by R A Lindo
“I can’t do it!” Guppy finally cried in exasperation. “It’s a waste of time. Why don’t you teach us something less complicated?”
Farraday and Smyck exchanged a weary glance before standing back-to-back, glancing up at the light streaming through the glass ceiling - a battle stance about to reign mayhem on the young.
“I think you’ve made them angry, Guppy,” Kaira whispered as the destructive charm they had failed to produce was about to be enacted.
“What do we do now?” whispered Jacob in mild alarm as Farraday and Smyck shouted ‘Disineris’. As their arms rose in unison, the glass ceiling exploded and shattered into a glittering array of steel and glass fragments - flying weapons headed directly towards them.
Any attempt to seek cover was futile as the one object that hadn’t yet exploded - the green benches running the length of The Glass Arch - creaked and cracked as an unseen force wrenched them from the concrete floor. With a multitude of glass and steel fragments showering down, seconds away from inflicting serious injury, Farraday and Smyck stepped in front of Kaira, Guppy, pivoting their bodies to offer protection to the young trio.
With the myriad of descending enemies inches away, Farraday and Smyck shouted ‘Fora’ and flung their right arm towards the shattered glass and steel, bringing a halt to the flood. Sensing that they weren’t going to be shredded by a deluge of fragments, Kaira, Guppy and Jacob peered through the protective wall their adult companions had provided, watching as each fragment spun in mid air, reflecting the light streaming into the empty space.
The Glass Arch was no more … only the green, iron benches remaining intact as they rose upwards, cracks appearing in each one as it floated towards the light. Guppy fought an impulse to reach and touch the shard of glass nearest to her, conscious that she had enacted no defensive charm of her own and, therefore, potentially undoing the force field that had stopped a fatal injury.
“The Fora charm creates a force field around moving, inanimate objects,” Farraday explained. “But, it’s not merely a case of uttering the name of the charm. You have to draw energy from your penchant, which is one of the hardest things to learn.”
Guppy and Kaira glanced at their silver bracelets decorated with their family penchant stone: topaz for the Graylings and amethyst for the Renns. The ring on the forefinger of Jacob’s right hand glimmered as he studied his penchant, excited to draw the potent, magical force hidden within.
“Is that why we couldn’t enact the Disineris charm earlier?” asked Guppy, mildly embarrassed by her moment of petulance.
“Yes,” replied Smyck, gesturing it was safe for them to stand. “Although, it’s more than that. Faith is critical to the successful use of advanced magic.”
“Faith?” queried Kaira, wondering if some critical part of their previous teaching had been missed.
“Faith in your own abilities and in the infinite, magical potential inherent in the universe we have the unique blessing of existing within.” As he flicked at the closest fragment of glass, causing it to spin and float away from his face, Smyck continued. “Entering the S.P.M.A. fills people with awe and disbelief - two things that have to be overcome to realise the magical potential inherent within it.”
“So, we’re lacking faith and focus,” suggested Jacob, beginning to understand Smyck’s train of thought.
“Everyone does, at first,” continued Smyck, the back of his black shirt covered in sweat - a sign of the energy he had emitted and was now controlling. “Creative charms require a fraction of the magical power our penchants possess, which is why they’re relatively easy to perform. We’re in a different realm now. Advanced magic can create, destroy and recreate entire structures … even worlds.”
Maintaining a close proximity to Farraday for purposes of protection, Kaira pondered Smyck’s explanation of faith, the force field contained within the silver bracelet on her right wrist and, most of all, the fascinating idea of the ability to create worlds with magic. She remembered Farraday’s description of how the glass reformed in The Glass Arch … the reason why it had been chosen for their lessons on advanced magic: a perfect location, considering the mess they were going to make.
“Can we see how The Glass Arch comes back to life?” she asked Farraday who smiled at the idea.
“Just what I’ve been waiting to hear.”
“Cool,” uttered Guppy excitedly, keen to unleash the power hidden within her penchant.
