Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
He continued his search, knowing what he sought wasn’t in the dropped items.
“You hold it for as long as you can,” he answered. “And then…”
Her nerves started to dance. This was the part where the terrible news made the magic more of a curse than a boon. The part where this entire meeting became a waste because she was no better off.
“And then?” she asked.
16
Daisy
“Ah! Here we go.” He pulled a rolled scroll from deep in the back of the bookcase before stepping back. Despite the mess around his feet, he could still keep from stepping on anything. He glanced at her as he made his way back. “Uhm…” He pushed his glasses up before pulling his chair closer to the desk. “Oh, well, it goes back into the fabric of Faerie, obviously. Now…”
He started to unwrap the scroll.
“Wait…” She pulled her chair closer and grimaced when a scroll tore under one of the wooden legs. Pale eyes drifted upward to look at her over the spectacles. “Sorry,” she said. The eyes moved back down. “So I steal the magic, try not to die if they find out, and after some amount of time—”
“Five turns.”
“Fine. After five turns”—she’d ask about it later—“it just…goes away? From me, I mean. I don’t explode or deflate or lose a limb or some other horrible thing if I don’t use it?”
His gray brows pinched together and his eyes drifted back up. “Humans have a very warped and twisted way of viewing magic. It is not out to get you, my dear.”
Speaking of deflating, her released breath sounded like a balloon losing all its air. “O-kay. So…what do I do with the stored magic?”
“Save it for someone to use. I swear, it is like talking to a rock. You are a vessel. That is the nature of a vessel. You store things until they are needed, and then you release them.” His expression was one of exasperation. “Humans find the simplest things so very complicated.”
She ignored that last comment. “I’m essentially an item for someone to use.”
“Well…” He leaned on his elbow, peeling off his spectacles as he looked at her. “That is not a nice way of looking at it.” He put his glasses back on. “But yes, essentially. You are the chalice.”
She leaned back. “And to boost magic, I am not stealing magic. I am…”
“You are a conduit. It is really such an interesting magic, isn’t it? A vessel, a conduit, and a stagnant.”
“A stagnant?”
“The nulling part.”
“Right. For the vessel and the st-stagnant, I actively have a role. I choose when and how much to steal, or I can nullify them if I want to.”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll teach me how to do that?”
“No.”
“Great. Excellent. This trip has been worth my time. And the conduit, that is something Tarian initiates?”
“You have to allow him. No one can use you without your permission.” He held the scroll open on the desk, looking up with a rare smile. “Isn’t that the greatest caveat to this unlimited, godlike power? The vessel must agree with its use. It is why the crystal chalice was always meant to be—”
“A thinking, logical being. I got that. If I allow him, can I stop him before it means my death?”
Eldric’s smile didn’t wither because of bad news, but because he was thinking. “Yes, you certainly could. But if you do, he won’t be able to achieve godly power, and his plans won’t work. Faerie won’t see its balance, the fringe won’t be granted its protection, and fae will still trickle into the human realm until someone stops them, which is unlikely in the current state of turmoil. The human world would be destroyed and your family with it.”
“Fuck, man. Don’t break it to me gently or anything.”
He looked at her. “Yes, this must be complicated for a human. I am not a man. Man implies your type of being—”
She ignored him and looked at the ceiling. Well, at least she’d get that nulling magic. That was huge, assuming she could figure it out in time for those court games. And she could siphon magic to store for Tarian in case the princess came for him. Again, assuming she could figure it out in time. It was something. Hell, it was more than she had dreamt of. Her fate was still sealed, but she had a few more tools to help her reach the finish line.
“Okay, then—”
She jumped with the thunk on the desk.
Eldric rested his hand on a triangular device with gold and silver running around it and pink glowing at the top. “This will help you learn to shield your mind. It’s the fastest way to achieve results. Tarian said you wouldn’t mind a little pain if it protected your thoughts.”
“Tarian said that, did he?”
“Yes.” He walked away.
She looked at the device, wondering what kind of pain it would entail. In a moment, Eldric was back with a similar device, but this one was a circle with a purple glowing bit at the top and green at the side.