The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1

by Rachel Ronning

  “There are several methods for performing magic. Wizards use their voices, hand movements, and their minds. Most wizards master one form of magic and can use the other two to assist in cases when it is necessary. Some wizards master all three methods, as some more advanced spells require all three either of one wizard or a group where each individual performs a section of the spell perfectly in sync with the other two. In this class, you will learn some very basic spells. Your book will give you the mental instruction and describe the hand motions, and the words and intonation for each spell. The goal is to give you all a basic understanding of using these methods and discover which area you excel in. The area you excel in will help determine some of the courses you take after this. If you turn out to be vocally inclined, for example, we may recommend voice lessons.”

  Maryn continued to explain for several minutes, and Lucy’s mind began to wander. Although this was interesting, she was ready to do something. She could read about theory in a book. Finally Maryn reached the end of her lecture and directed them to the tables. Lying on the tables were matchboxes. Each student stood by one.

  “Today we will start with something simple. In magic, the size of the object rarely matters, but I find students are intimidated if I bring in large, heavy objects. You may not be able to do anything. You may be able to use all three methods. This is just the beginning so don’t worry. What you are to do, is simply flip the matchbox over, any direction you choose. This can be useful for things like turning a page so you can practice while reading pages one through forty-six of Spells for Everyone.”

  Everyone smiled at that comment. Any teacher who turned homework into more homework or who managed to imply homework could be fun was one to watch out for. Lucy was still eager to practice, and now that her reading was piling up it looked like she would have plenty of opportunities to do so.

  Maryn continued, “The hand motion for this one is very simple. Lay your hand out flat, palm up. All you do is turn your hand over so your palm faces down. The voice command is ‘la-ti-ca’ with the emphasis on the first syllable. With your mind, you have to visualize it turning over. Feel it, sense it, and simply turn it over. Please try all three methods. I’ll walk around and see how everyone is doing.”

  Lucy looked doubtfully at the matchbox. Then she remembered the moonstones and felt a small burst of confidence. She could do this. Lucy closed her eyes and visualized the matchbox in her head. She visualized it turning over and opened her eyes. Lucy looked at the matchbox. She wasn’t sure if the top looked any different than the bottom or if she had managed to move it at all. She closed her eyes again and visualized it turning onto its side instead. This time, when she opened her eyes, it was on its side.

  “Very good,” said Maryn. “Not many students can do that on their first try. Just so you know, you do not have to close your eyes. It might help you concentrate at first, but it can be a bad habit to get into. Try it with your eyes open; then try the other two methods.” Maryn raised an eyebrow as a guy at another table fainted. “He must have locked his knees while concentrating. Try not to do that. He’ll come ‘round in a moment.” Maryn moved on to the next student.

  Lucy stared at the matchbox and concentrated. Sure enough she watched it turn over. Well, she thought, one down two to go. Still, she was relieved that she was not proving totally unteachable. She decided to try the hand motion next and was pleased to find similar results. She liked using her hands, but it did give away what you were about to do. Also, she was not sure how complicated a hand motion she could keep up with. It would be a shame to accidentally make something explode.

  A guy, Philip, she thought he had been in her healing class, managed to set his matchbox on fire. Maryn calmly put it out with a wave of her hand, and gave him another matchbox. This was much more exciting than Calculus thought Lucy.

  Lucy focused her attention back to her matchbox.

  “Latica,” she said quietly. “Latica,” she repeated a bit louder. Lucy bit lower lip feeling slightly frustrated.

  “Hey, you managed the first two ok, don’t give up on the third so easily,” said the black-haired boy standing next to her.

  “Lucy,” she introduced herself with a smile.

  “Darren,” he replied. “Really, just keep trying. I haven’t been able to move mine an inch.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll manage,” said Lucy trying to sound encouraging.

  Lucy tried again. On her fifth attempt it worked. Lucy spent the rest of the class flipping the matchbox as fast as she could, switching to a different method with each flip. This was fun. Beside her, Darren had managed to make his matchbox almost flip with the hand motion. Maryn smiled and assured him with practice he’d be able to do it in no time. Not all the students were able to flip their matchboxes. Lucy was sad when class was over. The first bit of homework she was going to do that night was read her homework for this class, and possibly the whole book. She might not be able to use any weapon they could think up, which she’d find out tomorrow, but she could sure flip a matchbox.

  Lucy walked to her next class, Introduction to Potions. Here each table had a cauldron on it. The teacher was an old wizard. His long white beard flowed down his blue robes to reach the floor, and he had more wrinkles than Lucy had ever seen on anyone. He shuffled into the room and introduced himself as Nicodemus.

  Nicodemus explained they would be learning the basics of potion brewing, hence the name of the class. He impressed upon them the wisdom of following instructions to the letter or else vile outcomes could transpire. All their supplies would be provided for this class. For those interested in continuing, they would be required to purchase a cauldron and a set of basic ingredients. Then he assigned pages one through fifteen including a hint that the potion they would try next class was in those pages.

