Fantastic Schools, Volume 3

by Emily Martha Sorensen

  This lesson he was teaching was how to apply a spell of hardening to a china cup so that if dropped it would not break. Not the most exciting of magical objects one could make but she had to admit that the basic spell was not that complicated, and the rest of the class should have no problems doing the practical part. Except maybe Korlah. The spell itself was small and neat, with additional spell work specific to binding the spell to china or at least clay-based objects that was nicely compartmentalized so that it could be modified easily. The same basic spell, once mastered, could easily be modified to harden a sword, a plate, a hammer, and with slightly more modifications, a building or a wall. In truth, masonry hardening was better done with a different type of spell better suited to area effects. Still, heavily modified, it could be used to strengthen masonry and such in a limited area.

  Suddenly, she realised Academagician Lendar was standing in front of her. “I see I am boring you, Student Taroniah. Perhaps you would like to demonstrate to the class hardening that cup before I throw it at the wall?”

  Taroniah felt herself blush but tried not to look intimidated by his looming presence. He might be her teacher, which meant she had to be at least somewhat respectful, but she had realised some time ago that she was far stronger magically. In some ways she was better-trained because she had extended a lot of the magic she had learned at the Academy far beyond what was taught, mainly due to her having a significantly greater ability at magic than most. Having to experiment carefully and in such a way as to not bring attention to what she was doing had imbued her magic with much greater precision and economy of power than many here would believe.

  Now, however, she felt the lure of an interesting idea. “Certainly, Academagician.”

  She replied brightly and slipped out from behind her desk, stepping briskly forward to his large desk at the front of the room where a row of clay cups had been lined up for the students to practice on. Clay was chosen because it was very porous, which made affixing the spell easier while being essentially a brittle object and one that would reveal a student’s failure to embed the spell properly by the simple means of throwing it against the wall.

  Wood and cloth were both easier to affect but were not so easy to test to destruction! Steel was the hardest. Taroniah and the other students in this class had watched the Lord of Magic spend more than six hours concentrating on a spell to harden a metal breastplate before finally throwing the conceptualized spell on the armor. A guard had fired a heavy war arrow at the breastplate before the Lord of Magic had started on the spell and although the heavy barbed head of the arrow had not penetrated the armor, it had left a shiny scored line where it had gouged into the metal. After the spell was applied, a similar arrow was fired by the same guard, from the same position, which hit about two finger breadths below the first strike did little except clang loudly. On closer inspection, there was a small mark where the point had impacted.

  It had been a good illustration of the advantages magic could provide and at the same time exemplified the inefficient way they were applying their magic. Or so Taroniah believed. And was beginning to prove with her experiments. The Lord of Magic had not just spent six hours but had also been utterly exhausted magically by the time he was finished. And the breastplate had still been marked.

  In the meantime, she was going to annoy her teacher!

  She conceptualized the hardness spell easily then added the elasticity spell she had developed to apply to swords and such to make them springier and less likely to snap. She modified it on the fly to make the effect stronger and hopefully add some real bounce to the cup! She made a show of struggling and concentrating over the cup even though she had the entire combined spell conceptualized before she reached the desk. A flash of magic, her skill at magical precision and power control making it seem like she applied just the hardening spell. She dramatically slumped her shoulders to try to imply she was done but not confident and turned to the hovering Academagician.

  She tried to sound unsure. “There you are, sir. I think I put the spell on properly.” She backed away.

  Lendar studied her for a moment as if he couldn’t decide to believe her then moved over to the desk and picked up the cup. “Hmmm. You have definitely done something to it. Let us see if you have done it correctly.”

  He threw the cup at the wall, probably a little harder than was necessary, then squawked. The cup not only didn’t shatter as it hit the wall, but it also bounced almost straight back at him! He frantically dodged the missile, and the cup landed on the floor on the other side of the classroom before sliding into the wall. Still quite perfectly intact.

  Taroniah tried to look contrite. “Oh! I’m sorry sir. I clearly did something wrong. I, I’m not sure exactly what I did, sir.” She hung her head while peering up at him through her hair. He looked furious and was a little red in the face.

  “Hmmph.”

  He snorted. He glanced over at the intact cup sitting innocently on the floor across the room and then back to Taroniah.

  “Clearly you did do something wrong,” he stated sourly. “Yet your cup is intact, so you at least got the idea right.” He narrowed his eyes but after a moment simply pointed at her desk. “Go, sit. Watch what the others do.”

  She turned away and saw that all her classmates were staring at her. She couldn’t decide if they were concerned for her fate at the hands of the irate Academagician, or scared of the weird magic she’d just demonstrated. Or maybe they just couldn’t decide how to react. She smiled at Jenna and gave a thumbs-up before sitting down. Jenna gave her a little smile at least.

  The others all managed to produce cups that passed the test, only just in Dryden’s case as his cup developed a couple of cracks without actually breaking. Except for Korlah, whose cup shattered on impact. Lendar ordered him to stay behind. If he hadn’t been such an insufferable snob, Taroniah would have almost felt sorry for the idiot. Almost.

