 'desk jobs' and put into positions to make decisions that they really haven't the judgment or maturity to handle. What exactly have you seen, Mr. Saadak?" she asked softly.
The captain looked down at his hands, avoiding her gaze. "Ever since the war started, I've seen a lot of stuff." He shrugged, his voice curiously flat. "I've seen stuff before, of course. Life on the river's harsh. But that's just nature's way; you expect it. Since the war started, most of the people I've seen injured or dead are younger men, most single. From the look of them, and the way they spoke, most of them were probably involved in rebel activities in some way or other. I didn't waste a lot of tears on them: they knew what they were getting into. But starting a few months ago... well, I've saw this old man. Farmer in the Tabor area, I've known him for awhile. Except he's not going to be doing anymore farming. His legs were blown clean off; there was no way it was an accident." Magmeteva noticed that Saadak's hands trembled a little. "He's got a wife to look after too, no children left."
Magmeteva felt sick. "Maybe he was involved in something he shouldn't have." She wanted desperately to believe that.
"No!" Saadak jerked his head up to glare at her. "There's no absolutely no way. I couldn't get him to talk about it, though. Poor man seemed about ready to have a heart attack if anyone even asked him about his legs. But that's not the worst: there's this little girl, she can't be more than nine or ten. She just stares at the wall and babbles in some nonsense language all day. They say some witch of Ashura's got her. You don't suppose she was involved in some rebel activity, do you?"
"Saadak, please, don't bait me." Magmeteva pinched the bridge of her nose. She was definitely developing a killer headache. She had a sinking feeling that she did know the witch who was capable of a such a deed, but she could not bring herself to admit it to Saadak. Guilt by association could be a real bitch. Especially in times of war. "I have heard very few stories like these in the towns on my route, and it does concern me. People shouldn't be afraid to talk to me: I'm their representative. But I guess they can't help being afraid."
"Yeah," Saadak said flatly, turning his attention pointedly back to his food. Magmeteva wondered if he was disappointed in her. Some people seemed to think she had more influence than she really did because she was the only government figure whom they usually ever saw. Thus they tended to view her as a sort of physical embodiment of it - with all its flaws and follies. But Saadak should know better, she thought sourly.
Sometimes Magmeteva really hated her job.
The magic wasn't behaving normally at all.
Not that magic tended to be nice and predictable by nature (that would be entirely too convenient and probably against whatever rules magic did honor), but magic still usually followed patterns. Magmeteva circled the crystals yet again, hoping to spot a clue that had eluded her earlier. The magic web had indeed unraveled itself as she had feared, but she hadn't been able to puzzle out where exactly it had gallivanted off to. Snow crunched under her feet as she walked down the gentle slope that led to the lake's shoreline. The magic should have either gone to the lake to join that morass of wild magic, or it should have lingered around the magic of the matched crystals. But it clearly had not: Magmeteva would be able to detect it if it were still with the crystals, and if it had joined with the lake magic, the lake would have reacted to the reveal spell she had cast earlier.
That only left one option: the village. There wasn't any reason for the magic to be attracted to the village, which had never possessed more than trace amounts of natural magic - especially not when there were two very powerful magical "magnets" nearby. At least the village had managed to erect a partial windblock. A row of large boulders stood alertly behind The Fence, the gaps between the boulders filled with a mixture of mud, rocks, and precious Pul'kheriia bark. Magmeteva touched the mixture and allowed herself a small smile of pleasure upon recognizing the magical fingerprint. Magmeteva had always appreciated the fine handiwork of Faina, although she felt some surprise that Faina had been able to create an adequate amount of mixture in only a week. Faina had always found it necessary to limit her magical dabbling in order to avoid exhaustion, especially since she also had to devote most of her energy to running a large family. But there was no one else in the village who could assist Faina in such a task, and Faina was a mature woman and definitely past the age to experience a magic growth "spurt." PerhapsFaina's learned a new shortcut. In that case, I'll definitely have to put it in my book. Magmeteva very much anticipated grilling the older woman.
With a yawn,Magmeteva stretched her sled-sore limbs and began to walk briskly down the weathered plank path that led to the village. The sun was already beginning to slip below the horizon, and the freezing night air would certainly be unbearable without the protection of The Fence. On the bright side, someone would almost certainly offer her a nice warm shot of vodka if she were spotted walking around town when it was so miserably cold - and Oznobishin vodka was the best in Celes. Magmeteva practiced pushing her lower lip out and hunching her shoulders together so that she looked very pitiful indeed.
As Magmeteva trudged up the final hill, the distinct peaked wooden roofs of the village rose into view and she instinctively relaxed, feeling the acculmated stress of the past months seep away. The architecture was plain but sturdy, and the ornamentation limited to painting on the eaves and windowsills, with the occasional sun and animal carvings. The hedge witch knew that her colleagues in the capital would sneer at the pastoral sight: here were no stunning domes sheeted with goldleaf, no spiraling staircases that arched skyward, and no dazzling castle with wings of ice. That was perfectly fine with Magmeteva, who had always preferred functionality over form. Sure, it was nice to admire a building with a thousand steps, but walking up it was not quite so nice. Most of the architecture in the capital seemed designed to intimidate and impress rather than sustain insignificant human life. It made one feel small rather than welcome.
