Soul Fires

Author’s Note: Italics indicate foreign words or thoughts. Should be obvious by context.

First Time

The city of Kyran was famous for three things: The vast herds of horses that dominated the western pasturelands, the stalwyn traders that dominated the marketplaces across the continent, and the Collegium that dominated the center of town. Peredur Enaid was deeply familiar with all three. His father had been a stalwyn among stalwyni, and the young man had followed his father through all aspects of the business, from inspecting the herds to overseeing the selections at the market stalls, from the time he was old enough to sit a palfrey.

All that had changed the summer of his fifteenth year. The quarterly trip to Seprikas had gone by in a whirl of customers and horses. As his father was beginning to collect their belongings to make the return trip to Kyran, a woman in a dark blue robe had stopped at the ward-chain. Unlike most customers, she seemed fascinated by the frail barrier that kept over a dozen of Kyran’s finest mounts contained, rather than the superior animals behind it. As the stalwyn approached her, Peredur watched with astonishment as the woman spoke a few words to his father before dismissing him and gesturing to the copper-haired adolescent.

“Ebol!” she called, surprising him with her knowledge of Kyranese idiom. “Come here. Your father says that you laid this fence.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Peredur replied, brushing the loose straw from his hands as he crossed the paddock.

“Are you also the one who laid the wards in the chain?”

He hesitated. Most outsiders knew only that the Kyranese horses would not cross the slender barriers. Very few knew that the light chains were enchanted to prevent any equine from escaping their enclosure.

“Come, now. These eyes are aged, but not blind.”

“Y – Yes, ma’am. I have only recently been trusted with that knowledge.”

Iron-grey eyes flashed. “You are new to this warding?”

Peredur nodded, speechless in the face of the woman’s intensity.

“Stalwyn, your son has a rare gift.” She produced a sealed parchment. “I have seen fully trained dewiniad that do not ward with such finesse. I would recommend that you send him to the Collegium in your home city. This letter is a recommendation.”

Peredur saw the look in his father’s eyes. With a sigh, he retreated to the stable and began packing his belongings in a spare saddlebag. He would not be returning home.

* * * * * * *

Four years had passed since that day. Four years since he had left his father’s name behind and taken the name “Oniya.” Four years of classes and study that normally took three times as long. His classwork had far outstripped his peers, but the Collegium housed students by age, not rank. As a result, Peredur floated between two groups: those who shared his classes, and those who shared his hall.

Neither seemed to accept him very well. To his classmates, he was “the prodigy,” able to grasp the finer points of spirit-craft with minimal instruction. To his hallmates, he was the quiet one who never shared a class with them and seemed to always carry some esoteric text for “light reading.”

Tonight, however, books and practice were off the agenda. High Summer had come, and Peredur had once again collected his belongings for a change of residence. At nineteen years of age, he was moving out of the student dorms and up to the apprentice housing. According to custom, the transition was marked by a celebration.

At one hour past noon, Peredur Oniya crossed the courtyard to his new home. With a few score steps, he was entering a new setting. While not nearly as extreme as the transition from home to the Collegium, it was still unnerving. The celebration was another unknown to deal with. In all likelihood, it would end up as patches of awkward silence punctuated by episodes of strained revelry.

Ah well. Might as well try to make the best of it.

He entered the building and found his rooms. Unlike the student dorms, these were arranged in suites with four units opening onto a common area. Peredur examined the other nameplates and didn’t recognize any of his neighbors.

Figures. Probably transfers.

It wasn’t uncommon for students to change to another Collegium once they discovered their specialty. Kyran was renowned for its spirit-craft resources, so it wasn’t a route Peredur had paid much attention to before now.

This room was decidedly more comfortable than the one in the student quarters was. The spartan furnishings he had gotten used to were upgraded – slightly. Practicality was still the order of the day, but the straw mattress now had a layer of down incorporated, and the chairs looked like they would be comfortable enough for use beyond his deskwork. Most importantly, there were built-in shelves with enough space for all of his books and then some.

After stowing his life in the drawers and cupboards, Peredur turned his thoughts to the evening’s gathering. It would be customary for the new apprentices to wear their dress robes, which in his case were a rich violet with a subtle pattern around the hems. Thankfully, he hadn’t yet earned a rank high enough to make him contrast too much with the the others’ unadorned robes.

He checked the sun’s angle. Dinner would be starting soon, followed by all of the fourth-years gathering in the building’s atrium. There wouldn’t be an opportunity for retreating to his room in between. Reluctantly, Peredur settled the fine cloth onto his shoulders and clasped the new silver belt that marked him as an apprentice around his waist.

“Mallia pleko,” he murmured, and arcane energies swirled around him, plaiting his waist-length hair into an intricate braid. It was a small vanity that he hadn’t indulged before, but one that his abilities made easy. Satisfied with his new look, he headed over to the kitchens.

