The two women were, in fact, starving. Having not eaten now in almost twenty four hours they had no issues taking Lidya up on her offer and finding their way to the kitchen. They found themselves some bread, cheese, and sun tea to fill their bellies. From that point they mostly… lounged. They sat in the sitting room in a semi-daze, doing nothing much at all. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to plan their next move, of course they did, they just didn’t have the slightest clue on how to move forward.
Kassadi
laid on the couch, the piece of furniture being much too small for her to
actually lay on, legs hanging over the one arm and her head kind of lolling to
the side. She held her spellbook, peering over the glyphs and spell formulas in
it. She was pondering the development of a new spell and was checking the
particulars of one she had already completed of a similar kind, trying to work
out where in the structure of the spell alterations could be made to produce
the desired results. She hummed and hawed as she worked, making a very distinct
display of thinking.
Madrona
was peering over her Grimoire, trying to understand it. It was the strangest
things, just as Mirag had said, when she held the book, or had it on her
person, she knew what spells were in the book and how to cast them. If she were
to place it on the table in front of her and stare at an open page, however, it
was gibberish. Well not gibberish, she could recognize it as a spell, the
strange looping symbols and glyph work that Wizards loved to jot down, their
own personalized chicken scratch. She couldn’t understand what the spell was
however, without in a very literal way having the book. She glanced up at
Kassadi, and tilted her head.
“Kassadi, what exactly is the point of a Spellbook?” She asked.
“I know it’s to keep your spells in but aren’t the spells… in your head?”
“Kinda.” Kassadi responded, closing the book. She tilted her
head so that she was looking to Madrona, though her head was upside down at the
time. “That’s the thing about Magic, it’s kind of not meant for us. So it slips
away.”
“I don’t understand.” Madrona quirked a brow.
“Well…” Kassagi wiggled her body, flailed her legs, and made
a wild display of pushing herself back to a properly seated position. “Magic
was, at the beginning, for the Heavens and the Earth. Gods had magic obviously,
so that’s Celestial Magic. When the World started, it began with a Spark of Fire
which radiates from the soil, that’s Druidic magic.” Kassadi told the tale with
utter reverence, Madrona imagined the human and a young girl, being told this
story as a child.
“Now.” Kassadi continued. “Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs,
Goblins, and all the other Races? Back then? We don’t have magic. The way you
or me get magic is being a good little boy, girl or nonbinary to one of the
gods, suck up to the Celestials till they make you a Cleric. Conversely, go for
a walkabout in the woods and talk to trees for so long they start talkin back.
Lose yourself a little to nature, become wild. Get yourself so you like foliage
more than folk and Mother Earth and Father Soil might just let you tap into
that radiating Spark magic. But for a long time that was the only way, have
magic bestowed upon you.”
“Then the Arcane came.” Madrona said, smiling at Kassadi,
she was enjoying herself and Madrona couldn’t deny that she was as well. She
shifted herself on the floor, tucking her legs under herself and leaning onto
the couch beside Kassadi.
“Yep!” Kassadi threw her hands out, gesturing forward towards
nothing. “Five thousand years ago, the First Wizard. Ita Arcanus!” She said the
name with such enthusiasm, Madrona could almost see the hearts in Kasadi’s
eyes.
“You’re an admirer then?” Madrona said teasingly.
“Oh my god Madrona you don’t even understand she’s so baddass
and amazing and beautiful, ugh! I should show you a painting of her some time
she had the most awesome afro and I mean her power, Madrona. Stories of her
raising mountains, carving rivers!” Kassadi trailed off. “Uh, I think I got distracted,
what was I saying?”
“The first Wizard.” Madrona said, resting the side of her face
on an arm, making herself comfortable.
“Yes! Ita! So, five thousand years ago Ita, already an accomplished
scholar and adventurer, is studying Druidic and Celestial magic. She is trying
to understand it, figure it out. She starts getting some ideas about how the
energy of magic works, the exchange of magic. Faith for Clerics and Commune for
Druids…”
“Mm-hm…” Madrona blinked a few times and let out a little
sigh.
“Anyway.” Kassadi waved her hands, chasing the minutia of
the story away. “She’s able to do it! She figures out how to cast spells
without either Druidic or Celestial magic, she just invented Arcane magic.” Kassadi
bounces a bit on the couch, clearly convinced this is the coolest moment in the
history of the world.
“And…” Madrona asks with a chuckle. “That means you need a
Spellbook because..?”
“Oh right!” Kassadi smiles sheepishly, remembering the
original question. “So like I said we’re not really meant to have Magic, it has
to be given. A mortal cannot hold on to magic forever, it will eventually slip out
of your mind, forgotten. You can also only hold onto so much magic in your head
at one time. So, Clerics get their spells by praying and asking their God for them.
Druids meditate and feel for the Spark, pulling their spells from the land
itself. Wizards? Well…” She brandished her book.
“So you keep your Spellbook…” Madrona began
“Because if I didn’t eventually all my spells would fade
from my mind.” Kassadi finished. “Also I have more spells in here than I could
possibly hold in my mind just like a God or the World has more spells than a
Cleric or Druid could hold.”
