The Guardian's Grimoire

by Oxford, Rain

  As soon as Edward slid the door closed, I happily pushed the spoon away and picked up my food. Edward did the same but muttered something the same way he did when eating the yorkie. I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but I realized he had done it on the ship, too.

  “What do you say, Edward? When you eat food, what is that you mutter?”

  “Vios denas. It’s basically saying that if this is my last meal, let it be my greatest. I was born before the Reformation, which was a war that lasted many years. During the Reformation, it was common practice to send poisoned food to your enemies.

  “In many small villages, people were suffering at the hands of those more powerful. Their resources were stolen, their daughters were married off by the rich for treaties, and their men were forced to fight in battle. Many families were so poor and hungry that they ate food gifted by their enemies, knowing it could be poisoned, but too hungry to refuse. That kind of horror is what finally ended the war, but some traditions prevail even instinctually.”

  “You two have no sense of taste,” Divina said, expertly eating her weird and colorful food.

  I had a feeling she was trying to change the subject to something lighter, and Edward took the bait.

  “Simple tastes are good. One who can eat everything can eat anything,” he said.

  That’s funny; I remembered him scoffing at a fast-food burger. The meat tasted like any good barbequed meat from my world and I really liked it.

  We sat in silence for a while as we ate and Edward continued to fill out the form. Finally, he handed me the last page. The bottom half was empty and he pointed out the middle of the space before handing me the pen.

  “Sign it just as I showed you,” he said. I signed the symbol slowly but accurately and handed it back to him. “Good.” He then wrote something underneath it and signed his name under that.

  We continued eating while Divina checked over Edward’s work. She handed it back without having made any corrections.

  I found myself staring at Divina’s drink, wondering what kind of matter was in it. I figured if I saw enough colors, I would eventually learn to tell what ingredients are in what drinks. Maybe it could become a habit to check so I wouldn’t actually drink poison for the third time.

  “Dylan? You want to tell me why my drink is glowing green?” Divina asked.

  “Because it has plant matter in it?”

  “Yes, I know that; it’s tea. Why are you scrutinizing it, and why are you using so much energy that others can see it?”

  “Others aren’t supposed to see it?”

  Edward answered me as Divina just laughed. “It takes a lot of power to make it visible to others. Your energy latching onto the particles is what glows, so when we can see it, that means you’re using way too much power.”

  “Do all potions have the same color? Like, if someone put a potion in your drink, would you be able to tell what it was, or just that it was there?”

  “Potions are typically a compilation of ingredients. Divina?”

  Divina reached into her bag and pulled out a little blue bottle. She opened the cork cap and poured a few drops into her drink, then put the bottle back. “That’s a sleeping potion, enough to knock out a dragon. Filter.”

  She put a sleeping potion in her own drink! When I gaped at her as if she were nuts, she just nodded to the cup.

  “It’s tea,” Edward said patiently. “You already know what tea looks like, so distinguish the potion from the tea and figure out a way to filter it.”

  I didn’t point out that I already knew how to filter, because I didn’t know how to filter something like that. I let my energy swirl around the liquid until it started glowing. The green substance was still there, but this time it was overwhelmed by a thick, cool blue glow.

  “It’s blue,” I said. Instead of forming imaginary paper, I formed a thin, clear, flexible plastic like cling-wrap. It was easier to mold around the lining of the bowl. When the energy filter started to rise, water drained through fairly easily. The green glow, on the other hand, wanted to stay in the plastic, too. I didn’t try to force it through, just moved slower. I imagined that the particles of potion would be heavier than tea. Obviously this was the correct method to separate them, because the green glow started flowing slowly with the water, and the blue became more concentrated.

  The energy started moving sluggish, my head started pounding, and then my eyes started hurting. Somehow the sleep-inducing potion was affecting me through my magic. Of course Divina would find something to complicate my lessons. What fun would a woman have if she couldn’t make a guy’s job harder?

  I stopped the plastic-formed energy from moving or filtering, which was harder to work with than paper, but at least I wouldn’t imagine it tearing. I let myself fall into the regeneration spell’s sleep/wake state. It sounded like the alpha state, but maybe it was a “Guardian state.” Either way, it was difficult to keep a spell frozen halfway through and stay half asleep while a potion tried to knock me out.

  I didn’t know how much time passed, but it felt like it was only seconds before I jerked back into full awareness. The filtering continued before I even realized I was doing it. The sleep potion was relentless, but its effect was greatly reduced.

  Within a few minutes, I was pulling a small glob of glowing blue liquid out of the tea. Divina held a napkin out to the side. I moved the drops over the napkin and dispersed the energy, letting the liquid fall into the cloth.

  “Very good use of your magic and you had excellent control,” Divina said. I felt like a dog getting praise; I was far too happy just to hear her say she approved.

  “Were you able to see the energy?” I asked. “It was formed like clear plastic.”

  “If we tried to, we could have, but it wasn’t visible, no. It looked like drops of potion floating through the air.”

