Chapter Five
2nd Waxing Moon of the Long Night, Year 4367
Amethyst stared at the stone, trying to divine how to activate it. As high as they were on the summit, the sun was visible for a bit later than it was at the base, but it was still near the winter solstice, and dusk came early. The shadow of the rim that surrounded the crater was lengthening, and the already low temperature was beginning to drop. Once darkness fell, the bitter cold of the mountaintop would turn from uncomfortable to dangerous, and the thin canvas of her tent would do little to protect her from its icy grip.
She held the stone in her hands and examined it, turning it over. It was made of volcanic glass, a deep smoky black color with a faint brownish tinge. Some of the spheres she had seen had small white starburst inclusions, but hers was mostly flawless. The only variations she could see were slight swirls in the color that allowed light to penetrate into the depths of the stone.
The stone itself was warm, though whether that was from its own heat or from hers, she couldn't tell. The surface was impeccably smooth, without so much as a scratch to mar the shine of the natural glass. As she turned it back and forth, she was unable to feel any inconsistencies in the sphere itself; whoever had made it had been incredibly skilled.
Rasul had said to channel the energies of their element into it, but she had no idea how to do such a thing. It seemed as though it should be common knowledge, so she hadn't spoken up. If she had, then no doubt Fredrick would have seized upon the opportunity to make her look foolish, so she instead endeavored to try to figure it out on her own.
Amethyst tried to recall anything from her books about channeling energy, or whatever it was. Academic material on the Masters and their methods was extremely sparse in the library of Castle Lonwick, but there were some collections of stories that detailed the wizards releasing bolts of purified elemental energy to extremely devastating effect. Is that what Rasul meant, that she would have to shoot the sphere with a surge of energy? She couldn't even make so much as a spark, so she didn't know how she was going to do that, and besides, there was no evidence of such activities from the tents of the other Hopefuls.
She was about to put the sphere away and prepare to spend the night cold and miserable when she heard footsteps outside of her tent. She froze, listening to see if they passed, but they stopped just outside of the entrance.
“Quartz? Are you in there?”
It was Tika, whispering to her. She pulled the flap that covered the opening aside, letting out most of her accumulated body heat. The other girl ducked inside, closing the flap behind her. It was cramped in the tent, with barely enough room for both young women. Amethyst pushed herself to the back of the tent, while Tika squeezed into the front, both with their legs crossed.
“Why haven't you warmed your stone yet?” Tika whispered, shivering in the cold.
“I... don't know how,” Amethyst replied. “Nobody has ever told me how to channel energy before. I didn't even know I could do magic a fortnight ago.” She shrugged dejectedly. “Maybe I can't. Maybe Rasul was wrong.”
Tika shook her head. “Nonsense. Anyone can do it if they just know how. I'll show you.” She took the stone from Amethyst's hands and cupped it in her own. She stared intently at the sphere, and it started to glow with a gentle amber light. Amethyst could feel it radiating heat into the tiny enclosure, and gasped.
“How did you do that?” she asked, reaching out to take the stone from Tika. It was hot to the touch, but not so hot as to burn her. It felt as if it had been sitting in the sun on a summer day. As she held it, the light slowly faded, and the heat with it.
“Okay, so let's start from the beginning,” Tika said, holding her hands out in front of her. “You need to kind of imagine that the ground under you has this light in it, like it glows. That's the energy of Earth. It's literally everywhere but in the sky and the ocean. You can even call it up from lakes and rivers if they're shallow enough.” She patted the stone floor next to Amethyst's blanket. “So, you take that light, and you imagine pulling it up into yourself, through where you're touching the ground. In this case, we're sitting on your blanket, but that's okay. The light is strong enough to go through it.”
Dubious, Amethyst closed her eyes and envisioned herself sitting in her tent on the mountaintop. She tried to picture the ground beneath her glowing with an amber light, like she had seen coming from the stone. She imagined the glow spreading up through her legs and into her chest, filling her arms and shoulders like a liquid that was flowing up through her, until it finally filled her head, giving her the same glow that the earth had.
