by Randal Sloan
He arose from his perch. “I’ll be back shortly. Please remember — Don’t burn my garden down!”
Master Ashcroft didn’t actually leave the garden. Instead he moved to a secluded area, where he enacted a simple concealing spell. He wanted to watch his charges from a distance to see how they did on their own, not expecting any big surprises. After all, they were excellent students. By now he should have known better than to expect Jailyn to exhibit normal behavior.
After a few times at producing her fire balls, each time completing the process a little faster, Jailyn moved to water. It wasn’t long before she had complete control of it too. Then she did something astonishing. Instead of producing a ball of water, she produced a ball of ice. Before the Master could come out of his hiding place, she smiled, looking down at her ball of ice. Her eyebrows knit in concentration, a ring of fire appeared around the ball of ice.
The Master didn’t believe it. He quickly dropped the concealment spell, coming to stand in front of her. “How are you doing that?” he asked her gently for fear of causing her to lose her concentration.
“It’s not that hard, now that I’ve figured it out,” she told him. “I made the ball of ice kinda on instinct but then it dawned on me, I was really doing water and fire, pulling the heat out of the water to make it freeze. Once I realized that, I knew I could keep doing that and add the ring of fire on the outside.”
The whole group had gathered around the two of them. “I think I can do it all in one step,” she said as she made the ball disappear. Seconds later, another ball appeared, just like the first. Jailyn couldn’t help it; this was really great fun. She pointed at the ball with a twisting motion. The ball of fire started spinning one direction and the ball of ice started spinning the other direction.
Master Ashcroft just stared. He had never seen anything like that with a first year student and he suspected he never would again. Shaking his head, he told them, “I believe our lesson is finished for this morning. Come back this afternoon and we’ll begin your structure training.”
Still shaking his head, he walked away muttering to himself.
Early that afternoon, Jailyn and her friends returned quietly back to the grove. Jailyn was practicing with an air ball even as she walked. To one without air affiliation it was practically invisible. She came to a stop when she saw Master Ashcroft, Master Sabine, and Master Yrbarin waiting for them.
Master Ashcroft smiled at her. “If you’ll put that away, dear Jailyn, we’ll get started.”
He pointed toward his companions. “As you can see, I brought a little help this afternoon. I’m going to try to explain about structure and how we use it as wizards.” He indicated the benches again, and this time there were two additional stones there for the Masters.
Jailyn smiled at Master Sabine. As an earth wizard, it had to be him that had put the stones there. As she looked, she could see his signature left behind. As if he’d read her mind, he told her, “Yes, as the earth wizard of the three, I created the stones you see here, literally pulling them from the ground. Someday, you’ll be able to do that and much more.”
Master Ashcroft gave Jailyn a frown, but he couldn’t hold it, slipping into a smile. “If someone will stop interrupting, we’ll get started.”
He raised his hands, making intricate motions with them. “What do you do if someone is throwing ice missiles at you?” he asked. He spoke a single word, “Activate!” A fiery shield appeared in front of him. “Why, you create a fire shield.” He spoke another word, “Deactivate!” The shield disappeared.
“All of that was done with structure. Structure is really done inside the mind. The motions in and of themselves don’t really matter. Just like this morning when Jailyn used a twirl of her finger to indicate the spin of her magic ball, it’s just a way to remember the structure. You’ll often hear wizards mention spells. Spells are just another name for structure. Most of what we do day-to-day with magic is done with structure, our spells that we have learned.
“I’m not going to kid you. Most wizards spend years learning their spells and adding variations that let them do something better, faster or easier. There’s no way we can compress that into the four weeks that we have to teach you, so we’re going to concentrate on the spells we think you’ll need the most. Mostly offensive and defensive spells, the ones you’ll need if you have to face trouble on your quest. Trouble that I’m absolutely certain you’ll run into, for there are those that will oppose us.
“Of course, we’ll start with simple ones today. Masters Sabine and Yrbarin will help with specific affiliations, so later we’ll split into groups to work on those. Other Masters will come at a later date. But first, I want to show you a variation of the personal shield spell that any wizard can do because it’s made entirely of pure magic. Jailyn, this is what you did by instinct when your group was under attack by Lord Vipero’s trap, but the spell is a way to trigger it on command.
“One other important point. A spell lets the magic work without conscious thought. Once you’ve put the structure in place, you only have to supply it with magic as needed to maintain it. Your mind can be elsewhere, working on another spell or chatting with your friends. An absolute essential point with a shield.”
“This is what I want you to do…”
The day had been hard enough that the four were all extremely tired. Not only had the classes on “spell casting” been difficult, each of them had been given homework which they worked on together after the evening meal. So it was with some trepidation that the four left their study session to get ready for bed. They expected to be visited by the Dream Master that night and it didn’t sound like they were going to have a fun time in those dreams.
They were right. To Jailyn it seemed like she’d only dropped off to sleep when the Dream Master appeared, this time not in a meadow but inside an area of their monastery that was obviously used for training. He had four monks in attendance with him.
