The Abjurer: Chapter 24-25 (Patreon)

The explosion of electrical energy threw us both back, and I spasmed weakly. I hadn't even been caught in the direct attack, just the aftermath, but with my cloak's power gone, it had still hurt. There were burn marks on my body, and they hurt to an absurd degree, but I pushed past them.

Osheen. If I didn't keep moving, he'd be enslaved to her.

I scrabbled in my pocket for my emergency simulacrum device, the one Draven had traded me. It was still there, and I let out a sigh of relief.

Across the battlefield, the spring queen was a smoking wreck. I glanced around, sure I'd won, but when no bell sounded, I frowned.

I leveled my staff and unleashed my last bits of its power into her.

More green light flowed out of her, but this time, it was a slightly different color. It looked more like her own aura, than that of the boon she'd used earliet but as she staggered to her feet, her burned body healing, she grinned.

"Spring… Is renewal. Including the renewal of… self."

I snapped the burners off my belt and released all of them at her. She made a clawlike gesture, and green aura slashed them apart, but it cost her.

She couldn't have much left in the tank, so I did the last thing I could, and I played my final card.

My aura flared, then burnt out to near nothing as I added its power to what it had gathered throughout the battle. It wasn't much, but every bit helped.

And a silver-gold spear of force and light roared down from above.

See, when Oracle had taken to the skies in the beginning of the battle, it wasn't just to stay out of the way of the fight. He'd used his talons to scratch a ritual onto the ceiling, and allowed it to charge throughout the fight.

The spell was fairly simple, blending Constellations Faerie magic that invoked the constellation of the Hunter to empower a force spear, with quite a few capacitor runes to help charge it as much as possible. Throughout the fight, Oracle had kept adding more as each one charged.

All things considered, it was sub-par by my usual standards. It wouldn't have broken Archmage Roark's three-stage defenses. And it wouldn't have even dented the armor spells of this spring queen.

Not if she'd been fresh.

But she wasn't fresh. She was exhausted by battle, both from my attacks and the energy she spent on her own.

The light flared around her, and she managed to tilt out of the way.

Not far enough.

The spear took off her arm clean at the shoulder, and she fell to her knees with a scream.

She patched the wound with her aura, but she was far too drained to fully regrow or re-attach it.

She staggered back up, panting hard, and drew her root whip with her one good arm.

I drew my blade and lurched forwards.

"You… you are going… to pay for this," the Spring Queen said, her whip lashing out.

I was no master of the sword, but in our states, she was no master of the whip. I managed to slice through the end of the whip in defense.

"You aren't… a maestro," she muttered, her voice sounding crazed. "What… what are you?"

I raised my sword and brought it down in an inelegant but powerful chopping motion, like chopping wood. Her whip flicked out and knocked it askew so it only grazed her, leaving a few scratches, and I returned to a basic guard position.

We traded blows several more times, and gradually it became clear I would win. She was better at fighting than I was, yes, but she was down an arm, her balance thrown off, and still worse injured than I was from the lightning.

With a terrifying look in her eye, she threw herself on my sword.

"Let's see you keep yourself after this, Mortal King of Enchanting!" she screamed, dropping her whip, and first striking my chest.

She died, and in that moment, her aura began to blaze with an extraordinary verdant light.

My eyes widened.

No.

She… wouldn't.

But she did. The same spell that I'd opened with, that had nearly killed her by breaking her lifeline, cast by her.

She broke the power to peices. Most of it flowed up into the stands, away from me.

But enough entered me, a burning new well of power.

A power that corrupted my aura.

I felt something inside me shift, the mortal power sliding in completely.

With the Ligature's Knot and Oracle, my aura had already been close to the border of what could be called a witch.

With my dabbling in faerie magic and third arch-star, I'd begun to walk a razor's edge.

And now, as vernal power seeped into me, I fell off that edge.

She died.

I won.

