by Brian Keller
Lord General Hennit Arkady interrupted his thoughts when he placed both mailed fists on the edge of the table near the spymaster and leaned over him, casting him in shadow, “You hear that? It seems that our uneasy alliance must continue…” One corner of his mouth was turned upward. His wry half-smile faded as he finished his thought, “for the good of the realm.”
*****
After the late night on the docks and the lengthy questioning that followed, Cooper was slow to rise the following morning but Kolrem made sure he didn’t miss breakfast. Last night when Cooper got back to the sleeping bay everyone was already asleep. Kolrem must’ve satisfied their curiosity, thankfully.
After eating, Cooper rushed to the Arena hoping to find Master Brais. He wanted to ask him what the people from the warehouse had to say in response to his questions. Upon entering the room, he looked around as he caught his breath. As far as he could tell, the room was empty. Knowing the man’s ability in making himself unseen, Cooper thought it best to call out rather than just assume he was alone, “Master Brais! Are you in here?” Silence was the only reply. He didn’t have time to look search for his stealth teacher. He only had about twenty minutes before Miss Camilla’s class, and he still had to walk back to the other side of the Guild.
After Combat class, the boys were on their way to the dining hall when Cooper felt an odd sensation in the pit of his stomach. While it wasn’t painful, it was a sense of something about to burst; like a caterpillar working to break free of its cocoon. Except what he was feeling would be more akin to the caterpillar expanding in all directions and the cocoon fracturing in multiple locations. Cooper suspected he knew what was happening and quickly made his way to Master Worthan’s classroom, battling a few waves of nausea as he went. Kolrem followed. As he burst into the room without knocking, he blurted, “Sir! I think it’s happening!”
Master Worthan quickly got up and walked to him, gathering him up as he turned him around. He led Cooper back out the door, instructing Kolrem, “Write a note saying that I should be back within the hour and leave it on my desk if you please, Mister Kolrem.” Kolrem looked like he wanted to say something but Master Worthan was already out of the room. As the old man closed the door behind him he whispered, “We’ll need to make it to the Smithy. You shouldn’t damage much in there. It’s all metal and stone. Can you make it that far?” Cooper couldn’t help thinking that he didn’t voluntarily have a real say in the matter. He simply nodded, tucked his chin, and walked faster.
He was fairly certain that they’d made it to the Smithy, but at some point he’d lost all sense of where he was. He remembered Master Worthan helping him into a kneeling position but that was the last thing he felt before the pain and heat washed over him. Surely Master Worthan hadn’t cast him into the forge, but that’s how it felt; except he could tell that his skin wasn’t burning or blistering. This went on for several hours, or maybe it was only a few seconds. Then, as suddenly as the fire had come, it left. To be replace immediately by cold. Such extreme cold as he’d never felt before. And the pain, it almost defied description. He’d had body parts plunged into ice baths before, to reduce the swelling of an injury. This felt like the ice was in his veins, and then in his very bones, and then the cold consumed him. He couldn’t see anything anymore, just thousands of pinpoints of silver and white light that expanded in size and intensity until they washed out his vision. The brighter the light became, the more cold and pain he felt. He thought it seemed odd, since once cold had set in, usually numbness followed. He held onto the hope that the numbness would come. It didn’t. Abruptly, as if someone slammed a window shut, the cold left him and the fire returned, stronger than before. He had begun to think that anything would be a relief from the cold. Now he only wanted the cold to come back. As if in answer to his unvoiced pleading, the cold returned. As the sensations alternated between heat and cold the pain would diminish slightly but then return stronger, like pulses. From time to time, some of the specks of light would burst in a wild array of color, sending fragments of snowflakes that ripped through him like shards of glass. He might even think it was beautiful if it didn’t feel like it was cutting his flesh to ribbons. This seemed to go on and on, in ever-increasing waves. He thought he heard someone screaming, then he realized it sounded very much like his own voice. Surely it wasn’t him but even if it was, he certainly had a good reason. At some level he understood that he’d likely lost all ability to estimate the passing of time, but it felt like it had been going on for hours. Finally, the waves of piercing fragments of light began to feel less sharp, and then the waves began to lose their intensity. Eventually it felt like he could start to breathe again, even though it felt like the air caught on the ragged edges of his throat. He used each breath as a focal point for returning to reality. After a few seconds, he started noticing his heartbeat. Though still rather fast, it was slowing. He thought he heard someone calling his name, but he couldn’t open his eyes. Not yet, the light was still too bright. Better to keep his eyes shut than be blinded. After a few more breaths he heard Master Worthan’s voice, “Cooper, do you think you can sit? I can help you.” He didn’t feel like he wanted to open his eyes yet and he wasn’t sure if he replied or not but he could feel a pair of gentle hands guiding his legs and lifting his shoulders until he was upright again. As everything began to adjust and settle, he decided that being upright helped him feel more “in the moment” and as the blinding light faded, he opened his eyes.
