by Guy Antibes
Your mother asks about you every so often. She is always relieved after we have recently communicated. Corina is doing fine, although you handled the office affairs better than Penny or her, surprisingly.
Jack didn’t know why that would be surprising, but he didn’t respond to Fasher’s comment about his wife. My mother’s health is fine?
Everyone is fine, and Penny’s family is fine. Her little sister is beginning to shoot up. It’s been a while since Penny last visited Raker Falls. I imagine you will talk to her next if you haven’t already.
She is second on the list, Jack said.
Well, I feel honored. Fasher said. Keep at it. As far as I know, the Battlebone hasn’t yet emerged as a threat, but when you get the opportunity, take it.
I will, Jack said.
He tried to contact Penny, but it looked like she ignored him. Jack would have to try later. He didn’t quite know how much to tell her.
The next morning, Jack had better luck.
I didn’t know if you were still alive, Penny said.
Now you do. Jack told her what he had been doing in the most general terms and told her of his adventure with Grigar, leaving out the human sacrifice part. What has been going on in Dorkansee?
More studying. I have a new set of friends who are more my level, Penny said.
What level is that? Jack asked.
Healing level. Whatever you did to me while I tried to heal Tanner continues to improve my magic. I’ve been working with longer-term students and have been doing rounds in the clinic in Dorkansee. I’m unsure what my role will be in Raker Falls when I return. I’ve been told I am no longer an apprentice.
Good for you, Jack said.
Her comment did make him pause. If she weren’t an apprentice any longer, Fasher’s office in Raker Falls wouldn’t be the same when he returned.
Keep at it. We will be ready to retrieve the Battlebone in a few months. Maybe Fasher will have an errand for me in Dorkansee. Why did Jack say that? They didn’t have any kind of relationship, but he was a bit anxious to see how Penny had changed during their time apart.
Or I might finally get around to visiting Raker Falls again. They were up here a few months ago. My sister is turning into a young lady. It is all a bit disconcerting, in a way. It’s time to go. Take care. Penny said.
Jack let her go without a reply. He figured they were both disconcerted. Life was constantly changing. Jack experienced that already, but he had never thought much about change in the future. He always just took life as it came, but in his mind, he always thought of what was to come as an extension of what was.
When he returned to Raker Falls, he realized that life might never be the same. He didn’t quite know how to feel about that, but the prospect left a hollow feeling in his stomach.
~
“Faster,” Jack’s sword instructor commanded. “You are a slow one.”
“I can’t go any faster.” Jack sighed. He had progressed from meditating and then performing at high speed to adopting the meditation technique without meditating. This, he was told, was the primary difference between candidates and Deep Mist warriors, and Jack was having some trouble making the switch. He wasn’t the fastest swordsman under any circumstances, but he felt he was stuck and had to do something differently.
“The sooner you master the technique, the quicker we can move on to other weapons.”
Jack put the sword back in the scabbard and began again. He tried something new, and instead of starting with Eldora’s glade, he cleared out his mind and pictured a void. Jack thought of a sky without stars extending out forever.
“What are you doing?” the instructor asked.
“At the beginning, we were told to picture a place where we could practice. I think that isn’t good enough for me. There might be too many distractions in that place, so I’m going to picture nowhere. A sky without stars. No ground beneath my feet and nothing to inhibit my flow,” Jack said.
Jack stood and practiced being in that place as he drew his sword.
“Do it some more,” the instructor said.
Jack continued to draw, and then the instructor told him to do a form and then another and another.
“Now, we fight again.”
Jack’s speed must have changed. He didn’t feel any faster, but when he fought the instructor with the new technique, even his moves seemed to have slowed a bit. Jack went further before the man defeated him, but it took longer than ever.
“That is acceptable,” the instructor said. “I am impressed that you thought of that on your own. It is an advanced concept that I was contemplating using with you, but” the man snapped his head in sort of a nod, “you beat me to it. Keep practicing on your own, but we are ready to move on.”
Jack tried not to feel proud of putting the new image to use so quickly, but he did let himself feel satisfied with his performance against Deep Mist’s best swordsman if Grigar’s information was to be believed.
“Let’s see how you do with throwing stars,” the swordmaster said. “Use the same visualization.” The man put a stack of ten stars on a small stand five paces from a wooden target with the outline of a human.
Jack had usually relied on his magic to throw stars, and that was permitted, but this time, he decided to throw them using the same technique used for swordsmanship.
“Heart, head, shoulder, hand,” the instructor said. “As quick as you can.”
Jack grabbed four stars and “touched the void” as he thought of it. Everything slowed up for him as the stars clunked in all the right places.
“Very good. That works for you. It doesn’t have to be the same for everyone.”
Jack nodded. He touched the warded box at his throat and felt a little magic seep into him. His eyebrows went up. He had used magic to throw the stars, and then everything clicked in his mind.
“It is a Fifth Manipulation,” Jack said.
The swordmaster looked at him with questioning eyes. “What is that?”
“The technique to speed up. It is what we would classify as a Fifth Manipulation magic in Corand. I hadn’t realized it was magic. Instead of a trigger word, the visualization prompts the spell.”
