by Mussie Haile
Shewit was as unusual in the control of her powers as she was in her demeanor. Lull and the rest of the teachers noticed a special ability in the young being of Balance and Chaos: her ability to retain instructions, skills, and utilize them as if she had been practicing magic for eons.
This quality saw her advance through training quicker than the previous sacrifices, and this uncanny ability of hers to retain and internalize instructions was first noticed when Lull taught her how to control the element of air. In the past, it was usual for Lull to hit a temporary dead-end when it came to teaching the being of Balance and Chaos this particular skill. Controlling the elements was always very tricky.
Being elements of nature, they stood on their own and could be accessed both as a battle magic and an ordinary magic. Accessing the elements through ordinary magic was way less effective than when they were accessed under the guise of battle magic. And it was in teaching this balance, and the poise required to control the elements in the desired way that made it at first difficult. So, Lull had taken to introducing them to this skill first of all, then leaving it out, and taking the being of Balance and Chaos through a different skill. The motive being, that in the course of the little detour, the level of confusion would have subsided enough for him to hit back at the subject later. For ordinary magic was easier to tap into, such as making food, making beautiful glows on air, while battle magic came from strong emotions like anger and was harder to control. Most times, warriors leaned too much into battle magic to forgot how to make ordinary magic.
Shewit had walked into the training square, her demeanor as still and quiet as usual. Upon getting to Lull, she had bowed and said:
“Greetings, Lull.”
“Greetings,” Lull replied. “I take it you have had a splendid rest, yes?”
“Yes,” she replied.
A few of Lull’s men trained farther away to her left and right, in training grounds annexed to hers. Once in a while, she would hear the noise of magic being worked, and feel a slight thrill go through her body.
“For today’s lesson,” Lull started, “I would be teaching you how to control the element of air. Like we established during your theoretical teachings, there are generally two types of magic,” he looked at Shewit, indicating that she complete his sentence.
“Ordinary and battle,” Shewit replied.
“Good,” Lull said, giving a satisfied nod. “And you also know that there are other groups of magic that exist, more special in forms than the general classifications, yes?”
“Yes,” Shewit said.
“In what class of magic would you put the control of air?” Lull asked.
“Elemental or Nature magic.”
“Good. Now, I want you to observe. The air in this room is free and soft, almost unnoticeable, and difficult to catch unless you are paying extra attention to detail. An ordinary magic-user can reduce the flow of air, or increase it. That’s about the extent of control an ordinary magic-user has over nature magic. However, as the being of Balance and Chaos, or any other magician with access to battle magic, like me, we have the power to not only increase and decrease the flow but to shape the air, to weaponize it. You can control the air, for instance, into a club, a blade, depending on how good you are at precision. You can manipulate the air into shielding you from attacks. Some of us with access to battle magic use it as a shield, while sometimes you can also conjure a ball of energy to perform the same function. All that is needed here is your strength of will, imagination, and precision, and the elements are yours. When saying the spell, you have to feed your intent, the shape from your mind into it, and then you will have the shape of your desire.’
“Do you understand me?” he asked Shewit.
“Yes, Lull. I do.”
“Now watch,” he said.
Growing a little tense, Lull turned to the side and flayed his hands in the air. His movements were slow, deliberate. They would not be this way on a battlefield except if he was keen on dying. But here, he wanted Shewit to see his moves, every little thing that occurred before he made the magic work. He conjured the image he wanted in his mind, and then he spoke the magic words:
“Nefas qetin!”
At first, Shewit did not see anything, but then she noticed the rush of air increase around her, and then she saw it: a funnel of air hovering a little above Lull’s palm, almost invisible but for the flurry of its movement.
“See?” Lull told her.
Shewit nodded, her eyes wide with amazement. Lull watched her, a little girl, hair and eyes black as the night, smiling for the first time. She looked diminutive for the kind of power she possessed, still, she seemed to love training.
“Now, you try,” Lull said, releasing the funnel of air for it to dissipate at once.
Lull watched her get into position and began to prepare a comforting speech in his mind which he would use to placate the girl when she failed to shape the air around her. He already had the next lesson he would take her through to lessen the sting of her failure. Nothing had ever prepared him for what happened next.
Shewit had listened to everything that he had said, she had seen his moves, and more than that, she had seen through them as he worked the magic. She had felt the focus of his thoughts, and the way they had flowed with his moves, and how they had connected with the spell and then formed the shape of his imagination. She understood that all she needed was the focus, and that had never been a problem for her.
Widening her legs so she could achieve a more stable stance, she flayed her hands in the air, just as Lull had done a moment before. She conjured up an image of what she wanted, she stayed on it, willed it to occupy most of her mind, to flow from her mind, through her, and into reality, and then she said the words:
“Nefas qetin.”
