Master Dreys set the coin in front of her. It was worn and didn't reflect light even as much as the table upon which it sat. Chandra, she reached out one finger to touch it. She barely brushed the face with her fingertip; she knew one touch was all she was allowed. Chandra returned her hand to rest in her lap.
Master's hand came forward to pick up the coin, and Chandra felt an odd pressure that made her fingertip burn where she had touched the coin.
Master was about to deceive her. He pocketed the coin he had set on the table and flared his magic around a different one. It was almost as though a new scent had come into the room, like someone peeling an orange. Chandra breathed in slowly and felt the Master send magic elsewhere as though wafting the scent with a fan.
At that moment she understood the nature of the test and the magic used to complete it. The reason students were able to retrieve an object that Master sent away was that it became wrapped in his magical scent, and their magic would hone in on his magical signature. Typically, there would be no power to follow to find the object other than their own, but Master's was powerful enough to redirect.
It was like the game of cups she had seen men doing in the market for bets. Misdirect the player's eyes just long enough to remove the object from under the cup and then walk away with the coin.
Master sent the new coin to Chandra’s room and continued to hold the original coin in his pocket. Behind her eyes, she could see both coins like bright sparks of light, the most shining of which being the decoy. One coin glared a bright, fiery red and the other an unobtrusive blue. With the comforting pressure of Frostwhite on her shoulders, she felt confident enough to try to do something she would have thought impossible.
Chandra lowered her eyelids to focus on the coins. She imagined smoke-like hands reaching forward to grasp what she needed. The coin Master had wrapped in his magic calling card called out to her as though singing a siren's song. She had no desire to lose this ship to the rocks, though and quieted the storm before it could overtake her. The room was not warm, but moisture formed around her mouth and her hands felt slick.
When she opened her eyes, years and moments later, Chandra held out one hand. She opened it to reveal the coin Master had sent to her room. Even then, it was like the coin shook in her hand from the Master's magic wrapped around it like a constrictor snake. Master smiled and shook his head.
“You did well enough, apprentice...”
Before he could continue his statement, Chandra held out her other hand and opened it as well. Within it was the first coin. Master’s eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed on her. Heat rushed out from him, and Chandra wondered if it was anger that scented the air.
“Splendid."
He took both coins from her and stared at them. He said nothing else for a long moment, and Chandra wondered if her magic wrapped around the coins now.
“You may go.”
If she hadn't been so focused on Master Dreys, she probably would not have heard him speak; it was little more than a whisper. She rose from the chair, but the weight that had been on her shoulders was gone. Her steps were measured to avoid revealing her haste to leave, and she shut the door as quietly as she could.
The halls blurred past her, and she vaguely remembered bumping into someone and apologizing before hurrying on. Her body shook. The energy was alive in her and causing veins and muscles to quake with a need to move. It took almost as much power to keep herself from running or yelling as it had to call the coins to her.
Once inside her room, she burst into laughter. The possibilities suddenly seemed limitless to her. Frostwhite stood on the table with his back to her.
"We did it," the words burst out from inside as though they had been in a bubble that had reached its limit. Frostwhite remained facing the other direction.
Chandra furrowed her brow and looked at the hawk.
"Frostwhite?" she said and attempted to shift around the table to look at him, but he only turned to keep his back to her.
“Why are you turning your back to me?”
He didn't give any indication he had heard her. She sensed disapproval coming off of his stiff body but didn’t understand it.
“Was it too showy? Should I have done something different?” she asked. Still, the hawk did not turn. Her body fell into the chair with a sound like a sack of dropped potatoes. Chandra felt the joy that had bubbled up in her fizzle out at her friend’s disapproval.
“I don't get it. You came to help me," Chandra spread her hands as though trying to spread out the events of the day for them to look at together.
"He wanted to test me, and he did. If I hadn’t called both coins, I would have failed his test."
The hawk turned and looked at her. Chandra drew her lips in and puckered her brow.
“You wanted me to fail the test?”
Frostwhite continued to look at her.
“I don’t understand. If I had failed, Master would have continued to test me or begun to doubt that what had happened was anything but a fluke.”
Pressure and silver eyes pushed on her, and Chandra understood. She closed her eyes and raised one hand to rub circles on her forehead. How could she have been so blind to the best course of action?
Her inability to ignore her competitive nature and need to prove herself had put her in an even more precarious position. Of course Master wanted her to succeed. He wanted to know that the magic he planned to siphon away was well and truly there for the taking. If she had failed the test, the idea of trying to take the magic away would seem pointless. If he thought that her previous display had been some fluke, he might lose interest.
“I didn’t think about anything other than proving myself,” she told the hawk. “I’ve been trying for so long to be "Apprentice" that I didn’t even think about what I was doing."