He greeted them all with a smile. Later Jailyn would consider and declare it a sadistic smile. Of course, he didn’t give them time to think about it, moving right into the reason for the visit.
“Welcome, my friends. Tonight we will begin your basic training in defense. Later in your training we will work on offensive moves, but without a good defense, no amount of offensive moves will save you. Each of you will be paired off with a monk and you will work with your designated weapon.”
He gestured and Jesse found himself holding a wooden sword, Kelsey suddenly had a bow in her hands with a quiver on her back, and Jailyn and Corrie each had a staff in their hands. He had one more word of advice.
“I must warn you. Although this is a dream world, it’s more real than any other dream you’ve ever experienced. Any injuries you take in here will still be there when you awaken, so you need to take your training very seriously.
“The first night or two you’ll probably feel like you haven’t slept, but your body is getting the rest it needs. At any rate, you must persevere, for it’s essential that you learn the skills we are teaching you if you are to survive your quest and the tasks you must complete afterwards. Believe me, your adversaries will not show you any mercy.”
Jailyn knew he was not wrong about anything he told them. When she found herself paired with the oldest of the four monks, she thought she was getting a break. She quickly realized she was wrong. From the moment he gave her a bow to the last blow with his staff, she worked harder than she had ever done before. She now realized that the Dream Master hadn’t given her the easiest teacher at all. Her monk was by far the best of the four and he didn’t show her any mercy.
That wasn’t to say he wasn’t very patient and careful with her, but still she knew she would be sporting multiple bruises the next morning. Luckily her reflexes were excellent and her teacher was very good, so by the end of the session she was beginning to block most of his attacks.
“You did very well, young Master,” her monk proclaimed as they stopped for the evening.
He gestured and their two staffs disappeared. He smiled at her reaction. “Later I will teach you that trick. I suspect you will have some ability in the dream world, more than most would be my guess.”
“Why do you call me Master?” Jailyn asked. “I’m very obviously a beginner with much to learn.”
“With the staff, yes. When we are done, I suspect you will be a Master with it too, but I speak of your ability to handle magic. Even here in the dream world you glow brightly with magic. Once you’ve learned the physical skills, you will be quite the opponent to anyone, including your current nemesis, Lord Vipero.”
Jailyn chose to ignore the second part, since there was nothing she could say to that. She smiled at him. “If you will, please give my regards to the Dream Master for assigning me a Master with the staff. If I am to become adept with the staff, it will be because of you.”
The man gave her his own smile. “Actually, I volunteered to teach you. You see, I met your mother when we were sent out to bring the Queen to the compound. I was very impressed with her. She’d only had you days before and you could tell she wasn’t fully recovered, but she was determined to stay with the others to buy time for the Queen’s escape. I know it was only because of her that we made it back. You remind me very much of her.”
Tears were in Jailyn’s eyes but she didn’t care. “I thank you for that. At times I feel like I can almost see her face. I miss her very much.”
The monk’s smile grew bigger. “To see her face, you only need to look in the mirror. You look very much like her.” He paused a moment, considering. “I’ll talk to the Dream Master. I believe he’ll be able to extract my memories of her to show you in this world. The dream world is very powerful; we’ve only touched on a small amount of what he can do.”
Jailyn nodded. “I would love that if he can do it. Perhaps that will help me to see what we’re really fighting for; sometimes it seems so remote, this fight for the Kingdom.”
“I’ll let you know. But now, it’s time for us to part. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Giving her a last bow, the monk disappeared. A moment later, everything around her dissolved.
CHAPTER TEN
Another Challenge
JAILYN SIGHED AS she worked on yet another spell. That seemed to be all she did; that and work out with the staff every night. Since it wasn’t real, the Dream Master pointed out that they didn’t need any days off, warning them they all had so little time to learn everything they needed to know. She had gotten quite proficient with her staff as had Corrie, and Kelsey could now hit almost any target she aimed at. Jesse was also now an excellent swordsman.
Jailyn was quite impressed with her friends and all that they had accomplished. So far it had been nearly two weeks and the Master wizards had taken the same strategy, declaring that they could rest when everything was done. They had learned many offensive spells to attack an opponent and even more defensive spells. That was what she was working on now — a multi-layered shield that would protect against multiple attacks simultaneously. The Master she was working with had pointed out that nothing would prevent multiple wizards from throwing attacks at the same time, or even a single wizard combining both in the same attack.
Thinking about that last, Jailyn realized that she already knew how to do that. That first ball of magic seemed ages ago now, but so far they’d only worked with a spell that could produce one magical attack at a time. She put her other spell aside for a moment, considering. Yes, if she altered the new fire attack spell she’d learned today, she could add something else to it. Wouldn’t that be a surprise to her opponent?
Jailyn’s thoughts were interrupted as Carisa came into the room, deliberately knocking the spell book out of her hands. She would have let it go, but then the girl proceeded to “accidentally” run into Jesse, who had his nose stuck in a book. Jesse was determined to learn everything he could to make himself the best king he could be. Jailyn already knew he’d be one of the best they’d ever had.
