Fable - Ask The Scent of Lost Magic

[Kyril]

Her hand covered his, though he couldn't feel it. His fingers were tight around the glass vial. It shook violently, quaking even as she held onto him.

The look in his eyes was smouldering, angry, confused, longing. More than anything in this world, more than anything at all he wanted his magic back. He wanted to be himself again. Even if he was not as powerful, even if he would not reach the same height.

He wanted to feel whole.

"What if it's too late." Ky's voice shook, unsteady, half broken. "What if it's too much?"

That last thread.

That last little bit of himself. It could go.

A small crack ran through the vial.

 

[Neith]

He had a point. The last vial of Lyrum could be all it took to burn away his own magic entirely for all she knew. It could take another ten, but it was a matter of time, and luck. She swallowed and shook her head, gently trying to stop his hand from shaking and gripping any tighter when she heard the splinter.

"Kyril.. You need to be careful." her voice was quiet, cooing, anything to try and calm him down enough to stop him slicing his hand open. "That's going to hurt, a lot..." she wasn't quite sure what it would do, but the pain at least, she was certain of.

"It's not too late. You don't have to take it, we can work out another way to get the coin.." she bargained. If he died she had no chance, and the panic of that possibility flashed in her dark eyes as she stared back at him. "Loosen your grip."

 

[Kyril]

Pain.

He remembered dull aches, small cuts. On Lyrum it had always been easy enough to heal them, wipe the memory of them away almost as soon as it came. With his magic gone...he couldn't do that, would never be able to do that.

Fingers tightened one last time as she spoke, her words echoing in his ears. For a moment he did not know if he believed her, if she was just saying what he wanted to hear.

But he let go anyway.

The fingers that had been close to crushing the glass vial suddenly let go. They unfurled just a little, the crook of his fingers still preventing the vial from falling and shattering onto the ground. "Okay."

The word was a whisper, barely loud enough to hear.

 

[Neith]

Neith winced as she watched his fingers tense around the vial another time, and a slow breath tumbled from her lips as he finally eased his grip. She kept hold of his hand, her other hand rising to gently unfurl his fingers to check that it hadn't smashed and if it had, that his hand wasn't bleeding.

She huffed.. "Well. Are you going to give it back to me?.." her brow quirked and her hands fell to her sides.

 

[Kyril]

The hesitation on his features were clear, the insecurity.

Through the paranoia that clung to his mind this could still all be some sort of trick, something she was saying to keep him from doing his part of the bargain. A reason for her to drag him back to Cyrus and have him beaten and killed.

Yet...Why offer him hope then? She'd already offered another truth, already showed him the path. Why bother with that when she could have overpowered him hours ago? "You're sure I can get it back?"

He asked quietly, like a child who wasn't quite sure of his place.

The vial came up, fingers cradling it as one might a precious jewel. He looked down at it, holding it between the two of them.

 

[Neith]

She met his gaze. Truly met it, her dark eyes searching his as she took in a breath and let it out with a soft sigh.. "I'm sure. It's not easy but I'm sure." she frowned, and her head shook slowly at him. "But you still have to get me that money. I just...thought you should know." she stepped back from him.

"It'd be a shame to lose natural talent like that.." she shrugged and hugged her arms as she frowned at him and the vial. Another reason she tried not to engage with the customers, she'd wind up feeling some shred of pity and making another stupid mistake.

"I could always.. hold your magic for you.." she shrugged. "Pass it back to you when the Lyrum wares off.." her head tilted and her tone honeyed.

 

[Kyril]

Ky looked at her for a moment, staring. "No."

The truth was he already didn't know how he would get the money, not without the Lyrum. Yet now he felt as though if he used it there would be no coming back. He would be stuck, he would be pinned into a corner with no hope for actually getting what he truly wanted.

Slowly he looked down at the blue vial, his lips thin as he considered his option.

How would he get her the money? The spell was beyond him, far beyond him in his current state. Even trying would likely see him crash against the floor. "No."

He repeated as he rubbed his face.

"I can't do it without my magic." Hell, he wasn't sure he could do it at all now. "And..."

Ky pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm fairly sure I would die if you tried to take any more from me."

He did not know her magic, but he knew there was fairly little keeping him upright, and the small bits of magic that he could still cling to were a part of that.

Gods did he feel weak.

Pathetic.

