Moonlight sprinkled across the emerald canopy when the driver came to a stop outside Whiteraven. Lamps swung in the breeze, but the driver clucked for his removal, and on his own shaky knees, he slipped out of the carriage. Exhaustion dogged his heels, another chain to his freedom, but he was too close to slump into the dirt, not that he was unfamiliar to rocks digging into his skin when all he wanted was a peaceful sleep. And I doubt I made a friend tonight. He waddled closer to the town's boundary and straight into the tavern.

People sat at their tables and hushed their gossip. Coins clicked against each other, piled on to bet on table games. Had he not just spent the most of his travel fare on getting the driver to wake up for longer than five bells, he'd slip in to join and test his ironic luck. Instead, he settled himself at a corner booth and tried not to lapse into restless dozing. A drink. He needed a small pint. Anything to drown out the ash in the back of his throat. He opened up his medicinal book to prepare himself for the journey ahead, and glanced up when a tavern worker bustled over to him. "What can I get for you, sir?" they asked with a tap of their pencil against his table.

Reyes peeked inside his coin pouch and scowled at the measly remnants. "Do you have juniper wine here?"

"We do," they wrote down on their small notepad. "Is that all?"

For now. Reyes nodded and watched them leave to the front bar. His heart gave an anxious squeeze against his ribcage at the sight of two people clad in armor. Worse, Tervalen armor, from the raven splattered across a black field, its wing tips red with crimson. Probably to represent the blood of their fallen enemies. Now, what are Tervalen knights doing so far from home? This may be the border, but it's still a long way away from where they belong... Reyes rested his chin in his palm and kept to himself to avoid attention — unhelpful was the fact that he appeared to be the only mage within the tavern, but at least nothing told anyone he was a cursed Starborn unless he used his magic. He set his ebony staff against the wall beside him, and smiled when his server returned with a much needed bottle of relaxing juniper wine. Navy blues swirled within the glass as he pushed what little remained of his coins into their waiting hands before pouring himself a mug.

One last twist around the tavern, he leaned closer to his mug to kindle his flames into cold ice. Stars pushed through the drop of temperature to send a thin layer straight to the bottom of his cup. Lips against the edge, he drank what he could to taste the smooth texture he created. And now I don't have anything for a bed. He rested his elbow on the table and set the side of his head in his hand to flip the pages over. Pictures caught in his memory, he studied each one. Medicine can quickly become a poison... He frowned, then closed the book. Why did they call me about the Tervalen princes if they didn't have anything to do with it?

It was possible the Mage Council lied to him — wouldn't be the first time. Maybe they wanted me to hide the evidence? If Tervale connected their prince's assassination to them, that'd be war. He spun his finger through the air to swirl the new contests of his mug. A liquid tornadic cell without splashing the contents and wasting it. He released it, and it danced against the waves until it came to a calming stop.

I need to put distance between myself and Abraxa before the ash spell wears off... I've never been good at masking my magic for any longer than a night... The heel of his palm pressed into his eye. Throbbing embers struck his skull, so he evened out his shattered breathing when the world slowly slipped into the edges of darkness. The curse of being noticeable on a plane of magic existence. Anyone with a halfway decent locator concept could follow his trail if he didn't keep on his flight for freedom. Just finish this one bottle and go... It blurred the world and the furry edges danced in water. Figures followed the beat of a nightly jig, but he frowned at the two Tervalen knights. One spoke in a hushed voice with a cloaked figure who hid their face in the slope of their hood. The other knight betrayed their intention with the slightest glance at his table. Right. I overstayed my welcome already.

Reyes left the booth, grabbing his staff as he went. Magic rippled into the conduit as he hurried past the swinging wood doors and into the silver night underneath the moon. Pebbles cracked underneath his heel when he tried to hide his rush behind a straight back and confident stride, though his knees wobbled with exhaustion and his lack of sleep. I'll be safe once I'm out of here. Hunted to the ends of the world, he kept his staff close to his side. The opal conduit fluttered with his echoed weariness, but in a pinch, he knew how to expend little effort.

Through the stone walls, he returned to the dirt road carved with carriage wheels. Reyes sighed at the lack of shadowy presences behind him, then slowed his pace to conserve his energy. I'm just rushed, maybe I should've slept, but then I'd get found eventually. One pitiful ember danced at the base of his fingertip, and he tucked it into a phial for safe-keeping. Can't risk a sleeping potion. Have to keep myself awake. He wrapped his arms in his cloak and Whiteraven became nothing more than a blot through the thick tree cover.

He slammed to a stop when firelight whispered through the underbrush, and he winced when armoured knights walked out onto the path, torches in hand. Footsteps sounded behind him, and he scowled at the Tervalen knights from before, with the same cloaked figure. "Are you Reyes Drazir?"

