Chương 21: A Breath of Warmth

By the fourth morning, the fever had broken. Lira woke to a dull ache rather than a burning heat. Her body was still a bit heavy, but her mind was sharper than before, as if something had finally lifted from behind her eyes. She lay still for a moment, testing her breathing, her strength, and the steadiness of her thoughts. It would do. She pushed herself upright slowly, pausing as the room tilted slightly, then steadied. The weakness was still there, but it was much more manageable.

Tessa, who had been half asleep in her bed next to her, stirred at the movement.

"You're up," she said, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Lira replied, she forced her voice to be steady. Tessa studied her for a moment, then nodded.

"You look better."

"I am much better." It was not entirely true, but it was close enough. After a short pause, Lira swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"I need a bath." Tessa let out a quiet laugh.

"You definitely do." The servant baths were nothing like the ones in the visiting nobles' chambers. Lira had the misfortune of cleaning those in her first week, so she had seen the decadence and class disparity. There were no marble floors, no large pools of steaming water, and no attendants waiting with clean towels. Just a stone room, worn smooth by years of use, with a row of small washing spaces along the walls. Each one held a simple setup: a wooden stool, a bucket, a rough loofah, and a bar of plain soap.

At the center stood a small iron stand for heating water over coals. It was enough. It was not like she was used to much while working under Pallan. Lira filled her bucket, waited for the water to heat, and then poured it slowly over herself. The warmth spread through her skin, chasing away the last remnants of the chill that had settled into her bones. She scrubbed away days of sweat and dust, the loofah's rough texture scraping against her skin, grounding her in the simple, physical act.

By the time she finished, her body felt light and clean and refreshed in a way sleep alone had not managed. She dressed quickly in a fresh set of clothes and made her way back through the servant corridors, her steps more certain now. The castle was in its usual rhythm. Footsteps echoed in the halls, voices carried faintly through the stone, and the distant clatter of work never truly stopped. It all felt strangely normal after the haze of the past few days. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site?

This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Lira kept her head down as she walked, slipping through the familiar paths until she reached the library tower. She paused for a moment at the entrance, then pushed the door open. The difference was immediate. The air was cold, biting in a way that made her breath catch for a second, but it was no longer suffocating with dust. This small change enhanced the work she and Tessa had done, making the library appear far more prepared than before.

Shelves that had once been buried under layers of neglect now stood clearer, their shapes defined. The floor, though far from spotless, showed stretches of stone that had likely not been seen in years. The refuse piles were organized rather than chaotic, stacked in a way that suggested progress instead of abandonment. It was still a mess. But it no longer seemed hopeless. Lira shivered.

The windows were still open, the wind cutting through the space, strong and constant, slipping in from one side of the tower and rushing out the other. Loose sheets of paper drifted through the air, some caught in slow spirals, others skittering across the floor like driftwood in a river. The cold followed the current, seeping into every corner of the room. Lira stepped inside, the chill biting through her bones almost immediately. She exhaled slowly, watching her breath fog faintly in front of her.

Closing the windows would be the obvious solution. But she hesitated. The airflow kept the dust from settling again, kept the space from returning to what it had been. It was inconvenient and uncomfortable, but still useful. Instead of moving toward the windows, Lira raised her hand slightly.

"Paldina fila coopar tarasana Kurur." The words left her lips softly, but the effect was immediate. Warmth bloomed around her, contained and steady, wrapping her body without spilling outward. The biting cold vanished in an instant, replaced by a controlled, gentle heat that settled against her skin. Lira let out a quiet breath, her shoulders relaxing. Much better.

She stood there for a moment, feeling the contrast between the freezing wind that still rushed through the tower and the small pocket of warmth that belonged only to her. A faint smile touched her lips. Then she moved forward, deeper into the library, heading for her alcove. First, she checked that her father's ledger, the fire and water magical primers, and the two faux primers she had made were undisturbed. She had not had the chance to hide them before she collapsed.

Luckily, her alcove remained undiscovered, and everything was where she had left it. The next order of business was the water primer. There were still more spells to learn from it. But did she need a new water spell, especially when she had not yet mastered the ones she already knew to their fullest extent? Speaking of testing, the wind spell was barely studied at all. She needed to give it at least an hour of her time.

Rather than pushing her limits and collapsing again, she decided to create a paper kite and make it float for as long as she could. The test was inconclusive. Inside the alcove, hidden from the natural wind, it was easier to control, turning it in circles indefinitely. But when faced with the turbulent currents of the library's main room, the result left much to be desired. She knew instinctively that fighting nature would lead to her collapsing again. She could only nudge it slightly.

It would take much more training and growth for this spell to become useful. Now, the thousand gold coin question was whether she should invest that much time into mastering elemental magic. No. Neither fire, water, nor wind was the path she should follow. She had been so focused on whether she could that she never stopped to consider if she should. Normally, she knew better than to be that reckless, but she had been swept up in the awe of magic. The next spell she would create should be more subtle than that.

A spell suited for Lira Velora, daughter of Gareth Velora, a scribe turned master forger, turned spy, not a spell meant for a wizard or a warrior.