why we end up doing what we do to pay for our spells.
'As for why we get what we need rather than what we specifically ask for… I'd say it's a little more like a gift than a business transaction, even though we do have to pay for it. They're looking out for us. Helping us—I don't know—become better. Or at least giving us the tools to become better, if we want to be.'
She paused for a long time, looking thoughtful. 'I also think—though, mind, I don't know for sure—that when we use keystone energy to pay for spells, that energy is used by the Gods to some other purpose of Theirs elsewhere. So They need what humans send Them, but it isn't being directly returned to our world in any way we can see. Not like when you cast 'from the heart,' and pay in this world with a task the Gods set.'
Like promising a year of chastity to a unicorn, Kellen thought. Try as he might, he couldn't imagine how that was going to be of any use to anyone, including him.
'It makes my head hurt.' And he'd thought the High Magick was mind-numbingry esoteric!
Idalia smiled. 'Tell you the truth, it makes mine hurt too, sometimes. I haven't met very many Wildmages who really understand it. But that's enough theory and practice for one day. I'll tell you something you never heard in Armethalieh: magic can be fun. That's another reason to store power in keystones; so you can use it to have a little fun.'
'Huh,' Kellen said disbelievingly. It hadn't been fun so far. Exciting, yes, but looking back, there had not been a lot of what he'd call fun.
'Seriously. I'll prove it,' Idalia assured him.
She got to her feet in one smooth motion and reached down into the basket once more. She lifted out the folds of fabric—as she swirled them through the air, Kellen could see it was actually an ankle-length hooded cloak of thin grey wool—and draped it around herself.
And vanished.
'Hey!'
Kellen jumped to his feet in alarm, staggering just a little in the hasty movement. Idalia was gone.
'Like it?'
She reappeared behind him, the cloak draped over one arm. Kellen stared at her, knowing he was gaping at her like a country fool in a wondertale but unable to keep from doing it. This was magic—magic of the sort that only existed in books and scrolls and Festival-day plays!
'It's a tamkappa—a cloak of invisibility. I made it a while back when I was still thrilled by being able to create things with the Wild Magic whenever I wanted to, with no one around to care whether I did or not. When I'm wearing it, no one can see me—or hear me, or smell me. Oh, it has its practical uses. I use it to take game in the dead of winter, when quarry is scarce and easily spooked. It's about the only magical contrivance I have at the moment,' Idalia said, her eyes dancing with glee at his reaction.
'Why?' Kellen asked bluntly. 'I mean, if you can make more things like that, why don't you? Make indoor plumbing, if you miss it?'
Idalia shrugged. 'The thrill wears off, once you get used to the idea that you can work Wild Magic openly, whenever you like,' she said simply. 'I have everything I need now, and luxuries—well, they don't seem as much of a priority. But that's enough about magic for one day,' she said briskly, folding the tamkappa back into the basket. 'Wait here, and I'll bring you something to do.' She grinned now. 'If you're going to eat my food, brother mine, you're going to have to help me put it on the table.'
She walked off toward the cabin, carrying the basket.
Kellen watched her go, frowning faintly. After a few moments he sat back down on the stump again, thinking hard. Idalia, he was coming to realize, was very good at changing the subject when it started to get into matters she didn't want to discuss.
And Kellen—as he was also starting to realize—was very good at thinking about forbidden subjects.
Take the Elves, for example. They'd gotten off that subject mighty quickly when Idalia had been telling him her history! But something about everything she'd told him about how she'd ended up here just didn't make sense. Why was Idalia living out here in the middle of nowhere—in a cabin that didn't even have indoor plumbing—when she could be living with the Elves in their Elven city? Everybody knew that the Elven cities were places of fabulous luxury and decadence, where Elven enchantresses practiced their forbidden wiles on any human men unfortunate enough to fall into their perfumed clutches. And, Kellen supposed fair-mindedly, Elven men did the same for human women, if they could catch them.
So why wasn't Idalia still living there? It obviously wasn't because the Elves had a problem with Wildmages. She'd gone to them for help when she turned back into human form, so they were evidently familiar with the Wild Magic and its effects. She must have lived with them at least for a little while afterward. Why hadn't she stayed with them?
