The Rise of the Spell Caster

Grace stepped forward. "If I may suggest, King Arbuckle, contact my mother. Tell her what has happened. She will help you locate it."

The king's temper flared. "She would steal it from me rather than return it! She has made her desires known! No! I will deal with this myself." He glanced at Sylvan. "I have resources. Now, go! Head to the Wilds and attend to your duty. Now get out of my sight. You are dismissed."

Grace stood for a moment and then turned and walked swiftly to the exit saying nothing more.

The others hesitated for a moment and then followed her out. The door closed with a bang.

Johnson was waiting outside, grinning, and for a time Daniel forgot about the egg. It didn't bode well that the king no longer had it. But that could wait. Across his bond with the witches, he could feel their happiness and excitement. They were adventurers and would party like adventurers! Tonight, they would celebrate, and then the Wilds awaited. Daniel couldn't stop smiling.

* * *

That night they indeed celebrated as only a circle of witches can. Bitty cooked up a cornucopia of culinary delights, aided by a few gnome friends of hers. The few friends Daniel and the girls had made over the course of their lessons at the Academy came and joined them. A bard set up outside in the garden and played the night through, his vocal cords loosened and lubricated with wine. The party was in full swing. Word had gotten out that Grace was adventuring with the witches, and everyone tried to crash the party to join in the festivities.

Daniel ignored it all and danced with all his girls. He even picked up Bitty and swung her around, laughing. Faces, laughing and drunk, swam into focus and disappeared. Music swirled. Food was consumed. And through it all Daniel noticed Grace sitting to the side, deep in thought.

He tried to loosen her up, and she feigned a smile and urged him to go back and enjoy himself. This was a night to remember, she had said. They were graduates of the Academy. He was soon pulled away and joined a drinking game for a time.

Much later, he felt a tap on his lower back and turned around to find an older female gnome looking up at him with complete adoration. She looked familiar.

"Do I know you?" he slurred.

"Karen Clingstone, my Saviour," said the wrinkled gnome. "I am the leader of Gnomology."

Daniel smacked his forehead. "Right! You guys! How's it going?"

"It is going well, my Saviour."

Daniel blinked and tried to focus on the old gnome, his thoughts muddy. Gnomology? That was that religious bullshit Bitty was going on about...

Then, miraculously, Bitty was there and right up in the old gnome's face.

"I warned you, Karen! Stay away from him. How'd you get in here?"

The old gnome sputtered and looked past Bitty to Daniel. Her face had a creepy, adoring look on it. Daniel suddenly wanted nothing to do with her and turned and lurched away.

"Saviour!" called out the old gnome.

Daniel heard a slap, a shriek, and then it all faded behind him. Then Amy was there, and he was so thankful to see her. She was laughing, and he tried to laugh too, but suddenly he knew with absolute certainty that he was gonna spew and spew hard.

Amy's expression changed, and she grabbed his face. "What's wrong?"

"Sick. Gonna be..." His stomach clenched. He was going to vomit. Right here. Right now.

Amy touched him and an icy feeling rushed through him. His thoughts cleared and the feeling of being drunk vanished. So did the need to puke.

Daniel blinked into the sudden absence of being intoxicated. Amy was laughing and then kissed him and danced away.

Jasmine sidled up to him. "Weird, isn't it?" she said.

Daniel nodded. "Yup. Third time tonight she's done that. That was a close one, though."

"Nah, we can all feel each other through the bond. She made a point of getting to you in time."

Daniel remembered Karen and turned around in time to see Bitty hauling the old gnome toward the exit. He grinned and Bitty sensed him and turned her head to grin back.

I love my life!

* * *

Two days later, they departed Whitehaven for the Wilds. They had bought horses with spares and moved at a brisk pace to clear the traffic on the roads leading out of Whitehaven. Grace ran alongside them, refusing to use a horse.

Everything they needed or could ever want during a road trip were in bags of holding Daniel, Jason, and Brian carried. Amy had purchased a ton of stuff to give to her parents to sell at the Acron Trading Post. She was excited to see her parents again, despite how they had treated her in the past. Daniel suspected she was going to lord over them with her new status as an adventurer. Daniel admitted her parents needed some comeuppance for how they had treated Amy in the past.

