Girl of Iron and Magic

39.

39.
PRESENT DAY
What was spending years learning enchantments with Poe worth if all the enchantments she needed were ones that didn't exist?

Poe would've said it was about mastering principles and putting different elements to use. He would've reminded her that without study you couldn't understand the exchange that happened whenever one performed a feat of magic.

When Lotte set to the task of locating Poe, she could feel the physical press of the mark on her shoulder. It hummed inside her, making pinpricks run up and down her right arm. In her mind's eye, she could see the swirl of the Sky Dragon in front of the Rugar.

But then the Rugar fell away, and the wastes, and the world. There was just a circling dragon in blackness.

Her brush started to move.

On the workshop was a heavy iron key she had taken out of the door that led to the veranda. Her strokes were precise, and the light blue ink she mixed was luminous against the black coating of the key.

Yuralar made an odd noise behind Lotte.

"Are you alright?" Lotte asked without looking up from her work.

"I didn't want to believe it." Her voice was low and grim. "There's a reason why someone like you shouldn't exist. Enchantments like that... they can destroy the world."

Swish, swish, she gave her dragon a fearsome snarl and twisting horns. "That's why we're here right now, doing this. You don't have to worry about the world if the virata can't curse me. I'm not destructive by nature."

"I can't help but wonder, where did he find you?"

"He didn't want me to know," Lotte said, dipping her brush into the ink again as she began to gently accentuate the dragon's scales. "He said I was better off not knowing."

"Hm..."

"Enchantress," Lotte said. "Do you know what I heard before the war started? About the Talmil and the Lord General."

"That was a long time ago..." Yuralar said and then the silence became heavy. The elf behind Lotte drew several deep breaths.

"I heard he someone snuck in an assassin to the Talmil," Yuralar said. "I was there. Called in with the other enchantresses to perform healing enchantments. He slashed her up..."

Lotte didn't speak as she added the finishing touches to her enchantment. "He slashed her up, where?"

"We never found him," Yuralar continued, ignoring her question. "We don't know how he even got in. There was the scent of human blood—"

Lotte blew on the ink, willing it to dry as she hooked a silver chain through the ring on the top of the key. It was an enchantment that would take her to whomever she wanted it to take her.

"They're here," Yuralar said.

Lotte hung the chain from her neck, the iron key heavy against her chest. Find Poe, she tried to tell the enchantment in her mind. Find Poe. Find Poe.

But nothing was happening.

Lotte gritted her teeth. A knock came from the door. "Madame Yuralar," Lady Briaad's voice called from the other side. "Why is this door locked?"

"Find Poe, find Poe, find Poe..." Lotte whispered under her breath.

"His name, you fool, use his name," Yuralar snapped.

"Vanshu!" Lotte cried.

The key lit up, glowing bright blue and rising to the air before Lotte's face. She grabbed it by its long stem-like neck as it jerked towards the window, pulling her into the air after it.