Chapter 14

  Lucan eyes widened as he took in the woman standing next to me before scanning my face and letting out a loud gasp. “Your eye! What happened?” He cried out.

  After everything that had happened in the last few hours I had forgotten about my eye, a hand raised subconsciously to the patch that covered it. Before I could answer he whispered urgently his eyes wide in panic “Veylyn! You have a ghost in your hallway!” I had also forgotten that he thought Mrs Garrett was dead. That was another story I would have to explain. I just wanted my bed. I was so tired. Utterly and completely drained.

  I roll my eyes at him (or eye I should say) as Mrs Garrett let out a hearty laugh. I couldn’t help but smile at his idiocy. Even though he was incredibly annoying, constantly tripping over his own feet and being dimmer than a power cut. I had missed him. He reminded me of simpler times, it felt like months or years had past since all this had began when in reality it had only been a few days. “No, Lucan. That’s not a ghost” I reassure with a grin “This is my mum. Mum, this is Lucan. Lucan this is my fully corporeal, very not dead, mum.”

  My mum, ever polite, offered out her hand for Lucan to shake. He shook it, mouth still open like a landlocked guppy and eyes still wide as he struggled to get over this titbit of information I had failed to give him.

  “Hello Lucan” Mrs Garrett said “It’s nice to put a face to a name. Veylyn has told me a lot about you”

  “I-it’s nice to meet you too, Mrs Garrett” Lucan stuttered out before he blurted out “but you’re supposed – I mean you’re meant to be..”

  “Dead?” Mrs Garrett answered with a raised eyebrow before examining her hands like it was news to her. “Yes I do suppose I look quite alive, don’t I? Guess I must be a zombie!” She then leaped forwards while groaning, dragging her left leg behind her. Lucan screamed.

  Me and Mum broke down in laughter. In all honesty it wasn’t that funny but once we started we couldn’t stop. We got a bit hysterical. Maybe it was our brain’s way of trying to protect us from what had happened. I remember reading somewhere that sometimes when we feel sad, our brain makes us smile or laugh to try and trick itself into feeling happy. Maybe that’s what happened here.

  I wiped away a tear that had fallen down my cheek while I held my side. I felt like I was growing a six pack and I couldn’t breathe from laughing. Lucan was looking at us both like we were mad. “It’s alright, Lucan” I manage to get out eventually “You’d be safe against zombies anyway. They eat brains” I grin at him to show him I was only joking.

  Mrs Garrett had also recovered and spoke up “Don’t worry Lucan. I’ll explain everything. Please go sit down. Have you eaten?” Lucan nodded “I’ll just make some snack bits then.” She then shooed us off into the living room “Off you go you two. You have a few things to talk about. I’ll be back soon” she proceeded to the kitchen, humming as she did so. A habit she had even before she had gone into hiding.

  I take my seat on my spot on the sofa with a loud sigh and a groan as my tired muscles relaxed into the fabric of the sofa. It was all I could do not to drop off right there and then. I rub my eye and stifle a yawn, frowning a little at the irritation behind my cotton patch.

  There was an awkward silence between us. I had no idea how I should start explaining everything. All I knew is that he needed to be on my side. He was my friend. My only friend and he needed to know everything. It would be up to him if I was worth the sacrifices he could face.

  “Lucan..” I start softly once he had taken a seat, looking at me expectedly “Before I start, I want to..” I swallow the distaste that coated my mouth “apologise. For lying to you. But you must understand, I did it to keep me and my family safe, and yourself too.”

  He shuffled in his seat, crossing his arms in front of his chest but made no move to respond. I carry on, his silence was unsettling. “I suppose that to understand the whole story, you’d need to know the whole story, and let me tell you there have been some interesting developments the past hour or so.”

  I lean forward, hands clasped in front of me as I prepare to explain everything that happened the best I could. “So let’s start off with me. I am magic, as you witnessed in the Market Place, but I haven’t always been magic. You remember Ragneth, right?”