Grace ran alongside Daniel for a time. She had been withdrawn since meeting the king and Daniel and the rest of the party knew why. She was thinking about the female phoenix egg. Her mother had asked her to recover it, and now it was gone again.

"We'll find it, Grace," he said, looking down at her.

She glanced up at him and said nothing.

"Are you going to talk about it? You've been miles away for days."

"I'm worried."

"By the Gods, Grace, we all are. So, share with the party. We can figure this out together."

Grace ran alongside him for a time, saying nothing more, and then shot off into the woods beside the road, disappearing.

"Och, she'll be fine, lad," said Brian, riding just behind him. Daniel slowed down his horse and slipped beside him. "She's always like this when things don't go her way. She sees it all as some conspiracy against her."

"Syn has been strangely quiet," added Jennifer, who rode beside Brian on the other side.

Brian nodded. "Aye. It means we are on the right path."

Daniel looked ahead at the long, dusty road. "So, the egg is up ahead somewhere?"

"I dinnae say that, but perhaps. It is more like this is the way we need tae go and Syn is fine with that."

"Gods and destiny. I hate those tropes. I prefer to think we are masters of our own destiny."

Jennifer nodded at his words. "I would agree and so would Syn. She only cares that justice is served. I don't believe she would manipulate our lives." She briefly thought about her callings and how Syn had treated her in Yanwey and frowned.

"Och, same lass," added Brian after a moment. "But sometimes the twain shall meet."

"Well, that's disturbing," muttered Jasmine. "Does she, like, make sure I get laid when I need it, too?"

Brian barked a deep dwarf laugh. "Aye, she might at that."

"Oh, goody!" declared Jasmine, beaming a smile. She tilted her head back and spoke to the clouds. "Thank you, Syn!"

Brian coughed and then pointed to a grove of trees by the road. "Actually, she's right over there, lass."

Jasmine looked shocked. "Really?"

Jennifer shook her head, smiling sadly. "No, Jasmine."

Jasmine glared at Brian but smiled crookedly when he laughed. "Just wait until it's time to adjust your pocket pussy, Sir Dwarf." She clucked at her horse and rode past Brian to join Amy and Amber up ahead. Bitty was riding on Amy's lap like a toddler, her head nestled between her breasts.

Brian looked at Daniel in fear. "She's joking, right?"

It was Daniel's turn to laugh. "I doubt it."

Brian dug his heels into his horse's flank and sped up. "Lass! I was only joking! Wait!"

That evening, Daniel found Grace sitting high up in a tree outside their camp. He found her through the subtle bond she had with his circle. Grace had admitted she was both pleased and not pleased about the bond. She didn't like anyone knowing where she was. Daniel had prodded her for more information, but all he got back was some mutterings about growing up in the Night fae caverns under their mountains.

He stopped under the tree and then put his back against the trunk and waited.

After a long moment, Grace dropped silently to the ground in front of him, turned, and laid her back against his front. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the nape of her neck.

"You okay?" he whispered.

"No."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No."

He held her and said nothing.

"It doesn't make sense," she said.

He nodded his head and kissed her neck again. She tilted her head to the side to grant him easier access. She felt goosebumps rise on her skin as it always did when he held her. His lips on her neck tickled in a delightful way.

"I know where the king hid the damn egg. He has a special vault deep underground, beneath the castle. Totally obvious place. But it does have lots of protections. High-level magic. Alarms. Trip wires. Deadly, really."

Daniel moved his lips to the other side of her neck, and she tilted her head the other way.

"I was in the vault, checking on the egg, and it was there. That was a month ago."

Daniel paused his kissing and raised his eyebrows in surprise. Did she just calmly say she had gone into this impenetrable vault and glanced at the egg?

"So where did it go? Who could have taken it?"

He resumed his soft kisses and then slid a warm hand under her shirt and found her right breast and cupped it gently.

Grace melted back against him. "Few people can break into that vault. I know of maybe two people. One was killed in Yanwey. The other works for my mother. I thought of her at first, but she hasn't left my mother's side in over a century. She sounds obvious, especially since my mother wants the egg, but I would have known if she had appeared in Whitehaven or left the Night fae lands. Plus, she runs mother's army. She's busy as fuck right now, getting ready for the war."

His other hand slipped under her shirt, found her left breast, and cupped it. Grace sighed in pleasure and pressed her ass against Daniel's hardening cock.

"So, it's someone new. Someone I don't know about. That's what bothers me. I know everyone."

