Tommy nodded. “Ok, I’m ready.”
“Very well, then. First, I need you to channel at me. Directly at me, like you did to the objects in the test.”
Tommy nodded his head again and took a deep breath, beginning to relax. He half expected Micah to jump up, to startle him, to do something to make the task more difficult, but he just sat and watched, the peculiar half-smile that he wore so often adorning his face. Tommy began to channel, and he directed the energy at Micah. He immediately felt the energy seized as if in a giant fist, like he had the first time he had channeled in the classroom so long ago. Micah held the stream of energy fast, and when Tommy opened his eyes, he saw that the man had neither moved nor changed the expression on his face. Tommy met his eyes, and after a few moments Micah nodded and said, “Enough.” Tommy immediately stopped channeling and let the power drain away from him.
“Well, it seems that you have a minor Earth affinity, Tommy.”
Tommy was surprised and a little dejected. “Are you sure?” he asked him.
“Absolutely sure. Why does that bother you?”
Tommy shrugged and looked at the ground. “I don’t know,” he muttered sullenly. “I kind of hoped that I’d be good at air magic. You know, like you are.”
Micah chuckled at that. “You don’t have to be like me, Tommy. In fact, you’ll be much happier in the long run if you decide to be like you.”
Tommy could only shrug again. “I don’t know. I guess I also kind of thought… I dunno. That maybe some day I’d be the one to figure out how to fly with magic. I’ve always wanted to fly.”
Micah’s face took on an unexpectedly stern appearance. “No, Tommy. I don’t want you even trying it, you understand? Many, many people have been badly hurt attempting to do what simply cannot be done. You cannot use magic to fly any more than you can use your arms to lift your legs off the ground. Do you understand me?”
Tommy was momentarily taken aback at the rough tone in the man’s voice, but he nodded his understanding. His mind raced with half a dozen excuses why he might be permitted to attempt learning to fly, but the look on Micah’s face made him discard them all. He struggled to think of a reply, and came up with a question. “If I’m an earth mage and you are an air mage, does that make us… umm… like, enemies?”
Micah truly did laugh at that, throwing his head back in a hearty chortle, and Tommy felt his face flush with embarrassment. “No, Tommy,” the older man said. “We aren’t enemies. In fact, I hope you’ll always regard me as a friend, even when you’ve learned all that the school has to teach you. You’ve listened to my lectures in class. You know that all mages are able to use magic of all different types, regardless of their particular affinity… and in any case, the affinity in your case is slight. You’ll find earth-focused spells easier to learn and master, and you’ll find that they use less energy and tire you less than other magic, but that is all.”
Micah sat back as Tommy absorbed that, then furrowed his brow and stared into the distance for a moment. “We have a few more minutes to talk, Tommy. So tell me, how are you liking the school?”
“I think it’s great,” Tommy blurted. “It’s much better than my old school.”
Micah nodded. “Just remember to stay up on your other classes, as well. I know we ask a lot of you, but you need to get an education as well as learn how to use magic. If we notice that you are falling behind in your academic classes, we’ll pull you out of magic class until you catch up. I have spent a great deal of time assuring your parents that you are getting a quality education.”
Tommy was enthusiastic. “I like my classes. Even math. Well, most of the time, anyway. I was sad about missing my parents for awhile, but now that I can get to see them again, I think everything is great!”
“I’m glad, Tommy,” Micah smiled. “But make sure you keep working hard. It only gets more difficult from here.”
“Difficult how?” Tommy frowned. He was already working on school work for most of the day every day, with few breaks. He didn’t understand how it could get any more difficult.
“Up until now, we’ve coddled you, Tommy. Your room, your clothes, your food, everything was provided for you. Sure, we asked you to spend some time channeling for us, but that was mostly to give you practice. But now, you have proven that you can channel well enough on your own, and you will have to earn everything you get. We’re going to be asking a lot more of you. Some of your classmates may be hard pressed to keep up. James, for example.”
“Um… Why?”
Micah paused and blinked. “Why, what, Tommy?”
“I mean, why make it hard for James? Why not just let him channel what he can?”
“Running the school isn’t free, Tommy. It takes energy to make all these things happen. Energy to grow our food, energy to make our clothes, energy to power the lights. Everything has a cost, and everyone must bear their share of the cost.”
“I know! I mean, I wasn’t suggesting that. But… I mean, I can channel a lot. Maybe I could make up for what James can’t do.”
“You could, Tommy. And what about your friend Mae? She’s been struggling some, too. Would you spend your time channeling to help her?”
“Yes! Of course! I’d be happy to!”
“And tell me, while you are spending so much time channeling every day… When are you going to find time to practice your own skills? Are you going to get left behind, allow James to graduate ahead of you, because you are spending your time paying his dues?”
“Of course not! I don’t know… maybe we could all share it, you know? The whole class?”
“There are several students in your class who are struggling, Tommy. Is the class going to support them all?
“Well… I guess we could, yeah.”
“And when your fellow students, Ryan and the others, start to fall behind in their studies because they have to spend extra time channeling? Is it fair to them to burden them, to limit them, just because James is unable to live up to his potential?”
