My gaze flew above me as I departed the Tower District to observe the birds native to this country. Beautiful creatures, able to leave any semblance of restriction behind and as frail in body as the concept thereof was in mind. Amused by this ironic duality, I almost didn’t hear the gatekeeper behind me thanking me for my visit, to which I waved lazily behind myself without turning back. As of now I’d had a few hours to spend with my friend, and I planned to use them to their fullest.
“Ey, ‘scuse’m miss.” I heard from my left. I turned to see a boy who appeared to be of Feliriel descent as Franz was, wearing what I could only fathom were the clothes he must have been born in, judging by how worn they were and how he looked to be barely of age to go to school. His appearance struck me as one that was given little to no attention, and his stench was thick. Even still, his eyes told me that these things were of choice, and his survival was due to his determination. I had to wonder what happened to the boy, but pondering in silence was only so effective.
“Well hello there little man.” I addressed him, getting down in a crouch to meet his eye level after stepping aside. I made note that others were giving me looks as I did this, perhaps too busy with their own matters to tend to the boy. Deplorable, I thought before continuing. “Well met, what did you need?”
He held out his hands to me, allowing me to see the scars and calluses of his palms that I noted looked like those my sister had, before muttering “Could’ya spare coin? I needa get ta th’Empire.”
At this, I smiled and ruffled his head, feeling the oils in his hair and feeling an absence of the mange that came with it, as well as noting that his feline ears spread to allow the gesture. The boy was allowing his defenses to fall in my presence, and as a stranger to him I could tell this meant he was experienced in this activity.. I reached into my purse at my hip and produced a few Imperial coins, dropping them in his hands with intentional audio. I was hoping the clinking of the coins would attract the gaze of others, and encourage them to do a good deed themselves, but to no avail. The gazes I’d sought were found, but they were quickly reclaimed in disgust. The things this told me were of equal value to the coins I’d sacrificed.
“You look like you’ve been on a long trip, little man. What’s your name?” I asked, to which he shook his head and shrugged.
“Don’got one I ‘member, I bin callin’ m’self Flip. S’easy ta say.” he replied. I nodded, the accent finally occuring to me as one from eastern Magna Varia cities but understanding that showing this could worsen the situation.
“Alright, Flip. Why are you headed to the Empire?” I asked, very deliberately avoiding asking where he came from. If I worded it correctly, I knew he would tell me anyway.
“They take strays like me, don’ they? Don’ got a home an’ I can’ stay ‘ere.”
Now that was fascinating to me. A homeless child is tragic, but a bastion of human education being unwilling to harbor them didn’t make sense to me. I decided to press further.
“Why can’t you stay here, Flip?” I asked, to which he quickly responded in a bit more of a defensive voice.
“I ain’ got any papers ta say anythin’ ‘bout me!” he exclaimed. “Nobody’s takin’ a stray wit’ no papers.”
I nodded and smiled.
“Flip, I’m about to visit my friend in town. Would you like to come with me?” I asked, feeling my tone slipping into one of more delicate motherhood than before. I knew what this meant was coming and I hoped the boy would pick up on the change and flee.
“Sure, y’been nice t’me.” he nodded and offered his hand, and immediately I knew his fate was sealed.
I lead the boy around town a bit, idly chatting with him about this and that of significant unimportance, taking in the revolting nature of his odor. It smelled like he was sprayed with some sort of man-made gas upon closer inspection, and I smiled at my own thoughts of what I’d discovered. While I enjoyed my thoughts, the boy and I came to one of the buildings of the students, and I squeezed his hand – perhaps a little harder than he’d have liked – to confirm our destination. It looked exactly as the rest of the homes did, with the crest of Magnum decorating the door frame and several windows lining the wall, one of which was open. The personal touches of my dear friend were minimalistic, usually consisting of silly portraits of the night sky, and one such theme rested on the door to her home. Starry bulbs made of glass ran along the edges connected to the doorknob and window, resting against the darker oak in a way that felt gaudy to me, but brought her joy. The rest of the home was the same as those around it, sporting iron fencing to separate her very small yard from the others and lined with white walls that had iron defenses scaling to their pitched roofs.
“This is her home, Flip. We can get you cleaned up here and then discuss taking you to the Empire.” I said, releasing his hand at last.I could feel him retract it quickly, and shakily as well, before I knocked on the door of my friends home. It didn’t take long to hear her voice from within calling back, and only another few moments before she appeared before us, eyeing me at first and then the boy.
“You have great timing Arcy, I just got home. Who’s the little guy?” she asked, cutting right to the point in a laid back tone she had not presented to me before.
“His name is Flip, and he would like to get to the Empire. Isn’t that a noble goal?” I patted the boy’s back, urging him forward while also getting a feel for precisely two masses along his back – forming a cross shape and very closely kept to his back. It amused me how obvious this boy was.
