Surviving Magic (School of Magic Survival Book 1)

by Chloe Garner

  “You know some of your classmates would kill for the natural skill you walked in the door with? They’re struggling to get basic casts to work.”

  “Then why are they here?” Valerie asked. “I thought this was only the best of the best.”

  He looked over his shoulder, then sighed.

  “In our circles, money is cheap. But connections talk.”

  She frowned, and he shrugged again.

  “Anyway, some of the kids who made it have got it, they just have to figure it out. You’re all still just freshmen, after all.”

  “I still think of myself as a junior,” Valerie answered, and he grinned.

  “And if you could tell me what this was and what it did, I’d consider it junior level work, if it ever applied to one of your classes. Go on. Go take your unjust quiz. I bet you ace it anyway. You work harder than any two of them combined.”

  “I have to,” Valerie said after him as he headed to the office.

  She turned and went back into the classroom, feeling quite sorry for herself. Ann looked over as Valerie took the empty desk in the front row next to her.

  “You took somebody’s spot,” Ann hissed. “You ought to feel terrible for that.”

  “You did, too,” Valerie answered, cutting herself off before she could accuse Ann of having cheated off of Yasmine to get this far.

  She actually thought it was true, but that was below her.

  Way below her.

  The quiz was partially written and partially casting, as always, but Valerie was shocked to find ingredients on her desk as she sat back down. She looked up at Mrs. Reynolds to tell her that she’d made a mistake, but the teacher was watching her and gave her a little nod.

  She was up.

  Time to prove she could control her magic and make it do something intentionally.

  Great.

  She really was working her butt off, trying to catch up on a lifetime’s worth of exposure that the rest of the students had, but she was getting closer to being able to match them, when it came to test knowledge.

  She could still blow everybody up while her mind wandered, and she was more than a little surprised that Mrs. Reynolds would give her a shot at it right after she’d cast something on her desk that no one had even recognized.

  There was only one word on the written part of the quiz that Valerie didn’t recognize, though she could guess at what it was from the other elements on the list.

  She tested well.

  But the back of the paper was just a very generic list of instructions with the ingredients. Prepare the lafia leaf. Blanch the pell-seed. Measure out the vant dust.

  Valerie gritted her teeth and looked at the pile of things on the other side of her desk.

  She only recognized half of them, but she didn’t doubt that Mrs. Reynolds had done that on purpose to the entire class. They were going to think that the pell-seed was the pile of pellets there, but Valerie happened to know that pell-seed was actually a cubed preparation of a root. They would actually propagate like that. The pellets, though… Possible that was the dust, but there was a vial of gray dust that looked like a shoo-in for vant.

  She worked her way through identifying the ingredients, finally getting them settled in her mind for which was which, as best as she was going to. There were still three of them that were best guesses, and which could have gone in any combination.

  She glanced at the clock, finding that she was not just behind, but way behind. She needed to get the cast finished before the end of class to get any credit for it at all. Better to try and fail than not have finished it.

  Mrs. Reynolds reminded them often.

  Though.

  She also reminded them that they were working with volatile biology that could be dangerous if mishandled, and they were responsible for their own safety and the safety of their classmates every time they worked with them.

  So it kind of went both ways.

  Valerie took out the prep kit that she’d been carrying in her backpack since Mrs. Reynolds had issued it and set to work cutting, cubing, scraping, measuring.

  And then.

  Well.

  It was like listening to a television in the next room. Right up until the moment that it clicked, it had only been a background noise, but then quite abruptly she could hear the voices distinct from the music and understand every word of it.

  Of course.

  Of course you mixed the vant dust with the green quell gel. That was just where it went, if you wanted to create an effect that had any geographic coverage at all. And the pell was there to stabilize everything, because half of the ingredients were becoming volatile even as she prepped them, and while some of them would combust, most of them would simply fail to do anything if the pell seed wasn’t there to keep them from expiring early.

  She didn’t just have to work quickly because class was going to end soon. She had to work quickly because the ingredients demanded it.

  As she worked, students around the room were beginning to finish their casts, and multi-colored bubbles exploded into existence around them. Ann finished hers and got a light blue bubble that came all the way to the side of Valerie’s desk. The girl looked over at Valerie with a sort of smug satisfaction and leaned back in her chair.

  Valerie continued working.

  She was close.

  There were whispers as other kids finished the cast and nothing happened.

  Trying to keep her eyes down, Valerie couldn’t see how many, but from the sound of the bubbles, she was one of the last ones still working, and at least two had failed.

  Drizzle.

  Valerie took a slow breath, knowing that there was a knack to drizzling. It was never just that simple. You wanted to start at the center of the cast, where the magic was going to start working, and then work your way out, covering as much of the cast as you could without going back over a section that was already in the process of working.

  A spiral was the recommended method, though there was a zigzag pattern that Mrs. Reynolds said some users preferred because it was easier to do without overlapping again.

  Not as potent, but slightly less likely to fail.