That caused Tommy to frown in thought. “Well, I guess not. But it just feels to me like we should be able to do something for James. Anything.”
“We ARE doing something for James.” Micah replied firmly. “We are giving him the chance, the same as everyone else. James has a lot of potential, but right now, he’s going to have to work extra hard to live up to that potential. It is easier for some people than for other people. Someday, you may be struggling with things that James finds easy. That’s just the way the world works, Tommy. But we don’t do James any favors by making everything easy for him. All that does is cause him to become dependent on us. James NEEDS the opportunity to overcome his own challenges. To learn for himself that he CAN do it, if he’ll only work hard enough. James needs to decide that his future is worth the time he spends now, to focus on the things that matter, and then he will succeed. Or, perhaps he won’t. Maybe he’ll fail completely. Better he learn today that he’s not cut out for this life than to lead him on for months, or even years. If he fails, let him fail and move on to something better suited to his abilities. You help him more in the long run by letting him struggle a little now.”
Tommy could only nod thoughtfully. Micah made an awful lot of sense, and we was right – it wasn’t fair to the others to limit their success just so James wouldn’t have to work hard.
Micah’s voice broke Tommy out of his reverie. “We have just a few more minutes, so do you have any questions for me?”
The question gave Tommy pause. He did have questions for Micah. A great many questions, in fact, but he couldn’t decide if any of them would be polite to ask. He briefly considered asking about the rumor the other students had been discussing about Micah’s son, but discarded that; He didn’t want to make the man sad or angry. Finally, he settled on asking, “Stephen and Mae were talking about doing combat training. What’s that?”
“One class at a time, Tommy!” Micah chuckled. “Once you learn how to use magic – actually use it,
that is, not just channel it – then we’ll teach you how to use it to defend yourself. Don’t worry – you don’t have to spend a lot of time learning to fight, if you don’t want to. Many of our graduates and students are pacifists. But we DO require you to at least learn how to defend yourself if the situation requires. We are hunted by far too many people to let our students run around defenseless. And if you decide you want to learn more… well, once you graduate beyond Novice, we allow you to customize your course of study, and there are always the Games if you have an interest.”
It was the first time Tommy had heard that word; Games. He could definitely hear the capital letter when the older man said it. So he asked, “What are the Games?”
“Ah. I always forget, you haven’t been one of us for long. The school sponsors mage games, where students can test their strengths and skills against one another in a safe environment. We sponsor duels as well as small and large team events. It’s a lot of fun, and even if you don’t participate, everyone gets a thrill out of watching the games. Some of the students even place small bets on the outcomes. Sadly, though, you cannot participate, even as a spectator, until you’ve learned more.”
“Why not? Why can’t we watch?”
Micah sighed. “You’ll understand soon enough, Tommy. Suffice to say that you simply cannot. It is not a matter of permission, or danger, or anything else. Right now, you simply lack the abilities to be able to spectate. Soon enough, I promise. Okay?”
Tommy didn’t really understand, but he also didn’t see the point in questioning further, so he simply said, “Alright.”
Micah raised his head and looked off in the distance again for a moment. “We’re just about out of time, Tommy. Last question.”
This time, Tommy knew exactly what he wanted to ask. “Did I pass?”
“Now, just remember that you may not talk about the test with anyone who hasn’t gone through it, Tommy. I can’t have you tipping off the next class. But yes, congratulations Tommy, you passed your first test.”
Chapter Eighteen
When Tommy got back to his room, he discovered two very important things.
The first was that both Ryan and James were back from their tests, and that both had passed successfully. There was a good deal of cheering and back-slapping among the three boys, although James looked extremely wan and tired. They weren’t able to discuss anything specific about the test, however, because of the second discovery.
While Tommy was gone, a new boy had moved into the fourth bunk of the room. He was young, more than a year or two younger than Tommy, and very short – quite possibly one of the shortest people Tommy had ever met. The boy had a slightly unkempt mop of straight hair on his head, colored so brightly red that Tommy would have called it orange, and the pale skin of his boyish face was covered with brownish-orange freckles. He was thin and lithe, smaller of frame than even Ryan, who was shorter than most of his classmates. He met Tommy’s eyes somewhat shyly, but his face split in a big grin that revealed the gap between his two front teeth.
“Hey! I’m Sam!” the boy said.
Tommy disengaged from Ryan and James and stuck his hand out. “I’m Tommy, good to meet you.”
“Hey Tommy,” the boy said, shaking Tommy’s hand, “I’m Sam!” Then, realizing he’d repeated himself, the boy flushed a bright crimson that effused his entire face. Tommy couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Sam is part of the new class of students,” Ryan chimed in from behind Tommy. “Now that we’ve moved up, I mean. I haven’t heard that anyone in the class failed.”
Tommy went to his bunk and sat down on it. The room suddenly felt crowded with the addition of the fourth boy. Tommy had grown used to having the bunk across from him be empty, but he tried not to hold it against the younger boy, and for the most part, he managed; he only felt bitter about it a little bit. The boys spent the next couple hours catching up on their respective backgrounds. Sam was from an old Italian-American family, and although he didn’t have much of an accent, he occasionally used words that Tommy was unfamiliar with. He came to the school in a way similar to Tommy and his friend Stephen – he had started to exhibit magical ability in the past few weeks, and his family immediately shipped him off to the school, lest he get caught and imprisoned or worse.
