Chapter 5 - Initiate

Aurora struggled for air as she plunged further into the stream. She flailed her arms out wildly. Water poured in through her nostrils. She grabbed her neck and held onto it before screaming out.

Aurora felt a hand grasp onto her neck and she was pulled out of the water. Before she knew it she hit the ground and found herself back in the forest behind her home.

“What was that?” Aurora asked. She panted heavily and then pushed off the ground. She wiped away the soil and grass that had stuck itself onto her shirt and pants.

The amulet containing Kwame lit up. “I had to open up your inner world. It’s easiest this way to allow you to learn magic from me, my priest.”

“Right, inner world. Gotcha.” Aurora pulled out a bottle of water from her backpack and took a gulp from it. “What now?”

Kwame cleared his throat. “Alright, you have a knife on you, right?”

Aurora nodded. She pulled out a small dagger from her backpack. The dagger was about six inches long, with the blade curving slightly. “What now?”

“Alright, make an incision with the dagger into your thumb,” Kwame said.

Aurora paused. She looked at her dagger and then at the amulet. “You’re joking… Right?”

“No, I’m very serious.”

“I’m not stabbing myself. First of all, it doesn’t take a genius to know that blood magic is evil. Even I, a country bumpkin, know this. You really think I’m about to stab myself an-”

“Oh would you just shut up. Don’t ever label my practices as that filthy blood magic again. Leave that to necromancers and warlocks. Blood magic requires the blood of OTHER people, not yourself, stupid.”

Aurora bit her lip. “That… Would make some sense.”

“Of course it makes sense. Anyway, hurry up with it would you? The quicker we are able to get you to fortify your inner world, the quicker you’ll be able to separate our thoughts and hide the presence of your magic now that I’ve released it. It’s not only greedy people that will be after you, there are hundreds of monsters out in the wild that will be able to notice the magic within you like moths to a light.”

“You sound so urgent about this, can we just relax for a second? Can you let me take a breather at least, this is a lot to digest in such a short span of time.” Aurora huffed.

“There is no time for this specific issue. Once this is done, you can take everything at your own pace. Just, hurry up and stab yourself already!”

Aurora rolled her eyes. She gently pricked her thumb with the dagger. Droplets of blood welled up in the wound and started to drip down the thumb. Aurora stared at the wound without any emotion, and there was a lack of pain in the thumb. Weird, I don’t remember being this tolerant to cuts. I usually would feel at least a slight amount of irritation, but there’s none of that right now.

“Put your thumb on the ground and draw this symbol,” Kwame said.

A vision of a shape flit into Aurora’s mind. Two half moon crescents were placed back to back, encased within an hourglass.

Aurora fell into a trance. She scrambled to the ground and dragged her thumb against the ground until the symbol had been completed. After completing the symbol she stood up and groaned, after which she cracked her back. “It’s done.” A dense energy scrambled from the symbol in the ground directly into Aurora’s forehead. An electric buzzing filled her head, and a crackling reverberated in her ears. Aurora’s hairs stood up and a blue beam of light shot into the sky with her as the center.

Kwame’s voice echoed in Aurora’s mind. ‘Alright, we’re done here.You should know how to control this power now.’

Aurora looked at her hands and raised them into the air. A blue pillar of light extended upward into the sky. The symbol she’d drawn on the floor glowed on her forehead for a moment before disappearing. Aurora’s mind felt segmented. It was as if a barrier had been put between her thoughts and her perception.

“That… Is refreshing,” Aurora said.

“Of course it is,” Kwame said. “Your mind is now oiled up and working at a better rate than before. The effects will improve your physical capabilities by a small margin as well. Now, you wanted to hunt a rabbit. Why don’t you see how much easier it has become.”

Aurora grinned. She stretched herself and then wandered through the forest. My sight seems so much better, and I can hear the animals even more clearly. So this is what magic is. It is underwhelming compared to what I thought it would be, but at the same time, this is just amazing.

After a few minutes Aurora spotted a rabbit in the distance. The creature was hopping toward a small body of water. Aurora slowly edged closer toward the rabbit. Each step was deliberate and calculated, with Aurora checking that there were no tree branches beneath her feet.

Aurora pulled out her dagger as she reached within ten meters of the creature. Aurora took in a deep breath and held it. She placed the dagger high up above her head and then threw it toward the rabbit. With a loud thump it smashed into the rabbit’s behind and impaled it into the soil.

Aurora ran over to the rabbit. It was wailing and moving its legs, but to no avail. Aurora pulled out the dagger and then slit the rabbit’s throat. “Hmm, weird. The rabbit didn’t smell the blood on me even when I was so close to it.”

“That is one of the effects of fortifying your inner world. Creatures won’t be able to sense you as easily. This effect is meant mainly for the monsters that would hunt you due to the presence of magic within you, but it also has an effect on the mundane animals.”

“Alright, so when will I learn the next thing?” Aurora asked.

“Slow down child,” Kwame said. “The next thing you’ll do is gather information for me. This is a give and take. I’ll help you study but only in return for certain services I cannot complete myself due to the lack of a corporeal body.”

Aurora rubbed her jaw. “I suppose that makes sense. At least this way I know you aren’t trying to take over my body or anything nefarious like that.”

“If I wanted to I would already have done so.” Kwame yawned. “I’ll be taking some rest now, I’ve expended a bit of energy here.” The blue light of the amulet began to dim until it vanished.

Aurora made her way back to her cottage. The sun was starting to rise up on the horizon. As Aurora reached the front door of the cottage she spotted Irelia not too far away from her. Aurora waved at Irelia and shouted, “You’re getting back now as well?”

Irelia ran over to Aurora. “Yea, why were you up so late?”

Aurora showed the rabbit and said, “Was just itching to do some hunting. You know, the usual stuff. What about you? What were you doing?”

Irelia paused. “Nothing much, just doing some of the practices of my clan.”

“Oh, religious practices?”

“Something like that, but not quite. I don’t think I can explain them to you.” Irelia smiled weakly.

“Ah, don’t worry about it! We’ve only just met each other. Sorry about prying. Anyway, let’s get inside.” Aurora walked toward the cottage door.

“Hold on.” Irelia moved close to Aurora and sniffed at her hair. “What is that smell?”

Aurora stumbled forward and hit her head against the cottage door. She rubbed her head and groaned. Aurora then turned and looked at Irelia. The girl was staring intently at Aurora with a serious expression. “What smell? What do you smell on me?”

Irelia frowned. “Never mind. I thought you smelled a bit weird compared to earlier. Must have been your hunt or something… Did you encounter anything weird out there? Any creatures that seemed… out of this world?”

Aurora stumbled back into the door. “N-No, not at all.”

Irelia squinted her eyes. “Are you sure?”

Aurora nodded. “W-Why don’t we just get some rest.” She opened the door to the cottage and walked inside. Aurora brought Irelia to the room her brothers shared. “You can sleep in whichever bed you want to. There’s a bath right next to this room if you wanted to clean yourself before you go to sleep.”

“Thanks,” Irelia replied.

“I’ll be going into the town once I wake up after noon if you wanted to join,” Aurora said. “We can figure out a way to get your stuff back if you want.”

Irelia grinned. “Great, I was hoping you’d say that. I was going to do that by myself anyways, but now that you’ve offered, I can’t exactly refuse can I."