by Simon Archer
After dinner, Anil and Siara gave us a tour of the training center’s facilities. The rooms were vast and long, like basketball courts, and the floors were covered in the same kinds of circular indentations that were in the libraries I had been practicing in so far.
“There aren’t any scrolls,” I remarked when we toured the second room.
“No,” Nadeine said. “These rooms were designed for more robust practice sessions between many magi.”
“But, there are still libraries here?” I asked curiously. Those scrolls had been just as valuable as the practical training, so the idea of more knowledge was greatly tempting.
“Oh, yes, Leo Hayden,” Anil said, cutting into the conversation. “We will tour them next if it pleases you.”
I nodded as we went through a third room. Interestingly, all of these practice rooms’ walls were covered in weapons and portraits of armored fighters, not magi.
“It didn’t always used to be like this, did it?” I asked Nadeine, gesturing to the weapons and portraits.
“No,” she said, her expression grave. “We did not have such weapons before.”
“These ornamentations were added in recent decades,” Siara added, looking up at a spiked weapon in disgust. “They are crude things, these metal weapons. We did not need them before, and soon, we hope we will need them no longer.” She looked at me pointedly on that last part, and all of a sudden, I started feeling a bit nervous.
“So, uh, when will I get to practice?” I asked.
“On the ‘morrow,” Siara said. “Anil and I have set up another training room on the south side of the facility like the ones we used to have. We believe it will be more conducive to your progress than these rooms.” She continued to eye the weapons and portraits with distaste.
As promised, we went to the libraries next. They were on the facility's northmost side and looked a lot like the ones in the castles, but much bigger. They were filled with seemingly endless rows of shelves filled with scrolls. Like in the castles, there were circles on the floor, and bubbles surrounding the shelves.
“So magi can practice here, too?” I pointed to the training circles.
“Oh, yes, Leo Hayden,” Anil said as she shuffled over to me. “The training rooms were for the days when hundreds of magi would gather here at once, working on their magic together and creating wonderful sounds and lights. The libraries are for more solitary practice.”
After the tour, Anil led me to my quarters. In keeping with the rest of the training facility, my room was far less luxurious than I was used to in Eviorah, but it was cozy nonetheless. It was very small, but the bed was softer and more comfortable than any I had ever slept in before. Before falling asleep, I reached under the bed out of instinct, searching for my cello, but of course, it wasn’t there. When I slept, I dreamed of playing it again.
9
I awoke the following morning of my own accord… I supposed my internal clock was adapting to my Eviorahn sleep schedule… and found Anil waiting for me outside of the door to my room.
“Agh!” I yelled when I stumbled right into him, nearly knocking the old elf over and sending him flying.
“Oh, Leo Hayden, I am very, very sorry, very sorry indeed,” the elf stammered as he collected himself. “I did not wish to wake you, but I also did not wish to miss your waking. Very sorry, very sorry indeed.”
“Um, it’s okay, Anil,” I said carefully. “You just… surprised me is all, I guess. What’s up?”
“Up where?” the elf asked, looking at the ceiling above us.
“Um, I mean, what do you need?” I rephrased. “Why are you standing out here?”
“Oh, yes, I understand now, I think,” Anil mused. His voice was small and had a tinny quality. “I am to take you to eat breakfast with me, and then to meet Siara in the training room we have prepared for you. Oh, yes, Leo Hayden. Today will be an exciting day, an exciting day indeed.”
As he spoke, the elf started to scurry down the hallway towards the dining hall. I followed him, measuring my strides against his. The elf seemed to be expending quite a bit of effort just to match my steps. In the dining hall, we had a modest breakfast of porridge, eggs, and juice waiting for us. As we settled down to eat, I looked across the table at Anil.
“Where are Nadeine, Bernsten, and Marinka?”
“Oh, they are training here too, Leo Hayden,” Anil explained. “They are working with our finest knights and swordsmen to prepare for your journey into the forest. In addition, your friend Nadeine will be visiting the forges later today in search of a new weapon. You may go with her if you so desire. She informed me that you expressed interest in doing so.”
“Yes, I’d like to see the forges,” I said, remembering my conversation with Nadeine the previous day.
“Very well.” Anil smiled as he stirred his porridge. “This morning, we will work on combining the magic you have already learned in order to better respond to threats you may encounter on your journey. We are told you have yet to do so formally, though I heard a very colorful story from your friend Sir Bernsten about an encounter you had at a tavern several days past.” The elderly elf chuckled at this.
“Oh, yeah.” I remembered the elf who had launched himself across the table at Bernsten because he lost at wazo. “That was fun.”
“Indeed!” Anil cried. I didn’t get the sense that he understood sarcasm too well. Then again, all of the elves I’d met had either an odd or a nonexistent sense of humor. Go figure.
After breakfast, Anil led me to a training room that, on the surface, looked a lot like the ones we had seen the previous evening. In reality, it couldn’t be more different. The walls were covered not in weapons, but in portraits of mages. The room, while painted gold like the other ones I had seen, seemed happier somehow and less hostile. I was glad that Anil and Siara had decided to have my practice here instead.
