by RJ Crayton
Chapter 5 - Staff Training
Today was a combat training class. It was one of the few that I liked, because it didn’t require magic. However, it was a double-edged sword. The fact that it didn’t require magic meant I was spending time on something that would not help me get my aunt back. I was uncertain about Pylum’s plan of waiting for me to become proficient in my magic in order to rescue my aunt. While I would never want to face Zygam without magic, it was becoming increasingly clear that my magic wasn’t returning, at least not in a way that I could readily access it. Pylum insisted I had plenty of knowledge tucked away, and once my powers re-emerged, it would be just a matter of me remembering control. But nothing had emerged. My powers have been as dormant as they were when my aunt was still with me.
My patience had waned. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the one thing I was good at here: combat training, taught by Master Tadashi. He was a nice older mage, lean and tall with long silver hair and an effusive laugh. He moved like a secret warrior, and I loved to watch as he showed us fighting positions. His body was fluid as he rotated his staff and prepared for combat. It seemed silly that people with magic in them would need to battle hand-to-hand, yet these people considered it an important skill.
This class had about two dozen students, and we practiced in pairs. The one thing I liked about the classes here was that the students were placed into groups of mixed ages. It wasn’t uncommon to see groups with kids ranging in ages from seven to fourteen. The instructors taught in small clusters based on skill. This was because not everyone arrived at the temple at the same age, so some little ones were very proficient while some older ones were not. There were a decent number of older kids in staff training. Apparently, it was not that popular because it was a nonmagical class, so people put off taking it.
Today I was paired with a guy named Jasper. I was still trying to figure out what to think of him. He was in a couple of other classes, but due to my skill level I have never been paired with him. He has never said anything to me, but I’ve seen him glance over at me during other sessions.
I wondered if he stole glances because he found me interesting because I was new here, an outsider. Or perhaps he felt a kinship with me. Jasper’s looks, I suspect, have made him somewhat of an outsider. Most of the people here had olive or brown skin. Jasper’s skin was white and his hair the color of straw. He would burn easily in the sun, and in my own stolen glances, I’d wondered how he came to be in our desert land. But I had never asked. For one, it was not polite to point out someone’s difference and then put them on the spot about it. For two, chatter had never been my strength, so I hadn’t spoken to many people here, and was not entirely sure the best way to go about it. Auntie never thought it was a good idea to get too close to others, so I lacked skill at making friends. Though perhaps I have learned a thing or two, as Akilah had become my friend.
Jasper stood next to me. On the surface, we were an odd pair for fighting, but I suspect Master Tadashi wanted us to get used to fighting opponents who weren’t our equal. Jasper’s height and weight, and perhaps age, offered him an advantage over me. He was fifteen, like Akilah, tall, broad-shouldered, and well-muscled. While he had all those things going in his favor, he was not as agile as me. He also wasn’t as quick, either. Not that he was incredibly slow, but being a half second behind could make all the difference in a fight.
We were battling with long staffs today. They were similar in appearance to keteshes, the magical staff I’d seen Pylum and Zygam battle with. While a ketesh could harness and amplify magic, these staffs did nothing but battle. They were similar in size and weight to a ketesh, because you could use your ketesh in a physical battle if it came to that. Because keteshes could release magic, Master Tadashi didn’t want us practicing with them.
“Remember, class,” Master Tadashi said as he walked around the room full of pairs of students standing next to each other. “Because we are mages, we have magic. But there are times when our magic may be unavailable. Spells can hamper magic. Or, in certain places with dangerous objects, it is unwise to use magic. However, that does not mean we cannot protect ourselves. Here, we use no magic. Only our wits, our cunning, our strength, and strategy. You may begin.”
It was time for a little hand-to-hand combat. Jasper moved so he stood directly across from me, his staff in his hand, his feet set apart. I smiled at him and twirled the staff between my fingers. I didn’t know why I liked it so much, but it felt good to me. The staff reminded me a bit of some of the sticks we used to draw buns from the oven or rearrange the breads if space was tight and we needed to fit more in to bake.
