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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 11, Written December 2011

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Chapter 11 - Time to depart

Through the winter, snow wrapped the land and prevented the villagers from getting a new priest or new mercenaries to fight 'the demon'. Dark Wind spent most of her time in her cave, studying the spells that she hoped would aid her in moving to a new world, and going out only to hunt normally with the pack, so she could eat. Asha watched and assisted her in her studies, explaining the way certain words were pronounced, and what some things meant.

"Have you always been able to do that?" Asha asked once, after observing Dark Wind's successful casting of a spell that caused the writing on a page to alter as she wished. Asha had written a sentence on a piece of paper, in ink, and when Dark Wind silently cast the spell, the words on the paper changed to say something else entirely, yet still in Asha's handwriting.

"No. This is the first time I have ever tried that spell to alter a physical object's appearance like that," Dark Wind replied.

"That isn't what I meant. Have you always been able to memorize complex spells, and cast them perfectly on the first attempt, without even speaking the words aloud? You only read through that spell once, yet you performed it on the first try, flawlessly," Asha stated. "Have you ever failed in the first try at casting a spell?"

Dark Wind paused and thought a moment, then replied, "Is it that unusual? Mother and father usually only had to explain any spell once to me. Once I fully understood how the spell worked, I could usually say the words, do the gestures, and draw the required diagrams fairly easily. But I do make mistakes, if I am not careful. When I summoned you for the first time, I was working from the memory of seeing father casting that spell only once, when he summoned a fire elemental to heat two blades that he was forging. That spell should have produced the same golden-flamed elemental that had served my father before. Instead, I got you."

"It's very unusual, yes. Very few mages can read a spell once, let alone only observing it cast once, and then cast it successfully on the first try themselves. You're telling me you drew the summoning circle for me entirely from memory, and that the only error was in the exact name of the elemental to be summoned? That it functioned at all is incredible," Asha said. She looked through the third chest, pulled out a small book, and handed it to Dark Wind. "What languages do you know, Mistress? Other than speaking to animals, that is? Can you read this book? Is it one you have been taught to read?"

Dark Wind looked at the book, and said, "I have never seen that book before. It must have been under several others in the third chest. I don't recall seeing my father reading it, either. Let me see it." She flipped through the pages, looked at a few diagrams, and said, "It's just an herbal, like many father had. The handwriting looks a little odd, but I can read it quite easily."

Asha's eyes got a little wide, as she stated, "Mistress, that book is indeed an herbal, about the magical uses of a variety of plants. But it was written by a mage from my realm, and the language it is written in is taught in no Human school. Very few mages in this realm can even pronounce half of the words in that book, let alone read it without magical assistance. Many of the books in this chest are written in languages not used in this country at all, yet I have not observed that slowing you down in the slightest! I believe that your ability to speak and comprehend the speech of animals is but a small part of a larger gift - the ability to comprehend and use any language, whether written or spoken. Your parents never spoke of such a talent?"

"Not that I recall," Dark Wind replied. "But my mother was from a far off land, and yet had no trouble understanding the villagers or being understood by them. And she did love to read. Perhaps that is a gift I got from her? She was not Human. She said she was a Kitsune, but we seldom talked about her people. I just know that they were fox-spirits, from far, far away."

"That would explain a great deal, yes," Asha replied. "I know of Kitsune. They are magical creatures from far to the East, Mistress. They can live for almost a thousand years, and an ancient Kitsune can become very powerful in magic. They are fox spirits, but are known for being able to take on the form of men or women, and to perfectly be able to pass for who or what they appear to be. You would do well to seek more information on your mother's species. In doing so, you may learn much about your own untapped talents. What will we work on next?"

"I need a spell to make it easier to take my few possessions with us. I dare not lose my books and scrolls, until I learn every last spell within them. But I would need a wagon to haul these four chests full of magical writings, and the other things I have accumulated and need for the casting of spells. But a wagon full of goods would draw far too much attention to us, and we have no draft animal to pull one. I have a notion that I may be able to combine that spell for alteration of appearance of a physical object with another that I found for changing the apparent size of an object. What do you think of this?" she asked, as she wrote out a series of spells and incantations.