And lost the ability to perform mortal witchcraft.

The aftermath of the battle felt almost as draining as the fight itself. I traded six hours of consulting work with the Court of Healing Springs, a lesser court, in exchange for some healing. It wasn't perfect, but the perfect healings offered by other courts had far more predatory costs.

Shortly after my healing, I'd been visited by the new Spring King, who'd inhereted the bulk of the power.

"You know," he said. "I really don't know if I should thank you, or if I should declare I want revenge. On one hand, her death did catapult me to the status of a king. On the other hand, she was my cousin. On the other, other hand, she was a prick, and now I don't have to listen to her. On the other other other hand, I in–"

"How about we just say they cancel out," I croaked tiredly from the medical bed, while Osheen glared at the spring king.

Said king paused, staring at me, then nodded.

"Done and done. Speaking of…"

He extended his hand, and three twisting knots of power wove into my aura.

"Your three favors owed for winning. I inhereted her favors and debts. Simply channel a touch of aura to call me."

"For the first one, can you safely remove the chunk of power she gave me?"

It would sting a bit to lose one of the three so quickly, but getting back my ability to cast spells with mortal magic was important. That was how I'd learned to cast in the first place, after all.

He studied me, then shook his head.

"Nah. She gave it as an inheritance… Err, you mortals call it a soul-spark or some such, I think. It's woven into your Aura at a very base level, and I'm no Aura healer. There's not much I can do unless I killed you and consumed your power whole."

Ah.

"Very well. I'll call you when the favors owed are ready to be called in."

With that the spring king ambled away, and Osheen spoke up.

"Your enchanting…"

"I'm just gonna have to enchant with spring magic now," I said, a grimace entering my voice. "At least it finally increased my aura enough to use foci. But no more mixing mortal and faerie magic together, not for now."

I sighed. This was going to be a problem. Osheen frowned – he knew me well enough to know when I was putting on a brave face.

Garnet swept in not long after, clapping.

"Well done, well done, yes indeed."

"Garnet, can you get the inheritance out of his Aura?" Osheen demanded.

Garnet considered for a moment, then shrugged.

"No. Even the Silver Queen would struggle to split an inheritance from a person."

"I was once bound to a wand with multiple aura-sparks in it, and I was able to have it removed," Osheen insisted.

"Yes, well, it wasn't a part of your aura, now was it?" Garnet responded waspishly. "It had its own Aura, and it just stamped itself onto yours. That I can help with. For the right price, I can show you to shift the Spring Aura into that of Change, like the Silver Queen."

Osheen glanced at me, and I perked up.

"What price?" I asked from the healing tub.

"The three favors you reccieved should do nicely," Garnet said smoothly.

"Ridiculous," I said. "One."

"Three," Garnet said, and his tone held a note of finality.

"No," I said.

Garnet sighed and shook his head.

"That is a true shame. If you change your mind, just let me know."

I gritted my teeth. This was a solid reminder, and one I probably needed. No matter how nice they acted, and how human they looked, Faeries weren't mortals.

Seth and Draven came in next, and I perked up again. Both were powerful druids, after all, who had experience with managing fae and Aura contamination.

"Draven, Seth," Osheen greeted stiffly.

Seth's hand fell down on my shoulder and he gently squeezed.

"I'm sorry lad. I… Didn't think that could happen. I've never seen something of that sort before."

My eyebrows rose. Did he really have no idea?

Draven subtly shook his head, putting a finger to his lips.

Seth commiserated with Osheen and me for a while, before he left us alone with Draven.

"You know a way," Osheen stated flatly.

“Of course I do,” Draven said, a wide, nearly maniacal grin on his face as he pressed his fingers together. “Tell me, Evan… How do you feel about killing someone who’s taken an Aura Spark, harvesting their Aura, and using it to cleanse your own?”

The bottom of my stomach dropped out as I stared at Draven.

“No,” I said.

