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Laying his hand on the door, he summoned the water and moon magic that should open it.Trying to use his wizardry felt like trying to lift a sword after an injury.It hurt, and the pain made his stomach churn and head throb.Once, it had felt so easy.Of course, it had been easy with Nic’s generously provided magic.
Take,she said in his mind, lush mouth curving with affectionate amusement.Have.
But she wasn’t here.An echo of another conversation came back to him.Nic telling him that he’d taken her magic, transmuted it into water and moon magic, and stored it in the arcanium.When he’d said he didn’t know that was possible, she’d replied she didn’t think it was for any other wizard but him.Or that maybe all House Phel wizards could do it and that the arcanium functioning that way was a strong argument that they could.I think you should experiment,she whispered in his mind.
Beyond the door, surrounded by water, the dome of solidified moon magic hummed softly.Fire ran through the silver, summer heat gleaming in the glass.Nicwashere, in a way.He reached for her with unbearable longing.
And the door spiraled open.
He stepped inside the silent space, well lit by the spring sunshine filtering through the water above.The silver struts framing the windows sparkled with interior light, a hint of rose-gold in them.He could swear he smelled roses in the otherwise cool, still air.
Nic was everywhere and nowhere.
The silver bed with its chains caught his eye.It had once seemed so threatening, but his fears of becoming a monster seemed childish now.He didn’t care what he did or became if it meant saving Nic.Nothing mattered but that.
With somber thoroughness, he searched the many cabinets and drawers studded around the dome in the interstices between windows and found plenty of useful tools and weapons.See?Nic chided in his mind.I told you your ancestors created this stuff and left it to you for good reason.Foolish wizard that you were too afraid of what you’d find to look before this.
“I’m looking now,” he retorted to her ghost, his voice echoing oddly in the quiet space without ears to listen.
Having made a neat stack of blades, a couple of swords, and even a quiver of silver-tipped arrows, he left them by the door and seated himself beneath the circular moon window at the apex of the dome.It would be better to do this with direct moonlight, but the moon was always there, if unseen.And the water surrounded and soothed him.
Centering himself, he did his best to calm his mind with the disciplines Asa had begun to teach him.Memories of Nic in this place crowded into the empty spaces of his mind, her warm laughter, her sensual gasps and cries, the feel of her skin against his, hot and silken, redolent of wine and roses.
Though he wasn’t doing it correctly, the arcanium answered.It responded as Nic responded to his kisses, to the caress of his hand, willingly and warmly.The magic spun into him, rich and ancient.Here was more than the sum of Nic and him; there were other magics sunk deep here, planted in love and eroticism, in the extremity of sensation, and powerful intensity.
For the first time, he considered that his ancestors might not have been universally terrible.
Finally replete, feeling something like his usual self, he rose and gathered the weapons and tools.He was ready to face the hunters.
“Looking to takemy job?”Jadren asked with a raised brow, surveying the pile of weapons Gabriel had scattered on the workbench.He wasn’t about to let the other wizard inside the arcanium, so they were using the workshop instead, with everyone but the swamp monster locked out.
“Planning to report me to your mother?”Gabriel returned, mirroring the raised brow.
Jadren raised his hands in mock surrender.“I’m sure all of this is grandparented in.”Gingerly, he picked up a thick blade as long as his forearm.“Your ancestors didn’t mess around.”
Gabriel took it from him.“It’s a machete, commonly used for clearing foliage, a perennial chore in Meresin.”
“Looks good for clearing enemies, too,” Jadren noted with a jaunty grin.
“I’m fairly certain these are condensed from moonlight,” Gabriel said, not responding to that comment, indicating the weapons he’d brought out of the arcanium.“And these are other weapons made with varying degrees of silver, plus alloys to strengthen them, but I don’t know that we can make any of these work on the hunters.When I made the blade that did work, I used a silver alloy dagger I liked and infused it with moonlight over the course of months.We don’t have time for that.Is there a shortcut?”
“Shortcuts and wizardry don’t mix well,” Jadren mused, sounding as if he quoted someone.He examined a small dagger.“Do you know why that enchanted blade worked against the hunters?”
“No, tell me.”
Jadren gave him an exasperated look.“I’m askingyou.You made the cursed, illegal thing.Why did it melt the hunters?”
“I don’t know.I just happened to use it and it did.”
Jadren tossed the blade down and leaned both hands on the workbench, frowning fiercely at Gabriel.“Think, man.Wizardry is about intention as much as anything.What was your intention when you bathed the blade under the light of the full moon as you danced naked around it, painting it with the blood of virgins?”
“Remind me that I never want a tour of House El-Adrel’s manufacturing facilities,” Gabriel noted dourly.
Jadren grinned.“Wise.”
Gabriel thought back to that younger, far more naïve self.He’d been curious if the spell he’d found in the moldering House Phel library would work, especially as he’d found little use for moon magic compared to water magic.He’d also been freshly returned from Convocation Center, more than a little concerned about the powerful wizards he’d encountered there, uncertain in his own skills.The elitists there had made their contempt for his ignorance and lack of education clear.He’d come back to Meresin relieved to be away from that suffocating atmosphere and determined to improve himself.Most of all, he’d wanted to be able to protect his people.
“I wanted… a weapon that could destroy any enemy,” he said slowly.
