When they were alone Asher said, “So, you’ve met Master Kiresa. Reading between the lines, I don’t think he cares for you much.”
Hayden snorted at that colossal understatement. “He sounded really cheerful when he was telling me how people occasionally die during the competition.”
Asher rolled his eyes. “What did you think of him?”
“I think he’s terrifying,” Hayden answered truthfully. “He was there to greet us as soon as we got to Isenfall, and he walked us around this weird utility tunnel so we couldn’t steal secrets from the school or something. When we were alone, he was telling me all this stuff about how the world is a dangerous place and he wants to see me taken down like my father. You didn’t tell me he was friends with my father, by the way.”
Master Asher looked startled and said, “He wasn’t; Aleric hated him during the few occasions they ran into each other, before he became the Dark Prism, obviously. They were both a bit arrogant and manipulative, so they were destined to dislike each other.”
“That isn’t what it sounded like, the way Master Kiresa told it. He also said that he talked to you about swapping me for Davis over the summer to work on research projects, and that you said no.”
“Did he, now?” Master Asher looked thoughtful.
“Yes, and he said that you told him that you hated Davis, but that you were really just trying to keep me from studying with him. He said you protected me too much, but that I can’t hide behind you forever.”
Asher leaned back in his chair and said, “He’s not wrong about the last part. I do make an effort to shield you from what I can, and as you already know, I can’t always be there when you need help, though I certainly try to be.”
Hayden nodded and said, “What about the rest of it?”
“It’s true that Kiresa wanted to exchange students for the summer, and it is true that I declined the offer. “
“How come?”
“For one thing, I can’t stand that arrogant little snot, Davis, but mostly I was hesitant to put you into Kiresa’s care for weeks on end.”
“Why?”
Asher gave him an exasperated look and said, “Heavens, Hayden, did you hit your head harder than I thought? You said yourself that the man was terrifying, and you think I’d put you at his mercy for an entire summer?”
Surprise, Hayden asked, “So you’re afraid of him too?” He had never really thought of Asher being intimidated by anyone.
The Prism Master snorted and said, “Hardly. But the man plays mind games with the best of them. You saw a bit of it while you were there. He told you he was friends with your father, probably tried to unsettle you constantly, see what makes you tick, find out what you’re willing to do to win…”
“That’s right!” Hayden leaned forward, amazed that Asher had guessed so accurately. “You mean he does that all the time?”
Asher sighed and said, “It’s his way of measuring people quickly, to see whether you’re useful to him, an ally or an enemy. I’m not entirely surprised that Davis is a bit demented, with him as an influence, trying to live up to his expectations.”
Hayden felt a fleeting stab of sympathy for his enemy, though it might have just been lingering chest pain from his fall.
“Well he obviously doesn’t like me, so why would he want to do research with me before he even got to know me?”
“Oh, in a different setting he might have acted differently towards you. Or, more likely, he wanted to determine the extent of your power and skillset. If he was impressed, he might try and manipulate you into turning against me and partnering with him full-time. If not, he probably would have found a way to set you up for failure, so that the Council of Mages would have all the evidence they’d need to keep you locked up for good. Needless to say, I wasn’t anxious to give him the chance for either.”
“Yeah, thanks for that.” Hayden frowned thoughtfully. “I’m going to have to start making a list of all the important people who hate me, so I don’t forget.”
Master Asher frowned and said, “People are only as important as you give them permission to be. In the end, Kiresa is just a man with a prism and a heightened sense of self-worth.”
“A man with a lot of prisms, actually. He was wearing his combat circlet the entire time,” Hayden corrected.
“Well, it seems as though I need to pay a visit to my counterpart at Isenfall for a friendly chat.” The Prism Master got to his feet and brushed some imaginary dust off of his robes.
“You don’t have to go fight with him because of me…I don’t want him thinking I’ve complained,” Hayden frowned.
“Oh, he’ll be expecting my visit by now. I’ll leave your name out of it entirely.”
Hayden didn’t see how he could be omitted from the discussion, since the only reason Asher could possibly be visiting Isenfall tonight would be in response to the trial from earlier today.
“Okay, well…be careful.” He couldn’t help but notice that Asher was checking the prisms in his belt, which seemed unnecessary if he was really going over just to talk.
The Prism Master saw his concern and smiled. “Don’t worry, Hayden, I have only ever started one fight that I didn’t know I could win.”
It wasn’t until he left the room that Hayden realized he was talking about the fight with his father.
Tess and Zane must have been waiting for permission to come back in, because they were by his side as soon as the Prism Master was gone. Zane set down a tub of warm water while Tess wetted some strips of cloth.
“Mistress Razelle said we should help clean you up,” the latter said gently, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“Because you’re covered in blood and puke, and it’s pretty gross,” Zane added for good measure.
Hayden flinched away from the cloth Tess was holding and said, “Are you sure you don’t have any homework to work on? Zane can help me get cleaned up.”
Tess looked slightly crestfallen at being told to go away, and Hayden immediately felt bad.
“You don’t want me here?” She sounded really unhappy.