*****
Iona woke and sat bolt upright. She felt like she’d just been staring at the sun and still had the after-image of it burning at the back of her eyes. “What had just happened? What had she just felt?” This wasn’t one of her fellows’ shenanigans, she’d learned to recognize their ‘signature’. Besides, this was real power! And it wasn’t all that far away, maybe as far away as the Trade Quarter, but not far into it. She wondered whether a small group of Mages had formed some sort of collaborative effort on a project. That kind of thing had happened before and she’d felt it, but this didn’t feel like that. This felt like the elements involved were all over the map, as if there was no pattern or focus at all, yet the undercurrents of it felt familiar. “It’s him. It’s the boy.” She could still feel it, like you could still feel the warmth of the sun on your skin for a minute or two even after you’d stepped into the shade. She turned to let her legs hang off the side of the bed. “I suppose I’ll not be getting back to sleep any time soon.”, she thought as she pulled sandals onto her feet. She stepped across to her chair, where she’d draped her smock before going to bed. She walked to her door as she pulled it on and tied her belt around her waist. “I suppose I should investigate. I am a Hunter, after all.”
*****
It took a few minutes for Cooper’s sight to adjust. In fact, he smelled the coals of the forge first and wondered for a moment whether the heat was returning to punish him again. Master Worthan must’ve seen him cringe. The old man said, “You’re all right now. Welcome back, Mister Cooper.” He blinked a couple times and the old man’s long white and grey beard came into focus. He started to look around the room but felt a wave of disorientation. He cleared his throat a few times and wanted to remark on how sore his throat felt, but didn’t yet trust his voice. Master Worthan slowly released his steadying hand from Cooper's shoulder. Cooper remained upright and the old man stepped briskly over to the water barrel and drew out a large ladleful of water. He guided Cooper’s hands to hold the ladle without actually relinquishing his own hold of it. Cooper almost gasped at the sensation of cold and wet on his palms. This time the chill stayed in one place, and it really wasn’t that cold. He labored to raise the ladle to his lips. The old man helped him drink.
After a few sips became eager gulps, the ladle was empty. Master Worthan asked, “Better?” Cooper turned his head and looked around the room. Except for the two of them, the room was otherwise vacant. For the first time, he noticed that the old man was wearing a freshly singed leather apron
. As he squinted to focus his vision he asked, “Did I…?” As he trailed off, Master Worthan finished his sentence, “Throw fire? Well, yes and no. You sent some fire in several directions, as I suspected you might. Manifestations can be unpredictable events. Thus my motives for bringing you here. I sincerely doubt you’ll have the ability to do so consciously, but then again some research papers that Felis recently procured for me suggests that we shouldn’t rule out any possibilities. Suffice it to say that your ability to Channel should provide you with some form of access to each element. In what way is yet to be determined. I would suspect however, that your connection with Shadow, via Nature, will likely have remained unchanged.” Cooper took another few breaths and raised himself up on one knee. The disorientation had passed but he still felt a little wobbly. Master Worthan stood and patiently waited for his next actions, whether to stand unassisted, or ask for assistance. Cooper hesitated. Master Worthan suggested, “The forge is right there. Use it.” His voice had a matter-of-factly tone that caused Cooper to look at him with an inquisitive expression, “Use it, sir?” Master Worthan nodded, “You feel weak, yes? The forge represents energy. Can you use it?” Now Cooper understood and thought, “Of course! And why wouldn’t I be able to?” He mentally reached out in the direction of the coals and absorbed the heat, letting it build inside him. Still, feeling it build versus converting it to something he could use was two different things. It still felt natural but now something was different, before Manifesting he could simply reach out for any ambient energy and use it to amplify his speed. Now, he wasn’t trying to be faster, he was trying to replace the energy he’d spent. He looked at his hands and flexed his fingers. As he felt his muscles moving it was like turning a key in a lock, energy soon coursed from his shoulders to his fingertips. He did the same with his legs, without even looking. Cooper stood, “Now we can truly begin, sir?” The old man chuckled, “Patience, lad. Yes, but remember you’ll need to play-act your transition difficulties. At least for a few days. To wake up one morning un-Manifested, and able to fly across the Trap by dinnertime will result in more questions than either of us is prepared to answer.” Cooper nodded. The old man had made an unquestionably valid point. He didn’t feel especially hungry but a question came to mind, “Is it still lunchtime, sir? How long have we been here?” Master Worthan thought a moment, “Perhaps forty minutes. Less than an hour certainly. In any case, it should still be lunchtime. If you don’t feel like eating we should make an appearance as I help you back to your sleeping bay. It would raise questions if you were to attend classes before tomorrow morning.” Cooper looked at the old man with dread, “What will I do for the rest of the day, sir? I can’t just sit on the edge of my bed until tonight!” Master Worthan shrugged, “Perhaps a few more pages in Miss Camilla’s book? Are you still working on that?” Cooper shook his head, “Aden took over with that project when Kolrem and I left for the forest.” The old man nodded, “Perhaps a book on Applied Anatomy. I can stop by Miss Camilla’s classroom and pick up a spare book and drop it by your room.” Cooper hadn’t realized such a book existed, but should’ve assumed there were books about the subject. He nodded enthusiastically, “Thank you, sir.”
