“Thank you, boss.”
The sentry watched the man scurry around, repacking his sack and hefting it over his shoulder. As the man headed up the pass, Seren refocused his attention down the road and didn’t notice the backward glance he received from the scavenger, nor the calculating look that marked the man’s eye.
Venadrin returned his attention forward as he shambled slowly forward, up the pass, keeping his head down even as his eyes looked around to take in as much as he possibly could.
*****
Elan limped over to the door of the small farmhouse, stepping out onto the porch and coming to a stop near where Kaern was sitting with one foot propped up on a large stone as he leaned back against the wall.
“Feeling better?” he asked, not opening his eyes or looking up.
“A little.” She nodded.
He didn’t say anything more as she sat down cross-legged beside him.
“Tell me about the Dreaming,” she said finally, after a long moment’s silence had passed.
Kaern didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You know most of what I know, lass. All that I have on you is experience. Give it a few years, with your talent, you’ll have me beat.”
She shook her head. “But I don’t understand it!”
He laughed, a dry, barely amused sound.
“Lass, no one understands the Dreaming. Not me, not you, not anyone,” he told her. “It’s the very antithesis of understanding. The ground can change in an instant, the law of gravity is more of a suggestion, and anything you imagine can haunt you at a moment’s notice. The Dreaming is magic at its purest, right down to the incomprehensible chaos of the universe.”
Elan barely understood his words and didn’t comprehend his meaning at all, so she resisted the urge to ask for more explanations as she tried to decipher them.
Kaern seemed to understand that, however, and sighed softly.
“Magic is the core of the Dreaming, just as it is the core of the universe, lass. And magic? It can’t be taught; it can only be experienced. We’re not meant to understand it. It’s part of us, but it’s more than us too,” he told her. “Don’t worry too much about it. You’ll understand when the time comes.”
“What if I don’t?” she asked plaintively.
“Then you’ll be dead,” he told her with a calm certainty that more than slightly unnerved her.
Kaern didn’t elaborate, because he honestly didn’t think she would be able to understand his confidence. He knew, however, deep down, that she wasn’t meant to farm or cook or do any other normal thing. This girl was on a different track, and she’d experience it for herself soon enough.
Magic called its own to task.
“It’s said…” he spoke again, eyes a little distant as he remembered his own lesson, so very long ago. “It is said that magic can create anything, except perhaps life, but life…life creates magic.”
“How?”
Kaern glanced at the girl, the semi-eager look on her face enough to bring a snort from his throat, save for the fact that it was the first thing she’d shown real interest in since he’d found her.
Not surprising, all things considered, but still…
“You know your magical elements, right, lass?”
Elan nodded. “Earth, air, water, and fire.”
“Right, but those are mere symbols. They mean more than what they say,” he told her. “Earth stands for the physicality of the universe, everything you can touch. Even the air you breathe is actually ascribed to the earth element, though most practicing mages don’t really understand that. Water, too, is of the earth element.”
“And fire?”
“Fire is a tricky one, even the flames of the real world. When you see something burn, you’re actually seeing an interaction of earth, fire, and air,” Kaern explained. “Earth provides the fuel, air powers the reaction, and fire is the energy released. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, however.”
Elan settled back, nodding seriously. Kaern did his best not to laugh in her face. The serious expression looked entirely out of place on the young teen’s visage.
“Alright, so earth is the physicality of the universe,” he said. “Fire is the counter to earth, the energy of the universe. The light of the sun, the heat of a flame, many other things that you would not yet understand. Energy is invisible, it cannot be seen, but we can see and feel its effects on the world. A fire heats you up, the sun lights the way, and so on. Understand?”
She nodded. He again did his best not to laugh at her. She didn’t understand, but that was okay.
“That brings us to the water element,” Kaern said. “Life. Humans, demons, plants, and animals…everything that lives is part of the water element. We are apart from the rest of the universe. We exist as a unique form and are here for a reason.”
“What reason?” Elan was leaning in again.
“To create air,” he answered. “The air element is magic. It cannot exist without life, but it must exist, and so we exist.”
Elan blinked, confused. “We only exist so magic can exist?”
“Precisely.”
“That can’t be. There has to be more to it than that.”
Kaern shook his head. “Not so far as I’ve learned, and I’ve been around a long time, child. There is no rhyme, nor reason, to life beyond what we create simply by existing.”
“That doesn’t make sense anyway,” she said, a little petulantly. “How can we create magic? Magic is everywhere, that’s what Pappa told me.”
“He was right. It exists in every part of the universe. It is the universe,” he told her. “Magic is created simply by observation. We see the universe as it could be, not as it is, and we make it so.”
“The world doesn’t look like I think it should be,” Elan scowled, eyes falling to the ground.
“Then observe a better version of it, be more determined than the enemy,” he told her. “It is your will against the wills of everyone else. Be more than your enemy. More implacable, more imaginative, more everything…”
“It can’t be that simple.”
Kaern laughed. “Simple? Child, do you have any idea what I’m saying? Simple. It’s completely impossible, child. It can’t be done.”
Elan scowled, eyes glaring into the dirt. “No. Not alone. We need a shared vision.”
Kaern smiled softly. “Now you have it, lass.”
“That’s why the demons are winning, isn’t it?” she asked. “They’re working toward a shared vision.”
Kaern nodded. “And humanity is split, weakening the Veil. The demons found a hole and pushed through it, widening it as they drove wedges into humanity.”
“Then we have to bring them back together,” Elan said softly, seriously.
“Easier said than done, but I wish you luck,” Kaern said as he got up, eyes focusing on some approaching men who were walking toward the house from the direction of the city. “For now, I have work of my own to do.”
Elan watched the dour-faced men as they walked past her into the house, following Kaern. She started to go in as well, but Simone was there, blocking her way.
“Not now,” the larger woman said, shaking her head. “This is for them.”
Elan scowled again, starting to feel like this had become her natural expression, and slumped against a tree root that had been upended and carved into a seat.
“Fine,” she mumbled, wishing she’d come up with something wittier.
*****
Kaern looked around the room as everyone settled in, seeing old and familiar faces for the first time in years. It was a mixed feeling, something he experienced often in his long life. Both the recognition of old times and the age that told him in no uncertain terms that those times were soon to be gone forever.
“You look good, Kaern.”
“So do you, Mikael.”