by Rick Field
“I also require a bathroom, Proctor,” Amy muttered.
Liane sighed, her annoyance at the girl rising again. Just where was she supposed to get a bathroom from? “You will need to wait until we reach the inn, Assistant. Unless you wish to go in the forest, and go ahead,” she replied tersely.
The girl fell into a sulking silence. This trip was starting to become less and less enjoyable, and Liane drew a breath to try and relax her angered nerves and the magic in her chest that was starting to wake up to her heightened emotions. It was bad enough that they were trying to rescue Milor, now she had Amy behaving like a spoiled child as well. Liane started to seriously regret her decision to bring the girl along.
Her heart jumped high in her chest when two men jumped out in front of the carriage, forcing Amy to yank hard on the leashes and push on the carriage's brake pedal as hard as her little body could handle. The horses neighed loudly, protesting the rough and sudden stop.
“Y'r money or y'r life, girlies,” the bigger man on the left ordered with a disgusting smile that showed his brown and rotten teeth. The arrow on his bow was pointed straight at Liane's heart.
The stench of unwashed bodies wafted over to Liane, and made her empty stomach protest. Amy's complaints about food and drink had started her own appetite, but the horrible smells coming from these men quickly remedied that.
The smaller man on the right just nodded agreeably, his bow also pointing at Liane. Obviously, she seemed the biggest threat to the highwaymen. “Now, baby,” the smaller man added in when it didn't appear as if either Liane or Amy was about to move.
Part of her felt truly angered by the way they had been addressed, just as a larger part of her was revolted by the state of these men's clothes and bodies. Years of living among the Nobles had made her sensitive to these sort of things, things she wouldn't have noticed when she was still a poor orphan.
“My apologies,” Liane managed with a straight face. “We are Nobles on our way to an important mission. You will leave us.”
The man on the left started laughing, causing his smaller companion to do the same. “Had ye bee'en a Noble, girl, ye'd be wearin' one of them fancy robes, n'w wouldn't ye?” he asked. “Y'r money,” he added, by threateningly waving his bow about.
Liane started to raise her hands. “Keep y'r hands down!” the first man snapped, causing her to obey in a flash. Even if he didn't think she was a Noble, he obviously wasn't taking any chances. Raised hands usually indicated magic.
She needed time to cast a spell, but her magic wasn't able to cast silently. She needed to speak, she needed to shape the magic, and he wasn't about to give her the shot. Liane cursed her broken magic. A Noble that got shot by an arrow would stay shot by an arrow, and without knowledge of healing magic, that could quite likely end with a fatality.
“Shoot the little one,” the leader snapped to his subordinate. “If she doesn't give us th' money in ten seconds, shoot her.”
The bow of the second highwayman came to point at Amy, and her anger exploded. Amy's complaints and sulky silence, her own sense of failure over the inadequate preparations, and now the robbery just exploded as a cocktail of raging emotions that infuriated her magic.
The words were short and clipped and subvocalized, and three fingers traced runes against the wood of the bench upon which she and Amy sat. To her magic-sight, a cloud of magic enveloped the leader; for just a few moments he looked startled as his entire body tingled.
The next moment, he was gone.
The second robber stared with huge eyes, trying to find his leader, before finally noticing the frog that sat in the middle of the road, where his friend used to be. “I have cursed him,” Liane intoned. “Cursed him into the form of a frog, until a princess of imperial blood kisses him. You may take him to the nearest town and see the village healer. You may even take him to the capital city and visit the Academy. The curse cannot be broken unless with the stipulations I have set. Now leave us!” As she spoke, her voice rose, and the last three words thundered across the road, causing the second man to take two steps back.
“Ye... ye cursed Harlan!” the man shouted, drawing harder on the bow string, his arrow still pointed at Amy. “Uncurse h'm!”
