The Circles of Magic

by Gabriela Fišerová

  He pushed the quasir to go faster, letting out a relieved breath when he saw that his satchel was right where he’d left it, hanging from a branch. He grabbed it as soon as he reached it, rummaging through it to make sure everything was there. He felt much lighter once he saw everything, especially the stone.

  Sighing in relief, he pulled the satchel over his shoulder, vowing to never again put it out of his sight or reach. He couldn’t risk losing that stone, and he’d been very foolish to have been so careless.

  A horrible thought suddenly entered his mind, sending cold dread through his entire being. Perhaps this whole experience had been a punishment for how loosely he’d been treating the rules as of late. It would make perfect sense. Nothing had happened until he’d started playing fast and loose with them.

  He took in a deep breath. He would make sure to do his best to not break them anymore. He’d been foolish to do so in the first place, simply because he thought no one had been watching.

  Feyrith schooled his face into neutrality again, forcing himself to keep it like that as he directed the quasir to turn around and trot back to the group waiting for him. He would only do everything like he was supposed to from now on. He wouldn’t fail this time.

  11

  “Are you all right, Feyrith?” the human who had introduced himself as Arbane asked him. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, and every time it had, Feyrith was reminded to do a better job concealing that he was tired, and sore, and not nearly as emotionally okay as he was trying to appear. He wished he didn’t have to keep reaffirming that he was unharmed, but it would be rude to tell them to stop asking. They meant no harm, after all—quite the opposite.

  “Yes, quite.”

  It had been a rather tense journey so far. And while he didn’t have much experience with humans in general, Feyrith could tell they weren’t completely relaxed either. But at least so nothing had attacked them as they kept on following the road, with Edwyr in the front, Lanna and Arbane next to each other behind him, and Feyrith in the back. He had wanted to object—he should be in the middle so he could protect everyone equally if something attacked them—but he’d kept quiet. Edwyr had already thrown a few glares his way, and Feyrith wanted to avoid a fight if possible.

  He still wasn’t entirely sure why they were going with him, though, and he was concerned that by asking about it, he might upset them somehow, given the unpleasant atmosphere. Still, he had been trying to understand their reasons since they’d rescued him. Perhaps he should just get it over with, especially since Arbane was still looking back at him.

  “Why are you helping me?”

  Arbane blinked, looking completely shocked, and immediately Lanna looked back at Feyrith too, a very similar expression on her face. Edwyr didn’t react at all, but Feyrith was sure he could hear him well.

  “Edwyr wanted to, and we didn’t want him to go alone,” Lanna explained, shrugging as if this wasn’t a big deal at all. Feyrith frowned in an attempt to hide his shock. It had been Edwyr’s idea to come and help him? He’d been expecting the two humans to have convinced him, particularly because Feyrith had healed Arbane’s leg and humans tended to be strangely obsessed with paying back perceived debts.

  This was very surprising.

  “But he did not even let me ask for help.”

  Arbane and Lanna exchanged a look before turning back to Feyrith once more. “Yeah, well, I guess he changed his mind.”

  Feyrith wasn’t too familiar with the practical side of lying, but this was a lie. There was no doubt about it. Perhaps not an outright lie, but definitely an oversimplification of the truth. Edwyr didn’t like him at all, that much was clear, so it was highly unlikely that he would change his mind so quickly.

  “Good thing he did, huh?”

  Feyrith did all he could not to let his displeasure show on his face. He was sure Lanna hadn’t meant that as a jab at him for getting himself captured by a band of bandits, but that was how it came across. He did his best to keep his voice neutral as he replied.

  “Yes. Your arrival was…most fortunate.”

  Both of them gave him a nod, which Feyrith thought would mean the end of this conversation, but while Lanna did turn away, Arbane instead slowed down so he would ride next to Feyrith. He looked at the black quasir closely, his eyes full of fascination.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about this squawker of yours,” he said, making a move to reach out to pet the beast but he stopped about halfway through, apparently changing his mind at the last second. Had the quasir already tried to attack him?

