Page 5 of Forgotten Arcane

“Do you need us to get up for that?” Reed questions, “Because I don’t think I’m quite ready yet.”

“Me neither,” Coen agrees.

I still can’t believe that he’s here, and with us.

“No, you’re all good where you are,” Ed replies with another smile, “If you give me a moment, I will see what you’ve all been given.”

We’re all silent as we wait for Ed to tell us what magic we’ve been gifted, and Coen wriggles closer to me and threads his fingers through mine, squeezing them tightly. My whole body practically sings at the contact. I know that we’ve got a lot to sort out, I know that there are going to be some complications thrown our way, because Coen killed Kylen and that’s not how dragons work, he had good reason, and Draith is reasonable, but it could still get a little complicated.

That’s only scratching the surface of what we need to sort out, and the complications that we’re most likely going to have to deal with when we get back. That’s not even taking into account everything else that we’ve had to put on hold while we’ve been here. There’s the hybrid problem that we need to deal with, which is more complicated because we’re reasonably certain that the Blue Fucker is behind the hybrids, and he is responsible for the war in Trieneliea, and we have no idea how he is here, but we do know that he is incredibly powerful. We are also fairly certain that HID has been helping to supply him with supernaturals, and that I was very nearly one of those supernaturals.

All this means that the Blue Fucker knows of my existence, and now that we know who my parents are, that’s a big complication. I have to assume that he doesn’t know that my parents are the King and Queen of Trieneliea. Otherwise I would imagine that he would be trying a hell of a lot harder to get his hands on me or kill me. He would most likely prefer to use me as a bargaining chip against my parents, although I’m not sure how that would go for him.

Which leads me on to the personal stuff.

Dimitri, Pete, Coen, oh, and apparently fucking Kyrous, because the rest of my life isn’t insane enough. There are the spirit guides, and Winston, I miss my friend, although I now know who my parents are, and he left to go and find out if he could reason with whoever stopped him from giving meinformation, so that he could tell me who they were. There’s Sully, and oh fuck, there’s Van’s parents, we just found out that he’s fucking royalty, and we were supposed to go and see them, but we got pulled into the Choosing instead.

I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting, but that is more than enough to focus on right now.

My top priority is going to be Coen, at least for a few days.

“Oh my,” Ed says.

His words thankfully bring me out of the very quickly spiraling thoughts that were about to drag me under, and most likely into a sort of overwhelmed hysteria.

“Is everything okay?” Griff asks.

Ed raises his eyebrows, but nods, “Yes. It would appear that none of your Choosing ceremony is going to behave normally.”

“Why am I not surprised?” I mutter somewhat snarkily.

“Is it bad?” River questions with a slight frown.

“No, no,” Ed replies. “It just hasn’t happened before, so it surprised me. It seems that you have all been gifted with the same kind of magic,” he pauses. “The affinity with the dead, and death itself. For Neith and Raiden, that means that your natural magic has been increased, and for the rest of you, it means that you now have the magic.”

I already have death magic?

Wait, that’s not the thing that I should be focusing on right now, but it is certainly interesting.

“All of us now have magic that deals with death?” Coen questions, seeming more intrigued than anything else.

Ed nods, “Yes, I would imagine that it will present differently for all of you. No two magics are ever the same.”

“Well, that’s pretty fucking cool,” River mutters.

Ed chuckles, “You should know that it may take a while to manifest itself, it will need to grow fairly naturally, although it will be quicker than most magics. I’m sorry that I can’t give you specifics, but that’s just how it works.”

“That’s understandable,” Van replies, as he stands up and prompts the rest of us to do the same. “We will deal with it, and research as the magic presents itself.”

“Are you all feeling okay?” Ed asks worriedly.

I nod, “I feel amazing actually.”

“I’m just hungry,” River adds, making me smile as he rubs his stomach to emphasize his words.

“You’re always hungry,” Coen retorts with a smirk.

River shrugs, “True.”

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