The shopkeepers had already hung out lanterns on their signs and balconies in anticipation of the darkening sky. Magmeteva felt warm as she crossed under the yellow pools of light they cast. However, she couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be the only person walking around outside. It was cold during the winter months, but usually there would be a large number of people outside trying to soak up as much sun as possible during the few, precious hours of sunlight. In the winter, some shopkeepers even closed their stores from sunrise to sunset and allowed their employees to take their breaks then (customer service was always better if the staff wasn't suffering from cabin fever.) Magmeteva supposed that the increased chill was keeping everyone inside. Perhaps she had just gotten used to it, which was not surprising considering she'd just spent several days on a giant block of ice.
The sounds of childish laughter echoed from the town square, and the hedge witch was pleased that at least someone else was outside. The square was a popular place for mothers to banish hyperactive children to when the weather was cold; the grassy park was surrounded by the school, the temple, and several shops so it was mostly sheltered from the wind. Also, periodically the townspeople would remove the snow in order to keep it from getting too deep for small children.
Magmeteva followed the laughter to a group of small girls who were packing snow onto snowmen. She watched them in silence, smiling at their exhuberance as they added features to their creations as they giggled. Apparently the snowmen were caricatures of boys they liked or didn't like.
"Excuse me, are you The Witch, ma'am?" One of the girls, a small child with braided brown hair, had noticed Magmeteva's presence and was now staring at her, eyes wide with a mixture of terror and glee. The tone suggested that the child hoped that she were the sort of witch who liked to shove children into her oven. The other children turned away from their snowmen as well, waiting eagerly for her answer, and Magmeteva fought the urge to play along. She frequently liked to tell gruesome fables to children because they relished them properly, but Oznobishin children didn't have enough exposure to real witches and wizards to be able to know the difference between fact and fiction. "No, dear," she replied instead. "I'm not The Witch, I'm a witch who grew up here. I even played in this square when I was your age."
Brown-braids' head drooped in disappointment, but another girl with freckles turned pale upon spotting the pin-of-office on Magmeteva's scarf. "Are you the witch who comes around to snatch up kids for the army?" Freckle-face asked quietly, fear in her voice. The other children became very still, and Magmeteva knew they recognized the question as one they'd heard their parents talking about in hushed whispers. Apparently she had allowed too much time to lapse between her visits, an error she wouldn't repeat. Someone had been busy spreading rumors during her absence.
Magmeteva hesitated, trying to formulate an answer that they would understand. "I don't snatch up anybody, miss," she replied firmly in her best 'teacher' voice. "I do help people learn about their talents and gifts and then I tell them about jobs they might be happy doing. It doesn't make any sense for a person who is really secretly good at sewing to spend her time herding sheep, does it?" The girls shook their heads solemnly, a few wrinkling their noses at the thought of herding smelly sheep. "Well, it's the same thing with magic. Some people are secretly good at magic and they don't know it. So I help them find that out and then I help them find jobs they would enjoy. Do you understand?"
The children nodded obediently, although Brown-braids looked crestfallen that the explanation didn't involve any child abductions. Suddenly she perked up. "Hey, are you going to snatch up F--mfff!" Freckle-face had clapped a mitten over Brown-braids' mouth. "Don't ask stupid questions!" reprimanded Freckle-face. "The lady just explained about that and she's going to think you're dumb." Brown-braids shot Freckle-face a dirty look and was about to protest when another girl interrupted to diffuse the situation: "We should be going; it's getting late." The other girls agreed very quickly, and Magmeteva suspected that most of them were glad for an excuse to get away from her.
In unison, the girls bowed slightly to Magmeteva and then scampered off. The hedge witch watched them leave, her sensation of peace about homecoming now somewhat unsettled. The children liked her better when she was Baba Yaga than when she was the Hedge Witch. That really wasn't a fair preference, she thought sulkily, twirling her scarf through her fingers. Magmeteva turned her attention to the other people playing in the square. There was a group of boys of varying ages playing snowfort wars, and three people at the archery targets in the far back corner. One of the archers was a man who was teaching two children how to aim properly. The witch squinted her eyes to focus: the man was definitely a Flowright, judging from the tell-tale shock of wild blond hair sticking out from under his woolen cap. It was either Fdot or Fedos'i; she never tell the twins apart. One of the children was dark-haired so he was no relation. But the other child, a girl of about eight or nine, also had the wild Flowright hair. But didn't Faina only have boys?
Confused, Magmeteva mentally recounted the Flowright children: six boys, two of them twins – ah, the youngest would be about eight by now. Fai had just grown up skinny and delicate-featured, unlike his robust brothers. She had last seen the boy when he was about four. A memorable visit because the boy had stared at her with an impish grin the entire time, but it was only several hours after she had departed the Flowright compound that she realized that her bag's contents had been altered. Fai had rummaged through her bag, pilfered several items and replaced them with his idea of treasure. Magmeteva had been unable to be angry with the boy for long; there was something rather amusing about the exchange of a pretty marble for a treatise on magic. She would have to ask Fai if he had enjoyed the treatise.
