Chapter 11: The Colours of Magic

Chapter 11

Rhea was sitting on her bed singing to Aya when she heard a soft knock on her door.  “Come in,” she called out, trying to think of who it could be.

The door opened and Seraphina stepped in, “sorry if I’m disturbing you,” she said.

“Not at all,”  Rhea replied courteously, “I know I ought to bow but I only just got Aya to stop crying,” she explained.

“That’s alright.  I really don’t want to be a bother, it’s just that today made me realize how little I know about magic.  I was going to read up on it but then I remembered how Duana used to tell-”  Seraphina stopped talking and looked away, “I was hoping you might be able to explain it to me better than books,”  Seraphina finished quietly.  

“I would be happy to explain anything you need to know, as well as I can anyways,”  Rhea replied kindly.

Seraphina nodded but still wouldn’t meet her eyes.  She looked around the room instead and her eyes fell on Aya, “she’s adorable, how old is she?”  

“Four months.”  

“Babies are so cute,”  Seraphina said.

Rhea smiled, “would you like to hold her?”  

Seraphina nodded shyly and Rhea carefully placed Aya into her arms.

“I was wondering about colours of magic, can someone’s magic change?  Could their colour change?”  Seraphina asked quietly.

“Is this about your stepmother?”  Rhea asked.

Seraphina gave a small nod.

“Magic colours can change, but it’s rare, because they’re a reflection of our personality.  For someones magic colour to change their personality would have to change completely.  Imagine what that would take, people are always changing, but to lose everything that you are, everything that you believe in, something extreme would have to happen, something that shakes you to your core, a life altering event,”  Rhea explained.

Seraphina nodded in understanding but didn’t say anything.  

“May I ask you something?”  Rhea asked nervously.

Seraphina nodded.

Rhea took a deep breath.  “If you think your stepmother’s magic changed, do you know what caused her magic to change, or when it changed?”  

Seraphina didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then she started to talk in a shaky voice.  “There’s one time when I thought she didn’t seem herself, and I think it might have been then that she changed, and then there’s the day I say that she’d changed.  

The first time was when we first found the bloodstone.  A halfling servant found it and saw how powerful it was, so he brought it to my father.  The two of us were walking in one of the gardens together so he sent for Duana, by the time she arrived the servant had already left.  My father told her that he thought he had a way to win the war and showed her the necklace.  He was looking at the bloodstone, but I was looking at Duana.  A way to win the war, she should have been ecstatic, but for a second her expression was murderous.  It was so fast, and after she looked so happy she was supposed to be, I thought I must have imagined it,”  Seraphina paused and a tear slid down one cheek.

“The second time was in the war meeting.  My father, all his advisors, and his generals, were meeting to decide how to best use the bloodstone to win the war.  Duana was there because she was the Queen and a halfling.  I wasn’t invited, but half an hour before the meeting was scheduled to end I went to stand by the door and see if I could hear anything interesting.  When I got there I heard nothing.  No one was talking, no one was making a sound.  I only had a moment to be confused because the door flew open and Duana stormed out, she was wearing the bloodstone necklace, and she had that look about her again, this time I wasn’t imagining it.  She looked murderous.  I got a glimpse of the room behind her; everyone was slumped in their chairs, or against the table, some people had fallen off their chairs to the ground, not one of them was moving.  They were all dead.  Duana pushed me against the wall and started choking me with magic, not her red magic, black magic.  Something inside me pushed her magic away and I fell to the ground.  Whatever it was inside me, it stopped Duana and she fled.  That was the last time I saw her before-”  Seraphina broke off.  

“And you only saw her react like that those two times?”  Rhea asked.

Seraphina nodded.

“Both times around the bloodstone and the war.  What do Duana, the bloodstone, and the war have to do with each other?”  Rhea muttered, thinking out loud,  “Duana, the bloodstone, the war, Duana…”  Rhea frowned, then her eyes widened.  “Duana, oh no, no, no, no, no...oh god,”  Rhea muttered.

“What?”  Seraphina asked.