“Oh yes,” Draven said.

“No!” Osheen said, stepping forwards. “There has to be another way.”

Draven considered for a moment, then made a so-so gesture with his hand.

“As a queen of the fae, she had as much power as a human archmage, if not more. She split almost all of her power to her heir, but she was doing this intentionally to try and ruin you as an enchanter. If she’d just granted you a chunk of raw power, then there would be more options.”

“That sounds like a no, not a so-so,” Osheen said.

“Yes, it rather does,” Draven said with a nod. “I do have a few theories. When I became a vampire, it temporarily unraveled all of the powers I built up, including alterations to my aura other than my arch-stars. That may work, but I doubt it. She effectively wove it into your Aura itself. It’s not just some extra bit that’s been sewn on, it’s truly a part of you. Still, it’s possible, and I’d be happy to do it.”

“What else?” I asked.

“Well, the angelic artifact that I gave you could do something similar,” Draven said. “I suppose you could throw yourself into death.”

“No,” Osheen said, shaking his head. “That’s not even an option.”

I sat up further and looked at Draven.

“How about altering the ‘stamp’ of the aura, as it were? Changing it from vernal magic to change, or better yet, changing it from fae magic to human.”

“I could potentially give you some resources for the first,” Draven said, glancing at his nails. “The second is utterly impossible. There is one option that you may not have considered, however.”

“What?” Osheen asked.

“You are currently treating it like a foreign influence woven into your aura, and thus, your soul,” Draven said. “But it isn’t. As I said earlier, it’s just another part of you. Instead of attempting to purge it and return to human levels of Aura, you could lean into it.”

“Become a druid, you mean?” I asked.