  Valerie steadied her hand, still aware that the potency of the cast was fading for every moment she waited, then tipped the stone jar and began to pour.

  Her blood just went cold.

  Not fear, not dread anticipation.

  Just.

  Emotionless.

  Stony.

  It was easy.

  She’d never done it before, but she was fearless that she knew exactly how to do it.

  The drizzle went in an easy loop around the center, flowing smooth, her hand steady. She ran it slowly, letting it seep down into the cast as she went, feeling the build of power like a pressure in her chest.

  Confident.

  She hit the edge of the cast and set the stone jar to the side then, waiting on the cast to finish mixing, she reached up to her head. Acting on sheer instinct, she pulled a strand of her hair, cutting the entire cast in half with it.

  There was a dull explosion of power from inside of her chest, and a vivid red bubble expanded rapidly around her, in a blink, encompassing the entire classroom.

  Mrs. Reynolds was watching her with an inscrutable expression.

  She’d cheated.

  She’d used an ingredient that wasn’t provided for the quiz.

  On the other hand, she’d clearly won the game.

  Valerie had no idea which would count for more.

  “Freak,” Ann muttered.

  “Loser,” Valerie answered quietly.

  The bell rang and Mrs. Reynolds stood, going to the front edge of her desk and sliding her thumb along it, leaving a faintly gold streak there on the wood.

  The protective bubbles all burst.

  Save Valerie’s.

  “Mmm,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Miss Blake, I need to have a word with you. The rest of you may turn in your papers and go on to your next class. I’ll ret
urn scores at the end of the week.”

  Valerie stayed at her desk as the room cleared, and Mrs. Reynolds leaned against the front desk for a long moment.

  “You did very well,” she said after a moment. “You’re a virgin, then.”

  Valerie gawped at her, eyes bugging, unable to find anything to say to that. Mrs. Reynolds nodded.

  “Virgin hair has certain magical properties to it that are unique, and most potent in your own casts, doubling down when it’s protective magic. Just so that you know, if you try that trick again that it wouldn’t have worked, otherwise.”

  “Um,” Valerie said. “I just… I had an idea.”

  Mrs. Reynolds nodded, still watching Valerie closely.

  “I value promptness, so I won’t keep you long enough to make you late for your next class. I appreciate your instincts and your intuition, but you also need to demonstrate that you can follow instructions and do what you’re told. I haven’t decided which I value more, in this context. Do you know how to shut down your cast?”

  Valerie looked at it for a moment, then split the pile of ingredients in half using her thumbs and poured what remained from the stone jar down the center gap.

  The bubble faltered, collapsing in for a moment and then just vanishing. Mrs. Reynolds nodded.

  “Well executed. Go on to your class, but come see me at the end of the day.”

  Valerie grabbed her backpack from the chair and threw the prep kit into it, dashing out the door.

  She was elated.

  It wasn’t Mrs. Reynolds reaction. She might have just failed the cast.

  It was that she could do magic. Not just have it happen to her.

  She was absolutely ecstatic.

  She almost ran straight into Ethan.

  He’d taken to walking her from the herbology class to her ritual calisthenics class, and he was still waiting outside of the door.

  “You get in trouble?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Valerie answered. “But I just cast a protection spell, and it was awesome.”

  He laughed.

  “She let you cast something?” he asked, and she nodded, grinning.

  “It was part of a quiz, and… I killed the cast. I just… Well, I didn’t do it the way it was on the paper.”

  He glanced over at her.

  “That’s really dangerous,” he said.

  “What, all of the magic you’ve ever used has been exactly the way someone taught you?” Valerie asked, and he gave her a deep nod.

  “Exactly the way I was taught,” he said. “Without deviating.”

  She frowned, then shrugged.

  “That’s not how I do it,” she said.

  “You’re going to get in big trouble, like that,” he said, his brows knit. “Bad things can happen if you mess up a spell. Some of them are a lot more dangerous than others, but it’s about precision. Doing it exactly the right way.”

  “How did we get these spells?” Valerie asked. “Did aliens leave them inscribed on a wall somewhere?”

  He gave her an exasperated look.

  “The Council has researchers who know what they are doing, who figure out new magic. It’s our job to just learn what there is. And, I mean, you couldn’t learn all of it in a lifetime. That’s why people specialize. So they can at least get to the really intense, niche stuff in one focus.”

  She sighed.

  “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think that’s how I work. That’s not how Sasha does it, either.”

  “Sasha knows the rules,” he said. “You can change one thing a little, and get the outcome you want. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s that far ahead of me. But I still think she’s working off of a specific spell that someone taught her.”

  He frowned again, but they’d been walking quickly in order to get to her class in time for him to make it to his.

  “See you at lunch?” he asked. She nodded, smiling again.

  He made her happy.

  “See you at lunch.”

  She went into the ritual magic room and was about to set down her backpack when she noticed Mr. Benson.

  Waiting for her.

  “We need to see you in the office,” he said. Valerie didn’t look at the rest of the class as she followed him out of the room and down the hallway to the main office.

