A Million Roads to Nowhere

How to Listen to the Wind

After some routine check ups with Aodhan, Patrick begins to feel better (despite the continued nightmares), while Lena continues to get worse. He stays with her most hours of the day, sometimes sitting doing nothing, sometimes reading aloud from a storybook Signe gave him and said that Leif sent it over to him.

Everyone is on edge waiting for a retaliation from Morwenna or Alistair and preparing for the end of winter. Clementine spends most of her days in her study, sat at her writing desk, scribbling down letters and sending them off at a feverish rate. Patrick helps her seal them, though he can only assume they're to the Hoarfrost because they're all sent magically, thrown into the air to disappear in a puff of cold air and snowfall that melts into the carpet.

Staying with Lena is difficult because she's so unlike herself and Patrick has to spend time elsewhere otherwise he'd surely go mad. He seals letters for Clementine and if she's in a good mood, she'll teach him a cantrip or two. He figures out how to freeze a glass of water and bend ice into shapes, though they tend to shatter from the force of his magic. Ice magic requires a more delicate hand compared to fire and handling it becomes a task to focus on and keep his thoughts from straying elsewhere.

Practicing magic makes him feel alive, something it never did for him before. It was always thrilling, but now he treasures the way he can feel energy ripple under his skin- feel the power there inside him. He asks Aodhan to teach him spells and gets a firm no the first time he asks. Signe tells him it's because Aodhan's coddling him and urges him to ask again. He sits with her out on the barrels on the ramparts and she tells him ghost stories that he can't tell are completely true.

The second time Patrick asks Aodhan to teach him a spell, he couples the request with a bit of blatant kissing up. He tosses out a 'you're so smart, Aodhan' and he knows he's won when Aodhan laughs, mutters with resignation, "You've been spending too much time with Signe. She's teaching you."

Aodhan teaches him how to write spells and channel magic. His manner of teaching is less flippant than Clementine's and more lenient than Alistair's- though he remains scholarly and precise. His instructions are easy to follow and Patrick feels as though he's properly absorbing the information. Aodhan teaches magic like it's a separate entity that can be studied, Clementine teaches magic like it's no different from breathing or blinking, and Signe teaches him magic is like art. None of them tell him magic can be perfected- not like Alistair did.

When he's not keeping Lena company or running errands for Clementine or drawing with Signe or listening to Aodhan ramble about magic, he goes down to the beach with William, sometimes trains with Brynjar. The first time Brynjar comes at him with a sword, he flinches. He's never done that before, but Brynjar doesn't comment on it, doesn't even allude to the fact he died. Part of him is grateful for this and the other is worried he's disappointed.

A couple more weeks pass in this simple monotony- beach, errands, letters, magic, comfort, eat, fight, sleep- until the storm.

The sky goes black and snow falls in a flurry from the clouds in a neverending blanket. The winds rage outside and make it risky to attempt stepping foot in the snow. Clementine is the only one able to travel where she pleases with no difficulty and oftentimes Patrick will find her sitting by a window, eyes closed and ears tuned to the whistle of the wind. Isla seems to enjoy it as well and often urges Lena to join them by a window.

Rozenn's soldier's gather in the dining hall and the throne room, some braving the colder weather out in the stables. William enchants all of the doorways and the inside of the keep becomes a sanctum. Patrick is miserable in the storm as he's never experienced weather even remotely close to this.