Curselock

Chapter 205: Catching Up

Lucia quietly sat listening to the boys talk about their freshly upgraded abilities and spells. She had been left to chaperone while the other adults called in favors and hopefully readied themselves for the coming battles. And while she did have her own things she could be doing, opting to sit with the boys was what she chose to do.

It felt strange to her, leaving them be. Each had been through so much already, especially her son, Leland. Being separated from friends and family, forced to fight through a gauntlet of monsters and humans alike, all for the sake of getting back home did stuff to people. Leland was shrugging it off mostly, but Lucia still noticed absentee stares off to the distance or flinch-reacting to something with deadly intent.

A gold coin could be dropped on the floor and his first reaction would be to grab at his magic in case of an attack.

And while this instinct was good, it wasn’t all the time. And learning it at such a young age led Lucia to sorrow. She had failed her son in more ways than one. From being rather hands off in his latter teenage years to nearly getting herself killed in an ambush at Ruinsforth, her gut twisted when she looked at Leland. It was her fault, hers and Spencer’s.

Not that she liked blaming her husband for things, or at all, really. But he’d had just as much say in Leland’s childhood as she had. Which made the guilt of failing so quickly at Ruinsforth all the more potent. At least he tried to interfere. He did succeed, in a way, at least for a while, ultimately failing in the end, but he did interfere. He protected Jude and Glenny, and fought with the Pathways Witch the best he could.

What had she done recently? Nothing, that was what. And that stung. For Lord’s sake, Isobel was more of an authority figure in Leland’s eyes than his own mother! The Huntress! The woman who stalked her child for the better part of a year just because! Her! How could that be! How could Lucia have fallen so? A literal stalker was more protective of Leland than his own mother.

Pathetic, Lucia thought about herself, magic spinning to life at the tips of her fingers.

The spell she cast was simple, a cantrip really, but actually not. Being a Legacy of Magic opened many pathways to power. She had started as a fire mage, opting to go the route of most for much of her young adult life. It wasn’t until she met Spencer and truly started to understand what magic could be, that she started experimenting with lightning. Such was the way of a Magic Legacy, one of the most open ended and versatile Legacies out there.

Any spell, any element, any time. All it took to change things around was ranking up and an idea of where you wanted to be. Lucia still remembered what she told the Lord of Magic during her third Dream Ceremony, the same ceremony Leland and the others just completed.

“I don’t want to be one of those weak mages,” A twenty something year old Lucia stated. “I don’t want to give any of my enemies a second to react to my spells. Lightning, I was thinking. But I want to be able to fly and I don’t want to have to call in clouds and storms. Just” she snapped her fingers, “boom! Dead monster!”

The Lord of Magic, bless his heart, didn’t laugh at her. He had just nodded along and showed her the way, changing all of her Legacies spells to that of lightning. He sent her on her way not long after, and she hadn’t looked back since.

And while she didn’t specialize in cantrips like some other mages, Lucia still knew plenty of tricks. One such being the spell she currently was casting. A small pulse of electricity, enough to feel around but not enough to alert anyone to her magic. A sufficiently perceptive mage might notice them, but not really anyone else. Mana sense was a terribly hard thing to master, after all.

The pulse rippled through the inn the group was staying in, passing through walls and open air. Sensory information came back to her, all which checked out to be okay. Sure, she would have preferred if the man sleeping in an upstairs room was a bit more dressed and that the woman passed out drunk in the gutter next door wasn’t still holding onto a half-full bottle, but she digressed. There weren't any threats, and that’s all that mattered right now.

They were, after all, well within enemy territory right now. Ivory Reach. The Palemarrow Kingdom’s capital. Home of the Queen, and all that encompassed. The city itself was interesting. Built in layers within the giant remains of a fallen no-named Lord, bones could be seen from every street. Ribs were made into bridges, knuckles into prisons, the spine served as a main street of sorts.

The city was massive, which in multiple ways, was a detriment. The Sightless Cult, the very same killers that the boys had already faced off against, were around. And that meant vengeance for their Sightless King, at least if Leland’s theory was to be believed.

Twice he had foiled the beast’s plans, once more and he was likely to fully succeed. The rule of threes, a superstition around these parts, but one that Lucia had seen more than once herself. Strange how life worked out like that sometimes.

A portal opened upstairs in one of the rooms they had rented. Through her pulsing magic, Lucia found Diana slightly hunched over, her shoulders slumped. She wasn’t holding that axe she spoke of, which meant her plan had failed.

Hopefully the others had better luck.

“Two meads,” Lucia said to the bartender. “And a small cup of honey, please.”

