They relaxed the evening away in a decent inn room, chatting away on their separate beds. Era ate a particularly large dinner to make up for the lunch he’d lost, and Gabriel thought about going to the market on their day off the next day to replenish some of his medicinal stock.
“I know what I’ll be doing,” Gabriel said, “what about you? You just want to tag along?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he replied, fluffing his pillow. “I might try and learn the layout of the city a bit better.”
“Kid? In case you’re not aware, you’ve got someone out for your blood,” Gabriel warned. “Roaming around the city by yourself is not a good idea.”
“Oh,” Era realized glumly. “You’re right. I suppose I will just tag along then, yes.”
“Not trying to spoil your fun or anything.” Gabriel lay back on his covers, arms crossed behind his head. “I just want you to be careful.”
“I understand,” he said with a smile, “And I appreciate it.”
They settled down for bed not long afterwards. Gabriel blew out the candle and shut the curtains as tight as they’d go, glancing warily outside. If he doesn’t pull any more dirty tricks, Gabriel thought, then whoever is fucking with Era will have to go through me first.
This isn’t exactly where I saw myself when I graduated from the Academy, Dashito thought with an inward sigh.
He floated up the center of a spiral staircase, making sure the tray of tea and finger sandwiches he carried didn’t spill. His brown robes fluttered gently as he landed gracefully on the top step and opened the door to his master’s chamber.
“Master?” he said as he shouldered open the door. “I’m back with the earl grey.”
At first there was no response, and he wondered if his master had left while he was away. He does that sometimes, he thought idly. Then Dashito became aware of a strange, strangled noise coming from across the room, his sight blocked by the door.
“Master?” he called, suddenly worried, and he set the tray down on a cluttered desk nearby. He looked over to the source of the sound in the round room.
His master was twitching violently on the stone floor.
Crying out in panic, Dashito ran over to him and knelt down, shoving an end table out of the way of his convulsing mentor. “Not again, not again,” he whispered, resisting the temptation to restrain him.
He waited for minutes that felt like ages, helpless as his master slowly came out of his seizure. As soon as he had stopped moving, Dashito carefully arranged his head and body into a recovery position. A minute later, the man on the floor opened his eyes and looked at Dashito.
“Master, are you alright? It happened again,” Dashito whispered.
“Oh, again?” he said nonchalantly, raising himself to a sitting position. “How annoying.”
“Please, Master,” he pleaded, “you need to take better care of yourself… you’re overexerting yourself again.”
“I’m fine, boy. Now fetch me some tea.”
“I did, Master Caine.” Sighing resignedly, Dashito stood up, brushing his black hair out of his eyes, and went over to pour his master a cup.
“Good.” He took the cup and sipped it, but almost immediately spit it back out and threw the cup to the floor. “Look what you’ve done, whelp! You’ve allowed it to get cold!!” He shook with rage, his face reddening as he screamed at his apprentice.
Shuddering, Dashito gulped and tried to stand his ground. “I can fix that, Master,” he whispered, “look, I’ll warm it for you.” Making no sudden movements, he reached out and grabbed the teapot, lighting a magical fire above his fingertips to heat it. Some moments later, he poured a fresh cup and handed it delicately to Caine. “There, good as new.”
His manic green eyes locked on Dashito, Caine took a sip. His face instantly softened. “So it is,” he remarked quietly, grabbing a finger sandwich. “Not bad, Apprentice. Bring lemon next time, though, I do like lemon with my tea.”
Suppressing a shiver, Dashito nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Caine strode calmly over to his easy-chair, sipping his tea with a content smile. He brushed his greasy brown hair out of his face as Dashito stiffly ate his sandwich at the opposite end of the room. My, did I spook him, he thought with amusement. It’s nothing compared to what I did to Era, but it’s certainly something.
“What a rip-off!” Gabriel complained, adjusting a sack of basil in his arms. “That merchant was a total cheat! That was twice what I should have paid, twice!!”
Era couldn’t help but chuckle at Gabriel’s outburst as they walked down the crowded street. They each carried sacks of herbs for Gabriel to take back after their stay in the city. Earlier in the day, they had composed a letter to Crisilla and Jarred explaining that they planned to stay a while, asking them to keep an eye on Gabriel’s cabin every so often and to let them know that the two of them were safe.
“I thought I wasn’t safe, Gabriel.”
“Well, no reason to worry them, right?”
“I suppose so.”
The day had been uneventful, save for some heated exchanges between Gabriel and some of the more stingy merchants. “They’re spoiled rotten,” he complained to Era. “They’ve been spoiled by the high prices the castle nobles pay for merchandise. That’s exactly why I don’t live here.”
“Really?”
“That, and living here isn’t cheap. It’s a hell of a lot easier for taxpayers to come by when their main office building is right in town, know what I mean?”
Despite the easygoing nature of their day so far, Era obviously had a lot on his mind and a lot of questions to ask in private. And who was he? he asked himself over and over. How did he know who I was when no one else recognizes me?
He waited patiently for Gabriel to finish his shopping and for the pair to get back to their room before releasing his curiosity. Sitting on his bed, he quietly watched Gabriel pack up.
“Gabriel,” he began, “I know that magic can do a lot of things. Almost anything, right?”
“To a point,” he replied. “There’s only so much people can handle. Most people think magic is entirely a mental thing, but it wears you out. It taxes you.”
“Really,” he said. “What if… you tried to create another world?”
Gabriel looked at him dubiously. “Like what that freak pulled on you?” he asked. “I doubt he really pulled it off.”
“What did he do, then?”
“Personally, I think he somehow cast a very detailed, very realistic illusion on you. He tapped into your brain a little. Gave you a memory you never had. Something like that.”
“But…” he protested. “That can’t be. It felt… too real.”
“I guess him pulling you into some sort of alternate plane wouldn’t be impossible,” Gabriel pondered, “but it would be damn hard. Might help explain his freakish mood swings, too. Abusing magical power like that can wear at your very sanity.”
“It… can?”
“Why do you think the term ‘mad-mage’ exists, huh? If you play with fire, eventually you’re going to get burned. If you mess around with otherworldly forces that we barely understand, you’re going to pay for it eventually.”
“I see,” he said uncertainly. “That makes sense… but it’s a scary thought.”
“A lot about magic is scary. It’s more alive than most people give it credit for. Hell, I’ve even heard it can sense intentions. No idea if it cares what your intentions are or not, but… well, anything that’s sophisticated to communicate with us, even if it’s just by using base emotions, is much more complicated than we give it credit for.”
Era nodded. “What do you mean by ‘planes,’ by the way?”
“A plane is a level of reality. Think of… I don’t know, imagine several worlds stacked on top of each other and existing in the same space at the same time with no one realizing there’s anything else there. There’s a common theory that magic exists on another plane, and by tapping into it we’re actually tapping into the plane it exists on.”
“That man mentioned planes,” Era recalled with a shiver. “He talked about people on other planes like they were an audience or something like that.”
“Huh. He was probably fucking with you,” Gabriel remarked, “unless, like you said, the guy actually can manipulate planes. Which I still highly doubt, but we can’t throw out the possibility.”
“Hmm.”
Gabriel finished packing, moving on to organizing a list of all of his botanicals and taking into account his new purchases. Era fell deep into thought, gazing at the ceiling for a long time before he eventually drifted unwillingly and uncomfortably into sleep.
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