The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4)

by V. St. Clair

  Wondering if he was pushing his luck, Hayden hesitantly asked, “What is it?”

  Asher frowned and began rummaging through a stack of papers beside the table while he answered.

  “It’s intended to reverse the effects of magical distortion on the mind.”

  He didn’t explain any further; he didn’t need to. Hayden immediately knew why he started on that research a decade ago, and why he might be sensitive about not having completed it sooner.

  He was trying to save my father before it was too late.

  Feeling awkward, Hayden said, “That’s a heck of a goal. You’d probably win a hundred Medals of Heroism if you could find a way to reverse distortion…it would open up a lot more magic that’s currently forbidden because of the risks. Then again, a hundred Medals of Heroism would be really hard to wear all at once…you’d have to make an entire suit of them or something.”

  Asher gave him a half-smile.

  “I’d insist on a statue right in front of the Crystal Tower, so Calahan and all the other members of the Council could admire my visage from their headquarters every time they looked outside. But anyway, enough of that. First things first, you can plan on meeting with me like this twice a week. Take Gerin and Vadin off so you don’t go insane, and the other two evenings you’ll be on schism duty.”

  “Schism duty?” Hayden looked up from his hastily scribbled notes in surprise. “I thought you weren’t planning on chucking me into that thing.”

  “I’m not,” Asher answered smoothly. “But it shouldn’t come as a real shock that we have people on patrol at all times around the perimeter of it. We’ve laid down a huge number of protective spells around it to try and discourage anything from crossing through—and for the most part that works—but the schism keeps adapting over time, so invariably something will cross over and signal that we need to put down more magic around the opening. As we can hardly teach with monsters roaming around the grounds eating first-years, we station pairs of mastery-students on shifts at the entrance to subdue whatever may come through.”

  Hayden supposed that made sense. He had been wondering what was being done to secure the grounds while classes went on, but hadn’t really imagined being a part of it until now. He reflected that that was pretty dumb of him, since he always got roped into things with a high chance of fatality.

  “Okay, so we work in pairs and just…kill whatever comes through the schism opening?”

  “Pretty much,” Asher agreed cheerfully. “If it looks like something the two of you don’t think you can handle, you’ll have the means to summon help, and whoever amongst us Masters is available will show up to assist.”

  “Glad to know you all aren’t just leaving us to the tender mercies of the schism monsters,” Hayden said with perfect sincerity, since it was the kind of thing the Masters might casually do.

  “Of course not. If you get eaten that’s a terrible return on all the time and materials we’ve invested into your education.” He waved a hand to say, Perish the thought!

  “Now, onto our current project,” Asher switched subjects abruptly, spreading out the papers he had been riffling through earlier. “I had a hard time deciding which of my numerous assignments to have you assist on, and the one I picked is fairly ambitious, but I think once you get up to speed you might be particularly useful during the trial phases.”

  With a strange mixture of nerves and excitement Hayden asked, “What is it?”

  “I’ve been attempting to turn carbon-containing rocks into diamond—coal and the like,” Asher explained. “High-level prism prices have been increasing steadily over the last decade as diamond and crystal become scarcer throughout the Nine Lands. Sure, we’ve still got plenty of it lying around in the mines of Sudir and Osglen, but one day even those will run dry. If we could convert any rock with a decent amount of carbon in it to diamond then we wouldn’t have to worry about supply problems.”

  “Wow, that does sound ambitious,” Hayden said with raised eyebrows. “Turning one material into another isn’t impossible, but finding a way to make the diamond stable enough to actually be cut and used as a functioning prism might well be.”

  “Hence our work here. I’ve had some preliminary success with these four alignments,” he pointed to them briefly, “but these two cause the new diamond to be extremely brittle. The other two alignments have worked better thus far, but casting them has the unfortunate side effect of consuming the entire prism I used to perform the magic—and since it’s pointless to waste an entire prism to create a prism, we’re back to square one.”

  He pushed the papers towards Hayden’s end of the table.

  “Have a seat and read through all my notes. When you get up to speed you can ask questions and we’ll figure out the next step from there.”

  A little surprised at how abruptly he was being thrown into things, Hayden nodded and sat in the most comfortable chair he could find with the stack of papers in his lap and his own notepad beside him to write down ideas and questions as he read.

  Though Asher only insisted on keeping him for a couple hours that evening, it was another late night for Hayden, who still had to learn the other half of his new alignments before Prisms class the next day unless he wanted to fall behind, in addition to finishing the homework for his other classes. He wasn’t the only one feeling the strain either: Zane and Tamon were up nearly as long, finishing their own assignments, and Tess was so tired the following morning that she fell asleep right at the breakfast table.

  “Does it seem messed up to anyone else that we pay a ton of money every year for the pleasure of getting our brains beaten to a pulp by the Masters?” Zane grumbled mutinously in the general direction of his porridge.

  “Yeah, they should be paying us to come here and put up with it,” Conner grinned.

  “Sure, you suggest that to Master Kilgore and let me know how it goes,” Hayden chuckled.

