“Vanilla cookies, the little round ones they sell in the cafeteria. I think she might have a crush on you, so be careful.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“Crystal! Let’s go.”
Conryu stared at the girls’ backs as they marched up the stairs. What had he gotten himself into now?
“You joined a club?”
Maria sounded as surprised as he felt. He’d just finished his five-minute visit with Angus and left the professor sputtering and indignant. The old man just couldn’t take a hint. If he wanted to write a book about Conryu he’d just have to make up the details and hope Conryu didn’t decide to sue for libel.
He’d found Maria waiting for him on the steps to the main building. Since none of the clubs would accept him as a member she’d refused to join one as well. Hopefully now that he’d found a group, she’d go do whatever it was she wanted to do.
“Yeah. The golem club. I thought it might be like shop class. I haven’t built anything in weeks so it should be fun. Plus you can go stargazing if you want to without feeling guilty.”
“It wasn’t about feeling guilty!” she sputtered and looked away.
He grinned and kissed her on the cheek. “If you say so. Anyway, I appreciate the gesture, but now you can join a club of your own.”
He glanced at the shadows spreading across the grounds. He had about an hour before he was supposed to meet the rest of the club, plenty of time to pick up snacks and make the short walk over. “You want to come with me? I need to make a stop then head over to the club shop.”
Maria chewed her lip for a moment then shook her head. “The alchemy club is meeting in the school lab. They said if I wanted to join I should stop in anytime.”
“Cool. See you at lunch?”
Maria smiled. “Absolutely. And be careful. The last time you went off by yourself bad things happened.”
“I’m always careful. Besides, I’ve learned a few tricks since last time. If they want to fight I’m ready.”
She grabbed his robe and pulled his face down so their noses were almost touching. “Don’t do anything stupid. Even if you have learned a dark magic spell, you’re no match for a more experienced wizard. Promise me.”
“I promise, okay? Geez, you’re worse than my mom.”
She stared into his eyes for a moment longer then nodded. “Until lunch then.”
Maria trotted up the steps and disappeared into the school. Conryu shook his head and set out for the cafeteria. He picked up two bags of chips, some foil-wrapped chocolates, and a bag of vanilla cookies which he hid in a pocket of his robe. With his supplies gathered Conryu marched out of the dorm and east toward the woods.
It was a short walk to the golem club’s workshop. When Sonja said it was a shed she wasn’t kidding. He doubted ten people could fit in the building if it started raining. The roof looked sound at least and the rough-hewn boards covering the sides were solid. A barn door on runners concealed whatever was inside. There was no lock, but then again in a school filled with wizards a simple lock probably wouldn’t amount to much anyway.
None of the other members had arrived yet and Conryu had a moment of doubt. Maybe Sonja had just invited him out here to give them all a laugh at his expense.
“Oh, hi. You’re the first one to arrive.” Sonja approached from the north. She looked all around for the others, but there was no sign of them.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to be late on my first day.”
“Oh.” She scratched her head and refused to look at him. “Um, want to have a look at the shop?”
“You bet. I’m excited to see what’s going on.”
Sonja hurried over and tugged on the door. It didn’t budge. A string of loud and virulent curses was followed by a swift kick from the little wizard.
“Let me give you a hand.” Conryu reached over her head and yanked on the door. It slid open a foot and Sonja pulled it the rest of the way open.
To say the inside was unimpressive would be an understatement. The spider and starfish sat on a piece of plywood suspended between a pair of sawhorses. A heap of scrap metal fit only for the smelter filled the rear of the shed. There was no welder or power tools. In fact the only tools in the shop were a hammer, some pliers, and a small punch. How the hell could you build anything with that crap?
“It’s… something. Don’t you have any tools?”
“We’re only allowed to use magic. If we need a particular tool we have to make it from scratch. The whole point of the clubs is to improve your magic skills after all.”
“How do you weld?”
“A combination of earth and fire magic. I heat the metal, making it soft enough to shape then Crystal or one of the other girls fuses the two pieces together on a molecular level with earth magic. If you build your golem any other way you’re not allowed to enter the Brawl.”
Conryu was starting to think he’d made a mistake joining this club. “Brawl?”
Sonja’s eyes lit up. “The annual Grand Brawl. Golem clubs from all over the Alliance come here the week before winter break and we pit our creations against each other in a giant battle royal. The winner is the club whose golem is still standing at the end.”
“Is there a prize?”
“Just bragging rights and your club members’ names on the trophy. Though one year an especially dominant team got a contract from the military to build combat golems for the army. They haven’t come back to compete again.”
“How did you guys do last year?”
“Terrible.” She shot him a fierce glare. “This year’s going to be different. Blinky 2.0 is going to crush the competition.”
Conryu looked over her head at the ill-made heap of rusty legs jutting at various angles from what looked like two small buckets welded together to make a body. He doubted that piece of junk could crush a soda can. He dug the vanilla cookies out of his pocket. “I picked these up for you.”
“Crystal talks too much.” She grabbed the cookies and tore them open. “Thanks.”
