by Tenaya Jayne
His heart swelled, instantly in love with this new beauty, grateful he could see it. The day slipped swiftly past him as he wandered. The sun sank beneath the treetops, but there was so much light everywhere. It was only more beautiful in the dark. The longer he looked, the better he could see the difference between types of life and spirit. The animals carried a spirit made of a brighter fabric than the plants. He could see what Maggie meant about things that had life but not soul.
He came to the edge of a small river. Pale white lights darted under the water’s surface. Delighted like a child, he pulled off his boots, coat, shirt, and gloves. The centers of his palms lit up as he walked into the river up to his waist. He put his hands in the water. The white wisp of life in the fish swimming past him shot out through the gills and straight into his hand. The fish floated to the surface, dead.
It wasn’t at all like when he’d pulled the stag’s spirit inside himself. That had been a soul. This was like a breath, a fast flash of something unsubstantial, and then it was gone. It felt like a cool breeze in his hand, and it didn’t move through his whole body the way the stag did. He touched the mark on his chest as he thought about that night and what that experience felt like.
His stomach rumbled. He gathered the fish floating on the surface and laid them out on the shore. He let himself drip for a few minutes before dressing again and hooking his fingers through the gills of the fish. He and Maggie could have them for dinner.
When he returned Maggie already had a fire burning, skewers, cut vegetables, and herbs laid out.
“How did you know?” he asked amazed as she took the fish from him.
She smiled, laying the fish out, beginning to clean and bone them. “My stone. I was watching you today. Making sure you didn’t need my help or do something stupid.”
“Oh…” He blushed. “I’m glad I left my pants on when I went into the river.”
She snorted but didn’t reply.
“Am I going to have to tell you every time I need some privacy?” he demanded.
“No. I’ve no interest in being a voyeur. If I did, I wouldn’t have told you I watched you today. Anyway, these are ready to roast. I’m starving.”
They sat on opposite sides of the fire as they ate their dinner. He watched her over the tops of the flames, trying to figure her out and slightly mesmerized by the reflective nature of her eyes, like an animal’s.
“Thank you for bringing dinner home,” she said. “Have you decided to stay here with me after all?”
“You’re not asking for a relationship, right?”
“I’m asking for you to be my closest neighbor. With an understanding of mutual cooperation. As I said before, we could look out for one another. I am not asking for your affection, plutonic or otherwise. I will act as your teacher until you are secure in your powers. Perhaps, I hope, in the future we may become friends. That is all, Blondie.”
He nodded. “All right. I agree.” He looked over his shoulder at her small house. “I need to build my own house.”
“That you do! I’m sick of giving up my bed just because you’re drunk with a broken heart.”
“I appreciate your forbearance. I’ll sleep under the stars tonight.”
She smiled, and he was struck by the sly, foxlike nature of it. He wasn’t attracted to her in any way romantically, but it was impossible to deny she was beautiful. Her smile fell, and the color drained from her cheeks as the stone around her neck flashed.
Maggie gasped and held the stone up next to her eye like a monocle. He held his breath, alarmed. After a few seconds she exhaled and lowered the stone.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s all right. Just the storm. It’s churning, drawing closer.”
“What storm?” he asked. “When will it get here?”
“Soon. You will know when you see it. You are the only one that can calm it.”
“How? Do I have power over the clouds?”
She smiled again and shook her head. “I told you, it’s not that kind of storm.”
He sighed and scowled at her. “You’re not going to elaborate, are you?”
“Nope.”
He looked down at his hands, removed his gloves, and flexed his fingers.
“You feel better now?” she asked.
“Yes. Not quite so shaky. Not so worried. I saw beauty beyond description today. It lifted my heavy heart a bit.”
“I’m glad.” She yawned deeply. “I’m fading. Is there anything else you need to ask me right now? I want to show you your present, and then get a full night’s sleep in my bed.”
His mind ran through the pack of questions in his head, but he settled on the one he wanted to know most. “Why did you cast the spell to begin with? The one inside me?”
“Of course you would ask me that when I’m so sleepy.” She complained. “The answer will only give you lots more questions. I will answer them all, but not tonight. Tonight I will tell you I created the spell, trying to trap the power in my necklace, to protect myself from my enemy. I am not human. I was not born on this world. My mother brought me here as a baby, when she fled our homeland of Mordian. What was once a vibrant world of witches and wizards is now an aberrant place of only wizards, who refuse the fate of a natural lifespan. Desperate for immortality, they steal life from other worlds. My mother taught me all about them. I am of the same race as them. They cannot be defeated, except by the dead. Their power has no effect on those already dead.
“As I told you, there is a storm coming. The wizards are on the move, seeking to conquer new worlds, to drink the sources of life, so they will never die. I had hoped, that if I ever happened to cross paths with a wizard, I could chase him away, or kill him with the help of a willing soul.”
“How could a soul kill a wizard?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I only know it’s the only method of defense my mother taught me. I don’t know why the spell rejected me and decided to chase you down instead. Please accept that is all I can tell you for now.” She yawned again. “Come with me. I’ll show you your gift.”
