by V. St. Clair
Even if Aleric wakes up, he won’t know where I’ve gone. No one will…
An unsettling thought. Again, he questioned the decision to follow an unknown source of magic in the darkness without telling anyone, but he couldn’t think of anyone who wanted to fight him at the moment, so there shouldn’t be much danger involved. Besides, he was armed if it came to a fight, though he would have to immediately cast Light before he could use his prism any further in the darkness; prism-users had a natural disadvantage when fighting at night.
He padded lightly down the stairs and into the pentagonal foyer, which looked eerie in the early morning greyness that preceded dawn. His footsteps sounded loud in the open space, despite his efforts at being quiet, because students weren’t really allowed to go wandering about the school after hours.
The light continued down the corridor towards the dining hall, but then veered sharply down the hallway that led towards the rear exit. Frowning, and lowering his eyepiece to combat height just to be safe, he followed the beam past the corridor that veered off towards Elixirs, past the one that turned into Prisms, and out the back door of the school itself.
His heart began to beat harder as he squinted and looked around the grounds as much as possible in the darkness. Being inside the school had given the impression that he was safe, but stepping outside—even onto the grounds—made him really think twice about what he was doing.
Well, if I go back now I’ll have wasted a trip…
Not to mention how unsatisfying that would be for his growing curiosity.
One day my love of the unknown is going to get me killed.
But hopefully not today. Asher took a breath to steady himself and then continued onward after the trail of light, walking past the smooth black flooring where Master Reede taught Conjury, which currently reflected the light of the moon off its gleaming surface.
The trail wasn’t visible up ahead, because it seemed to pass between two of the shops that sold magical instruments. Wondering what was trying to lead him to the area and for what purpose, he ducked between the shops and saw where the light trail ended as the entire thing blinked out of existence.
Now thoroughly concerned, he rapidly tilted his left eye towards the moonlight for visibility and cast Light through his clear prism. He knew to close his eyes immediately, or the wave of brilliant light that burst to life like a miniature sun would blind him for hours. Tilting the prism upwards so that it sat on top of his head pointing up at the sky, he finally saw who had summoned him here.
“Put out that light, or the whole world will know you’re out here,” Master Laurren commanded simply, as though it wasn’t at all unusual for him to be standing between Emeric’s Elixirs and Kly’s Wands at this time of day.
“And why do I care if people know where I am?” Asher asked sardonically, beginning to regret his decision to follow the light already.
“Because it would negate all of the effort I exerted to bring you down here on your own,” the Master replied smoothly, holding up a small mage-lamp in one hand and igniting it. The lamp cast a much softer glow than the bold, brilliant light of the prism, and reluctantly, Asher ended the spell.
“Why did you summon me out here at the crack of dawn, and why shouldn’t anyone else know about it?” he demanded, keeping his prism lowered to combat height because something about the Master of Abnormal Magic gave him the willies, ever since their encounter the day before.
Not all damage is magical…
“It is important that I speak with you before anyone else does this morning, and I need you to promise that what we discuss will remain between the two of us.”
Asher raised an eyebrow and said, “I didn’t think it was possible, but I’ve finally found someone even weirder than I am.” He sighed at the complete waste of time in coming out here, having no interest in spending any more of his morning being intimidated and picked on by the new Master in town. He turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” Laurren asked, the lamp illuminating his eyes and making them look even more unnatural in the glow.
“Back to bed,” Asher answered. “I don’t want to listen to any more of your cryptic garbage before I’ve even had breakfast.”
He didn’t care that he was being rude. He had no idea why this man had shown up and just decided to make him his special target, but he didn’t appreciate it. He got enough flak from the other Masters already, and he only tolerated it from them because he had known them for years.
“No, you are not,” Laurren replied simply. “Not until you hear me out and I have your promise.”
Asher looked back at him in disgust.
“You can’t keep me here, sir. Find someone else to berate and leave me alone.” He turned to walk back to the castle and had taken about three steps when he heard Laurren say, “Bonk?”
Before Asher could contemplate what was about to happen, he felt something slam into him from behind, some sort of magic he had never experienced before. He fell flat on his face in the grass, rigid as a board, as though every muscle in his body had seized up and he had no control at all over relaxing them.
He tried to call out for help, or scream, or look through the prism that had been knocked out of his line of sight in the eyepiece when he hit the ground, but he was helpless.
“That may have been excessive,” Master Laurren said gently, bending down to flip Asher onto his back so that he could face him. Bonk, the dragonling with no master, alit on Asher’s chest and pranced about triumphantly, as though pleased with himself for bringing down a mighty foe.
If I ever get free, I’m going to murder that stupid dragon…
Bonk seemed to sense his thoughts, because he chose that moment to shake his tail at Asher’s face as though daring him to try.
What’s he doing helping out Laurren, anyway? Bonk almost never interferes in the business of mages; he just wants to loll about chasing squirrels while my father spoils him rotten.
Just one more thing that made the new Master unusual and powerful.
“Bonk, stop toying with him.” Laurren motioned Bonk aside, and reluctantly, the dragonling took flight and flapped his wings gently to hover nearby. “I’m sorry for the rough treatment, Asher, but this is terribly important, so I need you to hear me out.”
