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Between Wands & Sigils - Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2025-09-10 19:52:34 +0000 UTCDisclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!
–?--
Nightfall had arrived, and he officially only had a single task left to do, one that was as daunting as it was complex.
Meditation.
See, he had never really been a big fan of meditation or mental health in general, anyway. In his opinion and in the opinion of his father and grandfather, the only thing men needed to do was work, eat good food(that included meat), study, work some more, and that’s it. In their expert opinion, if a person was moving so much that they had no time to even think, depression would never catch them.
Shrugging, he let the warmth of the fire wash over him as he closed his eyes and tried to dive deep into his psyche.
……
….
…
..
.
He exhaled, opening his eyes, as he found his mind unable to stay steady for very long; concepts and how to bring them to reality kept entering his mind. He remembered the note saying that he would get the needed mental acuity with his High Magical Talent, but he didn’t really feel any different? Or smarter.
Maybe it was something related only to something magical? Before he could ponder more on that, he stiffened as he looked up and saw something falling from the ceiling.
It was not a rock, nor dust, since he’d cleaned this place thoroughly just three days ago. It was a note.
Leaping up from his cross legged position, he jumped over the fire, snatched the note and landed on the ground, feet skidding a bit as the forcefield was activated instinctively. Opening the note, he looked inside and the more he read, the wider his grin went.
“Yes!”
____xx___
[A year later]
Siberian Taiga[1998]
–Master Elia Veyra–
She breathed into the thick woolen gloves, trying to retain some heat as she ventured deeper and deeper into this hellish forest, whilst trying to keep the use of magic to a bare minimum, as was the requirement for this mission.
God, she hated this place. Not only was this forest the breeding ground for a lot of rogue supernatural elements, like vampires, rogue Sorcerers, wizards, not to mention the illegal breeding of magical creatures that happened in pockets here, but it was also the home to a demon seal.
Apparently, the Ancient One, in her infinite wisdom, decided to seal a demon of Ice that she had handily defeated, instead of either killing it or sending it back to its home realm. She was here to check in on that demon seal, a routine checkup by all means, but something about this forest was giving her a bad feeling.
She kept her magic on a tight leash, ready to create a shield at the slightest possible indication as the location of the Demon Seal came close.
She was unsure as to what to expect since this was her first time coming here for this particular routine mission but it was supposed to be very low stakes.
The rogue supernatural elements here all knew of Kamar Taj and, consequently, of the Ancient One and knew that they could not harm her, should the hammer of Kamar Taj fall on this entire place.
Taking a deep breath, she followed the signal given to her by the medallion, an instinctive understanding filling her mind as she walked over the snow, using regular winter clothing to remain functional in this weather, despite being a Master of the Mystic Arts.
“Tch. Fat load of good that’ll do me if I end up freezing over. What was I thinking? Five layers were not enough,” She said to herself, as she continued on her journey, only having a couple of hours before it became dark and even more freezing.
For some reason, they were not allowed to directly sling to their destination because even the slightest use of Sorcery could stimulate the demon inside the seal, especially since the current weather was creating the perfect conditions for the demon.
“Why did she make such a flimsy seal then?” She grumbled to herself as the medallion in her pocket began getting warmer and warmer, the only good thing she got for this mission as the magical heat soothed her freezing soul, as the closer she got to the seal, the hotter the medallion would get.
The seal was supposed to be tucked away, in the corner of a large rock, hidden under snow and behind trees, a place where no one would accidentally come to, and yet, as she crossed the invisible boundary just beyond the trees, her breath hitched as she saw something that made her instinctively call upon her magic.
Two shields appeared in front of her hand as her eyes darted all around the clearing she found herself in. It was nothing like the picture she saw back in Kamar Taj!
She could see the seal, especially since it was highlighted so much.
A sphere of crackling blue, enveloping the area right around the seal, built right into a giant rock. The inside of that sphere was somehow full of lava.
Red hot lava, bubbling constantly, and despite the very short distance between her and that lava, she could feel none of it. Come to think of it, she could feel nothing, no magic except the one by the medallion.
Taking a hesitant step forward, she took a closer look at the sphere of energy, as well as the clearing, which was very clear, as if someone had purposefully arrange it like this.
She took out the medallion from her pocket, the heat from the medallion now uncomfortably warm compared to the rest of her body, extending it in the direction of the seal, as the medallion began glowing green, signalling that the seal was the correct one.
“But,” She whispered to herself, looking all around the clearing, tense, as if waiting for an attack, “Who could do this?”
The clearing itself was supposed to be hidden, with only the medallion allowing access into the clearing without raising an alarm in Kamar Taj. Something like this would have surely raised some alarms back in Kamar Taj, right?
“So, that’s what the Hidden Alarm Bypass enchantment was for,” She whirled around, medallion dropped as she summoned an Eldritch shield in one hand and readied an offensive fire spell in the other, her specialty.
She paused mid spell casting, as she found herself looking at a child, looking oddly comfortably and at ease, looking at her. No, he was not looking at her.
It was odd, preposterous really, to think that a child would not be interested in literary magic being performed in front of him but no, the child was looking behind her. He was looking at the Medallion, she realised.
He looked at the medallion for a moment longer before he waved his hand in a beckoning gesture. She tensed as she felt the flare of magic that screamed wizard to her, as the medallion was dropped into the waiting palm of the child.
What made her weary was not the fact that the oddly dressed child in front of her was using wizard magic to take the medallion, it was the fact that she could feel so little of it. It made sense for a child so young to have little to none magic, that was basic, but doing what he did required more magic than what she could sense.
Before she could ask him how he came here, who he was, what he was doing, anything, really, he spoke, seemingly to himself, “Huh, nifty,” before tossing the medallion back at her, as if some cheap toy that no longer interested him.
She caught the medallion and stashed it in her pocket as she looked at the boy, who looked at her with an empty gaze, which was sort of disturbing. Ignoring that, she spoke, “Who are you, kid? You really shouldn’t be here, especially now.”
She saw no layers on the kid. Hell, he was wearing a shirt, sleeves rolled up, and shorts that looked as if it was made from real deer hide, which was a…fashion choice. It was not a good one by any means.
“This is home,” The kid said, matter of fact, as if he had been living here, in this hellish place, hostile to both normal people and magical people. Before she could ask him to elaborate, he gained an interested look in his eyes, as he spoke, “Who are you? And what was that shield spell from earlier?”
She relaxed a tiny bit at the childlike curiosity in his voice. Yeah, he might be an oddball of a kid and very suspicious but she could recognise that wonder for magic anywhere. It was the same really, with her nephews as well.
Not answering his question, she proposed one of her own, “What are you doing here? And what did you say in the beginning about some sort of bypass enchantment?”
The boy shrugged, “I just came here to check on the seal, since I sensed someone getting past the trees, which is very hard. I know, I checked.”
“And how did you know when I came here?” She asked him, tersely. This routine check was becoming more and more non routine to her, as she debated on calling for reinforcements as the situation had clearly evolved beyond normal mission parameters.