The rest of the club arrived in short order and Conryu was introduced to Onyx Rose and Jade Smith, the other two earth magic users. The girls were polite if hesitant, not surprising given how most of the school seemed to feel about him.
Once the introductions were taken care of Sonja said, “Let’s take a look at Blinky.”
The little group gathered around the spider golem, filling the shed to bursting. It had metal legs reinforced by struts like he’d suggested. Each leg ended in pointed claws. Its head, if the narrow end of a bucket counted as a head, had eight red stones stuck on it that he assumed represented eyes.
“Pretty awesome, right?” Sonja beamed at him and all but cuddled the ugly metal contraption.
Conryu licked his lips and tried to think of a convincing lie. “It’s got potential, certainly. What sort of spirit does it use for power?”
“We went with an earth spirit since it’s made of metal,” Onyx said.
Jade nodded her agreement. “Earth and fire are the most common spirits for this type of golem and fliers aren’t allowed in the Brawl.”
“That makes sense. What else were you thinking of adding to the structure?”
They all looked at each other and finally Sonja said, “We thought the structure was pretty well set now that we reinforced the legs. We were going to focus on getting Blinky moving fast and smooth.”
Conryu looked the golem over again. The thin metal of its body wouldn’t withstand even a glancing blow and the legs were so scrawny he could probably bend them with his bare hands. The claws on its feet were too short to make effective weapons.
“How about you guys focus on movement and I’ll see about strengthening the structure?”
His suggestion was met with a moment of silence before Crystal said, “That sounds reasonable. Let’s have a snack.”
Conryu wasn’t hungry. His mind was fully occupied with turning a rusty spider into a real weapon.
“It’s time to begin st
udying practical dark magic.”
The chalk squeaked as Mrs. Lenore stood at the blackboard and drew a circle with a series of magical runes inside it. Everyone leaned forward, eager to learn something besides Infernal. They all spoke enough of the demons’ language to hold a simple conversation. Their teacher had deemed them sufficiently fluent to move on to the next phase of their training.
“Okay, this is a basic spell-breaking circle. It is designed to contain and control the dark magic you summon so it only affects the target and none of the people or magic nearby. Any questions before I continue?”
Conryu raised his hand. When she pointed at him he said, “Does spell breaking work like a Dispel magic spell?”
“Mrs. Umbra taught you that one, did she? It’s similar, but more focused. The spell you learned has a broad effect designed to end any spell in a large area. Useful in combat, but not focused enough for ward breaking where you might want to eliminate only a portion of a spell and leave the rest intact.”
He jotted down her explanation in his notes. He certainly saw the need for something to focus his power. If he cast the spell in the wrong place he’d wipe out all the magic in the room.
“Getting this technique mastered is important for many reasons, the most practical of which is it will be the main component of your midterm in two months. The second is that when you graduate, as dark wizards, this will be the task you are most often called on to perform. There’s a huge demand for wizards to remove curses, hexes, and the old wards of buildings in need of demolition or remodeling. You can make an excellent living doing nothing else in most cities in the Alliance.”
The girls all perked up at that. Most of them hadn’t been thrilled with the prospect of being dark aligned, but now that it seemed they could make a living with it their interest had picked up.
Mrs. Lenore wrote a single word in Infernal under the circle. Conryu recognized it as “break.” That made sense, given what they were trying to do. There were a number of Infernal words with similar meanings. Would any of the others work just as well? Probably not if she didn’t say so. One thing he’d learned in his brief time at school: precision was everything.
“Who wants to give it a try?”
Everyone looked back at Conryu. He shrugged. “I guess I will.”
“Excellent. Take out a piece of paper and copy the circle exactly.”
Conryu did as she said. The design of the runes was simple enough and it only took him a minute and change to draw his circle. “Done.”
“Good, come up here and let me check it.”
He walked to the front of the class and handed her his paper. She studied it for a moment, nodded, and handed it back. “Okay, you’re good to go.”
She took a wooden block out of a pocket in her robe and set it on the table. A word in Angelic caused it to glow and float seven inches off the table. “Alright, Conryu, slide your circle under the block and place your hands on either side so the tips of your index fingers are touching the circle, but aren’t inside it.”
He did what she said. “Like this?”
The rest of the class had inched closer to better watch. Mrs. Lenore moved his fingers a hair further from the circle so only the very outer edges grazed the inked line. “That looks good. Now say the spell.”
Calling a single word a spell seemed excessive, but he knew what she meant. “Break!”
The block exploded into fine dust. He winced. “Oops.”
Mrs. Lenore had her forearm over her eyes and the girls were coughing from the dust. “You used a bit too much power. Next time try whispering the word.”
“Sorry.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t take into account your unique situation. This circle should limit your power. I forgot that even limited your power is still way too much for what we’re trying to accomplish.”
“Can I try again?”
She looked away. “Unfortunately I only brought one block. I planned to renew its magic after each of you broke it. I didn’t plan on it getting reduced to sawdust.”
The girls glared at him as they all returned to their seats. They were the ones that wanted him to go first. It didn’t seem fair they were complaining now.
