Page 55 of By Mistake
Pastthatdoor was a long, spiraling staircase that went on so long, Andrus started to get dizzy.Everything smelled of damp and dust.
When they finally reached the bottom of the dizzying stairs, which he was not looking forward to going back up, sconces flared to life down the length of another hallway, much shorter than the one above.Beyond yet another door they finally entered a chamber that looked like a larger, more impressive version of the secret workroom in Andrus's basement.Sconces lined the wall and there was even a pair of chandeliers hanging from a wood ceiling that was probably all that kept dirt and rock from crashing down upon them.
Better not to think about it.
The floor was entirely slate, the large tiles fit seamlessly together to form something the size of a long dance floor, or near enough."What in the name of all the gods does the royal family get up to down here?Even for the wealthy, this seems excessive."
"Takes a lot of space to cast the spells that maintain the whole palace," Oresti replied."There are five royal mages, and they work, depending on the spell, every month, six months, and yearly on the palace-wide spells.Keeps them quite busy.Some of them require this entire space, they are so enormous and elaborate."
Shimari scoffed in thatsilly little humansway of his."I could probably condense the work, if you showed me their spells."
"Sure, why not.I'll have Trianti, the Master Mage, send the records to my room after I leave here before I head into the city.You can look them over tonight.Now, alas, I must depart, even though this is the far more interesting way to spend a day."He reeled Andrus in close and kissed him quick and sharp, then did the same to Shimari as he stepped in close."Behave.Stay out of trouble.I'll see you this evening, and will send word if I'm going to return later than dinner."
"Be careful," Andrus said."Farthing would kill you just for the bragging rights and the satisfaction of causing people pain."
Oresti kissed him again, fingers trailing along his cheek in a whisper soft touch before he was gone with a parting, "Shimari, keep them safe."Then he was gone.
Andrus released a breath on a shuddery sigh."Let's get to work, shall we?Though I don't know what I'm supposed to do in all of this.I've been told approximately five hundred times by the pair of you to stay away from magic.Or near enough."Not that he particularly cared.Summoning Shimari had been more than enough magic for him.He was more than happy to provide the energy and let Oresti and Shimari do all the work.
How quickly he was becoming a spoiled brat.
"I'm going to use you as an energy draw, as you've already surmised," Shimari said, looking faintly amused for a moment."Not all of it, but a goodly amount of it, so that nobody collapses, and those two will still be on their feet, since Greivs is needed to help Oresti, and we can't have Coret collapsing dramatically and his mother hearing about it.Upsetting mothers is never a good thing.Sit there at the desk, do not touchanything.The last thing I need is you summoning a god somehow."
"I sincerely dislike you."
Shimari grinned briefly before crooking his finger in that way he and Oresti loved for some reason.Rolling his eyes, Andrus nevertheless heeded the call, because damn it all he liked when they did it too.Wrapping around him, so warm he was almost hot, Shimari kissed him, fangs catching on his bottom lip and drawing blood.Andrus hissed at the pain, but it was almost immediately soothed by the ardent kiss."What are you doing?Surely you were well fed last night, demon."
"Never hurts to begin with a surfeit."Shimari kissed him again, licking away a last few drops of blood before finally turning his full attention to the matter at hand.
Andrus had spenthourscarefully reading, taking notes, rereading, redrafting his notes, practicing the spell writing, until he was sick of all of it.Shimari simply started writing, and he didn't even need ink or chalk or anything.He just drew everything with his finger practically dancing through the air over the slate, and the spell laid down in letters that glowed like embers before fading as they set like drying paint.
"Incredible," Coret murmured."People struggle their entire lives to be just a tenth as competent.It's one thing to know you're a zero class demon, but something else entirely to see it so viscerally."
Shimari smirked briefly, but kept his attention on his work, until the spell circle was finally drawn."All right, I need all three of you.We're going to incorporate your blood as an added precaution for the binding—and yours just to help carry the load, pet.You first."
At Shimari's bidding, Andrus offered his hand, wincing slightly as his fingers were pricked to draw blood that was added to a perfectly drawn circle in the midst of rows of intricate spellwork forming a beautiful knot.When he was done, Shimari kissed him again.
Greivs and Coret offered their blood up in turns, deposited in a different pair of circles on the opposite end of the whole spell circle from where Andrus's had been placed.
When they were out of the way again, Shimari activated the spell.Seeing it, remembering his own, Andrus could better appreciate just how badly he'd cast his spell and how fucking lucky he was to be alive—lucky that Shimari hadn't killed him immediately and gone on his merry way.
"Where is the fun in that?"Shimari asked."Now comes the hard part."
"That wasn't the hard part?"Andrus said."That would have taken expert mages weeks to do."
"Months, even," Coret added."You've added layers and layers to it all that…" he shook his head."You're brilliant or insane, I don't know which."
With a soft laugh, Shimari vanished.
"I feel I am greatly in over my head," Coret said into the silence.
"I've been in over my head since my long-lost father showed up, and I learned I'm only half-human," Greivs said dryly."What's a little deeper at this point?"
Coret laughed."I suppose that's true.I've never met a dryad, even a half-dryad.That sounds like quite the tale, though my impression is that it's also a sad story.I can surmise.I am sorry."
Greivs seemed briefly saddened."It was, thank you."
"When I first saw your aura, I could not make sense of it.That you're half-dryad certainly explains the gaps in my knowledge.I wish there was a handy compendium just lying around somewhere that would give me all possible information on auras I could ever need.Too easy, I suppose."