He stood and followed her. Around the back of her house, fifty feet away, tucked in a tight circle of trees was a structure. It was nothing more than a roof on poles, but he recognized it for what it was. It was a workshop, like his old one. As he walked into it, his heart lifted. All of his blacksmithing tools were there. Everything he needed to forge again.
“I didn’t consider it stealing when I took all of this stuff, because I know it was yours to begin with,” Maggie said.
He picked up his favorite hammer, enjoying the familiar weight of it in his hand. “Thank you…I…this means so much to me.”
“You’re welcome.”
With a sleepy smile, she turned and walked back to the house.
He set up the fire pit and organized his new workshop for a few hours. When he finally felt sleepy, he laid down on the ground, under the stars. His mind wandered over what Maggie had told him about wizards. He didn’t want to believe her. He wouldn’t have before his transformation. He’d have just thought her crazy.
All of his life, he’d been led to believe that magic was evil and magic users had done something evil to themselves to become that way. But that wasn’t the truth. He had to change his thoughts. It wasn’t easy, like lifting something heavy and oddly shaped for the first time, the newness making you sore. Maggie hadn’t chosen to be a witch. She had been born one. If she was evil, that darkness wasn’t her origins or blood.
He touched the cold line on his neck. His choices would determine his level of darkness, but how could he truly gain control? How could he be near the dying? How could he know where to be, at the right time, without being the killer himself?
His stomach squirmed a little. If there was some greater forces at work in his life, he felt they had made a mistake. Or was it the spell itself that chose him? He wasn’t the right man for whatever this job would be. Wizard killer? Storm calmer?
He closed his eyes and sighed. What
’s my name? He fell asleep with that question drifting in his mind.
He’d never been much of dreamer, but while he slept he saw the flash of sparks and flame reflected on a bright blade.
Loud clanging of metal on metal woke Maggie early in the morning. She groaned and put her fingers in her ears, but the noise still came through.
“I’m an idiot!” she said angrily to herself. “Why didn’t I think about the noise he would make with all those tools?”
Groggy, she stalked out of her house to order him to cease and desist, at least for another two hours. As she crossed the distance to his workplace, the morning air woke her more fully. She slowed her pace, and then stopped, fascinated by what she saw. She’d never watched a blacksmith do anything. It was like its own magic. Raw and elemental. His focus was razor sharp, and she had no desire to distract him. Instead, she hoped he would continue without noticing her, for she felt deep inside her bones, she was witnessing something important.
“Come closer, Maggie, if you like.” He didn’t take his eyes off his work. “Maybe you can explain this.”
The heat was intense under the roof. She looked at the glowing hot metal, not getting too close.
“I dreamed about this,” he said. “Along with a few other things.”
“It’s an axe blade, right?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ve never made one shaped like this before. Do you know what it is designed to cut?”
She pursed her lips and looked closer. She did know. Questions she had about him now fell into place like puzzle pieces. She was surprised she had not seen this coming. He looked at her, eyebrows raised. She nodded.
“I know my name,” he said.
“Well?”
“X.”
She smiled. “Short for Axe?”
“No. Short for Executioner.”
Chapter Five
Paradigm, Regia
Kindel rubbed his head and sat on the edge of his bed, unable to sleep, again. He glanced up at the wrapped present on the shelf, feeling stupid beyond measure. A layer of dust covered the grey wrapping paper and bow. How long had it sat there? He shook his head. Why pretend he didn’t know? It was almost a year old, not that it had sat there on the shelf all that time. No, he’d moved it all around his house. Every morning he swore that would be the day he would give it to her, and every day he chickened out and left it in his house.
He felt his cheeks burn even though he was alone and in the dark. Ena didn’t care for him as anything other than a co-worker. She wasn’t attracted to him. She never flirted or tried to tease him. He figured she probably didn’t even like him as a friend. She was driving him crazy.
He’d been incredulous at himself when he first started looking at her, really looking at her. And even more incredulous when he noticed his feelings had changed as well. She wasn’t his type. She was demure, and girlish. He’d always been attracted to strong, rebellious women, like Forest. For years he was convinced he was in love with Forest, but he let go of his fantasies instantly when she came back from her mission, mated to Syrus. And letting go of her emotionally was easy, so he guessed it hadn’t really been love at all. Forest was one his best friends now and that was all, besides being his boss.
But Ena… She was precious to him. She twisted him into knots every day. Her laugh was adorable and infectious. The way she raised one eyebrow and pursed her lips when she was angry turned him on completely. She was strong, but it was a quiet strength. And she was intelligent and worked hard without complaint. He wanted to protect her, well, he wanted to protect her from everyone but himself. Her innocent ways made him want to teach her some things, get her a little dirty.
A rumble rolled over the sky as the blood lock shuddered. This could be the end, he thought. The wizards were trying to kick in the door. What was he waiting for? He got up and dressed carefully for the day. He didn’t care that it was way early for him to go in to work; he wasn’t going to get any more sleep in any case. He’d finally take Ena the small present he’d gotten for her a year ago, and try to tell her how he felt. And whatever happened, happened.
