The Abjurer: Chapter 30-31

 Medb, Crone of Winter, was laughing, her sharp iron teeth on full display.

“Oh, I do love the defiance of mortality…”

I held my hand out and Oracle swept over to me. My aura intermingled with his, and our bond was reestablished.

Normally, it would have taken a full ritual to summon him back to me, but I was actually physically within the Fae Sovereignties, as was Oracle. That made things considerably easier – little more than a touch of basic Aura manipulation to manage the bond.

I held out my hand to Medb.

“The favors of the vernal court,” I said.

She unclenched her iron claws, and the power floated above her hands.

“And tell me, Evander Tailor, why should I? You have brought two deaths into my world, my land.”

I stared at the hag, weary, but not willing to hand over my prize so easily. Not after everything I’d gone through.

Oh, I wouldn’t attack her. I was determined, not suicidal. But if she gave me the opportunity to talk? I would.

“The wards killed the insect because it was in violation of your rules,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s no more at my feet than at yours. It's their fault for violating the rules.”

“True enough,” Medb said, her smile growing even wider as she watched me. “And the queen?”

“She did that to herself,” I said stiffly. I hadn’t exactly had time to process that trauma, after all. “I had won. She chose to… do that to herself… just to land one final blow.”

I paused, then continued.

“When I entered, your doorguard suggested that if one was to kill here, it would be best to kill one’s self. She simply followed that advice.”

Medb started laughing, a dry, wheezing laugh that sent shivers down my spine. It was the sound of a whetstone sharpening an executioner’s blade.

The three favors snapped back to me, like a rubber band that had been stretched taut finally being released.

“If you do allow the power to take root in your soul, once the pause I have imposed is over,” Medb said, her iron teeth gnashing. “You should join my court, little one. You could do well. But remember this: the power you have gained today is the power of a mortal. To keep it, keep yourself.”

I hesitated for a moment before I bowed.

“I shall endeavor to remember your advice.

Medb’s claws clicked, and I was thrown out of the cottage, and back into the floor of Medb’s hall.

I took one long breath to steady myself, then turned and started jogging towards our rooms.

Osheen and I had survived the party. We had accomplished the tasks set before us by the Silver Queen.

And now?

I was free.

Or at least, that was what I thought.

But standing outside the door to Osheen and my suite was Garnet.

“What do you want, King of Constellations?” I asked the well dressed man, giving a short nod to his bodyguard, then a brief bow towards the king.

“I had hoped to speak to my sister,” Garnet said calmly.

There was a glow of Silver Power that emanated from Oracle, then he was being possessed by the Silver Queen again. She began to talk, but I held up my hand.

“Honored Queen, I need to speak to my Lord,” I said. “I am afraid I must depart while you and your brother speak.”

“Of course,” she said, giving me a smile.

I wasn’t sure how it was possible for Oracle’s birdlike face to smile, but she was definitely smiling. And it wasn’t entirely a predatory one, either.

I wasn’t sure if that scared me or not. I was too burnt out to truly tell.

I let the bird and the brother speak, while I unlocked the door and headed inside, only to see Osheen passed out in the bed. A quick flicker of my third eye showed that the stranger hadn’t taken the effort to allow him to restore his Aura, but honestly I was just happy that he’d taken Osheen back to our room.

My tired muscles groaned as I helped pull Osheen into a warm bath, but I didn’t allow their protestations to stop me.

Once Osheen was up and moving again, I checked on Oracle. He – or she, since it was the Silver Queen speaking through him – and Garnet were still talking, so I let them get to it while I checked the clock on the wall.

“When will it end?” Osheen asked curiously.

“Midnight,” I said.

“Why?” he asked. “How did you know?”

“It just makes the most sense,” I said. “I don’t know astral magic, but I know that the movements of the stars and plants are important for it. Plus, think about faerie tales. They’re rife with this sort of thing – sets of three or seven, and spells that wear out at midnight.

Osheen looked around wearily.

“I need sleep, but first… Are you okay? What happened?”

“I should be saying the same to you,” I said wryly.

We bounced the metaphorical ball back and forth a few times before I finally relented and explained the whole situation with the Crone.

“But what does the arch-star actually do?” Osheen asked.

“It connected my life and my Aura in a reverse sort of way to an Aura spark,” I said. “I’m guessing it allows me to pour Aura into it to force me to stay alive.”

Osheen’s eyebrows crept up at that.

“Most people need years of healing magic training to do something like that. Even if it’s effectively only a regeneration effect, rather than true healing… That’s still absurd. I’d put it on par with archmage sight.”

“I doubt it’s perfect,” I said, and I flared my aura out around me.

