The Other Prism (The Broken Prism)

by St. Clair, V.

  “Why the hell does your magic still work, Frost?” Davis was on his hands and knees, saliva running down the corner of his mouth as he panted in pain.

  “I don’t know!” Hayden answered, casting Break and wincing as his Focus-correctors grew so cold it almost burned. His fingers were turning purple and black.

  “I’m beginning to think it was you who tampered with the crystal!” Davis glared at him.

  “Me? Why would I mess with the Resonance Crystal when I’m wearing a bracelet?!”

  “Because you know you can’t beat me in a fair fight!” Davis countered hotly, struggling to his knees. Farrah cast Banish to no effect and lunged out of the way of a jet of poison that was spit at her.

  “Stop fighting, you two! Hayden didn’t do anything to the Resonance Crystal!” Her eyes were watering with pain and emotion.

  “You can’t know that!” Davis argued, moaning and pressing a hand over his closed eyes once more. “Just because you’ve got a crush on the little idiot—”

  “He didn’t do anything to the crystal!” Farrah interrupted, looking tortured. “I did.”

  “WHAT?!” They both shouted simultaneously, possibly the only moment that Davis and Hayden would ever think the same thing at the same time.

  “It was me, I did it!” Farrah was practically sobbing now, though it might have been because she had a bit of poison on her sleeve that was burning her skin.

  “You—you tampered with the crystal? Why would you do that?” Hayden took a step backwards in shock.

  “My mentor has been pushing me all year to win, no matter what! He says I’ll shame Creston if I don’t, and I panicked!” Now she really was crying. “I found a way to make a small change in the vibration frequency of the main crystal, just enough to make everyone’s magic a little unsteady, not enough to hurt anyone.”

  “So that’s why people have been getting sick all year? Why their magic is abandoning them during trials?” Hayden asked, mentally kicking himself for not figuring it out before now.

  “It only affects people who are wearing the bracelets, and you have to be in range of the main crystal too. That’s why everyone was fine during the school year, but they sometimes got sick during the trials, because the crystal was moved to the schools during the competition,” she explained helplessly.

  The chimaera roared and flew towards Hayden, who shook his mental stupor long enough to cast Sever at one of its wings. The wing tore, and the chimaera plummeted to the ground, shrieking in rage and pain.

  “But why would you do that? You’re wearing the bracelet too!” Hayden turned back to Farrah, keeping one eye on the chimaera. The other one seemed to be struggling to regain consciousness again as well, and Hayden was beginning to run low on prisms.

  “I thought I could control it, that I had a way to beat it; but I was wrong,” Farrah sobbed horribly, not jumping in time to avoid the swinging tail from the chimaera, which hit her in the stomach and threw her against a tree so hard they could hear her joints pop.

  Hayden cast Break until his amber prism vanished, and succeeded only in disabling one of the chimaera’s legs. The monster was still hobbling towards him on the other, and it didn’t matter that he could still use magic, because he was entirely out of prisms.

  “Hayden, I’m so sorry I did this to us,” Farrah moaned from the ground, coughing up blood as she struggled to her feet. “I didn’t know—the Forest of Illusions has too much magic, it must have reacted badly to the altered crystal when it was brought here. It’s my fault we were pulled out of the arena and the Masters can’t find us. It’s my fault it amplified the effects of the crystal against us. I don’t know why it hasn’t affected you…but please get out of here. You have to run and leave us behind.”

  “What? Screw that!” Davis shouted at her. “I’m not the one who deserves to die here, and I don’t plan on getting eaten today!” He reached into his belt and tossed Hayden his last remaining prism, the amber one. Hayden caught it without knowing what to do with it; whatever he did wouldn’t be enough to stop the chimaera.

  The monster was closing in on him, and as Hayden struggled to make his mind focus on something meaningful, Farrah jumped on the chimaera’s back from behind and drew her remaining wand. The chimaera grabbed her with its tail and tossed her into the air before Hayden could even open his mouth, and a second later she was clamped in its jaws. Farrah’s eyes met Hayden’s in a moment that seemed to stop time, and then she pointed her wand into the monster’s throat and said, “Explode”.

