The Weight of Magic, page 3
part #1 of Restriction Series
“Why don’t we get outside of the temple grounds? They’ve already caught both of us, and we have to hope that Desiree stays ahead of them so we have a chance at winning, but we don’t need to be in here.”
Jensen nodded. Eliza and Liana might be small for their age, but Jensen was just small. He was the youngest of them, barely eight years old, but he had the most potential of all of them. Their teachers had often made that comment, which was part of the reason that Jensen had been brought into more advanced classes as quickly as he had been. He had a mind for it, as well, at least when he wasn’t panicking about ravens.
Thunder rumbled.
If it were to rain, it would be better to be inside the temple grounds than out in the open. From Jensen’s expression, he could tell the boy didn’t want to stay here. And with the raven looking down, Torian couldn’t blame him, either. He didn’t necessarily want to stay here, either.
He motioned for Jensen to follow, and they picked their way over piles of rubble, making their way through some of the cleared section and then outward. At one point, he could have sworn that he heard the cawing of the raven, but when he looked back, there was no sign of the large black bird. Wind had begun to pick up, stirring some of the dust that seemed a constant companion inside the temple remains, forcing Torian to cover his mouth. Jensen didn’t bother and instead slipped his hand into Torian’s hand.
“You don’t have to worry,” he said, squeezing Jensen’s hand.
“My father always told me to keep an eye on ravens. He said that when there was one, there were often more.”
“I’ve never seen a flock of ravens,” Torian said.
“They aren’t called a flock. It’s a conspiracy.”
Torian started to smile. “I kind of like that name.”
“Not if the ravens come in a group.”
Torian looked back. He didn’t see the pillar that the raven had perched on. And he wasn’t even sure if there was anything to be concerned about anyway. “We can finish the game quickly, and then we can get back to town. How does that sound?”
“Good. I’m ready to get back. I…”
He jerked his head up, and Torian followed the direction of his gaze.
Another shadowy form circled. This raven seemed smaller than the last. Definitely different. Maybe there was a conspiracy of ravens here.
“Do you think you can set off the signal?”
Jensen looked up at him before nodding carefully. “I think so.”
Torian certainly couldn’t. Even if he had time, he wasn’t sure that he could create the signal as well as Jensen could. And not brightly enough that others could see it. Well, not brightly enough under normal circumstances, but it was possible that he might be able to with as dark as it had started to get.
They reached the edge of the temple. The stone block here created an irregular border, but if Torian squinted, he could almost make out the outline of the rectangular shape of the temple that had once risen above the trees. Now the forest attempted to grow closer, pressing toward the temple ruins where it never had before.
Jasper pressed his fingers together, creating what looked to be a second-tier pattern, but not one that Torian could use. He shifted it, progressing beyond second tier.
He’s already using third-tier patterns?
As Jensen held his hands upward, his fingertips began to glow, and he released the pressure off his fingertips one at a time, sending a burst of a glowing beam upward toward the sky. It intensified with each additional finger that he separated until it was glowing brightly. It lasted for only a few moments before it burned out, but it was still powerful enough that Torian believed the others would be able to see it.
“I thought I could hold it longer,” he said.
“I thought you did good,” Torian said.
“I’ve held it longer before. It’s a bit tricky, as it is the beginning of a third-tier pattern… Oh. I’m sorry, Torian.”
Torian snorted. “Don’t worry. I know that I can’t make anything even close to that.”
He was lucky to create second-tier patterns, though he could only do that intermittently. Even first-tier patterns were difficult for him to have any consistency with. Most of the time, Torian was left to rely upon his primary patterns.
Thunder rumbled again. The wind whistled around them. Torian looked up, sweeping his gaze off into the distance, as he could feel the storm sweeping in faster than he would have expected. A raven cawed somewhere nearby, though he could not see it.
What followed, though, set Torian’s heart hammering.
There was a low, mournful howl.
Chapter 3
A CONSTRICTION OF POWER
The walk back to the town went far too slowly. The wind continued to gust around them, and Torian drew his arms around his shoulders to try to keep warm. Jensen had been quiet ever since the others joined them. Unsurprisingly, Eliza had snuck up on Desiree, startling her with a burst of wind and causing her to cry out. Not in pain, but in frustration. Desiree was incredibly competitive and did not like losing. Especially not to her younger sister, Eliza.
Torian kept looking behind him, thinking that he might see or hear the sound of the wolf, but there’d been no sign of it. At this point, he’d started to think that maybe there hadn’t been a wolf at all, only his imagination that stemmed from the wind howling around them.
“We beat you again,” Liana said, sidling up to him and grinning. The wind caught the loose strands of her black hair, sending it twisting around her, though it didn’t seem as if Liana minded. “How many times is that?”
“Well, considering I always end up with Jensen, I don’t know that it counts.”
