12

Several more days passed with far too many close calls for Miraveh's liking. More and more, they saw white cloaks upon horses, in the distance, and she began to wonder how many Hunters O' The Dark there were. How far their influence spread. They saw settlements, but avoided them even as the landscape became even more harsh and unforgiving.

Eventually, they reached a point where they could see seas to both sides. Through the taller, mountainous crags that bordered the Sea of Baerakis, to the west, and down a gradual lowering of the landscape towards the east, where the vast, open ocean lay. Beyond that ocean, she had heard tell of other lands, great civilisations but, as far as she knew, no-one had chanced taking a ship that way for years. Her thoughts continued to focus upon the south, however, and the urge to reach the Southern Lands still forced her to forge onwards.

That urge troubled her. It had progressed far beyond merely wishing to do something, anything, other than what Yusuvur wanted her to do. Expected her to do. She had resolved to search for any remnants of the Order of Velaurian Warriors, or to at least find some record of them. She wanted to tell them of Alran and how he had helped to save the world. Yet something else compelled her.

Searching for evidence of Velaurians was her choice. The 'urge' was something else and she feared it was the burden of a Seeker that turned her head to the south. She feared that, in some way, she was doing the bidding of Yusuvur, after all, and she hated that. Yet she could not turn away from it. It felt as though someone had tied a rope about her waist and dragged her towards the Southern Lands.

"Miraveh!" A harsh whisper broke into her thoughts and she turned towards Daras to see he and Sialira lowering themselves in their saddle. "More of them."

"Dismount. Find cover." She took him at his word, unhooking her feet from the stirrups and dropping to the stony ground.

Daras had proven to have good instincts and even better eyes as they travelled. A useful talent for a thief, no doubt. He and Sialira led their horse behind one large outcropping as Miraveh led hers behind another, a pair of elven knives appearing in his hand that he had appropriated from the elven camp. If he had asked, they would have gladly given them to him, but Daras was Daras and thievery was his way.

Over the course of the days, Miraveh had tested out her theories about her ability to sense magic. She had tested both herself and Sialira's range and she had come to the conclusion that it was the strength of the magic within someone that enabled them to sense at different distances, not the strength of the person sensed. Miraveh could sense magic at a far greater distance than Sialira and the girl had pouted at that.

It helped, however. Miraveh, due to her much-vaunted 'potential', could sense someone with magic before they could sense her, allowing her and the others to stay out of reach of the Karline that travelled with the Hunters. If she continued to get lost in her thoughts, however, that advantage would be worth little. More than once, she had noticed the faint feeling of magic almost too late.

"Did they see?" Sialira pressed her back against the surface of the rock as Daras cooed and tried to keep their horse calm. "Can you feel anything?"

Miraveh didn't answer. She tied the reins of her horse around a heavy rock and then drew her sword, backing away until she could flit behind another rock. Leaving the others, she moved from cover to cover, circling back the way they had come until she found a vantage point. From this distance, the sense of Sialira's magic had gone, leaving Miraveh reaching out towards the white-cloaked warriors on a rise away to the side.

It looked as though the Hunters were only taking a rest. One released himself from his breeches, sending a cascade of urine arcing away, over the edge. The others tended to the horses. Except for one. That man remained on his horse, his eyes roving about the landscape around him and his party. From here, Miraveh could feel the magic about him.

During their other close encounters with the Hunters, Miraveh and the others had done their best to avoid them. Caught by surprise, they did not have that option this time, but Miraveh wondered if it could prove valuable, after all. Though she still did not want to learn magic, she did want to learn the extent of her ability to sense it.

The sense of magic almost felt like an extra arm, reaching out in all directions at once. To reach the magic of others felt like fingertips running across the skin of someone. The magic had a texture to it, a consistency, and not everyone felt the same. Sialira's magic felt almost the same as Yusuvur's, but felt quite different to that of the elves.

And here. Miraveh hadn't paid attention, back in Kubsa. She had only wanted to escape and lead that Witch, that Karline, away from Sialira. Now, she reached out towards this Karline and tested the texture of his magic and she found it quite different to anything she had sensed before. So different that it hardly felt like magic at all.

It felt detached. Almost as though the magic were a separate thing from the Karline himself. For everyone else, every thing else, magic was very much a part of them. The magic was them. Even though she despised the very idea, Miraveh knew that magic, for good or ill, was very much a part of her. Whether she chose to use it or not was neither here nor there.

The Karline, however, was not the same. At least, this Karline was not. Miraveh could feel something within him, but the majority of the sense of the magic around him was not. There was something else at play here, but Miraveh could not quite work out what it was. As the Hunter relieving himself finished and began fastening his breeches, the others began to mount their horses.

As the Hunters prepared to leave, the Karline lifted a hand to his chest, fingers touching something. A pendant, or a necklace of some kind. As he did so, Miraveh felt a great swell of magic balloon out from the man. Where once Miraveh would have said the man had only as much magical strength as Sialira, he now, for a fraction of a second, felt almost as powerful as Yusuvur and Miraveh had felt no-one else that powerful before.

