On Bated Breath We Wait

Chapter 11

As I laid there, I couldn’t help but watch as Camie’s ears twitched as a slept. But as I watched, the joy of watching her ears twitch got the better of me; and I found myself holding back a tiny bit of laughter. That was enough to wake her from her slumber.

She leaned up and rubbed her eyes, “Nikos?”

Smiling I replied, “Did you have a good sleep?”

Her face began to redden with embarrassment before she flew over and hugged my chin, “I missed you!”

“Missed me?” I asked.

She continued to hug my chin, “Yes. Yes. I missed you. You were asleep for over a week!”

“A week!” I leaned up and as I did she hung on, not wanting to stop hugging me. As I consoled her I asked, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

She let go and flew on top of my head. Immediately she plopped down and started beating on my head with both of her arms, “I tried and tried and tried and tried. But you wouldn’t wake up.” She continued to pound my head and began to cry, “I. I thought…. I thought.”

Gently I picked her up from my head and brought her close to my chest. As I attempted to hug her I said, “It’s okay. I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere.”

She looked up, “Promise?”

I looked down into her eyes, “Yes. I promise.”

As I said I promise I heard Sir Damian groan, “Now you have gone and done it.” As I asked him what I had done he explained to me, “You just promised a fey that you will always been with them. That’s a binding contract. I would love to jokingly say congratulations on the marriage but I don’t think she meant it like that. But it’s very close to one.”

Frightened by the concept, I asked Camie, ”Sorry, but I have to ask. You know I can’t stay here forever, right?”

She flew back away from my chest, “Yes. Yes. I understand. I just meant I come with you when you leave.”

Still worried I continued to question her about the meaning, “Anything else?”

She landed on the table then looked down at her feet while pressing her toes together. As she stared at her feet she brought her hands together letting only the tips of her index fingers touch. In the saddest tone I had ever heard from her she said, “You won’t be mad?”

As I walked over to the table I said, “Yes. I won’t be mad.”

She looked up at me her face fully red, “The promise can have a second meaning.” She paused before apologizing while shouting, “I didn’t mean it like that! I really didn’t! Don’t be mad!” I waited until she finally worked up the courage to tell me, “That kind of promise is also made by fairies who love each other and never want to part…”

I didn’t have it in me to break her heart and so I asked, “You mean marriage, right?”

The redness in her face quickly spread to the tips of her ears and her face shot down. Now staring at her feet again. She softly responded, “Yes, but it isn’t binding. Only if both parties agree to and understand the deal can it be made.”

Not wanting to break her heart, I smiled and stated, “Camie, I’m honored by your offer intentional or not. But, it id customary in my world to know each other before that and I don’t believe we do. So I must decline for now, maybe in the future when we know ourselves and each other may I consider that promise again.”

As I finished but before Camie could respond a paper slid under the door, and as it did the chalk symbol on the back of the door began to glow. Then it was almost as if a bolt of lightning shot out from the symbol and struck the paper. Instantly, the paper was a blaze with a blue flame and as quickly as it happened the fire extinguished.

“What was that!” I asked, hoping for either one of them to explain what had just transpired.

Sir Damian was first to answer, “That was interesting. It seems your female friend’s primitive protection spell is working and if I were to guess… I would say that paper is safe. But I would also like to comment that it did nothing when we had a visitor.”

Trying to make sense of it all I conceded and assumed Sir Damian was right. Cautiously, I walked over to the paper; the paper’s edges were untouched by the flames. Confused I turned to Camie, “Why didn’t it burn?”

Her face lit up, “Good question. Good question!” She stopped and stared at the chalk for a moment before pointing to a section of the writing, “It’s a basic protection spell.” She flew closer and began to tap part of the symbol, “This part! This part check’s everything that passes through the doorway for if it has magic. If it doesn’t it’s set on fire, using the target’s own mana to fuel the fire.”

I began to wonder out loud, “Wait. If it sets things on fire that pass through the doorway I have two questions. First, what happens if Meryl or I come back through it? Second is, why didn’t that cloaked man get set on fire.”

Camie started to rub her chin and began staring at the symbol again, “Hmmmmm. Anyone means anyone. I will fix!” She began to fly around the various parts of the symbol and as she passed by them they changed. Some symbols changed entirely while other symbols changed in the smallest of ways. As I watched her work, I couldn’t help but question her; but even as she explained her changes I didn’t understand. Once she finished she turned back to me and smile, “Second answer. Cloaked man didn’t come through the doorway. BUT! I fixed that too.” She then flew over to the paper and flew it to me, “What’s it say!”