“Duana!  Oh god, oh god, why didn’t I see that!”  Rhea exclaimed and got up.  She started rummaging through her things.

“See what?”  Seraphina demanded.

Rhea ignored Seraphina and continued sorting through her magic tools, “I get it, I finally get it!  I have to find her!”

“What are you talking about?  You can’t find Duana, she’s dead!  I killed her.”  Seraphina said.

“Did you ever think about what a strange name Duana is?”  Rhea asked, “ten years ago I met a halfling traveler with red magic and the strangest accent.  I didn’t think much of her accent then, and I believed her when she told me it came from traveling all over with her family.  Whenever anyone asked where her family was all she would say was that they’d parted ways some years ago.  We became friends and she taught me nearly half of what I know about magic.  I met her right about the same time I met Jason, my husband.  The three of us had so much fun together.  

Two years after we met she announced that she had to leave, she wouldn’t tell me why, just that there was something she had to do for her family.  I couldn’t get her to stay, not even for my wedding.  Looking back now, I realize that she left just as soon as her accent was gone.  When she first arrived you could barely understand a word she said because of that accent, when she left you’d of thought she was Odranian by birth.  By the time Jason and I returned from traveling together, she was the Queen,”  Rhea said.  While she’d been talking she’d repacked everything.  Most of her things were set aside, only two bags remained with her.

“You knew Duana?”  Seraphina exclaimed incredulously.

“She told me I wouldn’t understand, but I do, I finaly do.  And now I have to find her!”  Rhea said.

“You can’t find her, she’s dead.”  Seraphina said flatly.

Rhea started making a circle on the floor, acorn for luck, amber for focus, bay for strength, rattleweed for potency, blue yarn for efficiency, yellow and green dust for confidence and balance, brown chalk for reliability…

“Yes, you killed her eight days ago, it was just before dawn and the weather was stormy.  You fought then won with a stab to the chest, just missing her heart, but you knew that didn’t matter because she was bleeding out, you knew she was dying.  She disappeared in black smoke but you knew it didn’t matter where she went, she only had minutes left.  Besides, using magic when you’re injured only drains you faster,”  Rhea said and hurriedly continued her circle, dill, ebony powder, rudbeckia, ambers, carnelians, citrines, indigo powder, white string…

“How did you know that?”  Seraphina demanded.

“Because that was the day I saw Duana again for the first time in eight years, when she transported into my houseboat and almost bled out on my rug.  I wasn’t about to let her die so I did a healing on her, if I hadn’t she would’ve died.  She almost died anyways.  Up until yesterday she was with me, yesterday was when I learnt about what she’d done, and what the talisman she took could have done.  The talisman she summoned from my houseboat, six days ago.  When she transported away she took the bloodstone with her,”  Rhea said.  The circle was done, it was the most complex circle she’d ever attempted, transporting was the biggest magic she’d ever done.  

“Duana’s alive!”  Seraphina exclaimed.

“And now I have to find her.  The bloodstone, the war, and Duana, they’re are all tied together,”  Rhea said cryptically.  

Seraphina opened her mouth then closed it again gaping at Rhea as words failed her.  

“The red magic in the bloodstone, the war with Sacia, Duana’s accent, I was such an idiot,”  Rhea berated herself angrily.  She looked at Seraphina, still holding Aya, and her expression changed to concern.  Rhea but her lip and put one of her two bags on the bed in front of Seraphina.  

“I have to go, I can fix this.  Make sure my daughter is safe.  Where I’m going is no place for a baby.”  Rhea said softly.

“Where are you going?  You can’t just leave!  What about Aya?”  Seraphina argued.

“It’s not a matter of where I’m going, it’s a matter of who I’m going to.  But I can guess at where I’ll end up, read into Sacian myths, you’ll find the answer there, and once you know, I believe I’ll end up at the front lines.  Meet me there and we can end the war.  I can’t take Aya into a war, keep her safe,”  Rhea took a deep breath, “take me to Duana!” she shouted and blinding russet magic blazed from the circle.  Seraphina closed her eyes against the blinding glare, when she reopened her eyes, Rhea was gone.