The Isle of Magic

by SwordTune

The Side Moss Grows On

The sun rose hotter today than the past two, much to Silic's dismay. The heat wave was taxing on the kith, and having to keep them all watered with black water was taxing on him. The collectors, at least, obeyed the king's laws and stayed away from his grove. With the health of the kith being the foundation of magic in the kingdom, no sap could be harvested or taxed during a heat wave like this.

Having Cupine stay helped, both physically and emotionally. It was good to have some pony helping him dig new channels for the black water to run through the roots. As they worked they talked, and it made the days go by quicker. Nights too.

"They look fine," she said, gazing up at the branches of the kith. "Look, that one's going to drip a drop of sap onto the ground!"

"If the kith give sap on their own, then we can take it," Silic looked to where she pointed, "but we can't go scooping it off of them. Their sap gives them life too, not just us. They may be magical, but magic trees are still trees, and they can be very fickle. Taking sap now could make them run dry for a month or longer."

The stopped at the base of one of the oldest trees in the grove, and Silic placed a smoothed stone on the ground to mark where the next channel could go without disturbing the roots of the kith. Anything well measure is bound to go well, he remembered the lesson from his parents before he inherited the grove.

But by the afternoon they hit a snag at the edge of the grove. They were marking where the channel needed to bend to feed back into the stream of black water when Cupine spotted a moving lump just outside the treeline. The heat waves distorting the sand made it hard to see, but as they watched curiously, it was clearly a pony.

A Mossling, one of the clans loyal to the Kingdom of Sand, like Cupine's clan. But that didn't seem right to them, the Mosslings lived in a forest close to the centre of the Isle, far from the Sandmolds' deserts. Their forest was the single most concentrated home of kith on the entire Isle, there was no reason for one of their members to have travelled so far.

"This can't be good," Silic sighed, dropping the last marking stone and galloping over to help up the Mossling. They were far away from the black water stream. Unlike most of the other pony species, Mosslings didn't need kith sap, instead drawing magic directly from black water.

"Help me lift him up."

Cupine wrapped the dying Mossling's other hoof around her neck and together they dragged the pony to the middle of the grove. "This would be easier," she muttered, "if there were already channels of black water running through this place."

"What do you want me to do about it?" he asked. "The last channels got covered up by the winter sandstorms. There hasn't been a chance like this to dig it out."

"Fine, just lift his head up a little more, his face is pressing against my shoulder."

They carried him back to the stream and laid the Mossling on the fertile soil that sprouted from the black water. He simply had to touch the stream with his hoof and the life began to return to his body. Wilted green turned lush and the mossy stones that made up his eyes rolled with energy.

The Mossling gasped awake, checking his surroundings in panic. He looked at Silic, who was trying to calm him by holding his hoof. Without a word, the Mossling gripped Silic and pulled him into the stream. Silic's head hit the water and broke apart, his will unable to command what was no longer sand.

Cupine reacted with a kick, knocking back the Mossling, and pulled Silic out of the water. He drew up sand from the ground and reformed his head.

"We saved you," he tried to tell the Mossling, but his argument was cut off when a hoof of red moss came from behind a tree and wrapped around Cupine's neck.

"No!" he shouted, hardening a hoof into a blade of sand and cutting through the moss. The other Mossling charged him, taking him to the ground. He reached out to the steam, absorbing black water and using the magic to grow his moss quickly, carpeting Silic's chest and draining the magic in his body.

Cupine arranged her copper dust into a spike and drove it through her captor's head, driving back the red Mossling. She widened it into a blade and cut off the green one, pulling Silic up on his hooves.

Infected by moss, sand and plant fell off in clumps from his chest. He drew the earth up to replenish his body, but he was clearly recovering slower.

"Should've had more kith sap this morning," Cupine said as she positioned herself between Silic and the Mosslings. They positioned themselves away from their attackers, keeping them both in sight.

"I'll be fine," he said, grabbing her by the shoulder and running for his house.

They were sure the Mosslings were chasing them, but Silic grew up in the grove and weaved around the trees until he was sure they had lost them.

"What's our plan?" Cupine asked.

"Get you out of here," Silic told her.

"What? No!"

"I can hide anywhere in the sand, but they'll spot you if you try to mix with the ground."

"There isn't any moss in this desert," Cupine hissed, yanking back on Silic's hoof. "And there's only two of them. We can get rid of them ourselves."

