White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (36 page)

“High Wizard Herrol wants research wizards and healers to take a look at us while we go to school. I don’t why, but he does.”

Katya looked thoughtful and conjectured, “Maybe if they find a link between twins, they might find similar things between siblings with magic. Bas took me on a trip in the air with his magic. If I have some air magic potential, it might be easier than for someone without and such. Who knows though?”

At the sound of the door closing, the seven novices gathered around Piotr’s table looked up and surprise could be found on most of their faces as a young wizard in red strode to the front of the room. Patting the air, the blonde haired fire wizard said to the class, “Easy now, yes, I am not your usual instructor, but I think that you will survive this class even so.

“Do we have any confirmed water novices in the class?”

Lyssa tentatively raised her hand and the wizard shook his head, “Well, maybe not you, I’m afraid.”

Giving the girl a moment for her eyes to grow large, he chuckled and added, “I am kidding. For those of you who don’t already know, I am Fire Wizard Magnus. Some say THE Magnus, because I won the Winter’s Edge tournament.”

He waited for a moment and frowned jokingly, “What no applause? Again I am just kidding.

“You may have heard news that we have new novices that arrived yesterday, so they are going through the wonderfully fun orientation class and your instructor, Fire Wizard Irrom, has been called on to act as a mentor this morning.”

While he spoke, the young man placed seven lamps on the desk closest to the front. Though wizard school rarely had a desk needed for teachers, it was still there just in case. Magnus made sure to spread the lamps across the top before continuing, “Now as we know from...” he gestured to Lyssa and she stated her name, “Lyssa, not every one of you will become a fire wizard and some will always have more difficulties with that magic because they are attuned to the opposite element or for you nature lovers, fire can be a counter intuitive magic for you.

“Still we begin with fire magic, because in a fight, nearly everyone can use fire, while someone using water might be in a field with little moisture to use their power.”

Magnus nodded to the water novice and said, “Not to pick on Lyssa, but I am sure that you have found that you can summon fire and we can all concede that a fireball can be thrown over long distances. Water is limited, but can also be very powerful near rivers, lakes and the sea.

“Now let’s see what you have mastered so far. Day one was lighting a lamp. I want each of you to light a lamp.”

Job and Lyssa started to get up. They had lit their lamps on their desks on the first day after some difficulty, so they assumed this was the same lesson repeated.

Holding up his hand, Magnus shook his head. “No, no, do it from there. I am sure that you can all light a lamp by now, but sitting inches from a lamp is no challenge. A fire wizard will manipulate flame for hundreds of yards if he has the power and skill. When you can strike beyond the reach of arrows, then you will be safe and definitely not before.

“Do you know the chief cause of deaths among wizards in the field?”

Briahnna answered hesitantly, “Arrows?”

Magnus nodded. “Wizards can use shields, but an archer can often catch them off guard or catch you from an angle you aren’t protecting. The next issue is letting enemies get too close. Killing an orc hundreds of feet away to move to the next is much better than waiting until they are nearly on top of you.”

Looking to Katya, the wizard stated, “Fire wizards have always fancied their guild as the war wizards, but a battle mage in an enclosed area is too quick for us. We don’t learn to use swords the way they and the soldiers do. This is why we train you to use your magic from the greatest distance you can.

“If you can’t manage to light a lamp from under thirty feet away, or twenty or ten; you will die unless there is someone else to save you.”

Sweeping his arm towards the lamps, Magnus ordered, “Flame.”

Fire appeared in all seven lamps at once.

“Extinguish,” he added reversing the course of his hand putting out the lamps in a single pass.

“They don’t want me teaching you battle mage casting, but understand it. Now each of you pick a lamp and light it.”

Katya used the proper gestures keeping her attention on the lamp of her choice. It lit with a pop of fire lifting nearly to the top of the glass.

“Control, Katya. Extinguish it and light it with half the power you just used,” Magnus ordered walking behind the table. The girl had been the first and accomplished the task as quickly as any wizard should. Unfortunately for Katya, her magic, even contained by the crystal, was still more than she could fully control.

Putting out the flame, the blonde haired novice watched as Alec, the boy from Windmeer castle, lit his lamp next. It was done precisely and Katya frowned wishing she could do the same. Briahnna followed, but her flame was a little more than she expected.

“I don’t know your name, boy,” Magnus said to the young novice. Katya nearly laughed thinking the wizard was barely out of boyhood himself, though her mother said some boys never truly became men.

