The Circles of Magic

by Gabriela Fišerová

  He looked around at the people near him, who he had been successfully ignoring all this time, even though their murmuring was an ever-present background noise. The tavern was relatively well lit with sconces and a wooden chandelier hanging from the rafters, but the flames also created dark corners.

  There were only around ten people, which was a little unusual, but not that out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was the way a few of them were looking at him. They of course quickly looked away when he locked eyes with them, but Edwyr couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t noticed it. It reminded him of when he’d moved here. He hadn’t liked it then, and he didn’t like it now.

  When he heard the tavern door creak as it opened, Edwyr quickly turned his attention to it instead, relieved to see that it was Lanna and Arbane. He was happy to see them in general, especially after Arbane’s injury, but Edwyr would also welcome the distraction they always presented.

  Except something was a little off. And a second later Edwyr noticed what it was. Arbane wasn’t even limping anymore. It looked like all of his wounds had healed. What in the Goddess’ name…?

  “We just met another elf,” Arbane said a bit too loudly as he plopped himself down on the bench opposite Edwyr, leaning onto the table with his elbows. He was grinning, which wasn’t unusual, but it definitely was in this context since Arbane didn’t like elves.

  “Did he heal you?” Edwyr felt a little ashamed of how unfriendly he’d made that question sound. He should be happy for his friend who was no longer in pain, and that was all there was to it.

  Lanna and Arbane exchanged a look before Arbane looked him in the eye again, his face jarringly serious. “That’s right. And I can already tell what you’re thinking, so stop that.”

  Edwyr sighed, closing his hand around the tankard and looking down into his beer. He didn’t appreciate being talked to like this, but it was deserved. He was being ridiculous, feeling sorry for himself because he couldn’t help his friend the way Feyrith could. This wasn’t about him.

  “I take it you already met him?” Lanna asked after a moment of tense silence. Edwyr nodded, not really feeling up to talking about this. But he clearly would have to since the two had already met Feyrith.

  “He broke into my house.”

  Both Arbane and Lanna let out a surprised laugh, their eyes wide. “What?”

  “I assume he opened the lock with magic.” Despite trying to keep a neutral tone, Edwyr couldn’t stop himself from sounding a little mocking. “He wanted my help, but I don’t know with what because I may have been…a bit untactful.”

  “Yeah, he seemed a little…spooked,” Lanna said, one of her eyebrows raised. “Pretty, though.”

  Edwyr frowned to himself. He hadn’t noticed that, but then he’d been too busy throwing Feyrith out of his house at the time.

  Arbane snorted. “What is it with you and elves?”

  “They’re exotic.” Lanna stuck out her tongue at him before putting an arm around him, smiling at him warmly. “I’m just teasing.”

  Back when Edwyr had arrived in Sunwood, Lanna had immediately taken a fancy to him, much to the jealousy of Arbane, though they hadn’t even been together back then. Edwyr didn’t like remembering that whole debacle, but it was nice to see that Arbane wasn’t bothered by it in any significant way anymore. Edwyr still wasn’t sure why Lanna had found him attractive when most humans were immediately put off by his appearance, but that was one mystery he didn’t need to unravel.

  “He came across as if he had close to no idea what he was doing, though, right?” Arbane said, scratching at the stubble on his chin. “Or did I imagine that?”

  “He didn’t seem very sure of himself, that’s true,” Lanna replied. “But I’m just glad he fixed your ankle.”

  The conversation was interrupted by the tavern keeper bringing them two more beers before leaving just as quickly as she’d appeared.

  “Thanks, Mori!” Arbane yelled after her, raising his tankard.

  “Did he tell you what exactly he was looking for?” Edwyr asked them, despite knowing this was a bad idea. The less he knew the better, but he couldn’t seem to keep his curiosity in check. He simply had too many questions, and his friends had at least some answers. Definitely more than he did.

