by B. T. Narro
“Why is the vibmtaer designed like that?” I asked.
Leon let out his breath in exasperation, but at least Barrett did not appear frustrated as he answered. “The vibmtaer is the only device in the world that can measure a note. It is already exceptionally designed and cannot be improved. There is a metal within it called birlabright that you probably haven’t heard of in Bhode because it is rare and can only be found in Curdith Forest. It changes color depending on the vibration of mana nearby. The rest of the vibmtaer acts as a magnet to draw mana in near the birlabright to increase the efficiency. A different metal is used for that. It’s called fusemanol.”
Leon huffed out a breath. “None of this matters right now,” he argued.
“You can’t tell what’s going to matter and what isn’t to someone who knows nothing about the subject. He might find interest in devices later because this conversation stirred something.”
It was all overwhelming, but the thing that made me the most nervous was that Leon would be my instructor and not Barrett. Why was Leon chosen for the job if he was this impatient and irritable? There had to be something special about him, but I had yet to see it.
“Can you explain a little bit more about how all this works?” I asked Barrett. “Understanding it will help me take the test.”
“Yes. In very general terms, everyone has a range of mana just like a range to their voice. Right now you can cast a single note of mana. It’s like making a sound with your voice—you can change the frequency by lowering or raising the pitch of your voice. Your mana is the same—you can lower or raise the frequency of your mana by using your mind.”
“That’s clear,” I said.
“Your natural mana is at the frequency of uF,” he continued. “Slowing your natural vibration will lower it below uF while increasing its vibration will raise it above.”
“That I understand, but how do you make magic from my mana?”
Leon looked like he wanted to strangle me, but I ignored him.
“A spell is usually composed of multiple notes at the same time,” Barrett explained. “The name for this is the same name as a group of musical notes, a chord. Spells are simple to describe but extremely difficult to perform. They are just a chord of mana—multiple notes of mana used at once. It’s the specific notes of mana within the cord that determine what type of spell it will be.”
“Oh, sounds simple enough.” I spoke with relief. “So my natural mana of uF, or in other words Upper F, is just another note of mana, and it is high range?” I asked.
“High frequency, yes,” Barrett slightly corrected me with a proud smile. “Everyone’s natural mana is different, but men typically have a lower vibration and women higher.”
“What does it mean that mine is very high?”
“It most likely means, unfortunately, that you won’t have access to many spells that someone with a more neutral mana will be able to cast.”
“There’s no benefit?” I asked.
“There is one great benefit you may already be prospering from,” Barrett replied.
“It’s a curse,” Leon spat.
Barrett gave him a disapproving look with his fatherly gaze. He set his dark eyes back on me.
“Variants of F, like Lower F and Upper F, have properties of life in them. There are spells in which uF is the foundation, like forms of healing, but there are other uses as well.”
“You’re already stronger because of uF,” Leon said. “If you’re not a complete fool, you might’ve noticed that you don’t have to eat as much as others do. If you do, you’ll get fatter than they will unless you work it off.”
It was something I’d noticed about my body.
“And you may live longer,” Barrett added with raised eyebrows.
“How much longer?” I asked.
“There is little science behind it.”
“Aye,” Leon agreed, “which is why I actively try not to use my uF anymore. It’s been nothing but a curse, like I said.”
“You’re the same?” I asked.
He seemed insulted by the question. “Can we get on with this, councilman?”
“Very well.”
I had blissfully forgotten that everyone else was waiting for me to finish, but I had so many more questions.
“Pay attention,” Leon said. “It’s time to prove yourself. You’re going to take your note of uF and increase the vibration as high as you can so we can find your maximum frequency.”
“How do I do that?”
“Normally? Through hundreds of hours of practice, but we don’t have time for that. I’ll give you a minute. Go.”
A sweat broke out as I took hold of what I now knew to be mana. I muttered a curse under my breath. I still had very little idea about any of this, but I had spent years fooling with my mana. I knew how to alter it. I’d just never been told what that altering was doing.
I could feel it buzzing quicker as I put force into it. The feeling was like trying to hit a high note with my voice. It was something that had become easier over the many years I had toyed with the mana. I felt it shift numerous times. It was just like hearing my voice rise through many pitches, only I sensed my mana without using my ears or my eyes. It was all in my mind, as real as a memory.
“Airinold’s taint!” Leon shouted as he stared at the vibmtaer. “Higher! Higher, Jon!”
I pushed and pushed, not realizing until then that I had my hand out as if to grasp the mana that continued to shake faster. Soon it became so unstable that I lost my hold. I collapsed to my knees as I panted for breath.
“Damn fine job!” Leon said as he slapped my back.
Barrett was grinning ear to ear as he was writing something down in his notebook.
I got to my feet for a look at the vibmtaer, but the panel at the front was clear again. “What color did it get to?” I asked, still catching my breath.
