The Bewitching - Book 1

Chapter 16 - Tobias and the Hulking Brute

Elyssa sighed deeply as she slid the tips of her fingers along the edges of the wooden box, her eyes intently focused on the objects inside that were surrounded by soft velvet. As silly as it sounded she almost couldn’t bring herself to touch them, fearing that it might break an illusion and everything she
currently thought was real would vanish into thin air. These objects in front of her gave her hope that maybe the Dantes from her dreams was actually real, that maybe she could bring that side of him back out from whatever inner demons now tormented him.

It was only the Dantes she knew from her dreams that would give her such a gift as the one in front of her she thought as she stared down at them. She assumed the second one might have been a gift from her to him, which meant that Dantes must have survived the battle that night. It also meant they must have journeyed here together and possibly married. Tobias nudged himself closer and looked down into the box, wondering what it was that had captured her attention so deeply.

Sitting dead center in the middle, and polished to a crisp shine sat two nearly identical gold rings, with silver woven in elaborate patterns in various spots into the gold itself of both of them. Elyssa carefully lifted one up and examined it more closely. The design was fascinating and as she looked more closely at the silver it seemed that it might be more than just a pattern but she couldn’t quite tell. It’s details and such were so fine she’d need a magnifying glass to see if what she thought was there was actually there.

On the inside of the ring was an inscription carved elegantly into the gold itself. At least it looked like an inscription from what she could tell. Likely some ancient language as the shapes weren’t too different from the spells in her spell book she had struggled to read. Maybe her spell book could give her some clues, or if she could find Dantes maybe he’d finally be forced to answer her questions now that she had the proof that he hadn’t been completely honest with her.

She looked back down into the box at the other ring and noticed something else. Underneath one of the folds of velvet fabric she spied a worn, yellowing note. Cautiously she picked it up and unfolded it, afraid it might crumble from its obvious age. Again that weird language. What was it that Dantes had said earlier? She thought back to when they were in her room. It was something about energy and melding with the item. Although that would be assuming that the writing here on these items was a spell, and not just another ancient language.

As she looked at the note and the inscription on the ring she wondered which it was. She silenced her mind and tried to concentrate while staring at the note in her hand. After a few deep breaths she began to feel the energy emanating from her own body. Closing her eyes she attempted to see if she could sense the energy of the items in front of her. She felt a few tingles run through her body but nothing else. She wasn’t quite sure if the tingles were just her imagination or if she had started to pick up the energy she had intended.

As she opened her eyes back up it was fairly clear that she had accomplished nothing in getting the words to decipher. She still couldn’t read them, and nothing about them had changed in any way. Maybe it was merely an ancient language and not a spell she could meld her energy with to read. Her eyes drifted to Tobias who was completely frozen and staring at her as if in awe.

“What is it boy? What’s wrong?” she asked as she looked down at him. He cocked his head as he continued to stare, as if surprised that she hadn’t noticed what he was seeing. That’s when she realized what it was. Her whole body was shimmering with a very light pink or soft red glow. As she watched it it slowly began to fade, and then finally disappeared.

“That was...odd,” she spoke quietly as she ran her hands along her arms where the glow had been a few seconds ago. It was even more odd she thought that it hadn’t scared her. If it had happened a few weeks ago before this whole adventure had started she would have been screaming in panic. Now it was just another amazing oddity to experience. Granted, it did help that Tobias was by her side and seemed quite calm about it himself. Obviously if it was something of danger he likely would have been the first to react to it.