NOVEL NEXT Volume 3 Chapter 1
Yvette sat cross legged on the hard ground, only a thick rug between her and the dirt. Her bag was open besides her and in front of her lay the few reagents she’d managed to get her hands on since her journey had started.
A single, beautiful scale that seemed to sparkle with a dozen different colors whenever it reflected the light.
A necklace made by, and magically connected to, a dryad. A bundle of ever blossoming flowers wrapped tightly together, it was the reagent one she was the most wary of tampering with.
Finally, two small vials of troll’s blood. She couldn’t begin to imagine how it’d be useful, but she figured it was best to add it as well. It was basically liquid magic, after all.
She picked up the bracer that she had acquired after killing a cruel and wicked mage who had intended to sacrifice both herself and her guardian, Gervas. Longer than a journeyman’s bracer, it housed easily used and accessed reagents that could be called on with a simple touch. Adding more reagents to be drawn on wasn’t something she had a lot of experience with.
Much like the bag that she carried all of her supplies in, the bracer was bigger on the inside. Or rather, it could absorb the essence of different reagents and store them. The magic to do it wasn’t exactly easy and, while she had learned the basics of it as an apprentice, she had never actually attempted the ritual. Most mages could go their whole lives never trying. After all, the bracers worked for a majority of spells, there wasn’t much reason to tamper with them.
But in the end she couldn’t be like ‘most’ mages. Her goal was in direct opposition to the Mage’s Association. The spell she was trying to use was forbidden for a somewhat good reason. While the reason she intended to use it for, altering her own true form, wasn’t a bad reason, she could almost understand why they would try to stop her. Almost. If not for the fact she knew there were mages who COULD help her, yet wouldn’t, on the basis of the spell itself being forbidden.
She stroked a finger along the bracer, her eyes focusing on the very, very faded stain where its prior owner’s blood had once coated it. Before long she doubted there would be any such mark.
Context mattered in situations like this. Wimark had been insane and cruel. Not because of his magic, but what he’d wanted to do. He wanted power. Control. He believed he could force his way into making everyone obey him. He killed and attempted to bind the wills of others in order to take more. To create an empire. He would have been nothing more than a tyrant. He had to be stopped.
Yet she would likely be considered as big a ‘threat’ as him, if not bigger. Even though she only desired to be herself, she had stolen a forbidden spell in order to do it. The Mage’s Association would do everything it could afford to in order to stop her. So she couldn’t allow herself to--
“You’re procrastinating again,” Gervas’ voice rang out, making her jump. She glanced back at the man, her cheeks turning red. He was lounging on a small pile of furs, his eyes closed and looking entirely relaxed. She felt annoyed at the fact she couldn’t help but think he looked so cute like that. Only wearing his trousers, no armor. His red hair a bit messy. His face had just a little hint of hair growing, as he hadn’t shaved since yesterday. A part of her wanted to throw something at him, another part of her wanted to go over and kiss him on his big stupid face.
“I am not,” she finally said.
“Yes you are. I’ve seen this ritual done before and I know staring at your little treasures and rubbing the bracer isn’t a part of it. Stop pretending to be a dragon and get the job done.”
“T-they are not my treasures! I mean, they are, b-but they’re valuable reagents. It’s--”
“Basically your hoard,” Gervas said flatly, opening one eye and glancing towards her. “Just relax. It’s easy enough, you can do it.”
“It is NOT easy! My master taught me--”
“Fine, it’s not easy. But you’ve been through worse things than this. You can do this.”
“What if I break them?” Yvette asked softly, running a hand over the bracer. She felt the knot of anxiety in her stomach. If she broke them, how could she replace them?
“That’s unlikely. You’ll probably just make a mess, at worse,” Gervas said with a sigh. “It was your idea, anyway. You were the one who wanted to do this. You don’t have to if you’re that scared. But--” His words were cut off by a loud crack from above, making her jump.
She glanced up, towards the small hole in the top of their mountain-shaped lodging, now closed due to the weather. Outside, the skies were raging with a terrible fury, rain coming down so thick that even if she looked out the main entrance she’d struggle to see any of the other homes. For the time being all of the zmaj were nestled in their own warm homes, waiting out the storm. There wouldn’t be any disturbances until it passed. Even with the lightning it was the perfect time for her to try this, when she would remain undisturbed.
But it could also be a waste of her magic, what if someone got hurt and--
“You’re doing it again,” Gervas’ voice broke out once more.
Yvette gave a sigh and slowly placed the bracer down in front of herself. “Fine, I’m doing it,” she said before closing her eyes. She grabbed one of the vials of troll’s blood and held it in her hands, closing her eyes. She lightly whispered to the bracer while she worked. “Absorb… absorb… absorb…”
She let her magic wash over the bracer, feeling all that was stored within it. So many different reagents, though some were just fragments or pieces. The original bracers had been created to aid mages such as her a few centuries ago, adding new and different reagents as the years went on. But the fundamentals remained the same. They were focuses, housing all of the reagents a mage could need to perform their magic. But more importantly other reagents could be added to them to allow them to be called on. It had the extra benefit of ensuring those reagents usually wouldn’t be used up, since the bracer itself took the majority of the force of the spell, allowing reagents that would normally only survive a single spell to last many more.
