The Fall of The Phoenix

Magus

Chapter Twenty-Five: Magus

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It was with great relief that I finally disembarked the ship, the solid earth beneath my feet and even the smallest distance between myself and the ocean something I had been dreaming of for weeks. Some of the crew left the ship to come further into the island with us, though most had to remain with the Diaboli or were coming later, with our cargo. I watched as several crates were brought off of the ship, wondering what they could contain. As few ships ventured through the Bermuda Triangle, Captain Hodge always made sure to bring many different goods with him when he did.

One of the buildings near the dock sold food, which Captain Hodge steered us towards. Circe, who was perched on my shoulder, let out a contented meow, sniffing the air appreciatively.

"They sell this amazing roasted fish," Indi whispered into our ears as we followed the large man towards the shop, "You're going to just love it. It's always our first stop on the island."

Captain Hodge ordered for everyone, refusing the handful of money that I attempted to offer him. As he spoke to the man who stood behind the counter in the shop, his voice sounded odd to my ears, layered in a way that instantly had me tensing, memories of the strange way that the Falx spoke flooding my brain.

It was only when the man responded, his voice coming out in a language that I didn't recognize, but layered with the same voice (and undoubtedly the same words) in English, that I relaxed.

Whipping around to face Rix, I eagerly asked him if there was a spell that existed on the island that allowed people's words to instantly translate. He quietly told me that they had attempted to figure that out before, but no answers had been forthcoming. They determined that it was either a spell that the people here knew about, or it was just one of the many magical things that occurred on Magus.

We were offered our fish on spits, which Indi told us was to make it convenient to eat while we walked. As we exited the shop, I realized that we were going to be travelling deeper into the island. There was a bounce to my step as we began to make our way towards the path that I had noticed, which made it difficult to keep my balance in the shifting sand. As we walked, I did my best to avoid stepping on any of the shells, though the others walked carelessly across the beautiful seashells, the crunching under their boots making me wince.

After a few minutes of walking across the beach, which was much wider than I had realized, I glanced up to see that I had fallen behind the group. As I watched, the magic began gathering in pearlescent patches on the beach, roughly the same size and shape as the sole of my foot.

The magic had realized how carefully I had been stepping on the sand and was indicating a path for me.

Cautiously, I stepped into the first spot of magic. There was very little crunching under my boot as I set my weight upon it. The magic swirled rapidly up my leg, almost dizzying with its speed, before shooting across the sand to replicate another footprint further out. This continued as I followed the path that the magic had laid out for me, until I ran out of sand to walk upon. The magic pooled around me, spinning around me in a lazy orbit. There was something oddly comforting and familiar about the magic's presence, a bit like the feeling I got when I first stepped through the door of my home after being gone for some time. I could sense that the magic was pleased, though the emotion was not quite the same as how I experienced pleasure.

Everyone was staring at me when I glanced up. My cheeks reddened as I was given a series of grins. Magic was swirling around Luna, Captain Hodge, and Rix as well, but none so heavily as that which spun around me. Some of the magic had even run up my arms, surrounding Circe, who swatted playfully at it.