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“Perhaps look at it this way,” Ryndle continued after I had spent far too long staring at the slow pace of the horses in my attempt to work through everything. “If all of Okivo is made of magic, if everything that the Requisites and the Catalysts are able to harness is simply something from our realm which had its own magic thrumming through it, would not the words that contain their own magic be able to work the same way? Couldn’t words which hold magic work as the Catalysts do?”
“The Catalysts and your tattoos are the same? That Catalysts are not only those people who hold the magic…” I stopped myself before I said too much, before I revealed what was now rampaging under my skin.
“Perhaps not hold, perhaps only bridge. Perhaps they bridge the magic into their holders. Into those who bare the words, into the Requisites.”
“But wouldn’t that mean the Catalysts could hold the magic on their own, just as the words do?” He shrugged, his posture calm and nonchalant, even as my heart beat rapidly in my chest.
“Of course, I do not know. I am not a royal. I am neither Requisite nor Catalyst and I do not hold my own magic. I only have the words given to me by the Goddess to do good. I only have the teachings that the Goddess left us with in order to create a positive impact on the world we leave behind. I only have my own teachings, my own experiences with which to impart to people to send them down the path that the Goddess has set for them, has set for them all. I wish only to do right to those that I love and care about. That includes you.”
All of my confusion stiffened as he rambled about the Goddess, only to turn into a block of ice as he placed his hand on my arm with his last few words.
“You don’t know me.” I shrugged him off, turning my glare on him. He didn’t shift an inch.
“I know you enough that I chose to love you. To care about you. I know you enough that I chose to save you rather than leave you bleeding on the side of the road.” He paused, staring with a look that I assumed he thought was full of love and caring. It made that desire to invert his nose return.
“The Goddess told me to travel down that side road toward the Qit alone. That rarely happens, and never near the Qits. The Qits are dangerous for my people, but that night the Goddess whispered for me to go down that road alone. So I did, and I found you. I heard the screams first, although I never did find the people who did that to you.”
He was clearly searching for more information. I went back to staring at the long road. He was a fool if he thought I would tell him anything about what happened, if only because that also meant revealing what I was. What I held.
“I took care of it.” I snarled, pushing away any of his interest in case he tried to pursue it further.
“Hmmm. I assume you did. Not that I care either way. All I care about is that the Goddess led me to you, and the Goddess told me to save you. As we did.”
He was clearly proud of himself. But hearing what he saw, remembering the feel of the hole in my gut, the scent and feel of my blood as it poured down my body like a river. I wondered if it was worth the effort, especially with what it had cost me.
“By tattooing those words on me.” I swear I could feel them prickle every time I thought of them.
“Lyani’s knowledge with those words is unmatched only by my own understanding. She did what was needed to save you, to keep you on the path the Goddess has set for you.”
I would ask him more about the words, about whatever mysterious magic the words held, but he had shifted the conversation so quickly before that I was sure I wasn’t going to get any more useful information about it out of him.
It was as though I was talking to a maze, or a puzzle. There were pieces there that I understood, but there were also pieces that were missing, things that were not clicking together as they should.
I gave him one more glance before I turned back toward the reins, and to the horses that were keeping their pace as the wagon creaked along behind them. People were still clogged around the wagon, Lyani and Ziah walking right beside us. Ziah continually glanced up with abhorrent levels of adoration.
“I know what path is set for me. I don’t need a Goddess to tell me what to do,” I grumbled, well aware I had put far too much disdain into the name of his deity. To his credit, he didn’t flinch. He simply sat, that grin still on his face. It was as though everything in Okivo brought him joy.
“Hmmm, I am not sure you do. Everyone has their own journey, but I do not believe that that knowledge is part of yours just yet.”
I gave a humorless laugh at that. If only he knew how wrong he was. He had no idea what was thrumming and humming through my veins, my magic answering to that boiling frustration that talking to this man was causing me.
I gripped the reins, if only to stop my power from rippling over my skin in waves of ice and fire. I stared at the flies hovering over the backend of the horse, sure that my eyes were shifting and changing in color as the magic fought for space. It had been much more volatile since that morning, I was surprised he hadn’t noticed my eyes, or the fact that the reins now held singed marks in the perfect shape of my fingers.
“I will tell you this, Caspyn light bringer,” he continued after a minute. I didn’t even bother to stop him from using that name that time. It wasn’t as though he would listen. “When you read the Book of the Goddess perhaps you will understand. But for now, let’s take things one step at a time. We have many more days before we reach the temple, and I believe that this may be the biggest part of your journey in the realm. You have enough to think on.” He smiled again before descending down the stairs.
The wagon rocked violently again as he dismounted, the crowd parting like waves in a turbulent ocean to allow him in before closing around him as though he was some kind of god and not simply the leader. Several of the women reached out and touched him, their fingers running over the golden tattoos on his arms and his legs, even as the tattoos that covered their own skin glistened.
I looked away, not wanting to see any more of that. The man may claim that he did not lead these people, but he was clearly delusional if he thought that was true. Judging by the smile on his face he didn’t mind it one bit.
The wagon rocked again as someone else hoisted themselves into the seat beside me, Lyani’s smile hitting me only a moment before her scent did.
My magic had been coiled and angry, every muscle in my body tensed as though it was a caged animal ready to strike. But that aroma, the way her eyes sparked in a bright danger, it was as though she herself was the medicine that healed and not the words that she placed on me.
“You look angry,” I probably always did judging by how people reacted to me. But at least this time I had a reason.
“Does he always speak like that?” I asked in lieu of a response, careful to shift my hands over the burn marks in the reins.
“Like what?”