Asher would have scowled if he could, or better yet, dueled him, but he was utterly helpless, still frozen on the ground.
“I’m going to have Bonk lift his magic on you. If you attempt to fight or run away, he’ll overpower you again. Once we’ve finished speaking, I promise to leave you alone.”
Asher seethed inside and contemplated making them stun him again just to be defiant, but realized that would get him nothing and possibly result in him being injured. Only a fool would pit themselves against a dragonling in combat, and as stubborn as Asher was, he was no fool.
Bonk looked like he was enjoying the victory over him, but eventually did consent to remove his magic so that Asher could move again.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped at Laurren as soon as he could talk, sitting up and checking his body for signs of damage. His muscles ached from being seized up, and he doubted it would get better anytime soon. “Haven’t the others told you yet that you Masters aren’t supposed to go around attacking children?”
Laurren raised a slightly challenging eyebrow and asked, “Do you consider yourself a child, then?”
Annoyed at himself for his word choice, Asher flushed and said, “No, but that still doesn’t give you an excuse to attack me. You all are supposed to be shining beacons of morality and goodness and all that.”
Laurren considered this thoughtfully and said, “I didn’t attack you, Bonk did. Who can really control what a dragonling takes a notion to do?”
Against his will, Asher admired the man for playing the game so well. He would fit in with the others perfectly; the whole group of them bent the rules to their whims like this whenever it suited them.
“And I’m sure
you didn’t ask him to force me to talk to you,” he said sardonically. “Bonk just took a whim to fly around this morning and do your bidding, unprompted.” He wondered how many squirrels the man had to promise Bonk in exchange for his cooperation.
Master Laurren shrugged as though to agree and then said, “Will you listen to me now, quickly, before dawn approaches and you are missed?” he glanced up at the sky as he spoke.
Asher scowled and forced himself to his feet, brushing grass off of his pajamas.
“Fine, say whatever you have to say and then leave me alone.”
“First I need you to swear that you won’t speak to anyone else about what I tell you. My new…abilities aren’t predictable or reliable enough for me to fully understand them, so I’m not sure whether I’m being paranoid over nothing or if there is true danger. Best to air on the side of caution, but the less that gets out about this, the better, in the event I am wrong…”
He had never heard Laurren ramble like this, and Asher found himself curious despite his desire to be scornful of the man.
“As long as you aren’t about to tell me something blatantly illegal or hideously immoral, then fine, I promise to keep it in confidence. If you are about to confess something I would be obligated to report you for, then you might not want to speak.”
Laurren nodded, accepting him at his word, which was both surprising and gratifying, since few people would afford him that kind of courtesy.
“No, nothing that would compromise your morals,” he assured him. “First, tell me, what have you said to Aleric Frost regarding our meeting yesterday morning?”
Stunned by the sudden change of topic, Asher was silent before a moment before his brain engaged and he said, “What? Nothing…I don’t think.”
“Not good enough, Asher,” Laurren insisted. “I need you to think carefully about anything and everything you might have said to him about me.”
He had no idea where this was going or why it mattered, but it seemed safe to play along for now. Asher turned his eyes skyward for a moment while he thought back through everything that happened yesterday. The sky was indeed beginning to lighten; they didn’t have much time before Aleric woke and noticed he was gone.
“Nothing,” Asher said at last. “I actually meant to tell him about how insane you are, but I didn’t get around to it. Thanks for the reminder.”
“Good,” Laurren exhaled in relief. “Then we have time to get our story straight.”
“What story?” Asher asked, confused. “I went to ask you to teach me, you were weird and off-putting, I left. What is there to get straight?”
“If Aleric asks you about me, I need you to take great care in not telling him anything about me or my abilities,” Laurren explained urgently, as though any of this was reasonable.
Asher leaned back, one eyebrow raised in suspicion and said, “People usually love Aleric and think I’m horrible. Not that I’m not flattered by the sudden role reversal, but why in the world do you care what I tell my friend about you?”
Master Laurren looked oddly uncomfortable at being asked to explain himself. Well that makes two of us who find this whole thing bizarre, Asher thought ruefully. He wasn’t sure whether the Master planned on answering his question until a long moment of silence passed between them. Finally, Laurren sighed and spoke.
“I’ll tell you. Whether or not you believe me is another matter entirely,” he said at last. “I was taking a walk yesterday around the school and encountered Aleric near the overlook.”
“What?” Asher interrupted him here, surprised. “What would Aleric be doing way back by the cliffs? He didn’t have an arena challenge that night…”
“No idea,” Laurren shrugged, and for a moment Asher considered that the man could be lying to him, but he immediately discarded the thought. What motive would there be for such a thing? Still, he would have to ask his friend later why he was hanging out by himself behind the school during his off hours…
“So, you met Aleric,” Asher brought the conversation back to topic. “And you weren’t as dazzled by him as every other human being that works or lives in Mizzenwald right now?”
Laurren shook his head dismissively to brush off the question, eyes focused on a point of space somewhere behind Asher as he answered.