Before too long, their talk was interrupted by a loud snore from James, who had collapsed on his bed and gone to sleep. After giggling for a few minutes, the boys all agreed that they were tired, so they turned off the lights and went to bed.
The next day began in much the same way that the previous days had, with math class. Tommy had expected that passing the test would mean a different schedule, but the day went by pretty much the same as other days. He hadn’t seen Sam all day, and figured the boy had a different schedule being in a different class, but when he got to the dining hall for lunch, the boy was already seated next to James, so Tommy joined them and they all chatted about their days. It turned out that Sam had a schedule that was almost completely opposite of Tommy’s, beginning his day with magic class and ending with math.
In fact, it wasn’t until Tommy got to his magic class that the day got any different.
Micah stood at the head of the class, as usual, but seated next to every student’s desk in a roll-away chair was another, older student. Tommy glanced at his friends in confusion, but Ryan simply shrugged and went to take his seat, so Tommy and the rest of the class followed. As soon as everyone was seated, Micah clapped his hands together in the way that Tommy had come to realize was his signal that class was beginning.
“Okay. Everyone here has passed their first test. Everyone here can channel at least marginally. You can feel the magic around you. You can tap into it and focus it to your will. Perhaps some of you can even sense or feel when someone around you is using magical energy. But what you cannot do is perceive the magic. You cannot view it, you cannot see a spell being wrought. And because you are unable to see what I am doing when I cast a spell, I am unable to teach you how to do it. Does that make sense to everyone?”
Tommy nodded slightly, although he felt like he only barely understood.
“Good,” Micah went on, taking the classes feeble nods as assent. “To help me today, we have students from one of the senior classes. They are going to cast a spell on you. On your eyes, specifically. This spell will allow you to perceive the magic as I work with it. Once you can see what I’m doing, I will teach you how to cast the very same spell on yourself. This is the first lesson everyone must learn; In order to proceed, you must be able to see what another mage is doing. Are there any questions?”
Tommy briefly considered raising his hand and asking if it was dangerous, but then decided against it; he had confidence that Micah would not expose anyone in the class to danger.
“Alright then, let’s begin.”
Tommy turned to regard the boy sitting next time. He was older. Much older, in fact; Tommy could only call him a boy by the broadest of definitions. For a long moment, nothing happened, and Tommy began to wonder if he’d feel anything different. Then, all of a sudden, a mist passed briefly over Tommy’s eyes, and a new world opened up to him. Suddenly, he could see what he had only previously felt. He could see the magical energy in the air around him; it appeared as a dim, violet haze in the air, turbulent and churning, and although it was everywhere around him, somehow it did not block or limit his vision of the room. He could also see the energy as it flowed into the boy next to him, could see how the boy accepted the energy and focused it, and perceive how the boy used the focused energy, forced his will upon it and formed it into the spell that was affecting his eyes. Suddenly, Tommy understood. He even felt like he could duplicate the feat, and was about to reach for the magic to try when Micah spoke up.
“Calm, now, everyone. No rushing ahead. Let me remind you of the dangers. This is a very basic spell, and you’ll learn how to cast it on yourself soon enough, but try too soon and you could damage your eyes. You could even make yourself go blind
. So relax, now, and watch me as I step through the casting.”
Micah stepped them through the casting slowly, one step at a time, over and over again, until Tommy thought he could have repeated it in his sleep. It was much easier to understand now that he could see it, and Tommy thought that he might be able to work out how to do some other things, as well. He certainly thought he saw how he could alter the steps in order to make someone go blind, although he swore to himself that he would never do something like that. Still, now he understood a great many things; He didn’t think he could possibly have described the casting to someone, without actually showing it like Micah was doing.
After an hour or so of watching the demonstrations, Micah dismissed the older students, and they got up and left. The extraordinary vision that Tommy experienced vanished with the other students, and Micah grinned at them all. “Ok, class,” he began, “Now it’s time to try it on yourself. At first, you’ll only be able to support the spell when you need to learn how to cast a certain spell, but eventually, you’ll get good enough at it that you’ll have it on all the time. Most of the senior mages at the school keep their vision enhanced all day, so that they are never surprised by what is going on. Certainly no one leaves the school without the ability to maintain the spell for the duration of their sabbatical; the moment it takes you to enchant your vision could be all an opponent needs to beat you.”
The entire class sat and practiced casting the spell. It was surprisingly more difficult than Tommy expected. He could recall the steps that Micah had walked through, but watching them done and actually doing them proved to be two different things. At one point, Tommy and several of the other students were getting frustrated, but Micah soothed them. “Don’t get upset if it is more difficult than you expect. You are using your mind in a way that it has never been used before. It’s almost like trying to learn a new, totally different language. You have to train yourself to think in a different way, and that takes time and practice.”
The Channeler Page 11