Page 77 of Somewhere down the Ley Line
Longing lovers, please release us
from this spellbound quandary…”
Luella burst into laughter. Mia smirked, clearly pleased with herself. Isolde blushed down to the roots of her hair. She would not look at Felix again, absolutely not, but she was sure she felt him tense from across the room. And Mia, curse her, was not done.
“Stars align while minds deny, together yet worlds apart
If only they would see the truth, cease this deception of the heart”
Leif looked abashed. “Um. I don’t know, Mia. I think… this is probably not the time?” Isolde could have hugged him.
Luella snorted. “Oh, I think it’s very good, although ‘together’ feels a little squished in there with the melody you have. Maybe ‘close’ instead? Fewer syllables.”
Mia gaped at Luella. “You people keep on surprising me.”
Luella smiled. “Add something about exasperated companions, too.”
“That’ll be the second verse,” Mia replied cheerfully.
Isolde set her own bowl down with a clang. It was high time to change the subject. “Mia, do you know any songs or stories about the Nexus? Or about magic?”
Mia tapped her fingers against the lute’s wood, considering. “I have plenty of stories about magic,” she said, eyes twinkling in the firelight. “But most of them are about some mage or other who saved a town or won a war.”
“No, not about mages… Are there any that are, um, about magic itself? As an entity?”
“Magic as an entity?” Mia tilted her head questioningly. “Well, there is an old and, in certain circles, rather controversial story about the origins of the Triad…”
Isolde frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the legend of the fourth god,” Mia said, lowering her voice theatrically. The fire cast long shadows as she raised her hands. “The god of chaos, of change. Of magic.”
“The fourth god is dead,” Garren said from across the room. “If there ever was one to begin with.”
Mia shrugged. “Who can say for sure? Some people believe there are no gods at all.” Her eyes flicked briefly in Felix’s direction. “But the legend says the Triad cast the fourth god out, banished him for disrupting the balance of the heavens with his wild power. As he fell, his wounds bled magic into the world, forming the ley lines.”
Leif’s brow furrowed. “That’s not how the story goes.”
Mia raised an eyebrow, curious. “Oh? How does your story go?”
Leif leaned forward, holding his bowl between his palms. “We don’t have gods the way you do. To us, it is the earth itself that is divine. They say there once was a spirit who tried to steal the earth’s heart. Not out of malice, but because the spiritwanted to be with her, to be part of her. When he claimed the heart for himself, he couldn’t hold on to its power, and it shattered. It burst through the world, uncontrollable, andthatcreated the ley lines.”
“The stories told in Gotvig are similar,” Luella said. “The ley lines appeared when the earth got her heart broken.” Isolde turned to her in surprise; Luella never talked about her homeland.
“Poetic,” Mia said, staring into the fire.
Garren walked over to join them. He stood with arms crossed, face impassive. “A priest in Lledia once preached that the ley lines were created when a powerful evil spirit tried to ascend to godhood. The Triad killed him for his insolence, striking him down when he refused to give up his power. His body broke apart, and where it fell, magic took root. It spiralled outward into the world, causing chaos wherever it went. Until finally people banded together long enough to control it.”
The fire popped, sending a few embers flying. No one spoke for a moment.
“That’s a little grim,” Leif said eventually, stirring the pot of soup.
Isolde stayed quiet while her thoughts churned. She thought back to what the elder in Leif’s village had told her.
“What about stories of the leytouched?” she asked. “Your elder told me the story of the Aelithar who saved the city of Taerrok, Leif. But are there any other stories about them?”
“I know that one,” Leif said, “but no others…”
Mia made a face. “I have a few, but they all feature leytouched as villains. Dangerous, unpredictable. Monstrous sometimes. InRed Roderick’s Revenge,the leytouched has horns and a tail.”
