Unbroken: Mage's Academy II

by Finley Morrow

  We spent the first half of class going over the patterns, including mercury, lead, gold, antimony, and iron. Each pattern needed to be drawn exactly right. My hand was cramping by the end of class, but I managed to faithfully reproduce all of the first set of patterns. I was pretty pleased with my work by the time I walked to the cafeteria for lunch.

  The cafeteria was just as empty as the class had been with most students either still in the infirmary or perhaps recuperating in their houses. Sybelle and I chose to spread out at one of the larger tables since nobody was using them today, but Luke and several of the other Lycans sat at the table across from us. I wasn't in a mood to deal with them today, but Luke at least seemed preoccupied. I overheard their conversation, and their voices were pretty tense.

  His friend asked, "Have you seen Aria today,"

  "Yeah, she's still out," the blonde shifter replied, shaking his head.

  "That sucks man," He said.

  "Yeah, it's even worse, because we were fighting when it happened. So didn't even get a chance to say anything to her before it happened." He groaned.

  I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. They didn't seem to suit each other very well for all the fighting they did. Or maybe they liked it? Who was I to judge?

  "What do you think's causing it?" his friend asked.

  "I don't know, but I think that shifty guy Kairn has something to do with it." Luke hissed.

  "He gives me the creeps," said Luke's friend.

  I fought to keep myself from responding. What kind of idiocy was that? Of course, he didn't have anything to do with it. He wasn't even there. I had been with him the whole time. They didn't know that though.

  I turned to Sybelle after finishing my food, "I think I'm done now."

  She agreed, perhaps sensing my irritation, and we left the dining hall. It made me angry that they would think Kairn had anything to do with this.

  I felt butterflies in my stomach just thinking about him again.

  By the end of the afternoon, the Headmistress had called an assembly for all students. I was anxious to hear what she had to say. Perhaps they had uncovered the cause of the strange illness. Sybelle and I went together to what I learned was called the Hall of Mages. The great room where we had the beginning of the year assembly. We sat amongst the few other students that were healthy. I counted approximately 12 altogether. It had really hit hard. I looked around but didn't see Kairn. Maybe he was working on something with Professor Atwood.

  Headmistress Malus stood to address us, "Thank you all for coming. I'm sure you are very worried about your friends and peers. Many are on the path to recovery as we now speak and some are still being stabilized. We will provide you with updates on their status as soon as we know anything further. As for the cause of the sudden illness, we have determined it to be a freak astrological occurrence or likely a solar flare that interacted with the Luminous Ether, which in turn caused everyone utilizing magical power at the time of the occurrence to fall ill. We do not expect that this will be an ongoing concern."

  A few of the students raised their hands for questions, but the headmistress was already abandoning the stage.

  By the afternoon Maeve and Ligeia had returned to Halewick. They both looked worn out, but otherwise okay. I ran up to them and gave both of them a strong hug.

  "I'm so glad you guys are okay," I sighed, feeling so relieved.

  "Thanks," Ligeia said, happy sounding but her voice was hoarse.

  Sybelle was standing behind me and she chimed in. "Do you remember what happened?"

  Maeve said, "Not really, I was using magic to levitate logs into the bonfire, then all of a sudden I woke up in the infirmary. It was like 3:00am, but they didn't let me leave until this morning after I had been checked out. It's like I'm just missing that whole chunk of time."

  "Weird," I said. "What about you, Ligeia?"

  "Well, honestly it's about the same. I was mixing more potions when It happened to me. Then, out of nowhere, I woke up in a weird bed." She said, smiling grimly.

  "How strange," Sybelle intoned to herself.

  "Let's just stay in for tonight," Ligeia joked. I guess I didn't need to be worried about her as long as she still had her sense of humor.

  She turned to me then as if remembering something important. "So how was your date with Kairn?"

  All eyes were on me for the moment, and I could feel myself turning beet red. "It was good."

  "Come on," Maeve said. Even she was curious.

  "Was it good? Or was it really good?" Ligeia said suggestively.

  "I'd say it was somewhere between those two points," I laughed.

  "We kissed," I admitted, still blushing hard.

  "And?" Ligeia pressed.

  "And what?" I said, trying to put her off.

  "What else happened? I want to know everything." She said.

  "Well we rode horseback," I explained, not sure how they would take that. "And I guess this was a big thing, He told me he loved me," I said knowing they'd get a kick out of that.

  "Ooooh Esther, getting the big L-word on the first date," Ligeia taunted.

  Maeve and Sybelle were squealing. "It's not like that, I mean last year..." I decided to just stop while I was ahead.

  "I know, I know, I'm just teasing you," she said.

  We stayed in that night and did mundane things like homework and movies. It was nice to relax, but I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow this wasn't over yet. I didn't want to upset the others, but I was afraid that it had something to do with my dream last night.

  7

  Mostly everyone had recovered from the illness in the next few days, with one very notable exception. Aria was still sick, like really sick. In fact, she was in a magical coma of some sort and hadn't woken up in days. It was all anyone could talk about. Every day that she didn't wake up make the gossip stronger. It was odd that it had affected her so much more powerfully than anyone else. What kind of magic had she done that night?

