“The same could be said of Five Point. Or Castle Verril. What makes you special. How did you form?”
“Perhaps I can recall now. Now that you are here and your piece is no longer missing. It was recent, in the grand scheme of things. After you left me. Perhaps the next year. Perhaps the year after that. There was another visitor. He was a man. No. He was two men.”
“He was two men?”
“His physical form did not match what lurked within. And he was powerful, or at least, that which lurked within was powerful. It wasn’t a proper spirit. It was a force. Almost a disease. It came to this place in search of knowledge. So many come here for that purpose. But also it sought power. It wanted to drink deep of the lines that cross at this point. But it lingered only briefly. The power here did not suit its taste. When it had gone, when it had made itself part of my history, that is when I began. It was a thing of such tight focus. It, for lack of a better word, cut deep into the soil and allowed something to take root. Had it come another time. Had it not lingered as long as it did, or perhaps if it had lingered longer, I would not be as I am. I am a quirk of mystic conditions. My thoughts have been scattered and confused. But now you are here. Now it is easier. It will be pleasant having you back.”
Jade leafed through the pages and considered the words. She did not like what they seemed to imply, but for now it was more important that she find the cure. She could worry about escape later.
#
“So you planted these?” Myn said, investigating a strawberry plant.
“Jade did. I tilled the soil,” Halfax said, his attention split between the girl and the tower.
“I’ve never seen berries so plump and large!” she crouched beside the plant. “Are they safe to eat?”
“Your mother couldn’t get enough of them,” he said. “They smell no different now.”
“But you said you didn’t like the feel of this place. Could they be dangerous?”
“What I feel is in the tower itself.”
Myn plucked a berry and tasted it. “They’re delicious. Better than I’ve ever had.”
She shrugged off her heavy coat, hardly necessary in the warm air of this little island of spring in the middle of a wintry forest.
“How did you know about this place?” she asked.
“My mother lived here for a time. Long ago. With her caretaker.”
“Myranda.”
“That’s right.”
Myn hung her coat on a post that sectioned off the overgrown garden.
“Your mother was a dragon raised by a human. My mother is a human raised by a dragon. And we all have this place in common now.”
“History is every bit as wild and treacherous as this forest. We must follow in the paths of those who came before us for fear of being lost.”
“But what if the path is too difficult?”
“Then we must become stronger. For some, the cost of failure is too great.”
Myn stared thoughtfully into the distance.
“It is a good thing it wasn’t me…” Myn spread her arms. “This? All of this that my mother had to go through. Or the things that Myranda and my namesake had to go through. If it had come down to me, that path would have come to an end.”
Halfax turned his attention fully to Myn.
“That is not so,” Halfax said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. Because I have watched you. I knew from the moment your mother presented you to me and made me swear to protect you as I had protected her, that you had all of her strength and all of her compassion.”
“I was just a baby.”
“Dragons see things that other creatures do not. What she has in her, you have in you.”
Myn stared into his eyes. It was a curious thing. They were unmistakably the eyes of a predator. Even when looking upon her with compassion, there was the power and the intensity of a carnivore. But at the same time, there was a sense that those eyes were incapable of dishonesty. For this creature, there was only the truth. If he said it, it must be so. And that gold eye… That one gold eye…
“I think… I think I remember…” Myn said quietly. “That day you first saw me, and I first saw you. It doesn’t seem possible. But I swear I know those eyes. Did I… I touched your face, didn’t I?”
He nodded.
“And you’ve been watching over me since that day?”
“Since before that day. And for as long as either of us live.”
She shut her eyes and imagined it. This massive, noble creature. In everything she had ever done, and in everything she would ever do, she wasn’t alone. Halfax was with her. It made her feel powerful. It chased a bit of the fear away. If only she’d known. But now that she did, she wondered how things would be different from now on.
As her mind churned, she saw something in Halfax’s eyes change. At the same time, she felt something in the air. Something was different. Something was wrong.
“What’s happened?” Myn said.
Halfax raised his head and stalked to the tower. He craned his neck and reared onto his hind legs to peer into each window. With each one, his motions became quicker, his body more tense. He sniffed the air. A growl rumbled in his throat.
“She’s gone, isn’t she?” Myn said, her voice brittle with worry. “She’s not in the tower.”
“She couldn’t have gone. I would have seen her. I would have heard her. I would have smelled her.”
His claws sliced into the ground. His wings flared.
“Magic…” he fumed. “I warned her not to go.”
“What do we do now?” Myn said.
Halfax was practically shaking with fury. He huffed a breath of flame, blackening the grass beneath him. Myn stepped forward.
“Stay back,” Halfax said.
“Whatever we do, we’ll have to do it together,” Myn said. “You can’t leave me alone, and we certainly aren’t going to do nothing.”
“The correct thing to do would be to leave this place. To take you somewhere safe,” Halfax said.
“And let my mother and my father both die,” Myn said coldly.
“The correct thing isn’t always the right thing.”