  Hayden fell to his knees from the force of the blast and he shielded his eyes. Bits of chimaera flew everywhere, covering him in guts and bright blue blood, spattering the multi-colored trees all around him. He knew, even before he opened his eyes, that Farrah was gone.

  Even Davis looked cowed, opening and closing his mouth several times without speaking. Hayden’s mind had ground to a complete halt; he could hear nothing but a loud buzzing in his ears.

  He barely noticed that the force of the blast broke the spell on the other chimaera, who was now eyeing him and Davis as though trying to decide which of them to eat first.

  “Do something, Frost, before we die!” Davis shouted at him, but Hayden’s thoughts were still buzzing and the amber prism was dangling uselessly in his palm. The chimaera took a step towards Davis, who must have looked more appetizing since he wasn’t covered in blue blood, and Hayden felt his hand rise up and twist the amber prism into his eyepiece almost mechanically.

  We’re going to die here. Asher was right, this was dangerous, and there’s no one left to help me…

  The thought of Asher triggered something in his mind, something he was foolish to have forgotten until now. Hayden grabbed his defensive charm with his free hand and felt a surge of power tear through him, more power than he had ever felt before. It startled him so much that he almost forgot that he was trying to summon the Prism Master to him, because a defensive charm shouldn’t amplify his power like this, only his ability to repel magic cast against him.

  “HELP!” he screamed as loud as he could, and the charm seemed to break and change inside his closed palm, as though the force of the power going through it was overwhelming. A shockwave of power radiated outwards from him in all directions, blowing back the leaves on the trees so that they bent away from him and making the chimaera buffet its wings frantically to remain standing. Davis was lifted from the ground and tumbled into the base of a tree, hitting his head and losing consciousness.

  Just as Hayden began to lose hope, Cinder flew over his head and charged the chimera head-on, soaring high into the air and spinning into a controlled dive towards its face. His heart pounding with renewed hope, Hayden would have cried if he’d had the energy for it when Master Asher appeared beside him wearing his combat circlet. He took in the scene at a glance and his eyes widened.

  “What happened?”

  “The crystal’s been tampered with,” Hayden choked out hoarsely. “No one can use magic but me…I don’t know why it isn’t affecting me, but Farrah’s dead and I don’t know about the others…”

  Asher’s jaw tensed and he said, “Don’t take off that charm, no matter what.” And with that he charged the chimaera, who was presently being clawed by Cinder (whose talons had grown enormously at some point so that he looked unbalanced).

  Dazed and confused, Hayden looked down at the charm around his neck, expecting to see the wooden shield emblem broken and worthless. His mouth dropped open when he saw a golden pendant that looked exactly like Asher’s Mastery Charm.

  That doesn’t make sense. There’s only one charm that looks like that, and Master Asher has it…

  Indeed, the Prism Master was wearing his Mastery Charm as he compounded two of his clear prisms together and cast at Cinder. The little dragon glowed electric purple as though there was a brilliant fire right behind him, and he let out a shriek so terrifying that Hayden’s spine tingled in terror. The noise seemed to be fatal to the chimaera, because it started wa
iling and staggering about blindly until it collapsed onto the ground and went still.

  Note to self: dragons are scary screamers.

  He had no idea why such a stupid thought occurred to him in that moment, but he was too overwhelmed and fatigued to process anything that was happening. Soon Master Asher was kneeling beside him, and Hayden wondered when he had come to be lying on his back.

  “Hayden, are you alright? Are you injured?”

  “She died saving us,” his teeth were chattering again for some reason. “I know it would have eaten her anyway, but she still died to save us…she wasn’t a bad person…” he had no idea what he was saying or whether it made any sense.

