Severed

Chapter 8

As of now, no one knows what Magic truly looks like. Magic dealers have described the being as male, female, and even sometimes animal. It appears as different races to different dealers, but still, no one knows what the form it takes has to do with the deal.

Ugh. Sometimes I couldn't stand Kashina. Then there were other times when I /really/ couldn't stand her. Like when she woke up screaming about another vision. The farther into the future the vision was, the more magic it cost her so when she could barely stay awake long enough to talk, I knew it must've been far. I kept her sitting on the couch just in case she fell and went to make come thing to drink. "I don't know, Lee, this one was pretty far. Farther than ever before, I think" Her eyelids fluttered and her body tilted to the side before I grabbed her shoulders and she jolted awake continuing quieter this time, "Lee, it was you. In my vision there was the girl. The one from my other vision and the same one we're trying to find. The magic dealer? She was with you and you were..." She sighed, looked into my eyes, saw the expectation, and continued, "smiling, you were smiling together".

I could only scoff at Kashina's proclamation. A human child? "Kay, I think that might have just been a dream. You really think a human child and I would..." I couldn't even finish the sentence. Kay just looked at me with pity lacing her gaze, "it wasn't a dream, Lee". I stilled, opening my mouth to speak again, but Kashina was already out, her body falling to the side. Sighing, I lowered her down and resolved to investigate this "vision" later. A screaming kettle caught my attention and jolted me away form my thoughts of the magic dealing human. I jumped a bunch of herbs and blueberries into two cups and poured the steamy water on top, leaving Kay's cup to cool on the low, wooden coffee table. I set mine atop some papers on the dining table and rifled through the others, searching for any clue of how to find the human girl. The sun had barely inched across the sky before grew tired of coming up empty and huffed angrily, throwing my hand into my wavy brown hair. I leaned back in my chair, rubbing the bridge of my nose, but only succeeded in jamming my knee in the table and knocking over my untouched cup of blueberry tea. Kashina loved that stuff, but I can't stand it. Kay would probably drink mine when she woke up anyway. The tea seeped into the papers and I cursed. Then the map appeared, fading through a sheet with a picture of the girl and the little information I had been given on her. If I were the girl- knowing I would be chased- where would I go? Such a tough question to answer, but I could take a guess. With Apocalypse directly connected to Savage at an area not far from where the girl was found it was most likely that she would be there. Although going to an entire other realm based on a guess wasn't a great idea, it was the best I had. Plus Kashina would follow me anywhere without question. Leaving Kay a quick note scribbled on one of the papers, I headed out for the town.

On an early spring morning Erus, the small capital of the spirit realm, was as busy as Ala- or so I'm told. Just like ever other being that isn't a faerie, I've never been inside the borders of Atalia and the huge wall surrounding them. I'd heard rumors that the realm used to be stunning before the old King was, how do you say, displaced. Erus didn't have nearly as many occupants as Ala and quite a few less shops, especially magic ones. That fact just made finding new spells that much harder. It didn't matter today though, because I wasn't here for magic. A few stops later, I was loaded with bags of rations, jugs of water, throwing knives, arrows, and fire starting tools. With I sigh, I began lugging the heavy paper bags back to my cottage when something caught my eye. An amethyst jewel in a large, well known jewelry shop. Displayed in the store's window, the sun glinted like purple fire off the heart of the circular gem. It was inlaid in a silver metal fashioned to look like a serpent with tiny wings protruding along the top left ridge of the jewel.

The bell tinkled when I entered the store and I was greeted by the smiling, spirit shopkeeper right away. She asked, "do you need any help today or are you just browsing our selection?" She was plump and her smile did seem to reach her misty eyes so I replied, "yea, um, how much is the purple necklace in the display?" The woman frowned and looked me over as if she was debating whether or not I could afford the jewelry she sold. Apparently she decided I might have the money because she answered, "it's 165 Ranes for that necklace, but the rings over here are just 70 Ranes". She gestured to a case of mundane, crude finger bands and I scowled. It was quite bothersome that most spirits looked down on humans so I smacked down a handful of Ranes, snatched the stupid, purple gift, and stormed out of the shop, leaving no tip.

Kashina was still asleep when I got back to the house, sprawled on the couch like she owned the place. I guess she kind of did. Sure, I did buy the cottage because of her after she had complained about moving around so much, but it had proved beneficial to my own health too. With a place to settle down I had not only saved Ranes, but had grown so close to Kashina that people often mistook us for a couple. She was more of a sister to me in the fact that the relationship was forced by the bond. I shook her shoulders and shouted her name, but she only grumbled sleepily in reply. "Kay, I bought you something" I sung drawing out the A in her nickname. She perked right up at my proclamation and answered with, "gimme gimme gimme!" I laughed, a deep, whole sound that only she could evoke from within me. Dangling the pendant in my fingers, she gasped in awe and snatched it faster than I could see. She lashed it around her neck and never took her eyes off it as I said, "We're going to Apocalypse tomorrow. If I had to guess, the Magic dealer is there and we need to start tracking her down". Kashina nodded absently and still didn't raise her eyes so I continued, "you like it?" She nodded eagerly this time, practically drooling over the big gem. She was like one of the extinct Dragons who hoarded riches, greedy beyond compare.

So what do you think so far? Please please please leave a vote if you liked this charter and a comment if you've got anything to say. I would love any feedback at all. Thanks!