Page 41 of Charmed

“It does seem contradictory,” Mae offered. “Yet another mystery to compete for our attention amongst the myriad of others.”

Despite my tendency to do things on my own and doubting Mae’s ability to offer much help in his current form, his support that reminded me I wasn’t alone brought solace nonetheless.

I captured a handful of the unknown force shrouding the air and experimentally toyed with it. “I find the thinning magic unsettling. If time wasn’t so pressing I could better examine it. But as it stands, I’ll have to study it another time.”

I conjured a glass vial to bottle a sample. I wasn’t sure when I’d have time to study the properties of this unnerving force, but if something truly was choking the magic, I’d need all the information I could obtain in order to contribute to stopping it…a duty that would be mine should I succeed in my current quest to earn a position on the council.

The effort in tracing the magical path from my storeroom of enchanted bottles stored back at the castle to my current location required more exertion than my previous smaller spells had; pain shot through my hand, as if I’d burned my skin on an open flame.

“What’s wrong?” Mae demanded, hopping off my shoulder to land on my wrist.

“Nothing.” Despite my hasty assurance, my expression faltered the moment my frog turned his head to peer intently at my hand and I winced.

Mae sighed. “I’m not sure whether your lie was given out of manly pride or sheer stubbornness, but it’s foolish to pretend nothing is wrong instead of facing the problem directly.”

My eyes rounded. “How did you—”

“I witnessed your pain just now; my vision allows me to see my entire surroundings no matter which direction I face, so it’s pointless to hide anything from me. Though independence can be an admirable trait, stubbornly clinging to it is foolish given the circumstances.”

Though I recognized my frog’s sense, it took much inner wrestling to wrangle my resistance into submission before finally relinquishing the fight with a sigh of defeat. “It feels as if something is suppressing my powers, resulting in pain each time I use them. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

My frog’s warty brow creased and he gently nudged my hand, which was still clenched in pain. As I uncurled my fingers, he hopped onto it, exploring my palm with his webbed feet. His warty, slightly slimy touch should have been unsettling, but instead it felt almost…pleasant.

I frowned as I recognized the power caressing mine; the sensation created by each unique wielder acted as a magical fingerprint, a familiarity that confirmed I’d encountered Mae’s magic before, yet there were too many wizards of my acquaintance to narrow down my frog’s identity through this alone. Clearly he was unable to communicate who he was, thanks to the restrictions of the curse, but I would be alert to any clues that could unlock the mystery of this man-turned-frog.

After a bit of investigation as best as Mae could manage with the curse suppressing his powers, my frog looked up. “I became familiar with your magic after you cast the spell of communication on me, and though my powers are likely too underdeveloped for an accurate reading, from what I can tell, they seem slightly different than they did before.” The frog pulled its hand away and with a swift leap returned to its previous place on my shoulder.

I flexed my fingers, as if the gesture could shake off not only the ominous force haunting my skin, but the almost tingly sensation left behind by Mae’s touch. “I first noticed my powers behaving strangely last night after our encounter with the King of Lumeria, but it’s grown worse since arriving in this clearing.”

“Where there seems to be something amiss with the magic.”

Which created two possibilities—either the fading magic was the result of some sort of curse, or one of the competitors had done something. The competition had attracted dozens if not hundreds of magic possessors, which would make it difficult if not impossible to narrow the suspects to a much smaller pool…unless I took into account the only competitor I’d encountered when I first noticed my faltering powers.

Yet even without the dark king’s unprecedented warnings, I was inclined to find him innocent; he seemed too cunning to so easily tip his hand when he had no obligation to make himself known to me.

Our best hope would be to analyze the sample I’d obtained to see if I could uncover the unique pattern used by its caster, its own magical fingerprint…a spell far beyond my current abilities, which only stoked my ever-present inadequacy and need to improve.

With time pressing, it would be best to set aside this issue for now and focus on deciphering where the second task would be judged. The most logical place to conceal such information was within the clue about the challenge itself. I withdrew the parchment I’d retrieved from behind the enchanted lock and held it up to the light. When a quick perusal didn’t reveal any hidden messages, I conducted a few simple concealment spells, made more difficult with the new strain on my powers.

Worry squeezed my chest at the realization that even my ability to perform basic magic had been affected. If whatever force hindering my power didn’t dissipate, I would be at a severe disadvantage. It was one thing to lose due to my own inadequacies, and quite another to be thwarted by an outside force.

“Alden?”

I blinked and my frog’s riveted concern came into focus. By Mae’s narrowed scrutiny, he’d detected my forced smile of reassurance. I normally hesitated in sharing my burdens, but something about the depth of my companion’s worried brown eyes encouraged me to take him into my confidence.

I paused for a moment to marvel at the close relationship we’d built, even without my knowledge of who he actually was. It was a friendship different than any I’d had with other men before, perhaps because I somehow saw him as both a person and an animal.

“With my weakened powers, I’m hesitant to perform my usual experiments to determine which spell could be obscuring the information we need, especially when each cast pulls from a well of power that used to be infinite, but which now feels limited due to my ever shrinking reserve.”

Even if they managed to create a noteworthy spell to fulfill the challenge’s conditions, this alone wouldn’t limit the pool of competitors…causing the fear of potential foul play to once more slither into my mind, robbing me of much of my already faltering confidence.

Though the situation proved unideal, the only other course would be to give up, something I would never do; I would fight until I’d drained every drop of magic I possessed, even as that very outcome which would leave me without purpose caused a swell of hopelessness to cinch my chest.

After exhausting my arsenal of basic concealment charms, I moved onto intermediate spells that were a greater drain on my powers, but thankfully I only needed to try a small handful before finding the one that allowed the contents of the challenge to melt away to be replaced with coordinates. I took extra care in using these to create a portal, double checking my work several times so I wouldn’t be forced to expend my precious powers to redo it. Laying a protective hand over Mae to ensure he was secure on my shoulder, I stepped inside.

The portal opened into a vast, sunlit clearing of willows and pines whose magic brought instant relief, as if I’d been finally granted air after being submerged for too long. Though not entirely back to normal, distance from the magic-parched clearing made my powers easier to summon and control, allowing me to forge a tracking spell that led me to the invisible tent where Enchantress Ivy awaited me.

Upon seeing her I tensed. Her intimate knowledge of my magic would make it impossible for her to miss the weak points in each of my spells that might be too subtle for the other judges to detect, evidence of the secret part of me that would rather achieve my goal via cheating than not at all for fear of thenothingthat would be all that awaited me should I fail.

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