by A E M
“Oh, he was a great man.” Vincent said gently. “But we all have our strengths and weaknesses. You know, your father had a horrible master.”
“What?” Charlotte asked in shock.
“He almost killed his master when it was time for him to graduate to master. Fortunately, his family was around to step in. The guy never took on another apprentice, which is a good thing.” He looked up at her. “Your father’s apprentice was given to another and he was put on suspension for years, which is why he was open to train your brother when the time came. It all worked out in the end.”
“So David was his first apprentice?” She asked.
“Yes, your father became an excellent teacher over the years, but he had to start somewhere, and I guess it was difficult the first time around.”
Charlotte sat down hard in a nearby chair. “I wish I had asked him more about his youth.”
“Very few of us really know another person completely. Even family.” Vincent said quietly.
She nodded towards the backpack. “You might recognize it. Papa gave it to me before he left.” She looked at him for a moment. “I was thinking about that pack you and David have. It looks a lot more convenient.”
“It is. This backpack can change for the user, correct?”
“Yes, but I’ve never had the magic to change it by myself.”
He nodded and motioned for her to come stand by him. “We will do it together this time.” He stopped and corrected himself. “Actually, you will do it, but I’m going to use my magic to control and focus yours. You’ll see. Now place you hands over the pack.”
She complied.
“Okay, now focus on what you want it to look like. Once you have all the details in your head firmly, I want you to say ‘transform’.”
“In English?”
“The language doesn’t matter. Magic encompasses all languages.”
“Now that I think of it, the hobs only use English.”
“Everyone is different. For example, your father knew several languages, so he would confuse his students now and then by leaping from one language to another. For now, I’d like you to use English. Once you have more control over your magic, you can branch out into other languages if you desire. Personally, I would prefer you get to the point where you don’t have to articulate out loud.”
She focused on the pack and remembered the packs she had seen earlier. She would want hers to be a little more feminine and have a few more pockets. She let her mind wander a little and add a few decorative seams. Finally, she uttered, “Transform.” Magic shot out of her hands, making her take a step back to steady her self. She watched as Vincent’s magic released and curled around hers, pinning it above the backpack. It swirled and danced, then leapt inside. There was a rush of light and then she was staring at a new pack.
She gasped with surprise and delight. “I did it!”
He nodded at her, but didn’t speak.
“Thank you.” She said quietly as she studied the pack.
“Now you need to get your things and come stay with David and me in your family’s quarters for the night. No more hiding.” Vincent said as he stepped away.
She stumbled across her own thoughts. “I think I should stay. Here I’m away from people. At least when I’m alone I know I won’t hurt anybody.”
He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, but she flinched and backed away. “Please don’t.”
“Don’t do what?” He asked seriously. “Touch you? I have gloves on remember? We just danced downstairs.”
She sighed. “I’ve gotten used to keeping people away from me. I need to stay focused. I constantly have to worry about somebody else getting close. I don’t want to burn anyone ever again. I don’t want to leave any more scars behind.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “We will figure out why it’s happening.”
“But that doesn’t mean you can stop it.” She added bitterly.
“No, but I hope that when you learn to control your magic—”
She interrupted him with a huff. “What, that it will just go away?”
He shook his head after taking a deep, slow breath in and out. “You sat at a table next to other people tonight. I’d say that’s good progress.”
“It’s not good enough.” She said firmly.
“You need to think about the fact that whatever level of closeness you attain with others may never be good enough for you. I can’t promise that you won’t burn anybody ever again. I can’t promise that you won’t live with it for the rest of your life. But I do know that you will be better off when you understand it and manage it and use it for good.”
She turned away from him and stared out the window. “I’m so conflicted. I wanted this my whole life. To fit in. To be a weaver. And now I have it and yet I don’t.”
“I think.” He reached over and held her hand. “That in all honesty, you are going to have to learn to be okay with that.”
His words stung, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Charlotte?” Vincent asked. He stepped closer to her and laid his other hand on her shoulder. “Remember when we talked about how I called David master and I was his apprentice?”
“Yes.” She sighed and shook her head. What had she gotten herself into? He turned her around to face him.
“That time for him and I to call each other that is gone. It’s only David and Vincent between us now. For you and me, that time has begun.”
“Do I really need to call you master now?” She asked quietly.
He gently wiggled her ear. “It won’t be appropriate for you to address me by my name until you are done learning, but I’d like to change things up a bit. You may address me as Maven.”
She let out a relieved sigh and closed her eyes. “Thank you. I like it better.” She hesitated. “I’m not sure if you even care or if I’m supposed to tell you at all.”
He looked at her sternly. “Honestly is always preferable. Not that what you think will alter my decisions. Now get your things, Protégé.” He said and squeezed her hand before dropping it. “I’ll meet you in the tower.”
6
Night of Blood
Vincent watched David fidget around the cabin for days.
David deeded him the cabin and chattered to him for hours about his time as a master.
