Trials of Magic

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "Don't worry," said Pi, giving her sister a second hug. "You're going to do great."

  Aurie's jaw tightened, her blue eyes flickering with concern.

  "I know what you're thinking," began Pi. "You want in Arcanium. Just as bad as I want Coterie. But if you don't get in, you can still be in Aura Healers like Dad."

  Her words didn't have the desired effect on her older sister.

  "I'll be fine," she said.

  But Pi knew Aurie, and she didn't sound it. Pi watched her sister march towards the red door as if it were an execution.

  In the quietest voice, she said, "Dooset daram."

  Chapter Eleven

  Twenty slots. There would only be twenty slots out of thousands. The words sounded like doom to her ears.

  "Don't worry, Aurie," she told herself on the walk over to the red door. "Mom and Dad always said the important things in life were difficult."

  She just hadn't expected this many odds stacked against her. Before this day, Aurie had prepared herself to score the highest amongst all other students. She just hadn't expected to actually need to do that well.

  When Aurie reached the red door, she was ushered into a round room. Professor Delight was waiting for her. She was even more beautiful up close, with long lashes over her green eyes. Light perfume tickled Aurie's nose pleasantly. She was appreciative that the professor made no faces at her appearance.

  Aurie quickly reviewed the room. A table sat against the wall, with a wand, a tome, and a vial filled with pink liquid on it. On the opposite side of the red door was a stone archway that led into billowing darkness.

  "Greetings, Aurelia Silverthorne," said the professor, giving a perfunctory bow. "Before you is a proving grounds filled with many dangers. You must reach the other side to pass the trial, using the three items on the table. You must use each item once, and only once. The wand fires a force bolt, the spell will repel a ghost, and the potion will allow you to fly for five seconds. You will be judged by the speed of your passage and the method of your success. Gather your items and good luck."

  "May I use other magic?" asked Aurie.

  The professor quirked a smile. "If you can manage it."

  Aurie quickly memorized the spell, took a cleansing breath, and plunged into the proving grounds.

  It wasn't as dark past the archway as she expected, but she could only see the area directly before her because a light fog blocked her vision further out. A faint golden light hung in the distance.

  Near her, huge stone blocks stood like silent sentinels. They appeared in broken lines. The way forward looked like a maze that had half the walls removed.

  She held the wand before her like a sword as she moved forward, stepping carefully and checking around every corner, deciding that caution was better until she understood the trial's dangers.

  But after fifty feet or so, she got anxious, wondering when the first challenge would arrive. Aurie moved faster, staying aware of her surroundings, but keeping a steady pace.

  A lone howl erupted from somewhere in the maze ahead. The exhaustion she'd felt outside disappeared as her heart doubled its pace. Aurie kept the wand out, ready to blast whatever creature was hunting her.

  She moved at an angle, away from the source of the howl, while trying to keep forward. She was so focused on potential attackers, she didn't realize she'd stepped on a trap until she heard the click. A pit opened up beneath her. She fell, a scream ripped out of her lungs.

  The impact through her heels scrambled her bones and put a knife into her back. Aurie collapsed to her knees as spasms seized up her muscles.

  "Shit," she said. "Barely the first trial and I've already screwed up."

  Limping around the bottom of the pit, she took stock of her situation. Getting out was at least twenty feet up, and the walls were impossibly smooth.

  Aurie pulled out the flying potion and thought about drinking it. It would be the easy way out. She uncorked it and put it to her lips. Then put the cork back in.

  "No. There's got to be a different way out. Stupid pit's probably here to get initiates like me to use up their magic," she said.

  Aurie went around the bottom of the pit, probing every inch with her fingers. Nothing.

  "Think, Aurie. Think," she said, using her fists against her forehead, hoping to drum out some ideas.

  The more powerful magics required focus items or reagents, of which she had none. Aurie took a quick inventory of her clothes, her shoes, even the lint in her pockets and the cork on the vial. Eventually, she settled on her shoes.

