The Circles of Magic

by Gabriela Fišerová

  Feyrith tried to jerk away, or at least dislodge whatever had been stabbed into his wrists, but he could barely move his arms with the way they were bound. He didn’t stop, though, not for one second. He couldn’t even if he wanted to as his panic and desperation quickly took over, his instincts screaming at him to get away.

  “Do it,” the male elf said.

  Feyrith expected pain at that moment. Despite everything he’d heard here that suggested otherwise, he expected to die. But instead, as a loud humming filled whatever place he was currently in, he felt…something else.

  An awful feeling of emptiness and wrongness invaded his entire body as the humming gained intensity, but he still couldn’t figure out what was happening. He felt like something was missing, but he couldn’t….

  Feyrith’s heart seized for a second as he finally realized what was happening. They were somehow taking his magic away. He could feel it slipping from him now that he had figured out what this was. For a moment all he could do was sit there, frozen in shock and disbelief.

  How was this possible? How could they do this? Magic was a gift from their Goddess. It couldn’t be taken away by anyone but Her. It was impossible.

  Only then did Feyrith notice that he had been silently crying, his tears soaking the blindfold as more and more of his magic was drained out of him. As desperation overcame him yet again, Feyrith struggled against his bonds some more, his wrists burning and stinging enough that they were likely bleeding at this point. But his movements were slower now, sluggish, and his struggles were noticeably weaker.

  As it went on, he started to feel his head getting heavier, as if he would have fallen immediately if he weren’t sitting. He could barely stay conscious at this point. Feyrith almost didn’t even notice when whatever had been stabbed into his wrists was pulled out, and magic stopped leaving his body.

  But was there even any magic left?

  More tears escaped his eyes as the full reality of what had just happened crashed down on him. He had no magic right now. He couldn’t do magic, even if he weren’t gagged. And these elves had somehow taken that from him.

  Feyrith let out a sob. No, no, his magic would come back. He was sure it would happen eventually. It just needed some time. He refused to believe these elves had the ability to ruin the Goddess’ designs. It would come back to him. It had to….

  “Okay,” said the male elf suddenly, clearing his throat. Feyrith could barely hear him over his despairing thoughts. “Bring him inside one of the buildings in the ruins for now, before Edwyr can come across him.”

  The name brought some clarity to Feyrith’s mind, but all it did was create more confusion. Edwyr was here? Had they captured him as well? But what could they possibly want with a Cursed elf?

  Feyrith desperately clung to these questions, letting them distract him from the crushing reality of his situation for at least a few seconds.

  “Are you trying to order me around?”

  There was a brief moment of silent tension before the male sighed. “Please, Genrith, would you be so kind as to bring him to the ruins?”

  Feyrith tried to pull on the cuffs again in a last fit of hopeless desperation, but he barely managed to put together enough strength to move his fingers. Hanging his head, Feyrith finally gave up on trying to escape altogether, letting his tears flow freely as he started to feel consciousness slipping away from him once more.

  “Better,” Genrith said, the sound of boots against stone following immediately after.

  Feyrith lost the fight to stay awake just as he heard her start casting a spell he didn’t know.

  23

  Edwyr barely paid attention to where he was going on the way back with how distracted he was. He couldn’t stop thinking over everything he and his friends had just argued about. He thought he’d feel at least a little relieved after telling Arbane and Lanna what was going on, but if anything, he felt worse for telling them. He hadn’t even been able to achieve the most basic goal he’d wanted, which was to get them to go back to Sunwood.

  Sure, they weren’t staying because of him anymore, but that just made Edwyr more irritated. Why did they care so much about an elf they’d only known for a few days, and who was not their responsibility? The Council wouldn’t reward them for bringing Feyrith back. And Feyrith would likely not leave until he figured out what sort of energies there were in this ruin, which, if they were indeed caused by the Infuser, was probably not going to end well for him.