  “He talked about this ruin in the mountains, so we assumed he meant Urzikal.” Lanna shrugged, drinking deeply from her tankard. Edwyr did the same, trying to remember if he’d ever heard that name before. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. “I have to be honest—it was hard not to laugh at how surprised he was that we knew about it.”

  “I found it a bit insulting.” Arbane then sighed and laughed. “But it was also funny. You’re right.”

  Arbane and Lanna continued talking, but Edwyr’s thoughts drowned out their voices. What was so special about some ruin in the mountains? He didn’t think he’d heard of any elves settling anywhere other than on their home island of Aendor. So, if this was a ruin left behind by humans, what worth could that represent to the High Council?

  He rubbed his forehead as he stared down at the table, his eyes tracing the cracks in the wood. He glared, suddenly annoyed with himself. Why did he care? It didn’t involve him.

  Although, Feyrith had helped his friend after Edwyr had been so rude to him, which did make it difficult to stay mad at the elf. All elves grew up constantly being told about their duty to help humans, so Feyrith had probably not thought anything of it, but if anything, that made Edwyr more guilty.

  He abandoned that thought as he suddenly realized something. To get to the nearest mountain range, which he assumed was the one Lanna had referred to, Feyrith would have to either cross the entire jungle, which was insanely dangerous, or go around it, which would take longer, and he would probably get attacked by bandits on the way.

  “He is going to get himself killed.”

  Whatever Lanna and Arbane had been talking about until now was interrupted, though Edwyr didn’t notice until he realized they were looking at him.

  “Who? You mean that elf? Doesn’t he have magic?”

  It took Edwyr a second to remember that he’d never actually told either of them much about these things. And since they’d never actually seen an elf before him, there was no simple way for them to learn about his kind, even if they wanted to. Though Edwyr was assuming that at least for Arbane, that was not the case.

  “Having magic doesn’t make one undefeatable.” No matter what the Council liked to think about themselves, not even one of its members, the most powerful group of magic users, would be capable of fighting off every threat. And Feyrith was definitely not a Councilor.

  Arbane shrugged, gesturing to where his head wound had been. “I don’t know. With how easily he healed me—”

  “Magic is very exhausting and difficult to use for longer periods of time,” Edwyr cut him off, shaking his head. “You probably didn’t notice, but it cost him considerable energy to heal you.”

  He wasn’t even sure why he was trying to justify his opinion here, but he felt like he had to, even though they would listen to him even without it. He knew that they trusted him enough, at the very least.

  Lanna leaned in, giving both Edwyr and her husband a curious look. “So? Are we going after him?”

  “What? No!” Edwyr blinked at his kneejerk reaction, scowling at his neglected beer. If it were that easy, he wouldn’t be here thinking everything over a thousand times. But that thought left his mind immediately when he fully realized what she’d said. “Wait, what do you mean after him? Did he leave already?”

  Arbane shrugged again. “Seemed to. Right after finding out what he needed from us.”

  Edwyr rubbed his eyes. That was just wonderful. As if deciding whether to help Feyrith wasn’t difficult before, now there was also a time limit within which he could still realistically act. It would be fair to assume that Feyrith had a squawker, which was also not helpful.

  “Look, if you want to help this guy….” Arbane tr
ailed off, giving Edwyr a meaningful look.

  “I….” Edwyr huffed in frustration. “I don’t know. I don’t truly want to, I have no obligation to, but….” He let his shoulders sink. He felt as if by revealing this he was giving up some large secret. “I feel like I should help.”

  Both Arbane and Lanna nodded seriously, looking sympathetic.

  “That makes sense,” Lanna said, reaching over the table to put her hand over Edwyr’s for a moment. “I mean, if nothing else, he is another one of your kind, right?”

  As much as Edwyr hated to admit it, that was definitely a part of it. It wasn’t often, but he did get moments of homesickness, even now still. It usually manifested itself as a vague sadness he didn’t dare to explore, but that was because rationally he didn’t want anything to do with the society that had rejected him. But he knew that some part of him had not let go and wouldn’t let go.

