"It's different Theus, considerably different," his voice replied.
"Of course it's different! If he doesn't recognize that, I'll erase his memories right now!" the stone thundered.
"It's all new to him; give him a chance.
"The difference Theus is that with white magic, you don't take energy from others. You only rely on your own supply of energy or the energy of the natural world," his voice told him patiently.
"What does that gain?" Theus asked doubtfully. "White magic can't perform tremendous tasks like black magic?"
"You are generally correct. White magic is a smaller, more nuanced, more efficient use of energy. There can be great, large uses, but those are rare. What capabilities have you bestowed on him?" the voice asked the stone.
"The simple ones, the very, very simple ones," the stone made the answer sound insulting. "Invisibility, traveling, breezes, ventriloquism, light," the stone answered.
"Those will do," the first voice agreed.
"So Theus, with the power of traveling, you'll be able to carry out an entire day's worth of traveling with just one step," the normal voice explained. "But you'll be as weary as if you'd been traveling all day. You will still use the same amount of your own energy – just all at once.
“You will learn how to do it right, and if you are bright, you will learn how to do it well,” the stone voice told him.
The voices stopped talking, and Theus lay in silence thinking of all they had said, while he felt the memories of the spells and powers of white magic continue to integrate themselves into his being. As the sky outside his small window grew darker, the room grew cooler, and he began to feel the pangs of hunger inside his stomach, the hunger that came from not eating a single meal in three days’ time.
He heard sounds from the downstairs, the sounds of Glory and her mother eating their dinner.
“Stone, are we done with each other? I mean, do I need to keep the stone with me to recover any more memories?” he asked.
“No, there is no need for you to have the stone. It will be needed to rebuild the Guild of White Magicians – others will need to use it too,” the voice of the memory stone answered.
Theus climbed down the stairs then entered the kitchen, where the two women were eating; there was no separate dinning room.
“Look who’s come downstairs! It is as my Glory said!” Glenda stood up with pleasure, happy to see Theus back on his feet.
“If Glory said she knew I’d be hungry, then she knows me well,” Theus answered.
“We’ve got some bread fresh out of the oven today, and some soup. Won’t you join us?” Glenda asked. Glory went to fetch a stool from the other room for Theus to sit on.
The three of them sat and chatted amicably, as Theus asked Glory about their many mutual friends in the circle of apprentices who socialized together, while he ate the bread and soup. He refused to eat any more, even though he felt great hunger, when he saw how little additional food was kept in the kitchen.
“I’d like to stay one more day, maybe two,” he told his hostesses when the conversation lagged and he prepared to go back up to the garret. “Would that be okay?”
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you need,” Glory’s mother graciously answered. “We wouldn’t turn away a friend in need, would we, pet?” she spoke to Glory, who smiled and shook her head.
Glory left the kitchen to turn in for the night, and Theus used the time with her mother for a brief conversation. “I have money, and I’d like to give you some to help take care of Glory,” he told the woman in a low voice after his friend’s departure.
“You don’t need to give us any money; you haven’t been any burden at all!” she protested.
“I know I don’t need to, but I’d like to. If you’d like to buy a new dress for Glory sometime, or treat her to something that she deserves for being such a good person, I want you to be able to do that,” Theus argued. He opened his purse and pulled out several coins. He was leaving soon, and he now knew that he was not likely to ever come back to Great Forks again; Coriae would not draw him back again. If he was leaving the city, he wanted to leave something behind that he would feel proud of. Helping Glory would be such a thing.
“Here, take this, please,” he urged.
“You’re a good boy,” Glenda slowly reached across the small table top and pulled the coins towards her. “I hope both she and you find the happiness you deserve.”
He went upstairs soon afterwards, and lay in bed, letting his soul and the memories he had gained continue the unsettling process of integrating. He was beginning to feel the result of the days-long effort; patches of murky memories floated through his consciousness as he lay on his pallet and looked up at the dark ceiling overhead.
He felt the memory of a spell, a spell for traveling. He recollected the claim of the stone’s voice, that he would be granted the use of that spell, and that he would be able to travel a day’s worth of distance in a single step.