Instinct took hold and she rolled backwards, behind the rock she had moved to, placing greater distance between herself and the Hunters until she could no longer feel the Karline's magic. She continued to scramble back a few extra feet, to feel certain, and then peeked out once again, praying to the gods that the Karline had not felt her magic.

Gasping for breath without realising it, Miraveh tried to calm herself, gripping the hilt of her sword. She stood no hope of beating them all, but it would drag them further away from Sialira and Daras. If nothing else, she could keep them safe. In her fear, she thought about grabbing a hold of her magic, squashing it down deep inside, making it tiny. She hated her magic. Despised it. That magic could get her killed for nothing more than a chance of birth.

From her new vantage point, she saw the hand of the Karline fall from his chest. Miraveh had moved too far back to see his features clearly, but she could tell he looked her way. She heard a few words pass between the Hunters and then they began to ride away, dust rising into the air from their hoofbeats, the rumbling diminishing as they passed beyond sight.

Miraveh let the air from her lungs in a desperate gasp and, as she did so, all thoughts of squashing her magic left her. A sense of euphoria passed through her body as she did so, as though she had suppressed her magic and its return had caused an almost orgasmic reaction. Her head fell back against the nearest rock and she lay there for long seconds, allowing her breathing to return to normal.

By the time she returned to the rocks where she had left Sialira, Daras and her horse, Miraveh had begun to think over everything she had learned during the near-encounter with the Hunters. Daras greeted her with an awkward hug, pressing his head upon her shoulder, causing Miraveh to check her belongings. Daras pouted at her distrust, then grinned.

Sialira did not rush to greet her, but she gazed towards Miraveh with questions in her eyes. Miraveh wasn't certain she had the answers. She wasn't even certain she knew the right questions herself. Several things had occurred. Several connected, but divergent things and they all demanded Miraveh's attention. One thing, though, above the others could keep them safer, if her thoughts were correct.

"Our magic?" She reached to the back of her horse, took down her water skin, taking a long gulp to moisten her dry mouth. "What do you know about suppressing it?"

-+-

Sialira laughed, waving her hand in a dismissive fashion. Several shakes of the head followed before the young Witch could look at Miraveh again but, at seeing Miraveh's expression, Sialira's attitude changed. Once again, she glared at Miraveh as though she had said something insulting, despicable, but Miraveh's expression never wavered. The girl blinked several times.

"We've just got magic back! Why would you even think of suppressing it?" Again, she waved the hand, this time in a more determined way. "No. It's ridiculous to even think about."

"Can it be done?" Of course, Miraveh believed she had already done it, she only wanted confirmation. "It's important, Sialira. If we can suppress magic, we can ..."

"No. No!" The venom in Sialira's voice almost made Miraveh step back, the girl raising a finger to point at Miraveh. "It would be like holding your breath for too long, or someone choking the life from you. If you have magic in you, it's as much a part of you as your blood."

"I think I've already suppressed it." As Miraveh said those words, Sialira's mouth opened before closing it tight, her lips becoming a single, thin line. "If we can do it, if we can hide the magic, the Karline with the Hunters won't sense us. We'd be safer."

Sialira turned her back to Miraveh, crossing her arms, as though that action ended the conversation, but Miraveh could not let the moment pass. This was only one of the things she needed to know more about and the only person she could consult was Sialira. To the side, Daras watched the interaction with undisguised fascination, offering no help either way. Though he could not add to the conversation if he tried.

Miraveh could not let this question fall to the wayside. She had far too many questions to answer before they could continue and the priority had to be keeping them safe from the ever-growing numbers of Hunters O' The Dark. She thought back to how she had felt as she watched the Hunters on the rise. To the point she had felt the Karline's magic expand out towards her.

Sialira needed to experience what Miraveh had done. With every ounce of will she could muster, Miraveh envisioned clutching her magic, grasping it between her hands. She imagined crushing and compressing that thought of her power, reducing it in size. Making it tiny and invisible. She began to feel light-headed but she could not stop, her eyes closing tight as her body shook with the effort.

"How are you doing that?" The question came in a whisper as Sialira noticed what Miraveh attempted. "Stop it. Stop! You'll kill yourself!"

Hands grabbed at Miraveh's shoulders. Small hands that shook her with surprising strength. It broke Miraveh's concentration and the breath that she had held exploded from her lungs. Lights flashed before her eyes and she felt her legs shake and then collapse from beneath her and, as she opened her eyes, she saw Sialira's horrified look.

The girl lowered Miraveh to the ground and Miraveh felt glad of the solidity of the rocks. Once again, the feeling of euphoria washed over her, sending tingles throughout her body, like soft pins and needles after a hand had fallen to sleep. She hated admitting that she had magic, but she could not deny that its return after suppressing it felt intense and satisfying.

