Measureless Magic 1: Ch. 21 & 22

Two chapters! Lots of fun character stuff in these. It's been A Week. The holidays always are, but this year in particular. I thought we had our Christmas vacation plans locked down, but now everything's up in the air again. :P It's mostly no one's fault, but I hate it a lot. Anyway, I'm gonna do my best to get you two more chapters for next week.

If you leave a comment, please also tell me your favorite holiday cookie/small treat. Doesn't have to be Christmas - if you have some little special thing you make for Holi or Hanukkah, I want to know about that too. It has to be small though. If someone could make a just one of them to complete a challenge on British Bake-Off, it's not a small treat.


Chapter 21

I cannot stay, though I hope some of those who live on Marynth Isle will join me when I leave. The storm cannot be avoided, but I know its dangers. It is solitude that terrifies.

• Diary of Temuria the Wanderer

Ravel tied the last knot, let the magic fade from the needle, and sank to the ground. With his task complete, he felt exhausted. 

This had been one of the worst things he’d ever done. He’d had to stop multiple times to get control of his stomach, but at least it hadn’t hurt as badly as he’d feared. Maybe whatever had put him to sleep and made his fingers clumsy was deadening the pain as well?

He hoped not. His injuries already felt agonizing. How could they feel worse than they did already?

Maybe the pain of the needle just wasn’t much in comparison.

Yeah.

I’m sure that’s it.

Dee had returned and was sitting a few feet away, watching him silently. She offered him a smile and leaned forward to drape the pile of scraps that had previously been one of his favorite outfits over him. “The stitches look nice and even. I’m glad our shouting didn’t distract you.”

Ravel frowned, confused. “I didn’t notice any shouting. And of course my stitches are even: the light in here is good and I was taking my time.”

“Hah, you must have been focused, then. That took you less than fifteen minutes!”

“For fifteen stitches,” Ravel said. “At that speed, it’d take me months to finish a single project.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense. Maybe I should tell my mom they should work on recruiting more doctors from the tailoring-focused nurseries. I mean, if I see her again.” Dee couldn’t seem to hold back that muttered qualification, but she pushed past it as quickly as she could. “Still, the stitches are really good. With skin, you can’t really adjust where you put the needle after you insert it without causing more trauma to the patient, so a lot of stitches come out kind of…”

The girl waved her hand around in a zig-zag.

Ravel shuddered. “In people’s skin? That’s awful. It helped that the needle went right where I thought it should go. Hooray for magic. At least, as long as it doesn’t turn me into a chicken or something.”

“I think you’ll be okay. I saw that you had it outside your body when you let it loose at the end, and you weren’t using magic on yourself at all, right? You didn’t let the magic go in the middle of your work?”

Ravel shook his head.

“Then I don’t see how it could have hurt you,” Dee said firmly. “Still, I’m glad you’re taking the dangers seriously.”

It was a relief to hear Dee’s assessment, but it was also the second time in the past minute she’d emphasized the word “you,” and her words were dripping with barely-restrained anger. If she wasn’t mad at him, who…? 

Then he remembered: “Oh. That’s right. Raza’s here.”

Dee made a noise of disgust. “For now, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“She stumbled into the room at the same time we did, almost as badly off as you. I used part of your shirt to bandage your injuries and then I went to check on her. She kept pushing me away! Which…” Dee wrinkled her nose. “I usually wouldn’t treat someone who refused it - I know the doctors’ code - but I wasn’t sure that’s what she was trying to do. Most of the things she said seemed lucid. She asked me a lot of questions to try to decide if she was safe: questions about the room we were in, how many doors it had, and if any of the doors were open. After I gave her answers, though, she started ignoring me, saying she didn’t need help and to go away and let her rest. She fell asleep as I was trying to explain my medical concerns!”

“She had, uh, envenomation, too?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so. I think she was just extremely exhausted. Anyway, I did a quick bandage job on her injuries - they didn’t seem as deep as yours - and then I went to check on you and… there was a lot of blood. The bandage on your leg clearly wasn’t good enough. I felt like I had to keep the pressure on until you were awake or...” She trailed off. “I did check on her one more time, really quickly. Her bandages seemed to be doing their job, so I just… hoped she’d be okay for a while. She should have been, unless she’d lost a lot of blood before she made it in here.”

“What do you mean ‘she should have been?’ She’s not… dead, is she?” Ravel swallowed and tried to push himself to his feet so he could see better. From his spot on the floor, all he could see of Raza was a slumped form half-hidden by a forest of chair and table legs.

“Sit down!” Dee snapped. “You’ll pop your stitches. And no, she’s not dead. Not yet, anyway.”

“Shouldn’t you be helping her, then?”

