Cleansing Fire

Magnus could see that she was still going to be stubborn about this. He’d tried to persuade her that confronting the boy was not the right way to go but she’d insisted it would work. Just because she’d painted him hiding in the bushes didn’t mean he would just spring up and do things as she wanted them done.

He supposed he should probably go over and give a hand though – otherwise they’d be out here forever and he wanted to get off the road to set up a camp for the night. It had been difficult enough convincing Lori to come out this far with him. Even though she knew she could trust him – another of her paintings it seemed – she still thought they could return to the city. He allowed himself to feel a pang of pain for all that had been lost at the Academy. The last news he’d been able to ferret out hadn’t been good. Fire had raged uncontrolled around the buildings, reducing many ancient artefacts to so much kindling and the loss of life had been horrific. As far as he could tell, there were still two warring factions inside the city. One was Balden’s – That stupid man, who would have thought he’d betray us all? – The other fought for some as yet undiscovered cause, the Jakori. Given how fearsome the Jakori were, he wondered how Balden had been able to stand against them even this long.

He glanced over, seeing that the boy still hadn’t come out from the bushes – no doubt he imagined that they would leave, thinking they were mistaken. It was time to end this.

He trotted his horse over to the edge of the road and jumped down, cringing as his back jarred painfully.

“It’s no use, Marius. You might as well come out. This is Lori and I am Magnus. Lori here has… visions and they’re always true. She saw you hiding under this very bush. We’ve come to find you – it seems you have a part to play in everything that’s happening.”

There was no answer from the ground and he began to wonder if perhaps she had made a mistake. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound and a young man stood up straight as an arrow, exploding out of the bushes. He looked to be struggling with himself and was muttering under his breath. He shook his head and half fell out onto the road.

“I’m doing it, you can stop pushing now! I’ll do it myself dammit.”

Magnus’ eyebrows shot up in surprise and he looked more closely at the young man in front of him. There was something… wrong about him. Something seemed out of place. He extended his gift a little, just touching Marius and recoiled when his connection was rebuffed.

Marius glared up at him, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“He says that’s not very polite and to not do it again. Now, who are you and what do you want with me?”

Magnus retracted his probe gently, not wanting to startle the boy. So, he has some magical ability. Strange in one so old. We will have to attend to that later though. Now, we must get off the road.

“We are just Initiates of the Academy,” he said, ignoring Lori’s startled look – they were supposed to have stuck to a story when they confronted him, something to ease him in gently but at the last moment he had decided that lying to this boy would be a very bad mistake. There was something else inside him and who could know what it might know?

“Come with us Marius, I assure you it will be safe. We have food and water and the means to make fire if you’d like some warmth. Hear our story; that is all we ask. If you decide you would still like to leave, we won’t stop you.”

Marius cocked his head as if listening to something and his face settled into an expression of resignation.

“He says I have to go with you. Very well then, let’s get this over with. I have things to do, people to find.”

Suiting his words, he took the proffered reins and leapt up into the saddle. He sat expectantly, waiting for them to organise themselves. Once they’d chosen a direction, he followed them easily enough, always staying a few steps behind Lori’s horse.

It didn’t take them long to find a path into the forest and soon they had located a suitable clearing in which to make camp.

Magnus handed his reins to Lori and set about building the fire. Marius sat down to watch, seeming to be entirely relaxed. When Magnus flicked a hand out at the wood, setting it ablaze, he barely blinked. Instead, he leaned forward and busily warmed his hands while he waited for someone to tell him what was happening. While he sat, he argued constantly with himself, muttering and shaking his head. Magnus thought it was time to find out if they’d saddled themselves with a madman.

He sat down on the opposite side of the fire and caught Marius’ eye.

“How long have you been hearing voices, Marius? And when did you first notice signs of your power?”

The boy simply looked at him, seeming to weigh him with his eyes.

“If you say so,” he muttered softly, and then shrugged.

“The voices? No, just one voice. He’s real though, I’m not mad. Just a few days for both really though I’m starting to think that some of the odd things that have happened might be related now.”

He stared into the fire, hugging his knees.

“Now he ways I need to ask you how long you’ve been using blood magic. Says that way you’ll know he’s real.”

Magnus couldn’t stop the surprise showing on his face. Not that Marius had only just started to manifest his power but that the voice in his head clearly was real. Besides Lori, there was nobody on earth who knew about his secret speciality. Not even his closest friends.

