by V. St. Clair
Asher stopped spinning and gave his colleague a lopsided grin.
“You’ve been telling me to clean out my office for years, out of fear of me being buried under an avalanche of falling papers,” he said while laughing, gesturing wildly with his arms to present the room. “Well, it’s clean!”
Master Willow simply looked stunned.
“Absolutely mad,” Reede grumbled, turning and walking back into the castle.
Asher chuckled and came over to pat Hayden on the back.
“Thanks for doing me the favor of tidying up.”
“You aren’t angry at me?” Hayden asked in mild disbelief.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m extremely intelligent; anything I need from that pile I’ve committed to memory. The rest is just trash as far as I’m concerned.” He turned to Master Kilgore and pointed to the remains of the girls’ bathroom. “I’m much more upset about the fact that the ladies’ restrooms here appear to have nicer décor than ours. Are those the remains of a full-length sofa I see in there?”
The Master of Elixirs shook his head and said, “I have no idea. If you all are done with me, I’m going to go interview my mastery students and see where they are in the lesson plans with my classes.”
He turned and left.
“You all had better return to your dormitories,” Reede addressed Hayden and his friends. “I’m sure your classmates will want to hear all about our exciting adventures. Try not to tell them anything disparaging about us,” he glanced at Master Asher as he said this.
Hayden, Tess, Zane, and Oliver walked back into the school and headed towards the main stairwell with their families in tow. For the first time in days, Hayden addressed Oliver directly.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your promise to help me get my estate back.”
Oliver pursed his lips, but all he said was, “I remember. I’ll talk to my mother during the holiday and she’ll contact you to get started.”
Well, that’s one visitor I can look forward to getting this winter.
“Thanks.” He held out his hand as they passed the second floor, where Oliver would be leaving them to go to his dormitory. After a brief, skeptical glance, Oliver took his hand and shook it.
The Masters resumed their lessons the next day as though they had never been gone. Hayden was horrified (though not surprised) to learn that they would still be taking exams at the end of the year, and spent most of his evenings frantically trying to catch up on the material he missed.
On the bright side, he was able to impress Asher with his improved math skills, and the Prism Master grudgingly admitted that Fia Valay had his uses, though he still maintained that he was more valuable as a hat-rack than as a human being.
The only thing that really took Hayden unawares since his return to Mizzenwald was the fact that people were eager to spend time in his company now. Older students that he barely even knew volunteered to help him catch up on his lessons, while some of the younger students huddled together in groups and whispered excitedly every time he walked past.
“It’s because you’re a big hero now,” Zane explained to him one night when they were sitting in the fourth-year common area, toasting chunks of bread over the fireplace.
“So are you and Tess and Oliver, and aside from Oliver—who has always been popular for whatever reason—I don’t see anyone else getting special attention,” Hayden protested.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Two different girls asked me out just yesterday.” Zane beamed. “Besides, you were already getting a reputation as a stupidly powerful mage before the war even happened; remember, you did win the I.S.C. last year, on top of all the other things you’ve done so far.”
Hayden scowled and said, “Those stories always sound better in the retelling. I’ve heard rumors around here that I dueled the Magistra in single-combat with nothing but a level-one powder and a sharp stick and beat her at full strength.” He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, well if anyone could manage something like that it would be you.” Zane grinned. “You have the weirdest luck of anyone I’ve ever known.”
Hayden grunted in agreement and they removed their cubes of bread from the sticks in the fireplace and tasted them.
“If you really want to worry about something…” Zane switched subjects abruptly, “worry about the fact that my dad wrote to say my mom was on her way here to give me a piece of her mind. I may have survived the war only to be murdered by my own mother.” He grimaced.
“Oh no, you don’t think she’s going to yell at me too, do you?”
Zane made a face at him and said, “If there is any justice in this world, I hope so.”
Hayden poked him with a leftover bread skewer.
“Well, I guess we’d better get back to studying for exams,” he sighed mournfully. “I should be set in Prisms and Wands, but Charms and Elixirs are iffy and Abnormal Magic could be anything depending on what kind of mood Laurren is in when he writes the test.”
Zane snorted in amusement.
“Serves you right for going into the weirdest subject of study you could find.” He finished his cube of bread and set the toasting stick to the side. “I refuse to read one more sentence from our textbooks tonight. I’m going down to the obstacle courses with Felix for a while. Want me to take Bonk?”
“Sure, he’s been getting restless being cooped up with me while I cram for exams; the exercise will be good for him. Stop by Torin’s cabin for his chew toy if you want to play ‘fetch’ with him.”
Hayden returned to his room, which was empty of all other occupants right now, and told Bonk to go play with Zane before getting to work. He read through his notes on Elixirs until his eyes started to cross and his vision blurred, but wasn’t sure that he took in more than one word in three. The textbook for Abnormal Magic was worse than useless as a study guide, since so little about the subject was really understood by mage-kind. Mostly it just went over different oddities that had been discovered in the last few hundred years, and speculated as to possible causes for such occurrences, few of which were substantiated.