The swordmaster shrugged. “Magic?”
“It isn’t taught in wizardry or warrior classes, but it is magic. You don’t teach it as such, but it is.”
“We don’t. But you’ve mastered it like you have the rest of the spells you have learned in your wizardry classes.”
“Let me try to steer a star,” Jack said. He touched the void and was able to steer the star mid-flight. “Just as I thought. I can move the star wherever I want.”
“Except now you throw the star with much more force. I have nothing more to teach you about that weapon.”
Jack shook his head. “I need more technique. We can work at normal speed. I still feel clumsy.”
The man laughed. “You are.”
~
Jack taught Grigar the technique. The older wizard picked it up quickly.
“I thought I knew all about trigger words, but mental pictures as triggers is something novel,” Grigar said. “It takes just as much effort to find the right picture as it does the right word.”
“I know. I used Eldora’s place initially, but I reached a limit.”
Grigar nodded. “I can fight a bit better, but not like you.”
“An edge is an edge,” Jack said. “You are better off throwing a wizard bolt.”
Grigar grinned. “And it is safer, too, but I might find additional uses for this. I can do fifth-level manipulations, but this is a different technique. I like it. Perhaps we can leave Deep Mist a little earlier. I’m getting anxious about joining Tanner and Helen.”
“Me too,” Jack said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
~
G rigar asked Jack if they would be teleporting back to Yomomai, but the horses they used to travel to Deep Mist were expected to be returned, so they rode out thirteen months after they arri
ved at Deep Mist.
Jack had now spent more than a year and a half in Masukai. Grigar said he had enjoyed the experience at Deep Mist. Jack had learned a lot, but he sensed that time had passed him by in Corand.
The return trip to Yomomai was easy for him. The countryside had become familiar, and he felt much more like a native than before. He patted the ranking card inside the bag at his side. He had a new rank, Wizard-Warrior Eleven and Grigar was now a Wizard-Ten.
Jack tried not to let the rankings go to his head, but he felt a touch of pride as he saw the tiered towers of Yomomai on the horizon. Jack and Grigar changed into new clothes when they left the last inn before the capital. Jack wore black robes, cut quite differently than the ones he wore before. The hood was tighter fitting, and the garment had pockets and slits to access knives and stars. He had put on new boots with softer soles than the ones given to Grigar. The Lajian wore the off-white of a Pearl Mist wizard.
“Business in Yomomai?” the guard at the gate asked Grigar as he held out his hand for Grigar’s rank card. Their names were still the Masukaian ones given to them when they left the capital for Deep Mist.
“We are of the Pearl Mist come to visit the Yomomai chapter,” Grigar said.
The guard looked at his card and raised his eyebrows. When he examined Jack’s token, he waved them through. Jack put coins in the guard’s hand. Miru had told him how much to pay.
Once they passed through the gate, they looked at the map to the headquarters. Jack’s talent with maps hadn’t improved with his training, and he asked himself where was Penny when he needed her.
Grigar’s memory was sufficient enough, and they finally turned into the familiar courtyard that led to the Pearl Mist stable.
“Has it changed in a year?” Grigar asked, with a sly smile. It seems like we left yesterday. That is the way it is for an old man.”
Jack twirled around when he dismounted. “And a young man too.” He was anxious to see Helen and Tanner.
Their arrival apparently was unexpected as a crowd gathered around them as they removed their saddles and set their bags aside.
Torii Ishoru, the Pearl Mist leader, entered the courtyard with Okiku, the senior wizardess.
“We didn’t expect you for another month,” Torii said.
Grigar smiled. “We finished up a bit early with our advanced training.”
“I heard some amazing things about your exploits, young man,” Okiku said. “Many do not return from Zuri Mountain.”
“I figured,” Jack said. “They are fed into the hole of enlightenment, but we managed to evade the same fate.”
“Somehow, I knew you both would survive the stiffest test they mete out at Deep Mist,” Torii Ishoru said. “Your rankings? They didn’t tell us your final awards.”
Jack and Grigar handed over their cards.
Torii’s eyes rose. “A Wizard-Warrior Eleven. There is none ranked higher in the Yomomai academy.” He looked at Grigar’s token. “A Wizard-Ten, just like Okiku.”
The woman barged in between Grigar and Torii to look for herself. “Their standards have been lowered. No one leaps that high after a year at Deep Mist.” She spat on the ground and ground the dirt into the sole of her sandal. “If you weren’t foreigners, they wouldn’t have let you go.”
“Why?” Jack asked.
“You’d be teaching instead.”
“I’m glad I’m a foreigner, then. I still have an errand or two to complete.” He thought of both the Battlebone and freeing Namori’s mother and brother.
“Two,” Tanner said, walking up with Helen, who carried a bundle in her arms.
“Is that what I think it is?” Jack asked.
“It is a she,” Tanner said. “During our idle time recovering from our first test, we, uh, added a new Simple.”
“Rafter-Simple,” Helen said.
“Or Simple-Rafter,” Tanner said with a wicked grin.
“It has a name?” Grigar asked.
