Sam Bowring - Prophecy's Ruin

‘As you say,’ murmured Elessa, ‘I’m dying. So it hardly matters, does it?’ The light around her fingers pulsed and Tyrellan eyed it warily. Elessa’s eyes glazed over and she shifted her head slightly. ‘Mages are almost here,’ she whispered. ‘And soldiers. Can you hear them?’

Tyrellan could. Someone was hurrying through the woods, not far off.

‘A stalemate then?’ he said. ‘Personally I’d try to kill me, if all it cost you was a few extra moments of pain. I’m Battu’s First Slave, someone dangerous to your people, who may return to cause further grief.’ Tyrellan waited, unblinking, as the sounds of approach drew nearer. ‘And revenge would be yours,’ he added, ‘since you have me to thank for that wound.’ He bared his fangs at her.

Elessa’s dimming eyes grew angry and the light at her fingertips flared. Tyrellan tensed, ready to spring away – but a moment later the mage relaxed.

‘I don’t think so,’ she said softly. ‘You escaped me once before, and I am weaker this time. Go away, goading little goblin. Leave me in peace.’

Shouts echoed through the trees.

Elessa smiled wanly. ‘You have no time.’

Tyrellan scowled. He was so close, yet he dared not tread any closer. If only he could have waited out her death – but she was right. His time was up. He edged away, and as he went she closed her eyes – but the light didn’t stop playing through her fingers.

‘May Assedrynn take you for his slut,’ he snarled. Then he turned and fled.

Death’s embrace tightened, and memories floated by. Her childhood, growing up in Open Halls, her father when he was home from travelling, Fahren’s lessons …and one particular moment bobbed to the surface.

She had been fourteen.

A warm breeze was blowing into the study. Fahren stood at the window with a brittleleaf roll, brown smoke oozing about him. The breeze ruffled his long blond hair as he gazed over the land with crystal blue eyes.

Elessa sat cross-legged on the floor with a book in her lap. It was a strange book, full of odd spells that made no sense. Fahren never objected when she pulled it off the shelf, but he never suggested her reading it either. She liked it for its colourful pictures. She looked at one now: in a gnarled chair slumped an ancient woman whose bony fingers clutched the armrests. Standing behind the chair was a warrior in golden armour, his head covered by a spiked helmet, and behind him was the sun. From the woman’s breast came a glowing stream, and where it ended was a large butterfly, patterned so beautifully that she’d remembered it ever after.

Underneath the picture were spidery words: The Legacy Spell.

‘Ah, my curious one,’ said Fahren, looking over her shoulder. ‘That is not a spell that need concern you for some years, I pray.’

‘What is it?’ she asked, fascinated, resting her fingers on the people in the picture. ‘Who are they?’

Fahren sank onto the rug beside her, his robe spilling around him in a blue and gold puddle. ‘The old woman is a light mage, and she’s dying. See? The Sun God Arkus stands behind her in both his classic forms: a mighty warrior, the defeater of darkness, and as the sun itself – the greatest source of light. He’s reclaiming her life force to take it to his Well, as he does with all creatures of light when they die. But look – see the stream of energy ending in this butterfly?’

‘Yes.’

‘The mage is casting a legacy spell. As her life force leaves her body she diverts part of it, something she can only do as it’s draining out of her. That part is cut off from the rest and moves on, becoming her legacy – something she leaves in the world as she passes. It is tied to the object or place on which it’s cast, never moving far from it. In this case she has shaped it into a butterfly, though the form is up to the individual. It only takes a small amount of life force to create, not enough to mar her return to Arkus …but it is permanent.’

‘Permanent?’

‘Yes. Once left behind, it cannot be destroyed, or spelled away.’

‘Why?’

Fahren smiled warmly. ‘A difficult thing to describe, my girl. Maybe when you’re older.’

She pouted. ‘I’m old enough now!’

Fahren chuckled.

‘Our souls, Elessa, return to Arkus’s Well when we die. The legacy spell is a way to leave part of ourselves behind in the world – cut off, then, from the light forever. It becomes something else: neither light nor shadow, but energy without denomination. And neither light nor shadow has the ability to affect it any more, because it exists outside their rules.’

‘Oh,’ said Elessa. She thought a moment and Fahren let her. Then, ‘So it’s an invincible magic?’

‘It is, I suppose,’ said Fahren. ‘But, as I said, it can only be left behind in small amounts. That, also, I do not understand. Perhaps it is because the gods will always reclaim as much as they can of their creatures’ spirits, or simply that one’s life force does not divide readily. I don’t know.’

Elessa looked at the picture again.

‘It’s a very beautiful butterfly,’ she said.

Tyrellan paused as a voice sounded in his head.

Hello, First Slave.

It was the mage. She’d opened a mental connection with him for some reason.

Aren’t you dead yet? he asked, moving on, a dark shape slipping between the trees.

In a moment. I just thought I’d let you know – I plan to have my revenge after all.

Oh yes?

Yes. I’m giving you an early birthday present.

Tyrellan choked, his claws going to his throat. He felt as if he’d swallowed something.

What have you done?

Why, little goblin, laughed the voice in his head, I’ve made you the cocoon. I thought you might like to know what it feels like to create something beautiful.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

You have to wait until your birthday to open it. She chuckled softly and the connection was gone.

Tyrellan felt his throat again, but whatever was there had slipped downwards. He could feel something in the pit of his stomach – something foreign and wrong. Something magic.

For the first time in a long time, Tyrellan felt very uneasy.

Through the trees they ran, two mages streaking ahead of the soldiers who followed, fleet on magic-aided feet. They’d felt surges of power in the forest but a short time ago and knew a battle had taken place. They did not know the outcome, but they heard a child crying. Was it with allies or enemies? With reckless haste they went, anxious and uncertain, until they came to a rise in the forest floor.

Elessa lay against the tree, her white dress stained with blood and dirt, torn in many places. Her hair fell forward over her slumped head, her face was downturned towards her lap, where the source of the sound that had spurred them on continued to wail at the sky. A baby, with blue hair.

With great reverence and respect, they lifted him from the dead woman’s arms.

Dawn approached and, a league south of Whisperwood, Rhobi hid inside a cluster of bushes. The thick leaves and low earth were the best protection from sight he had come across since leaving the forest. Truth be told, he wasn’t much of a navigator. With the burden of the child, and the sky lightening in the north, he hadn’t dared to press on further.

He sat against a low-lying branch that ran parallel to the ground, twirling a dagger as he stared at the child. The baby, for his part, didn’t pay Rhobi any attention. He simply lay there, staring up at nothing.