I pushed my hair back and nodded.
“Thanks, professor…” I rolled my shoulders and kept practicing the spell, alternating between practicing the basic manipulation spell and the creation spell.
I took a break after about ten minutes and looked around the room. Matt and August were sparring. I took a gulp of water as I watched Matt bring up a wall to block August’s attack, the electricity fizzling it out as it hit the wood. I looked over at the other side of the room, where Raven was doing… Something. She was putting together a really complex spell, with Greyford watching her. It wasn’t anything I recognised, and Raven hadn’t said anything about picking up any new forms of magic over the last couple of days.
“Wonder what she’s doing…” I asked myself as I put my drink down and got ready to start practicing again.
I started piecing together the creation spell, but for some reason, almost instinctively, I changed it. After the light formed inside my fingers, I closed my first, trying to concentrate on keeping the spark of light in the palm of my hand. I placed the palm of my left hand on the side of the fist, and from there I almost worked on autopilot. It wasn’t like I was possessed or something. I knew what I was doing. I just didn’t know how I knew it. I could feel the gentle glow of the Arch Stone on my chest as I moved my hands around the air, the spark of light growing with every move. I had no idea what was going on, but I still knew what I was supposed to do. Once the light had reached the size of an apple, I held my hand out in front of me and finished the spell I’d actually been told about, bending my fingers and pushing down with my left hand. I stretched out my fingers and the ball of light shot forward, narrowly missing Professor Greyford and hitting the wall. The room fell silent as Matt and Leigh stopped fighting. Raven carried on practicing whatever she was practicing, not seeming phased in the slightest.
Greyford slowly walked over to me and clapped slowly.
“Very well done, Emilie,” he congratulated. “I see you’ve managed to work the spell out.”
I stumbled backwards as I realised what had happened.
“I… I have absolutely no idea…” I admitted. I pulled the Arch Stone out from under my top. It wasn’t glowing anymore, but I could still feel a faint heat. Greyford raised an eyebrow.
“Very interesting…” he remarked. “Is that how you were able to finish the spell?”
I shrugged.
“I mean, I guess it must have been…”
“Do you think you could do it again?” Greyford asked. I nodded hesitantly.
“I… I think so…” I stood back and started constructing the spell, just as I had before. I flicked my hands around, a little less naturally than the last time. But it was still working. The spark of light grew again, still seeming to max out at the size of a fist, and I held my arms out, letting the light shoot forward. I breathed deeply as I let my arms relax.
“Excellent. You need to keep practicing that, just for a few days. Then we can get into the more complicated spells.”
“More complicated?” I groaned. “This wasn’t it?”
“Nothing worth doing is done easily.” Greyford remarked. “There’s a huge variety of techniques using these spells. This ballistics attack is very useful, but it doesn’t fit hugely with your own fighting style. You’ve trained your hand-to-hand skills very well. It would be a shame to leave those behind.”
“I guess…” I sighed. I looked over at Raven. “What’s she doing?” She was still practicing the same movements over and over again, but nothing was happening.
“I’m trying to teach her some more specialized spells. She’s so used to using her Source Magic, and so talented with it at that, that I decided that forcing her to use a completely different form of magic wouldn’t be hugely useful,” he explained. “She’s practicing a very specific fire magic spell. It’s difficult, but I don’t doubt she’ll work it out eventually.”
I focused on Raven’s arms. They were doing so many different movements I could barely keep track, but nothing was happening. I saw a few sparks forming around her, but they quickly dropped, and Raven let her arms relax.
“That’s enough for today, Miss Blake,” Greyford called over to her. “You’re going to tire yourself out if you keep trying over and over again. Give yourself a break.”
“I’m fine!” Raven shouted back, as she picked herself up and started trying to construct the spell again, but she didn’t get far before her arms dropped again. She tried again, and it looked like she’d had the air completely knocked out of her lungs. I ran over to her.
“You’ve got to give it a break.” I helped her up. “You’re tired. Let’s head back to the dorms, have a rest. Carry on with this tomorrow.”
Raven shook her head
“I just… I want to get this done…” Raven grunted.
“You can barely stand. You’re never going to be able to cast a spell like that.”
Raven struggled away and tried to cast the spell again, but she couldn’t even lift her arms. She dropped to the floor, panting.
“Come on, Raven. You need to get some rest…” I helped her up again.
“No… I can… I can do it…” she trailed off as she dropped to the floor. I just barely managed to catch her before her head hit the floor.
“Shit…” I laid her down on a bench and tried to wake her up. Matt and August rushed over from the other side of the room.
“Is she alright?” Matt asked.
“She’s overdone it… She’ll be fine, but we should get her up to the dorms…” I lifted her up, put her arm around my shoulder and walked out of the sparring hall.
*
The second Mary saw Raven she hit some sort of automatic carer-mode. She helped me get Raven onto her bed and started brewing a pot of tea.
“And I had work to do…” Mary grumbled. “Idiot…”
“Tell me about it…” I laughed as I searched through the cupboards for something to eat.
