Private Tales The Mountains Ahead

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim nodded. "I can manage it."

Surprisingly, despite the cut across his shoulder he hadn't actually been disabled that badly. The knife could have struck a little higher or a little lower and hit a tendon, but he'd somehow been lucky enough for that to not have happened. With one arm he pulled at the tunic, tugging it over his head in one smooth motion.

"Most of the pain has dulled." Kasim explained quietly. "I have a high tolerance for agony."

A gift from his father.

It had been part of his training to use the magic. Near daily beatings and abuse the likes of which most street children didn't even endure. It had always been a sort of irony to him really. So many below thought he was a spoiled rich snob, but they'd never known the truth.

At least not those outside the Houses.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

As Aviana reached down to remove the blood-soaked bandages, the dragonling seemed to take a keen interest in what she was doing. It slithered partially down her arm, claws digging into the fabric of her shirt to keep from falling down all the way. It long neck coiled and bobbed, as if it were inspecting the wound on Kasim's side.

That strange surge of heat flushed through Aviana's limbs as she retrieved a glass of crushed bitter bark. It was supposed to be good for encouraging healing and preventing a wound from festering, it also helped dull the pain. "Weird..." She breathed softly.

The dragon looked up at her and huffed, then nipped at the bandages.

Shaking her head, she dipped her fingers into the salve and then gently spread it over the wound on Kasim's ribs. The moment she touched him, however, a soothing warmth spread from the tips of her fingers and into him.

She quickly snatched her hand back. "Erm... Sorry."

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim perked an eyebrow.

He wasn't exactly sure what had just happened, he felt a spike of warmth, and then something else...almost a slight...sap that he couldn't explain. Lips thinned in an instant, and he looked at Aviana. "Magic?"

The Jester asked quietly.

"Or my blood." The latter was added as a whisper, something that she would barely be able to hear. The words were sparked with more than a little bit of concern.

His families magic, the Well of Power that they drew from was not something he entirely understood. His father had told him most of it, some of the rules, how to access it safely...but there were dangers that he did not want to consider. His blood was key to it all of course, what allowed him to access the pool.

Kasim feared that it touching Aviana would...well he wasn't sure what.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" She asked nervously, him mentioning his blood caused her to worry that she'd made something worse.

The dragon huffed.

Aviana looked down at her hand, to Kasim's wound, and then back up to his face. Magic coming from her didn't make... Sense. But she couldn't explain the new power that she felt coursing through her. She flexed her fingers slightly, frowning.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"No." Kasim said shaking his head. "No you didn't."

The Jester glanced at the Dragon for a moment, frowning, and then opening his mouth to speak. For a second he lingered, and then finally he said what he had wanted to. "But I need to tell you something."

He hadn't thought it would ever be a problem...hadn't thought that it would be a concern since she couldn't use magic, but if this Dragon served to empower her somehow...then it would be an issue. Kasim had no honest idea what was happening to Aviana, but he could guessed what had happened when she tried to heal him.

That was what it had to have been, the warmth, that spike he felt. There was no other explanation to it. What she had described and the sensation, it made sense.

Somehow the Dragon had given her magic, though in what form he could not tell.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"O-kay..." She said hesitantly, dragging the word into longer syllables. His tone had her worried, as it seemed grim, whatever it was he was about to tell her.

The dragon stared intently up at Kasim, the tip of his tail slowly writhing against Aviana's arm.

She quietly replaced the stopper into the small vial, clasping it together with both hands as she looked up at him. The bandages set aside on the stone slab and temporarily forgotten.

"Is something wrong?"

 

[Kasim Areth]

He paused, considering for a few seconds more. Kasim had never lied to her, he'd just simply never actually told her the facts of the matter. The Jester had sort of figured she was better off not knowing the truth, mostly because she was the type to feel rather guilty about these things.

"The magic I use...not the runes, but what I used to save us in the village." Kasim shirked away for a second, running a hand through his hair. "My Families magic."

He trailed off, taking a breath. "It's blood magic."

That really was simplifying it quite a bit, but he figured it was better to tell her the blunt truth rather than launch into the complicated explanation right off the bat. He wanted her to know the truth, wanted her to see him for the monster that he actually was before he went on.

"A version of it anyway." He added quietly. "More twisted..."