  Then it was time for dinner. Lucy found her way to the Dining Hall. She was getting good at this map thing. Soon, she hoped, she would be able to find her way around without it. Lucy grabbed dinner and looked around for Justin and company. She did not see anyone. Maybe I beat them here, thought Lucy. She chose a table, set down her tray, and pulled out Potions for Beginners. She would have preferred to start with her Intro to Magic homework, but the potions assignment was the shortest. She might be able to finish reading fifteen pages before the others showed up, and then that would be one piece of homework done. Lucy had enjoyed the day. Now that the pleasantries of these classes were over, she looked forward to getting into the meat of things. Tomorrow would hold all new classes.

  Justin arrived first. He sat down next to Lucy, startling her.

  “You startle easily,” laughed Justin.

  “Sorry, I just get too deep into my thoughts sometimes,” responded Lucy. It did bother her that he seemed to have a tendency to sneak up on her. Usually that did not happen to Lucy.

  “Did you learn anything today?” asked Justin in a mocking motherly tone.

  Lucy had always hated it when her mother had asked her that.

  “One or two things,” said Lucy casually.

  “Like what?” he asked, sounding more interested and less mocking.

  Lucy shrugged and smiled, watching him closely out of the corner of her eyes. To her satisfaction, he jumped as his meatloaf concoction turned over.

  “You startle easily,” said Lucy innocently.

  “My my, you did learn something today,” Justin sounded serious, but he smiled as he said it so Lucy didn’t think anything of it as Maya and Gavin sat down.

  “Did you just flip over Justin’s meatloaf?” wondered Maya.

  “Who me?” asked Lucy, “A mere beginner?”

  Maya smiled and let it pass. She had spent part of her afternoon taking singing lessons and was downing water in an attempt at soothing her vocal chords. She excelled in voice magic.

  After dinner, they invited her to a study room. Lucy declined. She wanted to start on her homework and maybe catch an early night. She was tired and had a physical day ahead o
f her tomorrow, weapons and horses. Justin offered to escort her to her room and then said he would meet up with Maya and Gavin.

  “So, what do you think so far?” asked Justin.

  “I love it, but ask me again tomorrow after I get my butt kicked by a training master and horse.”

  “Don’t you like horses?”

  “I love horses, but I’ve never ridden before. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m not counting on a perfect first time,” said Lucy.

  “Maybe you’ll be a natural,” suggested Justin.

  “I was a natural today in my Intro to Magic course. I don’t expect to excel at everything.”

  “Why not?”

  “It seems unreasonable.”

  “Does it? Positive thinking will get you a long way you know.”

  “Are you a positive thinker?” asked Lucy.

  “Not at all,” laughed Justin, “I’m a realistic pessimist, but I like to try to encourage others to choose a better state of mind.”

  Lucy smiled.

  They reached her door and Lucy opened it. Lucy asked that her moonstones give her light and was rewarded almost instantly.

  “I bid you happy studying and goodnight,” said Justin with the same mock bow as yesterday and he turned and walked down the hall.

  Lucy entered her room, closed the door, and fell onto her bed. She lay there a moment, enjoying the comfort and thinking about how wonderful her day had been. Then she sat up and dragged her potions book towards her. She might as well finish one assignment before starting another one. She finished potions, flipping pages the whole way, and moved on to healing. Lucy decided she would save her Intro to Magic homework for tomorrow. That would give her something to look forward to if her classes did not go well. She finished reading and managed to write about Aloe and its uses. She tried to do her best to include what she felt was necessary without barraging her teacher with superfluous information that the teacher already knew. Lucy felt it was important to include that there were over 250 different species of aloe plant, but she did not feel the need to name them. Most important was to include the information that it was the gel or pulp of the plant that held the healing powers. The skin had no apparent healing value. Lucy stifiled a yawn as she finished writing the last sentence.

  Lucy briefly wondered what time it was, then decided it did not matter. She was tired and a large portion of her homework was done. None of it was due until Wednesday, but she had developed the habit of doing homework when she knew she had time rather than relying on possible time later. She doubted she would get much homework assigned tomorrow, only bumps and bruises. It was harder to concentrate on the assignments of the mind when your whole body ached, and Lucy anticipated that she would be limping around tomorrow. Lucy brushed her teeth, washed her face, put on her silk pajamas, and climbed into bed. Her mind was so busy, but it jumped from thought to thought rather than settling on anything long enough for her to think about it. It took her longer to fall asleep tonight than it had the night before.

  Chapter 8

  Lucy awoke the next morning and stretched. She usually liked to shower in the mornings, but she was probably going to be disgusting by the end of the day so she thought she might as well wait. She put on her training clothes, tied her hair up and out of the way, and made her way to the Dining Hall without using her map. She was very proud of that accomplishment.

  “You look ready to fight,” was Maya’s greeting to her.

  “I don’t know about ready, but I’m willing to give it a decent try,” replied Lucy. She was nervous. She had been moderately athletic all her life, but she had never had to fight with weapons before.

  “Don’t worry about a thing,” said Gavin with a wave of his hand. “If you are terrible at one method of fighting, you’re bound to be better at another one. If you need extra help, that’s one area I can manage. Just let me know.”