"Why not someone on the Light fae side? Surely, they would want the egg, too."

Grace shook her head. "Yes and no. They have one person who could have broken into Arbuckle's secret vault. She was killed at Yanwey, too. I checked. It was the only good thing that came out of the Yanwey disaster."

"I don't mean to change the subject, but can I ask you something? Why do the fae war with each other?" asked Daniel. "Over and over, and with never a winner?"

"You wouldn't understand. No mortal can. It is a cycle, a necessary one. The Night and Light fae are like the ying and yang Jason spouts on about. We both exist to make sure life and death cycles correctly. Without the fae, this whole world would be a primordial mist. Through us, life is willed to be."

"That sounds like the power of the gods."

"It is, in a way. We were the first. We are told we were created to amuse the gods. Entertainment. They watch us struggle, guarding the doors to life and death. We clash on schedule. Fighting for dominance over the other and always failing. We retreat, lick our wounds, mourn our dead, and celebrate new life that emerges from the conflict. Seasons cycle. Life goes on and meets death. Death turns to life. The cycle must continue."

"Why not just stop? Why keep doing it? It sounds pointless."

"Because all life would end. Lives would continue until death, but there would be no rebirth. No emergence from the darkness to the light. We are the guardians of life and death. The conflict is necessary."

"I don't know how you cope with it all."

"It is our very nature. There is no coping. It just is."

Daniel slipped his right hand under the waistband of Grace's pants and slid it down to between her legs and found her wet and hot. He slipped a finger inside her depths and then found her clit and gently circled it. Grace sighed and ground her ass against his cock.

"How do the Wild fae factor in all this?"

Grace hummed. "That's much harder to explain. Maeve is... Maeve. She's an odd duck. A square peg with only round holes all around her. How she came to be, I am not sure. Neither is mother. Maeve hates the fae, both Light and Night. I have no doubt that her goals are always toward destroying life and death. Ending the cycle."

"Why? You just said that would destroy everything."

"Yes. Exactly that. That's what she wants, I think. An end to her own existence."

"Why?"

"She's older than mother. Much older. No one knows how old. I think she's tired of everything. She creates the monstrosities that emerge from the Wilds. It amuses her. She likes to watch the humans and the fae battle her creations. It's her own version of entertainment. She's insane, Daniel. You can't live that long without going insane. There's too much in your head. Too many memories. They build up like toxins in the blood."

"And the phoenixes live in the Wilds?"

"Yes. They always have."

"Why?"

Grace shrugged and then gasped when Daniel gently inserted a finger into her pussy and fingered her.

"No one knows. They are as old as Maeve, they say. One lives while the other rests in the egg form. They roam the Wilds, doing who knows what. They are vicious in nature. Killing without pause. The male is the worst, violent, enraged. The female is much better, but equally frightful."

"And it is the female phoenix power I have inside me?"

"It seems that way."

"How?"

"You held the female egg as a child. I think it bonded with you and granted you some of her powers. It's the only explanation for how a human can wield the powers you have, and with you having the magic sight." She stood upright and Daniel's hand slipped out of her pussy. "But enough of all this. I feel better now after talking about it. I hate it when Jason is right. He said I needed to talk to you. Fighter-guru, my ass. He just understands women better than most men. Now, Daniel Davies, you've warmed me up quite nicely. How about a long sensual fuck over by the creek over there? I need your seed inside me. Come..."

She took his right hand, the fingers dripping with her juices, and pulled him toward the creek and a soft bed of wildflowers she had spied earlier and had marked for just this occasion.

Chapter Two

AMY WAS EXCITED and was talking non-stop as they travelled the dirt road. They would arrive at Acron by noon. Daniel couldn't understand why she would be happy returning to the small town. She had hated it not that long ago. Jasmine and Amber just rolled their eyes at him and refused to explain.

They went past Daniel's former farm. They spied a young couple, with a baby on the woman's hip, working the fields. Daniel took a moment and went over to them. They were frightened at first. Adventurers don't normally talk to commoners, but Daniel soon calmed them down and spoke to the husband about the fields. They didn't believe him when he said the farm used to be his until he showed them some secrets inside the house and in the shed he had built. Soon Daniel and the husband were talking like old friends.