“Just because he’s younger doesn’t mean that he’s a liability. If anything, I would say that maybe you’re the liability.”
Torian looked over to his younger sister. “I’m not a liability.”
“If you were quicker, you would have been able to deflect it.”
“I’m fast enough for what I need to do.”
Liana looked over at him, then quickly brought her fingers together and spread them apart just as quickly. As she did, a burst of pale white erupted between her fingers and spread outward and toward him.
Torian tried to react, but he wasn’t fast enough. Which she had known.
Her power slammed into him the same way that it had before. This was not a new thing for Liana to do to him. He tried to fight it but could not reach for his own power fast enough—nor with enough strength.
“A… constriction?” he managed to get out.
Liana just laughed at him even more. “And you said you were fast enough.”
A constriction was just a different use of patterns and one that was not officially sanctioned by the school. It was something the students did to each other, a mixture of the lantern beam pattern mixed with a bit of wind, and usually amounted to only an unpleasant sensation. Liana took it a step further—as she often did.
She jogged forward to catch up to Dary, who was talking to Eliza, though not loud enough that he could hear them. Torian had to pause a moment to catch his breath, the constriction that she’d used so potent that he couldn’t even take a deep breath.
Jensen glanced back at him but didn’t say anything, and he kept moving up and along with the others. Torian didn’t want him to slow down anyway, as he didn’t need the younger boy watching him or making some comment about how he could help him. As hard as it was to admit, Jensen likely would have been able to defend himself against a constriction like the one that Liana had used on him anyway. He was powerful enough to do so, and more than that, he was fast enough.
He still struggled to catch his breath.
Finally, he had to take a seat in the middle of the path working its way through the forest heading back toward town. Eliza and Dary glanced in his direction at one point, but neither slowed. Even Liana looked toward him, but she never stopped. The only ones who did, even for a moment, were Desiree and Jensen, but they did so only briefly before hurrying onward.
Great. It was just one more thing that set him apart.
And from his sister, no less.
As much as it irritated him, he wouldn’t change anything for Liana. As long as she wasn’t treated any differently, he didn’t care. He wanted her to fit in, regardless of whether he did.
It took him a few moments to get his breath. A constriction essentially burned the air out of a person’s lungs, though its use was not considered an appropriate use of power for the most part. Still, Torian didn’t mind Liana using it if it meant that she could protect herself.
When he finally managed to get his breath back, he got to his feet and realized the others had gone on without him. They were far enough ahead that he wouldn’t catch up to them before they reached town.
The sky was dark and ominous, which meant that he would either get drenched, or he would need to find a place to sit this out. When thunder rumbled, this time close enough that he could feel it working through him, he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to make it back to town easily, or perhaps not even safely.
The forest might offer a little bit of protection from the storm. The trees here were tall pine, with a few oaks scattered, but there wouldn’t be any place where he could stay safe as the rain started to sheet down around him.
He began to run.
He raced toward the trees, thinking that, if nothing else, the canopy might provide a bit of cover. Unfortunately, it was late in the season, and leaves on the oak trees had started to turn, so the rain seemed to punch straight through the leaves. The pine needles didn’t offer much protection from the rain. At one point, he could have sworn that he heard the sound of voices up ahead, and he hurried forward to check on his sister and the others but didn’t see them. The cawing of the raven came again, this time behind him, and he spun to make sure that the raven wasn’t following him.
So what if it is?
The raven would want to get out of the rain, as well. Maybe the raven thought he had some safe place. Other than the temple, there wasn’t any place between here and town.
There might be one place I could get to.
It wasn’t much, but at this point, he didn’t really need much. He just wanted shelter. Someplace that would provide him with protection from the storm. There were plenty of old buildings scattered through the trees, most of them destroyed during the war, but there was an old hut that had survived. It was like the temple, old and had once been covered with runic markers, but was in much better shape than the temple as it had not been directly targeted during the war.
He found the small clearing, with the old stone hut at the center of it. The building was a simple design and little more than a rectangular box of stone with weeds growing all around it. Torian had visited a few times before and knew that the faded runic markers would offer a measure of protection, but it wasn’t the ancient magical symbols he wanted now. All he cared about was the physical shelter from the rain, and the hut remained intact enough for that.
As he darted toward it, he realized he wasn’t the only one going for shelter.
A darkened shape slipped out of the trees on the far side of the clearing, making its way toward the hut before racing back into the trees and disappearing from his view.
Not his sister and the others, though he wasn’t sure who—or what—decided to come for help. Maybe a fox or squirrel, though they probably had better dens to hide in than he had.
Another peal of thunder came behind him.
He hesitated. He had seen the raven and heard the sound of the wolves, which should’ve been reason for him to take a moment before rushing forward. When another peal of thunder followed, he knew he was being foolish. There wasn’t anything like that out here.