  “Squawker….” It was such an inelegant name for such a magnificent animal, but Feyrith supposed it fit it well. As if to prove it, his quasir cawed at Arbane’s smaller one, shaking its head. Arbane’s, in turn, answered with a chirp.

  “Yeah, it’s just so huge,” Arbane continued, his eyes practically sparkling as he gestured almost dramatically to Feyrith’s steed. “How come?”

  Feyrith’s attention was momentarily drawn to Lanna who had now sped up to ride next to Edwyr, talking to him in too low a voice for Feyrith to hear. He wondered what they were discussing. Feyrith had a feeling that the topic of discussion was himself, even though he hoped he was wrong. “Ah, yes, this is a pure breed. A ghirak.”

  “A ghirak?” Arbane repeated with a sort of awe before immediately shrugging nonchalantly as if to cover up his interest. “Never heard of those. But our squawkers are all over this guy.”

  Oh. Feyrith hadn’t even realized the quasir was male, but he supposed the long feathers on the back of its head should have been a reliable clue. Feyrith had simply not given the quasir as a species much thought in general aside from them serving as reliable transportation. He respected them, and tried to treat them kindly, as he did with all of the Goddess’ creatures, but nothing beyond that.

  Yet these humans seemed to almost revere these beasts, giving them names and treats for seemingly no reason. They seemed to draw joy from the company of these beasts, and it was as odd as it was fascinating.

  “Tempest seems to like him, especially,” Arbane in the meantime continued, laughing a little. “That’s Edwyr’s squawker.”

  Had Edwyr named his quasir, or had one of these humans done that? Feyrith wished he could ask because the more he thought about this, the more fascinated he became by the subject. Edwyr did seem to have also formed a bond with his quasir, much like Arbane and Lanna. Perhaps Feyrith could try developing one with his own quasir, even though he knew that he would have to give it back as soon as he returned to Aendor.

  “So, on top of being bigger, I’m guessing he’s faster?”

  Why did Feyrith find it so difficult not to keep getting lost in his thoughts? He was usually focused well enough. “Yes, by quite a bit I suspect.”

  “Then it’s good you got held up, eh?” Arbane chuckled good-naturedly. “We would never have caught up with you.”

  Feyrith almost flinched then, but he realized that Arbane was joking. Humans tended to do that a lot, and he would need to get used to it. Although, from a purely pragmatic standpoint, he supposed it was true. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have preferred to not get held up under such conditions, though.

  “I suppose.”

  A moment of silence followed, but before Feyrith could start wondering if that had been his fault, Arbane spoke again, his voice much more quiet and serious now. “Look, I have no idea how elves do things but don’t talk to Edwyr about him not having magic, all right? Or point it out.”

  Feyrith scowled. He didn’t like the human’s tone, but beyond that, he wasn’t even sure what the point of this was. “Why?”

  Arbane raised his eyebrows at him as if he was surprised that Feyrith had even asked. “Because he’s sensitive about it.”

  Feyrith still didn’t understand why simply stating a fact about Edwyr was a problem. If this were about a human, he would understand that it might cause a misunderstanding or perhaps even conflict because humans weren’t use
d to this approach, but Edwyr was another elf. Still, Feyrith was getting the feeling that this was something he should just accept and not question.

  “All right.”

  Arbane tilted his head at him before shaking it and laughing. “You elves are so strange.”

  Feyrith was now sure that he, as well as his whole race, was being insulted, but he kept his face neutral, just like he was supposed to in these situations. Though he was still much more confused by this human rather than upset with him.

  “Look, I just wanted to get that out of the way,” Arbane continued, his tone serious again. “I don’t mind helping you at all, but if you’re mean to Edwyr, we are going to have a problem.”

  Feyrith turned to properly look at the man, scowling. Was that…a threat? Feyrith had no idea how to react to this. It was ridiculous for a human to threaten an elf, but with what had happened mere hours ago, perhaps he shouldn’t underestimate Arbane so much. And he certainly wanted to avoid fighting more humans.

