Ebony Mist -Original

Part XIII: The Price To Pay

With the help of Xi, Alaura was able to bring the druid down to his own bed below. Though it was Xi who did all the work with his telekinetic powers. Quickly they stripped him of his drenched over robes, the tunic and trousers underneath still dry, and pulled the covers over him. Alaura watched him for a long moment, his skin ghostly pale and breathing shallow. It made the druid look so much older.

"You said magic has a price, what's his price?" Alaura asked the demon cat. Xi was sitting at the foot of the bed, grooming his head with his paw.

"I don't know," came the simple answer, as he paused to glance up at the druid. "Sometimes he has to eat enough for ten people, once he slept for a whole year after a spell. Other times it's aged him to an old man before reverting him back to this form."

"This form? Does that mean he has a different form? Is this not what he truly looks like?" Alaura asked, a bit surprised.

"He can change his appearance should he choose, with extensive spells. But this is what he looks like. The shadow on his face hides something that even magic can't hide, for it is part of him," Xi explained, causing Alaura to look at the shadowed side of his face, hidden behind his ebony hair.

"What is in the shadows?" she asked.

"A price to pay for his power," Xi explained. "But now it is time to let him rest, so why don't you finish the painting you started before? I moved it out of the courtyard before the storm," Xi said, jumping from the bed to the floor, and padded softly across the room. Alaura hesitated a moment, taking a long look at the shadows of Xavier's face, before turning and following Xi wordlessly.

Moving down stairs and halls, suddenly the little gray kitten appeared from behind a statue and followed at Xi's heels, much to the demon cat's annoyance.

They came to the courtyard, only for the easel and supplies to already be set up as if she had never left it. Alaura went to examine her work from before, seeing that she hadn't finished it, and also had to change a few things, since debris littered the courtyard now. She glanced up at the high tower, where the druid was sleeping, and a lump rose in her throat.

It was the second time she had painted something that had turned out to cause strife for her. But perhaps she could do something for the druid and his home, which was hers now. The princess went to the canvas and took up paints, palette, and paintbrush, and got to work.

Two hours she worked, finding that painting the courtyard was taking her mind away from the memory of the druid and the events that happened. Soon she found herself completing the last stroke, and just as she did so, the warmth came to her gut, and the picture came alive. Nothing came out, but it began moving, the dying grass waving in the same breeze that blew the courtyard, mirroring what was happening in reality. It was a projection, a window almost, just as her drawing of the druid had done with his face and expressions in her sketch in the dungeon.

Alaura watched for a moment, putting more paint on her palette, only this time she put brighter, more cheerful colors to use on the painting. Picking out a paintbrush, she tapped the end in the paint, before putting on the first few strokes of a bright green. Expecting something to happen, she glanced around the easel and about the courtyard, but there was no change. Alaura sighed, and went back to painting on the moving image.

Another hour she worked, painting quickly over the picture. She started growing light headed, but pushed through it into the second hour, and the the third. Finally, with her hand sore and feeling exhausted, she sat down on her stood and examined her work. The picture depicted the courtyard alive, with green grass, winding gravel pathways, and vibrant flowers. The building around it was a brighter color, no longer chipping and aged. The reality was dull in comparison. The image still moved as if alive, the grass and flowers moving in the breeze, but the actual courtyard didn't change.