“No, I haven’t read your mind,” she retorted. “You know that. Unless you’re being polite now, and not reading mine.”
His expression softened. “No, I know you haven’t. My reaction is merely a reflex. And this reminds me…” He sighed. “You may block your mind again now.”
Rielle rebuilt the defences around her mind, wondering if she had imagined the reluctance in his manner. For countless days he’d seen all her thoughts, while she had continued to avoid reading his–despite the temptation to go looking for it during times of great boredom, loneliness and anxiety. He knew a great deal about her now, but still she knew nothing more about him.
I feel like he owes me a look into his mind now. But that’s not true or fair. Nobody owes anyone that.
Yet having trusted him with her thoughts made her want something equally intimate from him in return. Or maybe there is something more to it. She looked at him sidelong. I wonder… if he was interested in being more than friends, would I be willing? He was good-looking and charming. But then, Baluka had been as well. Do I love Dahli? She shook her head. Not right now. Maybe I will one day, but this time I won’t be making any promises until I’m sure.
They entered a circular stairwell spiralling into darkness. Dahli had insisted that they could not skim to the place she was to learn pattern shifting. Back when I was mortal. Not wanting to walk beside the abyss, Rielle followed behind Dahli. His light cast his shadow on the stair before her, so she reached for magic to create a light…
… and found none. Her senses flew wide instinctively, searching for the edge of the Stain. When she finally found it she had stretched almost all the way around the world. The small remaining patch of magic was spreading into the edges of the void, rapidly thinning in strength as it did.
Looking at Dahli, she saw no constant radiating lines of Stain bursting out around him. Suddenly she understood why he, and Valhan, had always done this. They were constantly, unconsciously drawing magic to prevent ageing. She would be doing it too, if she hadn’t been using a small store of leftover magic from her last lesson.
“Dahli. Where has all the magic gone?”
He chuckled. “You used it.”
“In pattern shifting?”
“In enhancing your mind enough to be able to alter it.”
“You said I should draw as much as I needed because there was plenty of magic here.”
“Yes. There was.” He chuckled, unconcerned. “If I’d told you that you’d probably strip this world you would have been distracted, wondering if you’d run out.”
“But… I have ruined Valhan’s world!”
He glanced back at her and smiled. “No, you haven’t.”
The world could recover, she realised. More magic could always be generated. Perhaps Valhan intended her to replace the magic when she began creating again. She wondered how often this has happened before. Once for every ageless sorcerer, at least.
“What happens if there isn’t enough magic in a world to alter a sorcerer’s mind?”
“The sorcerer fails.”
“And the world he is in?”
“Stripped bare.”
“So he or she would be mortal and trapped.”
“It is thought to be one of the reasons why worlds that were well supplied with magic suddenly become dead worlds.” He’d reached the bottom of the stairwell. Rielle joined him in the wide passage beyond. “This is one of the reasons why Valhan forbids the teaching of pattern shifting. Failure can be very destructive.”
“Could that be the reason why my world was so lacking in magic?”
Dahli shook his head. “It is more likely the battle in your world’s past that bled it dry. War is an even more common cause of dead worlds. It is another calamity Valhan tries to avoid.”
“But he’s led people into war before. He showed me the results of one of them.”
“Sometimes war is unavoidable. When it is, Valhan tries to ensure no worlds suffer such a fate.”
“I guess so long as there are people within them creating magic, worlds will not stay dead for ever. And if they contain Makers they will recover faster.”
“Yes.” He gave her a wary look, then his face relaxed.
“What is it?”
“You look a little different. Not in a bad way, I should add.”
She smiled, and resisted the temptation to touch her face.
“It is possible that when you return to your room you will be startled, even discomfited, by the change,” Dahli warned. “If you do not identify with the face and body you see you may unconsciously age yourself again to return to what is familiar.”
“Oh.” She grimaced. “So it’s good that I wasn’t much older when I learned this. It would be a greater shock if I was used to seeing wrinkles.”