The Circles of Magic

by Gabriela Fišerová

  “Fine.”

  Wyn’s smile widened. “Wonderful.”

  Though Edwyr felt a need to roll his eyes at that, he followed Wyn this time, leading Tempest along. As Wyn walked through the mist, it disappeared out of his way, creating a path for them. Edwyr realized that this was probably due to Wyn moving it with magic as he could hear Wyn muttering something quietly, but he still couldn’t help but stare at it.

  Wyn was just doing it all with such ease, so much unlike anything Edwyr had seen. Wyn had to be very a very powerful sorcerer. Despite that face being somewhat disconcerting, Edwyr found it strangely awe-inspiring. Every time Feyrith had used magic near him, Edwyr’s mind had always immediately jumped to anger and bitterness. Though the difference was obvious—Wyn was not a servant of the Council.

  “Your quasir is very beautiful,” Wyn commented as they finally reached what seemed to be the border of the mist, giving Edwyr a view of where they’d gone. It had felt as if they’d walked for at least a mile, but it didn’t seem as if they were that close to the ruins themselves. Though, Edwyr had barely gotten a chance to figure out how far away he had been initially, so perhaps he was wrong.

  “If you think you can make me trust you with flattery—”

  “If that were my intention, I would aim the flattery at you directly, Edwyr,” Wyn interrupted him, looking back at Edwyr with one eyebrow quirked. Edwyr wanted to shoot back that that was a lie, seeing as Tempest couldn’t understand the flattery, so it had clearly been meant for him, but he stopped himself. He was already getting the sense that trying to call Wyn out on being cryptic and evasive was pointless as he wouldn’t get an answer anyway. At least it was pointless until Edwyr figured out how to do it.

  “Why are we here?” Edwyr asked instead as the ruins started to dominate their immediate surroundings. There wasn’t much left of whatever buildings there had been originally, though Edwyr could tell they’d been built out of some kind of stone bricks, and most of them seemed oddly small. Edwyr had been fairly certain these ruins had been built by either their ancestors or the humans’, but neither of the two races would find houses like this comfortable.

  “You are here because a clueless pawn of the Council needed help getting here, I believe.”

  Edwyr scowled at the back of Wyn’s head. He should have known Wyn would be one of those people who enjoyed antagonizing him, simply from how he’d acted in the dreams. But then, Edwyr’s friends did that as well rather often, so he was used to it.

  Before Edwyr could say something, Wyn shot him an apologetic smile over his shoulder, which shut Edwyr up. “I apologize. I know this must be frustrating, but I did promise you answers, and I will follow through on that promise.”

  “Great. Then do so. Please,” Edwyr said in what may have been the most deadpan tone had ever used, finally managing to catch up with the other elf as Wyn slowed down. The elf then proceeded to sigh, nodding.

  “Right. I suppose we don’t have to wait to get to the Infuser.”

  “The what?”

  Wyn shook his head, starting to walk faster again and waving to Edwyr to do the same. “That will be better explained when you see it, though I can attempt to describe the device now if you want me to.”

  So there was a device of some sort in these ruins? He supposed that would explain why the Council had detected some kind of energy here, and why they would send someone to check on it, though it didn’t explain what the device was for and what it was supposed to infuse into what. Still, that wasn’t exactly as nagging a question as some of the others he had right now.

  “I’d rather finally know what you want with me, instead.”

  Wyn gave a nod, keeping his eyes at the ruined houses they were passing. “Would you believe me if I told you there is a group of elves, both magical and magicless, intent on putting an end to the elven oligarchy?”

  Edwyr didn’t even give it a second thought before replying. “No.”

  Wyn smiled at him, looking like he was trying not to laugh as he connected his hands behind his back. “Ah. Good. You are neither naive nor gullible. Not that I thought you were.”

  Edwyr narrowed his eyes at the other elf, trying to understand what Wyn was trying to tell him. “Are you saying that is actually your goal? To get rid of the Council?”

  Wyn shrugged, his smile turning a little sour. “You are welcome to think me a fool for even trying.”