Frostwhite moved closer to her and brushed his soft head against her cheek.
Chandra left long enough to bring back whatever food she could sneak away from the dining room, though her hunger had once again gone. She settled on her bed and Frostwhite nestled into the blankets beside her. Gentle fingers stroked his downy, feathered head and her gaze rested on her closed wardrobe. Her mind whirled with questions and ideas that she discarded as quickly as they came. Frostwhite drowsed as she contemplated her options. When he was asleep, Chandra stood to walk around her room, keeping her steps to whispers of bare skin on stone.
Grim determination slowly replaced self-loathing. She had already made a significant mistake, and it was going to take a lot to undo what she had done. On one side, failing future tests was not an option because Master would become suspicious. The other direction was not an option, either: putting everything she could into his tests would not be a good idea.
Maybe I could find a way to step down as his apprentice? But where would that get us? And where would I end up?
“I should leave,” she whispered. Chandra lifted her head to the window and the noise of birds and forest outside. She had never been farther than the tiny village outside the estate. As for further than that, any knowledge she had came from history books about the rest of the continent. Knowing what was there fifty or more years ago wasn't going to be much help.
Where would I go? How would I take care of myself, especially on a continent that sends every hint of magic up to the royal family for execution?
“Besides, Master does not allow anyone to leave the estate and his men-at-arms guard the doors and gates,” she muttered, and Frostwhite opened his eyes.
"Sorry," she cringed and gave him a smile.
Frostwhite fluffed his feathers and watched her from the bed.
“I guess I stay and do what I can to learn to use my magic,” she sighed. "And if an opportunity arises that will allow me to escape, then I go."
Frostwhite hopped onto the table and launched himself out the window. Chandra the feathered form glided across the sky, the winds making his feathers quiver but boosting him just the same. His wing strokes were
powerful, and she could imagine the wind pressure on his wings and the return pressure of his wings. She watched until Frostwhite was gone, wishing she could do the same.
Chandra nibbled at the food she had brought. She needed to figure out what else she could do. It was late enough in the day that she could probably go to the library. Most of the students would be in afternoon classes or working with the instructors as their scribes or general helpers. It would be quiet and even if anyone came in, they would not bother to talk to or question her.
When she entered the library, she remembered how little about magic was actually in the library. Most of it was standard information about the sciences, math, the solar and stars, or various cultural histories.
There must be something else to learn from the books. Master had always said that mages often have magical energy tied to the region. That did not tell Chandra what provinces to look at or what to look for?
She knew that levitation worked for all mages to some degree, as did summoning items. Elemental powers were dominant within the mage and something she needed to think about and figure out quickly.
***********************
Master Dreys had supported the belief that other students would never accept her. A few of the students had spoken to her over the years, but it only ever happened once before something made them think better of it. It didn't matter if Chandra tried to be nice; every touch of friendship lasted no more than a day, and the hatred afterward lasted much, much longer.
Deakon had been different from the very beginning. Master had brought other students into lessons, but it was only to use as a demonstration. Deakon was there to study and participate in some of the lessons Master gave Chandra.
Chandra had been at the estate for thirteen seasonal shifts. At first, she had resented the hateful young man’s presence as an intrusion on the time she had with Master. After a while, she decided to make the best of it since Master seemed determined to keep them in lessons together.
In a fit of loneliness, she had tried to approach Deakon after an evening meal once. She followed him into the hall and called to him before he moved into the wing that housed the living quarters.
“I know you hate me and hate that I hold the position of apprentice,” she began. “But I was hoping we could move past that.”
Deakon had stood, looking at her with a blank expression on his face. When she finished, he said nothing and turned his back on her. A moment later, she had been thrown to the ground and was kicked and hit by several people who she couldn’t see in the dark corridor.
The next morning, when she had arrived in Master’s study for her lessons, he eyed her appearance before simply asking, “Who?” Chandra said nothing. It wasn’t from a desire to protect anyone else in the school, only to prevent future covert attacks.
A moment later, the door to Master’s study opened, and Chandra lifted her head. She looked into Deakon’s face through barely-open eyes and saw he would not look at her. Chandra glared at him before lowering her gaze back to her lap.
A tense silence settled in the room that lasted for days. Master’s smooth, cold voice was the only thing that ever broke the quiet. Chandra never spoke to Deakon again, though he went out of his way to chase her, whisper about her to other students, and do anything he could to make her miserable. It wasn't until the day he chased her onto the training fields that it all changed. Magic aside, Master apparently took exception to the continual rivalry if it almost killed her.
“You will need to leave the school, Deakon. Your magical ability isn’t sufficient enough for me to continue with your training,” Master told him. He had led the young man to the dining hall and had everyone present to see. Chandra figured that he had meant to make an example of Deakon by doing it so publicly. It worked because no other student even looked at her after that. The lessons also resumed without anyone else participating as Master lost faith in her by the day.
