Deckard’s head grew light, and the magic buzzed in his ears like a wordless whisper. A steady fullness settled into his core. The magic pulsed in rhythm with his heart, heating him from the inside out. His hands began to prickle as though they’d fallen asleep, yet the sensation was soothing and not painful.
With each moment that passed, a glimmering blackness emerged in Deckard’s chest, building gradually. The feeling was refracted and absorbed at the same time. It felt like everything and nothing awakening within him. In his mind, it was vast and endless. It was empty and void. It called to him, the wordless whisper growing louder. And then he began to understand; this was Space. The infinity of the Heavens beckoned to him with its power.
Suddenly, Isla’s voice broke through his concentration. “That’s not good,” she said dryly.
Deckard’s eyes flew open to find Auden and Isla watching him in the deeply shadowed forest. She wore a bland, contemplative expression while Auden looked positively beside himself. “What?” Deckard asked.
Auden sighed. “You don’t even realize you’re doing it, do you?”
His lack of response was confirmation enough.
Auden gestured to Deckard. “Look around you,” he said.
Turning his attention to himself, Deckard found his entire body encapsulated by a swirling spiral of crystalline shards. Like a dome, they arced above his head as though wrapping him in an embrace.
Deckard’s lips parted in shock. “I didn’t—”
“We didn’t assume you did,” Isla interrupted. “Drop the field.”
Though he wasn’t entirely certain how to follow her instructions, Deckard clamped his jaw shut.Do you mind?he thought to the magic.
Instantly, the onyx shards blipped out of existence. Though it still thrummed dully in his chest, the magic was gone. His vision cleared, and the darkness in the clearing lightened.
Deckard sighed and ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know how I did that,” he admitted.
“We do,” Auden said matter-of-factly. Then he leveled him with a serious stare. “This is problematic, Jonn. Not like the Deep, but...it’s almost worse in the immediate problem it presents.”
Deckard narrowed his gaze, wary but listening.
“It seems that you’retooconnected to your resource,” Auden explained. “You have a level of focus many Mages spend years developing. As Obel said, that seems to be a penchant of Space Mages. And while that can be a good thing, since you’re undertrained, it puts us in a tight spot.” Auden raised his brow. “Your magic is uncontrolled.”
Deckard frowned. “It always does exactly what I tell it to do.”
“And did you tell it to surround you just now?”
Deckard hadn’t.
“It consumed you here,” Auden said. “Like it did in Dunneshead. Like it has every time you’ve connected to it.”
Realizing that he was right, Deckard frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means you have a lot of training to do,” Isla said. “The ease with which you access your magic is as problematic as it is beneficial. When you focus, you are connecting withallyour magic. You aren’t currently skilled enough to regulate the amount of magic you grasp; therefore, it controls you rather than you controlling it.”
“When you connect,” Auden clarified, “you are gone, and only Space is left.”
Deckard shook his head. “I’m always aware of what I’m doing. I’m in control. It just...” He didn’t have the words to explainwhat happened when he accessed his magic. But he didn’t like this suggestion that it overcame him. He didn’t want to think he had such little self-control.
Auden and Isla were unmoved by his weak defense.
“You have to be careful, Jonn,” Auden said. “You have a limited supply of energy. And when you access your magic, you will have no means of managing your output. If you don’t learn to control it, you’ll blow through every ounce of strength you have until it’s too late, and you collapse from overexertion.”
Remembering how Ilain blacked out during the ambush in Sutterlund Reach, Deckard blanched. He remembered how close they came to death at that moment. If Evylin hadn’t gotten him the Night Relic, theywouldhave died.
“The good news,” Isla said, breaking through his worries, “is that you’ve proven to be naturally strong, based on my siblings’ accounts of your past experiences. And now, you’re Bonded. Reaching the end of your energy stores isn’t going to happen quickly. However, that doesn’t negate the need to check the use of your magic.”
Auden nodded in agreement. “For the rest of our journey, I’d advise you to take time each day to connect with Space while practicing keeping it outwardly dormant. Your relationship with your resource is important. But you need to learn how to calm down its excitement when you call to it.”
“It’s something all Mages have to learn,” Isla added, then smirked. “And we are often given years to learn what you’re attempting in a few weeks. So don’t be hard on yourself if you fail.”
