The Guardian's Grimoire

by Oxford, Rain

  “Hold off for a while. Let him eat and relax a little before you push him anymore. Remember that red-head apprentice of yours? The one who you gave a stroke to?”

  “Daiske? I did not give him a stroke.”

  “Yeah, sure. That boy did what you wanted him to before you asked him.”

  “He was a good apprentice. He was damn creepy, but he was good. I think he could read my mind from the moment I met him.”

  “He was a pervert; nobody’s hands are that adventurous on accident. I know it was him who groped me in that crowd.”

  “Are you kidding? He set up that crowd so he could.” Edward sighed. “He worked too hard, I let him, and he paid deeply for it. Dylan is stronger and older than Daiske. Daiske would have run off to a harder mentor if I tried to slow his lessons. I didn’t give him a stroke. And he wasn’t a Guardian.”

  “Training does him no good if he’s too worn out to fight the bad guys when they come.”

  “What do you think, can you take more?” Edward asked.

  It took a few seconds before I realized he was asking me. “Uh… I don’t understand the question. Did someone mention food? I want food,” I said.

  Divina started laughing.

  “Rest for a while. You can eat in a few hours, and then we will continue your training,” Edward said.

  My mind felt numb from all the magic and my body burned from all the physical work. I wanted to go home, order a pizza, and fall asleep in my warm bed with dirty cartoons on. But that would never happen again. No more pizza, no more dirty cartoons, and no more thrill of skipping out on work. Instead, there was strange, wiggling stuff, books I couldn’t read, and very sharp weapons I had to learn to use, not to mention the horrible gravity that made it hard to stand straight, and oh yeah; an evil god after me.

  * * *

  I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until Divina nudged me awake. I was still lying on the floor in the weapon room and Divina was leaning over me with her face just a few inches from mine. She didn’t move and I wasn’t stupid enough to say anything, so we both just stared at each other as the minutes passed.

  “You two are getting creepy now.”

  I broke eye contact with Divina to see Edward standing in the doorway. No, what’s creepy is that you were watching us, I thought childishly. “Is the food ready?” Divina stood gracefully and I climbed to my feet.

  “Yes. Divina?” he asked.

  I turned to her and was startled as hell when she grabbed my jaw, forced my mouth open, and sprayed the silencing potion down my throat. I jumped away but it was too late and, after I was done choking fruitlessly, I couldn’t even yell about it. I tried to glare at her, but her sweet and cheerful smile shot that all to hell. Edward grabbed me by the back of the shirt and pushed me out. They followed behind as I found my way up to the food.

  I got a weird sensation when we arrived, like something monumental was about to happen.

  The plates of alien food were already served and we were about the last to arrive. This crew was much larger than on the other ship and consisted of teenagers several years younger than myself to people who I was sure were already dead. I stayed away from them. There were women there, too, and not all the men looked as brutish as on the previous ship.

  I noticed the women and the few very refined men were paler while the less classy men were much darker. It seemed fair skin was considered beautiful and tan coloring was a sign of hard work, but everybody was treated respectfully. Judging by everyone I had seen so far, there were no distinguishable races.

  There was also a difference in the way the teenagers acted. They only spoke to themselves unless an adult spoke to one, and they were careful to keep their voices down. Though several of the men only focused on their food, every woman was talking to someone. It wasn’t like on the less crowded ship, where there was very little conversation while eating.

  No one seemed to notice us as we took three seats at the end of one of the two tables. Edward collected several of the dishes he could reach and, after putting some on his own plate, passed them to me. I made sure to go easy on what he didn’t get a lot of in case it didn’t taste good; however, I had no intention of tasting my food.

  I was very disappointed to see that he used his spatula/spoon thing. I opened my mouth to ask why, but my voice didn’t work.

  He smirked but continued eating. “Never eat with your hands in front of women, girls, or very young children.” I heard his voice in my head.