 

[Neith]

The sliver of magic she'd gotten from him when she'd arrived had felt good. She knew it was powerful, she'd felt it. Neith may not have dared to let the Lyrum touch her lips, but she was very much addicted to magic. And so as he refused her shoulders slumped slightly. Not that she could blame him, she hadn't really expected him to outright agree to it.

"Possibly.." she answered him with a quiet huff as she pulled herself up to sit on the table, letting her legs dangle beneath her. "If you think of your magic like your mind.. Don't use it enough, it becomes dull and lazy. Use it too much it burns out and becomes just as useless. But yours is still there, and you can sharpen it up again if it's clear. You just need to practise, a little at a time until it grows stronger."

Neith frowned, and her tone dropped a little.. "But your mind is going to be consumed with the need to use the Lyrum. It won't be easy to concentrate with the withdrawals. It'll hurt you so bad you'll no doubt crawl straight back into that vial. They all do." she muttered.

 

[Kyril]

Ky had no doubt this time that her words were true.

He had felt the beginning pangs of the withdrawals in the earlier weeks, when he had slipped down his dosages and taken less and less of the drug. It had hurt then, he could not even imagine the pain he would feel when it was all gone.

Fingers slowly slipped around the vial, placing it onto the table besides her before he slowly turned on his heel towards her. He towered over her, even with her perched on the tabletop. "I get you the money, and a half again."

There was enough in the vault, he just had to get there.

"Then you make sure I make it through the withdrawal." It was a bargain, one made of desperation as much as anything else.

Ky had no one else to turn to, no one else to ask, no one else to make a bargain with. In a strange way, she was the only one he had.

 

[Neith]

Neith glanced to the vial on the table, and stared up at him with a hesitant frown as he loomed there. His assurance that he would get her coin was met with a slow nod, sensing that there had been more to come,

She blinked in confusion, the shock of his bargain obvious on her face. "Me??" her head shook. "You're mental! What makes you think I'd want to watch that? Or that I don't have other shit to be getting on with and other places to be? I need to get back with that coin." she dismissed with a shrug. "You can ask someone else the babysit you. Perhaps the Duke would take up the task." she frowned gently, but her expression slowly eased as she quickly realised that he had no-one else..

Her cheeks warmed with the wash of guilt that swiftly followed, and she cleared her throat to soften her tone.. "I can't stay that long."

 

[Kyril]

"The Duke will likely want to slit my throat and..." He saw it in her eyes, the realization, the color in her cheeks as she realized why he had asked her. Ky frowned for a moment, not wanting to guilt her...but finishing his sentence. "I don't have anyone else."

The words tumbled just a few seconds before she offered her own soft rebuke.

Ky could not have expected her to say yes, but he had hoped that the gold would entice her, at least make her stop to think. Yet the urgency told a story. Cyrus had something over her, something more than just a few bits of gold.

If it came down to coin then having half his debt again would more than make up for that. Enough that she would be able to make a tidy profit on the side too. "It's a week back to Elbion from here by the fastest ship."

He told her.

"Two days you said." Ky reminded her. "If I stop tonight that's fourteen days."

His eyes remained on her, fixed. "That will get me through the worst of it."

At least the part that could outright kill him.

 

[Neith]

Brown eyes shifted their focus back to the vial on the table beside her rather than look at him as he confirmed that she, a fucking lowlife Lyrum dealer come to threaten him with a beating, was all he had. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she thought over the price, but it would be useless to her if Cyrus sent thugs after them both, or worse.

As alternative means of transport were suggested, her gaze drifted back to his face and her brows rose. A ship was something she couldn't afford, but a mode of transport she'd much prefer to the weeks of riding horseback through all sorts of weathers.

She stared at him for a long moment, her gaze narrowing as everything told her to just say no, just to focus on getting out of here as soon as possible. But.. A ship, did sound tempting.

"Fine. Two weeks." she agreed with a huff.

 

[Kyril]

Ky sighed in relief, his body visibly relaxing slightly as he took half a step back.

His hands caught the edge of the counter, his gaze flickering to the vial of Lyrum that he had placed onto the table. He could still feel that need, that want. It was coursing through him every beat of his heart. His fingers tightened.

"Thank you." Ky said with a nod of his head.

Now he just had to figure out how to get that money.