“Now, imagine taking that glow, and pushing it into the stone you hold in your hands,” Tika said, her voice soft and even.
Amethyst felt the stone under her fingertips, the weight of it in her hands, and made the light she saw in her mind flow through her hands and into the sphere, filling it as well.
Nothing changed. No heat came from the stone, and when Amethyst opened her eyes, it was not glowing.
“This is stupid,” she said, dropping the stone onto the blanket in front of her in frustration.
“It's not stupid,” Tika corrected her. “It's magic. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”
“I thought you said that anyone could do it.”
Tika raised an eyebrow, making a face at her. “Anyone can do it, just like anyone can forge a sword or carve a statue. It has everything to do, though, with talent and skill. When you imagined the light, what did it feel like?”
Amethyst furrowed her brow. “It didn't feel like anything. I just made the picture in my head of the ground glowing amber, and I imagined it filling me like water, then flowing into the stone. I didn't feel anything.”
Shaking her head, Tika clasped her hands together in front of her. “You have to feel it, you have to really know that what you see in your mind's eye is the same as what is real. The way I feel it is like when a boy puts his prick in you. It pushes in, it fills you up. It's warm and thick and strong.”
Blushing, Amethyst stammered, “I, uh... I've never...”
Tika's eyebrows raised in surprise. “Really? You, being an elf, as old as you are, and you've never had a boy in your bed?” She scoffed. “I had my first two years ago. I had my daughter a year after that.” She shook her head. “Maybe you should have taken Fredrick up on his offer. That would have made this easier.”
Amethyst shook her head emphatically. “No. That's not what I want.”
Tika shrugged. “Alright, that's fine. He's a boor anyways. Besides, once a man sticks himself inside of you, he thinks he owns you. Better not give that ass any ideas.” She paused, tapping her chin with one hand. “Let's try it like this then. Take off your gloves.”
She drew off her own gloves and rubbed her hands together, warming them up. Reaching out, she took Amethyst's hands into her own.
“Now,” she said, “close your eyes and don't think of anything. Just feel. Feel my hands, feel the ground under you, the air, everything. If you have to picture something, picture yourself, but just yourself. Can you see it in your mind?”
Amethyst nodded, closing her eyes. “Yes.”
“Alright, perfect. So, when you picture the light in the ground, picture an amber color. That's the energy you're reaching for. When you feel it, feel it coming from your hands and spreading through you like warmth, not like water. Water is not our element, and neither is Air, so don't feel it like a breath of wind.”
Amethyst frowned, keeping her eyes closed. “How do you control how you feel something?”
She felt Tika's hands shift as she shrugged. “I couldn't tell you that. Maybe it has to do with how you picture it. Anyways, shut up. Don't talk, just feel.”
Amethyst huffed, feeling foolish again. She didn't know how holding hands with this girl she barely knew was supposed to teach her how to work magic, but what other choice did she have? She settled herself, resting her arms on her knees, palms facing up.
Tika s
hifted her grip on Amethyst so that her fingers were under the back of Amethyst's hands and her thumb pressed down on Amethyst's palms. Gently, she traced circles on the center of Amethyst's palms with the tip of her thumbs, keeping a light but steady pressure.
“Breathe in deep through your nose, hold it for a moment, then exhale slowly through your mouth,” said Tika, her voice low and soft again. “Try to count slowly to five each time. Focus on my thumbs. Each circle I make should be a count of one.”
Controlling her breathing, she slowly counted off the circles Tika was making on her hands. As the seconds ticked by, she felt herself relaxing, and pictured herself sitting in her tent. Slowly, the shelter faded away, leaving just herself, clad in the riding clothes that she had gotten in Rockhill and still wore. Her hands were outstretched, arms resting on her knees, with her legs crossed in front of her.
