Axium

CHAPTER 9-10

What seemed like an eternity later she felt him open a rift. They shot through it and splashed out onto one of the piers.

XRenia immediately dispeled the shield rolled away from Verin and stretched out on the wooden walkway. That had been a unique violating, slightly pleasant, horrific experience. And definitely not one she'd ever wanted to repeat.

"While I won't say it wasn't nice to be so close to a beautiful girl I can't say it will be one of my favorite memories either," Verin said crawling to his knees.

She laid there contemplating saying something derogatory about herself only being beautiful to him because she had changed her looks, but just ended up saying "That's the last time I ever go swimming."

Verin sat on his legs. "Swimming? You're not even wet."

She rolled over and gazed up at the sky. "Wet or not a thousand leagues under the sea is enough swimming for me for a lifetime."

He stood up and offered her hand.

XRenia sighed and let him help her up.

As she got to her feet he said, "For the record you don't look all that different you just look like you shaved your chin bone and put on a little healthy weight though I have to say the green eyes is a nice touch."

She glared at him. "You know you're reading my thoughts, is very violating."

He shrugged and gave her a big toothy grin. "It's not like I have a choice everything you think practically screams its way into my mind."

She turned away from him and marched down the pier. "Don't you have somewhere else you want to be?"

"No not really." He answered as he followed after.

"I thought you're going to try and pay back my grandfather. Or did you already forget about the two thousand five hundred and two gold coins you owe him."

Verin steps faltered but he quickly caught back up. "Yeah I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have said the things I said. The truth is, while I was mad at you I was also mad at myself because a part of me really did want to kill the bloated Duke."

Ah ya that makes me feel better, she thought sarcastically

He frowned then laughed, "You know you really are self-absorbed."

The corner of her mouth twitched and she clenched her fist in aggravation. He was supposed to be nothing but a staunch protector and a servant but every time she turned around he was shoving in her face how bad a person she was.

"You're right I probably shouldn't be doing that I'm sorry." He dropped the mental shield he had placed between them and let her fill that he was genuinely sorry and that he cared for her.

His feelings hit her like a ton of bricks and she stops stunned in her tracks. "You care for me? What? Why?"

Immediately his presence disappeared from her mind again. "Well. . . Well of course I care for you, you open my magic," he answered lamely.

XRenia just stood there staring at him as he continued to walk.

"Which reminds me." He pulled a leather pouch from his cargo pocket and tossed it into her dimensional inventory.

She opened it to find that it was full of copper and silver coins. "Hey where did you get all this money?" She said chasing after him. "You didn't steal it did you?"

"I just open the few people's magic and they insisted on paying me a little here and there."

Her eyes widen. "You can't do that. You have to have a license to open people's magic!"

"That's because for normal people it takes months of training to do it without hurting themselves or their client but with our combined magic power it's as simple as one two."

She grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. "The magic charter which is recognized by all nations, also plainly states it illegal to open anyone's magic for less than the standard fee of thirty gold coins."

He shrugged. "Well I guess it's a good thing then that we are escaping to Thaxium where the magic charter has no say."

"We? You're coming with me?"

"Of course, I wouldn't let you go to such a dangerous place all by yourself."

"But I thought you hated me."

"I just told you I didn't."

She crossed her arms and frowned at him. "Okay so you don't hate me. But you still think I'm selfish, self-absorbed and lazy don't you?"

"Technically selfish and self-absorbed are the same thing."

XRenia put her hands on her hips. "Verin!"

"You do know that's not my real name don't you?"

She stomped her foot. "Answer the question."

Verin floated up into the air and pointed at a ship. "I think that one is headed in the direction we want and in our price range. We should book passage before it leaves."

He flew off leaving her to either follow or stand there fuming.

She chose to follow.

XRenia sat in the aft of the boat with her back against the railing a few feet away from her Verin gazed out over the open sea. The sun hung low in the sky and they were just passing the Okin islands.

"About fifteen more minutes and we will be out of national waters. Then we'll slip off the back wait for the boat to be out of range and begin our flight to Thaxium."

"You know this is my first time seeing or being out on the sea?" Verin said as he breathed deep of the sea air.

"I hope you like the site of it because you're going to be seeing a lot of it during our flight. We have to fly farther east then all the way south and around one of the other nations before we can finally start flying towards Thaxium."

