The Four

Calling

Starling rushed to the boy, barely 14, and gathered him to her. She checked his eyes, his breathing, slapped his face and called his name. Kalick jerked suddenly awake and looked her in the eyes, a voice that did not belong to him issued forth.

“It is time, lost one… for the four, it is time” then his eyes fluttered closed and he was still.

Starlings heart had begun racing at a frantic pace at the boy’s words, she knew the voice and knew it well. Enrich. She was being summoned, finally after all of these years! She fought her excitement, this was war he was speaking of, there was nothing in war to rejoice in. 

She tried to contain it, she did, but her heart filled with joy at the thought of finding her friends and fighting beside them once more. So much to do! She thought, and then was reminded of Kalick when he stirred in her arms. Oh! He looked up at her in confusion.

“What are you doing with me ya great horse!” Starling sighed as the boy wriggled from her arms.

“You entered my forge, and ya passed out boy. I wasn’t doin nuthin with ya, now get out!” she flung an arm in the direction of the door and he scampered away. Starling snorted, the boy was such a coward, why did Enrich choose him for his message. Weak minded, she thought, easy to control. 

She glanced around her forge, and mentally listed off everything that she would need to do. Putting out a forge wasn’t easy, and she decided that she’d best risk some magic to do it. 

Walking to the door of her forge she shut and bolted it tight, pulling some fabric she used as curtains down over the one pane of glass she had installed. Whispering a spell, she waived her hand over the door handle and felt her magic seal it tight against intruders. 

All this time she had refrained from using magic, but now she was free to do as she wished. She had no fear of the men in the village finding her out and running her from her home. 

She turned to her forge and centered herself, both physically and mentally. Closing her eyes, she began to chant in a low voice, words that no one on this continent had ever heard before. 

Power, pure un-adulterated power, flowed through her body and it was one of the best highs she had ever felt. Starling caught herself before she let the power run away with her, and she turned it toward her forge. 

She saw at once that she had been mistaken in thinking that she hadn’t used magic here, it was everywhere. She smiled to herself at that, she was a magic creature after all, everything she created would have a hint of magic in it somewhere. 

Pulling the magic into focus once more, she aimed it at the fire that burned white hot at the center of her forge. She gloried in the feel of it, and for a second she felt humbled, and then sad. 

Starling pushed all of these thoughts aside and slowly pulled the heat from the fire, slowly so as not to hurt herself or it. The thought of the backlash such a fire could create were she to snuff it out like a candle gave her patience. 

By the time she had finished her task, she was again drenched in sweat, but her body was full of a vigor it hadn’t felt in years. She felt alive for the first time in over a century! 

Returning to her cottage she smiled, it wasn’t a smile that would invoke joy in another person, in fact it was more likely to terrify anyone who witnessed it. Luckily, there was no one to see that smile, and for Starling it was a smile of pure joy.