  Lucy thanked him for his offer of help even though she was not sure she would take him up on it. She was enjoying the fact that she was making friends. Could you stay friends with someone who routinely and ruthlessly beat you up with weapons even if it was for your own good? At the same time, could you respect someone you beat all the time? She did not want to look like a fool in front of him, or any of her new friends for that matter.

  Lucy barely touched her food even though Justin assured her she would need her strength for what ever they were doing. All too soon, breakfast was over and it was time to head towards embarrassment.

  Lucy found her way to the practice grounds and was relieved to recognize Chloe, Darren, Philip and a few others from her classes. She hoped they would all be in the same boat. She did not look like the only nervous person there. It turned out weapons was one of the few classes that was co-taught. They were introduced to Orin, the weapons master who was a gruff dwarf mostly hidden behind a beard. Lucy hoped she did not have to spar with him. Orin introduced them to Tannin.

  Tannin was a centaur. His long black hair was tied back and flowed down to the horse part of him, which was all black as well. He had piercing blue eyes so light they were almost white, a tanned and muscular torso and surprisingly delicate facial features. Tannin was there to supplement their training and, once they became proficient enough riding horses, he would teach them how to fight on horseback and spar with them. Lucy turned paler at the thought of fighting on horseback. She was quite sure she would never reach that level of competence.

  “Many days we will divide the morning between two different activities,” said Orin, pacing back and forth in front of them. “To master most styles of fighting, it is important to be in shape. Thus, we will start the day with some forms of exercise and then move on to a weapon. I suggest you start stretching,” he mentioned, almost as an afterthought and the class immediately began to bend over, touch their toes, stretch their calves, and generally limber up as he continued to talk. “As soon as you arrive each morning, it is important that you start stretching. I like my warriors in shape, and I like them healthy. Immediately tell one of us if anything hurts. Do not dismiss what you think are minor injuries. That is how major injuries develop or how infection sets in.”

  Orin was reminding her of what she imagined a kind drill sergeant to be like. He hadn’t called them all maggots yet, but he definitely expected them to perform and get in shape.

  “Follow me,” said Orin and he walked to the edge of some woods bordering the practice grounds.

  He moved quickly for someone with such short legs. The class saw a trail winding through the woods and it looked like it might be an obstacle course.

  “We shall start today with my obstacle course. I expect you to finish it quickly, and I expect you to finish sooner each time we do this. Sometimes the goal will be to get through as fast as you can as a group, helping each other along the way. Other times we want you to try for individual bests. Sometimes, there will be other rules or goals. Today, get through however you can as fast as you can. Start now,” said Orin.

  The class stood there for a moment, surprised at the suddenness of starting something so soon. Then they took off running. Orin stayed where he was, but Tannin trotted along beside them. He hadn’t said anything yet, but he set a challenging pace and expected them to keep up.

  Sure enough, it was an obstacle course. They had barely made it around the first curve when there were tree branches blocking the road at different heights.

  “Get through however you can today, later we will be more specific on which branches you are to go over or under,” said Tannin, moving off to the side, walking beside the obstacle.

  Lucy was on the shorter side and used that to her advantage. She ran under anything that was higher than her waist, which was more than half the logs and leapt or climbed over anything shorter than that. She was beginning to breathe harder, but was pleased to find she was not the last one through and kept running, picking up the pace as Tannin did.

  Next they came to a pit with four logs spanning it. The pit was deep enough that if
you fell, you might twist an ankle if you landed wrong, but not deep enough to break anything. There were rope ladders on the starting side that you could climb up if you fell, but none on the other side. Obviously, you had to make it across eventually. Lucy hesitated for two seconds, chose an end log and sprinted across without looking down. The best way to do something like that was to focus on something eye-height ahead of you and keep a steady pace. Looking down would only help you lose your balance. Luckily for Lucy, there was a little red bird at a good height for her on the other side of the pit. Lucy reached the other side and noticed that Darren had had the same idea. They smiled at each other and kept running. Lucy could hear a gasp behind her and knew someone had fallen into the pit. She did not stop or look back to find out who.

  Darren and Lucy were shortly behind Tannin, leading the pack. They came to a high wall with ropes attached at the top and hanging down. Lucy and Darren each grabbed one and began to climb. Darren was faster than Lucy and was down the other side before she reached the top. Lucy struggled a little climbing the rope; she had never had much arm strength. She reached the bottom and kept running. Her breath was coming in gasps.

  She reached the next obstacle. It was what one might call a gauntlet of sorts. There were tree trunks larger than Lucy could hug rigged to swing back and forth between two rows of closely planted trees. She could hear Darren grunt ahead of her and figured he must have been hit by one of the trunks. Lucy watched the trunks, trying to follow the rhythm, and then she looked down at the ground. Well, there was no one to say she actually had to go through them. She lay down on the ground. There was just enough room between the two lines of trees for her to fit. She put her hands over her face to protect it and began to roll as fast as she could. The swinging trunks were so close they almost brushed her every time she was on one of her sides. Finally, she wondered if she was out yet and peered through her fingers, opening her eyes. She hadn’t realized she had shut them. Lucy was clear of the trunks and had actually rolled an extra ten feet or so.