My Aura had always been thin. I’d not had the aura spark fueled density or size increasing potions that nobility used, and I’d slacked off on working to expand it.

After all, I was an enchanter. My power came from my tools.

But this time, when I lit my aura, it was barely wispy curls, and I nodded in mild annoyance.

“Yep. My guess is that it eats at aura concentration each time it’s used. The more extreme work it has to do, the more extreme the toll on aura density.”

Osheen started to smile, and I frowned.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s great!” he said.

“How is that great?”

“Oh, it’s a heavy price to pay for sure,” Osheen said. “It makes you weaker. But you can make your Aura more dense through training. Anyone can.”

I considered that for a moment, then let out a groan.

“Does this mean that I have to deal with that training you put me through when we were on the carriage ride to Yesgol?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s so much worse than that,” Osheen said, practically cackling. “That was just baby’s first aura manipulation. You’re going to have to learn some real techniques once you get that down.”

I let out another groan, then pulled Osheen into a tight hug. He hugged me back, and I only spoke when we turned away.

“Alright,” I said. “Your turn. What happened with you?”

“Well, I wound up in the garden with this kid version of our host…”

After Osheen explained, I hugged him.

“I’m sorry,” was all I said. He gave me a dry laugh and shrugged.

“I had an idea my scabbard wouldn’t be enough. But it doesn’t sound like you had it much easier.”

“You did get some good out of it,” I said.

“The boon does seem solid,” Osheen agreed, then paused when I shook my head.

“Medb made you stress test the new spells. We can use what you learned to improve them.”

A thoughtful look came across Osheen’s face, and he nodded.

“I suppose that’s true.”

I was interrupted by a flash in my mind as the Silver Queen used her hold on Oracle to tug the link between us, and I held up a finger to Osheen.

“One moment.”

I stepped out into the hallway, and Oracle winged over to land on my shoulder. That was mildly disturbing, but I chose to ignore it. I glanced at her, then at Garnet.

“An Autumnal Queen, then?” I asked.

“A Queen of Change, in the Court of Autumn,” Garnet corrected. “But yes. May I have my memory crystal returned to me, please?”

I nodded and stepped back inside, the Silver Queen winging off my shoulder to circle the hallway again, then handed it back to him.

“Pleasure working with you, Mr. Tailor,” Garnet said with a smile. “May we work together again many times in the future.”

“I would certainly be open to trading for the power of change, constellations, or death,” I agreed. “With either of you. But I think you’ll find that, given the quality goods I can produce, I’m not entirely cheap.”

The Silver Queen laughed, and Garnet chuckled at that, then he nodded and turned to leave. Once he had turned the corner and passed out of sight, I glanced at the Silver Queen.

“It’s done,” I said flatly. She nodded Oracle’s bird head, and released him. He fluttered up to my shoulder and affectionately pushed his cheek up against mine.

“Hey, my hair!” I said, as his antlers tangled into it.

I headed back inside, glancing at Osheen.

“It’s all done, then?” he asked, and I nodded.

We gathered up the last few components that we hadn’t used, and stuffed them into my bag and cloak pockets, then made a cup of tea and talked as we waited for the clock to tick down to midnight.

When midnight struck, there was a shimmer around both of us, and we appeared in the In Between, same as we had to enter.

“I’m coming here far too often,” I said, glancing around for the door. Osheen just pulled me into a hug, and then we made our way through the empty white landscape and towards the door in the distance.

At least this time there weren’t the void tentacles trying to pull me into the abyss. That was a small relief. I could deal with weird nothingness, since it didn’t seem like there was actually a risk to any of us.

When we opened the door, we found ourselves in our bedroom in Yesgol, as if we’d never left.

Or… Not quite. Nothing in the room had changed, but the shadows and light on the walls had.

Sure enough, just as the guard had said, only a few hours had passed in the mortal world, while thirteen days had passed inside of Medb’s palace.

I felt a tingling in my aura as a tiny fraction of Silver Power flowed out of it, my debt, which I’d carried for so long, finally fading away.

“I know we were told about it,” Osheen said. “But there’s a part of me that still didn’t really believe that the time would really pass like that. That’s absurd control over time. Even the best charm mages can only use it to make themselves a bit faster, not… Two weeks of time.”

“It is pretty wild,” I agreed, flopping onto the bed as Oracle faded into my aura, his physical body still in the Fae Sovereignties, and passing into Autumn’s lands. “But for right now, I honestly… Just want to sleep. I’m exhausted. I have a lot of work to do, moving forwards.”

“So do I, if I want to keep up with a soon to be archmage,” Osheen said, laughing without much actual humor in it.