“Alec?” the boy with the brown hair said hesitantly brushing his bangs from his forehead nervously.

“Good work. Now try working on your speed. This type of casting won’t equal mage style words of power, but the faster you are with this the easier it will be if you decide to try to learn both.”

The novice looked confused and asked, “Why would I choose to learn from battle mages?”

Though new to the school, few wizards thought battle mages were their equals. Even new wizards like Alec seemed to share those views.

“Don’t be close minded, Alec. I was a ranked fire wizard before I chose to learn from the mages. They are becoming more powerful with new spells coming from the owl.

“If we as wizards don’t continue to grow, they will surpass us though their magical auras are insignificant to ours,” Magnus stated before cuffing the shorter boy on the back of the head. “Now stop wasting time and work on your spell."

Lyssa, the water wizard, began to look frustrated soon. Everyone else had the spell working to one degree or another. Most had lit their lamps and put them out ten or more times before Magnus stood behind her.

Tears were lurking behind her lids as the girl fought her magic.

“It’s too far for me,” she mourned quietly.

“You are letting it be too far for you. You have the power to do it. A battle mage could light it from here and you are more powerful than they are.

“Since you know the spell, I won’t repeat the patterns needed to make the flame. Believe in yourself and remember that distance isn’t a limit of magic. Your control of your magic is the only limit.

“See the flame and let your magic reach out to it. Now light the lamp.”

Katya was surprised at how the young wizard was both gentle and firm at the same time. She had managed to limit the puff of flame by the third try earning his praise. If Lyssa would just listen to Magnus and believe in herself, the water novice would light it as easily as the others, she was sure of it.

Two more tries and she succeeded crying out, “I did it!”

Magnus nodded. “I told you that you could. Now put it out and repeat the process. The more you all do this the more control you will have. It is merely repetition that makes such a thing as easy as you saw me do it.”

By the time the class was over, the novices were all sweating, like they had just been running to warm up in the winter cold. Katya thought it was odd to sweat and feel tired when she had sat on a stool half the time. They didn’t walk around except to stretch their legs for a moment, but magic was as draining as working hard with her hands.

They were dismissed by Magnus and told to read the next three spells readying them for the next class.

Katya waited a moment even telling Briahnna and Lyssa that she would catch up with them in a minute.

Looking at the young girl, Magnus furrowed his brow with curiosity.

“Is there something I can do for you, Katya?”

She had multiple questions and wondered where to start. “From what I have heard about you, I assumed that you would dislike battle mages. You have been championing them since we came to White Hall, including my brother, who I thought you actually hated.”

Chuckling, the man dressed in his red wizard robes sat on the front of the desk and shrugged. “Well, I can’t say that I ever hated him. I certainly disliked your brother at times, through no fault of his, I suppose.

“When you have been taught from the beginning that you are better than another type of person, it tends to be upsetting when they prove you wrong. We’re wizards. We have the power, not them. Our magic can move mountains, while they’re lucky to dig a ditch.

“Such were the opinions and stories passed onto me before your brother. I’m sure many wizards and even those without magic still believe that. A belief like that doesn’t just go away in a year, even if someone proves exceptional.”

“But you were a bully to my brother, weren’t you?”

Wincing, Magnus was moved to sigh and said, “It wasn’t just to him. I was an apprentice at the top of my class. Other apprentices followed me and we all believed that mages were garbage.

“When your brother finally decided to prove a point to me on our trip to Windmeer, it opened my eyes but it also made me want some kind of revenge for the humiliation of losing to him.”

“You are a wizard and a cadet beat you? I admit that I have seen my brother do amazing things, but how did he defeat you?” the girl wondered.

Breathing out a longer sigh, the young man put on an air of regret. “In my folly of believing that fire wizards were the real war wizards, I allowed myself to enter a duel ring with him.”

“A wizard’s duel ring?” she asked in confusion.

With a laugh the man shook his head. “If only it had been a wizards’ duel, I would have saved myself from the dissolution of my beliefs.

“No, I fancied myself a great swordsman. Most wizards will get some amount of weapons training to defend themselves in close if the need arises. My fellow apprentices and I fought in the rings often and fancied ourselves excellent duelists; but I had never fought a mage or even a soldier.

“I entered the ring expecting to win easily. Your brother barely worked to deflect every thrust of my sword, so I chose to use magic.

