“Do you?”
“No… The only scrap of hatred I can find in me now is for the elfin’ra who harmed you.”
“Then whatdoyou feel about me?” The question brought his eyes back to her. Taavin stared for a long moment and Vi held his gaze. Whatever he said would be fine. Her chest tightened. Whatever he said next wouldn’t change anything for her—not their pursuit of the apexes, not his tutelage, not her heart.
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
“Good.” Vi’s voice had gone equally soft. “That makes two of us then.”
He finally pulled his gaze from hers and Vi felt like a trance had been broken. Taavin looked down at the magic spinning around her fingers. She’d all but forgotten she was maintainingnarro hathstill. Now she stared into it, watching it curve and double-back on itself before spinning outward again.
“You should let the magic go, so you can recover.”
“Or you can keep me company until I fall asleep.” Vi shifted farther back into her pillows. The magic had been thin to begin with. Now it was nearly exhausted. It wouldn’t be long until he was pulled from her again.
“That, I suppose I can do. I’m beginning to enjoy having some company in my solitary life. Even if it comes from the woman I can’t escape.”
“Maybe…” Vi whispered, “I’m glad you can’t escape me.”
Taavin gave her a small smile, one Vi returned. They stayed just as they were, his ghostly hand on hers. Looking at nothing, looking at everything, until Vi could no longer sustain the magic and she drifted quietly off into sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Even though Viwas only in bed on cleric’s orders for three days, her tutors decided they did not want to “push her” right away.
A part of her was offended at the notion, but a larger part was relieved.
There was work to do.
“The more words you add, the more detailed the spell and its outcome,” Taavin explained, perched on what had become his spot at the edge of her bed.
“The book outlines two words—the main and subordinate.” Vi had one of the drawers of her dresser opened. Sehra’s book was perched inside, the inner lip of the drawer holding open the page so her hands were free. “That’s how it breaks up the chapters at least… So there’snarro, and thenhathis a sub-word underneath it.”
“Yes, that’s correct. There’s a structure to the chants… The first word of every chant is the high-level discipline you’re invoking.” Taavin held up a finger.
“Such as healing, or deception, or destruction…” Vi said, to make sure she was following along.
“Just so. The second word is the classification within that discipline.” He held up two fingers now. “Most chants will have at least two words. But sometimes there’s a third—the clarification.”
Vi lifted the book, flipping through the pages. She was becoming more familiar with the glyphs, her mind more accustomed to reading them. “I don’t see—”
“They’re there, likely not marked. Let me see.” Taavin stood and looked down over her shoulder. “Go tonarro… flip the page, again, again—no wait, you’ve gone too far, back one.” Sometimes, it was a pain to be his hands in the physical world. “There—loreth.”
“Loreth,” Vi repeated, allowing the new word to settle on her. “To imprint a communication mark.”
“Like this.” Taavin pointed to the watch around her neck. Vi looked down. She was so familiar now with the hazy mark that hovered above it whenever she spoke to him that it barely registered any longer. “That was created withloreth; it is my unique communication mark.”
“So that’s why I can summon you, but you can’t summon me.”
“Unless you’re at an apex.” He took a step away and Vi fought a chill. She was growing familiar with how his magic registered as warmth. Especially when he was near.
“Right…” Their means of communication remained a noru in the room. Neither of them could offer an acceptable explanation for how she came to be in possession of his token. To some extent, Vi didn’t want to try to figure it out. As curious as she was, doing so would remove the mystery—the magic—of it all.
“So you have your first high-level discipline word, then the secondary, then the clarification,” Taavin continued.
“Would you ever have two clarifications?”
He shook his head. “At that point, the magic is shaped by intent. Takehalleth, for example.”Halleth, to heal, Vi filled in mentally. “Rutais the sub-discipline ofhallethfor mending the flesh. But then there are clarifications beyond that—sotfor inner wounds, andtofffor outer. Let’s say I were to heal that crooked bit in your nose that hasn’t quite set right.”
