Ink Forged

~Unexpected~

An hour later had Maevus up on her feet. She had sent Medella back with an angry shriek and a puff of green smoke when one of the soldiers came to fetch her. She followed him without complaint through the great halls of the hospital until they came to the front doors.

There Savrin stood on the wide, shallow steps, looking anxious. As soon as he saw Maevus, he hurried over and the soldier took a step back from the Blood-Charmed Encant. His green hair was tied back in a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck, a few strands still hanging around his face.

"I'm glad I caught you," he said, voice low. His eyes flicked over the top of her head to make sure Adela wasn't approaching yet. "Whatever you do, don't use magic unless she tells you to, okay?"

She frowned at him, and he raised his hands in surrender. "Just a friendly tip, Dragon Lady."

The frown turned to a scowl, but she nodded. Someone called Savrin's name, and he waved over his shoulder, acknowledging the red-faced soldier who'd yelled for him.

"Thanks," she finally mumbled, and he gave her a small smile.

"Just remember," he said quietly. "Faldana's Square. See you in a few days."

She opened her mouth to disagree, but he had already turned and run off to join up with the squad he had been assigned to. Maevus watched as the soldiers went out of their way to keep as far away from Savrin as possible.

Her stomach sank at the looks of either disgust or fear she found on their faces.

What's happened to the world?

Most people, including Encants themselves, were wary of other Encants. But only a few had ever earned the fear cast their way. Maevus didn't know what could have possibly changed anything so drastically that people now feared and despised all Encants, not just the ones who used their Charms for nefarious purposes.

"The world's not what it used to be," Adela said, stepping up beside Maevus, answering like she'd read the Encant's mind. 

She wanted to flinch away from the icy woman, but wouldn't give her the satisfaction. She was an Encant. A powerful one. And that meant she need fear nothing but her own limitations.

"I noticed," she replied finally, drawing her cloak around her.

Adela offered her a glacial smile. "You haven't seen the half of it. Queen Selna is finally putting your kind where they belong."

"My kind?" Maevus asked flatly, even as her temper flared.

But Adela didn't deign to answer. She turned on her heel, striding toward the front of a column of soldiers in the process of forming. Maevus watched as she mounted a steel-grey horse, sitting patiently astride the huge animal as the soldiers fell into orderly rows.

A hand on her elbow had her trying to jerk away, but a small, metallic clicking sound made her freeze. She slowly looked up to find a stern-faced young man with dark brown hair watching her. In his other hand was what Maevus could only assume was another Anmedeis.

It was almost too pretty to wreak the havoc she now knew it could. A delicate, spherical filigree of metal surrounding a complicated matrix of glass, something glowing dull orange in the middle.

Slowly, she forced her muscles to relax and let him lead her toward a wagon in the middle of the column. He helped her up into it, all without a word until she looked around. The only thing that had been returned to her were her clothes and her cloak.

"If you're wondering about your weapons," he said, "you'll get them back once we get to Valmor. Until then, Captain Adela feels it best to keep them herself."

Maevus laughed. "What? Adela scared of little old me? I can't use my magic. Seems foolish."

Even to her the words felt like nothing more than cheap bravado, and she hated it.

The soldier looked up at her, expression never changing. Then, he said, "On the contrary, miss. I happen to think it would be foolish to underestimate you in anything."

Maevus opened her mouth, then shut it, blinking rapidly. It wasn't often she was struck speechless, and she flushed crimson when she noticed some of his nearby comrades snickering to one another. She opened her mouth angrily, but he was already walking away, finding his place near the end of the line.

She sighed and settled onto the bench on the side of the wagon, watching the sun start to rise in the east. The clouds were beginning to bleed red, spears of pale yellow thrown above them, chasing away the last purple remnants of the night sky.

"How long will it take to get to Valmor?" she asked the woman driving the wagon, just to be ignored.

By dragon, it would have taken less than a day, but she didn't know how that translated to the time it would take a company on foot to arrive at the capitol.

It was tempting to summon Lox, just to breathe fire at the woman and make her answer, but Savrin's warning rang in her ears. So instead, she slumped down on the seat, yawning and turning her head to look at the soldiers behind the wagon.

She heard some of them murmur something about how she should be properly locked up, making a shiver run down her still aching spine. Malice toward her seemed to roll off the soldiers in palpable waves.

None of them attempted to keep their feelings off their faces, and each expression clearly longed to see Maevus clapped in irons and perhaps stripped completely of her magic.

All of them were terrifyingly hateful, save one.

She looked past the sea of spiteful faces to lock eyes with the soldier who had accompanied her from the hospital.

He met her gaze steadily, something like sadness in his amber eyes. The soldier held her gaze for one more moment, studying her with subtle curiosity.

But then someone was shouting and Maevus nearly fell from her perch on the edge of the wagon's bench. By the time she'd righted herself, the soldier had been lost in the moving company.