Midnight's Blossom

by Corinn Heathers

  “Are they—?”

  “Yes. I can feel my family's magic. They're… searching, but not for anyone in particular. Perhaps 'patrolling' would be a better description.” My brow furrowed as I concentrated on my sense of the mages that made their way through the forest. “I think they're checking the perimeter of the manor, looking for intruders or spies or seeking spells.”

  “Should we make a run for it?”

  I hesitated, but then shook my head. “They're too close. Mother's spell would take us, but then they would know what happened and where we went.”

  “They would try to move against you there?” Rose's expression was dubious. “After the break, we'll be back at the Academy, and your family will be able to find you easily. It's not like they're going to be in the dark about your whereabouts.”

  “It would be difficult for my great-uncle to move against me at the Academy, and as long as I avoid my family's holdings and… do as Mother told me, he should not bother with me. He never much cared before.” I grimaced and tilted my hair, listening hard for the sound of the patrol's approach. I couldn't hear anything yet, but the pulse of their magic was coming closer. They were indeed headed for this clearing.

  “What are we going to do, then?”

  I looked up at Rose. “We can't outrun them, and I don't think I can hide us from them. We don't have any other choice.”

  “You mean… fight them?”

  I didn't respond to that immediately. While taking out the patrol would be the simplest and most direct way of dealing with them, the loss of personnel would put my family on their guard. We would have even less time to escape before House Alcyone mobilized even more forces and sent them out into the woods.

  “We need to… to make it look like something else. Incapacitate them, take them down without hurting them. I can—I should be able to alter their memories. With a little care, we can set them up to look like they stopped for a rest and a drink to ward off the chill…”

  “And maybe overindulged a little,” Rose finished for me. The troubled expression was gone from her face, replaced with a wicked little urchin's grin. “Devious, clever and highly amusing. Oh, how I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they receive that dressing-down.”

  Chapter 12

  The Mist

  Several minutes later, I crouched behind the same tree trunk I attempted to fall asleep against, trying to keep myself as hidden as I could while maintaining the shroud of misdirection over the both of us. This late in the evening, with the shadows long and the moon dim, it would be very difficult for the patrol to spot us.

  It was far more important to make my power very small, to draw it inward and keep the magic locked away tightly within my soul. It was difficult, because I had little experience with this newly-awakened power. If even so much as a mote of dark mana escaped my grasp, the patrol would alert House Alcyone and a full contingent of House Guard would descend upon this spot.

  Of course, they'd expect dark fairies or Antilight terrorists, not the half-breed daughter of Juno Alcyone and a student pyromancer from Fialla. Which hardly mattered, for the expected overwhelming response would seal our fates.

  We had to do this just right, and fortunately, we had the tools necessary to pull it off. Mist rose from the ground, obscuring the clearing so thoroughly that I had trouble seeing what was only a meter or so in front of me. Rose's magic carefully directed heat into the sodden earth, creating a cloak of fog that would mask our ambush.

  The mist wasn't solely a visual impediment. Keeping my presence as quiet as I could manage, I infused the vaporized water and steam with a sort of reflective meta-magic that I'd picked up from Ria's arcane engineering class. It would prevent magical communications from functioning properly within the clearing, reflecting the signals back inside to bounce around the fog.

  This would have no effect on mundane electromagnetic signals, of course, but there were no comm towers in the area. House Alcyone had a wired connection to the network as a matter of necessity, but my family's pride in their magic invariably led them to eschew technologies used by their lessers.

  With the field in place, the patrol would still be able to call for help, and surely would, but the sendings would never reach their destination. We had to take them out in the brief, minutes-long window the fog would last.

  I couldn't see Rose from where I was, but I knew she waited behind another tree. We agreed that I would keep Eiri's blade hidden. Neither of us could afford to allow my inexperience to drain my power further. I held my dagger tightly, ready to strike from the shadows if I was discovered.

