The Academy

by Vincent Trigili

  Cursing profusely, I punched the jump command and ran from the battle with the rest of my wing. It seemed the worst-case scenario was well on the way to realization: full pirate control over the trade routes. The Navy would probably be forced to pull back to protect the civilized areas and hopefully devise a plan to counter this new threat.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The week was drawing to a close, and the next day a shuttle was due to arrive from the Academy to pick us up. We found a nice, quiet, informal little restaurant in which to share our last private dinner. It was a much more subdued meal than our previous ones.

  “Patty, what did I miss over the last decade?” I asked.

  “What do you mean, James?” she said, smiling.

  “This week has been the best one of my life. Spending time with you free from the rules and regulations of the school has made me wonder: how could I have been so blind?” I told her.

  “Blind? Oh, I don’t think you were blind. Stupid and dense, sure, but I think you could see fine,” was her response.

  “Oh, thanks, that is so much better,” I commented wryly.

  “I have a confession to make, James,” she said. “Please don’t be mad at me, but the real reason I told my parents that we had been dating all that time and invited you on this trip was because I have always wanted that to be true. Three times I was scheduled to be removed from your team, and each time I died a little at the thought that it would happen, and each time when it was announced that I would stay on your team it was all I could do to keep from screaming with joy.”

  “I have a confession also. You see, each of those three times I went to our overseer and requested that you were allowed to stay on my team. Each time it cost us points in the competitions, but I never let on. While I would like to say something romantic about how I knew I had to be with you, really it was more practical: I did not want our team broken up because we worked so well together.”

  I stopped and looked into her eyes and said, “I do not know what is ahead of us in our new positions at the school, but I want you to know I am finished being dense. I refuse to let go of what we have found this week, and I hope you share the sentiment.”

  “Oh, James, of course I do,” she said and started to cry.

  We stayed late at that restaurant just talking about anything to prolong our time together. Neither of us wanted the week to end. Eventually our server told us they needed to close the restaurant and we would have to leave.

  When we got home, we found her father sitting up reading, waiting on us. I approached him and said, “Thank you, sir; you were right.” He responded with a smile and headed off to bed without a word.

  Most of the next morning was spent packing and saying goodbye to Patty’s family. Bill was unable to get leave to come home and see us off, but he made sure to send a message to remind me that his baby sister was very near and dear to him and he would hate for anything to threaten our friendship.

  Something was bothering him, though; he was far from his normal chipper self. I could sense a darkness in his message as if something was on his mind. He tried not to let it show, but my years of training in intelligence meant I was not easily fooled.

  I was surprised to see the shuttle when it arrived, as it was not a shuttle at all but the Dark Talon. As soon as it landed the loading ramp lowered, and two members of Grandmaster Vydor’s personal guard marched down. I recognized them as members of the Dark Knights from the Dragon Claw, but to Patty and her family they must have come as quite a shock.

  “Student James and Student Patty, it is time for you to return to your duties,” said one of them.

  “Yes, sir. Where should we stow our gear?” I asked.

  “Leave it. We will make sure it is stowed correctly,” he said, and by his tone I knew they did not trust us to do it ourselves.

  “Yes, sir. It is good to see you again. It has been a long time since we served together on the Dragon Claw,” I said as I boarded. I wanted to rattle their perception of me just a bit, but they did not react. Once aboard, I directed Patty to one of the jump seats and took one next to her. I intentionally chose two as far out of the way as possible.

  Being aboard this ship brought back memories of that final battle in the Great War. I was sure I could hear the screams of the men dying on the Crusader. I struggled hard to suppress that memory, but Patty noticed; she reached out and placed her hand on mine for support.

  One of the Dark Knights saw what was happening and came over. “This ship brings back memories for you, I see. Unpleasant ones?” he asked. I was surprised that he addressed me directly; I had always heard that they worked in virtual silence and rarely talked to others.

  “Yes, sir. I am sorry; I will be fine in a while,” I said.

  He sat down across from us and said, “No, you will not be fine. You have the look of one haunted by the past. Tell me what it is you are fighting right now.”

  “The Crusader, sir. It is my fault they all died. Had I done better . . . ” I began.

  “Ah, you are that James. Listen, James, and listen carefully. We have studied that last fight over and over to prepare for the next time the sorcerers attack. We have run countless numbers of alternative scenarios to see what could have been done better. In none of them did the Crusader survive. You gave that ship and her crew an honorable and valiant death which would not have happened without you. Had I been in your position at the time, I would have done the same as you did. It was the best that could be done in a bad situation. You have proven yourself then and now to be a great warrior. Do not let false guilt about things long past haunt you any longer. It is no shame that you struggle with it; accept the struggle and win the fight with your memories. All great warriors have to face the ‘what if’ enemy. Those who win the battle go on to further greatness.” When he had finished speaking, he got up and moved towards the front of the ship.

