Half Magic | Book 2

Forty: Kalor

It took a long time for us to recover from our meeting. I was thankful that Teyber let us be alone for it. I home told him a little about what happened to me as a child. Being raised by Bryn, Mila teaching me, keeping away from the humans, and the time we tried to take off my seal and I caught fire to a corner of her roof.

I told him my seal was now gone and my body had adapted to it's intended shape. We didn't talk about my time in the Wyldes yet. He had to know, after all I was travelling with Nassir and Schula. Still, he didn't ask about that yet.

He told me which parts of me looked like Lark. There were a lot of them. He even pointed out the freckles across my face that formed in the same general shape over her cheeks as on mine. When we were done, as done as we could be with so many unanswered questions still looming over us, we remembered that we should go back to Schula and Nassir.

We left his private quarters timidly, and he apologized profusely to Nassir and Schula for the delay. Teyber had been keeping them company while I got acquainted with Kalor.

"It is alright, Kalor," Nassir said. "We are more than pleased that you and Wren could meet. We would have given you all night if you needed it."

"Thank you, Nassir." Kalor gave him a tired smile. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. Oh, you must be hungry. I should get us some food."

Kalor stood, walking toward his front door. "Please, wait here. I'll be back shortly."

"I can get it," Teyber said.

But Kalor shook his head. "I'll do it. I still need a moment to myself to think of what we can do about our visitors."

"I can arrange rooms," Teyber offered.

"Alright, but make sure they are down here please. I don't think it's wise to separate them from us until we can get the word out that they are welcome."

"I have been meaning to ask about that," Nassir said. "We met Teyber here under some... strained circumstances."

Kalor sighed and shifted his eyes to Teyber. "Who were you on patrol with?"

"It was Liana's turn to try leading a patrol." Teyber shrugged. "She took the fae sighting quite seriously."

Kalor winced and turned back to Nassir. "As you can see, Eidelhein is a city of partial elves. After our... disagreements with the courts and the battlefield exile, we sought a new place in the world to try to live how we wanted to live."

"Five elves set off to find a new home with some semblance of magic in the air. The hunger that some fae feel for the presence of magic in the Wyldes is not so strong in the elves, since we rarely have magic. But the full elves still feel it, and even some of the fuller blooded descendants feel it some," Teyber added.

"You might be able to feel it now, but this old forest holds a similar breath of it. More subtle, but enough that it finally allowed us to rest somewhere without that hunger for the presence of magic," Kalor said, raising a hand to the air around us. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes, I did as we drew near Eidelhein," Nassir said. "Though I do rely on it heavier than these two, so noticing it would be second nature for me. Schula, did you sense it?"

"Not until we were within the city," she answered.

I looked down at my hands. I noticed it now that he mentioned it, but I hadn't before. I had been sensing the witch magics around me enough that the different types were starting to bleed together, I wouldn't notice one for the other unless I was trying to do so.

"I feel it," I said, and left it at that.

"Kalor, can you tell me about these partial elves, as you call them?" Nassir asked. "I've not heard of an elf and a human..."