The spell he had been going to use quite literally would have allowed him to just walk in. That would be impossible now...though there were other means of using magic. It would take more time, but...perhaps it was his only shot now. "Are you still hungry?"

He asked after awhile.

She could eat, lounge, he didn't particularly care. Ky already knew what he would be doing for the next day.

"I will need time to make sure my new plan works." He glanced around. "So feel free to...make yourself at home."

The words clearly felt foreign on his tongue, as if being so welcoming was not something he was quite used to.

 

[Neith]

A dark brow quirked at him as he forced those hospitable words passed his lips, the corner of her lips twitching slightly as she swung her legs back and forth and drummed her fingertips on the table. "Hm." she smirked and looked around, as though her mind was busy contemplating all of the things she would do to occupy her time whilst she was here. She wasn't exactly used to freedoms, as such...

"No I'm not hungry.. You don't have to worry about me.." she murmured with a shrug and hopped down, a hand sweeping over the little vial and instantly removing it from his sights. She dusted off her hands and wandered to the window with the few remaining bites of food in her bowl, leaving it on the sill and shoving the window open. She whistled through her teeth, and the Raven swooped instantly to the ledge and hopped up to the bowl to eat.

"Looks like we're hangin' out here, Rok." she grinned as she stroked at the bird's wing. She turned back to tilt her head as she looked Kyril up and down. He was skinny now, she imagined he hadn't always been so gaunt, but he was about to look a whole lot worse..

"Do you have any Lyrum left that I need to know about?.. A secret stash somewhere?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

 

[Kyril]

"No." He shook his head.

There was no more. He had used the last of it in that spell, and then saving her. The Lyrum had burnt out of his system quickly, a single dose slipping away as Neith had simply slept the day away. His hand came up to rub at his face.

"Not beyond that vial." He gestured. "I didn't leave Elbion with much of it."

Just enough to live.

He glanced at the Raven as it flew into the room. His eyebrow quirked, but he didn't object. Familiars and the like had been common enough in Elbion, though he'd never quite taken to them.

A deep breath filled his lungs as he looked up at her, seeing the stern stance that she had taken. He tried to take on a look of honesty, tried to make himself appeared...open. It was difficult though. The last few months, perhaps years, he had been closed off, guarded.

Suddenly being honest was difficult, almost impossible. "I have some...other herbs, but not Lyrum."

He had scrambled for a replacement, but none had been the same.

 

[Neith]

Her shoulders rose and fell in a quick shrug. "Other herbs won't burn away at your magic like Lyrum will, but they won't help either." she answered dismissively. "But I'm not here to wrestle you to the ground - it's not up to me to get you off of the shit it's up to you."

Apparently her bedside manner was appalling.

"I'll go to the market tomorrow, stock up on foods.." she pursed her lips. "I take it you have some planning to be getting on with?.." she asked in a not so subtle coaxing as she lifted the empty bowl and took it to the basin to wash what dishes he had used.

 

[Kyril]

He nodded his head.

Ky did not expect her to babysit him, at least not exactly. All he needed her to do was ensure that he did not starve to death or sweat out every bit of water in his body. If she did that then he would not complain. Especially if it meant he got over the worst of it.'

"There is some silver in the drawer next to the front door." A fraction of what he owed, but enough to pay for food. "You can use that."

It was part of the stipened that the Duke had given him.

"I do." He told her with another nod of his head, clearly reading the fact that she was expecting a little bit more than that.

A moment passed, and then he decided to elaborate. At this point he figured it couldn't hurt. "I'm going to use Rune Magic."

"The same thing the Contract is based on, but more...elaborate." He did not know the Runes as well as others, but well enough that he could make his plan work. At least he fucking hoped so. Otherwise he'd end up a corpse.

 

[Neith]

Neith nodded wordlessly as he mentioned the silver, her lips thinning. She hadn't exactly intended on paying but she left that unsaid. She supposed it would be easier his way.

She side glanced at him as she waited for elaboration, and when it came her brow quirked. "Oh?.. How elaborate are we talkin'?" she asked curiously. "I don't know much about runes.." she added with a shrug, and with the dishes washed, her cleaning slowly spread to the rest of the kitchen..

 

[Kyril]

He considered her for a moment, then answered. "Very."

It was hard to explain in truth. Rune Magic was a rather strange thing. Those who knew it well could do incredible things, but one misstep and it would backfire more harshly than most other magics. One had to be incredibly careful.

