by Bob Dattolo
I tried.
Even though I knew that it wouldn’t work. And Captain Garrison told me that as well. It was still worth a shot, though. After all, if I’m weird, being able to dye it wouldn’t be any weirder.
Parece catches me looking around and that turns into more of a huddle as I strain to hear them without making it look like I am. Too many others catch me, with a ripple of silence spreading out.
I’m proud of myself for not freaking out as literally every eye turns to me. Even those working here. They’re the only ones to look back at something else, though.
Ice and mage start getting talked about at the tables with more than one person. I don’t bother trying to correct them.
Wait, Parece just told her friends that I’m not ice.
Let’s see what happens with that.
No one speaks to me as I move through the tables. Constant staring. Constant talking. But none directed at me. Not even when I pass right next to Parece’s table. I did have to go a little out of my way to do it, but I figured it’s worth it to see what happens.
I swear, I do not have a death wish. I don’t. But if I’m gonna die? Let’s get about it.
Beyond that? This other side of me wants it out there on my terms and doesn’t feel like backing down from really anyone at the moment.
Not even this table of huge guys on my left. There are four of them, and they’re built massive. One’s an ice dragon. One’s a water dragon. Based on what I’m seeing and smelling, the remaining two are water mage and metal mage. How you get four built guys in one group is beyond me. I’m thinking they’re a group because they’re large.
The largest in their group, the ice dragon, looks me up and down as I pass them, “Doesn’t seem like much.”
The water dragon hits his arm, “Want to race on who gets to drain her?”
The metal mage laughs, “Yeah, right. You guys fight over it, Colin and I’ll go scoop her up. What’s up with her being so late?”
The first guy snorts, “A late ice mage? No clue. I’ve never heard of anyone ever being late.”
Let’s not correct them just yet. Instead, my feet take me to one of the stations that doesn’t look like it’s closing. Most are, but some are still open. Including one on the end that looks like a general place that has a ton of random things. At least that’s what it seems. Instead of messing with the ones that might be closing, I hit the one that looked like a diner and ordered a heavy breakfast.
What can I say? I want eggs and bacon and toast and hash browns for some reason.
Kids are still watching me as I take my food, get a drink and everything else, and head for a table.
Where to sit. Where. To. Sit.
Parece’s table screams to me to go sit there. I have a feeling that’ll antagonize her, so let’s not do that. The table with the huge guys? That’s another option. They didn’t stop making comments about me the entire time. They basically expect to kill me and drain me if I make it to the trial and accept it. I have no idea what they’re basing things on, but they think I’m weak. Since I don’t know either way, yet think I’m powerful, I guess we’ll find out together.
The cops made it sound like the magic I was doing was crazy powerful. It’s just that without spells to work with the crazy power, it doesn’t mean jack shit to you. If you have a 10,000-horsepower engine but no transmission, say hello to the little kid on the tricycle beating you to the finish line.
For purposes of this right now? I’m the powerful engine.
Before I can stop myself, I literally stop and stare across the entire room of kids. My smile feels foreign to me, very much so. I so didn’t mean to do it. It’s a mix of knowing amusement and humor that somewhat mirrors my thinking. Just not quite. Especially since I didn’t mean to do it.
Dammit, I swear other-me is in here somewhere hiding in the cracks and doing things like that. Either that, or the confident, cocky persona is part of my magic. Whatever that is.
My look across everyone gets even larger reactions than I expected, which means it’s time to go to a table.
There are zero corner tables available. Kids are in them, backs to the corner and staring out across the space. The same is true with the edge of the room. Every other table has someone at them, all with their back to the walls and facing the group. Then they’re set up pretty much every other table from there. I don’t see any kids sitting at a table without at least one empty table between them and the next.
How strange.
Understandable, though.
Guess where the cocky part of me decided to sit?
No, not with Parece. Not with the muscle guys. My confident ass went and sat in the table in the center of the entire damn caf. There are tables around it, with every other one having one or more people at it. That means I’m next to each of them.
I so don’t want to sit here, yet I know I’m going to. While the table is a shocker, I’m not so thrown off that I don’t move around and sit so that I can see the muscle table and Parece’s table. That seemed like a good idea to me. Out of all of the tables here, both of those felt the most dangerous to me in some way.
The tables here are round and can seat eight of us, so it’s just me at the huge table as I look around the room one more time, the same amused smile in place.
Holy crap, if anything, that second look really started the conversations and comments.
I’m not sure if choosing to sit facing this way was really my decision, or if I just agreed with what I was going to do anyway. Not knowing how or why I did this to begin with definitely makes thinking things through a little harder.
And yet none of that will eat these eggs.
“Oh my God, these are freaking delicious.” Talking to myself isn’t a great idea, yet I didn’t stop it when I knew it was gonna happen. It feels like it’s part of whatever plan that I have going on…that I don’t know about.
