The Hermit, The Tower, The World (Vol.2 Complete)

26th of Inandyl - 4th Serrin (cont)

Calas moved to her side on the couch, as Serea held her stomach. At first he thought she might hurl with as pale as she became, and he didn't want to be in front of her if she did. Her gaze was unfocused though, like it was yesterday on the stairs. This time seemed worse by comparison.

Chou patted her neck delicately and made soothing sounds from Serea's shoulder opposite him. All Calas could think of was that he wanted to somehow fix his mistake, but what could he do, though? It's not like he could take back his words.

He wondered how to get through to her . He tried her name like last time, but she was too deep within her own mind, her hands gripping her middle. Calas waved a hand in front of her face, but her breathing was ragged now, and it was clear that she was spiraling.

She needed something solid to ground her, and Calas thought that Chou had the right idea. Carefully, he took one of her hands away from her middle and held it from the top. When nothing changed immediately, Calas leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear.

"Serea, there's nothing wrong with you."

She blinked at that. Once. Twice.

Quickly she turned her head toward him at her ear. Her eyes were present again and he felt the tug of a smile, relieved to behold the waves of emotion that reflected in those pools. It welled up there, but hadn't fallen.

"You can do and see the most amazing things, so don't compare yourself to those that can't," Calas continued. For emphasis, he squeezed her hand that was nestled within his own.
Her gaze shifted down at their hands as if just noticing the presence of his. Nearly pulling away, he stilled the motion when he felt the tears fall on their hands as she gained control of her breath again.

Calas swallowed his nerves and took a deep breath, too, so he could calm his own emotions for her benefit. They were so close that he could smell her honey-sweet scent. It mixed with a saltiness that somehow reminded him of the ocean. The scent did more to calm him than controlling his breath so he focused on that as a comfortable smile crept onto his face.

"Can you see it?" Her voice was desolate, devoid of any kind of emotion. Her eyes, though, were a tempest when they found his again. The deep ocean blue in them, alive and swirling, caught him off guard.

His voice was low and just for her since they were so close now. "Some. Definitely my own, but it looks nothing like your drawings to me."

He watched her breathe, her eyes lulling, but still facing toward him. It was a struggle to remain still when every instinct was telling him to brush his lips against hers. The moment passed by oh so slowly, but he remained perfectly still. Calas didn't trust himself to move even an inch and was relieved to see her watching him again; all his impulses retreated under her watchful gaze.

"Show me," she said and there was a demand in her voice that startled him.

It was not as if others hadn't asked him to perform spells and magic before. At Court this was a normal occurrence and so many scribes enjoyed showing off whatever it was they could do. For some reason, the way she said it made it more personal, almost intimate.

Maybe it was just the close proximity to her or the scent of honeyed sea salt that filled his senses. Either way, he couldn't refuse her. So he untangled his hand from hers and concentrated his mana within his closed fist in front of them.

The snake came alive under his skin as he formed and shaped the mana within his hand. He turned it over, opening his fist and revealed to her a small shadowy orb floating in his palm.

Serea stared at it, a quiet wonder in her eyes and Calas watched her do so for a moment, intrigued as to what it was that she saw. He glanced back toward the magic, though, when he felt her touch on his hand, tracing some of the inky black lines on the snake that coiled around it under his skin. He figured she was following something specific as she attempted to push back his sleeve to follow whatever it was she saw.

Calas' face twitched at her casual regard for touching his skin, but he dared not pull away. Besides the obvious reason that he was holding a spell, his curiosity overruled his discomfort in this case. Tilting his head toward her ear again, not wanting to interrupt her, he whispered, "Tell me what you see."

She hesitated, her finger paused on his skin as her voice struggled.

"Um, the scales. They glow and pulse faintly as mana moves through it…" Serea traced a patch of snake scales down his wrist and he suppressed the instinct to pull away. "They really do move. Not just the mana within, but the ink really moves!" She turned her head toward him, but quickly looked away, back to the snake that coiled around his hand.

"Uh, the mana pattern is the same as the orb and um, it's linked through the threads in the scales." Her soft voice stumbled and he could tell this was not a topic she usually discussed. Calas felt a little better knowing that this situation made her just as uncomfortable as he was.