"Rune Magic works on three branches." Ky Explained. "Source, what you draw the Rune with. Complexity, how difficult the Rune is to draw. Material, what the Rune is created on."

For his purpose, Ky would focus on the second tenant. "These three factors control how powerful the magic will be, any one of them can be upgraded, shifted, or enhanced in some way. Because of my...material here, I have to focus on the complexity."

Three runes, That was what he would be creating.

Each one would have a purpose, and each one would take him hours to properly complete. If he could complete them at all. "It will take me most of today and tomorrow to finish them."

"When they're done, I will take the gold, and then we leave." He frowned for a moment then added. "Speaking of...I may need you to do something..."

 

[Neith]

Although she busied herself with cleaning, she listened intently as though it were a lesson. "I understand.. But, what will the runes do exactly?..." she asked as she wandered past him to the table with a cloth.

She paused her cleaning to lift her eyes to him cautiously, her lips twisting as she sighed sharply.. "You know this fee is just gonna keep climbin'..." she shook her head and resumed washing down the table.

"What?."

 

[Kyril]

"This is for both of us." He told her.

Ky already planned to steal what he owed and then half of that again. Even with the interest tacked on it would be more than enough. Especially given what exactly he would be stealing in the first place.

"I need you to charter a ship." He told her. "Someone whose schedule is preferably...flexible."

Kyril knew that things were going to be tight, but there would be a window for them to slip out of the city before the Duke or anyone else could stop them.

"I'm going to make three Runes." He told her. "One will create an illusion, one will render me transparent, and the last will let me me walk through walls."

If he did it right.

If not he would probably die, but he decided not to share that fact with Neith.

 

[Neith]

Neith nodded slowly without pausing again.. "I can do that.." she glanced up. "You're coming back to Elbion?.." she asked casually.

His plan however did make her stop and fix her gaze on him again, studying him a little more intently. It was impressive, if he could carry it off.

"You can do all that?.." she frowned, her gaze narrowing ever-so-slightly as though she didn't all together believe him, that he might be some wahoo and the Lyrum had frazzled his mind. And yet, as she thought of the magic she'd already seen him do, she believed him entirely. Her gaze was distant and thoughtful as she considered the possibilities of being able to walk through walls, invisible and cast illusion magic.

"Could I learn that?.."

 

[Kyril]

"Well, unless you want to take a ship somewhere else." He commented dryly, frowning deeply. In truth Ky hadn't really thought about that part of it. He had just known that they couldn't stay here and the fact that Neith wanted to return as quick as possible.

The journey back home would take two weeks by ship, enough time for him to get over the 'hump' of his addiction.

Once they arrived...well that was an entirely different story. There was still a warrant out for his name, but at least Cyrus wouldn't be after his head. Those problems were something he could deal with later. After all, he might not even live long enough to have to worry about it.

"I can." He nodded. "But it will be difficult, and there is a...chance I will get it wrong."

The Runes had to be exactly right, otherwise it would all go wrong. "You could."

Ky said with another nod.

"It is difficult, and...exacting." He looked down at his hand, noticing the quiver than ran through it. "It's like learning a language, a very complex one that has more rules than it does letters."

He frowned, then continued. "The College does not teach it anymore."

Ky himself had needed to dig out ancient texts and old scrolls just to start.

 

[Neith]

Neith snorted, tucking the chairs under the table.. "Not an option.." she muttered under her breath and strode past him to start routing through cupboards, tidying, disposing and cleaning as she went.

"I always wanted to go to the college.." she sighed, her voice slightly muffled from having her head inside a cupboard. "Maybe you can teach me.. Might keep your mind off of spewing up your innards.."

 

[Kyril]

Ky had slowly begun to notice that Neith seemed to be cleaning his entire house. It had started with the dishes, and was now slowly moving to everything else. His eyebrow slowly raised, but he did not say anything to dissuade her.

The place wasn't exactly clean.

"I can teach you the basics." He told her, though there was a price to that knowledge. Not that he would charge her coin.

In a strange sort of way Kyril had always believed that much of what he had learned should be passed on. Knowledge of the Runes, the spells he knew, all of it should not die with him. The College did not think the same of course, nor did his father, but that had always been one of the points of their contention.

"But." He frowned. "Do you not have your own magic?"

Not that those two necessarily precluded one another.