Liane's lips curled back, and the man's eyes grew big, taking another step back. The spell she snapped was short and to the point. The misfortune hex was a short-term version of the same Curse of Misfortune she had performed at her exam for Hexes & Curses. Her anger powered it, and the man's bow shattered under his sudden rotten luck, large splinters of wood spiking through his hand when his weapon broke. As he stepped back, he tripped over a stone that wasn't that far above the road's surface, landed awkwardly, and obviously broke his other arm.
“Take your companion and go,” she snapped, her voice sounding regal and authoritative.
The man sobbed his assent, grabbed the frog in the hand attached to his broken arm, and made a run for it.
They watched him go, and Liane felt her magic calm down as the man and his frog vanished into the tree line. “P-Proctor?”
“What!?” Liane asked, her magic spiking again.
Amy flinched, and shrunk in on herself. “I.. I'm sorry, Proctor.”
“For what?” the Proctor asked, trying, willing, herself to calm down.
“For being childish,” the girl whispered. “And for freezing. I could have taken both out with only a thought. And I still froze. And I made you save me. Again.” The girl swallowed. “I'm sorry for being a lousy Assistant.”
Liane sat down, and sighed deeply. “I sometimes forget that you are still a child, Assistant. And, in some ways, so am I. We are not yet adults, yet sometimes we both forget that.”
Amy nodded, slowly taking the reins and setting them going again. The silence between them felt a lot better, and Liane was determined to enjoy at least part of the trip.
“Proctor? Did you really curse the first man? I didn't think it was possible without an item or a totem of the subject?”
Feeling better now that the conversation was on familiar territory, Liane said, “I didn't curse him, Assistant. I merely performed a full-body illusion on him, then locked the spell with the conditions I've said. He's still a human, but his body looks and feels like it's a frog. A full transformation would have cost too much energy, so I cheated a bit.”
Amy smiled. “And the second man?”
“Just a misfortune hex. Only lasted a few seconds, but that was enough to break his bow, and his arm,” Liane said with a faint smile on her lips. “They will not be trying that again.”
Amy frowned slightly. “About the condition, Proctor. A princess of imperial blood? Really?”
“As those of the imperial bloodline are only presented on their 18th birthday, we won't know if there is a princess of imperial blood until she's presented at court,” Liane replied with a small smirk. “Of course, any competent curse breaker can get through it, but the only competent curse breakers are at the capital, and will wonder how he ended up 'cursed'.”
Amy laughed. “That's brilliant, Proctor.”
Liane remained silent, once more debating her decision to bring Amy along. If the girl froze at the sight of a bow, how was she supposed to be of any help rescuing Milor? They were riding into a situation that could be life-threatening, the last thing she needed was an Assistant who froze and needed to be rescued.
“I should have left you at the Academy,” Liane finally spoke her thoughts ten minutes later, the first signs of increasing habitation visible in the distance. The inn would not be far off.
“Proctor?” Amy asked, her voice shocked.
“You are not equipped to deal with this. You froze when a simple bow was pointed at you, while you admitted yourself that you could have used magic on your assailant. You complain about the lack of food, drink, and amenities. I should have forced you to stay behind,” Liane said with a sigh.
“But, Proctor!”
“It may have disgraced you, but it would have saved
your life, Assistant.”
The girl looked close to tears. “I promise I won't fail you again, Proctor. I swear! I won't fail you again! Please don't throw me away, Proctor! I'll do better next time!”
Liane rubbed her forehead, feeling tired and worn out. The stress of the day, the failed attack, everything was bearing down on her and she felt weary under its weight. “Next time may get you killed, Assistant.”
Amy pulled her shoulders back and stuck out her chest. “I will not fail again,” she stated. The low and steady voice made a bigger impression on Liane than the begging and pleading earlier, and she sighed once more.”I will not cast you out here, Assistant. I am merely stating my regret at bringing you along.”