  Rose's part of the plan was to set off a concussive blast that would knock the patrol senseless, and in order to accomplish that in a stealthy manner, I held ready to cast a spell that would shroud the clearing in magical silence. The timing was crucial; if I was too early, the patrol would be alerted to an impending ambush, but if I was too late the thunderous sound of Rose's shockwave spell would give away our position.

  They were close now.

  Three members of the House Guard, clothed in gray uniforms and light armor intended to block projectiles and turn aside blades, stepped out into the clearing. They had come through this area on foot, without vehicles or mounts, which seemed to perplex Rose. I'd explained to her that the forest was much too dense to ride through, and the patrols usually conjured magical conveyances when speed was necessary.

  Each of the three young men were battle mages; I could feel them as well as catch sight of the glimmer of their manashards. Two were water mages, which was to be expected, and the remaining Guardsman appeared to be a wind mage. He would be the one who summoned the flying platform that carried them past the thickest parts of the forest.

  None of them seemed tense, and it was clear that they had no idea they were being observed. At this distance it was simple enough to determine their relative arcane strength. All three were mages of modest skill.

  I peered through the fog and strained to eavesdrop upon their conversation. As they came closer, I caught a frustrated, disgusted voice speaking.

  “… this gods-cursed fog is impossible to see through. It's cold and wet and I'm cold and wet. I doubt there's anything here, Ryder.”

  The wind mage snorted derisively. “It's not my fault we're out in this shit. It's orders, we take the patrol route we're given. Unless you want to explain to Lord Cyrus how you strayed from the patrol path because of a bunch of harmless fog.”

  “Hells with that,” the first voice snapped back. “Can't you clear this up?”

  “I'm not about to waste mana purely for your comfort, Kris. You're a man and a mage of House Alcyone, not a whimpering little girl. Stop your whining.”

  “There's something odd about this mist,” a third voice floated out of the gloom, and the final mage of the patrol came forth. I recognized this one—it was one of Cyrus's grandchildren, and he took after his father's father. He even wore his hair in the same severe, militaristic crop. “I'm not entirely sure it's natural.”

  “Don't put on airs just because your grandfather's going to become the next Head,” Ryder said, the Guardsman's voice sharp and chastising. “You know as well as I do that he doesn't respect a damn thing but strength. You've got a long way to go before Lord Cyrus acknowledges you, and part of that path is doing your damn job.”

  “I am doing my 'damn job,'” the Alcyone youth retorted, “and I'm telling you, this fog doesn't feel like normal fog—”

  There was a sharp, whistling call that sounded like a bird—but it was Rose, signaling that she was in position to strike. So closely did she mimic the call of a native forest falcon that all three of the Guardsmen relaxed, including the Alcyone.

  “Hear the bird? It's fine. It's just fog. If it was a spell, they would have—”

  I released the magic I'd been holding at the ready. The wind mage's words were swallowed up, even as his lips continued to move. Within the span of a few heartbeats, all three realized that they had walked right into an
ambush, and magic roared through them. The ley lines sang with the flow of aether as Ryder prepared to cast whirling winds to clear the fog away.

  It was too late, though.

  Rose's magic thrummed, shoving tremendous heat into the water trapped beneath the ground. The subsequent detonation blasted plumes of pulverized dirt and super-heated steam into the air, setting up a series of shockwaves that parted the mist as they expanded outward.

  None of the House Guard had time to react, much less defend against Rose's debilitating magic. When the dust-choked steam cleared away, I spotted two of the three mages lying on the ground, unconscious but seeming to be unharmed. I locked my gaze on the only one to weather the blast and remain conscious.

  It was Cyrus's grandson, the water mage who was clearly the most skilled of the three here, even if Ryder the wind mage had been the patrol leader. With the fog no longer shrouding the clearing, displaced by Rose's incapacitating blast, the Alcyone mage found himself terribly exposed.