  Lucan nodded “As you know, she works for the Queen and the day I got my magic, she was working on a spell for the Queen. But something happened, the spell backfired or something and I ended up with magic.

  The magic was, and in some places, still is, unstable. I made sure to practice magic as much as I could, to help stabilise it and also just to learn more.” I looked at him sheepishly “That was actually the reason why I ended up in your kitchen. A spell I had been working on backfired and shot out of my window and into your house.”

  Lucan blinked then frowned in annoyance “Wait wait wait – So you’re telling me, the fire that started wasn’t my fault but was in fact yours?”

  I nodded, I could feel warmth coming from my cheeks as the realisation that my lie was being unravelled before me. Admitting something like this was embarrassing. “Yeah.. Sorry about that. If it means anything I thought I was gonna be busted for being a mage right there and then, so my heart was in my throat. I just kept thinking, this is it, he’s gonna call the Binders on me”

  “I wouldn’t do that” He stated, his frown deepening

  “I know that now. But back then I didn’t. I didn’t know you then.” I assure before carrying on “Anyway, after that disastrous dinner with your family, my magic was unstable and I ended up creating a.. mess, lets say, of a farmer’s field. I got detected by the ASF and ended up in a chase with them. They used rubber bullets and everything. It was terrifying.”

  Lucan gasped “You got chased by the ASF and escaped? Those are supposed to be the best soldiers the Queen has.” he was on the edge of his seat while he listened to my story. Mum came in and placed down a bunch of food before heading back into the kitchen. We thank her as she leaves.

  “Yeah, thanks to my magic. It ended up doing something I had no control over and it saved my life. But that’s why the Binders have higher patrols and more advanced weaponry. I escaped and made it worse for everyone in return.”

  I sigh and rub my face with my hands, my eyes were itchy with tiredness and the weight of my actions felt heavy on my shoulders. I hadn’t been able to sit back and really, truly think about everything that had happened. If it wasn’t for me losing control that day none of this would have happened. Everything was linked back to that day, to that moment I had lost control. I mentally curse and berate myself for losing what small semblance of control I had that day.

  Had I not lost my cool that day, I never would have set off the arcane beacon, I never would have had to escape from the Arcane Suppression Force and none of the extra patrols would be around, Alan and Stanley would never have gotten caught and I would never had been made public enemy number one.

  I continue on, my voice was hard and emotionless as I tried to hide the swirling emotions within me. “Then you came round the next day and I had to pretend that everything was fine, when in reality I was shitting bricks at every sound thinking they had found me. All I could think about was how I was going to be dragged away to the castle. Destined to live out my days as some mindless drone of the Queens.”

  Lucan’s face was forlorn and his eyes held pity in them. It killed me to see that he felt sorry for me, like this wasn’t all my fault to begin with. I did not deserve pity, nor forgiveness or any other pathetic little emotion that someone could feel. I should have controlled myself better. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Logic would never have put me in this situation.

  “Lucan. Do you know what happens to people who associate with mages? Even with low level powers?” I question him, resting my back against the back of the sofa.

  “A little.. I think” He stated, hesitating a little “Depends on if you help them or not, right?”

  “If information is given that you may know a mage, they place a tail on you. A member of the Force that relays any and all information about you and the potential mage you know. You may even end up befriending you, become a coworker of yours or even make their way into your family, worming their way into your life just for snippets of anything that might be useful for the Queen and you would never be none the wiser.

  But if they know that you’re friendly with a mage, they’ll take you in. Use you against them, and if not you then your family, your friends. All to have the upper hand over someone. If the ASF knew that you were my friend – that I cared about you in any way – They would use you against me. You could be tortured or humiliated or targeted or locked away until I came forward.”

  Lucan goes to say something but I keep going before he can get a word out “And if you didn’t give me up, then they’d target your family. Tell me Lucan, would you sacrifice your mother for me? Your dad?” I soften my tone and look him directly in his eyes, “Your sister?” there’s a heartbeat of silence “Because that is what they would do, they would use your family against you just to get at me. That is why I pushed you away Lucan. That is why I wanted to do this alone.”

