Cleansing Fire

It was only the second night since they’d met and already Marius was more comfortable with them, though he still seemed a little uncertain about the powers Magnus was teaching him to use. She imagined it was quite an adjustment to make in a few days. To go from having absolutely no contact with magic to being tutored and having used it accidentally any number of times was quite a handful.

He sat now, practicing making fire – the first of the skills Magnus would teach him. He still got nothing but air most of the time but at least he was slowly learning to control it. He must get absolute control in a very short time or he could risk burning himself out.

To his credit, he was a remarkably fast learner – she’d taken weeks to learn the level of control he now had over his power and still more weeks before she could be said to have mastered the first element to any degree.

She flinched as she remembered what she had come over to talk to him about. They had camped in a small glade near a river, a beautiful place. She had made sure that this was the right place before she’d let them stop. She would have need of the water before long.

“Marius, may I talk to you please?”

She tried to make her voice confident, strong but couldn’t keep a small quiver of fear out.

He turned around, abandoning his fire making and looked at her.

“Of course, Lori. What is this about?” he said, dusting off his hands.

“I wanted to talk to you about… about Kaylee.”

“Oh,” he said, turning back to the dead fireplace, raising his hands again to try and create fire.

She knew this would be a difficult conversation for him but it had to happen.

“I know that you’ve been in love with her for some time, Marius. And that you were almost betrothed when… everything went wrong.”

“Yes,” he said, his back still to her.

“Well, the thing is, I have a painting, one of the oldest I made and it shows the two of you.”

“And what does it show?”

“Oh Marius… she’s not for you and you are not going to be with her! I’m sorry! I know this is hard to take in but please believe me – it’s true.”

He said nothing, still trying to bring out the fire. She could see his shoulders shaking and knew that he was hurting. She walked forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Marius… I,” she started to say that she was sorry but he rounded on her before she could finish. His eyes were aflame, his jaw clenched.

“You don’t know! You don’t understand how much I’ve been through to find her!”

He advanced on her, his face hard and angry.

“You have no right to tell me things like this! NO RIGHT!” By the end he was shouting and his arm flew up at her, shoving her backwards.

Suddenly, his fire was on her flesh, burning into her clothes. She shrieked in pain and she saw Magnus coming from the other side of the camp, knew he would be too late to put it out. She’d foretold this moment but had been unprepared for the barrage of pain that coursed through her body. She turned from Maruis’ stricken face and ran for the river, knowing it was her only chance. He reached out for her, his eyes full of anguish now and anger at himself. In a moment, he ran after her, trying to catch her and help her – though she knew he had no idea how.

She plunged into the icy water just as the flames were crawling up her hair and onto her face. The cold was shocking and she was about to be carried away by the swift current when she felt something grab her from beneath. It took her a moment to realise that it was Marius, that he had dived into the river to make sure she wasn’t lost.

She clung to him as he walked towards the bank, each of his steps bringing a new fire to her flesh. Oh gods it hurts. I never imagined it would feel like this.

“Magnus!” he roared, walking up the grass.

“Magnus! I’ve burned her! Help us please! I don’t know what to do!”

In a moment, the old man was by his side, taking in the damage done.

“Lay her down on the grass just here. Now go and fetch me some water from the river. Go! Use my flask – it’s right there next to my saddlebags.”

She looked up at him, touched by the worry in his eyes.

“How bad is it?”

“Not bad, Lori. Not bad at all. We’ll have you fixed up in no time. I’ll kill that boy. That was a damn stupid thing to do.”

“Not his fault, sir. I pressured him, it was my doing. I knew this was going to happen.”

Magnus shook his head absently, running his hand down her burned skin, sending fresh paroxysms of pain thrashing down her side.

“You saw this. You knew this was going to happen and yet you did it anyway. Why? Oh gods, you think he’ll love you one day, don’t you? Another vision I suppose. Bah!”

Marius arrived with the water and she was allowed a few mouthfuls, just enough to quench her thirst.

Magnus leaned over her again, this time spreading his hands above her body.

“Watch carefully boy. If you can’t learn to control yourself, you’ll have to learn to do this as well. Lori – this is going to hurt.”

She bit down on her tongue, determined that she wouldn’t scream but it didn’t last long.

At some point in the long night she slipped blessedly into unconsciousness.