The Duelist 11 by Vall Eric

Author:Vall, Eric
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2022-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“What?” I asked as I blinked in shock.

“After I became the Incarnate, I began to feel magical… signatures,” the phoenix-woman explained to me with a shrug. “And the feel of a Red Sky is similar to what I can feel now. Worryingly similar.”

“I can’t feel specific signatures,” Amaya then clarified, and she glanced over at Anwaar, who shook her head. “But I can tell something is wrong. It’s not natural magic.”

“What do you mean, ‘not natural magic?’” I asked. “Magic is a force of nature, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it’s not being used… right,” the oryx-woman said, and she grimaced at her use of the word ‘right.’ “Imagine… a river. It flows in one direction. This is like someone trying to make it flow in the other direction. Using magic in a way it’s not supposed to be used.”

“Like the machine on Eng?” Horus suggested. “It did something to the magic of the Curse, made the Engish more feral.”

“I suppose,” Shay said. “But I never saw this machine. I didn’t get close enough to get a sense of its magic, so I can’t say for sure.”

“Neither can we,” Amaya added, and she gestured to herself and her sister with her free hand, because her other hand was still clasping Shay’s tightly.

I could see how this peculiar magic was setting all three women on edge, which only made it more imperative that we found the source and dealt with it.

“Is it coming from the house then?” I asked them, and all three women nodded their heads. “Can you say where?”

“Not… really…” Amaya said slowly.

“It’s been here a long time,” Anwaar added. “It’s permeated the very stones of this place. Or… more than that. It’s peculiar. Like the house was built to accommodate the magic specifically.”

“Like a… conduit?” I asked with a frown. “Accommodate how?”

“A conduit might be quite apt, actually.” The ibex-woman nodded slowly. “Something to channel the magic in a specific direction. But I can’t imagine why.”

“Well, this is Alem,” Horus scoffed, and he leaned forward in his seat so he could put an arm around Anwaar’s waist in comfort. “They’re doing something to the skies and the Scourge here. This must be related.”

“What should we do about it, though?” Zoie asked. She had sat down next to me, and I could feel how tense she was, not just from our conversation but because this was a new space she hadn’t grown familiar with yet, and she hadn’t had a chance to make a mothering nest. “Alem has been exerting its control over the rest of Aventoll for so long, can this ‘magical signature’ even be removed?”

“Magic has a tendency to linger, but it’s not permanent,” Anwaar said. “Shay healed the Heart of Aventoll, and with it, the other Islands’ Hearts, but it’s not necessarily permanent unless we take other steps to purge the corruption that made the Hearts sick in the first place.”

“We treated the symptoms, but we haven’t yet treated the cause,” I said with a nod. “So we can apply the same logic here.

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