* * * * * * *

Voices tapped lightly on Peredur’s awareness as he served himself from the carving board.

“Have you met any of the new apprentices?”

“Not yet, but there are some real lookers.”

He walked over to a more secluded table, wishing he had something to drown them out entirely.

“Who’s that over there?”

“Dunno, but now I’ve got something to check out at the gather.”

Peredur glanced around the room, absently noting that one of the people at an adjoining table was wearing a crimson robe.

Unusual to see a Fire-path in this region.

To make matters more puzzling, the Fire-path was apparently one of the new transfers. Peredur turned his attention back to his dinner before his appraisal became obvious. For the past three years, his age had caused him to be the target of many a similar inspection on the first day of a class. He finished his meal, and walked back to the apprentice housing.

Someone had already been busy getting the atrium ready for the gather. Tables were set up with drinks and other things to occupy distracted hands. Peredur claimed a cup and settled himself on a bench to observe the event.

Before long, the other apprentices began arriving. Most of them had already formed close social groups over the course of the four years in the student housing, but tonight the lines were blurred just a bit as the new transfers began to meld into the dynamic. A handful of unfamiliar faces drifted from one cluster to another leaving ripples of conversation in their wakes. The deep crimson robe of the Fire-path was especially easy to track, and Peredur found his eyes constantly drawn to it.

Eventually, though, the gather settled into the usual fare. He witnessed no fewer than five independent attempts to spike the drinks, and was glad that he had nursed his original cup as long as he had. The social groups had shifted slightly, but still reached a new equilibrium. Peredur finished the last of his drink, and made his way inconspicuously to the exit.

The hallway was dark as he headed for his new room. Ordinarily, he would have created a simple aura-light, but tonight he didn’t feel like bothering. It was a simple enough route to navigate, with only a single staircase and the length of the hall to deal with, but as Peredur reached the common area for his suite, a voice from the darkness stopped him in his tracks.

“I saw you watching me.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The voice resolved itself into a shadowed form. “First at dinner, and just now at the gather.”

“I – I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare...” Peredur squinted through the darkness. “You’re the Fire-path transfer, right?”

There was a warm laugh from the silhouette. “My name is Taan. Peerkajia kreeo.” A blue flame appeared in the transfer student’s hand, casting an ethereal glow across his face.

Peredur blinked in the sudden light. He hadn’t realized how close they were to each other. “Peredur,” he responded. “Peredur Oniya.”

Taan appeared to consider the name. “Well, Peredur, what do you say we continue this with a little more light? My room is over in the corner.”

It never occurred to Peredur to refuse. Without really accepting, he trailed after the cool blue light into the room next to his own. As he passed through the door, Taan tossed the blue flame towards a candle.

“Zestos,” he commanded, and the flame flared yellow, igniting the candle wick. “Have a seat,” he offered, motioning at the armchair. Peredur sat down, watching as Taan pulled over the chair from his desk and lit the wall sconces before joining his guest. The Fire-path moved gracefully, settling easily into the chair. He leaned forward, his deep blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

“I hate to be critical, but your classmates don’t seem to be very good conversationalists.”

Peredur suppressed a laugh. “And you expect me to be better?”

“Well, you’re obviously intelligent enough to avoid that excuse for entertainment,” Taan replied. “Not to mention, you’ve managed to earn those.” He reached forward and brushed his fingers along Peredur’s wrist, indicating the trace-work around the hem.

Green eyes widened, both at the observation and at the lingering contact. Taan’s fingers withdrew and brushed back an errant lock of black hair. As he did, Peredur noticed similar trace-work on the crimson fabric. “You’re – I mean – How?”

Taan grinned. “They got edgy when I started asking questions they couldn’t answer. They sent me here when I started doing things they couldn’t explain. So. What is there to do around here?”

Peredur blushed. “I’m really not the person to ask. I tend to stay in a lot.”

A strange look crossed the brunette’s face. When he spoke again, his voice had lowered, and he leaned forward as if disclosing the deepest confidence.

“That can be fun, too.”

As Peredur tried to wrap his mind around the simple words, Taan leaned even closer. Deep blue darkened to near-black and he lightly ran the back of his hand along the red-head’s cheek. Peredur felt warm lips brush his own, and the room seemed to do a slow somersault.

When the spinning finally stopped, Peredur’s hesitant smile was met by Taan’s broad grin. The Fire-path stood and offered him a hand up.

“I think I hear the others,” he said with a wink as Peredur took it and rose from the chair.

“I’d – better get back to my room,” he replied, and moved towards the door. As he reached the threshhold he turned back, looking thoughtful. “Feel free to drop by.”

Maybe the new year wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

Author\'s Note: I\'ve been working on a picture of Peredur while writing this. I\'ll hopefully have the hands and detailing on the robe done in a couple days. I\'ll write more with these two if there\'s any interest!