The Will-Breaker

With slow movements, Meleng carefully traced the equation onto the candleholder, then whispered the command word to activate it. The candleholders had such shallow bowls, and Meleng had been going through so many candles. The wax kept building up and overflowing onto the books. Hopefully, this spell would hold the wax back.

Tracing spells with his offhand was not as difficult as he'd feared. Although he was effectively writing, he was doing it without having to manipulate a pen, and that made a huge difference. He had never before realised just how much writing with an instrument complicated things.

Taking notes on what he was reading, however, was another matter. Just glancing over them now, they were a mess. Many of his letters were little more than squiggles, barely legible. Some weren't even legible at all. He had always prided himself on his legible handwriting. Even Sini had commented on how neat his writing was. Not any more.

Both Sini and Feviona had been assisting him, primarily with carrying books, and other tasks that needed more than one arm, but writing notes was something they couldn't help him with, Feviona because she couldn't read the languages most of the books were written in. As for Sini… She had tried a few times, but her reading and writing abilities were just not up to it. She was trying though, and he was grateful for that.

Things would be so much simpler if he had his arm back.

With a sigh, he silently scolded himself for thinking such a thing yet again. He had to scold himself for that a lot. Obviously, it wasn't working. It had only been a little over two weeks, of course, and he knew he couldn't expect to adjust in so short a time, but nevertheless, he needed to get used to it. There was no going back, and he had to accept that.

He closed his eyes, and kept them closed for several seconds. When he opened them again, nothing had changed. Not surprising.

With a shake of his head, he looked back to his latest acquisition. When he'd found this book in the stacks a little while ago, he'd been super excited. This was an amazing find. Technically a "forbidden text", he couldn't believe his luck. He'd thought they'd all been destroyed.

"Yes," Pedrin had said, when Meleng had pointed it out, "we don't advertise that we have that. They'd make us burn it otherwise."

On the Summoning of Daemons by Stark Drago.

All the writings of the Dragon had been ordered burned by Martan the Conqueror, and according to the history books, every copy of everything he had ever written was found and destroyed. Meleng had always doubted that was completely true, but he'd never expected to stumble across a surviving copy. It was doubly fortuitous it was on the topic he was looking for, too. He should be super excited, and he had been.

Unfortunately, there was another problem he'd been having lately: mood swings. He'd been super excited, but now, as he looked at the cover of the book, all that went through his head was disgust. He didn't want to read this. Something he didn't like to think much about was that Stark Drago was his great great great...nine greats total...grandfather. He didn't go out of his way to hide his name, but it could cause problems when people recognised it. Luckily, most people didn't. They knew the name, "The Dragon", but that was it. And the ban on the family practising magic had been for ten generations. Meleng was the eleventh. It was perfectly legal.

But he still didn't like that the Dragon was his ancestor, and at the moment, he had no desire to read anything written by that vile killer.

Unfortunately, he'd had very little luck finding anything else helpful. Many texts mentioned demons, but few had any information beyond that they were servants of Night. A few mentioned there were different kinds of demons, and he had collected a small list of the types, but none of them seemed to fit what they were facing.

He couldn't even be sure what they were facing were demons. They only had the one foretelling to go by, and it was still conceivably possible that was referring to something different.

So there was no choice but to read the book by his horrid ancestor.

He opened it and began to read.

The study room door swung open with such force, it caused the candles to flicker and several pages to flip over.

"Melly!"

After a moment of surprise, Meleng breathed a sigh of relief. Sini's voice was like music.

He closed the book as she leaned on the desk. "Guess what!"

He stared into her eyes. "You look beautiful."

Her face reddened slightly, and she smiled. "That wasn't it, but thank you anyway. Guess again!"

"Um…" He looked over her, trying to see if there was anything notable about how she looked, but she changed her clothes and hairstyle almost daily, so he doubted it was anything like that. "I…"

"Go on, guess!"

"You completed a new painting?"

She shook her head, the smile on her face widening.

"I don't know."

With a squeal, she reached into a pocket in the folds of her dress, and pulled out a familiar-looking pouch, which she placed on top of the Dragon's book.

"Is that…?"

She nodded. "I used it! It brought me here!"

Meleng picked up the small velvet pouch—the one Agernon kept the Pearl of Sestin in—and struggled to open it one-handed. With assistance from Sini, he got it open, and she shook the Pearl out into his hand.

"You used it?" he said. "As in, you made it work?"

She nodded multiple times. "It was weird. It kind of felt like a whoosh, and I was here!"

"But...how? We've been trying and…"

"I can confirm she appeared out of nowhere by the entrance a few minutes ago." Pedrin was now standing in the doorway. "I barely had time to react before she rushed down here to you."

"Out of my way." Agernon pushed past Pedrin and up to the desk.

"I also took the liberty of informing Agernon," Pedrin said.

Agernon snatched the Pearl from Meleng's hand, and turned on Sini, holding it in front of her face. "You used this?"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Sini nodded.

"This that I've been slaving over for months with no results and you used it, what, first try?"

Sini continued nodding, not having stopped from the first time he'd asked.

"What the hell did you do?"

Sini stopped nodding and shrugged. "Just what Felitïa told me to do."