Verin turned around crossed his arms and leaned against the balustrade. "Wow that sounds like a long flight. Why don't we just take a flying vehicle? It probably would have cost about the same price we paid for passage on this boat."

"Because even if I was flying in an international vehicle it still be me flying over top of the other nations borders and if I was discovered it seemed even more odd then normal." She stood up and started to stretch her legs and arms preparing for the long flight ahead. "Besides I don't like technology much."

"I noticed that. I fully expect someone with your type of wealth would bathed in electronics but you don't even seem to own one."

"That's because they're nothing but distractions and I can do anything that they do with my magic and better, including connect to the web. How about you? You don't seem to have one."

"Ha, are you kidding I couldn't have ever afforded even a basic one."

Man that must've sucked being out in the wilderness all that time with nothing but a harp and sheep, she thought as she pushed her right leg out and leaned down stretching her arms out to she touched her toes.

He pushed off the railing and started to do a few of his own stretches. "You've seen my memories; it wasn't all that bad. It was. . Peaceful."

XRenia thought of saying and boring but stopped herself.

"You know even if you don't say it I still heard it."

She stood up in front of him. "Now that's just not fair I was trying to be nice."

Verin grinned at her and busied himself stretching out.

XRenia did the same trying desperately not to think at all as she did.

A few minutes later they both quietly slipped off the back of the boat and into the water. When the boat was out of sight XRenia jumped into the sky and blasted off. Verin followed a few feet behind her.

XRenia just let all of her doubts feelings and anxieties go as she concentrated everything on flying. It was the one thing she enjoyed most in the world and she was the best at it not even her parents were as fast as her. She was even faster than her grandfather though he had proven on a couple occasions he had his ways of catching her if need be.

She had been slightly planning on leave Verin in the dust to catch up later but to her utter amazement he kept right up with her. He flew right alongside her less than arms reach away. If she hadn't had a shield around her she could've reached out and held his hand.

How is he doing that? She felt the question form in her mind before she could stop it.

He smiled his teeth beaming at her. "Are magic is one and I have access to your memories so I just kind of integrated your flying memories with myself."

Something about that statement just felt so wrong to her. She turned her head away from him and focused on flying.

*

hours later they finally came up on Thaxium and XRenia felt more than seen the broken Ley lines. It was as if someone gouged great gaping holes in the earth and blood poured out forming a thick magical fog around the land. As they got closer the first of the fog, it raced out to meet them.

XRenia braced herself for what she expected to be a fully horrible experience but as they slammed into it, it came straight through her shield and just splashed over her like wet water. "Huh, well it's not a pleasant filling but at least it's not all that bad the way people talked about I thought it be earth shattering."

Verin held out his hand in front of himself and looked it over as he flew. "Yeah once we get deep into it will probably be like swimming through air. Definitely annoying but not that bad."

Both of their assumptions prove wrong however. As they flew deeper into the invisible magic fog it shot towards them and clung to them like sticky sap. Soon it had covered every part of their body.

"Ug I take back what I said this stuff is nasty!" XRenia exclaimed shaking her arms trying to dislodge the clingy magic.

As they moved through it though it only got worse more and more of it adhered itself to them building up layer after layer on them like tar. Eventually the sheer weight of it started to pull XRenia down.

They were still a few miles out from the shore line when Verin started to plummet towards the water from the sheer weight of the magic fog that clung to him.

XRenia realized at that moment that even though he had her memories and magic his physical body didn't have the same endurance hers did. She dived after him as she shouted, "drop your shield so can I catch you!"

"It's okay I can make it." He argued.

But from his obvious trajectory she knew he wasn't going to and she also knew if he hit that water the sheer weight of what clung to him could potentially drag him down to never be seen again. She dropped her own shield and weaved a golden magic blade into existence. As she descended upon him she smashed the blade through his shield shattering it and grabbed him by the back of his shorts.

She pulled up with all of her might pushing against the broken Ley lines gummy magic that had plastered itself to them. She felt him try to help her but the density of the stuff made it almost impossible for him to even raise his arms.

Verin hung there suspended by her grip on his belt loop as she struggled to fly them the last couple hundred feet to shore. For all of her struggle though she realized with frightening intensity that she wasn't going to make it with his weight and hers.

"Drop me," he shouted.