Siara was waiting for us in the practice room, standing in the center of one of the mage’s circles. A question occurred to me that I had forgotten to ask anyone else here before.
“What if there aren’t any circles like these in the forest? Will I still be able to do magic?” I asked. Then I remembered something. “When I fought that guy in the tavern, there wasn’t a circle, and my magic still worked. So what are they for?”
“A good question, Leo Hayden.” Siara gave me a toothy grin. “The circles are helpful for allowing young magi to focus and hone their skills. If you are able to create a makeshift circle in battle or find a circular area before you practice your magic in the forest, that would be ideal. However, a skilled mage does not necessarily need one. It is merely ideal that he would have one.”
“And I believe you would notice if you looked carefully, Leo Hayden,” Anil added, “that our taverns in this kingdom, much like all of our rooms and architecture, have circular designs on the floor, however faint.” Sure enough, I remembered seeing such designs in the first tavern I frequented with Bernsten near the royal palace.
“How would I create a circle in the forest?” I asked, a bit more concerned now about my ability to use magic on the next leg of the quest. After all, I didn’t know if there was some special ritual or meditation or process to make one of these circles.
“It should not be difficult,” Siara said. “It is as simple as turning your boot in a circle in the grass around you. You will find that in addition to our architecture, our entire world is circular in design. Ancient stories tell even of circular formations in the mountain regions, though, of course, we dare not travel near that edge of the realm. I would not expend energy worrying about this, Leo Hayden. Any circular marking or formation will do for these purposes.” Her voice was warm at the end, reassuring, and I felt better.
“Alright, I won’t,” I said with a grin. “What’s next, then?”
“As I’m sure Amir informed you, we will be practicing combining the spells you have learned today,” Siara said. “But first, may we ask you to demonstrate your magic for us? We have heard
so much about it, and about you, from the council and from common travelers. We heard tales that you created a light display for a tavern one evening.”
Siara looked eager at this, and so did Anil for that matter. They both suddenly looked younger, almost like children on Christmas morning.
“Oh, sure,” I said, remembering how amazed the tavern’s patrons had been at the sight of my magic. It was a nice feeling, having people think so much of me, so I began to hum the A-flat major scale variation that I had learned to perform the light spell. As I sang, the particles of golden light appeared in the air and percolated around us, illuminating the whole training room with dazzling golden light.
Siara and Anil gasped audibly and turned around in circles to see the light penetrating every corner of the room. I smiled, glad to have pleased them.
“This is more amazing than I ever could have imagined, Leo Hayden,” Siara said. “That you could perform such an advanced spell so easily and so soon is… unheard of in our realm’s history.”
“Oh, yes, Leo Hayden,” Anil gushed. “We heard tales of your amazing abilities, but this is beyond belief. Beyond belief! It is like what I saw the magi do when I was so young.” I was embarrassed to find that Anil was getting emotional again, and his eyes were welling up. He pulled out another handkerchief and blew his nose loudly.
“Ignore him,” Siara said, turning to me and rolling her eyes, though she was smiling. “But what he says is true, Leo. This is a truly amazing feat you have achieved so soon. I must be honest with you, I had my doubts about the accuracy of the council’s claims, and tavern patrons have been known to tell tall tales. I thought that, perhaps, they had all gotten ahead of themselves in their hope and desperation. But now… now, I see this.” She spread her arms to indicate she was referring to the golden light particles all around us.
“Well, I’m glad I can help.” I looked at my boots in embarrassment.
“Oh, help does not begin to encompass what you have given us,” Siara said, continuing to look around us in awe. Since I had stopped humming, the light vanished.
“I do have another question,” I said, even though I feared what their answer to it would be.
“Anything, Leo Hayden, anything,” Anil squeaked.
“Well, back on Earth, I mean in my world,” I added when I noticed their confusion at the name of my home, “I played an instrument called the cello. Nadeine and King Dalibor told me that some magi have instruments that appear for them, but there are no cellos here. Do you think that one could appear for me?” I couldn’t keep the pleading tone out of my voice.
“I am sorry to say that we do not know how to answer these questions,” Siara said, her voice kindly. “We have spent our lifetimes studying our people’s ancient texts and our great magi’s stories, but we have never had someone like you before in our realm, Leo Hayden. We simply do not know what is going to happen.”
“We will say we are so pleased with your quick progress, so pleased,” Anil said.
“Oh, yes,” Siara said. “It would not surprise us in the slightest if a ‘cello’ as you call it were to appear for you at some point, but we cannot make such a promise, I am afraid.”
“I understand,” I said, nodding. “Thank you.”
“Again, we are sorry we cannot give you more information,” Siara said, a warm smile returning to her face, “but we will just have to explore your new abilities together.”
“Are you ready to begin?” Anil asked, hopping a little in his excitement.
“Sure,” I said, also excited to get started.
“I am afraid that I am not a skilled swordsman,” Siara said, “or a fighter of any sort, but we think it best that you start against a weaker opponent. Should you be successful, we will have one of your companions join us and attempt to overcome your magic. Does that sound suitable to you, Leo?”
