A Practical Guide to Sorcery (Books 1 & 2)

Chapter 16 - Harmless Blood Magic

Siobhan

Month 10, Day 29, Thursday 4:00 p.m.

Siobhan hung another banner on a streetlamp, which was long parted from its light crystal. After four days of this, she was almost finished. As projects tended to do, this one had stretched, taking almost twice as long as she originally hoped. The area under the Stag's banner was only a small chunk of Gilbratha, but a small chunk of the largest city in Lenore actually covered quite a lot of people.

Siobhan had overheard a dozen more conversations from Dryden's—the Verdant Stag's—people. She had even participated in a few herself after people had grown used to seeing her with Katerin and the other gang members working on the project.

Her whole body felt slow, her feet hurt, and she was tired of the stench of the Mire's streets, but she was also buzzing with excitement. She would be moving to the University in a couple of days, and she'd improved her dreamless sleep spell.

Artifacts used glyphs to trap a specific cast spell and release it at a later time, according to various rules. She was still far from a proficient artificer, but she'd learned enough from studying to make the banners to cobble something together that seemed to work.

She'd modified the structure and intent of the spell to keep the magic trapped within the spell array, which she drew every night in alcohol and herbal oil extract on the bed underneath her pillow. It heated the bedding as the trapped energy circulated around beneath her head, so she'd had to add in a function to shunt the heat outward. Admittedly, this could have been dangerous, if she was a powerful enough thaumaturge to worry about starting a fire without specifically attempting to set something alight.

The spell was bigger, took more time to cast, and was very inefficient, but it helped to smooth out the release of the magic over a longer time. Which meant that she could sleep for longer.

It wasn't a long-term solution, but it was something. 'I'll find even better options at the University. That library has to hold all the answers anyone could ever need.'

Theo came running up to them with his hands in his pockets and Dryden trailing after him.

"Don't run with your hands in your pockets, Theo!" Katerin called out in a long-suffering tone.

The boy looked up at his aunt, startled, and tripped on a jagged edge of cobblestone. With his hands stuck in his pockets, he fell forward with no ability to catch himself.

Dryden lunged to catch him, but missed, and the boy's face smashed into the raised edge of the sidewalk.

Siobhan gasped and ran to Theo without hesitation, only slightly behind Katerin.

Theo managed to get his hands out of his pockets. He climbed to his knees, his hands clamped over his mouth. Blood dribbled between his fingers, his eyes wide and horrified.

Katerin had to force his hands away from his mouth to see the damage.

Two of his top teeth to the right side of his mouth were missing.

"I—I'm sorry. I tried to catch him..." Dryden stammered.

Siobhan looked around on the ground for his teeth. 'If we can put them back in quickly enough, there may still be a chance for them to heal.' Though there was already plenty of blood splattering the cobblestones, she found no teeth.

She looked closer at Theo, who started to cry now that the shock had worn off. She placed her hand on his forehead, tilting his head back. "Let me see," she said.

The nubs of white peeking out of his bleeding gums confirmed her suspicion. "The teeth are still there. They were simply smashed back up into your gums."