In her healing class, they learned to identify a variety of plants that could be used to heal as well as ones that could be poisonous. This also helped her better understand the vegetable category in the Apothecary. They learned how to mix up salves, tinctures, and poultices. Lucy’s least favorite day was the day they learned how to stitch together wounds. They practiced on bits of soft leather, but Lucy still got queasy at the thought of stitching together human skin. This had led to a discussion of the necessity of learning something that could be better done with magic. Maryn pointed out that magic had different effects on people depending on the world they were in, but weapons still did damage and stitches still closed wounds. If you were too tired to heal, or if using magic would give away your position to other magic uses, this would help your companion avoid bleeding to death. Lucy couldn’t argue the validity of that so she stitched away and ate fruit for dinner. Lucy also ate fruit the day they learned how to set bones and hoped she never had to do that for real either. They learned different mixtures to cure horses as well since that was the major mode of transportation in most worlds. It was best to know if something like fennel will help with hoof rot or give your horse an upset stomach. There was always one more thing to remember.
Lucy no longer attended Intro to Magic. Finally, with a little of Eric’s influence Lucy was sure, they dumped her into Justin’s Magic as Weaponry class since he was going to teach her everything he learned anyways. This still meant she had a lot of extra work to do, but Justin helped her through it. Maya helped her with the verbal spell part since that was still a weakness. Lucy felt it gave an enemy warning though and did not focus her energies towards progressing in that vein.
Also, between her friends, she was fast tracking all knowledge of Kinowenn it was possible to get her hands on. She had studied and taken tests on geography, climate, customs, history, astronomy, and literature. Lucy did have problems with the languages though. Maya did her best, but recognized that Lucy and Gavin might be lost causes when it came to linguistic prowess. After Lucy managed to learn the most commonly spoken languages, it was as if she developed a block to learn any of the others. She learned to read them, but her speech was horrendous.
Lucy appreciated the fact that they were all so busy that she did not have any more awkward moments with Darren. They kept their conversations to school work. He did tease her about her lack of mace skills, and she teased him about somehow making it rain out of a daffodil, but other than that things were genial and normal. Neither of them mentioned the matchbox.
Then there was a school announcement, followed shortly by another announcement. These were generally not made at once by a person’s voice. You went to walk out your door one morning, and there was an envelope attached to it. Inside was piece of paper. The first one came that morning.
Due to the general curiosity of the staff and the hopeful enjoyment of the students, we will be holding a team competition. There will be four people to each team. There will be a variety of interesting challenges that test your skills so choose your teams wisely. Submit your teams on a piece of paper in the box by the Dining Hall. Enjoy.
Lucy was at first excited and intrigued. Of course, Justin, Maya, Gavin, and her would be team. She wondered what kinds of challenges they would be facing. She was pretty sure they could stand against anything. Between all their talents, they were a well rounded group. Gavin was the best fighter in the school. Maya could speak any language, learn any custom, and brew any potion. Justin could heal, talk to animals, was generally knowledgeable, and strong in basic magic skills. Lucy felt she was becoming formidable with her magic skills. Her ability to communicate with Justin could be useful. She wouldn’t be a detriment in a fight unless they gave her a mace. The more she thought about it, the more curious she became. Why had Justin befriended her that first day? Why had Maya and Gavin automatically accepted her?
Lucy stuffed the announcement in her pocket and made her way to the Dining Hall. She was not interested in breakfast; she intended to have a chat with Justin. Had they worked her this hard with the intention of winning a silly competition? What happened after that? By the time she had gone down one staircase, Lucy didn’t know if she wanted to cry or break something, but she was definitely angry. Sensing that either option was best done away from a crowd, she headed towards the practice ground.
“Justin!” she practically shouted.
“Yes?” Lucy sounded angry, and he had never seen her angry.
Lucy was glad to note he sounded apprehensive.
“Practice ground. Now.”
“What about breakfast?” he cowardly tried to put off the inevitable.
“If you are not here in five minutes I’m going to sing John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt as loud as I possibly can in my head all day long. Besides the general annoyance that will cause you, I’ll be loud enough that by the end of day Eric will probably do just about anything to get me to stop.”
“I’m on my way.”
Justin ran from the Dining Hall, his breakfast unfinished. He really hated that song. Besides, Lucy was probably justifiably mad, and she deserved some type of explanation. He just wasn’t sure exactly what kind of explanation to give. As soon as he saw the notice, he knew it would mean trouble. Justin had already been to talk to Eric about it. Justin wasn’t sure if Eric was being intentionally obtuse or if he simply had no concept of how Lucy was going to react to this. As he neared the practice ground, he could see Lucy pacing. Justin hoped this didn’t go too badly. He preferred not to duck fire balls so soon after eating. He knew Lucy could lash out with some formidable magic, and she might be mad enough not to care that they were probably evenly matched when it came to power. He wasn’t sure if his experience could offset her fury. Justin fervently hoped she hadn’t progressed to fury.