Nothing had happened at first. But that was just a second’s delay as Shewit began to feel the rush of the air around her. Shewit continued to feed her intentions through the power of the spell until the shape was just as firm and sure as that which Lull had conjured. She turned to find Lull staring at the shape of air with an open mouth.
This was the first time since Lull picked up the career of training the beings of Balance and Chaos that one of them had successfully controlled air in their first ever try. Even the other mages who were training in the areas close by were drawn to the extraordinary feat and could only stare in wide-eyed wonder. Shewit saw the stares, the wonder in them, and she smiled. This was one of those rare moments when she did something other than preserving an air of utter seriousness.
From then on, Lull went all out in teaching the young being of Balance and Chaos the full extent of her powers. The faster she could learn meant the sooner she got to make the sacrifice.
But then, of course, Shewit fell in love.
He was a mage in the making, and a student apprenticed to one of the high mages in the School of Magic. Apprentices were not usually called upon to teach a being of Balance and Chaos unless, as in this case, the apprentice was exceptionally good at something. His name was Ermias, and with two years left to becoming a proper mage, he was already exceptionally good at Spell Studies. It was apparent that he had become more knowledgeable than his master mage, but appearances had to be kept for the sake of hierarchy. And so it was that when Shewit needed a spell master to help in her usage of the more formalized spells, Ermias was recommended as the best there was.
At first, Shewit had disliked him. He was too simple and rough in appearance. From his slim frame, his mop of curly brown hair, to his gentle demeanor, nothing about him radiated authority and expertise compared to the rest of her teachers. So she had started out being unresponsive, and even when she worked herself to give him a response, it was always cold. Normally, behaviors like this were to be reported to the headteacher – Lull. Shewit knew this and she expected it. However, to her surprise, Ermias kept coming back day after day, teac
hing her nonetheless; Lull had not come to her to complain about anything between the two of them. It only meant that Ermias had kept her little mannerisms to himself. Where others would have given up, Ermias still stuck to her, teaching her with the same fervour as though she were indeed interested in what he was teaching.
So she began to pay attention; too much attention perhaps, as she didn’t even realize when she started to develop feelings for the man.
A relationship of this kind; a being of Balance and Chaos and her teacher, had never been heard before. And as such, it was easy for them to surmise that it would be frowned upon. They were able to keep in touch under the cover of spell lessons. Everything had gone so smoothly until Ermias made a special discovery one day during his studies.
“You seem to be in trouble,” she said, studying him.
“Me?” Ermias said, looking at her, and then looking away immediately. “It is nothing,” he replied, and as if forgetting that he had added it, attached a smile to convince her. “It is just a case of bad food. Nothing that cannot be fixed.”
“You forget that I can read minds,” Shewit said, her face growing serious. “Do not make me read the words out of you.”
Ermias stared at her. He knew she was serious. Shewit never gave threats. She issued warnings which she would go ahead to take actions if the warnings were ignored. Also, for someone who kept a lot to herself, she disliked it when Ermias tried to do the same.
“Fine,” Ermias said. “The problem is, is that I do not think you are ready for what I am about to tell you.”
Shewit stared intently at him until he grew uneasy and said:
“Okay, okay. I will say it.”
He had gotten the message. Shewit was not flinching. She was never one to shy away from things no matter how extremely daunting they appeared to be.
“I was going through some ancient texts,” Ermias began, “which revealed knowledge about certain spells while taking the reader on a trip down the history behind the spells. They were a bit confusing at first, and so, it took me more hours of intense study to finally understand them. In the end, I not only grasped the knowledge of very valuable spells. I also found a way for you to avoid offering your life.”
He had finished the statement with a smile, but the stunned look on Shewit’s face wiped it off. He knew he had done something awfully and regrettably wrong even before she asked the question.
“What do you mean by offering my life?” Shewit asked.
Ermias looked at her with an uneasy expression on his face and said:
“Take it easy, Shewit. Let me explain.”
“What do you mean by offering my life, Ermias?” Shewit demanded, fixated.
Ermias began to stutter. He was caught between the suddenness of the realization that Shewit did not know the details of her role and trying to break the news to her – because obviously, she was meant to know but a lot later when she was ready to receive the message.
Frustrated and tired by Ermias’s inability to give her a response, Shewit threw restraint to the wind and plunged into his mind. She saw it all: everything that Ermias knew and was trying to properly organize so he could tell her, what her role meant, and what her life meant to all the lands and kingdoms of Toas.
Ermias fell to the floor at the impact of Shewit’s mind. Shewit did not know what to make of the discovery. She was furious. She was sad. But she was also scared.
“You knew this the entire time?” she said, turning to look at Ermias, fury glowing red on her face. “You knew all this time, and you pretended to love me!?”
