Cursed Mage

by Mia Archer

  When Tiafa turned to look at Sarai again it was clear she’d worked through those realities and come to some of the same conclusions Sarai had already reached.

  They weren’t good conclusions.

  “Yeah, it’s that bad,” Sarai said. “They’re going to see me as some sort of experiment. They’re going to figure out new ways to torture me to try and figure out how in the burned ruins this happened.”

  She could see her future playing out before her, and it wasn’t a future that looked particularly pleasant. Even if she wasn’t captured she wasn’t sure what would happen when she walked back to the village with tattoos criss-crossing her body that glowed with the same faint eerie light of death as the Ghost Fields.

  Nothing good would come of those lines, of that she was certain. She’d be lucky if she was burned at the stake as a servant of the Dark Lady.

  Burned ruins!

  15

  Confession

  “You don’t know that,” Tiafa said. “All you know is you’ve been taken by the magic. They say it can take odd forms when it comes, and that it doesn’t even take with everyone. So how do you know this is permanent?”

  “I know because…”

  Sarai stopped. She didn’t know anything about magic. Which is to say she didn’t know any more than the average villager who’d heard all the same stories Sarai had growing up.

  The witch school was always very careful about keeping anyone taken by the magic away from others. No letting out their secrets.

  Stories had grown in the telling since there was no longer regular contact with the mages at the witch school. Not like there’d been back when there was a city between the village and the school.

  Oddly enough having Choikal reduced to a burnt out remnant of its former glory made for less contact between the mages and the outside world rather than more even though there was less city between the two locations.

  Less city. More ghosts and monsters. That tended to put a damper on any contact unless it was aided by heavily armored caravans moving through Choikal’s ruins.

  Though it felt like the mages wanted as little to do with the world as was possible in this new age when people were less trusting of magic than ever. Mostly thanks to everyone being conscripted to go and fight the magical monstrosities Jaska had created in the Twisted Lands.

  Not to mention the memory of a major city burned to the ground by one of their initiates.

  “What are we going to do?” Sarai asked, looking at Tiafa and wishing this all could’ve been as simple as it seemed when she put together this plan.

  Find one of the many guard towers that dotted the burnt out city walls that was still in good enough shape that it could support their weight. Climb that tower for some alone time with Tiafa in the hopes that Sarai might get some small token of affection before they were ripped away from each other for good.

  It had all seemed so simple. It had all seemed so easy.

  It was all so ridiculous. She wasn’t sure why she thought it would be easy. She wasn’t sure why she was so convinced nothing bad or magic related could ever happen to her, for that matter.

  The burnt out hulk of Choikal was proof that magic could come into anyone’s life without warning and do terrible things.

  A hand on her cheek brought her back from her worries. It was a surprisingly delicate touch. Not the sort of touch Sarai would’ve expected from Tiafa given the terror in her eyes when she saw her undergoing the transformation, but exactly the sort of tender touch she’d been hoping for when this all started.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Tiafa said. “Believe me on this. I’m not sure how, but it’s going to be okay.”

  “How do you know?” Sarai whispered.

  “Because I know. Because I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Because…”

  Then she really surprised Sarai. Perhaps the magic was still working its spell, only this time it had decided it was going to work that spell in Sarai’s favor rather than leaving here with a new set of magical tattoos she had no idea what to do with.

  Whatever the reason, Tiafa leaned forward and planted her lips on Sarai’s. The surprise lasted for a moment and then it was replaced with a strange warm feeling that coursed through her body.

  Kissing Tiafa felt amazing. Tiafa melted into her, and before Sarai could think about what she was doing she’d wrapped her arms around Tiafa and lost herself in the moment.

  She couldn’t help herself. It felt too good. It was everything she’d ever hoped for all her life and now it was happening, and it turns out the only thing that had to happen to make this possible was a complete transformation thanks to forces Sarai didn’t understand.

  Easy, right?

  Yeah, right.

  But that kiss. Oh that kiss. It was the kind of kiss she’d heard about in stories. It was the kind of kiss that traveling bards making their way through the village told of. It was the kind of kiss that made her toes curl and set her body on fire with the sort of desire that Sarai never knew could possess a person.

  In short, it was wonderful.

  Tiafa pulled away and searched Sarai’s eyes for some reaction. Any reaction. Sarai wondered what she was expecting. Sarai certainly hadn’t expected Tiafa to kiss her like that.

  “What was that for?” Sarai asked.

  Tiafa looked away. It was difficult to tell by the faint light of the moons and the stars above, but Sarai could almost think she was blushing. What could she possibly be embarrassed about?

  “It’s you,” she said. “It’s always been you, and being on the brink of death like that. Seeing the magic taking you and knowing we’re all going to be taken in two days…”

  She trailed off, but it hit Sarai exactly what was happening here. There’d been so many times when they were on the verge of a perfect moment where they might finally share that kiss she’d been hoping for her whole life, only for those moments to fall apart like leaves blowing in the wind.