"No," XRenia screamed and pushed her intense anger at him for even suggesting it, at the same time intensifying her feelings like a magical slap on purpose so he would shut up.

She felt him recoil as she took a tiny portion of her magic and flooded it into her brain speeding up her thought process and slowing down her perception of time. The world crawled to a standstill. She glanced down at Verin then quickly looked around taking in the full situation. They were only a stone throws away from the shore. If she could figure out some way to boost herself or throw them forward they would be out of danger. But try as she might she couldn't think of a way to possibly do that with her magic already being pushed to the limit.

Verin must've realized what she did and followed her example because milliseconds later he said, "Form a shield around us!" As she felt him push a plan at her.

She rolled her eyes. Only a boy would think of such an idea. It would work though and it was probably the only chance they had. She stopped trying to pull them up and focused on forming the shield around them.

They plummeted towards the water but seconds before they splashed into it Verin's fireball exploded rocketing them toward shore.

Like a pebble shut out of slingshot they crash into the shoreline rolling head over heels on top of each other inside their shield then slowly came to a stop.

XRenia dispel the shield and forcefully untangled herself from Verin. She reached into her dimension inventory, ripped out the Dragon claw statue her grandmother had given her and slammed it into the ground.

A thirty foot in diameter sphere formed around them and like a purging fire it ripped away the broken Ley line's magic that clung to them.

Verin flopped to his back. "Thank God your grandmother gave that to you."

"You can say that again!" She said resting her hands on her knees as she sucked down air. "Man no wonder this part of the world is abandoned. How in the world are we supposed to do anything with that stuff surrounding us?"

"Well like your grandfather pointed out I don't know anything about Ley lines but I think our first priority should be trying to fix the one closest to where we decide to set up base."

"If we can. I don't even know how to go about finding where it's bro. . ." What she was saying was cut off as a giant slimy tentacle wrapped itself around her waist and yanked her off her feet.

She snapped her head around to see two more tentacles reaching for her. Verin sprung to his feet forming a blade of white magic and clumsily swung it at one of the tentacles. The blade bit into the side of the tentacle but the cut wasn't deep and the creature controlling it responded by taking it's other tentacle and smashing it into Verin side sending him flying like a rag doll.

XRenia expertly formed a shield around herself pushing the tentacle clasped around her away from her skin. The creature responded by trying to tighten its grasp and shatter her shield but the quickly formed shield held and she used her freed hands to channel fire into the shield. Flames roared to life on the outside of the shield burning the tentacle.

The ocean seemed to boil as a roar of anger erupted from it and the tentacle pulled away.

She dropped to the ground, dispelled her shield, grabbed the dragon claw statue and raced over to Verin as four more tentacles broke through the surf.

Verin wobbly crawled to his feet as she projected three images and sent them running along the shoreline. "Are you okay can you run?" She asked anxiously.

He nodded and she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him behind her as she ran from the shore.

Verin faltered for a few steps then quickly fell in step with her. "What in the world was that thing?"

"I'm not sure but if I had to guess I'd say a Kraken. We need to get inland as fast as possible."

"You don't have to tell me twice." He exclaimed as he quickened his step.

XRenia noticed him wince in pain as he ran. "How's your side?"

"The tentacles scales cut me. I'm trying to heal it now but the confounded magic of this places is already clinging to the wound and interfering."

She glanced at his side. His shirt was ripped and there was a small bit of blood leaking out, thankfully nothing too serious but he was right the fog like magic was already starting to coat both of them again. "As soon as we find a safe place I'll stake in the claw and we will heal it together."

He nodded. "We should be careful with the claw though."

She frowned at him. "Why?"

"Well I'm new to magic and all but ever since you opened it for me I've been able to fill everything around me, however while inside the sphere the artifact made I couldn't feel anything out outside of it. I think that's how the Kraken snuck up on us."

Verin was right, she hadn't either. "Well I guess that makes sense it probably creates some type isolated magic sphere."

They ran until they found a wide open field filled with brownish green grass about knee-high. "This should be safe," XRenia said.

Verin was breathing hard and clutching his side but he managed to say, "I think we should burn away the grass first."

She nodded. "That's a good idea." Her arms were heavy from the annoying magic that clung to them but she forced them up and formed a fire spell. The grass in front of her burst into flames.