  He yawned his way through most of the day, skipping lunch entirely in favor of taking a nap, because he would need to be on top of his game tonight if he was going to be watching the entrance of the schism for monsters.

  Bonk must have taken pity on him, because he brought Hayden a couple juicy sausages before Charms, which Hayden scarfed down appreciatively. He wondered vaguely who Bonk stole them from in the dining hall, but found that he didn’t really care that much.

  He managed not to shame himself in Prisms that day, and this time Master Asher only gave him ten new alignments to learn, which felt like a breeze compared to his first assignment.

  “Do you even know where the schism is at?” Zane asked over dinner that night. “I mean, I feel kind of dumb asking, since you’d think a giant gaping hole in the fabric of reality would be kind of noticeable, but I haven’t actually seen it on the grounds yet.”

  Hayden chuckled around a mouthful of peas.

  “Don’t feel bad, I have no idea where it is either, and I’m the one who’s supposed to be guarding the stupid thing.”

  “Master Graus said it’s behind the castle, though I haven’t seen it either so it’s probably closer to the cliffs that overlook the Gawain Sea than to the school itself,” Tess added thoughtfully. “Not that I’ve really gone searching for it.”

  “Master Who?” Hayden raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Graus,” Tess repeated. “He replaced Master Ferule as the Master of Scriptures after…after last year,” she finished awkwardly. Hayden knew she was trying not to dwell on the death of one of her former teachers.

  “Oh yeah, what’s he like?” he asked with interest, eager to get Tess thinking about something more cheerful than the war they’d all fought in.

  The look she gave him let him know that she appreciated the transition.

  “I like him,” she said decisively, glancing at Zane to see if he concurred. “A lot of people think he’s a little odd because he’s foreign and he always wears those gloves, but he’s a great teacher so far so none of the rest matters to me.”

 
“He always wears gloves?” Hayden arched an eyebrow at the pair of them. “Where’s he from—somewhere freezing?”

  Zane shrugged. “No idea, but like Tess says, he really knows his stuff—and not just about Scriptures. I’ve seen him consulting some of the other Masters about their research projects, helping out here and there.”

  Hayden looked around the dining hall, hoping for a good look at the new Master. He found him sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room, talking to a group of level-two students. He was indeed wearing a pair of gloves, though it was hard to tell from here because they matched the exact color of his skin, almost like he didn’t want to call attention to them.

  But he had more important things to think about right now, because dinner was coming to a close and that meant his first shift guarding the schism was about to begin, and he still had no idea where it was. Fortunately, his partner—one of Kilgore’s mastery-level apprentices named Kobi, did.

  As Kobi was one of the tallest, darkest-skinned boys in the school, it was fairly easy to find him in the crowded dining hall. Hayden approached the older boy—who was in his third year of mastery—while he was still sitting with a group of his friends. Kobi looked up and spoke to him before he could get in a proper introduction or greeting.

  “Is it time to go?”

  A little thrown by the businesslike tone, Hayden nodded and said, “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Kobi stood up without saying goodbye to his friends and led the way out of the dining hall, taking long, confident strides and not watching to see if Hayden kept up with him. Hayden kept his eyes straight ahead as he passed the other tables in the dining hall, but couldn’t help but notice that a lot of people watched him walk past.

  “Master Kilgore says you know where this thing is at,” he said as soon as they were clear of the dining hall, because it felt awkward walking in silence beside someone he barely knew, who he would be spending three hours with tonight.

  “Yes, it’s on the northwest corner of the grounds, right against the cliffs,” Kobi answered easily.

  I’ll have to remember to tell Tess she was right.

  “Is this your first time guarding it too? I mean, do you know what to expect? Because I sure don’t,” Hayden continued.

  Kobi glanced at him briefly before they left the light and safety of the castle walls and made their way out the rear exit and up the grassy incline towards the cliffs.

  “This is my first time as a guardian, but Master Kilgore brought me out here yesterday to show me everything I needed to know. Did your sponsor not do the same?” his tone was mildly incredulous, and a little derisive.

  Hayden shrugged. “Asher isn’t always good about that sort of thing; he tends to let me figure things out on my own.”

  “You’re on a first name basis with your sponsor?” Still with the disbelieving tone.

  Hayden hadn’t really thought about it before now.

  “Uh, I guess so. I mean, you know he uses his first name so people don’t get confused about calling him Master Masters—also because he says it sounds stupid. He’s never really lectured me for just calling him Asher though, so I guess he doesn’t mind too much.”

  Kobi shook his head and muttered, “Prism-users are an odd bunch.”

  Since Hayden couldn’t really argue the truth of that, he said nothing.

  As they approached the cliffs, Kobi held up a hand to hail someone that Hayden couldn’t yet see. As they drew closer, he realized that it was the pair of mastery students that they were relieving.

  Kobi was listening to the red-haired girl report that all was quiet, but Hayden was distracted by the schism itself. Torches were lit in a wide circle around it, which helped make it visible in the darkness since the crack in the air was dark on both sides right now.

