“Do you think weapons will be necessary for the tournament?” Cullen asked.
“They’ve already pitched us head-to-head once, I’ve no doubt they could again,” Noelle said.
“If not the tournament, then for the Pillars. We have our magic, but it never hurts to have more options of attack rather than less.” Alyss folded and unfolded her fingers. Eira recognized the uncomfortable motion and wondered if she was thinking much along the same lines as Eira was.
Eira nodded. “It’s good thinking, Alyss.”
“If there are no objections from the group, I’m going to work with the iron ball,” Noelle announced. “I want to experiment with melting it and transforming it. My extended family arejewelers, so perhaps the propensity for hot metal manipulation extends to me. Maybe there’s something hidden inside.”
“Please don’t completely destroy it,” Eira said.
“I won’t. Shouldn’t.” Noelle grinned and took the ball.
If Alyss was going to work on her own magic solo, and Noelle, too, then that just left Cullen. Eira tried to swallow down any awkwardness. They would never move past their discomfort and tension if they didn’t try.
“What are you going to practice?” Judging from the way he held himself, he felt as awkward as she did. He kept adjusting his shoulders, each time slouching more casually than the last while somehow seeming more and more stiff.
“I’m actually going to need your help,” she said.
“My help?”
“I want to keep working on my ability to manipulate channels,” Eira said. They had started to do so in the arena prepared for them in Risen, to no real result. But she still had the keen senses honed by the pit. She still had Ferro’s claims of what she could do in the back of her mind. Now she had time to herself, without interruption or eyes, to really push the limitations of her magic. “But I can’t do that alone.”
“Ah, you know I’m happy to help you.”
“Let’s regroup at dinner?” Noelle suggested.
“Sounds good.” Alyss headed out back. Noelle situated herself on the floor by the fireplace, fingertips already ablaze.
“We could use my room,” Cullen offered, and quickly added, “only if you want to.”
“Why would we need a room?” Eira’s defenses instantly rose.
“Because I thought it might be easier for you to focus without other magic muddling the air?” He gestured in the directions of Noelle and Alyss. “Unless you’d prefer upstairs?”
“Oh, right…” Eira glanced askance, a bit guilty for thinking the worst of him instantly. He had a point. Eira quickly decided she didn’t want him in her space. “Sure, your room works.”
Cullen’s room was on the first floor, to the left of the front door. His room was as well appointed as theirs was, following their win. The warm glow of the tiny flames trapped in the glass bulbs overhead combined with tapestries that had been hung on the walls.
“They didn’t hang tapestries for us upstairs,” Eira commented.
“Those were actually blankets…but I’m usually too warm, rather than too cold, so I decided to hang them.”
Eira ran her fingers over the silk. It really was a fine thing the draconi had made. “It looks nice. You have decent design sense.”
“I do what I can.” He smiled. “Now, what do you need from me?”
“We’ll pick back up where we left off.” Which, admittedly, wasn’t very far. Amid the chaos of the shadows and the Pillars, Eira hadn’t had much time to focus on learning too many new skills. Moreover, this was something that she hadn’t wanted to practice too much in front of people’s watchful eyes, and the practice arena in Risen was entirely out in the open.
“Refresh my memory?” Cullen scratched the back of his head and sat on the floor underneath the window.
Eira sat on the floor opposite, leaning against the foot of the bed. If he wasn’t going to sit on the bed, neither would she. No implications. No tension. Not today. They were both carefully treading this new path forward.
“Ferro had said that he thought I cut off his magic during the night in the woods when he killed Marcus.” The fact that she could keep her voice level during that statement had Eira surprised and impressed with herself. Cullen frowned slightly, but she must have seemed as put together and emotionally incontrol as she felt, because he didn’t immediately console her. “After the pit, something felt different in my ability to sense magic. And then there was the night of the attack on the Court of Shadows.”
“When you felt like you opened Deneya’s channel a bit wider,” he said, checking his memory.
Eira nodded. It was well established that Waterrunners could manipulate the channels people used to access their magic. If a sorcerer had their magic blocked—by force or will—it was done by a Waterrunner. That was no doubt the grounds on which Fritz pitched himself as a useful set of hands to the clerics. But learning how to perform those magical feats was a difficult process. And even though it was possible to close a magic channel…there was no record of widening one to increase the flow of magic.