No way could she let that stand with the young fire wizard. Things with that girl had been escalating every day and it instantly became clear to her that she had to be stopped now before it could go any further.
“Enough,” she told her. “You have a problem with me, fine. But you’ll leave my friends alone or face the consequences.”
Carisa just laughed. Jailyn had learned after her first day that Carisa was really a second year student but had inexplicably been assigned to a first year house. Jailyn suspected the girl had somehow bribed one of the wizards to do that, because she also had learned that Carisa came from a very wealthy family. She was probably expecting to be able to use her extra year’s worth of knowledge to be put in charge. Jailyn had messed all that up.
“You want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me. Meet me in the wizard arena after dinner and we’ll see how big you talk then.”
Jailyn just smiled. The girl had no idea what she was asking for. “If that’s what it takes, you’re on. I can’t allow this to continue any longer.”
That was how Jailyn found herself in the arena facing off a second year fire wizard. In hindsight, Jailyn recognized that this was inevitable, despite her wish that she might have found another way. At least one good thing would come out of it. She would finally have a chance to practice some of those spells she’d been learning,
The arena was a special magically warded area that had been added after Lord Vipero’s attack on the wizard party sent to the capital. Until then, defense and attack strategies had not been taught in wizard training except for those specifically taking advanced training in those areas. It had always been a useful skill, just not very much in demand for the average wizard. Now it was considered an essential skill for all wizards and the arena let them practice those spells safely.
That also meant the curriculum had been changed and the class was now taught to all second year students. Jailyn knew that Carisa was a very strong fire wizard but she wondered if her training had been as intense as what Jailyn and her team had faced. After all, to Carisa, it wasn’t a life or death thing to learn. For Jailyn, it was very much so.
Especially after she’d seen her mother in the dream world. Her mother had been a very powerful wizard, perhaps not as much as her daughter, but still very powerful. To think her mother lost to that monster Lord Vipero was frightening. When Jailyn was honest with herself, however, she knew she was secretly hoping to face the man. She fiercely burned with the desire for revenge now that she knew who had killed her parents.
All of that led to Jailyn standing across from Carisa in the arena, ready to do battle. The wards in the arena would shield Jailyn from outside view, one of the things she had been warned repeatedly to be careful about, for she had no desire to warn that snake about what was coming. One of the other things Jailyn had been taught was how to camouflage her attacks to make it more difficult for one’s opponent. She would use that ability to hide her real attacks, so even the crowd watching wouldn’t know what she was doing. Only Carisa would know and it wasn’t like she could tell anyone without making herself look bad.
The wards would also prevent any contestant from being killed, but it wouldn’t prevent other injuries. After all, the real world would never work any other way, and they tried to make the arena as realistic as possible. Jailyn certainly appreciated the safety factor, but not for herself. No, she might dislike the girl, but she didn’t want her killed. Just her eyebrows singed and perhaps her butt a little sore.
Most of the time the arena was used for practicing. Today it was being used for a challenge contest and evidently word had gotten around. That wasn’t something they saw every day. Jailyn couldn’t help but regret all the attention. It appeared her opponent was loving it.
The wizard in charge for the day made one final plea. “Do the contestants still wish to continue? Is there not a way to reach a peaceful resolution?”
Carisa just laughed. “Not me. It’s time someone taught this girl a lesson. I’m tired of her get
ting special consideration for who she is.”
Jailyn wanted to laugh but she kept her face still. The girl had no idea how much work her “special consideration” required. She would have liked her to try to cram years worth of work into four weeks. Instead she answered. “I am only doing what is necessary to gain a little peace for myself and my friends. If she would just back off, I wouldn’t have a problem.”
Carisa just shook her head. “I’ll back off when my boot is on your neck.”
Jailyn shook her own head. “Then I guess we’ll continue.”
“Each contestant will go to her designated corner. I’ll remind you that you may have up to three assistants with you in your corner, but they are not allowed to directly assist in any way with their magic. The only exception is the application of healing spells between the rounds, which is allowed.”
“The contest will go for three rounds unless a contestant concedes or the judges deem the contest too one-sided to continue. In the event that all three rounds are completed by both contestants, the judges will decide the winner.
“You have three minutes to prepare. Each round will go for three minutes with a three minute break between rounds. May the best wizard win.” He placed the three minute timer used specifically for that purpose on the podium in front of him as a visual indicator of the time.
Jailyn had no intention of letting it go to three rounds. She intended to finish it in the first round. Got too much to do to waste that much time.
Jailyn’s friends had given up on trying to talk her out of it. Jesse had even volunteered to take her place, swearing that it was his responsibility, but she quickly told him no. She just kept believing that she had no choice.
More nervous than Jailyn herself, Kelsey asked her, her voice cracking slightly, “Do you remember all your spells? Do I need to show you any of them just in case?”
