“I have brought a man back from the dead.”
She stopped, her finger falling. “Liar,” she hissed.
“I wish I was lying, ma’am. He lived in the Veil, and I took him from his peaceful slumber. I was wrong, and I paid a terrible price for breaking that law, as did my dear friend.”
“What happened to them?” She narrowed her eyes, like she was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth.
“She died.”
“And you didn’t?” She was accusing me now.
I sighed. “I wish I could have taken her place. I came up with the idea, the science behind it, everything. It is my fault she perished. The Old Ones left me alive, though not without consequences, because they needed me later in life. They need me now.”
“Why are you so special?”
I laughed quietly. “I don’t know, ma’am. All I want is to be just like any other mage, but I’m not. If I’m going to be the mage people think I am and want me to be, then I’m going to help everyone with the power I have. I want to help your people, and I will find a way. If you help me, it will be easier for me. If you don’t, I will find another way. You won’t be able to stop me from this. You can help me, or you can hinder me in the creation of a cure.”
She hesitated for a moment before waving her hand for me to follow her back into the depths of the clinic.
She stood beside a door and said, “I do not know if I believe you, Casey Kelley, but if the royal family believes you, I will trust their judgment.” She opened the door and a wave of that sick smell washed over me.
I grit my teeth and straightened up. My job wasn’t to cower in the corner and avoid looking at the worst of this disease. I needed to look it in the eye, and kill it.
Brave words for someone who has no idea what to do, I thought bitterly before stepping into the room.
The door slammed shut behind me, and a few heads raised, but most didn’t move.
“Who—” The elf’s coughing fit paused her thought. “—are you?” She groaned.
“Not an elf.” That voice was so weak I could barely hear it.
“My name is Casey Kelley. I’m a mage. I want to help.”
A hand grabbed onto my wrist, and I looked down at it. It was completely black and withered. It looked old and dead. I looked to the face of the one who held me. It was a young woman, well, young for the elves with red eyes and black splotches and streaks seeming to take over her body. “Please. Save us. Save my boy,” she pleaded.
I looked to the bed beside her, and I recoiled on the inside. A boy who looked like he was seven had black splotches covering his face and dull red eyes. He’s just a boy. A child.
I looked to the woman again and said, “I promise.”
I knelt down beside her and pulled out my pencil and opened my notebook.
Day 1 Observations
Cracked lips
Dark splotches
Red eyes
Blood coming from nose and tear ducts
Yellow and black nails
Withered look to areas with black splotches
Hair falling out
Most complain of chronic headaches
Blood in urine
Vomiting (Comes out a purple/black color)
Reported night terrors
Insomnia
Fatigue
Must see dead to determine if caused by magical forces.
I had gone through everyone in the room, writing down every little ache they complained of and possible symptoms they had, and the final list came to be about that. I was probably still missing pieces of the puzzle, but it was a start in the right direction.
I squeezed the mother’s hand one last time before opening the door and stepping out, shutting it softly behind me.
The older woman was still standing there. “And?” she said.
I sighed heavily. “I have some things but probably not everything. I believe it was done by another mage, only he isn’t a mage anymore. He’s a necromancer. I need to see where you keep your dead so I can find out if it really was done by magic, and I might be able to get more information from that.”
She nodded. “Follow me.”
I was led deeper into the clinic and then into the basement. She opened up a door and led me into a plain room.
“We have had to start putting some of our dead here temporarily. The morgue was not prepared to handle this much.” I could tell she was brokenhearted about this. Her people, dying, without hope, her possibly next. How many had she lost already?
She opened up a drawer, much like the ones you find in a morgue. It had probably been put there just in case, nobody expected to use it. “Thank you,” I whispered as I looked down at the dead man.
I placed a hand on his forehead, feeling for Life Force. When you die, your Life Force disappears, unless someone has mixed their Life Force with yours, then traces of the other’s Life Force remain. If the necromancer started this disease, traces of his Life Force would still be in the dead, even if he hadn’t directly infected them.
And there it was. In the brain, lazily swirling around. It would be there for another few weeks and then disappear without anything to, for lack of a better word, feed off of. Life Force feeds off energy. It’s why mages need to eat more than regular humans. Without energy, it dies. The only reason this lingered was because it still drew energy from its original owner, but not enough to keep it sustained for long. So eventually this would die off.
Which meant I needed to capture it soon to get as much information as I could.
“Do you have a jar?”
She blinked in confusion but looked around until she found one, then handed it to me. “What do you need it for?”
“I need to take the necromancer’s Life Force from inside the body so I can determine what type of magic he used to do this. If I can find that, then I’m one step closer to knowing what I need to do,” I said as I drew the Life Force into my hand. It sounds simple, but it’s not my Life Force I’m controlling. It naturally resists me, trying to stay in the host’s body like the parasite it is. I needed complete focus, and I needed a way to tempt the parasitic Life Force to come to me, and then I needed to expel it into the jar before it could have any harmful effects on me.