“It’s not that; I just don’t want you sponging blood off of me.”
“Why not?” She looked confused.
“Because it’s embarrassing, being seen like this,” Hayden clenched his jaw, wishing that he had more time to think through his words.
“But you’re not embarrassed having Zane see you like this…” she pointed out shyly.
“Yeah, well, he’s…he’s…” he struggled for the right words.
Zane rolled his eyes and said, “He means that I’m a guy and you’re a girl. He doesn’t like looking lame in front of the ladies.”
Hayden sincerely hoped that the blood stains on his face hid the color in his cheeks. He knew that Zane was probably right, but he didn’t like having him blurt it out loud. Tess looked like she had no idea what to think of the entire thing.
“Unfortunately, I don’t like you enough to mop your face for you, and since Tess has already seen your unsightliness and is still nice enough to offer, just man up and leave her to it.” Zane smiled winningly, and Hayden mentally vowed to find a way to mortify his best friend before the end of the year.
“Fine, fine,” he caved in, sitting still while Tess dabbed at the mess on his face. It took a long time to clean him up, so Hayden told his friends all about his day in painstaking detail.
“…Farrah was about the only decent person there, and she’s not even from Isenfall,” Hayden said when he’d finished explaining all about the trial in more detail. “She’s definitely the first girl who didn’t sound repulsed at the thought of being my girlfriend though. Maybe I’ll track her down in a few years and ask her out,” he joked to the others.
Tess dabbed at his cut lip with some foul-smelling green liquid that was meant to heal it and said nothing, while Zane was caught somewhere between a grin and a wince.
“Anyway,” Zane changed the subject abruptly. “You’ve only got one more trial to go and
you’ll be done with this whole thing for at least two years.”
“Sure, then the only thing I’ll have to worry about is the Nine Lands going to war with the northern sorcerers. Life will be simple after that.” Hayden made a face, though truth be told, he was more than ready for the I.S.C. to be over.
“I can’t see how we could possibly avoid it at this point,” Tess said quietly. “It’s all looking pretty bad, isn’t it? First the oculi appearing at all of the Great Nine, and now the Masters have put a halt on our arena team challenges so that their evenings are free to prepare for the fighting.”
“I’ve been wondering, how exactly does one prepare for a war?” Zane interjected with genuine interest. “I keep imagining Master Reede pacing back and forth in his room, chanting in strange tongues and cackling maniacally at his conjury chalk while he tries to build a magical army of some sort.”
Both Tess and Hayden laughed at the image that evoked.
“I think they’re probably making contact with the other powerful mages in the Nine Lands, having meetings…stockpiling weapons and doing research maybe…” the former suggested.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Zane sighed. “But I still think Master Reede cackles maniacally when he’s alone.”
“Maybe when he discovers a new spell with conjury, yeah,” Hayden conceded.
“Well, come on, let’s get out of here. You don’t look like you’ve been mauled by wild animals anymore, and I’m tired of sitting on these hard chairs.” Zane stood up and stretched his legs. “Besides, Bonk gets nervous when you’re gone too long; he’s probably chewing on your sheets again.”
Hayden still felt tired and sore when he stood up, but he suspected that would continue for another day or two. He followed his friends back to the main stairwell, avoiding the eyes of everyone they passed so that he wouldn’t have to talk about his day with anyone else.
They said goodnight to Tess and continued down the hall, ducking inside the common area to grab a few cookies since Hayden had spent most of the day heaving up the contents of his stomach. He downed them ravenously as he and Zane entered their room to discover that, yes, Bonk had been chewing on the bed sheets again. Conner and Tamon were both sitting at their desks working on homework, and they stopped to demand an account of the events at Isenfall.
Hayden didn’t think he could go through it all one more time tonight, so he delegated the task to Zane and went to take a shower. By the time he returned, his roommates had several suggestions about how he should deal with Master Kiresa in the future, though most of them would probably get him arrested by the Council of Mages.
Tamon changed the subject back to the I.S.C. itself by saying, “I wonder where they’ll hold the finals this year.”
Confused, Hayden raised an eyebrow and replied, “It’s supposed to be at Branx. That’s what Master Asher told me at the beginning of the competition.”
“Yes, but the only reason they’re doing it there is because of how close it is to the Forest of Illusions,” Tamon explained. “Traditionally, the finals take place at the outskirts of the Forest, because there’s so much magic in the area that you don’t even have to design an arena, plus they like giving mages experience inside the Forest before they leave school.”
“But isn’t the Forest of Illusions where the sorcerers are going to attack first, because they want control of all that magic?” Hayden raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, that’s why I was wondering if they were going to change the setting for the finals this year, maybe move it to Creston, which is a little further away.”
“I don’t know, no one has said anything about it to me yet.” Hayden shrugged. “Have any of you been to the Forest before?”
“Are you kidding?” Conner snorted. “That place is a death-trap if you don’t know what you’re doing; you’d have to be crazy to…” he stopped at the look on Hayden’s face. “I mean, well, I’m sure you’ll be fine there, of course. They’re not going to chuck their best competitors into a horde of chimaeras and hope for the best.”