“There’s nothing I can do for her now,” Dee said. “Nothing anyone can do! The idiot woke up when I came to check on her and started ‘healing’ herself. With magic! I told her how dangerous it was, but she refused to stop. The good news is that she didn’t die immediately and she still looks human. The bad news is, from what I’ve heard, it’ll be a miracle if she ever wakes up again.”

“So… she woke up, did the most dangerous kind of magic, and fell back asleep?”

“Yep!” Dee said, hugging her knees and tucking her chin against them. “Her injuries were already bandaged. The bleeding had stopped, or near enough. She wasn’t in danger. There was no reason for it. None at all. She was already going to live! And now…”

“Maybe she still will,” Ravel said. “A lot of the things we’ve been told were wrong. Maybe medical magic isn’t as dangerous as you thought.”

“No way,” said Dee. “I mean, I hope she survives. Of course I do. But it’s real. The clinic for people who need ongoing care from magical mutations is right next to Urchin nursery. Even if you wanted to say that everything I’ve been told and overheard discussed was fake - which I don’t believe - there are still countless patients proving how dangerous medical magic is.”

“There was a kid in my nursery who had to have a hand amputated after contact with magic,” Ravel said. “Maybe all the people you saw had problems that came from accidents.”

Dee didn’t even respond to that, just staring at Ravel. Even with one eye tracking off to the side, her disdain was clear.

“I said maybe,” Ravel muttered.

“Uh-huh. Maybe Dee doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Ravel rolled his eyes. “I’m not trying to insult you.”

“Sure.”

“Wouldn’t you rather be wrong about this one?” Ravel tried. “Raza’s life is more important than your pride.”

“This isn’t about pride; it’s about facts. Raza’s probably going to die because she’s an idiot, and Koby’s going to be all by himself in a room with a monster that tore you to shreds, because we abandoned him. I hate all that, but I’m not going to make anything any better by pretending like things are otherwise.”

Koby.

Dee scowled. “You forgot about Koby, didn’t you? I guess you haven’t been awake for long. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what’s happening to him.”

Ravel felt sick. “We have to go back.”

“Yeah, but we can’t.” She gestured toward the nearby door. “Even if you could move - which you shouldn’t, other than to elevate that leg - every door to this room is shut and locked right now.”

“But Koby-”

“Wanting to help doesn’t make it possible,” Dee said. “You should be on bed rest for a week or so, but at minimum I don’t want you to move before morning bell tomorrow.”

“Will you try the door again? You said you were focused on helping me and Raza. If you give it your full attention…”

“I don’t think it’ll help, but… sure,” Dee said. The short girl pushed herself to her feet and grabbed the door handle. It barely moved. 

She didn’t give up, putting her full body into the motion, letting herself hang from the doorknob and swinging back and forth. There was a slight creaking noise, but the door didn’t visibly budge.

Dee turned back toward him, dusting her hands on her hips. She didn’t meet his eyes, and her voice was dull and tired. “Well, that’s that, since I’m not going to try breaking it down. Even if I could, I’m sure the castle would kill me for it.”

Ravel felt awful. She’d saved him, and what thanks had he given her? A guilt trip? “Dee, I’m sorry-”

“Forget it,” she said, cutting him off. “Just… rest. Sleep, if you can. It’s early, but I’m going to sleep as well.” She bunched up her own backpack into a makeshift pillow, and laid down facing away from him. 

“You saved my life, Dee,” Ravel said. “Thank you.”

“You saved your own life. And be careful: don’t move around, or you’ll pull out that stitching and die anyway.”

“I wouldn’t have known that on my own,” Ravel said. “I don’t think I would have thought to try stitching myself closed.”

“You would have. I met you a few days ago, and I can already tell everything is sewing with you.”

“I sew fabric. My own skin? That makes about as much sense as sewing a pie or sewing a rock.”

Dee made a noncommittal noise. “Maybe. Go to sleep. We can talk more in the morning.”

“Okay,” he said. “I mean it, though.Thanks, Dee.”

She didn’t respond.

It took a long time for Ravel to fall asleep.

Chapter 22

I will leave a copy of my diary behind when I leave. Even if I fail, perhaps another will take up my quest and succeed.

• Diary of Temuria the Wanderer

“I can’t believe you’re still alive.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

Ravel groaned as he awoke to arguing voices and complaints from every inch of his body. His injuries hadn’t healed significantly, and if there was a way to sleep on the ground without causing new aches, he hadn’t found the trick yet. 

At least the floor of this room was covered in some kind of fiber, making it a little more comfortable than the tiles, but with his backpack propping up his leg, he’d had no pillow, and the area near him was stiff and crunchy, soaked by his own blood. When he’d tried to move, the pain had convinced him it was a terrible idea.

“You know that’s not what I meant!”

“I know it? Wow, didn’t think you’d admit anyone else knew anything.”

Ravel rolled over onto his side, pulling his leg off his backpack, inhaling as he felt an unpleasant tug at the stitches on his thigh. Nope. Not getting up on my own.