A Mossling, one with bright yellow petals in her mane, lept from the tree branches above. Cupine reacted the moment the mare entered her vision, but she was too slow to push Silic out of the way. It landed on him, tangling strings of moss into his body.

Cupine kicked the Mossling away and lifted Silic up on his hooves. He shot back at the Mossling, hosing her down with a gust of sand he drew up from the ground. Under the weight of the earth, the Mossling stumbled back into the roots of one of the kith.

They ran. "How many are there?" Silic asked, checking above and behind them constantly.

"More than us," Cupine replied. "Hope you have a good idea."

"If we're going to fight, the house is a defensible spot," he said as they came upon the giant skull.

Red Mosslings, six of them, crawled around the perimeter of the house, digging up the little kith sap Silic had kept as his own supply. They shifted around in irregular forms, looking like flat spiders with legs that stretched in and out of their body to move around.

Silic pulled Cupine aside and they hid behind a kith. "What's going on? Why are there so many?"

"Tends to happen during a raid," Cupine whispered, peeking around the trunk.

"Since when do Mosslings raid? They have a whole jungle." Silic flattened into the ground and slunk across to another kith.

Cupine did the same. "Maybe they want more. But now isn't the time to guess answers."

Silic nodded. "If you go now I think you can make it back to your clan. I'll head to the lord's estate and get help to clear them out."

"Again with this," Cupine remarked, sinking her copper dust firmly into Silic's hooves. "I'm not going home. You're already soft and clumpy on the surface, you need me." Silic looked at himself. She was right, the outer layer of his sand had trouble sticking to the rest of his body.

"I'll be fine," he said, shaking himself down to a smaller size by shedding off the excess sand until his body was the right size for what his magic could animate.

She stared at him intensely. "I'm coming with you, short stuff."

Silic checked back on the Mosslings again. There were more, green ones, that looked like the ones who had attacked them earlier. He figured they'd start spreading out and looking for them once they were sure his house was empty, which left them very little time to argue.

"If you get arrested..." he said, pausing to consider the consequences of the possibility. "Just don't, okay?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." The Mosslings had already begun to search beyond the skull. Cupine held onto Silic and dragged them both through the kith, putting more distance between them and the Mosslings, using the sun to go south, deeper into the Kingdom of Sand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Gravel Fort, build in Lord Gravelfort's namesake, was a bleak grey stone keep surrounded by a village of sandstone on one side and his personal kith grove on the other. The fort was on a hill overlooking the villagers that worked there. Cactus farmers, ponies who trained to be Cultivators but didn't have the skills required, harvested their crop to turn into fibres for rope and wax for candles.

Sandforms stared at Cupine as they crossed the cactus fields into the village where vintners made wine from cactus fruit, glassblowers made bowls and bottles, and metalworkers broke down ore into pure metal ingots. Bakers cooked clay bricks and turned limestone into mortar. There were candlemakers, weavers, builders, merchants, tailors, and chanters.

"Came here a few times when I was a kid," Silic said, holding Cupine close to his side. "My parents would trade our surplus kith for new tools, but I always wanted to try the cactus wine."

"Uh huh." Cupine barely listened over the sound of her own awe. Nothing among the outer clans could compare to the industrious wealth of the Sandforms and their kingdom.

In her amazement, she spotted a soldier trailing them. The Sandform's body was wrapped in a blue coat and a tall azure hat, armed with a heated steel rod. She turned to tell Silic, but he had spotted the other two soldiers waiting for them ahead.

"What is this?" asked one of the soldiers abruptly. Cupine guessed he was an officer, he had a gold star on his blue hat.

Silic didn't flinch. "I'm here to see Lord Gravelfort, I'm one of his Cultivators."

"A Cultivator, here? During a heat wave Cultivators are supposed to tend to their groves, so either you're lying or I'm going to have to arrest you for negligence and trafficking."

"Trafficking?" No sooner did Silic ask when the other two soldiers pulled them apart. Cupine gripped tightly and resisted, but because she had tensed up the soldiers easily pivoted and threw her on the ground.

Silic tried to shift away but he was quickly sprayed with a gout of water. The officer took off his tall hat and revealed a jar of water with a nozzle, a simple trick to slow down any resisting Sandform.

It worked less effectively on Cupine, but the other soldier simply pressed his rod against her back and her copper melted together, falling off as a chunk. She screamed, the pain shocking her entire body. As she still tried to move, a hoof was melted off next.

