*Book One of The Accursed Chronicles*
August was a man from a normal world, living a mundane life until one night everything changed, and he was sent spiraling into a world stuck forever in winter, full of magic, creatures, and a curse that has grip...
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Sleep had been unattainable all night, despite how I had taken Saint's sleeping draught. I had laid awake, staring at the ceiling, and listening to August's soft breaths in his sleep. Much of my inability to sleep had been due to him.
I'd tested the magic in his aura when I'd touched him, only to find that it had weakened much since earlier that day when I had met him. It was fading, diming almost like a candle burning down. It had begun to prove my theory that he'd come to close to something beyond himself and whatever power it had had brushed off onto him or into him. It was a blessing for him that his magical aura was dying because it meant the Vale wanted him less.
It was clear to me that August was just an ordinary human that had come in close contact with magic beyond him and had siphoned it into his being. It was plausible for humans to do that, considering they could obtain a magical aura from the Vale, but besides the Vale, I couldn't think of another way that he could've channeled magic into the void that every human was born with.
Nothing frustrated me more than not knowing something and then being unable to find an answer.
After a restless night, I had left August with strict orders to not leave the confines of the room. I had a meeting to attend between Daesa and Lord Kallias before we headed back to Darrose. I had left him and gone to the castle to meet up with Daesa, then gone to the council hall where we were to see Kallias.
"My apologies, my business is tied elsewhere."
I contained an eye twitch at Kallias's words. He had been dancing around us all morning, ignoring both Daesa and I's words. He'd refused to recommit to the continued cause of securing the border between Krak and Wyneir to ensure no Vale slipped through The White Wall. He had said he was too tied up with other affairs to afford expenditures on the border and requested it be left up to King Magnus himself.
The council hall itself wasn't in its usual orderly fashion, it appeared as if a storm had blown through. Books had fallen forward on shelves, papers laid scattered across the table, and chairs had remained in their scooted-out positions. Kallias appeared to not be having a good morning. Neither was I.
"What should I tell His Grace then, that you are not upholding the security of Krak?" Daesa asked, making Kallias hurriedly shake his head. It was a good attempt to pull him into line, but I knew he wouldn't fall for it.
"That is not my intention. His Grace should know more than any that caring for a city has its tasks and burdens. I simply cannot afford the manpower nor cost to continue the persecution against the Vale." Kallias glimpsed me and swallowed thickly before he added, "There's been talk of disbanding The Remnant too. I didn't want to invest in something that would be gone within a month's time."
I clenched my jaw and forced myself to breathe in and out to calm myself before I made a mistake. "I would be the first to know if King Magnus had any plans to cut ties with The Remnant. I've heard nothing of the sort, so we are safe to assume these are tavern rumors."