“But there have been deaths in the competition before…” Hayden frowned, suddenly not so enthusiastic to get to the Forest of Illusions and have done with this tournament.
“Well, yes…but you’re the ridiculously-powerful son of the Dark Prism. I’m sure it’ll be a breeze for you,” Zane assured him.
Hayden suddenly remembered that he wouldn’t be alone, or at least, not entirely without assistance. He almost touched the shield charm around his neck reflexively, but thought better of it. What if it accidentally summoned Master Asher right into their dorm room?
Asher won’t let me die. If things get too bad, he’ll come help me…
That was the very thing that Master Kiresa found so contemptuous about his counterpart, but right now Hayden was thankful for it.
“So, stupid question, by why is it called the Forest of Illusions?” Hayden asked his friends.
“The magic is so thick in there, it can make you see things that aren’t really there, or it can transform things so that they are really there, if that makes any sense,” Conner explained.
“Not really, no,” Hayden replied honestly.
“What he means is, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t in the Forest. All that magic, it messes with your head,” Zane clarified.
“I heard there are purple and silver trees there,” Tamon put in helpfully.
“Yes, but are they really purple and silver, or do they just trick you into making them look that way?” Zane countered.
Hayden was beginning to understand why a challenge in the Forest of Illusions would prove difficult.
“Alright, well I’m going to bed. I guess I’ll worry about the Forest when I need to.” He yawned widely, which hurt his split lip, and climbed into bed, nudging Bonk off of his pillow and scolding him for chewing a hole in the corner of his sheets.
Bonk pretended to look contrite, but he never pulled it off very well. Hayden found it amusing that the dragon could understand him well enough to even care to feign apology. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he could feel Bonk trying to nudge him slowly off of the pillow so he could reclaim his favorite sleeping spot, and after he cuffed Hayden in the face for the fourth time, Hayden groaned and tossed the pillow against the wall, contenting himself to lie flat.
Bonk curled into a ball in the center of the pillow and was asleep within seconds.
18
The Reason Why
Despite the fact that Zane spent an entire month trying to convince the Masters that having final exams was a terrible idea during a war, none of them cancelled their tests as he’d hoped. As the last weeks of the school year approached, Hayden heard his best friend grumbling mutinously about what a crime it was to make children spend their days holed up in a library studying.
Judging by the speeches most of his teachers gave, Hayden had an idea that the exams were going to be a lot tougher this year than they were last time. The only bright side was that they wouldn’t have a final arena challenge this year, since the Masters were still disappearing from the school as soon as classes ended for the night. Sometimes they didn’t even show up for dinner.
Given the amount of terrifying real-life danger he’d been in this year, Hayden was almost sorry that they wouldn’t have a final arena. He’d laugh in the face of those stupid yeti-constructs next time around.
Master Willow informed them that their final would include questions regarding every wood type he had ever mentioned during class, so Hayden flipped through his book and made a list of them all to make sure he didn’t forget to review anything.
Ash, elm, cedar, pine, maple, oak, laurel, elder…
He had no idea how he was supposed to remember the specific properties and spell-casting abilities of eight different types of wands, as well as their optimal lengths, but he spent an hour each day trying to.
Conjury seemed like a lost cause. He could draw and use summoning circles well enough to kee
p himself from losing a limb, but that was about it. He made an effort to remember all the different configurations for different classes of spells, but had a sinking feeling that this would be his last year taking Conjury lessons. Zane would be heartbroken.
When the pamphlets on the classes for the minor arcana showed up in the third-year common area, Hayden pored over them with Connor and Tess. Conner was thinking about dropping Elixirs, and was trying to decide whether to replace it with Scriptures or Abnormal Magic. Hayden had no idea why Tess was there with them, since she wasn’t planning on dropping any classes this year (she was only enrolled in two of the major arcana as it was).
“I think I’d like to try Abnormal Magic,” Hayden looked at the others to gauge their reaction. “Last year I thought Scriptures looked interesting, but since I’m terrible at Conjury there doesn’t seem to be much point.”
“The two aren’t really related at all, though they are complementary,” Tess explained. “I was so bad at conjury that I couldn’t execute a single summoning without translocating my conjuring arm somewhere. Master Reede had to retrieve it so many times that he didn’t even have to ask whose arm it was before he gave it back to me.” Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “But I’m much better at Scriptures.”
Hayden frowned thoughtfully and said, “I know Scriptures is probably a lot more useful than the other, but for some reason I just feel like I should take Abnormal Magic next year. Maybe because I am abnormal magic.”
“You think you’ll be able to find an explanation for why your Source is so big and your Foci are so…”
“Useless?” Hayden supplied helpfully, to spare Conner from having to come up with a nicer word. “I don’t know, maybe. It’s the only place I can think of that might have answers for me.”
“Well then, you should do it,” Tess said simply. “It’s the only class in the minor arcana that I’m not in, so I can’t tell you what it will be like…but if there’s anything I can do to help, I will.”
“Thanks,” Hayden smiled at her, and her expression brightened.
The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) Page 27