Vincent was sure that the Weaver Council had an apprentice for him.
Finally David came to him and told him what happened to his parents.
“So you see, I don’t have a choice. We leave tomorrow.”
Vincent headed up to his room. He remembered the spoiled sister in the castle.
But that wasn’t enough to deter his plans.
Charlotte jerked awake to screaming, but this time it wasn’t imagined or her own. She sat up in the middle of the white ruffled comforter and smooth sheets and glanced around her old room. It was very dark. A small line of light from the moon stretched across her floor. There was a chorus of many screams that ripped through the night, and the sickening sound of silence of one voice shortly after the thud of a body hitting the ground. She grabbed her quarterstaff on the floor next to her bed and ran down the stairs outside of her old room to the living room and the door to the library. She twisted the doorknob and screamed as she heard multiple snaps and felt pain roar through her hand.
“Move back and don’t touch anything else.” Vincent said roughly as he came behind her and pulled her back and away from the door.
David came up behind them and slammed a chair into the door. The chair broke into wooden shards. The screams continued. They rose and fell, splintering and shattering in waves. “What spell is this? More than one?” David whispered as he stepped to the side of the door and ran his hands just above the wall. Charlotte paced behind the men as they whispered to each other. David tried a couple of unsuccessful spells before yelling at the door and tossing another chair at it. Charlotte turned away from him and caught sight of the large picture window that over
looked the back lawns. She ran to it with her quarterstaff raised in her good hand.
“No! Wait!” Vincent warned as he grabbed her arms above her elbows. He yanked the quarterstaff out of her left hand and tossed it to the side of the room.
“Why did you do that?” She asked furiously.
“What were you thinking?” He asked. “You can’t even use your dominant hand and we can’t get through yet. The spell holding us here is booby trapped with a breaking curse.”
“What?” Charlotte cried out. “A spell can be booby trapped?”
“Later.” Vincent looked down at her hand. “I need to heal you.”
“Later!” David yelled at them both. “Sebastian should heal her. You’ll botch up something as sensitive as hands.”
“Rude!” Vincent yelled back. He turned back to Charlotte. “He’s right. Sorry, but it will have to wait.” He pulled a long bandage out of his pack. “Put your injured hand over your heart.” She did and he wrapped her arm tight across her chest so she couldn’t move it. He glared at her. “Now keep out of trouble.”
“Come, I’ve almost got part of it!” David waved Vincent over.
Charlotte wanted to scream in frustration. She couldn’t just stand around while magani were dying. The sounds outside pierced her heart and mind. She ran downstairs to her parent’s room on the first floor and yanked back the thick green curtains. The courtyard was full of fauns and blood and swords and creatures she had never seen before. The creatures were tall and muscular and frighteningly ugly. There were so many of them, and they were slaughtering the fauns right before her eyes. She quickly glanced around the courtyard. Where was Phoebe? One of the creatures locked eyes with her as he stood after retrieving his sword from the body of a faun. He smiled at her and wiped the blade on his bare leg. She shuddered, but couldn’t tear her eyes away until he made long, fast strides toward her. She stepped back from the window as he neared, unsure of what would happen. “Guys!” She yelled towards the stairs.
“Almost done removing the booby trap so we can disarm the spell!” David yelled.
“You really should see this!” She yelled back.
The creature was outside the window now. He raised his sword and slammed it up against the window. Charlotte ran for the stairway just in time to avoid most of the explosion of glass. Shards of glass bit into one side of her body. Outside the creature bellowed and tossed the broken sword to the ground. It grabbed another sword and slashed at the window again. The sword broke, but left what looked like a small tear in the magic surrounding the building. “It’s almost through! It tore a hole in this protection spell!” She yelled before she ran up the stairs.
“What’s almost through?” Vincent passed her on the stairs. She turned back and watched him reach the last step before taking a quick glance and heading back up. “Run!” he yelled at her. There was roar and a flash and the spell was gone. David opened up the door only to slam it back again. “Up the stairs!” He yelled at them both. They scrambled up to her room and David uttered a spell when the door was shut and locked.
“That won’t hold them long.” Vincent walked quickly through her room, looking around.
“They will want her.” David added.
The door shook.
David opened a pocket on his pack and placed a round disc on the floor. “She will have to go now.”
“Agreed.” Vincent said as he picked up Charlotte’s pack. Her crossed over to her. “This should have been the first thing you grabbed when you woke up.” He scolded her as he snapped it on.
The door splintered apart. Only the shield of magic remained.
“We can’t just leave them!” Charlotte said.
“They cannot have you, Charlotte.” David stepped close to her and whispered. “For the same reason they can’t have your mother or any other fairy. We don’t even know what you are capable of doing, and we can’t let them use you for your powers. Now, go. Run and jump. Vincent will go first.”
Vincent ran and jumped on the disk even as David was finishing talking. Charlotte watched in amazement, as he seemed to get sucked into the hole.
The magic around the room started to tear. David pushed her forward and stood between her and the door. “Now!”
