Guild Mage: Apprentice

“I don’t understand why the butcher was giving me such strange looks,” Liv said, as they walked back up the road toward the campus. They’d skipped dinner to get into town before sunset, on Liv’s promise they could all get something at High Hall - and that if all else failed, she’d cook something. In the end, they’d gotten three fresh chickens, with the heads and guts already removed for roasting.

“For a moment, you had me worried you wanted live animals to experiment on,” Arjun said.

Liv shook her head. “No. That’s how Cade’s father made him practice. I’d never force anyone to do that. Anyway, your word of power will work just as well on dead bone as living, won’t it?”

“Cost should,” Arjun said. “I don’t think that Cail would do the same; it mostly seems to speed up the natural healing of a living body.”

“Excellent,” Liv said. “I’ve got an incantation in mind that I think will work for you. And when we’re done, we can give the chickens to Lambert, down in the kitchen. That way they won’t go to waste.” Before they reached the broken outer wall of the campus, she took a detour off to the left, leading them into the training grounds. “Wren, go hold one over there, please. Maybe put it up on the hilt of a practice sword.”

Wren unwrapped one of the three chickens from the cheesecloth the butcher had wrapped it in, fetched a blunted arming sword from the chests of training equipment, and inserted the pommel into the cavity left behind when the organs were removed. Then, she gingerly held the thing away from her body, gripping the practice sword by the blade. “Is this going to be far enough that I don’t get hurt?” she asked.

“I think so?” Liv said. “If not, Arjun will patch you right up, I’m sure. Alright, here’s the incantation: ‘Costet Scelis’o'Avia.”

Arjun blinked. “Do you really think that will work? It sounds… horrible.”

“Shape your intent, and I’m certain it will,” Liv told him. “Just remember to aim away from Wren. And away from us, actually.”

“Aim what?” Wren called over.

Arjun took a deep breath to center himself, extended his hand toward the chicken, and repeated the incantation that Liv had given him. “Costet Scelis’o'Avia!”

Wren yelped as a spike of bone tore itself out through the skin of the dead bird, shot off low and to the right, and skittered across the packed earth of the training ground.

“Oh, that is downright evil,” Rosamund said, with a grin. She ran across the practice yard to find the spike, shouted in victory when she had it, and brought it back over for them all to take a look.

“It’s a lot like Liv’s ice shards, isn’t it?” Teph observed. “Only instead of shooting it at someone, this spell rips it out: through them. Ugh.” She winced at the thought.

“I don’t think you have much chance of pulling it off on a more experienced mage,” Liv said. She wasn’t certain whether she should explain the concept of Authority to them or not, but thankfully they’d all seen Jurian’s archmage test. “Like how Professor Jurian could shut down all the magic directed at him? I don’t think you’d be able to affect his body with this kind of spell. But for normal people, or mana-beasts, or even apprentices or journeymen, this is the kind of thing that will end a fight.”

“I’m not sure I could do that to a living person,” Arjun admitted.

“How about a mana-beast that was about to bite Wren in half?” Liv asked.

“I think I could do that.”

“Alright, then. Let’s practice a bit more, until you’re out of mana. This time I want you to try modifying the incantation to fire off two or three spikes at the same time,” Liv told him.

They ended up not even using all three chickens, and after that first trial, Wren insisted that she wouldn’t be holding the birds any more. Instead, she jammed the blunted tip of a sword down into the earth so that it stood straight up, pommel pointed at the sky, and then stuck the bird on top. Only once she’d gotten back to a safe distance with the rest of them did Arjun continue, and he only had enough rings of mana for two attempts.

While two spikes at once left the bird somewhat intact, three shooting outward in separate directions ended up tearing one of their chickens into so many pieces that no one was willing to try to gather them all up out of the dirt, or to carry the mess back even if they did. Instead, Rosamund roiled the earth to suck the chicken bits down beneath the ground, then smoothed the training field over again as if it had never been disturbed.

That meant that, well after dark, Liv delivered one whole chicken and one more-than-slightly damaged chicken to Lambert and his staff, while her friends waited just outside the servants’ door. “I know it looks odd,” Liv explained. The kitchen maids had gathered around in a crowd, and wore looks of mingled skepticism and fascination. “But it's a perfectly normal chicken, and fresh from the butcher. We just used it for a bit of spell practice.”

“Does that mean it's a magic chicken, now?” Heather, the mousy girl who never stood up straight, leaned in to get a better look. “Is it safe to eat, then?”

“It’s not magic anymore,” Liv said. “My friend, Arjun, out in the hall? He has magic that can control bones. We can’t practice that on an actual person, of course, without hurting them, so we bought three chickens to roast.”

“What happened to the third?” Heather asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lambert said, taking the chickens from Liv and pushing them into Heather’s hands. “We’ll get them cooked up so they don’t spoil, m’lady. Did you want a late dinner brought upstairs?”