  There were a lot of magics one could do using the properties of materials in existence. The trick was called transference. A bit of engine oil could make a gun impossible to hold, or a dead leaf could convince a freshly cooked meal to instantly rot. It was one of the few magics that could be performed ad hoc, without serious preparation.

  Since she didn't have a knife, Aurie was forced to chew on the edge of her shoe rubber. She tried not to think of all the things she'd ever stepped in. It tasted like petroleum and dirt. It took her a minute, but she was able to gnaw off a few pieces of rubber.

  After putting her shoes back on, Aurie placed the rubber into her hands and blew some faez into them. The trick was to transfer the grabbiness of the rubber without getting one of the other properties like bounciness. She imagined the rubber melting, forming rubbery gloves over her hands.

  The rubber chunks crystallized, then broke into dust that clung to her hands. A tingle went through her fingers and palms.

  Aurie positioned herself in the corner and placed her hands on the wall. She was able to grip it as if it were one of those climbing walls at the gym.

  It took a few false starts, but eventually she was able to make her way up the wall and out of the pit.

  Feeling behind, Aurie got moving right away, pulling out her wand again. This time, she kept an eye on the floor, looking for telltale cracks that might indicate a pit.

  Something moved at the corner of her vision. It was moving low and quick. Aurie spun and almost fired a force bolt. She pulled back at the last moment when she realized it was only a house cat.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked, crouching down to pet the approaching orange tabby.

  Mrrrwwwooeerr, said the cat with its tail waving lazily behind it.

  Suddenly suspicious, Aurie jumped back. "Wait. What the hell is a cat doing in here? Stay back."

  The cat stopped as if it understood English.

  "Shoo," said Aurie, waving at the cat. "As far as I know you're a shapeshifter who's going to attack me when I'm not paying attention."

  The cat stretched its lips in a very human smile before scampering off in the direction that it'd come.

  Aurie looked at her wand. "Damn thing almost got me to use this."

  As she said the words, she realized that intent. They wanted to see how potential initiates would react. An unimaginative one would have fired their bolt, or had to use the flying potion to get out of the pit.

  The line of thought made her realize that the items didn't have to be used as advertised. To keep from accidentally firing the wand, she shoved it into her back pocket.

  Aurie resumed her journey through the maze, using the faint golden light in the distance as her destination. When she stopped encountering stone blocks, Aurie grew more alert, expecting a new challenge.

  Two paths led up a rise. Aurie took the left one. It only went a short ways before descending into a hollow filled with movement. At first she thought it was more mist, but the mist had distinct edges and wore clothing. They were spectral beings—ghosts—and they floated in and out of the trees.

  On the other side of the hollow was a red door. Aurie took a few steps into the hollow. The ghosts turned their incorporeal heads towards her and started howling. Aurie scrambled back up the hill so fast she fell once.

  "Fine," she muttered and checked the right-hand path, finding a separate hollow ringed by a U-shaped pond. On the piece of land at the cente
r of the still waters was a pair of menacing hounds with crimson eyes. Like the left-hand path, a red door waited on the other side.

  She crept down to the edge. "Hey, little doggies. What would it take for you to let me pass?"

  Neither of them growled, which she took as a good sign. Aurie took one step forward, then another. She was ten feet away from the nearest when it opened its furnace-like mouth and belched flame in her direction.

  The fire caught the frayed edges of her jeans on fire. Aurie ran back around the pond and shoved her shoe into the water. Hundreds of fish with big mouths full of teeth sped towards her invading shoe. Aurie fell back onto the edge before the piranha could reach her.

  "Great. Ghosts on one side. Hellhounds and piranha on the other," she said.

  After climbing back to the top of the hill, Aurie put three fingers out and talked herself through the problem, tapping on each finger as she reviewed the magical items she'd been given.