  When I got to class I was already overwhelmed, but I knew I was in for it. I was struggling with Arcane Arts of the Gods more than any of my other classes so far. Mirabella was not only extraordinarily strict, but she had very high expectations.

  "Today during class," She started right as the bell rang. "We will be performing a bit of an experiment. I would like each of you to open communication with your God or Goddess and ask to receive a symbol of importance. As soon as you have received it and transmitted it to the paper you may turn it in to me and then leave. I will need everyone's work by the end of class."

  All of the words she said made sense individually, but together I didn't know what to do. A symbol of great importance? What the heck was that supposed to mean? All the heads in the class went down except for mine. Everyone was either communing with their god or concentrating in some way. I didn't even know how to begin.

  I was scared to raise my hand after what had happened the first week. Would she berate me again? My only other option was to sit here and struggle my way through. I decided to try. I closed my eyes and began to visualize her, the Queen of Witches, my mother. I asked in my heart to be shown a symbol. I waited. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be listening to. A few moments passed in silence. The only thing I received was the ringing in my ears. I strained to hear or see anything.

  Perhaps it was more subtle then what I was expecting. I figured that I could just draw to draw a symbol, and maybe it would be correct. In any case, Mirabella didn't seem to have any book she was checking our symbols against. AS I was pondering this, within the first ten minutes of silence someone, the boy I had seen moving stones on my first day at the Academy, got up and turned in their symbol. Mirabella stared at him for a moment then nodded, giving him permission to leave. Ten minutes? How had he come up with something already?

  I strained to come up with a symbol. I took my pen to paper and began to sketch a circle. I planned to fill it in, but my pen left a large blot on the paper. I rubbed my temple in frustrat
ion. I didn't even know how to start. The hour passed slowly as I made repeated efforts at extracting the symbol from my mind. I had no way of communicating with the Queen of Witches even if she was my mother, so I gave up trying on that front. Eventually when I came up with something passable I took it to Mirabella. I was the last one still sitting in class.

  "What is this?" She said staring at the symbol I had produced.

  "It's my symbol," I explained feeling frustration welling up inside me.

  "With all due respect, Esther. I believe you have fundamentally misunderstood the assignment." She crossed her arms as she stared at my drawing. "This is simply an artifice of your own creation."

  I felt angry and tired from so much mental straining through the hour that I snapped. "With all due respect Mirabella, I don't think you understand. I am not bound to anything. So how am I supposed to get a symbol from a God that I don't have."

  I saw her gaze tighten on me, her eyes drawing into pinpoints. "As I mentioned at the beginning of class, you will not be given special treatment. Wherever your power does or does not come from, you will have to do the assignments like anyone else. I will give you one more chance to complete this task. In the future, you will not be given such an opportunity so I suggest you do not waste it. I will need your symbol by the following week. Take care Esther," She finished, clearly dismissing me.

  I seethed on the way out of the classroom. When I got to Lectiomancy I was in a sour mood. Sybelle noticed, asking if I was okay, but I could only manage a nod in reply. It wasn't normal for me to get this angry. I tried to piece together the feelings that were whirling around me. Mirabella's class was challenging, but that wasn't it. I looked at Sybelle and felt something sharp and mean. Jealousy. I was angry that I couldn't have an easy relationship with a God. That I couldn't know what it was like to hear their voices like the others did. I tried to put that thought away. I was the lucky one. I had nobody controlling me, forcing into strange sacrifices and odd quests. It was a good thing. I tried to believe it.

  We were beginning our assignment, and each of us was given a sacrificed dove. I channeled my irritation into focus, working hard to document every part of the bird. The placement of the organs, the length of certain features. It required precision and I gave myself over to the task. With heavy gloves and a mask on, I felt like an island to myself. I didn't have to worry about talking to anyone or explaining myself. I worked in silence. When all the entrails had been classified and documented I began to work on the analysis. I referred to the sketches I had made and cross-referenced them in the first chapter of our books, but I was coming up with something strange. The placement of the heart suggested unrest, an inability to sleep, or perhaps mindless roaming. The eyes were clouded and white, which indicated that the issue was clouded by confusion. But what really got me was the size of the stomach. The book said that a small stomach represented an ungrounded existence or issues pertaining to the dead. What did it mean? Roaming dead? That couldn't be good.

  I wrote down my preliminary analysis but knew I would have to go back and check my work later. This didn't seem right. To further back up my suspicion, Professor Flickwind announced at the end of class, "Your reports are due next week. Remember when you are analyzing your results that often the most obvious answer is correct. If your divination is telling you something that you know to be impossible, most often you have done something incorrectly. Once you achieve a higher level you will have slightly more freedom in interpreting your divinations, but for now, you should expect the banal."

  I sighed. There was a lot of work ahead of me. First the impossible assignment for Mirabella, and now this. I was getting worn out already. I had to admit though, I wasn't as angry as I had been at the beginning of class. The focus of my work had pulled me right out of my mood.

  Sybelle caught up with me after class and asked, "Hey Esther, I've got a question for you."