  I had been told all that before, but somehow hearing it from a Dark Knight made a difference. They were known for their stoicism and fearlessness. If he could understand what I was going through, then that meant they had to deal with it too. I squared my shoulders and decided it was time for a new chapter in my life. For the first time I had a beautiful woman by my side, and I was not going to carry the Crusader with me anymore. The Dark Knight was right: this was a fight I could win.

  The flight back was uneventful, a welcome change from the extreme pace of our flight out. After we landed in the school’s spaceport, I retrieved our bags and looked out the window to see a crowd gathering. “Patty, it looks like everyone is here.”

  She looked out the window and said, “Hey, it looks like a party!” She paused and looked at me and asked, “Now James, you won’t go all weird on me and tell me that we can’t let anyone know we’re dating, will you?”

  I took her hand, and as the airlock opened I said, “What, and risk someone else making a play for you? Not a chance!”

  As we went down the ramp, two prospects came to take our bags from us and the crowd enveloped us in cheers. I saw Rannor in the crowd and tried to ask him what all the commotion was about, but he could not hear me over the noise. I held tightly onto Patty’s hand as we were swept down the corridors to the main banquet hall. When we entered we were greeted by a huge sign that said, “Welcome Home, James and Patty, Our First Heroes!”

  “Heroes?” I exclaimed.

  “Oh, James, just go with it. This looks like a great party!” replied Patty.

  She was right. There was much dancing and good old-fashioned fun. After a few hours of it, though, I was longing to escape. Patty was still having a great time, so I left her with a bunch of her female friends and snuck out a service exit when no one was looking. I needed to find some quiet place where no one would think to look for me. I wandered down the deserted classroom halls. This late at night there would be no one down there, and I could walk in peace.

  Down near the end of the hall I noticed a light coming from on
e of the rooms. My curiosity got the better of me, and I went to see what was going on. Entering the room, I saw Professor Rorthon working on some papers.

  All the teachers here were very peculiar about the way they worked. They refused to use any of the modern conveniences, preferring to write with a feather dipped in ink, keeping notes on real paper, and using candles for light. If any form or official document was in digital format they would refuse to read it until it was printed out for them. I never understood this, but over time learned to accept it.

  “Hello, Professor Rorthon,” I said.

  “Greetings. Why are you not at your party?” he asked.

  “Professor, it just got to be too much. I needed to get away from it for a bit. All that noise and chaos is just overwhelming after a while,” I said.

  “Yes, it can be,” he said.

  “Professor Rorthon, if you do not mind, I have a question that I have been meaning to ask you,” I said.

  “Certainly, ask away,” he said.

  “Professor, can you tell me more about spellweavers? When you covered them in your lecture you skimmed over them without saying much,” I said.

  “That is because the odds are that I will never have one in my class. Spellweavers are an extremely rare breed. Only one or two percent of all wizards will have the power, and far fewer than half of those will be what we call true spellweavers, those able to manipulate unlimited amounts of energy. It is the greatest of all the magical gifts, and a true master of it, like Grandmaster Vydor, will dominate any battle he is in. Spellweavers directly see the raw magical energy weave that flows through nature, and they can tap it directly to use at will. They can even tap other magi’s spells and draw power from them. Here in your realm where you harness all kinds of energy to be used by your machines, spellweavers seem to have the ability to tap that energy to use for their own purposes.

  “When the Council of Wizards was created by the spirit of light, he commanded that only a true spellweaver could hold the position of grandmaster. From what we can tell, the sorcerers have the same rule. The reason for this is simply because of the dominating nature of this power in the field of combat. That is really all there is to say about it,” said Professor Rorthon. “Why do you ask?”

  “Master Gafar says I am one,” I said.

  “No offense to Master Gafar, but his method for determining students’ powers is highly unorthodox,” he said.

  “Professor, has he ever been wrong?” I asked.

  “No, but it has only been a few years,” he said, as if that meant that Master Gafar’s judgment could not be trusted.

  “Professor, he was right about me,” I said.

  “How do you know?” he asked.

  I explained to him how I saw the lights from Master Gafar’s eyes and how I had used my power in the battle with the spirit. This seemed to surprise him greatly, but in place of comment he pulled a wand out from his desk and handed it to me. “Read the command word aloud,” was all he said.

  When I did this the wand glowed a very bright blue. It was almost painfully bright and greatly outshone Professor Rorthon’s candles. The wand continued to glow until I put it down on the desk. “Professor, what does that mean?” I asked.

  “It means you are a spellweaver,” he said in a tone of surprise.

  “Professor, I guess this means you do have a spellweaver in your class,” I said.

  “Yes, so I do. Do you understand that, as the only other spellweaver in the realm, not only are you next in line for the position of grandmaster, you will also be the primary target of the next sorcerer invasion?” he asked.

  “The first part, yes, and it is keeping me up at night. The second, no. Professor, why should that be the case?” I asked.

  “In simple terms, Grandmaster Vydor is very hard to kill; at this stage, however, you are very easy to kill. If they remove you now, then when Grandmaster Vydor is gone no one will be left to take his place,” was his reply.

