First Chapter, Edited!

Chapter 1

Raising his burned and scarred left arm—his good arm—to block the light that sneaked through the blinds of his room, Ean let out a small groan. His right arm was still in a sling; the bone mended but still bruised from the heavy strikes it had received. He wasn’t exactly sure how many days it had been since the attack, but it was not long enough for the pain to subside. Ean had spent a good number of days unconscious, according to Old Cleff, his ward, waking up now and then when liquids had been forced down his throat or his bandages had been changed. When consciousness was a more common occurrence, he had remained as immobile as possible and slept whenever the medicine drowned out the pain. Those first days of recovery had been particularly unpleasant…and lonely.

Freeing himself from his thoughts of the past few days and figuring that annoying ray of light wouldn’t magically disappear on its own, Ean decided it was time to get up. He rose gradually at first, pushing himself up with his left arm. The combination of his injuries and the medicine he was constantly taking made him lightheaded, which had led to some unfortunate accidents during his recovery. Quite a few of his injuries had taken longer to heal because he had tried rising too quickly a few times and fell out of bed. Ean had learned his lesson, though, and had been accident-free now for four days. Blinking a few times to allow his eyes to get adjusted to the dim light in the room, he looked around.

His room had started out as nothing special when he first moved in at the age of three, and was still nothing special, fifteen years later. Cleff had always said that a Healer’s apprentice didn’t need much, and Ean’s room certainly reflected that sentiment.  The light coming through his one window shed little brightness on the wood panel walls and floor. The unlit lamp hanging on the other side of the room did not provide much more illumination when it was lit, which was fine because the sight of the little amount of furniture in the room was depressing. His simple wooden bed, which he was quickly outgrowing, sat in the corner farthest from the door. A small two-drawer dresser sat across from it and held his even smaller collection of clothes. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a small trunk at the foot of his bed where the rest of his possessions resided. That remained mostly empty. He had a much safer place to keep the things that he truly cared about. It wasn’t that he believed Cleff would ever try to steal from him, or that anyone else in the village would try to steal from Cleff. Ean simply didn’t want to chance having old Cleff stumble upon something that he would find blasphemous.

Rising from his bed, he moved over to his dresser and pulled out a plain brown shirt and some long pants, got dressed as quickly as his bruised body would allow, then moved over to the end of his bed, and opened up his chest. He routed around inside, finally pulling out a small carving knife and a few small pieces of hardened clay. It had been close enough to two weeks now, time to bring Zin back.

With the materials he needed, Ean sat down on the floor, propping his back up against the side of the bed. Piling the clay pieces next to him, he chose a particularly round piece and picked it up with his right hand. This was a bit difficult with his arm in the sling, but thankfully, at this point, moving his hand around didn’t cause him much pain. Taking the carving knife in his left hand, Ean began the slow process of carving the summoning rune into the clay that would bring Zin back to this world.

Summoning runes were the most intricate runes of them all; the complex shapes and letters required left little room for mistakes. One little slip or misspelled word and who knows what Ean would summon into his room instead of the little imp. By the time Ean had gotten the rune carved perfectly, he had discarded three other pieces of clay. He would have to make sure to smash those up later. Examining the completed rune, and content with his work, Ean placed the finished piece on the floor with the rune facing up. Taking a deep breath, he placed his left hand on the rune and spoke the required words.

Immediately, an iron-tight grip began to squeeze his chest as the spell took hold. Breaking a rune to send a creature back took absolutely no toll on the body at all, but pulling something out of the Abyss was a whole other story. Ean had learned quickly that a summoner used his own strength to create a gateway to the Abyss. The first time had nearly torn him apart, or felt like it would, at least. Even creating a gateway as small as the one he needed to bring out Zin was taxing.

This was the main reason Ean hadn’t tried summoning any larger creatures in the past. Unafraid of the fact that he couldn’t control anything he called forth, Ean was mostly scared that summoning anything that required any real power would probably kill him. Each time he called something from the Abyss, which most times was Zin, he felt as if he had run around the valley in which his village sat three or four times, and felt as if he was being punched in the chest for the entire trip. Zin had said he would slowly be able to handle more complicated summoning the more magic he used, but so far, Ean hadn’t noticed any lessening of the pain and exhaustion it caused.

As the words took hold, the rune carved into the clay began to glow, a dark blue light that bathed Ean’s entire room. As the light grew in intensity, the rune and clay began to dissolve into the floor. Once the glowing rune actually touched the floor, it flared once, causing Ean to squint in order to keep it in sight. Then it was gone, replaced by a pinprick of blue light shooting into the ceiling. The small speck grew quickly, until a circular hole that spanned the size of two hands took up a place on his floor. A dark blue, purplish mist made seeing into the hole impossible, but Ean knew what was on the other side.

