I think I could make this friendship thing work.
“So, about those bracelets,” I said, sobering, and watched as Ellowyn’s expression turned serious again. “I can and will remove them. But I’d like to keep them to study. If that’s okay with you?”
She looked at me with bemused hilarity. “Yes, Fay, I think that’s just fine. I would be okay if I never saw them again.”
“Right. That makes sense,” I mumbled as Ellowyn giggled prettily.
“Unshackle me, woman,” she teased, jangling the bracelets in front of my face. I rolled my eyes good-naturedly before resting her forearms palm up on my lap. Unclasping them was simple enough—the more difficult part was finding a way to, first, negate their pull on her magic and, second, redirect the stolen magic somewhere harmless.
“Do you have a potted plant, by any chance?” I asked suddenly, turning the golden bangles around Ellowyn’s wrists so I could find the twin clasping runes.
“A . . . plant?” Ellowyn asked, amused, and I nodded my head, still not pulling my eyes from the bracelet.
“Yes. I’m going to need something that the stolen magic can latch onto without hurting one of us . . . or collapsing your room. Or the manor,” I added off-handedly. I had no idea how much residual magic was stored in each of the bracelets, and the items weren’t giving away their secrets easily. It was going to be a guess-and-hope-for-the-best type of procedure.
My favorite.
The unknown was thrilling, if a bit dangerous.
At Ellowyn’s silence, I pulled my head from her wrists, simultaneously reaching into a different pouch on my belt to procure my ceremonial dagger.
“In the corner.” She nodded to a darkened corner of her sitting room. The plant—if you could even call it that anymore—was sad and nearly dead.
Poor thing.
I snorted a laugh.
“What? I was just trying to keep myself alive, the plant had to fend for itself,” Ellowyn said, and my humor sobered immediately. I offered her an apologetic smile before standing and dragging the plant to rest next to us.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. There are three runes I have to work with”—I held up three fingers and ticked them down one by one—“first, the Containment Rune. It’s what’s holding the magic inside the bracelet. I need to release that first so that way I’m only working with a chunk of metal rather than an innervated chunk of metal.” Ellowyn nodded her head for me to continue. “Then, I have to negate the rune that’s currently forcing your magic into the bracelet itself. You may feel a slight pinch across your skin once the bracelet releases its hold on your magic, but the pain should be momentary. After that, it’s as simple as disintegrating the Clasping Runes and I’ll have the shackle off!”
Ellowyn chewed her lip in thought. “Sounds complicated.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Not really. These runes are a basic to intermediate skill level at best. Nothing I can’t handle.” I gave her a confident smile, and her lips twitched in response.
“Are you ready?” I asked, knife poking into one of the many scars on my forearm. The scar tissue was deep, and I had to press harder than usual to coax my blood to the surface, but I had enough markings on my body for one lifetime. The fewer new ones I had to add, the better.
Ellowyn’s face became a mask of determination, fire burning in her steel-grey eyes. She gave me a hard nod of acceptance, and I dipped my finger into the blood welling along the edges of the wound. It would spill over eventually, especially with the number of runes I had to draw, but the black of my tunic and pants would mask it.
I quickly drew the staccato strokes of a rune that would counteract the Containment Rune. Before I completed it, I wrapped Ellowyn’s fist around one of the plant’s dying shoots.
“Don’t let go,” I murmured, hoping it was enough to channel her magic into a living thing aside from Ellowyn and me.
My heart thumped erratically with the danger lurking in Ellowyn’s veins as I finished the rune. Instantly, a hissing sound filled the air, like steam from a kettle. Ellowyn gave a cry of surprise but never released the frond.
Instantly, the plant withered; the ashes and embers of her Destruction Magic slid from the bangle like an insidious shadow, latching onto the plant and consuming it completely.
But there was something else there, hidden within the diaphanous dark-grey smoke; a viscous dark-purple oil seemed to ooze as well. I squinted, trying to see better, but I blinked and it was gone.
A somber feeling fell over Ellowyn and me as we gazed wordlessly at the plant’s demise. The light and fire were dimming in Ellowyn’s eyes as I watched her sag under the weight of what she still carried.
I wonder . . .
Before I could think, I grabbed Ellowyn’s other arm and quickly etched the same rune into her second bracelet. Without prompting, she wrapped her fingers around the remaining base of the plant, but her movements were listless and tired.
Tendrils of bright-green magic, like the grass in the heart of summer, coiled from the bracelet and seemed to stretch andgrow before our eyes. It wrapped around the base of the dead plant, weaving together toward the ceiling. As her Creation Magic dissipated, a full, healthy plant stood in its place; leaves as deep green as the day it was planted.
Ellowyn’s gaze held awe and wonder as she watched her Creation Magic finish its work, but my eyes were drawn to the bracelet.