Her and Verin guided the fire with their magic until it had consumed a giant swath of the grass. Then XRenia sucked away the oxygen so the flames died away.

She dropped to her knee and jammed the claw into the ground.

"Aw sweet release," Verin moaned as the sappy coating of magic around him burned away.

She smiled. "Come here so I can heal you."

He shook his head. "Naw. I heal myself. You should put up a shield around this area so nothing else sneaks up on us."

Another good idea, she thought.

It was Verin's turn to smile. "Hey I lived in the wilderness most of my life remember."

She walked outside of the protective sphere the claw and formed a giant domed shield around them. "I thought you said it was safe because of the Dukes magic."

"It was. But you still didn't want snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies sneaking up on you. So I learned to secure the area in various ways before I slept."

She finished the shield. It wasn't a powerful one but it should suffice. There was no reason to form a really powerful one right now and she really wanted to get out of this icky magic fog. "What do you think of this area as a base?" She asked as she walked back under sphere the claw had created.

Verin was laying on his side with his shirt up scraping at the crusted blood around the newly healed pink skin. "It's as good as any I guess," he said with a shrug. "A nearby stream would be nice though."

"No need we can get our water from the air," She told him.

"Oh that's. . ." Verin shot towards her knocking her off her feet.

The sound of XRenia's shield shattering reverberated through the air and a set of talons snapped at the air where XRenia had been cutting a gash into Verin's left arm.

He rolled off her and sprung to his feet. She clambered to her own feet and looked up at what had attacked them.

A hideous bird that look like a giant distorted rooster let out a ear piercing shrill as it clumsily swung back around towards them.

A cockatrice. XRenia realized. "Don't make eye contact with it or it will paralyze you with fear," she shouted to Verin as she reached out with her magic.

As the creature flew back towards them she clamped her magic down around it like a giant fist and yanked down hard trying to slam it into the ground. But the creature was coated in the broken lay lines gummy magic and it slipped through her magic grip like a bald turkey dipped in oil.

The cockatrice let out another heart rending screech sending its own magic down at her. The Magic entered the dragons claws protective barrier and she felt it barreling towards her like a massive wall. She had mere milliseconds to throw up a shield before it slammed into her. Her makeshift defense held for an instant then shattered letting the magic wall plow into her flinging her into the sky.

That hideous bird changed its course aiming straight for her with the obvious intent of snatching her up in his beak but as it flew over top of Verin he rocketed skywards towards it spearing a giant white magic blade into the creatures gut.

The creature through back its head letting out a shriek of pain that could have curdled milk. XRenia caught herself with her magic and instantly formed her own blade sending it at the creature like a shockwave.

The Golden crescent careened into the cockatrice slicing its head clean off. It's shriek turned into a gurgle and it crashed to the ground where it proceeded to thrash around. . Well like a chicken with its head cut off.

Verin landed on one knee and she flew over to him as they watched the creature die.

When the creature had finally stopped thrashing around Verin walked up to it and kicked the dead cockatrice in the side to make sure it was actually dead. "Where in the world did this thing come from?"

XRenia pulled him away from it and started to heal the gash in his arm. The beast had been far more powerful than she could have imagined.

"Oh thanks I didn't realize it had got me."

He still wasn't letting her read his mind, but she didn't need to, to know that was a lie. That wound should have been hers but he had thrown himself in the way. She still for the life of her couldn't understand how he could despise her so and still continue to throw himself in harm's way for her.

"So, you going to tell me how such a creature comes to be? Or do I have to shift through your memories to find out?"

She frowned at him she was really starting to hate when he threatened to do that. "It's just a c**k that has his magic open while he is still in the egg and is then distorted by wild magic before he hatches."

"Ah. I guess that makes sense, there's certainly enough distorted magic floating around here." He watched her healing him for a bit then said, "I think we should try to set up a little bit more of a permanent shelter before the sun sets. This place is a bit more dangerous than I thought possible."

She finished healing him and wiped away the blood with her thumbs. "You can say that again. I didn't think anything could break through my shield that easily. I admit it wasn't a proper one but still."

"Well how about you put up a proper one and I'll try to make some type of shelter," He asked as he headed back towards the staked in claw.

She nodded it sounded fair enough.