“Excuse me? I don’t respect your knowledge? You’re the one ignoring my medical training!”

Dee. That was Dee’s voice: completely controlled and confident, even if her body didn’t always do what she asked.

“How much training could you have really had, Shakes? Anyone who’d spent five minutes with you would know you’d never make it as a doctor.”

And that was Raza. Her voice was less challenging than her words. She sounded almost confused. Maybe even concerned.

The tone didn’t seem to make her words land any more gently with Dee, who seemed inarticulate with rage. “You–” 

Ravel cleared his throat. As little as he wanted to get in the middle of this, his intervention certainly wasn’t going to make anything worse. More importantly, he couldn’t wait much longer. “Uh… excuse me? Could someone help me get to the bathroom?”

Dee was by his side in moments. “Don’t move!”

“I kind of have to, or things are going to get more embarrassing than they already are.” He was acutely aware of cool air brushing the underside of his leg. He’d been somewhat covered while he slept by the scraps of his ruined clothes, but rolling on his side had sent some of that fabric sliding to the floor.

The short girl looked around the room, frowning. Whatever she was searching for, she didn’t find it. “Okay. I guess you do. I wish I had a wheelchair or a crutch for you. The chairs look pretty sturdy, though, and-”

“Please don’t break anything to make me a crutch,” Ravel said. His hand moved to cover the pocket where he’d been carrying the dead boy’s medallion. “The chairs might count as part of the castle. It’s not worth the risk.”

“I’ve got him,” Raza said. Her hair had lost the grandelion-puff shape a bit, with one side flattened and matted where she’d rested her head on it. She reached down toward Ravel, but Dee stopped her.

“Wait! Um, I’m wondering if we should to drag him as close as we can? We ought to have a stretcher or a gurney, but since we don’t… if we can do it without hurting him, it’ll help keep strain off his leg.”

Raza eyed Ravel. “Hm. Maybe we can float him?”

Ravel’s eyes widened as every speck of magic within the room was abruptly swept into a ball between Raza’s outstretched hands, only to stream toward Ravel and swirl around him.

That was so fast, he thought. So controlled.

Raza frowned. “Stop resisting. I can’t enchant you if you don’t let me.”

“Ravel! Don’t let her!” Dee snapped. “And you! Just because you haven’t killed yourself yet doesn’t mean you should enchant another person willy-nilly. There are other options.”

Raza pursed her lips as the argument that had awakened Ravel threatened to re-erupt. “Like what?”

Dee tilted her head back, letting out a sigh of intense frustration. “Like anything. Enchant a chair to float and let him sit on it. Enchant what’s left of his clothing?”

“Oh.” Raza looked down. “Yeah, I guess that could work.”

She grabbed aside two of the largest scraps, which abruptly rocketed toward the ceiling, jerking Raza’s hands upward before stopping. 

“Shoot. If I can drag those back down with just my weight, there’s not enough magic in this room to lift him,” Raza said. “Hm. Unless I can figure out a better metaphor…?”

Ravel blanched. The bundle of fabric was straining toward the ceiling where it spilled out of Raza’s arms. She did that so fast. Perceptual runes, maybe? Must be. She mentioned metaphors. I haven’t even tried perceptual magic yet. She can’t have been doing it for more than a week, and she was ready to try that on me? Dee’s right, she really is crazy.

A cool breeze across his chest reminded him of another problem: Oh, no. I’m practically naked again. At least the girls weren’t looking, both focused on the bundle of fabric.

“There’s just not a lot of things that go up, you know?” Raza said. “I was thinking of these as air bubbles in a pot of water, but since the room isn’t water, the metaphor is pretty weak. It’s probably taking a lot more power than it needs to to make the upward motion. There’s got to be a better connection. Any ideas?”

“No, this is great!” Dee said. “Perfect, really. If we can get those under him to take most of his weight, you and I can carry him easily.”

Ravel felt his face burn as the two girls worked the remains of his clothes under his body. Dee moved with a sort of routine pragmatism, as if his near-naked body was as uninteresting as a table being set for dinner. Raza started out the same way, but she met Ravel’s eyes as she was working the fabric beneath his butt. She seemed to realize what she was doing, then, because a smirk snuck onto her face and stuck there.

Maybe Dee should have let me bleed out, Ravel thought. At least I’m too humiliated to… react to this situation. Then I really would die of embarrassment.

Eventually the girls managed to get the fabric under him like a makeshift stretcher. Ravel begged them to put his armored vest - which was still largely intact - and was relieved when they slid it over his head. He still felt dreadfully exposed, but at least his chest and underthings were covered.

The girls carried him to the restroom and set him down on the bench inside, leaving him to wriggle into place and tie the remains of his pants around his torso and shoulders. He could see the glowing runes Raza had inscribed: simple swoops that looked more like a slip of the pen than anything else.