“Quite so.” Alarice chimed back, stepping outside her home and closing the door. “And you’re going to take him there yourself, aren’t you Third Princess?”
At this, the boy stepped back, trying to avoid being between us. However, I’d already pushed him forward and was now directly behind him, forcing him to step into me.
“That’s right. This little bandit is going to answer for his deeds.” I ruffled his hair playfully, which I think disturbed both of them as Alarice stayed silent. Flip, however, turned to face me while retrieving a blade from his back.
“H-how’d ya know?!” he demanded in a voice that was far deeper than before. I waved a finger dismissively and lit the tip of that finger with my fire spell.
“You unqualified thieves are so predictable.” I giggled a little. “You assume that the average person will ignore you, and that all bleeding hearts who pay you any attention won’t think about your situation. How a boy made it into the second ring of the University City unsupervised is something not to think about, right? This poor boy needs our help, and help we must! That’s what you assume, isn’t it?”
I laughed, my fire spell increasing in intensity atop my finger and turning purple. I almost didn’t catch it, but this purple flame startled Alarice a great deal. Her eyes told me a story of terror, but more so did the little bandit before me as he tried to attack me with one of his concealed daggers, to which I pointed my lit finger at and blasted out of his hand without harming him. The dagger landed beside Alarice, who picked it up and kept watch, silently still.
“Your foul odor is nothing more than a mixture of sewage and stink bugs rubbed into your clothing, and your hands are covered in the calluses of a fighter. It’s adorable that you think you could con me in this sorry state.”
“Hey, Arcy, it’s over, we got him. Let’s just-” Alarice spoke up finally, and I cut her off.
“Just what? Hand over this insipid waste to the authorities?” I laughed louder, intentionally, hoping it would catch the attention of those I knew were working with him. “Don’t worry, he has been handed over to an authority far superior to that, and my judgment is this.”
I pointed my purple flame at his face, quelling it to the size of a small candle, but retaining the intensity of the flame.
“Any and all barbaric attempts at disrespecting the Third Princess with such a shameful display will be met with a lifelong branding of disgrace.”
“Arcy wait!” Alarice shouted, as I felt another presence behind me. I closed my eyes and smiled.
“Well, hello there, little man.” I mocked whoever had just come out from behind me, speaking to them the same way I’d spoken to this miserable sight. “Are you here to protect your own? Is this a thieves’ bond?”
Whoever was behind me didn’t get a chance to respond, as they were charging me before I opened my mouth. I projected a barrier behind myself and heard them clang off of it with force before I inhaled, my breath controlling the barrier clearly while my hand manipulated the flame. Using a strong exhale, I pushed the barrier – and the assailant I’d yet to grace with my eyes – away and into the street behind me. At that same instant, I felt the Feliriel try to attack me again, and grabbed his blade in my hand, heating the inside of my hand in such a way that it would become painful to hold the weapon before releasing it again, noting the blood dripping from my palms with exquisite intent and I then grabbed the thief by the throat. I dimmed the heat of my hand so I wouldn’t kill the cretin, but I certainly made sure it would leave marks for life.
“Such a noble thing as a bond does not befit a poison on this planet like yourself.”
As I said this, I traced the flame around the thief’s face, outlining his jawline and drawing lines between his eyes and eyebrows with it. He would bear this brand for life and his screaming stopped the moment it began, the pain probably causing him to faint. I watched as I destroyed the man posing as a boy with delight, and my friend watched in horror. The pattern I’d drawn on his face reminded me of the face of the man who appeared before me, it occurs to me now.
It took only an instant for the man to fall to the ground after I completed his branding, and I flicked the flame away behind me, hearing the groaning of the man who I’d pushed earlier as he took the condensed flame. Shortly thereafter his groaning became raspy screams, as I’d caught his clothing ablaze. I wasn’t here to kill, at least I wasn’t supposed to be, and so I also threw a wave of water behind myself to cease the flames.
“Arcy, that was completely uncalled for!” I heard my friend scolding me. “They’re just bandits, they had no chan-” I cut her off again.
“You’re right.” I said,shaking in my own stance and feeling immediate remorse fill me. “I don’t know what just came over me. I caught on to this one’s scheme and this immediate hostility took hold.”
“You… Okay, Arcy?” she asked, nervousness so thick in her tone I could feel it.
“I’m no longer sure. But… We should call the authorities to deal with these two, and I should probably avoid looking at either of them.”
“Go head inside and lie down if you need to. Whatever that was, I know that isn’t you.” she said, calmly retaking control of the situation as my own control faded. I heard Alarice mention to the unseen assailant who was still awake that she was going to tie them up and turn them in, but she said it in such a sorrowful voice, as if she felt bad for them despite their actions. Perhaps, in my reflection, I feel bad too.