"Get them up!" barked the officer. "He says he's here to see the lord, I'm sure he'll be pleased to meet a few criminals behind bars in the dungeons."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lord Gravelfort stared at the pieces of copper lying on the floor. He examined one in his hooves and tossed it aside. He looked at the Coppercast lying in a pile on the floor, then at the officer who had requested he inspect her.

"Why have you brought me to look at this?" he asked.

"Well," said the officer, "I thought you would like to question her, my Lord."

He slumped his shoulders, already bored. "I have no meetings with Coppercasts today. I don't care why she's here or what she wants, she entered without a proper introduction so she is not a delegation, and I don't have to waste any more time on her."

"She had a partner though," he said, "said he was a Cultivator. He's in the other cell."

Gravelfort, who, in his impatience, had motioned to leave the cell and was already at the door, carefully turned around and eyed his officer. The lord had bright blue sapphires, unlike the grey and unnoteworthy pebbles of most Sandforms. He treaded around the officer and knelt by the Coppercast.

Her copper dust shivered at his touch as he felt the magic running through her body. He tasted her essence, but he was looking for the one thing that was irrefutably his property. The flavour of kith that belonged to the northern-most grove.

"You're an idiot," he seethed, glaring back at his officer. "That was one of my Cultivators. Get him out of that cell now, and when he's released, you can find yourself a new job down at the cactus farms, along with the rest of your team."

"But-"

"If I have to repeat myself once more I'll have you glassed instead."

The officer recoiled and stepped to the door. "Right away, my Lord."

Gravelfort looked down on the Coppercast as his soldier hurried away. "Don't act, I know you're not asleep." He shook his hoof clean of her copper flakes. "But what I don't know is why one of my own Cultivators would break the law for one such as yourself?"

Cupine raised her head, then body and limbs, from the pile of copper and smirked. "You should be asking my boyfriend why an army of Mosslings attacked his home."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silic, bound in heated coils, could do no more than a few inches around. A cage of metal wire, heated to red, threatened to turn his sand to glass if he moved any further.

"The guards don't believe you, so why should I?" The dungeon keeper asked him from the other side of the cell. "Cultivators, like you claim to be, are required by the law to tend to their groves in heat waves. On top of that, you should know Grvelfort's policy on outsiders."

"Where is she?" he asked.

"You're trapped in there and all you can think about is a mare?" The keeper shook his head and mumbled to himself. "I'll never know what stallions see in them."

"She's... a friend," he said, "don't you have friends you care about?"

The keeper laughed. "And where would I find such friends in a job such as this?"

"Just let me talk to Gravelfort, or you might not have your job for much longer," Silic protested, his efforts melting off flakes of his sand as glass.

Followed by a young, soft voice, a knock on the cell door came. "Lord Gravelfort requests that you release Cultivator Silic."

"It's about time," the keeper said. He grabbed a long metal rod from behind his chair and prodded the cage carefully so that it fell aside without melting any more of Silic's body. "Orders are orders, even when the soldiers are idiots."

Silic stared at him. "You believed me?"

"I had a good guess," he shrugged. "Now get out of here. I gotta clean this place up, I'm torturing out a murder confession this afternoon."

The pony who had called for Silic was a short filly, one of very high breed he noticed as they walked out from the prison cells. Her sand was a much finer grain, probably felt much softer than most. He guessed that she was the niece he had heard about.

"I hope our kith are in good shape," she said as they ascended stone steps to the fort upon the hillock. "The heat's killing villagers who can't get fresh sap. Any longer and we'll begin having riots at the walls."

"Won't be expecting anything from my grove anytime soon," Silic answered as they entered the courtyard of the fort where soldiers trained and handlers tamed stonehounds.

"Defecting already?" the filly asked nonchalantly.

Silic couldn't tell if she was serious or not, but he didn't want to test her. "No, not at all," he quickly clarified, "but it may be something worse. Mosslings attacked my grove."

"Green, floppy, upset upstarts," she scoffed, "are you telling me you couldn't protect your home from some Mosslings in the middle of a desert?"

"Please, take me to your uncle if you want the whole truth," he entreated her. Sandforms, both noble and lowborn, didn't think much about outside allies. They were useful for resources but their small populace never got any respect in towns and forts. Gravelfort held a lot of the north, and if the danger was going to be treated seriously, Silic needed him to understand.

"My uncle?" She paused and looked at him. "So I'm not good enough to talk to?"

"No, m'Lady," Silic stiffened, "but please, they attacked the black water stream by ambush, there were dozens of them at my house by the time I got back from tending to the kith."

"It's not enough we send soldiers to fight Breezies for them," she scoffed, "now they want more kith!"

