Private Tales Light After Dark

[Gerrard]

Gerrard had scanned the letter already. It surprised him to see that Gelthin had known he was in the city already. Gerrard did not know the magician that well, but he had always respected him.

He did fringe research as well and the pair had discussed some theories at length a few years ago when the fool Rundall had invited many mages to witness his experiments. It had all been a rather amusing affair given how badly it had gone.

Audreyn's reaction did much to draw him straight out of his thoughts on the matter. A moment ago she had been hissing and spitting about Bent sending her a dress and now she seemed to be swooning.

Not from Bent then. Sometime his brain worked very slowly. Usually when he was distracted by something.

"Its from Gerath Harly," said Gerrard, lifting an eyebrow. That was the young man that had been at Pa Ostland's table. "He enjoyed speaking with you very much, lots of flowery language and very neat penmanship and then he invites you to an afternoon tea and stroll around the grounds of his cottage."

Gerrard very slowly folded the letter in two and watched Audreyn very carefully. At least he could let go of the little ball of anger that at started to form when he assumed Brent had taken it up a notch.

---

Earlier that morning.

The Harly family had purchased their youngest son a small cottage well beyond the city wall in the village of Harbury. It was a cottage that could comfortably hold four of the houses that extended peasant families resided within at the other end of the village.

Graylin finished scratching at the paper and admired his handiwork. Beside the parchment with shining, drying ink was an older journal kept by Gerath. The handwriting on the two was indistinguishable. It wasn't even necessary, but the professional in him refused to take short cuts.

Graylin lit a candle with a touch of magic so he could make a seal. He looked up from his letter and into the back garden. His gaze came to settle on the disturbed earth beneath the apple tree. The place where Gerath Harly now lay.

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

I have been hoping that perhaps you have been practicing your quillmanship or have been nervous of putting your thoughts down in ink and having them sent to me.

As time has passed I have come to realise that this is wishful thinking on my part. I suspect instead that it is the circumstances that led us to Elbion that have stayed your hand.

I am nothing if not slow to acknowledge when I am wrong.


It was Murant all over again, yet it wasn't his doing. Gerrard was certain he heard his horse bolt away from the blaze behind him. The smoke was thick, the heat oppressive. It took all his concentration to whip the smoke away and to draw the heat away from his face.

This was where they had taken her. A town several miles outside the walls. Gerrard already knew there couldn't be a single soul left alive in the blaze. He had lost her. This was his fault. Her death, and the deaths of everyone who had perished in this blaze, were on him.

" Audreyn !" he called out. He couldn't let go and turn back. Not yet.



This letter is not a full explanation, but perhaps you would accept that I acted with the best intentions for you. I want a future for you. I am not pushing you away, but I am not the right one to teach control. The last person who should, in fact.

I remain at my private residence, continuing my work. In Vel Anir they seem to be ramping up the war efforts so I have been utilising other lines to obtain what I need to continue. I have no interest in getting involved in their minor politics and squabbles. They bore me.

I hope that perhaps you can bring yourself to write back. I would love to hear how your studies have started.

Yours sincerely,

Gerrard

 

