“So it is a real place.”
“Was.” Hesper went silent, her eyes unfocused, the one word sucking up all the comfort from the roaring fire.
A million questions swirled in my head. What had brought her all the way here? What happened to her kingdom? To her people? Her family?
“The fae part should answer the rest of your questions,” she said swiftly. I swallowed my other inquiries down. I knew too well the desire to keep pain inside forever; some stories were too sad to tell. But I did want to know hers even still, to discover how patchworked our lives had been right up until the moment we met. Two people who’d lost their homes might find solace in each other.
Now was not the time. Perhaps it never would be. We weren’t on this quest to be friends. “Eldrene gave Edge to me when I joined her Train after—after. As for my ability to smell magic, well, fae are notoriously good at smelling most things.”
I desperately hoped Hesper could not smell everything.
My moon cycle was just around the corner, and my traitorous body always heated around her.
“Does all magic smell different depending on the person?” I asked, settling on the least heavy of my questions.
“Most magic smells the same, save for a few special cases. For starters, garden magic—earth magic, rather—smells like dirt. I can sniff it from a mile away.” She wrinkled hernose. “You don’t smell like that at all. Kitchen magic smells like sweet bread and thyme, honey magic like pollen and honeycomb, seeing magic like snow and silver.”
I recoiled at the mention of seeing magic. I prayed to never meet a seer in my life, not again.
“Withering magic smells like rotted leaves and ash. But it wasn’t always like that.” I knit my brows together, trying to understand. She went on, scooting closer and using her hands to paint a picture before me.
“There are many different kinds of magic now—less powerful and more for daily use. And sure, there are still the magics that can bring abundance. Folks with manifestation magic can weave their will into their fortunes. The effect isn’t far-reaching, but if they, for instance, want riches, suddenly, a life path might present itself to them, one that will result in money gained sooner rather than later.” I nodded along. I had heard of that type of magic, but it was so rare, no one I knew bore it.
“Of course, you know beauty magic.” I groaned, thinking of Helda; Hesper grinned, looking at me. “Anyway, they may bring one fame and fortune, but they are still lesser, the effects less permanent. Before, magic was more potent, harder to control, and very few could wield it. Magic found its source in elements—earth, air, water, fire. There was also day or night magic, far less common. Then the rarest, death and life.”
She weighed these two in each hand. “If one had magic, they had only one kind—still making them extremely powerful. After the Elden Wars, though, the Gods and Goddesses did away with one being harnessing that much power. They opted to dilute magic out through humans and other folk,creating newer, less dangerous magic—more controlled.” She clapped her hands together, then splayed her fingers out. “Here we are today. So kitchen magic is really a diluted combination of earth and fire magic, channeled through that being’s own proclivity.”
“I see,” I said, slowly nodding my head. “And I don’t smell like any of the magic—diluted or undiluted.”
“You do. You smell like—”
“Sunshine, I know.”
“And that, princess, is not a lesser magic.”
I rolled my eyes. The conversation was over; there was no use in defending my own lack of magic. The last thing I wanted was for someone to tell me I had a great magic inside of me when I knew that not to be true. I’d lived my childhood with that burden; I needed not carry it on this journey. I’d let Hesper believe whatever she wanted; at least we were now on the same page, sort of.
She knew I had no magic I could use, and I knew this seed pack was my only hope of getting back home.
Belly full and bone-tired from the day’s journey, my body begged for sleep. I unfurled my bedroll and placed it beside the fire. I climbed into it just as Hesper climbed into hers beside me. The warmth from her body and the fire pulled me into slumber. But questions were hanging in the air, and I couldn’t go to sleep peacefully without knowing the answers.
“Hesper?” I asked, seeing if she was still awake.
“Yes?”
“Is there harm in Moss Wood?” While my fear had bested me earlier today, Eldrene walked these woods. The likelihood of something actually evil living here couldn’t be high.
“Moss Wood is safe.”
“What about when we aren’t in Moss Wood?”
A long silence followed.
“Tomorrow, we will enter into woods unprotected by Eldrene. Harm befalls most who step into those lands.”
I buried my head a bit deeper into my bedroll. At least tonight I could sleep easy. It sounded like it may be the last night I could do so.
“Clara?” Hesper whispered. I didn’t reply; sleep was dragging me into bottomless nothing. I let it claim me just before I heard her final words. “Good night, princess.”
