The Other Prism (The Broken Prism)

by St. Clair, V.

  Nothing happened.

  It was closing in on him now, talons poised to grab him. Banish should have worked on any creature that was summoned from one place to another...

  A new thought occurred to him then. If Master Reede had been summoning real creatures, why did he use his Mastery Charm instead of drawing conjury circles? He was the Master of Conjury, it would have been no trouble at all…

  Maybe the harpies aren’t real. Maybe they’re constructs, just like in the arena.

  Looking through the blue-tinted prism again, Hayden thought, Dispel! just as the harpy was reaching for him.

  It vanished without a trace, and Hayden exhaled in relief. Oliver looked shaken, but had also disposed of his harpy with his clear prism. Kevin and Andric must not have thought of something quickly enough, because Master Reede had to dispel their harpies for them after they would have already been eaten. Cindy apparently took care of hers without assistance and was looking pleased with herself.

  The next test began almost immediately.

  Master Reede conjured up identical stone pillars that jutted out of the ground in front of him, while Master Asher levitated a few ordinary stones into the air, depositing one on each of the five pillars. Hayden could immediately guess what this challenge would be, since the stones were too high up to reach by hand.

  “Your task on this one is simple,” Master Asher confirmed. “Retrieve the stone.”

  His peers, who hadn’t already used their rose-tinted prisms, smiled mockingly at him and immediately cast a basic Pull spell. Hayden frowned and looked between his remaining prisms for inspiration, hoping to find an alternative solution.

  Water, fire, focus, light, slow, fast…he mentally ran through the possibilities for his clear prism, thinking through almost twenty different arrays before conceding that none of them would help him here.

  He could hear the muttering and quiet laughter in the crowd as he began thinking through the options for his amber prism.

  Air, obscure, clarify, solidify, liquefy, break…

  An idea came to him, but he had no idea if the remnant of his amber prism was powerful enough to make it work. Since he had no other options he sighed and held up his amber prism.

  Break!

  The stone pillar cracked near the top, exactly where he had been aiming, and a piece of the ledge fell to the ground, unseating the small stone so that it dropped as well. Hayden moved forward and picked it up. Master Asher looked like he was trying to suppress a grin.

  He had no idea if he would get points deducted for not using the obvious best-choice prism for the task, but no one was commenting on the scoring or broadcasting their thoughts on the matter right now.

  They were now at the last mini-challenge for the efficiency test, and Hayden had only his clear prism left to him. Oliver and Cindy had their amber, but Kevin and Andric must have used two prisms for one of their earlier challenges because they were both empty-handed.

  Master Sark came forward, and Hayden’s stomach turned to lead. Powders was not just Hayden’s least-favorite subject of all time: he was so bad at it he had nearly killed his classmates last year out of sheer ignorance.

  “This is a mixture of blue-1, white-3, and red-6,” Master Sark gestured to a worryingly-large sack full of powder. “Quite poisonous when inhaled,” he added as an unpleasant afterthought, though his eyes flickered almost hopefully to Hayden.

  “Before this test we’ll need to clear the area,” Master Asher announced, and he and his colleagues began forcing all of the spectators to move back at least a hundred feet in any direction.

  They’re actually going to poison us, and they don’t want anyone else to get hurt…

  Hayden was absolutely terrified by the time the Masters returned to them in the courtyard. Sark took one look at his pale, scared face and smirked.

  “I am going to discharge this mixture high into the air above this pavilion,” he motioned to the large sack of powder. “It’s a relatively fine blend, so it will take almost a full minute to settle down to where we’re presently standing. You have until then to use your prisms before the effects of poison set in; longer if you can hold your breath.”

  “Mistress Razelle is waiting in the infirmary in case any of you should fail and require treatment,” Master Willow added, after catching the horrified looks on their faces. “Needless to say, we will not stand here and watch you die.”