  And obviously, Feyrith wouldn’t be allowed to see it, anyway, or even be able to enter the place the Infuser was hidden in. Maybe it was a good thing he seemed to have disappeared since that helped avoid incidents.

  Edwyr frowned to himself as he finally gave that fact more than a second’s thought. Wyn wouldn’t have attacked Feyrith, would he? No, even if he had wanted to, it was impossible. Edwyr had been with Wyn since they’d arrived in these ruins, save for a short moment Wyn had excused himself. But that pause hadn’t been anywhere near long enough to do anything like that.

  Edwyr shook his head as he finally reached the door. There were many more reasonable explanations for Feyrith’s absence that didn’t involve Wyn or any other elf, and he would stop thinking about that. What happened to Feyrith was none of his concern anyway. Feyrith would definitely not care if their situations were reversed, so Edwyr didn’t owe him even from a moral standpoint.

  He grunted as he pushed through the gap between the door and rock wall, pulling on the handle he had only now noticed was attached to the inside of it to shut it. He probably should have checked if Lanna or Arbane hadn’t followed him here before he’d closed it, but then he pushed those thoughts away. There was no way they would find this door in the dark. And even if they could, he doubted them coming here it would result in much more than another argument. Edwyr highly doubted any of these elves had a problem with humans.

  Their presence would reveal what Edwyr had just done, but if Wyn dared to say anything, Edwyr would tell him exactly where he could shove it. He appreciated and supported most things the other elf stood for so far, but Edwyr drew the line at being told what to do with his personal life.

  As he walked back up the corridor through which he’d gotten here originally, he couldn’t help but grimace with guilt. He wasn’t even sure what specifically he was feeling guilty about at that moment, but he supposed that didn’t matter. He knew in his heart that what he had chosen was the right choice, but he also supposed he could understand at least somewhat why his friends had reacted that way. This must have been a stressful situation for them also, which was not helping.

  Edwyr just hoped he would get a chance to see them again soon, and hopefully set things right. Of course, he’d tried to do that exact thing just now, and it hadn’t ended well, but next time it would be better. He would never forgive himself if he didn’t try again.

  He continued walking up, so lost in thought that he completely missed the elf standing farther up the corridor until he was almost walking into her. Edwyr quickly studied the other elf’s face, noting that it looked very familiar, but he had no idea why. He couldn’t see much of her face as it was partly hidden by dark shadows, and partly by her cowl, but he was sure he’d seen those green eyes before.

  “How lovely to meet you again,” she said, her voice suspiciously neutral. It was difficult to tell if Edwyr was being made fun of or not, but that wasn’t even what he was concerned about right now. That voice….

  “Yes, I am Genrith,” she clarified, clearly picking up on Edwyr’s shock and confusion.

  But if anything, now he felt even more confused. How was it possible that she was an elf? She’d looked perfectly human before, and elves couldn’t shapeshift.

  “What are you?”

  Genrith narrowed her eyes, likely at the unfriendly tone, but Edwyr didn’t care one bit about that at the moment. “An elf.”

  “Impossible. You didn’t look like an elf when we met in that town.”

  She let out a long
sigh, looking as if his completely valid question was a massive inconvenience. “Contrary to what most elves think, nothing is impossible with magic. The Council simply doesn’t want us to change our appearance, so it banned proper teaching of illusions.”

  Edwyr glared at her, particularly because of the patronizing tone she was using, but he supposed her words made sense. Now that he thought about it, there had been a strange focus on how all elves should look and that they had been created as they were supposed to be. But at the time, Edwyr had simply thought it was a subtle way of making magicless elves feel even worse about themselves.

  But it was true that changing one’s appearance to any extent was, while not outright banned, heavily frowned upon. The only exception to this were tattoos if elves desired them, but all of those had to be somehow related to their Goddess.