The memory was showing him the experience of performing the spell. He was reaching within himself; he saw where, suddenly – the place within himself was a place his soul had never known, a cranny his spirit had never rested in, a haven his cowardliness had never looked into for refuge. But it was there.
The other memories came as well, the abilities the voices had decided he would have. The spells, the recollected memories were settling into place now, becoming his abilities.
And there were others. He vaguely sensed the memories of how to perform further spells, but they were hidden behind a veil in his mind, untouchable and unknowable.
In the morning, he would be ready to go. He thought of one more task he could carry out. It would solve two problems at once, he smiled, just before he fell asleep.
A few hours later, after the sun came up, he heard a knocking on the hatch, and Glory’s head poked up into the garret.
“Come up; I have a favor to ask,” Theus requested of his friend.
“What is it Theus?” she asked as she grappled up the steep ladder to join him. She was wearing a nightgown, not yet dressed for the day of work ahead.
“I’m going to leave this morning,” Theus began.
“Oh Theus, are you healthy enough? You just came back to life yesterday,” Glory sat on the pallet with him, concern in her voice.
“I’m sure. I’m ready,” he answered easily. It was true, he could tell. His mind was no longer subject to the wandering bumps of new memories – powerful ones – settling into his soul. The process of integration was complete. “I’ll be fine.”
“But I’d like to make things a little better with Coriae when I’m gone. I have this stone,” he plucked the small, dark blue disk of the memory stone out of his purse. “I took this out of a ring, and I’d like Coriae to have it back. Please tell her to keep it with the ring; it’s important that the two be kept together.”
“Me? You want me to go to a powerful nobleman’s family and speak to one of them?” Glory asked.
“They won’t hurt you. Cory has a good heart, a very good heart,” Theus said in sincere defense of his former almost-fiancée. “She’ll accept it, and know it was from me, and maybe she’ll hate me a little less,” his voice turned wistful.
“Here, take this as payment for doing this for me,” after a moment’s reflective pause, he spoke again, abruptly, as he reached into his purse and pulled out several coins to give her.
“Theus! This is more money than I make in a year! I can’t take this; I don’t need anything. I’ll deliver the memory stone as a favor to you,” the girl insisted.
“No, you’re doing me a huge favor; you’re earning this money. And what’s more, I want you to make sure your mother is well taken care of. Buy her a nice cake from time to time if you want, or have an extra cord of firewood delivered to keep her warm. She’s a wonderful woman, and she’s raised you to be a good person,” he insisted. He was proud to have thought of the additional chance to try to add some prosperity to the downt
rodden household.
Glory’s eyes welled up with tear. “You’re such a wonderful boy!” she suddenly leaned into him and hugged him, then kissed him passionately, while he felt the softness of her body through the flannel cloth of her nightgown. He returned the kiss for a long second, aware of everything about Glory that was desirable.
Then he stopped and turned his head away. It wasn’t right to do any more to or with Glory. Not when he was about to leave the city forever.
“Take care of her, and take care of yourself. I’m going to miss you,” he spoke gently, as he held her to him tightly.
“Will we ever see you again?” Glory broke the hug, then rose from the pallet, aware that the moment had come and gone.
Theus gave his head a slight, and uncertain, shake. “I’m not sure, but probably not,” he answered.
“I better go get ready for work,” Glory started to descend down the ladder. “But I am sure going to miss you. I hope that whatever you need to be happy comes your way soon,” she added. Her climb downward stopped, just as her head was about to disappear. “I don’t know what or how, but I have a feeling you’re going to do something great, something really extraordinary!”
They smiled at one another, and then she was gone downstairs. And a couple of hours later, after Glory left the house to go to work, Glenda left the house too. Theus climbed down the ladder and replaced the overhead hatch to the garret. He looked around at his brief home. “Good bye,” he whispered. He stepped out of the door, pulled it closed behind himself, and started the journey south once again, to try to save a captive princess.
The Deadly Magician (The Memory Stones Series Book 2) Page 31
