by Taki Drake
Leaning her head against the top of his arm, Corda relaxed slightly into the comfort of his presence and whispered, “I am worried that I’m going to let my team down because I’m such a weak fighter.”
“I don’t believe you’re capable of letting anyone down, except perhaps yourself. You always find the strength to be there for all of us, and maybe it’s time that you started recognizing and acknowledging that.”
Corda straightened up and turned to him in astonishment, “But Gerald, I keep getting beat up in sparring when it’s my turn for defense, and when I’m supposed to be the attacker, nothing gets through anyone’s defenses. In any sort of a fight, I’m a liability.”
The rest of her friends had now changed their focus to the conversation between Corda and Gerald. Knowing how hard Corda was struggling with finding a way to defend or attack hurt all of them. Realizing that as a group, they had exhausted suggestions and tactics, the energy in the room dropped into a shadowed level. So lost in another internal search for a solution to the abruptness of a stranger’s voice from the doorway made them all jump.
“I might have something that will help,” said a resonant baritone voice. Staring at the doorway in shock, the friends saw another student that they recognized from their classes but one that none of them knew very well. Risee was the first to stand up and speak, stating, “You are in our history and arena classes! If I remember correctly, your name is Keve.”
“Yes, I am. I saw that Corda was being inundated by everybody’s suggestions in many of the arena classes, and since mine is just of vague idea, I didn’t want to put my nose in it. However, it’s been pretty apparent recently that she can’t get past the block, and I might know what it is. I had an uncle who had sort of the same problem.”
Liz jumped up and practically yanked the young man into the room and shut the door firmly behind him. “Sit, sit, please! If you have any suggestions, please help our friend.”
Keve looked over at Corda and smiled. Tendering her a small bow of respect, the young man sat down and introduced himself, saying, “I do not want to intrude, but this may help you. My name is Keve Preedams, and I am a first-year student here also but in the Bardic Discipline. My Grand Uncle Niall used to tell us stories of how difficult it was for him to pass the Battle Magic courses.”
Everyone in the room was hanging on Keve’s words, eyes totally focused on the young man’s face and expressive hands. Corda thought to herself, He reminds me of Bertor, but this man has a better voice.
A bit abruptly, Gerald asked, “What were the parts of the stories that you thought would help Corda? She’s not a Bard.”
The young man responded, ignoring the borderline rudeness of the question, “What he ultimately found out was that even though he became a Master Bard, he could not use those Bardic Magic channels to push Battle Magic spells through. He said that the Magic of the channel and that of the spell were too different and fought too hard.”
Leaning forward in interest, Argah asked Keve with her large eyes locked into his, “What channel did he use? Was he a multidimensional Magic-user? They’re very rare.”
Looking apologetic, the Bardic student looked down, his face slightly red. “I’m sorry, but he never did say what channel that he was pushing it through even though he was asked many a time. Perhaps with the understanding that someone else has gone through this, you might be able to find a way to change the collision that I can hear every time you try to throw a spell through your Magic channel.”
Sitting up abruptly as if someone had pinched her backside, Corda yelped, “You can hear it? You can hear my Magic fighting?”
He replied, “I have noticed it in the arena. I’m not sure if I could hear it every time. But I’m willing to help if my listening can assist you.” As he spoke, Keve’s eyes wandered over to Argah and quickly jerked back to look at Corda.
Unseen by anyone else, Liz smiled, a tiny happy expression of joy for her friend. Looking around the room, she didn’t think anyone else had seen the involuntary gesture except that Gerald had suddenly lost his aggressive edge.
Since her easy-going friend very seldom lost his temper, no one had expected any sort of anger response from him when the strange man had come in. Liz was glad to see whatever it was that had been upsetting Gerald had been addressed because all of them had come to depend on his calm and reasoned temperament to keep them from flying off the handle.
Excited, the whole group arranged a time to meet at the climbing area that Corda practiced every day. The three young men put their heads together to try to come up with some scenarios that Corda could attempt, as well. Argah watched the men talk, and Liz went over to sit next to Corda.
Putting her arm around her roommate, the older girl asked, “Are you okay with all of this? You don’t have to try it if you do not want to.”
Corda answered her in a somewhat abstract voice, saying, “Of course, I want to. It would be great to finally figure this out. I’m just poking around inside my own head, trying to figure out what channel I can push this type of Magic through. I mean, we’ve all been taught to meditate, and it didn’t take me that long to find my channels and identify them. Of course, the one that I was most familiar with was that which handles Healing Magic. It was far harder for me to find the others. But now I have all five of them identified, I just never thought of trying to push Battle Magic through any other of them.”
Liz squeezed Corda’s slender shoulders and cheerfully told her, “I have a good feeling about this. I really hope that you can turn around and whack Hera for all the times that she’s picked on you. If she weren’t such a good fighter, I would kick her ass, but none of us really are up to her skill set.”
Corda smiled, playing a vision of Hera knocked on her butt, eyes round with surprise. Laughing at the image and herself, Corda impulsively turned and gave her roommate a big hug, murmuring into her hair, “You are the best roommate ever!”
