The Prince's Mark

The Road to Dezmer - Seven

Entering Dezmer did lift Tracou's spirits. After spending months in human countries, with their boring human architecture, seeing the variable and magically held together Dezmerian homes comforted him in a way he hadn't thought possible.

The difference between Aodehn and Dezmer immediately became apparent once a traveler entered the first Dezmerian village. The buildings in Aodehn, even down to the shacks, were all built conventionally. They were buildings made to stand on their own. In Dezmer, magic allowed for more freedom. Sometimes, a home would simply not have a door until the owner left or entered it. Colors or even the shape of the building could change at a moment's notice, making having either the purpose of the building or one's family name on a sign outside of the house essential. The inside of a home would change just as much, if not more, than the outside. Rearranging furniture was possible with just the wave of a wand. Sometimes even the room layout could be changed at will.

Dezmek were not bound by petty carpentry. They were bound only by their own magical strength and their imaginations... and, well, sleep. The true nature of Dezmer revealed itself at night, when grand, colorful homes reverted to huts held together by magical residue. This only happened to households without servants, though. With larger estates, dezmek lords would employ some servants purely to keep their homes looking stately or for some form of entertainment. Tracou had heard of a lord who insisted on having moving pictures on his inside walls. One or two servants had to project images from famous Dezmerian stories on the walls at all times, which had to be mind numbing.

As far as Tracou was concerned, however, constantly changing one's home was gaudy and beneath him. It was a waste of energy, too. Only immature people who couldn't decide on anything felt the need to always try to come up with something better. Tracou's father had held that opinion and Tracou had inherited it without question.

Magic had a myriad of uses and could be better used for practical things, at least when it came to the home. Cooking, baking, cleaning, hunting—these all required no special tools for a dezmek. If dezmek had been able to use their wands without arms, maybe the first snake wouldn't have given them any.

All of the magic used within a home to clean, heat, cool, or move furniture around kept the thin walls and shoddy craftsmanship of peasants' homes from collapsing. Even if a building looked like planks of wood stacked together without anything to hold them in place, the constant magic made it so crashing into a building with a wagon would only hurt the wagon.

Passing through villages on their way to Terel had been something of a trial. Mirthal asked him questions constantly. How many dezmek can use magic? All of them, to varying degrees. How do the houses, which look flimsy compared to human built houses, stand after the dezmek inside go to sleep? Prolonged magical exposure. Why would anyone bother making their home shimmer for no reason? Some people have strange tastes. Tracou was happy to answer these questions at first, but they soon grew annoying.

These questions had led Mirthal to insist that he change their wagon somehow. Pendaer, of course, was too busy moping about his hair to participate and likely would continue to mope for the foreseeable future.

Tracou ended up changing the wagon's color to silver, but it impressed Mirthal all the same. It went back to its original color overnight, of course. When it came to objects, Tracou preferred something permanent.

Magic could be used as a tool to alter an object, like how Tracou cut Pendaer's hair. Changing something's color merely influenced it and did not last—the silver of the wagon was as much of an illusion as the stag in Winlea. If he used Pendaer's dye to bind the color to the wagon, then he could have permanently changed its color to that Pendaer blue. Naturally, he would never do that. Pendaer had abandoned his dye anyway and wore a hat at all times, even as he slept.