Tales of Ayre

“Grey fur.” A familiar crystal-like voice spoke into Jace’s ear. His nose buried into his tail, being in his travel form so he could be warmer in the deep of winter and the wind howling. “I need you.”

Jace flicked his head and groaned. “What…?” How was Topaz still active at this hour?

“I want out.” Her voice, a low whistle.

“We talked about this…” He shifted in place, wanting to sleep.

The spirit became frustrated with his lack of reaction. “I don’t want to spend another century trapped and alone here.”

“I don’t know where YOU are, Topaz.”

“I’ve been awake for centuries. I want to sleep. Just get the Witch to give me to you.”

“And then what? What would I get doing that?” Jace flicked an ear pointedly in Topaz’s direction.

“A gem spirit to call on.” Topaz sighed and with an earnest cry. “I just want to finally rest, please.. Help.. me…” The spirit vanished as suddenly as she arrived. Jace growled and smashed his hand against his bed.

For once, Jace was the one up and early. Deliberately and quietly, he shuttled down the stairs to the living area and started the hearth with tinder and an iron striker. Whoever woke up first was the one who cooked breakfast for the others, unless it was Cedar.

He had this. Evaliena’s coaching and training in the culinary arts was quite thorough, more so than his training with mana or his sparring with Cedar. Knowing how to knead, chop, grind, whisk, and mix in the correct way were essential skills for alchemy and a number of other things.

So Jace thought to himself. Let’s get a little creative today. He knew the larder like the back of his hand. Fresh eggs and milk kept in scripted preservation jars. Some salt and spices. Green cheese, that wasn’t green, was just very fresh and creamy. And little green shoots that tasted of garlic and onions.

So he prepared a flat pan with some lard and let it get hot. His ears twitched. He could hear Evaliena waking up and moving about upstairs. The others would wake up soon. Jace threw a small wad of butter into the ripping hot pan. It skidded around, sizzling away, releasing wonderful aromas. He poured the egg mixture pan and immediately stirred with a wooden fork. The timing had to be perfect, or this would not be as smooth or as pretty as he hoped.

“My, aren’t you up early?” Evaliena said with a quiet voice as the stairs creaked with every step. “You even did the courtesy of starting the hearth and cooking me breakfast?” Jace kept his focus on the forming silken omelette in the pan. Evaliena seemed content to watch him work. She sat up close. He manoeuvred the pan, shifting the omelette to one side and filled it with cheese before carefully folding it closed. He slid the omelette onto a ready wooden plate without it collapsing, finishing with a bit of red spice powder and those green shoots.

Jace turned around and offered the plate. “Your breakfast is served.” Jace smiled at the vixen.

Evaliena smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t turn down something new. Especially if it smelt this good.” She shuffled up and sniffed at the yellow roll of cooked eggs. “But I’ll handle everyone else, if you don’t mind.” She took up a spoon. “You’re still free to help, however.”

It was a slow, agonising process waiting for Evaliena to chew through the entire omelette. She didn’t say or betray any hint of her verdict until she finished. “Well.” She wiped her muzzle with a cloth. “That was certainly creamy… you’ll have to show me what you did.”

“It’s good, right?” Jace inquired nervously.

“It’s excellent. I didn’t know you could scramble eggs in that way, to be honest.” She spoke earnestly. “Now wash up and help me with the breakfast for the others.” “Oh, and if you wake up this early again, you are cooking for everyone else.”

After two long years. Evaliena was finally teaching Jace his first spell.

“Now Jace.” Evaliena announced. “Spells made up of several parts. As I teach you spellcraft after today. You’ll learn just how deep the rabbit hole goes.” She turns and starts tapping on the blackboard. Writing out familiar runes as it created a word. “This first rune word is also your first spell. Can you tell me what its intention is?”

Jace looked at the rune word. He sensed a faint feeling. Maybe because the chalk contained some conductive material, Jace sensed something there. “To connect?” he guessed, as he tilted his head to think.

“Very good. Your intuition is growing in just nicely.” The yellow vixen gave an approving smile. “Now, can you form it for me?” As she turned around, crossing her arm over one another.