Hearing him approach, Lucy turned to face him.
“You shouted?” Justin tried to appear at ease, but that was far from the case. Normally, he was only a couple of inches taller than Lucy, but her anger made her seem taller.
“I assume you read the announcement,” Lucy stated.
Justin nodded.
“Was it an accident that you bumped into me on my first day?”
“Not entirely. I knew Eric was bringing in a new student and I wanted to meet a new student.” That was partly true.
“Did you know about my magic potential?” she was pacing again.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I overheard Eric and Quinn talking.”
“So you thought you’d show me the ropes? You had no other ulterior motives?”
“I wanted to meet you. If you seemed like a decent person, I was willing to continue showing you the ropes,” Justin wished she would stop pacing.
“Did you recruit me?” she stopped pacing and looked at him.
“To win a competition?” Justin asked to clarify. This was dangerous territory.
Lucy nodded.
“No.” He hadn’t known about the competition then.
“Are you sure? We’d make a great team you know.”
“Yes, we would make a good team.”
“I’ll ask again, did you recruit me?”
“Not for this competition,” he replied with assurance.
“Not for this competition?” Lucy repeated.
Too late, Justin realized the hole he had dug with that one statement. He winced as her eyes started to fill with tears.
“What for then?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Of course you can’t! What about Gavin and Maya?”
“They don’t know either, not really.”
“Using them too are you?”
“No.”
“How many others?”
“What?”
“How many other new students did you meet before deciding I might make a nice fourth?”
“Lucy…”
“Is this a game to you?”
“No!”
“What if I ha
dn’t measured up to your expectations?”
“You’ve exceeded them,” Justin was having trouble keeping up with the disarrayed order of logic.
“What happens after?”
“After what?”
“After whatever you want to use me for is over?”
“It’s not like that.” Justin wanted to explain but wasn’t sure how or where to start. Not to mention, he wasn’t sure if he was safe from any type of magical explosion.
“What’s it like then? Explain it to me. Because right now I feel like I’m being used. I thought I had friends, but all I am is someone to train to be something they need. I am hurt and angry, and if you don’t start explaining, I’m walking away and you can find another fourth to win some stupid competition. So what’s it like Justin?”
Justin opened his mouth, closed it, and looked at her helplessly.
“It’s not like that,” he repeated.
Lucy waited for him to continue for about ten seconds. When he didn’t appear to be willing to add anything, her rage boiled over. All the weeks of training, both magical and physical, and in her rage and sense of betrayal, she bypassed them all and slapped him as hard as she could.
Justin’s brown eyes flew open in shock. He had been expecting some type of magical attack. He hadn’t been ready to block that, and his head flew sideways with the impact. He was sure the whole left side of his face was red. By the time Justin recovered enough from the shock of getting slapped, she was running back towards the school.
“Lucy!” he called after her.
She didn’t even pause.
“Lucy!” Justin could feel his thoughts bounce back to him as though she had slammed a door. Upset, he started to follow.
“Justin, go to class. I’ll talk to Lucy,” Eric’s calm voice came through.
Justin sighed. He wasn’t sure if that was the best course of action to take, but Lucy wasn’t going to listen to him any time soon. He felt dreadful. He had never meant to hurt her.
Lucy ran as fast as she could back towards her room. She felt awful. She felt terrible that she has slapped Justin, and she felt terrible for how he had made her feel. She was back in seventh grade all over again. Her lab partner had been nice to her for four days in a row. She didn’t understand why, but she enjoyed it, especially because she had kind of had a crush on him. Then she overheard some people talking and found out he had only been nice to her because another guy had bet him he couldn’t do it. She had let herself be fooled again. She felt humiliated.
She threw open the door to her room, slammed it with her mind, flopped onto her bed, and cried with abandon. Lucy sobbed until all her anger and frustration lay in tears on her pillow. She was missing class, but she didn’t care. Finally, she fell asleep.
When she woke up, she felt groggy, and her eyes were still sore from crying. She washed her face and sat back down on her bed, trying to figure out what to do next. She wondered what the protocol was for skipping class. It was then that she observed the note on her door. It was from Eric, requesting her presence in his room. Lucy sighed. She was not sure she wanted to talk to Eric. Besides which, he probably knew about her yelling at Justin earlier. He would also know she skipped class, which couldn’t be a good thing. She didn’t know how he would know, but she got the impression that not much happened at school that Eric didn’t know about. Determined to at least get some answers, she took a deep breath, opened her door, and started down the hallway to meet Eric.
