by B. T. Narro
Eventually I was able to keep from even being pushed backward, but that changed when Leon started mixing up who he would target. He didn’t announce it beforehand anymore, whipping the dark energy at us as we stood in a circle around him. I was taken off my feet not the first time, when I forced myself to be ready, but the second when he hadn’t targeted me in a while and I wasn’t as vigilant.
That led to a question. “Will we ever be better at resisting when we’re not ready for it?” I asked Leon.
“Yes, because you will master the techniques required to quickly resist as soon as the spell reaches you. It’s just like feeling someone trying to trip or push you. After enough practices, your reflexes will improve even if you’re not ready to defend yourself.”
I changed my defensive strategy after that. I no longer prepared my mana to defend against the spell. I wanted to wait until he was casting at me to put up any defense, to better practice when I might be caught off guard.
The next few times I was targeted, I flew back at least a few feet. After the third one, Leon asked, “Why doesn’t it seem like you’re ready anymore?”
“Because I want to learn to defend without being ready.”
“Fine.”
He started targeting me much more frequently after that.
We trained for hours more. By the time we were called for lunch, I was able to resist his spell almost completely without being ready, but fatigue had clearly weakened him.
Charlie was already in the dining hall when we arrived. He was holding another set of rings, these painted dark blue.
I sat beside Michael. Charlie was across for me with Reuben at his side. As usual, the girls sat farther down the long table. I did not see the king, the princess, or the queen. I imagined the king was very busy today dealing with the removal of the captain of the guard. He could be meeting with Kataleya’s father, though I hadn’t seen anyone come in through the courtyard. Even the drawbridge was closed. I wondered if there was another entrance into the castle, or if the king was out for the day.
“I finished the trackers.” Charlie handed one dark ring to me.
“Shouldn’t we ask Leon who should have the call rings and trackers?” I wondered.
“I want you to have one.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I had you in mind when I made them.”
That wasn’t really an explanation. “You should at least ask Leon.”
“I will later,” he said, though I wasn’t sure I believed him.
I supposed it was a little bit of an honor that Charlie thought of me over anyone else to keep the two helpful rings. But even if it upset Charlie, I would transfer them to someone else’s hand if it made more sense at a later point.
“How does it work?” I asked as I held the ring up in front of my eye. It just looked like a normal ring.
“An ordia sorcerer needs to cast Identify on the ring. It’s the same spell used to decipher the enchantment on any enchanted item. Once they identify it, it should give them a general sense and direction of the other piece of metal, which has been shaped into the other ring.”
“Interesting.”
“I know, right?”
It seemed like we would be practicing resistance the rest of the day, but there was something else I wanted to do. I finished my meal quickly and went to my room in the apartments while everyone else was still eating.
The spell for Heal was a simple one, just uF and F, and I already had uF mastered. I figured I should be able to learn the spell in a day or two, but only if I found time to put in the hours. I’d wanted to learn Water next because it seemed invaluable to be able to create one’s own water, but the spell was much more complicated for me than Heal. And frankly, being able to heal at this stage in training seemed more important than being able to create water.
I put the vibmtaer on my bed and spread the color chart beside it. The entire bottom row of the chart consisted only of F’s and B’s, from uuB on the bottom left corner to llF on the bottom right. I hadn’t looked at the color chart for a while. I wondered if it could be telling me anything about crafting other spells. Why else were F’s and B’s on the bottom row unless they went together in some way? I thought of Expel and checked the notes on the chart.
uF, uG, uuC, uuD. They were spread across three rows and three columns. Looking at the chart, it didn’t seem like there were any similarities to them. I wish I knew at least a few other spells, but I hadn’t yet bothered to ask any of my peers how they cast their erto spells. I hadn’t wanted to overwhelm my mind. It had been difficult enough to cast a single spell.
Now I truly understood why having a wide range of mana made it difficult to memorize the complex feeling and casting of a spell. It was akin to memorizing a step-by-step routine and then having to learn another one on top of it.
I pushed out my mana that I knew by now was uF. The color on the vibmtaer was the same I’d seen many times before, a light purple-gray. Looking at the color chart, I saw that F one octave below uF was the same grayish purple color but a little darker.
I slowed the vibration of my mana until it reached that color. I found it much easier this time, partially because I had practiced changing the frequency of my mana for many, many hours, but also because F was closer to the middle of my range, where it didn’t put such a strain on my mind.
I had to memorize the feeling of F, but I didn’t want to forget how the higher frequencies felt as well, or I would lose my ability to cast Expel without practicing it again. So I toyed with my mana, shifting it higher and lower in frequency and then checking the vibmtaer only after I guessed it was at the right notes.
Every time I tried to reach the higher vibrations, I could do so. But when I tried to find F again, I quickly became lost.