Eventually deciding that he wasn’t gaining anything from his cram-session tonight, Hayden yawned and rubbed his eyes, deciding to head out to the front lawns and see if Zane and Bonk were still out there.
He descended the stairs past a group of second-year girls who were on their way up to their floor, and they burst into giggles at the sight of him. Ignoring the attention, he continued downward and crossed through the pentagonal foyer of the major arcana, stepping out into the fresh evening air and taking a relaxing breath.
He squinted into the distance and saw shapes around the obstacle courses, but it was impossible to tell who or what was out there in the cast of shadows from the setting sun. He started to walk towards them when he abruptly changed his mind and turned towards Torin’s cabin, thinking to stop in and see him for the first time since he left school all those weeks ago.
The door was still ajar when he arrived, and the lights were on inside, which meant that Torin was both there and awake. Hayden knocked on the lintel as he crossed over the threshold to announce his presence, and found the man leaned back in a chair that was propped on its rear legs, studying an ancient-looking book on familiars with pictures inked onto the pages.
He looked up at the sound of the knock and leaned forward so that all four of his chair legs touched the ground.
“Ah, Hayden. I was wondering if I’d see you again before the year was out.”
Feeling guilty for not coming by sooner, Hayden walked further into the room and said, “Sorry, I meant to visit before, but I’ve been trying to get ready for exams so I don’t have to repeat any classes next year.”
Torin waved away the apology and motioned for Hayden to take a seat with him, rising and pouring a mug of apple cider for each of them. Hayden sat obediently and took a sip of the cinnamon concoction, and it warmed him immediately.
“So, you went to get my wayward son and his colleagues back and
lived to tell the tale.” Torin raised his mug to toast Hayden and took a long drink.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t really expect to get anyone back to be honest—other than Cinder, who I was pretty sure was still alive in there somewhere,” Hayden admitted.
“I suppose it’s my fault you ended up there at all,” Torin sighed, running a hand through his greying black hair and looking suddenly a lot like his son. “I should have known better than to tell you my suspicions about what was happening in the Forest.”
Hayden frowned and said, “I’d rather have you tell the truth than lie to me about things.”
Torin chuckled. “Yes, but knowing you as I do, it was foolish of me to speak so candidly. For all the times I’ve lectured that boy of mine on making rash decisions and doing things that are likely to get him killed, this may be the first time ever that he’s lectured me.”
Hayden made a face at the thought of Master Asher lecturing anyone seriously on the subject of making rash decisions.
“He talked to you about it?” he asked at last.
Torin huffed and said, “Laid into me is more like it. It was a bit surprising to find out he’d been listening all those years that I lectured him, since he used quite a few of my own words against me for exposing you to that danger.”
“But it isn’t your fault I went to the Forest—you couldn’t have known,” Hayden insisted.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Hayden,” Torin contradicted lightly. “Anyone who has known you for more than five minutes knows that you aren’t the type to sit around while others fight and suffer. You’re a typical Frost—in that regard, at least.”
Hayden didn’t usually appreciate being compared to his father, and it must have shown on his face because Torin added, “Ah, boy, the Frosts weren’t all bad—even your father in the beginning.” He sighed. “Your family is known for ambition, stubbornness, willfulness, and loyalty to causes they believe in. It’s how they got to be a Great House in the first place. Look at your grandfather, who was skipped over entirely in the magical department: rather than hide in his manor in shame, he started one of the most successful chain of apothecaries on the continent and made more money than both of his parents combined.”
“I can’t just sit around while people I care about are dying,” Hayden frowned. “Especially after my mom died and everyone found out whose son I am, there were so few people who actually liked me until I came here. If that means I’m stubborn and willful, then so be it.”
Torin chuckled and said, “It isn’t always a bad thing, like I said. You just have to be careful with letting your emotions run away with you. As you know by now, the members of the Frost family have always been stars, excellent in their chosen areas of focus and meteoric in their rise. But they also tend to burn up while they’re still young, and the fall from glory is just as fast as the climb.”
Hayden frowned and considered this for a moment. Earlier in the year, when he’d been trying to learn all he could about his family, he had discovered that his great aunt was a famous mage who could use all five major arcana—until one of her experimental spells went awry and killed her before she turned thirty. His great uncle was the youngest chairperson of the Council of Mages in centuries, and managed to grease through a bunch of game-changing laws for all of mage-kind, before being murdered by jealous rivals and dragged through the streets of Kargath. His grandfather did fairly well until he was murdered by the Dark Prism, who was a classic story of someone who rose to great heights only to fall to historic lows at a young age.
At this rate, if I make it past thirty without being killed in some gruesome way, I’ll be a rare success story in my family.
That was a grisly thought.