Ermias tried to speak, but Shewit had choked him using her control of the air. Ermias opened his mouth and shut it as he searched for air. The only noise he could make as he stared pleadingly at Shewit was a croaking sound as his throat drew in nothing. Shewit stared at him, her lips trembled, and tears covered her eyes. And then, abruptly, she let go her of magical hold on him. Ermias rolled onto his side, gasping for air and coughing. Shewit flicked her eyes towards where he lay and began to sob.
“Shewit”, he called, “I had no idea that you never knew this was the path your life was on. They probably would have told you in the future. Please, you have to believe me. That is why I took it upon myself to find a way out for you. A way in which you did not have to give your life for the peace of all, a way where we could be together. Please, look into my mind if you have to. Search my thoughts. You have my leave. You will see that I am not lying. I will never lie to you, Shewit.” His lips trembled.
Shewit turned and stared at Ermias as she placed her palm to his face.
“Oh, Ermias,” she cried, “I almost killed you. I cannot believe that I almost killed you!”
“It does not matter, Shewit,” Ermias replied. “What matters is that you did not. You were infuriated, and I get that. I never knew that the being of Balance and Chaos made this sacrifice without the knowledge of what is involved.”
They sat there, in silence, for minutes. Outside the room, the general notion was that the being of Balance and Chaos was getting prepared and better in her grasp of spells, and when she would emerge her vocabulary would be nothing short of incredible.
“I cannot believe that they have been training me so rigorously all this while just to offer me up like a sheep to the gods!” Shewit said breaking the silence.
Ermias changed his seating position.
“I had always thought when I familiarized myself with the being of Balance and Chaos and her destiny that it was odd that a group of select magically powerful and gifted children would give themselves up every hundred years when they still had so much to live for. But I had stifled the thought because I had thought that it was a thing of choice. I never knew that the sacrifice was an act of deceiving you,” Ermias said, appalled.
“Now, I am beginning to understand all the deferential treatment I get in the palace. Sometimes the workers would look at me like I was a god, but disposable at the same time. They would go out of their way just to make me happy. And it irked me. The constant efforts, overacting, it was just too much, too glaring, and I did not like it. It all makes sense now. I am even sure Lull, who I have taken as a father knows about this.”
“Do not be too sure,” Ermias said.
“Oh, I am,” Shewit replied hotly. “And I do not need to read his mind to know this. He cannot be the head trainer without being privy to this bit of knowledge.”
All of a sudden, her countenance softened, and she turned to Ermias.
“I do not want to die, Ermias,” she said. “Not like this. As you said, I have still got much to live for. We still have much to live for.”
Ermias looked at her and smiled. The smile on his face was a welcome sight for Shewit, considering all the things that had just gone awry. But Ermias’s smile was more than just a difference in the chain of bad events, it was a sign that there was hope.
“You know something, Ermias,” Shewit said. “Spit it out. You know how I hate being baited.”
“Fine, fine. Can we not have a go at playing a game of guessing?” Ermias asked himself.
Shewit chuckled, but sadly. “Someday,” she said. “But not today.”
Then Ermias told her about what he had surmised from his studies earlier before their encounter. Shewit listened aptly, and by the time Ermias was done, she felt hope. The path she had been walking all the while had only one end. But Ermias’s theory charted a new course for not just her, but for both of them.
All they had to do now was plot an escape plan, and it had to be done quickly. Ermias had told her that the sacrifice was done when she was finally able to master the skill of giving and taking life. That was the last skill the being of Balance and Chaos needed to master, and it was the culmination of everything she had been learning since day one. It was already common knowledge that Shewit was a fast learner, and that she had advanced speedily through the tr
aining levels. At this rate, she would reach the day of the sacrifice very quickly. If she began to affect difficulty in comprehending her lessons so she could stall, her teachers would notice that something was strange. So, they decided on a prompt escape to any place that was out of the reach of the magicians. Ermias had told Shewit to leave the location to him. Shewit on the other hand was to focus on finding a way both of them could make a run for it.
And she found one.
The element of surprise was one of the oldest tactics in the book. Despite that, it never lost its efficiency. Keeping the teachers from knowing that she knew what was going to happen to her was a stroke of genius on both Shewit and Ermias’s parts. And that was why when she slunk out during one of her habitual walks through the palace gardens, no one noticed until it was almost too late...
Lull had noticed that Shewit was late for her class, and was surprised. It was highly unlike her to miss training. A visit to her chambers turned out fruitless. Lady Adiam had told him that Shewit was yet to return from her walk. It was not until one of the guards had told him that there had been an unusual working of magic at the gate that he realized what was going on.
Shewit was trying to escape. But he was confused as to why she wanted to.
Had she come to the knowledge of what awaited her at the fulfilment of her training regime? I should have told her but it was not time yet. The older man asked himself.
Lull did not have the time to link his thoughts together and settle on logical conclusions. The more time he spent doing that, the farther she got away. Mustering a squad of combat-trained mages, Lull went after Shewit as if his life depended on it.