  I came out of my hiding place and slashed at him, feeling the dagger's edge bite deeply into something invisible and intangible but resistant all the same. His barrier was still strong, even after the battering it took from Rose's spell. His eyes widened in astonished recognition as my face was limned in moonlight. The magical silence I'd laid was still in place, and prevented him from speaking, but it was clear he was much more interested in fighting than talking.

  My cousin fixed me with a hate-filled glare as he advanced. Water mana burst from his right hand and instantly froze into a blade of impossibly-hard ice. The weapon he'd conjured was much longer than my dagger, and I quickly found myself set back on my heels, placed on the defensive and losing ground rapidly.

  Blow after blow came and I struggled to parry and deflect as well as I could. The dagger's magic was more than up to the task of my cousin's frostbrand spell, but it wasn't strong enough to break the blade of ice, either.

  I had other options, though. Out of the corner of my eye, as my cousin's strikes became harder and harder to defend against, I saw Rose creeping up behind him. I knew that if she came too much closer, my cousin would be able to fend her off with magic while also carving me up like a roast served with the evening meal.

  If I would only call forth Eiri's sword…

  No. The last time I'd summoned the spirit blade, I wound up unconscious for two days. I couldn't risk it. Instead, I fell back on my natural talent for meta-magic. I took another step back, and then another, intentionally giving ground to my cousin. His slashes and strikes were coming faster now as he attuned more closely with the magic of his frostbrand.

  The conjured weapon lent its wielder enhanced strength and speed. He was getting more accustomed to it, and I was still exhausted. I fell back even further, feigning a stumble, and dropped to my backside. In a flash, my cousin stood over me, the icy tip of his blade mere millimeters from my throat—

  Reaching out to seize the frostbrand in my psychic grip—or, rather, the water mana forming the conjured weapon—I gritted my teeth as I wrenched the magic out of alignment. Motes of blue-glowing power scattered far and wide, and the blade-like shard of ice in his hand shattered. The breaking of the enchantment was perhaps a bit overzealous, sending shards of ice peppering my face and hands. I felt a half-dozen minor cuts open up on my cheeks and neck, and a hot trickle of blood ran down my face, just past my left eye.

  It worked, though. My cousin, taken aback by the abrupt loss of his weapon, tried to backpedal away from the lunging slash of my dagger. It was a feint, though; I never intended to let the knife touch his flesh, only push him back into Rose's reach. Her long, strong arms encircled my cousin's throat and squeezed, cutting off his air supply. He struggled and thrashed against her grip, but Rose was larger and taller and much stronger than he was.

  Without the magic of his frostbrand granting him martial prowess, it took Rose only a few moments to send the young Alcyone into dreamland. The shroud of silence dissipated, and the howl of mountain wind through the treetops reached my ears once again.

  “Well,” I said, my voice more than a little shaky, “it worked.”

  “Yeah. It did.” Rose favored me with a proud smile. “We make a good team, Lily.”

  “As much as I'd like to stand around congratulating ourselves on a job well done, I have to finish said job.” I walked, a touch unsteadily, over to where my cousin lay. He was groaning, and I knew it wouldn't be long before he regained consciousness. We had only a few minutes to spare. “You still have the flask Mother gave you?”

  “Yeah. Can it be traced to her?”

  “No, it's just a standard Alcyone flask, the same sort they would have had easy access to. Make certain you get a lot of it on their clothes, some in their mouths, too. Make it look good and sloppy.”

  “Is this one flask enough to get three healthy young men that drunk?”

  “It's magical,” I told her as I pressed my fingertips against my cousin's temples. There was a soft spark of violet-black, inviting a tiny sliver of the void into his memories. “The flask holds a lot more than you'd think.”

  The two of us went to work, with Rose liberally splashing the brandy on each of the Guardsmen in such a way that they would positively reek of the stuff. I followed behind her, pushing a bit of the void into each of their minds in turn. If they were lucky, they would be able to remember what they ate for lunch earlier that day, but nothing after.

