AUTHORS NOTE:
Thanks so much again for the reviews Drouppi and Archer1eye, I love the questions and theories and especially feedback in any shape or form!
Chapter 2311th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c
Death, destruction, nothing was my seeming.
"I know you must be shocked at the moment and worried," Malkarov said to me, but all that did was make me feel like something was wrong with me.
Should I be worried? Should I be shocked? If anything, I felt… elation? Tenebrae is the Goddess of darkness, of 'nothing'. From the stories that Shard told me, essentially she is the Goddess of death as well, for without light then everything would die. This revelation made me feel closer to Shard. It made me feel like a part of her was inside me. Even if her pleadings with Tenebrae came to naught, I felt that my seeming would be evidence of the connection between us! I couldn't wait to tell Shard about this, this fantastic news that made me instantly forget all of my worry about the strangeness surrounding my use of magic. *Almost* all of my worry, I realised with a start. What good is a seeming that seems to fit me so well if I cannot cast spells without the worry that I disintegrate into ash?
"I'm… Not," I said slowly, "well, not about my seeming at least. I'm worried about what happened when I cast the spell."
"Ah!" Malkarov said, then paused and uttered in a manner that made me think it was a prompt to continue, "Oh?"
After a brief moment he continued anyway, "Yes, well. Magic does follow some rules. If you cast a light spell in this method without any ill effects, then it stands that any further castings of light spells should be able to be repeated similarly without ill effects. I'm not an expert in this matter, however."
"So," I said slowly, hopefully, "I should be able to cast a light spell again without any problem?"
"Oh yes," he said quickly, "I'm quite sure of it. Magic is very consistent like that."
Now that I'd had my first taste, I didn't want to have it taken away from me. I pushed it a little more, "So… Could I try casting it again now?"
Distractedly he said "Oh yes, of course you could."
As soon as I heard yes, I had my eyes closed and the phrase was running through my head. The flashes occurred together and I pushed the one inside straight out my arm into the mug I held. The flash exploded and inside there was nothing once more. I opened my eyes to see my mug glowing with the same black light as the globe. Malkarov was sitting in his seat opposite me, tapping one finger to his lips and an eyebrow raised. Slowly the other joined it.
"That light through your seeming is extremely interesting," he pondered, "I wonder how a negative seeming will work with a manipulate elements spell?"
"What's a manipulate elements spell?" I asked, curious.
"Exactly as it sounds," he said with a smile and jumped up excitedly, "it lets you manipulate your seeming. For me, it lets me manipulate the wind in minor ways. It doesn't even require material components, so let's try it out shall we?"
He said the words and I felt the echo of his magic as he cast the spell. I looked around curious after a few moments, trying to see some sort of effect. He smiled at me cheekily and I felt my hair whip around my face, obscuring my view of him as if a sudden gale had whipped up. I brushed the hair out of my eyes and realised that nothing else in the room was moving! It was Malkarov manipulating the wind just around me! I smiled in understanding. It was fantastic!
It stopped and Malkarov explained, "This is a little bit different from the light spell. With that, you simply cast it and it happened, without further thought. With this spell, as you cast it or even before you do, you must feel out your element and control it; bend it to your will. I understand that it is slightly different with different seemings to begin with. For me, it was like wrestling something insubstantial. I cannot begin to ponder what it will feel like for you. Did you catch the words?"
I took a moment, it was one thing to recast the light spell that Malkarov had already said would work the same, it was another to try a different spell, "Are you sure it will be safe?"
"Safe?" he asked, as if the concept hadn't even crossed his mind, "Oh, yes. Not much magic involved and it operates on similar principles to the light spell. It should be all right."
I shrugged, nodded and closed my eyes. With the words running through my head, I felt the flash of magic behind my eyes and the tingle down my spine. I did not immediately feel the flash of magic inside of me. I wondered whether something was wrong, when I realised that perhaps with this being a new spell it would take time for the magic to answer. I kept at it, for what seemed like forever. Eventually I felt the answering flash inside and when the two began to occur simultaneously I pushed it down my arm. This is where I came across a problem.
It wouldn't go out. There was something there preventing the magic from leaving me. Or… more precisely nothing. There was nothing there. With the light spell, I could feel it going through my arm into the ball, or into the mug. Now, here… there was nothing for it to go into. I stopped trying to force the magic out and it slowly began to recede back up my arm into the centre of my mass. I stopped repeating the words and opened my eyes to see Malkarov staring at me expectantly.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
I shook my head, "I felt the answering flash and I pushed it down my arm, but it wouldn't go out. There was nothing there for it to go out *to*."
He "Hmmmmm'd" for a moment then let out a little laugh, "I've never had this problem, but wizards with other seemings do, and I should have realised it. I'm sorry Sharein, I've never been without air to manipulate but at the moment there is no negative energy for you to feel. Just as if a wizard with a fire seeming were to attempt the spell without any fire around them."
He stood up then, drained the rest of his mug and reached out to take mine. I finished the last of my drink and handed it to him.
"I'll head up to put away the things in the kitchen. You may spend the rest of the afternoon reading, in or out of the bath if you prefer," he said to me then leaned closer to whisper (which struck me as a little odd with just the two of us in the room), "It's a guilty pleasure of mine to read in the bath, especially these baths. While I'd much rather you didn't drop your book into the water, should it happen then just bring it to me and I shall use air to dry it out."