More reactions from the kids. I felt a ton of magic go up just before sitting, with almost every one of them feeling like a listening spell to me. Makes me wonder if I should try to burp the ABCs or something like that. Give them something unexpected to listen to.
A number of the tables around me are whispering about where I’m sitting. My internal debate and betting is off by maybe 20 seconds as someone finally heads my way. Four someones.
No, not Parece.
The guys slide into seats on the other side of the table. The largest, the ice dragon, is to my left. Then the water dragon, water mage, and then metal mage. They’re good-looking guys, although I’ve never been too attracted to really muscular guys like this before. They each look me over with predatory eyes trying to disguise themselves as being friendly.
Time to mix things up a bit, “You guys finally decide who’s gonna kill me and drain me?”
Four mouths fall open. That’s the funniest thing. Not that I let it show as I continue eating.
The ice dragon tilts his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Oh my, now there’s the smell of a lie. “Funny, I distinctly heard you four discussing that. Maybe it’s another table of huge good-looking guys?”
The water dragon smiles wider and leans into the table, “You think we’re good looking?”
Is this a come on? Seriously? “Please, as if you guys don’t know that. You look like you spend ten hours a day at the gym. You’re all ripped to shreds. You look like you could etch steel with your chiseled jaw lines. Toss in magic, and you guys’ll be all over the magazines after graduation.”
Ice dragon pats the table, getting the others to go still, “You’re new here.”
Such a conversationalist. “I am.”
“Why’re you late?”
What to say? How about some variation of the truth? “I was held by someone and wasn’t able to get here on time.” There, let’s see him figure out what that scent means.
The two dragons sniffed, clearly confused as all hell by the honesty.
“What’s up with you
r eyes?” The metal mage keeps looking between my eyes.
More food goes down, “You ever see what the inside of mortmagi look like?”
“Umm, yeah? Who hasn’t?”
“The pattern look familiar to you at all? 12 of ‘em? Four larger than the others?”
The guys go still, as does almost everyone that I can see. The dragons that I can pick up out there are straining to look closer.
The ice dragon laughs, breaking the silence, “That’s fucked. You’re trying to be a big badass and gave yourself scars to make it look…that’s fucking insane. Are you crazy? You trying to keep people away by being crazy?”
A smile slowly grew as I stared at him, “Did this to myself? No. Not at all. My parents did this to me when I was nine. Or so I think. Hard to say for sure, given that they hit me with the spell and stripped everything away from me at the time.”
The water dragon gasped, “Are you…are you somehow a stricken?”
“Maddie Stricken, to be exact. I was. Not any longer.”
“Bull. Shit.” Ice dragon stood and leaned into the table, trying to tower over me. Since he’s got me by more than a foot, that’s easy for him to do.
“Oh, maybe I’m wrong then. Maybe I didn’t spend the last nine years of my life blind.” My food was done, so I shoved everything onto my tray and stood, staring across the four guys. “Or maybe you’ll pay attention to my scent? And, for the record? For everyone listening? My eyes aren’t blue. My hair isn’t blue. They’re white.” With that, I turned away from them and headed for the tray return.
The ice dragon called out, “That’s fucking impossible! No one has white eyes! No one heals from mortmagi!”
My tray and empties went through the window, and I faced their table again. “Maybe I’m wrong there too? It’d sure be a shame if a number of the people here could tell a lie with a sniff.”
No response as I walked out, wondering if I just did a good thing.
Chapter 10
By the time I reached my room, I still wasn’t sure if I did a good thing. The temptation to talk to myself is there, but I’m holding off due to too many people around me being able to hear me. I’m okay with them hearing specific things, but not anything that really symbolizes confusion. Fake confusion? Sign me up, at least right now. Not the real stuff, though.
No one stopped me on the way back, although way more people saw me than did on the way to the caf. My back was still straight, and I worked hard to appear confident, all the while withering inside at the mess in my head.
This is so screwed up.
Where’s my magics book?
My paperwork and schoolbooks are on my desk. Thankfully, Headmaster Anderson got me copies of everything I’d need. Want to know the painful part? He pretty much told me that most kids come with a grimoire from home. Books containing things that they’ve collected and have either learned or want to learn. Things their family have told them to get down.
I don’t have that. Which means I’ll have the most basic spells compared to any other student here.
This sucks even more than I thought.
My desk chair is pretty comfy, so I collapse in it and pull out the book. Time for some speed reading, maybe? That sounds about right.
Let’s see…What Is Magic?
Sounds like a good place to start.
Ten minutes later, I know precisely what magic is according to this book.
It’s a bunch of nofuckingclue.
I skipped large chunks of things in the book, mainly because they’re competing thoughts on what magic is. In a nutshell, it’s an indefinable nothing that’s also a something. Certain people can access it, yet it’s not measurable by technology unless the magic is doing something. There are no sensors that you can turn on and pick up magic being done or that someone can do magic. None. Everything that can do that is magic based. It could be technology with a spell on it, but that’s not technology. Not when it comes right down to it.
