Chapter 15

“More tea?” Rose asked, not waiting for an answer before topping up my cup.

I didn’t quite know how I got there, nor was I particularly thoughtful about it, for such is the nature of dreams. But all the same, I was there, sitting in a small forest at a white table, drinking tea.

“I only tried a sip of this before,” Rose explained. “It was an expensive foreign brew that Juliet received as a gift. But now I can drink as much as I want!” She gulped down the tawny liquid in an undignified manner. “So, did you find Tobian?” she asked, setting the cup down on the impossibly intricate white wire table we were sitting at. It matched her dress so well, the whites layer each other, while the soft blue of her apron and bowtie looked plucked from the sky itself. The visage of her in her seamstress uniform that had haunted my last few nightmares was once again serene.

“I haven’t found out anything yet,” I told her, just as disappointed as I felt from her. “I asked a bit but the couple of people didn’t know him. But there’s a bigger issue. There’s a Captain Hector coming back and I need to impress him.”

“So just do some magic. I assume that’s what they want, right?” she asked, confused. “I don’t see how this distracts from finding Tobian.”

“No, see, I can’t just leave and search for him. That would be nice, but I don’t have the ability to just leave the military mages. If I do… they kill me. Us, really, at this point.”

Rose put down her cup. “That’s, uh… hmm,” she grumbled, perplexed. “Not what I was hoping for, but ok. But then you find him out through the military? If he was also a mage, then he may have ties to someone there.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true, a good idea actually, but I think we may have to hold off on that for now.” The breeze, just a gentle flittering of air, suddenly buffeted my back for a second. “But I’ll still work on tracking him down,” I quickly reassured her. “I just have to focus on the whole not getting kicked out and dying part first.”

She tersely nodded. “Fair. Sorry, I know you hate him just as much. So what’s the solution to the more pressing issue?”

“Tomorrow… I really need your support.” I didn’t really know how to say it. ‘Hey Rose, can I use your stolen soul power?’ sounded a bit too cruel, but I knew I was asking something that shouldn’t be asked. And in the military mages, apparently wouldn’t be.

“Of course!” she readily agreed. “To be honest, I was hoping to see something. But you sound worried? Like there’s something more to it?”