Chapter 19 – The Scientific Method
Extremely excited, the friends met down in the climbing area. Corda showed her friends, old and new, what she had been doing to condition her body. Immediately jumping on the idea, all of them joined the youngest in climbing and agility exercises. They all knew that Mages needed stamina and strength, irrespective of their Discipline. The entertainment and challenge of the two setups appealed to each of them.
Pleasantly warmed up with fluid muscles and energy welling in each of them, the young men set up a series of targets. Risee explained to Corda, “I am going to fire small missiles using my Maker Magic channels, and I would like you to watch with your inner eye as I do it. You may have to touch me to get a good picture, but that’s up to you. Okay?”
Feeling extremely nervous, Corda agreed, saying, “Okay, although I’m not too sure I’m going to be good at this.”
Her friend just laughed and said, “I have confidence in you. We are going to repeat this for all of our separate channels so that you can identify which one you can throw the battle spells through.”
Liz called out from where she and Argah sat against a rock, “Okay, guys. That’s enough delaying, let’s see some fireworks.”
Buoyed by the cheerful atmosphere, Corda stood close enough to Risee to feel the heat coming off of his body. Feeling excited and hopeful, the young girl watched as her Maker friend let small sparks come out of his hands and fly toward the first target.
Concentrating so that her inner vision laid over Risee, just as they had been taught in their Basic Magic classes, Corda was amazed to see a glowing pool within her friend that slid within tubes of orange from the center of his body to his hands. She could even track as the Magic separated from his body and became its own tiny pool, flying toward the targets. Excited, she glanced down at her own body and saw a small pool of orange but only very narrow, spindly tubes. Saddened, Corda knew that she would not be able to piggyback her Battle Magic onto her Maker channels.
“I can see it, Risee, when you do it, but my insides don’t match wel
l enough that I think I can actually push Battle Magic down that channel.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed, Corda. Right now, it’s just a big win that you can see the pool and channels. I’m also going to demonstrate my defensive spells because perhaps when you figure out which channel you can use, seeing the pattern of the spell that I cast will enable you to throw it better.”
The 13-year-old immediately felt more hopeful, and she agreed happily to watch him as he threw a defensive spell.
Acting as the attacker, Argah held a practice wand in her hand and started tentatively swinging at where Risee and Corda stood. At first, her blows were light, and Corda didn’t feel threatened by them at all. Able to concentrate on what Risee was doing, the young girl saw the same pool of energy as was used in the offenses spells as it expanded through Risee’s skin and moved away from his body in sheets. Awed by the complex symmetry and the brightness of his shield, Corda continued to watch with her inner eye as the pieces rapidly assembled into a plated sphere.
Argah increased the speed and power of her attacks, and Corda watched as Risee’s constructed shield started to fracture. Just before the protection reached a complete shattering, the young man called out in an exhausted-sounding voice, “Enough. That’s all I can do.”
Instantly Argah stopped the pounding blows of the wand and stepped back. Corda was amazed to see that Risee was dripping with sweat. Looking over at his young friend, the Maker explained, “The faster and the harder the hits, the more trouble I have holding it.”
Corda nodded her head and stated, “That makes sense. But this is amazing, you’ve taught me how to see which channel and where the Magic is flowing.”
Grinning, Risee answered her, “Then it was worth the sweat and the need to take a really long nap. How about if we get the other people in here so that you can see their channel usage.”
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It had been an exhausting afternoon with each of her friends, showing her how they moved their Magic when it came to fighting. Overall, the basic mechanisms for offensive and defensive Magic seemed to be the same from person to person and among Disciplines.
Each time she watched someone use their Magic repository and channels, Corda would examine deep into herself to identify where that pool of Magic was located, and how strong it and its conduits were. As they skipped from the Magic of the Maker to that of Artist, Artisan, and Bardic, Corda located each well within her own body, mapping out where such Magic would reside. In each case, the young girl could identify exactly where that pool was and look at the relative levels of Magic within her.
By the time they got around to Gerald, Corda was exhausted and feeling discouraged. Everyone was getting tired, and the young girl felt like she had wasted her friends’ time. “Gerald is in the Healer Discipline just like I am, so maybe we could skip putting him through the wringer and let you guys get something to eat.”
“No way are we going to let you skip any of us. We might figure out some more information, and why would we stop before you’ve looked at all of us?”
Corda looked up and saw a hurt look on Gerald’s face and realized that she had caused her best friend's pain. Words tumbled from her mouth as she stammered out, “I was just trying not to make everybody more tired and hungry.”
Gerald looked down on the ground and said, “It probably won’t help you. Remember me, the one that only has Healing for animals?”
“Please, Gerald. I do want to look at your Magic and how you do things. I just feel terrible that we haven’t had a breakthrough. Each time I could see a pool of Magic and the sort of pipes that run through their body that was used to push the Magic out. The way it gets pushed out is all similar, just coming from different repositories.