  Sarai giggled. “So all it took was almost certain death for you to finally decide to kiss me?”

  The realization hit her like a section of the Choikal wall finally giving way and falling down on some poor unsuspecting traveler.

  That was something that had happened from time to time. There was a good reason why all the roads had been moved well away from the city where the burned out walls could do less damage if they collapsed.

  That and the ghosts that came out at night, which was bad for what little tourism the village did get.

  “I guess,” she said. “I’d always hoped to keep it hidden until we made it out of the village. They’ve been less approving of that sort of thing since Choikal burned than they were back when the city was still there. At least that’s what my parents tell me.”

  Sarai reeled. She couldn’t believe it. The girl she’d always wanted, and Tiafa was just as into Sarai as Sarai was into her.

  She’d heard of that happening, of course. It’s not like they were uncivilized in this part of the world even if the village had settled into older less approving ways since the city’s destruction thanks to more open minded younger people either leaving to find their fortune elsewhere or being killed at the front lines in the Twisted Lands, but it was surprising to have it happen to her.

  Sarai had difficulty believing she could be lucky enough that her friend would enjoy women. Yet here they were.

  “So what do we do now?” Sarai asked, and this time she wasn’t just talking about the magic.

  “I don’t know,” Tiafa said, her mouth coming down on Sarai’s cheek and making her blush. “I just don’t know.”

  Sarai found herself in an odd position. On the one hand she very much wanted to care that her whole world had changed. That there was something that had gone terribly wrong and potentially changed the entire direction of her life.

  And yet at the same time there were those lips pressing against her, and she found it difficult to think of much of anything while Tiafa was kissing her.

 
As they fell back to the hard burned wood floor all thoughts left her and for a moment she wasn’t worried about the magic.

  16

  Release

  “Tiafa? What are you…”

  Sarai trailed off as something wet flicked out and ran along her neck. She was already extremely sensitive to Tiafa’s touch, but when her tongue made contact with one of those glowing lines it was as though lighting jumped through her body.

  Sarai arched her back and gasped. She didn’t know something could feel that good. She squeezed her eyes shut and wondered if she’d be able to survive this perfect torture.

  Tiafa might be torturing Sarai, but she was more than happy to continue. Especially since she’d discovered something new to play with.

  She’d been hesitant at first, as though she was just as unsure of what she was doing as Sarai was of what was being done to her, but once she discovered what she could do with those lines she treated them like the new plaything they were.

  Tiafa’s hands moved down along Sarai’s body. Exploring. Sarai’s clothes were in a pile off to the side so her friend had complete and total access.

  Almost complete. Sarai wasn’t totally exposed, but as close as made no difference.

  She could tell every moment when Tiafa’s hand brushed against one of those lines. It sent another one of those charged bolts running through her body. Every time it happened she arched her back and cried out. She squeezed her eyes shut.

  “I’ve only done this a few times before,” Tiafa whispered. “But I want to make you feel good Sarai.”

  Sarai’s eyes shot open. Tiafa had done this before? She felt a flash of jealousy as she wondered who it was. The revelation that there were other girls in the village who felt the same way she did, or at the very least who were willing to play an experimental game, was a shock.

  It made her wonder how much fun she’d been missing out on over the years because she was terrified of admitting what she truly felt to her friend.

  “What are you…”

  Tiafa quieted her by pressing her lips against one of those lines. This time Sarai kept her eyes open as she arched her back, and so she was treated to what happened when Tiafa kissed one of those lines and filled her with pleasure.

  The glow grew more intense. It pulsed in time with her quickened pulse as the pleasure crashed over her and threatened to overwhelm her. And it only got more intense as Tiafa’s hand moved down, down.

  Through it all Tiafa kept up that same intense attention with her mouth. Her touch seemed to be everywhere. Kissing a magical line sent that sensation across Sarai’s entire body and magnified it. Her hand danced across Sarai’s body down below and her mouth danced across it up above. Her tongue moved and it was magic.

  Maybe she’d only done this a few times before, but to Sarai it felt like Tiafa was an expert. This wasn’t at all the fumbling kiss she’d been hoping for when she lured her friend up here. It was so much more, and she loved it.

  The glow grew more intense. Brighter. A mist started to gather around them and she wondered what was happening even as she found that she didn’t care as long as Tiafa kept doing what she was doing.

  Her mouth opened. She gasped. Mist continued to gather. Dark things swirled in that mist, but she couldn’t be sure if they were there or if it was simply her mind filling in the blanks while it was being short-circuited by Tiafa and her surprisingly skilled hands.

  Tiafa hadn’t even touched Sarai between the legs. No, her hands were tracing along those glowing lines and it was as though they were wired to the pleasure centers in her mind.

  She wondered what would happen if Tiafa went for the ultimate prize and worried she might pass out from the intense feeling.

