Bliath: Shattered

by Theresa Caligiuri

  “Oren, what is it?” Fera whispered out loud since she could not get past his mental wall.

  “The forest knows who you are, and is changing for you look behind us, our path is gone there is no trace of us crashing through it.”

  Fera looked around again, “That is a good thing right?” she questioned aloud.

  “We shall see.” Oren sounded ragged.

  “What is going on?” Vance was getting one half the conversation and thought he should be clued into the other half.

  Fera turned to Vance, “The forest is changing behind us, like it is trying to cover our tracks. We are just trying to figure out what it means, if it means anything at all.”

  Vance retook a look around, and they were right. The underbrush had seemed to cover the ground more densely behind them and the trees seemed closer together.

  “Devendra has been a mystery and strange stories have come out of it, let’s just be grateful it seems to be on our side, and get to the tower, we have a few more hours to go.” Vance was uneasy, but would rather not dwell on what could be in the forest.

  They took off, but Oren kept a slightly more even pace knowing that whoever was behind them was having a harder time following them. He had his mental barrier back up and his thoughts were thinking thoughts he should not be thinking, he wanted to give Fera a birthday present, but it would be a selfish gift, and it also could back fire and ruin everything, not that it wouldn’t happen at some point. His thoughts rambled on like this this for what seemed like forever.

  He was so lost in thought he almost missed the turn to the tower, but snapped out of it and made the turn followed by three more, a left, another left and a right, there is was, their safe point, where they could regroup and Fera could ascend in a safe place.

  Fera looked up and took in what was called the tower, it was not a tower at all, it looked like two massive trees fused together, and at the base a large door was carved, then her eyes went up to find what looked like a house nestled at the top with a look out deck all around it. “Amazing” she whispered.

  “Elven made, with magic, I am going to check for traps before we head in.” Vance said as if it were no big deal. Vance started circling the tower with his palms up and out. Fera could feel the energy waves coming off them. He gave the all clear and moved to the door, when he touched the handle he flew back a few feet, and cursed loudly.

  Fera could feel Oren laughing in her mind, “What is so funny, he could have been hurt?”

  “You have to be the one to open the door, A’mael, place the palm of your marked side on the door and say, Uuma ma' ten' rashwe, ta tuluva a' lle, while sending your energy signature into the door. Only elven magic will open it. The words are a key and your magic the turning element.”

  “Well you could have told us sooner.” Fera said curtly aloud.

  Vance glared in their direction and shouted “What, what now, what little secrets is he keeping now, was this funny to you Oren? We are on the same damn team, and this is a joke to you, let the servant get knocked on his ass, well in case you forgot your place, you are a horse, right that is what you are?”

  Fera was in a state of shock and her face was red, she slide down off of Oren and went to help Vance up, but he refused her hand and would not even look at her, but she could feel the energy building in him. She looked back at Oren, and then back to Vance, now she could see the energy waves coming off of him.

  Vance pushed himself off the ground, “I will be back.” And he fumed off into the forest.

  “Storm warning” Oren thought with twisted amusement

  Fera whirled back on him, and yelled, “Stop, just stop, he is right, but he needs to stop too, what is wrong with both of you? We are all each other has!” with that out of her system, she went over and took in the door, as lighting flashed in the distance.

  She pressed her palm to the door, she did not get catapulted back that was good a least, “Ok Oren what do I say again?”

  “Uuma ma' ten' rashwe, ta tuluva a' lle, it is said oo-ma ma-tan rash-we, ta tul-u-va ah-l-le, it means do not seek trouble it will find thy. Fera I am sorry.” Oren sounded defeated, he over announced his words so she would say them right and hoped it would work.

  Fera slowly pronounced each word, and sent an energy pulse into the door, and to her surprise it swung open, just as Vance came strolling back in. “So are you in this private joke with him? You could have warned me,” his eyes glared at her.

  “Vance, I had no clue,” Fera stuttered, but gave in he was so out of sorts she figured she would do more harm than good and settled for, “I am sorry Vance.” She pushed the door open more and started in.

  Vance knew she had little to really do with his mood, and felt embarrassed for even blaming it on a horse, but Vance could feel it, Oren was not what he appeared. He trailed after her, not ready yet to talk.

  Chapter 30

  Fera was amazed as she looked around, on the ground floor of the tower was a horse stable with three stalls, it was dark and dirty and clear no one had been here in a while.

  She felt Oren touch her mind, “Fera, hold out your hands palm side up channel your energy there, and say me'a”

  She did as Oren said, and light came from her hands and danced around the room in odd orbs on the walls, and up the small stairs, she could see the soft glow bounce around the room up there. Her mouth fell open, she did magic, without losing control, it was a spell, she clapped her hands like a five year old who learned how to skip.

  Vance couldn’t help but smile, but it faded when he realized Oren was the one to teach her what to do, and that made him question him even harder, but not wanting to push the issue, in that moment he let it go.

  Once Vance secured the upper level, he lead his horse into one of the stalls, and Oren just walked in and made himself at home.

  “Fera,” Vance called out as she started up the stairs, “I am going to go set the wards so we will know when someone is close and if they attack it will recoil on them.”