  Edwyr somehow managed not to come to a halt in shock and continued walking beside Wyn in stunned silence. It hadn’t even occurred to him something like this could be done. Edwyr wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but something this dramatic was certainly not it.

  “That is for later, however,” Wyn spoke again, relaxing his pose as he once again looked at Edwyr, his smile brightening again. “Our immediate concern right now is helping where the Council refuses to.”

  Wyn’s expression notably darkened whenever he spoke about the Council. But Edwyr was sure he also did the same thing automatically.

  “I can think of several areas,” Edwyr replied, huffing out a bitter laugh, which prompted Wyn to look him right in the eye, this time very seriously.

  “I am talking about your lack of magic, Edwyr.”

  Once again Edwyr was too stunned to say anything for a moment, this time stopping in his tracks. He continued staring at Wyn, too scared to hope that what he’d just been told was implying what Edwyr thought it was. “W-what?”

  “We found a way to give you magic.”

  Edwyr’s eyes somehow found a way to widen further. No wonder Wyn had begun with talking about ending the Council. In hindsight, Edwyr was much more willing to believe that was possible compared to this.

  “Of course, no one will force you to do this if you don’t—”

  “Are you kidding?” Edwyr shook his head in disbelief. “Why would I say no to this?”

  Wyn sighed, shrugging. “Well, there have been concerns raised about what our esteemed Goddess might think of this, but I am glad you are not one of those poor souls who genuinely think this is a curse, and not simply a birth defect.”

  The way Wyn spoke about the Goddess…. Edwyr may not have been a very religious person for obvious reasons, but the sarcastic way Wyn was talking about her was on a completely different level of disrespect. It felt wrong, almost. But perhaps it was simply because of the context.

  “It is a curse,” Edwyr said, still too stunned by what he had heard to say much else.

  “In the metaphorical sense, yes,” Wyn replied, putting a hand on Edwyr’s shoulder and gently pushing him to begin walking again. Edwyr didn’t even resist, letting himself be moved. “Who do you think I am, Edwyr?”

  Someone intent on confusing him as much as possible, clearly, Edwyr thought to himself. He shook his head again. He was finally getting answers, and yet he felt even more confused than before. How was that even possible? Still, he supposed he should give the question a fair answer, seeing as Wyn was waiting for him to say something. “An elf without magic, originally?”

  Wyn smiled at him again, though his eyes didn’t look happy, turning the smile into more of a grimace. “Not quite. Though I was magicless for a time.”

  Edwyr frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “Years ago, I was a good, obedient servant of the Council,” Wyn replied, his mouth suddenly forming a very displeased line as he stared on ahead. “But I had some…shall we say constructive criticisms concerning how things worked, thinking that perhaps together we could improve the system. But I was too idealistic to see the actual reasons the system is broken in the first place. And once I spoke up a few too many times….”

  Wyn closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a deep breath. He never stopped walking, though, continuing to follow the remains of what used to be a road between the ruined buildings.

  “Do you know what happens to troublesome elves?”

  Edwyr opened his mouth to answer immediately, but then he frowned in thought, saying nothing. He didn’t k
now, actually. But that was because he’d never heard of anyone being troublesome. Sure, there were elves who didn’t follow all of the Council’s rules, but he was sure they would only get a stern talking-to, or perhaps extra work as punishment. Somehow Edwyr doubted that was what Wyn meant.

  “The Council takes away their voice.” Wyn’s ominous, dark tone sent a chill down Edwyr’s spine. “To make sure they can never use magic again. And then they send them to a prison on an island in the Icewind sea. All because the Council loves pretending it is above murder.”

  Edwyr had never heard of any of this, which meant that Wyn could very well be making all of this up simply to get Edwyr on his side through sympathy. But he truly didn’t think that was the case. The way Wyn was talking about this…. If he was lying, it was incredibly convincing.

  “Is that what happened to you?”

  Wyn shook his head. “I only lost my voice. I was…well connected enough to avoid the rest.”