  Lucan’s voice was just above a whisper and thick with emotion when he replied “So why bring me back now? After everything you mentioned...why are you bringing me back to this? You were so dead set on pushing me away to protect me before, what changed? Do you not care about what happens to me or something? Am I just something dispensable to you now?”

  I shake my head “Gods no, honestly if I had had it my way, I would have let you stay blissfully unaware and safe but things have happened that made me change my mind a little. I’m telling you everything now because you deserve to know, because I wanted you to know the stakes, to have a choice in what you want to do. I pushed you away because I thought it was for the best for you. I never asked if you thought it was the best for you.” I let out another deep sigh and rub my eyes hard with the heels of my of palms.

  “I pushed you away because I was scared, that if given the choice, you would stay. You’re my only friend, Lucan, and I know I haven’t been a very good one to you or maybe haven’t shown it as much as I should have but it’s true. You’re my friend. My..best friend”

  “And- and that’s everything now? The whole story? No more lies or anything?” his tone was filled with scepticism

  I make a face as mum comes back into the room setting down another bowl of snacks on the coffee table and sitting beside me on the sofa. “Not quite. There have been some rather… unbelievable turn of events recently.”

  I grab a handful of the small chocolates sweets and pop a few in my mouth, munching quietly before I spoke next “After my mana, my magic, saved me without any input from myself, I did some digging and the results that came back were… interesting to say the least. So to make a long story short; it turns out that I had a similar experience to a certain Saint of the Elemental Divinity. Saint Elowen the patron saint of magic before it was deemed illegal.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Lucan interrupted me before I could go on “Hang on, so you’re saying you’re a saint now?” His voice was full of disbelief. I shake my head

  “Hell no, I’m no saint, I just shared an experience that the Elowen did. Basically, Elowen had dreams that allowed him to communicate with the Gods, when I was little I had the same dreams, down to a T – exactly the same. Except, because I was so small, I never understood that it was the Gods trying to communicate with me. I just thought it was some terrifying shadow monster coming to eat me or some shit”

  “I can confirm they were terrified, poor dear. They were only six” Mrs Garrett added, speaking up through a mouth full of chocolate.

  Lucan ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep breath “I don’t know how I’m supposed to – how can I even start to believe that?”

  “Seriously Lucan, that’s not even the craziest thing that’s happened. Just wait till they tell you about what happened just before you came here” Mrs Garrett continued “I understand that it’s hard to believe, honestly had I not just experienced something with a witness I may add, then I would have thought I had gone completely loony – Like lock me up and throw away the key loony”

  Lucan’s curiosity got the better of him “Why? What happened before I got here?”

  I was struggling to keep my eyes open at this point and my response came out a mumble as I sunk deeper into the sofa cushions, the small break I had had from talking had allowed sleep to not just catch up with me but plough into me like a truck without breaks.

  Mrs Garrett noticed this and grabbed a blanket from the arm of the sofa and covered me with it. I could feel sleep start to grip me already. Her soft voice cutting through my daze “Sleep, honey. I’ll explain as best I can and don’t worry I’ll make sure to tell him everything” she stroked my hair then jumped into an explanation as I quickly dozed off, finally letting sleep take me.

  “Please excuse them Lucan, magic is very exhausting at the best of times and the poor dear was up all night practising and learning, on top of everything that happened, I’m honestly surprised they hadn’t crashed out before this point.” there was a slight pause before she went on “Lucan, what I’m going to say, will sound completely maddening, but everything I say to you is one hundred percent the unedited, unexaggerated truth. Are you ready?”

  Lucan nodded, sitting on the edge of his seat as he took in every word Mrs Garrett spoke to him.

  “Veylyn and myself met Calian and Mornana. The Gods of life and death.” Lucan made a face and went to interrupt but Mrs Garrett held up a hand “Please don’t interrupt Lucan, it’s rude. Now I understand you have questions but please wait until I’m finished. Is that alright?”