  Something was happening. Something big was coming, and given everything that’d happened so far this night with the magic she wasn’t sure if that something was going to be a good something.

  But she didn’t want it to stop. Tiafa surprised her by pressing her lips against her in that magical spot between her legs, and that was it. Whatever had been threatening to break crashed over her like the massive waves she’d seen in her old town when she snuck out against her father’s wishes to see what the ocean looked like in the middle of a storm.

  Sarai threw her head back. Let out a gasp. Her hips thrust up and her back arched and for a moment she forgot about the world. For a moment she was a bundle of sensations where Tiafa touched her.

  Where Tiafa touched the magic that had criss-crossed her body with those strange glowing tattoos.

  Something exploded inside her, but at the same time she knew that something had exploded outside as well. She knew then that there was something deep inside her that had been held back all these years. The process of breaking down that barrier had started when she felt the magic taking her at the moonrise, but now there was something more to it.

  Power washed over her. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see three shafts of light shooting out. Two from her eyes and one from her mouth. Then her whole body was covered in the light.

  Tiafa cried out and squeezed her eyes shut, but she didn’t stop those magical things she was doing. No, she kept right at it. As though she knew she was doing something special for Sarai. Her own breathing was picking up and it felt like she was close to something too, but Sarai couldn’t be sure because she was too overwhelmed with everything that was happening to her.

  Finally, blessedly, disappointingly, it came to an end. Sarai looked down at her body and saw the tattoos glowing fitfully, but they weren’t beating in time with her pulse any longer.

  “Burned ruins,” Tiafa breathed.

  “What was that?” Sarai asked.

  Tiafa hit her with an odd look, but then her face quirked into a half smile.

  “You really have no idea what that was?”

  Sarai blushed and turned away from her friend. When she got down to it she did have a pretty good idea of exactly what that had been. It was just that admitting it was admitting she wasn’t as experienced as her friend. Plus she was pretty sure that didn’t happen with the magical accompaniment for most people.

  Though she wasn’t sure why she should be embarrassed. She thought about how it’d felt. Wonderful. She thought about why she should be ashamed and couldn’t come up with a good reason.

  Especially when they were about to be sent off to the Twisted Lands to die for the glory of their nation in a never ending battle with Jaska.

  Huh. There it was again. Or rather there it wasn’t again. The strange sickness that had hit her in the past when she thought of that woman wasn’t there.

  If anything that was more worrying than anything else that had happened tonight. If she felt sickness simply thinking about the Dark Lady and now that sickness was gone?

  She didn’t think that could mean anything good.

  “Is something wrong?” Tiafa asked.

  Sarai looked at her friend. Thought of what they’d just done. Thought of everything that had happened this night and how things could be very wrong if she decided to look at it from that perspective.

  But she couldn’t. Kissing Tiafa, feeling those wonderful things, had turned this from the most terrifying evening of her life to the most wonderful evening of her life.

  The only thing that could destroy it was the thought that in two days they still faced the Choice. That despite everything that had happened they might still be separated. That there was a good chance that separation would involve Sarai being carted off by the mages.

  “Everything is wonderful,” she whispered, and she reached an arm around Tiafa and pulled her in for another kiss that quickly became so much more.

  Though they were both careful to avoid the side of the tower floor that was burned out. Some of the things they were doing could very much risk collapsing that beneath them.

  17

  Evasion

  Sarai wasn’t sure how much time they spent up in that guard tower. She knew it had to be a while, though, because when the
sound of voices in the distance finally brought her out of the delicious place she’d gone with Tiafa the moons had moved high enough that they could no longer be seen through the window.

  There was something odd about those voices. Sarai sat up, her eyes wide.

  “Something’s wrong,” she said.

  “What are you…”

  Tiafa’s eyes went wide as well. She heard them too. There shouldn’t be voices out there. Not in the middle of the night. Not voices that were calling out to one another and not bothering to hide that they were out there.

  Also? They were coming from the wrong side of the wall. Though that made a certain twisted sort of sense. It’s not like villagers would approach the ruins at any time of day, let alone in the middle of the night when the Ghost Fields glowed.

  “They’re coming from the city,” Tiafa said.

  Sarai scrambled to her feet and walked over to the window looking into Choikal. She was treated to a sight that stopped her breath even as she tried to comprehend what she saw.

  The same green glow that had surrounded her pulsed in the swirling clouds over the city. Those clouds and the glow seemed to be growing more and more powerful and gathering into a twisting maelstrom.

  It reminded her of storms that hit when the cold of the early year met the warmth of the growing season, though there was no wind accompanying this. It was simply green clouds roiling in silent fury.

  “What’s happening out there?” Tiafa asked, coming up behind Sarai.

  “I don’t know,” Sarai said. “But it can’t be anything good if there are people out there searching for us.”

  “What makes you think they’re searching for us?” Tiafa asked.