Solstice

by Scorpius

Sleepless Nights

And when at last the Devourer came to realise that he had been tricked, he stamped upon the ground in fury, and beneath his hooves the ground opened up into a deep and narrow chasm that rippled with wild magic[a]; and he cried out in great anguish, as if wounded, and the very air surged forth with the force of his voice…
—Devotio 26:21-23

---

Amethyst hornglow ran back and forth along the length of the brass telescope, gently testing the web of magic that was wrapped tightly around it. If it had been any other enchanted item, Maria would have struggled to even identify the spells placed on it, as they merged and wove through each other. But this was her telescope, and she had placed each of those spells there herself. She knew what each strand of magic did, and she could check every one of them with precision.

None of them were out of place, but that didn’t mean nothing was wrong. She could have made a mistake when casting any of those spells, and never noticed, so they wouldn’t quite perform their function, or she could have missed interactions between the spells, tightly-woven as they were, that would interfere with normal operation. The latter wasn’t easily spotted, and her meeting with the Headmistress tomorrow would be the best chance to find anything like that, but the former was something she could work on.

Starswirl, help me. This is going to take forever!

She had been trying not to glance at the clock, doing her best to keep her eyes very firmly rooted on any one of the many textbooks she had open around her, each held open by a heavy weight (paperweights, at first. Then, as the number of books she’d needed had continued to grow, she’d branched out to her own notes, wedged books’ corners under each other, and even resorted to an inkwell in the case of one, old book that she wouldn’t have minded damaging.) There were around a dozen in total, and they each described the formulae for just one of the enchantments.

She knew it was at least gone three in the morning, though—she didn’t have the will or strength any more to keep her eyes from wandering all the time, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep going. It was too late, far too late, to order a coffee up from the kitchens, and her mind was torn between wanting sleep and wanting caffeine.

Maria was determined that she would have neither until she’d tested every spell on the telescope.

---

Alex turned in his bed, his hooves getting caught up in the soft, silk covers. He couldn’t sleep—for hours, every time he closed his eyes, he pictured the dead unicorns in the clearing. Sometimes he’d see them alive, trying to cast at an enemy that was cloaked in the shadows of the trees, and see the shock on their faces as their horns wouldn’t light.

Once he had tried to levitate a glass of water over from his bedside table, and had panicked when he couldn’t see any amber light, only to realise he was facing the wrong way and the table was behind him. His relief had been immense, but he could still feel the thud of his heart against his rib.

The worst part was not knowing. They were sure that the ritual had sacrificed five unicorns’ magic—perhaps also their lives, though there was no way of knowing if they had died from ritual magic or the shock of losing their own—but he couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of spell would need that kind of sacrifice to cast. Whatever it was, it would be dangerous—certainly more dangerous than whatever had been used to foalnap unicorns from behind their own wards, and that was a scary thought.

Groaning with exhaustion and resignation, Alex rolled back over and illuminated his clock with a flicker of hornglow, craning his neck to make it out in the darkness: twelve minutes past three. He threw his head back down upon the pillow, frustrated and tired and still so very, very terrified.

He hoped Emily was right about them catching the bastard behind this soon, or he was never going to get any sleep.

---

[a] fera magicae: though there is no doubt that “wild magic” is the intended meaning of this phrase, it is worth noting that the authors of scripture are unlikely to have meant it in the sense that we use the term “wild magic” today: that is, to describe the magic of the land, sea, and sky, and any other magics that are not of unicorn origin. It is more likely that “wild” here is meant more in a sense of a lack of control, a wild kind of savagery, rather than truly being the magic of the land.

Comments

[The Wolf]

This is really very good. Keep up the good work!

[Scorpius]

7860186 Thanks Wolf! I hope you continue to enjoy future updates