“I know almost nothing about him, magically or otherwise,” he admitted. “I might not have even noticed him walking there if I hadn’t been overwhelmed by the warning.”
Confused, Asher asked, “What warning?”
“It’s hard to explain…” Laurren sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration before continuing. “Being able to interpret magic in its rawest form—to occasionally understand magical creatures like Bonk—it is still new to me, and not nearly as clear-cut as I would prefer. Other creatures do not think in the way that we do, nor does magic translate easily into the human brain, or everyone would be able to sense it as I now do.”
Asher listened thoughtfully, interested despite himself. This would likely be the only person he would ever know to claim such a direct linkage to magic truthfully, and no matter what else Asher thought about Laurren, he didn’t think the man was lying about his magical damage, or his new talent.
“So Bonk tried to warn you about something when you met Aleric?” he guessed out loud, glancing at the mud-brown dragonling that was still perched on the Master’s shoulder, looking unusually serious.
“I believe so, yes,” Laurren confirmed, obviously relieved that Asher hadn’t laughed in his face yet.
“What did he say?” Asher prodded, intensely curious. He had always wondered what sorts of things went on in that oddball of a dragonling’s head, and could think of no reason for anyone to be warned off of Aleric Frost.
“I’m not sure…well, I said that magical creatures don’t think like we do; it doesn’t translate directly, or maybe my linkage is just not as good as it could be.” Laurren shrugged helplessly, looking suddenly younger for the gesture. Asher was abruptly reminded that the man was probably only thirty years old.
“Okay…well what do you think he meant to tell you?” he pressed, annoyed at all the dancing around. “You wouldn’t have called me out here at the crack of dawn for nothing…”
“I gathered that it’s very important that your friend not know anything about me: that I was once a prism-user, that I have sustained heavy magical damage, that I have some basic level of communication with magical creatures…none of it.”
Stunned, Asher looked at Bonk and asked, “Why do you care if Aleric knows he can—sort of—understand you?”
Bonk gave no response, and Laurren only shrugged again and said, “I don’t know why he gave me that impression, but he was very forceful about it. This is the most powerful dragonling I’ve ever encountered, and so his message was a lot like being hit by a battering ram—mentally, that is.”
Well, there was no denying that Bonk was incredibly powerful, even for his species. Torin had said as much himself after testing him with a potentiometer one time.
“I tried to put Aleric off as much as possible while talking to him, but I was a bit rattled and I don’t know his temperament well enough to know if it worked or not,” Laurren continued.
Asher almost asked what kind of horrible things he must have done to be deliberately off-putting, if he had so far been treating Asher as a future friend. He thought better of it at the last second.
“So what do you want me to say about you when he asks how our meeting went yesterday? He knew I was going to look for you to see about taking Abnormal Magic.” Fat chance of that ever happening, hung in the air between them.
“Tell him whatever you want. Say I’m a fraud who is just after the position so I can use a Mastery Charm—tell him anything but the truth.” He insisted.
“And if he asks about your eyes?” Or your general aura of otherworldly magic?
Laurren waved a hand and said, “Cosmetic enhancement. It can be done with the right dyes and chemicals.”<
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Asher frowned thoughtfully. Lying to his best friend was not something he liked to commit to lightly, but on the other hand, he believed that this strange new Master was the real deal, and there didn’t seem to be any harm in this particular lie. So what if Aleric didn’t want to sign up for Abnormal Magic because he thought Laurren was a fraud? He had already told Asher that he didn’t want to start any new subjects this late in his schooling…
“I’ll do it,” Asher said at last. “But I want something from you in return.”
Momentary relief gave way to a cautious, “Yes?”
“Quite frankly, you give me the creeps. I believe you when you say you were damaged in an experiment and that you can now communicate on some level with Bonk, but I want no further part in whatever odd, disturbing things you and he concoct together. This is the last time you summon me in the middle of the night, the last secret you ask me to keep from my best friend, the last time we talk at all for all I care.”
Laurren didn’t seem offended by any of this, which was unusual in and of itself, because anyone else would have gotten defensive or indignant.
“All right. I won’t bother you any more after this. The next time we speak, you will have to come to me to initiate the conversation.”
Asher frowned and said, “Don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”
Laurren shrugged as though he knew something Asher didn’t, which was annoying, because it reminded him of the ominous parting words the Master had left him with the day before.
“We’re never going to be buddies. I’m not going to get magically or un-magically messed up, so you can just abandon thoughts like that right now,” he snapped.
“Okay,” Laurren replied in a tone that plainly showed he was just humoring Asher’s temper.
Scowling, Asher turned and walked away, because nothing good could come of staying out here to argue further.
Well, at least I don’t have to worry about running into him anymore, he thought pleasantly, noting that the sun was finally beginning to rise as he returned to the castle. There was no point in returning to bed, though he did need to get dressed properly before breakfast. He jogged up the stairs from the Pentagon, stifling a yawn and lamenting the lost sleep. He worried about waking Aleric upon returning to the room, but was surprised to find his roommate already fully dressed and sitting up in bed when he entered.
