by Alex C Vick
“No. I can’t even tell you what kind of spell it is. It’s like air.”
He paused.
“The blue is cool. Unique. But the colour alone isn’t going to tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Hmmm. Perhaps I need to strengthen it.”
I tried different ways to project the spell, but to no avail. I even turned it into a remedy, but that didn’t work either.
The evening passed, with both of us becoming more and more frustrated.
All that anticipation for nothing.
Nico gave up first. He said he was getting a headache and we should try again the following night. Reluctantly, I had to agree.
“Are you still going to Terra?” he asked me.
“Might as well. I still need two Signature Symbols to complete the set. A silk trade that was supposed to happen yesterday, and a wedding ceremony tomorrow morning at the temple of Apollo.”
I tried to sound casual. The story about the Signature Symbols was true. I wanted to include examples of the seven most common contracts in my book.
That book was also going to be the first step in my proposal to the Council. It was an example of Terran magic that could be used on Androva.
New and different, proof a link with Terra might be beneficial .
At least, that’s what I hoped.
But really, I was desperate to see Claudia again. It had been several days since my last trip because of my determination to have the Communication Spell ready for when I saw her.
Nico watched me open the portal with a guarded expression.
“Aren’t you going home?” I said.
“Yes. I just… There’s a remedy I want to make before I go.”
I nearly left him. I had one foot raised to step through the portal, but I turned back. There was something about the look on his face.
“What remedy?”
Yes. Guilt. Definitely guilt.
“What remedy, Nico?”
“You don’t know what it’s like!” he burst out. “Living with someone who hates you. Who tells you what a disappointment you are to her. Every single day.”
“That’s ridiculous!” I said, genuinely surprised. “How could you possibly be a disappointment to her? To anyone?”
His smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“I appreciate your support, but as I said, you have no idea what it’s like. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’d been taking lessons from my father. It’s like being back there all over again.”
I sat down with a bump, the portal shimmering behind me.
“You’re being serious?”
“No, Galen,” he said, his tone so mocking I winced slightly. “I’m only joking. I enjoyed the years of intimidation at my father’s hand so much, I turn to them every time I feel like a laugh.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, rather inadequately. There was a short silence. “And the remedy?”
He avoided my gaze.
“It’s an Advanced Sleep Remedy, that’s all. I mix it with a few other things to help it work better.”
“What things?”
“Nothing major, just little enhancements.”
He still wasn’t looking at me.
“What else?” I persisted.
He sighed.
“I… I figured out how to change the colour so it doesn’t look like a Sleep Remedy anymore.”
“What on Androva are you telling me? You’re giving your wife a Sleep Remedy without her knowledge?”
I tried not to sound too shocked. Administering remedies without permission to someone of age was a serious breach of the Code. Not that we hadn’t broken it before, but there was a lot more at stake now.
Then I considered. Aren’t I doing something just as bad in being with Claudia?
Nico looked miserable.
“It’s for me,” he said quietly.
“What?”
I thought I’d misheard.
“It’s for me!”
His face was red.
“I can’t sleep very well these days. Thanks to her. But she sees insomnia as a weakness, and she makes fun of me if I take anything for it.”
He hung his head.
I was speechless for a moment.
“That’s… that’s so wrong, Nico. You can’t stay with her. You can’t.”
Lifting his head, he scowled at me, and I recoiled slightly.
“Don’t give me advice you wouldn’t follow,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t have to get married, Galen. You’re only doing it so you can stay at the Foundation.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but nothing came out. As far as Nico was aware, that’s just what I was doing.
“Exactly,” he said.
“But…”
“Go. Collect the symbols. Maybe your Communication Spell will work tomorrow.”
He went to the remedy station. I hesitated, wishing I could do something to help him. Then I turned and walked into Pompeii, thoughts of Claudia lightening my steps.
Nico is right. There is always tomorrow.
Chapter 12 - How Matches Are Made
The streets of Pompeii were dangerous at night, and I was glad of my Invisibility Spell. Terrans seemed to make use of the darkness to behave in a way that was shocking, or against the law, or both.
I tried to ignore it, but sometimes I couldn’t help but stare. Nico told me Roma was ten times worse.
When I was half-way to the villa, I felt a strange tremor under my feet. The ground was being shaken like a rat between the teeth of a large Roman dog.
And there was a distant rumbling noise, faint but insistent. I had to stop and lean against a nearby wall until it passed.
Around me, no one else seemed to be worried, continuing on their way with barely a shrug and a comment about the mischief of the gods. The customary explanation for anything out of the ordinary.
I knew the city had been damaged some years before when the ground had shifted. Some of the buildings were still being rebuilt. I resolved to ask Claudia about it later on.
When I entered Julia Felix’s house, Claudia was the first thing I saw. Asleep, she leaned against the wall in a sitting position, as if she’d been waiting for me until tiredness overcame her.
