"If you don't tell me what the Naiad said, The Baron will request a meeting and his methods of persuasion are far less amicable." Rolo was leaning back in the chair, his legs swung over the red velvet arm.
Synne shivered under her towel. A roaring fire had been crackling in her room when they had returned; however it did nothing to warm the hole in her heart.
She didn't want to talk about the Naiad. The water nymph. That's what Rolo had told her that thing was, after she had been catapulted from the water, sobbing.
She hadn't said a word to Rolo since the Discovery. A fact that irked his bored face.
But what was she supposed to say? Infinimancer. The word hadn't been uttered by the Naiad, it had shown her. Images had flown through her head so fast she thought she may burst. Synne rubbed her temple but the throbbing didn't go away.
Synne knew she couldn't trust these people, her captors. The only person who had her back was herself. She knew they wanted something from her. She had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with her magik, but for what?
"The Naiad didn't say anything."
What Synne could mistake as sad knowing flicked across Rolo's face, "I know." He said quietly.
Surprise filled Synne, she hadn't even thought that it was likely Rolo had been through a similar experience with his own Discovery. Faced that thing.
"There are hundreds of Naiads across the world, they are the only beings who can grant the sight of Discovery. The Baron had his own Discovery in that very pool."
Rolo sat upright, holding his hands out. In one a scarlet flower bloomed, when it reached its full height he brought his other hand over it. The flower withered and died.
"My reservoirs are of earth.. and death."
A multimancer.
"Tell me." Rolo's green eyes smoldered against Synne's blue ones.
"Why does it matter?"
Rolo rolled his eyes, "It only matters if you have any self preservation."
Synne stayed silent. The tension was palpable. After everything that had happened, what she had seen them capable of, she could only wonder what was in store for her in the Trials. She would need their help... but what did they need her for?
"Fire. And water. That's what I saw." Understatement of the year. The Naiad had made her feel it. Her flesh melting from her bones, her lungs filling with icy water. She shuddered.
Rolo's face twitched, "Liar."
Synne's head snapped up, mouth agape.
"Your Encounter was necromancy." The dinner with The Baron. The black smoke. Rolo, choking.
Synne had felt death, the Naiad had made sure of it. The cold stillness crawled out from her heart, the paralyzing dark. She breathed a little faster, grateful to do so.
"So?" She questioned hotly.
"So what else?" Rolo's voice bordering on snarling.
"That's it."
He glared at her, a black shimmer playing on his features. The magik roiling beneath.
Rolo stood up and walked to the door. "We start in the morning," he said before stalking off, the door slamming behind him. Green magik sparkled on the handle. Locked again.
Synne was exhausted, too worn out to be able to properly process the emotion surrounding the night's events. She crawled across the bed and flopped down, face first.
To her surprise, Synne's father's memories still existed, she could remember every detail. What changed was the way they made her feel. Gone was the happiness, the laughter such memories could spark. But also gone was the sadness, the raw pain from the hole in her heart. In a way, the Naiad had almost done her a favor. For the first time since her father's death, Synne slept without nightmares.
*
Synne woke suddenly.
The sound of books slamming against wood startling her. Her eyes opened to see that Rolo seemed to have brought an entire library to her room.
"Get changed." He tossed a pair of black shorts and a plain t shirt onto the bed. "Meet me outside."
Outside. Synne excitedly yanked on the clothes, and practically skipped to meet Rolo outside.
She found him lying lazily in the grass. Hey eyed her figure in the clothes, "Run, 30 mins."
Synne hesitated, "Where?"
Rolo smirked, laying flat in the grass, "Anywhere, it's not like you can leave." Folding her arms beneath his head.
Synne glared at his cockiness but started to run regardless. It felt so good to be moving, taking in the fresh air. Synne liked to consider herself fairly fit, however after her injuries and downtime she found herself drenched in sweat and breathing heavily by the time she returned to Rolo.
He scrunched his nose at her, "Go clean up, you have a lot of reading to do." He leaned back down, almost oblivious to her presence.
Following her shower, Synne eyed the stack of old dusty books now occupying her bedroom. She read throughout the day and into the dark, dim lighting straining her eyes.
She had read about the Naiads. How they occupied pools, wells, and springs where a child had drowned, how the death of an innocent created a gateway in the flow of magik that the Naiads were born to protect.
She had come across other types of nymphs but somehow couldn't bring herself the read about the Trials yet. Wielding magic appeared complicated, each element requiring a different payment to meet the natural balance.
Necromancy seemed obvious, the reservoir for its power being life, whether that meant a blade of grass or a person. Water and fire seemed straightforward as well. The energy of running water or the potential of something to act as fuel for fire could be called upon.
Geomancy was where things were a little more complicated. The subclasses of Herbol and Flora, plants and flowers Synne would discover, were the simplest, power derived from their growth and their use of the plants. Fauna would become more of a gray zone, where one needed permission in order to tap into the power of other living beings. That magic seemed to be the most temperamental, if you weren't careful you could tap into your own life energy and drain yourself, some geomancers were even reported to have died by accident.
Aeromancy was the rarest, and if wielded correctly one could even fly upon the wind currents. Synne shivered, never having been one for heights.
It felt nice to have a purpose again, to work towards something, even despite the fact that she was still in captivity. She leaned back in her chair, exhausted, quickly falling asleep. She found herself almost eager to do it all again the next day.
YOU ARE READING
Blood and Ivy
Paranormal"Some are raised weak, others are born to it. Let's find out which you are, shall we?" Synne Montaigne was a burgeoning academic with high hopes of succeeding in medical school. Science was all she had to turn to when her father died of a heart att...