Keeping his attention focused on the gateway, Ean couldn’t help but grin a little bit through the pain as Zin slowly rose out. From the looks of it, Zin had gone through quite an ordeal as well. His small, light brown body was covered with claw marks and burns, and the tips of both of his long, pointy ears were bent forward slightly. A few of the long nails on his four-fingered hands were broken and one of his toes was bent slightly at an odd angle. Zin had a large smile on his face though; crossing over for the creature apparently was painless, and after knowing the imp all of these years, Ean could read the relieved look on his face.

Once his body was completely out, Ean finished the spell, saying the few words that were required to close the gateway back up. When the hole had faded and the pressure was gone from his body, Ean finally relaxed. He picked up the clay piece, placing it in his pocket, and then collapsed onto his side, breathing heavily. “Welcome back,” he got out in between breaths.

“Why, thank you, it’s good to be back,” Zin said, that large grin still on his face. “It looks like you had just as rough of a time up here as I did down there.” Moving over to Ean’s side, the imp dropped his little pack onto the ground and sat on the floor. “I’m glad you decided to bring me back a day early. It only took me half the time to get what I needed, which meant I spent the rest of the time either getting kicked around or doing my best to hide.”

“Yeah well, as you can see, I got kicked around quite a bit as well. Almost right after you left, in fact.” Ean used his good arm to push himself slowly back up into a sitting position. “Clyde didn’t waste any time getting his revenge for making him look like a fool.”

Zin’s eyes opened wide. “So quickly? That’s a surprise. I swear that boy is slightly insane.” A mischievous grin appeared on his face. “But we won’t have to worry about him much longer. Time for your present!”

The imp reached over and grabbed his bag, opening it up and routing around inside. When he pulled his hands back out, he held what looked like a writing utensil, but it also could have easily been a long finger of some creature. The body of the item was made out of some type of blue, leathery skin-like material and the tip was a deep red color that seemed more like a nail than the tip of a quill. Zin had also pulled out a bottle of ink and placed them both in front of Ean. “All right, we’re going to need your book in order to get this right. I saw the instructions on one of the pages.”

Ean blinked a few times in surprise, but said nothing. Moving underneath his bed, he touched the hidden rune that he had carved so long ago into his floor. With a word, he activated the rune, effectively opening up his Pocket. A miniature gateway into the Abyss, it connected him to a small area which held his most prized possessions. Reaching his hand seemingly into the floor, Ean felt around until his hand touched the rough cloth bag that was stored inside. After pulling out the bag and retrieving The Book from inside the bag, he set the bag off to the side and closed the Pocket. Sliding out from under the bed, Ean deposited The Book in front of the imp.

“All right, what page are we looking for?”

“Look for one that had the drawing of a hand with a rune inscribed on the palm,” Zin said. “I‘m pretty sure I saw it towards the back.”

Sure enough, after a couple of moments flipping through the worn pages, Ean found what he was looking for. The page showed a hand with one of the most intricate runes Ean had ever seen drawn on the palm. The number of different shapes and inscribed letters was astounding. He let out a low whistle.

“This looks pretty complicated. Are you sure I’m up for it?” He tried his best to figure out some of the words written around the drawing, but the most he could make out were the simple words for “Abyss” and “Rune.” The majority of the words and symbols he had never even seen before. He started to shake his head. “I don’t even know if I can figure out which parts are the activating words and which are just descriptions of what the rune does.”

Zin pointed to a particular passage, his finger staying inches from the pages as he scrolled down the words. He had learned a long time ago that he couldn’t touch The Book. It seemed to be protected against anything from the Abyss touching it, and had burnt Zin’s hands the one and only time the imp had tried handling it. He scanned over a few of the passages and then stopped at what appeared to be the middle of a paragraph. “That’s it, right there, and you don’t have to worry. This won’t put you in the kind of pain that summoning does. All you have to worry about is getting the rune perfect on your right palm.”

Shrugging, Ean reached down and picked up the strange blue item. “Whatever you say.” Ean moved into a sitting position, setting The Book down on his lap so he had a clear view of what he was doing. He stared at the drawing, trying to take in everything, all of the curves and lines, trying to see it as one continuous rune as opposed to a series of interlaced ones. When he was finally comfortable with the design in his head, he dipped the strange quill down into the ink. As soon as the claw touched the ink, it completely drained the inkbottle and started to give off a dim blue hue. Ean glanced over at Zin, eyebrows raised. The imp simply nodded back, then waved him on to continue. With a shrug, Ean took the item and placed the tip against his palm. When nothing happened, Ean relaxed a bit, and then started to draw.