It was a rhetorical question if he ever heard one, and he heard a lot. His hand wrapped around his staff and pushed what energy he had left into the conduit. "Why do you ask who I am?" He set himself to the side to gauge both parties who pincered him, so far from civilization. "I'm afraid if you need some magical help, I'm all out of desire to extend any courtesy. I'm sure you can find what you need from another Mage." He pressed the bottom of his staff into the ground, holding himself upright. Ice swept through his spine when they trapped him by taking a step closer, and his avenue of escape long since disappeared. "Come on," he said through a grin. "Can't let a man just enjoy a walk?"

"It seems more like you're running," the cloaked figure said.

Reyes drove his fingers into the small knots in his staff when one knight took one step closer. "I warn you," he whispered. "If you know my name, you know that with one snap of my fingers, I can level this entire forest." He raised his hand, and pressed his thumb and middle finger together, hoping his measly dead coal could still give birth to a raging inferno. "I'd rather not, the trees did nothing wrong. I advise you to keep your distance and explain what you want from me. Why did you follow me out here?" He added pressure into his fingertips, ready for the moment one of them made a wrong move.

"Reyes Drazir, by word of Emperor Holovo of Tervale, you're to come with us."

Damned—

Electricity rippled through the conduit of his staff to course through the knots as one knight lunged. It died into embers, unable to muster the effort to set the forest into flames. He sent the bottom of his shaft into the weakest point of their chainmail. Magic waves grabbed onto their hands and brought them to their knees. One more twist, he whacked the other approaching knight upside the head with his energized conduit. It scattered starlight onto the ground and bubbled the dirt. As he went to deal with the next part, he gasped when one cracked a phial full of clear liquid to toss the droplets into his eyes. Reyes stumbled to try and wipe it out. Tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes, and he grunted when the largest knight sent their fist into his face.

On his knees, he went to reach for his staff, but he scowled when the knight leaped on top of him to kick it to their startled comrades. One stumbled to grab it, and Reyes whipped around when they grabbed his arms into a vice grip, straight from his shoulders as the one in front raised the staff over their knee.

Branches shattered when they slammed it downwards.

Black wood chips rejoined the ground and the conduit lost its opalescent luster.

Reyes stared at the broken pieces of his ebony staff. Weeks of mediating underneath the canopy of an old ebony tree, for a precious gift. He clenched his fists when the cloaked figure rounded to him with a tip of their head.

"What Mage uses their staff as a bludgeon, Drazir?"

"One who can't be arsed to expand any effort to wipe people off the face of the world," Reyes said and forced himself to look away from his failure to protect an innocent being. He loosened the tension in his hands and winced when the knights threatened to crush his forearms. "You've put me in a bit of a predicament." He snapped his fingers, and scoffed when the coal shattered apart and crumbled to fatal dust.

"I simply called your bluff."

Reyes blinked down at the dirt.

"Besides, even a Mage with your power would struggle to light up a campfire with your exhausted state," the cloaked figure mused.

He wanted to laugh at the notion that even at his best he could manage something as simple as a campfire to warm people through the coldest nights, being born underneath desert suns and frozen nights. "So, am I to be Tervale's hostage to get Abraxa to cave?" Reyes frowned at the black wood shavings at his knees.

"You will see when you get there." The cloaked figure nodded at the knights. "Get him to the carriage. We need to get back to Tervale before someone notices the commotion."

Off his knees, he poised to spring. Flames curled around his skin, and he zoned in on their spine. Until the back of his head pulsed with pain when someone's elbow met the back of it. Reyes grunted when he slammed back into the dirt, worthless and small underneath the cruel gazes of humanoid monsters. The cloaked figure stopped to examine him. "Apologies for the rough treatment, Drazir," they said and knelt down at his head when he tried to recuperate his surroundings, but they scattered into stardust. "We can't risk you making too much of a fuss. I may have called your bluff, but that doesn't mean you aren't capable of it. Get some sleep. We have a long way to go."

"That was just rude..."

"You'll recover over the ride there." The cloaked figure shrugged.

Reyes tried to lift himself out of the dirt when they turned to walk away, their crunching footsteps growing distant when his entire body went numb. Embers burned black when he fell into the darkness and into someone's arms. People screamed. Flames raged. Someone's hand wrapped around his own to rush him through the buried marble pillars.

It fluttered through fantastical realities as the knights hauled him over one's shoulder. Nausea drowned him in the inky void.

Embers fell from the stars, and set the oasis aflame.

Water boiled.

"It's okay," a girl through the murk soothed with the rattle of a cage and hugged him closer to brush the back of his head. "It'll be okay, Reyes. This wasn't your fault."

It was my fault. It brought them straight to our home... all to find my power.

If this is a blessing, I don't want to learn about what a curse is.

Wheels rattled underneath him, and he lost himself in the dizzying unconsciousness.