“I see your point…” he said to Torin at last. “And I’m trying to keep myself in check and just be normal, but I seem to keep messing it up somehow.”
Torin laughed at his candor.
“Oh Hayden, you’re never going to be normal: I knew that from the moment Bonk chose you as his master, because that dragon had been waiting on someone special to ally himself with for fifty years before you showed up. You and Bonk are a lot alike.”
Hayden arched one eyebrow and said, “Bonk’s fondest hobbies involve chasing down squirrels and eating my apple pie. He also enjoys making me look like an idiot in any way that he can, as well as lolling about being useless until I’m on the brink of death and need help. How are we alike?”
Torin chuckled. “Look at it however you like, but you two have more in common than you care to admit.”
Hayden would just have to take Torin’s word on it, because as weird as he felt sometimes, he still liked to think he was more normal than Bonk, who once choked on a soap cake for no good reason.
“All I’m saying is, your star is rising fast, Hayden. Just be careful not to let things get out of control.”
“I’ll try.” Hayden stood up and prepared to leave. He wasn’t sure if he was glad for the visit or not, since it forced him to confront things he’d rather not think about—like the fact that he and his father actually had quite a bit in common before he became the Dark Prism.
“I’d better go find Zane. Bonk will keep him out there all night playing ‘fetch’ if I don’t make him come in.”
“Take care, Hayden. And good luck on your final exams.” Torin waved at him with his cider mug, and Hayden shut the door behind him and stepped back out into the night, his mind churning with worry at the thought of following in his ancestors’ famous footsteps and ending up just as badly.
His mood didn’t improve when a mastery-level girl stopped him in the courtyard to ask for his autograph.
19
Family
After weeks of studying and preparation, final exams were upon them at last. Elixirs was first up on his schedule, and Hayden wished his friends luck as breakfast drew to a conclusion and he made his way to Master Kilgore’s classroom.
Sure enough, the Elixir exam was tricky, but he thought that with any luck he’d at least managed a passing grade, and after two hours of writing down everything he could ever member reading about the subject, he set down his pencil with a sense of relief.
His joy was short-lived, as his next exam was in Abnormal Magic. He and his fifteen classmates sat in the basement of the school, fidgeting nervously while they waited for Master Laurren to finish passing out their tests and call for them to start.
Hayden flipped his exam paper over and read the first question:
Describe the known properties of an Absorber.
He exhaled in relief, because at least this question had a fairly straightforward answer. In fact, Hayden had more experience with Absorbers than he cared to for one year, and had no difficulty listing all of the things he knew about them: absorbs magic, transforms magic into visible light, shows variations and discrepancies in magical instruments and magical Foci…occasionally explodes when smashed against walls.
He hoped Master Laurren could appreciate the humor of the last part, now that the castle was all put back together. A few of the Masters were still grousing about the stonemason’s bill, in addition to all the magical work they themselves had to do to restore the exterior to new condition. Laurren mostly just grumbled about having so much of his magical cache of weapons depleted during the war, and how long it would take to gradually siphon off enough materials to replenish it without any of the accountants noticing.
The rest of the exam became more difficult as the questions became more obscure, until at one point Hayden found himself writing a paragraph about irregularly-shaped clouds to help illustrate a point. Most of the questions were about abstract concepts that had no definite answers, and were simply asking him to state his opinions and thoughts on the matter and to attempt to justify them.
By the end of the two hours, Hayden had no idea if he passed or failed. Most of his classmates were scratching their heads with dazed looks on their faces or else crying quietly into their hands, so he figured there might be a curve.
“How was Abnormal Magic?” she asked him, ignoring Zane’s mocking.
“I’m not sure,” Hayden admitted with a wry smile. “I think I might have accidentally proven that one equals two at some point.”
Conner tried to laugh with a mouthful of stew, which resulted in it spraying out of his nose and causing him to curse emphatically about the discomfort of having potato chunks stuck in both nostrils.
Bonk glided down from his post near the ceiling with his claws extended, and Hayden realized what he was going to do a moment too late to prevent it. He tried covering his stew, but Bonk managed to dive down, grab the large chunk of meat from it, and fly off before Hayden could do anything more than shake his fist at his familiar’s retreating back. With a victorious hunting cry, his familiar took off towards the grounds to enjoy his spoils while Hayden’s friends laughed at him.
“Dumb dragon,” Hayden grumbled, digging around in his stew in the hopes of finding more beef, though he knew there was none.
“At least he’s back to normal,” Zane pointed out, pointedly taking a bite of meat and chewing loudly to rub it in Hayden’s face.
He was right, of course. As much as Hayden complained about Bonk being a nuisance and a jerk, he had been devastated when his familiar had fallen ill and stopped eating and playing properly.
Halfway through the meal, Master Reede approached their table and said, “Zane, you’re wanted in the Pentagon.”
Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Zane dropped his spoon with a clatter and asked, “Why, sir? Have I done something wrong?”