“But unlike during the first semester, I don’t plan to let that get in the way of us spending time together,” I said.

Osheen let out a contented hum as he lay down onto the bed next to me, far more delicately than my own belly flop. I shimmied closer to him and he closed his arms around me.

“I’m never going to leave you behind,” I said. “You’re not weak, just because you didn’t miraculously manage to create an arch-star while dancing.”

“It wasn’t all dancing,” Osheen said, a little more humor entering his voice, a more real smile on his face. “But for now… We should sleep.”

I closed my eyes, and was out almost instantly.

~~~

The following morning, before anything, I showered. After everything we’d been through, and flopping onto bed the night before, I felt sticky and gross.

One quick shower later, and I headed downstairs to get breakfast for Osheen and me. I got a bagel with cream cheese, and got him some bacon and eggs.

Honestly, I was almost tempted to get myself some bacon too. After nearly two weeks of snacking on food so potent that it gave you temporary hallucinations, I was more than happy to have plain old mortal food once again.

I considered for another moment, then added a single strip of bacon.

When I got back to the room, I found Osheen in the shower, so I let him finish while I wrote out a letter to Aldvarri. I let him know I was done with the fae party, and that I was well and safe. I also attached some money and a simple request.

By the time I’d finished, Osheen emerged, and we ate in relative silence. I took the time to enjoy myself… Right up until there was a knocking at the door.

With a pained groan, I rose from the table and walked over to open it.

On the other side of the door stood Draven.

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked. “There’s no way you flew.”

Draven smiled mysteriously and held out a slender volume, bound in a hard, flaking red leather.

“I have my ways. There’s the ritual, as promised. Do enjoy…”

Then he sunk into the shadows and was gone from sight. I stepped back over my threshold, fairly confident that he wouldn’t be able to enter our dorm – he was still a vampire, even with the creepy melting into the shadows trick.

I sighed and walked back over to Osheen, then put the book aside. It could wait.

I cuddled with Osheen as we finished breakfast, then glanced up at him.

“You wanted to show me how to swim, right?”

“I do,” Osheen agreed, then paused. “Tomorrow.”

“That works for me.”

And so we spent the rest of the day lounging on the couch. I fell in and out of sleep a few times, as did Osheen. He went down for our lunch, and I went back down for our dinner.

It was the first time in a long time that I’d honestly felt fully relaxed.

Sure, I had a fight with Osheen’s father looming.

But I had a year to manage that.

Sure, I was still trapped and bound under the rules.

But I had ways I could manage that too.

Sure, I had a list of well over a dozen enchantments that I needed to work on.

But taking a few days off wasn’t going to hurt.

Things had been rough this year, but I’d grown. Osheen had grown. And for now, we could relax.

We passed out by 8th bell that night, and the next morning after breakfast, we headed out to the pool. Osheen had an actual swimming suit, a striped black and white number that showed off his arms quite nicely. I didn’t, though, so I just wore shorts and an undershirt.

It was in a similar area to where the Roark assassin had attacked us, but a level down.

When Osheen had said that Yesgol had a pool, I’d imagined a small pool of water. Maybe ten feet by ten feet.

I should have remembered, however, that not only were water sorcerers a thing, but that the nobility was funding Yesgol to absurd levels.

There wasn’t just one pool.

There were dozens.

Some of them were on the smaller side, only able to comfortably hold four or so people while sitting around.

But there were also ones that were much, much bigger. They were easily a hundred feet on the shorter side, and half again that on the long side.

Enchantments ran through the place, larger versions of the simple water heating and chilling enchantments that were used in the dorm sinks and showers. I once again had to marvel at just how much aura Yesgol produced.

There were only two other people in the area, each standing at a smaller pool, casting spells to try and mold the water. By their clothes, I was guessing they were commoners like me.

One of them managed to shape some of the water into a crude attempt at a seal, while the other tried to shape theirs into a somewhat more realistic attempt at a dog.

Osheen and I nodded to them as we passed by, heading for a larger, unoccupied pool. Osheen leapt in and some of the water splashed back over me, making me let out an ‘eep’ and jump back.

“C’mon, it’s just water,” Osheen said once he emerged. I dipped my foot in and sent a wave splashing at his face.

As it hit him, though, he grabbed my foot and yanked me in, catching me in his arms and planting a kiss on my forehead.

“See? Not so bad.”

He gently let me slide out of his grip and into the water.

“Let’s see what you can already do.”

I nodded. I wasn’t afraid of water, not the way I was with large groups of people – though even that fear had been getting better via exposure.

I kicked my feet, paddling my arms to keep myself aloft. Osheen kicked out and gracefully drifted back, waving at me.