  As he said this, he ran his fingers over his throat. Edwyr wondered if whatever the Council had done to take away Wyn’s control of magic had been a physical thing. He had imagined this being done with a spell when he’d first heard of it, but perhaps not.

  He also wondered what well connected meant, but Wyn was powerful. He might have been a part of the higher Circles.

  “Sometime after my exile, I ran into Genrith, who agreed to fix my voice.” It took Edwyr a moment to remember who Genrith was, quickly realizing that it was the person he had run into in Everward. But that didn’t make sense. Genrith had looked like a human. Only elves could use magic, so what did that make her?

  “But most are not so lucky,” Wyn finished, clearing his throat, his tone once again grim and resentful.

  For a moment they walked in silence. It would have been uncomfortable if Edwyr weren’t so preoccupied trying to make sense of everything he had just learned.

  His main question was still left partly unanswered, though. Obviously, Edwyr wanted to have magic—he should have had it from the very beginning—but he highly doubted Wyn, and whoever else worked with him were doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. They would want something in exchange—of that Edwyr was certain.

  “What do you want for curing me?”

  Wyn put on a smile again as he shook his head, a lock of his long black hair falling over his shoulder. “We generally don’t talk about your condition that way for the same reason we say magicless instead of Cursed.”

  Edwyr glared at him. If Wyn was trying to stall and distract him….

  “But to answer your question—it’s very simple. We don’t want anything for this.” Before Edwyr could say that he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that, Wyn continued. “However, afterward I would like to offer you an opportunity to put your newfound strengths to good use.”

  Edwyr narrowed his eyes. He truly didn’t know what to expect here, and he didn’t like it. “And that would be?”

  “To free every wrongly imprisoned elf and with their help put an end to the Council, of course.”

  Oh. When Wyn had told him about that, Edwyr hadn’t put together that he might want him to get involved in it. He hadn’t even thought of that as he’d been too focused on finding out what exactly Wyn wanted to even consider it. Or perhaps he’d been afraid to think about it.

  He felt like he already knew his answer, but he didn’t dare even properly ponder it. This wasn’t something he could simply decide on the spot. He needed time, no matter how much he doubted it would change anything.

  Not much else was said as they walked through the ruins of sandstone, now very obviously heading towards the stone steps, which lead to the massive, stone door that Edwyr had noticed earlier. Was that where the device Wyn had mentioned was hidden? It seemed to be the only thing still intact around here, so it would make sense, though the more Edwyr studied the ancient structures, the more he suspected that the houses were primarily underground.

  As he and Wyn finally reached the bottom of the steps, which now looked much, much taller than from afar, Edwyr looked over at Tempest. He wasn’t very confident she could climb up them, but he hated the idea of leaving her alone. The whole place gave him an odd, uncomfortable feeling, likely because it was an empty city of people who had died out for unknown reasons. It made the place feel like a graveyard.

  “Oh, no worries, Edwyr. You quasir will manage.”

  Edwyr narrowed his eyes at Wyn’s easy smile, trying to figure out just why Wyn was so confident about this, but Wyn continued before he could reply. “I have more trouble walking up here than my quasir does, to be entirely honest with you.”

  The fact that Wyn had gotten here using a squawker really shouldn’t have surprised Edwyr, but it had somehow managed to.

  “Where is your quasir?” Edwyr froze for a fraction of a second when he realized that he’d used the elven name for a squawker. He hadn’t meant to do that, and he wasn’t sure why he had. Feyrith had been using it this entire time, but that hadn’t made Edwyr switch to it.

  “There is a cavern in this ancient fortress that used to serve as a stable. She is there.”

  As elves tended to refer to animals simple as it, it was once again a bit startling to not only hear Wyn use a proper pronoun, but also speak about his squawker with fondness. The more paranoid part of Edwyr’s mind was immediately ready to jump to conclusions, but it was easy to disregard. After all, what could Wyn possibly hope to gain by pretending he also liked squawkers? He had already convinced Edwyr to go along with this.