  Fera gave him a puzzled look, “How do you know how to do that, I mean set wards?” She was eager to know everything she had been missing out on so much and had even more to learn.

  “You are welcome to watch, but it is dull, Desree taught me.” Vance seemed nonchalant, but saddened at the mention of Desree.

  “I think I will explore, but thanks.” Fera could still feel Vance’s tension at it was probably for the best to leave him alone for a bit.

  She finished climbing the stair that lead to the next leave, and what she saw was magical in itself.

  There was a small kitchen, and a table, across the room there was a fireplace intricately carved into the far wall, there were two open doorways that lead out to the tower and a ladder up to another floor.

  She felt Oren touch her mind, “Everything ok up there?”

  “Yes, I am just amazed, it is dusty, full of cobwebs and leaves, but it is so beautiful.” She was still trying to take everything in.

  “Here- hold up your palms, this time as if telling someone to stop and release your energy while saying poika.” Oren knew he should let someone who could actually perform magic teach her, so many things could go wrong, but she was doing so well and loved it.

  Instead of talking to Oren in her mind she squealed with joy and yelled, “It worked, everything up her is sparkling, this is so spectacular epic, I am going to go clean the next floor.”

  “What worked?” Vance was standing in the stairwell looking up at her, “Fera, did you do this, how did?” His face scrunched up his face, there is no way she could be doing magic like this untrained nor should she if she put too much energy in a spell, it might not switch off and then she would more than likely die. “Fera, where did you learn to do this?” He demanded firmly.

  Fera was a bit taken back and confused, “Oren told me what to do, did I do it wrong? I am sorry”

  Vance’s face turned bright red and a vein started to bulge on his forehead, energy was starting to ripple off of
him. He tried to form words, they were hard, “FERA, HE…HE,” his voice was loud and trembling, he bolted for the balcony. Lights flashed and the energy pulse was enough to knock Fera off her feet, the whole tree shook.

  Fera recoiled in fear, her whole body tingled as she absorbed some of the manic energy. She did not know why Vance was so mad, another pulse ran through the with a blinding flash of light, Fera let out a small squeak, as the hair on her arms stood on end.

  Vance walked back into the main room, he looked worn and disheveled, his hair was going every which way, but he was on his feet. He started to pace, “Fera, you do not know how to control the flow of magic, if you do not know how to shut it off, you could die, it could take all of you, do you understand? If all of your energy goes into a spell so do you! Magic has rules, laws! ” He looked at her, her head was in her hand, her wild hair covering the rest of her face, Vance spoke a little louder making her jump, “DO you understand?” She nodded.

  Vance continued with a slight edge of venom, “Fera, I know you love that creature, that horse, whatever he is, but he could have killed you, and have you thought to stop and ask yourself, how a horse supposedly knows magic, and how to do it, Fera something is not right about this about him, promise me you will not do anything more than releasing your energy like a natural flow until you are trained, Fera it is not a game it is your life and that is something not worth risking!!”

  Fera let out a pained breath, she knew Vance was probably right, but she was not about to admit it, to him in this moment. So she tersely said “Fine.” Throwing up her hands but she managed to fight rolling her eyes.

  “Good, I will go clean and ready the upstairs, if you want to be helpful go get the food bag and make dinner the normal way please.” Vance’s voice was still cold but he was in control of himself again. With that he climbed the ladder.

  “Oren, Oren, why didn’t you tell me what I was doing was dangerous and how do you know what spells to use, is Vance right?” Her questions flooded Oren’s mind is a wave like crash.

  He did not want to answer her, or at least with the truth, but at the same time he couldn’t lie to her. “Fera, Melamin, this, that you ask, I, I do not know the words to tell you.”

  “What do you mean you do not know the words- are you meaning literal or…..Oren you are worrying me. Please?” Her desperation seeping into her thoughts to him.

  “Amin caela n'noa, A’mael, amin autien rath, before you ask, I will make it easy, I have no idea, beloved, I am going to bed.” He sounded frustrated and done in Fera’s mind.

  He had never translated for her and somehow this made a pit build in her stomach, something was not right, but also the word beloved stuck out to her, “Night Oren, sleep sweet.”

  “Fera?”

  “Yes?”

  “Happy Birthday, I will be there when and if you need me later.”

  “Thank you Oren.”

  Fera could feel Oren’s mind pull back from hers, she shuttered at the sense of loneliness that engulfed her. She got busy with dinner to take her mind off of, well off of everything.

  Chapter 31

  After dinner Fera climbed the ladder, it was clean as Vance had said it would be. She let out a breath she did not realize she was holing. This was the fleeting shelter from the chaos outside its walls and she needed a harbor from the storm, even if it was temporary. There were three small rooms without doors, she peeked in each one all where the same there was an intricately carved bed big enough for one person, made right into the tree, or out of it Fera couldn’t quite tell. In the middle room Vance had placed Fera’s bed roll and a change of clothes from the bags, she was grateful. There was a door that Fera was thinking would lead out to the balcony, but to her surprise she found a bathroom, with a shower. Her face lit up, the thought of even a cold shower was enough to celebrate at this point.