Fortress was mostly dark when he arrived. No one but security was there this time of morning. He used his key to open the office. His desk was on the side of the room, while Ena’s was in the center. Taking a deep breath, he set the little wrapped box on her desk, straightening the edges of the bow and turning the little piece of parchment tied to the ribbon face up. The ink on the parchment was a little faded but still readable. To Ena, from Kindel, was all it said.
Knowing he had a while before she came in, he made some coffee and looked over his workload for the rest of the week. Work was a fairly ineffective distraction. The present kept drawing his attention, as if it occasionally screamed at him. He thought about taking it back. There was still time to punk out. He was going to make a fool of himself. She didn’t have any feelings for him.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, remembering the day he met her, when Forest took up her position as Hailemarris. She’d sent him to the Onyx Castle to offer Ena the job as her secretary. She’d accepted the job enthusiastically before he’d even finished offering it to her, and was ready to go with him in a matter of minutes. He’d thought her very young and cute at the time, and probably a poor choice for the job, but she proved him wrong the very first day. She was a quick study, and had shown herself to be serious about her job and future.
He knew she wanted to travel. She had let it slip once, but he caught it, and remembered. If only she might give being with him a chance, he would take her anywhere she wanted to go. He never did anything, living a modest lifestyle, and had saved most of his income. Travel, even extended, exotic travel was something he could afford to give her.
As the morning wore on, the sounds of shuffling feet filled the halls, as people began arriving. His stomach squirmed as Ena came in. She looked surprised.
“You’re very early this morning, Kindel,” she said, taking off her jacket. Then her eyes rounded. “Oh, no, was there something we forgot to do yesterday? Is that why you’re early?”
“No.” His voice sounded off, too high, or something. He cleared his throat. “There’s nothing. I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I was awake early and had nothing else to do.”
She sighed, relaxing. “Oh. Okay. It’s going to be busy. Forest messaged me. She won’t be in today. I’m going to have to reschedule all of her appointments.”
“Would you like some help with that?” he offered.
“That’s sweet of you, but your work is more important than mine. I can handle it.”
His chest constricted as she sat down at her desk. She picked up the box, looked at the note on the top, glanced over at him, and then put the present down on the corner of her desk, unopened. She opened her ledger and began scribbling as though nothing had happened. She didn’t look at him or speak to him again, ignoring the present as if it wasn’t there at all. Perturbed and confused he went about his work. Was she waiting for something like her lunch break to open it?
As she predicted, it was a very busy day, and the present just sat there on the edge of her desk the whole time. People came in and out. Ena talked with them easily, promising them Forest would honor their appointments at the next available time. When no one was in the office with them, Ena didn’t speak or even look at him, and the present was the damn elephant in the room.
Kindel had never had such a bad or stressful day in his life. Of all the scenarios he’d imagined, no response at all was not even among his worst case ideas. When quitting time rolled around he closed up his desk, feeling defeated and sad. But there was a little anger as well. Ena had never been rude to him. So what if she didn’t feel anything for him? They weren’t enemies. They worked together, and he had brought her something. Why didn’t she open it? Or acknowledge it in some way, at least? Had he done something to offend her?
“I’m going home now,” he said.
She looked at him, but said nothing.
Anger won out in that moment. He walked up to her desk and reached for the box, prepared to take it back. “I thought you might like this, but since you can’t even be bothered to open it…”
As soon as his fingers closed over the edge, she stabbed her letter opener into the top of the box. He jumped, retracting his hand. “Whoa!” he exclaimed.
She dragged the box to the center of her desk with the letter opener handle. “What is this about, Kindel?” her voice was cold.
“What do you mean?”
She scowled beautifully and tore the wrapping open and lifted the lid of the box. Instead of delight, she raised one brow as she lifted the shimmery, grey scarf out of the tissue paper.
“I just…I know you like grey,” he said apologetically. “I saw it one day, and thought of you.”
She put the scarf back in the box, closed the lid, and stood up. She walked right up to him and looked hard into his face. He couldn’t help the heat that flooded his cheeks. She grabbed his wrist and lifted his hand up, touching his sweaty palm with her index finger. She dropped it and took a step back.
“Are you trying to make a move on me?” she demanded.
“I…well…”
“You’re really nervous. You’re blushing, and your palms are sweaty.”
“Maybe I’m getting sick.” He paused, he wouldn’t be a coward any longer. “No. You’re right. I am making a move on you. I can’t sleep, I can’t think about anything but you. You’re the only thing in my mind. When I do sleep, I dream of you. I want you to be happy. I want to protect you. I want to give you things. I know you don’t feel anything like that for me…but please consider giving us a chance.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “About time.”
“What?”
To his surprise she threw her head back and laughed. He’d never seen Ena laugh so hard. “Oh, you stupid man. So dense. Don’t you know I’m totally into you? I’ve been dropping you hints forever!”
He was stunned “When?”
She just laughed again and shook her head. “Why don’t you kiss me, and we’ll see if there’s any chemistry between us?”