  So Feyrith simply gave a nod, deciding that simply accepting this and not arguing back was the best course of action. After all, pointless arguing wasn’t likely to help anyone, and an elf was supposed to prefer the common good over anything else. Though that didn’t mean he wasn’t still very confused about what had just happened.

  Feyrith looked ahead once more, just in time to see Edwyr’s angry eyes staring back at him. Grimacing, he ducked his gaze, preferring to instead watch the feathers on the quasir’s neck as sunlight bounced off them. He hesitantly ran a hand over them, realizing that he’d never actually done this before aside from trying to calm a quasir down. The quasir made a soft, short chirp, encouraging Feyrith to do it again. It even lifted its head a bit to press against Feyrith’s palm.

  Fascinating.

  He flinched as the quasir suddenly jerked, throwing its head to the side and snapping at Arbane’s outstretched hand with its beak. The man immediately drew his hand away, raising both of them in surrender as the quasir huffed angrily.

  “All right, fine, I’ll stop trying to pet you, you grump,” Arbane complained, giving Feyrith’s quasir a dirty look, which the beast seemed to mirror. The human’s quasir let out a concerned noised, looking at both Feyrith and his quasir with wide eyes.

  If by Arbane’s own admission elves were strange to humans, Feyrith was sure humans were even stranger to elves.

  There wasn’t much else said between them for a while after that, especially once Arbane joined Lanna in front of Feyrith again, leaving him with his thoughts. And that wasn’t entirely a good thing because all he could think about was how he was going to explain what had happened to the Council. Somehow, facing them seemed much more intimidating than his mission itself.

  But there was no use worrying about it now. It was still going to take around a week for Feyrith to arrive back at his home island. He should be able to figure out how to explain himself before then. Hopefully. But how could he spin what had happened to make it seem less humiliating and serious than it was?

  Feyrith almost shook his head at where his mind was going. Thinking this way was wrong. He would just have to tell the truth and hope for the best. Perhaps he’d needed this. He’d gotten too careless and confident, and this was a lesson to be learned.

  “Why this ruin?”

  Feyrith flinched, blinking when he noticed that Edwyr had somehow managed to reach him without Feyrith noticing at all. Edwyr’s quasir seemed to be trying to get itself as close to Feyrith’s as possible, but once Edwyr pulled on its reins, it seemed to stop for now. What had Arbane said the quasir’s name was? Tempest? What an odd name.

  “Excuse me?”

  Edwyr shook his head, clearly not bothering to hide his annoyance. It was almost uncanny to see an elf show emotions without restraint. It felt wrong, but then so did Edwyr’s entire existence. “Why this ruin? Why were you sent there?”

  Feyrith narrowed his eyes at him but quickly stopped it. He needed to stay neutral. “The Council detected strange magical energies emanating from there.”

  “And that is all you know?”

  “Yes.”

  Edwyr didn’t look disappointed, exactly, but he definitely looked displeased. But unfortunately, Feyrith truly couldn’t give him any more information even if he wanted to, as he didn’t know anything else. That was why he was going to the ruin in the first place, after all.

  “And you don’t mind that you are going somewhere completely blind?” Edwyr sounded like he didn’t understand this line of thinking at all. Like he couldn’t believe Feyrith had no complaints about being sent on a mission like this. Edwyr’s behavior was similar to a human’s in an almost uncanny way.

  “If you are concerned about your safety—”

  “Of course I’m not,” Edwyr immediately cut him off. Then he chuckled and muttered: “But maybe you should be concerned about yours.”

  Feyrith couldn’t hide his glare then. Was he being threatened? Again? “What are you implying?”

  Edwyr glared back at him. “That no matter how much magic you have, you were still defeated by a couple of humans.”

  Feyrith gritted his teeth, desperately trying not to let his anger show too much. But being mocked about his skills by a Cursed elf was simply too insulting not to let it get to him. How dare an elf with no magic say things like that?