Jace held out his hands before him and started expressing and manipulating his mana. Slowly forming the spell construct gingerly between his fingers. Its silvery web glinting his vision. With care, he linked the runes together as each formed. Then the construct fizzled out. “Drat.” He cursed.

Evaliena let out an understanding chuckle. “You’re not the first apprentice of mine who failed their first spell. Try again for me. This is a relatively simple spell.”

Jace felt like asking what the spell was called. He, however, did as instructed. Forming the spell construct between his held out hands. Slowly forming the spell construct. Jace realised what he did wrong the first time. He took too long. Soon the spell construct stabilised his hands. Begging to be used.

“Good!” Evaliena spoke encouragingly. Then the spell collapsed as Jace got excited. He let out an annoyed groan. The vixen walked over and rubbed Jace on the shoulder. “You managed to form the spell. Do it again and try to keep it formed.”

Jace rolled his eyes. But this was no different from Cedar’s training and forming and holding the runes. He formed it again. And managed to hold the spell in place for more than a moment.

“Much better. Now keep that spell formed.” She lifted her hand off of Jace’s shoulder and moved away to sit.

“What am I just meant to keep forming? For how long?” One of Jace’s ears tilted down as he didn’t know how long he could hold this construct for.

“As soon as I’m done explaining what the spell is.” She smiled, crossed one leg over and raised her head in her palm, leaning on the armrest. “Despite its simplicity, it’s quite useful.”

Jace groaned. “Get to the point. Please.” His arms were actually starting to get tired.

Evaliena let out a puff of breath. “What you’re holding is called the Source Link spell. It allows you to link your source or someone else’s to something or someone else.”

Jace wondered about the uses for such a spell. Then he looked at the flickering flame above the gem of his bracelet. There was a very subtle line of mana he didn’t notice before. “Ah, I’m glad you noticed.” Jace’s arms were beginning to tire from being held up before him. “What do you think I did?” Evaliena implied.

The spell broke as he dropped his arms. “You linked my Feina to the flame?”

“Anything more?” Evaliena smiled softly. Jace shook his head. “That’s basically it. But there is a bit more.”

“Go on. What else can the spell do?”

“Well, to answer a question with a question. What could you do with such a link?” Evaliena’s eyes narrowed.

Again he wondered. And lifted his arm up to look at the bracelet’s flame. Maybe he could feed a little mana through the link? He sent a pulse of his mana through the link, and the flame swelled in size. “Oh… that’s… interesting.”

“There’s more you can do with that link.” She pushed.

“You can pull mana from things and people?”

“That’s stating the obvious, but yes,” she spoke casually. “You can’t pull directly from another person’s source. That mana is tightly bound to their person. But you can drain everything flowing across their body.”

Jace remembered Burr’s comments on using one’s source for spells. Draining someone else’s source would be tantamount to murder, he surmised. “What would happen when you drain all their mana?”

“Well, you should know. You had a similar experience with Cedar.” Evaliena commented. Jace winced. Cedar’s ‘lesson’ on controlling the mana. When he restricted the flow, his body lacked conditioning for so little mana, and he became exhausted.

“Alright, what happens if I force my mana into other people, then?”

“You make them throw up.” She said bluntly, with a smile and a wag of her tail. Such a simple spell with so many applications, Jace thought. The vixen continued. “The reason being is your mana is incompatible with theirs, but it will not kill them. I could do the same to you if I wanted until your Feina grows used to processing it.” That was a sober thought for Jace. “But I won’t intentionally put you through that. With time, your body will just do it naturally.”

No shortcut, he guessed. Everything took time. Jace could do nothing about it and just had to bear it. “Is there anything else the Source Link spell can do?”

“Oh, you can puppet people with it.” She spoke casually again. “But I advise not to do it on those trained in martial or arcane arts.”

Jace connected the dots in his head. Naturally, such individuals would be resistant to someone taking control of their sources.

“Or people with strong wills.” She added.

“Why’s that?” Jace could only ask.