"That won't happen with your uncle's support," Silic offered eagerly.

The filly smirked at him. "You have too much faith. We're merely mortal, but perhaps he can help. Come with me, I'll entreat you in the dining room. My --ahem-- Lord Gravelfort will meet you after lunch has been served."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The back of the fort, a keep built from ancient bones of giant beasts reflected white light under the desert sun. Lime mortar sealed the walls and fixed the skull gargoyles on the overhanging turrets.

Silic could gaze to the sky and still see the keep. Four floors, each large enough for two full rooms, was more than he could imagine. Other than the king's own palace, Silic wondered if any other lord had a keep like this.

A long wooden table, real hardwood from a sacred dead kith, was the centrepiece of the dining hall. Long, dark curves emphasized the rings that represented a kith's age. Even though killing a kith was the gravest of all sins, there was a small market for kith wood. Cultivators sometimes failed to protect their charges. Selling the wood to a master carpenter would at least grant them enough money to live comfortably after they're sent to do other work, away from their grove.

Silic followed the filly's gestures and took a seat at the left side of the head of the table. A stallion came by and delivered a bowl of kith sap stew. The bowl had bones and salt blocks resting in the viscous, honey-yellow sap that grew on the Lord's lands. The waiter produced a stick of chalk and a pumice stone, a kind of rock with a rough but spongy quality. He grated the chalk, decorating the stew so when it dried up in Silic's body, it'd leave a fine powder instead of grain, rough sand.

He looked around and then to the filly. "My friend, the Coppercast that was with me, where is now?"

"She's safe and comfortable enough," she said, "but she won't be eating here if that's what you're wondering. Luxuries like these are a privilege she hasn't earned."

Silic nodded and drank the stew quietly, though he wondered what the filly had ever done to earn the privileges she was born into. As he finished his bowl, another servant entered through the door, announcing Lord Gravelfort's presence as he joined the dining hall with his personal guards.

"So you are here," he said to Silic, "meaning whatever you have to say must be important enough to my wife."

Silic turned his head, confused for a moment. The filly sitting across from him rose to meet Gravelfort and whispered in his ear. His face contorted as she spoke, seeming embarrassed overall by what she said.

Gravelfort sighed and looked at her. "Was that really necessary?" She shrugged an sat back down.

"Well, I suppose I should be the first to apologize to my guest," he sighed. "Lady Zveipierre thought it'd be a funny joke if she let you believe she was my brother's daughter. My wife is not, I assure you, my niece." He cast a dirty look at her. "And she could at least try to be as mature as an aunt ought to be."

"My dear," Zveipierre waved his disappointment away, "the young Cultivator has news for you. Mosslings, he tells me."

The mention of Mosslings drew a wide frown across Gravelfort's face. He focused his pebble eyes on Silic, dropping the topic of his wife's sense of humour.

"Tell me what happened," he said, "and why you're not at your grove."

Silic pushed aside his empty bowl. "Started out with just a few of them, but there must've been at least a dozen Mosslings at the grove when they attacked us. They drove me from the black water to my house, and if it wasn't for Cupine, they would've had me too."

"Savages," Gravelfort snapped, "no demands, no diplomats. Their civility breaks down at the slightest adversity and they just take what they want."

"I don't know anything about that, lord," Silic said, "but does that mean you're going to send your soldiers to drive them away?"

"With Mosslings so close," Gravelfort considered it for a moment, then peering out a window to the village that surrounded his fort, he made his choice. "No, your parents were the best Cultivators under my protection, the skills you've learned from them will be more useful here."

"Here?" Silic stood up. "You mean I won't be going home?"

"Sit down," Gravelfort ordered, and Silic quickly composed himself again, following his words. "Even if I wanted to, your isn't the first grove to be attacked. They struck in the east, days after the king sent emergency Collectors to collect additional taxes to overcome the heat wave. Nearly half of my own soldiers were levied into his Majesty's army."

"But if they're in open rebellion, shouldn't you stop them here too?"

"With what army?" he asked Silic. "Something has happened on our western border. The kingdom of Fire recently rekindled their alliances with their surrounding clans. I've sent the other half of my forces to my brother's groves to protect my son's future bride."

Silic glanced at Zveipierre. He wondered how a stallion who broke so many marriage customs could still be so judgemental about other clans. It was his own damned fault for not leaving enough troops to protect his home, and now everyone else had to suffer the consequences.

