Illara Chronicles: Swordplay

Believe in Magic

Kelith sat against an old oak, beside a stream deep in the forest. Deeper than he'd been in years. The warm afternoon wind, harmonizing with the the rustling and chittering of the woodland creatures did as little to lift his spirits as the novel he was thumbing through. It was a fiction about a dwarf lord driving corruption from the high council, so that his daughters reign could be as peaceful and pure as she. He had reread the same page half a dozen times before snapping the book shut frustrated. Angry? Kelith drug his shirtsleeve under his reddening chestnut eyes. He tried to tell himself that he was simply sad so many had died but...the the truth was harder than that.

"You were excited about that story when you found it." Sprig pulled the cap off of an acorn and tried it on her head. "What's clouding your sky?"

Kelith wanted to tell her that he was worried that he would never be strong enough. He had no place in that last battle. He was not as brave and strong as Kendreth, or as skilled and clever as Taldren. The dragon queen had hardly looked at him, and still she froze his blood, with half a glance!

He was Sprigs chosen champion, she couldn't know that he was not only weak, but petrified witless as well. So he said," I cannot relate to the character. It seems that all he cares for are gems and the stone that keeps them." He closed his eyes and let his head fall back, basking in the sun. "I could never live under ground."

"You could." Sprig used the pointed tip of the acorn to start a small hole in the earth. "I don't know how it is in your book but the ancients of my clan teach that there are great oceans beneath the surface, and jewels that glint off of the water like starlight on black glass. I think we'd spend a lot of time there, on the shore."

"Nothing dampens your spirit, does it Sprig?" Keliths smile was genuine. Even if he would inevitably fail her as a champion, he was glad that she was with him. "Perhaps you're right." He thumbed the book back open.

"There are many who believe in you, you know." Sprigs face, flushed, eyes cast down. She crossed her small ankles and clasped her hands behind her back. "Even when you fail to truly see yourself."
She straightened in a start. "Ooh! I know!" The fairy fluttered to kneel beside the stream. She beckoned him over excitedly. "Look."

Kelith peered into the water and found himself staring back, a tangle of brown hair, timid eyes, and unkempt clothes over a thin frame more battered and sullen than he had any right to be. Disappointing. "What should happen to your people, if I fail to become your champion. If I am taken by the dragon?"

"You have already taken on the mantle. You and I are bound Kelith Kettlesbee, like light and the sky. The end of you would spell the end for me too, and some loss of hope for my people, lest they find another way...but it will not come to that. "

Sprig dipped her finger into the stream and the ripples were rings of bright light as they distorted the reflection.

When the water settled Kelith could see himself, stronger and sure faced, in shining armor. Sprig was there, and glittering golden letters wafted about them both.
Kelith touched his jaw and the reflection followed suit. He ran his hand over the scar that split his face. It made him look hardened now, rather than wounded.
It looked like a hero from a legend. "That's not me."

"Not yet." Sprig sat on his shoulder. "...but it could be. It could be us."

"How?"

"You could start by believing it so." The reflection faded back to Keliths young bookish self. "...do you trust me?"

Sprig held out her hand, and Kelith offered his finger. She latched on.

"Breathe." She instructed
As he did, Kelith could feel her connection to the fey realm...to the magic in the air about him...it felt seamless, as though her power was his own.