  "The potion might get me across, but five seconds seems too short. The spell could repel one ghost, maybe two, but it's not powerful enough to defeat a group of them, while the force bolt could only take out one hellhound, not two," she said.

  She stared at the hounds until the mental clock in her head spurred her to action.

  "What else do I have to work with?" she asked aloud. "On this path there's a pond. On the other one there are trees. What am I going to do? Poke one with a pointy stick or throw some water on it?"

  One of the hounds bayed, and the sound went right through her midsection.

  "Hellhounds are guardians of graveyards," she muttered, shaking her head. "Ghosts, well those ghosts could be anything."

  She paced back and forth while the hounds, who were aware of her, matched her movements.

  She snapped her fingers. "That's it." And ran down to the edge of the pond on the safe side.

  The water was perfectly smooth. Inside the Proving Grounds there was no wind or vibration. A hellhound stared at her from across the narrow pond. She could feel its hot breath on her face.

  "You know if you'd just drink some water, you might cool off that heat in your belly," she told it.

  The hellhound growled.

  "Fine, have it your way," she said, then focused on the water.

  The surface was mirror smooth. Her reflection looked back up at her from the water. Aurie focused her faez to give power to the words she was about to utter. Catoptromancy, the magic of mirrors, only worked if you had sufficient magic to lend to the spirit to come over.

  "Bloody Mary."

  A ripple formed on the water. The hellhound growled again, low and dangerous.

  "Bloody Mary."

  Above her, a shape began to take form, like reddish mist being sucked into a vent.

  "Bloody Mary."

  The shape turned into a veiled woman in a white dress, blood splattered across her. A bloody dagger was held in her fist. Aurie rolled backwards as the apparition dove down to attack.

  Bloody Mary's dagger passed by Aurie's shoulder. The ghost reoriented herself when she realized she'd missed. Before the ghost could close the distance, Aurie cast the spell she'd memorized at the entrance.

  The words made Bloody Mary recoil as if acid had been thrown on her. Then the apparition turned and fled across the water, right into the hellhound. The murderous ghost set upon the grim beast, stabbing it with her dagger.

  The battle drew the attention of the second hellhound, who spat flame upon the ghost. The first hound cried out with pitiful whines.

  Aurie ran around the water's edge. She hesitated at the exit because the battle between Bloody Mary and the two hellhounds was only ten feet away. If any one of them noticed her, they could catch her and tear her apart before she could reach the door.

  She hugged the other edge, staying as far away as possible. Once she'd crossed some invisible line, her feet refused to move slowly. Aurie fled towards the red door, feeling like a hellhound was going to bite her ankle from behind the whole time.

  After passing through, she slammed the door shut and leaned against it until the shaking in her limbs stopped. The next area was pitch-black.

  Aurie pressed her earrings, bringing warm light into existence. She stood in a wide hallway. The walls looked like a hole had been cut from an enormous tree and polished until they were smooth. Aurie rubbed her fingers across the wood as she walked, detecting a bit of warmth emanating from it.

  Further down, she heard faint hissing, like the exhalation of a great beast. The air was damp. She kept expecting the hallway to open up into a vast swamp in which a great dragon slept, nestled in the jungle.

  What she found instead confused her. The hissing came from one corner of a large room. A brass pipe spat steam into the air. At the opposite corner was a hunk of granite shaped like an egg. In the other corners were a hooded chicken in a cage and a bicycle frame without the tires, seat, or handlebars.

  The only thing she clearly understood was the plate at the center of the room and the red door on the far side. An ancient version of eldritch runes encircled the five-foot-diameter plate, explaining that the door would open when one ton of material was placed on it.

  The untold hours spent memorizing obscure written languages finally had paid off, making her smile. But her elation quickly evaporated when she remembered that Pi had never gotten around to it. Her sister preferred the flashier and riskier magics, thinking there was always a shortcut to get what she wanted. Aurie didn't want to be proven right, but she worried that Pi was going to be stymied by this task.