Kasim knew she would want an explanation, he was just trying to think of how he would do so.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Blood magic..." She repeated the words, as though trying to understand the meaning of them for the first time.

Her fingers tapped against the vial in her hands as she considered the situation.

She chewed at the inside of her cheek, remembering how Kasim had quite literally disintegrated a werewolf with out raising a weapon. The magic he had pulled on had been powerful. She knew that much, but she didn't know the source of it... Until now.

Magic always came with a price.

She paused at the thought and looked to the dragon. Her mind immediately shifting to the fire as it hatched, the severance she had felt within her chest. If magic had woken within her... What was her cost? The fact that she didn't know frightened her.

"How is it more twisted?" She asked softly, taking extra care to not move. She wanted to reach out to him, to reassure him; but she felt as if he would likely pull away.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"Blood magic is..." Explaining all of this was harder than he thought. "In it's most basic form Blood Magic uses blood, whether your own or someone else's, as a source of power. In the moment you draw upon the blood and convert it into what you're trying to do."

That was oversimplifying the whole concept far more than was actually appropriate, but Kasim figured she needed an overview of what normal Blood Magic was first. The practice was often spoken of and even feared, but rarely did someone actually know what it was.

"My families magic doesn't do that." Not for a long time.

"My ancestors used...a ritual of sorts. We're not really sure what it was or how they did it...though it took a lot of lives." He paused, looking at her then slowly speaking. "Probably thousands."

He would not pull any punches. "They created a sort of pool of energy. A front of power that was through the ritual sealed to us, our blood...my blood."

Kasim stopped again, then slowly continued.

"Through the years the pool has been replenished and grown. The various battles, wars, massacres that House Varik have taken part in or sparked have all helped." A breath filled him, but it was clear that there was still more to the explanation.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"...That's why you left. Isn't it?" She asked softly, brow furrowed slightly in thought.

Before the night in the village, Kasim had gone to great lengths to keep the truth hidden from her. To use only the rune magic.

If he had an powerful source of magic at his finger tips, why else wouldn't he use it, unless he didn't want to? Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. If it was tied to his bloodline, his family likely would be able to sense him through it. Maybe.

She still wasn't sure how the magic worked entirely. The cost of saving her life from the werewolves was a high one. Bile rose in her throat and she suddenly felt sick. Thousands of people?

They may not have been with that specific purpose in mind, but it was what had allowed for her survival in the first place. She glanced down at the vial in her hand, brushing her thumb across the smooth class.

"Sorry... I uh... I interrupted."

 

[Kasim Areth]

"Partially." Kasim had never really liked the thought of where his magic had come from. They hadn't told him at first of course, it was a secret kept to only a few within the family. Most of his cousins did not know, only the very center of the family itself.

Those that could truly harness the power. Even when they'd told him they had made it seem like the Well was already fed, sustained for a thousand years. Gradually as he got older he had understood more of course, even with the Well full sacrifices were more than common.

Not necessary, but common. More power for House Varik, more power for him.

"The Well is filled with power, but...the way the ritual works means it can't sustain itself." He flexed his hand. "Not without the blood of House Varik."

Perhaps it was selfish to put the lives of his family above everyone else, perhaps that was why he was not a good man. Kasim could excuse the thousands that had died in the past, he could even wipe away thought of the hundreds in his lifetime, but his brother? Never that. "Every generation the ritual must be renewed. Twelve men and women...and one of the blood."

Aviana was smart enough to realize just what that meant already, she could connect the dots, but Kasim kept going anyway.

"My connection to the Well is the strongest in generations, they think...they think I took my brothers abilities in the womb." He had no idea if that was true or not, but he was strong. "He had almost no connection to it, just the barest link...enough to make him the Sacrifice."

He breathed out slowly. "My father wanted me to kill him. Blood giveth blood."

The last of his words were clearly a quote.

"So I ran...but..." There was no stopping it now. "I was lured back when my father threatened to kill both my brother and sister. The ritual wouldn't have worked but...I didn't know that then. I returned to our country estate where I knew my father stayed in the Winter. I used the Well, called upon the magic to rip the place apart..."

Kasim was shaking. He remembered that night well, the power that flowed through him, the strength. It had been an amount that supposedly no one could survive, it was why his father had thought him dead.