  “Arrange them around that tree trunk,” I said in a dull, listless tone. Rose turned a worried glance upon me, and it was obvious that I was beyond exhaustion at this point. “Make it look like they sat down there on purpose.”

  “You need to rest, Lily. You've used far too much, too quickly.”

  “Can't. Not until we get away from here.”

  Rose bit her lower lip and looked away. “I know, but you're making me worry.”

  “S-sorry.”

  With the extra-dimensional flask nearly emptied out, Rose set it between my cousin's awkwardly-bent legs. She strode over to me and gave me a look that suggested I was definitely not permitted to argue with what she was about to do.

  “You need to sleep, but we need to leave. So I'll carry you.”

  I found I was in no condition to argue, even if she hadn't turned a stern glare upon me.

  *

  When I awoke next, we were no longer in the forest, but on a breezy mountain trail. I stirred, and the motion I could just barely perceive halted. As my eyes worked their way back open, I was greeted by Rose's beautiful, smiling face.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

  “How… how long was I…?”

  “Can you stand?”

  “Yes.”

  Strong arms loosened their hold on me and I slid to the ground. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, and the early-morning chill sent shivers through my shoulders. I looked up at Rose, who looked remarkably bright and cheerful for someone who hadn't slept at all the night before.

  “It's morning?”

  “A little after six,” Rose confirmed. “You were asleep for about five hours.”

  “Did you… did you seriously carry me the whole time?”

  “I did. You're not very heavy.”

  “But you carried me and walked all this distance—and I didn't even wake up?” I blinked, my expression likely reflecting the bewilderment I felt. “This… this is the Crone's Cane Pass, isn't it? We're already here?”

  “That's what the map says.”

  My jaw dropped in astonishment. “How in the Yawning Hells did you cover that distance while carrying me?”

  “I told you, you aren't heavy. I've carried far more weight than that for much longer than five hours.”

  Warmth spread through my cheeks. “I'm grateful for that.”

  Rose affected a fox-like grin. “How grateful?”

  “This grateful.”

  I stretched out to my full height and onto my tiptoes, reaching up to tilt her chin down and toward me. Our lips
met eagerly, desperately, and I let out an involuntary muffled moan as Rose's hand fell upon the small of my back, lifting me up into the kiss.

  By the time she let me go, I gasped for breath—among other things.

  “That's a nice thank-you,” Rose informed me. Her gaze lingered on my face for a moment longer before her expression became more serious and businesslike. “When can we use the recall stone?”

  “If we're at Crone's Cane Pass, once we make it a few kilometers deeper into the mountains.” I felt my heart rate start to return to its normal rhythm, and I nudged my thoughts toward more immediate concerns than how lovely Rose looked with the rising sun casting gold and pink highlights on her white hair. “This place is riddled with enough aetherium ore to interfere with most forms of magical surveillance.”

  “Will it interfere with Juno's magic?” Rose asked, a touch hesitantly, as if she didn't really want to know the answer.

  “If it were an ordinary teleportation spell, it might, but the charm Mother gave us is a recall with only one set destination. The spell and the mana needed to power it is fully self-contained inside the crystal. It shouldn't be affected by environmental conditions.”

  Rose still looked unsure about the prospect of more magical travel, but she nodded and held out a hand. I placed mine in hers and the two of us began to make our way through the narrow rocky paths of Crone's Cane Pass, side by side.

  Chapter 13

  Black Luminescence

  We'd been walking for an hour already, and I could feel it all around us. Those strange disturbances were getting stronger and weirder. The flow of aetheric energy through the ley lines was oddly distorted in places, sluggish in spots while moving far too readily in others. We followed a path through a narrow crevasse between two enormous stones, and I marveled at the sparkling iridescent crystals visible in the rock walls.

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Aetherium ore, yes,” I confirmed. “If these deposits weren't unstable, this whole mountain range would be swarming with mining companies.”