Cursed Mage

by Mia Archer

  Sarai was pretty sure that scream had come from Tiafa and not from one of the many dead monstrosities that lived in the Ghost Fields.

  “What was that thing?” Tiafa asked. “You walked up to it like it was nothing.”

  There was something in Tiafa’s voice that stopped Sarai before she could tell her friend the truth that she had no idea what that creature was and she would’ve rather not run into it in the first place. Admiration. Sarai liked being admired, especially when that admiration was coming from Tiafa, and so she decided to act like running into the thing was exactly what she meant to do.

  “It was nothing to worry about,” she said.

  She wasn’t sure if that was the truth, but Tiafa seemed to take the lie for truth so she figured that was going to have to be good enough. For now.

  “I don’t know if I like being out here,” Tiafa said. She looked longingly to the village, then back to Sarai. “But that was pretty amazing how you handled that thing.”

  There was something more to her voice now. A tone that sent a shiver running through Sarai’s body. There was interest there. The sort of interest she’d always hoped to hear from her friend, but never dared dream would actually happen.

  Tiafa smiled. She stood and brushed herself off. And just like that she was the calm and collected Tiafa Sarai had known her entire life. Not the terrified girl who assumed the fetal position the moment she saw a monstrosity that shouldn’t be crawling out of the darkness to confront them.

  Tiafa held her hand out. Clearly Sarai was supposed to take it. She did, and it was like a bolt of magic passed between them as she held her friend’s hand.

  “Let’s go,” Tiafa said with a smile. “That was incredible, and I want to see what other incredible things you have waiting for me.”

  Sarai grinned. She was on uncertain ground tonight. She had no idea what that thing was or why it hadn’t attacked her like it had Tiafa. She had no idea why the thing fell apart when she touched it.

  But Tiafa was here and she was suitably impressed, and like all young people who were trying to impress the object of their affection Sarai suddenly didn’t care about potential danger so much as she cared about impressing her friend in service of maybe convincing that friend to become more than friends.

  “Let’s go,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “You’re going to love the tower.”

  Tiafa grinned as they moved off through the Ghost Fields, though they seemed strangely quiet now. She could see the glow of the unquiet dead off in the distance, but not near them.

  Sarai would take it if it meant no more interruptions to their fun.

  7

  Stolen Moments

  Tiafa turned and smiled at Sarai in the darkness. She was beautiful in the bright starlight. Even with the darkness of the wall rising behind her.

  And her smile held promise after the Ghost Fields. All the promise in the world.

  The promise of things that could never be, for that matter. After all, in two mornings they faced the Choice. The king’s officials would come, and there was a good chance Tiafa and Sarai would be separated.

  Perhaps for good.

  "Come on," she said. "What are you waiting for?"

  Sarai stopped and took a deep breath. Allowed herself to enjoy this moment after the brief terror of the Ghost Fields. She was starting to come to terms with the knowledge that this was one of the last moments they might have together. She was going to miss this.

  But below that enjoyment of the moment was a longing that was difficult to describe. A powerful feeling that Sarai needed Tiafa in her life. But she was terrified to say the words she needed to say.

  Sarai scrambled up the hill behind Tiafa. Though it was less a hill and more a gentle slope that led up to the burnt out city walls.

  Those burnt out remnants were all that remained of the great city. Well, that and the Academy. Supposedly an oasis of green lushness amidst the remnants of destruction. Green that had been defended by mages who hadn't defended the rest of the city, and the people in it, from the all consuming magical fires. Green drenched in the blood of Choikal, bought and fueled by magic that had the villagers whispering two decades on from the disaster.

  And there were still the villages around the city, of course. Some of them had been spared the flames, and they still existed to support the school.

  Though they were supposedly a shadow of their former selves if you listened to the oldsters in the village tell it.

  Sarai was never sure how much of that was that the village was genuinely a shadow of its former self and how much of that was that people had a tendency to never think things were as good as they'd been when they were younger.

  Right now she was young. Sarai knew she was living out what had to be the best days of her life. Because she was with Tiafa, and that's all that mattered. That made this night one of the best of her life.

  Even if looming over it all were the dark possibilities that came with the Choice. The almost sure knowledge that she would be forced to fight. To go off and throw herself into the never ending grindstone of the front lines on the war with…

  Best not to think about who they were fighting on those lines. A small wave of dizziness hit her, but not enough to incapacitate her.

  "Here it is," Sarai said.

  She took in the tower. It looked imposing in the darkness, though of course it was only a burned out remnant like everything else around here.

  But the worst of the fires must have spared this particular tower all those years ago. Shortly after she’d been born. When…

  Sarai paused again. Tried to push back the dark thoughts that threatened to invade her mind. This tower had been spared when the city burned. Yes, that was it. No need to go thinking about who caused the city to burn.

  "Are you sure it's safe?" Tiafa asked.

  Her voice was quiet. Reverent. Her family was from this area. They hadn't moved here later like Sarai’s parents had.