“If it isn’t too much trouble,” Liv said. “Whatever you have left over, perhaps? Thank you.”

☙

By the time of the coronation, at the beginning of spring, Rosamund had tested up to Advanced Magical Combat, joining Liv in performing for Master: now Archmagus: Jurian’s amusement. He alternated between setting the students to duel each other or, during low tides, taking them down to the sandbars for supervised combat against whatever reef crabs they could find.

Arjun and Teph, in the meanwhile, after making it out of remedial Armed Combat, had tested into the advanced class, thanks to Rose’s training. With Liv’s help in preparing and practicing incantations, Arjun challenged and defeated Pearson to move up into Basic Magical Combat. That match: which had caused Tephania to nearly lose her breakfast: resulted in Pearson spending two days in the infirmary having his leg bones repaired by Professor Annora.

Liv, in the meantime, had managed to make it through half a dozen sessions with Celestria Ward, each one the kind of torture she had to force herself to repeat. She hadn’t made any progress in fighting off the assault of the word of desire, but she’d spent quite a few hours fascinated by the graceful arc of Celestria’s calf, her delicate cheekbones, or the sparkle in her eyes. Ropes had, it turned out, been absolutely necessary, and she needed quite a bit of time between sessions to work her nerve up to the next.

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As the day of the coronation approached, however, the campus began to empty out. Archmagus Loredan, who had received his own invitation as the prince’s uncle, had been forced to concede that he couldn’t very well prevent his students from attending such an important occasion, even if he clearly resented the interruption. Every noble-born student, from first year to journeyman, loaded into carriages sent by their families, and trundled down the road into Coral Bay, and from there to the waystone that waited, partially submerged, in the surf. There, the drivers would cram every carriage and team they could fit, until Liv half-expected a horse to fall off into the sea, dragging its carriage along. The imagined disaster never quite happened, and between all of the students departing, there was more than enough mana to speed them all on their way.

“I wish you all could come with me,” Rose said, at the edge of the waystone. With spring, the rains had abated somewhat, and the sun returned, warming the air. Rather than don formal attire, as so many of the departing female students did, she was wearing her trousers and a white linen shirt, along with her sword belt and her rapier. Finally, she had a pearl hanging from one pierced ear: the one Liv had taken from the king tide and given her as a gift.

“You’ll be able to see Sidonie again, at least,” Teph pointed out. They’d received a letter from Liv’s roommate, letting them all know that she’d been summoned to join her father for the trip to the coronation, once her first culling was complete. Only about half the journeymen who’d gone with her had actually returned - those without political connections.

“That’s something,” Rosamund agreed. “What are you all going to do while I’m gone?”

“Study and practice,” Liv said. “There won’t be much else to do, with a half-empty school. The good thing is that half of the professors are staying behind.” While Professors Annora and Every had been born the daughters of two barons, Norris, Jurian and Blackwood were all of common stock.

“I’m surprised they didn’t invite Professor Jurian,” Teph said. “You would have thought becoming the second archmage in the kingdom would be enough reason, wouldn’t you?”

“Not with Arundell as court mage,” Liv pointed out.

“You want me to check in on Cade for you?” Rose asked Liv.

“No,” she said, after a moment. “That’s done. I hope he’s happy, but I don’t want to make a mess of anything for him. He should just forget me and move on.”

“Alright, then,” Rosamund said, and stepped up onto the waystone. “I’ll catch up with you all when I get back. Stay safe!”

Liv, Arjun, Teph and Wren watched until the column of light shot up from the waystone, taking their friend away to Freeport. Then, they headed back up to the college. Gulls circled overhead, as if hoping they would drop a bit of food or garbage to be picked over.

“I’m going to look in on our friends in the warehouse tonight,” Wren told them, keeping her voice low. With the campus so empty, there was no one in earshot, but Liv was grateful she was being cautious.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Liv agreed. “I mean, the tide isn’t going to get low enough to give access to the reef, but if anyone is going to get up to no good in Coral Bay, this would be the perfect time, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m going to check in at the infirmary,” Arjun said. “Professor Annora asked me to stop by when I could, while she’s gone. There aren’t really enough journeymen to go around.”

Liv nodded. “Professor Norris asked me to help set the casque up in the tower. Do you want to come, Teph? I don’t think anyone would mind.” Teph nodded, and the two girls headed around Blackstone Hall to the enchantment workshops, while Wren and Arjun peeled off and left them. Liv knew her erstwhile bodyguard would be ducking into some secluded corner so that she could shift into her bat form.

Professor Norris had set his journeymen the task of wrestling the massive casque off the worktable it had occupied all winter, and onto a wheelbarrow prepared to support its weight. When Liv and Teph walked up, Barnabas and Genne were swearing, groaning and sweating as they levered the thing over. After the enchantment process had been finished, the class had spent weeks stuffing the thing full of so much mana that it glowed from within.