  Mrs. Young gave her an I-knew-it look, and Valerie looked at her shoes.

  It wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

  Her mom had deprived her of years of learning and practice, and then just threw her in, in the middle of it. What had anyone expected?

  This wasn’t her fault.

  It wasn’t.

  She went into the larger conference room, where they’d moved the central table off to the side to make room for her desk.

  The marks felt like something she’d seen a million times, like something on the inside of a door, or a tattoo on her own skin. If she’d sat back down, she had no doubt she’d start fingering over them again the moment she lost focus.

  “I’d like to hear your explanation, first,” Lady Harrington said.

  Mr. Tannis and Mr. Jamison were there.

  “Don’t you have classes?” Valerie asked.

  “They’re being covered,” Mr. Benson said. “And they are none of your concern. Lady Harrington asked you a question.”

  In point of fact, she hadn’t, but Valerie kept this to herself.

  “Um,” she said. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” she said. “I just did it. It’s what I do.”

  “No,” Lady Harrington said. “You make bombs out of horticulture. This is something entirely different.”

  “She did speak to the silverthorn and kill it,” Mr. Jamison said, and Lady Harrington gave him a sharp look.

  “You aren’t here as an advocate,” Mr. Jamison,” she said.

  “Aren’t we all?” Mr. Jamison answered. “She’s a student at the School of Magic Survival. It’s our job to do the best we can to teach her and help her grow as a magic user.”

  The woman pressed her lips and looked at Valerie again.

  “I reserve the right to eject a student from this school at any time, if they are endangering others with reckless spellwork.”

  “It’s a protection spell,” Valerie said.

  She was almost certain.

  “That is not a human language,” Mr. Jamison said quietly. “I know or recognize every documented human language.”

  The words were… She hadn’t ever considered that possible. Valerie was deeply impressed, though she knew that she was supposed to consider the statement a warning.

  “Where did you learn them?” Mr. Tannis asked.

  “I didn’t,” Valerie said.

  True.

  Whatever those shapes were, her father hadn’t taught them to her.

  “We understand an intuition with spellcasting ingredients,” Lady Harrington said. “But that? And, yes, I know what that is. That is not something that you can just luck into by touch and guess.”

  “What is it?” Valerie asked.

  “I won’t discuss it with you,” Lady Harrington said. “What I want to know is who showed you how to do it.”

  This just made her more curious.

  “We were talking about protection spells and how they work, and I just started doing it,” Valerie said. “It was like doodling. I wasn’t thinking about it.”

  “You just casually created perfect forms of some of the most potent spellcasting characters on the planet?” Lady Harrington asked.

  If they were that potent, why weren’t they teaching them? Why didn’t Mr. Jamison know what they were?

  Valerie looked at the four adults, then pulled her shoulders up to her ears.

  It was cheeky.

  But they were taking it so seriously.

  “It wasn’t wrong, though, was it?” Valerie asked. “I did it right.”

  “Propagation of this language is incredibly tightly controlled,” Lady Harrington said. �
�Whoever taught you has broken significant Council rules and needs to appear before them.”

  Her father hadn’t done it.

  She didn’t have to tell Lady Harrington anything about him.

  Not even if she wanted to tell the truth.

  Door.

  Inside of a door.

  It hadn’t been a random idea in her head, the way the symbols showed up on chestnut wood… and skin…

  “My mom,” she said finally. “And she didn’t teach me. I just remembered.” She nodded toward the desk. “She had a… thing… on the inside of our door at home that was those shapes.”

  And a tattoo of it on the inside of her forearm, but Valerie didn’t have to tell Lady Harrington anything about that, either. Not Grandma.

  Mr. Jamison looked at Lady Harrington and shrugged.

  “I could believe that,” he said.

  “You were in Mrs. Reynold’s class last period, weren’t you?” Lady Harrington asked. Valerie nodded.

  “That desk belongs to her,” Valerie said.

  “The desk belongs to the school,” Lady Harrington said. “Please go and get her.”

  She addressed the order to Mr. Benson, who shifted.

  “I actually have some academic work that I needed to get to today,” he said. She pressed her mouth, and Mr. Jamison stepped forward.

  “I’ll do it,” he said. “Won’t be a minute.”

  “Please remain with her class while she’s here,” Lady Harrington said, and Mr. Jamison paused, then nodded.

  “Sure.”

  Valerie wanted to tell him to stop, that she needed him to be here, whatever was going to happen next, but he was moving quickly and out the door before she found the beginning of words.

  They sat, waiting for Mrs. Reynolds, who really wasn’t more than a minute or two, though it felt like a decade.

  “I’m in the middle of a lecture,” the woman said. “I have a carefully-planned syllabus that is completely packed out.”

  “I won’t keep you,” Lady Harrington said. “I noticed an odd spike of magic during your last period class. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “Of course,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “We were testing a run-of-the-mill shielding spell, and Valerie amplified hers.”