  I wanted him to teach me that. Although I knew it was somehow detectable, because the man at the bar in the restaurant knew Divina used magic, it was more practical for me to learn to talk to them in telepathy than to think really hard at them. I frowned at Divina, who was paying very close attention to trapping her food.

  “She’s not the average woman, and on a ship full of all men with only one woman, it’s customary to be natural but polite around her. And I naturally don’t like food utensils.”

  I picked up the spoon like he did, closer to the spoon part than Divina did. It was very tricky to eat the different colored food. One was dry slices of meat. I looked around to see that no one was watching me before slowly reaching my hand towards my food, keeping my eyes on Edward to make sure he didn’t see me. Divina slapped my hand and growled at me.

  I tried to force my food back on my spoon with no success. Divina took it from me, turned it over, and stabbed the meat with the sharp end. She handed the spoon back and I picked the meat off with my teeth. It was easier, but I had to be very careful not to stab myself.

  The boy across from me had immediately caught my attention the moment I saw down. He was about seventeen with short black hair and a slight tan, which was fairly average. He was slim, but obviously still growing. His clothes were comparatively elegant; his shirt was black with a high collar and a gold emblem over his heart. What I noticed first and foremost about his appearance was that he had one purple eye one blue.

  For most of the meal, I had been focused on my food, but it wasn’t natural for me to look at my food the entire time. He must have felt my awkward gawking because he met my eyes. There was no one his own age around him, so I guess he figured I was in a close enough age range to risk talking to. When he said something to me, I nearly choked on my food. I couldn’t say anything back (not that I’d know what to say) and I really didn’t want to offend him. So instead, I stared at him wide-eyed as if startled. He frowned and I nudged Divina in the arm, not breaking eye contact with the teenager.

  She leaned forward and said something to the boy. He sat back, looking as relieved as I felt. I paid exclusive attention to my food from then on.

  Divina, Edward, and I finished eating quickly and left for the room before they brought out the drinks. It was obviously more dangerous for me in a larger crowd. When we got to the cabin, Divina pushed me to the bed and started searching her bag. She pulled out the little spray bottle, sat next to me, and sprayed the cold concoction down my throat.

  I coughed and choked before growling. I was getting good at growling, which, to my limited experience, was a common method of communication on Duran. “Never again! Never! You keep your little potions and magic tricks away from me!”

  “Quiet, someone might hear. It was necessary. Even if you whispered anything, people would hear. We have very good hearing.”

  “What did that guy ask me at dinner?”

  “I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry about that,” Divina said. “I will need to replace the spell when we leave, but it’ll only be for a few minutes. There’re just too many people here.”

  “Why can’t you just teach me a translation spell?” I asked.

  They both frowned. “Magic doesn’t work that way,” Edward said.

  “What do you mean it doesn’t work that way? In my Guardian dream, my book translated for me.”

  “That is beyond us. The books were created by the gods with their superior power. I don’t know everything, and I don’t know every sp
ell, but in my many years of experience, I never found a way to use magic to translate languages. Now, I’ll teach you to set a fire. From there I can teach you to actually make something blow up. Where are your old shoes?”

  “I used them to scare away the draxuni,” Divina said. “I have a science book you can set on fire.”

  Edward growled with annoyance. “You cannot burn books.”

  “It was written by Fustaka-so Shimiro on his perspectives.”

  Edward’s expression softened. “Oh. Well, I guess that it’s okay then.”

  Divina fished around in her bag before pulling out a big black book with many Sudo words. It occurred to me once again that I would have been able to adapt to Duran better if I were Asian.

  “This is going to be very dangerous. Whatever you do, remain calm,” Edward warned.

  “Are you sure he has to learn this?” Divina asked. “Do you know how easy it is to burn down a wooden ship? Not to mention the mogi in my bag that will blow this ship to Anoshii.”

  That was a great thing to say to keep me calm.

  “You really shouldn’t carry that stuff around with you,” Edward said. He took her book and handed it to me.

