“Yes. No. Someonedidhurt me,” Leviathan said. He explained the incident, and he knew even before Azaiah replied that his brother had no idea why Leviathan couldn’t kill the wizard.
“I have no ferrymen with that power,” Azaiah said. “Only my successor and his companions… or companions-to-be, I suppose. But no, my ferrymen have… certain gifts, yes, but those would not keep them from being torn to pieces by your teeth.”
“I love how he just tried to sound consoling about that,” Arwyn said.
“He sounds that way about everything,” Nyx said with a slight smile.
“Earlier, I felt a… flicker. A shade on the edge, and I noticed it was near you, but then it was gone. Humans have a way of saving themselves from fates they didn’t even know they were near.”
“And having Leviathan nearby might affect that, too,” Declan pointed out. “We used to call you Lord of Swift Currents, since you could change the tide so easily.”
Nyx looked at Arwyn. “There aren’t that many of them, are there? Wizards, I mean. There was the one who founded the school under the island—”
“Wizards don’t live very long,” Arwyn said, wind stirring his blond hair, the sea dark and quiet now behind him. “Mages take their magic from demons, witches from the ether, and wizards from magical sources. It burns them up like a candle, only instead of turning to a pile of ash, they reduce everythingelseto one. They’re like cannon fire, really.”
“He’s right,” Nyx said, glancing at Azaiah, who gave a very slight nod. “Well, about most of that. Yes, wizards typically burn out fast and cause a cataclysm when they die that can send souls other than theirs to our boat. But Azaiah told me about your wizard, Arwyn, the one you gave the island to? She didn’t die. It was a ruse. She wanted to protect others.”
“She would.” Arwyn smiled. “I’m glad to hear that she didn’t, ah. Cataclysm.”
“But it isn’t quite like a candle burning, or cannon fire,” Azaiah corrected. “It’s more like casks of wine under pressure. An explosion. Witches control their magic intake with conduits— like the crowns they wore in the old empire. Even drawing symbols is enough for some. Mages are witches who use a demon, and demons have their own magic. But wizards simply draw in magic, and if it’s too much…”
“Then it’s the cannonball,” Nyx said.
“So, if this wizard siphoned Levi’s magic… he drank all the wine out of the cask?” Arwyn scowled. “I’m getting lost in our metaphors. Why didn’t that kill him? You’d think it would, given how powerful Levi is. Did he use it to become immortal?”
“No. He didn’t use it for himself,” Leviathan said. “He saved her. The girl. That’s whose death you felt, Azaiah. Hers. But it didn’t happen, because he used his wizard’s talent to draw power from me to save her.”
“Oh,” Nyx said. He blinked. “That was kind of him.”
Of course he would say that. Leviathan had to remind himself it was Nyx’s very nature, now, as Azaiah’s grief, to feel compassion for all mortals.
“After he yanked Levi’s soul like a fish on a line,” Arwyn said. “Which isn’t very kind at all.”
“He probably didn’t know what he was doing,” Declan said. “I’m living, breathing, immortal proof that people do desperate things for love without knowing if it’s going to work or not.”
“And I’m immortal proof that people take from others without asking to get what they want,” Arwyn told him. “Regardless of what it does to the person they’re taking it from.”
“And I’m proof that they can regret it and make it right,” Nyx said. “Maybe that’s all this is. Not magic, just… whatever universal thing governs even you, Lord Tempest.”
“Nothing governs me,” Leviathan said. “And I would not have a wizard thinking he can use my godhood for his own purposes. Saving a girl is one thing, but power like that can corrupt. All of you have seen it. Even you, Azaiah.”
They were all quiet for a moment, thinking of a wizard who could siphon the power of the gods and what that might mean.
“If he used it to save a girl’s life, his heart is in the right place,” Nyx said, at length. “Maybe speak to him before it isn’t. A bad person with that kind of power could be a big problem, but perhaps you can keep him from going that way in the first place.”
“Maybe you should just go sleep in a cave until he’s dead,” Arwyn said. “What? Why are you all looking at me like that? It’s not like Levi hasn’t done it before. I’d say we could ask Astra to check on this wizard, but maybe we shouldn’t. I don’t want the wizard to get Astra’s powers and make all of us live in a world where birds shit icing on my head.”
“I mean, there are worse things,” Nyx said.
“Speak for yourself,” Arwyn muttered. “But seriously, Levi, you can sleep in a cave in your human form just as easily as your dragon one, right? Do that, and I bet when your wizard cataclysms, you can be your scaly self again.”
Nyx winced at that, but Azaiah turned toward Leviathan, frowning. “You—you can’t shift?”
“No. My ability to do so is gone.” Leviathan heard the sorrow in his voice, the anger, and when the sky began to rumble, he knew it wasn’t Azaiah’s storm, not this time. “I want itback. And I want to know how this mortal took it from me. Before I tear him apart.”
This time, no one was foolish enough to argue.
Good. Leviathan was in no mood to argue. “I will go to Mislia. If there is to be some cataclysmic explosion, I’ll see you there, brother, when you and your grief come to collect whatever is left behind.”