With the two iron benches hovering mid-air, the cracks forming on them suggesting another explosion was imminent, Farraday joked, “Let’s get to work before the benches fall on our heads.”
As they stood in a line - a symbol of the growing allegiance between them - Farraday and Smyck explained how magical power was drawn from a penchant. It was a matter of connection and communication … the understanding that a penchant was more than an item allowing travel through Periums.
Rather, it was the source of all magical potential, the penchant stone laced with centuries of unique powers. Any additional magical powers were linked to family lineage: the Renns being water people a gift specific to their bloodline.
With the lesson on how to connect and communicate with their penchants fully explained, Kaira, Guppy and Jacob closed their eyes, as instructed, and prepared to return the The Glass Arch to its original glory.
“A mild heat is the first thing you’ll feel from your penchant,” explained Smyck as the fragments of glass and steel remained suspended in mid-air, spinning and clinking as they touched … the rays of light bouncing off in a multitude of directions, creating a spectacular tapestry. “Nod when you feel your penchant heating up.”
Jacob nodded first, followed by Guppy and Kaira.
“Now, keeping your eyes closed, draw the heat from your penchant into you,” Smyck continued. “It’s a bit like taking a deep breath, only this is a mental and physical exercise.”
The sound of the iron, green benches splitting and cracking increased, causing Kaira to open her eyes in mild alarm.
“Focus, Kaira,” instructed Farraday. “Focus within … draw the energy from your penchant until you can feel a force rising through your arms.”
A mild tingling in her fingers was the best Kaira could achieve, until she was finally able to shut out the cracking sound of the iron, green benches hovering perilously above them. Settling on the fact that Farraday and Smyck would deal with any further, falling onslaught, she focused entirely on the tingling sensation in her fingers, using all of her psychological might to draw the force into her arms.
As a headache began to form, the tingling turned to what could only be described as an electric current surging through her legs and arms, until it filled her entire body.
“Can you feel it?” Jacob asked with an exhilarated smile as he stood between his sister and Kaira.
“It feels like lightning,” replied Guppy with a light laugh.
The spinning shards of glass and steel suddenly held no fear … the force surging within them holding enough power to shatter and suspend objects far greater than the ones filling the space they stood within.
“Ready?” asked Farraday before he gestured for them to follow his lead, slowly walking towards the spinning, glinting fragments with his arms raised.
“Stay as synchronised as you can,” added Smyck as he mirrored Farraday’s movements.
The synchronicity, Kaira realised, was both in the line they held and the movements formed. With arms raised, they used the force field of the Fora charm to move the shards of glass and steel upwards, before the utterance of ‘Repellia’ which each repeated.
No-one needed to query the function of this charm, becoming immediately obvious as the fragments spun and retracted upwards, reconnecting and reforming … each shard of glass finding its floating counterpart whilst the steel rediscovered its original skeleton: The Glass Arch returning to its original splendour.
With the first lesson in advanced magic successfully carried out, they sat on the iron, gr
een benches which had returned to their original position on the concrete floor. Kaira was surprised how tired she felt, taking the vial of Fillywiss from Farraday to appease the headache troubling her. She left enough for Guppy and Jacob who were also suffering the strains of enacting the Repellia charm: the art of returning shattered structures to their original state.
Farraday and Smyck sat on one of the benches whilst Kaira, Guppy and Jacob occupied the other, a momentary pause allowed before the second lesson of the day, involving electric currents and the ability to create and put out fire.
Guppy was eager to learn the Disira charm, offering the ability to disappear to a safe house, but was told there were dangers inherent in learning this too soon. Under the wrong circumstances, Smyck explained, the charm could be manipulated by the enemy to place you in mortal danger.
The topic of danger returned Kaira to thoughts of her dad journeying to another perilous place: Quibbs Causeway - home of the Mantzils whose piercing, soulless cry could obliterate the mind. Why the burden of responsibility always fell on her dad’s shoulders hadn’t been fully explained.