They spent the rest of class practicing drawing the circle until they could do it from memory. When the spirits came to fetch them Mrs. Lenore said, “I’ll bring a new block tomorrow, don’t worry. One day won’t be a big deal.”
The girls all left to enjoy their free period while Conryu remained behind to train with Mrs. Umbra. Mrs. Lenore usually hurried off as well, leaving him to wait alone. Instead she sat in the chair beside him.
“It really isn’t your fault. I should have known what would happen and warned you to speak softly. Angeline, that is Mrs. Umbra, warned me I wasn’t ready to train someone as special as you. She said I needed more experience. I guess she was right.”
She looked so glum that Conryu wanted to give her a hug. “Everybody makes mistakes. God knows I’ve made enough of them. I think you’re doing a great job. We’ll figure it out together.”
“That’s sweet of you to say, but she never would have made that error. Maybe it would be best if you studied with Mrs. Umbra exclusively.”
Conryu didn’t know what to say to that. Certainly the department head was an amazing teacher, but she had other classes and only worked with Conryu twice a week. Add to that the fact that both his teachers were training him in different things and he saw no way forward without both of them.
It surprised him when he realized he really was looking for a way forward. While actually working in the magical field didn’t appeal to him, the more he experienced the more he realized he was a part of this world whether he liked it or not and as such he needed to understand it. His continued survival depended on it.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay in your class. I’ve learned a lot and it helps me with my work with Mrs. Umbra.”
“Really?” Mrs. Lenore sat up straighter.
“Yeah. She takes too much basic knowledge for granted. I bet Mrs. Umbra hasn’t even thought about the stuff you teach for twenty years. It’s all as natural to her as breathing. I, on the other hand, often feel like I’m drowning.”
“Then I’ll be your life preserver.” Mrs. Lenore held out her hand and Conryu shook it.
“Deal.”
Conryu strolled through the dorm doors toward the cafeteria. He smiled as he went, feeling better than he had since learning he had to attend the magic academy. His classes with both dark magic teachers were going well and no one had tried to kill him in almost seven weeks. That was a trend he’d like to see continue.
His seventh morning with the golem club had been much more relaxed than the previous ones. The girls seemed to have realized he didn’t have fangs or claws and wasn’t going to attack them when they turned their backs. He wasn’t entirely certain why they’d thought that in the first place. Maybe it had something to do with all the bad things that happened around him. They might have feared getting caught in the middle.
Whatever the cause, the improvement pleased him mightily. The only problem was Sonja and Onyx were both seniors. He’d barely get to know them and they’d be gone, probably along with the golem club. The other girls enjoyed it, but Sonja was the driving force. Without the diminutive fire wizard to motivate them he doubted the rest of the club would stick together. Not that he minded. It hadn’t turned out to be at all what he expected when he signed up.
He pushed the cafeteria doors open and spotted Maria sitting at the end of their usual table. She had her head in her hands and he thought she might be crying. She hardly ever cried, so something serious must have happened.
Conryu slid into the seat beside her and slipped his arm around her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m just having trouble in class. My wards aren’t working the way they’re supposed to. My teacher says my angles are messed up and my runes are imprecise.”
“You
’re just getting started. She can’t expect you to be perfect after a month and a half.”
“She doesn’t, I do. I had every advantage coming in here. I’ve studied more magical books than all the other girls in my class combined. I should be the best and right now I’m middle of the pack. I don’t find that acceptable.”
Conryu grimaced. Light magic must be really hard if Maria was struggling this much. “Anything I can do to help?”
She smiled and hugged him. “No, but thank you for offering. I’m afraid our disciplines are too different for what you learned to transfer over.”
“I didn’t really think there’d be anything. The idea of me helping you with schoolwork is pretty funny. Hey, did your teacher tell you about our midterms?”
“Not yet. Why, what did you hear?”
“The light magic class is going up against the dark magic class. You guys will ward something and we have to try and break it. We’re studying spell breaking now. It’s kinda cool. Seems I have a knack for it. Though it helps that I have the biggest hammer.”
She stared at him with wide eyes. What had he said now? “You mean if my wards don’t survive I’ll fail?”
“From what I understand you only have to make it past one of thirteen students. We have to break at least one ward to pass.” He tapped his chin, a habit he’d picked up from Mrs. Umbra. “I didn’t think about it before, but that implies at least one person will end up failing.”
“I have to go study.” She leapt out of her chair and headed for the door.
“Maria? What about dinner?”
“I’ve lost my appetite,” she called over her shoulder without breaking stride.
Conryu groaned. He probably shouldn’t have told her that. She was already nervous and now he’d made it worse.
He turned toward the kitchen. Sonja was headed his way, a tray of food in her tiny hands. “Hey, want some company?” She sat beside him without waiting for his answer.
“Sure. So what’s the seniors’ midterm?”
“Elemental domination. The teacher summons a powerful spirit of our aligned element and sets it free. We have one minute to bring it under control.”
The Awakening Page 9
