Chapter 20: Chapter 020 – Settlers III

The path out from the field of cleared trees was wide enough for a wagon. Tracks on either side of the path made the conclusion easy as to how the settlers were transporting the lumber. The path itself was simply packed dirt, divots had been filled in with a mixture of leaves, sticks, and rocks and then packed with more dirt. The result was a mishmash of pathing stretching out further than they could see and framed by trees on either side.

“They’ve been at it for a while,” Teyva said, filling the silence. Azrael had been quiet for a time since they had left the clearing, and it had begun to grate a little bit on Teyva. It wasn’t that she didn’t like silence, okay, well, she didn’t like silence. The truth was she was starting to like Azrael and it seemed like she was holding something back.

Azrael glanced over at her and cocked an eyebrow. Her expression was as hard as usual.

“What? Something on your mind?” Teyva asked.

“Do you have any more surprises you’d like to share?”

“Surprises?”

“Your arm, Teyva,” She gestured at Teyva’s right arm. Teyva looked at it, clenching and unclenching her hand. She grimaced and looked away; she had intentionally hidden her discovery of the new power from Azrael because the woman had already seemed so overwhelmed. Now Azrael didn’t trust that there weren’t more secrets up her sleeves. Teyva huffed, it wasn’t exactly fair now that she thought of it.

“Hold on a sec, you’ve already seen a lot of my ‘surprises’ but I barely know a thing about you,” She countered. Azrael paused and looked toward the road again, her stony face going still as she thought. After a few heartbeats, she nodded.

“Very well, what do you want to know?”

“How about that magic stuff you do, with the poems and all that,” Teyva said, wiggling her fingers as if she were casting a spell.

“Wind magic, the ‘poems’ you are referring to are incantations.”

“I thought your Aspect was the ‘Warden’,” Teyva said, “And that you can only have one aspect.”

“That’s right, only normal people can have one aspect,” Azrael said, giving her a sideways look. Teyva grunted and crossed her arms, waiting for further explanation. Azrael cleared her throat; “With enough time, anyone can learn to use magic. It is a skill, not a power derived from an aspect. Magic exists by the very fact that the aspects do.”

Now that got Teyva’s attention. Magic. Real magic. Spells and incantations and magic circles! She could just learn it, no special painful magic stone required. Now that was something she could get behind. She turned a greedy pair of eyes to Azrael but found a hand raised with Azrael shaking her head.

“I am not qualified to teach you, before you ask, I am sorry. Perhaps when we return to my home there will be someone willing to instruct you. I am sure the magi will find you fascinating, to say the least,” Azrael said, crushing Teyva’s hopes in one fell swoop. “Your turn, Teyva.”

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Teyva clicked her tongue and smirked; “Going back and forth are we?”

“Teyva,” Azrael growled.

“Okay! Fine, fine,” She held out her arm; “It lets me change my body parts into something I’ve seen before. Or into a weapon I have memorized. But to memorize the weapon I have to destroy it,” She shrugged; “It's a trade-off. But since it's part of my body my touch abilities work with it, like Chill Touch.”

“The ability that burned that man’s face,” Azrael confirmed.

Teyva fell silent, turning back to the path ahead of them. She still had mixed feelings about what had happened back there, even if it had been a moment of desperation. Even worse was the wolf she had finished off in the clearing.

“You are still struggling with causing death?” Azrael asked.

“Well, yeah, should I not be? I mean, I killed a person, and that wolf, he was beaten already,” Teyva said, rubbing her arms.

Azrael grabbed Teyva’s shoulder and stopped her, turning Teyva to face her. “Look at me.”

Teyva hesitated, then looked up. Azrael’s eyes were so green they almost looked like they were on fire. Azrael squeezed Teyva’s shoulders and then reached for the sword at her hip. “Hold this,

Teyva looked down at the weapon, then at Azrael, and took it not knowing where this was going. It was heavier than she expected, cold too. The grip was made of thick leather that seemed to mold to the shape of her hand. A prompt quickly appeared.

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