Young Flame

“Mages are those that can control the elements through the markings engraved on the skin.” Leal turns her arms so that her palms face upward.

“I’ve only been to the academy for a year, so the only markings I have are the Beginner Guiding marks.” She points to an area from her wrist, up her forearm and reaching her elbow. Sure enough, there is a black branching line colouring the pale brown fur of her arm.

“These marks are the foundation for controlling an element, as they allow the body to become accustomed to the flow of elemental energy. The more I practice sending the element through the marking, the better I become at controlling it.” Leal clenches her fist and I watch as the markings on her arm become a clear, near blue, colour that sparkles as if moving. I watch in amazement as even the fur coloured by the marking becomes translucent.

“My teacher says that my control is good enough now that I’ll be able to have my first spell marking tattooed by the end of the year.” She reaches for another cookie, taking her third, while I still try to get through my first. They are pretty big and tasty. It gives off many short little pops of energy over my tongue with each bite.

“What is a spell marking?” I ask, still curious about the strange lines on her arms.

“Oh, they are what lets a mage control an element. To use them, you need to understand them completely, which is why it takes so long to learn to be a mage. Simple spell markings might allow you to make a stream of water, which is what I’ll be getting first, where the only thing that you can control is its strength. More complicated spell markings require so much more complexities to be considered. They occupy more space on the body and are harder to learn, yet they offer greater flexibility in their utilisation.” She speeds through her explanation, enthusiastic to share.

One part of her description stands out to me though, and I need to know.

“You would make water with this spell mark?” I ask, trying to keep my sudden concern from showing.

“Yep, my guiding mark is for the water element, so I can use water-based spells. The most common elements are water, ice, earth, and air. Any others are either too dangerous, difficult or confidential for most people to use.”

A chill floods through me. Have I entered the stronghold of my mother’s killers? Those who attacked our tribe could wield water in the way Leal said their mages did. Now that I think about it, the train was also notably similar to the metal wagons I’d seen with the Kenna tribe.

I make sure to keep my thoughts from showing on my face as I consider the possibility. Are the ursu the ones who had been hunting áed in the wasteland? Did I follow them into a trap? Will I be able to escape if I try to run now? My thoughts continue to circle as my fears amplify.

“Is everything okay, Solvei?” I hear beside me. Maybe I’m not as in control of my face as I thought. I crush my worries as much as I can to not accidentally lose control of myself and burn their furniture. The last thing I want is to make my potential enemies enraged. If they truly are my enemies, then I need to keep them thinking that I trust them. Otherwise, I won’t have a chance to escape.

But first I want to be sure. “Um, are ursu the only ones who can become water mages?” I ask, trying not to be too obvious that I’m asking whether it is the ursu who are hunting áed.

“No? Any race can become a mage. Ursu are proud of the strength of their bodies, so very few of us become mages. There are more mages amongst the other races,” she states, still concerned about how I’m acting.

That… is both relieving and terrifying. It's a lot less likely I am surrounded by those out to kill me, but it could be any race. It's terrifying to think that every race has an ability that can kill an áed with ease.

Leal’s face twists from a concerned look to a wince. “Oh, sorry. I don’t know if áed could use water markings, but I doubt it would work well.”

“Huh? No, I’d rather stay as far from water as I can.”

Leal calms down again. “Oh, okay.”

“You know trains, yeah?” I ask.

My change of the subject befuddles her, “Yeah?”

“Have you seen wagons made similarly?” I ask.

“No? Why?” she answers with confusion, worry seeping back into her expression.

Sweet relief. As long as she isn’t lying to me, then there is little reason for me to believe they are the ones responsible. I feel a tad silly for jumping to such a conclusion, but the confirmation it was just that, a misunderstanding, is relieving.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Leal asks, still looking worried.

I smile at her and respond. “Yeah, I’m okay now. Sorry, I was troubled over nothing.”

She watches me for a moment, and I feel like she is seeing much more of me than she should be. I shiver at the hungry look that re-enters her eye.

“Have you had an issue with water mages?” she asks.

“Huh? How?” how does she know? Did she just read my mind?

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry I brought it up. You just seemed so worried after I spoke about water mages, and then you asked about other races,” she continues.

She didn’t read my mind? That’s reassuring. But it unnerves me how she guessed correctly. Am I not as discreet as I think? Well, there’s no reason to worry about it now.

