by Riley Storm
“Are you sure that’s a good thing?” she asked. “When do you want to start?”
“Right now,” the Magi said, backing up, preparing himself, even as he cast a glance at Kasperi that was filled with contempt.
Amber looked at Kasperi. She was nervous, terrified even, but not once did the hand with the collar in it lift toward her neck.
“Okay,” she said, trying to sound confident. “Let’s do this.”
24
“I don’t think this is a good idea.”
The Magi waved her objections aside. “You can’t just sit around all day and do nothing. You must learn to use the power. You must control it.”
Her mind flicked back to every other time the Magi had said something similar. “Every time I do that, I lose control.”
“You also develop more of a feel for it. Your progress advances. You can’t expect to get stronger without a little pain along the way, now can you?”
Amber frowned. His argument almost made sense. In a weird sort of way. Warily, she moved away from Kasperi who was looking at the racks of artifacts and his swords. The Magi’s actions had hurt him, she could tell, but truthfully, Amber sort of agreed with the crazy old shifter. Kasperi needed to work at his magic, to find the spark that would light it.
Why else would the Magi tell him he has magic? What purpose would he serve by lying to him about that?
There didn’t seem to be one, which meant Kasperi had to possess magic at some level. The natural way he worked with the artifacts themselves seemed to prove just that. If only she could get him to believe that he had it within him.
Instead, they’d spent so much time trying to help her, that he’d been neglected, left behind. Vowing to change that, Amber decided she would help him. Every day, they would work and practice. If he was her supporter, then she would be his.
“Korred, shouldn’t she practice small, first? Why does she always have to start with combat against someone?” Kasperi spoke, his voice calm, but firm.
“Because there is always combat in our world,” Korred replied. “Within herself. Within this House. Everywhere she goes, she will be marked as a mage by those in the know. She must be able to defend herself. The sooner the better.
Kasperi looked ready to say something more, but Amber knew it wouldn’t matter. Plus, she agreed. She was tired of being stomped upon, of sitting around doing nothing but preventing the magic from coming out. Her control was greater than ever, and she wanted to use the magic. To learn how to work it to her control, to her mind. She wouldn’t get that by always holding it back.
“We’ll start easy. A shield. I want you to imagine a shield in place as you block my spell. Picture it in front of you, put energy into it.”
She nodded, spreading her legs slightly, balancing them.
“Prepare yourself!” the Magi shouted, and a blob of red energy pooled between the fingers of his right hand, then he lobbed it at her lazily.
Amber saw it coming, analyzed the trajectory and held her hands up. A shield. Picture a shield. A curved rectangle shimmered hazily into being. She was doing it!
The blob came on, and Amber pushed a bit more of the energy that she held inside her into the shape of the shield, hardening it. The image solidified a bit more. Still vague and transparent, but certainly visible. A smile creased her face.
Then the ball hit it, shattering her shield and slamming into her face. Amber shrieked as tiny electrical shocks raced out across her face and down her body, neutralizing the muscles for a split second and depositing her on her rear.
“You must be stronger!” the Magi said fiercely, clapping his hands together. “Your shield is pathetic. Try again!”
He didn’t wait for her to get back up, tossing another ball of energy at her.
Gritting her teeth angrily at the treatment, Amber got to her feet, set her shoulders and pictured the shield again. Drawing on her memory of the image, she hardened the shield, putting more energy into it, imagining the thin layer of steel overlaid on top. She carved a pattern into it in the center, drawing energy in from the corners to it, creating a structurally-sound product.
Then as the ball came close, she injected fresh energy into it at the last moment. The impact drove her to her knee, but she focused on holding the shield, on keeping it there. The red ball of electrical pain flashed, sizzled, and then went out.
Her shield held.
“Yes!” she shouted, standing up, looking over at Kasperi.
Smiling, the big man nodded his head in her direction, acknowledging her efforts. “Well done,” he rumbled.
“Thank you! But I don’t understand; why could I feel the impact?” she asked, glancing at the Magi.
“Magic is a force of your will. When you hit with your will, you imagine there to be force behind it. The stronger your will, the more force behind it.”
“Gotcha. I’ll be ready for it next time. Again!” She set herself.
The Magi smiled, conjuring up yet another ball of energy. This time, he tossed it overhand, coming in at her faster.
Scrambling to create her shield, she found that it flowed easier this time. She could take the energy and create the barrier with it, almost like it remembered the shape she wanted.
It’s a force of your will. Of you. If you remember the shape, so does it.
This time, Amber only rocked with the impact.
“Again!” the Magi called, tossing another ball at her shield.
Amber steadied, focusing her will, her energy, keeping the shield in place. The ball hit it, but the impact was heavier than any of the others, and once more she was driven to her knee.
“You must be stronger!” Korred shouted, hurling another ball at her. And another.
Amber shouted at him to slow down. That she wasn’t ready. The first ball cracked her shield. The second one shattered it and kept coming. Frantically, she tried to conjure another shield, much closer to her body, instead of four or five feet in front of her.
It fizzled into being, and then promptly exploded just before the magic hit her in the face, again. Amber fell backward, crying out in pain.