  “Why can’t I just light the little lamp?” I asked, looking at the lantern on the table.

  “It’s important right now that you hold the object you burn so you don’t set anything else on fire. The book is larger, so you aren’t actually setting the fire under your fingers. We can put it out if you accidentally set anything else on fire.”

  “What if I burn myself?”

  “That’s a very likely possibility. Clear your mind and gather your energy,” he said. I gathered a lot more energy than usual before he told me to stop. “It is easier to control fire than to create it, but it’s still one of the four elements. Imagine the book heating up as you pour energy into it. The energy is hot but you’re immune to it. Don’t forget that it cannot hurt you.”

  “Because then it can hurt me?”

  “Right. Your energy will heat it because you want it to. It’ll become so hot that it sets aflame,” he said.

  I focused. It was simple like the water. I imagined the book getting hot enough that it started smoking as I poured energy into it. I imagined it so strongly that I was almost surprised to realize that it was actually beginning to smolder. The hard black cover was crinkling up and smoke was starting to rise.

  “More energy. Fire takes a lot of energy. The book is fuel, but you have to create the fire with energy. ”

  It wasn’t difficult to push more energy into the book. I was careful to keep the energy flowing only out of my hands and into the leather cover. The smoking increased before it finally burst into flames. Well, more like the edge lit up with a tiny little flare.

  Divina looked up, clearly listening to something, before adopting an angered expression. She stood, but Edward pulled her back down. “Leave it,” he said.

  “I want to find out what’s going on,” she argued.

  “What? What’s going on?” I asked. There was a loud crackling and the flame grew much wider, seeming almost as if it were angry.

  “Do not worry about it; it’s only a delay in the ship’s arrival. Focus on the fire. Don’t let it burn out of control,” he said.

  I focused on controlling the flames, which sounded simple, but it started dimming down. I didn’t think leather was particularly good fuel for fire, and it hadn’t reached the paper within the cover yet.

  “Keep it going. You need more energy.”

  I started gathering energy and I pushing it out faster and the flame flared up enthusiastically. I couldn’t control where the flame spread, but I could control whether or not it spread by how much energy I gave it.

  “Good. Okay. Let it go. Slowly stop the flow of energy. Keep your focus.”

  I stopped taking energy into myself and slowed the output until the flame died. “Why is the ship delayed?” I asked when the energy flow was fully cut off and the smoke faded. I was kind of dizzy.

  Divina ignored me, stood, and left.

  Edward shook his head. “She’s going to find out now. There’s likely to be a crowd of angry people up there. I guess this is fine; more practice time. However, now that Divina isn’t in hearing range, do you think you can go on without a rest?”

  “Um… I think I can go on until I’m too tired. I don’t know how much I can do before I get tired. You’re probably a better judge than I am, since you have trained people before. I don’t know where my limit is with magic.”

  “I think you’re much stronger than my former apprentices, but I also have a history of working them too hard.”

  “They weren’t Guardians and the books weren’t in danger.”

  “I’m not trying to push you too hard, only to get you ready to protect your book if something happens. I don’t know if anything is happening, but you need to be ready even if it isn’t. Divina is right, though; I can only hurt you by pushing you too hard.”

  “But who’s to say what’s too hard? So far, the only thing that really knocked me out was the combat training, and I’m already thinking up excuses to get out of that.”

  “Do you really think I would fall for silly excuses? Do you think none of my other apprentices ever tried to smart his way out of chores or lessons?”

  “Did any of them make a sport out of excuses? I tortured my gym teacher for making me do sports. He knew it was me but he never had any proof.”

  “Ronez got paid leave from work for almost a year for a heart transplant when he never had one; all that happened was he got in a fight over some girl and got cut. I know the little tricks on your world and mine. I’ve had many years to learn them. Excuses are child’s play.”

  “Well, I’ve always found that the older the guy is, the easier he is to run circles around.”