“So, she just kept trying until she passed out?”
“Yup.”
“We’re going to have a hell of a talk with her when she wakes up…”
“It’s hardly the first time I’ve had this conversation recently…” I sighed.
“You’re talking about that shit that went down with Matt?”
I nodded.
“It’s hard, I guess… I mean, I don’t really know everything that’s going on, but I can see how intense you all are about it. You’re giving everything to it.”
“We have to.” I shrugged. “The Syndicate could be back at any second. We don’t really have the luxury of putting things off… I haven’t passed out yet, but it’s not like I haven’t been doing it too…”
“Of course you are. August too, probably… but you just… you need to watch your limits. We’re kids, at the end of the day. We can only handle so much before…” she glanced into the main room at Raven, still asleep on the bed. “Idiot…” she grumbled again as she searched the cupboards for mugs. I laughed a little.
“Tell me about it…”
39
The next few days managed to pass without much excitement. There were a couple of dance organiser meetings, but Polly pretty much blanked me for the whole time, which I should have been happy about, but something just felt wrong. She’d made it clear she wasn’t just going to leave the situation alone, and it felt like she was planning on making a bigger move sometime soon, but she wasn’t reacting to anything I was saying.
But, as it turned out, I had more important things to worry about. Because, as I seemed to have forgotten between training and Polly Evergreen’s insanity, Foxway actually was a school, and the lessons had to be going somewhere. The first week of December was going to be Exam week. I had three exams in that time: Beginner’s Magic (Which was becoming less and less ‘beginner’ every lesson), two for Applied Magical Physics. I admit, that doesn’t sound like much, but AMP was way past my level (It’s not like I wanted to take it in the first place) and this was mi
xed in with Luxomancy lessons and training. And I had the dance to worry about as well. And Polly was still a very present threat.
I dropped back onto Raven’s bed and groaned. “Screw this…”
“Wait until you get to Second-year,” Mary noted, pointing at me with her pencil. “I’ve got…” she counted on her fingers, “two exams just for Second-Year Magical Theory, one for History, and two for Illusion Magic…”
“I guess I’ve got that to look forward to…” I sighed. It still felt weird being a First-year despite being the same age as Mary and Raven. “I don’t get any of this…” I grumbled as I leafed through the AMP textbook. Mary stood up and looked over the top of the book.
“You know, people hear ‘magic’ and they here mystic arts and unexplainable phenomena, they never expect real magic to be something so… scientific.”
“Yeah, tell me about it…” I groaned. “I always sucked at science…” I admitted. “I think I might see if I can get onto a Magical History course next year…”
“That could be useful, actually,” Mary agreed. “Especially since you weren’t brought up around magic.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I was going to talk to Professor Greyford about it. Assuming I make it that far…”
“You’re smart. You know how quick you picked up magic. A few questions on it’s nothing.”
“I’m not… I’m not smart. I pick up skills quickly, I admit. Doing magic comes easily to me. But I’ve never been good at academic subjects. They just don’t… don’t click for me. It just kind of… slips away from me. I barely made it into sixth form at my old school as it is…” I put the book down and laid down. “I’m totally screwed…”
Mary sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the book.
“I might not be able to help too much with Advanced Magical Physics… But I can definitely give you a hand with the Beginner’s Magic, if you like?”
“That could be good. Thanks, Mary.”
“Any time.” Mary smiled. “So, what’re you working on?”
Me and Mary studied for about an hour after that. We worked out what I needed particular help with, ruling out the stuff I was already confident with (Which wasn’t much), and went from there. We got through a couple of topics before we stopped when Raven walked through the door.
“Hey. How was class?” I asked.
“Fine. I’m still tired though…”
“You just need to take it a little easier for the next couple days,” Mary suggested. “Just so you can get back to full strength.”
“She’s right,” I agreed. “I know we can’t just stop training, but it’s not the end of the world if you take a couple of days at half-effort. Not if it brings you back to full strength after.”
“I know… I will… I just… I don’t like having to slow down. Knowing what’s at stake, knowing what my brother is capable of… I don’t feel comfortable slowing down…”
“We all know what’s at stake. No one’s asking you to stop. Just… just slow down,” I replied.
“I know…” Raven sighed. She looked at the books on my bed. “Are you still struggling with this?” She picked up the Beginner’s Magic textbook.
“Mary’s been helping me with it. I’m… not having a great time…”
“We’re getting there. You just need to keep working at it.”
“I just… I can’t concentrate on any of it. I try and focus and I just… Anything else seems to distract me… That’s always been the way it is… I just got used to just being the one who just barely got by…”
“I admit, that’s kind of crazy to believe,” Mary decided. “When I see you doing magic, you’re always so focused.”
“I dunno… Magic’s different, I guess. It’s more instinctive. I don’t have to worry about remembering every little detail of what’s going on. It’s just easier, I guess.” I shrugged. “It’s tough though, always being the stupid one…”
“You’re hardly stupid. You learn stuff far too quickly to call yourself stupid.” Mary argued.