“Because it would rip their source apart using their willpower to resist such a hold. Unless your intention was to kill them, anyway.” Evaliena explained. Jace’s legs ache from standing around for so long. “Anyway, form the spell again. I’ll keep going.” He did so more easily than the first three times. “That’s it, hold there. Now, a person’s willpower when it comes to the arcane is everything.”

“The stronger it is, the stronger the spell?” He gingerly held the spell up.

“Rather, the stronger your will is, the harder it is for someone to take away control of your spell. Or inversely, take control of their spell away from them, if you have the willpower for it.”

Jace’s spell collapsed as he exclaimed. “You can do that?!” The idea never quite crossed his mind that an individual could take and manipulate the spells of others.

“And you’ll be able to do that.” She smiled wider. “Eventually. But keep that between us, not many mages know you can steal away their spells.”

Jace kept his quiet and nodded. Such an idea would be nice to keep in his back pocket. “But shouldn’t it be common knowledge?”

“To be fair, Ashwood.” Evaliena leant her head back. “It takes a fair bit of experimentation to figure one can do that. So many masters keep that trick close to their chest. For you, it’s free. Now get back to practising.” She waved her hand commandingly.

“You’re not worried about me telling others?” Jace inquired. Evaliena didn’t reply, but Jace could feel a certain mischievous and menacing gaze upon him. He decided to shift the subject. There was something Evaliena wanted to tell him and something he wanted to bring up. “There is something I wish to bring up.” As he began practising.

“Oh?” Evaliena sounded intrigued. “What could it possibly be?”

“Topaz wants you to hand her over to me.” Jace spoke earnestly.

Evaliena let out a sigh. “I guess it’s time then.” She pushed herself up from her chair. “Come, follow me.” She waved her arm dispassionately. That concerned Jace. No argument, no dismissal. What did Evaliena have to show and tell him?

Heading down into the bowels of the keep’s basement. Jace hadn’t had much reason to be down here, even after awakening his powers. What was behind that heavily barred door mildly intrigued him. But they stopped at the base of the stairs instead of going much further than Jace thought. Evaliena was not talking this time. An eerie quiet hung over the pair.

Evaliena clicked her fingers, and the bricks of a wall peeled away. Sliding across one around with a scratching of stone. Realigning themselves into an opening to a passage. Jace didn’t feel surprised at all. Maybe the barred door was a misdirection?

The passage itself as they walked through had an incline to it. And the walls were lit with cold, ghostly lights different from the warm orange crystals Jace was used to. The smell of the place felt old and thick with dust. The cold of the stone tiles cut through the isolation on Jace’s furred feet. He felt a tinge of pity for Topaz. She must have been down here all this time, alone. But he had to keep his feelings on the matter to himself until he heard Evaliena’s story on the matter.

The lights were getting darker the further they walked down the passage. However, there was a soft yellowish light emanating from around the bend. Evaliena broke the silence. “I’ve done a great many horrible deeds, my apprentice. All in the name of saving my home world. But I guess that abomination has suffered enough.”

“I understand there are things you don’t want brought up…” Jace kept walking.

“I sequester myself away from the world at large because…” Evaliena stammered quietly. “Because I’m afraid. All this power at my fingertips and I’m deeply afraid.”

“Of facing the consequences?” Jace flicked his ear.

“In a way. I was entirely justified and think you’ll agree with me when I tell my story.” Evaliena clicked her fingers again and something around the corner shifted. “Meet Topaz in the flesh.”

Jace didn’t know what he was expecting. The room was simple, with a few crystal lights hovering next to the walls. The real centrepiece was the amber-like crystal stitched to the wall opposite him. He could barely make out a silhouette within the amber. Before, the crystal that apparently contained the gem spirit, lay a pedestal. Right in the centre was a swirling vortex of silvery runes. Too many to count, shifting and altering constantly. It was drawing in mana and sending it up into the ceiling. There was so much mana it almost drowned out the linkage between it and the amber.

He pointed to the pedestal. “What. Is that?”

“That’s Topaz.” Evaliena said flatly.

“And the thing behind it?”

“That’s also Topaz.”

Jace recalled that Topaz mentioned an armature. “What have you been doing with it?” He looked to the vixen who stared at the amber.