  “In magic, there’s no right or wrong way; everything is different for everyone,” Edward said. “That being said, you did exceptionally well.”

  I just hope I live long enough to use the magic I learned. “Before we go back into public, can we discuss the book again?”

  “You still want me to take your book?” Divina asked me.

  “Until I can protect it. Right now, Edward is protecting them both without any help from me. If you have it, it’ll be safer and no one would expect it to be away from a Guardian.”

  She considered it while Edward pulled out my book and set it in the middle of the table. Cautiously, she reached for it. The comforting presence of my book in the back of my mind grew warmer, stronger, and clearer. The sense of danger instantly cooled, but it certainly wasn’t gone. She hesitated for only a few seconds before picking it up.

  My body went cold and the air was forced from my lungs. My skin felt too tight, I couldn’t breathe, and everything grew dark.

  Chapter 13

  As the darkness faded, I saw Vretial sitting in a dark green, plush chair. The chair was faced away, but I could feel distress roll off him. Then a girl appeared, about eleven with dark, vibrant red hair and irises to match, wearing white robes. She looked frightened.

  “I am very sorry, my lord. I do not understand. The book has---”

  “You took a long time.”

  “You know, my lord?”

  “Of course I do. I find it interesting that as Shio was arguing against my orders to go to that planet… Earth, it becomes so painfully obvious that it’s there.”

  “I did not think Krael was telling the truth. He said that the signal was unmistakably on Earth. I thought it was a trap because he said it was from the world itself and not a single position.”

  “So it seems. We can’t make a tear into that world until we know it will not destroy…” He sighed and raised his hand to his face. “What were you saying, child?”

  The little girl’s face filled with relief. “The book, my lord.”

  “Yes. Search Earth for its book.”

  “How? You said we cannot use the disk, my lord. Shio can
travel but I will have to stay behind. Unless you will let me---”

  “Be silent. You’ll wait for his return and we’ll speak no more on this matter until he does.” His hand twitched. “What are you still doing here?” He stood up and my body filled with pain for the third time.

  * * *

  My eyes opened, the pain dulled, and the suffocation began. I was in the booth at the restaurant with Edward standing and Divina leaning over me. I tried to breathe, but my lungs refused to expand.

  Finally, the tightness released, so I sucked in as much air as I could. Divina’s hand was warm and reassuring on my neck and I struggled to sit up without pushing Divina away.

  “What happened?” Edward asked.

  “Vretial. He’s sending Shio to Earth. He said that the book lit Earth up with its signal. Why did I have a dream in the middle of the day?”

  “It was a vision, not a dream. It was important information that your book decided you needed to know,” he said, sitting down. “Did Vretial seem angry or upset?”

  “The first and third personality. I think he has multiple personality disorder. The girl mentioned a disk and he said something about not making a tear and destroying something, but then he was cut off by his personality shift. The girl will have to stay behind while Shio hunts it down.”

  “This is good; he’s looking in the wrong place,” Divina said. Edward looked doubtful, but I was trying to avoid hysteria.

  “No! It’s not good. Vivian. What if he smells my book on her or in my apartment when she’s in there---”

  “The scent is long gone by now,” Edward said. “It doesn’t matter that they’re not here; only that we now know where they are. With luck, it’ll be a while before he discovers that the book is not on Earth. What do you feel about your book? Is it still in danger?”

  “Yes.” I focused on my book. “But not as much. It’s safer, but it’s still in danger. What do we do?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t try to contact Erono like I wanted to, so I’ll do it tonight. You’re not allowed out of our sight. I’ll teach you every chance I get.”

  “If he gets attacked by Vretial’s strongest servants, you can’t teach him enough magic in a few days to beat them,” Divina argued.

  I find her lack of faith disturbing.

  “It only takes the right spell at the right moment to defeat them.” He gave me a solemn look, which told me I was about to get some very important advice. “If you are going to kill someone, and you have the chance, do it. The longer you take, the greater the chance things will go wrong.”

  “I don’t actually want to kill anyone,” I said dryly.

  “I know, but sometimes someone else will want to kill you and you won’t have a choice.”

  “I have a better idea,” Divina interrupted. “Keep him at my place. No one would find him there, and we can take out the servants while they’re distracted. If Vretial is sensible enough to send more servants, we’ll kill them too.”

  “Are you suggesting that I just hide out in a little hole while you two fight the bad guys? I’m not cool with that.” A dog that runs from its master’s side in battle should not bark.

  “You really have no choice,” Divina said, unimpressed.

  “Yes, I do. While you two are fighting your little battle, who will be there to keep me in my cage?”

  Edward ignored me. “We can stay here and wait for them to find us or go after them and try to kill them while they’re not expecting it. It would be preferable if the books were kept at distance, but I don’t see that happening.”

  “Leave Dylan at my place with your book, and his, while you and I fight the servants.” Divina slid my book onto the table.

  “Why are you going to fight?” I asked Divina. They were both confused by my question. “Well, it’s not your job to protect the books, so why are you risking yourself to do so?”

