Even as she realized that, the spell stones reacted. With the same "magic sense" she felt the sudden vast structure around them come alive. The invisible sluggish current that she had noticed before began to move faster, surging toward the standing giants. When it reached the monoliths, the violet gleam of magic crawled up the spell tracings. So close to the end of the visible spectrum, the effect was at first barely noticeable, and slowly grew to unmistakable. As she stared, the air around the monoliths started to distort, not from heat or light, but some other potential that echoed back on her "magic sense."
Allow travel through worlds… allow power to cross worlds.
He was talking about the quantum effects on a hyperphase level. Windwolf had the ability to jump magic from this point to his location. Judging by what she just felt, Windwolf would preform a trigger and it would bridge the gap between him and the spell stones, allowing the power to jump back, along the quantum level resonance.
Triggered and waiting, the massive power pressed invisibly against her.
Windwolf gestured and intoned another guttural vowel, and the power slowly collapsed. He indicated that she should be silent and still and, afraid that she might trigger something, she held motionless.
"You will be taught how to use these." Windwolf broke the silence when he deemed it safe to speak again.
Tinker let out the "oh wow" she'd been holding in. "I had no idea that elves could control magic like this! I've never seen anyone do anything like that in Pittsburgh."
"Only domana can summon magic. Only Wind Clan domana can call on these stones."
Somehow the monoliths were keyed to a specific genome, so the domana of one clan alone could set up the correct resonance to match the stones.
"Do other clans have their own stones?"
"Yes. Each clan normally has several. There are four other sets of Wind Clan stones. There is a range limit of one mei."
A mei was an odd number, nearly a thousand miles in length, and yet only rough in estimate, as if the exact distance wasn't important. It never made sense as a measurement before now.
She looked at her hands, the remembrance of the power still lingering like the memory of pain. "You made it so I can call magic?"
"Yes, but it takes a great deal of learning."
"Can I do it by mistake?"
He shook his head. "The triggers are quite complex on purpose."
That was comforting. Nothing like accidentally frying oneself in the middle of a deep yawn. Still it was mind boggling that Windwolf had gifted her with this type of power. Why her? Every female she'd seen, while maybe not her mental equal, certainly was young and beautiful. Why hadn't Windwolf fallen in love with one of them in the last hundred and ten years? Hell, Sparrow was right under his nose, and already marked with a dau.
It occurred to Tinker that while Sparrow was as beautiful as one of the high caste females, she was in fact still low caste. "Sparrow can't access the spell stones?"
"No. Genetically she is not domana."
"Why not?"
"That is no longer done." Windwolf reached out his hand. When Tinker took it, he started them toward the gate. "At one time, yes, we freely shifted lesser castes up to domana ability. But that was during a time of war. We no longer do it."
"What about me?"
"You were human and extremely mortal. The two cases are completely different, dire need versus convenience."
At the gate, they picked up shadows in the form of two sekasha. She realized with some mortification that one was Sun Lance. Had the female come with Windwolf, or climbed down the balcony and followed her silently from the very start? What in the world did the female think of her, fleeing into the dark and throwing boots at Windwolf? Tinker winced and thought back through her conversation with Windwolf. What language had they been arguing in? English. Good.
"Will you please explain what you've done to me? Fully."
"Are you sure? It will be a very analytical discussion. You have been through so very much, it might be hard to hear."
"Yes, I want to know."
"Very well. I used a transformation spell, keyed via my sperm, with protections against any radical changes to the original. The spell is considered very safe; the base was developed by the Skin Clan millennia ago and improved since then. I took every precaution to make it failsafe."
"What precautions?"
"That you were a virgin was the ultimate insurance against possible contamination."
She blushed. "You're kidding!"
"No. When you do the spell, you use a source key. Sperm works best; it is, by its very nature, a template of life." What he said matched what Lain guessed. "However, having two sources could be dangerous."
"So I didn't need to be a virgin—just abstaining for a day or two would work."
Windwolf shook his head. "Human sperm stays active anywhere from three days to a week. Elfin sperm stays active up to a year."
"A year?"
"Half-elfin could range anywhere between the two."
"A year?"
"It is a sometimes problematic side effect of being immortal," Windwolf admitted. "It is one reason why we are not as promiscuous as humans."
"Yeah, that would do it."
"With you being a virgin, it wasn't a worry." He reached out and ran his finger lightly over her ear tip. "You are mine, and mine alone."
They had reached «their» living quarters.
She halted him before they could walk on to the bedroom. "Are you—we—there's just one bed."
He cocked his head. "In your bedroom, yes."
"And you have a bedroom too?"
Wordlessly, he showed her the second bedroom, undeniably Windwolf's. His scent hung in the air. A closet door stood open to show off his impressive wardrobe. All about the room were things to catch the eye, objects of beauty and interest, set down at the end of the day and not picked up again.
Two bedrooms? Didn't married people share one bedroom? Or was this whole marriage thing only a way for Windwolf to control the pivot? It certainly made more sense than him suddenly falling in love with her. Tooloo had been right; she didn't know her own heart. That he might not want her, hurt more than she could imagine. She sat on a bench at the end of Windwolf's bed, confounded by herself.
Windwolf had shut the door, giving them privacy from the sekasha, and came to sit beside her. "I know that all this is difficult. I wanted to give you time to think and to adjust."
What do I want? What do I want?
I want him.
She reached out to touch his hair. If he had looked at her, she probably would have lost courage, but he didn't, so she stroked its softness. She gently brushed his hair away from his ear, and explored its outline.
He shifted, and she jerked her hand away.
"I wish you to continue," he murmured.
"Really?"
"I desire it very much."
She leaned against him and buried her face in his hair. She'd never really looked at someone's ear before. Were human ears less delicate and mysterious, with their odd little turns and curls? She kissed his lobe, and the pulse point beating under his ear, and then the strong column of his neck. She realized she was trembling, and wasn't sure if it was with fear or excitement.