  Of course, she reminded herself, reading the runes and solving the puzzle were two entirely different things. Aurie pulled the wand out of her pocket. The force bolt might create one ton of pressure, but the runes seemed to indicate that the door would only stay open if the material remained on the plate.

  Once again, Aurie was left pacing and worrying that she was going too slow. She examined each corner more closely. The chicken seemed exactly as expected. She tapped on the cage to get a reaction, but it was asleep from the hood.

  Aurie picked up the granite egg. Clearly it didn't weigh enough to depress the plate. The bicycle frame offered no clues to how it could be used. The outside was painted bright red, but the inside of the tubes flaked with rust.

  Lastly, she examined the steam tube. Unlike the other corners, she had an immediate reaction to her investigation. When she cautiously placed her hand over the exhaling steam, the room shrunk around her. Within seconds, her back was against the ceiling.

  Aurie backed out of the corner, bumping her head in the process.

  "Owww," she said, rubbing it.

  Suddenly much larger, and heavier, than she was before, Aurie headed towards the plate, one ponderous step at a time. She felt like a giant in a child's room. The plate groaned beneath her weight, but did not open the red door.

  She realized that even if it had opened the door, it wouldn't have helped her. The moment she stepped off, the door would close again. She needed a way to hold it down. The granite egg came to mind, but the sudden increase in weight would keep her from moving it to the plate.

  After a minute, she returned to her original size. The sudden shrinking gave her vertigo, which she ignored as best she could as she threw herself into the problem.

  With a potential solution in mind, Aurie started experimenting. She tried using the bicycle frame to blow the steam over to the granite egg, which she'd left on the plate, but when the frame was exposed to the magical steam, it became too heavy to hold and fell over, and the steam came nowhere near the egg. It seemed the enlarging steam had to directly interact with an item to change it.

  When she exposed the chicken to the steam, she spent a horror-filled minute avoiding the clawed talons of the massive creature as it stumbled around the room with the hood still on its head. It was possible the chicken could weigh one ton, but she didn't know how to get it onto the plate and keep it there.

  Aurie was convinced the best method was to leave t
he egg on the plate and somehow get the steam over to it, but she didn't know how to accomplish the task.

  Then an answer hit her smack in the face. Aurie pulled out the flying potion and uncorked the vial. It was something she should have remembered from her time in the hospital with Emily. Magical flight changed one's molecular structure to make them lighter than air, filling them with tiny helium bubbles.

  The downside was that those bubbles made them vulnerable to particulates like dust or perfume. For Emily, it was dangerous over time, but for a few seconds, Aurie decided it wouldn't be too terrible.

  With the granite egg sitting on the plate, Aurie chugged the potion. It tasted like that pink bubble gum that made your jaw hurt. Then as she felt herself lift off her feet, she shoved her hand into the steam. The effect was immediate. Aurie ballooned against the ceiling, but she kept her arm in the steam.

  With the flying potion turning her body to one big sponge, Aurie absorbed the steam for the five seconds. Once it was finished, she fell against the floor, which shocked her knees. Before the steam could start escaping, she ran over to the granite egg and collapsed around it, hugging it to her chest.

  The steam leaving her body was painful. It felt like she had constipation in every limb.

  But as the steam hit the granite egg, it grew to an enormous size. Aurie slid off it before it crushed her against the ceiling. The red door opened as soon as her feet touched the ground.

  Aurie had to wait until she shrunk to go through the door, but once she did, she breathed a sigh of relief that she'd successfully navigated the puzzle.

  Her running shoes crunched on the snow. It was a field of white heading down to a frozen pond. A door stood on the other side. Aurie didn't have long to wonder about the challenge before the surface of the ice broke and cracked. A massive head formed, then shoulders and arms and legs. After a few moments, a giant made of ice was kneeling on the frozen lake. When it climbed to its feet, it was at least thirty feet tall. The ice beneath the giant reformed to perfect smoothness.