Jasmine cooed when she saw Daniel slip some coins to the couple. When he returned to them, he was smiling and through the bond the girls knew he missed farming and the simple life and for a moment he had returned to that life vicariously through the young couple.

Grace said he was spoiling them by handing them money.

"How? They can use it and make a better life for themselves and their son. I have the means and so I did it."

"It has more meaning when it's earned."

"Like when you handed me a platinum coin?"

"That was not the same. I had a sense about you."

"You keep mentioning this sense thing. What is it exactly?"

Brian looked alarmed. "Don't go there, lad. No one speaks about it."

Daniel looked exasperated at Brian. "Why the fuck not? Shouldn't we, as members of this party, understand what each of us can do?"

"Aye, but this is a Night fae thing. A secret."

"Night fae thing? Is that a thing? And secret, why?"

Jason shrugged. "Keeping secrets from someone is no different from lying to them. It's dishonest."

Daniel gestured at Jason while looking at Grace. "See? Jason understands."

Grace growled. "It's not a fucking secret. It's just sensitive."

"Sensitive how?" asked Jasmine, now curious.

Grace, at first looking annoyed at Jasmine, then she saw the innocence in her face and relaxed. "The only fae who can do what I can are my mother and Titania. Maybe Maeve. No one knows for certain. Not even my sister can, which has my mother worried since Morgaine is in line for the throne."

Daniel thought he heard her say something more under her breath but didn't catch it. "And what is this secret, Grace?" asked Daniel.

Grace hesitated and then spoke quickly. "I can get a sense of important events that have not yet come to pass."

"Like a seer? Like Glenda?"

"No. My sense is far more accurate, if you can believe that. It is like it has already happened to me and I am simply remembering it. But it is only a sense. Like feeling hungry or tired."

"And do you sense anything now?"

"Yes. War. Destruction. Flames. Lots of flames."

"And the egg is central to that?"

"No, Daniel. You are."

Everyone looked at one another and then focused on Daniel who was gawking at Grace. Then he frowned.

"We knew that already," he said.

"Of course, you did! I'm not a prophet, Daniel!" declared Grace with heat in her voice. "I only sense these things. But I am always right. Always. If I say something is important, people better listen. The egg is important. You, Daniel, are important. This circle, is important."

"Okay."

Grace looked up at Daniel from where she was jogging beside him. "That's it? Okay? That's all you have to say?"

"Yes, Grace. I believe you. I only wanted to understand what you can do, that's all. I meant no offense."

Grace's expression softened. "Well, okay then."

Amy blew out an exasperated breath of air, which annoyed Bitty sitting on her lap, who wiped at her bald, dark-brown, and gleaming head. "Great, can we speed up now? I want to get home. Like today, if that's all right with everyone? Huh? Is that all right with everyone? No more stops? No more visiting dirty farms?"

Amber laughed. "And just like that, Amy is back! Yes, dear. Acron awaits!"

Daniel was still looking at Grace. "You're amazing, Grace. Don't ever change."

Grace scowled at him. "Don't change? What kind of misogynistic crap is that?" Grace ran ahead, but Daniel saw the smile that crossed her lips. He watched her bum.

Brian caught Daniel's eye. "What she didn't say, is that her sense is far stronger than her mother's. And probably Titania as well. She doesn't know why."

"Maybe because she's half fae? Who is her father? The other half?" asked Daniel. He had always wanted to ask but sensed it was a sensitive topic.

"She doesn't know. Her mother won't say. There's been many the person wanting to know the answer to that question, my lad. Grace foremost. She hates not knowing."

"Maybe we can help her with that?"

"Maybe, lad. Maybe. But I don't think so. It's her past to discover. Leave her be. It's best for everyone."

They rode in silence, with Amy leading the way and urging them to go faster every few minutes. The sun was high overhead, the full heat of summer pressing down, and the loud sound of buzzing insects filled the air. Daniel felt surreal. He was riding down the same road he had walked so many times as a farmer. He recognised the bends in the road, and the trees and gullies and rocks. It should feel like coming home, but it didn't.

With a start he realised he no longer had a home. A sadness washed over him.

As if by magic Amber was there, riding beside him. "We are your home now, numb nuts." She continued on past, with Daniel gawking at her.

Jasmine followed behind her and laughed at Daniel. "It's the bond, silly. We can all sense one another. She felt your thoughts. We all did. Baby, wherever we are together, that's home."