Deakon, though, had walked away with as much dignity as she thought possible, bruised face and all.
Chandra lifted her gaze from the book she had picked up about the mountains near the northern edge of Malofa and saw two students looking at her from a table on the other side of the library. As soon as she looked, they turned away. One went pale while the other seemed to blush on every inch of skin.
All of those years that Master told her that she needed to take care of herself, and he completely isolated her when he sent Deakon away. And then, he brought Deakon back.
Why, though? If he was so upset with Deakon, why would Master ever let him back?
It seemed out of character to suddenly be so magnanimous toward someone who Master had very publicly used as an example. Master Dreys wasn't the type of person to do something that made him look as though he made mistakes. Chandra shook the thoughts from her mind and focused on reading.
Information about mountain regions was more abundant than anything else. Master had always lived here, so there was a wealth of information available. She read about how the mountains could spontaneously drop stones as though shedding them like loose skin.
That idea and turned her mind to a very dusty shelf. Chandra closed her eyes and imagined that the dust was a type of dirt skin that had come in through windows and on the air. In her mind, she thought about clearing it away as though with a washcloth to skin. The pressure built in her mind as she pushed against the idea. The shelves shook, and an entire section fell over. She opened her eyes and looked at the mess.
Great. Just great.
The two students in the library hopped up as if she had thrown the shelves at them and ran from the library. Chandra watched their departing forms and wondered how long she had before Master came.
She walked over to the bookcase and looked at where it had landed. Chandra reached down, intent on lifting it if she could and her hand slid from the accumulated dust and grime.The dust had not moved at all except falling. The entire set was still coated with grime. Earth magic was apparently uninterested in meeting her halfway. She had only managed to use her levitation to knock everything over.
Chandra huffed. She knew that her levitation was going to be easy to call if it came any time she tried to do anything else. She would have to work with what she could. Chandra thought about how she could get the bookcases back up and put the books away. She focused and felt the pressure in her head build as the massive shelves lifted and hovered.
She pushed them back to where they had been and struggled to keep them steady as she pushed them down to reseat them. A precise act of magic, it was not; the thump of the bookcases landing was loud, and she worried for a moment that it would break the structure underneath that held them up. When it didn't, she sighed and wiped away the moisture on her chin and forehead. Tendrils of hair had escaped her braid and caught at her cheeks from increased body heat.
The books had landed in rows just as they had been on the shelves, with only a few stragglers that fell to the wayside. Chandra focused on a row of books, imagining them as one complete unit and pushed them into the air. She lifted her hands as though she could hold the shape together. The row of books went back to where she directed. This time, they went more gently than the shelves had. She did the same with the remaining three rows of books. Each row did as she wanted a little easier than the previous set and she became more familiar with the feeling of air pressure in her mind.
When she finished, it was only a few moments before someone entered the room.
The two students that had been in the library stood behind Andre. The shiny skin of his head shone with perspiration, and his cheeks had a ruddy appearance. When his eyes caught on her, they drew a sharp line in the air between where she stood and the formerly overturned bookcase.
Chandra gathered the handful of books on the different continents and walked toward the door. The two students shifted further away as she approached and Andre narrowed his eyes at her, but she walked past all three as though they weren't there.
Her room was not th
e best place to work. The limited space and resources did not make Chandra feel as though she could reach the elements in any way, much less in a way that she could test her magic.
There was a peristyle garden at the center of the estate, but it was seldom quiet or without the constant influx of students who used it as a place to read, study, or meet up to sneak intimacy in the copse of fruit trees and ornamental shrubbery. It would be the best possible place for her to work with the various elements, though.
Decided, she continued to read with the impatience of someone who would rather do than wait. The book went on and on about the frozen kingdoms and their lack of any magic other than the type that controlled snow and winds.
"They probably killed everyone else," she muttered, and Frostwhite called out at the sound of her voice from his place in the rafters. Whether it was agreement or protest, she wasn't sure, but he settled back into a comfortable position, and she continued to read.
Climates were diverse, and Chandra could only guess at the affinities that various cultures would have. It made sense to think people on the shore would have some control over the water or possibly the sand, while forest folk could call or stop rain, influence plant life, etc. They were all guesses, but Chandra focused on the differences to try to identify what element might be strongest in one region over another. For instance, would forest folk be as powerful as mountain people with the force of earth or would it be a different type of ability? Would different mages have ability with one part of their element but not another?
When Chandra began to have to strain to read, she realized that the sun was going down, and it was almost time to head to the garden. Students had a strict bedtime or at least time that they had to be in their quarters. Other than her brief in-house lockdown, Chandra had always been given leniency in her wanderings. Even she wasn't supposed to be wandering around at night, though.
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