A Touch of Death

Chapter 22

Two days later, Tarran was back on his feet and in the tower laboratory, experimenting away. This time, though, he had Aoife help him with his work.

"Again," he commanded, gesturing towards another small section of grass in a terra cotta pot.

"You want me to continue killing your potted plants?" Aoife deadpanned, resting her elbows on the worktable. For the last hour, she'd been trying to figure out some way to stop her magic from automatically reacting when she touched something living. Unfortunately, none of their strategies had worked, and she'd simply become discouraged and killed a small army of potted plants in the process.

"We need to figure out how your magic works. If it's reaching out without your consent, we need to figure out how to stop it."

"I just suck the life out of things. It's not as complicated as you seem to believe," Aoife said with a heavy sigh.

"... Say that again," Tarran said slowly.

"I kill things?"

"No, no. You said you suck the life out of things," he said again, picking up speed with every word. "What if that's the trick?"

"Explain."

"I was wrong," he whispered. "I was so, so wrong, and we've been approaching it the wrong way. It's not your magic reaching out, it's life being drawn to you."

"I'm... a... magnet?"

"You're a magnet," he confirmed, a grin spreading across his face. "All this time I thought you were controlling death, but you're not- you're controlling life!"

"Please don't mock me," Aoife said softly, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "I kill things. Nothing more."

"But you could do more!" Tarran grabbed her gloved hands in his excitement, and she nearly jumped out of her skin, pulling away quickly. "That's got to be why you heal so quickly. That's why you survived the nightmare wolves. That might even be why your potions are so strong when you don't use anything more than basic ingredients."

"What if you're wrong? I could kill something trying to save it," she insisted.

"What if I'm right?"

There was a long pause. Aoife bit her lip, considering. On the one hand, it made sense. Any scrapes from training were always gone the next morning. Any attempt to harm herself in the past had ended in utter failure. On the other hand, if Tarran was wrong, it could be dangerous for her and anyone around her.

"If you're right, we need to come up with some way for me to test it."

"I think it's best we start with plants," Tarran said thoughtfully. "If you can drain the life out of a plant that's still rooted in a pot and then put the life back into it, that would be real progress."

"You forget that I don't know how to do that," Aoife reminded him. "I don't even know how to consciously control what I can do."

"Then we'll work on that first. The first goal is to try and see if you can touch something without affecting its life force at all. Elina didn't need to wear gloves, so clearly they aren't necessary once you've obtained a certain amount of control," he said.

"Excellent. How?" Aoife pressed.

Tarran opened his mouth.

Closed it.

"I don't know," he admitted, "but we'll find out together. The best way for us to start is to work plant by plant and see what you're able to touch and how fast it works."