  Hayden’s mind was already racing through every spell he could possibly cast with his clear prism, but he had no idea what sort of thing would work to neutralize a mixture of powders—or else he might still be taking the stupid class.

  Even Oliver, who was a Powders major, looked pale and clueless as the bag was levitated high into the air and then overturned.

  The powder began to disperse immediately, blanketing the air above them in a twenty-foot radius and making it difficult to see the sun. The Masters were all holding their Mastery Charms as they watched with serious looks on their faces. Hayden looked to the others and saw them staring back at him in worry.

  “Anyone got any ideas?” he solicited weakly.

  Oliver shook his head but said, “I’m thinking,” and Cindy was examining her amber prism with a frown. Kevin and Andric, who were both prism-less, had their necks craned upwards to watch the purple haze creep slowly towards them.

  Another twenty seconds elapsed in silence. Hayden’s mind was at a complete standstill. He could try using Heat, but he had no idea whether that would make things better or worse so he was afraid to even attempt it. Oliver had his eyes closed and was thinking so hard that he was sweating visibly.

  “Would you guys do something, before we all get poisoned?!” Kevin shouted at them, startling Oliver into opening his eyes. From the look on his face, Hayden could tell that he didn’t have any sudden epiphanies either.

  Cindy aimed her amber prism upwards and cast something silently—the prism vanished from her hand—but whatever she had done had absolutely no effect on the blanket of purple haze that was only a dozen feet above them by now.

  Think, Hayden…

  He tried to remember anything he had ever been told about blue-1, white-3, or red-6. It was such a long time ago, and he had such a bad memory for powders anyway…

  The only thing that came to mind was the memory of him vomiting into his cauldron of blue-1 and white-3 on his first Powders lesson ever, and how it burst into flames and got him kicked out of class. Tess had later explained that the mixture was easily oxidized, which was why his vomit activated it.

  A crazy, half-formed idea struck him at that moment, but he couldn’t do it alone.

  “Oliver!” he shouted, glancing up at the layer of dust descending towards them. It was ten feet over their heads… “Oliver, cast Air up at the cloud when I cast with my prism!”

  Oliver looked at him like he had lost his mind.

  “What are you on about?”

  “Just do it!” Hayden barked.

  “I’m not going to follow your orders just because you yell at me,” he scowled haughtily. Hayden wanted to punch him.

  The cloud was six feet above them…

  “Either do it now or we all get poisoned!” he tried desperately. Oliver glanced upwards, swallowed hard, and said, “Fine.”

  Master Sark looked confused and said, “What are you—?”

  “Air!” Oliver aimed his amber prism upwards and cast without hesitation.

  Holding up his clear prism and twisting it quickly to find the right alignment, Hayden took a deep breath, offered up a silent prayer, and shouted, “WATER!”

  Sark held out a hand to stop him with wide eyes just as the entire dust cloud exploded. The sky above them turned into a huge fireball, propelling itself upwards into the clouds. It was probably visible from Kargath.

  The force of the explosion momentarily deafened him and launched him through the air. Hayden landed in the grass and rolled several feet before coming to a stop and lifting his head to look around. His clas
smates were strewn about the lawn in different directions like he was, and even a few people in the distant crowd had fallen to the ground, though whether because of the explosion or just because they were startled was hard to say.

  The Masters hadn’t been jettisoned through the air like the rest of them—no doubt their Mastery Charms protected them—but they were picking themselves up off of the ground and dusting their robes. Part of the ornamental-cherry tree directly over their heads had burned up, and it looked strangely lopsided without blossoms on one side.

  Climbing to his feet and wondering if he was about to get in a world of trouble, Hayden made his way back to the pavilion with the others.

  “What the name of the arcane were you thinking, Frost?!” Master Sark greeted him with his usual level of dark enthusiasm.

  “I was thinking that blue-1 and white-3 react violently with water, so I had Oliver cast Air to make sure my Water array would get spread throughout the entire cloud and add fuel to the reaction,” he answered simply.