  “Of course, Sorry, Mrs Garrett” Lucan mumbled, his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

  “Good boy,” her tone softening as she spoke on “I know you don’t mean to be rude but it’s easier for all of us if you just listen for a moment.” she reassured before pressing on “The Gods are as real as you and I, they visited us today, and I don’t mean for a casual chat, they came to fix a mistake they made. I’m not one hundred percent sure on all the details it’s all a bit of a blur, I’m sure Veylyn would explain it better than me but I’ll do my best to explain it regardless.

  From what I gathered during the discussion, Ruinfall, that massive destructive storm we had almost twenty years ago was actually a summoning spell for an old God Calian and Mornana had locked away hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago in an eternal slumber. The spell was supposed to link the creature to the summoner, but here’s the kicker. At that moment, Veylyn was born with magic gifted to them by the Gods and the creature latched onto them instead”

  This time Lucan couldn’t help but butt in once again “So you’re telling me, Veylyn is actually an omen from the Gods? They actually have magic gifted to them by the gods and they have some sort of ex-god attached to them?”

  Mrs Garrett gave him a scolding look before nodding “Yes, they were supposed to lie dormant until they were needed but as Veylyn explained earlier their powers developed prematurely. Which in turn led to the eventual awakening of the ex-god as you so put it.”

  Lucan gave Mrs Garrett an unimpressed look and crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow in the process “You really expect me to believe this? My parents are crazy about gods, they’re part of the Congregation of Puritans so I grew up believing in them, but having them appear in your house is a little bit far fetched don’t you think? People have been sent to er...’places’ for less”

  Mrs Garrett nodded knowingly “Honestly Lucan, If it had just been myself who saw everything, I would have kept my mouth shut. Seriously I understand how mad it sounds, but it’s the truth and if anyone deserves the truth, it’s you Lucan. You are Veylyn’s friend – they said so themselves. Friends deserve to know the truth of the situation no matter how bat shit crazy it sounds.”

  There was a moment of silence, broken occasionally by a soft snore. Mrs Garrett was the first one to break the quiet.

  “As I told you, the Gods came to fix their mistake. Since the creature was originally supposed to be summoned by someone else but instead attached to Veylyn, they had no idea that this creature was even laying dormant within them. The creature tried to escape their bonds, almost killing Veylyn in the process all because these Gods decided to put their power into them as a baby. They had to come down from wherever they live and stop him from escaping, once again bounding him to Veylyn without so much as an apology for nearly killing them” Mrs Garrett’s voice had turn cold and sharp as she recalled the scene she had witnessed.

  “And that’s not even the worst of it! They only gave Veylyn magic so they could deal with another mistake of theirs, Veylyn is supposed to make a decision for the whole of mankind when some sort of catastrophe hits. All of this shit with magic only ever happened because of the God’s incompetence in the first place. These Gods were so detached from their creations that they had no idea of the sacrifices that would have to be made for this all to happen. They were all so wrapped up in maintaining balance that they completely disregarded one of their own rules – human freewill.”

  “Wow… that’s a lot to take in.” Lucan questioned, a hand reaching out to grab some peanuts out of habit rather than hunger. Rolling them between his fingers in an attempt to keep his hands busy, his voice was tight. “A catastrophe? As in end-of-the-world type catastrophe? And Veylyn has to be the one to stop it?”

  Mrs Garrett nodded and took a hand full of chocolate sweets again before continuing on “That’s right, imagine having the knowledge that you’re the key to humanities prosperity and survival on your shoulders. It’s too much for people, adults. Let alone just a child.” she shook her head, anger bubbling up in her again as she thought about the conversation she had not even an hour ago “The Gods advocate for freewill of human kind but go and completely disregard it and dump their problems on a child! It made me all so angry that I actually” she looked a little sheepish, the tips of her ears turning red in embarrassment “Well I actually shouted at them, I needed them to know that they might be the creators but they left their creation to grow and thrive on its own and that they’ll never know love or the sacrifices that humans make all the time for their loved ones.”

