Justin stood up and they walked out the door. He waited until she was safely inside Eric’s rooms before going to his next class.
Chapter 21
“Good afternoon,” said Eric as Lucy entered the room while motioning for her to take a seat.
“Good afternoon,” replied Lucy.
“You don’t look too worse for wear.”
Lucy laughed, “I feel fine. I never have to see him again so I’m not worried. Besides, there was no actual physical harm done.”
He nodded. “I assume that Justin also explained why I could hear you?”
“Yes, I guess I shouted a little loudly.”
“Loudly for normal conversation yes, but not too loud for being in trouble.”
“Did you find out what they wanted?”
“They wanted you. I thought that was obvious.”
“Yes, I guess I more meant, why me?” Lucy clarified.
“It turns out that they had a stone that seems to measure raw power. Quinn possesses the stone now and has blocked that from their memory as well.”
“So they were after power?”
“So it seems. More so, I think they assumed that the more power the woman they chose had, the greater the chance for any child conceived to have more power.”
“Does it work that way?” wondered Lucy.
“No, it does not work that way. Even if you were to have children with another person here, your child might not have any powers. They could be magically weak or strong, but it is random chance not proven science.”
“So, they planned to kidnap me, rape me repeatedly until I bore them a child with magical powers, and then what?”
“I’m not sure they thought that far in advance, but I’m sure they would have killed you, eventually,” replied Eric.
“I’m not sure I want to know the answer to the next question, but I feel the need to ask. Obviously, after pounding on my door, they must have realized that there was no way I’d go willingly. How did they plan to control me, and is that possible?”
“It sounds like they were very primitive-minded and did not understand what they were dealing with,” said Eric. “They should have known that going after someone with power was dangerous. They seemed to think that you were not a danger to them because you are a woman. They assumed they would be able to overpower you, knock you out, take you back to their country, chain you to a wall, and all would be accomplished.”
“And if they managed to do all that, they expected chains to hold me? And no one to come after me?”
“Like I said, a very primitive plan. They had no idea what they were dealing with.”
Lucy rolled her eyes, “It is hard for me to be afraid of someone that stupid.”
Eric laughed.
“Remember, even stupid people can get lucky. In regards to your other questions, yes, there are certain objects that can offset magic.”
“Really?” asked Lucy, suddenly worried.
“A nasty thought, I know. However, it is not as bad as you may think. The knowledge to make them is no longer available. Some of the simple objects are not a threat. There are a couple rings or trinkets that let the wearer know someone is performing magic, and they can neutralize some smaller amounts of magic, but a large scale attack would overcome them. There is nothing that allows someone the ability to funnel your power through themselves. There are a couple of necklaces that when put on, would make you unable to do anything but the smallest things. That is partially why we do arms training here too. If a student ever found themselves in that situation, the necklace would not impede them from fighting normally. Althric and his cronies did not have anything like that with them.”
“Good to know. I am interested in these necklaces.”
“Another subject for another time and place. You need not worry about those things currently. I know you are curious. Don’t worry, we will talk about them again.”
“Will you tell me more about the stone they had then?” asked Lucy.
“No, I think that will have to be another discussion as well.”
“Can I ask about Quinn?”
“You can.”
“But I won’t get any answers?”
“Nothing more than vague answers that you could guess. Quinn is in charge of the School. Quinn oversees everything, though rarely deals with students, and is very powerful.”
“And that’s about all you’re going to tell me?”
“Quinn’s favorite color is red.”
Lucy smiled at that. It was not much, but it was something.
“Will I ever meet Quinn?”
“Probably.”
Lucy felt that their discussion was reaching its end.
“I was wondering about my family,” she said.
“I understand. A lot has been happening to you recently and it is only rational that you would want to talk to them. Unfortunately, no time has passed there yet. I’ll let you know when we need to decide on a plan.”
Eric said all this with a sense of finality so she let it go at that. She missed her family, but if no time had passed, there wasn’t much she could do but wait. She wanted to ask Eric how much longer she would have to wait, but she got the feeling that he had other things to do today. He said he would tell her when they had to do something and she trusted that he would.
“Any last pieces of advice?” she asked.
“I’m told that you are training hard and learning fast. I would suggest that you continue to train hard and learn fast.”
Lucy smiled.
“I think you should go back to your room until dinner. By then Althric will have left and you can return to your normal schedule.”
“Thank you, Eric,” she said and left to return to her room.
Dinner was an interesting affair. The Dining Hall was buzzing about what had happened with Althric. Since he had been there most of the day, the students had had to watch what they said, but now that he was gone, they could talk freely. Rumors were flying about which student had been attacked and what had really happened. Lucy felt very self-conscious about walking into a room where almost everyone was talking about you without knowing it was you specifically that they were talking about. She grabbed some pasta, a roll, and three kiwis and headed to their usual table.
When she arrived, she couldn’t help smiling. Her friends did not give her worried glances like half the room who had figured it out did. No, instead, Gavin and Justin were wholeheartedly invested in a pancake eating contest.
