Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 11: A Taste of Hanna

Wolves stared at them from afar, their glossy red coats blending in with the coppery hue of the rocks rising behind them. Seiren heaved another sigh; it was difficult not to feel short of breath despite her chest working hard. Each inhalation of air dragged through her throat and down her airway like syrup, thick and congestive. She sweated in places she didn't even realise had sweat glands. The sun continued to blast them with its rays and sand whipped at their veils, coursing down their path through the arid world of jutting rocks and crisp dry flora. It was tempting to rip off the long sleeves and headdress to let the sweat vaporise and cool her down, but Seiren knew such exposure was dangerous. Many unprepared thrill-seekers had met their dooms just like that by trekking the sprawling desert of Moakai with little protection, their cleaned-out skeletons found months later.

It didn't stop the conversation from drifting to lazy grunts and sullen blinks as Seiren's temper reached the same temperature. They should probably have been more prepared for extremes of temperatures like this, but she would never admit it aloud.

"Tell me about Cliffe," said Madeleine at their next stop. Seiren sighed with relief at the shelter. She melted, spread-eagled, on the cool stone floor, staring up at the ceiling, which was made up of sandy-coloured bricks with edges chipped and eroded with age. There was the creak of wood as Madeleine perched at the nearby table. "It's such a guarded military secret I don't even know what my own sister's surroundings have been like for five months."

"A constant uphill battle." Seiren groaned, staring up at the ceiling. Sand had worn away at the figures painted on its surface, leaving the colours faded like memories forgotten by time. "The land... there's nothing growing. The soil is toxic. It burns if you touch it. You're covered from day one in protective gear, runed many layers over but even that keeps the poisons at bay only for a few days. It needs to be constantly rejuvenated, but the wear is different depending on what sites each person goes to and what works they did, so you can't even duplicate the same runes over and over. We made contact with the Teirrinese, occasionally — well, the military mage did, not me — just to discuss the extent of the wasteland down their end. I just try to salvage what I could to keep the runes going, but the infestation is like wood rot. And there are some crazy mutated animals there – we lose soldiers on a regular basis because of them."

After a brief silence, Seiren spoke again.

"It gave me time to think about things, though."

"Yeah?"

"When I... removed Kristen's magic, I got a view into her mind." Seiren sat up, peeling her apple green robe forward to air the front of her chest and sighing as cool air licked her sticky skin. "Just briefly. I saw things from her view. There was a lot of sadness, negative things from when she was a more junior mage. A lot of abuse, manipulation, just really horrible people. She wanted to do good, but the higher-ups didn't want to know and there were groups of Karmans who kept putting pressure on her over and over. I think she just lost the will, you know?"

"Nobody put themselves through six years at king's and then decades of hard work just to kill people. Unless you're Butterworth." When Madeleine failed to rouse a chuckle out of Seiren, she sighed. "She's not much different from us, from the other good mages we've come across. She wanted change and times were desperate."

"Aside from the whole genocide thing."

"Aside from the whole genocide thing," Madeleine agreed.

"I'm glad Butterworth is dead."

"When we were separated, the old king's mages had so much interest in me — in that amulet."

Seiren gave her a startled look. Madeleine had never spoken of the brief period when Seiren had been en route to her exile and before Kristen gave Madeleine back to her.