  “I’ll be right back, Hayden. Stay here.” Master Asher ran out of his line of sight, and sure enough, he returned a moment later with Davis suspended behind him. “I removed the crystal band from his wrist, but he’s still out cold,” he explained. “I need you to stay focused for a little while longer, Hayden. I need you to help me find the main crystal so we can destroy it.”

  He helped Hayden to his feet and Hayden tried to shake his mental lethargy.

  “My charm is wrong,” he pointed out dully, holding out his arm for Asher to break the bracelet on it. Immediately his Focus-correctors warmed to his body temperature, and he understood that they had been fighting to filter the effects of the Resonance Crystal all this time.

  “That’s because it’s my Mastery Charm,” Asher answered easily, grabbing his arm so they wouldn’t get separated and leading him back through the forest.

  “What?” This momentarily shook Hayden from his stupor. “What do you mean this is your Mastery Charm?”

  Asher grimaced and said, “Do you remember when I took your charm from you at the beginning of the year to make some alterations to it? Well, I wasn’t linking it to me, I was swapping it out for my Mastery Charm—which is always linked to me, and adding spells to bind it you as well. That way I could find you anywhere, no matter what.”

  “But—but you mean I’ve had your Mastery Charm all year and never noticed?” Hayden had a hard time believing that.

  “Yes, that’s right. I put a simple masking spell over it to make it look like your shield charm, and I’ve been wearing your charm all year with a spell over it to make it look like mine. It’s been very inconvenient whenever I needed the magical boost, or when the others wanted to summon me, because we do that through our charms as well and I couldn’t tell them I loaned mine out; it’s quite illegal. I had to convince Cinder to alert me whenever I was needed so that no one would get suspicious. I think he agreed because he knew I was doing it to protect you.”

  “But…but…” Hayden was having a hard time forming thoughts and words. “Why would you give me your Mastery Charm and leave yourself without it? How could I have used it all year without it amplifying my power?”

  “I told you, Hayden, I’m your mentor and I’ll do everything I can to have your back. I was worried that you would encounter foreign mages who might try to hurt you while I wasn’t around, and I needed a way to get to you quickly if you needed help. I didn’t exactly have this in mind…”

  He stopped long enough to watch Cinder, who flew a quick circle around the forest above them and then descended once more, leading them to the right.

  “But how come it didn’t amplify my power all year?” Hayden persisted.

  “It did, to some extent, or your defensive power at least,” Asher explained. “That’s unavoidable, and probably the only thing that saved you from the ill effects of the Resonance Crystal.” He sighed. “A Mastery Charm provides the wearer with a constant shield of protection from most magical attacks that would enter through the Foci. It’s good to know that it’s strong enough to resist even the Resonance Crystal.”

  Hayden frowned and said, “It made my charm really hot against my skin, and my Focus-correctors got very cold.”

  “Then you were at the limit of the Mastery Charm’s shielding powers, and it’s fortunate that I got to you when I did.” He turned to follow Cinder once again, as the dragon appeared to turn around and lead them back the way they came, though the scenery had changed somehow. “Your Focus-correctors would have shattered if any more strain had been put on them; they were doing all they could to keep your channels open and functioning properly against the defective Resonator.

  “Anyway,” Asher returned to his earlier question, “the reason I told you not to grab the charm and tap into your Source all year was because I knew it would undo the mask and that it would amplify your power hugely. It would be impossible to conceal the fact that I gave it to you at that point, and we’d both be in a lot of trouble. Speaking of which,” he stopped and looked at Hayden. “I think it’s safe for us to swap charms again, as you’re no longer wearing the bracelet.”

  Hayden reached up numbly and removed the Mastery Charm from around his neck, exchanging it for the charm he had made at the beginning of the year. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or not, but he thought he could feel the aura of protection leaving him. He wondered briefly what else it had saved him from this year that he didn’t even know about.

  “If anyone asks why you were immune to the crystal’s effects—and I’m sure they will—just tell them that you have no idea, and that it probably has something to do with your Foci being so badly warped,” Master Asher coached him.

  “That’s what I told Davis back when we were fighting the chimaeras,” Hayden intoned dully.