I had secretly hoped I might be able to learn this quickly enough to finish before resistance training resumed. I knew it would impress not only Leon but everyone else as well, but I could tell now that it would take hours to memorize the feeling of F. And that was the easy part. Afterward, I had to find a way to cast F and uF at the same time. If I recalled correctly with dvinia, it had taken just as long to cast the four notes at the same time as it did to memorize the feeling of the four notes individually. Heal was very different, however. This spell only had two notes.
“What are you doing?” Callie asked from my doorway.
What are you doing? I wanted to ask in return. “Trying to learn something.”
“Another spell?” she asked as she entered my room without my invitation.
“Yes.”
“How is it going?”
“I just started. It’s going to take a while.”
She glanced at the vibmtaer on my bed. Then she stiffly walked over to it, coming up to my side. She seemed incredibly interested in it, but I had a feeling she was just pretending as she thought of something to say.
She wore an elegant dress with long sleeves. She was a small girl with wavy hair that framed her young face. I figured she had to be cold, as there was a chill to the air these days, so I did not know why she didn’t put on something heavier.
“How did you end up in the apartments?” I asked.
“I saw you enter. I wanted to see what you were doing. Do you need help with your spell? I could look for scrolls in our library.”
That was right—she had brought me a scroll of dvinia I had forgotten about. It hadn’t helped, but perhaps there was something there that could.
“Where’s the library?” I asked.
She gave a tiny smile. “None of you are allowed in it, but I’m sure I could bring you something. It’s not a big library. It’s in the keep, near my room on the third floor…if you ever would like to call upon me.” She batted her long eyelashes at me in a way that had to be practiced.
Even if she were closer to my age, this whole thing would still be terribly uncomfortable. I didn’t appreciate being courted by someone who clearly was used to getting everything she wanted. I figured
Kataleya must feel the same way when Reuben plainly showed interest in her with a strong waft of expectation attached to each interaction.
But Callie seemed to pick up on my reluctance. She stepped back. “As a friend, of course,” she added.
“I do appreciate your friendship,” I agreed.
Her smile seemed disingenuous. “Can I fetch something from the library for you? What spell are you working on?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to take a princess away from her studies.” My eyes went toward the door. “I’m sure there are many important things you are learning each day.”
She made a noise that, shockingly, sounded to be a snort. “Right.” She looked at me. “Oh, are you serious?”
Surprised by her reaction, I let out a small laugh. “I was.”
“Jon, you must have no idea how boring my days are. In between my studies of math, geography, and writing, I have to learn all the history of each noble family. I’m lectured many hours of every day. There is very little time for me to learn what I actually want to learn.”
“What’s that?”
“Magic, of course. That’s why I’m so interested in what you’re doing. Oh, dear. I hope you didn’t have the impression that I wanted to be courted by you?” She laughed snidely. “I said earlier I could marry any man I wanted so long as my father approved.” She reached out and touched my arm. “I don’t mean to offend, but you do not have wealth or land. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings just now. We can be friends, yes?”
“Yes,” I said with a smile. “We can be friends.” I wasn’t bothered by her statement, even if it was the truth.
“So you will call upon me one of these days?” she asked. “As a friend?”
“When I have some time off from training, I will.” It was an empty promise, but what else could I say to her right now? “I do appreciate your offer to retrieve something from the library for me, but I have to return to training in the courtyard soon.”
“At least tell me what you’re working on so I can drop something off later.”
I supposed I didn’t see the harm if she was just going to be dropping off a scroll. I didn’t imagine the king could really be angry for me trying to improve myself and taking up his daughter’s unromantic offer to help.
“I’m interested in learning Heal, which Leon used on me the other day. I actually think I might be close, but if you find any scrolls about healing I would be happy to read them.”
“Of course! I will look later. Now I should return to my very important studies.” She gave a curtsy.
I bowed.
She ran to my doorway, but stopped to flash a smile over her shoulder. Then I heard her scamper down the hall.
I looked out my window down at the courtyard. Everyone had returned, Charlie included this time. They had begun without me, Leon tossing Charlie out of the circle and a few people chuckling at the surprised face he made as he landed on his ass, his mop of blonde hair bouncing.
I shut the door to my room. I was already pretty good at resisting dteria. I didn’t think I was going to improve much more today from Leon’s effort. Perhaps if a true dark mage was down there. I decided to give myself at least an hour to see what progress I could make with the healing spell. Hopefully, Leon wouldn’t mind.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I got a little too involved with trying to learn the spell. I kept telling myself just another half hour, then just one more after that half hour had passed. This had gone on four times now. I had challenged myself to change my mana into the note of F three times in a row without making a mistake. Unfortunately, I had been at it for the last two hours, and this was after I had already given myself two hours to get to this point.
