Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism)

by V. St. Clair

  And with that he walked off.

  7

  War Games

  Things were awkward between Hayden and Conner over the weekend, though since they were both able to pretend that Hayden’s horrible reaction to the Tess discussion was simply a side-effect of the Mnemora that nearly killed him, things returned to normal by the beginning of the next week. If Conner had gotten up the nerve to actually ask Tess out, she must have turned him down, because as far as he could tell there was nothing unusual between them at breakfast on the morning of Gerin.

  Master Kilgore warned him off of trying any other hair-brained concoctions to retrieve his memories in Elixirs that day, and when Hayden argued that Asher and Laurren had both approved of the idea and supervised, the Master of Elixirs huffed and clarified, “Next time ask a reasonable adult before you try anything stupid.”

  Abnormal Magic was about as normal as the class could ever be, and they spent the day studying the properties of the Resonance Crystal, a naturally-occurring red crystal that had magical properties and vibrated at ridiculously high frequencies. Hayden had more experience than he cared to with that particular piece of abnormal magic, and didn’t enjoy the reminder of the Inter-School Championship last year or how Farrah of Creston died for her mistakes.

  As he was leaving class, Master Laurren called out to him.

  “Wait a moment, Hayden. I’ve got something that might interest you.” He motioned for Hayden to follow him into his office, where he removed an Absorber from his desk and passed it over.

  The Absorber was a lot smaller than the one Laurren had used in class on their first day, not much larger than the palm of Hayden’s hand and in the shape of a glass tombstone. The glass had a strange look to it, as though there were many different colors swirling together beneath the surface, sliding around like oil whenever he tilted the glass one way or another.

  “Why is it all…full of colors?” Hayden asked curiously, tilting it and watching the mesmerizing effect as the colors moved.

  “You did that after your challenge arena last week,” Master Laurren explained casually. “By the time we got you to Razelle you were spewing magic out of both Foci, which was a bit of a problem since you have a considerable amount of natural power, so I brought one of my spare Absorbers to siphon it off.”

  Hayden turned the glass over in his hand, studying it in amazement.

  “So this contains…my power?”

  “It contains the power and spells that were streaming out of you at that time, yes. Reede and I had to hold your hands against it until you had depleted your magical stores, which took an annoyingly-long time, truth be told. Now I’ve got this fascinating Absorber lying around, stuffed full of your power, which I intend to study at length.”

  Hayden brightened and said, “Do you think it might tell you something about my magic?”

  “It will tell me a great deal about your magic,” Laurren nodded. “Whether it gives any indication as to what might be the cause of your unusual Source power or Foci-damage is less certain. Normally I would give this to you as a gift, since the power cannot be easily recovered from the glass, but there is some danger in handing over an object with this many spells stuffed into it.”

  “What do you mean? I thought you said the energy was stuck in there.”

  “It is, but there are one or two ways to get it out—all with potentially disastrous consequences.” He grimaced at the thought. “So I intend to keep it safe here and study it for my research. I will of course let you know if anything pertinent to your quest for knowledge arises during my analysis.”

  Hayden nodded and said, “Thanks,” pleased by the unexpected boon. Anything that might give him some more insight into his strange magic and its origins would be helpful at this point.

  In Charms class they continued working on carving their own emblems to store their charms in, affirming Hayden’s earlier suspicions that he was not a natural artist, though since emblems could be easily purchased at charm stores this was hardly the end of his career with the subject.

  He made his way to lunch feeling slightly more cheerful about things, and was even more pleased when Tess sat down beside him and greeted him pleasantly. Bonk flew into the dining hall and settled on her shoulder, and he was only then reminded of something Torin had told him the day he got Bonk as a familiar, several years ago.

  Familiars tend to reflect their master’s feelings. If I like someone, Bonk likes them too.

  He was suddenly embarrassed at the memory of how often Bonk showed affection for Tess over the last couple years. It seemed like he was always perched in her lap, letting her hug on him, or resting on her shoulder when he wasn’t on Hayden’s.

  No wonder everyone can tell I like her. Bonk fawns over her.

  Tess’s familiar, Mittens, circled Hayden’s legs for a moment and then rubbed her head against them territorially before leaping onto the table and grazing off of Tess’s plate. Bonk hopped off of Tess’s shoulder once she’d acknowledged him, head-butted Mittens in greeting, and then plunged his face into Hayden’s cup of milk.

  “How come you’re late for lunch?” Zane asked conversationally, already halfway through eating a roast beef sandwich that was piled so high it looked like he’d have to unhinge his jaw to bite into it.

  “Oh, Master Laurren wanted to show me something after class—an Absorber that’s full of my magic,” he explained in between bites, nudging Bonk away from his milk so he could drink. “It made me late for Charms so I stayed a few minutes over to make up for it.”

  “What’s an Absorber?” Tamon asked curiously.

  “It’s basically a magic holder. You cast at it and it absorbs and stores magic, but I guess it’s really hard to get the magic back out again so it’s kind of a waste. Usually Laurren uses them to show us anomalies in certain spells or instruments, because it shows the magic as different colors—almost like oil in the sun.”

