A Crucible of Souls (Book One of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence)

by Hogan, Mitchell

  “What?” screeched Elpidia.

  The Big Man spread his hands. “It’s harder than killing someone. I’ll need at least two men, a soporific to render the man unconscious, and a physiker willing to do the job. All cost ducats.”

  She could sell some of her equipment… No, it’s necessary for her research and she’d still be short the ducats. Elpidia wrung her hands, tears in her eyes. “But… I don’t have that much.”

  “Then you need to convince the man to give you his blood.”

  “Argh,” growled Elpidia. She stood and stomped to the door and left, leaving the man chuckling to himself and shaking his head.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  An apprentice sidled up besides Caldan. He was at least five years younger than Caldan and a good deal shorter. All of the apprentices around him were younger and shorter, another thing that singled him out and separated him from their groups.

  The young boy brushed back a lock of wavy blond hair from his eyes. “Any idea why the classroom is locked?” he asked. A few of the other apprentices turned at the question.

  “I have no idea,” said Caldan.

  “We thought, well, I thought they might have told you something since you are… you know… older.”

  Caldan shook his head. “No, they don’t tell me any more than they tell you. I’m just another apprentice.”

  The rest of the apprentices turned back to waiting in the hall outside the classroom, except the one who had asked him the question. He had a curious look on his face.

  “Just another apprentice,” the boy mimicked and gave a short laugh. “No one your age would be accepted unless they judged you had exceptional talent.”

  Caldan shrugged. “Anyone with talent is usually found earlier than me, that’s all. There isn’t anything special about me.”

  The boy looked unconvinced.

  “Look,” said Caldan. “In and around the major cities, children are tested young.” The boy nodded. “And if they show signs of talent, they’re offered an apprenticeship. There’s no mystery that in out-of-the-way places there are children and adults who were never tested and have talent but don’t know it.”

  “I guess so.”

  “So there isn’t anything special about me. In fact, I’m at a disadvantage. You have years to learn and take in all you can here. I’ve started late and way behind anyone my age.”

  “But what about…”

  The boy cut off as Master Theunisen approached. He withdrew a key ring held to his belt by a chain and unlocked the door. He ushered them inside and closed and locked the door after them. The apprentices moved to their desks, eager to find out what was going on. Most readied pens and paper to write down whatever they thought relevant.

  Before the master cleared his throat, the murmurings and shuffling of the apprentices died to silence. Theunisen raised an eyebrow and, though it was no longer necessary, cleared his throat loudly.

  “It seems that isn’t needed today,” he said, and a few of the apprentices chuckled. “Here we are again. You’re probably wondering why the door was locked, so without further delay…” He opened a drawer in his desk and removed a narrow wooden box covered in inlaid metal runes.

  Caldan could feel the master access his well, and what felt to him like a number of wards on the box were disarmed. He caught the faint scent of lemons. Why lemons? He glanced around, but no one else was sniffing. He shrugged and brought his attention back to what the master had to say.

  “The lesson today is on shielding,” announced Theunisen. He opened the box to reveal rows of metal amulets. All of the same size and shape, they were lined up one by one in slots built into the inside of the box.

  Gasps came from the apprentices. Caldan grinned. Finally, they were going to study a talent he was interested in.

  Theunisen ran a finger along the amulets then looked out at his audience.

  “The good news is that you’re all sufficiently advanced to begin training in shielding yourselves, which is no small achievement. But the bad news — and isn’t there always?” he chuckled, “— it’s going to take a long time for you to master this skill, for even the most basic of shields.” He paused as if to let that sink in.

  Caldan knew he’d be ahead of the other apprentices since he understood all the theory of various shields and had experimented himself with a shield crafting already. The question was whether he should let on he knew. While the master continued to explain the amulets and how today’s lesson would proceed, his voice faded into the background as Caldan considered his options.

  He needed to learn how to shield himself — it was essential if he were to wear his trinket to study it effectively. Extra lessons from a few of the senior journeymen had done wonders in developing his skill, but he was missing something, he was sure. He could hold a basic physical shield for an instant but never longer than that. The effort it took to maintain the energies flowing around him through the crafting soon caused a pain in his head, and after a few attempts he developed a headache. The journeyman mentioned ‘transference’ and ‘the shaping loop’ but wouldn’t be drawn further. Caldan couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong, and it was frustrating to be so close. He suspected his tutors held something back.

  Theunisen walked among the apprentices, stopping at each one to hand out a shielding amulet. As he did, he continued an explanation of the lesson. The amulet felt cool in Caldan’s palm.

  “The reason the door was locked today, you can probably guess, unless you have been asleep during most of your classes.” He smiled wryly. “These amulets are valuable, having been crafted a long time ago at great expense. They are true craftings, and what I mean is that the best metals were used to create them, and the masters who made them were among the best of their time. They have lasted over a hundred years, and are expected last many more centuries, not as long as trinkets, but long enough.”

  He handed an amulet to the last apprentice then returned to his desk.

  “All amulets are to be accounted for, by me, at the end of each class. You’ll be allowed to use them during the class, but at the end of each session they are to be returned, no exceptions.”