Soon I could feel the wisps of energy flowing into me. I kept it down at my hand, building it up there, so I could quickly and easily get rid of it. I placed my palm over the jar and pushed out, forcing all the necromancer’s Life Force into the jar. I quickly sealed it and held it up to eye level.
Life Force looks like light blue smoke. Usually you can’t see it because you don’t normally expel Life Force on its own without combining it with something, like wind, earth, fire, lightning, or in this case disease. Ston’s Life Force lines, or his “highways” so to speak—where the most Life Force is stored and travels along—are a vibrant electric blue because Life Force is blue.
I was looking for the faint blue smoke in the jar, and then I saw it. Swirling around the bottom, barely visible. “Gotcha,” I whispered.
Chapter 16
IT HAD been a week. An entire week since the first day down at the clinic. I was in my room, pacing back and forth and muttering darkly to myself while Cinder lay on the couch, watching me intently.
What’s wrong? Cinder’s voice echoed in my mind, only managing to calm me slightly. He had taken to asking that question whenever I paced, which was more and more for longer periods of time every day. My nights were getting later, and I couldn’t remember when I last had a good night of sleep. I always worked like this. Time and sleep, and even food to a point, was irrelevant. My problem and the solution filled every waking moment, and even my occasional moments of sleep. That was just a normal thing for me; that was how I came up with Clerstan and bringing Martun back. It was how new spells came into being from my research and even how the amplification enchantment was started.
Those were small things, things that didn’t have a reason to be except to fill my hunger of kn
owledge and creation. This was something important. An entire population was relying on me to get this right.
“And I can’t do anything!” I shouted as I lashed out, kicking the desk in anger. “I’m failing, Cinder,” I whispered. “I’m not getting anywhere.”
Time. You need time to go through all of the possible scenarios. You need to create a test cure, test it, and fix it. This is a long process. You knew that when you started.
“There’s a mother and child in the clinic. She doesn’t even care about herself. It’s always about her boy. You should hear her talk about him. He’s one of the smartest in his class, but I think all moms say that.” I wouldn’t know. The thought hit me hard. It had never bothered me before now, and I wasn’t sure why it did all of a sudden. “She talks about how he loves sports and how she’d go to every game of his. All she wants is for her kid to be okay again. I have to save them. I can’t just… let them die.” I whispered that last part.
Then let’s do this. But kicking desks won’t speed up the process. Cinder was trying to calm me down. I wanted it to work, but I was still angry with myself. Why couldn’t I get past anything? It seemed like when I finally took a step forward, something else stopped me.
There was a knock on the door, and I sighed and walked over to the window. I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked down at the street. “Come in,” I said.
Liam, in his princely attire, walked in. “I heard something get slammed. Are you alright?”
“Fine. I’m working.” I couldn’t look at him. Not Liam or his family, or most of the elves really. I had been avoiding them as much as possible. I stayed in my room all day, went to the clinic alone, even skipped meals. They had dinner sent up to me after an hour or so, thinking I was just working. Which I was, but that wasn’t the reason I didn’t go see them. I just couldn’t bring myself to say I was getting nowhere.
Liam didn’t say anything for a moment; he just stood there, looking as royal as ever. “Come with me.”
“I’m working. Just send the food upstairs. I don’t have time to eat with your family. I was already at the clinic this morning. I’m busy right now. Go find another playmate.” I regretted the words after I said them, but it was true. I was busy, I had work to do, and while I wanted Liam to be my friend, I couldn’t go out gallivanting around right now.
“Working like this nonstop isn’t going to help. You need to take a break, relax your mind, and let everything settle for a moment. You’ve been kicking up dust, and you need to let the dust settle before you can see where you need to go next.”
“My mind never relaxes, Liam. I’m always working in overdrive. I just don’t normally show it. I’ve got to get these things done right now.” I pulled the black ink pen from behind my ear and scratched something down on the sheet of paper taped to the wall by the window, just another idea that came into my mind. Worthless, of course, but never rule anything out.
“Come with me, or I’ll get some guys to drag you out with me. You need this, Casey, come on.” I felt his hand on my shoulder, gently pulling me away from the window.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I turned away, ready to follow him out. Curiosity. It’s what motivated me to discover everything. The “what-ifs” and “could this work” moments were what pushed me forward. Then again, when was the last time I created something that didn’t seem to hurt everyone around me? Curiosity. My greatest strength and my greatest weakness.
I just hoped this wouldn’t be one of the times my curiosity screwed everything up.
“The dog should definitely stay here for now. He’ll freak the people we’re going to see out. Maybe you can take him some other time,” Liam said, leading me to the door.
“Alright,” I mumbled, waving good-bye as I followed him out.
THERE ARE certain things you can prepare yourself for; this was not one of them. I never expected to find myself standing in front of a small building with children’s faces peering through curtains at me.
“What are we doing, Liam?” I groaned.
