A Ward's Tale

Chapter 25

"Did you hear that Clarissa is back?" 

"Prince Arthur, Reynold and that mage actually found her?" 

"I heard there is some other mage woman with them too." 

"Do you think it's true that Clarissa is a mage?"

"How could the King keep a mage in his castle when he forbids magic use here?"

The excited whispers surround Mitchel as he enters the hall from one of his and Carea's practices. He stops short as the words come to focus in his mind. Rissa is back and he wasn't even here to see her come in!

Mitchel takes off in a run down the corridor towards Clarissa's chambers. As he gets close he slows his pace to a fast walk. What is he going to say? How does he explain he wanted to go after her but was too scared? Too weak. He pauses outside her door unsure of how to continue.

"Mickey?"

Mitchel turns and is almost blinded by the aura behind him. It takes him a moment to see past the rainbow of light. Clarissa stands there smiling. Then she is hugging him. He embraces her warmth, returning the hug by picking her up and spinning her around.

"I'm so glad to see you safe!" Mitchel exclaims as he sets her down gently.

"As I am of you! Oh I missed you. There is so much to tell you, so much about magic that I have learned." Clarissa says. "Come in and I will tell you all about it."

Mitchel follows her into her room and they sit on the couch. After weeks of travel and who knows what, she is still so beautiful. Her raven hair is loose around her but doesn't look dirty or tangled. She must have already cleaned up. Her emerald eyes shine as she rambles on about what happened after she was taken.

"Then they took me from the cabin to..." Clarissa hesitates for a moment. "Well, I'm not sure where they were taking me, I escaped when we stopped for a break for the horses and found Valarie who took me to her hidden village where I met these triplets, yes triplets! They were really nice and friendly then Peter showed up and we came home." Clarissa finishes.

"Wow, you had quite the adventure." Mitchel says.

"I learned a lot about magic, like how to tell if someone has magic." She gives Mitchel a knowing look. "How long have you known?"

Taken aback by the sudden change it takes Mitchel a moment to reply. "Oh, um, maybe a day before you were taken. I was trying to figure out if I really had magic and how to talk to you about it but then, you know, you were taken."

"That's awesome." Clarissa says placing a hand on his arm. "Now we can train together."

Mitchel looks at her hand and smiles. Her touch is warm and comforting. "I wouldn't be much of a training partner, I'm not that strong."

"Nonsense! Let me see something!" With her encouragement Mitchel opened his palm and a flame appeared then shaped itself into a ball, then a spike, then exploded into a shimmering dust falling softly onto his palm.

"That was great! Who have you been working with?"

"You may not know her, she's one of the other servants here. Her name is Carea. She has taught me how to see auras and how to hide my magic."

"What are auras?" Clarissa asks. Mitchel explains how Carea told him. That they show what type of magic one is more capable of using. There are five types of magic; Natural, which gives a pink aura, Light, which gives a yellow aura, Healing, which gives a green aura, Offensive, which gives a red aura, and Defensive, which gives a blue aura. He explains that one person will only have one aura all their life. Not to say they can't use other magic, you can, it is just harder to learn.

"Wow," Clarissa says as she looks at him with new eyes. "I didn't know about this."

"Carea has helped me a lot, she found me out not long after you were kidnapped and helped keep me protected and undetected from the guards."

"From the guards? Our knights?" Mitchel can see the confusion on Clarissa's face. There is so much she still doesn't know about the strife and segregation between mages and humans. She may have seen the problems outside the castle walls but she doesn't know it reaches inside the walls too. He recently saw one of the other mage servants get caught by a knight and watched as he was beaten then taken to the dungeon. Since then he's been even more cautious about using his magic.

Mitchel hesitates about telling her the truth but figures she needs to know, "Yes, some Knights are mages who are trained to find other mages practicing magic in the castle walls. Those caught practicing magic within the walls are beaten and thrown into the dungeon."

"What!?" Clarissa exclaims, throwing her hands around. The fire  in the fireplace rises and the heat intensives. "The King has to know about this! Those Knights are out of line!"

"Rissa! Calm down, you are going to burn the place." Mitchel exclaims grabbing Clarissa's arms. He pulls this to her lap. His eyes are on the growing fire beside them. Clarissa realizes what she's done too late. Even as she tames the fire it had already reached out to the rug before it. Mitchel reaches out to Clarissa's vanity where her wash water rests. The water swirls up and out of the pot over to the rug and splashes onto the small fire. With the fire extinguished they start laughing.

"Look at you!" Clarissa laughs, "That was quick thinking! But what am I going to say happened to the rug?"

"I was fast, wasn't I?" Mitchel smirks. "Just say a spark flew out."

"Let me try something." Clarissa says standing up. She closes her eyes and Mitchel gazes at her beauty. There is no denying that she is one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom. The pull he has always felt towards her is clear now, it was the magic. As she concentrates and starts summoning magic he can feel the pull. He thinks of Carea and the feelings he has for her. They are not as strong but Clarissa is engaged and out of his league. He will always watch out and protect her, especially now that he has magic and can actually do something to protect her now.

Clarissa finishes her spell and the rug looks good as new. "Wow, how did you know how to do that?"

"I don't know, I just wanted it to happen and it did." She laughs then turns solemn again. "About the guards, I have to inform the King immediately."

"Rissa, I think he knows. Why would the knights be doing anything that he didn't command?"

At that Clarissa jumps up and runs out of her chambers leaving him alone.

Maybe he shouldn't have said anything.