“Um, a group with abilities similar to those of a water mage you mentioned killed my mum.” I had been stupid to jump to conclusions about the ursu. So far, they’d been nothing but welcoming, even if Arthur and Barrett are rather violent.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll stop talking about mages, okay?” She says.

“No, it’s fine. I’d rather know as much as I can.” I don’t want to leave myself open if they are looking for me. There isn’t any reason to believe that they would hunt me, rather than any áed they can find in the wasteland. They hadn’t found me during the entire time I stumbled through the desert as a cripple, after all. But there is still the possibility I might encounter them again one day, and I’d rather know what I am facing when that day comes. I don’t have my tribe to protect me anymore.

Leal takes my words as encouragement. “Well, you can rely on me to tell you all I know.” A smug smirk appears on her face. “You’ve chosen the best person for the job. Now, what about you? How do you control fire? It obviously doesn’t work the same way mages use it. You have to promise to show me what you can do. Deal?” Excitedly, she grabs my hand as she throws out her request.

“Sure,” I answer. “But I don’t want to burn anything, so somewhere else.”

“Great! Somewhere else is good.” Leal cheers, jumping up to her feet and ready to charge out the door.

Before she drags me out of the room, Leal’s mum holds her back.

“Just where do you think you are going, young lady? We’re going to talk with Gloria while your dad finishes his work at the continae.” Calysta says, before picking me up and grabbing Leal’s hand.

As she leads us out the door to their home, Leal whines, “Do we have to, Mum? I wanna go out with Solvei.”

“Yes, Leal, I need to ask if she’d be able to organise some coal for Solvei while she’s in Fisross. I doubt the non-ursu orphanage accounts for diets this peculiar,” she says, indicating towards me.

“Huh? Can’t she stay with us?” Leal asks. I’m surprised, I never would’ve expected to be welcomed so easily.

Calysta sighs at her daughter’s question, “I would love to let her stay with us, but I can’t look after more than one child, as per the order of the council. Solvei will have to stay at the orphanage until they find her a job.”

I’m not sure what to make of it all, and even less sure if I’m allowed to have an opinion, so I remain quiet as we walk down the stairs and out into the open air again. Thankfully, once down the stairs, I’m allowed to walk by myself.

We travel back towards the Continae, separating from Gerben as he leaves to climb the tower. We walk around the right of the Continae to its rear. At the back of the continae are five stone structures similar to the oven back in Raetamen. Each is placed in an even separation surrounding the continae. These ovens are much larger, able to handle a much larger quantity of food and constructed with stone blocks rather than the sand-looking clay of Raetamen’s. With how much larger the population of this place is than that of the mining town, it’s not surprising there are more ovens.

I look at my surroundings, noticing that other than these ovens and the Continae, the buildings are placed in an almost perfect circle around the open space. I don’t notice before as I am dazzled by the splendour of the Continae, but the identical height and appearance of the buildings surrounding the city centre makes it seem like we are encircled by a wall.

Calysta leads both Leal and me to the building behind the centre oven. This building, as well as the buildings behind each of the 4 other ovens, are bare of any decorations. The lack of decorations only emphasises the identical nature of these buildings.

Where Gerben goes straight through the door of the other building, Calysta stops to mess with something on the side. She presses an indent in the wall, and surprisingly, it lights up. As I look closer, I see the light is a number: ‘14’. Other indents show many other numbers, but only the number she touched is lit.

Calysta stands back in front of the door, remaining still and seemingly expectant of something. I turn my attention back to the number indents. Around each groove in the wall is a bunch of inscriptions that seem familiar. I can't put my finger on what they remind me of.

Before I can figure it out, the door opens to an ursu only a finger shorter than Calysta. One of mine, not an ursu’s

“Caly! It’s good to see you.” The woman embraces Calysta.

“Hello, Leal. How are you?” the woman asks as she moves on to hug Leal.

Even though Leal is much larger than me, she struggles under the lady's strength. She squirms in the woman’s arms for a moment until she is released.

“Come in, come in,” she calls us, leading us past the stairs to a room on the ground floor. I’m pretty sure she hasn’t even noticed me yet. Are all ursu women this restless? I hope wherever I’ll have to stay isn’t surrounded by people who would crush me with a burst of excitement.

As I enter the room, the woman has already disappeared. Calysta invites me to the couch as the woman’s voice comes from around the corner of the room.

“Would you like drinks?”

“Oh, yes, please. I’ll have coffee and do you have any juice for Leal?” Calysta calls back, making herself comfortable with Leal taking a seat beside me.