“Aren’t pancakes breakfast food?” asked Maya, looking both amused and disgusted at the event taking place in front of her.
Both guys shook their heads, but neither stopped chewing to argue with her. Gavin folded a pancake into quarters, dipped it in the syrup, and shoved it into his mouth.
“Breakfast food is acceptable at all times of day,” said Lucy.
Both guys nodded and pointed in her direction to show their agreement, chewing madly. Lucy looked at Maya.
“So, is this a timed event or are we going to watch to see which one falls over first?”
“I’m supposed to be timing them,” responded Maya. “Counting shouldn’t matter. They counted the pancakes into stacks of 10 to begin with so we can count based on that.”
“Stacks of 10?” wondered Lucy. “I can’t remember the last time I ate 10 pancakes, much less set out with the intent to eat more.”
“I’m with you on that one,” answered Maya. “They are both on about 15 at this point.”
Lucy watched, laughing, and began to rip bits off her roll and eat them. She laughed harder when Gavin tried folding two pancakes together and shoved them into his mouth. Despite the size of his mouth, it was a rather unsuccessful attempt that led to Gavin almost choking and having to drink some milk to help them down. This slowed him up considerably though and allowed Justin to sneak ahead in the pancake debauchery contest.
“You said you were timing them. How long is this going to last?” asked Lucy. She wasn’t sure w
hat would happen to either of them if they ate much more.
Maya opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by the arrival of Darren.
“Are you ok?” he asked quietly, sitting down next to her and looking at her with concern.
The effects of that simple question were many.
Lucy sighed; she had been hoping to get through dinner without having to go over what happened last night in detail, even to someone like Darren who meant well.
Maya called out, “Time!”
Justin and Gavin tossed the half-finished pancakes on their plates and finished chewing what was in their mouths, though without their former zeal.
Darren looked at the others confusedly.
Justin took a large swallow of milk.
“Who won?” asked Lucy, ignoring Darren’s question.
Justin and Gavin started to count their remaining pancakes. Despite the double pancake setback, Gavin had managed to pull ahead by two in the final count.
“Let me guess,” said Lucy. “The contest was over when one person finished their pancakes or when someone asked me about last night.”
Justin looked semi-guilty but nodded.
“So, the whole point was to try to keep me amused as long as possible?”
“That and eat pancakes. Never underestimate the joy of eating pancakes,” said Gavin, spearing a sausage on a fork and taking a bite.
“You just ate a ton of pancakes,” said Maya.
“Yes?”
“And now you are eating more?” she questioned further in disgust.
“Sausage and pancakes go together.”
Maya shivered.
Lucy laughed.
“Ok,” said Darren, “Now that the pancake contest is over, can I ask how you are doing?”
“I’m fine,” said Lucy. “Really,” she added as he looked at her doubtfully.
“What happened?”
Justin rolled his eyes. “Leave her alone. She just had an ordeal. Do you have to make her relive it?”
“Sorry,” said Darren looking abashed.
“It’s ok, and it wasn’t that big of deal.” Justin cocked a red eyebrow in her direction, and Lucy ignored him. “I would just prefer not to relive it if it’s all the same to you.”
“That’s fine,” said Darren. He still looked very unsure of himself.
Lucy felt bad. He was just concerned. Justin didn’t have to snap at him like that.
“Really, Darren, I’m ok. I’ll tell you about it some other time,” she smiled at him, trying to put him at ease. It must have worked because he smiled back. She changed the subject.
“I wonder what Orin will have thought up for us to do tomorrow.”
“Well, you’ve already done it in pairs,” said Gavin, eating another sausage as Maya watched with a look of horror on her face. “Maybe he’ll do threes this time, or tie your hands behind your back, or tie you together, or have Tannin chase after you with a sword, or make you do it in the dark.”
“At night? Wouldn’t he have to reschedule class for night?”
“Not necessarily,” said Justin. “He can put a spell on the course to make it dark as night.”
“It’s rather disconcerting,” added Maya, “because it’s dark, but there are no stars or a moon or anything. It’s both difficult and creepy.”
“I suppose there is a spell that can help?” asked Lucy hopefully.
“Yes, but that would be cheating,” said Justin. “It is supposed to be an exercise and a challenge. If you use magic, you don’t learn what you are supposed to. Also, in some situations it is unwise or dangerous to use magic, so learning to trust yourself to run in the dark, can be quite useful.”
“We learn some interesting things here. Do they really think we’ll use half this stuff?” asked Darren.
“Part of me doesn’t care if I ever use half this stuff,” said Lucy. “I just think it’s cool I can do it.”
“Besides,” added Justin, “I think their goal is to keep us alive so they don’t feel their time is wasted. If you never need to use a skill, fine, however, they would rather have it that way than have you run across a situation that they could have trained you for but didn’t. Eat your pasta,” he directed the last comment at Lucy, who had not eaten anything more than her roll.