“He let me throw a fireball... once. Then Sebastian let me know that he was toying with me. I’d try another spell and he would make sure to interrupt it before I could finish after that.

“I may have been the bully, but he learned all the lessons well enough,” he laughed deprecatingly.

“He beat you?”

“Easily,” Magnus agreed. “I had to work with him again in the field and eventually learned to just get along him, but also along the way I saw what a battle mage could do. Like our soldiers, they are the ones who keep us safe. Our magic is a powerful weapon and can be used to protect, but working together we are strongest.

“So after the summer, I returned to White Hall and asked to learn how to cast like a battle mage. I devoured all their spells. Admittedly, it wasn’t hard. I don’t say that to brag. Battle mages simply have fewer spells than we do.

“A single school of our wizards probably has three or four times more simple spells than their corps, or at least that was the way it was before Sebastian came along. Now he’s added quite a few spells, and those mages who brought you here are still trying to teach everything they learned from him.

“I guess that I will have to study with the mages again. Your brother continues to teach me lessons even from afar, I guess,” he finished with a laugh.

“And now you are pushing for wizards to learn battle mage spells?”

“Most wizards will tell you. Our true mission in life is to learn as much as we can. Knowledge is literally power for a wizard.

“You will see with time. A coercer’s magic...,” he stopped wincing at his choice of words and changed them to, “A diplomat wizards’ magic has variations and those most skilled never get caught using their magic. With your strength, I bet that you will be among the best. You are also very intelligent. Since you are young, I suspect you will grow a lot.

“Diplomat wizards tend to learn most of the elemental schools. Some will become white wizards because they master some, but others just keep wearing the black robes with their silver trim. They learn a minimum amount of combat spells, but work harder on their craft at manipulating people.

“One path or another, you will learn and wish to continue learning; if you are like the rest of us anyway.”

“Do you know much of diplomat magic?”

“Just a little by word of mouth really. I have been a full fire wizard for under a year and will finish mastering it before I try anything else. In the end, I do want to become a white wizard, perhaps ending my career leading from Hala. Anyway for now, I will teach when they need me to or go back north to fight; and all the while I will continue to study to become more powerful.”

The girl was unsure if she should ask more and wasn’t positive she could put what she wanted to say into words anyway. Instead of pushing on, the pretty little blond smiled and thanked him for his time as she excused herself.

One thing Katya thought as she walked off to go to her room to study, Magnus seemed to be holding back something from her as they talked. She wasn’t positive what that was either, but maybe the respect he had for Sebastian didn’t mean that he still didn’t have a bit of hatred for her brother  in spite of his words.

The girl was finding that her magic came with more subtleties than the other kinds of wizards realized. While a strong diplomat wizard was proof against the magic of coercion, it was her uncanny ability to read people that seemed to grow as her magic did.

Magnus was smart and had an ego, even though than he tried to cover for it with his jokes, Katya thought. A man like that might say that he didn’t feel a need for revenge or hate his rival, but they were also determined to win out in the end. That was what the girl thought might be behind the smiles and pleasantries Magnus showed the world.

With a sigh, the novice began to climb the stairs.
 

Chapter 19- The First Test

Katya looked up from her spell book at the opening of her dorm room door. The familiar sight of the little blonde haired girl, who was really a che’ther, entering their shared room made her smile at her friend.

The dragoness wore a yellow smock that stopped midway down the girl’s thighs with just an inch or so of her brown skirt peeking out beneath it. Even the skirt’s length was on the verge of scandalous on the school premises, which had even more strict rules on the dress of its students. Luckily for Cheleya, she was considered an exception to those rules, since the girl seemed to enjoy picking clothing that was both beautiful and often daring as well.

She kicked off her short leather boots after reaching down to use her magic on the encircling leather. With just a touch of her finger, Cheleya magically unzipped the back of her boots making them easy to remove.

Katya always watched the dragoness and marveled as seemingly seamless leather just opened at her touch. It was part of a type of magic that most people hadn’t even heard of in Southwall, let alone practiced. If you couldn’t use it in combat, a spell was often forgotten or left hidden on the page of some book. Alteration magic, as Cheleya referred to it, was an entire line of magic dedicated to changing material into what suited her. If leather needed to be soft like cloth, the dragoness could exert her magic to change the very nature of the material into satin or silk or whatever she wished.