66 The Road to Neva 2

The plains of Volhiniya disappeared at the border to Arkhangelsk, melting into a forest of mottled browns and vibrant greens. Elya remembered an anecdote from Tsu-Szech's 'Recollections of the Reclamation', describing this land as broken hills and rocky outcrops before the Imperial invasion. The records were unclear but Tsu-Szech believed a powerful spell flattened the land, creating ripples that became the hills around Neva. As for the forest, after the Compact, the Imperial invaders turned settlers laced the lands with their own flora and fauna, bringing exotic species in a memory of home.

The earth was still damaged, sometimes shifting without notice under the feet of thousands of travellers until the generally well maintained Imperial highway cracked. As it had this morning, leading to a broken axle amongst the carriages. It slowed their progress and Nikolai called a halt to their journey as darkness descended. In short order tents and camp-fires sprung up around the small clearing one of the scouts led them to. While the night wasn't cold, a chill wind whistled through the trees surrounding their camp, enough to force everyone into shelter or around a camp-fire. Nestled beside her fiancée's carriage, Elya stared into the flames, patiently observing whatever Nikolai was explaining to Jarek but she'd lost interest long ago. She considered herself a patient scholar but the esoteric concepts of Magic and spell structures weren't interesting to someone without Magical talent.

"Well, it seems our audience finds this topic dull, so why don't we try something else?" Nikolai smirked at her, smugness rolling off him in waves. While he displayed far less arrogance than the typical Mage, he was proud of his abilities.

"Rather than dull, I just don't get it. That 'aspect of duality'. How can the fire be both an element and a… what did you call it?" She tossed a twig into the flames, trying to discern the changes Nikolai had described.

"An outcome of energy transformation."

"Right. I threw the wood in and it served as fuel. The fire will keep going as long as it has fuel. Makes sense. I even get that treatise of the six elements you were talking about. I've seen it referenced in many historical texts as the basis for the world, but" She gestured at the little ball of flame which wavered over Jarek's hand. "that doesn't make sense based on what you said. Where's the fuel?"

"Magic." With a twist of his wrist, Nikolai held a flower, dew drops glistening from its petals. "Magic is capable of a lot."

"Please don't tease me." Exasperated, she tossed a small pebble at him. "I'm really asking."

Catching the pebble, Nikolai clapped his hands together with a murmured chant and held his hand out. Grey sand lay in a small pile on his palm and he blew lightly to send a stream of sand into the fire. Sparks flashed and an acrid smoke rose from the flames.

"What did you see?" He asked, rubbing his hand clean against his coat.

"If you don't want to answer…"

"I'm not joking. Think about what you saw."

Elya frowned at his solemn expression. He wasn't joking around. Whenever Nikolai sat still he was serious, contrary to his normal ebullient behaviour. Adjusting her sword belt and settling into place, Elya sighed in contentment. It was easy for the scabbard to dig into her flesh in the most uncomfortable manner and she spent more time trying to make sure it rested at her side rather than inside her.

Playing with a loose piece of string on her belt, she bit her lip in thought, absent mindedly rubbing her scar. Recalling the sequence of events, she was confused. There didn't seem to be anything meaningful in his actions.

"You turned that pebble into sand, threw it into the fire and got smoke."

"True. But if you noticed, while the stone changed shape and form, it hasn't actually vanished. Even now the smoke is flowing through the air and if we could sift through the ashes in the morning we'd find ash from the sand."

"So?"

"So, whatever I did was bound by certain rules. Rules which stop me from changing the very nature of the stone."

"Wait, I'm sure I've seen you make things vanish. The Eye of the Great Dragon. You make it appear and disappear at will. And that!" She waved fiercely at Jarek juggling his flame. The boy was grinning while passing the Magic from one hand to the other.

"That's the biggest problem when you study Magic." Nikolai nodded, rapping his apprentice on the head with an admonishment to practise properly. "There's something like a field of energy that passes throughout the world, and that energy allows us to bend the rules." Nikolai gestured and Jarek's fire went out. "Try again Jarek. It took you too long to stabilise the structure."