“I will change your mind, Proctor,” the girl promised. “You will be glad you brought me along. I'll make up for my childish behavior earlier.“
“We'll see, Assistant,” Liane stated calmly as the carriage entered the village. “Let's find the inn and get something to eat and drink, and buy some supplies for the road.”
“Yes, Proctor,” the girl replied calmly.
A few hours later, the horses had been fed and watered, Amy had gotten to use the bathroom, and the baker and butcher had been more than happy to sell them provisions for the road.
Like the other vendors, the innkeeper had immediately recognized a pair of Nobles the moment they walked in. Their erect postures, the lack of any sort of muscle tone, and the overall appearance of the two had been more than enough to convey their status. Nobody dared ask them what a young Noble and an even younger Assistant were doing outside of the capital, let alone the Academy.
They had eaten a late lunch, a rather stale stew that had neither the flavor or the texture of the stew cooked at the Academy, but was hot and filling nonetheless. Liane felt annoyed at her initial reaction to the stew's bland flavoring, the years among the Nobles had really stunted her perspectives. There were times she would have sold her soul for a plate full of stew, and she was determined to keep her early years in mind.
She was glad that Amy at least hadn't said anything about the food, and had quietly finished off her bowl of stew without comment or complaint. It seemed like the girl really was determined to make up for her earlier behavior, something that Liane felt grateful for right now.
When Amy returned with the cart, she found Liane leaning pensively against the wall of the inn, staring in the direction from which they had come.
“Proctor?” Amy asked.
“Tell me what you feel, Assistant,” Liane said, still staring in the direction of the capital, now many hours of travel away.
The young Assistant frowned slightly, stared in the same direction as her Proctor, and finally shook her head. “I don't feel anything, Proctor.”
Liane just dipped her head. “My magic is extremely sensitive to outside influence,” she said, half to herself and half to Amy. The younger girl just nodded, having heard the same statement many times before. “Close your eyes, Assistant, and feel with your magic. What do you feel?”
Amy did as she was asked, closed her eyes, and drew a few relaxing breaths to focus on her magic. Years of meditation training allowed her to fall deeply and quickly in synch with her magic. What did she feel? It felt...
She blinked her eyes open and looked in confusion at Liane. “Proctor?”
“So you feel it, too, Assistant,” Liane answered. “The capital must be drawing enormous amounts of magical energy.”
“That explains why there are no walls around the Lower City,” Amy stated. “The amount of energy drawn to the capital shows some very potent defenses.”
“Or offenses,” Liane added. “It is no wonder, really, that we have enjoyed peace and stability since the Imperial Line was founded. The Great Barrier protects us from invasion or prying eyes, and the Capital's defenses protect the Emperor and the ruling Nobility.”
“And all it takes is a diminishing in magic for the Nobles present at the capital,” Amy said. “I don't think I have ever felt stronger.”
Liane frowned slightly. “Unfortunately, it's having an effect on my magic as well. I lose my temper more readily, as was demonstrated by those highwaymen.”
Amy tried to shrink in on herself. “And the childish way with which I acted, Proctor,” she added quietly. “Perhaps everyone is affected by their magic, just in smaller or more often overlooked ways than yours.”
Liane nodded, accepting the explanation and the implied apology. She stepped away from the wall, and up to the carriage. “Let's move on, Assistant. We still have a long way to go.”
They set out again, the cart's wooden wheels clanking along the road. After centuries of Noble magical crafting, the road was composed entirely out of humongous slabs of interlocking stone that had been raised from the Earth's depths. It sloped gently outward, allowing the rain to drain harmlessly to the sides, where stone trenches acted as spillways for the water.
As they travelled, the Proctor tore her gaze away from the scenery, and focused on the task ahead. They were traveling to save her friend, they weren't out on a holiday or vacation. Closing her eyes, she started working on new ways to use her magical skills, the fight against the Blood Construct showing her the limitations of her skills.
