The Believer

Chapter Fourteen: Magic Rock

The four travellers soon moved on once more. The landscape became rockier and more grand, and mountains that had previously been visible only in the distance rose up before them and around them as only mountains can.

They were leaving Kown now and entering Lorea, the land of freedom and prosperity for all. Well, everyone but Lorea's four colonies, who were still suspended in a kind of limbo between being free and being controlled by Lorea. But compared to countries like Horitzor and Cordia, Lorea was a paradise, where anyone could be anything and do anything and love anyone.

The Ibora Mountain Range made up most of the Lorean border, and until the Sillian Cress Tunnel System was designed and built four hundred years after Wilky and company passed through, Ronin Pass was the best way to cross the mountains. It was a naturally occurring path that led through the mountains, twisting and turning and confusing even the most experienced traveller, before spitting them out in western Lorea, where most people stopped in the little town of Lieronin, parked strategically by Ronin Pass for the purpose of doing business with weary travellers drunk on their newfound freedom.

For most, it took five very long, cold days to get through Ronin Pass, and for Wilky, Thea, Casey and Helewis, it was no different. Despite the heavy cloaks and fur lined clothes they had stocked up on before moving on, the going was tough and cold and miserable.

Casey was able to create magical fire to keep everyone warm at night, but sometimes, it just wasn't enough. The endless cold penetrated Wilky's clothes, and painted her cheeks with a rosy blush. She often found herself huddled close to Thea for warmth, for no particular reason, other than the fact that Thea didn't seem to mind. It was nice when Thea didn't seem to mind.

Meanwhile, Helewis was still frustrated by his being a prisoner, forced to come on this journey, though at the same time, he was starting not to mind as much. The one girl, Wilky, was overly enthusiastic, and Thea was stubborn and loud, so the two of them clashed constantly. And Casey... was Casey. Helewis couldn't forget what the sorceress Glissandra had said to him, though he wanted very much not to remember. He was fairly certain he didn't like Casey in that way. It didn't make any sense.

Still, he couldn't help the way his heartbeat quickened when Casey tousled his hair, or gave him that adorable teasing grin after calling him some pathetic nickname.

Not only all this, but Helewis was beginning to regret his entire career as a mercenary. From the way Casey talked, he didn't much approve of being neutral, and flip-flopping one's alliance based on money. And that was basically Helewis's life. But what else could he do? He was experienced in combat. He hired himself out to anyone who needed a job done. It was a means of survival.

On the fourth evening, Casey taught Wilky some new magic tricks to take her mind off the cold. Wilky had been learning quickly over the past days, though Casey still refused to teach her the incantation he used to change hair colors. Wilky had tried a few things using her own knowledge of Orian, but either it was a combination of words she couldn't figure out, or it was in the magical dialect of Orian.

As she advanced, the spells were becoming more and more complicated. Originally, they had been simple, one word commands. Now, they were longer incantations, things she would take much longer to memorize if she did at all, phrases and sentences in which words tangled with one another and fought to be heard, in which one slip of the tongue might change the entire meaning. This didn't deter Wilky in her studies; she had always loved languages, and the fact that she could do magic was practically the best thing ever.

She was currently perfecting a protection spell Casey had just taught her. The incantation was annoyingly long, but the idea was that she could cast it on an object (at the moment, that object was a rock) and then whoever carried the rock couldn't be harmed. She had already tried to spell several times, but only succeeded in hitting the rock with some weak blue sparks, in response to which the rock did not seem compelled to do anything.