  Her parents had always claimed there was something about the old town that made them uncomfortable. Something that was a reminder of something unpleasant, though they never seemed to be able to articulate what that unpleasantness was.

  But Tiafa being raised around here meant the terror of Choikal’s burning was within living memory rather than being something that had been heard of and tutted over from a safe distance where the true terror of that night wasn’t truly felt.

  Though even with that reverence Sarai thought it was a ridiculous question. They were talking about exploring a burnt out ruin that hadn’t been maintained for decades as it fell into disrepair and was exposed to the elements.

  "Of course it isn't safe," she said.

  Tiafa’s eyes were wide pools of collected starlight. She was so beautiful. Even looking at Sarai fearfully in the night.

  "Then why…"

  Sarai pushed a finger to Tiafa’s lips.

  Sarai got bold. Boldness felt like something that had been seriously lacking in her life, but there was something about this night that changed everything. The eve of her birthday. Two nights until the Choice was made.

  Two nights until perhaps the last day she would ever see Tiafa. It wrenched her heart, and it made her willing to do things, say things, that she never would have dreamed of before.

  It’s not like it mattered when there was a very good chance she was never going to see Tiafa again in two nights’ time, after all. Especially when the reason they wouldn’t see each other ever again was partially because there was a very good chance at least one of them would be pressed into the military where they wouldn’t have long to live regardless.

  All the more reason to take advantage of what little time they had. All the more reason to live now while she could.

  "Nothing in life is ever safe," she said. "The ruins of this city are proof enough of that. How many people in there…"

  Sarai trailed off. The point she was trying to make seemed to get through to Tiafa though. Life was too short
to not say what you meant. Something that was pressing on her mind with the Choice looming large in her mind.

  Tiafa smiled, and some of the old confidence that always surrounded her seemed to return. Tiafa reached out and took Sarai’s hand. She didn't even say anything about Sarai’s finger on her lips silencing her. No, she simply smiled and it melted Sarai.

  "You're right," she said, leaning forward to nip Sarai’s finger which sent a shiver running through her. "And I trust you."

  They stepped into a large gaping hole in tower. Sure they were stepping into the ruins of a dead city that terrified most of the inhabitants of their dwindling but still large village, but to Sarai the night suddenly seemed full of possibilities.

  Of course she was going to have to keep an eye on their surroundings. That creature they’d seen in the Ghost Fields was something new to her, and she’d spent a good deal of her youth exploring these fields.

  If there was something out there that looked that terrifying then she didn’t want to think about what might be inside the city’s walls. They weren’t supposed to be safe during the day, let alone at night when the dead came back to the world looking for vengeance.

  Sarai had always thought those to be exagerrations, but that was before she saw one of those tales come to life and walk the world. Sure that walking horror hadn’t ended up being too horrifying, but its very existence had shattered her belief that stories of terrors within the city were just stories.

  Though as she looked at Tiafa she found herself thinking more of the stories they might make tonight and smiled as they moved into the darkness together.

  8

  Into the Tower

  They stepped through, but as always Sarai stopped and turned to look at the scene outside.

  There was a bell in a field down the slope that had presumably made the hole in the side of the guard tower once upon a time. A big bell. Like it had come from a temple of some sort.

  Not that Sarai had ever ventured into the city to see where the bell came from. She swayed and held her hand against the destroyed wall because she knew what was coming.

  She could imagine that night. The city wreathed in flames. Some temple spire burning to the point that eventually the bell fell and went crashing through the tower’s solid stone construction as though it was paper. The holes in either side of the tower were proof enough of the violence and fury of that night.

  That had to have been a terrible night. Especially considering the terror it had visited on the people in the village. A terror they still felt today.

  But she didn't feel any of that terror. She hadn’t been here, after all. All of that had been far from her when she was young. Her family hadn’t been a part of it, and she certainly had nothing to do with towers or the Dark Lady.

  And there was that feeling she knew was coming. She couldn’t avoid thinking about the Dark Lady when she came into this tower, so she’d learned to prepare for the inevitable. She didn’t want to fall to the hard stone floor and hurt herself when the feeling overtook her.

  No one in the village would ever come to the edge of the city to look for her if she went missing, after all. Though she did have Tiafa with her tonight.

  Sarai suppressed the involuntary shiver that always hit her when she thought of the Dark Lady. The dizziness that always threatened to overwhelm. She couldn't explain it. She didn't understand it.

  As always she tried to tell herself that their fates weren't intertwined.

  She told herself it was the same nervousness every child in this region felt. After all, Jaska had done things so terrible that the entire countryside was terrified of her return. Not that she would have any reason to make a return now that she'd laid waste to Choikal.

  Not when she was supposedly contained by the vast armies dying in the Twisted Lands to keep her out of the living kingdoms.

  Still, Sarai couldn't help the feeling that things were somehow more personal between her and the Dark Lady given the way her body reacted whenever the woman was brought up.