The interior of the room differs far from the outside. Each wall is decorated with strange images of unique landscapes. The images look like they are made from a pelt, but I don’t know how each of them was transformed into an image.

A few of the images depicted in the tapestries catch my eye. One shows a large white spear — encircled by green worms climbing its length — piercing the moon from the earth below. Another shows a large ring of what must be water falling into a dark abyss.

As intriguing as these tapestries are, the last image I can’t take my eyes from. At first glance, it appears to be a wooden structure amongst a range of large, jagged mountain tops. The small cabin sits at the edge of a lake, which makes it seem almost picturesque. But the longer I look, the more something about it just seems… wrong. Unable to put my finger on what unnerves me so, I drag my eyes to other tapestries that depict other colourful imaginary landscapes.

“Oh! I see you’re intrigued by my paintings of petrifying places!” the woman says, startling me.

She carries a few cups over to Leal and Calysta. Nursing a mug for herself, I notice the woman looking at me with wide eyes, before she shakes her head and continues on about the images on the wall.

“Or maybe I should call them the terrible territory tapestries? I can’t decide. I picked them up from some albanic while I was in Morne. The man came to trade without realising we didn’t use one of those silly currencies the northern countries do. Can you believe it?” the woman huffed as if she couldn’t.

She moves towards the images mounted on the walls and begins pointing them out. “This one is called the tower of evil. This next one is the whirlpool of evil. Oh, and of course this is called the mountains of evil,” she says.

Leal nudges my side before whispering into my ear, “She does this every time Mum drags me here.”

“Oh, and how could I forget the star of my collection?” She says, pointing to an image above the couch behind me. “This one is called the fog of…” she pauses for a moment. I guess she’s trying to make it sound cool, “evil!” and there it is.

The image is of a black fog half engulfing a city. I look at it a moment before returning to my seat.

Leal whispers in my ear. “That’s not what it’s called. It’s called the Void Fog.”

“Now, who is this one? Am I right to assume she’s an áed?” Gloria says, giving me a comforting smile.

Calysta responds before I can. “You can tell? Ah, right. Gloria, this is Solvei. Gerben found her all alone out in the wasteland. We wanted to ask you if you could organise some coal for her. It seems she prefers coal to the normal food we eat. Gerben has gone to ask at the Continae what should be done with her, but she’s likely going to join the orphanage for the moment.” She rambles.

The woman, Gloria, smiles at me for a time. Feeling self-conscious as her eyes dig into me, I’m tempted to turn my head, to keep my eyes anywhere other than the odd happy stare the woman is giving me. But I remain resilient and keep eye contact. I remember my mum always told me to keep eye contact with others when interacting with them, especially when you are asking for something from them. It is polite. And right now, I don’t want to come across as anything but polite.

“I’ll be happy to. In fact, I’ll take care of her myself. It will make organising the coal more convenient.” Gloria says, turning to Calysta.

“Huh? You will? Didn’t you not want a child?” It’s not only Calysta who is surprised. She wants to take me in? Just like that?

“Well, I didn’t think I did, but look at that face, she looks so cute.” Gloria gushes, making me feel uncomfortable.

She leans in close to Calysta and I overhear her whisper, “Plus, she’s already past the toddler years.”

“Solvei, right? I’d be happy to take care of you. I work with a large supply of coal, I’m sure you’ll love it.” She says.

I’m sure my eyes light up at the mention of coal. Having all I can eat will be amazing. Even back in my tribe, I can only eat so much so we don’t run out in the middle of nowhere. After having relied on sand-worms every day for so long, I’m excited.

“Thank you, Elder Gloria.” While not a part of my tribe, I still want to show my gratitude with a term of respect used for those older than me in my tribe. Although it seems she doesn’t like it, as she winces at the term.

“Please, just call me Gloria or Auntie.” She tells me.

I don’t know why she would react that way to me calling her ‘Elder’, but I am fine with referring to her by just her name. I won’t call her auntie, I may be thankful, but she can’t compare to my aunt.

“Okay, Gloria.”

In my peripheral vision, I see what I think is an eye staring at me. Turning, I find myself looking back at the unnerving tapestry of the cabin in the mountains. There is no eye. Nothing is looking back at me, only a small wooden house at the edge of a lake. I still feel it though, just looking at the cabin in the mountains makes me feel tiny and insignificant. Like the world looks down on me and considers me less than a grain of sand in the vast desert.