  “I’m not old; I’m immortal. How did we go from talking about your endurance in magic to talking about my age? You don’t even know my age.”

  “Two thousand and forty-seven years. Give or take months or something till your birthday,” I said. He frowned. “On that book Ronez gave you for your two thousandth birthday, he wrote the year below his name. It was forty-seven years ago.”

  Edward grinned. “That is very observant of you. If you really want to be impressive, try to figure out how old Divina is.”

  I nodded acceptance at the challenge just as she was walking in. “Divina, how old are you?” I asked.

  Edward laughed and she gave him a look. “Did this idiot tell you to figure out my age?” she asked me. I nodded and she sighed before sitting down. “I would tell you if he wouldn’t find out, but he’d probably get it out of you.”

  “Why would you tell him but not me?” Edward asked.

  “He’s cute,” she beamed. Then her grin faded. “The ship got turned around and now we won’t get there until about sunrise. That could work out well if we arrive before sunrise; very few people will get up before then.

  “We need to change our plan.” She regarded me with grim seriousness. “There were more people heading to Anoshii than I had expected. We were talking about it and decided my potion wouldn’t work with so many people around when we get there.”

  “But I was convincing,” I said.

  “Yes, you were,” Edward said. “You don’t seem to understand how unusual it is for people on Duran to be deaf, mute, blind, autistic, or suffer psychological disorders. It just isn’t normal. Now, people have no problem with wizards as long as they follow the rules, but they can’t know you’re from another world nor have anything to do with the gods.”

  “In other words, playing deaf and mute will be too unbelievable when there’re many people to pick at it. You may not realize it, but you respond to sounds reflexively. Most of them have never met a deaf or mute person, so they shouldn’t notice anything weird, but it only takes one mistake. Instead, when people talk to you, I’m going to tell you what to say with telepathy and you pretend you know what they are saying,”
Divina said.

  “But talking in my mind is magic, and you can’t use magic on Anoshii.”

  “That’s right. However, they can’t say anything about it if they don’t catch me. I’m very good at shielding my magic. Talking while in the city might be difficult.”

  “No one is going to be paying us any attention,” Edward disagreed.

  “Save for merchants.” She looked at me. “If there is a lot of noise around and nobody is trying to talk to us, we can deflect sound so that nobody can hear us. Just be careful where you speak. Now, what has Edward taught you in Sudo? I think we should take the chance to develop your vocabulary. Do you agree, or would you whether push more magic at him?” she asked Edward.

  “I do agree, though I’m hesitant to cease his studies on magic.” Edward started listing what he taught me.

  “Let’s go in order. Logbi is a word for greeting someone lower than you. Loge is a word for greeting someone your own class or higher than you. Your status is determined by your title, not your age, so you may meet someone younger than you with a higher class. When you meet someone, shake their hand and introduce yourself. It is customary for the lesser or younger man to introduce himself first, but men and boys introduce themselves before any woman or girl.”

  “You need a name more appropriate. I think you can keep the name Dylan; it’s not too odd,” Edward said.

  He took his usual place on the seat and Divina leaned back; a sure sign that it was going to be a long story. Divina’s shirt came up to show her navel.

  “People have four names and a title. Your first name is your own. Your second name is your family position; if you are the first boy, first girl, twin, second boy, second girl… Your name is set by those factors, so no one has a choice. Your third name is the date of your birth; the year, season, month, and time of month. We do have months and years, and they’re calculated somewhat like yours are, but there are only seven months, which are divided and read more like your world’s old Roman way. The third name cannot be chosen either. Your fourth name is the important one; your family’s name. Girls take their mother’s last name and boys take their father’s. You cannot claim the last name until the parent gives it, unless the parent is dead. Until then, you add ‘le’ to the end, which is a disgraceful title that means you haven’t earned your blood yet. Family is very important. The mother is the head of the girls in the family, and the father is head of the boys.