  Oliver gave him an almost admiring look and said, “You’re absolutely insane. You deliberately blew us all up.”

  Hayden, who was trying not to think about what would have happened if the fireball had gone down instead of up replied, “Well, it worked. The dust is gone.”

  Master Asher was still shaking cherry-blossom petals out of his hair, but he let out a bark of laughter at Hayden’s response.

  “I honestly had no idea how you would go about the last challenge since you’d all used up your blue prisms, which would have been ideal for the task,” he explained. “It was a good idea to work together, and I commend you for your craftiness.”

  Master Sark was livid.

  “Using Oliver to gain a second prism should disqualify him from the test for breaking the rules, which clearly state that you may only use the resources you’re provided.”

  Asher smirked. “Yes, so? Hayden and Oliver did only use what they were given. There’s nothing in the rules that says they can’t combine their resources if both are agreeable to it.”

  Master Reede rolled his eyes and said, “You did set them a nearly impossible feat, Kirius,” to Master Sark. “You can hardly complain about their solution afterwards. Now, if we’re done with the Prism trials, can we call everyone back for Conjury? I’d like to finish before lunchtime.”

  Sark still looked like he was trying to find justification to have Hayden expelled, but his colleagues were already moving on to the next activity of the day.

  “Yes, we might as well,” Master Willow was examining the burnt branches of the cherry-blossom tree while he spoke. “I’ll work on fixing this in the interim.”

  Not eager to give the Master of Powders any more time to think of punishments for him, Hayden took his cue to leave the courtyard, jogging to meet up with Zane and Conner, who were hurrying towards him.

  “Holy harpies, Hayden,” the latter greeted him. “Were you trying to incinerate all the Masters in one go or something?”

  “I didn’t know the reaction would be quite that bad,” he answered truthfully, “which is partly why I’m not still in Powders class.”

  “Well, look on the bright side,” Zane said. “At least you’re not spending the morning in the infirmary being treated for poison.”

  “I think Master Sark would have preferred the alternative, actually,” Hayden scowled at the thought.

  He followed the others up the stairs to the fifth floor to wake up their familiars, because he had promised Bonk he’d play with him after the Prism trials were over.

  Bonk was (surprisingly) already awake when Hayden entered the dormitory, sitting on the perch beside Hayden’s desk with a red rubber weasel clamped between his jaws. The dragon took flight as soon as he saw Hayden, alighting on top of his head and squeezing tufts of hair between his tiny claws to maintain his balance.

  “Ouch—Bonk, why can’t you sit on my shoulder like a normal dragon?” Hayden winced as he felt a few brown hairs part company with his scalp. Zane and Conner laughed and went to greet their (much better-behaved) familiars before they got started on their homework.

  Bonk gave no response except to bite down on the rubber weasel a few times, making a loud squeaking noise from the air trapped in the toy.

  “Fine, whatever. Let’s go.” Hayden rolled his eyes and left the dormitory, taking care to duck under the doorframe so that it wouldn’t whack Bonk in the head (that had happened once the year before).

  Voices permeated out of the common area on his floor as he passed by, and Hayden could immediately tell that his classmates were talking about him.

  “…think he’s going to turn out like his father?”

  “Of course he will, mark my words,” a voice Hayden didn’t recognize answered quietly. Hayden slowed his pace so that he could hear the conversation.

  “But if that’s true then why would the Masters agree to teach him?” a girl’s voice this time.

  “They taught the Dark Prism, didn’t they?” the boy answered sharply. “Besides, I’ve heard that most of the Masters don’t like dealing Frost at all, but they have to because the Council of Mages is leaning on them to keep an eye on him.”

  “That’s right,” someone else interjected. “I overheard a couple of seventh-years saying that the other Masters are all terrified that Frost and Asher are going to team up and take over where the Dark Prism left off, and in a few years the world will be back in the same hole it was when he was powerful.”