I watched for a few moments. Sometimes I felt like I could look at her forever and still not quite memorise the tilt of her cheekbones or the curl of her eyelashes.
She opened her eyes. A sleepy smile widened her mouth as she saw me standing there. I didn’t bother dressing like a Roman anymore, and my black clothes were quite visible against the white stone of the villa, even though the outside sky was dark.
“Galen. Te desideravi.” I missed you.
I grinned.
“Ostende mihi,” I replied. Show me.
I would never tire of kissing her. I hardly dared to dream of what would happen when we reached eighteen years of age as a matched couple.
We went to the garden to talk. I tried to explain about the Communication Spell. She linked her hand with mine, asking me to show her what had happened.
And that was how, in the end, it was Claudia who learned the spell first.
Her force field accepted it in a way Nico’s had not. Perhaps it was the symbol she had drawn that so closely resembled my Sygnus. Perhaps it was our feelings for each other. I don’t know the answer.
But all of a sudden I was inside her head, and she was inside mine. I could tell it was hurting her. We both tried to pull our hands apart, but the spell would not allow it. I was receiving a flood of information.
Her memories, flashing past me, one after another. A cold land, a desperate battle, soldiers putting chains on her legs, her parents killed. A knife and a spell against her throat to stop her tears.
Being put to work. Washing clothes until her small hands were bleeding and the water stung. Always so tired. Being passed from master to mistress like a piece of furniture. Head down, one day at a time.
“
Claudia…” I thought, wishing I had more than sympathy to offer.
“It’s not important, Galen. It’s all in the past. Today and tomorrow are what matter.”
“I suppose you’re right. I suppose…” I trailed off. We were talking. Inside my head, we were talking. In the same language. Her eyes were large, gazing into mine. Her pain had stopped.
I was finding it hard to breathe.
Is this a dream? Or has the spell actually worked?
“I think you are the most incredible unbelievable beautiful brave girl I’ve ever met!” I said in a rush.
“I don’t really have the words to describe how amazing I think you are, but I’ve been wishing I could talk to you properly for so long, and I think about you all the time, and dream about you, and miss you, and want you…”
I could hear her laughter. I could feel her happiness. Her relief.
“Sorry,” I added. “I just had to say it, in case it was my only chance.”
“It is perfect,” she replied, gripping my hand more tightly. “You have no idea…”
I felt another wave of emotion from her. It was really strange having someone else’s feelings inside my head.
“You are so controlled on the surface, Galen. So hard to read. Only when you kiss me do I get a sense of what you might be thinking. And I hoped your feelings were the same as mine. But now… I know it. I believe it.”
“I don’t mean to come across that way,” I apologised. I thought of Professor Cassius and how I had learned to hide my feelings in order to beat him.
“Yes,” she agreed. “I try to do the same so I don’t give my masters power over me, but I don’t always succeed.”
Suddenly she gasped, as if remembering something.
“Galen, the symbol I drew for you, the one on my necklace. It belongs to my family, my blood. It means finesse and subtlety and skill. A kind of magic only a few magicians are capable of.”
She spoke quickly, just as I had done, wanting to explain while she could.
“It does have something in common with my Sygnus, then. All we need to do is join it to your force field, and it can be part of you.”
That made her very happy. I could feel it, like Roman wine in my blood. Intoxicating.
I leaned forward to kiss her. And wow. Just… wow. Vaguely it registered that kissing her might have been a mistake. Every bit of self-control I possessed slipped right through my fingers.
We were lucky the villa’s two cats chose that particular moment to have a disagreement on the other side of the garden. Their outraged screeching was loud enough to bring me back to myself.
I broke the kiss and dropped the spell at the same time. I apologised. I tried to compose myself, which was a lot more difficult than I expected. I said a Roman swear word and had to apologise again.
Claudia laughed. She told me I was sweet. She brushed my cheek with the back of her hand. It was just the same for her, she said, her expression serious again.
Then she got up to separate the cats, scooping some water over them. She returned with the friendlier of the two in her arms, keeping her face lowered as she whispered to it.
“Galen… Quid nunc?” she asked me. What now?
“Ignoro. Nondum.” I don’t know. Not yet.
She sat down next to me, and I began to think. We need a plan, a way to get the Council on our side.
The Signature Symbols first, as a test of their receptiveness. Then, the offer of the Communication Spell, once I’d got it working with Nico.
Finally, a bargain. I would promise Androva my lifelong loyalty if the Council allowed me to marry Claudia. All the spells I had yet to invent. Everything my force field could do, I would put at their disposal.
I was hopeful they would say yes. Very hopeful.
Claudia took hold of my hand, the blue of the spell already glowing in her own palm. Then I heard her voice in my head.
“Tell me. I can see you’ve decided what to do.”
I sensed her fear, and I tried to reassure her by explaining my plan as quickly as I could.
“Marriage? You want to marry me?”
Stunned silence.
I felt a wave of panic. My own.