Charlotte ran and jumped.
The world twisted and spiraled.
She fell hard, with a snap, and the solid ground beneath her was a welcome relief. She curled up, panted through the pain, and tried to fight the nausea that rolled through and threatened to overtake her in crash of waves. She briefly saw a flash of trees and felt the cold rock and dirt beneath her. There was a sound nearby. It danced in the back of her mind as familiar, but it was twisted and faint and hard to focus on. She felt hands, then, searching and poking and she wanted to warn the hands to stay away, but she couldn’t speak. Why couldn’t she breathe enough to speak? There was a whisper then, and she felt the ground beneath her move. She gasped as she felt herself being pulled into a standing position and the world started to focus bit by bit. They were in a cave. Her body screamed at her, and she struggled to put any weight on one of her feet. Vincent held her firmly. She didn’t have the energy to tell him to back off. The fool knew the chance he was taking. She heard it then, faint screams. There was a smell, too. She bent forward as the smell gagged her, but he pulled her back up.
“Be quiet.” Vincent whispered in her ear.
She blinked and her head cleared. “Where’s David?”
“He stayed behind to destroy the portal.” He answered. She tried to turn around to look at him, but his grip tightened and he pulled her further back into the cave.
She heard the crunch of leaves and the smell grew stronger. “What is that?”
“I have no idea what they are, but it is the same creature we saw in the castle.” He continued to pull her back into the cave until they were able to turn a corner and stand in a smaller section. He waved his hand over the opening and a protection spell went up in the entryway they had just passed through. “We got here early, and without our escort. I have no idea where the entrance is, and no idea if anybody will be out to meet us for a few hours yet. Hopefully they will have noticed the use of a portal and send somebody out soon, but I’m not sure if they will notice with everything else going on.” His voice wavered. “There’s no telling yet how wide spread this is.”
They quieted as they heard a creature roar nearby. Other roars of varying loudness answered. Charlotte tried to cover her ears to block out the sharp, gravelly sounds, and was reminded of the brokenness of her right hand and pain from other areas of her body. Her knees buckled.
“Hang on.” Vincent helped her lay down on the ground.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“You were still under the breaking spell when you went through the portal. I got rid of it a moment ago.” He opened his pack and shuffled through it.
“I was about to swear off portal travel if I was going to have to risk broken bones during transport.” She said between coughs.
Vincent pulled her into a sitting position. He put a vial up to her lips. “It’s horrible. Drink up.”
She tossed it down quickly and fought the urge to cough more. “You were right. It’s horrible.” She said before she started shaking uncontrollably. “Wait, is this supposed to make me worse?”
She felt him pressing his gloved hand on her forehead. “It should have worked by now. You’re burning up.” He felt her ribs and her foot.
“No!” She said. “You have to stay away from me if it’s getting worse!”
“No.” He said as he pulled her back up to her feet. “It’s working, but it’s reacting with your chemistry in a new way. You need to get yourself under control.”
“Alright then.” She said as she started to sway. “What should I do?”
They both froze as they heard a loud roar that echoed through the cave. Vincent whispered in her ear. “Quickly, imagine that you are a dry creek in a parched land. There’s no water anywhere, until on
e day there is a storm and your banks overflow, soaking the land. I want you to imagine the land becoming new with water. You are now a steady stream bringing water and life and energy to the area around you.”
She focused on that scene, imagining every detail. She felt a tug of something from within and she felt in control again. She ached, but she was able to push the aches aside. “Okay.” She whispered. She could hear the ragged breathing of the creature as it neared them.
Vincent pulled her behind him. “Don’t move. I’m dropping the protection spell for an invisibility spell, but you have to keep touching me. Don’t move an inch unless I say so.”
She watched as the protection spell vanished and he pressed them both up against the wall. There was another roar then, and the smell of blood and sweat and filth. Her heart pounded wildly enough that she could have sworn that rock wall behind her would start vibrating. Finally she saw it turn the corner and step in. It sniffed the air and roared again. It slashed the air with a huge sword, and then began to slash the walls around in a mad display of frustration. Vincent tensed, then reached for his pack and drew out his spell gun and a vial. He loaded it quickly and fired. The creature froze in mid step, and then toppled over. Vincent rushed to the creature and whispered a few things before racing out of the cave.
“Stay put!” He yelled to her as he left.
She had no intention of moving. The creature breathed slowly, and his eyes roamed the room until they found her. He grinned and she shivered at the sight of his pointed teeth. He was huge, with massive muscles and nothing more than a loincloth on. He muttered something, but it was a language she had never heard before. Suddenly he began to convulse. His entire body vibrated until finally he fell into a final stillness.
Charlotte stayed plastered to the cold, damp rock wall. She focused on breathing in and out slowly. She couldn’t peel her eyes off of the creature lest it spring back to life and come after her. She heard a loud boom in the distance and jumped. Finally, Vincent returned. She sighed in relief.