Kaira knew he and Aunt Phee were senior figures in the S.P.M.A. but so were The Orium Circle and Meyen Grayling: the very reason her dad was going to put his life on the line once more. The sounds made earlier suggested her aunt would feel obliged to join her dad, potentially creating another family absence which Kaira would have to negotiate.
Why would they put themselves in danger for a woman so immune to the needs of others, including her own children…? Someone who had clearly committed a sin by illegally housing a Terrecet fragment in The Cendryll.
Perhaps Meyen Grayling had the authority of The Orium Circle to do so although her dad would have been informed, if this was the case. Maybe, The Orium Circle had their own secrets, Kaira thought, increasingly realising that simplistic definitions of good and bad did little to identify an individual’s integrity.
As she pondered the complex reasons for the rising tensions, Guppy and Jacob were struggling with their respective feelings regarding their mother’s fate. Distance had been a familiar figure in the Grayling household - long before the siblings had discovered the spectacular, secretive world they had made their home. Despising a parent was one thing, thought Guppy, but wishing them ill was quite another and she wasn’t ready to witness her mother’s downfall.
Jacob’s feelings were somewhat different to his sister’s … the brother who had inherited the role of loco parentis whilst his mother abandoned them on her quest for power. Sitting next to his sister now, he read her struggle with varying emotions: anger, betrayal, resentment and a new one: fear. The mention of Quibbs Causeway and the Mantzils was enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine, only made more terrifying when a parent was involved.
What had caused their mother to be seduced by the sinister whispers of the ultimate malev: Erent Koll? What could she possibly believe he would offer her in return for the fragment of a dark legend people had killed for? Was she Koll’s next victim or the newest member of his shadow army, laying in wait to strike?
Most critically, what would happen to them if their mother was found to have betrayed the Society? Without a father, and a mother banished beyond reach, would their own fate lie within the S.P.M.A. or elsewhere? It was a question Farraday and Smyck knew the answer to: a solution indirectly linked to the Merrymope twins and Kaira’s grandfather, Isiah Renn.
“Right,” instructed Farraday. “Back to it. By the end of the day, we need to be able to smash this place to pieces, set it on fire and send an electric current to each other which we can extinguish with ease.”
“Is there a plan if something goes wrong?” asked Jacob, ever the protector of his sister and, increasingly so, Kaira.
“Srynx Serum,” replied Smyck who produced an orange vial of liquid from his trouser pocket. “Heals bone, tissue and skin damage, just in case.”
Kaira didn’t sense a trace of humour in the statement which meant that Smyck was unconcerned by the dangers, or secure in the knowledge that the remedy would quickly relieve pain.
“So,” added Farraday. “Are we going to smash the place to pieces again or try to avoid an electric shock?”
Destruction was the popular vote and with a greater understanding of the essential alignment of a person’s penchant and their magical ability, Kaira, Guppy and Jacob drew on the energy emitted from their respective penchants before yelling ‘Disineris’ in unison - and a fountain of shattered steel and glass fell once more.
Once the skill of destruction and reparation was acquired by all, along with a limited ability to defend against an enormous electric current thrust their way, lessons were brought to a close with a dab of Srynx Serum on minor scratches and wounds.
The shower of fragments raining down on them had been successfully controlled through the use of Fora charm; however, the force field causing the fragments to halt, suspended in mid-air, had been enacted a moment too late, allowing a few fragments to land on the young trio: an ideal time for lessons to end for the day.
Their collective pain was temporary, however, as Smyck administered the Srynx Serum, leaving them to marvel at its healing properties. The cuts on their faces and arms closed within seconds of the orange liquid touching their skin, allowing them to study the streaks of blood fading away.
No scar evidenced their minor mishaps, although Kaira wondered at the power of Srynx Serum for those unfortunate enough to be inflicted with a curse. Dark magic, no doubt, required its own remedy … something Kaira hoped not to have to experience first hand.
