by Bob Dattolo
It’s funny, but I’ve felt any number of people doing spells, and they seem to be having more of a problem with this spell than others. Is it that much harder? It’s one of the most basic spells, yet you couldn’t tell that based on the results.
Kaylee managed a wan light the size of a quarter pretty quickly. Not the quickest, but decently close. “Good job, Kaylee. Different size. Go for it.”
She nodded, looking like she wants to hide away.
Colin created a ball of light the size of my head and glared at me as he pointed at it, making a gun with his hands. He banged, and the light popped.
“Good job, Colin. Different size next.”
Parece managed a light that was a bit bigger than Kaylee’s, although not much brighter.
For me? I struggled to get my magic to move at all. My hair would fizzle with light, then fade as I’d groan and flip more pages. Everyone was through creating their first ball by the time Mr. Bailey made it to my station. “Maddie? Are you having…issues?”
I nodded, then shrugged, “I had magic for like five minutes before I was stricken. I’ve had magic for less than two weeks now.”
His face fell, “I…see. That’s not a good thing. Can you get your magic to flow consistently?”
He waited as I struggled through it again and again, finally managing a decent, but weak, glow to my hair over the next 20 minutes.
“Umm…good job? I think…keep trying? I’m going to go help the others…they need, umm, help.” Then he walked away, looking unsteady.
Next to me, Parece flared power and her silence spell went in around us. She sure as hell practices that one. That, or she’s pretending with the light spell. I can’t tell which. “What the fuck are you doing?” Her voice is craaazy low. I’m not sure a mage would be able to hear us from the next closest station. It’s that low, that noisy in here, and we’re that far away.
“Why, I’m not sure what you mean, Parece?” My whisper was just as low, “I’m new to this world. How would I be able to cast a light spell? You see how kids here are having issues. They’ve been working on these things since they first could work on them.”
Most of them have been having issues with the colored lights, although some breezed through it. Colin, Levi, and Wes all have decently strong lights that are moving over their heads. They’re going in fits and starts, and I’m shocked they can keep them going. They’re all sweating like stuck pigs.
She looked around, then back at me again, “I saw what you did!”
“Did you, Parece?” My smile faded as I looked at her, “I’m in a school where kids are set to hate me for what my parents did to me. I’m in a school where power rules. Where we’re pretty much expected to kill each other at some point. You think I’m gonna walk in here and show all my cards if I can help it? There are things I can’t hide, and I’ll throw them in everyone’s face until they can’t see anything beyond them. As of right now? I’m a stricken in everyone’s minds. There’s no way I can have power and use it. Sure as hell not use it.” I nodded slightly towards Colin. He was outright laughing at me as my hair barely glowed.
She didn’t respond at first, then gave me a tiny nod. “You’re not at all what you seem.”
“Are any of us?”
She raised an eyebrow at me, “All too often? Yeah, we are. Within reason, we were all raised a certain way. We’re products of that. You? I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, since the heavy betting has got to be on me dying today, you probably won’t have to worry about rooming with me for long.”
She smirked, shook her head, then killed the silence spell without responding.
For me? I struggled with the spell over and over until the bell rang. I never did get a ball of light to form.
Now my question is…what will she do with her knowledge? Will she tell someone? Colin? If so, what will that do for me? Honestly, casting a light spell won’t save my life. Unless it will? I have to think about that a little. I have precious few things that I can do in a fight with someone his size and strength.
Unless he’s not expecting me to do much at all.
I made it to lunch as one of the first there. There are four kids ahead of me, which is more than fine with me. I have some research to do, and I need to eat pretty badly. Two of the students in front of me keep looking at me and whispering, which isn’t all that shocking. The other two saw me and then stopped paying attention. That’s more shocking. But whatever. I can hear some voices behind me talking about me as well, although some are talking about food, too. So that’s a plus.
My tray filled quickly, and I debated which table to take before heading for the corner closest to the tray drop off. I want to finish and get out of here as quickly as possible to go hit the library. Plus, I get a corner table! Yay me!
Kaylee arrived about a third of the way through everyone coming in for food. At least based on headcount. She scurried out of the mass with her food and beelined for me, watching everyone around her like a hawk. She sat without talking, going for a spot to my left, leaving an empty seat between us.
She doesn’t trust me? Is that it?
“What were you thinking!!”
As a conversation starter, that’s not the best to run with, yet it’s not like I don’t know what she’s talking about. “I was thinking these tacos were gonna be good.” Her mouth fell open a little. “Fine. I was not thinking I’d come here and end up in a challenge my first day. Don’t think I was heading out for that. I’m not gonna back down when someone comes at me. Not again.”
She started eating, looking out across everyone as often as she could, “You can’t fight him! You’ve seen him! You saw him in class! He knows how to use his power! He’s crazy strong! Not to mention heavy! How can you…you can’t do that!”
Hmm, she’s not very optimistic about my chances. “I don’t know what to say. After you left, they tore into me about kicking me away from the table. It was my table. I was there first. I’d have shared it with them if they wanted, but they decided to get all in my face. Colin hit me. I won’t let that pass. I’m not sure I could let that pass, but I sure as hell won’t when I have the option.”
