TMQ: revise, rewrite, recycle [5/18]
Chapter Word Count: 3,244 Total Revised Word Count: 20,600 First Draft Word Count: 73,429
So. This was very much the chapter from hell, as far as revision goes. It kicks off with a fight scene, before transitioning into a traveling scene, and--- Fight scenes are difficult and traveling scenes can be hard to make anything other than filler. Which, has its place, yes, but can also be just a little bit too much fluff.
In short, I’m not happy with this chapter at all, but that is a problem for the second round of revisions!
Normally, I’d share the first 500-1k words of the chapter below the cut, but this time, you’re getting the last 500-1k words of the chapter, because I like them better. It’s mostly dialogue, theorizing on why Alinora’s powers work the way that they do, and I had fun writing them, even if I may end up having to cut them. I do hope you enjoy them!!
Elaena’s voice brought her out of her musings. “What does it feel like, when you nullify a spell?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Alinora asked, feeling her brow wrinkle. It was never really something she had tried to put into words, really. No one had ever asked what it felt like. Just how she did it. And she definitely didn’t have an answer to that.
“Maybe nothing,” Elaena said, waving a hand. “I have a… hunch, you could say.”
Alinora shrugged. “I’ve never really tried to put it into words before,” she warned.
“That’s alright,” Elaena said. “Take your time. I can be quite patient.” She said it as if there was a joke there—but whatever the joke was, Alinora didn’t understand it. Neither did Lyr and Ava, it seemed, because it got no reaction from them besides furrowed brows.
Alinora considered for a long moment. “When I first reach out, it’s… like suddenly becoming aware. As if I’d been seeing in black and white, and now the whole world is in color. I can feel this… faint buzzing, this trickle of warmth. When I actually touch a spell, it’s even… more.
“Usually it starts in my fingers, travels up my arm. It’s very, very warm; and there’s a sort of… buzzing, to it. Like I’ve been suddenly filled with energy. A cantrip is mild, and goes away rather quickly. But a spell like that… I can still feel it.”
“Interesting,” Elaena said with a thoughtful hum. “I don’t recall if I mentioned or not, but one of the people we’re about to meet is something of a magical genius. I imagine she could puzzle out more than I could, but it sounds to me like your powers are more than simple nullification.”
“That would make sense,” Lyr said. Alinora glanced at him, and found him looking pensive. He caught her eye and smiled, just a little. “Before Kai’os… our clan used to spend every other winter in Illuminara.”
“That’s the city the College of Magus was founded in, yes?” Alinora asked.
Lyr nodded. “It is. As you can imagine, the libraries there are… extensive. One of my friends, she was real into magic, and she used to go on and on about anything and everything she’d learned since we last spoke. One of the things she talked about a lot was magical energy. Apparently, it can’t be created or destroyed—transformed, altered, stored up… yes. But destroyed? No.
“Nullifying a spell, as you call it, would—to my interpretation—be a form of dispersion. Canceling the spell in-progress and sending the energy back out into the ether, where it could be sucked up by whatever exit-spring was nearby. But, the way you describe that… buzzing feeling…
“Maybe that’s not what’s happening at all. Maybe it isn’t a form of dispersion but of absorption. Maybe you aren’t canceling the spell so much as you are taking that energy for yourself. But because your body doesn’t have anywhere to put that energy, it overwhelms you, and you pass out.”
Alinora frowned, contemplative. “If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the energy be expelled when I passed out?”
“Not necessarily.” It was Ava who spoke that time. “When I interact with plants—whether that be using them in combat or helping them grow, shaping them how I please—I get a sense of how they interact with the world. They absorb the sunlight; the rain; nutrients from the earth. That’s how they feed, and how they grow.
“Obviously absorbing magic isn’t necessary for you, but maybe your body derives a sort of energy from it anyway? But the sudden overload is overwhelming, and the only way that your body can process it is to… pass out, so it can focus on how to allocate it?”
The buzzing in her very bones seemed to indicate that was probably the right mental path to follow. “I do usually have a hard time sleeping after,” she said. “And, when it first happened, those around me seemed to think I ought to be starving, but… I wasn’t hungry. And I’m not now, either.” Not that such a thing was surprising. Alinora had never eaten much—it wasn’t that she didn’t like food, or that she was denying herself… she just. Wasn’t often hungry, and when she was hungry, it wasn’t for much.
“You know,” Lyr said thoughtfully. “The older Slaeyr—the ones that have reached full magical maturity—they have this… thing they can do. They usually do it when things are scarce, which can happen in some of the more remote areas we traveled to. It… I don’t really understand how it worked, but they always described it as like, drawing on their power? It made their spells weaker, but it also made it so they didn’t need as much sleep, or as much food. They were essentially living off their own mana supply—or off the magic in the air, if that started running thin.”
Alinora turned that information over in her mind, like it was an old dwarven puzzle box she needed to solve, to find the prize hidden inside. “That sounds very likely,” she said. “If absorption rather than dispersion is the case, though, doesn’t that mean that I ought to be able to use the magic for my own?”
“Most likely,” Elaena said. “But, like I said. The magical genius we’re going to meet can probably puzzle that one out better than any of us can.”
Lyr nodded. “Not that I’m not open to trying, but if there’s an expert available… Probably better to ask them.”
“Unless we need to try something?” Ava asked, a note of concern in her voice. “If you’re uncomfortable…”
Alinora shrugged. “I am, a bit. But it means that I won’t need to sleep for as long tonight, so I can keep watch, if need be.”
“Ava and I might not be fully magically mature,” Lyr said, “but even young Slaeyr can go without sleep for longer than most non-Slaeyr can. So, if you’re good to go, we can make better time by only stopping to eat, instead of to eat and sleep.”
Alinora nodded. “That sounds good to me.” She was always open to plans that involved not sleeping.
“It’s a plan, then,” Elaena said decisively. “If you’re going to be traveling past dusk, I’m going to do some more scouting.”
Alinora nodded, and before she’d even finished the motion, Elaena’s form—shifted. For a moment, it was a being of pure shadow in the saddle in front of her—and then… a bird soared off in a great flurry of talons and feathers. Alinora scooted forward and took the reins, watching as Elaena soared off ahead of them.
Ava’s hand slid into her space for a moment, then triumphantly held up an inky black feather. She winked at Alinora, then tucked it into her braid, before sliding back to take up the rear. Lyr rode a bit head, and Alinora relaxed into her position in the middle, keeping an eye out for would-be attackers.
She was, surprisingly, feeling much lighter, even despite the infernal buzzing in her bones.
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