“If I must choose, then I choose what is right, not what is correct.”
Halfax lowered his head and looked in her eye, as if to test her resolve. When he spoke, Myn could swear she saw the briefest curl of a smile on his lips.
“Then today, we agree.” He lashed his tail around her waist and raised her to his back. “We stay together. Until we know what it is we face, we do not allow ourselves to separate. Eyes and ears open. If you have a thought, speak it. Your mother knows more of magic than I do. And your mother raised you. If there is insight to be had, it is as likely to come from you as from me.”
She leaned forward and held tight to his neck. Halfax strode around the cottage and tower, eyes scanning it like a warrior seeking a weakness in his foe’s defenses.
“What to do,” Myn muttered, scouring her mind for wisdom her mother might have imparted.
“She entered the tower before she vanished. There is only one part of the cottage I can enter,” Halfax said.
He paced over to the stable.
“It looks too small for you.”
“It was where I slept for many years. When your mother had nightmares, she joined me there. Keep your head down. There won’t be room to spare.”
#
Page after page of minor spells and potions flipped by as Jade searched. As she did, her ‘host’ lingered beside her. The form was growing more distinct, though it continued to evade her gaze.
“Tell me, Loci,” she said. “What do you know of your nature?”
“Little. Though more now than I did before you arrived. I believe… I believe each being of distinction shares something with me. Each new piece of history adds to my whole. But it fades when they depart. I can feel the pieces that are
missing, the shape of the things that my guests provided to my whole.”
“And what did you get from me?”
“Your gifts are clarity, conviction, and good fortune.”
“What other gifts have you received?”
“Wisdom, power, dignity, guile, and…”
The figure vanished from the edge of her vision and the outside the window changed. Jade swept up the book. The way her host reconstructed and rearranged the tower to his liking, there was no telling it would still be there if she let it slip from her sight again. She crept to the window and gazed out. The circle of lush greenery was gone from around the tower. As she gazed at what she could see of the cottage, it seemed less ancient, but less well-kept. Indeed, it was almost unrecognizable from the place she’d been brought to. She gasped as she saw a pair of hulking forms plod into view. They were dragons. One was a male, large and green. Not the green and gold of Halfax. This one was two shades of green. It was broader and bulkier than Halfax as well, but at the same time there was a resemblance. Beside him was a somewhat sleeker dragon. Though she’d never seen one, this was as Jade had always imagined a female dragon must be. She had the same broad, golden plates as her chest scales that Halfax had, and the same beautiful eyes. It couldn’t be more clear to her that she was looking upon Halfax’s parents.
Except she wasn’t. Something in the way she saw them, in the way they moved, was wrong. They were like something from a dream, sweeping from position to position, pushed and pulled as if from the influence of another mind.
Loci spoke again. The voice was sharper now. Less conglomeration of echoes and more proper living thing.
“Another has returned home. And he has brought someone new properly into the fold,” Loci uttered.
“No…” Jade said.
“Go, join him. You were together here. It seems proper you would be together once more.”
Jade hurried to the hatch and made her way down. Unlike before, the bottom landing did not retreat. She emerged into the cottage at the base of the tower. It didn’t match the view from the tower. This was as she remembered the place, but not how she left it. Now it was in the decrepit state she and Halfax had found it in all those years ago when they first arrived. She looked out the window. The greenery was still missing, but the dragons had vanished as well. The whole of the place seemed to be a patchwork of half a dozen eras.
“Mother!” Myn called.
She turned to the door that should lead to the stable. Myn forced open the stiff hinges and squeezed her way through the door. Halfax was behind her, twisted so that he could peer in through the opening.
Myn rushed to Jade and hugged her. There could be no doubt that it was truly her. This was not a memory or an illusion.
“You aren’t hurt!” Myn said.
“Welcome home, my new guest,” Loci said. “I’d been worried you wouldn’t cross the threshold. I can only truly know those who enter the tower.”
All eyes turned to the center of the room. Now, Loci had form as well. It was difficult to make sense of it. Though they looked upon it, and though it didn’t seem to change before them, somehow it still escaped recognition. Like a half-remembered face in a half-forgotten dream, it was there and yet it wasn’t. A robed figure that teased perception.
“What is it?” Myn said.
“It calls itself Loci. It is… the spirit of this place,” Jade said. “I’ve found the book. We need to go.”
“No,” Loci said simply. “You will remain here. You have come home.”
Halfax rumbled with anger. He slid from the stable and stalked around the outside of the cottage.
“You can’t stop us from stepping through that door,” Jade said, holding Myn with one arm and the book with the other.
“I have no intention of doing so. It would be preferable if you were to remain here, but the clearing is acceptable.”
Jade rushed to the door and stepped outside. Halfax was already there, waiting. The grounds surrounding the cottage were as they were in Jade’s last few years here. An immaculately maintained garden overflowed with food. Laundry hung from a line. It was a pristine moment out of her sweetest memories. But rather than the sweet bliss of nostalgia, it felt wrong. This place was gone. This time was gone. The world had moved on.
