Penance - Chapter 4

The two followed the path southwest until it lead into a cave. The cave lead downwards into the water, and the two could see that it appeared webbed.
“I know what this is, the Coral Labyrinth,” Drac pointed out, “It’s a series of tunnels carved through the coral reef. Mages did it decades ago.”
“So these tunnels lead to the mainland?”
“We’ll sometimes have to walk on top of the reef, I was here during the war when Wizards begun to destroy it.”
“Why would they do that?” Pelagia asked, “it’s beautiful,”
“People were hiding out in here,” Drac said, “This was one of my mistakes,”
“I’m sorry, if it’ll make you feel better, I can change to my true form and swim-“
“Don’t,” Drac said, “I remember the saying you taught me about water dragons, ‘The Storm Clouds our Senses’, it’d be better if we go through someplace we can hide from a tidal wave if another Storm hits. Come on, we don’t want to be on the island when a storm hits.”
Drac lead Pelagia into the cave carved in the coral reef. Before long, it was near pitch black.
Pelagia summoned a light around Drac’s hands. She noticed something about Drac when she was maintaining the spell. She noticed that her mind wandered once and the spell was still active. But however, Drac may have been maintaining the spell subconsciously.
Not many humans of Drac’s age could really do that without training and practice. She made note to ask him about that.
One time, she noticed that the cave had a tunnel leading down.
“This must be one of those bunkers they used during the war.
They went down and noticed that it was big enough for quite a few people.
“It should probably be night out, we should stay here tonight,” Pelagia pointed out.
Drac and Pelagia sat there for what seemed like an hour before he broke the silence.
“So what do you intend to do when we reach the mainland?” Drac asked.
“I figured I’d look for a church you mentioned and ask for forgiveness,”
“Whatever floats your boat,”
“What are you going to do?” Pelagia asked him inquisitively.
“I don’t know, I don’t think I’m going to be sailing anytime soon. I do owe you my life though, maybe I can find out some more about what you claim to have done to Teran, if we get back to Port Collins.”
Some more silence.
“Hey,” he asked, “can you take the light off my hands?”
Pelagia had stopped maintaining the spell hours ago. She pretended to try to take it off.
“Hm, that’s weird,” she bluffed to him, “I took the spell off, but something is still maintaining the spell. Are you holding any magical artifacts perchance?”
“Nothing but this Cutlass…what, you think it’s magical or something?”
“Probably not…I have a theory. Have you had any magic-users in your family?”
“Not that I know of,” Drac responded, putting his hands behind his head and leaning on the Coral Wall, “My parents died during the war and I don’t know about my grandparents.”
“If my theory is correct, you have some magic in you,” Pelagia said, “You may be subconsciously maintaining the spell. I don’t know how humans respond to magic, but I don’t know how different it they do than dragons do,” Pelagia explained, “We all know we can use magic from when we are young, but I don’t know about humans. Perhaps in order to use it consciously, you have to acknowledge it.”
Drac just stared at her.
“If you are subconsciously using magic, maybe you don’t know you have the capabilities yet. We all know when we are young, but I don’t know about you.”
Pelagia paused.
“Maybe I can also continue living in a human disguise to learn about how humans respond to magic; My mother and father don’t know how humans are taught,”
“This is a little too much,” Drac responded, “Me? A Magician? And I never even knew it?”
Pelagia sat silent, pretending to be deep in thought. However though, she was really wanting to give Drac a test. As a young dragon, she could use magic consciously but not subconsciously for awhile
Being able to use magic subconsciously is something that a magician, or anyone with any magic power had to know. Should they be attacked suddenly, most magicians and dragons could subconsciously protect themselves or lessen the blow. As a young dragon, her parents would test her at random times so she would subconsciously use magic. One such drill was that she would be given something to play with and at random times, her parents would try to pull it away with a spell. The point was to train her subconscious mind to be alert for a strange occurances, and  after awhile, she would protect her toy if her parents tried to knock it away or take it. They would also try it with food. She had been thinking up a similar spell on Drac.
Pelagia noticed that Drac’s dark gray Bandana which he always wore had survived the storm. It struck her as a little odd that it or any of his clothes did survive. She put some emphasis on the Bandana, and decided to try to untie it.
Her theory was that his subconscious mind would try to protect it since, as far as she knew, he never took it off. Who knows why; maybe he was bald underneath.
She tried to unwrap it and pull it off, but something knocked her spell away, and it wasn’t his hands. Drac leaned forward a little and looked back at the wall while adjusting his bandana.
“Did you do that?” he asked
“What?” Pelagia responded, acting unaware.
“Something tried to pull off my bandana,”
Pelagia waited again and then tried again.
“Hey, there it is again,” Drac said, “Is there a crab or something in here?”
“No, it WAS me,” Pelagia responded.
Drac gave her a quizzical look.
“What were you trying to do that for?”
“I was trying to see if you were subconsciously using magic,” Pelagia said, “Apparantly you are, I believe.”
Drac continued with his quizzical look.
“I tried to remove your Bandana, and you appeared to subconsciously notice and correct the problem before you consciously did,”
“What, is that proof that I’m able to use magic?”
“Perhaps,” she said, “you seem to be subconsciously maintaining that spell. I’ll dispel it so we can get some sleep.”
Pelagia dispelled Drac’s hands and all was dark. The two went to sleep afterwards.

The next morning, Pelagia woke up first. She noticed Drac sleeping through her keener eyes. She decided to give him another test.
She summoned a few drops of water and decided to put them on Drac’s neck. Nothing happened. She then heated up the drops of water and sent them to Drac’s neck. They got very close but miraciously hit an invisible force-field and rolled into the coral.
“That confirms it,” she thought, “He must have a subconscious shield,”
She waited for a few hours and heard Drac moving around,
“So,” he said, “we can probably reach the mainland from here. Can you put up a spell around us again?”
“No,” Pelagia said, “I want you to try it…I think you can indeed use magic, but you’ll have to acknowledge it.”
“I don’t really believe this,” Drac responded.
“Part of magic is belief,” Pelagia explained, “Just having a little gift of magic won’t help you if you don’t believe you have it, it’s basic self-esteem.”
“You’re one to talk about self-esteem,” Drac thought to himself.
“Just believe that you can make light appear around your hands, think you want to do it.” Pelagia continued.
“What, no magical incantations in some dead language?”
“No, this is just simple stuff.”
Drac closed his eyes and was silent. He just thought of light appearing around his hands, as if he had lanterns. They were imaginary lanterns, only the light they gave off was real. He clenched his fists a little harder. After a few moments, Pelagia tapped on his shoulder.
“Look at your hands,” she said.
Drac opened his eyes. Light was around his hands.
“Whoa,” he said, “You sure you aren’t doing this to fool me?”
“No,” She said, “Imagine it somewhere else…try not to close your eyes maybe.”
Drac looked at the ceiling above the entrance to the bunker. After about half a minute, light appeared around it.
“You did it,” Pelagia congratulated him, “You have acknowledge that you can use magic! Just practice and you’ll get better.”
“This is…been an interesting journey so far…” he responded.
The two continued on their journey through the Coral Labyrinth. Some parts brought them out on top of the coral that stood above the water. Drac couldn’t help but notice so many holes, dead coral, and a large chunk that was missing. Eventually, they reached land.
“Okay, we made it, but we don’t know where the nearest town is,” Drac said.
“Drac, your hands are still lit.”
“Wha? Oh. Whoops.”
Drac held his hands up in front of him, imagining that the light was going out and it did.
“I’ll never get used to this,” he said.