  Caldan examined the amulet in his hand and found it not so different to the one he had secreted in his room. Of a much better quality, but the runes and bindings used were similar. At least he knew the one he had bought should be sufficient to create a shield and he hadn’t been sold a flawed crafting.

  Theunisen continued. “From now on, many of your lessons will involve using craftings, all of which are valuable and will be kept under lock and key before and after lessons. The next few months are where the talented and the not so talented will be separated out. Those that can translate theory to practice are not rare, but it is the strength and quality of your crafting that will be assessed. Some,” he glanced at Caldan, “have already shown some aptitude but must not become complacent. Stretching yourself can lead to great progress but also has its risks. Needless to say, I don’t need to tell you the penalties for attempting to steal any of these craftings will be severe.”

  A few of the apprentices nodded. Why anyone would want to steal an amulet here was beyond Caldan. Well, no… why someone would was obvious; why they thought they could get away with it wasn’t.

  With a quick glance at Theunisen, Caldan opened his well and used his senses to examine the amulet. As far as he could tell, it was virtually the same as his. Which meant the problem was with him, his understanding of the forces or a lack of ability or practice on his part.

  “Now.” Theunisen ’s voice brought him back, and Caldan focused his attention on what he was saying. “Concentrate. The theoretical classes have prepared you for this. It’s all a matter of putting what you have learned into practice.”

  Caldan had learned that converting theory to reality wasn’t easy.

  Reaching into his drawer again, Theunisen produced another box. Inside, there was a line of wooden balls arranged in size, the smallest the size of a p
ea and the largest fist-sized. There was also another line of balls, these made of iron.

  Theunisen removed the smallest wooden ball and held it up to the room between his finger and thumb. “If any of you create a shield and sustain it for more than a moment, we can use this ball to test it.” With a flick of his wrist, he sent the ball sailing over their heads, where it struck the back wall with a loud clack before dropping and rolling onto the floor.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “It won’t hurt if it hits you, at least not much anyway.” He chuckled to himself. “If your shield holds, then we can test with the next size up. These balls are a gauge of how strong your shield is, from the smallest wooden ball to the largest iron ball. Shields need to be tested, and the only way is to subject them to a force. I’m afraid all of you might have some bruises over the next few months, and it will take months for you to master this crafting skill. Be prepared for hard work, and a little pain.” He pointed to the wooden ball sitting on the floor and with his other hand to the closest apprentice. “You, pick it up please.”

  The apprentice scrambled to obey. As he picked the ball up and turned to return it, Theunisen held a hand up, indicating for him to stop.

  “First, a demonstration.”

  There was a collective intake of breath from the apprentices. Seeing shielding sorcery was rare, unless you were able to perform it yourself.

  Theunisen drew out one of the amulets. In the blink of an eye, Caldan could feel him open his well, and immediately he became surrounded in a haze, a bending and twisting of light similar to heat haze on a hot day. Apprentices gawked, and a few grinned.

  “The problem,” explained Theunisen, “is that it’s hard to see out of since it covers your eyes. You had better hope you don’t need to move much if you ever need to create a shield in defense. Now, throw the ball at me.”

  The apprentice holding the ball hesitated.

  “Come now, it wouldn’t hurt even if I didn’t have a shield.”

  With a glance around the room, the apprentice drew back his arm and tossed the ball towards Theunisen.

  A wave of purple motes spread out on the shield from the impact. The ball dropped to the floor.

  “The sparkles you see is the energy dissipating. The momentum of the ball is transferred to the shield and is absorbed.”

  The haze winked out of existence, and Theunisen stood there smiling. “It took me a month to be able to shape that shield and somewhat longer to perfect maintaining it as long as I wanted.” There were groans from the apprentices. “Don’t be discouraged. It will come, you just have to keep working at it.”

  Months, thought Caldan. He needed to work this out quickly. He was way behind apprentices his age. They had either failed the journeyman tests and left the guild or passed and moved up the ranks. And he needed to be able to wear his trinket.

  Despite the sorcerers’ best efforts, there was a demand for trinkets beyond the ordinary, with active trinkets that could be used by non-sorcerers most in demand. Talk among the apprentices had some trinkets fetching up to tens of thousands of gold ducats in underground auctions. He needed to progress as quickly as he could to be able to shield himself, though a physical shield was only the start.

  Theunisen rubbed his chin and scowled at the apprentices. “What’s the delay? Get to work!”

  Chair legs scraped on the floor as the apprentices shifted to comfortable positions, each holding their amulet tight in one hand. The room became quiet as they concentrated.

  “Here is where your lessons become harder,” instructed Theunisen. “Look at the amulet, the side with the linking runes and energy runes. You must turn theory into reality, and be able to maintain that reality for long periods of time. In the beginning, it will be hard, but over time it becomes easier until it requires little effort. Now, enough time wasted. Concentrate. If you have any questions, raise your hand and I’ll come over.”

  Theunisen opened a book and started reading. It looked like he wasn’t expecting anyone to be able to create a shield anytime soon.

