In the back yard of the barracks, there was a small area made of beaten pathways and cleared space, situated between the manor and the training grounds. It was a communal area where peasants, serfs, barracks staff, and Starspawn members alike could all gather. There were several picnic tables placed throughout, along with benches for seating. Near one of the tables, a bonfire was burning to provide some relief from the winter chill. An iron crane had been placed over the fire; a pot of stew hung from the fire hook, bubbling softly amidst the conversation.

  “Ellis, can you please hand me a spoon?”

  Ellis grabbed a wooden spoon from the end of the table and passed it to Telhari. Then, he looked around him at the groups of people walking too and fro.

  “Its strange how much more lively this place is now.”

  “This place has always been lively!” Perry grumbled. “You simply never noticed.”

  “Room for a few more?”

  Albert plopped his bowl down next to Telhari and sat beside him on the bench.

  “As you wish,” Perry said with a gesture to the table.

  Behind Albert, Lyusya and Hugo arrived and smiled politely to the group before heading to grab bowls of their own.

  Together, they reached the fire and were handed bowls by the scullery maid who was tending to the stew. She drew a ladle through the pot, stirred it a bit, then filled each of their bowls to the brim. They each thanked the maid, then moved to sit on the benches beside the rest. As they did so, Perry leaned over to the maid and asked her a question.

  “Have the builders eaten already?”

  “Yes, Lord Mannigold.”

  Perry nodded his head in approval.

  Ingrid blew the steam away from her bowl, placing her hands on either side of it in order to soak up the warmth.

  “At this rate, they will be finished with the new lodgings quite soon,” she said.

  “I can lend them some assistance this evening,” Telhari added.

  Albert took up a spoonful of stew and shoved it into his mouth. He scooped up another, then held the spoon up to his face and eyed the chunks of carrot and potato.

  “I wonder…Couldn’t you just use some magic to make the buildings appear?”

  It took Telhari a moment to realize Albert was addressing the question to him. When he did realize, he shook his head plainly in response.

  “That’s not really how it works.”

  “Well, why not?”

  Telhari sighed.

  “There may be spells designed to do such things, but they are not spells which I have ever heard of. Nor is that end result something I believe I could achieve.”

  “That’s crazy!” Ellis butted in, with a mouth of stew. “You — mhm— could do anything!”

  “I appreciate your confidence, Ellis,” Telhari said before eating a bite of his own.

  “Lyusya!” Albert called suddenly, “What do you think?”

  “Think about what?”

  Albert pointed his empty spoon at Telhari and raised his eyebrow.

  “He says he can’t use magic to build something.”

  “Let the man eat in peace,” Hugo said with a sigh.

  “I was talking to her,” Albert snapped back.

  “I…I suppose I have never heard of it either,” Lyusya said, finally.

  “But surely it could be done?” Ingrid asked. “We have seen so many other amazing things. It is hard to think that something as simple as putting together wood and nails couldn’t be achieved.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Mary chimed in with a melodramatic sigh, “If only someone would teach us.”

  Telhari was about to take a bite of stew; but, upon hearing Mary’s comment, he frowned and lowered the spoon back to his bowl.

  “Mary, we have been over this.”

  “I didn’t say it was you…” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

  Telhari gave her a ruthless side eye.

  “I think he’s trying to keep it all to himself,” Albert teased. “That’s why he won’t teach us.”

  “Oh, please,” Ingrid shot back. “Magic or no magic, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “Alright then,” Albert said with a sarcastic grin, “What’s your guess?”

  “It is not my place to guess at his reasons,” Ingrid said as she took a sip of water. “Only Telhari can answer that question for himself.”

  “Well?”

  The whole table turned toward Telhari. Mary, Ingrid, and Ellis were eying him. Albert had turned his body toward Telhari and rested his chin in his hand while he waited. Lyusya and Hugo tried to be polite, but they soon gave in and looked expectantly toward Telhari. In the end, even Sir Perry, who had tried to remain impartial, couldn’t help his curiosity from showing.

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  “It is a bit…unexpected,” Perry added, “That you would be so willing to help us train and fight, but in the end, would still deny mentoring something you are so proficient in.”

  Telhari tried to find a way out of this predicament. But there was nothing he could do to satisfy their inquisition, save for give them answers. Finally, he sighed long and deep, then placed his spoon in the bowl and folded his hands on the table.

  “Alright,” he announced, “What do you want to know?”

  Telhari’s sudden admission of defeat took them all off guard. Faced with the opportunity to ask everything, Mary and Ellis found themselves unable to think of anything.

  “Oh!” Albert blurted out as he leaned over the table. “Can you make someone fall in love with you?”

  Telhari frowned at him.

  “Ok…” Albert said as he thought a bit more, “Can you increase the size of your—”

  “Next question.”

  “I have one,” Lyusya said with a raise of her hand.

  Telhari nodded at her to continue.

  “When we met you in the Dags —after the dragon flew towards Viemen— you were able to fly. How?”

  “I command the winds to create an updraft which supports my body. Then I use the torrent of air to push me forward.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Albert said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

  Ingrid held her hand up to Albert’s face.

  “Quiet.”

  “But it was done without any words?” Lyusya continued, “No incantations. No inscriptions. No ritual materials.”