He worked on copying the book for a few hours, until after the dinner bell rang. He suspected someone might stop in soon to drop off a tray of food, so he put the book, his ink and quill away. He had been pretending to sleep for about fifteen minutes when he heard the door open and a few light footsteps towards his bunk. He heard a soft voice say, “Cooper?” It was Loryn. He heard Aden’s voice quietly but urgently cut in, “Shh. He’s likely to sleep until later tonight. Even if he did try talking now, he’d be groggy enough that he might not make sense. Let’s just leave the tray for him and go. We can check in on him again in a couple hours.” They left the room. Cooper stayed in his supine position and about twenty minutes later the door opened again. He assumed from where the footsteps went, it was Marna. She had likely come in to get whatever she needed for the gambling party she participated in every night. To her credit, she moved rather quietly. Minutes later, she left as silently as she’d entered. With the knowledge that Trea was traveling with a merchant caravan to Temidan and Evan and Kolrem would be engaged in Movement class for several hours, Cooper assumed he'd be left alone for at least the next thirty minutes. That’s if Aden and Loryn returned that soon. He’d best eat his dinner before it became too cold. He wondered whether he should eat everything. Maybe his appetite shouldn’t appear to have fully returned? He thought about Osrim’s plate, and Kolrem’s after they’d Manifested, and consumed all that he wanted and placed the tray on the floor beside his bed. He decided that he’d best make a trip to the privy while he had some privacy. He’d had his fill of “assisted voiding” a few years ago when Eva had to help him to use bedpans as he recovered from the beating that Egil, a vicious Dreg’s boy, had given him.
It was a little over an hour before the door opened again. He’d almost actually drifted off to sleep. He heard Aden whisper, “Look. He ate. Let’s gather up the tray and return it to the kitchen, then come back and see how he’s feeling.” Cooper heard the steps come closer and the light scraping of the tray as it was lifted from the stone floor. The footsteps receded and the door closed. Cooper felt a little silly to be play-acting that he was asleep, but Master Worthan was right when he’d said that Cooper would need to try and act like his peers had acted after Manifesting. Otherwise there would be even more questions than usual. Worse still, the nature of the questions would be different as well.
Chapter 14
Cooper’s “adjustments” in Combat class seemed to provide no end of humor for Kolrem. It wasn’t uncommon for some stumble or interrupted movement to be accompanied by an exclamation from the larger boy, “The Clumsy Boy returns!” or “Someone send a message to Kalistos City to tell Miss Eryn that we’ve found her son!”. Cooper’s usual reply was a rueful smile and comment, “Have you forgotten your own difficulties after Manifestation?” It wasn’t all that long ago, after all.” Kolrem would wink, shake his head, and say something like, “That was ages ago. Besides, I didn’t have as far to fall. For you to stumble is an unprecedented event. We should be selling tickets!” Later that day, Movement class would prove to be even worse. Those falls hurt, faked or otherwise.
A couple of days later Cooper was still faking some clumsiness, though less frequently. It was then that it became apparent that the boys’ foray to the forest last year, to learn under Utsef’s able tutelage, would not excuse them from missing their Journeyman tests. Miss Camilla was not to be denied, nor would she ignore the topic any longer. She’d tracked them to the Arena announcing, “Tomorrow evening, instead of Movement class, the two of you will join me in the Apothecary classroom and you will take your Journeyman Apothecary test.” Master Brais had turned to listen to her and crossed his arms over his chest when she got to the part about the two boys missing his class tomorrow night. Miss Camilla was adamant, “Sir, I have already coordinated this with the Master’s Council. You should have already been made aware. If this is the first you’re hearing of it, I apologize; but consider yourself now duly informed.” Master Brais’ arms dropped to his sides. His mask concealed most of his features but Cooper suspected the man was actually smiling as he bowed his head, touched the fingertips of his right hand to his forehead and made a flourish as if to say, “As you command.” As Miss Camilla left the room, Master Brais approached Cooper and, under his breath, said, “At least tomorrow night I won’t be subjected to watching you pretend to be clumsy.” Cooper was so distracted by that revelation that he actually did fall in the next several minutes. Twice.