  “Professor, you are not helping my sleeping problem,” I said with a wry grin.

  He laughed and said, “Good. I hate it when students sleep in my class.”

  “Thank you for talking with me, Professor. I had better move on before the party finds me here,” I said.

  “Good night, James,” he replied.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The next day Patty and I were due to meet with the headmaster in his office right after breakfast. The headmaster’s office was a small, windowless room deep within the fortress of the school. When we arrived he was sitting at his desk reviewing some papers by candlelight. The school was fitted with normal lights throughout, but they were rarely used since the professors all preferred to work by candlelight. We stood there for a moment, waiting for him to notice our presence. Eventually he greeted us and told us to sit.

  “We have some business to attend to in order to bring you up to speed with what you missed while you were absent. First of all, take these,” he said, handing us two white robes. “These are to be worn at all official events and at any time school is in session. They mark you as full student wizards. Do not worry about their size; they will adjust themselves to you as needed. When traveling away from the school, it would be best if you did not wear them so that you do not draw too much attention to yourselves.

  “Now, you missed about two months of schooling, but I sent your books with Rannor. How far did you get in them?” he asked.

  “Headmaster, I did the best I could but was only able to get halfway through volume three,” I said.

  “And you, Patty?” he asked.

  “Headmaster, since I wasn’t nearly dead like James I got most of the way through volume four,” she said.

  “You both did very well then. The students are only starting volume three now. It is very important that you speak up now if you have any questions about the material. We can appoint you a tutor apiece if need be. In the fall you will be starting a new round of classes, and you must have the current material mastered before then.

  “Next term you will be starting what most students have taken to calling ‘Basic Powers 101.’ In that class you will be learning the very basic powers that all magi possess regardless of their specialization. I must warn you that we are still putting the finishing touches on that class, as it seems that the basic powers here are different from those in our realm, and this will be only the fifth year we have taught it here. The other project you will be starting in the fall is crafting your staves, though at first you will only be studying the art. Once you understand the basics, you are likely to spend the next three to five years working on them. That may seem like a long time now, but you should have them for life so it is important you take the time to do them right. Any questions so far?” he asked.

  “Yes, Headmaster. I know the school rules say no one is to use any of their powers at all until they attend the Basic Powers class, and even then they may use only the powers needed to complete the lessons, but Rannor said that in order to heal I must try to use my powers as soon as possible,” I said.

  He sighed and thought for a minute about how to answer that. “James, Patty, you must understand that the school rules are there for a reason. You see this pile of papers here?” he asked, gesturing to a stack of hundreds of sheets of paper. “Each one represents an applicant we are rejecting even though every one of them was born with the gift of magical ability. The problem with this set is that each and every one of them is motivated by a lust for power or vengeance, and in many cases both. Wizards are those that are called out of society in order to protect it and as such must have a pure motivation to follow the path of light always. What these papers represent are future sorcerers against whom you will one day have to defend the realm.

  “You see, we could start teaching you to use your powers on the first day you arrive, and when we first opened the schools in our realm that was what we did. We learned that most people did not have a strong enough foundation to resist th
e temptation that comes with the power we wield. Many of them gave in to that temptation, and we unknowingly ended up training future sorcerers. Through much trial and error we learned that by going slowly and taking time to help build up the moral underpinnings of each student we were able to prevent many from falling into temptation. When we started this academy, Grandmaster Vydor was very adamant that moral training must form the core of what the school does and powers come second to that. I believe this is because you and your fellow classmates will be the foundation that all future wizards will build on. His focus and methods are much stricter than those we use and are proving more successful. We are evaluating some of the techniques used here to bolster our own programs back in our realm. The point is that we have these rules, not only for your protection but also to protect the realm from the possibility of our creating highly-trained sorcerers instead of wizards.

  “I will talk to Rannor about his treatment plan for you, and we will work something out that is in keeping with the spirit of the rules while still allowing you to heal properly. Do nothing until he contacts you,” he said.

  “Yes, Headmaster,” I said.

  “Now, there is the matter of your names. You must pick new ones. This symbolizes the drastic change from self-centered and selfish mundanes to your new life of selfless service as wizards. Please state your powers and your new names so I can record them,” he said.

  “Flame Dancer, Pyromancer and Illusionist,” said Patty.

  “Shadow Weaver, Spellweaver,” I said. Since all spellweavers had a secondary power of concealment magic, I did not think it necessary to mention it.

  “Excellent choices; I have noted them. We understand that at first it is hard to adjust to new names, but you must use them exclusively from now on. Now, today is rest day, so go and enjoy the rest of your day. Report to Professor Rorthon’s class for the morning session.”

  When Grandmaster Vydor created the school he insisted that one day in seven be set aside as a rest day for all staff and students. It was the only day in the week when magic was used to do the basic services needed to keep the place running, such as cooking and cleaning. Some of the professors tried to talk him out of it, but before long he enacted his power as grandmaster and made it an official ruling, silencing all debate. It was seldom that he did that, but when he did everyone knew it was time to back off and let it be.