  Lucan, who had been in the middle of shovelling the peanuts into his mouth, chocked a few times, coughing as tears sprung to his eyes in shock at her admittance, he barely managed to swallow before blurting out, “You shouted at the Gods? Just told them off like they were unruly kids and not immortal, ageless beings of unquantifiable power?”

  Mrs Garrett looked a little puzzled at his enthusiastic response but nodded.

  “That’s incredible. You must have been terrified!”

  “I was but if you ever wonder how powerful a mother’s love for her child and how far she’d go for them just remember, I fought Gods for mine.” she replied with a nonchalant shrug as if the whole ordeal hadn’t made her want to flee in abject terror. “They even gave me a special name for doing so. I am officially called Evalinena Garrett Heartfire the Torch-bearer of Souls. A bit long winded if you ask me but I suppose Gods don’t do things by halves” the tiniest of smiles flickered across her face though she buried the deep pride swelling up in her chest, after all, she didn’t do it for a reward, she did it to look after her child.

  Lucan let out a long whistle before running a hand through his hair “Amazing but that sounds incredibility draining.” He flashed a glance at his sleeping friend “No wonder Veylyn is so exhausted.” he hesitated for just a moment, lowering his voice as if scared to wake them “Can I ask… what happened to their eye? I never got to ask them before they fell asleep.” he questioned softly, voice filled with concern for his friend.

  “An accident with some of their magic they were practising. They’ll be fine and their sight isn’t affected. I made sure.” Mrs Garrett reassured him.

  “My parent’s say that magic is dangerous. Veylyn reassured me that it wasn’t, but how can they say that when they’re practically missing an eye? Maybe my parents are right. Maybe magic is dangerous” his voice was small as he stared at the cotton patch, lost in the memories of his church going days and frequent anti-magic sermons his family would spout at him.

  Mrs Garrett exhaled softly as she chose her next words carefully “Lucan, magic is just as dangerous as anything else in this world. How many times have you hurt yourself doing sport? Or cooking food? Or doing anything in life at all?” her voice was kind and understand as she tried to explain life with magic. “people get into car accidents every day, but do people stop driving because of that? No they practice and keep practising and never let the idea of a crash sway them from getting from point A to point B.” she planted reassuring hands on his shoulders, making him look at her while she spoke as she tried to convey the truth of her words “The only reason why people hate magic so much and think it’s so dangerous is that they don’t understand it and the unknown is frightening and yes, accidents will happen – which is all that this was, an unfortunate accident”

  “I understand that Mrs Garrett, but I spent my whole life living with my parents, having it drilled into me that magic is too dangerous, that those who wield it are a danger to others and to themselves. I never truly believed, but what if their words have some merit? Especially after everything you’ve told me about Gods and apocalypses that may or may not be coming around. If magic wasn’t real would any of this have happened? Would we be sitting and waiting for the world to end? My parents have extremist views but what if some of it is right? I mean, Veylyn nearly lost an eye.. I feel bad telling you this, even admitting that my parents might be right makes my skin crawl, and by no means do I agree with their views whole hearted I have to add, I know you can’t control being magic or not. Veylyn helped me open my eyes to it all and about how much danger you guys are in just existing but… I can’t help it” he looked away in shame. Picking at a loose thread on one of the pillows he had picked up to hold in comfort.

  Mrs Garrett gave a small thoughtful pause her facial features softening as she watched his internal conflict able to see the weight of his words heavy on his soul “I understand where you are coming from, Lucan. It’s natural to feel conflict over something like this, the conflict seems especially difficult when you have people on both sides that you care about. But you aren’t alone, lots of people feel the same way you do. Just like everything in life, the conflict is on a spectrum and people fall on both sides of it. Lots of people are afraid of what they don’t understand, magic being one of them. Veylyn, myself and even Ragneth can’t control being magic as you know just like you can’t control how your heart beats or your synapses fire. But that doesn’t make us dangerous, it makes us different and that is what scares people.”