“Alright, and now make it this way.”

I paddled my arms and kicked my legs, and I did make it over to Osheen… albeit slowly.

“Move your arms wider, more in a sweeping motion,” Osheen instructed, scooping his own arms out like a cup catching water.

I nodded and tried to mimic him, but wound up sinking some and thrashing to get myself a bit above the surface.

Osheen swam around and steadied me.

“Here. I’ll hold you by your legs and stomach, and you can practice the arm motions and kick.”

He gently angled me so that I was nearly parallel with the bottom of the pool. I turned a little bit red – I felt like a kid – but did my best to mimic the cuplike sweeps that Osheen had shown me.

As I got increasingly comfortable in the water, Osheen let go of my legs, then of my stomach, before having me swim a lap around the pool.

“Congratulations!” he said when I finished. I felt a smile plaster itself across my face – it was dumb, not some huge accomplishment, but… it felt good.

“Thanks,” I said. “What next?”

Osheen bit his lip, then had me lie flat on my back. That felt… strange. The water kept getting into my ears, and I was not a fan of that at all.

We went through several more basic variations, until I felt confident that I at least would be able to maneuver if I got dropped into a lake or something of the sort.

At that point, Osheen dove under the water and pushed me under. I let out a yelp that came out more as a bubble and shoved him. We both surfaced and I splashed at him, but he splashed back. 

It quickly turned into a splashing fight after that, but Osheen far and away had the upper hand – he was able to slip through the water faster than I was.

I cheated at one point and twisted my aura to empower an Impetus glyph, which made a huge splash of water.

“Oh, you don’t want that,” Osheen said, laughing. He empowered his tattoo and released a wave of force into the water that drenched me completely.

“Ack! No! I surrender!” I said. “I didn’t think about that!”

Though, now that he’d made me think about the tattoo, I had some ideas swirling in my mind for that.

I beat them down, forcing them into a box at the back of my brain.

I was always thinking, and I couldn’t stop that. But I could put it in the back of my mind, and try to live in the moment.

We swam and splashed for a while later, and I was surprised how fast the time ticked by. When it was lunch, I exited the pool and immediately started shivering.

“W-what?” I asked, my teeth chattering. “It’s like stepping out of a shower, but even worse.”

Osheen started laughing, and I playfully smacked his shoulder.

“I didn’t think about that,” he finally said. “Here.”

He waved his hand and runes spun around his arms, then a wave of warmth washed over me. A few more runes appeared, and the wetness rapidly dried from my clothes and skin – though not my hair, for some reason.

I let out an involuntary groan of enjoyment, and Osheen smirked at me. I gently whacked his shoulder one more time, and we headed off to lunch.

Over the next several days, as the return of school started to creep closer and closer, I didn’t so much as look at enchantments. I’d be happy to return to them once the semester started, but for now, I was spending time with Osheen.

The only pieces of work we did at all were writing to the Ligature to inform them of everything that had happened at the party, and reaching out to Tara to let her know the same.

We swam a few more times, and Osheen even convinced me to join him for a brief workout that left my calves and biceps aching in equal measure.

We spent time in Hallowbrooke, enjoying the food, and even window shopping.

I went wild over a pasta that one of the places we ate at had – it was a rich cream sauce, with loads of mushrooms and onions, and long, slender noodles that nearly broke apart on the fork.

At one point, we stumbled into Clara’s shop

“Well, if it isn’t my two favorite customers!” the blue skinned giant-kin said, smiling at us. “How can I help you two?”

I laughed at the line – it was good way to lock in a sale, at least.

“I want a novel,” Osheen said. “Maybe a mystery novel. Nothing too dark, though.”

“Oh, really?” Clara asked. “Then it’ll be enchanting manuals for you, Evan?”

“Nothing of that sort today,” I said, smiling. “I want a copy of the same book as Osheen. We’re going to read it together.”

“That’s sweet,” Clara said. “But really – no enchanting books for you, Evan?”

“Not today,” I said, and Clara’s eyebrows crept up in surprise. I grinned at the expresion. “I am more than just an enchanter, you know.”

“I know,” Osheen said. “But even I expected you’d get something in addition to the book.”

“Hey!” I protested.

In the end, we found a book about a detective trying to crack the case of how a chef’s secret recipies – which were kept in a secret vault – kept getting stolen.

I had a field day with the idea a small resteraunt chef would own a walk in vault – the writer clearly had never done much gruntwork. Still, it was more an amusement than an actual detractor.

All said and done, the book was lighthearted, and heavily featured a romantic subplot – in other words, exactly what we needed after the stress.

Before either of us was ready for it, the spring semester arrived, and Yesgol was turned into a flood of people streaming in and out once again.