Elements of Change

Another Adventure

As Kammon finished the tale, he couldn't keep his eyes off Ezo. He hadn't held back on the events that had happened. He talked about their first meeting in Mason Creek and the way they'd combined powers to protect the town.

Kammon never told Ezo that he'd left the town as soon as he knew Ezo would be alright because he recognized the stirrings of a bond. He'd been part of temporary bonds that were formed in battle, but theirs was already different. So he ran, and he didn't look back.

He talked about their first fight against the raiders and how easily their magic came together. He told Maggie about Pramas and Eques Lestan and how they'd defended themselves and forced their way out of the city.

He almost skipped their adventures with the Imperium because it was too personal, but Maggie needed to hear what had happened to Ezo outside the University. He hated talking about it, even if he omitted the reason the Imperium had called him in and his betrayal when Zera asked him to return. The sympathy in Maggie's eyes said she heard it all the same, though.

He didn't mention the library at Mountainkeep or Riverkeep, but he talked about Ezo's build-up of power while they had found a place to rest. And then he turned to their current journey, complete with the night before and what he'd experienced.

As much as Kammon could find words for, anyway. He tried to be honest about his elation when his constant exhaustion had disappeared, and the sheer joy he'd experienced in that moment of magic. Of his devastation when the incapacitation slammed back into him. Of the intensity when Ezo had joined him in the clearing and Alvrey attacked.

Everything, including the way he'd been terrified for Ezo and the power that had pooled within him.

Maggie sat silent and, unexpectantly, so did Ezo.

His lover wasn't known for his silences, and it worried Kammon that maybe he'd said too much.

"Alvrey was wrong to say you were blending, but she wasn't wrong that your bond had become something more." Maggie's voice was soft, but her words were final. "There are old stories among the Mailan of people who were more than bonded, but they've long been considered fairytales."

"Is there any truth in it?" Ezo asked.

"I don't know. Yet. But the reason this worries me is the Vow. Kammon, did they tell you why I left the University and distanced myself from the Imperium?"

"No one ever explained your departure," Kammon told her. "There were rumors that you were returning to explore your family heritage in Mailan, but nothing more."

"You remember that I warned them about the War-Sworn that took the Vow with you? That I told them none of you should be sent into the field until they examined your bond closely?"

"Yes. You didn't say what worried you, but it had something to do with the darkness inside of me."

"When you first took the Vow, I thought it was the entire group of War-Sworn, but I later realized that it came from you. After many years of searching, I went back to Distria to speak with those men. Every man who swore with you was dead."

Kammon nodded. "Most died in battle along the Shafra border."

"Did they tell you how?"

Kammon stopped to think back on the news. "There were six of us. In the first year after we took the Vow, three were lost in the war. Another killed himself a year later, pulling so much magic into his body that it burned him from the inside out. Only Landon had lived beyond two years. He had great reserves of strength, but little power. He survived five years before he was killed in a skirmish with the Prasnian navy to the southeast."

"They didn't tell you the details of their deaths?"

"No. I was too busy fighting to ask."

"And when you were done?"

Kammon shrugged. "I was too drunk to do anything more than offer them an occasional toast."

Maggie frowned at the answer, but Ezo poked Kammon in the thigh. "You're being difficult."

"I took the Vow with those six men, but we weren't friends, and we never served together. I mourn their loss the same as I mourn everyone who died in those battles."

"The War-Sworn who died in battle lost their lives because they used too much magic. They overextended their reserves."

"You think I had something to do with that?" Kammon asked.

"He didn't make those men do anything," Ezo immediately countered. "No one can force someone to draw on too much magic."

"And yet, you've pushed the edge of your reserves as well," Maggie said to him. "I don't believe Kammon is responsible. It isn't a coincidence, though. After you took the Vow, I left the Imperium to learn what I could more about it. No one in the Imperium understands the ritual, nor how it really works. I thought it increased a War-Sworn's strength by a small amount, but that it was more about the tradition to bind the War-Sworn closer to us. As I researched, I learned that I was very wrong."

"Why do they require the Vow then?" Ezo asked.

"The Vow can't make you stronger. Instead, it trades your stamina for strength. The pull that warns you that you're taking on too much magic disappears. You don't feel it at all until you're already at the point of exhaustion."

"And if you keep the Vow long-term?" Ezo asked.

"You put yourself in a state of constant debility." Kammon's eyes were on the floor, but Ezo saw the way his gaze was directed inward at Maggie's revelation. "The Imperium used the Vow to work the War-Sworn to death. When they sent us into battle, our ability to protect ourselves was compromised. We would become unstable until we pulled on too much of our element and died from it."

"Few War-Sworn survive their time to come home and remove the Vow," Maggie confirmed. "Regardless of why they began the tradition, they know the words result in death by over-consuming magic. In the short term, it does increase your strength, but the long-term result is almost always death on the battlefield."

"Why?" Ezo asked. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to ask. Why would they knowingly sacrifice their elementalists for a little power? Why had they begun the tradition to begin with? Why would they keep quiet about those consequences when they could warn the War-Sworn of the dangers?

"I wish I knew," Maggie said. "It took me some time to realize what was happening myself, and that was once I dedicated myself to studying the origins of the Vow."

"What did you learn about it?" Kammon asked.

"Not enough. But it is bone-magic, something old that is barely spoken of in Mailan. It took years to find practitioners and even longer to get their trust. I want you to see them. They may be able to explain the Vow on Ezo, and why it could reappear in you without the words and ritual."

Kammon sighed, but Ezo placed a hand on his knee and waited until his lover looked up. He smiled then. "You still got another adventure in you, Old Man?"

Kammon matched his smile, challenge rising in him in the way Ezo hoped it would. "Think you can keep up, Raven?"

"Try to stop me," he said as he leaned forward and kissed Kammon to seal the deal. He could feel the upturn of Kammon's lips. Whatever else they were about to face, they were together, and that was all that mattered.

Author's Note: Oh... a little more information about the Vow, but we're still in the dark. Do you think they'll find the answer they want in Mailan?