Sorcerers were born wrong. It was something that Corvus had grown knowing and accepted early in their childhood. They experimented on insects, sometimes animals that scared them, and eventually they turned to the other children that they grew up around.
Murdering their parents with a spell that turned their insides into their outsides had simply been another day for them.
Even so, there were lines that Corvus did not cross. They tried to curb their more carnal desires, when they went by Alessa and tried to be a simple thief and occasional assassin. They had even fallen in love, once, although Reaver had no interest in them. Despite their abilities, they let that one lie, which was a line that Corvus had drawn for themselves.
As they stood outside of the room in which Valenne was held captive, these thoughts permeated Corvus through a new layer. They were actually afraid of what they might see inside.
They jumped when their familiar let out a string of quiet mewling. An alarm set up to warn them. With a sigh, they stepped away from the door and walked back towards their workshop. They and Vos’iin stopped in the hallway when their eyes met.
“So, is she working for Cromwell or what?” Corvus asked.
“She has only woken once,” Vos’iin replied. He was less irritable since acquiring the elf. “It was rather short, and she did not talk.”
“That serum was quite diluted. Maybe she has anemia or something?”
“Perhaps.”
Vos’iin passed them by then, unlocking the door to where he stored Valenne and then entering without allowing Corvus a glance inside. Alone again, they entered their workshop, closed the door, and then put their own key in the lock. Something was wrong, and they hadn’t the expertise to understand it, which led them to wonder if someone else did.
Initially they gripped the emerald around their neck.
Foolish, thought Corvus. They could not bother the sorceress herself.
“Valcoth,” commanded Corvus through a whisper. “Can you tell me if Raker is at the demesne?”
Several minutes later she was given a response. This was par for the course if the shadow was not already attached or actively seeking an individual.
Yes. Have you need of him?
“I do. Can you ask him what he felt from Veleria when she attacked him?”
While they waited, they started moving some things around, hovering over the bag in which held Alk’Hath’s gifted source. They could feel the source. The leylines. Sorcerers could feel magic from the day they were born.
So why was Valenne able to pull enough power to conjure fire without disrupting the realm? Without even so much as hinting at leyline use?
The next time Vos’iin stepped out they would have to investigate for themselves. Regardless of what he had done to her.
Raker was unsure, but Veleria had embers coming from her skin and hair. In the moments before Cromwell intervened, he said that Veleria was pulling magic into herself. It was not from the leylines.
“Insane,” mumbled Corvus. But it was a start. “Where was she getting it from…?”
Then a thought crossed their mind. They left the room, heading into the one beside Adrian’s holding. The man wouldn’t talk. Hadn’t. They wouldn’t get an answer out of him, but from his things? Perhaps.
Rummaging through his belongings, Corvus began to grow desperate. It was an absolutely insane idea.
Clothes for men and women were piled around them now. His weapons, his arrowheads. There was one thing missing. An artifact that his father had procured in the years that Corvus had still walked among them. One that was passed down to his son.
The Mask of Many Faces.
“Even if…” Corvus trailed off. “Even if you have it, that doesn’t explain enough, Veleria. You were dead, and I know you weren’t a sorceress.”
They stared at the mess surrounding them. Their thoughts were chaos now.
“A shooting star made of fire. Corpses turned to ash, and Veleria was resurrected somehow. Probably the same night.” They picked up a dress in their hands. It was not the style that Adrian preferred on his women. Instead, it was quite modest. “Witches and wizards are not made in a year. It takes decades for so fine a control like Valenne displayed.”
Standing up, Corvus held their arms and glanced around the otherwise empty room.
The realm felt different somehow. Now there were more mysteries surrounding them than ever before, and Corvus realized that it scared them.
They needed more time to think on all of this.
While the sorcerer contemplated, in another room Vos’iin merely caressed the cheek of the elven woman. Before him, in the dark, she had been tightly restrained to a chair. Far more than Corvus had done to their original captive.
He would have preferred something more sophisticated but he hadn’t the materials. For the time being this would have to do until they could return back home.
While he admired her, within the guise of Valenne it was Caellach that remained conscious. Being tied up meant nothing to him, nor to Veleria although she was unreachable for the time being. The shock of seeing Vos’iin had taken her out.
Instead, he took this time, ignoring Vos’iin, to observe, to listen, and feel for Adrian as much as he could. Knowing the origin of their captor meant they were likely in the right place. Even so, there were factors to consider. He could kill them both, Vos’iin and Corvus. Burn them to ash.
Did Veleria want that? Would she? Would she look at him like she had when he showed her who he was?
Caellach realized it was much the same look that Edgar had given him. He didn’t want that.
This was the longest he had been in control. There was no one to fight with him for it, and while he did worry for Veleria and her state of being, it was also that Caellach found he could exercise his own will far more readily.
Centuries spent within the isolated void of space had changed him. For the past year he had merely focused on molding Veleria’s body into one he could recognize. One that could hold and sustain him.
He kept their eyes closed, even as Vos’iin moved his palm down to their shoulder. The dark elf would leave soon enough. He touched them, admired them, and then left when he was done. He was waiting for them to wake, but Caellach had no intention of revealing his lucidity until it was necessary.
Once the elf was gone Caellach was able to focus. Feeling out magic was unnecessary here. There was the sorcerer, but Vos’iin and Adrian were both mortal.
They gave off heat.