The Ritual Mages by Bradley Allen

Author:Bradley Allen [Allen, Bradley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-04T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

They were back on the road, heading east and away from the ruins. Evelyn kept looking over her shoulder and jumping at shadows.

“See anything else, Evelyn?” Vaughn asked.

“Still heading south toward us. If we keep going east, we’ll eventually get out of their path.”

“What are they?” Rosco asked, following along behind the two adults.

“I’m not entirely sure,” she said. “Maybe soldiers, heading down from the capital.”

“But why are they glowing?” Terren asked. “Do they have magic?”

Vaughn laughed. “Yeah, like the Black Carinth would ever use magic. That’s just silly.”

“Well, she can see our magic; it would make sense if the glow was something magical.” Terren held up a hand and let a shower of sparks fall from his palm.

Evelyn shielded her eyes and let out a small yelp.

Terren ceased the flow of electricity from his hand. “Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

She moved her hand from her face, “It’s okay. It’s just really bright.” She turned her head to Terren as she spoke. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to make eye contact or not and only saw his distorted reflection in the silver reflection. “Which is strange,” she continued. “I see you and Rosco’s magic inside of yourselves as if it were smoke bouncing around inside, but your magic is bright and blinding. And then there are potions and orbs, and they’re back to being smoke.” She turned her head and went back to watching the trail in front of her; Terren felt guilt as he found himself relieved of her strange gaze. “It’s confusing. It’s all such a mystery to me.”

Vaughn grunted. “Now you know how I feel.”

“Oh come on, Vaughn.” Rosco laughed. “It’s not confusion, its fear. You run away like a little girl every time you see anything magical.”

Vaughn turned, an angry look on his face, and mock-lunged at the boy, who promptly disappeared into an orb. The big man laughed, great booms from his chest. Rosco reappeared mid-stride, his arms crossed and bottom lip stuck out. He didn’t look at the man as he passed. “Okay, fine,” he said, “you got me.”

#

They continued on for a few more hours before settling down for the night. They plopped down their bags as Vaughn went about lighting the fire.

“You know, I can help out with that,” Terren said as he watched Vaughn fiddle with his tinderbox.

Vaughn grunted. “I know. But it doesn’t mean that you have to rely on your magic so much.”

“Why not?” Terren asked, looking down at his hands. “It’s a tool, just like any other. To be used when it’s needed.”

Fire sprang up between Vaughn’s hands; he set the box aside and started coaxing the small flame onto larger sticks. “That’s true,” he said, “but the same thing could be said about a skilled swordsman.” Terren tilted his head in confusion, and Vaughn continued, “Pretend you’re amazing with a sword instead of being able to do magic. You wouldn’t want to solve everything with your sword, would you? Argument at the bar? Sword.

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