  Exasperated, Caldan rubbed his amulet and opened his well. He needed to figure out why he couldn’t hold a shield for more than a moment. The structures were there and correct, he was able to access his well without any problem, and the crafting in the amulet was fine. The issue must be his understanding and application of the theory.

  He closed his eyes and concentrated. He brought up a shield, and again, after a moment, it fizzled out. Opening an eye, he glanced around. All the other apprentices had their eyes closed so no one had noticed his shield pop into and out of existence. It wouldn’t do to show his progress so early, or would it? What did it matter if they saw how far along he was? He had worked hard to get here. They had years of study ahead and shouldn’t think it odd someone older than them progressed further.

  If he didn’t hide his progress he should be able to progress much faster. He couldn’t ask the right questions if he was trying to pretend he didn’t know what he was doing.

  As he’d thought before, he didn’t fit in with either the young apprentices or the journeymen. It’s time to forge my own path, risks be damned.

  Caldan shook his head. First things first. Use this lesson to see if he could work out why his shield wasn’t holding for long. The time was a bonus he hadn’t reckoned on having, so he should use it. And it looked like there would be many of these classes in the future.

  He opened his well again and linked himself to the amulet, this time leaving his eyes open. The runes for linking glowed faintly along with the bridging runes, which allowed his well to provide energy to the crafting.

  Why did the shield only hold for such a short time? He scratched his head, which itched as his hair grew longer. The shield surrounded the individual, though some craftings could surround a much larger area, such as the craftings the sorcerers created for the empire’s forges and metal cast-works.

  Theunisen’s purple motes of light, what had he said? They were his shield absorbing the energy of the projectile. But where did that energy go? The shield took a fixed amount to maintain, didn’t it?

  But how could it if it was being used to stop external forces, like projectiles? Energy from his well must have to fluctuate, or there was a buffer of some sort. Or it could be constantly renewed from the well to maintain stability… which meant it had to somehow return energy to his well. Could it be that simple? What if…

  Turning the amulet over, he examined the runes on the other side. Another linking rune and more bridging runes. It also had the standard physical shielding runes and a few others. The linking rune was different, though.

  He couldn’t get his well to link to it. The energy wouldn’t flow through from his well. He examined some of the other runes, recalling the many lessons at the monastery. Inspiration hit him. They acted as a buffer, storing excess energy until it could be siphoned off so the crafting wouldn’t be damaged by spikes of force flowing through it. Crafty, to use a pun many of the masters overused in their lessons.

  So, the other linking rune, this was the key. If the energy of the shield was to remain stable, it had to be constantly renewed. ‘Transference’ and ‘the shaping loop’, which his journeyman teachers had mentioned briefly, were the most important parts of the shield. Caldan gritted his teeth. It figured. If you start paying someone for something, they might try and string you along as long as possible, especially if you paid well. He would have to find someone else who wouldn’t hold back information.

  This second linking must be in the opposite direction to the first, which meant it transferred energy back into his well. But that meant splitting his well into two strings… a concept not taught at the monastery and one he hadn’t thought of.

  One the masters obviously wanted apprentices to figure out themselves.

  He focused on his well and twisted… like so… He trembled all over and sweat prickled his skin. He’d never needed to stretch his well to two separate strings. His mind felt drained. No doubt the masters cou
ld create more than two strings from their wells, something he didn’t think he could do without more practice. Everything he had crafted only needed one link to his well to draw power from. He could see how he could create more versatile craftings with more than one string, stronger ones too.

  Caldan took a breath and connected one string to the rune that powered the shield then the other to what he thought of as the transference rune, which should funnel his own energy back to his well, less the amount required to create the shield.

  He felt the usual tightening of his skin, and his vision blurred as the shield sprung up around him. He smelled hot metal, as if he stood next to a forge, and lemons.

  Caldan counted to ten. His shield remained. He counted to ten again. The shield stayed stable. He spread his senses out to it, feeling the flow of energy from and back into his well. Smooth and flawless, like a deep swift stream.

  He could feel the shield wasn’t going to collapse and dissipate. He grinned in delight. Success!

  An object struck his shield and a cascade of purple sparkles spread all over him, an inch from his clothing. He felt the buffer draw them in before his shield overloaded, then dissipate them into his well. His shield held firm. Whatever had hit it hadn’t been powerful enough to penetrate.

  He cut both links.

  All the apprentices stared at him in astonishment, while Theunisen was on his feet with a thoughtful look on his face.

  Caldan blushed. “Er… sorry,” he said.

  Whispers started among the apprentices.

  Theunisen nodded. “Would you be so kind as to retrieve the ball, please.”

  Caldan gave a quick nod and looked at the floor. A large wooden ball half the size of his fist lay there. Not the largest in the testing box, but almost. He swallowed.

  Retrieving the ball, he moved to the front of the room and handed it to Theunisen then turned to go back to his desk.

  “Not so fast,” said Theunisen. His hand came down on Caldan’s shoulder and turned him to face the room. “It seems one of you is learning quicker than anticipated. Which is just as well, since he has a lot of catching up to do.”