  But changing appearance entirely, like Genrith had done? He still had trouble wrapping his head around that concept. Would he be able to do that once he too had magic? He’d never really wanted to change how he looked, but it would be very useful for avoiding drawing attention to himself. At least, he assumed that was why Genrith had done it in Everward.

  “Anyway, the Infuser is ready for you now,” Genrith continued completely casually, as if what she was saying wasn’t an earthshattering announcement to him. “I assume you are ready, as well.”

  Edwyr gave a firm nod without thinking about it, swallowing thickly as he felt his hands start to get clammy. He was ready. He was sure he wanted to do this. But that didn’t mean he also wasn’t more nervous than he’d ever felt in his entire life. This was simply such an important thing to him—the most important thing there may ever be—and it was difficult to stay calm.

  “Good. Then you know where to go. I have other business to attend to,” Genrith said, already walking past him, down the corridor. Edwyr only gave her a brief look over his shoulder before continuing to walk in the opposite direction.

  He couldn’t help but walk as fast as possible the farther he got, his heart constantly flipping and beating hard against his ribcage. He took shaky breaths as he took what he hoped was the right turn, now practically running as he found himself in the now-familiar spaces.

  And finally, taking another turn, his eyes found the Infuser, half-hidden within the stone room. It was all he could look at, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

  He was forcing himself to walk now that he was here, to avoid potential embarrassment, but it was difficult to keep his legs from going much faster than that. He could barely hide how much his hands were shaking as he finally entered the room with the strange device that would hopefully fix him. It was now glowing with a dull light, but it was difficult to tell what color the light was. The device itself was dark blue, so whatever magic was glowing within it seemed that color as well, but that didn’t have to be the case.

  “Ah, Edwyr,” Wyn greeted him with what Edwyr assumed now was his usual brand of polite enthusiasm. “The time has come.”

  Edwyr almost started laughing, though he wasn’t even sure why. It seemed his emotions were a dramatic mess right now, but he needed to stay calm and serious. “Yes, I noticed.”

  He was almost proud of himself for managing to keep his voice so even and steady. He couldn’t stop staring at the device, but at least Wyn didn’t seem to mind that.

  “So, how does this…work?”

  Edwyr finally looked over at Wyn just in time to see a slight grimace settle onto his face. He hid it a second later, however, as he looked over at Orenis who had been standing next to Wyn this entire time. Edwyr must have completely missed her being there.

  “Now that the Infuser is calibrated to once again, um, tap into a magic source correctly, we need to connect it to you so it can transfer the energy.”

  Edwyr considered telling Wyn to just get it over with and tell him what he needed to do to make this happen, but he forced himself to stay patient.

  “Okay, and how do we do that?” Edwyr asked once Wyn stayed silent for a few seconds too many.

  Instead of Wyn, Orenis answered the question, picking up something thin, long, and flexible from a table that was next to her. And there was also a chair, right next to the Infuser. Edwyr was probably safe to assume this was meant for him.

  “We’ll need to, uh, stick this in your wrists,” Orenis explained, holding up the two wires for Edwyr to see. They were even thinner at the end, ending with what looked like a needle. He was starting to understand what Wyn had meant about this being unpleasant. Still, Edwyr wasn’t going to let something like this stop him.

  “If you have any reservations, any at all—” Wyn said, but Edwyr interrupted him.

  “I’m fine.” He wondered how many times he’d said that in his life without it being true. It must have been something he’d learned from humans because elves didn’t do that. And Wyn seemed to see right through him, judging by the saddened look he was giving him.

  Edwyr sighed. “How long will this take?”

  He expected Wyn to continue with his concerns, but he kept his face neutral as he answered the question. “Only a moment.”

  He then proceeded to gesture to the chair, nodding to it. Edwyr took a deep breath before walking over to it and sitting down, narrowing his eyes at sharp, golden needles on the table, and the transparent tubes connected to them. The wicked glint on the tip of the needles from the torches on the walls did make his stomach turn, but his stance remained unchanged. He wanted to have magic much, much more than he feared this.