The space around her image slowly grew brighter – first an amber color, then shifting to the same purple light that she had seen flash from Rasul's Earth crystal. The light became brighter and brighter, intensifying until it was like the light of the sun. The glow seemed to focus on her hands, and she could feel the warmth spreading up her arms. In her mind's eye, the light on her hands crystallized, traveling along the veins in her arms like spiderwebs before spreading like frost and filling her limbs.
It spread across her shoulders and down her spine, leaving a tingle in its wake, then along her ribs and through her chest. She caught her breath, arching her back slightly as her skin pulsed with an electric shock, goosebumps rising along her arms and neck.
The sensation flowed down her stomach, coursing around her navel and into her hips, through her knees, and down to her feet. Even her scalp tingled, the experience like nothing she had ever felt before. She was lightheaded and felt as though she was falling, but she remained upright. The feeling intensified, and it was as if every part of her was buzzing, like she was receiving a static shock that traveled all over her body, tracing paths of sensation along her limbs, neck, chest, and spine.
Vaguely, she felt Tika release her and place the stone into her hands, pressing them tight around it.
“Now, like you're pushing out every breath you've ever taken, push the energy into the stone.”
Breathing deep, Amethyst concentrated, envisioning the stone in her hands. As she saw herself, sparks of purple electricity flowed from her shoulders, drawing the glow from her body into her hands and pushing it into the sphere. She could feel the heat growing from the stone, radiating outwards and filling the tent as though they were sitting in front of a roaring fire.
“Alright, now slow down...”
There was no slowing down. She was entirely lost in the sensation. The light in her chest pulsed, keeping rhythm with her heartbeat, and the heat in the stone grew almost too hot to hold. She gritted her teeth and tried to let go of the sphere, but it was as if her hands had fused with it and would not release the stone.
“Quartz, you need to control it! You have to stop now!” Tika's voice sounded urgent but far away, as if she were whispering to Amethyst from across a large, noisy room. She felt someone gripping her shoulders and shaking her, and she forced her eyes open.
There was a loud crack, and the stone sphere in her hands split in half, falling to the blanket in front of her. Thin wisps of smoke rose from the cloth where the stone touched it, singeing the thick material. Tika grabbed one of the fragments and jerked her hand back, cursing and shaking it vigorously. As Amethyst sat there in a daze, still in awe of what she had done, Tika snatched up one of her gloves and used it to toss both fragments of the broken stone out of the tent, letting them clatter on the frozen ground outside.
The inside of the tent was warm, almost uncomfortably so. Tika stuck her head out of the tent, looking back and forth, before ducking back inside.
“What was that?” she hissed, grabbing Amethyst's hands and turning them palm up to examine them. “You're not even burned, and that stone was hot enough to catch your blankets on fire!”
“I don't know,” said Amethyst, just as shocked as Tika was. “I just did what you told me to do, and then it kind of took over.”
“Your light was purple, not amber!”
Amethyst furrowed her brow. “What's wrong with that?”
“That's not the color of the element of Earth, that's what,” said Tika, sitting back and looking at Amethyst, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Who are you really?”
Amethyst shook her head. “I am exactly what I've said I am. Just another Hopeful, here to try for the apprenticeship.”
“No, something is different about you.”
“Well,” Amethyst said, frantically racking her mind for an answer that would preserve her anonymity, “perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am an elf? The rest of you are all humans, and I've never seen an elf that could do magic. Maybe that makes the light different?”
Tika frowned, still looking at Amethyst. “That would make sense, I suppose.” She sighed, shaking her head. “If nothing else, your stone is broken. Let me go get mine, and my blanket. We can share this tent until we can either get you another stone or find a way to fix the broken one. Your tent is bigger than mine anyway.”
“Is that okay? I don't want my mistake to make you uncomfortable.”
Tika blew a raspberry. “At my home, I share a sleeping mat with seven siblings, my mother, father, and my daughter. I'm used to cramped spaces.” She turned towards the entrance then paused, looking back at Amethyst. “Besides, it's either that or you freeze, unless you feel like taking Fredrick up on his offer. I'm sure he'd keep you warm, at least until he was done.”