“I know, I know…” I sighed. “Anyway, let’s not keep talking about it, please.”
“Sure,” Mary smiled softly. “So, Raven, have you found anyone to go to the Architects’ Ball with yet?”
Raven shrugged.
“It’s not really something I’m thinking about…” she admitted. “I assume you’re going with Hannah?”
“Yup. Gonna have to find something to wear though. I don’t have a lot of spare cash now either… I’ll work something out.” She turned to me. “What about you?”
“I… I really… I don’t know…” I admitted. “I haven’t thought about it, to be honest. I don’t want to be there alone, not if that’s what people do, but I don’t really… I don’t really care.” I shrugged. Mary’s face lit up. “Oh no… No, whatever you’re thinking, no.”
“Guy or girl?”
“No, Mary, no. No!” I protested. “I’m fine. Seriously.” It didn’t make much difference. Raven shook her head as I tried to calm her down.
“Come on, I can at least try and help you. Look, if you don’t like them, then that’s fine. But you can at least tell me what you like, can’t you?” She was getting more and more excited, like a train with broken brakes. I sighed.
“I… I’m Bi…” I eventually gave in. Mary laughed a little. “What?”
“You just never mentioned it before, that’s all.”
“You never asked.” I shrugged.
“Fair.” Mary gave in. “Well, I’ll see what I can do.”
“I really don’t think…” I trailed off. It wasn’t worth arguing all day about. I doubted that anything was going to come out of it, and it could hardly hurt. I mean, I’d fought the Syndicate and came out alive. What was the worst that could happen?
*
“You did what?” August laughed. Matt walked in from the kitchen and sat down on his bed.
“I did nothing. Mary decided she was going to find me a date for the dance.”
“Have you ever actually been on a date before?” Matt remarked.
“Of course I have! I’m a little offended… I was with this one guy for a few months, just before I left my old school, couple of girls before that… Not for a while though…” I thought back to how I thought I’d felt about Matt throughout the year.
“It’d definitely be nice to see. You could do with someone to put your mind off all of this Syndicate bullshit…” August decided. Matt looked at us.
“So, we’re not going to question the fact that you’ve been out with girls?” he seemed entertainingly confused.
“It’s not really a big deal.” I shrugged. “I guess I didn’t really mention it before…”
“It’s not like it matters. It’s just weird that you never told us.”
“It’s not like we haven’t had our hands full,” August pointed out. “It took her long enough to work out about us, so I’m not surprised we never picked up on it.”
“I guess.” Matt shrugged. “So, how’s studying going?”
“Not great…” I sighed. “Mary was trying to explain some of it to me, but it wasn’t much use…”
“I guess you are at a disadvantage. You didn’t grow up around magic like we did,” August noted. “It’s all pretty basic to us, but it must be a lot harder for you.”
“It’s not even that, so much. I understand it when I’m reading it. But I just can’t focus enough to be able to actually remember any of it…”
“Anything we can do to help?” Matt asked.
I shook my head.
“I don’t think so. I’m just gonna have to keep working and hope for the best.” I admitted. “What happens if I screw it up?”
“I mean, we’re only first-years, so probably nothing that bad. They might make you retake Beginner’s Magic next year. Weren’t you going to drop AMP anyway?” August asked.
“I mean, I wanted to. Can you even do that?”
“I think so. You probably
wouldn’t be the only one,” August replied. “Not sure who you’d talk to about it though... Artemis?”
“Maybe… I’ll work it out when I have to, I guess…” I looked down at my phone to see the time. “Anyway, I’ve got to get going… Miss Artemis wanted to get a session in this week…” I stood up and picked up my bag. “I’ll see you guys after school.”
*
I was walking across the courtyard towards the main building when I felt someone watching me. I span around as I looked around the area. No one was there.
“I guess it was nothing…” I sighed as I walked into the building, trying to ignore the seven people in my head trying to persuade me that I was being followed.
I walked into Artemis’ office and sat down.
“Are you alright?” The teacher asked. “You look… dazed.”
“I’m fine… Just… A little loud up here today…”
“Okay.” Artemis nodded. I still didn’t want to bring Polly Evergreen up, not yet. Artemis sat down in her chair and straightened her glasses.
“So, how are things, Emilie? It’s been a few weeks since we’ve talked properly. How’s the planning for the Architects’ Ball going?”
“It’s… it’s fine. We’re starting to get there,” I explained. “There’s a lot of ideas, with everyone who’s there, but it’s normally pretty civil…”
“Normally?”
“I mean, we don’t always agree, so there’s a little bit of… conflict.”
“With anyone in particular? Isn’t the head girl in the group?”
I wasn’t sure whether or not I should tell her about what was going on. I nodded.
“So, what do you think about her?”
“I… uh… She’s…”
“She’s a pain in the arse, if you ask me…”
I burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry… I just didn’t expect to hear that from a teacher…” I tried to catch myself. “But yeah, she’s pretty bad…”
The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1 Page 27