  “Good, then stick to that story like glue.”

  They found the Resonance Crystal with no difficulty at all, along with Oliver and Darren, who were both slumped unconscious beside it. Asher hurried forward and removed the bracelets from their wrists, and some of the color began to return to their faces. Hayden watched him check for a pulse before standing up and saying, “It’s alright: they’re weak, but they’ll survive. Here, help me carry them.”

  He tossed Hayden a rose-tinted prism from a pocket on his robes (not from his belt, where his own mastery-level prisms were stored) and rotated the prisms in his combat circlet until he found one that would cast Suspend. Together, they levitated Darren and Oliver into the air and Hayden pulled them away from the giant red crystal that Asher was considering closely now.

  “Follow Cinder; he’ll take you out of the Forest,” the Prism Master instructed him without looking away from the crystal.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to destroy the crystal—I think. Best to get you out of harm’s way before attempting anything though, in case I’m wrong.”

  The doubt in his voice wasn’t very reassuring, and Hayden said, “But how will you find your way out without Cinder?”

  “I’ve got a Mastery Charm. Worst case, I can translocate myself back to Mizzenwald if necessary.”

  Hayden nodded and held his teammates and Davis by the wrists, tugging them along like human balloons as he followed Cinder through the trees, always keeping the blue boundary lights on their left, no matter which direction they were walking in. He had about a million questions about the Forest of Illusions and everything that had happened here today, but none of them seemed very important at the moment.

  In less than a minute Hayden was back in the copse of trees, walking towards the crowd from Branx. No one was cheering and smiling anymore. In fact, three of the Masters were tearing around in a hurry, rapidly working their healing powers on the unconscious or flailing bodies of the other competitors. All of their bracelets had been removed, so they must have figured out what the problem was, but Hayden wasn’t sure if it had come too late to do any good.

  At the sight of Hayden, the Master of Powders grabbed his Mastery Charm and said, “We’ve got Team Mizzenwald and Davis of Isenfall. All accounted for except the Wand of Creston.”

  Hayden had no doubt that he was talking to the other two Masters through his charm. They were probably out searching the Forest still, looking for someone they would never find.

  “Farrah
isn’t coming,” Hayden said dully, his voice sounding distant to his own ears as he guided Davis, Oliver, and Darren onto the grass so they could be looked over. “She died fighting a chimaera to protect Davis and I. She was a hero.”

  The Master’s eyes widened and he called off the search of the Forest. Mastery-level students from Branx were running about with stretchers and elixirs, loading the injured onto the former and carrying them over to a sort of field triage tent that was being erected away from the crowd. The Master of Wands was commanding the rest of the spectators to take the Arc back to school and remain in their dormitories until further notice.

  The Prism Master of Branx emerged from the Forest looking disheveled and approached their group. He seemed surprised to find Hayden up and moving, and indeed, his first words were, “Frost, how did you escape unharmed?”

  Hayden would hardly call himself ‘unharmed’, but rather than argue the point he replied, “I don’t know, sir. I think maybe the crystal didn’t affect me as much as the others because my Foci are so damaged,” he held up his wrists with the three-inch Focus-correctors on them to emphasize the point.

  The Prism Master narrowed his eyebrows for a moment, but all he said was, “I see,” and crouched down to check Oliver’s vital signs. Cinder perched on Hayden’s shoulder and managed to look regal and unaffected by the chaos around them. Hayden reached up and stroked his back affectionately with his left hand (which had the least amount of blue blood on it).

  He slumped down in the grass, suddenly exhausted and a little dizzy. The Master of Powders turned towards him and opened his mouth, probably to ask if he was alright, but was interrupted by the muffled explosion from inside the Forest of Illusions and the column of red light that shot up through the sky, penetrating the clouds and disappearing into the atmosphere.

  “What in the holy arcana was that?” he said instead.

  “Master Asher got the crystal,” Hayden smirked, feeling a little giddy for some reason. He was lying flat on his back in the grass and couldn’t remember how he got there.