Evaliena’s sapphire eye burned with ghostly fire as it shifted to look at Jace. “It? Or Her?” she shifted her gaze back to the amber. “I’ve been using her to power the shroud for the keep. Nothing more.”

“So you woke up and put her into a kind of stasis?” He gestured to the amber on the wall. He noticed the thick, caking layer of dust that covered everything. “How long has she been down?!”

“I’m sure that sharp mind of yours can figure it out. One moment.” Evaliena walked up to the pedestal and summoned a crystal out of her Lemis. She casually threw the gem up into the air and it took over the gathering of mana and subsequently driving it through the ceiling.

“What did she do to deserve this?” Jace said with a low voice. He could feel his tail straighten out with anger. This was immoral. Unreasonable. What on earth could this spirit have done to deserve this type of fate?

“She’s a gem spirit of sorts. A construct created to serve a purpose. But Topaz here is an abomination. Rather than the usual creative process, like cultivating a flower or birthing a new life. Forged using sorcery. The art of manipulating sources. Like your Feina. Your Soul.” Evaliena pointed at Jace and pushed him on the chest hard with a single clawed finger.

“Ow!”

“Sit.” she commanded with a venomous and terrifying voice. One that would cause anyone to listen immediately lest they suffer the consequences. Jace sat on the dust caked floor. The yellow vixen flicked her hand irritability at the amber. “Wake you.”

The amber melted away. Little by little, drop by dissipating drop. As her body revealed, Topaz’s familiar yellow canid form with long pointed ears and tri-forked tail limply fell forward. And dropped with a heavy crystal cracking thud. Causing the dust to plume out and up away from Topaz’s fall. The gem spirit let in a sharp choking gasp and hopped quickly onto all fours. Shaking lightly in fear. “Y-y-yes Mistress!”

“Sit beside my student.” Evaliena growled before becoming calm again. She leant herself against the pedestal, facing Jace as the yellow gem spirit dashed over to his side. Topaz’s claws sounded like the tapping of glass against stone. “I am going to tell you both about the paths to power and the two wars that shaped me.” She narrowed her eyes at Jace with an unnerving smile. “And you’ll listen and understand.”

“I don…”

She raised a finger to silence Jace. “Ah ah ahh. I’m speaking here. Keep whatever questions you want to ask written down.” Evaliena summoned and threw a slate of wax and a pen into Jace’s lap. She looked at Topaz. “Do you think you can convince me to give her to you? It depends on how you receive my story.”

Jace caught the infliction in Evaliena’s voice. There was a lot of buried anger in that tone. And maybe some regret there too.

“Let’s start where it all began. Back during the Abyssal wars… that I was born in the middle of.” Evaliena took a more sombre tone as she began to recall her youth.

Over Six hundred winters ago.

“This is bad,” complained a rough male voice.

A group of robed individuals from various races; Mers, Therian, Kith. Cloistered under a glowing, swirling orb. The scent of wood smoke hung in the air as a fireplace roared with life, silhouetting the group’s figures against the opposite wall.

“We just don’t have enough spell casters to push back the horde.”

“We can not train spell casters fast enough.” Said another voice. “The Abyssal cohorts advance every day. They’re transforming the steppe around the fissure into an environment fit for sustaining them.”

“And toxic to everyone who isn’t a mage,” lamented an old female voice.

Others less wizened than the central group were leaning against the worn stone walls of the room, or looking down at the discussion from galleries above nestled near the vaulted ceiling.

“Do you think we’ll find a solution? Evaliena?” Spoke a voice near the yellow vixen’s ear. She clutched the wooden heft of her staff close to her chest. She wore a full set of dully coloured robes with the hood draped over her head. No flair for a mageling of her age.

“I- I-, don’t know…” the young vixen meekly replied to the voice next to her. “This invasion is.. The largest yet. They took us by surprise and now they have a foothold. We just don’t have the numbers anymore.”

“That’s grim…” The voice spoke low.

“I don’t want to be fighting for the rest of my life…” a melancholy in her tone. “But abandoning my home isn’t an option now…” She squeezed the staff tightly between her gloved fingers.

