Half Magic | Book 2

Forty Six: A Black Night

And then, it spoke.

"You are real," it said.

The voice, though it was in my head, still managed to boom and echo. It was low, the rumble of an avalanche. Or the crashing of hard waves against the rocks.

My heart, wherever it was in relation to this blackness and my little purple light, was beating ferociously.

"Find me," it said.

Then, the feeling began to retreat. Slowly, the warm and comfortable blackness was pulling away, drawing back. My first urge was to reach out for it, beg it to come back.

"Wait!" Schula cried out. "What are you? How do we find you?"

The blackness didn't stop it's retreat. "Find me," it repeated.

And a moment later, it was gone, and the feeling of being yanked away hit me hard.

~

"Ah!" I snapped my head up from the table, my eyes searching in the almost non-existent light for Schula. Her eyes met mine, wide and startled.

We both looked to Nassir, who was fast asleep in his chair. I looked down at my hands, they were shaking.

"What was that?" I whispered, barely audible.

"Let's go somewhere else to talk," she said.

I nodded, and we both got up softly from our seats. Not knowing where to go, but knowing that nowhere in the keep was safe from prying ears. I bit my lower lip, silently making a decision to leave the keep with Schula. We were still Kalor's guests until told otherwise, right?

I slipped my new cloak over her and pulled my old one around my shoulders. My secret was out now, or at least the council knew about it, so I felt less pressured to hide myself now. We were given no trouble as I walked confidently out the front doors and around the side of the keep where I could find the trail to the garden.

Schula quietly observed as I walked on. The ground was still soft from the hard rain we had gotten earlier in the day, and I regretted not choosing to wear my boots, instead wearing the matching slippers to the dress I had been given. I paused, yanking them off and sticking them in my belt to try to keep them from complete ruin.

Barefoot and comfortable, we left the keep's sight and I found the way to the garden. This is about where Schula felt safe enough to speak.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"A garden, Kalor took me to it today. No one else goes there, we should be able to speak freely."

She nodded and we continued our steps silently until I saw the garden. The lovely tree in the middle, rising higher than the rest of the plants around it. I opened the gate for her, and a familiar black mass of feathers glided down to land on her shoulder.

"Caw!"

Schula smiled. "I'm glad to see you've settled in nicely. I almost missed you this last day."

Puko made a croaking sound, and stuck his beak in the air indignantly. Snubbing Schula and flying to instead land on me.

"I think you offended him," I giggled.

She shrugged and walked over to the bench beneath the tree. Taking a seat, she looked out over the rest of the garden without really looking at any of it. I understood the feeling, I couldn't shake the embrace of the black presence.

"So, do we go looking for it or not?" I asked.

Schula sighed, pulling her long white braid around her shoulder and playing with the end of it. "I don't know. On the one hand I feel so much power from it. It's strong, whatever it is. But on the other hand..."