  The only schism he had ever seen before was back in his second year, which was also his first glimpse of a sorcerer. The schism had opened and closed just long enough to disgorge a couple of wargs, and Hayden had barely gotten a glimpse of the tear in the space between this world and the plane of anti-magic that the schism connected before it snapped shut. The opening had been maybe three feet tall, barely large enough for the wargs to cross through it.

  This schism was at least ten feet tall, and more than two feet wide. The space inside was all black, so it was impossible to tell what was on the other side, and Hayden had no desire to move closer to the opening for a better look. The aperture was only visible in the darkness right now because of the torches placed all around it, which cast light on everything except the opening itself, as though light couldn’t touch it. As Hayden’s primary skill with magic involved the necessity for light, this made the schism even more terrifying.

  He returned his attention to his peers just in time to hear the two they were relieving say, “Good luck,” and walk away. Judging by the look on his face, Kobi knew that he hadn’t been paying proper attention to the debriefing and didn’t think much of him for it.

  “Did I miss anything important?” Hayden asked, deciding not to pretend he was listening when it was obviously a lie.

  To his surprise, Kobi didn’t sound angry with him, just resigned.

  “No, just a lot of blathering about how frightened they were every time they heard a noise or saw a shadow.” He rolled his eyes, finally glancing at the schism for himself. “The lights are a nuisance, but I suppose we should leave them on anyway.”

  The thought of battling unseen monsters in pitch blackness was about the worst thing Hayden could think of right now, and he made no effort to conceal that from his tone when he asked why in the world Kobi wanted to make it darker.

  “Unless we keep the torches only in our peripheral vision they will blind us worse than total darkness, which our eyes would gradually adjust to.” Now he sounded mildly condescending, since Hayden hadn’t thought of that on his own. “Still, I doubt our relief will be able to find us—or want to—if there aren’t lights on to reassure them, so we might as well leave them.”

  Hayden knew he was probably right about being blinded by looking at the lights directly, but he was still relieved that they were leaving the torches lit.

  “So we just stand here and wait for something to jump out and attack?” he suspected that it was going to be a very long three-hour shift if so.

  “Essentially, yes, though I don’t expect anything to get through the new magic the Masters have added to the aperture for a few weeks at least,” Kobi affirmed.

  “Too bad it isn’t lighter out, or we could take turns working on homework while the other one watches the opening.”

  “That isn’t a bad idea,” Kobi admitted. “The days should start becoming longer soon, now that we’re past the worst of winter. I’ll be more comfortable with the arrangement once we have more natural light to work with.”

  The term natural light made Hayden realize something he had never considered before.

  Oh great, if we’re actually ever attacked by something in the night, my prisms will be useless!

  He supposed in the worst case that he could use his clear prism to create a decent light source, but it would prevent him from casting any other spells through that prism until he extinguished the light. He would have to give that some thought and work out a plan before his next rotation out here with Kobi, or he’d be stuck with wands and elixirs.

  “Asher said there was a way for us to summon help if we needed it,” he looked around for something obvious, like a giant hanging pull-cord with a sign that said ‘Pull for Assistance’. Alas, there was nothing so obvious to direct him.

  “There is,” his partner pointed towards the torches. “Ten torches, ten Masters of the arcana. If you can knock one of them out of its holder, it’ll summon the corresponding Master.”

  Hayden raised an eyebrow at the magic that must have been required to maintain that kind of summoning power constantly. He wondered which torch of the ten was Asher’s.

  “So,” he changed the subject, thinking it would be
an awfully dull three hours unless they had something to talk about. “What do you know about schisms?”

  Kobi sat down on the grass a few feet away from the opening—though much closer than Hayden wanted to be—and crossed his legs in front of him. Against his wishes, Hayden joined him so as not to seem cowardly, keeping his gaze locked on the gateway.

  “Enough to know I never want to enter one,” Kobi answered immediately.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen what kind of things come out of them…” Hayden trailed off with a shudder, really wishing they were discussing this somewhere else. “But to get one this big to close, aren’t they going to have to send someone inside of it?”

  He could barely see Kobi’s frown in the darkness.

  “Probably, yes, though I doubt it would be any of us students who go. Even the Masters wouldn’t be much good inside of there, but I guess the duty would fall to one of them first, seeing as how it’s on Mizzenwald property.”

  “Why don’t you think the Masters would be any good in there?” Hayden asked in surprise. The Masters of Mizzenwald were some of the best mages in the Nine Lands as far as Hayden knew.

  Kobi turned to face him.

  “Don’t you know? Magic doesn’t work properly inside the other realm—that’s why schisms are so hard to close from the other end.”

  Hayden leaned back in surprise.

  “You mean you can’t use any magic inside of a schism?” he asked, aghast at the very thought.

  “Not that I know of, unless you have a void-weapon handy.”

  “What’s a void-weapon?”

  Kobi looked at him like he thought Hayden was being deliberately obtuse.

  “Void-weapons are the only thing that works inside of a schism, because it’s made of the same anti-magic that’s inside the other realm. They’re usually wands for whatever reason, and they’re really hard to come by. They can’t be made by mages, they have to be found in nature—the Forest of Illusions, typically.”