Bleeding Ink

Chapter 44

Chapter 44

The next few weeks for Corliss passed in a blur and yet she couldn't think of a time when she had so much fun. She missed being in Ayveri, missed being back on the university campus, missed having friends to talk to and hang out with that weren't her brother and sister.

She and Fin were practically joined at the hip whenever they were on campus. Not only because they were partners in their other worlds class, but because they always ended up studying together for their other classes also. Fin was taking one more class than she was, but they always managed to find one another in the library, whether it be in one of the study rooms or at a table between the stacks. He shared her same love of books, so the conversations were endless.

He'd even come over to her apartment to meet Meron and have dinner after hearing her rave about his cooking yet complain about almost everything else about him. Of course, Meron was trying to scare him off, but Fin didn't back down. Luckily, they grew to like each other as the night passed and had even met up just the two of them whenever she was stuck finishing up school work. Even Odanth and Ollyn seemed to like him, though they still kept their distance.

The semester passed far too quickly for Corliss's liking, especially when she wanted to know more and more about other worlds theory. One particular lecture session had her even more curious about her own magic.

"Portals and fading," Professor Ashgar said as soon as she walked into the lecture room. She seemed to have created a habit of entering with flare, which Corliss absolutely loved. "That's our topic for this week. What do we know already?"

"Both require specialized magic only a few have," one student said from the middle of the room. "For fading, you have to be sensitive to dark magic to take advantage of the shadows."

"Correct," she nodded. "I know of one Fae who I've seen do such magic, though have heard rumor of a few others."

A female longingly sighed from the back. "Crown Prince Jai."

Several others laughed as Professor Ashgar smiled and rolled her eyes. "Correct...but please don't drool on your text, Isobel," she told her, earning another round of laughter. "To do such magic, like we stated, one has to be sensitive to dark magic, though they don't have to possess it. Now, what about portals?"

Hesitantly, Corliss raised her hand. "Portals are primary focused on sorcerers and sorceresses...of a specific familial line in Eld. My family, to be exact."

The professor smiled at her and nodded. "Exactly...and I do believe you have the capability of creating such portals."

Corliss's face heated, feeling everyone's stare on her back. "I do, though I haven't tried it in a while. I might be a little rusty on my execution. My grandmother was the one who mastered the talent."

She nodded again, flipping through her instructional text to the appropriate chapter. "The portals you are able to make, though, are only able to take you from one place to another in our own world, correct?"

"Yes, but I hardly doubt my grandmother thought to try it in order to get to another world. I haven't either until this class."

She was met with a few chuckles, even from Fin beside her.

"The portals we're going to be discussing over this next week are a little different than those. These will be natural portals, not ones made."

"Natural?" Fin asked, raising a brow. "Is there such a thing?"

"Is there?" she challenged.

As the conversation went on, Corliss rested her chin in her hand, reading through the chapter while barely listening to the discussion around her. The first sections were about the magic and the structures of the portals themselves, but then it flowed into what the portals would actually do to the flow of space around them. In the author's description of it bending and stretching around said person, Corliss completely agreed. She'd experienced it herself first as a little girl with her grandmother and then herself when she managed to create one of her own.