The smooth wood glided along my fingers and I took a step forward, bracing the staff in both hands, prepared to attack. I lunged at him, and he parried my attack, which I expected. I counterattacked low, which he also parried. I moved sideways and his eyes followed me, focused deeply on my hands and the lean of slender frame, in hopes he’d see a hint of my next move.
Only I didn’t want to make a move. I wanted him to move on me. I wanted to practice my defenses. And then he swung his staff at me, fast and hard, so I leaned back, dodging the attack, but also swinging my staff around to his side, connecting with his rib cage. “Oof,” he said.
I hadn’t swung that hard, but I felt a pang of guilt as I watched pain color his face. Stupid on my part, as he took my moment of regret to jut his staff right into my gullet, knocking me to the floor. I rolled over as he brought the staff down to thwack me again, and narrowly missed the blow, but I kicked my feet out and knocked him over.
Even though he fell, he gracefully rolled out of it, leaving me disconcerted that my attack had been so easily discarded. Gritting myself, I moved toward him again, determined to knock him on this backside. I felt a singular purpose as I lunged at him, the staff in my hands pointed directly at him in a charge position, ready to knock him down, but before I’d reached him, he shot back a dozen feet, knocking over two other couples sparring. All eyes in the room turned to me, including our instructor’s, Master Tadashi.
I ignored them all and ran toward Jasper to apologize. “I’m sorry,” I blurted out as I arrived near him. The wind was knocked out of him, and he looked up at me wearily. “I didn’t mean to do that,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.” I shook my head. Every time I wanted magic, it didn’t come, but when I didn’t want it ….
“Go to your chamber, Kady,” Master Tadashi said kindly. “I’ll be up shortly to speak with you.”
I nodded, and muttered “Sorry” to the students who’d been grazed by Jasper as he’d flown by. I was frustrated, to say the least. I needed to be prepared in order to face Zygam and rescue my aunt, but every time I tried to use magic, I failed. It was only in these times when I didn’t seek magic that it showed itself.
Part of me wondered if preparation was going to be impossible. If that were the case, then perhaps I should just go without preparation. My magic seemed to be available to me if I needed it, if it truly mattered, and what truly mattered more than Auntie?
I walked straight back to my room, as Master Tadashi had requested. I wanted to obey the rules. I wanted to do what was right, but Auntie weighed on my mind. I was only in this place to save her, and it had been a week and I’d done nothing. Nothing but get involved with the people of Hakari Ahet. The temple was different from other places in Halcyon. There wasn’t desert around the temple. Outside, there were lush gardens and exotic fruits. Yet, we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing that you could see beyond the gardens. It was as if we were on our own.
I sighed as I entered the room, walked straight over to my mattress and lay down on my back. I stared at the ceiling and told myself it would be alright. I would rescue Auntie. We would be together again. Maybe we could even go back to our life at the bakery, presuming we stopped Zygam. I closed my eyes and pushed thoughts of happiness with Auntie out of my mind. It was the only way I could get through the day. Thinking of
how much I missed Auntie made me too sad, as those thoughts inevitably ended with the fact that she was being held hostage by Zygam. That she was in danger because she’d been protecting me.
I took a deep breath, reached over to a woven basket that held my books, and pulled out one Akilah suggested I read, Magic Theory.
Glyphs, spells, magic duels, and portals. These are all the signs of mages, all the things that we can do with our power. Growing up, we see them often, and think nothing of them. But these are simply the external trappings of magic. They expose to the outer world what is inside us.
But what of that on the inside? In this book, we’ll talk about the core of magic, the heart of it, and what we need to know of ourselves so that our magic may flourish.
