That left her more troubled than anything else.
She awoke in a cold sweat.
It was a dream—nothing more than that—but it had seemed so real and vivid.
And of course, in the dream, she’d seen enchantments that she herself had used. Not only had there been the sound blast that the girl had given her, the enchantment that didn’t harm anybody but could certainly cause significant devastation, but there had been the memory bowl that had stripped memories from the sorcerers. She had seen firsthand just how well that worked when she had stripped Matthew’s memories of his time in Nelar with her.
Maybe that was the only reason she had a dream like that. It was sadness—or perhaps guilt.
Jayna sat up, looking around the room. She had a small glowing enchantment resting on a table near the repaired wall, and it gave off a faint orange light. All she had to do was add a little bit more power to it and it would take on a bit more of a glow. She had enchanted the stone herself, turning it into a lantern, not wanting to sleep in the utter darkness. Lately, she found that such darkness troubled her more than it ever had before.
Jayna swung her legs over the edge of her bed. She rubbed her eyes with her fists, still tired but not able to sleep any longer. How could she sleep when she had dreams like that? Still, she felt a bit restored from the sleep she had gotten.
She twisted the dragon stone ring on her finger, looking down at it. In the reflected light from the enchanted lantern, it had more of an orange glow to it, and less of the reddish, almost bloody look to it from a layer of the bloodstone that surrounded the pale white dragon stone. Even if she wanted to separate the two by peeling them apart, she didn’t know if she could. They may have been permanently merged—in which case, there would be nothing for her to do about it.
Still, she appreciated the power within the enhanced, enchanted ring. The dragon stone ring continued to be even more powerful than it had been before now that it was augmented by the bloodstone, and she now had much quicker access to the power of the Toral ring—something she would have had to dig deeply for before. But despite her concerns about reaching for darkness, the sad reality for Jayna was that she had needed that power.
With everything she’d faced recently, she had required more power than she had before.
She got up, slipped on her clothes, and packed her satchel, adding a few enchantments into it before slipping it over her shoulder.
Jayna had no other weapons. She had a belt knife, but she doubted she would be able to do much with that. It wasn’t all that useful for the kind of fighting she engaged in.
She couldn’t imagine fighting the way some men and women did. She had seen soldiers training in parts of the country, especially in some places outside of Nelar. There was a regimented nature to the way they trained, a consistency to it, and while she couldn’t deny that they had incredible skill, there just wasn’t much use for that kind of fighting when it came to magic. How could there be when a sorcerer, one single sorcerer, could create a blast of fire so large that it would engulf an entire squadron of soldier?
There were other ways to destroy soldiers. It didn’t even take a fireball. She could rip through the earth, creating a cavern that was large enough to split open, swallow the entire squadron, and crush them. She could use a gust of wind, sending a violent sweep of energy at soldiers, and that could . . .
What am I thinking?
Jayna had no idea why she was considering the ways she could destroy soldiers. There was no need to think like that.
She stepped out into the kitchen, glancing over to the fire that had burned down to embers. Eva was curled up on the floor in front of it, three bottles of wine resting near her head, her glass tipped over. The room wasn’t nearly as warm as it had been before, which she was thankful for, though there was still heat and energy here. Topher was gone. He must have slept in Eva’s room, as he often did.
Jayna didn’t blame him. It was better to sleep there, comfortable on the bed, rather than sleeping on the floor or in one of the chairs, especially since Eva rarely used her own bed. In the time they had been home, Jayna thought she could count on one hand how many times Eva had rested in her own bed, and many of them had been times when Jayna herself had carried Eva back there after she had passed out in front of the fire.
The kitchen was a little bit of a shambles. Topher had made a delicious meal for them, but hadn’t bothered to clean up.
Jayna owed it to him to take care of the cleaning. She would do that later. Given that he was the one cooking for them—and he did it incredibly well—she should at least give him the chance to relax afterward.
She hoped she showed enough gratitude to Topher.
It surprised her that she wasn’t as bothered by his presence as she would’ve expected. He offered her something she had needed but hadn’t given much thought to. There were too many times when she and Eva lacked a certain level of self-care. They were so focused on chasing down dark magic, so focused on their tasks, that they both often got too distracted. Jayna simply because she was trying to figure out where the power was coming from, and what she needed to do with that dark magic, and Eva because she would drink to the point where she would collapse, then ultimately sleep through much of the day.
Topher added something to the mix for both of them.
He might not necessarily provide a whole lot when it came to helping Jayna search for dark magic, but he was a dular, after all, and he was . . .
What is that?
She found a small coin resting on the table.
It looked like one that Topher had made, though the detail on the coin was different, more complicated. Topher’s coins typically had a simple pattern, little more than a spiraling circle, but this one contained a pattern that looked like a series of interlocking circles occupying the entirety of the coin, as if smaller coins had been stamped upon its surface.
She squeezed it for a moment, wondering if this was Topher’s work or if he had acquired this from someone else.
“What are you doing?”
Jayna spun, looking over to the fire where Eva rested.
“You’re up,” she said.
“I’m up.” She glanced at the fire, her brow furrowing, and wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold. “You were leaving?”
“I was going to go visit Char yesterday, but when Topher offered to cook, I figured I should take advantage of it,” Jayna said. “So now I’m going this morning.”
“It’s early,” Eva said.
“Maybe, but not so early he won’t be available for me to visit.”
Eva lowered herself back down to the floor and curled back up, pulling her knees into her chest. “Don’t make too much noise.”
Jayna just chuckled. She looked again at the mess in the kitchen—the stack of dirty dishes, the flour and spices and remnants of last night’s food—and hesitated a moment, looking for something to write a note to Topher on, but there was nothing. Hopefully he would still be sleeping when she returned from visiting Char.
She headed out, closing the door behind her and sealing it with another burst of magic, then made her way along the street. When she was a block away from her home, she realized she still held on to the enchantment she’d claimed from the table. Topher might be upset with her, but she would explain she had taken it accidentally. She stuffed it into her pocket and headed through the streets.