Private Tales The Ways of Magic

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Your mother," she said after a moment, "is an angel in disguise. And she is definitely easier to be in the company of and understand. My Lord," she added belatedly.

After a moment she stepped forward until there were just a handful of feet between them, eyes still locked on his. That odd feeling still persisted, ever stronger and stranger with every passing breath. Why was it that its presence made her feel angry, unspeakably so?

There were too many things buried in her head to sort through. None of them made any sense, regardless. "It isn't as if I - and many others - haven't done things off of a feeling before. Instinct, premonition, whatever you want to call it."

She wanted to ask what the feeling was but refrained. She lingered a moment longer, shook her head, and turned on one heel and walked away.

"I will need new clothes," she said after pausing at the door. "I'll tear the seams of these if I try to do anything strenuous in them," she said and then left.

 

[Thallan]

Anger flickered in her gaze as she stepped closer to him and he wondered if that was a common way for those in the mortal world to offer their thanks. He had saved her life not once, but twice, and she had the nerve to be angry at him? She was too stubborn for her own good. Maybe he should have left her to die, trapped in her human body.

"And wouldn't we all like to see that," he muttered after her last comment. He wasn't sure if she had heard him or not, but she found a way to gripe about everything; even his mother's own clothes on her back were not good enough.

But he was just tired- he would feel much more hospitable in the morning. Or maybe that was his mother's voice in his head telling him that.

Huffing and puffing (like a child, Elasha would say), Thallan tore his hand through his hair once more before crawling beneath the blankets on his bed. He stared at the ceiling, willing himself to sleep.

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

Exhaustion was a stifling blanket, but sleep would not come. In its stead were random thoughts and fragments of memories without any context. They could have been ancient or new, could have been evidence of good or evil or anything in between.

Return of stolen memories did not bring with it any kind of peace. She had been sure in her self before the assassin had shattered whatever magic had been woven over and into her. Now she had no sense of self, no identity to speak of.

Couldn't cling to being an adventurer on the edge of death, because it wasn't true. An entire life that was merely the imagining of... someone.

Who, then, was she?

"How do I find the woman I was?" The question a whisper into the darkness.

There was no answer.

---

Morning brought her to the dining room in a disheveled state, dark circles underscoring pale eyes. She had managed to run a brush through her hair and that was the extent of her ablutions for the morning. She had settled for a robe instead of Elasha's clothing, which she had returned before she damaged them and with all the thanks that deserved.

"Good morning, Lord Malwyrth," she said as the male entered the room. He was looking far more rested and in better spirit than she herself did. She couldn't quite make herself care, though. She was still trying to process everything that had happened the night before.

 

[Thallan]

The next morning, Thallan was up early. He laid in bed and stared at the ceiling until he couldn't stay still any longer. He dressed and brushed his long crimson hair, tying it back in a lazy bun. He sat down to breakfast in the dining room. The long table from dinner the night before had been replaced with a smaller circular table for breakfast. Their two traitorous guests had yet to show themselves.

Raea was the first one to come in, and Thallan wondered if she had struggled to sleep as well. the dark circles under her eyes said so.

He tried not to look at her for too long, especially not at the way her long hair hung like a sheet of the night sky down her back. He wondered briefly what it'd feel like under his fingers but then he brought his gaze back to his meal, starring daggers into his porridge.

"Good morning, Raea. Sleep well?" It was a stupid question, one he already knew the answer to.

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"I didn't sleep at all," she said. Exhaustion underscored every single syllable as deeply as the bags under her eyes. She didn't mention the whirling shards in her skull, gleaming and glittering like diamonds and distorting everything they contained as effectively as a cut jewel would.

She ran into the table trying to sit down and winced; longer legs and arms and a torso than she was accustomed too made her feel awkward and ungainly. Uncoordinated too, which was a really unusual feeling; she had been a fencer, more or less, with balance and grace to match despite her poorly health.

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "Looks like you didn't have any problems there," she added. There might have a been a hint of jealousy but there was no hint of malice.

 

[Thallan]

Just as he'd thought. No sleep for Raea, and he couldn't exactly blame her, either. With all the new memories dancing around her head, taunting her with truth and then dancing out of sight once more, it was a wonder she was still able to walk around. Not without bumping into things, however, though that may just be a side effect of being in a strange new body; she was still adjusting.

"Just because I hide it better," was Thallan's only response. Sure, he had slept a little, but it wasn't nearly enough to refresh him and make him whole again.

Elasha entered the dining room, and she made even Thallan dim in comparison. It should've been impossible for her to not have slept well. She was lovely, and Thallan was glad he had more of his mother's looks than his father's. Beauty was a weapon, after all.

Speaking of beauty and weapons, in walked Shae. She looked nearly as perfect as Elasha, save for the dark circles under eyes which Thallan could've sworn were painted on. Her father was close behind, and Thallan guessed the two had talked before entering.

Elasha was the gracious hostess, and Thallan managed to mimic her respectful smile but it didn't reach his eyes. If looks could kill.

"I think you both better leave, before the day gets too far," Thallan said, politeness in his voice; but there was an undertone of a threat. Whenever the two did leave, Thallan would have one of his men follow them back to their home, without being detected. There was still plenty to be learned about what exactly went down the previous night.

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

She didn't say anything in response to his comment. Instead, she picked at the food in front of her like a fussy child would. There was no appetite to assuage. It seemed like many of her days spent here were spent wrapped up in herself. Which was part of the problem, of course.

"I need to ask you something," she began after a long silence. But then Shae and her father entered and Raea fell silent again. This was a brooding thing, edged and menacing. She looked over at the hussy as she entered and the temperature of the room fell. It was not an impression; frost etched crazed lines around the table where her hands rest.

Unaccountably, she felt the urge to ball her fists up and ... and what? Her pale eyes drifted from one unworthy soul to the next before sliding back to Thallan's beautiful features. The temperature dipped another degree or two. "Lord Malwyrth is more gracious than I," she said frostily.

Was that a touch of unease in their eyes she saw? Odd.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan raised a brow at Raea, but then their guests walked in and she fell silent. He wondered if she was just toying with him.

The temperature dropped and frost drew wild patterns across the table by her hands. "Raea, please, the table," he said softly. It was a nice wooden table and he didn't want it to be ruined. It would be so hard to get his hands on another just like it.

"That's exactly what we were going to do," Shae replied, her chin in the air.

"Then I wish you safe travels," Thallan said, returning his focus to his breakfast. It would be a few moments before Shae and her father left the dining hall, and finally it was just Thallan, his mother, and Raea. "What was it you were going to tell me?" he said nonchalantly, looking up at Raea.

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Get thrown from your horse and break your necks," she said after the guests had departed. Her breath still misted in the air. The crazed frost round her hands had vanished like mist in a summer sun, the magic fading as quickly and as inexplicably as it had arrived. She didn't even appear to notice that she had called upon it. "I feel bad enough that they have to bear you on their backs."

She let out a breath and shook her head. She had not really meant to speak those thoughts aloud. She stared at her plate, looking at Thallan up through her lashes without being obvious about it.

"I wasn't going to  tell you anything," she said quietly. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I need sonething to  do. You still havent made it clear why you brought me into your household. Have made it a little clearer that i may be a little...ungrateful for the opportunity."

She did not let her annoyance at not understanding color her words. Or, at least, not much.

"I have been confined to your home and land, but I am not used to doing nothing." Starving, freezing, being miserable. Dying too, but that seemed to have been traded for being mystified wvery waking moment.

Great.