Fdot - Fedos'i leaned over Fai's shoulder, giving instructions to him as Fai pulled back slowly on the taut bowstring. Magmeteva saw that Fai had assumed the correct stance (shoulders lined up with the target, back straight), but there was a steady breeze from the left and he wasn't experienced enough to compensate for the breeze by aiming off-center. He released the arrow and it drifted sideways from the target. But then the breeze abruptly shifted and the arrow corrected its course and flew back towards the target, firmly embedding itself in the target with a satisfying thunk. Fai and the dark-haired boy chortled in glee while Fdot - Fedos'i patted Fai on the back.
Magmeteva's heart pounded in excitement. She knew that breeze's shift was unnatural because she had felt the brush of magic against her skin at the exact moment the arrow shifted course. The brush was feather-light, but unmistakable. Influence of the elements was a definite hallmark of a child with magical abilities. A trained witch or wizard with the talent could manipulate the weather with spells or magical devices, but occasionally a child with the ability and a strong enough will could simply extend his desire – in this case, Fai's wish to strike the target – and provoke a favorable reaction from the element in question. Magmeteva knew that Fai couldn't have been trained in such manipulation since Faina was the only other magic user and she didn't know wind-magic.
The hedge witch wondered how many other times the boy had influenced events around him, unaware that he was manipulating them in his favor. Magmeteva smiled, feeling quite pleased for her friend. Faina had always longed for a girl to carry on the tradition of hedge-witchery in her family, but Fai was apparently filling that role well enough. He was obviously the one who had helped Faina prepare the mixture for the boulders. Faina would be thrilled when Magmeteva dropped in to tell her that Fai's ability was definitely above-average. Not stunning – Magmeteva did not detect an excessive amount of magic from the boy, although she'd have to test him thoroughly - but above-average was excellent for the villages of Northern Celes.
Actually, it was best that Fai wasn't exceptional: Magmeteva had never identified an "exceptional" child, but she well knew that her duty was to report those children to the capital immediately. But exceptional talent was rare, so most children with magical gifts weren't formally tested or reported for ability until after puberty, a distinction which Brown-braids and her friends didn't understand. She would not be "snatching up" Fai anytime soon, a fact for which she was rather grateful: her best friend would never forgive her for that.
On her last visit, Magmeteva had sensed some magic in the boy, yet she had not mentioned it to Faina at the time. Frequently a very young child would emanate a magical presence that would fade as the child grew; there were many conjectures about why this occurred or which children would "keep" the magic or how bad parenting or diet "chased" the magic away, but Magmeteva did not much care for silly conjecture. She simply waited for the child to age a few more years before examing a child for magical ability, which was sensible as the child would then be old enough to understand his or her responsibilities.
"Mag-ma-teeevvaa!" A soft blob attacked her from behind, wrapping warm arms around her waist. "You should be ashamed of yourself, dropping into town and passing by my bar without even stopping."
"I was working," Magmeteva choked out. She had forgotten what a bear-like hug Blanka possessed.
"Ah, did you find whatever magical thing-a-ma-jiggy you were looking for?" Blanka inquired politely, releasing the hedge witch from her grasp.
"No," answered Magmeteva breathlessly as she gratefully took a few gasps of air. She had walked the major streets of Oznobishin without sensing any magic except for Fai's. The runaway magic wasn't hiding here. "Although I did sense a bit of magic from our youngest Flowright here." Magmeteva jerked her thumb towards the archers. "I'm going to talk to him about it."
Something hooded flickered in Blanka's wide, honest eyes. "Ah, it's nothing that special. Come have a drink first and chat with me and the ladies."
Magmeteva fixed the barkeep with a sharp stare. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, well, beside The Fence and the demon sightings," protested Blanka, holding up large hands to counter Magmeteva's stare.
"Demon sightings! And you're letting children play outside? Why did no one tell me about this?" The witch's pitch rose several octaves in indignation.
Blanka blinked slowly. "Ah, I did just tell you. And the demons aren't hanging around here; I wouldn't be walking around like this if they were." The barkeep laughed at the thought. "They've just spotted a few flitting around some of the outlying farms. That's why the Flowright boy and the Pado boy are practicing archery; they don't wanna end up as some demon's dinner. Although they're kinda scrawny, so I guess they'd be more like a demon snack!" The barkeep laughed again, the rough, raspy laugh of a woman who was exposed to a lot of smoke. She grasped Magmeteva by the elbow and steered her away from the square. "C'mon, I want you to try my new drink. I bet it's better than anything they can mix in that fancy-mancy capital."
Magmeteva glanced over her shoulder longingly, but the archers had already left. She wondered if the reported demon sightings had anything to do with the wandering magic; demons usually did not risk excursions into populated areas without a good reason. Magmeteva found it entirely plausible that demons would invade an isolated farm if drawn by magic. This theory definitely warranted further investigation. After drinks, of course.