by Alex C Vick
I knew some intricate spells. And I knew how to defeat a magician who had come of age in a way that could not be used against me.
Most of the Council members were the same as I remembered. It had been not quite three years since my last audience with them, and even though their joining dates had all been different, each would serve a ten-year term.
The two oldest tried the portal. They were better at hiding their shock than the professors, but their eyes were still a little wide when they returned.
I suppressed a smile. I wondered if these eminent magicians, senior leaders of our society, had ducked like first years when they saw the flying creatures.
It was decided that that Nico and I would be allowed to remain as research partners. We would work together at the Foundation and carry on searching for new worlds.
My time would be split between the Foundation and the Seminary until I had completed all of the year five training. There was some debate about when I would come of age.
I cringed as they openly discussed my lack of progress in finding a match. I could sense Nico smirking next to me, and I wished I could use a containment band to wipe the grin off his face.
“It is not permitted to delay,” argued a female magician with silver hair almost the same colour as her Sygnus. “Once he has left the Seminary, we must perform the coming of age ceremony.”
She looked at me as if I were a dangerous spell swirling in front of her. I frowned, but she took no notice.
“Underage magic is too uncontrolled,” agreed the man next to her. “What do the records say on this matter?”
A younger man at the end of the table had a large book in front of him. He turned the pages.
“This happened most recently in the year five thousand eight hundred and seven,” he replied.
My sister had been right. The last time an underage magician had advanced so quickly was nearly two hundred years ago.
“The coming of age ceremony was performed at seventeen years, and marriage followed the same day.”
He glanced up at me and then returned to the book.
“It was understood that emotional and physical development is not so far behind the maturity of the force field.”
“So,” added the woman with the silver hair, “a compromise, then. He is sixteen now. One year. As long as he reports regularly to the Seminary during the time of transition, I will not oppose it.”
There were murmurs of agreement. I was feeling more and more like an object than a person. My opinion was obviously so irrelevant I would not even get the chance to speak it.
Then I realised what she’d said. Married at seventeen? It was a very high price to pay for joining the Foundation for Research early. Especially because I hadn’t even met a girl I liked yet.
I knew why marriage was important. Androva required that each magician have one child in order to maintain the population. Two per marriage. On average.
When it had been left to chance, the rate of new births had dropped too low. Now that I was old enough to know what was involved for the female magician, I wasn’t surprised.
I mean, really? And why on Androva has no one invented a spell to do it instead?
But I’d thought I would still have two years, not one, to find someone. The Council, however, had already voted. It was done.
I decided to think positively. Nico and I had found another world this year. Finding a girlfriend surely couldn’t be as difficult as that, once I put my mind to it.
Chapter 8 - Discovering Terra
The Foundation for Research was never the same building two seasons in a row. The magicians who worked there enjoyed mixing up the stones, the layout, and the colours, just to keep their Manipulation Spells up to date.
And yes, I am now one of those magicians!
My profession was officially that of Researcher. Although I still attended the Seminary as well, no one could take the title away from me. I woke up every morning with a smile on my face.
My parents were proud, my sister was envious. My friends were happy for me, but unlike my sister, none of them wanted the same future for themselves.
“Too much pressure,” said Evander. “I… well, I’m happier knowing what’s expected of me, I guess.”
He wanted to work as a Remedax, a remedies expert. Making people better when they were sick. I thought it would suit him. His hair might still have been spiky, but as a person he was just the opposite. Friendly and likeable. Much less nervous than he used to be too.
But I knew he still remembered the shock of that first containment band from Professor Cassius.
He had confided in me about the nightmares he’d had afterwards. It wasn’t just the pain he’d dreamed about, but the humiliation of crying in front of the whole class. That was the worst part.
Professor Cassius had continued to say “Evander is no withstander” in sneering tones, running him down long after he’d proved himself to be quite proficient in Combat.
“As long as you’re doing something you enjoy,” I said to my friend.
He nodded. “And you can come to me if a crazy new spell ever makes you ill,” he suggested.
“I will,” I promised.
Nico and I were given our instructions. We’d be expected to run three research projects between us per calendar year and to report to the Council at regular intervals. One project each alone, and one jointly.
We agreed we would look for another world together. We’d had to relinquish the first one to more experienced magicians, given the apparent hostility of the environment and the flying creatures.
It seemed Professor Cassius was very outspoken about the inferiority of other worlds, saying that Androva should be careful to protect the purity of its magic at all times. Fortunately his voice did not carry nearly as much weight as it once did.
Nico chose to develop a new remedy combination for his solo project, which made sense. It was where his skills were strongest.
I spent a long time thinking before I made up my own mind. There were many subjects I was curious about.
I wanted to understand the Sygnus better, and find out what else it could be used for. I also thought our spells for shielding and detection were nowhere near sophisticated enough. I did not want to be as vulnerable as Professor Cassius when I came of age.
