Sorcery's Hue (A Malion Series Novel)

The More You Learn

The older I got, the more Common Tongue I learned and the more I understood my situation and family. Not only was I able to control the encounters with Gorneth without being noticed, but I was also able to worm my way out of his raging grip. Seline eventually got out of school and was able to provide for her family with her mother, leaving him and me alone for most of the day.

On the one hand, we could afford better clothing and food, but on the other, the new income was unable to provide me with medical aid when my magic was unable to fix what he did on particularly dreadful days.

This was one of those days. That evening, I barricaded myself in my room. I remember that deep darkness broiling within my mind, raging and lashing at my conscience. I sat there for an hour or more, crying and shaking, begging for that horrible dread to stop. I remember begging the darkness to shrink, unknowing of what I'd need to do to myself to make that happen. Eventually, it burst out of me, sending a ripple of darkness throughout my tiny home and into the surrounding fields. Once I had calmed down after the departure of my problematic magic, I heard the door click and creak into the house. I'd just crawled out of my room, limping and clutching my side.

Seline was worried as ever, and I was utterly exhausted. I nearly fell into her arms when she approached me, asking variations of "are you alright" in Common Tongue and Osrocan. I remember giving her a soft smile and trying as hard as possible to avoid losing consciousness or closing my eyes when she told me she had gotten me a gift. It was a vest. A waistcoat. It was a beautiful violet colour with what looked like gold trims. It was much too big for me, but she told me that I would grow into it. She said it would grow with me, that it was meant to last, and that it did.

I tried it on and grinned as wide as I could. Then Victoria pointed out my glowing eyes. I looked at her, and all of my excitement immediately snuffed. I covered them and rushed into the nearest isolated room to try and suppress whatever type of conjure was manifesting. Seline came up to me and spoke to me in soft Osrocan. Fresh tears dried, and rapid breathing slowed before I could give her a gentle hug. Had she touched me then, I would have slashed her like I'd done in the past. I glanced at the scar that ran along her cheek and ended at the bridge of her nose. She'd forgiven me, but I didn't forgive myself.

Despite my complete exhaustion, I couldn't sleep that night, try as I might. But all of my focus lay on debating whether or not to run away from that household. Gornath specifically. I won't lie when I say that I had a few dark, intrusive thoughts. Every hour that ticked by brought a new rabbit hole that my mind impulsively leapt into as if it were a lake of tar.

I rarely had such encounters with him anymore, but they were more than severe when I did. It took every fibre in my body to stop the broiling darkness. Every bit of resistance I could muster.

The very next day, in my sleep-deprived haze and beaten body, I spent the whole morning scrubbing the floor of our tiny house. Once noon had come, I climbed onto the roof to escape the world and lay there for a few hours. I watched the sky as gloom rolled across it and pulled warmth out of my skin. A peaceful chill in the air flushed out the sleep I'd drifted in and out of.
Suddenly I heard my name yelled through the house. It shocked me out of my drowsy state, and I clambered off the roof and scrambled to get inside. I shut the door, panting and flustered. I turned and nearly bumped into a tall man with a dark suit and a long sceptre. He seemed to glare at me through his calm expression with eyes the same bright yellow as a hypericum flower. Or maybe that was just my mind antagonising everyone but Seline and my mother. I tried to avoid him, but he took particular interest in the small, beaten Osrocan boy who slinked around as if walking on glass shards. He spoke Common Tongue that I could barely understand to Victoria. She responded hesitantly and kept shooting glances in my direction. Seline hadn't come home yet. Gornath shot a glare at me, and I rushed to the sink to get him his favourite jug. Midway through my hurried stride, the man stopped me.

That's when he spoke to me in Osrocan... except, I don't exactly know about that, because Victoria gave me the same confused look I usually gave her when I didn't understand something. He continued to speak, and I continued to stand restlessly, feeling the pull to provide Father with his jug.
He told me words I still remember to this day.

He offered to have me join the Academy of Westwine.

He said so in Common Tongue. Gornath got up and barged towards the man, and I yelped and ducked away from him. Only after I skidded to a halt at the door and turned to see his body lifted off the ground and the strange man holding a golden medallion in one hand and Gornath's throat in the other did I realise what Father's intention was.

"Aslantian. You will not harm this child. If I discover a single wound on his body, I will eliminate you. Understood?"
Gornath fell to the ground and nodded furiously. Then the man turned to me. He took one step with that piercing glare, and I bolted out.