Everyone was still in the courtyard. Even Grufaeragar remained part of the circle, though Leon rarely targeted him anymore as it seemed to be a waste of time. I hoped our training was showing the krepp that humans were honorable enough to trade with his kind. Just in case it was doing nothing, however, I wondered if I should challenge the krepp to a friendly duel at some point. I wanted to show him just how capable some of us were with the sword.
But after seeing how he had almost smashed Leon’s head in, I was more than a little hesitant. I wasn’t willing to bet my life on Grufaeragar understanding rules.
Someone slipped something under my door. Callie, I realized, as I noticed the scroll rolling back up. She must’ve flattened it to fit it in the small space under my door.
I stood still and held my breath.
“Jon?”
Damn.
“I’m here,” I said.
She didn’t reply. Would it be terribly rude if I didn’t open the door?
Yes, unfortunately.
I picked up the scroll and opened the door. “Thank you,” I said with a bow.
She curtsied.
I had my hand on the door as I looked at her. She still had on her ridiculously elegant dress with wide, flowing sleeves. It was probably difficult for her to do anything with her hands considering all the extra fabric around her wrists.
“I can stay and help if you have any questions after you read it,” she suggested.
I cursed inwardly. I had stayed here too long. I was desperate to finish the challenge I had set for myself and return to the courtyard before Leon had a fit that I’d missed most of the afternoon and evening.
“I should be going back to the courtyard soon,” I said.
“That’s all right. I can help you until then.”
She walked in and sat on my bed.
I let her be and took up the scroll, hoping it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.
“Heal: F, uF.
Vtalia, uF, is the basis of all spells of life. Healing is similar…”
I stopped myself as I realized that I couldn’t trust any of this if I didn’t know who had written it.
“What do you know about these scrolls in your father’s library?” I asked the princess. “For example, do you know who made them?”
She shook her head. “They were here when we took the castle. Barrett looked over all of them and burned the ones that were inaccurate or had something about dteria. All the ones left can be trusted.”
“How does Barrett know so much about magic?” I wondered.
The question stumped her. “I never asked,” she said after a moment. “I’m not sure.”
“What do you know about him?”
She laughed as she asked me, “Why are you so interested in him?”
I wouldn’t tell her that I thought anyone at this point could be responsible for trying to corrupt me. Could even Callie be a suspect?
Now I really felt like I was overreaching. Nothing had happened in a while, and it didn’t seem as if my life had ever really been in danger. Someone had tried to get me to accept an essence of dteria during a pivotal point of my training, but it wasn’t as if I’d been attacked in my sleep or anything like that. Perhaps I should relax a little.
“I was just curious,” I lied, then I continued reading.
“Healing is similar to using earth (llB). Healing relies on the use of octaves rather than a variety of notes to alter the energy of mana. By decreasing the vibration by half or doubling it, a healer relies on the power of mana alone to mend cuts and bruises. The force of the spell increases the healing, but a considerable amount of mana is required to heal even superficial wounds.”
I stopped there. Of course. Why did I not remember that an octave, like the difference between F and uF, was just twice the amount of vibrations? Other than that, they were the same. I handed the scroll to Callie.
“I need to try something.”
I closed my eyes and readied F to be casted. That alone was a complicated process, but I had done it enough times for it to be second nature. My mana was an aura. I didn’t grab all of it, only a small portion. My mana was normally uF, an octave above F. If I focused hard, I should be able to feel when a portion of my mana was vibrating in the same way as my na
tural mana, only at half the speed.
I fiddled with it for a little while as I strained my mind to feel for dissonance. It reminded me of how my father and I sometimes sang with a few musicians in my town. I wasn’t very good, but I did have experience trying to match the sound of a single note with my voice. The closer I was, the more tension I felt, until suddenly it matched and the tension was gone.
There it was, F. I felt a tingle down my back. I was certain I had it when I felt the tension disappear between it and my natural mana of uF.
I knew how to find it now. It was different than memorizing the other notes, which all felt subtly different but also similar in that they were all strange. This one was almost my natural mana. The only difference was that it was lower. When I was close, there was a great tension. It was an easy sign to look for when finding F over and over again.
I was certain I had it as I casted it a few times in front of me. I didn’t have to check the vibmtaer, but I did anyway as I pushed out my hand toward where it sat on my bed, near the princess.
Callie looked with me. Then she checked the color chart. “You got it!”
“Yeah, I figured it out now,” I said with a triumphant smile.
She jumped off the bed. “Because of the scroll I brought?”
“Yes. That helped a lot.”
“I’m so glad!” She hugged the base of my torso, pressing her cheek against my shoulder.
I put one arm around her in my attempt to politely return the embrace without encouraging her. Soon it was over and she went back to sitting on my bed.
I heard footsteps coming soon after I resumed practicing. Aliana appeared in the doorway. She looked upset at the sight of the princess on my bed. “Jon,” she scolded, “you haven’t been in the courtyard for a while. What are you doing?”