  Leaning in closer to him, her voice became softer, almost maternal as she tried to comfort the boy in front of her. “Seeing Veylyn hurt and in a situation like this is shocking, and yes, some of it is magic’s fault, it can hurt. But I know, as someone who has lived with magic longer than you’ve been alive, that I would rather live in a world where I have the ability to help others with my magic than live in a world where I am powerless to help those in pain, even if it is just my family. Everyone is different but at the end of the day, we’re all just living and doing our best to keep doing so. I may not be able to control being magic but I can control how I use it.”

  There was a breath of pause before she spoke again “I am proud of you though, Lucan. You’re questioning your beliefs and not just accepting everything at face value. You’re asking questions even if you might not want to know the answers. Fear is always the hardest to unlearn.”

  Lucan’s face broke out in a smile, although it didn’t quite meet his eyes which were constantly flickering over to his sleeping friend.

  A comfortable silence fell between the two of them, the air heavy with the events of the day. Mrs Garrett watched the cogs inside the boy’s head whirl and chug away as they thought and schemed, taking in everything she had said. After a beat she said, “I assume your parents know of Veylyn? You mentioned that they’re a part of the Congregation. Does that mean that they’re not going to sell out Veylyn?”

  “Yeah, they hate the idea of the Queen having a mage as powerful as Veylyn on their side. So they’re not going to tell anyone anything just to spite her. They hate mages but they hate the Queen more.” Lucan explained with a tiny smile

  “That’s good then, one less group of people to worry about.”

  A comfortable silence once again settled in the room, broken this time by Lucan “I have to know… How did you manage to fake your death? I’m guessing that’s what you did right? I doubt you bribed anyone”

  Mrs Garrett let a small smile flicker across her face “Honestly, it was all rather clever and something I will forever be in debt to Ragneth about. She spent days perfecting this plan. On the day I was supposed to burnt at the stake” She shuddered at the memory “So medieval – anyway, on that day, Ragneth cast a spell that made it so I was completely impervious to fire. The spell was stupidly difficult to master and took all of Ragneth’s skill and determination to get it done before the big day. I’m not a very powerful mage as you might know but I took a look at the spell anyway and let me tell you” She let out a low whistle “I very much doubt anyone other than Ragneth would have been able to do it.

  With the spell cast, I was lead up and tied to that pole they used to burn everyone on it was up to me to act as if the flames actually hurt when in reality they merely tickled. I only had to keep it up for a few minutes until the flames would have traditionally killed me. Then Ragneth sneaked under the pyre, the good thing about public burnings is that most people don’t stick around long enough to watch it all go down, anyway – Ragneth sneaked under the pyre with a pig carcass she had managed to grab from the butchers so there would be some semblance of a ‘body’. The flames would cover our tracks and make it so no one would notice the switch, then she wrapped me up in a cloak as to not have me recognised, gave me a bunch of papers including a new name, new identification documents and the directions to a safe house not far outside the walls of the city. From there I started my life again.. or best as I could with the love of my life and my child so far from me”

  she smoothed down her dress absent-mindedly as she thought back to that day “It is not a particularly fond memory of mine but I’m still alive and kicking so that’s good I guess.”

  “But aren’t you scared of the Binders finding out about you being alive?” Lucan questioned

  “Oh absolutely” Mrs Garrett nodded “But I need to protect my child. They’re my priority and if they’re in trouble I would go to the ends of the Earth to protect them even if that means putting myself in danger to do so.”

  Silence fell between the duo again, the rustle of the blanket was the only sound to penetrate it as Veylyn shifted slightly on the sofa, mumbling incoherently in their sleep. Lucan’s voice was soft and filled with worry when he spoke up next “What do we do now? Do we have a plan?”

  Mrs Garrett let out a sigh but gave Lucan a reassuring pat on the shoulder “I don’t know,” her voice steady and honest. Worry lines appearing on her forehead “but whatever we do, we do it together as a team. We’ll protect Veylyn but only time will tell what will happen”