The days passed as Sera moved south with Abe. She tried to hunt with her magic, but Abe would only allow her to do so once per day, usually in the morning after a restful night of sleep. He said that he wanted to maintain his level of skill as a hunter and she needed to sleep and conserve her energy.
Sera acquiesced, but with some trepidation. What would she face to the south? Ragnor? Artemia? Unknown monsters and enemies?
Could she really face whatever lay ahead? Should she turn around and ask Kara and Yeva to abandon their plans for her? Maybe I can. But… if it took a moment near death to defeat a guard, what would it take for a dragon? For a more trained enemy?
More than once, she and Abe had to take the circuitous route to avoid the behemoths which wandered the plains. Every time Sera saw one, it triggered an ugly flashback to her time in the cave. How perilously close had she come to dying? The sheer luck of a missed attack was all that had let her live. How close, she thought, the boundary was between life and death. How she had straddled it so much in the last two months—she knew her luck wouldn’t last forever.
When the third night arrived, she found a nearby tree on which to settle. Abe dropped his equipment and grunted.
“Longest hunt I’ve been on in some time,” he said with a chuckle.
Sera was curious. She knew much about Abe’s personality, but little about his job. Dragon hunting required a great degree of skill and almost foolish bravery in the face of nightly death.
“How were your hunts?” she asked. “I’m sorry if you don’t want to talk—”
“No, quite all right, Sera,” he said. “Dangerous. They’re frightening and a fool’s game. The only reason I took it on? Look at me. Listen to me speak. Do I sound like a scholar? Do I sound like someone smart enough to sell anything? I have been blessed with quick reflexes, a swordsman’s skills, and madness that help me fight dragons and make me blind to what those I like do.”
Sera’s face went blank, and for a moment, Abe kept a serious face. Then he let out a gentle, reassuring laugh, leaving Sera more confused.
“It’s true what I said, but it’s also true that there are benefits. The brotherhood and sisterhood I had growing up in the guild were unlike those who have more wealth or more brain power will ever experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed being a mentor to Eric.”
“It sounds like being a mage,” Sera said. “If I saw another mage, I instantly felt another connection with them, even if we had nothing in common. But it’s so bad being a mage. The empire…”
Abe nodded as if to prevent her from revisiting the nightmare of just a few days prior.
“The empire must pay for what it has done, I agree,” he said. “That is why we are going to Ragnor. We will meet up with any of the survivors, grow our forces, and then do what needs to be done.”
Sera knew Abe agreed with her, but sadly, there was no way he could ever understand what it was like to be a mage. He could never know what it was like to keep a personal part of yourself so secret that just a sliver of it would cause your death. He could never understand what it was like to see a crowd of rabid, organized town folk gather under the banner of their leader, chanting horrible things about her kind, including threats of death. He could never understand what it meant to be a persecuted part of society.
She didn’t fault him for it. He had no way of choosing to be a mage or not. It was something that one was born with. No one chose to come into Hydor as a mage and suffer the slings and arrows and the piercing of cruel, bloody words. But she had to understand that Abe could only fight to a certain level of justice and would never reach the level she did.
“How are you feeling, Sera? Do you still think about what happened?”
Every hour. Every minute. Almost every second.
Any time Sera wasn’t talking or hunting—and sometimes during those moments—the downfall of Dabira crossed her mind. What if, what if, what if…
“All the time,” Sera said.
Abe bit his lip as he nodded, his eyes going down, his arms crossing. Sera had to admit no one without the use of magic had ever tried to relate to her like Abe. Perhaps, if he had taught Eric well, they could cross the mythical boundary the empire had thrown up and show the people what it meant to coexist.
“I wish I had something better to say, but unfortunately, I am someone who plays things over in my head to an unhealthy degree. I can only say that as time goes by, the frequency and the intensity of said moments diminish.”
He looked at the sky.
“The light of the day will vanish within the hour,” he said. “I’m going to go hunt us a boar.”
“I want to come,” Sera said immediately. “I feel fine. I’m well-rested. Thank you for only making me use my magic once per day. But I am ready to hunt now. I promise.”
“I said I was following you, not the other way around, so I suppose I won’t stop you.”
Sera rose so rapidly it was as if magic had pushed her out of her seat. She and Abe moved away from the side of the fields, scanning the area.
Boars had become less frequent this far south in Hydor, but there were a couple in the far distance. It took little effort for Abe and Sera to find it, and Abe nocked his arrow as Sera crouched down.
“Let me try to hit it with some magic,” Sera said. “I may just burn the arrow. But I want to see if I can make it work.”
“I have more than a dozen of these in my quiver. Losing one would not harm me.”
Sera smiled. Abe pulled the arrow back. Sera imagined its flight, how quickly it would move, how it would strike the boar. She imagined Abe’s fingers releasing the string, the tension of the string snapping the arrow forward, the arrow twisting upon itself.
And then an incredible thing happened.
Time seemed to slow down.
She could see Abe’s index finger slowly pull off, signaling the rest of the arrow would follow. She could see the arrow depart from its rested state, the string’s tension releasing. She saw the arrow leave the bow, the string snap against Abe’s forearm—he had held it too close—and rise to cover the distance.
This was her magic, she knew. But she had not commanded such magic to happen. She didn’t think she was that good of an internal magic user, but then she remembered her teleportation spell. What other things did she have that she didn’t realize?
She saw the arrow reach its peak in the arc. She would have to cast her spell quickly if she wanted to use it.
She shifted to bringing the pulse of fire into her hands. She felt it shoot out, the magic leaving her hands without a medium and without damaging her, and reach the arrow as it came down into its descent.
Then, all at once, normal speed returned. The boar shrieked and went up in flames as the arrow pierced its hide.
“I have never seen that done before,” Abe said, and his awe wasn’t subtle. “I have seen a mage embed a weapon with an element, but I have never seen a mage add an element to a weapon already fired.”
He looked at her, and the dumbfounded expression on his face made Sera blush.
“Just… who are you?” he said with a laugh.
He didn’t mean it as an insult, and while Sera didn’t take it as one, when she didn’t exactly know how to answer the question other than by saying, “I’m a mage,” she felt a bit embarrassed.
“I’m only teasing you,” Abe said. “Come. Let’s feas—”
But before he could finish the word, a loud shriek came from the south.