I knew there had to be a way to strengthen Androva’s living magic too. It was so finely balanced, any kind of natural disaster could put our entire food supply in jeopardy.
However, I finally settled on communication. What we had was pretty basic, given the versatility of magic. Speaking and writing. That was it. Surely there must be a way to use the force field instead?
But before we could make any progress on our research, Nico had his coming of age ceremony and marriage. He invited me to stand as his cohort. I was glad to support him, and also curious to see the ceremony close up.
Just as with Sygnus adoption, the Council were in charge. Androva’s record keeping had always been meticulous, but now that we had portals to eliminate travelling time, every single person was easily accounted for. And if you were of age, you had a coming of age ceremony. Those were the rules.
Only three Council members knew how to project the Finality Spell. Apparently it was very difficult to learn and quite dangerous if applied incorrectly.
I had begun to think joining the force field to the magician’s mind and body was a bad thing. It was the reason we had been able to defeat Professor Cassius after all. But even knowing that, it was still amazing to witness.
Nico was required to take a special remedy that made it impossible for him to suppress his force field. Resistance of any kind could damage the outcome.
He was soon glowing from head to toe like a star fallen from the night sky. His grey eyes were completely silver. Standing next to him, I could feel the air between us buzzing.
Then came the spell. It was gold. I couldn’t help staring when I saw it. I had never seen magic of that colour before.
Nico was su
rrounded by it. The light was dazzling. I wanted to know what it felt like. From his expression, it looked better than ten Entertainment Remedies taken all at once.
Even though I had been warned not to, I was unable to stop myself. I brushed my hand against the edge of the spell. The spark of magic deep inside my mind blazed into life, and I just managed not to gasp.
The overwhelming power of it was terrifying and irresistible at the same time. I suppressed my force field ruthlessly, afraid I was going to fall to my knees and beg for more.
One of the younger Council members nearer to us raised his eyebrows in my direction. He must have been quite new, because I didn’t recognise him. The spell around Nico was slowly dissolving as the connection was made.
I stood straighter and tried to appear as if nothing were wrong. My hands were shaking. I clenched them into fists. I was supposed to give Nico the counter-remedy that would return his force field to normal, and at this rate I was going to drop the glass.
Fortunately, the rest of the ceremony passed without incident. Twenty underage magicians came of age before it was done, followed by ten marriages.
The marriages were something of an anticlimax after the Finality Spell. Promises and declarations, allocation of professions, manuscripts created as evidence, and new Sygnus adoption where necessary. There was no golden magic to reach inside my head and distract me.
Food and drink was served afterwards, and other family members joined the group. The Council actually emerged from behind their curved stone table to make conversation with us ordinary magicians.
Or, at least, they tried to. I could see people found them quite intimidating. I thought a few Harmony Spells might not go amiss. But magicians of age would probably be offended at an offer of help from such a children’s spell.
Krysta was whispering in Nico’s ear, making him laugh. I felt a bit left out. Everyone there was at least two years older than me. Then someone pulled at my elbow.
I turned to see the young man on the Council who had raised his eyebrows before. Definitely new. I didn’t know him. He had very short brown hair, and his small brown eyes were looking at me with suspicion.
“You are too young to be a cohort,” he announced. “And you touched the Finality Spell. I saw you. You are still underage. Your force field should now be tested for abnormalities.”
His voice got louder with each sentence. Conversations around us were trailing off into silence.
I knew I shouldn’t have touched the spell. But no one is getting their hands on my force field.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” I replied politely.
A red flush of anger appeared on his neck.
“I do not need to introduce myself to an underage magician,” he blustered.
Technically, he didn’t. He was on the Council. I was a nobody, as far as he was concerned. Except, fortunately for me, I wasn’t quite.
“My name is Galen,” I said, even more politely.
He had to know who I was. I’d been mentioned in too many Council manuscripts for him not to. Hopefully he would back down.
He looked from side to side. We now had an audience. It was my bad luck this only spurred him on.
“I don’t care who you are! The rules are the rules.”
“I did not touch the spell,” I said slowly. I hated having to lie, but I was determined a Council examination of my force field was not going to happen. The spell combinations Nico and I had invented needed to remain secret.
Also, I was pretty sure he hadn’t actually seen me do it.
“Are you calling me a liar?” he challenged.
“Are you calling me a liar?” I said in return, quaking slightly.
The red on his neck travelled up his face in a wave of furious emotion. Androva help me. This could be bad.
I heard Nico laugh, and at first my heart sank. The man looked ready to knock me out with a containment band right there and then. I had a good chance of beating him if I projected my own spell first, but I couldn’t. It would put me so far in the wrong, I’d never escape an interrogation.
Then Nico laughed again and put his arm around the man.