  Steadily, they began to climb the dark, stone steps. Edwyr kept his gaze up, staring right at the place where the steps ended. It looked even more intimidating from this angle, but he knew he would be able to manage. Not having magic was at least effective in forcing him to train and keep up his fitness.

  Then again, if he had magic, he would be able to bypass this somehow, probably. He’d seen elves levitate. Edwyr assumed that the only reason Wyn wasn’t doing that was that he didn’t want to seem rude, nor did he want to wait awkwardly on top of the steps for Edwyr to finally catch up.

  Tempest did seem to have no trouble climbing—even after the halfway point—which was a relief to Edwyr, but she looked a bit nervous. Edwyr stroked the feathers on her side as they continued their ascent, doing his best to pretend he couldn’t hear Wyn trying to conceal his somewhat labored breathing.

  By the time they reached the top, Wyn was barely managing to hide it, but then even Edwyr felt a little winded. He looked down, grimacing at how far the ground was. His eyes quickly followed the road below. He couldn’t see the mist anymore, but neither could he see his friends. Though his view of the road was also blocked in many places by the ruins, so hopefully that didn’t mean anything.

  “Ah, there we are,” said Wyn, clearing his throat, but that did nothing to disguise that he was still breathing hard. Edwyr turned around, his hand still on Tempest’s side as he looked at the other elf, but his full attention was immediately drawn to the massive gate in front of them.

  The stone it was made of was cracked and eroded, with holes of various sizes dotting the surface, but even so, Edwyr could make out some shapes, perhaps carvings, in it. He couldn’t figure out what they had been originally, for the most part, however, there was one at the very top in Edwyr could easily recognize. It was a symbol of what looked like the sun in a circle.

  “Kith’liras,” Wyn said, the massive gate opening with the loud sound of grinding of stone against stone. Or so Edwyr thought at first until he quickly realized that the entire door wasn’t moving. Only about a third of it was opening, making the door itself much smaller than Edwyr had initially thought, though it was still about twice as tall as him.

  Only then did he notice that Tempest had pressed herself against him, her eyes wide, clearly scared by all of the noise. He immediately hugged her neck, humming to her until the gate opened all the way. Seeing as the ‘danger’ was over, Tempest let out an annoyed squawk, shaking her head.

&nb
sp; Edwyr chuckled to himself and muttered to her, “Well said.”

  His eyes drifted to Wyn once more, frowning at the soft smile the elf was giving him. It disappeared as soon as Wyn noticed he was being watched, though—so quickly in fact that it made Edwyr wonder if he’d just imagined it.

  “Shall we?”

  Edwyr narrowed his eyes at the corridor beyond the door, leading Tempest inside of it. There were torches inside, making everything cast long shadows against the stone walls, but at least they lit up the way enough for Edwyr to be able to see everything around him. Though there wasn’t much aside from walls of rock surrounding them. They looked rough, and the corridor itself seemed unnecessarily winding, with the size of it changing every few feet. This implied to Edwyr that this corridor had occurred naturally, but of course, he couldn’t be sure of anything.

  The corridor soon became two, and Edwyr followed behind Wyn as he led him down the one on the left, which also split off into several more pathways. Edwyr tried to keep track of which way they were going, but it was getting difficult. At least Wyn seemed to know his way around.

  This assumption was soon proven to be right as they reached a spacious cave with sunlight beaming through openings in the ceiling. There were even some ferns and grass growing along the walls and on the ground in large patches, which were currently being eaten by a dark blue squawker. This one must have been Wyn’s, then.

  But above all, the most striking thing in the cave was the large, wooden rack in the middle, clearly meant for hay. There was none right now, but the grass should be more than enough for both squawkers. No wonder Wyn thought this had been a stable of sorts. How old was this place and how was the rack still in one piece?

  Tempest took a few steps deeper into the cave, quickly speeding up as she made her way over to the nearest patch of grass and began to rip it out and devour it. Wyn’s squawker immediately noticed and walked over to her, which made Edwyr tense up for a second. However, once the two squawkers sniffed each other for a moment, they began to eat together, flicking their feathery tails in contentment.