Finding a way to inscribe runes faster would be a big bonus. If she could manage a nearly-instantaneous inscription of a runic circle, then her inability to cast without word or motion would be largely compensated. And so, she worked. Worked on new runic circles, ways to increase the enchantments on her friend's sword, should she need to do so, and ways on shaving precious seconds off of her spells to inscribe runes.
The way she had shrunk the anchor stone helped her to put more runes on a surface than she had ever been able to before, and her lips twitched as she realized just how potent she could make the enchantments on Milor's sword if she starting shrinking runes to barely readable sizes.
Amy just sat silently and drove the horses while her Proctor worked with her eyes closed. Hours upon hours of monotonous driving took their toll and the girl just sat, bored out of her mind, staring at the never-changing road made up of interlocking megaliths, and the landscape slowly passing them by.
The sun started to drop and yet no village came into sight, so Amy gently called upon her Proctor, trying not to startle her out of her work. “Proctor?”
Liane slowly opened her eyes, and looked at her Assistant. “Assistant?”
“When do we reach the next village, Proctor? The sun is starting to drop low in the sky.”
Liane cast a startled glance at the offending star, not realizing until now just how long she had been working quietly, without interruption from Amy. The girl seemed bound to make up for her lapses in judgment earlier in the day, and Liane made a note to reward the girl at some point in the near future.
Fishing the atlas out of the pack, she flicked through it, trying to figure out where they were on the map. After turning the book upside down and back again, she found their location, spotting a few rivers and hills that were marked on the map. “It seems like the nearest village is the one we left earlier. The next one is still a good eight hours away.”
Amy slowly looked at Liane. “Proctor?” she asked, her tone level and doing a good job of not sounding too annoyed.
“I'm sorry, Assistant. Next time I will check the atlas before we leave,” Liane muttered. She hated feeling like a fool, and this trip seemed determined to bring out every shortcoming she had. The Academy had prepared her even less than she had already assumed on how to live in the actual life outside of its walls.
“What is the current plan, Proctor?” Amy asked, still keeping her voice level after her Proctor's admission of failure.
“I think we should leave the road, and set up a shelter of some kind for the evening. Creating a fire is no problem, but I will need to try and remember some of the earliest spells taught in General Applications on how to do actual cooking, and how to set up a shelter.”
Amy had to accept th
at, there was no choice really. Looking out for a good spot, she finally pulled them over next to the side of the road, under the protection of a small body of trees. It wasn't exactly a forest, but it was large enough to offer some protection and supplies.
Building a fire was easy, all they had to do was gather up a large supply of wood, then build a small pile and throw a fire spell at it. The bread meats they had bought at the butcher were good for an extended snack, but hadn't really been bought with an overnight stay in mind. Delving into her memory for some spells that could be useful, Liane tried to summon a couple of the local rabbits.
Unfortunately, the spell she modified for her own personal brand of magic resulted in no less than six of the animals flying out of the trees toward her.
Killing them was suspiciously hard, considering the fact that she had already killed three people, and cursed a couple of highwaymen. Somehow, killing a cute, defenseless little animal was a lot harder than killing a person when fighting for your life.
Finally, she let half of them go, thinking that just three rabbits should be sufficient for the two of them for a nice dinner, and some breakfast tomorrow.
The first cooking spell she aimed at the rabbit carcass resulted in a gooey mess that looked absolutely revolting, and smelled even worse. After a small try of the taste, Liane wouldn't even consider letting Amy have a taste. Not that the Assistant in question asked after the first whiff of the noxious smells that permeated from what was supposed to be a roasted rabbit.
The second spell she tried fared not much better, and Amy suggested that she tried cooking the last rabbit, before Liane had to get the other three rabbits back. Teaching Amy the spell was easy for Liane, and after a few practice runs, the Assistant tried her hand at the last carcass.
It was not a good day for Liane's ego when her Assistant ended up with a freshly cleaned, skinned, and roasted rabbit that smelled so good that water came to her mouth.