Page 36 of Elvenbred

She yawned again, looking to change the subject.

Nora gave her a measuring sidelong look. “We’re going to do something different today, I think. Play a little game.”

Triana groaned inwardly. Nora’s memory games required focus and quick repartee, and both were still asleep in her bed. Something of that must have shown on her face. Nora laughed.

“No. A reprieve, I think.” She paused. “Perhaps you are still a bit ill. We’ve been pushing you pretty hard.”

Triana made a noncommittal shrug. “What’s the game, then?”

Nora stood, and gestured for Triana to join her. “It works best inside, where we can see the colors. It’s called the Rainbow Game.”

“Colors? Rainbow Game?” Triana repeated, still sluggish and slow. I planned another outing tonight, but at this rate I’m going to fall asleep on my feet.

“Yes,” Nora replied, chatting amiably as they crossed the grass towards the low wing in the inner courtyard. Triana knew from listening to the staff that this part of the estate held Haldeen’s offices, the library, the counting rooms and other businesses. She was glad for the chance to see at least something of it, before she attempted it after dark.

Nora set the pace, with Triana on her right elbow. “It’s a children’s game, mostly. A way for youngsters to pass the time.”

“Oh,” Triana replied. “We mostly just played with knives.” She was trying to be flippant, and recognized it failed miserably. “What are the stakes?”

Nora shook her head. “No stakes. Nothing to win or lose. It’s not really a competition ….” Nora smiled, showing a hint of dimple. I can work with that smile, Triana thought. She is not completely hopeless. “… but in all honesty, it gets pretty competitive.”

She led Triana into a smallish room, bare except for a table and chairs and a box about a hand’s-length square. Triana looked a question at her, and Nora gestured for her to sit.

“What do we do?” she asked.

Nora sat in the chair across from her, and opened the box. Inside were rows of colored crystals. She used two fingers to pick up a red crystal about the size of a lump of sugar. “This,” she replied.

Nora exhaled and closed her eyes. The crystal immediately glowed a ruby red, and Triana watched it brighten enough to cast a shadow. Nora exhaled raggedly, and opened her eyes. She focused on the shadow cast by her fingers where she held the gem. She shaped it, forming the shadow into a little black bird, that she then sent winging around the room, diving and flitting anywhere the red light washed.

Triana gave an approving nod, even though the illusion was childlike and pedestrian by her standards. Nora’s effort had been no better than a child’s crude drawing. Triana understood then the lies that parents tell their offspring …. Oh, so pretty. What is it? A bird … ah, yes … so I see. It’s a very nice bird.

“May I?” she said, reaching for the crystal.

“Please,” Nora answered. She passed Triana the crystal.

Triana looked at it in her hand. It felt warm, warmer than it should be from being held, and curiously heavy.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Focus your mind on the crystal, on its structure. There is a way of pushing your mind inside it, of thinking your way into it. It’s different for everyone. You are trying to make it glow. Once you have done that, then try to shape the glow … the light. Try to make it do something.” She smiled at Triana. “It’s not really a competition game, but people do try to make the best shapes or animals, that sort of thing.” She smiled dimples at Triana again. “There is a version that is a drinking game. Who can take the most alcohol on board and still light it up.”

Triana focused on the red crystal for long minutes, trying to find a way to make it respond to her. Most devices had distinct command words, or combinations of incantations and gestures, but this lacked both. She felt her frustration build, and heard Nora shift.

“Relax,” the elf said. “You can’t force it. Try to feel it.”

“Feh,” Triana replied. She changed course, holding it in her hand, and gave up trying to bend it to her will. In time she felt it grow warmer in her hand, and what seemed a gentle pulsing against her palm as it started to beat in time with her heart.

By Nora’s intake of breath, she knew she had done something. She opened her eyes, and the gem lay in the palm of her hand, softly pulsing. Soft rays of red light emerged from the gem’s facets and lay across her fingers. A gentle swirl of red became a twisting tendril above the stone. Triana looked at the tendril, then shaped it, taking the pulses of light, and crafting them around the stem, creating something that suggested a rose and, without actually taking its form.

“That is altogether lovely,” Nora said. “It’s really beautiful. Is it a flower from your home?”

“Yes,” Triana lied. It was a pointless and silly lie, but easier than explaining that she had no idea what she’d done. Too late, she wondered if they had detected either her foray or her magic use the night before. Carefully she said to herself don’t show too much. Too tired. Not thinking clearly.

Nora paused for a moment, expecting more of an answer, then reached out for the red gem. The flower winked out the moment she touched it, and she set the red crystal back into the box.

“Next, the orange. This one is harder, more difficult to light, and even harder to shape. I can light it, but that is about as far as I get.”

Nora took the orange gem in both hands, and furrowed her brow as she focused. Triana watched long minutes slip away before the gem appeared to shift and a single orange pencil’s worth of light emerged from the crystal. The light lashed back and forth, as though angry and resentful, and vanished the moment Nora relaxed her will. Triana could see the beads of sweat in the dim light. Nora took one of the paper handkerchiefs from a pouch at her belt and mopped her head. She gave Triana a wan smile. “Not today. I did everything I could just to get it lit.” She passed it to Triana. “Your turn.”