She frowned, “You don’t get it! He’s gonna kill you today!”
“Maybe he will. I’m gonna go in expecting to do my best, but he very well may kill me. He might know spells that explode me or some crazy crap like that.”
She frowned more, “Spells like that don’t work from what I understand.”
Huh, “Okay, see? The things I know about magic are pretty limited. I pretty much assumed he’d have something like that.”
“Not even close. His magic won’t even matter, though, because he’s gonna tear you to pieces with his bare hands!”
“Again, maybe? That won’t stop me, though. That can’t stop me. I have nowhere else to go. So either I’ll be alive for dinner, or I won’t. If I’m not, then I won’t care any longer. He’ll absorb my power or whatever, and I’ll be gone. I’ll probably leave behind some ravaged corpse pictures online that someone manages to get ahold of somehow. If not, though? Then it’ll be him naked in the pictures after I kill him.”
“You won’t be killing him, Maddie.”
“Well not with that kind of approach, I won’t.”
Even though most people sit with an empty table between them and the next person, people moved to the one directly next to us. Parece, Paige, and Riley slid their trays down as they sat and stared at us.
Oookay? Now what?
Paige hits Parece’s arm, and her silence spell goes out and wraps both of our tables. Based on what I’m feeling, it also shut down the various listening spells that had been monitoring us. “You know you can’t take in any weapons to a challenge, right?” Paige’s question is not what I expected.
“Umm, I didn’t, but I also don’t have any to bring in, so I wasn’t thinking to do that.”
“I can’t believe you challenged Colin. He may not be the strongest here that we kn
ow of, but he’s way up there.” Riley starts eating as soon as she’s done talking.
“Like I was telling Kaylee? It wasn’t on purpose. He hit me.”
“Girl, he’s gonna do more than hit you after school.” Paige laughs and takes a drink.
“I think you’re all overlooking something big here. Something pretty key.”
“What’s that?” She puts her drink down.
“I don’t care if he kills me. I’ve said it before. I don’t care. You may think I do, but I don’t. I want to live, but if I die? I just don’t care. At all. I’m gonna do everything I can to live, but if that doesn’t work? Then I’m going out at my decision. Something I set in motion. Not as a pet. Not as a victim. Again, I’ll do everything I can to live, I’m just pretty much okay if I don’t. Then I don’t have to worry about living in this madhouse with other kids that are terrified yet planning on killing people that should be friends. With teachers that are okay with our only options to avoid death being our magic stripped away or we risk the kids around us murdering us and draining us dry. Frankly, being killed today will probably be a godsend in the long run. Yet I’m still gonna go in there and try my hardest to kill him.”
Our little conversation was broken up by the arrival of a mountain of a girl that I haven’t seen before. She’s a solid 6’4 and built like a brick shithouse had a love child with a larger, more muscular brick shithouse. Then that child ate the other siblings and added their mass to theirs. She’s muscular in ways that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in a girl…actually, no, in anyone before. Her golden eyes reflect her contempt as she sits. “So she’s the pathetic stricken Colin’s gonna kill later?” Her laughter is muffled by the silence spell so that others can’t hear it. We do, though. It’s angry, insulting, and contemptuous, far more than any laugh I’ve ever heard before. Wonderful, another gold dragon that doesn’t like me.
“Hey, Samantha.” Parece nods to her, “Yeah, that’s Maddie.”
Samantha looks at me again, “She’s one step below vermin. She doesn’t deserve a name. She’s stricken.”
Kaylee kicks my leg, somewhat awkwardly, as I smile at the huge girl, “I’m okay if you call me that. After all, it is my name.”
She hits the table, “Did I tell you you could talk to me?”
This time it’s my laughter in the space around us, “Nope! You also didn’t say that I couldn’t. Nor would I have cared if you did.”
Her face abruptly changed to a smile, “You’re funny. You don’t know when you’re out of your league. That’s pretty clear to me.”
“Same.”
That got her golden eyes to darken, “Word of advice to you? I’m not sure why I’m bothering, since you’re gonna die later, but maybe this’ll help you for the next few hours. Watch what you say to people so much stronger than you are. You can die oh so easily.”
“Actually, no I can’t.” I pulled my hair out, like I’m showing it to her. “Dye doesn’t take at all on the stripes. Didn’t you know that? I thought everyone tried to do it at some point or another. Doesn’t take at all, it just washes out. Crazy, right?”
Her face registered an odd kind of shock before she turned to Riley, “Is she…is she that stupid?”
Riley doesn’t look as shocked, but it’s kinda close, “Honestly? I can’t tell so far.”
More noise as yet another table has people sitting at it as the silence spell around us fades. I can smell Levi immediately, which tells me…yup! “Hey, guys! Welcome to lunch!” I went for big and happy.
“Shut it, cunt!” Wes sits, glaring at me.
“Maybe you should end your call with your mom before coming in for lunch, Wes?”
His face goes dark as Shane hits his arm, “Nah, she got you on that one. That was pretty good.”
Levi leans on his elbows on the table, “You ain’t dead yet? I figured you’d mouth off to the wrong person and they’d kill you already. Maybe there’s a first grader around here that’ll do it, so Colin doesn’t waste his time.