  "Okay, shoot," I said.

  "Do you remember last year when I asked you for a favor?" She said, quietly, her hands clasped as she walked.

  "I do remember that. Is there something you need?" I questioned. She had picked a difficult day, but I did my best to maintain a calm demeanor.

  "In fact, there just might be something you can help me with," Sybelle said. "Will you come with me?"

  "Um okay," I said, quickly muttering, "I do have a lot of homework today though."

  "This will only take a moment," She explained smiling. I followed her back to Halewick and I was relieved to see that we were only going to her room. She rifled through the contents of her desk until she found what she was looking for. IT was a warped old piece of parchment paper, with very faded thin brown lines crisscrossing the surface. She laid it out of the desk for me to look at.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "It's a map of the school," She explained. As soon as she said it, I began to recognize some details. The great stone wall seemed to be featured on the map as well as an outline of the fen and the forest, but there were no buildings to speak of.

  "I see some of the ruins labeled, but where is everything else?" I asked.

  "This map is very old, from before the school was built," She said. She pointed at a small symbol marked over the fen. "This is what I need you to do. I need you to go to the spot I've marked on the map and retrieve something for me."

  "What am I retrieving?" I peered down at the small squiggle she'd penned on the map.

  "It's a piece for a clock I've been fixing. It's very old and I've spent several years tracking down all the missing pieces." She explained.

  "Okay, so I just have to go and get the piece and that's it." I clarified, watching her stare excitedly at the heavy ancient clock on her desk. "How do you know it's there?"

  "This is the last place it was known to be, it's written about in the journals of my Great grandfather." She pulled out a small hand-bound notebook from her drawer.

  "What makes you think it's still there?" I asked. How long ago had her Great grandfather been a student here? It had to be a long time ago.

  "These things usually don't go very far, it just takes someone with the eye to see it." Her tone was mysterious.

  "I'll do my best," I said, nervous that she was sending me on a fruitless mission. Would she consider the favor repaid if I couldn't find it?

  8

  On Saturday morning, I woke up intending to find Sybelle's missing piece. The map made it look like it was pretty far off-campus. I chose thick pants for hiking, a sturdy coat, and heavy boots. The marsh outside the fen could get pretty swampy and I didn't know where this thing was going to be hiding if it was there at all. Most likely I was going to come up empty-handed.

  I headed straight to the stone wall, taking the path from the Fen out to the ruins. The Wall was one of the only reference markers on the map that I could recognize, so it made sense to find my way from there. I passed through the forest, hearing only the crunch of my boots on the leaves and twigs. The marker on the map was farther north from this point, so I began on a new trail that headed deeper into the forest. It was beautiful. The air was cool, but the sun was out and the glittering rays reflected on the dew-covered grasses and fallen leaves. I was happy to be out exploring.

  When I'd been walking for several hours, I started to notice huge stones littering the forest floor around me. IT was clear that I was reaching a formation of some kind. I checked the map again. The marker was directly over what looked like a circular formation of standing stones. I pressed on, hoping to get there sooner rather than later.

  They were there alright. The towering stones were a monument of ancient magic. There were huge blocks of what seemed to be granite jutting out of the forest floor and standing nearly twelve feet tall. Their edges were jagged, almost sharp looking and the overall effect was very unsettling. I knew these were sites of power, and here you could really feel it. I began to tear through the leaves at the base of the stones, looking for something, anything that could be the missing piece. The leaves
had lain and decayed in the same spot for so long that they'd begun the return to the soil. The woods this deep were untouched by students or animals alike. The ground laid undisturbed for who knew how long. Grime and dust-covered my hands, but the time I had searched the whole area. There was no sense to it. I found nothing.

  I started the walk back to Halewick, feeling dejected. My suspicions were confirmed. There was nothing there and probably hadn't been for years. So what was I supposed to do now? My legs were sore from the long hike in, which had been a subtle upward climb, but at least on the way back it was downhill. I hiked back feeling somewhat sorry for myself when I heard the sounds of a horse running through the forest. There was only one thing I knew that sound could be. My heart began to stutter.

  When I saw him, Kairn in all of his glory, I felt weak in the knees.

  "What are you doing out here?" He asked, fire and magic in his voice.

  "I was looking for something, just helping out Sybelle," I explained.

  "Alice came to see me," He murmured. "I had assumed they'd found him and sent him away. They have places for people like him."

  My cheeks burned. I was scared when I thought about it, but I somehow felt ashamed. He shouldn't know.

  "She asked you to keep an eye on me," I reiterated what she'd told me. It was embarrassing after everything that had happened now.

  "Why didn't you ask me to come out here with you today?" He said, more gently than I'd ever heard him speak. "I would've come you know."

  I blushed. I hadn't even thought of that. "I guess I'm still surprised," I said hiding my face.

  "About what?" he turned it back to me.

  "I don't want to say now," I declined to answer. This conversation was showing my weaknesses.

  "Why not," He brushed his hand against my face. He was slowly shifting back to his human form, but he was no less breathtaking. His dark eyes stared into mine and I was lost in them. He certainly had some kind of power over me.