“When I look inside of me, I can find all those places, but none of them look like they are fully developed. They look skinny and undernourished like I haven’t been feeding them enough. Maybe I don’t belong at the Academy. Maybe my Magic is just broken like I am,” the young girl finished with a sob
A roar of protest from her friends swelled up, and Gerald grabbed her hands. Moving quickly, he hauled her abruptly across the practice yard to stand on the firing line, staring at the target. “Corda, watch closely. See if my Magic pool is the same as yours. Check out what I’m doing with it. If nothing else, you can help me improve my Magic.”
Corda felt immediately better, thinking to herself, It would be wonderful to help him for a change.
Focusing on her friend’s body as he began to throw the battle spell, Corda was shocked almost senseless at the vast pool of green Magic that pulsed all the way through the center of Gerald’s body. Far more massive in size than anyone else had shown, Gerald’s Magic pool was a brilliant spring-green color tinged with threads of gold that filled her with awe and excitement. When he threw the same missile spell from his fingertips, internally, it was totally different.
Instead of a flow routed through thin channels running from the center of his body to his extremities and skin, Gerald’s power seemed to instantly jump from his central reservoir to his fingertips and then flew out to hit the target, destroying it completely.
When the young man turned to look at her, Corda could see that he was prepared to hear that his Magic was not as strong as the others. Someone has made him ashamed of his Magic and told him that it is not important, the young girl thought to herself. Who would want to do that to him?
“Blessings of the 1001 gods, Gerald! I am so glad you showed me this. The reservoir of your Magic is huge, and you throw it differently than anyone else.”
Her friend was open-mouthed, staring at her in surprise. Instantly, the rest of them were clustered around Corda and Gerald, demanding details. Everyone was talking at once, and Corda was feeling overwhelmed.
Realizing the situation, Argah wrapped her arms around Corda from the back and hissed at the rest of them. The unexpected sound shut everyone up, and Corda could feel the tension in the sudden tension in Argah’s body as she realized that she had made a reptilian sound.
From the corner of her eye, Corda could see Argah’s face and realized that her friend had immediately looked at Keve to judge his reaction. Tracking her gaze, Corda saw a naked look of longing and adoration in the young Bards face that made her feel like she was looking at something so private that embarrassment flooded her face.
Argah found her voice and said, “All of you, calm down. For every other test, Corda was given time to look into her own mind to see where she could locate that similar energy. You’ve all jumped on her and scared her. Let the girl process!”
Risee answered, shamefacedly, “You are right, Argah. In fact, we are all exhausted and hungry. How about if we let Corda finish what she needs to do while the rest of us put all of the targets away. Then we can get something to eat. Perhaps afterward, we can regroup in a place where we won’t be overheard and try to make sense of what we’ve discovered.”
A chorus of agreement showed that nobody was opposing the plan, although Corda had already dropped her inner eye focus deep inside. The other energies had been easy to find, but this one was not. Looking for the right color of the pool, at first, Corda could not find anything that looked similar. I don’t understand this, she thought to herself. He and I are both within the Healer Discipline. Shouldn’t we have the same color of Magic?
Finally, Corda realized that while she had mapped out five pools of Magic, the pattern of the pool placement within her own body could actually be an incomplete circle. Curious to see if what had appeared to be empty space could contain the beautiful green that she had seen in Gerald, the young girl held the color in her mind and poked in the areas that appeared to be shadows.
Driven by an instinct that she didn’t question, Corda poked her Magic field as if she were investigating treacherous ice picturing a stick with a sharp end. Moving carefully around the arc of her identified Magic repositories, Corda found no resonance with the brilliant green light that she had seen in Gerald.
Sweat dripping down her face, and exhaustion shaking her limbs, the young girl was ready to give up. Discouraged and frustrated at the feeling that she was so close but as yet still disabled, in Corda’s mental view, she flung the spike tipped stick into the center of the circle, demanding of an uncaring universe, Why won’t you show me?!
Watching the stick flipped end over end in slow motion, Corda’s inner senses saw the stick hit and was immediately overwhelmed by an explosion of brilliant spring green. Not dizzy by the brightness and power, Corda cried out in pain and grabbed for support.
Vibrating like a large bell that had been claimed, Corda heard a faint voice calling her, “Corda, what is wrong? Do we need to call the Healers?” Recognizing Liz’s concerned voice, the young girl opened streaming eyes and answered, “Absolutely not, we have even more to talk about.”
Chapter 20 – Cramming for a Holiday
After the evening meal, the group of friends had met in Liz’s and Corda’s room, carefully closing the door so that the rest of the floor could not hear their discussion. Corda’s feeling of unease was apparently shared by some of the others because Risee suggested before they started talking that he throw a muffling spell to make eavesdroppers less effective.
Liz agreed, saying, “I think that’s a good idea. We could always apply for a study room at the back of the library. That has shielding spells already on it. When it was just one or two of us, it wasn’t so much of a problem, but three hot looking guys and three girls having closed-door meetings is going to cause a considerable rise in curiosity.”
Keve piped up and suggested, “I can easily book a practice room that has room enough for all of us. Bards are encouraged to work with groups, whether it’s for creating music, composing, or just practicing. It wouldn’t be anything unusual if we said we were working on a project for Winterfaire.”