“What about someone like a Bard?” Madrona rose slightly, she’d
seen Bardic magic once or twice in her time at the old tavern, never saw a book
of spells on any of them.
“Well they weave their spells into their music…” Kassadi
shifted slightly so that she was laying on the couch again, bringing her face
slocer to Madrona’s. “Or their songs or dances or whatever it is. They don’t
need to remember the spell because they remember the song.”
“Okay.” Madrona said finding that genuinely fascinating.
“And before you ask, yes Sorcerers are the only one’s who can
hold on to their magic indefinitely. But that’s because they’re born with Arcane
magic inside of them. No one knows what causes it, suddenly a couple decades
after Ita had established Arcane magic people were showing up able to cast
magic with some sort of inherited knowledge. But they can’t control what magic
they have, whatever spells they can cast, that’s it… Unless they go on to actually
learn the Arcane, become a Wizard, Bard, or other form of Arcane caster.”
“I wasn’t actually going to ask about Sorcerers, but noted.”
Madrona’s smile slowly turned, it wasn’t quite a frown but the levity seemed to
leave her features. “No I was going to ask about Warlocks.”
“Ah.” Kassadi’s brow furrowed, but she nodded. “Some beings
with inherent magic, usually from the other Planes, have kinda… Hijacked Arcane
magic? Like, some powerful being is able to channel their magic into Arcane
Magic, and bestow it upon a person like Gods do their Clerics, but it’s not
exactly the same.”
“How so?” Madrona asked. She felt her eyes growing heavy,
but she was curious.
“Well…” Kassadi paused to yawn. “I don’t know exactly, it
wasn’t exactly a subject that was taught extensively, but it kinda smooshes the
Wizard and Sorcerer a little? Like you still have to learn the magic, usually
from whatever being is bestowing their power. But once you learn it, you get to
keep it. Sometimes a boon is offered instead, a Weapon of Power or Totem. Does
the teaching instead.”
“Or a book?” Madrona offered.
“Yeah.” Kassadi’s eyes were starting to close, her words
coming out slowly. “The Grimoire is one of the more… powerful boons… cause you
can…” She took a deep breath. “Cause you can copy spells from a Wizard’s
Spellbook.”
“You said usually from the other planes… I thought Warlocks
all worked with Devils.” Madrona shifted slightly, her head rested on Kassadi’s
shoulder, she found it quite comfortable.
“Mmmm” Kassadi hummed, taking a long moment before speaking
again. “Nope. Lots of other beings can create Warlocks. I’ve even heard of Devas
or other beings from the Heavens creating a Celestial Warlock. Can you imagine?
Just that.” Kassadi trailed off, breathing deep for a second before coming to
again. “Just that Devil’s make a lot of Warlocks. Devils love to make deals…
And that’s where the power comes from. It’s like the Faith of the Cleric or the
Communion of the Druid or the Knowledge of the Wizard… The power of the Warlock
comes from the Pact that crosses the Planes.”
Madrona snored.
“It’s a bond.” Kassadi said to no one. “Bonds are super
powerful.” She reached up unconsciously and began stroking the Inferni woman’s
neck. She was soon fast asleep.
They
weren’t exactly in the most comfortable position for sleep, but both of the
women found themselves in a deep and restful sleep. After the day they had it wasn’t
hard, but the company certainly helped. They both deserved this rest, even the
gods couldn’t argue that. They both deserved to sleep through the night well
into the next morning and wake rested and ready to formulate a plan. It’s why
it was such a shame that in the twilight hours of the night a clattering smash
of glass rang through the house jolting the two awake. They both scrambled at
once, and cracked their foreheads together, Madrona sprawled back and Kassadi
clutched her head and rolled into the back of the couch, the goblin sized piece
of furniture unable to handle the shift in weight and toppling over backward,
spilling the Wizard onto the floor.
They
shot to their feet, too dazed to let any shame run through them. They spun
around to the sound of scraping in the kitchen… The Hellhound! Dulav said it
couldn’t get to them here, clearly he was wrong. They shared a worried glance,
and inched towards the kitchen… They had been woken up by a crash, clearly not
the beasts intention, perhaps if they could now get the jump on it they could
subdue it. As they approached the kitchen Madrona reached out and took the knob
of the door, glancing at Kassadi she began to nod in sequence. Kassadi followed
suit and as they both reached three nods Madrona turned and threw the door open.
The Wizard lashed her hand out, palm forward, and a streaking ball of light
flew forward and hung in the air illuminating the kitchen. The women jumped
into the room, Madrona’s hand already forming a sickly green ball of energy at
the palm and electricity cracking from Kassadi’s elbow to fingertips and back
ready to be launched.
What they
found in the kitchen was not the Hellhound, not at all. What they found was an
open window, a pile of broken porcelain shards that was once three plates and a
teacup that had been on the counter just below the window, and a goblin woman
with a broom, having just been slowly muttering curses as she swept them all up
into a dustpan. At the moment, however, she looked up with an absolute terror
in her eyes at the women who had decimated her entire clan now here in her
mother’s house! Lidya rushed in shortly after, stopping dead in her tracks, a
hand over her mouth as she saw the girl.
“Maryl” She said with a gasp.
No comments:
Post a Comment