“Mirrem, no arguments today!” he said. “My father would not wish to hear that two of his favourite students had disagreed at his own son’s coming of age.”
I blinked in surprise as the man, whose name was presumably Mirrem, hesitated. Nico made as if to look for his father, and Mirrem shook his head.
“No,” he said. “No, don’t call Professor Cassius. I have no time to catch up with him right now.”
Then, unbelievably, he walked away without even giving me a backwards glance.
I looked at Nico in disbelief as the conversations around us started up again.
“My father gave Mirrem a pretty tough time of it,” he said with a shrug. “It spurred him on to qualify for a great profession, as you can see, but he still remembers.”
“How do you even know that?” I asked him. “Mirrem is too old to have been at the Seminary with you.”
“Oh, my father kept a record of the underage magicians he singled out, and how he eventually broke them. Yours was the last name on the list,” he added. “Unbroken, of course.”
We stared at each other for a moment.
“Thank you,” I said. He nodded.
“You did touch the spell, though,” he said with a grin, lowering his voice.
I opened my mouth to deny it, but realised there was no point.
“I don’t feel any different,” I said honestly.
“I don’t care,” he said. “As long as you don’t lie to me, it doesn’t matter.”
He turned back to Krysta.
I thought about what had happened several times over the coming weeks, but eventually I concluded there was nothing to worry about.
Yes, there is now a Council member who doesn’t like me, but he’s only one out of twenty. Not exactly a majority voice.
It was in the summer that we finally had another breakthrough. A second world. And what a world! The sheer scale of it took our breaths away.
The people were magicians, but so different to us. They used magic to enhance and improve. It was far from their only skill. They were brave and impatient, loud and colourful.
And their world was vast. We charted coordinates across such distances we would have thought ourselves to be on different worlds entirely, had we not been so sure of our calculations.
Freshwater, saltwater, and endless lakes made of sand. Mountains of snow, green fields, and cities of all shapes and sizes. And the trees. The living magic. More than Androva’s entire population could ever use.
Nico and I argued about where we should settle for our research. We had only discovered two distinct civilisations obviously using magic.
In the end, Nico won because his preference used recognisable letters in their writing. Even if the language they spoke was hard to decipher, it bore at least some resemblance to ours. They called their lands Roma.
The second civilisation used elaborate pictures in their writing and spoke in a beautiful, melodic language we could not understand at all.
We named our discovery Terra, the Roman word for the earth. Something this world had so much of, which allowed all that living magic to grow.
Other worlds had been discovered too. Our detection process was getting faster. Those small magical doorways revealed such possibilities.
There were days when I achieved nothing, simply because my choices were so overwhelming I could not settle on one particular subject.
The Foundation located seven worlds in total. Different to Androva. Different to each other. None were as developed in their use of magic as we were. But we still expected to learn much from them.
All the Researchers congregated around the Foundation’s statue to discuss how it was going to work. This central space was open to the sky, with stone benches arranged in semicircular rows for us to sit on.
Each month, a different Researcher wa
s responsible for changing the design of the statue. Just now it had the rather menacing form of one of the flying creatures Nico and I had encountered. Apparently a similar statue had been observed in the centre of the city on that island.
The six senior Researchers began by reporting the Council’s advice.
“So we know what not to do!” shouted someone, to general laughter.
“Stop that. How many times have I told you?” said Vandra, the oldest Researcher, pretending annoyance.
Then she grinned.
“Going against the Council openly is something we reserve for special occasions. Otherwise they will come to expect it, and we’ll lose the element of surprise completely!”
The laughter increased, until her partner, Malcan, held up his hand for silence.
“Protecting Androva is the most important thing,” he said. “The Council is correct about that. One pair of researchers at any time, per world.
“Undetected, observing and documenting only. If this is still going well at the half-year stage, additional researchers will be added.”
Joking aside, the ominous shape of the statue behind him was enough to convince us all to start slow. Nico and I were by far the youngest allowed to take part. It was our reward for opening the first portal to the world we now knew as Imbera.
Before the meeting finished, we each took turns to confirm the other spells we were researching. It was the first time I had heard the entire list, and although it was amazing, it was also slightly scary.
Who am I kidding? Saying it’s slightly scary is like saying Androva is slightly magical. A bit of an understatement.
Immortality. Eternal life in the form of a spell. Vandra said she was getting closer to figuring it out with every year that passed.
Advanced manipulation on a scale as vast as the weather in the skies, or as small and precise as one magician’s five senses.
Prophecy stories. Creating miniature people and objects out of magical energy, then watching them act out a potential future. I wondered what mine would say and decided I’d rather not know. At least, not yet.
Physical transformation and projection. Emotional persuasion. Even the creation of a new Sygnus. Although the Council had no idea about the last one, and would certainly have forbidden it.