The man nodded and started moving mugs around, but she had already returned to her thoughts. Idly, with a split mind, she listened to the boys quietly discussing their Legacy evolutions.

“I chose the general ability upgrade again,” Glenny said. “Briefly I spoke to the Chameleon Lord about adaptation, but the dang lizard was rather pushy about getting me out of his domain. Kept saying the flies were going to fly away soon and he needed to eat this decade…”

“Well what did he say about adaptation?” Leland asked. “He already gave you a shard of information.”

“I asked about some clarifications. What things truly meant, you know? Then I asked about an adaptation-focused Legacy upgrade. There isn’t one, which was surprising to me. He wouldn’t tell me why, so.” Glenny finished his statement with a shrug.

“Weird.”

“Indeed.”

“Well what about upgrades?”

Glenny gave a half smile. “I was a bit disappointed, to be honest. Everyone talks about how the apprentice rank is where Legacies start to get power. And well, I’m not feeling it.”

Leland snapped his fingers. “That’s what I was thinking!”

Jude snorted. “You two are thinking about this wrong. Apprentice is when you get powerful, but not because of your Legacy.” He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “Well, actually, it is because of your Legacy. Ah, confusing. Bah, what I’m trying to say, is that it's when we as people become stronger. Not that our Legacies become stronger.”

The others gave him skeptical looks.

“Have you two really not noticed?” He smiled to himself. “Of course you haven’t. Neither of you are as perceptive as me, nor as cunning.”

Neither were impressed.

Jude looked hurt. “Hey now…”

“Can you just get on with your point?”

He nodded. “Fine, fine. I noticed right away. I’m much, much stronger than before the Legacy rank-up. Faster too. Perceptive as well. Maybe even more handsome.”

Glenny wasn’t biting. Leland, however, started to slowly nod along. “Now that you mention it, when I was talking to the Lord of Souls, he grabbed my arm and did some soul damage to me—”

From across the room Lucia jolted in her seat, bashing the table from the underside with her knee. She quietly cursed to herself, using her shirt to mop up the liquid.

The boys didn’t notice, or rather, they didn’t care. Jude did take a second to look at his mom when she exited the upstairs suite and walked down the stairs. She gave him a brisk shake of the head, “no.” He frowned, returning to the conversation.

“A Lord hurt you? I thought they couldn’t?” Glenny asked.

“I did too. But soul magic is weird. I did use my pain and suffering as a pivoting point in our conversation. Steered it where I wanted, sort of thing.”

“Ah, look at our little manipulator,” Jude cooed.

Leland threw a peanut at him. “Anyway, what I was getting at is that if I wasn’t an apprentice, I think I would have crumbled into a crying mess from the pain. I didn’t notice it until Jude mentioned he was stronger, but I think that’s what it was.”

“I don’t know…” Glenny said, swaying a bit. “That doesn’t sound—”

“Hey mom?” Jude abruptly yelled, causing the few eyes in the inn to look over. “Are apprentices much stronger than the previous ranks? I think I’m a lot stronger.”

Diana, to her credit, looked guilty. “Yeah? Didn’t we teach you that when you were younger?”

“No?” Jude retorted back.

“Oh. Well, yeah.”

Lucia took a second from cleaning her mess to say, “You knew that Leland.”

“No I didn’t?” Leland replied.

“Sure you did. I remember the day when your father and I told you. We were talking about all the different branches of magic you could take and how after a while they grew sort of exponentially in power.”

Leland scratched his head. “That doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Ah, well, you were young…” Lucia said, feeling defeated yet again.

At her trailing off, Jude returned the conversation to their table. “Anyway, I took the Legacy upgrade that specializes in rage.”

Both Leland and Glenny gave him appraising looks. “I thought you were being cautious of rage.”

“Oh I am. But the Berserker Lord gave me this really powerful wine and we got to talking and… wellllllll, he convinced me to just accept the rage into my heart. Throw myself into the fire and walk out reforged, sort of thing.”

Diana face-palmed across the room.

“But weren’t you worried about—”

“That, my dear Leals, is a thing of the past.” Jude fished out his harmonica from his pocket. “You see, he also gave me some pointers on true rage. And I’m not so worried anymore.”

Diana muttered something to Lucia.

“Well okay…” Leland quietly said. “I upgraded my contracts again. I was disappointed at first, like I said. But now, I don’t think I am. Pacts seem powerful, as well as the whole ‘exponential power’ thing. I can’t say I like how if I break a pact then I die, though I did get a sweet necklace out of it.”

Lucia’s knee hit the underside of the table again, spilling her drink… again. The bartender was not impressed.

Jude reached over, peeling Leland’s shirt collar down a bit. “Oh that is sweet!”

“Just wait until you see its actual form.”