  “Protecting the books is everyone’s responsibility. Duran will be destroyed if Vretial takes the books, and so will your world. I’m not going to stand by and let that happen,” she said.

  “Then why do you want to keep me out of it so bad?” I asked.

  “Why do you think?” She glared at Edward coldly. “Are you really going to let you poor, new, untrained, unprepared, uninformed apprentice get in that kind of danger?”

  Edward leaned back and sighed. “I wouldn’t have agreed to teach him if I thought he would sit back and let others fight a battle meant for him. He’s too much like Ronez to hide from the enemy, even when it risks his book. I guess that’s a bad quality for a Guardian. If I were to tell him to run and hide, he wouldn’t listen.”

  Divina clinched her fists.

  “Which is why I’m keeping this with me at all times.” He held up a little bottle full of light orange, translucent liquid.

  “A sleeping potion?”

  “No resistance, no waking early.”

  I felt betrayed.

  “You have to understand that, in a fight, you’re either an asset or a liability,” he told me sympathetically. “I don’t care how Vretial’s servants are teleporting, but it’s obvious that they are. Let the gods figure out how. What I care about is that they’re after the books, particularly ours.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Divina asked him.

  “We’ll do what we came here to do. Come sun fall I’ll speak to Erono while you two continue as you were. Then I’ll go to visit Hiroku again. We’ll leave first thing in the morning. You go back to your place and put up every protection spell you have. We’ll take care of a few things and then come over.”

  “You think we can get all the shopping done in one day?” Divina asked.

  “I highly recommend we try. Do you know what it is you need?”

  “Of course. Since I have less than you to do, I’ll swing by and turn in his forms.” Edward handed her the papers I signed. “I’ll be at the Togato inn by sunset.”

  Divina gently pushed me up, got out of the seat, and pushed me back down. Then she pulled a small, black pouch from her backpack.

  “What are you doing?” Edward growled.

  “I owe you lunch, remember?”

  “I told you it’s on me.”

  I really, really hoped Divina would just put her little money pouch back and go. But, of course, she couldn’t, and they were suddenly arguing again. I plopped my head down and let everything settle in.

  They wanted me to hide from the bad guys. If I argued, they would use force. They would have to find Shio to attack him, and they probably already had a plan on how to do that. Most likely, Divina would sign my book, they would go to Earth, and use some kind of spell to hunt Shio down. I could try to follow them, but I would stay out of the way until I saw a use for myself; Edward was right about being a liability.

  But if they could track Shio, why is it so hard to believe that he could track us? “How do you two plan on finding Shio?” I interrupted. They ceased their arguing, at least for the moment.

  “We’ll create a false signal and let him try to track it. We’ll have to make it small enough that Vretial can’t spot it and realize it’s a fake, though. We’re wasting day.” She left without another word, Edward having won the payment argument.

  There was an almost awkward silence for a few minutes.

  “Is she mad at me?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “She’s just frustrated because she really likes you,” Edward said. “She’s so determined to protect you; she was never that way with any of my other apprentices.”

  “I’m cute.”

  “You’re not going to stay under her protection, are you?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “You’ll probably tell me to stay behind.”

  “And that’s supposed to mean you will?”

  “That’s supposed to make you believe I will. Believe I will, or believe I won’t, I’m going to do what I’m going to do. Do you trust Divina’s defenses enough to use some sleeping potion or something on me that will leave me helpless agains
t them?”

  “No. I was thinking more along the line of using a very gentle sleeping spell that only lasts a few minutes while telling Divina that you’ll be out for a week. However, I haven’t made up my mind which way to go. On the one hand, I agree with Divina that you should stay out of danger. On the other, I think you could hurt yourself trying to disobey. I assume you plan to follow us.”

  “If I were going to disobey, yeah. But I would try to stay out of the way unless I was needed.”

  “It’s a good plan… if Divina and I weren’t involved. How long did you think you could follow us, assuming you could, before we would realize you were there?”

  “Well, I figure that if I actually were able to follow you, then hiding from two very determined, focused people should be no trouble.”

  “You underestimate just how powerful Divina and I are. You need to learn better judgment.”

  “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. I don’t care how powerful you two are, I care how powerful the enemy is. If I can help at all, I will. It sounds to me like you two are getting cocky.”

  “Did you consider that Divina and I could handle one wizard by ourselves?”

  “Sure. But then I have to wonder how this wizard killed a Guardian. Besides that, the girl may show up. Now, she doesn’t sound like much of a fighter, but if she were even able to get away alive, she could tell Vretial what happened and where we are. That’s also assuming that Shio doesn’t run off to Vretial as soon as he sees the signal. Then again, he doesn’t sound like the type who would.” I realized Edward was grinning. “What?”

  “I haven’t heard an argument like that since Ronez and I got into our last fight.”

  “The ‘banging your head against an open door’ kind of argument, or the ‘beating the dead horse’ one? I hate trying to make plans when I don’t have all the information.”