He was impressed, though, that she could see and know that the mana within the snake was the focus for this bit of magic. Although, he shouldn't have been surprised, there had been a small sliver of doubt in him. Now, he wanted to see how observant she really was based on changes.

Wordlessly, he shifted the orb from a wispy shadow to the pitch black of void; the absence of light. Serea gave a startled gasp as it changed and her hands finally retreated from his.

"The threads…changed. Like the pattern reversed…" She started as she traced a different pattern in the opposite direction on his wrist. "It's like the opposite of light…" she mused.

That was an odd way to put it from his perspective, but paid no mind as he expanded the void sphere he had made to encapsulate the two of them within the darkness of it. He could see her clearly in the magical haze of his own shadows, but could she?

Serea latched on to his arm as she found it in the dark, a small sound of shock escaping her. Calas smiled silently, but didn't utter a sound as she slowly relaxed her shoulders and her grip, but then, surprisingly, she peered back at him. Serea's eyes locked with his in the gloom and Calas narrowed his in confusion.

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That was an alarming twist. Maybe she is scared because she can feel me, but not see me? Calas doubted that was the case and the theory was soon disproved by her hand reaching out directly toward him. His brow furrowed with consternation as his unimpeded hand stopped hers at the wrist before reaching him.

"You can see me, can't you." His tone was amused and bewildered.

"I can see some of you." She responded casually as she turned from him in the dark to examine his arm, which held onto the spell and was still in her clutches. He released her hand near his chest, but instead of doing the same to his arm, she used both hands to pull back his sleeve to the elbow. He suppressed the flinch of his reflexes just barely. Calas' heart thundered.

"Well, the tattooed parts of you." She amended and he watched as her eyes darted over the snake that slithered around his arm. Her fingers delicately traced the mana that flowed just beneath his skin and the sensation made it difficult to concentrate on the simple cloaking spell he had performed hundreds of times.

Calas felt a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with mana. It was likely from the fact that no one had ever reacted this way to what was essentially, for lack of a better term, a black mark. Serea's oddly altruistic curiosity about his tattoos and his magic was a foreign concept to him.

"And your eyes," she turned only her head back toward him and locked eyes with him again.

The warmth grew a little more. Calas had never encountered anyone who could see through his shadows, even partially and he wasn't sure what to do about that. It was impressive, of course, but he felt there was also an uncomfortable implication there; that he could not hide from her.

With most anyone else, this would be a troublesome issue to deal with. Somehow, he felt differently about her, though. As her soft fingers grazed his skin, tracing the patterns on snake scales, he wondered what happened to the Solia and it made him worry about her fate all the more.

With a gesture no more than a twitch of his hand, the void sphere retracted back into his palm, the mana reabsorbed into his body with a closed fist. Calas sighed. It wasn't from exertion from the spell, but to try and stop his heart from pounding in his chest.

He settled back against the back of the couch and was surprised when Serea followed suit next to him, refusing to relinquish his arm. He smiled wistfully at her, unable to comprehend that someone would be so intent to keep him close, intriguing tattoos or no.

Serea glanced up from his arm then, an embarrassed flush appearing before his eyes on her cheeks and he felt his smile broaden.

"What?" She complained in a sullen tone.

Calas just shook his head. She really has no idea what she does to me. He thought, wanting to tell her so.

"You have an amazing gift, Serea," he said instead in a low rumble.

"Me?" She asked skeptically, lifting up his own arm as if to show him. "You have magical tattoos that move like living creatures and you can manipulate mana through them! I was born with this sight, but you are talented."

He chortled at her reaction, again, reveling in the idea that someone was interested in them; in him. He wasn't sure how to take it as it sounded very much like a real compliment. Instead of responding, Calas moved the topic away from him.

"So tell me more about weaving."

She finally let go of his arm as Chou fluttered down to her lap. Serea made stalling noises as Calas tucked his arm safely out of her grasp.

"What do you want to know?" She answered his question with a question and he smirked.

"How do you even manifest it?" Calas asked, thinking of those wicked sharp air knives.

"I don't know, I just think about it!" She blurted, her hands rose in the air in a frustrated motion before plopping down on her lap. Chou barely dodged the gesture as she took flight and fluttered haphazardly between them.