[Audreyn]

~~~~


Audreyn stirred, the heat around her scorching. She starred uncomprehendingly at the wreckage around her, the fire licking at her ankles like a familiar friend. She tried to pull up a reason as to why she was sitting dead center in an ember pile, but nothing came to mind.

A sense of panic hit her chest at the lack of memory. The flames around her roared in response. Flames. Her flames. She had done this. Just like she had done to her childhood home.

Pain bit at her ankle. She gasped sharply, looking down for the first time to find the leg was bare. The twisted remains of her leather boots sat melted and coiled on the ground. Her dress was missing. She reached up towards her head. Where there once was hair was now crispy coils. It crumbled out under her touch.

Her skin was unharmed, an immunity that faded as the embers under her starred to leave puckering red burns.

She let out a shrill scream of alarm, jolting up. And that was when she saw the entirety of the town around her. Leveled.

She screamed again, all the flames climbing higher into the air in response.

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

I apologise for the delay in this letting. I admit that it took me some time to come around to writing a coherent reply.

That, I think, is a nice way of admitting that I lost my temper and shattered my ink well. I have not the time nor funds to have my floor replaced but that hardly seems important now.

I am glad that you wrote back. In the end, at least I know you received my letter and are therefore still at the academy. Even if you spelled my name wrong. Which was even written on my previous letter.

Please work on your letters or Master Ditronno will have you work your fingers to the bone.

I would come and visit, but you know I am not welcome there. Pay attention. Don't follow in my steps.

Gerrard



But it was too late for that.



He heard the cry. He heard the pain in that voice. Even if he couldn't recognise the voice he immediately knew that Audreyn was alive. He knew the pain he heard there. A long, dark strand connected that voice to his past.

The heat rose, driving him back from his feet. The scar tissue across his chest erupted in pain.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn had one thought on her mind as she found herself encased in an inferno of fire and ash.

Gerrard. She scrambled over fallen beams, her palms and soles screaming out in pain. Even the cobble stones heated hot, keeping her moving. Running. She didn’t know how, but she knew he was near. She sensed it. In a way she hadn’t ever before. The world around her felt strangely alive. Dancing. Filled with energy she had never seen before. It flowed through her veins. The fire. The earth. And it responding to each spout of panic that fell from her lips.

Magic

It was everywhere, shining through her eyes for the first time. And it burned fiercely, uncapped and unchecked as it grew around her.

“Gerrard!” She screeched, running towards the draw.

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

My tea is usually cold because I get distracted with my work. So I suppose, in a way, you get your wish.

Please, at least indulge me in letting me know how your studies go? Do they treat you well?

If they do not read and remove this part of the letter I have plenty of ideas on how to ensure they treat you properly if not. Did you know, for example, that the passage behind the door to the alchemy lab is a scullery maid's corridor with a door to the library? Unlocked even when the library is closed.

Your,

Gerrard.





The fire danced to a different tune. When he had tried to open a portal tunnel of his own in Murant he had opened a door to somewhere else. The things that had come through had left their mark on him before burning every inch of that town to ash.

The marks did burn for any real connection between this magic and the one used on that day. The connection was in his mind.

"Audreyn!" he called. He gritted his teeth and marched towards the voice, extinguishing the flames around himself as he advanced.

 

[Audreyn]

She barreled towards him, unrecognizable. Her bare skin was without clothing, red and puckered. All hair was burned off her body, lost to heat and the blaze she brought roaring with her. She felt no pain, letting out warbles of noise and panic.

There was no ability to think, just the blind expectation that Gerrard would fix this. He fixed everything. Every mistake. Every moment, he had the answers.

This was just something that needed answers.

Right?

She collided into him with a sob, her arms wrapping around him.

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

It took me some time to decide if your letter was entirely serious. I apologise. It did not occur to me that such things would not be covered by the stupid stipend I had my brother set up for you.

Please find with this letter what I hope is something suitable. I cannot visit either Vel Anir or Elbion right now so the choice was more limited.

If this is not acceptable please let me know. I will send funds to purchase something in the city from Haville Row.

Your writing is much improved.

Warmest regards,

Gerrard

ps has anyone mentioned "Gerrard's Law" yet?

---

He didn't hesitate to embrace her back, even as the fibres if his clothes were singed by the heat she carried. Her present state mattered not at all to him in the moment.

"Audreyn," he sighed. "This is all my fault."

It wasn't the right thing to say. There wasn't much to say when he knew that every other soul in the town had been extinguished. The shape shifter and his hired thugs who had caught her. All the people with no involvement with any of their lives. Some would have died slowly, screaming in the flames.

Gerrard was back at Murant.

 

