"Not interfered?" Chihon said. "That woman's life was about to be ruined and her child left to fend for herself. How can you just let that happen?"
"We don't interfere. One ruler is much like the next. You'll see."
"I don't see it that way," Chihon said.
"I see that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on," came a voice from beside her.
Chihon looked up to see a young man standing there. He was about her age, with closely cropped hair that looked like he had cut it himself with his knife. He pulled out the bench and sat down.
"You are stunning, the most beautiful girl in the city, nay, the world," he said. "I'm smitten."
Chihon blushed. She ran her hand over her head to straighten her hair only to recall that her head was shaved bare.
"I think I'm in love. My name is Banuntu and I'm you new slave." He batted his eyes at her.
Chihon smiled at that. He actually batted his eyes at her like a little girl.
"Command me, Mistress." He placed his hands under his chin and looked directly into her eyes with a puppy dog look.
"Sorry. I don't need a slave." His attention made her slightly uncomfortable, but she secretly appreciated it. In all the time she'd spent with Lorit, she'd come to care deeply for him, but he wasn't the attentive type, and certainly not in love with her. At least he didn't show it if he was. It was kind of nice to get a little attention, even from a stranger.
The serving girl returned with their meals. Banuntu jumped up and took the plates from her as she approached. He swung them around through the air, holding a plate in each hand. Spinning quickly, he placed one in front of each of them with a flourish. He took the pot of mead from the server and grabbed her towel, folding it over his arm. He bowed deeply and gazed longingly at Chihon.
"Ale, Mistress?"
"Please," Chihon replied, smiling at his antics.
He poured the ale starting with a thin stream. As the amber liquid spilled into the cup, he raised the pitcher high in the air and quickly brought it back down with a flair, and without spilling a drop. He repeated the process with Tass and set the pitcher on the table. He grabbed the loaf of bread and deftly sliced it back onto the plate.
"Enjoy," he said, sweeping his arm across the table.
"Please, sit," Chihon said.
"Bring him an ale," she said to the server.
"Thank you, Mistress. It gives me great pleasure to simply sit and bask in the radiance of your beauty."
Chihon blushed at the attention, thinking how she could get used to it, given time. If only Lorit had a little flair for the romantic.
She thought of Lorit and his quest, how he was shielded even from her. His extended absence left her lonely and she missed his counsel. She hoped it would not be much longer until he contacted her. They were paired, and that meant she would spend the rest of her life working by his side. They would learn to master their powers, and eventually take their place ... A strange confusion arose in her mind at the thought. Where would they take their place? When she imagined them working together in the Temple, something seemed wrong. She wondered why that was.
"Mistress, you looked unhappy," Banuntu said. "Don't let anything trouble your beautiful head."
Chihon ran her hand over her bald head once again, more self conscious about the lack of her hair. "I'm not unhappy, just thinking about something."
The door opened, letting a shaft of sunlight into the inn's interior. A young woman not much older than Chihon entered. She wore a dirty man's shirt and tattered pants. Her hair was unkempt and hung about her in strands of black.
Banuntu jumped up from the bench, almost knocking over the table. He rushed to the girl and took her hand guiding her to a table.
"Surely the gods have smiled upon us today," he said to her. "They have seen fit to grace us with one of such beauty that my eyes will never need to see again. Should I go blind today, your loveliness will be a memory, sufficient to last me the rest of my life."
He rushed back to Chihon's table and grabbed the empty mug and pot of ale the server had left for him. He sprinted over to the girl's table and placed it before her. "Please, my princess, allow me to pour you a mug of ale that you may wash away the thirst from your beautiful throat."
He filled the mug, repeating the expansive gesture with which he'd filled Chihon's own mug. He sat down next to the girl and placed his chin in his hands, staring at her just as he'd stared at Chihon.
Chihon frowned at him. She was just starting to appreciate the attention and now she'd simply ceased to exist for him. She cleared her throat.
"Mistress," he cried out and jumped up, running back to her table.
"What's going on?" Chihon asked.