  “All right, let me just finish my beer before we get going,” Arbane said, putting the tankard to his lips. He hadn’t sounded annoyed in the slightest at the prospect of leaving again so soon, even though he definitely should have.

  “What? No, you aren’t going as well.”

  Lanna scoffed. “If you think an elf with magic can’t survive this trip, you definitely can’t.”

  Edwyr knew she was just trying to prove a point, but that didn’t make much sense. The reason Feyrith was unlikely to reach his destination was due to naivety rather than incompetence. Practically everything elves did was train and study, so Edwyr didn’t doubt Feyrith knew how to fight very well. He was mostly concerned that his theoretical knowledge about the world wouldn’t fit with what the world was actually like. Edwyr knew very well how much it didn’t align, having lived through it himself.

  “We can’t leave Sunwood undefended from whatever crawls out of the jungle. Or the sea.”

  “The trip to that ruin should take a week at most,” Lanna argued, waving her hand. “And we aren’t the only ones here who know how to fight.”

  Edwyr folded his arms on the table and glared down at them. He had no real arguments to counter that. Still, it didn’t feel right. The Town Elder paid them for their services as defenders of the town from whatever beast tried to prey upon it. They had an obligation to Sunwood, first and foremost.

  But Lanna and Arbane were right in saying that going alone was dangerous. It definitely was, though he had a feeling they would have protested even if he hadn’t kicked Feyrith out and instead agreed to go with him and help.

  The idea of leaving the entire town for so long didn’t sit well with him either, though.

  “Okay,” Edwyr said before either of his friends could continue explaining to him why not taking them with him was a moronic idea. “You stay here. I will try to catch up with Feyrith and convince him not to leave just yet. He couldn’t have gotten far. And if I don’t manage to find him….”

  Arbane nodded, though Lanna seemed a little suspicious, judging by the way she narrowed her eyes at him. As if she was expecting him to use this as an excuse to leave them behind. Edwyr wouldn’t pretend the idea hadn’t crossed his mind, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to see that plan through.

  “We need to make sure the Town Elder doesn’t object to our absence if we do leave, however.”

  With that Edwyr took his last sip of beer, knowing that he would unfortunately not be able to finish it. He needed to get going and try to find Feyrith before he got too far away. And being tipsy would not help matters.

  “I’ll see you in a moment,” he told them, getting up. “Maybe more than a moment. But I will be back.”

  “You’d better,” Lanna said almost sternly, giving him another nod. Edwyr nodded back, walking out of the tavern before he even thought to leave a coin on the table to pay for the beer. But he had no time to go back now, and besides, he knew Arbane and Lanna would pay for him.

  Edwyr practically ran to his house and to Tempest, who stood up when she saw him, tilting her head as if to question what was going on with him. Edwyr hated to make her run again, especially so soon, but he had no choice. Tempest didn’t protest when he put her bridle and saddle back on as quickly as he could before climbing on her back. She set off as soon as he did, already galloping down the path without Edwyr having to direct her.

  As he left the town and made his way towards the jungle, Edwyr wracked his brain trying to figure out where he should go to try to find Feyrith. Heading for the road that wound itself by the seashore seemed to be the obvious choice, but that was at least an hour away. Feyrith couldn’t have made it over there yet, but there was a path leading to the road from Sunwood he might have used. Maybe Edwyr could choose a more direct path and catch up to him.

  He squinted into the twilight as Tempest ran through the long grass, trying to spot any kind of silhouette on the grassy plains to help him, but all he managed to find was a herd of wild squawkers grazing in the distance. He pushed Tempest to go faster, even though Edwyr had no idea where they were going, as the sun finally dipped below the horizon. Elves could see better in the dark than humans, and better in general, but it probably wouldn’t help much when he needed to see so far ahead.