“He says you should be careful, you’re reaching the limit of what you can do without stepping over the line. Whatever that means,” Marius said, his eyes searching Magnus’ face for some sign.

This conversation wasn’t going anything like what he’d expected. He was supposed to be the one explaining things, not Marius. Lori sat down near the fire, grinning and turned to face the boy.

“I told you he’d be difficult, didn’t I Pro… Magnus? He’s certainly every bit as tricky as I expected. I suppose he is a thief though – that must count for something.”

It was Marius’ turn to look surprised. She laughed and pointed to her head, reminding him that she had visions.

“Hush now Lori, this needs to be handled delicately. The implications of telling him too much too quickly cannot be calculated though I imagine they would include some fairly dire consequences.”

She rolled her eyes at him – she had really become much more comfortable around him since they’d left the city.

“This is already taking far too long, Magnus. You know we only have a little time before we need to move on. He needs to know everything and he needs to know it now.”

Before he could object, she looked at Marius, drew his attention to the fire and raised her hands. A flickering image of a large woman rose above the flames and Magnus nearly choked on his pipe.

She glanced over at him and grinned.

“Just something I picked up, Magnus. I’ve been discovering that I don’t necessarily need to paint.”

She turned back to Marius, her face serious.

“You’re trying to find this woman. And another… a fair haired girl, she looks about my age.”

She didn’t wait for his dumbfounded nod before she moved on. The next image to appear was a stable, clearly showing him hiding in a hayloft while two women faced off against each other. One was the large woman from the first image; the other must have been the fair haired girl.

If we ever make it back to the Academy and there’s anything left of it, I will be writing notes for centuries about this girl. Her talent is phenomenal.

“Know this, Marius. If you go to find this woman, bad things will happen. I can only tell you what I see – it may be that bad things will happen no matter what you do; they’ve certainly been happening already. But there is another choice. Our Academy has been invaded by a race called the Jakori, our people slaughtered. A crossroads lies before us. You and I and Magnus are tied together somehow, he and I believe that it’s very important that we stay together.”

She brought up another image, this time of them all standing at a dark crossroads. There were figures all around them; some were masked, their faces hidden while others seemed hauntingly familiar.

“If you ask us to, we will come with you to find this woman, even knowing that we could be walking into danger. However, there is another choice. You can choose to abandon your hunt for this woman and come with us to find the Travellers. They are the ones who gave me this gift and we also believe that they’re the only ones who can help us untangle the mess we’re in.”

“I must tell you one last thing,” she said, letting the images dissipate, “We are being hunted, just as you are. Staying together, we have more chance of evading out captors than alone but again, the choice is yours.”

She got up and started preparing the promised food, giving him time to think. Magnus supposed this kind of decision was not one to be taken lightly. It wasn’t often that someone showed up, changed the way you thought about the world, told you everything about yourself that you thought secret and then asked you to trust them.

Marius seemed to be arguing with himself again, the voice must be talking to him. Magnus watched closely, trying to see if there was any physical change. Nothing seemed to be different about the boy. He couldn’t even feel a residue of magic so it must be something else that was doing this.

“He says I’m to go with you. I’ve learned not to argue. But I have a condition of my own before we go find these… Travellers of yours. We will find Kaylee and Mistress Arfor first. Then we can do whatever you want.”

They had discussed the possibility that he might decide to do this – and had decided that it would be acceptable. It shouldn’t take more than a few days to catch up to the people he was chasing. The village where they would be was only a few days from here.

“That is acceptable. I have one condition of my own though. You will allow me to teach you about the magic that is bursting out of you. How many times has it come when you haven’t intended it? Not that it matters, I will help you control it.”

Marius stared at him for a moment and then nodded.

He rubbed his hands together and stood up to help Lori with the food.

“We’ll start in the morning then. I know this is a lot to take in all at once, Marius but it really is the right choice.”

The boy just looked back at him, smiling gently.

“I know. He told me that you’re a good man. I guess I have to trust him now, don’t I?”

They ate supper in silence, absorbed in their thoughts. He helped Lori get out the bed things, handing some to Marius as well and they all settled down. He wished he could leave the fire burning but the smoke would provide an unnecessarily easy way for any pursuers to find them. In the last moment as he snuffed out the flame, he saw Lori watching Marius’ sleeping form. He wondered how long Marius had been a part of her visions, how many paintings he had been in. He was sure he hadn’t found nearly all of them in the brief time he’d had to sort through the store room.