Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Twenty Two: A Dagger

"Are you hungry?"

Grace seemed determined to distract him, racing around the kitchen like she hadn't been there in days. Jordan sat under the washing lines and watched her, battling the urge to set the place on fire. Nova was sitting by the hearth and roundly ignoring them both.

He didn't see why he had to be down here while the lord and Yddris sorted out the terms of his apprenticeship. It wasn't like it had nothing to do with him. At the same time, he was grateful for the extra time with his sister, no matter how flustered and scatter-brained she was.

"I ate before I came," he said. He eyed her critically when she came to a stop for one rare moment. Her face had the pinched look of someone who hadn't eaten well for several days. "You should eat, though."

"I'm fine," she said, whipping past him for the third time.

"You don't look fine," he said, reaching out and grabbing her hand before she got too far. She gasped and reeled to a stop, glowering at him when he didn't let go. She really did look terrible. "Grace, please."

He let go, expecting her to start running around again. For a moment she looked tempted, but then sighed and sat next to him on the bench, burying her face in her hands.

"I'm just feeling overwhelmed," she said, voice muffled. He knew her too well for that ruse, though, and looked around for a tissue. He settled on a tea towel hanging from the lines above them and handed it to her. She sniffed, glanced at it, and then snatched it from his hands to discreetly wipe away her tears.

"Me too," he said. He picked at a loose thread in his trousers. It was all very well dedicating his working life to Harkenn – which was overwhelming enough by itself - but he didn't even know what that work involved yet.

He wasn't at all keen on the idea of his sister working for Harkenn much longer, either.

"Do you feel different? In yourself?" Grace asked. There was a hint in her expression of the avid academic curiosity he knew so well, and it was reassuring.

"Well...yeah. And no." He frowned. "I can tell there's a difference. I don't feel like I've changed."

"The eyes are new," she said with a grin. "Funky colour."

Jordan scowled. That had been another nasty surprise, when he had caught his reflection in a window on the way to the castle. Everyone had conveniently forgotten to mention it to him, to the detriment of the old man whose front window Jordan had been staring into at the time.

"So...what can you actually do?"

"At the moment, it's limited to setting things on fire," Jordan said dully. "Randomly. Dunno what I'm supposed to be able to do with it, but whatever it is I can't do it yet."

"It's a force."

They both looked round. Nova was still facing away from them.

"What do you mean?" Grace asked. Jordan had opened his mouth to ask the same, but at that moment Nova turned round and fixed him with her dark eyes, and the words died in his throat. He was aware, on a vague peripheral level, that she had strange magic unlike that of the Unspoken, and that it was strong – he could feel it around her, and it scared him. A small smile curved her lips, as if she had guessed at his thoughts.

"Magic is a force," Nova said, "which means there is no 'it'. Manipulating magic is a case of manipulating direction and wavelength. If you understand the key principles, you can do most things you set your mind to so long as it is not outside your capacity." She shrugged. "There are shortcuts. You'll probably be taught runework, which is all you need for dealing with demons. Whether you learn more than that is down to Yddris."