Chapter 11
"You need to talk about it, you know. The purge affected a lot of people and not just those in Polis or The Ark. They never taught us what we actually needed to know and most believe the purge was a story used to scare children like the boogeyman or something." Murphy says when he finds Roan out front practicing with his swords.
"I can't help him if I'm unfocused.Talking about it and thinking about it clouds my abilities which means I can't see what's holding him back. There's a lot of power within him but he's barely using half of it. He's like you in that respect."
"You know why I only use that much."
"I do but I also know to defeat her for real you may have to use all of it."
"What do you see when you look at him? Is it like Mbege or different?"
"What identifies him as a dream walker is the same but everything else is different. He has shadow magic Murphy, I've seen it but it's different. It's not dark but light which is impossible, right?"
"Hey, don't look at me. I came to you to learn about shadow magic, remember? So if you don't know than neither do I. Although I remember it burning when his shadows touched mine which was weird because shadows can't hurt shadows."
There's a long pause between them like they're both unsure of how to continue the conversation until Murphy has an idea.
"You can see the intensity and type of power someone has by looking at them but what do you see when they use it? Is it possible to find something to maybe identify why his magic works the way it does that way?"
"Possibly but I've never done that before. I've always been able to tell everything I needed to know just by looking at them."
"But you said yourself that Bellamy's different and if that's the case then maybe it's time for a different approach. I mean it's worth a try, right?"
"Okay. So how do we do this?"
"I guess I'll deal with the training and you watch, yeah?" Murphy says slightly unsure.
"Yeah but let's start with fire magic since its his weakest aside from shadow. You know what to do?"
Murphy nods as Bellamy makes his way out onto the porch, ready to begin training again. Lincoln stays just inside the door so that he's not too close to them while training and could duck and cover if he needed to.
"We're gonna try something a bit different this time around. Murphy is gonna attack you while I watch and this way I can better determine what your issue is in regards to fire magic."
As soon as Roan was finished talking Murphy hit Bellamy with a fireball. Or at least he tried to because Bellamy deflected it easily but didn't send one back or mount a counter attack.
"Bellamy you have to attack him back otherwise there's no point. Your defenses for magic is fine, it's your offense that we need to work on. Now attack Murphy." Roan orders from the porch.
Bellamy sighs and reluctantly readies a fireball to throw at Murphy. Once he's satisfied with the size, he throws it at him but as with all his fireballs, it fizzles out on contact.
"Again!" Roan bellows.
For the next hour or so Bellamy throws fireballs at Murphy and all of them fizzle out on contact. He's so frustrated and over his stupid fire magic that in a fit of anger he hurls a fireball at the cabin except this time instead of fizzling out, it hits it's mark.
Roan quickly puts out the fire and says "well I think now we know what your problem is or at the very least a place to start. You hold things in, don't you?"
"Maybe but what does that have to do with my fire magic being off?"
"All magic needs balance and different types employ different emotions to keep that balance. Fire magic uses anger which is probably why Murphy is so good at it. However when you suppress that anger, it effects your magic. You need to embrace your anger in order for you to be able to use fire magic in attacks." Roan informs him.
"So what now?" Lincoln asks from the doorway of the cabin.
"Now he rests for a bit and we pick this back up later on. We don't want to tire him out too soon."
Bellamy heads inside with Lincoln close behind but Murphy and Roan stay on the porch waiting until both are out of earshot before speaking.
"What did you see?"
"You and him have almost the same aura around you when you use fire magic for attacks. I've never seen two people have an aura that identical. Once we get his fire magic down I want to see if your auras are the same with all forms of magic."
"And if they are, then what?"
"I don't know. I'm figuring this out as I go along."
"We're screwed, aren't we?"
"Not yet but if we can't figure this out we might be pretty damn close."
"I really fucking hate doing the right damn thing." Murphy says with a sigh as he makes his way into the cabin with Roan close behind.
The next day Bellamy wakes up feeling strange and he's not sure why. He didn't dream walk last night or at least he doesn't remember doing it but for some reason the phrase The Key is stuck in his head. He mostly ignores the light conversation at breakfast as he tries to remember what he dreamed about last night. He doesn't even realize anyone's talking to him until Lincoln nudges his side turning his focus back to the conversation.
"You okay? You seem out of it or like something's wrong." Lincoln asks concerned.
"I'm fine. I just had a really weird dream last night that I can't remember."
"If you can't remember it than how do you know it was weird?" Roan asks looking at him intently.
"Just a feeling. You ever heard of The Key?" Bellamy questions and an uneasiness falls over the table and Murphy and Roan look at each other like a ghost from their pasts had resurfaced but otherwise remain silent.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that whatever The Key is it's a bad thing." Lincoln says breaking the silence.
"No training for today. Murphy is the basement still intact?"
"You know it is." Murphy replies like it's the only answer there is to his question.
Without another word Roan gets up and heads to the basement. Murphy begins to clean up breakfast but Bellamy notices he's a bit tense. Lincoln decides to check on the horses and leave Bellamy and Murphy alone for a bit which Bellamy was thankful for because he wasn't sure Murphy would tell him anything otherwise.
He begins to help Murphy clean up the dishes who doesn't really seem to notice he presence until their hands accidentally brush together startling him.
He's about to say something but Murphy puts the plate in his hand down, turns around to lean against the counter and runs his fingers through his hair before taking a deep breath and speaking.
"Mbege mentioned The Key once. It was a few days before he died but I'd heard both my parents mention it as a child. I never asked them about it though. You said you can't remember the dream but do you remember the feelings you felt?"
"Some of them but mostly there's this strange uneasiness about the whole thing."
"Tell me what you felt." Murphy asks curiously.
"There's a lot of anger and pain but there's also a hint of fear and loneliness. Yet the underlying feeling throughout all of it was evil, like ancient evil. An old magic kinda evil. I don't know, it's hard to explain it."
"Mbege said it called to him, that it wanted him to join it or something but it felt wrong. He didn't really explain much more than that because he said it gave him a creepy uneasy feeling and he didn't like talking about it."
"It was kinda like that except I don't remember it calling me to join it. Why did Roan leave like that and what's so important about the basement?" Bellamy changed the subject because he didn't wanna talk about his dream anymore.
"There's a library of sorts in the basement that his family has collected over the years. Only his family knows about this place and since he's the last left he figured I'd be safer here than anywhere else."
"Why? Why did he feel the need to keep you safe and what kind of books are down there?"
"I don't know. I never asked and that goes for both questions. I'm gonna go practice outside, you good to finish up here?"
Bellamy nods and Murphy leaves the kitchen but the subject wasn't over because he got the distinct feeling that Murphy knew more than he was telling. However he wasn't gonna push mainly because he didn't wanna die from suffocation by shadows which he knew would happen if Murphy lost control.