Eldred chuckled. “And yet the same. We draw Essence from nature, and your kind draws it from yourselves. Our magic cannot mix, for energies change once it passes through us. Yet the same type of power created it—life force. Which is found in all living things.” With a soft murmur in Elvish, a handful of leaves at his feet fluttered up into the air, leisurely spinning above his palm. “Have you wondered why mages can levitate with a thought and elves with a word?”
“Our intent is directed by our minds,” Lucenna said, watching the leaves spin. “Elves speak their spells to direct their intent.”
“Yes, to direct itprecisely. To build the spell with one finite purpose with word and rune, and to execute this purpose without error.” Turning away from her, she felt the pull of power as Eldred chanted,“Sajoh noi'cativel, es'recah sadapes yat'roc.”
A hexagon built around his hand, blazing with runes. Instead of aiming at the target, he aimed at a boulder. The leaves shot forth, piercing stone.
Lucenna gaped at the small green blades and imagined them slicing through a body. He had done that withleaves.
The presence of his Essence charged the air. His power was on a different level than she had ever felt before. It surpassed her father’s and her uncle’s.
“There was a time when your kind once did the same,” Eldred said.
“Mages?” she asked in bewilderment.
“Sorceresses.”
Lucenna’s breath caught. No one outside of Magos used that word. “When?”
“Before Magos relied solely on thought and the crutch of crystals. Before the spoken spell was replaced by enchanted artifacts.” He glanced at her hands clenched in shaking fists. “Before the women of Magos were bound.”
Lucenna’s eyes widened, her heart racing. “How do you know this?”
“A long time ago, when the Vale of the Elves was under one kingdom, your people used to come here to study incantations in our schools. It was organized, structured magic. Not spells thrown at a whim like a child splashing in a pool. This was a discipline lost to your people when they lost their way.”
The mere thought of women being allowed to study magic made her eyes sting. Lucenna could almost picture it. Sorceresses within schools, creating incredible spells with only their words. “Why did we stop?”
Mages could have kept coming even if women were no longer allowed to study magic.
Eldred cast another spell, and a glowing pentagram formed on the ground around them, spreading with rings of several runes. More than she had ever seen before. “Merely speaking a spell is not enough. The practice begins with learning to form the array in your mind and carefully placing the runes. Not one can be out of place, or the spell will falter. Perhaps this is the most difficult. It takes many rigorous years of study to master such complex magic, but never could a mage hold to the caliber of a sorceress. They were talented in this somehow, surpassing to a level they could not reach. Most never needed to use a staff.”
Therefore, Mages removed the practice of incantations because they would have indeed never gained control of them if sorceresses could fight back with a single word.
Her pulse was drumming in her ears, her veins heating with rage. Electricity sparked around her clenched fists. The empire had bound them in so many ways, they never had a chance.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Eldred turned to her with a smile. “It has been quite some time since I have had the opportunity to teach a student with the means to surpass their potential. You have the makings to become a great sorceress, Lucenna. I would be honored to teach you.”
CHAPTER 90
Von
“You decided to go, then?” Von asked as he took a drink from his mug.
“Aye,” Klyde replied. He looked up at the windows of the estate that glowed with candlelight. The croak of frogs and the chirp of nightlife filled the garden. “Now that I know Tarn is still out there, I need to take Tavin back to the one place he can’t reach him.”
Because Tavin had both Morken blood and blood of the Ice Phoenix.
That put his life in danger.
Zev tossed another log into the stone fire pit they sat around. The flames hissed, scattering embers into the chilly night. “If the worst comes to happen, and Tarn learns about the boy, what will you do?”
The firelight gleamed in Klyde’s stony eyes. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Tavin. No sin I wouldn’t commit.”
Including spilling the blood of his kinsmen. There was no need for it, however, because Von had already decided it would be his blade that would pierce Tarn’s heart.
“When the time comes, I will not hesitate,” he said.