  But almost immediately his anger melted away, quickly replaced by cold dread spreading through his whole body. Edwyr had a point, didn’t he? He wouldn’t have gotten into the same situation as Feyrith. In that exact situation, Edwyr would have been much more successful because he knew so much more about the human world than Feyrith, no matter how much weaker he was. Of course, that wouldn’t be an issue if Edwyr was willing to explain things to him, but Feyrith was quite certain that wouldn’t be the case in the future either. Perhaps his best bet would be to ask the two humans instead. They didn’t seem to like him very much either, but at least they answered his questions.

  Knowing that the only way to win this verbal conflict between him and Edwyr was to not take part in it, Feyrith looked down at his quasir, studying its long, feathery ears as they twitched. It kept looking over at Edwyr’s mount, and definitely not with hostility.

  “Why did you decide to help me if you dislike my presence so much?” Feyrith almost flinched at his own words. He hadn’t meant to say anything at all, and certainly not something quite so honest, but the words had left his mouth before he could stop them. One look at Edwyr confirmed that he was surprised as well, his scowl gone and his eyes wide.

  Edwyr quickly managed to hide the look under an annoyed frown again, though. “Unlike you, I feel a sense of responsibility towards my own kind.”

  Feyrith almost denied that claim immediately. Not because he found the frankly obvious attempt at riling him up effective, but because they weren’t the same kind. Edwyr was an aberration. A shadow of what he was supposed to be. He wasn’t allowed to even cross over to Aendor because of that very reason. He had been Cursed, and to even think about putting the Cursed and normal elves on the same level was unthinkable. So no, he and Feyrith were not the same in any sense of the word aside from perhaps appearance. Even though Edwyr had done his best to not look like a proper elf as much as possible.

  But Feyrith said none of this because he knew it would lead nowhere, and it would make the tension even worse. And Feyrith could use the help, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

  “I knew you would run into trouble you wouldn’t be able to handle.” Edwyr looked almost smug then—an emotion Feyrith had never seen an elf express. “And I was right.”

  Feyrith wanted to say something in his defense, anything at all, but he stayed silent. It wouldn’t help in the least. Edwyr was trying to make him angry and hurt him, and he was not interested in having an actual conversation, so Feyrith wouldn’t take part in this. He simply focused on running his hand over his quasir’s shiny feathers once more instead, listening to the sound of its claws digging into the dirt of
the road with each step.

  Apparently having said his piece, Edwyr once again took the lead, guiding his quasir around Lanna and Arbane and going at a pace that made all of them speed up to keep up with him. Feyrith didn’t mind that, as they had been going quite slowly until now, and he certainly didn’t mind being too far away from Feyrith to listen to him. And to think Feyrith had thought Edwyr had been rude to him in Sunwood. But he supposed he couldn’t have expected much more from someone like Edwyr.

  Feyrith would try to push all of this aside, though. He would do his best to ignore Edwyr’s attempts at provoking him and simply focus on achieving his goal. Assuming everything went well, Feyrith would never have to talk to Edwyr again after this, and it would make more sense to try to get along instead of adding fuel to the fire.

  He just hoped he would be able to keep his emotions under control and not mess this up. He needed Edwyr’s help, no matter how much Feyrith didn’t like to admit it.

  12

  Edwyr realized that Lanna had little idea of how elven society worked—mostly because he’d never truly told them about it—but telling him to act nice to Feyrith was just absurd. Every time he even looked at the other elf, he grew angry and resentful, and he didn’t feel like trying to keep it inside of him. He owed Feyrith absolutely nothing.

  Of course, this kind of thinking would have made Edwyr wonder why he’d come over here in the first place, but after meeting that woman in Everward, he was more than a little curious about this ruin itself, rather than simply helping Feyrith.

  Edwyr didn’t believe Feyrith when he’d said that he knew nothing about it, but there was little Edwyr could do to force him to answer. He supposed he would just have to wait and see, though he wished his reaction to being around Feyrith wasn’t quite so strong. He wasn’t even entirely sure why, but every time he even thought about Feyrith, he got immediately much more furious than was reasonable. He still couldn’t believe that an elf like this was so easily defeated by some humans. It was so ridiculous it almost made him want to laugh.