I looked at it and saw it was a message from Duran. It read…

Hey Nikos, my mom kind of explained what you are doing right now and that you wouldn’t be leaving your room for a while. But I wanted to let you know that tonight I’m going to be fighting in one of tonight’s sparring matches. Can you believe it? Oh, also it’s going to be against an envoy. Wish me luck! And, I wish should could be there.

Your smelly friend, Duran

Sir Damian began to chuckle, “Your smelly friend, what kind of fool insults themselves? But he is right, you aren’t ready to leave. However, I do have a way for you to watch the events.”

Excited I asked, “You do, how?”

I could feel the joy from Sir Damian as he asked for permission to take over my mouth again, “Lady Camie, we have work to do. This fool wants to watch his friend fight, we need to prep his body and this room for counter scrying.”

Camie’s body stiffened up at the sound of his voice and as he finished she replied, “Can do, Mister Yucky Mana.”

Sir Damian said with a sigh, “Okay, Camie I’ll leave everything to you for the counter scrying. I’ll ask Nikos for control again when we need to setup so he can see the fight.”

As I regained control I could already see Camie grinning. She placed her hands on her hips and yelled, “OKAY! SHIRT OFF AND ON THE BED!” I reached for the bottom of my shirt and began to pull it off, I saw Camie starting to bite her lip. A little bit embarrassed, I quickly turned and started walked to my bed and with that Camie shouted, “We have a problem!”

Sir Damian instantly told me to ask her what the problem was and she explained, “He already has one, it’s between his shoulder blades. Using your words, it’s primitive, but it prevents him from being found.”

I hesitated, “I have a what between my shoulder blades?” Camie’s comment had even peeked Sir Damian’s curiosity but he remained silent.

Camie flew over and started tracing it, “It’s what he wanted, it’s a counter scrying symbol.” I could feel as her hand moved along the marking. It was simple and nothing like all of the other symbols I had seen. It was made up by an X which at the center from each side of the X, an arrow pointed away from it and surrounding the whole thing was a circle. She urged me to lie down, before mentioning that my back was going to itch while she worked. She was right, as she worked to improve the spell my back felt like it was one big itch. Soon the area which itched soon covered my whole back, the feeling was maddening. As I attempted to reach back and scratch I felt something grip my wrist and force my arm back down. Then she shouted, “Don’t move you will only make me take longer!”

It felt like forever as I laid there; but eventually Camie noticed my suffering both in the itching and the boredom from doing nothing. She started to explain what she was doing, “What I’m doing here is fixing the symbol on your back, or rather I’m improving it. The symbol you had was basic and could only hide you if you weren’t doing anything to overpower it. I can say, that I believe all of the magic training was overpowering it the whole time. Also, this can’t hide your mana nor your necklace; both of which are too powerful. I’m fixing this to use both as power sources.”

I could only acknowledged and ask, “How big is going to be, my whole back is bothering me.”

She assured me, “About the same size. Right now I’m using your whole back as a surface to add onto the spell, but once done I’ll add a special spell to shrink the whole thing down.”

Glad I thanked her, “Thanks. I don’t think I could explain having something on my whole back to anyone.” Then it dawned on me, “Wait, how will I explain this to anyone?”

She began to snicker, “It looked like a tattoo before and it will look like one after. The better question is how will you explain that your tattoo changed?”

It took a little while long before she finished and as she did Sir Damian asked for control again, “Lady Camie, for the next part we will work together. I will guide both you and him on creating a scrying lens of my own creation.” After I put my shirt back on he guided us over to the table and asked me to make a glass. From there he told me to change the glass into a flat shallow dish with a slight edge so it could hold a thin layer of water. Once he was satisfied with the dish he commented, “Now, we need something to carve into the glass. I trust Lady Camie can do that, but I will mention as a reminder that we don’t want to cut through the glass but etch into its surface.” Quickly, I found a knife and Camie embedded it with magic so we could continue on. Sir Damian listen in content as she instructed me and I carved the symbol into the bottom of the dish. As I carved, I couldn’t help but notice it was similar to what the symbol once looked like on my back; except the arrows pointed inward to the X. Once we finished I stepped back so I could take it all in, but we weren’t done. Camie began to fly around the dish; a faint glow trailed behind her and as she did, writing appeared on the lip of the dish. It looked identical to the writing I had seen on all of the symbols and in the book, but by the time she finished she was exhausted and dizzy so I couldn’t ask her about it.

