Before Hutch could speak, there it was. The cursed amulet, pressed down into his hand. It was heavier than he thought it would be, but it looked just as he remembered. A golden metal circle the size of his hand, decorated with simple vines, and a red crystal filled with myrrget suspended through it.
"I was right," Casimir spoke, near breathless. "Something about the shape or color, or possibly both, keeps the myrrget, even my unstable version, from disintegrating. I've been watching it for the last fifteen minutes, and it's still just as it was when I placed it inside."
"Then how," Hutch muttered as he looked down into the crystal, "how do we test it?"
"That's the difficult part," Casimir replied. "It may look just like the real thing, and it's certainly showing promise, but the key to it working is magic."
Hutch clenched the amulet and rubbed his face with his other hand. "So, it's basically useless?!"
Casimir huffed. "My word Hutch! Do you really think I would have gone to all this trouble to create something with absolutely no hope of working? Think! Magic on Illimev is not the nonsensical crap they talk about here. It's not illusions or sleight of hand. It was real there. It was a mix of alchemy and an energy that moved through the world. And we are inundated with it. The three of us, combined, should be more than enough to power this amulet. The trick is getting the energy out of us, and into it, while ensuring that it binds to you."
"Okay. And how exactly do you purpose we make that happen?" Hutch questioned, tossing glances between Casimir and Julian.
Julian threw up his hands and shook his head. "Don't look at me. I'm only here because he told me to be."
"Because you are a part of this to," Casimir reminded him, before returning his attention to Hutch. "I have no way of knowing how much energy it will take to fully charge it, but I know we each contain a significant quantity. Me and you, because we lived there, and Jay because I passed it along to him. Now, I want you to hold out the amulet before us, like this."
Hutch mimicked Casimir's gesture, and held the amulet flat in his hand, face up. Casimir then set his hand against the back of his, and before their eyes a barely visible, deep red vapor, no wider than a typical strand of thread, emerged up from the center of the crystal about an inch, and waved back and forth like a steady stream of smoke from the end of a lit cigarette.
Hutch felt his heart pound at the sight, with such force that he could hear its beating in his ears. As his chest tightened, he found it difficult to breath, and his entire body began to feel hot, as his mind went blank. He couldn't think or speak. It was hypnotic in its beauty. So small. So delicate. So fragile.
"It works," Casimir gasped. "You see it too, don't you? The lead?"
Hutch nodded, slow and deliberate, fearing any motion would end the spell, and steal the hope back that it had given to him.
"Jay, quickly. Come here. Set your hand to mine," Casimir instructed Julian, as he motioned for him to get closer.
Julian looked down at the palm of his hand and took a deep breath as he shifted closer. Standing next to Casimir, he hesitated and looked up at him.
"I don't think this is wise."
"It's the only way to test it," Casimir replied, with a growing look of concern shared between them.
Julian, lowered his head and looked at his hand one more time, saying "Don't fuck this up, Hutch," before he set his hand onto the back of his father's.
Unexpectedly, the faint vaporous thread grew brighter, and extended up near an inch more, fanning out as if it was fraying.
"What do I do?" Hutch whispered, fearing that even the sound of his voice might make the strand of energy vanish away.
"You pull," Casimir replied, with equal caution, as he turned his eyes to him. "You set your other hand over the lead, and when you feel it in your palm, you pull back, slowly. You want to draw our energy up, and into the amulet. Only a small amount though. Just enough to see if the myrrget will be able to hold the charge, or if it will disintegrate and discharge."
Hutch nodded his understanding, took a deep breath of his own, and shared a look with Casimir and Julian, before holding his other hand up above the top of the lead.
He'd never taken much of an interest in the magic on Illimev, mostly because he didn't think he was capable of using it. And what he did know about it, from watching the other bannermen in the King's guard, mostly Aseda from his own division, told him that magic seemed overly complicated.
It revolved around having the correct reagents, often two or more, packed tight into a bottle or sachet, with one of the six base components, like myrrget, and if required, a medium, like water, all in the right order and right amounts. Even then, without someone activating the alchemical concoction, nothing would happen on its own. Myrrget was unique amongst the six base components, in that it could store and amplify one's energy, allowing for potions to be activated, and handed off, so others could use them, even after the lead was severed. But understanding the magic in principle, didn't necessarily equate to being able to use it in reality, and this was the first time Hutch had ever attempted connecting to a lead.
Hutch wasn't certain about what he expected to feel, or how long it would take before he noticed a change. He wasn't even certain if he could connect to it at all, but as he lowered his hand, closer to the fine threads, all wafting about like smoke in the air, they appeared to react and drew closer to his hand. Seeing the reaction, he lowered his hand further, and the threads that had previously seeped up between his fingers, vanished into the center of his palm.
At first it felt warm, like he was holding his hand out towards a fire, and then his fingers began to tingle with pins and needles, before he was struck by an abrupt, sharp pain, piercing at the center of his palm, causing him to flinch and pull back. That was when he saw it, the vaporous thread had turned solid and a stream of his blood poured from his hand, down into the center of amulet.
In a panic, he tried to snap the thread, pulling his hand back, despite the calls to stop, coming from Casimir and Julian. And then he felt it, the searing pain, through his other hand, as if it had been impaled with a white-hot spike straight through the center of his palm. The crystal in the amulet, illuminated, and a flash of red light, emanated out with a shockwave, blinding Hutch, and throwing him back.
He felt Casimir's hand being torn away from his own, and he was struck by the same agonizing pain, he'd felt once before, as the sensation of a torrent, tore out from between his fingers, and enveloped him, in sand and grit. He could feel his skin being scraped from his body. His muscles burned, and his veins filled with lava. He lifted his arms to protect his face, burying his nose into his elbow, desperately trying to breath, but with every motion it felt as if his bones were breaking. His head pounded along with his heart, and they felt on the verge of exploding, causing him to scream out in pain.
"Hutch!"
He heard his name, cut through the noise, as he twisted in the chaos, until he felt a firm hand clasp down upon his wrist, pulling him forward, preventing him from stepping away. The torrent was over, vanquished by whomever was drawing him near. Forcing air out his nose, he took a quick breath in, followed by several more in rapid succession. The air was clear and tasted sweet. The sand and grit had vanished.
Shaking his head, he rubbed his eyes against his bicep, and slowly blinked, barely capable of opening them more than a sliver at first, as the light stung them. But even as he struggled, the small hand hadn't left his wrist, and a second found its way further up his arm, and together, they guided his hand to the gentle curve and warmth of a tender cheek.
"I've got you."
Her voice was calm and clear, and as he managed to finally pry open his eyes, he could not believe the sight before him. As if he'd never been a minute away from her side, Kahlala, in all her breathtaking beauty, was staring back at him, with a look of worry in her eyes.