The Spell Realm (The Sorcery Code #2)(70)

Stepping forward, he surveyed his new subjects, watching as a pair of young women walked toward the throne, carrying a golden crown on a velvet-wrapped tray. As they got closer, Dara took the crown from them, raising it high over her head. Then she reverently placed it on Barson’s head.

“Long live the king!” she shouted, turning toward the crowd.

“Long live the king!” Their answering cry echoed through the hallways, filling the Tower with the sound of a new beginning.





Chapter 53: Blaise





When the merging of their minds was long over, Blaise thought back to what he’d learned through the experience. He was particularly fascinated with whatever intelligences seemed to exist in this realm. “What do you think Dranel is?” he asked Gala silently, remembering the brief image he got from her mind.

“I don’t know,” Gala responded, a bit dreamily. She appeared to be still under the influence of their joining. “He seems to be more like you than me, though his pattern is still quite different.”

Blaise thought about it, remembering seeing his own pattern through her eyes and comparing them in his mind. He could not see any resemblance, but then he didn’t have Gala’s ability to process complex information quickly. Being in her mind here had been a very different experience. She was less like a human being here; instead, she was something different, something greater.

Dwelling on it, Blaise slowly felt his thoughts fade as his newfound senses took over. It was so beautiful, so peaceful, that the nothingness lured him in.



*



“Blaise?” Gala’s thought brought him into consciousness.

“Yes?” he responded, confused.

“You have not thought for a while,” she explained, and he could detect a hint of worry in her pattern.

What had happened? Did he pass out? Was it possible to do that in this place? Mildly disturbed, Blaise tried to refocus on something he almost forgot, though it was on his mind earlier.

“How do we go back?” he thought, finally remembering his original intent. He had come here to retrieve Gala. To save her. To take her back to his world.

“Do you want to go back?” she thought back, her pattern seeming to pulsate with a feeling Blaise could only describe as hesitation.

He was not sure he did. This existence was very direct and pure. Blaise could feel what Gala felt, and she knew his innermost thoughts. But somehow, he still felt like an intruder here, though the feeling lessened with every moment. Yet as the feeling lessened, so did his sense of identity, of knowing what and who he was. It was only Gala’s presence that seemed to ground him somewhat, and Blaise had a bad feeling about the episode he’d just experienced. It was possible that he would have more periods of time without thought, his mind getting absorbed into the serene, mathematical beauty of the patterns around him. Could he slowly lose himself here? The idea was frightening.

“Then I will go back with you,” she said simply. Blaise hadn’t voiced his thoughts, but she was answering them anyway. Blaise could also sense Gala’s feelings on this matter. She was much more ambivalent about returning. He understood her hesitation; she was a product of both realms and was nearly as at home here as she was in his world. In many ways, she preferred this serene, startlingly different place. There was no ugliness here, no injustice that she could not abide.

“Maybe we could do something about that,” Blaise thought, remembering his original intentions. He still wanted to help people, to eliminate the suffering that made Gala so uncomfortable.

For a short time, she appeared to muse about something that he could not discern. Then a pattern appeared in front of him. A strange, complex shape that didn’t contain the intelligent components he could see in Gala.

“This is part of the spell you wove before,” she explained, projecting her thoughts at him.

Blaise studied the shape curiously. All he saw, tasted, and smelled were unusual textures and things that had nothing in common with the arcane words he’d written on cards.

Gala, however, seemed to know what to do with it. He could see that she was altering the structure, changing it as she went along. Looking closer, Blaise could tell that there were flaws in the spell’s intricate mathematics—errors that he had inadvertently made—and he could see that Gala was fixing them. The changes started small, but with time they almost recreated the structure, giving it new life. With each tweak that Gala made, new tastes, smells, and associations occurred to Blaise, overwhelming his new senses.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the activity stopped.

“Are you ready?” her thought came.

“Yes. Take us home,” he thought back, and watched the colors in the spell structure flare brighter as they departed for the Physical Realm.





Epilogue: Dranel





This time, when lucidity came, Dranel knew himself instantly. The last thing he remembered was observing Gala. She had done something, and he had reacted. Whatever it was, it had brought him the deep calm he longed for. But now the lucidity he often cursed was back.

Dranel’s thoughts were clearer than he could ever recall, and he arrived at a decision. He strongly preferred the serenity of not thinking to this state of lucidity. Yes, lucidity had its moments, like when he was observing Gala, but as fascinating as those small moments were, on the whole they did not seem worth leaving the blissful state he so often found himself in.