Asha looked at it and said, "It should work, Mistress. Quite a clever combination of differing spells. Why don't you try it on that box of herbs? If it fails, it is no great loss, and if you can cast the spell and reverse it, and the herbs still are useful, that would be a very handy spell indeed."

Dark Wind took three silver coins from a small chest that she had stolen earlier, and placed them within a diagram that she drew on the floor of the cave. She cast the form alteration spell again, and caused the silver coins to re-form into a sturdy silver chain - a loop long enough to wear as a necklace, and to fit around her neck still in wolf form, without choking her.

"Very good, Mistress," Asha observed. "I see that spell changes the shape, but not the nature of the materials. Thus you had to start with silver to make a silver chain."

"Yes. Now I will anchor the size alteration spell to that chain, so it can be triggered with a very short incantation and gesture, thusly," Dark Wind said, as she added several symbols to the diagram on the floor, and then cast a second spell. The chain glowed for a moment, and then looked normal again.

Dark Wind took up the chain and put it around her neck, and then erased the diagram on the floor. She placed the box of herbs in front of her, touched the chain, and touched the box, and then touched the chain again. The box diminished in size and turned into a small silver charm, which attached itself to the chain. It still looked like the original box, but much smaller, and metallic silver in color.

"Did that change the herbs within the chest to silver, Mistress?" Asha asked.

"No. The spell only changes the outward appearance of the shrunken item, coating its exterior with silver from the chain," Dark Wind said. "Now, let's see if it restores properly."

She touched the charm, and then touched a place on the floor, reciting a short trigger incantation in her mind. The charm vanished from the necklace, and the box reappeared on the floor. Dark Wind opened it, and the scent of fresh sage was easy to smell.

"The herbs seem unchanged. Let us try it with an item that has magical properties'" Asha observed and suggested. She handed Dark Wind a small scroll, saying, "This one is of little value, Mistress. But it does have a spell on the scroll that protects the paper from burning. It is a short collection of pyromantic spells, and if your magic destroys it, they are all spells that I could write down for you from memory, and teach to you. Pyromancy is the one magical art that a fire elemental excels at."

Dark Wind repeated the process, and the spell worked as she had hoped. When the scroll was restored, it was still usable, and was still protected from flames by the spell that had been on it.

"May I make one last suggestion, Mistress?" Asha asked. "Add also a spell on the necklace or bracelet to conceal its presence from others. Then no thief might be tempted to steal it from you, merely for its apparent value as jewelry."

===

As the snows melted, Bent Ear and those who chose to follow him to new hunting grounds left the pack. Dark Wind convinced the remaining wolves that she was departing with Bent Ear, while she convinced Bent Ear's group that she planned to remain with Grey Shadow's pack. She did neither, packing her belongings by using the spell that attached them to her necklace as charms, and then removing all trace of her presence or past spell working from the cave that she had sheltered in for several years.

Dark Wind then left a 'parting gift' for the church, and indirectly for the wolves. She created an illusion of a black tower that had been built in the forest, far from the wolf lair, and away from the area that Bent Ear was headed for. She then snuck into the village, and in the guise of a travelling herb merchant arriving just after the passes cleared, she planted rumors to make the new priest and the church's mercenaries think that this uncanny tower might be the lair of the Dark Wind demon. She hoped this would lure the anger of the church away from the wolves.

The illusion was crafted to include a trap. Anyone that braved the baleful, fearsome sense of presence emanating from the tower, and who touched the tower walls or door, would be hit by a fear spell and / or a nightmare spell, at random. But if the tower was touched by silver, which Dark Wind knew the church folk mistakenly thought to have some effect on the Dark Wind demon, it would appear to shatter the tower entirely, 'destroying' the demon and its lair, with an explosion of fire that would flatten anything standing within fifty feet of the tower. The church and the people of the village would have their 'victory', though it would cost them dearly.