Definitely perceptual magic. 

The enchanted fabric helped. It didn’t make him fly, but it tugged him upward enough that it took barely any effort to stand. He had to be careful, and moving still hurt, but he was able to edge his way out of the bathroom once he’d finished his business.

Dee glared at him when he emerged. “Sit down! No, lay down. You should have called for help! I don’t care if you feel like you can walk; it doesn’t mean you should.”

“Can we sit him at the table?” Raza asked. 

“Maybe,” Dee said, reluctant. “Why?”

“Look at the carvings. I haven’t played the instructions yet for this room, but it looks like a puzzle room, and a lot of the puzzle seems based around the table. If we can sit him there, he can help us.”

Dee shook her head. “No, let’s put him on the ground near the table. If we need to, maybe we can turn it on its side so he can see the carvings. He really should lay down as much as he can. Unless… you think we need to solve this room in a hurry? This is the first room we went in after the, uh, static area. Did you see the illusion when you came out?”

“With the fancy girl and the messed up guy? Yeah. Huh. So you guys did too. Probably everyone does. But… wait, if this is your first room, how’d Threads get so chewed up?”

Dee explained as the pair set Ravel down, and Raza listened closely. “Geez. That sounds nasty. I haven’t run into anything like that.”

“Then what happened to you?” Dee asked. “When did you get out here? Have you done a lot of rooms?”

“Not a lot. I actually only completed one. I got out a few days ago and was lucky enough to see another person in the first room. The room was… uh… what did she call it? A-synch-ro-nous?” Raza hesitated, stumbling over the unfamiliar word. “Basically, some rooms have one solution or goal, and everyone in it passes and gets rewarded at the same time. Other rooms, people can come and go, and the castle judges each person separately.”

“You actually talked with her?” Ravel said. “She told you things? You know what’s going on now?”

“I know more. But Marnie - the girl I met - wasn’t an expert. She’d been in the castle for about five months. Plus…” Raza sighed. “She’d solved the puzzle in that room and started trying to tell me how to do it, which made the castle really angry. It did the red light punishment and opened two doors. One was a room Marnie had done before and the other had really high magic density. I don’t know how high, but I stuck a hand in and even being in there that long made me nervous. It made Marnie nervous. She said she was going to have to do a permanent enchantment on herself to survive in there, and she hadn’t done any yet.”

“Why couldn’t she come with you to the other room?” Ravel asked.

Raza shrugged. “She recognized it. It was one she’d solved already, and the castle doesn’t like people wasting time. She thought about coming in there with me, but she didn’t think the castle would let her stay, and she was worried that whatever option it gave her next would be even worse. So… we split up.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t just slap some wild enchantment on yourself and follow her,” Dee said.

“Maybe I should have,” Raza muttered.

“No, you definitely should not have,” Dee said.

Raza’s head snapped up. “Listen, Shakes. I’m not saying everything I’ve done was safe, but if you haven’t noticed, we are out of safe choices. You get to pick between one kind of danger and another: that’s all.”

“Don’t call me that!”

Raza ignored her, turning her attention to Ravel. “Threads, what are you going to do if that door over there opens and whatever hurt you the first time comes running in?”

“Uh…” 

Raza sniffed. “That’s what I thought. You better be ready to heal yourself if you need to, or you better be ready to die.”

“We can protect him,” Dee said stiffly.

“Oh, yeah? Who’s this we?” Raza said.

“You won’t help?” Dee asked.

“Never said that, but it takes more than one person for a ‘we.’ Anyway, tell me what weapons you’ve made. You got a chargeable enchantment you can fire? Fancy. Course, we’ll have to let the magic out of his flying crutches to be able to fight…”

“No,” Dee said. “I don’t have any of those things.”

“So you were just saying words you couldn’t back up. I hate that, Shakes.”

Dee flinched and Ravel scowled.

“Okay! We get it! We suck. But stop calling Dee that. There’s no benefit in being cruel.”

“Cruel?” Raza seemed genuinely surprised by the accusation. She looked from Dee to Ravel, then back again, this time taking the time to really inspect Dee, to take in the shorter girl’s hunched shoulders and watery eyes. “Oh. Uh. Sorry?”

“Sorry?!” Dee said, her voice strangled.

“Yeah?” Raza said. “It’s just a nickname. I’ll figure out a new one.”

“You’ll–” Dee stopped midsentence, left speechless.

Raza with an expression of shame on her face looked so odd that she almost seemed like a different person. “Yeah. Uh. Anyway. You guys want to hear what Marnie told me about the castle?”

“That sounds useful,” Ravel said neutrally. “Dee?”

“Cast me out in the storm and file off my medallion,” Dee muttered. 

“I don’t have to–” Raza started.

Dee cut her off. “Yes. Fine. Tell us what you know.”