"Yes Khan." Jarek sighed and raised his hands once again, chanting in a halting voice to recreate the spell.

"Call me Master." Nikolai turned back to Elya, content the boy was following his instructions. "Well, not bend. It's as if there are two sets of rules which govern the world. One which binds existence together and the other set lets us bypass the first. That's what the duality is. There are a hundred theories, each crazier than the last, as to why things work this way, but as far as most people are concerned it doesn't matter."

"I guess it doesn't." Why would anyone create a world which essentially lied to itself?

"To you it actually does." He grinned, eyes sparkling with mischief and reached out to poke her cheek a few times. "Ignorance is not bliss."

"Why does it matter?" Elya bit at his finger, teeth snapping shut like a vice and Nikolai stuck his tongue out while waving his finger in rebuke.

"Aura. It draws on the second set of rules as well."

"Really?" that was surprising. "Wouldn't that mean Aura and Magic are related?"

"They're almost certainly related. Think about it for a moment. If I threw you off the top of my tower what would happen?"

"You'd throw me from your tower?" She grinned at his awkward expression, stuttered apologies and clarifications. For all his assumed elegance, he cracked when faced with her displeasure. She was always so tempted to mess around with him. "Jokes aside, I would probably fire off a few bursts of Aura to slow my descent and enhance my legs to take the brunt of the impact. I don't see how that proves anything though."

"What would happen if I threw Aunt Natalia instead?"

"A gate from the demonic planes would open up for some Demon to come through and carry the old witch to safety." She grumbled. "Don't look at me like that. You're the one throwing relatives off the roof."

"Umm…" he stared at her askance. "I doubt she has any demonic influence, I'd have noticed that. I meant, it's doubtful she could survive the fall. Most people can't. Even Jarek here with his current limited ability would meet with… trouble if he were to fall. Oh relax Jarek, Mage Apprentices don't get hurled from tall buildings." Nikolai closed his eyes and rubbed his lip. A new habit of his while in thought. At first Elya had assumed he was imitating her restless fiddling with her scar, but he wasn't the type to make fun of her. Not at her expense anyway. He coughed and mumbled, still lost in memories. "At least not until they learn some flying spells."

"So you get thrown off once you learn to fly?" Elya smiled at Jarek sliding away from his Master, his Magical fire wavering in the breeze.

"If your Master is nice." Nikolai's eyes snapped open and Elya hesitated at the emptiness she could see within them. There was something desolate about his look, pain and suffering no one else could understand.

"And if he isn't nice?"

"Then you get thrown off once you learn a spell to slow your descent."

"Oh."

"Back to our conversation." He cleared his throat and took a sip of water. "Regular people can't survive, so how do you? Rather than get into a long drawn out explanation of the mechanics, I'm not sure anyone really knows to be honest, it's enough for you to know that your abilities draw on the strength of creatures intrinsically linked to the 'Magic field'. That's how you can bend the rules. Now if we go back to the fire, by the first set of rules it requires fuel and something to ignite and start the process. That process generates heat and flames. On the other hand, by the second set of rules fire is a…" He stumbled, excited and struggling for the words, eyes blazing with passion. Elya leaned forward, just as interested in his expression as the topic. "Fates, why can't I… Oh. Right! It's a concept, an underlying principle. Because of that, we can summon the concept of fire to create flames and all sorts of things."

"Fascinating." All her earlier boredom was long gone. "How come I haven't heard of this before?"

"It's not something the average person is interested in. As it is Imperials have a lower chance of developing Magical talent so access to Mages is limited." Nikolai was nodding in time to some spell Jarek was casting, finally satisfied with the boy's efforts.

"Add on the fact that you're all isolated lunatics…" She smiled

Nikolai grinned in response, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "Can't say I'm isolated anymore."