A jolt of pain seemed to lance through Ean’s entire body as soon as he had moved the nail even the tiniest bit along his skin. Dropping the finger hastily, Ean shot Zin an angry look. “What in the Abyss was that? Are you trying to play a joke on me?”

“Of course not,” Zin replied. “You didn’t think a powerful spell like this would be painless, did you?” The imp flashed him a smile, showing off his tiny jagged teeth. “Trust me, from what I’ve gathered, the new power you will acquire will more than make up for what little pain you endure now.”

“Little pain?” Ean almost yelled, but controlled himself. It wouldn’t do to have Cleff coming up to check on him at this particular moment. “That felt like I had been struck by lightning.”

Against his better judgment, he picked up the finger and tried again. The pain returned as he started to draw, but he did his best to keep his hand still. He had gotten the first design out of the eight he needed finished when a particularly nasty jolt made him drop the finger again. As soon as the nail left his palm, the entire rune he had been drawing disappeared.

“Oh, you can’t be serious.”

“Well, look at that. I guess you have to finish it in one go.” Letting out a little laugh, Zin climbed up on the bed. “I guess I can take a nap until you actually get it right.” Taking a few moments simply to glare at Zin, Ean turned his attention back to his hand and tried again.

Ean had no idea how long he attempted to get the rune inscribed on his palm. Each time he would get only so far, and then cursed silently when a jolt of pain made him mess up and start again. Finally, as the sun just started its downward descent outside, Ean finished. When he pulled the nail away this time from the completed rune, it stayed on his palm, giving off a slight glow and the tiniest bit of heat.

Ean turned and showed it to Zin, who was currently lying on his side. “Looks good, doesn’t it? This better be well worth the effort.”

“Oh it will be. You’ll see” Zin said. He climbed down off of the bed and looked down at Ean’s book. “All right, you remember which parts to read, correct? Is there anything you need help pronouncing?”

“No, nothing too difficult there. Should be easy compared to actually getting it drawn on my palm.” Looking down, he slowly went through the passage in his head twice, and then began to recite the words aloud. The language of the Abyss was strange, with many of the words consisting of noises that sounded more like a person clearing their throat than an actual language. He had gotten quite good at pronouncing the words; it was just unfortunate that he did not know what most of them meant. When he finally finished, the rune on his palm grew cold and started to dim. For a moment, Ean thought he had failed and would have to start all over again, but then the light of the rune sprang back to life, bathing his tiny room in a dark blue glow. Ean smiled a bit and looked over at Zin. His smile quickly faded, however, as he looked over and saw the worry on Zin’s face.

“This part is going to be bad,” Zin said. “Just do your best to ride it out.”

“Wait you sai—” Ean had barely gotten the words out when suddenly it felt as if his whole body was on fire. This time, he couldn’t contain the scream that escaped his mouth, his arms and legs flailing about in agony as what felt like molten lava coursed throughout his body. In the back of his mind, Ean tried to take his own focus away from the pain, but it was like nothing he had ever felt before. He rolled about, sweat starting to soak his clothes as his entire body strained from the pain. Dimly, he thought he heard the sound of someone pounding on his door, but the thought came and went; all the while, he kept letting out a pain-filled scream.

Then, just as quickly, it was over. The light from the rune disappeared, and with it the pain. Ean’s arms and legs dropped to his sides, hitting the ground limply as his body started to recover. He couldn’t focus on anything; he was so exhausted. He faintly heard the sound of the door crashing open, and then Cleff being at his side. “Nightmare,” Ean breathed out, although how he had thought of the lie so quickly he’d never know. He was also aware enough to clench his right fist closed to hide the rune. Cleff simply nodded, then picked up Ean’s limp body and put him back in bed. Ean was out soon after.

* * *

When Ean awoke, there was again light striking his eyes through his window shade, but this time it was the gentle green light of the first moon. Ean stretched out his free left arm, feeling tired but good. Actually, he felt pretty great. Taking off his sling, he moved his right arm about, bending the elbow and twisting his wrist and forearm about. It wasn’t even sore! Turning his hand over, Ean was curious to inspect his work.

The rune was still on his palm, giving off a very faint glow that mixed with the moonlight and turned his room a faint purple. However, there was more now. Small, dark blue lines ran out of the rune, moving along his palm and up his fingers. The lines wrapped around his hand and seemed to converge on the back, creating a swirling design. From there, smaller lines shot out and moved up the back of his fingers as well, ending at his fingernails.