“Kids. I love them. They’re the future, I guess. They will change everything one day. If they live that long.” He paused for a moment before saying, “I come here sometimes when I need to take a break from what I’m doing. I’m looking into the eyes of the future of my people. If I can’t take these guys into account in everything I do, then I might as well not do it. I think they might be able to help you see things in a new light.” He opened up the door and gestured for me to walk in.
I cautiously stepped into the building and was met with the gaze of about twenty kids. One of the adult elves stepped forward. “Prince Liam.” She regarded him with a warm smile. “It’s been a while since your last visit.”
“Sorry, I had to go out and find this young lady here.” Liam’s hand rested on my arm. “This is Casey Kelley, a mage from the Temple. I believe she can stop the disease. She was working, and I was on my way here. I thought she could use a break.”
“A mage.” The elven woman looked at me with some distaste. “Welcome to Haven. I hope you live up to Prince Liam’s expectations.”
I felt a tug on my hand, and I looked down to see a little girl. “What’s a mag?” she asked.
Liam chuckled quietly. “Mage, Lucy. And she can use magic. She’s one of the best at using magic too.”
Lucy looked shocked, and then she narrowed her eyes a little. “Nuh-uh. Magic is just in stories.”
Liam lowered himself down to her level, and there was a slight glint in his eye when he said, “Wanna see her do it?”
Lucy practically jumped up and down. “Yes!” The other kids had formed a half circle around us by now and were watching me eagerly.
“I don’t know—” I started.
Liam stood back up and touched my shoulder. “It’ll be fun.”
I sighed heavily and held up one finger. I dragged a small amount of Life Force through my body to the tip of my finger and watched as the tip lit up in a light orange flame. I watched all the children’s faces light up in amazement. They may have been easily twenty years old by now, but still acted like children.
I’m molding the future. They don’t fear me for now, like their supervisor does. She watches me warily with hints of fear in those golden eyes, but the children only see… magic. I’m not dangerous, I’m not evil, I’m just… cool. A hundred years from now, they’ll be an active part in this society, and perhaps they’ll remember the mage who stopped by with her little flame. If I can stop whatever it is that’s killing them.
“What else can you do?” a little boy asked eagerly.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked. Liam smiled and sat down on a nearby chair and watched as the kids threw out all sorts of different ideas.
I spent a few hours showing them all sorts of tricks, and soon the woman even grew comfortable around me.
Eventually, though, our fun had to end.
Liam clapped at my latest trick as he stood up. He walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. “Sorry, kids, but Miss Kelley has to go help your parents feel better.”
“She’s a doctor? I thought she was a mage?” the girl, Lucy, said.
“She is a mage, but she’s also really smart, so she’s looking for a way to help make everyone better again. She’s got a lot of work to do, so we better get going. Maybe she can stop by again sometime soon, though.”
“Okay!” Lucy said, a giant grin on her face.
Liam led me out of the little room, and I expected him to take me back to his home after that, but instead he led me in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re still thinking too much.”
“I’m here to think too much. I have to make a cure.”
“You can’t do that if you’re in your head too much all the time. You need a break. There’s a little lake down here that we can stay at for a little while. Trust me, it’ll calm you down.”
I didn’t say anything, I just followed.
&n
bsp; We came to a gated fence that Liam quickly opened with a golden key he pulled from his pocket. He held the gate open for me, and when I walked in, I felt a shiver run down my spine.
“What is this?” It was a heavily wooded area, and in a couple feet I wouldn’t even know I was in a city. It felt… old. Like spirits rested here, watching over us.
“It was sacred to our people. We built the city around it. It used to be open to anyone, but when the city was built they thought that this place should be for royalty only. It’s our private sanctuary. We come here for guidance, peace, thought. My parents know that if we aren’t with the children, we’re here, so they’ll find us if they need us. For now, just relax.” He smiled and walked into the trees, and I had no choice but to follow.
There was a small path that had been created by who knows how many kings and queens and princes who had come here in times of need. And then we came to a small lake, or pond, or something. It was crystal clear with bright green grass around it. I looked into the water and found all sorts of fish I had never seen before swimming around.
“I used to come here as a boy. I’d swim in there because the fish are so used to us that they don’t get scared. I used to make it a game to catch them, but then my mother caught me holding one in my hands—under that water so it could breathe—but I could hold it. She came up and took it from me and released it back into the water. She told me that it was our ancestors. Kings and queens and their children who had died. They came here in death to help guide us through our troubles. I never believed her, but I didn’t catch fish again. I came here the day my sister died, furious with the Old Ones for letting it happen. I was fuming, pushing branches out of my way storming through here. I forgot about the sacred place I was in. I remember holding my gun so tightly I thought it would break.
“I walked straight up to the water, held up my gun, aiming for one of those stupid fish that my mother called our ancestors. I hated them. If they were what she said, they should have done something or given us a warning or something. I was going to kill every last one. Sacred or not. I loved my sister, and they let her die.
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