  “We will also need to…restrain you,” Wyn said, avoiding Edwyr’s suddenly wide, shocked eyes.

  “What?” He certainly hadn’t been expecting that. Wyn continued looking anywhere but at Edwyr, apparently not very interested in explaining the reasoning behind what he’d just said, but thankfully Orenis took over for him.

  “This is gonna hurt,” she said, grimacing at Edwyr and patting his shoulder. “And your immediate reaction is going to be trying to get those needles out. And if you do that, we’ll have to repeat the whole process again. So….”

  Edwyr glared at the needles. He didn’t like this, but he supposed it made sense. After all, if he was understanding this correctly, he was going to get magic infused directly into his veins, and that truly didn’t sound pleasant.

  He sighed, shaking his head as if to try to chase away his fear, which slowly was getting more and more intense. But he only needed to remember why he was doing this to remind himself there was no going back. He had to do this, and it didn’t matter how much it would hurt.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  Orenis guided him to put his arms on the arms of the chair, wrist up so that presumably they could have better access to them. Only then did he notice there were shackles attached to the chair, but they were open for now. Those, and the sight of the needles were making his skin crawl, but Edwyr was staying determined.

  Next, Wyn said a spell Edwyr thought sounded familiar, but he’d forgotten most of his original studies by now. He flinched as the shackles snapped onto his wrists, and immediately pulled on them just to test how much he could move his arms. He had wanted to point out that Wyn could have simply locked the shackles the traditional way, but as he was now realizing, there was no lock. He could barely move his arm like this. All he could really move were his fingers.

  He swallowed again, trying to stay calm.

  Wyn gave him a questioning look, as if asking if Edwyr was still okay with this without saying anything. Edwyr just nodded, trying to make the gesture look as impatient as possible. He was more anxious than impatient, but the end result was the same.

  Wyn then nodded over at Orenis, who nodded back, picking up one of the needles, and after a moment of hesitation, likely to give Edwyr the option of still backing out of this, she put her hand on Edwyr’s, guiding the needle to pierce the skin his wrist.

  Edwyr grimaced as pain stabbed through his wrist, but it was mostly just uncomfortable. He waited for Orenis to do the same
to his other wrist, surprised that it was this painless. There wasn’t even any blood that he could see coming from where the needles were.

  Unfortunately, Edwyr knew there was more to this than that. Wyn wouldn’t bother cuffing him to a chair otherwise.

  He tried not to tense up as Orenis walked over to the Infuser and fiddled with the panel she had been working with when Edwyr had been here last. Immediately, a shining blue liquid filled the tubes connected to his wrists, flowing closer and closer to the needles at an alarming speed.

  Edwyr barely had the time to grit his teeth in preparation for pain before the liquid—the raw magic—started to flow into his wrists and his veins. He let out a strangled scream, yanking on the shackles as horrible, awful cold spread through his entire body.

  It was so cold it burned. Edwyr couldn’t stop shouting in pain, but he could barely hear himself. The pain was so overwhelming he could barely put together where and who he was at that moment. Time crawled to a halt. He couldn’t see. All around him was just blurry darkness, and all he could feel was the cold, burning his body inside out, trapped in endless agony.

  And then, after what felt like an eternity, it started to fade. He blinked, trying to focus as he heard distorted voices. He thought he heard someone say his name. Edwyr blinked again, his sight finally returning enough to recognize Wyn undoing his restraints, looking very worried.

  “—okay?”

  Edwyr blinked owlishly at him, wincing as Wyn removed the needles. He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. There was a small, red mark on both of his wrists, but otherwise, there was no evidence of the awful pain he could still feel in his bones. In his skin.

  He felt odd. And cold. And…stronger. More powerful.

  “Can you hear me?” Wyn asked, looking even more concerned now. Edwyr stood up, still looking at his shaky hands.