CHAPTER 10

While she worked on erecting another shield; one that wouldn't be so easily broken through he asked, "Could you tell me a little bit about the history of magic. What did your grandmother mean by the rebirth of magic?"

She stopped and looked over at him and remembered that he had had no education whatsoever. "There was a long period in history where magic didn't seem to exist. Some people refer to the period as the magna tenebris. When magic came back into the world some people refer to it as the rebirth of magic like my grandmother did."

"Okay fair enough. What caused both of them?"

"Have you ever heard of Merlin?" She said as she finished forming the shield and started pumping energy into it to reinforce it.

He on the other hand was obviously having a hard time of making the floor of their structure. "No I haven't. I've been thinking maybe we should just go back to the castle and sleep there tonight."

The idea was certainly becoming more tempting. The magical fog clung to every part of her like sticky marshmallows. She couldn't wait to get back underneath the cover of the artifact. "If I do that my grandfather will force me to take all the other magical items when we come back. If he lets me at all."

"Well maybe that's a good thing. Like I already said this place is far more dangerous than we thought and some more objects like this dragon claw statue would be nice."

Well she couldn't argue against that without the statue they would've probably been dead already. She sighed. "I don't know how bad the tension is between my grandfather and the other nations but if my grandmother let us come here like this she must've truly thought my argument was valid. In other words if we take their support now there is a high chance there will be war. Maybe after my official banishment we can take some things but not right now. You're also forgetting if we go back grandfather will immediately commence your combat training."

Verin stiffened at the mention of combat training.

XRenia smiled and pushed a memory of her grandfather punching through a weakly formed shield and hitting her shoulder so hard it dislocated. She had learned quite fast after that to form small shields quickly and properly.

He glared at her. "Okay, were not going back tonight."

She laughed. "Not only that, it is actually the middle of the night there."

"What?"

"Yeah, we gained six hours by flying here."

"Oh time change I forgot all about that. No wonder I feel like it's later than it is." He stared up at the sun for a bit then went back to working on trying to create a floor. After a few seconds he said, "You asked me about some history guy?

"Merlin. He was a great mage of his time but during his time there was very few mages because the natural barrier in animals and humans that seals away their magic had somehow just stop breaking. As you know the barrier is just there to protect us as children so we don't hurt anyone or ourselves unknowingly. It supposed to break during puberty but sometimes it just don't."

"Yeah like mine didn't."

"In Merlin's time that was happening to almost everyone and had been happening for hundreds of years. So much so mages didn't even know how to help others open their magic."

"Did it!" Verin shouted in triumph.

XRenia looked over in time to see the ground underneath his feet ripple then solidify into a perfectly flat, smooth marble like floor. "Wow good job."

He beamed at her then started on a wall. "Go on."

"Merlin desired to fix this problem. But magic proved to be inadequate for the task so he turned to science but he needed resources to fund his research and that's where the amazing story of a boy and a sword stuck in a rock came into play. But I won't bore you with the details. Suffices to say late in his life he developed a retrovirus that would have helped the next generation's magic open properly."

"Ow!" Verin shouted.

XRenia looked over to see him flat on his back. She finished charging the shield and ran over to him. "You okay?"

"Ya," he answered crawling to his feet.

"What happened?"

"O I just hit myself with a rock." He pointed at a craggy looking half formed wall.

"Want me to help?"

"If you're done with the shield."

"I am. There's no way anything should be able to break through it." She walked over to the craggy wall and sent her magic into it trying to force the rock that formed it to bend to her will. She knew that this wasn't the best way and that there was spell's design for this type of thing. But she had never bothered to learn them, because frankly construction spells were far beneath her.

Verin added his will to hers and slowly the wall started to take shape. "So this Maryland guy obviously didn't succeed if the magna teneber thingy happened."

"Merlin. And it's magna tenebris. Not teneber."

"Oops. Sorry."

"That's okay. And he actually kind of did succeed. But Morgan also known as Nineve; Damsel of the Lake, his wife or girlfriend, history is not sure which, had a vision that magic would be the end of all life. She told him this and bagged him not to use the virus. But he wouldn't listen to her and dumped the virus into the sea where it would spread into all life in time. In response she sealed him away in a cave and blasted the sea with lightning until she had spent all her energy. And still she continued pouring all of her life's vitality into the lightning until she died."

"Wow that sucks," Verin muttered

XRenia nodded.