Dark Wind and Asha went to a secluded forest clearing, and she created a portal that could take them to another world. She and Asha observe several possible worlds through this portal, and after some deliberation they choose one that had many species of human-like animals as common residents, and where mages practiced openly. They changed their appearance to that of humanoid vixens, with Dark Wind's fur being red and white, and Asha's being black and dark grey, and they stepped through the portal, into the new realm.

===

Dark Wind and Asha arrived on the other side of the portal, and stood for a moment on the crest of the hill where they had appeared, to appreciate the view. The sunset cast a reddish hue on the entire countryside. Before them lay a town that was at least a hundred... no, a thousand... times as large as the village that Dark Wind had grown up near. Most of the buildings were three and four stories tall, made of brick, or stone or timber framed with white plaster between the timbers, or some combination of these. There were countless chimneys above the slate or lead-capped rooftops, trailing plumes of wood smoke and coal smoke into the air, and the smoke made the sunset even more spectacular. The larger streets were illuminated, not by fire baskets on the corner, or by hanging cressets of burning pitch, but by cleverly contained flames, housed in glass lamps on posts.

In the streets they could see people on foot, of many species, as well as draft wagons pulled by horses, and elegant carriages that were also horse drawn. The streets all appeared to be paved with cobblestones, and not muddy dirt roads. The city had two rings of fortified walls, and a central keep that looked more like a palace. But it had outgrown those defenses, and beyond that curtain of stone many smaller buildings, homes, shops and farms extended outward, especially along the roads, which led away in three directions from the town. A large river flanked the far side of the town, so vast that several sailing ships with two or three masts each were anchored at the city docks.

Much closer, on the road that passed close to where Dark Wind and Asha stood, there was what appeared to be an inn, with a carriage at the door that was in the process of letting two ladies and two gentlemen off. It must have been a hired ride, for once the group had gone inside, the coachman got back on the carriage and drove off, rather than taking the elegant carriage and horses to the stables beside the inn for the night.

Asha was the first to comment on the scene, saying, "Mistress? This world is indeed quite different than yours. Our clothes will mark us as strangers here. These simple tunic dresses and cloaks that we wore look nothing like the high-waisted gowns and coats that I see those ladies wearing. And have you ever seen anything like those carriages, or the lamps on the poles?"

"I can change our clothes to resemble theirs, just as I changed silver coins into my necklace chain. I just need to see them well," Dark Wind stated confidently. "We... must observe them, and learn their ways, so we do not seem to be country simpletons. There are lamps lighting that inn. And those lamps will have flames in them, no matter how they are made. Use your elemental abilities to look through the flames. I will look into your surface thoughts, and see what you see. Try to get a good look at several of the women, from all sides."

Asha did as she was commanded, and soon Dark Wind had enough of an idea what the local female fashions were, and was able to make their own clothing look appropriate. The words spoken by these people sounded like the language of her own people, though some of the words were unknown to her. They were trying to get a closer look at some of the local coins when Asha suddenly returned, saying, "There is a mage in there, and they saw me in the fire!"

"Is there, now? Did he seem angry that you were there?" Dark Wind asked.

"Well, no... More like curious. And it was a female. She was the tricolored collie girl in the bright red bodice and red cloak, who was alone by the fireplace," Asha replied.

"I saw her. Nice looking dog. I wish we could talk to her alone. That could be quite profitable to us," Dark Wind stated.

"Granted," said a bemused voice behind them. "My, but you're a young one to have an elemental for a traveling companion. And she is a rather unusual elemental, at that. You may call me Portia. I have a room in the inn, where we may talk. Would you share a cup of wine with me?"

Dark Wind turned at the voice, and noted the fire-ringed portal that was open behind the sorceress. "You may call me... Darla, and this is my familiar, Ashley. We have come from very far away, and I am a mage seeking honest employment, and possibly a more experienced mage that I might apprentice to, or at least exchange knowledge with. I am young, but I know several useful spells already, and I learn quite rapidly. We would be honored to share wine with you, M'Lady Portia."