It seemed a bit touchy-feely, hokey and, frankly, impractical. It’s why I had stopped reading it in the first place. I wanted practical advice. If you wanted to bake a sufta roll, you needed to know the ingredients and their measurements before you started discussing things like putting a little love and heart into it. Yes, Auntie baked the best bread because of her care, attention and love, but she needed to know the hard-and-fast rules of measurement before she began baking, not abstract thoughts on the baking process.
I frowned and flipped a few pages. I was about to start a chapter entitled “The Heart of the Matter,” when I heard a knock at the door. “It’s Master Tadashi,” the voice on the other side said. “Master Pylum would like to see you in his office.”
Chapter 6 - A Partner
“Dirah,” Pylum said as I stepped into his office. He was standing on a ladder as he pulled a book from one of the floor to ceiling shelves on the rear wall.
“Kady,” I corrected, a bit irritated that he insisted on calling me a name that I didn’t use.
“Yes, of course,” he said and motioned to one of the chairs near his desk. “Have a seat.”
I walked over to the chair and perched myself in it. I wasn’t looking forward to what was coming.
He climbed down from the ladder and approached me. “What happened in class today?” he asked — no accusation in his tone, simply a question.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I simply wanted to win. I wanted to do something right, finally, something I knew I could do, and as I lunged for him, I just felt it sweep through me, this power surge, and he went flying across the room. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I saw him go airborne. It didn’t feel like anything really, until after it had happened, and I realized that I had done it.”
Pylum nodded. “Kady,” he said, over enunciating my name to show he was doing as I asked. “Was there something different about today than other days?”
I shook my head. “Not that I can think of. I mean, I wanted to win, but I’ve wanted, really wanted, to do magic, too. I don’t know why it came out today, and it won’t come out when I specifically try to use it.”
He pursed his lips and looked down at one of the tattoos on his wrist. It was a peculiar symbol that looked a bit like a person in meditation with hands clasped in front of him.
Something in my mind clicked as I looked at it. “Grace,” I said.
He smiled, “Yes, it is the glyph to give me grace in situations where it is needed.”
“And is this one?” I asked.
While it was an entirely serious question, he chuckled when he replied. “Yes, it is.”
“Why is that?”
“There’s an old expression about having the grace to accept things we cannot change. Well, I want to change this situation for you, and I’m not able. I’m frustrated, but I need grace to accept that it must be even more frustrating for you and to help you figure out what is holding your magic back.”
Yes, I was frustrated, but not for the reasons he intimated. “I only want the magic out so we can go to my aunt,” I told him. “My frustration is about that, solely. I’ve lived for the last ten years, quite happily, without magic, so I don’t care if I have to live without it now. I care only that you want me to use it before we go to rescue my aunt.”
“You can’t go to rescue her without magic. Not against Zygam.”
“Why can’t you rescue her?” I ask, my voice louder than I’d intended, my frustration clear. It was a question I hadn’t asked before, as I had always envisioned myself going on Auntie’s rescue. I’d planned to make sure Pylum kept his word and took every measure to save her from the man who’d kidnapped her. Yet, as magic had failed me so far, I was desperate enough to trust him to do it without my help. “Yes, I tried to go it alone and that was…” I didn’t want to say stupid, but the truth was, it had been. “It was unwise. And when I came, you agreed to help me. You said you’d train me to help. But if I’m not getting the training, why can’t you just go in without me? Rescue her and bring her to me.”
Pylum grimaced. “I cannot invade Zygam’s temple and take your aunt without him retaliating here at Hakari Ahet.”
“Then how does me going change things?”
He looked over at the memory orb on his desk, and then at me. “You going means that we can also retrieve the Talisman of Elpida.”
I thought back to the memory he’d showed me when I first came here. Me as a toddler, drawn to the amulet, drawing magic from it. A beautiful rainbow of colors that were clearly releasing its power in raw form. “I don’t know how to use that thing,” I said.
“It bowed to you when you were two. It will remember you. It will come to you.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“It will,” he said, his voice rising with adamancy.