“Umm, nope? No first graders that I’ve seen. Other than your emotional and intellectual development. That’s on a par, even if you’re the size of a house. As for being dead? Nope. Not yet. Just like I won’t be dead at dinner tonight, either.”
Kaylee took her tray and slid away from the table, disappearing as quickly as she could. No one seemed to notice her leaving.
Samantha starts laughing again, this timed drawing attention from others in the room. “My God, it’s like the little mongrel thinks she has a chance.”
Levi smiles at her, “Hey, Samantha.”
“Hey, Levi. She really challenge Colin?”
“She did.”
“So fucking stupid.”
“Right? I mean, if she wants to die that badly, she could have just jumped into traffic.”
“Is that it? It wants to die?”
“Hey, don’t call Colin an it! Sure, it did hit me, but maybe there’s underlying mental instability that needs to be taken into account?”
They all turned to me again. Three kids beyond them laughed quietly, trying to smother everything before they were heard.
“You don’t know when to shut up. Like…at all. I saw you in class. You’re fucking pathetic! Did you even get the light to appear once?” Colin looks eminently satisfied at his question and calling me out.
“Umm, nope?” I let my hair fizzle and barely light up as I held my hand out and stared at it. “Nope. Hardly shocking, right? You guys have been doing this for years and years and years. I’ve had less than two weeks.” To my shock, Parece didn’t say anything. “Besides, I don’t need magic to kill you.”
Laughter from everyone around us, including them.
Samantha came to a stop first, “What’re you gonna do, insult him to death? Talk him to death?”
“I know how to punch.”
More laughter. Plus some comments from the peanut gallery I won’t bother to relate.
Levi patted Colin on the back, “He could kill you with one hit. What do you weigh, like 20 pounds? His balls weigh more than that!”
More laughter.
“Huh, Levi, you been handling Colin’s balls that much that you can weigh them?” Silence. “Plus, 20-pound balls? I’m pretty sure that would be gigantism or something like that. I thought that caused sterility. That why you’ve been playing with him? Ran out of rubbers and don’t want an anal baby, which makes him safest?” I focused back on Colin, “Don’t worry, when I drain you dry, I won’t fuck him any longer. You can keep your secret affair between the two of you.”
Sputtered, pain-sounding laughter from the tables around us as I put my fork down. I managed to suck my food down, which is good. “On that note? I’m done eating, so I’ll leave you all to your bit of fun and friendship making. Tip your waitress. Try the veal. And, like they say?” I stared hard at Colin, “I’m here all week. Unlike one member of the audience. I hope you enjoy being beaten to death by my puny little stricken hands.” I held up a fist, then let it drop as I grabbed my tray and walked away.
Hmm, yeah, that’s a lot of badmouthing from the two tables. And yet Parece still never said anything. What is her game?
Chapter 15
There are very, very few kids outside of the caf as I head towards the library. I’m not sure what I expected. Most of the kids out here act hunted, so I guess I can see it. Minimize the time you’re around the others, and maybe you make it out of this crap alive. This is so messed up; I seriously don’t get why they allow this to go on. Traditions are all well and good until you end up with a bunch of dead students.
I only peeped into the library so far, so heading in was something else. It’s huge, much larger than I would have guessed. It’s also…huh.
“What in the world? Why isn’t this like a normal library?”
A woman came from behind one of the stacks to my right and smiled at me, “Well hello! You must be Maddie!”
“Uhh, yeah? How did you know?”
She smiled
wider, “There are 90 students in the first-year class, now 91. I’ve seen every student a time or two so far this year. You’re a new face and I was informed that we were getting a new student.” She gestured to her eyes, “Plus…scars? Kinda an easy identifier.”
I couldn’t help laughing at her comment, which she joined. “Well then, I guess that’s true.”
She waved around us, “To answer your question, even though it wasn’t for me? We’re a library at the academy. We have some encyclopedias and things like that, but very few compared to a traditional college or university library. We have a huge selection of fiction books for people to read, although they’re not checked out all that often. The rest of the books have to do with mages, dragons, or magic.”
Oooh, “That’s kinda what I’m looking for. Do you have any books that tell how to do a draining spell?”
Her smile dimmed a little, “Draining spell?”
“Right. Like in a challenge? Or during the trials? I keep getting told that it happens, but I haven’t been able to find out how it happens. If it’s part of the trial or a challenge or if it’s something someone has to do.”
Slow nod, “I see. I can say that the draining is not part of the trial or a challenge. You’re looking for a spell on how to do it?”
“Yeah? I’m new to magic, so I’m at a loss on what it can do. That sort of thing.”
Another nod, “Okay, come with me?” She started walking towards a section with crazy old looking books on the shelves. “We have a number of books on magic, but precious few grimoires. If you have the money, there are stores in town where you can find grimoires for sale. They’ll give you a better idea of what’s possible. Just…I hate to say it, but some of them are garbage. My recommendation if you find one is to flip through and see if you can cast one of the spells. If you can’t? Move on, it may be a fake one. If you can? Try a second spell at random. If it works and you can afford it and the spells look good? I say buy it.”