“Well, that’s new,” Ean said to himself, turning his hand over and back repeatedly as he inspected the new permanent addition to his hand.

“That’s just the beginning.” Ean looked over and found Zin sitting on his dresser. “The longer that rune is on your body and the more you use your power, the stronger you’ll become. Much faster than you were becoming before, at least that’s what I gathered it was supposed to do. Oh, and sorry about lying to you about the pain. I figured it would just make you nervous if you knew it was coming.”

“Oh, yeah, it was much better not knowing I was about to feel like something was setting my entire body, both inside and out, on fire.” Ean half-heartedly threw his pillow at Zin, which the imp easily snatched out of the air. “So what’s different now? What can I do, summon stronger creatures? Actually be able to control the creatures I summon?” He looked at Zin excitedly, his hands resting on his knees.

“No, nothing like that yet. The magic is still settling into your body.” Zin jumped down off the dresser and made his way over to the bed. “There is one thing you can do right away.” He reached under the bed and pulled out Ean’s bag. The Book was still sitting on top of it.

“Wait!” Ean exclaimed. “Cleff didn’t see this stuff, did he?”

“Nope, thankfully, when your body started jerking around, The Book landed on the bag and I dragged them both under the bed before he broke in. How about you hide these things away again?”

Shrugging, Ean grabbed The Book and placed it carefully into the bag. He was about to start climbing under the bed, when Zin’s raised hand stopped him. “No, not using that rune you have carved under the bed. Just use your hand. You should be able to create runes now just from your power alone. Just try visualizing your finger as a knife carving the rune.”

Ean cast a funny look at Zin, and then shrugged. Sitting himself on the floor, Ean started to trace the all-too-familiar rune that summoned his Pocket into the floor. Just like Zin predicted, a tiny blue light appeared, extending along the path that Ean’s finger took. When he had finished, the light grew, rising a few inches off of the ground before disappearing as the gateway to Ean’s own personal storage space opened up before him.

Ean couldn’t believe it; he hadn’t even needed to say the words needed to complete the spell for it to work. This would be much more convenient in the future. He grabbed his bag with his scarred left hand and slowly lowered it into the gateway. Once it was inside, he instinctively placed his right hand on the edge of the portal and tried willing it closed. As he expected, it closed on its own, the bright lights that had created the rune returning. With a brush of his hand, the rune disappeared as well, sinking his room back into the darkness only broken by the green moonlight coming in his window and the faint glow of the rune on his hand.

“That is amazing,” Ean said, letting himself smile. “Not sure if it was worth all of that pain, but still a handy skill to have.”

“Like I said, your power will grow with use,” Zin replied. “It’s not just a handy drawing tool. More handy skills will come with time. You just have to be patient.”

Zin’s words were lost on Ean, however; he had already started to draw different runes into the floor, different letters and words or summoning runes that he had memorized over the past eight years. Every time he was about to finish one, he would stop and rub it away, not wanting to risk activating the runes that he really didn’t understand. He laughed a bit as he worked, watching Zin’s face grow pale whenever he almost finished a particularly complicated rune.

Ean ended up practicing long into the night, with Zin watching apprehensively. While Ean practiced, Zin had pulled out most of Ean’s right-handed gloves and was cutting off all of the tips of the fingers with his pointed nails. At one point, Ean stopped and gave him a curious look.

“Your fingers have to be free for the magic to work,” the imp had replied. “But I’m guessing you don’t want people seeing the new addition to your hand.”

Ean nodded and continued to practice. Finishing up the runes he already had memorized, he opened up his space in the Abyss again and pulled his book back out. Now Ean started trying a variety of runes he hadn’t even thought of trying before. Amazingly, he also found it easier to remember even the more complicated runes after he had practiced them once or twice. Of course, he still didn’t know what most of them did, or what they summoned, but it was still fun for him to know a dozen more runes by heart than he had the day before. When the blue light of the second moon started to fade and the sun finally peaked in through his window, Ean was both physically and mentally exhausted.

Placing his belongings away one final time, he crawled into bed. Zin crawled underneath the bed, his usual sleeping spot, and Ean heard him move about a bit until he had gotten comfortable. “Thanks a lot, Zin,” Ean said quietly, “I really needed something good to happen for a change.”

“Don’t get all weepy on me now, you little girl,” Zin replied. “But you are welcome. Now let’s get some sleep; it’s been a long night.”

Turning on his side so that his back was to the window, Ean let out a small laugh. “Fair enough. Sleep well, Zin.” As soon as Ean closed his eyes, he was fast asleep.