“Just get my aunt and worry about the talisman thingy later,” I said. “Once we have Auntie, she can unlock my mind and teach me how to use it.”
“If we go and you are not with us, he will sense it, and he will come here for you. I will not be able to protect you. And once he has you and the talisman…” his voice trailed off as is this were the most awful thing imaginable.
“I won’t help him,” I said.
“You don’t know what you’ll do,” Pylum said plainly. “You used to trust him. He used to be your favorite of all of us. I suspect if he can unearth a few select memories, you will do more for him than you think.”
I shook my head. “Are you insane? I would never help him. He murdered my mother. He kidnapped my aunt.”
“And he helped you learn magic. Those memories — memories that are locked away — are real and may be more powerful than you think. I assumed the magic Talitha used to lock away your magic and your memories were tied to your proximity to her. It seemed at the very least your magic was initially emerging with her gone. But now it still seems stifled. I wonder now if it isn’t Zygam trying to hold it back, rather than your aunt’s spell.”
I swallowed hard as his words sunk in. It had seemed somewhat ridiculous that anyone would be able to lock my mind. While I had believed my magic had been locked, as I had clearly been able to create a shield when Zygam came near me, it had seemed more logical because that was unknown and strange. But memories were known to me, and it seemed impossible they could be purposely hidden away. I had trouble conceptualizing it. Still, the more time I spent here, I came to realize it must be true. Auntie had blocked my memories and my magic to keep me safe from Zygam. But now Pylum was suggesting it was no longer Auntie blocking me. It was somehow the evil mage, blocking my magic from afar. “How is that even possible?”
“He has your aunt,” Pylum said, his eyes distant. “That means he can coat her in moon magic.”
My mind traveled to a lesson I’d had earlier this week. The instructors seemed to be trying to cram years of magic into me in a short period of time. “That’s dark magic?”
Pylum shook his head. “For simplicity’s sake, we often refer to it as dark magic. Mages of all types, good or bad, can use moon magic. The moon is necessary, just as the sun is. Moon magic is just cooler. It tends to dim things rather than brighten them. We here generally do not use moon magic, as it can often call for darkne
ss, and calling darkness upon your soul is a tricky thing. Anyway, I do not wish to speak of darkness with you.” He blew out a breath. “My point is that Zygam may have used moon magic to dim certain effects of your aunt’s magic. Her spell was supposed to begin to wane if you were separated from her. But if he has dimmed her senses so she can’t tell she’s separated, the spell may not fade the way it should.”
“So I’ll be without my memories and my magic forever?”
“No, until he releases her, which he doesn’t plan to do until he has you. Or it can come out if you figure out a way to unleash it on your own.”
Unleash it on my own. That sounded hard. “How?”
“The way you did today, with Jasper.”
“But I don’t know how I did that,” I said, looking down at my hands. I hated this. I hated being so confused. I hated not knowing the stuff I actually knew, but that was locked away in my mind.
I looked up at him and finally made a decision. I didn’t trust Pylum. He wasn’t evil, but he was as bad as Zygam. He wanted me only for that stupid talisman. I needed to help my aunt escape, but if Pylum couldn’t figure out a way to act faster, I’d have to figure it out on my own.
“Don’t get frustrated, Dirah,” he said.
I bristled and said vehemently, “Kady.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his tone kind. “Kady, your magic is in there, and you’ll figure out how to bring it to the surface.”
“And you need to figure out a way to get to my aunt, whether I master this or not, do you understand, Pylum? I won’t help you with your Talisman if you can’t help me with my aunt.”
He nodded. “I will look at other ways to help your aunt, but you need to understand, if Zygam brings the power of the Talisman, just the partial power he’s likely acquired, to the temple, he will destroy us. The Talisman of Elpida is a powerful magic amplifier. It can bring amazing power to those it deems worthy of use.”
