Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 13 of 27

Annie sat with the firefox books still open, but her mind circled a different memory. On her first night in Deadfall, the old woman who took her in had said something she never forgot. Humans lived only in legends here. Stories. If those stories were true, other humans had come before her. Maybe one of them had learned to survive without draining the life from a bonded creature. She rose from the table and walked deeper into the archive. Kaelen looked up from the scrolls. "Where are you going?" "I need to find records of humans," Annie said. "Not foxes. People like me. If someone came here before, they left a trace." He frowned but did not argue. He pulled a rolling ladder along the tall shelves and climbed. "These are the oldest cases. Visitors from beyond the circles." He handed down a cracked leather volume. "I've never opened it. My father said it was mostly stories." They spread the book between them. The fox curled close, its tail warming the pages. Kaelen read the old Elvish slowly. Most entries told of strange creatures wandering the woods, dying in the cold within days. Annie's hope thinned with each line. Then Kaelen stopped. "Here," he said. "A being with no magic. Empty, like you." He traced the faded letters. "It borrowed magic from a bonded beast. The record warns the bond has a price. Each pull spends the beast's life." "I already know that part," Annie said. "What did they do about it?" Kaelen read on. His finger slowed, then stopped again. "The visitor learned to store magic outside the beast. In a vessel. A crystal, kept warm and fed slowly." He looked at her. "Small threads over many days. The beast gave a little at a time. The vessel held it until the visitor needed it." Annie's heart pounded. "So I don't have to pull everything from the fox at once." "No. You fill the vessel when it's safe. You spend from it when you fight." Kaelen shut the book. "The fox still gives, but slowly. A trickle, not a wound." Annie pressed her palm to the fox's warm side. It leaned into her hand and made its soft sound. For the first time since the mountain, she saw a path that did not end with the small creature burning out. "This is it," she said. "This is how I get stronger without hurting you." But a colder thought followed. She had no such vessel. Her wand channeled fire; it did not hold it. She would need something made to store living flame, and only one household in Deadfall could craft it. Kaelen watched her face. "You're thinking of my father." "He hunts creatures," Annie said. "Would he ever help me spare one?" Kaelen did not answer at once. "Bring him the book," he said finally. "Let him read it himself. Then we'll see." Annie tucked the old volume under her arm. She had her answer. Now she had to convince the High Mage to build it.