She could feel the magic inside the bracer, opening itself up to the touch of her power, attuning itself to her call. She pulled the stopper out of the vial and began to slowly pour it onto the bracer. It absorbed the blood, rather than splashing across the surface. Slowly the surface began to turn a light red color, rather than the brown it had once been. Her magic allowed her to feel when the essence of the troll’s blood was stored within. She then reached for the necklace gifted to her by the dryad.
She stared at it for a moment, before shaking her head. It was a gift, though one she suspected could aid her heavily. She couldn’t bring herself to lock it into the bracer entirely. Slowly, she gripped one of the blossoming flowers and tried to untangle it. To her surprise, despite how tightly they seemed to be bound together, the flower came out from the necklace with ease, roots and all.
She stared at it, then the necklace, the latter of which didn’t seem any worse despite having lost one of its flowers. She slowly put the single flower onto the bracer, once again it was absorbed within. A single outline of a golden flower appeared near the bottom of the bracer, the section closest to her elbow.
Finally, she picked up the scale. The edges of it were sharp, making her handle it with care. Her hands were covered in deep, white scars thanks to two of its twins, so she knew how dangerous they could be. Thankfully, due to her own magic healing and the magic of the zmaj that were helping them, she only felt an occasional twitch of pain when she gripped her hands too tightly or if they got too cold. With time she was certain even that would fade.
She placed the scale over the bracer and it, too, was absorbed. The glow of the bracer changed though. Rather than a white, gentle light, it now flickered across a variety of different colors, shifting across a wide spectrum. She froze for a few moments until the display ended. When it finally did, there was a small, multicolored scale embedded near the top of the bracer.
Yvette let the spell fade and the glow disappeared, soon the only light in the room was a few candles. She fell back a moment later, the exhaustion from the spell hitting her all at once. It had been a simple spell, but she felt all of that tension, that fear of failure, release at once. She laid there on the rug of their temporary home for a few moments and chuckled. “I did it.”
“Of course you did. Feel better?”
“Yes. I feel exhausted, though.”
“You worry too much,” Gervas said with a shrug before getting to his feet and walking towards her, a hand reaching out to gently pat her on the head. He then leaned down and picked up the bracer before dropping it on her stomach. “Try it on, see how it feels.”
Yvette nodded and slowly slid the bracer on. It felt different from before, somehow more familiar. She stroked a hand over the slightly reddish-brown material, touching the blank part. Once again, the dots signifying all of the different reagents it housed appeared and, to her surprise, so did the scale and flower. She could almost feel them inside. They were hers, through blood, tears, hard work and near death, she had won them all.
It wasn’t just that the bracer had new reagents either. She felt stronger. More attuned to this focus. It felt as if it responded better than it had before. That her magic flowed through it far easier, as if some blockage had been removed. She tapped it once more and it responded instantly, the small dots disappearing, only for the scale and flower to reappear.
“It feels like it’s mine,” she said softly. She couldn’t help feeling a small rush of excitement at that thought. Even if she wasn’t a master, the bracer was hers and hers alone.
“Are you happy?” Gervas asked.
Yvette nodded, then glanced up at him standing over her. She felt red flooding her cheeks and her heart begin to pound so hard she was certain he could hear it. She couldn’t believe he could just stand over her like this, how could he not tell how she felt? How could he not sense her feelings? Why was she so stupid to have these feelings to begin with?
She sat up quickly, unable to keep meeting his gaze. “I’m plenty happy now, thank you very much. I--” Her words were stopped when she felt something drop into her lap. She glanced down at it and gave a soft sigh.
A single small scroll.
“You should study this, then,” Gervas said. “You said you wanted to master this spell, didn’t you?”
Yvette nodded, slowly opening it. She was careful when she did, the scroll was very old and a little brittle, the words partially faded with time. It had been given as an apologetic gift from one of the zmaj, Osiron. Apparently it was a spell that had proved quite useful back before the island had been isolated from the great sea turtle that had been left by its guardian. A spell to help prevent sea sickness.
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the scroll was in dragon tongue. She fumbled around in her bag for a few moments before pulling out her personal journal and a few books on the language. While she couldn’t, yet, understand the scroll, the spell itself didn’t appear to be very long, nor complex. She was absolutely certain she could translate and master the spell quickly.
The next time they were on a boat, she wouldn’t have to feel nearly as terrible. The very idea made her heart soar.
Yvette glanced to Gervas who was returning back to the furs to rest.
He didn’t say anything, but she could almost feel the tension from him. It was her fault that they were both stuck on this island. If she hadn’t nearly died, they would have been able to get on the boat that was supposed to take them back to the mainland. More importantly, if not for her they wouldn’t even have come here in the first place.
He wanted to go, but at the moment there was nowhere for them to go. All they could do was wait patiently for an opportunity to present itself. For the zmaj to decide what they would do. After all, the island had been isolated from the rest of the world for so long, now a cloud of uncertainty hovered over it as heavy as the storm that raged outside.
But she supposed that was something that could wait for another time. For now, she had a spell to learn.