And though he wanted to change that fact, there was nothing he could do. Silic bowed his head. "Didn't realize we had so many enemies. Things seemed so peaceful in the grove."

"It's not much, but know that I don't intend to let those foreigners stay in my lands for long," Gravelfort told him. "A few months is all it takes to levy and train a small army. A hundred or so of our kind should have no problem crushing the Mossling's insurgency."

"Foreigners," Silic said, "does that include Cupine? What happens to her?"

Gravelfort turned to his wife, who gave a shrug as her answer. As serious as he had been, Gravelfort's both softened and deepened as he relaxed slightly and grew his frown.

"No doubt she came with you here because she was on your grove when the Mossling drove you out," he said, tapping his hoof on the table. "I don't have to tell you how expensive kith sap is, but if she's been living off your surplus and not my due, then I suppose no wrong has been committed."

Silic settled his sands and finally relaxed in his seat. Knowing she'd be at his side was a small comfort in all of this.

"When can I see her?" he asked.

A smirk crossed over Gravelfort's face. "She really wasn't kidding, was she?"

"My lord?"

He laughed. "I don't approve of who you spend your time with, but I'm willing to bet mares are the same no matter what they're made of. Keep calling her friend and she might think you're too timid to move forward."

Gravelfort wrapped his hoof around his wife. "I know what other nobles say about me, but Zveipierre was the one who arranged our marriage," he laughed, looking at her. "It might've been a purely political move, but even so, when a mare knows what they want, the best thing to do is to listen."

He slapped the table firmly and stood up. Gesturing to one of his guards, Gravelfort ordered one of them to escort Silic to his new home in the Gravel Grove.

"You'll need my guard to see her," he finally answered Silic's question. "That foreigner's under house arrest until I know she can do grove work instead of stirring up trouble. I hope you're as good a teacher as your parents, Cultivator. Coppercasts don't live in the Kingdom of Sand for free."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Gravel Grove, unlike the rest of Lord Gravelfort's stronghold, was not a sight to boast about. The black water that ran through its land fertilized the sand into thick, rich mulch, but it could do nothing about the chunks of marble, granite, and sandstone that gave Gravelfort's home its name.

Chirping desert birds, weird things made of flesh like Breezies, didn't have to sing far for their call to be heard. Birds fluttered around each other, some flaring up rainbows of feathers in the fresh sun.

Gravelfort wasn't lying when he said Silic's skills would be useful. The pony who had established the grove clearly needed his spacing skills examined. The kith were too close, Silic guessed their roots entangling was what made them so short compared to the giants he and his parents had reared.

"Soldiers say I can't leave the grove," Cupine complained from their new clay-brick cottage, bringing out the toolbox stored in the back room. They were at least high-quality tools, sharp crystals and hardened iron that could cut out any larvae burrowing in the kith; that was another problem from having them so close together.

"He's delusional," Silic said softly. "He has no respect for natural laws, his wife's too young and he can't make two cousins wed."

"Oh?" Cupine looked at Silic startled as she slung a sling of tools over his back. "You don't usually speak ill about nobles."

"Maybe I just don't like how he talks about you," he replied, thinking about what Gravelfort told him. Cupine was brash, not foolish. What exactly did she say about their relationship? Silic didn't doubt they liked each other but announcing that to Gravelfort's face was different. It was dangerous. If he wasn't a Cultivator, Silic would have no status to defend himself.

So what did she say?

"Thinking about home?" Cupine nudged him. "You don't look too happy."

They moved in yesterday, but this morning was the first time he noticed that she was shorter than him now. A few inches of her copper dust had been melted away in the lord's prison.

"Are you sure you weren't hurt?" he asked her. Last night, because the soldiers kept guarding Cupine, they slept in separate rooms for the first time they were together.

She smirked. "I never said that. I just meant that it doesn't bother me. I can always get copper filings by shaving down a candle holder or something."

"Okay," Silic replied, running the back of his hoof down her neck. For the briefest of moments, he felt their magic intertwine and he was relieved to feel her presence with him. "Let's take it one day at a time then, and hope that army gets ready soon so we can go back home."

Comments

[TheArcticWolf]

And the explosion begins.

[EverfreePony]

Nice to see you getting back to the already established characters, I was getting slightly afraid this will be just a collection of life snippets of random ponies. Not that the worldbuilding and the characters’ abilities weren’t interesting (By the way, really liked the fiery metal make-up!), but a solid plot is always a great thing to see.

[SwordTune]

9371699
Yeah, my intention is to tell the story with a cycle of sand, water, fire chapters.