[Audreyn]

What was his fault? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything currently, and it frightened her. Frightened her so much the flame lashed out towards them, threatening to swallow them whole. Something had been released tonight. Some dark magic used to do unholy things to someone around it.

She had no sense of that. She only cried out as the heat licked at her back, her form crunching closer into his for protection. “I want to go home,” she practically chanted. “Take me home.”

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

Perhaps right now my money is the only way I can help without making matters worse.

Do not fret over the others. I am sure you have more natural beauty than their fine clothes and make up can fake.

You have more potential than any of them, I imagine. It will show. The masters will see.

Gerrard's Law is rule seventeen of alchemy. That the falanni cupboard must remain locked in a master of the second level or above is not present in the laboratory. Because a young student once worked out how he could mix it with a durron stone to make enough purple smoke to clear out half the school.

They will start with the fundamentals as I should have.

I did not tell you this, but on the sixth floor of the Jonneton building is a corridor of small rooms lined in black wood. They are magically isolated. Should you wish to carry out some practise then with the door shut you will be quite safe.

Yours,

Gerrard



He stroke the back of her scalp, brushing away the brittle remains of the roots of her hair. His hand trembled. This was his arrogance at work again. He would never learn.

If he could not learn, he could not teach.

"Come, come, we'll go."

He did not know where they were going. He could not go back to their pleasant cottage in Vel Anir.

Away. For now that was enough. At least she did not have to wonder away from the flames on her own. He could save her some of that pain at least.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn followed him numbly. The night turned into dawn. Her feet left bloody paths behind them as blisters tore open on the cobble road they walked. The next village, whatever it was, still slumbered as they arrived. Audreyn had become an empty shell, her gaze hallow and her thoughts dead.

She moved without direction, following his lead.

 

[Gerrard]

Audreyn,

I am weak and I am foolish. I tell you this because I am asking you not to keeping asking me this. I miss your company greatly and I have never been good at making the right decision. If you keep asking I will make the selfish call and bring you here.

You are no monster. Neither am I, despite what they might say about me there.

I saw my own mistakes in trying to teach you. Perhaps for the first time truly acknowledging the damage I have done in showing a lack of patience myself.

Stay the course, learn. Apply discipline and control. Know that I do not hate you at all.

Perhaps, whilst I am not welcome in the academy grounds, I could visit in the summer?

Your writing is unrecognisable from your first letter, well done!

Yours,

Gerrard




"Audreyn?" he asked. His voice was hoarse from the smoke. He cought as quietly as possible to try and clear his throat.

"Can you stay here a moment? I will...find some clothes."

 

[Audreyn]

He got a numb nod, subtle yet responsive from the husk of a girl.

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

I sit next to a pile of crumpled up letters. Perhaps this letter is the one I will actual decide is right. Or at least as close as can be.

Putting my feelings to paper is hard work. Harder than the entirely new spell I created just to remove ink stains from hardwood. I keep being weak. I keep writing down that I will take you away again. It is what I want. I had forgotten what it was to be so alone.

I did not teach you right. We cannot make the same mistakes over and over. You must learn properly.

The funds come through my brother. His reputation holds weight in Elbion. So does mine, but for all the wrong reasons. Gean is kind and pragmatic and you should heed her advice. You will be brilliant.

If perhaps I could visit the city during the week of your mid semester break would you visit me? I cannot enter the grounds of the college.

Yours,

Gerrard




She had exhausted herself, drained every ounce of power she had. Uncontrolled it had kept flowing until she was empty. Until they had all died.

Gerrard returned within a few minuted with a simple dress.

"Here," he whispered, "hold up your arms."

 

[Audreyn]

Gerrard,
I didn't know we get breaks. At least there's that. I would have thought they'd make us learn until our ears bleed. It certainly feels like that right now. I spend my days practicing my scripts and numbers. I have one teacher. Williams. He's moved me onto history too. I don't see why I need to know about dead people. I think he's just trying to fill the time until the spring semester starts.

Please come here. You can say these things to me. You don't have to be strong. I don't understand what there's to be strong about anyway. Why can't I learn the basics and you just take me back on break? Doesn't that sound like a wonderful idea?

I think so.

Professor Gean makes it a habit to talk to me now.

I guess my appearance doesn't scare her off.

Or maybe the wig just helps.

I'm lonely too. I know I promised I wouldn't talk about it again but what's the point if you feel it too? No one gets me here. A stupid farm girl with monster skin. Please come. I could have cleaned your floors without a spell. Have you been eating properly? I could handle that too.

Classes start soon. Write quickly. I could tell the dean and he can make a quicker list of things for me to learn!

Audreyn.