  Also? It was totally something she never brought up to anyone. Ever. She knew something like that was something she had to hide. Including from her friends.

  So she held herself against the wall and pretended she was looking out at the view. She hoped Tiafa wouldn’t come so close that she would realize something was wrong.

  The last thing Sarai needed was for someone to go accusing her of having an affinity for the Dark Lady. She'd seen what that led to. A branding at best, and getting burned alive at worst.

  This time the shiver had nothing to do with strange feelings Sarai got whenever she thought of the most evil woman the world had known in a living age.

  "What's wrong with you Sarai?" Tiafa asked.

  Tiafa smiled and her eyes gleamed with what little light made it into the darkness.

  The moons were still hiding behind mountains in the distance. For the moment. Which was a pity. Sarai had always enjoyed the sight of the first moon, and she'd hoped Ramaya might come out to bathe them with her gentle purple light on the evening of her birthday.

  No such luck so far though. Walking through the mist shrouded Ghost Fields had an extra level of creepiness with no moonlight to show them the way.

  Sarai grinned. "Sorry. My mind was in another place."

  "There you go again. Always dreaming," Tiafa said. "One of these days that's going to get you into trouble!"

  She wagged her finger but the smile on her face said she wasn't being too serious. She never was serious about much of anything. Unless, of course, it was training. The girl had an obsession with learning weapons and how to fight.

  But a bubbly excitement about everything in the world was one of the things Sarai was going to miss if they were separated.

  Sarai felt a pang coupled with a longing that had been there for most of her life as she thought of being separated. Of no longer being near Tiafa. She’d always thought it was terrible living in relative safety for so long with the sure knowledge that safety was going to be shattered soon enough, but that was life for the young.

  Tiafa reached her hand out to Sarai’s. Sarai looked at it, thinking about all the times she'd touched her friend’s hand and felt a stirring. Something that always ashamed her even as it excited her.

  But there was none of that tonight. Perhaps it was her impending birthday. The coming of adulthood. The coming of the Choice.

  Whatever it was, Sarai took Tiafa’s hand without hesitation. Felt the same fire that ran through her body every time they touched.

  Was that a shiver Sarai felt coming from her friend? Sarai couldn’t be sure. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but then again perhaps not.

  "Come on," Sarai said, forcing a smile once the familiar wave of dizziness passed. "I promise you're going to love this."

  She could move up the steps even in the darkness. It was no problem for her even though Tiafa hesitated.

  One of the advantages of not being a local was her parents didn't have the same superstitions the locals had about getting too close to Choikal. Particularly the south side of the city where superstition said the ghosts could get a little more rough than in the center or closer to the Academy on the north side.

  One of the advantages of growing up without superstition was Sarai didn't have any of the worries about the supernatural or ghosts. They existed, sure, but they weren’t something to be feared. They were mundane. Not real magic. Sure she'd heard of real magic happening near the city ruins, but in her practical life experience real magic was always something that happened in far off places or in far off times.

  At least she’d thought it was something that happened far away until tonight when she saw that monstrosity. She didn’t think of spirits of the dead as being particularly remarkable or interesting because it was something she’d always known.

  That monster tonight, though… Well it had her thinking. It had her worried.

  Still, even with tonight’s experience she didn’t overly worry about magic comin
g along and ruining her life. That was something that happened far away. Not here.

  What she did feel was the rush of being young and in the company of a beautiful girl who she loved. She felt like nothing could touch her this night.

  "Follow me," Sarai said with a grin as she led a reluctant Tiafa higher into the tower.

  9

  Dark Danger

  Sarai took the steps several at a time. She knew exactly which ones were safe and which ones were dangerous, and she stopped and helped Tiafa make her way up in several spots where the gaps between the steps were large enough that there was a very real danger of falling into the yawning blackness below.

  Which would have been bad. Really bad.

  After all, she needed Tiafa in one piece when Sarai got her to the top of the tower where she might finally be able to steal the kiss she’d been hoping for ever since she first felt the stirrings of interest in women in general and in her friend in particular.

  The idea of stealing a kiss felt ridiculous every time she thought it, but if there was ever going to be a chance then it was this night. After that…

  Well she tried not to think about that just as assiduously as she tried not to think about that woman. Life was better that way.

  So she carefully made her way up the steps. She figured Tiafa couldn’t very well kiss anything if she was lying moaning in a broken heap at the bottom of a long abandoned guard tower.

  Finally they reached the top. Sarai turned and looked through the massive window that looked out over the kingdom.

  It was much better than view going in the other direction. That was equally impressive, but it looked out over the ruins of Choikal, and Sarai wasn't in the mood to put Tiafa in a terrified state of mind.

  No, Sarai had far more interesting things in mind.

  Luckily Tiafa seemed far more interested in the view illuminated by the stars than the view behind them illuminated by an even more powerful ghost light than what they’d seen in the Ghost fields. The stars burned bright tonight with no clouds to block them, giving off almost as much light as the full moons. And there were so many that dotted the sky.