WIth that, he walked away up the steps, I stood to follow and heard him call down "I'm going to send for a friend to come for me to talk to about our problem with your casting. He will probably arrive today or tomorrow if he's not busy."
"Okay," I shouted in reply and continued up the steps.
"When you hear the chime for the door it will be Missus Rose with dinner, can you please bring it up? The lunch basket is by the door," came another instruction down the stairway.
"Okay," I shouted again, up the stairs and continued into my room on the second floor.
I ran the bath and undressed, refusing to run the risk of getting a book wet. I had a nice long soak in the bath until I realised that my finger tips were starting to prune. Once the bath was done, I lay on my bed reading A treatise on elemental seeming influences and predictions. It was terribly interesting in parts but extremely dull in others. It was almost as if it were written by two completely different authors, which I suppose was possible or even likely. There was no name credited to the writing for me to confirm one way or another. Eventually, just as I had reached another dull bit and was contemplating putting the book back on the shelf, I heard the single chime for the front door. I put the book back onto the shelf carefully and rushed down the stairs. Opening the door revealed Missus Rose, as predicted. She was holding a slightly larger wicker basket than the lunch one and beamed at me once she saw me.
"Oh my dear Sharein, I'm so glad it was you that answered," she began and in response to my smile and blush continued, "The pig turned out very well indeed. There are some roasted root vegetables in there as well."
She looked over my shoulder to see if Malkarov was there, it was so obvious that I whispered to her "He's upstairs, I believe."
"Wrapped up in the leaves," Missus Rose whispered to me conspiratorially, "is a freshly slaughtered chicken. Malkarov mentioned to me once that he absolutely loved your mother's honey roasted chicken. I've included in there what I think are the ingredients. When he mentioned that you'd be cooking tomorrow night, I thought this might be a good way to surprise him."
"Thank-you MIssus Rose," I replied, giving her a big hug and taking the basket from her.
"It's nothing dear," she replied, leaning past me to pick up the lunch time basket, "I worry about him is all. He needs a wife, I think, But none of the free women or girls in town have ever interested him. Obviously one must be a wizard to marry a wizard."
The last bit was followed rapidly by a wink that left me pondering if Shard would count as a wizard if there was indeed some restriction on whom I could marry. As Missus Rose walked off down the path, I closed the door and walked up the steps to the kitchen. I shook my head at the silly direction my thoughts took me. Even if I had to marry a wizard AND Shard counted as a wizard, I doubt I'd still be able to marry another woman.
"Silly Shar," I whispered to myself as I unpacked dinner.
I pressed the bell rune three times to let Malkarov know that dinner was ready and when he arrived into the room I asked him "Missus Rose brought some meat around for me to cook up tomorrow night, where do I put it?"
"Oh, of course," he said, mostly to himself, "the last door on the right is enchanted to remain cool, as if it were a pit dug into frozen ground. Meat that's put in there will last quite a while."
I opened the door to an empty cupboard and put the chicken inside. There was no temperature difference with the door open, but as I placed my hand into the cupboard with the chicken I could feel the difference in temperature. It was indeed cold inside.
We ate our dinner with a little light conversation, mostly Malkarov asking me about my friends in town. He told me that I could take some time to visit them when I did the shopping tomorrow, which I was thankful for. Once dinner was done, we both headed down to our rooms to read before bed.
I continued the treatise I was reading earlier and when I finished it I decided that it would be a good point to go to sleep. I replaced the book on the shelf and got back under the covers. Just as I turned off the lights, two bells chimed and the room was dark.
As I lay there I thought over all of the events that occured during that day. I couldn't wait to tell Shard about them and I practiced in my head the words that I would use when I could visit her altar.
—-
12th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c
—-
I woke to darkness.
Something felt off, strange.
I wasn't in bed.
I was standing. In darkness.
I looked down at myself and despite the darkness, I could see myself quite clearly.
I looked up and it felt like my heart had stopped. There, standing in front of me… was Shard.
"Shard!" I exclaimed and ran into her arms, sobbing I cried, "I love you, I miss you."
She returned the hug and it felt so, so real. Some part of me told me that it wasn't though, that it was a dream. I ignored that part as best I could.
Shard leaned back out of the hug and kissed me, a steaming passionate kiss that left me wanting more and cursing at how short it was.
She took a step back, but took hold of my hands in hers.
"Listen, I don't have much time," she said, "I heard your prayer and even just visiting you like this has delayed my return by a month."
I opened my mouth to say something but she looked at me sternly, "My quest is going well, I think, I hope. I'm so very proud of you, and so happy about your seeming. But it does have me concerned, that something else is at play. Don't worry about the strange way that magic works with you, I can't tell you why it is why it is, but I can tell you that you will not be consumed for lack of components, nor will you ever actually require a staff or to speak the words. Obviously this should be kept a secret as much as possible, others will become jealous and may seek you out to take from you the method, though it is not a method that can be taken or shared."
"I love you Sharein," she said even as she started to fade away…
"I love you too," I mumbled as I woke up.
