Inferno Unchained

Chapter 10

RPOV

After a nice sunbath with Dimka, I moved inside waiting for Dimitri to show up. Dimka said he had gone to town for some supplies. The Dragon flew away saying he needed to catch his lunch.

After I had raided the kitchen I went to the library. I actually meant to start reading one of those books about the knight, but my eyes subconsciously darted towards the non-fiction section of the library. There were books in here that looked ancient. I could see they were meticulously sorted, alphabetically by topic. I wondered if these books could contain any information about the markings on my extremities?

I walked towards the bookshelf and just ran my finger over the back of these books, wanting their information to transfer to me through the contact. Unfortunately, the books stayed annoyingly silent.

I wondered what books I should be looking into? Magic, Alchemy, Languages? I decided to have the universe guide me as I opened a random book on a random page.

Well, the universe wasn't helping today. The page contained the detailed description of a dissection of the eye of a cow. But it was surprisingly well illustrated which only added to the gross-factor. After flipping through the pages of that particular book, I placed it back in its rightful place on the bookshelf and declared it utterly useless. I picked up another one from a different section. This one was on languages. I scanned the book, but couldn't find any similarities with the marks on my limbs. I kept looking in books, trying to find some illustrations that matched these markings.

I wish I could summon the marks somehow, so I could write them down or simply to take a good look again. I wondered if I would even be able to identify the markings in a book if I saw it. The images of the markings in my head had already faded.

I thought about what had triggered the markings before. This was the first time I had seen them. I had been standing close to the fire, but then again, I had been standing close to fires my entire life. What was different about the last time?

I decided to try to make them show, recreating every step I had done back at the Palace. I moved to the small fire still burning in the library. I put a new log on and poked the fire to allow air to fuel it. Once the fire was of a decent size, I stretched my hand out towards it just like I did the first time. But nothing happened. I kept looking at my wrists, but no markings appeared. Maybe the markings weren't actually on me, maybe they were in the room with Lissa and attached themselves to whoever was there? If somebody was after Lissa using magic, I needed to know what these markings did and who could have put them there.

But I wondered if they were attached to the room and not me, why my mother had freaked out about them.

I looked at the fire again. Wanting to replicate whatever I had done last time. I had made the fire, just like I did now. I had been staring at it, admiring it. I had felt a certain kinship with the fire, a certain connection. So I stared and stared, watching the flames dance across the logs, burning higher until they dissipated in the air. The colors of the fire were bright, ranging from blue when the fire burned the hottest to oranges and reds where they mixed with enough air. I could see all the nuances in the colors, feel the warmth of the flames on my skin, and I just wanted to be closer to it, to touch it, to feel it, to be it. I looked down at my wrists and saw the markings appear, cutting off my connection to the fire that had been so vivid a moment ago.

I wanted to get them off, to experience the connection again. I felt like I had been drowning in a cold ocean for years and the fire had been the single gust of air I had had in that time. I needed it; I craved it. But it was gone. I almost felt like crying.

But I had to set aside the desperate feeling to be close to the fire once again and focus on the markings itself. I took a pencil and paper from the mantel, being careful not to step too far away from the fire and started to sketch the markings. They were intricate and complex, and my sketching skills were severely lacking, but I think I accurately captured a few markings to compare to pictures in the books before they disappeared.