“You should read the room sometime, girl.” Replied a warning voice. “The murmurs are getting desperate. We may well end up birthing horrors into this world. That we would regret while fighting this endless tide of monsters.”

But the young vixen mage didn’t know just how desperate the war for Ayre was going to get. That desperation cut away at principle. It cut away at moral codes. Necromancy, forcing the bodies of the dead to fight to fill out the ranks of dwindling martialists. No normal warrior could hope to shield themselves against the poisonous life force of abyssal monsters.

It wasn’t enough. The abyssal sapped away the energies of even those negatively charged bodies. The abyss adapted tactics. An ever more desperate cycle continued as the affected land expanded. The arcane arts could only do so much. There was only so much time they could save before the quality of the spellcasters dropped off.

When there were no options left. One journey mage proposed a solution.

“No.” Sounded the raised voices of many mages in opposition, despite how desperate the circumstances grew.

“We. Need. More spellcasters.” Shouted those in favour.

“We can’t shackle souls like this!” “That’s the Pantokrator’s domain!”

“If we don’t create more spellcasters, we will lose.” The young mage muttered in defeat. Quietly accepting the reasoning behind creating the dreaded elementals. There were risks. The newly forged sorcerers, labelled as such for control of the source of power. The Soul. Could simply refuse to give up their temporary powers. If they’ve misjudged the process, they could just be handing the abyss more souls to take.

Existing mages had little use for elementals. The extra source of mana and an extra ‘limb’ was nice, but they needed more spellcasters, not longer lasting spellcasters.

The races of Mer and Therian alike refused the very idea of elementals all together. But of the Kith, the Humes eagerly took up the moniker of Sorcerer. They created hundreds, thousands of new sorcerers. Often with the souls of criminals and slaves. And sometimes even loved ones.

Thousands of sorcerer-elemental pairs stood on the battlefield. Burning the abyssal monsters back yard by yard, mile by mile until finally the fissure was closed.

Then came the consequences of the mage council’s decision. Proponents made excuses for keeping the elementals bound in service. They made more elementals... They said the next invasion was just on the horizon. It’s just criminals and low lives… they said.

It was originally a Therian who came up with the process that turned captured souls into Elementals. As well as the soul binding enchantment, known as heart stone.

The young mage and many other like-minded demanded the same; Release of the elementals from their service. The opposing sorcerers refused. This was ‘their’ reward. This was their chance at taking the power they so rightly deserved.

The abyssal wars had ended permanently. The Sorcerer War had begun. It was the single most blood conflict Ayre had ever seen. Cities and towns burned. Clans annihilated. Friendships and families ripped apart. Mage traditions and their knowledge, destroyed. Anyone that could have knowledge of the enchantment and the elemental creation process was to be targeted, with the aim of wiping the knowledge from the face of history.

The young many tailed witch. Scarred, demonised by all for her role in the proliferation of sorcery. Was one of the very few true mages left on Ayre. The Mer had retreated to their mountains and isles. Therian clans borrowed deeper into the untamed wilds. The Hume of the Kith were ascendent with their new ill-gained power.

A pyrrhic victory that came at the cost of everything. A few had gotten away. Tens of thousands of elementals remained.

She threw her old epithet into the wind along with so many tears. To be forgotten. Broken and unable to continue fighting anymore.

Sandalwood was now her new name.

Jace sat there for several minutes. This was absurd. He had read about the wars while he was living here. Evaliena even bought him a few books from her trips away. Cedar and Burr had spoken about legends and myths about those wars. He knew Evaliena was old enough to be around them. He knew the cost was high. But this was absurd.

But she spoke with such a dead tone in her voice. No flare, no smiles, no shift in the voice. He’d known Evaliena to hide the truth from time to time, but this was different, raw…

“Now you’re going to wonder what this has to do with Topaz?” Evaliena was sitting on the floor now, her knees tucked up against her chest with her tail curled depressively around them. Like she had just poured out her worse before her. “I’ll give you a hint. You can see the colour of my soul.”

Jace didn’t bother to look at Topaz. He was familiar with the feel and colour of Topaz’s aura, since she willingly flaunts it every chance she gets. “She was created with someone’s soul?”