  He did have ability, although he didn’t pay enough attention to details. He was not popular amongst the senior students partly because of his physical prowess, which he used to intimidate the males, while his arrogant assumptions annoyed the females. He was the nephew of the King of West Dumfordia, about sixth in the line of succession, and knew his worth as the first member of the Royal family to be recognised as having serious magical ability in recent times. He was technically some sort of cousin or perhaps cousin-in-law to Taroniah.

  The thought of his reaction to her introducing herself on that basis brought a smile to her lips, and she almost laughed out loud! Being a bastard was interesting, at times.

  Fortunately, there were only three female students in the senior class: Jenna, a slightly older woman named Hora, and herself. Having failed to seduce any of them with either his self-proclaimed charm or his Royal standing, he was now applying himself to the females in the next year down. Taroniah was taking the time to advise them all on how to give the idiot the finger. A task that Jenna was happy to help with.

  The class was finally dismissed, and they all left the room before heading down to the common room. Taroniah stood talking with Jenna, Hora, and one of the older guys, Jek, for a while before heading to dinner. Academagician Lendar passed down the stairs and out in the courtyard without any sign he saw them off to one side. He was carrying her cup in his hand. Hmmm. That’s when she had a brainwave! The problem with the really hard stuff like metal was that trying to embed spells was difficult. Most often the spell failed completely. Sometimes you would get a partial result. It was only now and then that the spell would even work as predicted and often the results were only barely detectable, which was why there was a dearth of incredibly sharp swords and impenetrable armor.

  Rough cups and wood were far more porous than iron or bronze, which was why she had just realised she would possibly get better results embedding the spells in metal while it was molten. Or at least red hot, such as when it was being hammered during the forging. The work involved in creating a quality sword from a bar of i
ron was strenuous and quite tiring for the blacksmith. And that would be the time to embed the spells! Almost certainly.

  She would head down to Alcitran on her next free day or days and talk to the blacksmith fellow there. He did repairs to equipment belonging to the Guards stationed at both the town and the Academy and probably could make a sword, or at least a dagger for her. She suddenly realised Jenna was waving a hand in front of her face.

  “Hello? Anybody there?” her friend asked, laughing. The other two sniggered. Korlah swaggered down the stairs just then and all four turned their backs on him.

  “What were you thinking about?” asked Jek.

  Taroniah kept an eye on Korlah, but he made no move in their direction.

  “Spells, impressing them in objects, just, well stuff. You know,” she ended lamely.

  All three sniggered again. They all thought she was some sort of absent-minded genius, she was sure. All of them knew she was the most capable magician of the group, the entire class did for that matter, but she was prone to vagueness when distracted. She had once, only once mind, walked into a wall because she was thinking about something else. None of them let her ever forget it, either.

  They all glanced at each other. Hora shook her head as if in sadness. “Thinking about class stuff, after class. Sad. Very sad.”

  The others sniggered and even Taroniah had to smile.

  “So, what did you do to your cup?” asked Jenna, grinning.

  Taroniah was already the tallest of the women and nearly as tall as Jek. She did an obvious look around as if making sure no one was listening before she bent her head a little downward and spoke softly towards the floor. “I added elasticity to the spell so the cup would not only remain in one piece but bounce well, too.”

  She giggled. The others all giggled as well.

  “Damn. I wish I could combine two spells on the fly like that!” Hora said enviously. The others nodded.

  “With old Lendar glaring at you too. I can’t think when he’s staring at me,” Jek offered.

  “Oh. Do you actually think?” Jenna asked, gripping her chin with her hand in a thoughtful manner.

  Jek glared and offered violence, but they all knew he was kidding. Jek and Jenna had a thing going. Taroniah wasn’t sure if they’d got to the real intimate stuff yet, but she fully expected wedding bells in the not-too-distant future. This thought brought home her own lack of suitable swains. Not that there was anyone here that appealed to her. The only person she had ever really had a thing for had been Olli Marteen, Captain in the Royal Guard and second son of Kern Norgart. That had been an early teenage crush and it hadn’t really survived her coming here, fortunately. Looking back, she was glad she had never had the opportunity or the gumption to approach the twenty-something Captain when she was only fourteen. It would have been embarrassing. Probably very embarrassing!

  The rest of the evening passed pleasantly with her friends, though of course Korlah tried his hand at chatting to some second-year girls. Jeez, he was a slimeball! Taroniah made a note to have a word to them. The group broke up early and headed to bed.

  One thing about magic school, it sure was tiring. Jenna, Hora, and she shared a dorm with four bunk beds, the other remaining empty, as there were only three senior girls. She settled down to think some more about her sword-embedding idea and fell asleep almost immediately.