Barrett put his finger over uF on the color chart. “You started here on the bottom of the fourth column. But you quickly went through all the colors here on the third column.” He moved his finger down each row, traversing all the light colors of pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. “Most people can’t make it to the third column at all, and I thought you would stop there, but you pushed through to the second column.” He slowly moved his finger down the second column, listing each one he passed. “uuC, uuDm…and then, finally, uuD.”
I could tell from his expression that uuD meant something good, but just how good, I had no idea.
“I’ve heard of a woman reaching Up-Upper D,” Leon said with a laugh. “But never a man.”
“So what does it mean?” I asked.
“It means you are probably going to specialize in dvinia,” Barrett said warmly. “It’s a magical art very high in frequency. We don’t know too much about it, but there is one spell that everyone has heard of.”
“Everyone who knows a lick about sorcery,” Leon said with a huge smile that looked a little silly on him. “Have you heard of it, Jon?”
I shook my head.
“This might not mean anything to you right now but memorize it: uF, uG, uuC, uuD. It’s the only spell you’re going to practice for a while.”
I repeated the four notes twice. Then I asked, “Does the order matter?”
“There is no order. You have to execute each of the four notes at the same time or the spell won’t work.”
“But I still can’t do more than one at a time.”
“You will eventually. Hold on a moment; you can’t go much lower than uF, right?”
“I think I can,” I said, full of pride.
“I doubt so,” Leon said. “But let’s find out.”
I took a few breaths to compose myself. Pulling the mana out of my body was no longer a strange sensation. Akin to spitting, it just took a little concentration. The more concentration I put into it, the more force and volume I could achieve. I didn’t bother with a large volume of my mana, because it didn’t seem to matter right now. I p
ut all of my focus on altering it once it was hovering there.
Lowering the frequency was harder, but again, it was something I had done many times without knowing what I was doing. I thought of it as trying to calm uF, akin to slowing my heart rate through deep breaths and meditation.
I pushed it as low as I could and felt like I reached my limit almost instantaneously. The mana buzzed quieter in my mind, but I couldn’t tell just how slowly it vibrated compared to the natural frequency of my mana at uF. I felt sweat drip down my face as I struggled, incapable of telling if I was changing it at all anymore.
“Can you go any lower?” Barrett asked. The disappointment in his tone made me push harder.
“Did it change?” I asked through the immense strain, my hands shaking.
“Yes.” He shared a worried look with Leon.
I stopped before collapsing this time, doubling over as I gasped for breath. Barrett was looking at me as if he was about to inform me that I was deathly sick. But Leon seemed furious.
“What the hell have you been doing to your mana all these years?” Leon yelled.
From his seat, Barrett handed me a cloth to wipe the sweat from my face. He seemed too disappointed to look up at me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I fooled around with it a lot.”
“That’s what your cranny hunter is for! You should’ve left your mana alone.”
“No, he should’ve had proper training since he first started using his mana. This is not his fault.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted. “How low did I reach?”
Barrett turned the color chart toward me. “Most male sorcerers can reach as low as here, lC, or Lower C.” He pointed to the top row of the eighth column. “But most of these men usually can’t reach a frequency above uD, even after years of training.” He pointed to Upper D. It was on the same column as my natural mana, Upper F, but it was three rows before uF. So it wasn’t even as high as my natural frequency.
“As you can see,” Barrett continued, “you have very peculiar mana. Even most women can’t reach higher than uB, but you went well above that. We thought earlier that this would mean that you would specialize in dvinia, which takes place in this range.” He moved his hand around the second, third, and fourth columns. “But you pushed your mana to a very low frequency, down here.” He pointed at the top of the eighth column. “Lower C. This is what most male sorcerers can reach as their lowest frequency.”
I didn’t know what any of the individual notes meant or represented, but I did understand they were saying that my lowest frequency was the same as most men, and yet I could reach a much higher frequency than they could…than even most of the women, whose mana was usually higher.
“Isn’t that good?” I asked. “I have a wide range.”
“You don’t want a wide range,” Barrett explained.
“That’s why we hoped uF was the lowest note you could reach,” Leon said. “This is taking too long. I say we just give him an essence of fire and be done with it.”
“I’m inclined to agree.” Barrett stood as if this was over.
“Wait, what exactly are you both saying?” I had no inclination toward anything to do with fire. Dvinia, now that sounded like something I should pursue, especially considering how excited they’d seemed at the idea.
“We’re saying you’re not going to specialize in anything without an essence,” Leon explained. “Your range is too wide.”
“But wouldn’t a wide range mean I can cast many different spells?”
“Theoretically,” Barrett said, “but not practically.”
“You can explain it to the young man,” Leon said as he made his exit. “I’ll figure out who’s next.”
I told Barrett with my heart on my sleeve, “I don’t want to specialize in fire. There must be something else.”
He put up his hands. “It doesn’t have to be fire, but you will require an essence.”
I had no idea what that was. “Then can’t I use an essence of dvinia?”