Lucy looked down at her pasta and shrugged.
“Well,” said Darren, “I have homework to get done.” He got up and left.
Watching him leave, Lucy noticed that the Dining Hall was still full of people, and most of them were looking at her. Lucy did not like lots of people watching her under good conditions. These did not qualify as good conditions. She got up to leave. The others followed her, Justin grabbing the kiwis off her plate. They went to a study room and made themselves comfortable. A fire was already burning merrily in the fireplace giving the room a warm, relaxing feeling. Justin started slicing the kiwis magically with hand motions.
“I suppose you were just waiting to get out of there before you started to ask questions?” asked Lucy.
Justin handed her a slice of kiwi, which she ate.
“No, Justin already filled us in so we wouldn’t badger you,” said Maya.
Gavin nodded in agreement.
“I’m sorry I made you meet him. I feel rather responsible,” said Maya.
“This is not your fault,” protested Lucy, looking alarmed at the idea.
Maya nodded, and they left it at that. Lucy was glad; she did not feel the need to go into could-haves and should-haves. It had happened, and it was done. She absentmindedly ate another slice of kiwi Justin handed her.
“So, what are we studying tonight?” asked Lucy.
“Ping pong,” said Justin, handing her another slice of kiwi.
“Ping pong? We are studying ping pong?”
“No, we are playing ping pong. Maya, a table if you would.”
Maya turned the table in the study room into a ping pong table while Lucy ate another slice of kiwi. Maya moved to one end, and Gavin followed her. Justin maneuvered Lucy to the other end of the table and gave her the last piece of kiwi as he explained.
“This should be a way to have some fun as well as work on some basics. It will give you practice in reacting, repelling, and aiming. You can use hand motions or your mind. Volley for serve?”
Justin bounced the ball in the direction of the other team. Maya sent it towards Lucy with a hand motion. Lucy sent it back with another hand motion, and so the game began. Lucy was laughing, having fun, and getting better with some of the skills she had been learning, and her mind was nowhere near Althric. Justin and Lucy won the first game by three points.
“Shall we up the challenge?” asked Justin with a grin.
“Always,” responded Gavin, competitive to the core.
Maya rolled her eyes. She wished everyone would just play nice.
Justin pulled out a second ping pong ball. The first one was white. Justin changed the color of the second one to blue and they began. This was one of those ideas that sounded simple in theory, but in practice was much more complicated. It seemed like there were more than two balls flying around as they bounced them back and forth. It made scoring difficult. Gavin didn’t make it any easier when he added a third, green ball to the fray. The game ended with all four of them collapsing on the couches laughing. No one had any idea who won the second game.
Maya pulled out a book on one of Kinowenn’s twenty something languages and started muttering declensions. Gavin sighed and pulled out his homework for his tracking class. Then, he worked on answering why it was useless to cover your tracks magically if you were being followed by a magical creature. Simply put, most magical creatures could sense magic. If you were powerful enough, they could sense your trail. Using magic to conceal magic would only make the trail stronger to them.
Justin didn’t seem to have any other homework to do, or he simply didn’t care to do it right now. Either way, he challenged Lucy to some more ping pong, one ball only. They played one on one u
ntil Maya mentioned it was late and they should be getting to bed.
Justin walked Lucy back to her room.
“Thanks,” she said as they walked.
“For what?”
“For making me laugh tonight and for making sure I ate something.”
He nodded, “You’re welcome.”
“How’s your stomach?”
“Hmmm? Oh, from the pancakes? Fine,” he shrugged it off. “We had been talking about doing that anyways. Today seemed to be a good day to actually do it.”
They reached her door.
“Goodnight,” said Lucy, opening her door.
Justin winked and walked to his own room.
“Why do you wink?” she asked with her mind, teasingly.
“Throws you off guard,” he shot back without even turning around.
Lucy smiled and closed her door. She couldn’t argue with that. Although, she decided she preferred the wink to the intense looks he sometimes gave her. They made her want to shiver. She undressed and climbed into bed. At first she was worried that she would have trouble falling asleep, but she was out within minutes of laying her head on her pillow.
Chapter 22
Lucy woke the next morning ready to work out. Her muscles were sore from all the activity over the weekend, but she was ready to learn more. The more ways she had to defend herself, the less likely she was to get hurt. Not a flawless theory, but one Lucy was willing to work with. She got dressed and went down to breakfast.
She smiled as she noticed that Gavin and Justin had taken some of almost everything that was offered for breakfast except pancakes. In fact, it looked like they had bypassed the waffles as well due to similarities. They smiled at her.
She got down to the practice field and started to stretch out. The rest of the class joined her shortly and followed her example. Orin expected them to be ready to go when class began, and he worked them hard. Today was no exception.
They did not learn anything new or different, but he expected to see progress. He timed them through the obstacle course. Darren and Lucy raced the last few yards breathing hard to tie for first, Grant a few yards behind. Then they sparred for the rest of the class with practice swords. Orin walked about giving them tips.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 15