She turned to Halfax. His eyes were trained on the forest around them. When she matched his gaze, it was clear why. While the clearing was vibrant and alive, the forest around them had the same shifting, elusive nature that their host did. This was no longer an island of spring in a sea of winter. Now it was an island of reality in a sea of dreams.
Halfax strode forward, but as he approached the edge of the clearing, the ground beyond became as insubstantial as smoke.
“Why would you want to leave?” Loci asked, stepping out with them. “Do you not understand how rare a place such as this is? Do you not understand how few points in this world can become what I have become.”
The spirit took a deep breath and tipped its head back. “I can feel but one. A single point, in a valley to the east. A place of spirits and oaks. It is more than I am now. But not more than I could be. Not more than you and the others who have come here could make of me.”
“You can’t keep us here,” Jade said.
“I will burn this cottage to ashes and smash this tower to gravel,” Halfax roared.
“But this is your home,” Loci said.
Halfax didn’t wait. He did not warn again. A dragon does not bluff. He lowered his head and charged the cottage. The wood and stone clashed aside before his might. With a crackle and grind, he smashed into the base of the tower. Flapping wings and a lashing tail ripped the building to shreds.
Loci crossed its arms, gazing upon the rampage with little concern.
“His influence was weak. Never in the tower, only in the stable. But from Halfax I gained dedication, devotion. Fierceness. Loyalty. But not a word of magic. He does not truly understand it.”
Halfax emerged from the wreckage of the cabin. Stone and debris dusted his mighty head where it had struck stone. He thundered up to Loci.
“Release us or you will be no more,” he said, flames rolling from his maw with each word.
“I shall not.”
Halfax raised a mighty paw and brought it down upon Loci. His substance rushed away like so much dust. It reformed beside Jade.
“Surely you understand. You are no wizard, but you have read these books. You know that magic plays by its own rules,” Loci said.
What felt like a breath of cold wind swept through the clearing. As it rushed by, the devastation Halfax had left behind whisked away.
“This place is a place of memories. You cannot smash a memory,” Loci said. “Stay here. I know how happy you were. Live as you did. And let me continue to feel your strength.”
Again it tipped its head back, reveling in the clarity it felt.
“Oh, it is glorious. I can remember it all so clearly. The names. Laskis the Wise. Oriech Sena. Wolloff the White. Myranda Celeste. Myn. Jade Rinton. Halfax. Epidime.”
Halfax’s eyes narrowed.
“Epidime…” he rumbled.
“The General. The D’Karon?” Jade said.
“I know that name. You’ve told stories of him,” Myn said. “He was a terrible wizard.”
“Terrible, perhaps. There was a great darkness hanging about his shoulders like a mantle. But such power. Such focus. Yes. Something in his power is what allowed me to awaken. And it was from him that I received my guile. If not for him, I don’t think I would have had the wisdom to bring you back to me.”
“You didn’t bring us here,” Jades said. “We came because the king had been poisoned.”
Loci turned to her. Slowly, their surroundings shifted. Four men entered the clearing, but they moved with the same halting, sweeping motion as the other illusions and remembrances. They looked about in wonder and confusion at the greenery amongst so much ice and snow.<
br />
“Thieves,” Loci said. “Looters. They come often. Most find nothing of interest. Halfax took his gold. They care little for books. But these were the first to arrive after I began to awaken. I was too weak to keep them here. I could only toy with their present. And they had nothing of worth to me. There was nothing special. Nothing distinctive. But they did have value. I remembered, so long ago…”
Again their surroundings shifted, this time the lush spring setting flashed into snow. A single light burned in the window of the tower. A small red dragon, little more than a hatchling, bounded out of the forest around them and scrambled up the tower to slip through the window.
“He only ever lingered at the fringe. Tantalizing,” Loci said, stepping toward the ghostly non-forest.
It wasn’t clear at first, but as he drew nearer, a figure became visible. It was insubstantial, but unmistakable. A shadowy form, blade in hand, watching from the trees.
“But he was so powerful. So important. And of course, I heard the stories. I knew of the Red Shadow in the recollections and fearful tales that soaked into these walls from a dozen residents before and after. Just like anything else. Just like every blade of grass and every brick and plank, his story, his essence, was a part of me. And I could use it.”
In a blurring shift, the green glade was back, and the astounded thieves within it.
“I whispered to them. I told them of the power of this legend whose name has yet to die. I talked of the Red Shadow. They didn’t even realize the thoughts weren’t their own. But they left here with my words in their heads. And in time, they returned. With others. I readied books for them. I gave them knowledge. I helped them to plan. In time, they chose a name for themselves.”
“The Order of the Red Shadow,” Jade uttered. “You are the reason for the Order of the Red Shadow?”
“No. No. Not at all, Jade.” Loci stepped up to her. “You are the reason for it.”
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