“Enough!” Kasperi roared.
“No,” she said, coughing several times and getting to her feet. “I can do this.”
The magic was straining at her leash now, and as the next spell came at her, she let some of it out, more than she’d yet dared. The shield appeared much faster than before, and it held.
Before the Magi could send another spell her way, Amber focused her will in her right hand, and tossed one back at him.
“Good!” he cackled excitedly, easily batting the ball aside, but seemingly proud of her ability to multi-task. “Very good!”
Three smaller, but brighter blobs of red magic came at her now in quick succession. They bobbed and weaved, spreading wide, coming in tight, forcing her to move the shield around, to try and deflect all three.
She got two of them, but the third hit her in the chest, dropping her on her ass.
“Okay,” she said, coughing while she got to her feet. “That’s enough for now. I need a break.”
“In life, you don’t get to choose your breaks,” The Magi said, lobbing another pair at her, each one coming in faster.
“I said I need a break!” she shouted, her brain tired.
“Cast your shield!” the Magi said sternly. “The lesson is not over.”
She tried to let the power flow through her, but her mind was weak, weary, and unable to control. Instead of the gentle flow, it surged from her. Instead of obeying her will, the magic took on a life of its own. The blackness she’d begun to control ripped free from her, and someone laughed manically as it rose up and poured down at the Magi.
It took a moment for Amber to realize that was her life. The magic was taking control of her body.
The Magi seemed unconcerned about the attack, until it hit his shield and drove him back a step. Then another. He frowned and a spherical shield hardened around him, even as the magic pok
ed and probed at various directions, trying to get around it.
Kasperi darted in close, grabbed the collar from the ground next to her and slapped it around her neck. Immediately, the heat was replaced by cool, salve-like sensations that spread from her core to her extremities, extinguishing the angry magic.
“Are you okay?”
“Don’t touch me!” she shouted, scrambling backward across the mat. “Just please, stay back.”
Staring at the ground, she worked to regain her composure, overcome by embarrassment and shame, all fueled by the undercurrent of fear of what it was that lived inside her.
So much progress, and yet she still wasn’t any closer to controlling it. Her ears were haunted by the sound of her own laughter as she’d attacked the Magi. Something had possessed her, causing her to make that noise, and she’d been unable to do anything about it. Yet again, the ugly silver thing around her neck was all that stood between her and succumbing completely.
“Amber…” Kasperi was pleading with her to talk to him, but she couldn’t.
What would she say? “I’m sorry for losing control. Again.”? It no longer mattered. There was nothing to say. He and the Magi had seen it with their own eyes, heard it with their own ears. She was always going to be vulnerable to this…this thing.
“I need to go,” she said quietly, getting up.
“You need to try again,” the Magi ordered.
“No!” she shouted, glaring at him. “I’m done. I can’t handle this. It’s too strong. I don’t ever want to use it. Never again.”
Turning, she fled for the door.
“Wait, Amber.” Footsteps came after her.
“I said leave me alone! Can’t anyone respect my wishes for once in this godforsaken hellhole!” she screamed, pushing open the door.
The words were harsh and unnecessary, but her guilt and shame weighed heavily upon her, dragging her down more than the collar ever would. All along, she’d known the truth of it, the truth that Kvoss and the others had been spewing. They were right.
She was evil.
25
“What the fuck was that?” he snarled, turning on the Magi. “What were you doing?”
“Enough.”
Kasperi’s eyes bulged in their sockets at the casual dismissal. “Fuck that shit. From the very start, you have pushed her further and harder than she’d been ready to go. With absolutely no guidance or coaching from you. What the hell are you trying to accomplish, Korred?”
The Magi whirled on him, robe floating out wide around his feet. “I am trying to train her.”
“No, you’re trying to kill her. You haven’t provided one measly bit of training. All you’ve done is try to unleash her power. To scare her. To make her lose control. You say you want her to learn, but I think you want something else. What the hell are you trying to do with her?”
“I said enough.” The Magi flicked a green bit of magic at Korred. “She is further along than you ever will be.”
Kasperi’s hand reached out and he snatched the first artifact from the rack nearby as he advanced on the Magi. Pouring his will into the artifact, he batted aside the green magic.
The Magi’s head snapped around, staring at him in shock.
“I told you I was good with artifacts,” he snapped, wondering why Korred was so surprised he could deflect the green magic. He’d done it before. “Now tell me what your real purpose is with Amber.”
He was laser-focused on the Magi. Answers were needed. Even though Amber was much older than any normal magic trainee, the training pattern was thoroughly unorthodox. It was too rough, too brutal. She wasn’t a shifter, she was human.
“Get out of my way before I make you regret it,” the Magi snarled, still a little surprised at what Kasperi was doing.
Did he think I didn’t have the balls to challenge him? To demand he explain himself?
“No.” Kasperi sent a solid stream of green magic that flowed like turbulent water at the Magi, using his will to harden it into corded rope, circling around the shield Korred called up.
Then he tightened, and it constricted around the shield like a snake, slowly squeezing the life out of it. Kasperi advanced on him. “Answer me!” he roared, pulling hard on the end.