“Frankly, with the type of inheritance she gave you, no,” Draven said. “I mean accelerating the process you’re already undergoing, and fully becoming a fae.”

~~~

“What?” I asked.

“How do you think the first elves or aster happened?” Draven said, an amused but condescending look on his face. “You see, when mortals and fae interacted, quite a few of them fell in love with each other. Some of those Fae worked very hard to shed away their limitations. They lost their power, and became human mages. Or at least, something like a human mage. They never quite lost their expanded lifespan, and they couldn’t have children with humans, yet… They were close.”

“Right,” Osheen said. “I know that. But that’s different. They became mortals. Maybe not human, but definitely mortal. But this isn’t that case.”

“Ah, but the reverse happened too. There were those fae who didn’t want to lose what they were, and human mages willing to.”

“Druids who were willing to devote themselves entirely to one plane,” I guessed, recalling from my first year magic theory class. “It’s recommended to most druids to take care to gather boons from at least two other planes, especially if all your familiars are from one.”

“Yes,” Draven said, the wicked smile returning. “And here we are now. A boon from the Silver Queen in your Aura. The influence of a Silver Fae familiar. Three powerful boons from one of the Vernal Kings. And a large chunk of Vernal Power.”

“Wait,” Osheen said. “You said that he was already undergoing the process?”

“Yes,” Draven said matter of factly. “A few more minor boons and another familiar, and I suspect he’d be able to ascend as a Faerie Lord within a month. Likely a Lord of Change, given his skillset.”

“And if I don’t want to lose my mortality?” I asked. “I don’t want to leave Osheen behind.”

Osheen reached down and gave my hand a squeeze.

“It’s better than death,” he said. “You’d live a long, long time as a faerie lord. And I’ve seen what you can do with faerie magic. You’d make a great lord.”

“When you leave the party, find some cold iron,” Draven said. “When it begins to truly burn you, then it will be too late for any of the other options to work.”

I looked at Osheen, then at Draven, then took a deep breath.

“Wait,” I said. “I want to know the ritual that would let me cleanse my aura with a soul spark.”

“What?” Osheen asked, whipping his head around to look at me.

"I'm not saying to go kill someone!" I said, holding up my hand. "Okay, I guess, technically, I am. But I'm not saying someone random."

"Ah, yes," Draven said. "I do believe you were quite interested in the idea of killing Frank."

It took me a moment to realize he meant the same man I'd been thinking about – Franklin Roark. Osheen's father.

I had some contingencies in place, in case I wasn't able to. There were phrasing issues in the way he'd had me swear the oath – he had never seen the ritual chamber, that day, for example.

But if I killed the archmage, and used his aura-spark to power a cleansing ritual, it would free me of the bonds.

It would also allow me to cast spells again, ones that weren't pure faerie magic. I still planned to mix together human and faerie magic, of course, but I wanted to retain my humanity.

Osheen clenched his jaw and shut his eyes. He took several deep breaths, then finally spoke.

"Draven… My father didn't know this, but you're old. So… what happens to a soul when someone makes an Aura spark? Would we be condemning him to eternal torment? Or just killing him?"

For the first time, Draven didn’t smile or smirk, or even seem faintly amused. He actually frowned.

“Soul magic is… Complex. I’ll profess that I do not understand it to the level of which I do most other magics. But I suspect the true answer is that nobody knows, not even our hostess, who plays with the power of life and death as a matter of course. There are many unknown quantities about the soul. It has been measured that there is some significant loss of power in the creation of an Aura spark – more than an inefficient ritual would be able to account for. And soul mages claim that the aura is only a small fraction of the soul. Yet… Forcibly tearing away a portion of it? That does damage the soul. Perhaps it does instill an eternal torment onto the soul, like a wound cursed to never heal. Then again, perhaps not. Souls do not linger in our world for more than moments, so there is no way to tell.”

Osheen frowned.

“I… Okay. I don’t love the idea. But I don’t love the idea of you losing something that’s a major part of you, either.”

“The ritual isn’t free, you know,” Draven said. “Nor do I have it memorized.”

“You’d use a sample of my original aura,” I said, thinking through it as logically as I could. “Then use the draining function of the stained glass spell set in order to drain me completely. Filter the aura spark through the sample to make it the same as my original aura, then blast me with the power of the Aura spark to clean it out and act as a new base. I don’t need the ritual to do it, but having a completed version of it would help me cut down on testing time.”

That was… Mostly speculation, using as much of the magical knowledge and information as I could. I was saved mostly because I was talking only about the highest level aspects of the spell. There was no way I’d actually be able to put it together, not without some seriously twisted aura and soul mages to consult. But I was hoping that it would work as enough of a bluff to get Draven to lower the price, at the very least.

That seemed to throw Draven a bit, and he made a gesture as if to lean on his cane before realizing he’d given it to Osheen.