Time has flown by today and it was nearing sunset; once everyone in the Temple had finished eating in the mess hall would it be setup for the matches tonight. I had time and so I asked Camie, “What’s that writing you added to the dish? I’ve seen that writing in all of the magic symbols and have started to wonder what it is.”

Camie, who was still sitting on the table looked up and said, “The writing? Oh, that’s the written language of magic. Its characters have been taken from several different races‘ languages and if you weren’t in such a rush to learn everything we could cover it. But! Until We think you are safe we will have to skip teaching you that.”

We sat there and chatted while I ate awaiting for the hour of the fights to come. Once it did Sir Damian continued his instructions; but unlike everything before it was finally something simple. All that was left was to add water to the dish to create a thin layer of water and then channel mana into the water while focusing on the thought of what I wanted to see. As I channeled my mana, I thought of the mess hall and the conversations I had there. The water began to ripple as it took on a silver sheen before stopped. Looking down into the water was like looking into a mirror, and as I marveled at it the reflection I saw changed. Now it wasn’t a reflection of myself looking back, but an aerial view of the mess hall. I could see everything and everyone in the mess hall, and as I searched through the crowd of people for Duran the reflection changed again. Now it focused on only Duran, he seemed at ease. I couldn’t feel happier at that moment of time than I already was, even if I couldn’t be there in person I could still watch him fight. My thoughts drifted to the matches and in so the reflection changed to focus on the area where everything was taking place.

Before long it was time for Duran’s match, and oh was it an interesting match. I watched as he fought, each and every punch and dodge kept me fixated on what was happening. I could barely hear anything else, it was as if I was there. The sounds of the crowd worked into a frenzy as Duran pushed back. His unorthodox fighting style confused both me and his opponent; when I thought he was about to win his opponent pulled out knives. I began to shout, “I thought this was a fist fight? Cheater!” But to my surprised Duran too came prepared, he reached down and I saw a shimmer of light before he pulled two identical knifes from his boots. I looked up at Camie and asked, “Did he just?” She nodded and I returned to watching Duran. The fight continued for a little bit longer as each of them tried to get in a good slice but both sides were trying their hardest not to get cut.

With each trade-off of attempts to stab or slice each other I found myself leaning in, and soon the reflection changed. It was now as if I was inches away from the match. I could hear the sounds as each time one of their blades cut through the fabric of the other’s shirt. I could see the beads of sweat dripped of each of them as they evaded each other. I was in awe at all of it, and then Duran spoke. His words were as clear to me as if I was standing right beside him, “That’s some nice poison you got there, but mine is better. It’s Death This…” His opponent jumped back instantly and surrendered.

As the crowd surrounded Duran to celebrate his win, I found myself leaning back away from the reflection and it disappeared and changed back into the water it once was.

I sat there in silence for a while. I was happy that I got to see Duran fight and even happier that I got to see him win. Sir Damian was the first to break the silence, “You better be careful with that one. If he was trying to say what I think he was, he has very dangerous poison and by the looks of it willing to use it.”

My face changed into a look of disgust and confusion, “Are you sure? Duran would never!”

He reassured me and explained, “You didn’t notice but both fighters had poison on their blades. Your friend, Duran had the most deadly poison on his. I’m almost dead certain of this; even more so that I believe he almost said it too. Didn’t you hear him? He was saying, Death Thistle.”

I didn’t want to believe him, the Duran I knew wouldn’t harm a fly let alone use poison. Tears started to run down my face, and found myself hiding my face behind my hands. I quickly looked to Camie, she should be able discern the truth. A sadden look was on her face and she nodded like she knew what I was going to ask.

Through my anger and sadness I asked Sir Damian, “What is Death Thistle?”

I prepared myself as I thought he was going to explain, while I felt a feeling of joy come from him. But his answer came without emotion, “It is a flower that brings only death. I do not know much about the flower or the poison however I do know that by touch alone either can kill in seconds. How someone made a poison of it sounds impossible to me, and I assume a drop could kill the mightiest of foes. Heed my warning. It will only cause death to those around it, stay away.” His words echoed in my head for the rest of the night and would continue to haunt me for several days.