"It was a trick." The Jester said quietly. "My father knew me too well. All that was in the building were twelve men and women, tied, bound, and along with them..."

He sighed one final time. "My brother."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Now she understood why the jester had been so secretive, why he never wanted to talk about his past, or go into depth about his family. It was far too painful.

What was she supposed to say? There was no way for her to make it better.

The cost of accessing that well to save her must have weighed heavily on him, and she was honestly shocked that he'd had the strength to do so in the first place. If she was honest, she wasn't sure why he had made that decision.

She shifted the vial into one hand, and she carefully reached out with the other to place her fingers against his forearm. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly, not sure how else she could help him.

He saw himself as a monster for what he'd done. It's why he refused to acknowledge the good he had done, plagued by what his father had done to him. There was no way for her to take that pain away.

 

[Kasim Areth]

At first he recoiled from her touch, but then when he saw that nothing happened Kasim let her hand fall onto him.

"I'm not done." His lips tightened. "Over the centuries the Well has consumed...thousands, not even mentioning those who were killed when it was initially created. The essence of those beings...those souls have formed a will within the Font. A will dominated by my ancestors."

That was why members of house Varik had to be sacrificed in the first place. Without that, they would lose control over the Font and it would ebb away in a matter of days. "It will at times do things of it's own accord. It seeks to corrupt, pushes me to use it, and at times..."

He glanced at his wounds.

"Act through my blood." He was almost certain that was what had happened.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Acts through your blood?" Her brow pinched slightly. She hated that she just kept repeating what he was saying; but she didn't really understand the intricacies of magic.

Especially not something as... Powerful as what Kasim was describing.

"How do you mean? Can it make you do something, or...?" Her sentence trailed off, not entirely sure what else she could have asked.

The dragon had slithered back onto her shoulders, where it started to nip at one of her curls. Even if it was a powerful magical creature, it was still just a baby.

For now, Aviana ignored it, more concerned with Kasim and what he was going through.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"I'm not entirely sure." The Jester admitted quietly. He was not trying to scare her, or somehow make things worse than they were, but he wanted to be honest.

"As far as I know it can't make me do anything." His father had never mentioned that, just small things. Still dangerous, but small. "It's there...I can feel it now, stronger than it used to be. It's almost like a Siren, calling out for me to use it. For me to feed it."

Kasim glanced at the ground, then up at Aviana again, clearing his throat. "But aside from that. The blood seeks what makes it stronger; Magic."

The Jester eyed the Dragon.

"It wants more power, it wants me to be more powerful, and I'm connected to it." He wondered if he was explaining this well enough. "So a mage touching my blood will feel...drained, an artifact seeped in it would be etched and scored, a...well you get the idea."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Right. I think I understand. It can siphon energy then." She offered, gesturing towards the wound on his side. "But shouldn't that be unpleasant to me? Or... the source of whatever magic is being drawn on?"

She cleared her throat, hesitant to make the correlation vocal; but she didn't have much other experience. "Like how the assassin's magic was... erm... unsettling."

The little dragon huffed and then curled up more tightly around the back of her shoulders, while his head wrapped Aviana's throat to rest against the collar bone on the opposite side. She could feel it purring against her, the warmth of it seeping into her flesh.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"Prolonged, yes." Kasim explained with a frown.

In theory really, he didn't actually know.

"The blood can't actually kill you. Not own it's own." It's power was not strong enough for that, not without his will. "I would have to do that."

He glanced at the Dragon for a moment, then back to Aviana. "The magic is...complicated. I don't even really understand all of the effects."

Neither did his father, he was sure of that.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

She frowned a little when Kasim looked to the dragon for the third time; and she placed a hand protectively across the creature. "I... guess that means that the dragon is something of a complication then?" She asked, raising a brow.

While she didn't think that the jester would actually hurt it, she was worried that the 'calling' he kept mentioning would try to convince him it was a good idea to do just that. She frowned slightly.

Frightful as the revelation was that Kasim was living with a horrid burden, she had to remember that she had traveled with him for weeks now; and nothing had happened between them. He wouldn't hurt her, and he certainly would decide to kill her now. Just because she knew what he was capable of now, didn't change anything. He had been just as capable the night before, and every other night before that.

She took a deep breath and slowly released it. "Thank you. For telling me."