Sparks sizzled around the shield, and then it stopped shrinking, and began expanding. The Magi stood up from where the smaller bubbled had caused him to crouch, and he started to weave another spell.
Bright red light lashed out from the sphere, slicing through Kasperi’s snake, severing it in multiple spots.
“You dare to challenge me?” Korred hissed, stalking forward, brilliant jade darts of energy slashing out from his fingertips and angling in on Kasperi.
A storm of red fire met them halfway, swallowing up the darts, but Kasperi wasn’t done. The storm grew a head like a great dragon, and vomited the darts back up one at a time.
Korred batted them aside with a shield of green held to one arm before summoning a giant bull. The green animal charged at Kasperi, shattering his own shield and forcing him to dive out of the way before he poured magic into the artifact. Spinning blades flew across the room, taking off the magical construct’s legs first, then a larger one severed the head.
“You impertinent little shit!” Korred shrieked, thrusting both hands out at Kasperi.
The sheer strength of the magical wave swept him up, tumbling him along. Instead of slamming him into the wall though, it circled the room, like a raging river washing him along in a never-ending stream, battering at him as he went.
Enough of this.
Kasperi pointed his relic down, conjuring a solid shield underneath him. A long, rectangular one. Then he pulled up on it, until it hit his feet. Kasperi kept injecting magic, ordering it to rise. The shield stabilized him, and then he rose above the wave, surfing along the top.
“I said I want answers!” he bellowed, bright green light lancing out from his relic, piercing the magic wave and dispersing it with a spark.
“You aren’t ready for the answers!” Korred shouted back from where he stood, untouched by his own casting even as it had swirled around on him.
Kasperi dropped his shield, landing on both feet, ready for another round.
“We’re done,” the Magi hissed, and a rent appeared behind him.
“No!” Kasperi hauled back on his arm and flung his relic at the Magi.
It sailed through the air end over end. Korred’s eyes went wide with fear and he jumped backward into the rent, slashing at it wildly to close before he was even all the way through.
Kasperi’s artifact whipped through the spot where he’d just been, then embedded itself in the far wall, sticking out rigidly with an odd twang as it vibrated heavily.
With Korred gone, there was nobody else in the chamber. The odd noise caught his ear, and Kasperi walked over to it, wondering what the hell he’d picked up. His eyes started picking out details as he got closer, and his heartrate picked up.
“No, it can’t be,” he muttered, reaching out to grab the end closest to him, stopping it from vibrating. “That’s impossible.”
But it wasn’t. Kasperi wrapped his hand around a very familiar handle, and with a yank, pulled the sword from the stone.
His sword.
The same sword he’d used to work magic—powerful magic—against the Magi. The same sword he’d held in his hands earlier, warming up next to Amber while she worked on her concentration. But it was just a sword, not a relic. Kasperi had himself ordered them to be made, perhaps eight years earlier. There was no magic in them.
Was there?
Grasping the handle, he thought about casting a spell, flicked the tip of the blade around and pointed it at a blank space on the far wall. Nothing happened.
“Did I break it?” Glancing over the sword for signs of cracks or breaks from when he’d thrown it into the wall, Kasperi couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was going on.
That would explain why Korred had looked so damned surprised, I
guess. Not because I stood up to him, but because I somehow used this thing to fight him off.
Trying again, he pulled the spell together in his mind, just a simple kinetic spell, and tried to force it through his sword. “Fire!” he shouted when it didn’t happen, growing frustrated. Just minutes earlier, he’d nearly blasted the Magi across the room. Now he couldn’t even make a gust of wind.
“Go-go-Sword-magic!” he barked, whirling it and stabbing again.
“Abra Kadabra!”
“Unleash hell!”
“Forza!”
“Hiyah!”
Nothing worked. He whirled the sword around over and over, but nothing, not so much as a pop or spark from the tip.
“Poof,” he muttered weakly, flicking the tip of his blade upward from where it drooped in frustration.
No magic.
“Well this is ridiculous.” Standing up, he paced across the room, grabbing his other sword, returning it to the sheath on his back with practiced ease, not bothering to look.
He needed to find someone, to tell them what had happened. To see if they had any other suggestions, and to ensure he wasn’t going crazy.
But the only person he wanted to tell was the one who had just run from the room saying she wanted nothing to do with him.
The excitement at casting his own magic faded abruptly, leaving Kasperi feeling sad and alone. He had nobody else to tell, nobody that would get it like she would at least. Amber would understand why it was such a big deal, and how elated he felt. But he couldn’t tell her.
Sinking down to the floor, he rested up against the padded wall, trying to figure out what the hell to do now.
26
Amber was slumped into a corner, the smallest duffel bag she could find tossed on the floor nearby. Knees pulled to her chest, hands crossed under her head, she rested there, ignoring the damp spots on her forearms and legs where tears had left their stained marks.
She was still like that when Kasperi slipped in through a side passage, emerging into the main room. Although he moved quietly, it wasn’t silent. She’d heard him coming, but there was nothing left to say, so she didn’t bother to look up.