The inside of her home was well furnished, but I could honestly not be damned to share every detail of it or take notes of it in my current state, as I’d entered the home and collapsed on the nearest soft looking piece of furniture that looked long enough to lie down on. My hand bleeding was no concern of mine, as I inhaled once more and exhaled to create a spell to restore the tissue faster. After that, I collapsed in exhaustion. The last thing I saw before my consciousness faded was the masked man from before, and he spoke to me. It was incoherent at first, but I began to visualize the words he said as ‘well done’ before I could no longer keep myself awake.
When I came to, I saw Alarice at my side, clutching a stone in her hand that emitted a faint light. I knew this to be a Sending Heart, a device for long distance communication, and assumed this was her talking to the authorities. The more my senses came to me, the more I could make out of her home as well; the sterile interior with plain white walls and the flooring being a near blackened wood, with some dancing magic lighting fixtures along the edges where the roof and walls met. It felt almost like a laboratory in this room, if not for the couch I’d crashed on being a brighter maroon color and a fine table to match it. There were matching chairs as well, one of which she was sitting on next to the couch, and I assumed this room had a maroon theme to it. The portraits of the night sky broke up the monotony of the walls, and she amongst them appeared as naturally as I remembered. It was as if she belonged to the night sky, or the stars therein.
“Alarice?” I spoke. “How long was I-” she cut me off.
“Two hours.” she replied quickly, concern plastered on her face as she stood from her seat and offered me a hand. “You’re a diplomat so I didn’t throw you under the bus. I told them that the thieves were playing with magic and it backfired on them, and after you stopped them from robbing me, you also saved their lives. But I can’t cover for you again.”
I took her hand and sat upright before pulling her into a hug and whispering “I’m scared” into her ear. She seemed to understand this, and pat me on the back without releasing the embrace.
“Do you know what that purple flame was?” she asked, in a tone I noted seemed to carry a certain knowing to it, but perhaps that was the haze of the stress. I shook my head.
“I’ve never used a spell like that before. I didn’t even know it existed. All I remember was this insatiable urge to harm come over me, and then you saw the rest.”
“You did seem to be enjoying it.” she remembered audibly, and uncomfortably. “The only references to purple flames in magic relate it to raw magic fire.”
“Wait, wh-” she cut me off this time.
“I was reading while you were unconscious and just got off a conversation through the Sending Heart with someone at the Archive. All they found about purple flames was raw magic fire. It seems like it isn’t a spell that has been recorded or created.”
“So, in terms of raw magic, that would mean… That was my blood?” I asked, hesitant of the nod that Alarice would give and wincing as she pulled away from the hug and did so.
“Magic is a catch all term for the manipulation of a persons’ blood and the fluctuations of energy around them to create or destroy, as you know in the loosest definition I can give. What purple tints to spells relates to, as we just found out, is an uncertainty in which of the two you are doing. We’re not sure what that means right now, I’m afraid.”
“I see.” I sighed. “Thank you then, for covering for me. But more importantly, thank you for saving them from me. But, there is one thing I want to say.”
I tried to express concerns of the man I saw, but it resulted the same way every time. I would feel my headache spike in intensity and could not bring myself to speak another word. She noted my struggles and shook her head.
“Stop.” she said, placing her hand on my shoulder. “I don’t like this. You can’t tell me something because it hurts you, it’s obvious. Since you were able to conjure a magic that nobody has a real explanation for right now, I have to assume these are related. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I swallowed, and nodded.
“I think so. And for as much as I’ve read about magic I’ve never encountered anything like this either. This goes beyond the Empire or the University, and that’s what scares me.” I curled my hands into fists at my lap. “It’s like I’m some kind of time bomb.”
Alarice stayed silent for a moment before she sighed.
“We can’t figure it out in these conditions. Does the Emperor know?”
“No.” I said flatly. “Nobody in my family knows yet.”
“Alright. Now, this might be uncomfortable to answer but… This isn’t the first time this urge has come over you either, is it?”
I shook my head.
“It’s happened four times before. I know we’re close, but that’s as much as I can say about it right now without that pain coming back.”
This was a lie, but she seemed to believe me. She hugged me again and I could feel her tighten her grip around me this time.
“I’m not letting my friend suffer in silence.” she said, releasing me. “You can’t say anything about it, but I can. So we’ll work together to find little hints and bread crumbs about it until I can say it for you. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous, and you’re suffering because of it.”
“You’re really far too kind to me.” I laughed nervously. “But, I appreciate it. Maybe you’re right, and we can figure it out easier together. But until we can, I think I’d like to ask a very large favor.”
“Anything.” she confirmed. I smiled.
“Please, let’s find a spell to seal my own spells.”
Magna Varia 