  Chapter Two: New Skills Today

  Taroniah struggled through Advanced Magical Theory the next morning and was much happier doing Fourth Year Physical Exercise after lunch. The powers-that-be at the school felt that being physically fit aided mental fitness. Taroniah wasn’t sure herself, but she enjoyed the physical training two afternoons a week. As with magic itself, the school made no differentiation between male and female students. They all ran. They all did unarmed combat. They all practiced with bow, sword, and spear. In this, the school was all on its own as far as treating students equally. Her real father’s court would be appalled to see her wrestling with fellow students. To be fair, the instructors avoided opposite-sex matches where activities required close physical contact, generally. All the women were entitled to enter the end-of-term open tournaments the Guards oversaw although few women entered either of the two physical combat contests, these being wrestling and boxing. But the instructors certainly encouraged the girls to not hold back with each other!

  Jenna was easily the best of the three senior girls at hand-to-hand combat, apparently because she had several brothers. Taroniah had never been taught that sort of physical combat at home; it wasn’t something even a bastard female was allowed to engage in, being too unladylike by far. Strangely, her foster father had allowed her to learn to use weapons such as swords, spears, and shields as well as to master archery. Archery, at least, was something noblewomen were allowed to engage in although the more martial training she had received was kept out of sight of the court ladies. And even from the other girls at court, most of whom ignored her at best and verbally harassed her whenever they were able. Coming to learn here was in many ways a relief.

  Here at Lightbearer Academy, she was allowed to train under the martial arts instructor without many restrictions. Wooden swords and blunt spears were used of course, with heavy padding, when engaging in training drills or combat bouts. She was the best swordswoman and probably best with a bow as well, although Jenna was her near equal. Of the male students, Korlah was easily the best at everything, except archery where some fellow from the back of nowhere was almost unbelievable. Largen was quite a pleasant young man, as far as young men go. He’d asked her to go to town with him once and taken no for answer without any problem. He hailed from a small coastal village on one of the islands West Dumfordia claimed called Extell, a village that no one had ever heard of, including Korlah!

  Running around the training ground a few times and swapping wooden sword blows with her fellow students made a nice change from boring lectures. She was actually fascinated by Magical Theory and had enjoyed the class immensely back in her first year. She found the Advanced level course, on the other hand, absolutely boring. Apart from the occasional discussion of small things that either didn’t fit within accepted theory or were so odd no one had managed to define them at all, the Advanced course was in practice nothing more than the Basic course in more detail. Sheesh.

  She had begun making notes in class early on about various aspects of magical theory that interested her and which were either barely covered or simply ignored. Academagician Khast had a particularly nasal, high-pitched voice that grated on Taroniah’s nerves, just to make the class even more enjoyable! During the first half of the semester, she had thought Khast simply had little understanding of magical theory himself, but as the class continued, she had eventually realised that, while his voice was annoying and his teaching methods tedious, the lack of theory being taught wasn’t really his fault. A discussion with him in town one day when she had chanced to run into him at the wine shop had opened her eyes to the realisation that most advanced magical theory had been lost. A lot of stuff had been destroyed in the Great War, and what survived in the way of magical texts and inscriptions was eradicated by the Revilers in the century following.

  Khast, himself, was not a powerful magician and had trouble conceptualizing some of the more advanced spells the students were learning in their last year, but he did have a much better grasp of theory than she had realized. The problem was it took years to test, refine, and then write up magical theory, especially if one wasn’t a great sorcerer oneself. He had a new text he was working on, covering several more advanced theories, but he doubted it would be finished until the year after next. And then he had to persuade the Lord of Magic to approve the text and have copies made for future classes to be able to reference.

  The conversation had left Taroniah with a different view of both Khast and the state of magical theory, and she had surprised him by offering to help him over the mid-year break, once she had visited home and returned. This offer had been almost g
ratefully received, and she resolved to be less critical in his class. His admission about the state of magical theory had been eye-opening and given her a new insight into the limits of spell conceptualization taught at the school as well.

  That afternoon, when they had finished their Physical Exercise Class, which had involved mostly running, wrestling, and boxing, Taroniah had asked to do a little archery practice with the end of the year tests coming up.. The instructor let her have an extra half hour.

  She made sure she was on the range by herself before trying out an idea she had been mulling over for a few weeks. She had tried affecting the course of an arrow in flight with magic to limited results, but now she had a different idea. She had come up with a spell that made an object hit the spot the magician visualised. Or so she hoped. She rolled out the spell mentally, conceptualized it, studied it. Made a couple of minor changes. Memorized them. Conceptualized it again, and laid it on five arrows in a row. Hard.

  Then she stood, lined up at the shooting mark, and studied the targets. The furthest was three hundred paces, almost beyond the range of the bows even with the strongest man drawing one. She could reach the two hundred pace targets, just, and with limited accuracy, being right at the limit of her strength. Now she sighted downrange on the three hundred pace target before raising the bow to what she felt was about the right height to reach that range if she’d had the strength to draw the bow back far enough to impart sufficient force. Then she focused on the bullseye which she could only just see, held that vision in her head as she released the arrow, magically releasing the spell at the same time.