Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

Chapter 17: Chaos Cocoon

There was a short silence before they burst into giggles.

"What the heck was that?" said the girl Seiren had first met. Seiren blushed to the roots of her hair. She'd never conjured anything like that and most mages would have impressed for a first try, but what would they know?

"That was meant to be a horse?"

"It's so fat!"

"I loved it!" She turned in surprise to see the requester's pink, delighted face. He grabbed her hand with his only functional one. "Miss, you're amazing! I wish I could be like you!"

"You learn it at magic school if you work very hard." Seiren couldn't help but be a little pleased; at least someone recognised the difficulty of what she did.

They all swarmed around her, wide smiles and whoops.

"That was amazing, Miss!"

"Teach us, Miss!"

"I can't! You need to go to magic school."

Their faces fell.

"We don't have the moneys, Miss," said the girl in a quiet voice, her eyes downcast. "Most of us don't have mams and dads. And those who do, we don't have much moneys so it's hard to go to school."

Seiren's heart felt heavy. She knelt to the girl's height and gripped her shoulders, staring at her straight in the eyes.

"Don't let that be a hurdle to you getting into King's, you hear?" she said fiercely, her eyes ablaze. "I got a scholarship into King's. The school paid for all my teaching. I didn't have any money. I didn't have my parents, either. They died when I was twelve and I didn't have anyone since. I did it. So can you."

"Really?" The girl brightened up.

"Honest as the sun."

Those simple words seemed to reignite the fire in the girl and several others around them. They clutched at each other, trembling with exhilaration.

"We can go too? All of us?"

"If you work hard enough, yes."

"We can! We can be mages!"

"Yes. Now bog off. I need to look at this boy's arm."

They laughed and waved, darting to return to their game, leaving the boy with the chaos magic arm. He shuffled forward and offered it shyly. Seiren touched it with tentative fingers. It was warm below her fingers and soft. The surface thrilled beneath her touch; a thin film adhered to her fingers when she lifted them and then receded back to the boy's cocooned arm. There was so much life and energy beneath it she could almost sense a pulse.

"What did you do to your arm...?"

"Pietr. I got caught nicking stuff in the market. A man caught me and beat me for it." He rubbed his head, sheepish, with his good arm. "He broke my arm. The lady doctor wrapped it in this and said it should heal in four days. It's been two so far."

Four days! Normally broken arms take weeks, if not months. If this was the strength of chaos magic, Seiren could only imagine it fine-tuned with enough trialling or if powered by runes.

"And it doesn't hurt?"

"Nope. Not a bit. Just a bit itchy and I can't scratch it, but it doesn't do anything else. It hurt a lot more when it was broken!"

"That's... amazing." Seiren poked Pietr's fingers. They wriggled. What she would give to crack it open and see what was on the inside.

Or, you know, you could just go ask Loren.