The Darkest Magic

blended with the local vegetation filled his lungs. He loved the summer and the hours in the evenings with his friends.
Jolina stood beside him, staring into the depths of the pool. “Show me what you can do.”
Cormac smiled and squatted down at the river’s edge. Deep breaths again, and he built the opening in his mind to allow the magic to flow. Waiting just a moment, he waved his palm over the water’s edge.
The water crystallized and became a translucent sheet of white ice. It extended a few inches into their swimming hole, but it was a delightful sight in the heart of summer. As the power dissolved, the warm water claimed the intrusive ice.
“I try to feel how you do that every time.” Jolina’s words were hushed and hesitant. It wasn’t like the young woman who had spent so many years with Cormac.
“I think you’re trying too hard, Jolina. The first time I found I could do something special, the magic came to me. It wasn’t a push or a pull.”
To prove his point, he created flickers of light around them. He envisioned a small flight of fireflies, but it was actual flames dancing around them and reflecting off the pool’s surface.
“Hey, do you guys hear that whispering?” Raham asked.
“What whispering?” Maren stood up and looked toward the surrounding trees. Her family owned this land, and everyone in Densen knew it.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Jolina said. All the confidence returned to her voice.
One of the strange lessons they learned as they discovered magic is how much their senses amplified when using arcane power. If anyone would have found someone closing in on the group, it would have been Cormac. He’d been the one channeling magic. Just in case, he relinquished his control on the flickering lights and concentrated on the surrounding grove.
Nothing.
“There, again. I can’t make out the words.”
“There’s nothing out here but us, Raham,” Cormac said. “I was just using magic,” he glanced over at Jolina to catch her wince, “and I couldn’t hear anything in the woods.”
Cormac clamped his flow of magic and came back to the ordinary world of gloomy light, gurgling rivers, and swaying trees in the shadows.
“That was the creepiest thing. I thought someone was talking to me. Or trying to,” Raham said. “I couldn’t make out the words.”
“If you let me use my magic more often, maybe I could’ve translated for you,” Maren said.
She was still mad at Cormac, but he wouldn’t let her shape this evening’s flow. “I don’t think I’ve seen the river run this high in years.”
“Good for the crops,” Jolina said. The group settled and watched leaves fall into the water, swirl at the edge of the swimming pool, and then find their way into the flowing current. “Can you guys help me try again?”
Maren rolled her eyes, and Raham groaned. Cormac slid closer to her. “Why is this so important to you?”
“Because. Look at the three of you. Each of you can do something amazing. Or a lot of amazing with just a few thoughts. I’m stuck here as the… normal one.”
Cormac slid his hands into hers. Although most of the laborers in the fields worked for her parents, she was no stranger to hard work. Sowing and reaping needed every able body, and she had the callouses to prove her worth. But she was pretty in every way.
“Close your eyes and let everything else flow away. Listen to the sound of the river and its unending course,” he said.
Wrinkles left her face, and her cheeks smoothed. Too many times, she grasped to find something that her face scrunched like she tasted sour milk. Today, she relaxed. But Cormac couldn’t sense anything.
“What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do this?” Jolina asked.
Maren joined the pair and linked her hands with both Cormac and Jolina. Cormac immediately noticed the deep reservoir of her strength. Magic swelled against her boundaries. Where Cormac embodied patience, Maren probed and pushed.
Jolina’s eyes fluttered open, but she didn’t break contact with their hands. “What was that?”
“Something we haven’t tried before. Cormac likes to teach, but sometimes you just need a boot in the pants.” Maren smiled and looked into Jolina’s eyes. “Raham, join us.”
Raham’s bare feet approached like a prisoner to the executioner's block. Each painful step crushed Cormac’s sensitive hearing. Cormac broke the circle long enough to allow Raham’s hand to fit within the group.
Cormac sensed Raham’s nuanced power trickling into the circle of friends. Maren pushed her power again as Cormac provided the foundation for the work. In their months working with Jolina, they never tried all three of them. What if she couldn’t touch the arcane world?
Cormac brushed those thoughts aside. He discovered his new abilities only a few months ago, and Maren and Raham soon followed. Jolina would have her day. Cormac focused again on the circle.
The group tried again and completed the flow. Jolina’s heart raced under the touch as she found her source of power. It was raw and powerful, and Jolina broke the bond.
Flames danced from hand to hand as her face reflected the newfound power and released its inner light.
“I can feel everything. Everything.” Her words were a hushed race of thoughts.
Words couldn’t express the powers or the feelings in each of the mages. Even with a shared experience, they could never describe what magic’s flow meant to each of them. Now, they didn’t have to.
With the circle broken, Raham put his forefingers against his temples and rubbed vigorously. He shook his head, trying to banish something. Maren stood with her arms crossed, savoring the moment of power within the entire group. Cormac cataloged what each of them looked like at this moment.
A branch broke near the edge of the clearing, and Jolina extinguished her lights.
“What witchcraft do we have here?”

Three


Curse
Two guards pushed aside low-hanging branches and entered their sanctuary. These weren’t the local militia. The four would have recognized anyone from the local community serving their military duty. These were regulars from local