Evaliena flicked an ear in acknowledgement.

“Someone you knew?” Jace speculated. He looked over to the small yellow canid sitting next to him. Topaz was as still as stone. Sibling? Child? Cousin? Clan member? He wasn’t going to reach out, feel and compare both.

Jace heard a light chitter. Then Topaz exploded, eyes twitching madly. “You kept me around?! For so long suffering?! Because I’m related to you!?” It was like a cascade of crystal chimes. “Is that why you never killed me off?! When you slaughtered all my siblings?!” The black eyes look up at the swirling mass that was Topaz’s armature. “I’ll end it myself!”

The little canid leapt towards the pedestal and got caught in midair by grey-ish looking mana. Topaz let out a groan of frustration. Jace expected a roar with how worked up the spirit had become.

“I despise sorcerers. Jace. The Abyssals took my parents. The Sorcery Wars took my clan.” Evaliena let out a tired sigh. She pulled a glass basket-flask from her Lemis. Jace could smell the alcohol the instant the top popped the slosh of the liquid inside. It was strong. “Some geometers thought the ashes of my clan and others were vital ingredients for their project.” The yellow vixen swirled the flask around. Why would the ashes be important? “Would you like to know what they used their creations on?”

Jace didn’t feel like he had a choice in the matter now. So he just nodded along. Evaliena kept speaking. “They targeted therian clans. I was out one day, had I not returned.” Jace could hear Topaz’s teeth grind. “My first mate and litter would have been dead.”

“I wasn’t in control.” Topaz protested.

“Your creators and siblings slaughtered many people I knew.” the yellow vixen’s sapphire eyes glared at the spirit. “I lost a pup. With you standing over their corpse. Wearing my sister’s colours.” Evaliena took a swig of the flask.

Jace slowly connected the dots and remained quiet.

Evaliena held her hand up with all four fingers stretched out. “There are a few ways one gains the ability to manipulate mana, Jace. You can be born a mage. Or study to become one. You could form a pact with a higher being to become a mage. Or you could dabble in the soul arts; Sorcery. I’d hoped that I’d seen the last of that path.”

Jace did not know how to respond. The yellow vixen slowly put Topaz back down next to Jace. He surmised he was sitting next to two mass murders, with one who had likely ended the lives of tens of thousands personally, sitting right in front of them, drinking down their sorrows. Evaliena was eyeing him and Topaz with an expression Jace would associate as “what would be a few more?” Would she really do it? She’s only shown Jace kindness… Could Evaliena really be the monster she and Topaz make her out to be?

“So what is your answer?” Evaliena said flatly. Jace heard the slightest quiver in that tone. But what does he say? What could he say to an individual who’s been around for nearly seven centuries. She’s looking for reconciliation, he thought.

He looked around anxiously. Jace, however, eventually settled on the long shot of an idea. He took a breath to calm himself. “You’ve been hiding for the better part of six centuries… Evaliena. And you’ve had Topaz… doing this for how long?” He tilted his head questioningly.

“I haven’t been counting the moons.” Topaz butted in. Then caught herself and sat straight.

“Three.” Evaliena added curtly as she took another swig from the flask. Holding it so precariously.

Jace took another deep breath. “I don’t know how many transgressions Topaz has done. But I’m assuming she’s been in your care for at least five hundred years… They weren’t in control and you’ve blamed and punished her for the actions of a group she had no say in being a part of…” He tried his best to lay out his reasoning. “You dealt with them… You’ve done your best to be a healing force in this world, but I can’t stop the cycle.”

Evaliena closed her eyes, took a loud breath and let out a long, tired sigh.

Three sat there for many agonising minutes.

The yellow vixen stood up slowly and turned to the armature hovering over the pedestal. She summoned an amber crystal from her Lemis. She grabbed the swirling ball of silver and jammed it against the crystal. The silvery armature disappeared inside, filling the crystal with a warm glow. “This is yours. Look after it.” She threw the bauble over Jace’s lap. “I’m going to my room, do not bother me.” And walked up lazily back up the hallway.

Topaz and Jace look at each other.