“There is no essence of dvinia. There are only essences of erto: fire, water, ice, and air.”
All of the elements seemed too limited, and it sounded like just about any sorcerer could learn them. “Dvinia is what I want to learn. I know I can with just a little instruction.” I had learned everything else that way.
He gave a sigh. “Allow me to explain. Your knowledge of mana right now is like a toddler trying to learn to speak. Imagine this hypothetical scenario for a moment. There is a small boy who can only make a few different sounds. He could say any word that requires these sounds. He could even practice shouting these words, singing them, or holding one part of the word for longer than the other. This little boy would master these sounds quickly. He would speak words with these sounds better than any other toddler trying to say the same words. A small range of mana is like that. This boy won’t be able to make words that involve other sounds, but he will excel at a few specific words, while other toddlers will struggle with all words.”
He stood up as if he would soon be done with me. “Most spells require a chord of three notes to be cast at the same time. Someone who has a narrow range, like from C to uC, can create spells in that range much easier than someone like yourself, who has a much wider range. It’s going to take weeks for you to feel the difference between close notes like uF and uG, and you’re likely to get confused between octaves, like uG and G. You’ll spend hundreds of hours just learning the difference between most notes. Now imagine you have to accurately cast three notes at the same time, and if even one of them is slightly off, the spell could seriously injure you.”
“I can train,” I said. “I would just focus on the notes in the range of dvinia.”
He chuckled. “You don’t even know what dvinia is yet.”
“I don’t need to. I saw Leon’s and your reaction to it.”
“There is plenty you can do with erto. There are many people in this world who would give up one of their hands for what you have. You can choose from any of the essences. That is extremely rare even for a sorcerer. Most people can only choose one or two depending on their range, and some of us, like myself, cannot choose an essence at all.”
I was not ready to give up on dvinia. It was true that I didn’t know what it did, but they had told me that it was something I was capable of using. How could I give up something that excited them that much if I was capable of doing it? I tried to think of some way to argue my point, but first I needed to know more about spells.
“You are a sorcerer, correct?” I asked.
“I am. It’s how I was able to tell that your mana was uF.”
“What is your range?”
“I have a narrow and low range. I am very good at ordia because of that. My specific class is called a harbinger. You, too, will work your way up to a class. You will one day be a mage.”
“What is the class called of someone who specializes in dvinia?” This would tell me more about what I might be able to accomplish.
“Just like someone who specializes in the other magical arts, there are multiple classes available to them depending on their affinity toward certain notes within and even outside of the general range of their magical art. Enchanters, for example must use ordia and earth to enchant gems, or ordia and mtalia to enchant metal.”
“What about someone who just specializes in dvinia?”
He took a slow breath before he answered. “They are wizards.”
“That.” I pointed. I had heard the word only in myth. “That’s what I want to be. A wizard who uses sword, is there a name for that?”
Barrett looked as if he had eaten something that he was just starting to realize was spoiled. “That would be a battlewiz…or a bladedancer.”
Yes, that sounded more like me than a mage.
“I will learn dvinia,” I assured him. “I promise I will.”
He was shaking his head. “Jon, listen to me. The king is not going to house and train you this way.”<
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“Can you help me convince him otherwise?”
He raised his voice. “I would be the one advising him to throw you out of the castle!”
I was stunned. I had thought Barrett was on my side no matter what. He had sacrificed a lot to get me here.
I supposed I didn’t have any friends here after all.
“I’ve had enough of this conversation,” Barrett continued, his frown deepening. “You are lucky to be here. If you forget that, you are not going to be happy with the result. Fire and water are important for any capable sorcerer to learn, and they are the easiest at the middle of the spectrum. You are going to start with one of your choosing and then move on to the other. Depending on how quickly you learn to control them, you may be able to learn other spells. But casting without an essence takes even the most exceptional casters months of training. Yet a few months might be all we have.”
“Why, what is happening?”
“It will be explained once you and the others can be trusted and have proven yourselves, as you are failing to do right now by showing insubordination. Go back to the courtyard and wait with the others until everyone has been tested. We have already spent long enough on you.”
I left as I told myself the four notes Leon had revealed earlier when he thought I could be a wizard: uF, uG, uuC, uuD.
I would find a way to cast this spell soon enough.
CHAPTER SIX
I was rattled as I slowly made my way out of the great hall floor by floor. I passed by Leon leading a young woman the opposite way.
I looked back to find her glancing back as well, our gazes meeting. She quickly looked away as if embarrassed to be found looking back at me.
“Hello,” I called out without thinking.
She stopped and turned around to face me fully. “Hi,” she said with a nervous smile.
I had seen many kinds of beautiful women in Tryn, but I felt a warmth that spread through my chest when I looked at this one. Her dark eyes were large and striking. She had pouty lips below a nose of a gentle curve and slope, and the thick locks of her dark brown hair cascaded down beyond her shoulders. I had an acute urge to know more about her, but I couldn’t get my mouth to move.