"Did ... did you feel it?" She accepted the water skin from Daras' hand and took a deep, long drink. "Did it work?"

Sialira looked away, licking her lips. She looked uncertain and, a second later, Miraveh could feel the girl's magic flow over her, the feint, light green tendrils appearing to slough and crawl across Miraveh's body. It felt as though the girl probed and tested Miraveh, checking her health, or her mental capacity, Miraveh couldn't tell which.

"I don't know what is happening here, but it did not look healthy." Daras crouched beside Miraveh and tapped the bottom of the water skin, urging her to drink once more. She took a smaller sip, if only to keep the young man mollified. "I would think, anything that makes you look like this cannot be good for you. We can avoid the Hunters easy enough without you trying to kill yourself."

"No. She's fine. She hasn't hurt herself, she's just exhausted." Sialira placed a hand upon Miraveh's forehead and a pair of fingers upon the life-beat in her throat. "I should say you don't do that again."

The girl avoided answering Miraveh's question and made it far too obvious that she did so. What Miraveh had done, if it had worked, could change everything. If they could tamp down their magic enough, they would not have to avoid settlements or people, for fear of Karline hiding as townsfolk or villagers.

Miraveh felt certain that the answers to her other questions could be found among people. Through gossip, or witnesses, or, better, through books. If they could pass as normal folk, Miraveh could consult scholars, or libraries, without fear of oppression or violence. She felt certain that was the only way to learn about the Velaurian Order, but also about the Karline and why their magic felt so different.

"You felt it, didn't you?" With a sweep of her hand, she brushed Sialira's hands away from her forehead and throat, clutching at one wrist as it fell away. "You did. What did it feel like?"

"It felt horrible. As though you disappeared before my eyes, but you were still there. It felt like death and emptiness and despair." Through Sialira's wrist, Miraveh could feel the girl shaking. Not through fear, but from a sense of loss. "You felt ... empty, like normal people. It was truly horrifying. Don't do it again."

"Well, I, for one, feel terribly insulted right now." Daras rolled his eyes, shaking his head at Sialira, before looking to the sky. "It'll be getting dark before too long. We could probably make another mile, or so, but I think we should make camp here. It looks like you could use the rest."

Daras clapped a hand upon Miraveh's shoulder before rising. He didn't even wait for the others to agree to making camp, striding over to the horses and beginning to unpack bed rolls and saddlebags. That left Miraveh alone with Sialira. It took several seconds before Miraveh realised she still held on to the young Witch's wrist. Upon releasing it, Sialira gave the skin a rub, holding the hand to her chest.

No matter what Sialira said, however, Miraveh felt a little rush of exultation. She had suppressed her magic, enough for Sialira to tell at such a close range, but that suppression had told Miraveh something else, too. As Sialira could not feel Miraveh's magic, Miraveh could not feel Sialira's. The suppression worked both ways and that left a small, but not-insignificant vulnerability. Magic was not hidden when Miraveh suppressed it, it was unusable, also, while their enemies could still use theirs, even though they could not sense Miraveh. That thought led to another, however.

"Earlier, you described suppressing magic as akin to choking someone." She hated that she thought this, she still suffered her nightmares about the deaths of others and the thought of choking someone, even as a metaphor, sickened her. "Do you think it's possible to suppress someone else's magic. To choke them from it?"

It seemed that the thought had caused Sialira to anger once more. The girl drew in a long, loud breath through her nose, lips tightening once again, as though the very idea of it was enough to cause a fire to grow in her chest. After a second, though, Sialira released that breath, flattening out her hands before her as though forcing herself to relax. Miraveh had a talent for asking the worst questions, it appeared.

"Why would you even think of doing that to another? But no, Witches cannot har ..." She stopped, head whipping around to look for Daras. "I've said too much."

Miraveh narrowed her eyes at that. Sialira had shown no resistance to talking about magic, or Witches at any other time. Indeed, too often Miraveh would wish the girl spoke less about such things, to discuss something, anything else once in a while. The girl had a singular obsession about magic and its wielders. Now she closed her mouth and worried that Daras may hear. She had never cared about him hearing before and that intrigued Miraveh.

"I don't think you've said enough. Why do you resist speaking of this?" Miraveh looked over Sialira's shoulder towards Daras, then leaned in to whisper. "What are you hiding from me? You'll tell eventually, you know you will. May as well get it over with."

"I know for a fact that you can't suppress another's magic because it's an intrinsic part of magic. It cannot be changed. But we also cannot allow others to know. It would ... change things. Attitudes." With another look towards Daras, Sialira lowered her voice even more. "Only Witches know this. If you had trained and become a Witch, you would have learned it eventually, but your stubbornness ... Sorry. It's simple. You cannot suppress another's magic because that will harm them and magic cannot be used to harm others. It doesn't work like that."

Sialira was correct. As soon as Miraveh heard it, she knew. If normal people, the majority of people in the world knew that magic couldn't harm them, it would change everything. And not for the better.