A Kinnon Mage (12)

Had the call of the night bird woken me?

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I awoke with a start. Shafts of silver-blue moonlight came in from the high window. Somewhere in the distance, a bird called, a kind of ku-ku-ku-ku-broo. I didn't know what kind. I knew only that it was some night bird. 

I listened, hard. Something had woken me. Some sound? There were few enough of them at any time of day, and no others but the bird now.

I turned my attention back to sleep. It didn't feel far away.

"Can you hear me?"

My eyes popped open. I was certain that was not a dream. "Hello?" I spoke into the darkness, feeling like a fool.

"You hear me?"

"Yes, I do! Where are you?" Now I was awake, although there was something I was still missing.

"In a cell. Imprisoned. As are you, correct?"

"Yes. Atoning for my crime against society." I grinned at my humor.

"I need to escape. I need your help."

"Quiet! They'll hear you!" My eyes darted to the door. 

"No one is listening. Only you."

"There is no escape. We must simply wait it out, perform the necessary reflection on why we are here. Haven't you realized that?" Admittedly, it had taken me some days to gain such wisdom, but still.

"I can't wait. I'm dying here."

"Dying? Why?"

"I cannot live here, in this place, in this ... Folly."

I snorted. "I know, it feels so wrong to be without magic like this. If I had even a tiny amount available to me, we would both be free soon enough. But I'm helpless, just as you are."

"Then I am doomed."

"The time will pass. You'll get used to the absence. I find that the absence has helped me to focus. To remember other things. That is the beauty of this Agalin syst—"

"I will not survive for long. I can feel my life seeping out of me. Help me!"

"There's nothing I can do without access to my arts. I can't help!" I'd be able to follow the sound of the voice, for a start.

"You can hear me, can't you?"

"Of course I can. Am I speaking to myself?" To be tormented by such a melodramatic simpleton!

"Then you can reach the deepest well of your arts. You are not completely cut off from yourself. I would have thought a Kinnon mage would be more aware of reality. I'm not the simpleton."

That gave me pause. Simpleton. I hadn't spoken that word. Merely thought it. And the thing that was pressing on my awareness ....

"Are you hearing me properly?"

That was it! The voice had no echo. It was not sound, but thought, coming directly into my mind.

"Well done."

"But who are you?"

"My name ... is Zhalghumi. And you are Araled ... of Azillan ... from Peledar ... in the Land of Kumuru, in the Region of Tanena, a citizen of Kinona."

"How—"

"I can taste who you are from your thoughts. Can you not do the same?"

"I've tried. I can't reach beyond my body. The walls are dead and empty."

"And yet they have carried some small part of me through themselves, to you."

"How is that possible?"

"You are too confident in your Dragonish rules and order. There is so much more."

This drew my attention. "You were not trained in rules and order, in the 'Dragonish' way? How can that be? All of our arts come from the wisdom of the ancient Dragons."

"Not all. Can you not think of any other source than Order?"

Of course I could, although the subject rarely came up, even at the Black Isle. "The opposition to Order is Chaos," I intoned. An old quote. And then the last part of the thought formed, and I realized what the quote implied. "You are a Faerie!"

Continue reading with Part 13 - The Voice Without Echo.