  She grabbed her change of clothes out of her room and ran back to the bathroom, trying not the slam the door in her excitement, she turned on the water, it ran brownish colored and to her delight cleared after a moment, she let out a shriek as the cold water hit her.

  There was a loud knock on the door, “Fera are you ok, I heard a yell?” Vance’s voice was full of concern.

  “Umm, fine the water was, well, is colder than I thought it would be, but at this point any shower is a good shower.” Fera hollered over the water.

  “Hey Fera, Happy Birthday.” Vance fired back as the water turned the perfect temperature.

  Fera was taken back for a moment before she caught on he made the water temperature rise, “Thank you, kind of creepy, it’s like your magic is in the shower with me.” She laughed.

  Vance’s tone adopted a playful tone that Fera had not heard in days, “Well sweetheart if I was in the shower with you we would not need magic to bring the temperature up.”

  “Vance that is horrible!!” she was trying to take a serious tone but her laughter crept out and bubbled over the surface.

  She finished scrubbing all of the dirt off, and stood in the hot water, letting it in that moment wash everything away. She closed her eyes and was thinking about her shower at home, a knock on the door brought her mind back to reality.

  “Fera, if you are done, I can dry you off?” Vance asked

  “What!” Fera gasped, and she thought wow what has gotten into Vance, talk about be forward.

  “Oh come on, not like that, I meant with magic, geesh, sweetheart, unless...” Vance joked

  Fera was blushing and felt lucky a door separated them so he couldn’t see her, cutting him off, “You’re not that lucky, however magic is appreciated since I had not thought about a towel.” She laughed out loud as she stepped out of the shower and shut the water off.

  She heard Vance laugh too, and then whisper something, and a warm gust of air swirled around her, it tickled her. She looked up on the closed door to find a slightly cracked mirror, and herself looking back at her. She let out an exasperated sound.

  “Everything ok?” Vance asked from the other side of the door.

  “Yeah, it seems my hair disagrees with your form of drying, know a spell to tame the wild beast on top of my head?” She asked

  Vance laughed, “It can’t be that bad?”

  Fera finished dressing and opened the door, Vance looked at her, and doubled over laughing, in between the rolls of laughter he managed to get out, “it seems it can.”

  Her eyes narrowed in on him, she knew it was a funny site to take in, the heat matched with the intense gust of his magic wind, left her curly mess of hair looking puffy, and like the mane of some of the strange beasts that roamed the land.

  Fera started to tame her hair back down into a braid as Vance gained his composure.

  “Better?” Fera questioned Vance

  He flashed her a smile, “You look perfect no matter what, but this way is far less amusing.”

  She playfully swatted at him, but she felt the slight spark and there magic energies met.

  “Does that happen when you touch everyone with a magic?” Fera blushed the moment the question left her mouth what if he didn’t feel it too, but how could he not feel the spark, and she wanted to know what it meant if it meant anything at all.

  Vance looked down at the ground, “No, I mean I haven’t let that many people this close in my space before, it is not safe for them, it really isn’t safe for anyone, I have a hard time controlling my energy sometimes, but you affect me the way no other has.” He let out a sigh and ran his hand through his dark hair.

  Fera let out the breath she had been holding and took a step closer to him. Vance’s hand slowly came up and traced the curve of her face, he loved her, he knew he did. But now was not the time to love her, it was the time to support her, comfort her, and give her strength, love would naturally flow into those, without adding more to the confusing mix that she was thrown into.

  Fera stood there, transfixed by the delicate warm flow of Vance’s touch on her skin, she looked up at him, their eyes locking, s
he willed for him to just lean in and let their lips meet, but as if he sensed her desire, he took a step back. Her disappointment was evident, as she dropped her gaze.

  “Here,” Vance said as he pulled a small ball out of his pocket and handed it to Fera, “Happy Birthday, Princess.”

  Fera looked at what he handed her, it was a handkerchief, “Oh, thank you Vance, you really didn’t um have too, I wasn’t expecting anything, just kind of happy to be alive still, and I owe that to you.” She started to tuck the hankie in her pocket, Vance grabbed her hand to stop her, he smiled at her, trying not to laugh.

  “Fera, open it, I am sorry I could not make the outside worthy of you, but when you’re running for your life, decorative scarves are limited.”

  Fera’s face turned pink again, she really wasn’t expecting anything, she carefully opened the thin cloth to find one of the most beautiful lockets she had ever seen, it was gold, with the mark of Bliath scrolled on the front with a dark blue stone in the middle that held small silver flecks that reminded Fera of the night sky. Before she could form words Vance took it from her, and went to fasten it around her neck. She moved her braid out of the way. As soon as the clasp was fastened, she brought her head up and touched the necklace. “Vance it is so beautiful, thank you so much.”

  Vance’s hand went up over hers, they both held the locket, “It was my mother’s, she put it around my neck before she left, the carriage, the last time I saw her.” Without thinking the memory of that night jumped into his head, when the memory cleared, Fera was looking at him like her heart was broken, she had seen it too.