Saturday Snippets: June Edition
Another month gone already? Must be time for snippets. This time we just have Albion Apparent; I've been trying to push through to the end of the draft so I can get it to the beta readers and while I've made some good progress this month, we're still about 5 chapters from the end. Here's to July being as productive as June, if not more so!
I thought back to that class with Mr. Cornelius. Aella and Stavros had used a rhyme to delineate the differences in the four colors. “Gold seeks change,” I recited. I couldn’t remember the rest of the line.
“Precisely, young Merlin. Alchemy, transformation, transmutation—that Philosopher’s Stone on your hand. All of these are gold magic. Though it can be seen as a sister color to red magic, gold is wild, free. It holds no allegiances and admits to no oaths. It is untame, if you will.” Gold sparks danced in his eyes as he spoke. The tone of his voice had changed from that of an instructor to someone speaking about an old friend.
I took advantage of his lapse in conversation to scarf down the cornbread in my hand.
“I want to teach you to change your shape, young Merlin.”
She didn’t tell him to keep up his strength or eat so he wouldn’t waste away. The time for such trite encouragements had passed the first week they’d been in the Order’s stronghold. Now, it was enough to be near. To know that, whatever came, their family ties remained.
But despite the potential use she might have on a reconnaissance mission, I wasn’t foolhardy enough to take her with us into a war zone so she could relieve her cabin fever.
The lead thoguth was wolf-shaped. It reminded me of Fenrir, Loki’s wolf that was said to be his child as well. Fenrir was bound in chains beneath my father’s house, but the thoguth in front of me could have been his twin. Two feline thoguth flanked it on either side.
“Face me, wolf’s son.”
“Sure,” Gabriel said, his breathing heavy as he lifted Fiera to his shoulder. “Antagonize the monsters trying to kill us.”
“Excuse us if we've been too busy surviving your death pets to focus on your moonlighting as apprentice Faustus.”
“I resent that reference,” Gabriel interjected.
In her last glimpse of Midgard, she had seen the barrier fall around Albion Academy. The signature of that spell was not one she had seen before, whereas the thicket of spells she forged her way through now was all too familiar. She wondered if Grandmother Spider and Crow Mother would know what was afoot even in this distance part of the universe. She had a feeling they would. Grandmother Spider was a watchful person. And Crow Mother—well, there was a reason crows and ravens were among the most intelligent of animals.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and be sure to come back Monday for a little musing on magic systems and why I don't entirely agree with Brandon Sanderson's ideas about them.
I thought back to that class with Mr. Cornelius. Aella and Stavros had used a rhyme to delineate the differences in the four colors. “Gold seeks change,” I recited. I couldn’t remember the rest of the line.
“Precisely, young Merlin. Alchemy, transformation, transmutation—that Philosopher’s Stone on your hand. All of these are gold magic. Though it can be seen as a sister color to red magic, gold is wild, free. It holds no allegiances and admits to no oaths. It is untame, if you will.” Gold sparks danced in his eyes as he spoke. The tone of his voice had changed from that of an instructor to someone speaking about an old friend.
I took advantage of his lapse in conversation to scarf down the cornbread in my hand.
“I want to teach you to change your shape, young Merlin.”
***
She didn’t tell him to keep up his strength or eat so he wouldn’t waste away. The time for such trite encouragements had passed the first week they’d been in the Order’s stronghold. Now, it was enough to be near. To know that, whatever came, their family ties remained.
***
But despite the potential use she might have on a reconnaissance mission, I wasn’t foolhardy enough to take her with us into a war zone so she could relieve her cabin fever.
***
The lead thoguth was wolf-shaped. It reminded me of Fenrir, Loki’s wolf that was said to be his child as well. Fenrir was bound in chains beneath my father’s house, but the thoguth in front of me could have been his twin. Two feline thoguth flanked it on either side.
“Face me, wolf’s son.”
“Sure,” Gabriel said, his breathing heavy as he lifted Fiera to his shoulder. “Antagonize the monsters trying to kill us.”
***
“Excuse us if we've been too busy surviving your death pets to focus on your moonlighting as apprentice Faustus.”
“I resent that reference,” Gabriel interjected.
***
In her last glimpse of Midgard, she had seen the barrier fall around Albion Academy. The signature of that spell was not one she had seen before, whereas the thicket of spells she forged her way through now was all too familiar. She wondered if Grandmother Spider and Crow Mother would know what was afoot even in this distance part of the universe. She had a feeling they would. Grandmother Spider was a watchful person. And Crow Mother—well, there was a reason crows and ravens were among the most intelligent of animals.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and be sure to come back Monday for a little musing on magic systems and why I don't entirely agree with Brandon Sanderson's ideas about them.
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