With wounds healed and a rather dramatic, defensive charm mastered, conversation returned to outstanding matters at hand - in particular, the importance of ‘the room of clues’ Isiah Renn had mentioned and its link to Theodore and Conrad Kusp.
“It’s easier to show you than explain,” stated Farraday as he put on his brown waistcoat and black jacket.
“But, why did my grandad call it the room of clues?” asked Kaira, keen to understand another mystery. “I know where the room is; it’s one of the rooms in my aunt’s quarters. I just don’t understand the clues it holds.”
“It links to the boxes and the illustrated window inside the room.”
“What clues do they offer?” prompted Guppy.
“More a pathway than clues,” replied Farraday.
“To who?” asked Jacob.
“The very people who hold the clues to the sudden rise of violence,” Smyck explained. “Theodore and Conrad Kusp.”
The mention of Conrad’s name brought a silence to The Glass Arch. How could he be linked to the rise of violence?
“Knew he was weird,” whispered Guppy.
“I can’t believe Theodore’s involved in this,” countered Jacob. “I mean, he sold some Laudlum on the blackmarket, but being part of something evil…”
“Not part of it,” corrected Smyck, “but a factor in triggering dark agents who have long been dormant.”
“How?” challenged Kaira.
“What he discussed during the selling of Laudlum.”
“Which was….?”
“The legend of the Terrecet,” added Smyck. “His views on its existence and its ‘life beyond the fairytale’, or so the story goes.”
“According to who?” asked Kaira.
“Your grandfather. The person Theodore was selling the Laudlum to was a Melackin.”
“Prium Koll,” said Jacob, remembering Guppy and Kaira explaining how they’d used a Looksee to listen in on a secret meeting in The Cendryll. “The person who chased us on Kaira’s first day here.”
“That’s right,” interjected Farraday. “So, Theodore knows a lot more than he’s letting on. His first lie was pretending not to recognise The Sign of the Symean. The drawing you saw in Smyck’s hands, Kaira, on the night you were listening in, was Theodore’s drawing. According to your grandfather who, let’s say, has dealings with Prium Koll, Theodore didn’t copy it from the branding on Koll’s neck;
he drew it to explain the link between the sign, the Terrecet and the man at the centre of the legend…”
“Elias Reepe,” muttered Kaira, almost to herself but within earshot of the others.
Guppy studied her friend at the sound of the name … the boy in the fable they had read on their midnight trip to The Pancithon: The Curse of the Saralin Sands. “What are you getting at, Kaira…?”
Kaira glanced at each person in the room before continuing. “If the Terrecet really exists, then the fable is more than a fairytale.”
“Right…” stated Guppy in a tone suggesting that clarification of the obvious was mildly patronising.
“Do you remember what your mum said in The Phiadal … the evening we fell through The Floating Floor…?”
Guppy searched her memory before offering, “‘We must continue the search’, or something like that, which means she’s part of the hunt for the rest of the Terrecet fragments.”
“She said ‘we must continue the search so that we can pass on your great powers.”’
“Meaning…?”
“Meaning, the only way to pass on the power of the Terrecet is to locate its true owner: Elias Reepe.”
As the name of a ghost hung in The Glass Arch, Guppy stood alongside Kaira, pacing between the iron, green benches. “Hold on, he’d be about a thousand years old now, wouldn’t he?”
“The trade the boy made in the fable allowed him to defeat death,” Jacob reminded his sister.
“So, he is a thousand years old?” queried Guppy in a moment of inadvertent humour.
“Extremely old, if the tale is to be believed,” stated Smyck.
“But no one knows where he is, assuming he is alive?”
“Few believed in the existence of a Terrecet, until recently,” Farraday explained. “Fewer still, the idea of a man who can defeat death.”
“But, if he is alive…?” prompted Jacob as he blew at the long, dark fringe obstructing his vision.
“We’ve got a much bigger problem to contend with,” replied Farraday, concluding their first lessons on advanced wizardry.