"Which was?"

"She said to imagine a place I wanted to go to, and she said it should be a place I know well and is safe, so I thought I'd come here. I've been here lots now and I know—well, the entrance, which is why I went there, and I also wanted to see—"

"That was all?" Agernon said.

"Oh, no. She also said to think of a word, any word I wanted. I don't think she thought it would work, and I didn't really think it would work either, but I wanted to try. Everybody else has gotten to try."

Agernon prodded her shoulder with the Pearl. "What was the word?"

"Oh. Periwinkle."

Agernon lowered his hand and scowled, glaring at Sini. "Periwinkle?"

She nodded.

"The command word is periwinkle?"

"It's my favourite colour! I was really surprised when it worked because most people have never even heard of periwinkle, but I guess that makes it a good word for a secret command word."

Agernon turned aside, muttering, "The blasted command word is periwinkle."

Sini grinned at Meleng. "I did good, didn't I?"

"You did amazing," Meleng said, and her smile somehow grew even more. Gods, he loved her smile.

"Shush, both of you." Agernon turned back to face them again, holding the Pearl out in the palm of his hand. "Right, let's give this a go then. Periwinkle. Of all the possible command words…" He sighed and stared intently at the Pearl.

"I held it up right in front of my face," Sini said, starting to mimic what she'd done.

"I said shush!"

"Sorry." Sini clamped her mouth shut, and shot an annoyed glance at Meleng.

He gave her a commiserating look.

Agernon stared at the Pearl for a while, then traced an equation too small for Meleng to read on it, and then stared at it some more. "It's not working. Are you sure that's everything you did?"

"Well, I did try to tell you I held it up higher so it was right in front of my face. I also held it between my thumb and forefinger."

Agernon raised the Pearl higher and held it between his thumb and forefinger. "Anything else?"

Sini shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Right, shush then." After staring at the Pearl again for a while, Agernon shook his head. "Still not working." He traced more equations on it.

"Maybe there's a recharge period," Meleng suggested.

Agernon grunted and traced more equations on the Pearl.

Sini leaned over closer to Meleng. "What's a recharge period?" she whispered.

"It means you have to wait some amount of time between using it."

"I said shush!"

As Agernon went back to staring at the Pearl, Sini stuck her tongue out at him. Luckily, he didn't see.

After another few moments, Agernon groaned and lowered the Pearl, closing his hand around it. "I'm not getting anything from it. You might be right about the recharge period, lad." He grabbed the pouch from the desk and stuffed the Pearl back in it. "We'll try again in a couple hours." He turned and headed for the door.

"Oh," Sini said, "Felitïa wanted me to tell you that she wants to put the Pearl in the Staff."

"What a stupid idea," Agernon said. "And she knows it."

"Well, that was before I got it to work, so she might not want it anymore."

"It was still a dumb idea. She's just impatient. Always has been." He pushed past Pedrin. "Two hours!"

Sini stuck her tongue out at him again as he left.

Pedrin bowed to Sini. "I'll send word to the palace that you're here, your Highness."

"Okay," Sini said, "but I did tell her I was going to try to come here, so she's probably guessed already. She's really smart and doesn't have dumb ideas."

Pedrin bowed his head. "Of course, your Highness. I'll just send it as a courtesy."

"Okay."

Pedrin bowed again, and left, closing the door behind him.

"He's always so mean," Sini said, coming around the desk.

"Pedrin?" Meleng joked.

Sini stuck her tongue out at him. "No, silly! You know who I mean."

Meleng nodded. "Yes, I do, and that's Agernon. He's a good person overall, just grumpy. Old men get grumpy."

"Are you going to be like that when you're old?"

Meleng grimaced. "I don't know. Maybe? Hopefully not."

Sini put her arms around him and kissed his forehead. "I'll still love you if you're grumpy, but I'll be grumpy right back."

Meleng chuckled. "Deal." He put his arms around her and...damn. He put his one arm around her, and the stump of his other one just sort of moved in the right direction.

They kissed, and he felt that thrill run through him again. It hadn't always happened since he'd lost his arm, but he was glad it was there now. He was so proud of her! She'd figured out the Pearl when nobody else could. It was a bit weird that the command word happened to be periwinkle, but she was right that it made for a good secret word. He couldn't imagine anyone else considering the word, even if they'd heard of it. He certainly hadn't.

When they parted, he sat back down at the desk. "Want to help me read this new book?"

"Okay!" She sat in his lap and put her arms around his shoulders.

He smiled at her. "I can ask Pedrin to bring another chair."

"No, I want to sit here."

He chuckled. "Okay." This was going to be a bit awkward, as she was on his left side, meaning he had to reach around her to get his pen and notes. He could ask her to switch sides, but then she'd end up against the stump of his right arm, which would still be painful. It was better she stay where she was, awkward or not. "You can turn pages for me while I take notes."

She nodded eagerly.

"And I'll need you to dip the pen in the ink for me because I can't reach the pot with you in the way."

She nodded again, then kissed him.

Meleng put his pen down and leaned into it. Reading was clearly going to go slowly, but he didn't care. He was looking forward to reading this book again. Gods, she was amazing!