“I’m sorry, I’m so stupid, I shouldn’t have just assumed… Don’t you want to marry me?”
“Men don’t marry slaves. They don’t need to,” she said, twisting her dress between nervous fingers. Even though her chin was lifted defiantly, her eyes were scared.
“I insist,” I said softly.
After a little while, she smiled, and I felt her agreement in the magic that connected us. I wanted to sigh with relief.
“You learned that spell so fast,” I told her. “It took me weeks and weeks.”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t learn it. You gave it to me. You did something to my force field to open it up… It’s a little bit golden. Underneath the blue, I mean.”
I stared.
“I gave it to you?”
“Yes. I don’t think it’s a spell so much as it’s an ability.”
I considered this.
“It hurt you, didn’t it?”
“Only for a little while. It was worth it.”
I could not disagree. And perhaps now I would be able to figure out how to give Nico the same ability.
It was nearly morning. Our goodbyes this time were harder than ever. We agreed I would return in one week. Long enough to get the Council’s agreement in principle if I were lucky. And I could not bear to be apart from her for longer than that.
As far as I was concerned, we were now matched. We belonged to each other.
“Redibo,” I said. “Promitto.” I will come back. I promise.
I watched the marriage blessing and collected the final Signature Symbol. Perhaps the next marriage I attended would be my own. The portal was waiting for me, and I stepped through it happily.
I sat down to add the last two symbols to my Terran Magical Symbols book. Nico arrived for the day just as I was finishing.
“You look pleased about something,” he said.
“I am. I think I might know how to get the spell to work.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“How come?”
“No guarantees,” I replied, ignoring his question, “and I need to get some sleep first. But we could try later if you like? This evening?”
“Well… I’m supposed to be having dinner with Krysta to make up for last night. It was quite late by the time we’d finished.”
“Up to you,” I said carefully. “I don’t want to get you in any trouble…”
My voice trailed off at the accusing stare he gave me.
“Great. So now you think I’m scared of my own wife, I suppose.”
Aren’t you ? But I didn’t say it out loud.
“All I told you yesterday was I had a hard time sleeping. Everyone gets that occasionally,” he went on.
It wasn’t all he’d told me, but I decided not to argue the point. It had just occurred to me that if the Communication Spell transfer worked the same as with Claudia, I’d see it all for myself anyway. An uncomfortable thought.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Let’s forget about the spell.”
My stomach was turning over as my nervousness increased. All of a sudden, being inside Nico’s head did not seem like a good idea.
He sighed, and the fight went out of him.
“I’m sorry too. I just… I don’t really know what to do. I fought him for so long. I can’t do it again. I can’t…”
To my horror, his eyes looked like they had tears in them.
“Nico…” I said helplessly.
“Tell me honestly, do you feel sorry for me? She says it’s the reason you’re my partner. She says—”
“No!” I shouted, interrupting him. “The reason we’re partners is because you’re the best magician I’ve ever worked with.”
He made a noise of disbelief and shook his head.
“Why should I trust you? You’ve never said anything like that before.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Firstly,” I began, “it used to be the case that your ego needed no encouragement. From me or anyone else.”
His expression didn’t change, and I gave him a gentle kick.
“Come on, Nico. Your ego is like a Roman senator: only interested in self-promotion, and never failing to outstay its welcome.”
I saw the glimmer of a smile.
“Secondly, and more importantly, you don’t need a reason to trust me after all we’ve done together. If you do, we might as well not be partners at all.”
I frowned at him. I waited. Then he gave tiny nod.
“Alright. Partner.”
He stood up to prepare his portal symbols, and gradually his expression returned to normal.
“One more Roman god to document, and then I’ll be done. I’ve been able to add a small book on language and what all the Terran names are supposed to mean. We’re presenting this week, aren’t we?”
“I think so,” I replied, glad he had changed the subject. In fact, I knew for certain we were presenting to the Council. I had committed the timetable to memory. This is my chance.
“How are things in Roma?” I asked. “Is Titus settling in as emperor?”
“He’s determined to finish building that enormous arena. And the senators love him.”
“Why? I thought senators usually hate the emperor.”
“Well, you know all the interrogations they usually have?”
I nodded. Anyone accused of speaking against Roma, or its emperor, could be put on trial and then killed. People often made things up to get rid of their enemies.
“He’s stopped them,” said Nico.
“Really? Good for him.”
“I know. A sensible Terran. He might be the first one!”
He laughed, and I tried to smile back. If even my research partner thought most Terrans were crazy and stupid, I really did have an uphill battle on my hands.
He turned to the now open portal.
“I’ll meet you this evening, Galen. At sundown.”
At this, my apprehension returned. I still did not want to do the spell. But there was no way out of it.
Perhaps I can use it to give him some of my confidence.
Although there were a lot of things I feared, I had no doubts about myself as a person or a magician. And Nico could do with some of that self-belief right now, to counteract the damage Krysta was obviously doing.