  Hayden was frozen in place just beyond the line of sight from the opening to the common area. His face felt strangely bloodless as he listened to the things his peers were saying about him, wondering if they were true. He had always known that Sark hated him, but he thought the others were alright…

  “—don’t really think Master Asher would do anything like that,” the girl was arguing softly. “He seems like a nice person…”

  “A nice person?” the first voice answered, incredulous. “Are you kidding me? Everyone knows he’s the next-worst thing to the Dark Prism himself! You know that’s the only reason they hired him here, to keep an eye on him…”

  Hayden couldn’t take it anymore. He took a step backwards and stormed into the common area, forgetting about Bonk completely until he felt the dragon squeeze his hair tighter to maintain balance. His appearance was met by four identical looks of fear, and Hayden now recognized the ones who were talking about him—he had classes with most of them.

  “Why don’t you keep your stupid mouths shut about things you don’t understand?” Hayden snapped in greeting, his face burning with anger. “Don’t you people have anything better to talk about than whether or not I’m evil? Get a life!”

  A blond-haired boy named Ian answered him. “It’s a free land—we can talk about whatever we want. Don’t you have anything better to do than eavesdrop?”

  Hayden balled his hands into fists, keeping them resolutely at his side to avoid the temptation of using them. Bonk cuffed him purposefully with one wing but Hayden ignored him.

  “If I ever hear you talking badly about Master Asher again, so help me…”

  He was so angry that he didn’t know how to finish his own sentence. Fortunately he looked menacing enough that he didn’t need to, because the others flinched slightly and leaned further away from him. Without another word, Hayden turned around and stormed out of the common area, knocking over a tray of cookies from the snack table as he went and not bothering to stop and clean up.

  There was an unpleasant ringing in his ears as he stomped down the stairs, avoiding everyone else’s eyes and their questions about what was wrong. It was hard to believe that he had been in a good mood only a few minutes ago.

  It took a monumental effort to control his anger enough to go outside and look for a clear space of grass to play ‘fetch’ with Bonk on.

  5

  Winning and Losing

  Hayden’s bad mood persisted well into the evening, and he spent most of the day alone on the grounds
with Bonk to avoid inflicting his anger on his friends. The only place he could find that was free of others was near the cliffs that overlooked the Gawain Sea, beside the circle of lights that they used to enter arena challenges.

  Overall he thought he was to be commended on his choice of location. The cliffs added some interest to his games with Bonk, and Hayden vented his frustrations for a long while by throwing the fake weasel as hard as he could over the edge and watching his familiar soar after it, because for some reason ‘fetch’ was the preferred game of magically-inclined dragons (Torin had told him so last year).

  At one point Hayden threw the toy over the cliff and was surprised when it was Cinder who returned it to him instead of Bonk. He looked all around but didn’t see Master Asher anywhere nearby, though that wasn’t entirely surprising since the purple dragon frequently flew off on his own. Cinder was definitely the most reclusive familiar that Hayden had ever met, which was perhaps why he was pleased to see him right now, as Hayden was feeling a bit reclusive himself.

  “You want to play too?” Hayden asked the dragonling, who picked up the weasel and deposited it at Hayden’s feet in response. Cinder was the only dragon Hayden had ever seen who could look dignified even with a rubber weasel in his mouth.

  Hayden picked up the toy and launched it over the edge of the rocks, admiring the gracefulness of Cinder’s movements as the dragon entered a perfectly-controlled dive, wings tucked neatly behind his back to streamline him. Bonk had apparently had enough playing for now, because he waddled over to where Hayden was sitting and perched in the grass beside him, cleaning his wings with his tongue.

  Hayden threw the weasel for Cinder until his arm began to ache, and then both dragons joined him in the grass, sitting so that the three of them formed a triangle. The dragons were watching him like they expected him to say something, and Hayden eventually felt compelled to break the silence.

  “Thanks for sitting out here with me for so long; sorry my arm got tired from throwing.”