Author's Preface
After enduring close to an hour of Merritt’s yapping, they finally made it to the frozen creek. They set their bags down on the icy pebbles near the bank and gathered logs to get two fires going.
Casimir weaved a triangular pattern that encased his hand in crimson, burning Aether. It felt just as energetic as electric Aether, except it was unbearably warm against his fingers as opposed to the tingling sensation he was used to from electric patterns.
Cornelius took a step back and watched him with a scrutinizing gaze.
Carefully, Casimir touched the woodpile, and it lit ablaze. He jumped back when the flame shot up into the sky before shrinking down.
Cornelius’ attention remained on the flame dancing on the charred woodpile. “I’m surprised, Uncle taught you that one at your current level.”
“I told him I wanted to learn Aether suppression.”
Cornelius smirked and gave him a knowing look.
“It isn’t for that reason!” Casimir protested.
“What? I didn’t say anything.” Cornelius’ gaze lingered on him until he diverted it to his bag and started unpacking with a faint chuckle.
Merritt took his attention away from watching Tristan stoke the flames of his fire to laugh at Casimir. “Go easy on him, Cornelius. Cas learning Aether suppression for a bit of fun is the most normal thing he’s been up to. You know the only girl he gets to see is his cousin.”
Tristan glanced up from his work and gave Casimir a surprised look.
Is it really that scandalous a pattern? Whitley uses it all the time?
“That isn’t the case!” Casimir ground his teeth. He heard a faint laugh from Tristan, and his anger subsided. “We should head to the bog first.”
“Agreed.” Cornelius stood up and addressed Merritt with a point. “Do us a favor and watch our stuff.”
“Aw, come on!”
“Friends help friends,” Cornelius said with a coaxing smile.
Merritt leaned his head back and groaned. “Fine, but you guys owe me one.”
“Tsk!” Casimir rolled his eyes. No one asked you to tag along.
Casimir and the remainder of the group trekked to the bog. The air grew thicker the closer they got to their destination. A sheer curtain of white masked the dark silhouettes of the trees and spiny underbrush. The smell of decay was the only thing that clued them into the entrance of the bog. When his boots slightly sank into mud, he knew that they were there.
Cornelius weaved a simple triangular pattern, causing his hand to glow and light his face with a red shine. He smiled at Casimir. “This is a pattern more up to your speed, Flare. You must have impressed Uncle Hadrian if Searing Hand was the first pattern he taught you. Either that or he wanted to knock you down several pegs.” Cornelius’ voice trailed off as he searched the ground.
“It is probably the latter. He wanted to teach me, Quell, first.”
“It is a practical pattern that scales the better you get at controlling your Aether.” He gave Casimir a smug side-eye. “So many novices balk at simple patterns, but a Master Weaver can kill you with this.”
He showed Casimir his glowing red hand and winked. “And it would be quicker to weave than something flashy like Warm Embrace or Cremation.”
The feeling of being slammed and pinned to the wall by Sageman’s Wandering Breeze entered his mind, and Casimir awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “Right.”
“How did you get an apprenticeship with the Chancellor so soon?” Tristan asked.
Casimir shrugged. “He just volunteered.”
“Figures,” Tristan mumbled.
Casimir’s attention returned to Cornelius. “So what are we looking for? A tiny hole?”
“Yep, but Aetherian toads have better quality poison, so we’ll just sense their Aether and coax them out with heat.”
“Is that really a good idea?” Tristan’s voice shook along with his fists. He subdued his hands when he saw Casimir notice his failing composure.
“Found one!” Cornelius stuck his glowing red hand wrist-deep into the ground.
Steam rose with a sizzle as Cornelius warmed the surrounding area.
Casimir wrinkled his nose at the stench. That’s foul. It smells like burnt grass mixed with manure.
Suddenly, Cornelius yanked his hand out of the muck and pulled out a cat-sized toad.
The blue, warty creature clamped onto Cornelius’ hand, futilely trying its best to bite off a chunk.
Cornelius laughed with glee. “Nice, look at this fat little guy. We should be able to get a decent sample out of this one.”
Casimir looked at the toad’s flailing appendages, his eyes narrowed.
Their heads turned when they heard something drop into the mud and saw that Tristan fell to his knees.
“Tristan?” Cornelius asked.
“That’s it?”