  His friends looked impressed.

  “Whoa, cool. But why did you fill it up with your magic if it just wastes it?” Conner asked around a mouthful of green beans.

  “I didn’t do it on purpose. Apparently when I was dying of a massive nosebleed I was also spewing magic, so Laurren used an Absorber to siphon it off so I couldn’t wreck anything.”

  “Huh, well that’s handy,” Zane conceded, shooing Felix the fox away from his plate and scowling as he removed the stray fox hairs from his vegetables.

  Hayden ate much faster than he would have liked and asked Tess and Zane if they would take a walk outside with him so he could bring up the subject of combat training. He’d been thinking about it ever since Master Reede suggested the idea, but he hadn’t come to a decision until this morning.

  “Sure, challenge group meeting or something?” Zane asked with interest.

  “Uh, yeah. Looks like we’ll have to change up our strategy this year now that the Masters are throwing hostile constructs at us,” he lied, though he made a mental note that they actually did need to discuss tactics in their next team meeting.

  The three of them left the dining hall and made their way to the main courtyard in front of the school.

  “Should we get Lorn?” Tess asked as she settled down onto a bench.

  “This isn’t actually a team meeting,” Hayden explained. “I wanted to talk to you two about something else, an idea that Master Reede had the other night.”

  Zane narrowed his eyebrows suspiciously and said, “Since when do you hang out with Reede? I thought he thought you were kind of nuts.”

  Hayden snorted and said, “I don’t and he does. I actually just ran into him the other night when I…” he hesitated at the sight of Tess there, “when I went out for a late-night walk.”

  Zane’s expression lifted in understanding, though Tess glanced at them both curiously.

  “Anyway, I ran into Reede out on the grounds; he said he’d just come back from a Council meeting,” Hayden continued. “He asked me about the combat training Asher’s been giving
me, and he suggested that I practice with you two since you always seem to be standing next to me when horrible things happen.”

  Zane brightened instantly.

  “Oh good, if he asked you to help me improve then he must think I’m worth keeping alive. You always have to wonder with Reede if he thinks you have potential, or if he’s just waiting on you to graduate and leave so he doesn’t have to deal with you anymore.”

  Surprised, Hayden said, “What? He’s your mentor, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, but it isn’t the same as you and Asher. Asher doesn’t care if people know he’s got your back, because you’re his only dedicated pupil and everyone knows he’s kind of filling in for your parents…” Zane explained, looking uncomfortable as he said the last part. “But a lot of the others don’t like being accused of favoritism, so they’re a lot more subtle about showing their support. Reede won’t compliment you directly unless you do something really spectacular, so I’m never sure what he thinks about me. But if he wants me trained up in combat, then he must think I’m worth keeping around.”

  Hayden considered his friend’s words. He’d never really thought about how the other Masters treated their protégés before, but now that he did, he couldn’t really remember any of them giving out one-on-one attention, except to their mastery students, who they openly played favorites with to heighten the competition.

  “But why did he say for me too?” Tess interjected. “I haven’t really talked to Master Reede since I left Conjury at the end of first year. His comment on my report card said if he ever caught me with a piece of chalk in my hand he was going to have me arrested for crimes against humanity.” She blushed, and Zane chuckled.

  “Well, he helps score our challenge arenas, so he probably figures that you spend enough time with me to also need training.” He shrugged, refusing to admit the real reason. “Anyway, are you two interested? I won’t pretend I know how to show you all new conjury configurations or elixirs and powders…”

  Zane waved an airy hand and said, “If Reede asked you, he’ll have cleared me for higher-level spell-books. I wouldn’t trust you with showing me conjury drawings under any circumstances anyway—you have the least-steady hands I’ve ever seen when drawing circles.”

  Hayden rolled his eyes and looked to Tess.

  “I’ll talk to Master Sark and Master Kilgore and see if they’ll clear me for higher-level materials. It’ll mean doing more homework even after we finish with our schoolwork at night, but you’re right, we do need to get better.”

  “Okay then, that’s settled.” Hayden smiled, glad that they were willing to join him. “How about we meet this weekend and get started? Prepare as much as you can before then, and I can at least tell you what Asher’s taught me about fighting against other mages.”

  The bells rang to signal the end of lunch, and with their plans settled they parted ways. Fortunately today’s Prism class was a theory day, so Hayden spent the hour trying to understand what Master Asher was telling him about calculating major and minor angles, and their role in alignment determination. He was relieved when class was over, certain that his brain was going to overheat and melt if he did any more math today, but to his dismay Master Willow informed them in Wands that they would be learning to calculate the amount of TMS from different wands.

  “Tangential magical spillage can be extremely dangerous, as you’ve learned by now,” he surveyed them all, frowning slightly at Hayden’s stricken expression at learning he’d have to do more math today. “Each wand type will give you a different amount of it, which will be further complicated by the type of spell you are attempting to channel through it, as well as the random factor of how focused your will is during casting.”

  Hayden wanted to put his head down on his desk and sleep until Healing, but he forced himself to stay awake and pay attention, taking arduous notes about everything Master Willow told them and hoping that he’d be able to make sense of it upon rereading them sometime when he was thinking better.