  Still, Edwyr did his best not to give up too early, despite already feeling very pessimistic about his chances. The jungle was a tall, dark mass in the distance as he directed Tempest to sprint around it, but even then he could tell she was starting to slow down. Still, he pressed on, trying to use the last remaining rays of sunlight trying to spot something, anything, either on the path or anywhere around him.

  But there was nothing.

  Finally, he let Tempest slow down to a trot and as they reached the path, she came to a halt. Edwyr sighed, running his hand over the squawker’s neck. What was that elf thinking, setting out on such a long journey on his own at night? Of course, it was much less dangerous for someone who could use magic to defend themselves, but that didn’t mean that this wasn’t a stupid idea.

  But that wasn’t Feyrith’s fault exactly. The Council tended to constantly stress that an elf’s main goal in life was to do the Council’s bidding. They didn’t put it that way, but Edwyr was far too jaded to see it another way. They had probably told Feyrith to get to that ruin as fast as possible, and of course, a good, proper elf would do their best to do so, even if it meant not sleeping enough and taking pointless risks.

  “Dammit,” he muttered to himself. Well, that settled that, then. Though he couldn’t help but curse himself for how he’d treated Feyrith. If he hadn’t—

  He huffed, shaking his head and turning Tempest around. It didn’t matter now. He wasn’t responsible for what trouble Feyrith got himself into, so feeling guilty for this was not only pointless but also unwarranted.

  As much as he hated to do this, there was no way for them to follow at night. It just wasn’t worth it, and to be blunt, Edwyr cared about the lives of his friends much more than about a random elf who had told Edwyr to help him instead of at least asking. So they would follow in the morning at the soonest and hope that they would manage to catch up before Feyrith ran into trouble.

  4

  There was no doubt in Feyrith’s mind that leaving immediately had been a bad idea. And now that he thought about it, he wasn’t even sure why he’d felt it was so important to leave quickly. Edwyr might have refused an order from the Council, and very quickly and harshly as well, but Sunwood, while not large, wasn’t a tiny town. If he wanted to avoid having another argument with the elf, he could have very easily stayed out of Edwyr’s way the rest of the night and leave at dawn.

  Feyrith had gotten overwhelmed, though, he supposed, and there had been no reason to stay in Sunwood specifically if Edwyr wasn’t interested in helping him. The only problem with that idea was that there was no other town or village anywhere close to Sunwood, which he’d only found out later, squinting at his map as he rode his quasir along the road. It was already getting very dark, and he was starting to feel tired.

  That was somewhat embarrassing for a
n elf, but it was most likely due to him not being used to traveling for such long distances at once. And the quasir wasn’t likely to make it much farther either, given that it had had no proper rest for several hours.

  If Feyrith kept following the road, it would take until daybreak to get to the next settlement, which was a village called Everward. He could most likely stop there, but he wasn’t so sure the quasir would be able to make that after the long journey to Sunwood. And sleeping out here seemed unwise. He was fairly confident nothing could hurt him as long as he stayed awake, but he would need to sleep eventually.

  But still, he was too stubborn to go back to Sunwood, even though that would be the easiest solution. He just continued staring at his map with a frown as the quasir trotted along the road. The longer he looked at it the more he was starting to dislike the long line of the road that wound itself around the jungle. If it just went through—

  Feyrith’s eyes widened as he realized that the answer to his problem was actually fairly simple. It didn’t look like it would take that long to get through the jungle, which meant he would save himself a lot of time. He wouldn’t be able to travel on the quasir’s back, but given the fact that the beast was tired, he wouldn’t expect it to run much faster than it was currently.

  Feyrith doubted that anything in the jungle would pose a significant threat, especially since he wouldn’t need to go very deep into it, hopefully, so the only thing he would have to look out for was not getting turned around. If he got lost, he might end up wandering the jungle for as long as it would have taken to use the road.

  He was confident that wouldn’t happen, though, and it was worth the risk with how much time he could save. He steered the quasir off the road and onto the now dark, grassy field, heading towards the towering trees. He looked back at his map, trying to figure out where the best point of entry would be.