  “Telhari never uses those,” Mary chimed in. “It just kinda happens.”

  Lyusya seemed shocked.

  “Never!?”

  “What?” Perry asked, feeling left out. “Why is that strange?”

  “Normally,” Lyusya said, “There is some kind of catalyst for a spell. A special word or phrase. Sometimes materials or objects are used. Even in the case of my staff.”

  “Come to think of it,” Ellis said, “That bounty hunter said something before he made that fire blast, didn’t he?”

  “Ignis Maxi,” Mary answered.

  Lyusya’s eyes widened.

  “Ignis Maxi!? That is a very high level spell from the Zypherean sects of the west.”

  Perry heard this and choked on his stew.

  “W-what! What is that!?”

  “There are different methodologies and philosophies surrounding the practice and execution of ‘magic’,” Telhari said. Then he looked to Ellis and Mary before speaking once again. “Do you two recall what Doctor Egurd said? About a man named Caduceus?”

  They thought a moment.

  “He had some kind of papers?” Ellis offered. “Something that the Rhoden’s destroyed.”

  “He was looking for immortality,” Mary added.

  The table seemed intrigued, watching Telhari patiently for an explanation.

  “Caduceus was a human who lived thousands of years ago,” Telhari began, “The legends say that he was visited by a divine being who bestowed great knowledge upon him— the knowledge of creation itself. What you call ‘magic’. Caduceus then recorded these fundamental principles in stone at the dawn of the new age. That stone was called the Dawn Tablet.”

  “That sounds pretty powerful,” Albert reasoned as he dunked his spoon into his stew.

  “The Dawn Tablet was lost to the ages,” Telhari clarified, “No one knows where it is or what happened to it. But Caduceus’ theories soon propagated throughout the human world and it is from those archaic theories that all other human magic derives.”

  “But your magic is different?” Ingrid asked with a tilt of her head.

  Telhari nodded.

  “Elfkin, like myself, along with dragons, belong to a group of beings known as the Thrice-born. The first creatures brought into existence when the world was young. We were, each of us, given the gift of creation— what you see as ‘magic’. Magic to us is not a matter of incantation or materials. It is something which is a part of our very being. As such, it bends to the mind and to the spirit.”

  Perry stirred his stew a few times before speaking.

  “And humans are different?”

  “Yes.”

  “How so?” Mary asked, eagerly.

  “The magic of my kin is known to some as ‘subtle’ magic. We actualize the essence of creation through the power of mind and spirit. Such a practice is beholden to intention, belief, and emotion. However, human beings do not naturally possess the capability for ‘subtle magic’.”

  “Then what about Lyusya?” Albert asked as he pointed his spoon at her.

  “The spellwork of humankind is entirely derived from Caduceus and his Dawn Tablet inscriptions. Carved on that mythical stone are rules which dictate what some call ‘crude’ magic. Magic which obeys strictly the laws of the material world. Something which is beholden to substance.”

  “Well if you know all that,” Mary asked, “Then why can’t you teach it to us?”

  “I could not teach you ‘crude magic’ anymore than a bird could teach a pig how to fly.”

  Ellis leaned his head on his hand.

  “Well what the hell does that mean?”

  “Why’d it have to be pigs?” Mary asked with a sour expression.

  Telhari sighed.

  “Magic for me and my people is a part of our essence. The ways in which we use it, the ways in which we understand it, are fundamentally different. I know nothing of practicing ‘crude’ magic. Nor would I necessarily want to do so. It would feel…wrong. A violation of one’s own nature. Yet, for you two, there would be no other option. Humans do not naturally possess the capability for ‘subtle’ magic, and so all of my knowledge is useless to you.”

  “Hang on a minute,” Mary said, refusing to give up. “When that bounty hunter attacked you with Ignis Maxi, you were able to counter it somehow. So you must know about it.”

  Lyusya turned to Telhari with a look of surprise.

  “I’ve never heard of magic like that before…”

  “Oh yeah!” Ellis said as he perked up, “You did the same thing with the dragon’s fire too!”

  Telhari thought a moment. Then, he held up his open palm; a fire burst into existence and remained there an inch above his hand.

  “Whether it be by a crude or subtle process, any magical outcome, regardless of the means by which it was wrought, bears the same essence.” Telhari then turned his hand in the air while the flame traced his movements— swirling and curving around his fingers and wrist. “So long as you understand what that essence is, with a little effort, you can undo it.” With that, he closed his fingers around the flame and it dissolved into nothing.

  Perry sat up tall, tilting his head to the sky as he spoke.

  “The power to will things into existence…It seems more like the power of a god, than an act of ‘magic’.”

  The table was silent. A gust of wind blew over them: whistling as it moved between tables and tossed the flames.

  “While I understand your temptation to see it that way,” Telhari began, “You know as well as anyone that my abilities are not limitless.”

  “But you could learn it though, right?” Mary asked with pleading eyes. “Human magic?”

  Telhari knew how badly she wanted to learn, and he wished desperately that he could be the one to teach her. But it simply could not be. And so he softened his eyes as he addressed her one last time.

  “You may think highly of me, and I am grateful for that. But, in the end, there are things that even I cannot do.”