Why can people access it?
More no clue. So far, the leading theory is that it’s genetic. There are genetic differences between someone that is a pure human and someone that is a mage or a dragon. That’s obvious with dragons, since they can shift into a dragon, but that’s different.
Too bad we don’t have other shifters…
Wait, ignore that.
Looking at mages and humans? There are genetic differences that are always there. They believe that’s what allows mages the ability to access magic. They just don’t know if they can tweak the genes in a human to be able to do the same thing. They’ve loosely attributed the access to the genetic differences, they just can’t prove it.
They’re trying, though.
Genetic tampering is illegal, yet the US has given dispensation to some companies to test that bit of manipulation. I guess we’ll see what they can do with it. Why do I think it’ll only be given to the highest bidder if they find it’s possible?
Not that it’s something to worry about. At least right now.
Second chapter…skim…skim…skim…
My heart seizes when I turn the page and see a set of mortmagi.
Those fucking things. God, out of all of my memories, including the ones where I’m being raped and beaten with whips and things, if I could only have one set removed? It’d be having those hammered in. The terror of it being done. The pain. The horror. It’s freaking indescribable. Made so much worse by knowing it was done by my parents.
Okay, I don’t know, but I’m like 99 percent of the way sure. Even Captain Garrison pretty much expected that it would have been them doing it.
That page in the book nearly gets torn out, then it’s bypassed, and I turn pages quicker in case there are other things there.
Okay, there are a few ways to lose your magic. Death. Obviously. That’s actually listed. No idea why. It’s not like you don’t lose everything when you die. Magic is no more special in that case than anything else.
Mortmagi. Another obvious one. They do say that you can never remove them or get your magic back once they’re in. I wonder if they’ll issue an updated book based on me?
Nah, I doubt it.
You can have your power drained. That’s a big one and pretty freaking upfront and personal given where we are. They mention that, too. The academies have variations that will adjust us to a specific percentage of our full power depending on when we have the spell cast on us. So mortmagi aren’t needed to do it. I have to think they’re just vicious dicks for using them instead of just draining someone.
Then there are the trials. Those are also called out. There’s a slight addition of challenges, but it seems that draining power during a challenge doesn’t always happen. The trials, though? Yup. They’re vague about how to do it, though. I’m not sure if that means it’s a spell people learn or part of the trials themselves? I need to check into that. If I have to kill someone at some point, I’d love to drain them before they die. If I have to do it, I might as well see a benefit beyond not being killed myself.
Right?
Or is that just me?
Don’t answer that.
Third chapter…study aids. Not sure what that’s about. I know how to study, although I haven’t done it in years at this point.
Ookay, next chapter. How to cast a spell. This is pretty freaking vital. Fast reading time. Let’s see…mages and dragons cast spells mostly the same way, although the flavor of the magic changes. Dragons cast more powerful spells in their human forms, but they’re more susceptible to spells themselves. When they’re shifted, they have much stronger and larger bodies, can breathe fire, or an element tied to their affinity, are less susceptible to spells due to their nature, and cast weaker spells themselves.
That’s interesting. I think I knew that about dragons. You get more power when they’re human, but they have more limitations. Then they have weaker power once shifted but they’re a dragon.
For mages, they cast more powerful spells across the board compared to drag
ons in either form, yet they’re limited to their human body and strengths.
The affinities are the same, although dragons have subsets of the metal affinity. Steel, bronze, and gold. No idea why that’d be.
The eye colors are all the same, except when you get to bronze and gold. Those only exist in dragons.
Now, casting actual spells? Younger spellcasters tend to use ingredients, although they’re not used, per se. The example they give is a light spell. There are ingredient lists for spells and you could whip up a potion if you wanted to that a norm could drink and use, but casting the spell ourselves shouldn’t require that. So, for light? You could have some or all of the ingredients in your hand and cast the spell. In your pocket. You can think about them. Or, if you’re good enough, you can cast without them.
Hmm, all of the kids casting listening spells? Do they have stuff in their pockets? I don’t recall anyone having anything in their pockets. At least that I smelled.
Fuck. They probably don’t. That would be why every kid here has probably been studying their butts off since they were little. Having to have ingredients would be a sure sign that someone’s weak enough to take out. I’m thinking those kids never even step foot in here.
Dammit. That means it’s going to be even harder for me. I’m going to have to bypass ingredients all-together to make people think that I’m stronger than I am and have more spells to play with.
Those thoughts suck me in for I don’t even know how long before a noise in the hallway pulls me out. Dammit. Focus, Maddie. Focus. Tomorrow is Friday, which means I have to go to classes, so I need to get some work done before I go back through the paperwork I was given on classes and things. I don’t want to mess something up that should be simple.
Casting light…what does it take? Okay, there’s a short list there. The ingredients sound vaguely familiar, I just don’t know why. Every affinity can cast this spell, although some will have stronger results from it than, say, an earth mage or dragon. They’ll still be able to do it, though.