I grimaced; she was always good at picking up on that, despite any attempt to hide it. “Well, you see, there’s a bit of a problem. After the bit of magic in the courtyard…”

~~~

“You threw the rock!?” She was doubled over laughing, spilling her tea, the cup rolling back and forth in sync with her. “And you just told them ‘Well, I hit it, didn’t I?’?”

“Rose, please be serious,” I fretted, trying to balance her lack of seriousness about the situation. “If this Captain Hector doesn’t approve of me, then… I don’t know what happened to that girl who was missing today but no one seemed to think it odd at all. And I don’t want to join her! That would be bad for both of us in this condition.” The words came out without thinking and I didn’t dwell on them any further, rushing to try and convey the gravity of the situation.

“Heh, ok, ok.” Rose slowly sat back up in her seat. “Missing girl from your group; that does sound serious. So you flash some magic for Captain Hector and prove you can do it, right? Weren’t you practising how to do that for a week? Surely you’re not worse than this girl who didn’t make the cut.”

“There’s two problems with that: I don’t remember how good she was and I don’t really have practice with actually doing magic.”

“Mhm, mhm,” Rose hummed as she nodded thoughtfully. “And what, pray tell, were you doing for the week of secret training?”

“I was just barely getting a grasp on channeling my own mana, or soul, or whatever. I thought I was decent at it, but it was nothing like the others could do. I should have taken Tobian more seriously when he told me others train for years to become proficient in it.”

The mention of that name soured the last bit of levity in Rose’s demeanour and I felt a chill as the imaginary sun overhead was partially concealed by equally imaginary clouds. Unfortunately, the chill was less imaginary than preferred.

“Alright,” she tutted, “then let’s see what you’re up against.”

“Woah!” I whirled as the world around me spun and I felt nauseous as light and darkness blurred and spun around me. My hands shot to my head as I frantically clutched, my neck feeling like it was about to unscrew from the motion around me. Bile rose in my throat as I tried to stumble with legs I could no longer control in a desperate bid for stability, not that the ground didn’t betray me either.

Then everything was different. Still grassy, and a spattering of trees, but with little enclosures of rocks around them. I tried to look around but couldn’t move, though the walls that rose around me looked familiar enough to be recognized.

Rose! I’m back in the courtyard! I tried to shout it, alarmed to not see her anywhere.

“Yeah, I’m showing you a memory. I can do that, if you don’t recall the past few nights,” I heard her voice grumble, disembodied and all around me. “This time it’s yours.”

Suddenly figures popped into place around me. I tried again to move, to look around, but my eyes stayed locked as if guided on their own track. Clearly this was a bit different than Rose’s ‘memory’ that I had been repeatedly subjected to, but it was close enough. What I did see though was similar to feeling accurate. Some of the figures were blobby, with few features other than their general shape, but I saw in front of me a short girl. The one who had been missing.

Why are some things so blurry? I asked in my mind, unable to say it aloud.

“Probably because you weren’t paying attention. That’s kind of important,” Rose sassed me back. “Now shush, this is the important part!”

“Tabitha Flamel.” Scolffice called out. “You may begin.”

The girl nodded as she held out her arms, raising them to forty-five degree angles from her sides. In an instant, she flicked each and they surged with mana. Both my past and present self paled as she took no time at all to channel it, the movement of her soul instantaneous. It was clear why her arms were held in such a way as flames danced their cacophonous march from her fingertips to her elbows, destroying her shadow and singeing the glass under her. She took one step, then another, maintaining concentration while moving, as if showing off that she could. It hardly seemed necessary though as she swung, spinning a half turn and hurling the flame from one hand through the air. It soared the distance without dwindling, slamming into the first target in an explosion of flame that quickly died out.

She didn’t stop, not even admiring her handiwork as she already turned to the higher target. Her other arm swung, directed higher, as she

“Very good, Tabitha,” Scolffice responded in his same monotonous tone before reading the next name.

“How did you forget THAT!?” Rose questioned in my mind, incredulous.

I started to answer but was stopped by the returning sense of vertigo as the world spun and changed. I crouched and reached, my throat starting to burn as I realized that vomiting in a dream was possibly a real thing. I felt my fingers wrap around something and I clung to it, only to find myself

Rose blinked at me. “Well?”

“I don’t know.” I looked for an excuse. “There were a bunch of us there; she didn’t stand out, as impressive as that was. Also, can you just see my memories?” I asked, getting sidetracked as a bit of worry crept into the back of my mind.

“No.” She shook her head and I felt a small flood of relief. “I can pinpoint where they are but I was seeing it for the first time there; I can’t seem to view them on my own.”

I nodded. “Seems useful though.”

“Would be clearer if you remembered better, however.” She grimaced. “And you might have trouble recalling the finer details when you’re awake, but it’s something.” She nodded thoughtfully. “But you said she didn’t stand out. Can you do something like that?” she asked, her tone expectant of the desired answer.

“No.”

Her already neutral face fell. “Well we got a problem then!” she exclaimed.

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” I reiterated, slapping the table. “And now that we know what standard I’m up against, that’s even worse!”

“Then practise!” Her hands flapped up and down like a deranged bird. “And why are we yelling!?”

“Because I’m panicking!” Addressing that actually helped, if only for a second of self-reflection and calming, not that that fixed the issue. “And I don’t really have a ton of time to practice before he returns tomorrow.”

“Sure you do,” she said with a shrug. “Right here.”

“You mean, here in this dream?”

“Sure! You have time, and there’s plenty of space to practise. You probably only need one good trick to show him. So what can you do?”

I blanked, or at least I would have if I have something to blank on. In earnest, I had nothing, and I could see that Rose realized that just from looking at me. “Ok…” She wasn’t fully dissuaded. “Let’s just see what you can do. Just try throwing fire like Tabitha did. Doesn’t have to be impressive, just functional.”

I nodded, figuring an attempt was worth the effort. I held out a hand as I tried to channel mana through my body. I focused, concentrating on the flow, the ebb and swell as it felt like as it pulsed from within me and concentrated in my extremities.

Nothing came.

“I… can’t do it,” I sighed, dejected.

“Sure you can, I know it,” she cheered me on, clearly misunderstanding what I meant.

“No, I mean, my magic isn’t working.”

“What? What do you mean it’s not working!? I’m right here!” Rose panicked.

“I don’t think I can do it in a dream. It must only be possible if you’re, well…”

“...Not conscious?” she finished for me.

“Yeah.” I looked down, feeling guilty at that. “Scolffice said something about the magisoul only being strong if it’s in the subconscious? Though I think that implies that I have to be conscious since he really put an emphasis on that,” I tried to reason out.

“Ok, ok, so I just have to be unconscious,” Rose said with a nod. I didn’t know why she took a knee before she completely lay down in the grass as if to take a nap. A pillow materialized under her head, almost identical to the one she used to lay on, perhaps just slightly larger.

“Rose, are you… sleeping?”

“I’m trying,” she grumbled, sounding as annoyed as if I disturbed genuine slumber. “Just give me a moment and then try again.”

I sighed but indulged her, uncertain if it were possible, but waiting until her softly closed eyes were as relaxed as the rest of her body. I concentrated again, calling my mana to flow through the second soul within me, even as she lay right in front of my feet.

Nothing.

“Rose…” I whispered, stooping down, not sure if it would be possible to hear me. “I don’t think this is working.”

“Of course it’s not working!” she exclaimed, sitting bolt upright. I jumped, startled by the explosive burst of movement from her. “I can’t sleep here.” She narrowed her eyes at me, huffing. “You took my sleep from me,” she pouted.

“You killed me.”

Those words resonated under her real ones, whether she meant them to or not.

“I… I’m sorry.” I swallowed the lump in my throat that still wouldn’t go away.

“Wait, no, I didn’t mean—” She cut herself off as what she had said sunk in. “Look, I said not to feel guilty about that anymore, ok?” she huffed, annoyed at neither of us. “It’s just a thing now. And we’ll get through it. So use me tomorrow, alright? Show them what we can do.”