He sat back down and pulled in the bench. He looked at Chihon with his sad eyes and said, "Your beauty is like the warm sun on a cool morning. It touches my soul. It fills my heart with its radiance and makes my day complete."
The girl whose attention had caught his eye turned and looked at him. He jumped up again, rushing to her side. Chihon reached out her foot and deftly caught his as he turned. He fell to the floor like a sack of root crop, bounced once, and lay still.
"What's going on here?" Chihon demanded.
The girl came over and shoved Banuntu with her foot, then took the bench across from Chihon.
"I'm Enmeld," she said as she sat. "This one," she delivered another kick to Banuntu, "He is smitten with everyone he sees. He's done it to himself."
"What's he done?"
"He tried to mix up a magic potion to make the Atenthi love us. Where he got the formula is a mystery. It does appear to work, but only on him.
"He thought that if the Atenthi loved us, they would treat us better, so he bought a formula and mixed up a batch of love potion. Silly fool." She shoved him once again.
Chihon could tell the girl had some affection for him by the way she looked at him, even while she was berating him for being a fool. She reached out to Banuntu with her magic. She could see the spell wrapped around him. It was weak and would eventually wear off on its own.
She looked at Enmeld, who was gazing down at the boy. She saw a thin thread of the spell, reaching out from Banuntu to the girl, along with one reaching to her. She sensed the spell, and how it was constructed.
She carefully pulled at a thread here and there, untangling them from one another. She found the one stretching to her and snapped it. She found other loose ends waiting for some other unsuspecting woman to arrive and cauterized them, preventing the spell from acting on anyone further.
As she worked, an idea popped into her head. Could she tailor the spell to keep it contained and directed until it eventually faded? Yes, it would work. She knew she could do it. She carefully rearranged the threads of magic until she was satisfied.
When she was finished she pushed a little energy into the man, just enough to rouse him.
He stood up and looked at Chihon, then over at the girl.
"Enmeld," he said. "How nice to see you." He extended his arm to her.
She looked at Chihon and back to Banuntu.
"Banuntu?" Chihon asked. He looked at her as if this was the first time he'd seen her. "Do you know who I am?"
"No, Ma'am."
Enmeld started to rise. He reached out to her. "Please allow me." He grasped he arm and gently helped her stand. He folded her arm in his own and escorted her over to the table where he had first deposited her.
Chihon cleared her throat to get his attention. He didn't even turn to see what the noise was all about. He sat next to Enmeld and leaned his head in to whisper in her ear.
"That was a foolish waste of magic," Tass said. "It would have worn off eventually; you didn't need to do anything."
"I thought what he was trying to do was noble. I also know he likes her, so I wanted to reinforce that a little before the spell completely wears off."
"It's still a waste."
The door burst open and a man walked in. He was so much like the one in the park that Chihon wondered how he'd found her. He walked into the dining room and locked eyes with the patrons until everyone bowed their heads. When he came to Chihon, she stood her ground. She looked him straight in the eye and refused to look down.
He placed his hand on his hips, challenging her, but she still refused to look away.
Chihon reached out with her magic, probing for his life force just as she had done to the Atenthi in the park. She slowly separated the threads of power around him until she could reach inside and touch his life force. What she saw inside him made her pull back in disgust. The man's life thread was a putrid brown.
Chihon drew back in shock. How could one so ill still live? She reached out to him once more to examine him. Not even the Atenthi invaders deserved something like this.
While she watched, the man crumbled to the ground and red foam spewed from his mouth. He shook uncontrollably.
Underworld
The path was rough, strewn with the same jagged rock fragments that formed the hillside. The peaks on the horizon were blurred by distance and mist. Lorit could just make out the castle sticking to the side of the mountain, like a goat perched on a crag high above them. Lorit was happy to be off the ice and onto solid ground once again, but the steep trail with its constant switchbacks and loose rocks was starting to wear on him.
He found a spot where the trail opened onto a wide patch of flat rock where they could make camp for the night. "Let's stop here."
He looked down into the valley that separated the peak from the one that housed the castle. The ice sheet that pushed its way through the depression was streaked with dirty brown and looked rough from this height.
