“Good morning, friends!” Tomos says cheerfully as he approaches Tric and Heppa. Tric greets him in return and inquires after his health. The injuries he received from the naga myrmidon have healed quite well under Heppa’s care. “I am quite recovered. What excitement is there this morning? We’re not under attack surely, here in the open fields with Weldyn just beyond that next rise.” He pulls out his wand. “I’m ready for more danger, if that’s the case.”
“So you’re thinking of becoming a battle mage, then?” Tric asks.
“I did just have that internship with the House of Light, but I didn’t promise them anything. Red mages have a lot going for them, too. I don’t have to make my decision yet.”
“Are those the only two choices?” Tric asks.
“Those are the only two that matter,” Tomos answers.
While these pleasantries are being exchanged, Heppa is still pondering what Tric said. Tomos was several carts away from them. “Did you sense anything?” she asks into a break in the conversation. Turning to her cousin she adds, “Like a magical wind, did you say?”
Tric nods. “Like a very brief refreshing breeze, but you can tell from the birds that there was no such movement of the air.” Indeed, the cluster of magpies playing on the ground near them are preoccupied with a worm tied around Mate’s beak. None of them were disturbed by whatever Heppa did. Nor was Butterbell, for that matter.
“Why, yes!” Tomos says brightly. “That’s why I’m here. To see if there’s anything you need help with. Powerful magics have been worked nearby, and they were centered on you. You, Hepalonia!”
“I didn’t think they were that powerful…” Heppa says modestly. “I was doing some minor healing that I think got a little out of hand,” she explains. “You could tell from all the way down the line?”
“Certainly! Perhaps there are wells of power within you that you haven’t recognized yet,” Tomos suggests. “Is there any sort of Alduin that elves go to? Do you get sent away to the Great Forest to learn your magics?”
“No, we just learn it in the village,” Heppa says.
“And how many years did you spend studying?” Tomos asks.
“Well… I haven’t really finished all the classes… But I have taken some. There are a lot of different things you have to learn… I’m not a powerful caster.” Heppa is not ashamed of being a dabbler, regardless of how her mother feels about the topic. However, if she is doing something really wrong because of a lack of formal education, that is a different matter….
“Well now,” Tomos says reassuringly, “from everything I’ve heard, elves are very long-lived. There is probably still a lot of time for you to fully grow into mastery of these energies.”
“Maybe it’s covered in a class I haven’t taken yet,” Heppa muses. “I didn’t sense it at all… Well, I knew it was a little bit out of control, but not any more than I’ve had problems with in the past.” She brightens up, turning to Tric. “Oh! Have you felt it before?” He has been around her when her magic has not worked quite properly in the past.
Tric tells her this is the first time he has felt anything like that, and Heppa shifts her attention beyond just her cousin and Tomos, looking for signs of whether anyone else noticed. Up ahead of them, Ffion is trying to make her way along the caravan but a taller human with similar red hair is restraining her, telling her to get back to the goats. “No!” the child yells. “Something just happened! Something big! I could feel it!”
It does not appear that any other humans around have sensed it, but Heppa poses the question anyway. “Maybe everybody sensed it but only Tomos knew where it came from and what it was,” she theorizes. “Do you think other humans can sense fae energy?”
Tric has an easy way to test this. He steps up to the driver of the next wagon, one with whom he has exchanged words before. “Excuse me, have you noticed anything strange in the past half hour?”
“Why no, ghost hunter. Do you think they’re out and about?”
Tric cannot pass up such an opportunity. “I can’t be sure. There’s definitely something. I don’t think it’s malign, though. Best we all just keep driving forward, but I’ll keep two eyes out,” he assures the man, feeding his growing reputation.
When Tric rejoins Heppa and Tomos, his cousin is continuing to theorize. “So you could sense fae energy,” she says to Tomos. Tomos shrugs at the distinction. “I wonder if you could channel it.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Tric cuts in.
Tomos, too, is alarmed by the suggestion. “I’m not authorized to do anything like that,” he insists.
Heppa does not press the point further. She was speaking in the broader sense; when she said you she meant humans. She scribbles more notes on her map in the section that is now obscured by magic theory. This is all quite interesting to her, and she will probably include it in her next letter to Alric.
“So, have you encountered signals like this before?” Tric asks Tomos.
The human mage explains that sometimes there are magical demonstrations at school when powerful wizards visit for guest lectures. “When they work great wonders, you can more than see what they are doing. It also resonates within you.”
That catches Heppa’s attention, drawing her back up from her map. “Does it feel the same?” she asks eagerly. When Tomos looks at her quizzically, she clarifies, “Could you tell a difference between the types of energy?” Unfortunately, Tomos does not have a way to articulate different flavors of magic. Perhaps if he were to experience them back to back he could distinguish them, but not months apart. That experiment will have to wait for another day.