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim was weary of saying what was on his mind. Not because he didn't trust himself. The calling of the Well was not as powerful as that. He knew that he could resist it now easily, but if they got into another situation where he had to use the Blood? That was when the problems would come.

Not before then. "You could say that."

The Jester frowned for a moment, and then quietly began to explain himself. He did not want any of this to be a mystery to her, not when the danger was there. However distant it was.

"Dragon Blood becomes more powerful the older the Dragon." He was fairly confident in saying that, mostly due to the ancient legends his family had running through the family. "But...even with only a young one."

Kasim frowned. "If I took it's blood into the Well I could tear down an entire fortress."

He wanted her to know all of it, the danger of staying with him.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Mmm.." Aviana wasn't sure how to interpret the information that he'd just given her.

Quietly, she sank down onto the stone slab of a bed, and she took another deep breath. It was quite a lot to process at once. The entire past two days were a lot to take in. The werewolves, Kasim slaughtering them and using his magic to do so, the kiss in the river, how they'd spent the night together afterwards, the assassins who attacked them, the dragon hatching. This new magic that seemed to have sparked within her. And now Kasim's revelation.

The dragon still slept, curled around her throat like an ornate scarf. His colorful wings tucked away against his dark body. She felt an innate desire to protect the small creature. A powerful bond that connected her to him, in some way.

"Guess it's a good thing we don't have any plans to be tearing down fortresses." She finally remarked, looking up to Kasim with a warm smile.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"I suppose so." Kasim finally responded after a moment.

He had no more secrets to hide, nothing more to say. Aviana knew everything he did now. There were things about his Sister and Father of course, but she could assume or guess most of that. He did not keep any of it secret, just simply didn't think it important enough to mention.

"We'll have to be careful." The Jester said quietly. "I won't use the Well again, but the closer we get to Nagai the more dangerous things become."

The implication there was obvious. "We can make it though."

He was confident of that.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Of course we can." She replied confidently.

She pushed her hands through her hair, then picked the vial up off the stone next to her, and wriggled it slightly in the jester's direction. "I know that... for a lot of this journey you've have to look after me. I just don't want you to feel like you have to bear that burden on your own. I can help."

It wasn't that she thought he believed she was inept. If that was the case, then he wouldn't have bothered trying to teach her the runes. But she didn't want him to feel obligated to take on everything that came at them on his own. Whatever this new power was that she'd been given, she could feel it in her bones that it would be useful.

"Can I still treat your injuries? I promise... you didn't hurt me."

 

[Kasim Areth]

He frowned for a moment, considering the question at hand.

There was still danger to the idea, especially because neither of them were really sure what the Dragon had actually done to her. Aviana had no magic before, but...well the creature was a bit of a wildcard. He frowned for a moment and then slowly let out a breath. "Yeah."

The Jester said finally.

"Just try not to touch my blood." It would be rather difficult to treat his wounds with that little added requirement, but Kasim wanted to make sure. "I'd rather not steal your soul."

That wasn't quite what the blood did, but close enough.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

She nodded once, then turned back to her bag. There should have been a pair of riding gloves hidden away inside that would help prevent the problem. A few moments later, she returned while tugging the gloves into place.

Her hands clapped together and she smiled brightly at him. "These should work well enough for our purposes."

"Just sit still, this ointment my sting a little." Aviana added a moment later as she knelt down next to him.

When she finally did touch him again, she was careful and as gentle as she could physically be. It slowed her down while she cleaned the wound with a cloth, then spread the salve over the gash. She took a deep breath as she felt that power well up within her chest, emanating through her hands.

The dragon lifted its head from her shoulder and peered down at what she was doing, and gave a soft chirp. Almost as if it approved.

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim didn't flinch, though he waited.

He wasn't entirely sure for what, but he didn't want his blood to act up once more. It was a silly thing really, trying to make sure your own blood did not harm someone trying to heal you. In another situation it might almost have been comical in a way, though right now he felt nothing but slight bitterness.

The fact that he had to worry about this at all annoyed him a great deal. He only hoped that he would not be injured again on their journey, or worse that he would have to draw upon the Well.

If he had to do it a second time...his lips thinned. "Finding a ship is going to be harder now."

Kasim murmured.

"Perhaps we'll have to look for a Sea Folk vessel." It was an option, though he had no idea if they would be able to 'browse' for passage.