She held up her arms, a slight wince catching over her features as the cloth brushed against her body. The hallow gaze pulled up to him, seeking. For what, not even Audreyn was sure. Her words felt distant, lost to her. She received everything from a fuzzy tunnel of shock. But she had made it... here.... she was... with him... save.

She could stop pushing forward now?

She wavered on her feet. That was the only warning he got before her body gave out.

 

[Gerrard]

When he read her letter he knew that he should have made a clean break. He should have put her in better, safer hands than his own and cast her from his mind. But he couldn't.

Dear Audreyn,

History is a tedious waste of time. It forms one of a backbone of subjects to ensure that witless, talentless children have exams they can study hard for. Study it as much as you need to pass and focus on magical subjects when they start up.

There is no point excelling in a subject that won't assist you in life.

Writing and maths are fundamental skills that will stand you well in life. Seperate you from the common folk. If you ever assist me in my laboratory you would need both.

I promise I have been eating properly.

I will make enquiries to visit Elbion during the break. It would bring me great joy to see you again, as long as you promise to concentrate on your studies once I must inevitably leave again.

Yours,

Gerrard


Eyebrows were raised when he barged into an Inn. A man in his mid forties carrying a young woman in her state. There was shouting as he explained that he had reacued her from the blaze in the next town over.

Soon the village was a hive of activity as they men gathered to ride out to see if they could help.

Gerrard knew that they could not.

 

[Audreyn]

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

I am very glad to hear that you are beginning to settle into the college. Very glad indeed.

If you can borrow three quarts of chyrillis gel from the labs and mix in one crushed vowder seed you will have a mix that you can coat a sheaf of paper with. Leave it to dry and the graphite will smudge less.

It would not inconvenience me a great deal to visit the city. I would still be glad to visit.

Send my regards to Professor Gean and my thanks. Perhaps it would be wise to do so out of the earshot of other faculty members.

Yours,

Gerrard

 

[Audreyn]

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

It took me some time and I had to enquire with an old colleague but in this envelope I include instructions for a paste that is quite safe and if left on the scalp overnight will help promote regrowing hair.

It will still take over a week, but I suppose that is a vast improvement. An instant remedy would have risked growing hairy knuckles and I took the decision that this was not a sensible potion.

Some of the ingredients are restricted to third year students only. I'll leave you to work that one out on your own.

If you take the second additional note in this envelope to the Higgins and Sons bank on Moon Street you can withdraw funds for a summer dress. You should probably purchase some summer clothes too.

Summer in Elbion is not as hot, with the breeze from the north keeping the weather quite moderate.

I have found the services of a courier willing to use portal stones. This should mean we can have a written letter delivered within days. Perhaps this could come in use should you need some advice on a project.

Yours,

Gerrard.

---

Gerrard watched the letter go with a sinking heart. He should have let her go when he had the chance. Now, when Audreyn found she enjoyed the school and its social opportunities, he imagined she would think of him less and less. He thought she would probably stop writing altogether before the end of the year.

 

[Audreyn]

Gerrard,
Oh. I didn't mean to have you send me more money. The dress I left with you would have been suffice. ... Thank you though. Your brother's allowance has been... more than I ever needed. I honestly don't know what to do with so much coin. Does he expect me to need a new dress every month? I had more than enough to buy something for the warmer weather for me and a friend to boot. Her name is Helen. She's a scholarship student, thank gods I'm not the only one. Her dress was an awful gray cotton. She has a pretty blue one now. We match.

I have a lot of friends now. Turns out none of them know how to do light orbs like me. You shoulda seen everyone's face when I made it move with a song.

It's strange to have so many people look up to me. But I like it.

Classes move slowly. It's almost as boring as history. No luck on those ingredients yet... Not unless you got a spell to open locks...

Do you?
Audreyn

 

[Gerrard]

Dear Audreyn,

I am as pleased as one can be to hear of your new friends. Soon I'm sure you will be barely find the time to write.

I knew that you would find acceptance there. Every one of the students has likely been feeling out of place and lost away from the safety of home.

My brother holds the fortune that is rightfully might. If I were you I would feel little regret in its spending.

Please find attached instructions for one spell of unbinding. Do not use it on anything that is not a lock. Be careful on the final vowel. Pronounce it too hard and you may shred whatever you happen to be wearing.

Warmest regards,

Gerrard

 

[Audreyn]

Gerrard,

ah... about that.... can I borrow some coin for more clothing...




shuddup.
Audreyn.

 

[Gerrard]

Dearest Audreyn,

Of course you can. You can write with whatever you need whenever you want. I hope I have arranged for sufficient to be available from the usual bank.

Have you been through any preliminary exams? They're actually not for your own grades even though they tell you that. It's purely for streaming and assessing the early tutors.

Yours,

Gerrard