Chapter 25
Lucy’s feet dragged as she walked to Eric’s room. She knocked on the door when she reached it and entered.
“Good afternoon,” Eric greeted her somewhat formally.
“Good afternoon,” Lucy replied stiffly.
“Sit,” Eric motioned towards a chair, and Lucy sat. “You skipped class.”
“Yes.”
“Care to explain why?”
“Not particularly,” she replied hating the way she sounded childish, but she didn’t feel that her emotional upheaval was a valid excuse for skipping class nor worth getting into with someone in a position of power.
“Ok, since this is the first class you have intentionally skipped, I’ll let that go, but impress upon you the importance of attending class. Should you skip class again, there will be consequences.”
Lucy nodded. She did not intend to make of habit of skipping classes.
“Good. Now, let’s talk about Justin.”
“Must we?” Lucy asked with a pained expression on her face.
“We must. Your anger is misplaced. Justin was keeping a few things quiet because I asked him to. He wasn’t sure how much he could explain to you. That is not his fault. Perhaps we should have gone about things differently.”
“Perhaps,” Lucy agreed. “It’s always difficult to make that call. I assume you have answers for me then.”
“I have some. Quinn and I talked a few things over and decided we would like a group of students with compatible and varied skills to be able to send out on certain assignments. I know that sounds interesting and you’d like more information, but I’m not going to give that to you. We started with Justin for a variety of reasons, which you may learn later. He has been involved in creating a group. Also, there is a tendency of people who are very good at things to gravitate towards others who are good at things for a challenge if nothing else. We watch for people who might work well with other people. Not everyone works well with others. We’d like the group to be ready as soon as possible, and you seemed the ideal to throw into the mix.”
“Why me?”
“First of all, you are powerful and have a lot of potential. We do some research on all applicants. You show a tendency to learn quickly and become bored if you are not challenged. You tend to work alone not so much from preference but in an attempt to avoid the gross stupidity of your average peer group. Arranging the correct peer group could do you and the group a lot of good. So, yes, we asked Justin to meet you and to feel out if you might work well with them.”
“So they are using me,” said Lucy, not sure if she should be flattered or angry.
“You could see it that way,” Eric allowed. “However, if you look at it that way, you could also say that you are using them. By training with the best we have, even though they are not in your daily classes you challenge yourself, learn more, and advance beyond your peer group. Without Gavin, your battle skills would not be nearly as good. Maya and Justin helped you study for your potions exam, a class you would still be taking if we hadn’t made allowances for you. Not to mention, we’ve had to call in special tutors just for Maya as she acquires languages. No one could be a better tutor for you as you start to learn languages. As I said before, you have power and learn quicker than most. If you hadn’t had someone to help you control it and challenge you, you might have become bored and done who knows what to whom at this point. Not every student shoots fire out of their hands when they get scared,” he smiled. “Justin provided that help. We were afraid you would become a hermit, intent on study. We chose to try to give you a group to study with. Also, you all seemed to get along. Another thing to point out is that it was and still is your choice to spend time with them. We require our students to go to class, but you can spend your free time with whomever you choose. You could have spent more time with your other classmates. You choose to spend time with these people, seek them out, and challenge yourself.”
“Why not tell me all this to begin with?”
“A valid question, but one with inherent flaws. We needed to see how you did. We could guess, but we could not know how fast you would learn or if you would be as good as we thought. You seemed pleasant enough when I met you, but that did not mean you would get along with Justin, Maya, and Gavin. Not to mention, our brief research into your history implied you deplored group assignments, especially ones where the teachers picked who you had to work with. You would have rebelled if I had made you do it. Justin has a certain charm about him. We thought you might respond better
to that.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be mad at him then.”
“No.”
“Why this group competition then? You had to know that I would wonder what was going on.”
“Justin implied that same thing, minutes after the message was sent,” Eric mused. “No, I did not think you would get as angry as you did. Another professor suggested the team competition. They thought it might be fun. Quinn and I thought it would be a good chance to see how well groups could work together and how well our somewhat selected group compared and was progressing. Your group is the trial run. We have not done this before. Generally we do not do a lot of group work, and we thought the competition might be fun. There are single competitions for students to enter such as the archery challenge once a year or Orin’s day of physical endurance. No one is forced to participate in this competition, and it should be fun to watch.”
“Wow, I kind of feel like an idiot now.”
“Don’t worry about it. Justin and I are the only ones who know about your outburst. Which brings up another item we need to discuss.”
“I slapped Justin?”
“You slapped Justin.”
“I suppose there is a consequence?”
“We generally frown on our students physically abusing each other outside of training.”
“Understandable,” Lucy couldn’t disagree. She could have stuck to verbal arguments. She deserved to be punished.
“Under the circumstances, I’ll let it go, but it will not be accepted again.”
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 17