"One more trek across the ice and we're there. If I never have to see that again, I will be happy."
The Princess followed his gaze. "It's only ice."
Lorit frowned at her. "Only ice? I've seen enough ice for a while."
"I think it's rather pretty. Just look at the beautiful patterns it makes as it winds its way through the valley." The Princess pointed out where the Ice Father twisted around the steep mountain peaks.
"I can do without the cold." Lorit laid out the gear that would become their camp site. He gathered a few dry branches from the woods around the trail and stacked them in a small pile. "Incendo ignio," he said and the fire burst to life.
Lorit placed a pot of water to boil above the fire next to the meat of a small goat he'd brought down earlier in the day. The meat was just starting to smell like dinner when he heard a sound up ahead. He grabbed his staff and stood ready.
A short stout man ambled around the rocks ahead. He was no taller than Lorit's shoulder but wider by quite a bit. He wore a green hat with a feather sticking out of it. He pulled up short as he saw Lorit and the Princess.
"Well, what have we here?" he asked. "Visitors on the mountain? Don't get many of those." He raised his hand in greeting and paused. He wrinkled his nose at the Princess then looked at Lorit with a quizzical look. "She's not what she seems to be, is she? Then I suppose you already knew that, being a Wizard and all."
"Why do you say that?" Lorit asked.
"Say what? The truth?"
"That she's not what she seems to be? And what makes you think I'm a Wizard?"
"So you want to play games with the truth?" the stranger said. "Suit yourself, find your own way." He turned to leave.
"Wait! Who are you?" Lorit called out after him.
"I'm Hanuwar." The man paused, waiting for Lorit to respond.
"I'm Lorit, and this is Princess Ukina of Veldwaite."
He looked her over and whistled. "Wizards, Witches, and Priests. You must have really made a lot of folks angry."
"Why do you say that?" Lorit looked over at the Princess. She appeared as she always had; now that he'd broken the spell that had made her look like Chihon. He didn't think the link between her and Chihon was visible to anyone but him.
Hanuwar stepped closer to the Princess and peered into her eyes. He stretched his hand out to touch her hair, but the Princess pulled back.
"You sure have made enemies," Hanuwar said. "Come on, break this camp, and let's get you inside the mountain before the storm hits." Hanuwar pointed to the dark clouds peering between the mountain peaks ahead. He grabbed the roasting goat. "Don't mind if I carry this, do you?" Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed it and took a large bite out of it.
Lorit stretched his hand towards the fire. "Incendo exstinguere," he commanded and the fire died instantly. He quickly repacked their things and hurried after Hanuwar.
They wound their way around a few more switchbacks until they came upon a pile of rubble that had been thrown down the side of the mountain. It came from a mine shaft that was framed in stout wooden beams.
"Here we are," Hanuwar said. "Come on in."
Lorit had to duck to enter the mine, but once inside, it opened to well above his head and he was able to stand straight. The interior of the mine was dark but clean. The shaft had been cut and polished to a mirror finish.
Hanuwar held out torches to Lorit and the Princess. He paused when Lorit took the torch from him, and Lorit wondered what he was waiting for. Finally, Hanuwar shook his torch and said, "Wizard?"
Lorit realized that Hanuwar expected him to light the torches with magic. "Incendo ignio." As Lorit spoke, all three torches sprang to life.
"Thank you, Wizard." Hanuwar turned his back and headed down the passageway.
"How did you know I was a Wizard?"
"Because you smell like one. I have a gift for smelling magic and I can see some spells, but I'm not a Wizard." He turned to look at Lorit. "And I'm not a dwarf either. I'm just a little short for my height." He laughed at his own jest.
"You can smell magic?"
"Yup. Not many can, so that makes me sort of special."
"What good does that do?" Lorit asked as they made their way down a long series of steps leading into the darkness.
"Because we mine magic down here. Deep in the earth is a special place. It contains concentrated magic. Some say it's really ancient dragon magic trapped beneath the earth and turned to stone. Others say it's the raw stuff of power that the ancients used to create the magic we employ today."