“Jackie,” Helen said. “Her father is a bit too sentimental about his friendships.” She winked at Jack. “Named after you, if you couldn’t guess. Onion came in second, by the way.”
“I’m touched,” Jack said.
“You sure are. You’ll have to tell us how you outwitted the Zurians. The communication from Deep Mist was a bit light on the details,” Tanner said.
“I suppose that is for later. I’d like to wash up and get something to eat.”
“Same for me,” Grigar said.
We will show you to your rooms. Your two friends are in a room for families, and with your new ranks, you are entitled to private quarters,” Torii said. “We will do a little testing on our own after you’ve eaten.”
Jack and Grigar joined Tanner, Helen, and Jackie for a later midday meal.
“How old is Jackie?” Grigar asked.
“Three months,” Helen said. She pursed her lips. “The protection the Masukaian women use was ineffective, to say the least, but we are happy with the result, aren’t we Tanner?”
The mercenary beamed. “We are, but I have to admit, my perspective has changed a little, having a daughter. I just got word from my brother that she will be welcome at Bartonsee should anything happen to Helen or myself. That was a little grim for him to say, but it is expected for the duke. He cares more about succession than anything else since he has no children of his own.”
“You have continued to train?” Jack asked.
“It is that, or we go back to Corand. It did cross our minds when Helen was a different shape.” Tanner extended his hands from his stomach. “But we couldn’t, in the end. We’ve both moved up a few ranks. Helen has made up for some lost time. She recently ranked ahead of me, again. But neither of us is in double digits. That is rarified territory in Masukai and reserved for masters. Grigar, I can see, but you?”
“Come to the testing and see for yourself,” Jack said. “I suppose being a helper gives me a big boost.”
“Big,” Grigar said, nodding with a smile. “I think we both learned more than expected, but not necessarily what the Masukaians had in mind. Jack, why don’t you give our friends an unadulterated pub-style recounting of our Zurian adventure?”
Jack and Grigar gave Tanner and Helen an exaggerated account of their encounter with Zurian enlightenment.
“How much of that is true?” Tanner asked, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
“Most of it,” Grigar said. He looked at Jack. “How did the cherry syrup taste?”
“Sweet is all I can say. I was too intent on getting out of there. We guess the Deep Mist leaders send their marginal candidates to Zuri Mountain, knowing their fate. They offered to eradicate the sect, but we think Ruki Sinda was placating us. That might have been a factor in letting us go early.”
“We will see how unprepared you both are. Okiku invited us to attend your testing,” Helen said. “Want to hold your namesake?”
Jack smiled. “I’ve done the same with my nieces and nephews often enough.” He held out his arms, and the little baby girl was soon looking intently at him with bright blue eyes. She had wispy light brown hair and already had an easy smile. In that, Jack guessed, Jackie was more like her father than her mother.
“It is time,” a Deep Mist graduate said after walking up to their table.
“What do I need to take?” Jack asked.
“Your sword. We will provide other weapons.”
Grigar grinned. “All I need is me.”
Jack had a bit of a problem finding his room, but he finally returned with his sword. He still hadn’t imbued it, but now that he had finished his training, he hoped to come up with what would be best.
He returned to the dining hall and joined Grigar, Tanner, and the Deep Mist wizard-warrior to a different part of the Pearl Mist compound. They walked into a smaller training room than the ones he had practiced in before he left for the south.
“We will start with Grigar,” Okiku said.
“What did you learn?”
“What did I learn or what do I know? Which is more pertinent?” Grigar said. “I know a lot of things. Ask me, and I will try my best to satisfy you with an answer or a demonstration.”
Jack liked Grigar’s attitude. Now that they had the opportunity for greater status, Grigar was practicing what they both talked about on their return to Yomomai. Grigar was both older and more competent, they both thought than Okiku.
“You can teleport like the boy?”
“No. You can’t either. That is a unique talent.” Grigar teleported to the other side of the room and then back. “My range isn’t the same, but the ease with which I move is more natural to me now.”
“Wizard bolts?” Okiku asked.
“I was good before, and I am better. Jack taught me how to steer them on our journey. Would you like a demonstration?”
Okiku blinked at Grigar’s reply. “I would.”
The Lajian wizard took two man-sized targets that lined the room and put one a few paces in front of the other. Grigar lined them up so Okiku could see the first one was directly in front of the other.
“I will steer the bolt from the left-hand side to the right-hand side of the back target.” Grigar performed that easily enough and then reversed the next. “Is that sufficient? Can you do that? I can show you.” Grigar said without too much arrogance.
Okiku stood and was able to attain a little curvature. “Very good. Unique qualities make a Deep Mist graduate more valuable. I can see why you were graded a ten. You can use mind language?”
Jack saw the two communicate as the rest of the room remained silent.
“I was adept long before I arrived in Masukai,” Grigar admitted. “I can do more.”
“That is sufficient. We will learn more about your capabilities in the coming weeks.”
Jack sighed. He didn’t want to spend weeks in Yomomai.
“Your turn,” Torii Ishoru said. “As head of the Pearl Mist academy in Yomomai, I will supervise your tests. Since the targets are set up, I’d like you to show me the same steering of wizard bolts.”