  Healing class was a breeze by comparison, even though they were mixing dangerous compounds for their bandages and tinctures that could explode if handled incorrectly. Hayden had been hoping for a chance to thank Mistress Razelle for her help in keeping him alive after the Mnemora incident, but she wasn’t in class that day. A mastery student was teaching in her place, and now that Hayden thought about it more closely, he couldn’t remember seeing her since the night she healed him, not even at mealtimes.

  Wondering if she was ill (and hoping very much that it wasn’t because of him), he tracked down the first Master he could find after classes finished, which happened to be Master Willow.

  “Ah, Hayden, you look much better than you did during my class today,” Willow greeted him cordially in the pentagonal foyer.

  “I didn’t know I looked ill,” he admitted.

  “You turned green when I said we would begin calculating levels of TMS,” Willow clarified.

  “Oh, yeah…well, math isn’t really my favorite thing. I was bad at figures in school before I came to Mizzenwald, and I’m not really much better at them now,” Hayden explained.

  “You’ll have to work on that if you want to reach your full potential, especially if you ever aspire to be a research apprentice to one of us,” Master Willow said without apology. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Hayden, I’ve got something to attend to.”

  “Actually sir, I wanted to ask you if Mistress Razelle has been sick or something,” he interrupted. “I wanted to thank her for helping me last week, but I haven’t seen her since that night and she’s had a mastery student teaching all of her classes.”

  The Master of Wands frowned at Hayden and said, “Asher didn’t tell you?”

  Startled, Hayden asked, “Didn’t tell me what?”

  Master Willow sighed and motioned Hayden away from the center of the foyer. When they were standing near the east wall, he lowered his voice so that they wouldn’t be overheard and said, “Mistress Razelle was called to the front. She delayed her departure long enough to make sure you were alright, but then she had to go.”

  Alarmed, Hayden blurted out, “What are you saying? You mean she’s in the Forest of Illusions fighting in the war right now?”

  “I’m not sure if she’s fighting or not…I suspect they called her there mainly to treat the wounded, as she’s a very gifted healer,” Willow explained.

  “But when will she be back?” Hayden knew it was a stupid question, but he couldn’t resist asking it. Until this moment the war hadn’t been a real thing to him, it was something distant that other people were caught up in, people he didn’t know or care about. Now it was coming to Mizzenwald—or at least bringing Mizzenwald to it.

  “When the war ends, I hope.” Master Willow sighed. “It would be a shame to lose such a competent Mistress of Healing, and such a good person.”

  “But…but I thought the war was supposed to be going well,” Hayden argued. “Isn’t that what the important people keep telling us? The sorcerers haven’t landed many troops, and we’re driving them off all along the borders of the Forest.” He said the last part in a mockery of an official-sounding adult.

  Master Willow smirked and said, “That is certainly what the reports say. One wonders then, if that is true, why they continue to need additional manpower at the front.”

  Hayden remembered that Master Asher had told him that Willow was also skeptical of the news about how the war was progressing.

  Softly, as though he was whispering treason, Hayden asked, “Isn’t there anything we can do to find out the truth without the Council finding out?”

  “What do you think we’ve been devoting our evenings to for the last several months?” Master Willow smirked humorlessly. “Between the near-daily Council meetings, which we must send a representative to attend, and the more covert task of getting in touch with all of our contacts throughout the magical community to share candid information about the war effort and what is to be done, I’m lucky if I can get to
bed by midnight these days.” He rubbed his eyes tiredly at the thought. “We have our own information coming in from the front—independent news is always an asset. After all the campaigning, sneaking around, and open meetings, we still have to teach classes, assist our mastery students in their research projects, and judge challenge arenas—though that may soon come to a halt.”

  Hayden felt like a fool for not having some idea that all of this was going on right under their noses, for thinking that the war wasn’t having an effect on him for all this time.

  “Isn’t there anything I can do to help?” he offered.

  “We are doing everything in our power to keep students away from this nastiness. Your job is to learn as much as you can and prepare yourself in case we are unsuccessful. I know the kind of person you are, Hayden: you have a streak of righteousness and loyalty that is very admirable, but may lead you to ruin. This is not your war, Hayden. It is not your time.” He spoke with such quiet intensity that Hayden was startled by it.

  “Now I really must go.” He sighed and swept past Hayden, turning out onto the grounds. Hayden wondered where he was going and what he was doing tonight for the war effort.

  As he took the stairs to the fourth floor to drop off his things before dinner and collect Bonk, Master Willow’s words seemed to echo around his head.

  …may lead you to ruin…not your war…not your time…

  “Not yet,” Hayden said quietly to himself, waking Bonk for dinner.

  When Hayden told Tess and Zane about Mistress Razelle after dinner that night, they took the news almost as badly as he did. Then they agreed to move their training schedule up to mid-week.

  Despite the fact that he had so much homework he could barely keep up as it was, Hayden still found time to do some planning for their training session on Lenthin, which was to take place shortly after their arena team practice. He told Master Asher what he intended to do in class that day, and the Prism Master gave him some additional pointers and made recommendations about where to start.