"Ok, so think about it. Walk me through it." Calas held a hand out for Chou and to his surprise, she landed softly on the back of his hand. Her antennae bobbed as her wings fluttered, but he wasn't sure what the signals meant.

"Fine, fine. First, I look for the threads I need."

"You search for them?"

"Yeah, and then I call them to me."

He raised both brows at her. "What? Like a dog? How do you call mana?" Calas chuckled.

"No! Not like a dog!" Serea paused, scrunching her nose as she thought about it. "Like you are linked to it. Like it's a part of yourself. And you pull it back into yourself, but not, physically. That is actually kind of dangerous…"

"You will them to you." Calas suggested and he found himself nodding as he thought he knew what she meant now. Especially when he found Chou nodding.

"Yeah. That makes sense." Serea sounded unsure, despite her words.

Laughing at the awkward response, he understood now how she can be so vicious and vengeful sometimes. You must have the will of cast iron. He thought with mirth.

"So you see these threads just all the time."

"Of course." She tried to demonstrate by forming a small spell. Unfortunately, Calas informed her that he could only see the effect of the spell after it manifested and wondered if the author of "Empires of Eld" had this much trouble with the Solia.

"Right." Serea started as Chou fluttered back to her lap and she shifted her gaze back to him. "Well, how do you do it, then?"

"Force mana through my body, using my tattoos as a focus."

"Just that simple, huh?" Serea scoffed as she gave him that adorably pouty expression he had grown accustomed to last term. Calas smiled at the visage of what he called vicious mouse.

"Yeah, it's that simple."

"How many do you have? Tattoos I mean." Her voice lightened considerably and he was startled that her sarcasm was kept to the one comment only.

"Five, at the moment." He stated slowly. Had anyone ever asked him that before at Court? He suddenly couldn't recall.

"That's kind of a lot. Do they all move? Do they hurt?" her questions became more and more excitable and he honestly wasn't certain how he felt about her mountain of questions.

The ink was a symbol of the Syndicate, but it was also a part of him, like the blood that flowed through his veins. Explaining that could be dangerous. He would have to be careful.

"Compared to my uncles, it's not actually very many. Unlike the majority of them, all of mine move, well, mostly all, but it's kind of rare. It depends on how the person responds to the ink, according to Marrek. That's our artist. To get one isn't a horrible experience, but it's not exactly a pleasant one either. They heal quickly, though, and then they don't hurt at all."

"What are they?" she hugged her knees to her chest with her head tilted toward him. Was she actually interested? He felt a subtle itch in the back of his mind that told him he should be more careful, more guarded.

He searched her deep blue eyes for an answer and found her smile. It was genuine and endearing and it made his chest ache. It reminded him how different they were, but maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. In the end, what did it matter that she knew about the ink on his body?

"A snake." Calas started, but paused when she clicked her tongue at him and he flinched, half expecting her to swat at him. "Give me a minute! A bear, a panther, a wolf, and a dragon."

Calas omitted the shape-shifting mark of Orendell. That wasn't ink and it would likely just scare her off. He figured it would really ruin what had turned out to be an enjoyable morning if she learned that he might transform into an actual beast instead of just being called one.

Besides that, he had never felt more calm in her presence before. Was it her honey and sea salt scent? Her smile that diffused him? Whatever it was, he couldn't recall a time when he felt more at home, which was strange considering they were in a watch tower on the edge of a mountain.

"What's next then? To add to your menagerie?" Serea asked with a smile.

"Some kind of bird I suspect," he thought about the hawk and the owl and suppressed a shudder disguised as a shrug.

"Will you show me?" Her eyes went wide as if she only realized what she had said after the fact. "The bird, I mean. If, you know, if it's in a decent spot…"

Calas chuckled at the blush on her cheeks as Chou fluttered back to perch on her shoulder with a trill. "Sure. They move, remember."

This time, it was Calas' stomach that growled loudly and after a moment of silence, they both laughed.

"Care to get a bite to eat, Serea?" At Chou's trill, Calas added, "Yes, of course you, too, Chou."

"Yeah," Serea grinned and it lit up her face, "I could really go for some cheese right now."