“Why didn’t you just put a plane of mana underneath it in the first place?” Liv asked. “Or make a hand to lift it up.”

“It does them good to get some honest work in,” Norris told her, with a twinkle in his eye. “And it's something of a test. If they can't think of a better way to move the rusted thing, they deserve to suffer a bit.”

Liv laughed out loud, but by the time they’d made it to the stairs in Blackstone Hall, she’d gotten sick of waiting while the two unfortunate journeymen struggled. “This is going to take forever,” she finally said, and drew her wand. “Aluthet Ghesia.”

At her direction, a fist of shining blue mana, the size of a boulder and striated with glowing golden veins, scooped up the casque, relieving Barnabas and Genne of the weight. Liv strode up the stairwell toward the top of the tower, the hand floating along in front of her as easily as a soap bubble.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Barnabas complained, gasping for breath.

“Because your head is full of rocks,” Genne told him.

Finally, the entire party made it up onto the very top of the belltower, where a series of mounting brackets had been prepared for the enormous casque. Wind whipped around them as Liv gently lowered it into place, while Barnabas and Genne, under Professor Norris’ supervision, set to work clamping and bolting it into place securely.

“Let me know when I can release it,” Liv said.

“Not yet,” Norris warned her. “The last thing we want is to drop it on someone below.”

Tephania leaned over the stone wall that encircled the open top, her hair caught in the breeze, and her face drained of blood when she looked down. “That is a lot farther than it looks from below,” she said, and edged back toward the center, where the bell hung, away from the walls.

Finally, Professor Norris gave the all clear, and Liv dismissed her mana-construct. Unlike the hands she made of ice, this one simply dissolved into motes of glowing mana, which were then carried off by the wind before fading away entirely.

“Do you prefer that kind of hand, or the ice?” Teph asked her while Norris fussed about.

“They’re good for different things,” Liv said. “I can use the ice hand to restrain someone, for instance, and it would stay until it melted. A hand made from mana can’t do that, but it also doesn’t leave a mess behind. Of course, it’s no good for giving me waste-heat to work with, either.”

“Having two words really does change everything, doesn’t it?” Genne mused. “The only way I’ve got a chance of getting another is when the Masters open up Cei to the rest of us, or decide I’m ready.”

“It’s an odd word though, isn’t it?” Barnabas said. “Dreams. I’m honestly not sure what I’d do with it.”

“You’ve hit upon the reason we’re reluctant,” Professor Norris said, finally stepping away from the casque. “It’s both odd, and dangerous. In any event, Archmagus Jurian’s given us permission to test the defensive enchantment.”

“Shouldn’t we warn people first, though?” Tephania asked. “So that no one gets caught out, or happens to be standing in the wrong place when it goes up?”

“I suppose we should.” Norris frowned, clearly impatient to play with his new toy. “Very well, then. I’ll see to it that an announcement is made at dinner, and we’ll try it this evening. In the meantime, you can all head on down.”

The meal in High Hall that night was a lonely one: Wren was still out, and every girl other than Liv and Tephania had left for the capitol. They invited Arjun up to eat with them, which made it three at least, rather than two. Despite the maid’s protests, Liv had even insisted that Thora sit with them, and still half the table was empty.

“The boys’ rooms downstairs are deserted. Even Sherard’s gone,” Arjun mentioned. “I’m surprised anyone could put up with him, but he got an invitation like all the rest.”

“Good,” Liv said. “I’ll enjoy a few days with the confidence I don’t ever have to turn the corner and see his face.”

“He hasn’t bothered you again, has he?” Teph asked, and Liv shook her head.

“Not since I beat him,” she said. “I can only imagine his family wasn’t very pleased with how much that whole thing ended up costing them.”

Thora shifted in her seat, looking at the window. “I thought they weren’t going to test that new magic until eighth bell, m’lady?” she said.

“They aren’t,” Liv confirmed. “We were going to walk over once we’re done eating.” She turned to the window, where a bright column of light burned up into the sky from down on the beach.

“That’s just the waystone, Thora,” Teph explained. “It’ll fade in a moment.”

Liv stood up, and walked over to the window, where she could see out across the campus. “Thora,” she said. “Get my armor.”

The legs of a chair scraped against the floor, and Liv could hear the sound of her maid’s shoes as she rushed across the landing, over to the suite the girls shared.

“What is it?” Teph asked.

“The light doesn’t last this long,” Liv told her. “It comes and goes again. Even when a rift erupts, the light shoots up into the sky, and then dies down. That:” she pointed at the column of light down at the shore: “should be gone by now. Something’s wrong.”

As if it had heard Liv’s words, the bell atop Blackstone Hall began to ring out an alarm.