Amethyst shook her head vehemently. “Go get your things. We'll share this tent.”
~~~
3rd Waxing Moon of the Long Night, Year 4367
Amethyst's eyes slowly opened to the bright sunlight creeping in around the edges of the entrance of the tent. She was vaguely aware of an arm wrapped around her middle, resting on her waist, and she almost startled before she remembered that she had fallen asleep chatting with Tika. The taller girl had snuggled up to her in the night, sharing their body heat; though Tika's stone continued to radiate warmth, there was a chill to the air. They had piled their blankets on top of each other, sharing them to combine their body heat in the frigid night of the frozen summit.
Tika stirred as Amethyst shifted her position, at first hugging her tight then releasing her, moving her arm to rest upon her own hip. Amethyst rolled gently to her back, the hard ground underneath her uncomfortable when compared to the soft mattresses she was used to.
“Mmm,” Tika hummed, slowly waking. “Not yet. Too early.”
“The sun is out,” Amethyst said quietly, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “I don't want to miss anything.”
Tika covered her face with the blanket, grunting. “For the first time in my life, I get to sleep without someone kicking me in the back or shoving me around, and you want to end it on purpose? Why do you hate me?”
“Oh, come off it,” Amethyst said, chuckling as she shoved Tika, uncovering the other girl's face.
“You snore.”
“Yeah, well, you're a bed hog. Come on, let's see if breakfast is ready.”
They quickly folded their blankets and set them on top of their packs, then crawled out of the tent and into the cold morning sun. The shock of frigid air was almost painful, and Amethyst winced, stretching. Around them, the other Hopefuls were making their way to the Temple of the Summit. Quickly, they entered the building and took their places in the line, mouths watering at the scent of the food that had been laid out.
This time, Amethyst was able to get a seat, pulling it over next to Tika. Fredrick had been the first in line and was almost done with his meal by the time Amethyst sat down, a plate of sausage and rolls smothered in a white gravy on her lap. Though she was used to the fare of the castle, she found the simple food to be absolutely exquisite and dug into it with a fervor.
At the
end of the line was a boy of perhaps fourteen with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He wasn't particularly exceptional in height or build, but his eyes were bright and inquisitive as he looked around the room for a place to sit. He turned to one of the other youths in the room, holding his plate in one hand.
“You're almost done eating. Get up and let me sit down.”
The other young man – a brown-haired lad of about the same age – scoffed. “Go fuck yourself. Sit on the floor.”
The sandy-haired boy shook his head. “I've laid on the cold ground all night. I want to sit comfortably.”
The brown-haired young man set down his plate and stood up, narrowing his eyes at the blonde boy. “If you wanted a seat, you should have gotten here first. You were last. Sit on the ground.”
Shrugging, the blonde boy shook his head. “I'd rather not.” He reached out and shoved the other Hopeful, and the brown-haired young man was thrown to the ground, kicking his food over as he landed on the hard stone.
The blonde youth sat down on the stool as if nothing had happened, using a fork to spear one of the sausages and lift it to his mouth, taking a bite as the other boy furiously struggled to his feet.
“You little son of a whore!” he shouted, squaring up his shoulders and throwing a punch at the blonde boy's face.
The blow never landed. Instead, the seated boy caught the fist that had been thrown at him with one hand and twisted, throwing the brown-haired young man to the ground again. What seemed like a light kick sent the youth sprawling across the floor, coming to a rest a few yards away.
“I said, I want to sit comfortably,” repeated the blonde boy as if he were explaining something simple to a sibling.
Tika leaned over and whispered to Amethyst. “He's channeling energy into his blows like you did on the stone last night. That's why it seems like he's a lot stronger than he is. He wouldn't be able to put that much force behind it if he wasn't.”
“Well aren't you two as thick as thieves,” said Fredrick, looking over at Tika and Amethyst. “I saw both of you come out of the same tent this morning. I guess that explains why the elf turned me down.”
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