Cornelius removed his hand from the toad’s mouth. “Yes.”
Tristan placed his palm on his forehead, disillusioned by the sudden revelation. He shook his head.
“Pitiful,” Cornelius turned to Casimir. “Help me extract the poison from this fellow. You should find vials and a pipette in my bag.”
“Right.” Casimir retrieved a vial as Cornelius held the toad still.
“Good, I’m going to squeeze out the poison from its pores. Try to get as much as you can.”
Casimir nodded.
Aether emitted from Cornelius’ hands and enveloped the toad. The creature squirmed in distress and emitted a low hiss. Opening its toothless mouth wide as a baseless threat. Once a few seconds had passed, Cornelius removed his Aether from the toad, and thick yellow liquid oozed out from behind its shoulder blades.
Casimir collected the liquid before it rolled off the toad’s back, which was not too difficult because it was the consistency of snot.
He filled five vials full and secured them inside Cornelius’ bag.
“There we go, that was not so bad.” Cornelius looked down at the toad with a smile. After a pat, he let the toad go.
It crawled away and buried itself deep inside the mud. Gradually, the bubbles disappeared when the toad returned to its slumber.
“Do we need to catch another one?” Casimir asked.
Cornelius shook the muck from his gloves. “Sure, on the off chance there is a failure, or if Awldriver asks us to make another salve with the same ingredient.” He then gave Casimir a nudge. “Why don’t you and Tristan handle the next one? It’s only fair. ”
Casimir glanced at Tristan, who sat in the mud with a distant look on his face, and his gaze returned to Cornelius. “Right.”
Casimir approached Tristan, then tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump.
“What?” Tristan looked up at him, surprised.
“Why don’t you help me catch the last toad, so we can get out of this wretched place?”
Tristan nodded and slowly rose to his feet. “What do you need me to do?”
“Collect its poison, while I hold it.”
“O-okay.”
Casimir activated his Aether heart, and he sensed the pools of Aether around him. There was the toad that they just milked, as well as a few others, but they were smaller in size.
Now which one? Casimir was drawn to another cat-sized concentration of Aether that was several feet ahead. “I found one! Come on.” He gestured for Tristan to follow him.
They traversed through the icy marsh, making sure not to fall into the false islands of snow-covered moss. When they got to the spot, Casimir kneeled, shifted the snow away, and found a small hole.
Casimir weaved Searing Hand, lighting his hand a blaze.
“If you are going to use that! Carefully, heat the ground to mimic spring. ” Cornelius shouted. “Don’t toast the toad!”
“Got it!”
Casimir kept his hand just above the ground, melting the surrounding snow away. It did not take too long for Casimir to sense the Aether of the toad stir and begin to crawl upward. The moment he saw the toad peeking out of the mud, Casimir disengaged Searing Hand and seized the toad. He pulled the creature out of the ground.
It squirmed in his hands, opening its mouth wide in the vain effort to scare him. Eventually, it stopped struggling and looked up at Casimir with its large orange slit eye.
“You’ll be going back to bed very soon.” Casimir held the toad tight and addressed Tristan, who was now looking at the toad curiously. “I need you to collect the poison for me. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” Tristan looked around and retrieved the tools from the bag.
Casimir followed Cornelius’ demonstration and stimulated the toad with his Aether.
The toad hissed at them and secreted out the poison from its back.
Tristan collected it with a stern expression. “Do you remember the day when Bryson was attacked here?”
“I do. What about it?”
“Do you still think that it was a toad?”
Casimir frowned as he recalled the Aether he sensed that day. The first creature that eerie human-like hand gripping Bryson’s leg. “Whatever it is, it is nowhere in sight.”
Tristan’s face scrunched up in thought. “I also find it funny that it was up and about in the first place. How could Bryson manage to disturb it when you and Cornelius needed to heat the ground to wake that toad up?”
Casimir raised an eyebrow. He scanned the vast bog for traces of large Aether. Nothing, but it can hide its Aether.
“Everything about this seems off.” Tristan lowered his voice. “Will you look into it? Rumor is you are an ex-Inquisitor.”
“Who–” Casimir sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I get it, you probably left the Inquis for a good reason—”
“No!” Casimir snapped. “I’m still ready to serve. I’ll see what I can do.”
Tristan gave him a sad smile. “Thanks.”