"True, but…" A wave of darkness struck her, the familiar presence of a Black Raven appearing in her mind, staying long enough to speak a sentence before vanishing.

[The Masssster will be waiting for you in Orzega.]

Coughing to cover her stunned look, Elya blinked at the message. She clenched her fist and took a deep breath to calm herself. She'd expected the Savant to call upon her much earlier. Her tentative allegiance to the Black Hand was worrying, but she kept her promises. A Knight kept their word, even to a possibly dishonourable organisation. A pinprick of light caught her attention, and she glimpsed Nikolai casting a spell to the North, and she grimaced. He was frowning in the direction of Orzega, the last town before they crossed into the Grand Duchy of Arkhangelsk.

Her home.

Elya rarely hesitated, but the dark, suspicious expression on Nikolai's face meant he'd noticed something. Her deal with the Savant was vague and some nights she wondered if it had been the right choice. While the Black Hand didn't overtly act against the Empire, dealing with criminals wasn't beneficial for the Empire either. Whenever she doubted her choice, Elya remembered the moment she charged into Galicia. Nikolai sat on a throne, trembling. An aura of palpable despair shrouded him, mist swirling around his tattered clothing and the steel collar bound his throat, while a giant of a human threatened to kill him. Who knew what would have happened if she was late?

"Are you alright?" she squeezed his arm, trying to get his attention as well as banish the memories of both her visits to the cursed city of Galicia.

Startled, Nikolai rubbed the small stone he called a 'Primer' and settled back down. "Nothing… I thought I sensed something familiar from that direction, but it was gone so quickly I couldn't figure out what it was." With a sigh, he pulled out a cauldron and settled it over the flames. He moved with purpose, settling a variety of utensils and Magical devices beside him.

Once the eggs appeared in his hands, all of Elya's worries vanished. Wide-eyed she stared, riveted as he boiled them. It was almost art, the way he flowed while cooking, his motions repeating like clockwork. Every moment was calculated to maximise his efficiency and Elya gulped as each egg was prepared and placed inside his bag.

"I know it's difficult to keep making boiled eggs every day but I have a question."

"What?" Surprised at the disturbance, Nikolai glanced up from his cauldron, eyes glazed over as if he were lost. Lost in the world of Magic.

"Can you make me a bag like yours?" She pointed to the expanding 'bag of treasures' he'd placed to the side, ignoring the avaricious gazes locked on it.

"You want a Magical bag of holding?"

"Can't I?" Fluttering her eyelashes and squeezing her hands together, Elya looked up at Nikolai. Alexis assured her it was the best way to get what she wanted from her 'paramour'. It was the only one of the free-spirited woman's ideas that Elya could use. The others were far too sordid.

"Are your eyes hurting?" Puzzled, he observed her, eyes tracing her actions, wary of her change in attitude. Realising she would have to explain, Elya lay back against the rock she'd dragged over to serve as a seat.

"I mean, I would like a steady supply of boiled eggs."

Startled, Nikolai peered at her suspiciously and she averted her eyes, blushing. The idea had been worming its way into her heart since he'd first appeared with his bag. Having a pocket sized supply of delicious treats, well, who wouldn't want them?

"Fine. But you owe me."

"What do you want?" Elya leaned away from his mischievous grin.

"Five kisses and a hug."

"One kiss." She countered, blushing a little at Jarek's blank stare. Nikolai was far more forward in expressing his desires these days.

"Three kisses and a hug."

"One."

Nikolai peered at her stubborn look and sighed. "Fine one. But it better be a good one."

"Khan, you're a terrible merchant." Losing interest in the discussion, Jarek yawned and crawled to his bedroll under the carriage.

"I told you to call me Master!" Nikolai nagged at the boy while tucking him away, lecturing him for innumerable invisible faults. Jarek closed his eyes, used to his Master's nattering and Elya smirked.

The Savant could wait. There were even more pressing matters now.

The world was filled with envious people, especially amongst her companions, and she had to find a way to hide the bag full of boiled eggs she would soon receive.