“Well, yes, that is the gist of it.”

“I’ve read so many noble secrets, and understand faerie death magic,” I said. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

As a matter of fact, it probably had. I just didn’t need to let Draven know that.

“Well then,” Draven said.

“Don’t get us wrong,” Osheen said, picking up on what I was doing. “We do want the ritual, to shave off on experimentation time, and to reduce the risk. It’s valuable, just not as much as you may have hoped.”

“Hmm, well,” Draven said. “I think the best price I can ask for is the resultant power from flushing your aura. You should be able to capture the spring power, and I’ll take that.”

I studied him, then nodded. I could probably trade it to a fae for useful materials, but that would only work if I actually figured out the ritual some other way.

“Fine,” I said. “Any objection, Osheen?”

“No,” he said. “Not to this, at least.”

“Deal, then,” Draven said, shaking my hand.

Our next visitor was a bit of a surprise to me. In all the chaos of the duel, I’d almost forgotten the deal that I’d made.

“Wowowow!” Mellt, Lady of Lightning, said. “I didn’t really think you’d… Live. Like at all! But you did, and that’s really cool! You roasted her pretty goodly with the lightning, too! Good job!”

“I’m glad I surpassed your expectations, Mellt,” I said, smiling with a mix of amusement and exhasperation at the energetic Lady.

“Yep! And I’m a lady – and Lady – of my word, so here-you-go!”

She smacked a strange bracelet, made up of blue stone beads, down onto the bed next to me.

“Now, this one should last about three minutes, but if you’re just using it for combat, that should be plenty, I think, probably? Right? I don’t know how fast humans fight. Anyways, it recharges after nine hours. I decided you’d probably like that better than if it was able to only recharge during thunderstorms.”

“Definitely,” I said, running my fingers over the blue stones. I didn’t open my third eye, not wanting to risk being assaulted by the power of Medb’s castle again. “You’ve done quite well.”

“Glad you think so!” Mellt said, beaming. “You should call on me again, if you want to do something with lightning. My prices will be reasonable, I promise!”

She frowned then, looking at me.

“Well, if you manage to keep your human bits. If you go full faerie, then… I can’t promise it as much.”

“I plan to purge the power and keep my humanity,” I said, and Osheen frowned again. I squeezed his hand, and he nodded.

“Oh, okay! Good! Sure, you die sooner, but it makes working with you a lot more interesting.”

With that, she turned into a bolt of lightning and blasted away.

I thought that was going to be the last visitor that I got, but to my surprise, I had one more.

The strange man with ragged clothing, who had terrified the fae when he’d spoken to us earlier, entered the room.

“Good job,” he said, nodding to us, then he turned to leave.

“Wait,” Osheen said. “You’re clearly some kind of powerful mage. Do you have a way to get the inheritance out of his Aura?”

The man turned back and squinted at me. As he did, runes swirled in his eyes, and I wondered if he might be using a power that wasn’t unlike Oracle’s.

“Sure, I could,” he said. “But I wouldn’t. All the ways I know of would require a lot more cost than I’d be willing to pay. The least dangerous one involves murdering a mage, and the most dangerous… Well. I’m not going to do it. I’m already pushing the rules by letting you keep your cloak. Anyways, good job! Try to stay human. Or don’t.”

He waved and vanished. I wondered briefly if he’d just gone invisible, or if he’d really somehow managed to warp space, then shook it off and looked at Osheen.

“We need to talk about your dad. If you really don’t want me to kill him, I won’t. I can target another mage.”

“Are you sure that you want to do this at all?” he asked. “It’s one thing to talk about getting rid of the power base of Paeús’ mages and know that violence will come from that, but… To kill someone? That’s a big step.”

“It is,” I said. “But… It was going to happen one way or another, more than likely. I doubt they’d just step down from power quietly and easily. Nobody gives up power so easily.”

“Yeah,” Osheen said, hanging his head.

“But… if there is another way, I’ll find it,” I said. “I promise.”

“Well, there is,” he said. “You could become a fae.”

“I… Could,” I said. “Do you really want that, though? I don’t. Think it through. I wouldn’t be me anymore. Not really. I’d be a fae. My fundamental essence would be gone, changed.”

“No,” he finally said, after a long moment of silence. “Especially not a Vernal Court Fae, not after that. Maybe if you could start your own court…?”

“That wouldn’t be so bad,” I said. “But I’m nowhere near strong enough for that, nor do I have enough followers.”

Osheen closed his eyes, thinking.

“My father is my father. He raised me. But…”

A tear slid down one cheek.

“He isn’t a good father. I have good memories. But I have a lot of bad ones too. Good memories don’t excuse bad behavior. Him doing a few good things while I was growing up doesn’t mean that he can get away with the things he’s done. To me. To the nation as a whole. He’s an evil, awful person.”

I pulled Osheen down and wrapped him in a tight hug. A moment later, he hugged me back.

“I’m not sure that gives us the right to sign his death sentence, though,” Osheen finally said. “But if I have to choose between his death and yours? I’ll choose his.”

“Thank you,” I whispered into him. He hugged me tighter, and we stayed like that for a long, long time.