“Yeah, sounds good,” I said and watched as Siara, much like Nadeine had previously, positioned herself across from me in one of the circles. A sword dangled at one of her sides, a dagger at the other, and she clenched her fists. Anil stood off to the side, watching and grinning at us.
“I will not reveal to you what attack I am about to attempt,” she explained. “It is up to you to read my body language and determine which attack you think is most likely to come. Do you remember your combat spells?”
“Yes,” I said, thinking of all of the spells I had practiced with Nadeine over the past several days. We had covered all sorts of different weapons and melee attacks in the various libraries of the castles we had frequented on our journey.
All of a sudden, Siara lunged at me with surprising swiftness and grace for her advanced age.
“Watch out, Leo Hayden,” I heard Anil call, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Siara grab her dagger and swipe it at me. I selected the appropriate spell from my mental arsenal and began to hum. At the very last second before the dagger reached me, a small wall of golden light arose between myself and the dagger, and the dagger shattered.
“Oh!” Anil cried. “Well done, well done, Leo Hayden.”
“Yes,” Siara said, panting and bending over to lean on her knees. The combat seemed to have taken quite a bit out of her. “Well done. I will need a new dagger now, I suppose.” She rose and grinned at me, wiping a fragment of the broken weapon from her tunic.
Siara repositioned herself quickly across from me in the circle and lunged at me again, this time with her sword. I parried the attack easily this time, tendrils of golden light locking themselves around her blade and thrusting it away from me. Before the lights disappeared, she was coming at me again, this time with her fists. I switched to the appropriate scale and parried that attack as well. The tunes blended together to create a pleasing piece of music, much like I now had a John Williams soundtrack to my life. Pretty cool.
I thought it would be even cooler if it were more than just singing or humming, but I supposed that this would do, at least for now.
We continued like this throughout the morning until Siara was satisfied that I was capable of moving between spells with sufficient speed and ease.
“This is excellent,” she said when we finally stopped, panting and wiping away some sweat dripping from her brow. “Very, very excellent progress, Leo. You have done well. All that the council had told us is true.”
“Oh, yes,” Anil said. “Very good. Go now, Leo Hayden, eat and then join your companion Nadeine on her trip to the forges. Tomorrow, we will resume your practice against a more formidable foe.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I said, wiping some sweat from my own face. The practice session had been my most draining one yet, but also the most rewarding. I finally felt like I was making complete pieces of music again by weaving the various spells together, even if it wasn’t with a cello.
I went to the dining hall to grab some lunch and found Bernsten, Nadeine, and Marinka there waiting for me. I grabbed a heaping pile of pasta and shrimp from the buffet line and sat down to join them at their table. I was so hungry that I shoveled the food in my mouth quicker than I could swallow it, making a mess in the process.
“Ah-ha, your practice has gone well, I take it,” Bernsten boomed, slapping a broad (for an elf, at least) hand between my shoulder blades in his customary greeting and eyeing my plate.
I nodded, not bothering to stop eating to respond.
“This is good news,” Nadeine said with a smile. “Will you be returning to your training room this afternoon?”
I shook my head and swallowed as fast as I could. I knew objectively that the food wasn’t as good as what I’d become accustomed to in Eviorah, but it tasted like the best meal I’d ever had considering my hunger. I figured this must be what people mean when they say food tastes better when they’re camping.
“No,” I finally managed to get out. “Not this afternoon. Siara and Amir told me I should rest up for tomorrow. They think I’m ready to take on one of you in real-time combat next.” I grinned at that as I eyed the trio.
“Excellent,” Bernsten cried. “I would relish the opportunity to defeat you, Leo Hayden.”
“Oh yeah?” I grinned. “Good luck with that.”
“Good luck, indeed,” Nadeine said. “You will not last a minute in the mage’s circle with Leo, brother.”
“Oh, we shall just see about that!” Bernsten winked at me.
“Looking forward to it,” I said, and then turned to the rest of the group. “How were your mornings?”
“Productive,” Marinka chimed in happily. “I have learned much I did not know about combat, though I still would prefer to be at home in the royal castle continuing my studies. I’m afraid Nadeine did not have quite such a fruitful morning today.”
Sure enough, Nadeine scowled. “I hate this weapon,” she growled, pulling out her new sword and slamming it against the table so hard that it made the rest of us jump.
“Perhaps if you gave the weapon a fair chance, sister…?” Bernsten started, but she wouldn’t let him finish.
“You do not understand, Brother,” she spat out. “You have your sword that was custom made for you in the royal forges. I have no such thing anymore.”
Bernsten decided not to respond to this. I thought that was probably wise.
“Then it is a good thing that we are in the place that houses the greatest forges in the entire realm, my dear friend,” Marinka said hesitantly, reaching out to push Nadeine’s sword gently out of the way of her lunch.
“I suppose this is true,” Nadeine said reluctantly, pulling the sword off the table and allowing it to fall on the ground. A clanking sound rang out through the dining hall, and some nearby elves turned to give Nadeine a wary look. I wondered whether she had done something this morning to freak them out. Knowing her, it was more likely than not.