He staggered forward, reached the hut, where he paused a moment and traced a series of runic patterns along the stone. There were plenty of stories that said that others had done the same on the walls over the years, which was why the hut still stood. However, Torian figured that it couldn’t hurt for him to add his own layers of whatever power that he might be able to add that would help provide another protection.
Nothing I can add will make a difference in the storm.
A flash of lightning forced him to take a step back. The rain sheeting around him was painful, and he wanted out of the storm.
If only Liana hadn’t attacked.
He would have been able to keep up with the others, though he wasn’t sure it would’ve made a difference. Maybe they hadn’t even made it back to town yet.
Don’t think like that.
He didn’t want them to get caught in the storm. He just wanted his sister to not try and embarrass him. All because she thought she needed to impress Dary. If there were any of the students she should want to impress, it would be Jensen. At least Jensen would one day do something significant. He was certain of that. Torian might not know what that was, but given Jensen’s natural skill and ability, along with his quick mind, he believed he would be able to progress to something once he moved to the university.
Another peal of thunder came rumbling, followed by an intensification of the rain. And Torian had thought that it was already raining plenty hard. He pressed his back up against the wall, ducking underneath the slight overhang, while working his way toward the main entrance into the small hut. He passed by one of the windows, ducking his head inside briefly, but didn’t see anything inside the hut. He couldn’t fit in the window. Maybe when he was younger, he might have been able to, but now his shoulders were too broad. The window’s glass had long ago shattered and crumbled to time.
The door was slightly ajar, though there was a door. It was made of a strange, blackened wood that was far heavier than it had any reason to be. The hinges attached it to the stone and were rusted but remained intact. There was no handle, as most believed that it had rusted and fallen away years ago. Runic markings on the door suggested that it had been designed for a place of power and a place of protection, but even the priests weren’t entirely sure what those markings said as they were written in a long-lost language.
Torian hesitated. He could swear that he heard something.
Thunder rumbled. The intensity of it forced him back a step, and he ducked into the hut. Relief from getting out of the rain swept over him. He still hadn’t fully recovered from the constriction that his sister had used on him. It was unusual for it to take this long. Unless she had used more force than she normally did. Considering how she had been trying to impress Dary, he supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised that was the case.
A faint sound came behind him.
Torian tensed, then slowly began to turn, pressing his fingertips together, readying a primary lantern beam pattern as it was his most reliable use of power. If nothing else, he wanted to light up the interior of the hut. He bent his index finger along with the middle finger, arching them ever so slightly until he could feel the subtle arcing of power that formed through his fingertips. He could add more strength if he could move the weight inside of him, allowing him to access higher-tiered patterns, but he didn’t need to right now. The primary pattern would be enough inside the small hut.
The power began to glow, and then he separated his fingers, sending that arc of light outward and toward the hut’s ceiling. It wasn’t powerful enough to damage the stone, even if the stone wasn’t reinforced with runic symbols. It was only powerful enough to illuminate everything around him and bathe it in a pale white glow.
Then his breath caught.
He wasn’t alone in the hut.
A pair of golden eyes glowed, reflecting the pale white light and seeming to intensify it more than it should’ve been.
A shadowy form of a wolf loomed across from him.
Chapter 4
LEAK IN THE STORM
Torian didn’t move.
He didn’t dare move.
The wolf watched him but didn’t seem at all concerned by his sudden appearance, not that it should be concerned by him. Torian was no threat to a wolf, though he was determined to create another pattern so that he could defend himself if the wolf lunged at him.
A flash might blind it.
That could buy him time, even if there might not be anything that he could do with that time. Run out into the rain? And then what?
Head toward town.
The wolf wouldn’t want to be out in the rain, either.
It occurred to him that the wolf hadn’t come toward him. It just… watched.
There was something strange about the way the wolf watched him. Almost as if there was a knowing look in its eyes. The light had faded to little more than a pale glow that was not enough for him to see clearly, so he pressed his index fingers and his middle fingers together and attempted to draw upon more power.
He needed more light, though. That involved finding a way to push on that weight and using a first-tier pattern. When he had first went to the school to learn about the patterns and power, he had learned quickly that he had some potential, but he couldn’t reach it. Torian had never gotten any consistent reason to why, and though he had tried to learn what he needed to do so that he could move the power inside of him aside and access it, he could not do so very well or frequently.
He needed to now.
As he pushed, he felt the power split inside of him, something that seemed as if it were following a pathway inside his body, where it formed a branch point, going up through his arms, into his fingertips, where it began to glow. He held onto that power before releasing the tips of his fingers slightly and letting more of that power outward so that he could feel it straining away from him.
The light began to glow. It filled the room.
And the wolf still hadn’t moved.
It was dark, a gray that seemed almost black, and enormous.
The wolf was larger than any wolf that he’d ever seen. Given that he had seen a raven near the temple, he wondered if this was a shadow wolf. They were said to be larger than usual wolves, but there wasn’t much else known about them.
