Soul Fire

by Aprille Legacy

  ~

   

  “No, the energy comes from the heart,” Yu snapped at us. “Your whole diaphragm. Use it!”

  I focussed once again on the target that I had been assigned. Yu was teaching us how to project our magic. This involved standing in a stance that was making my legs wobble and ache. I breathed deeply, feeling the magic in the air and strengthening my core.

  “From the heart!” Yu said, and gave the signal.

  I threw my right hand out towards the target, and in the final second before the magic left my body, infused it with all of the frustration I was feeling towards Phoenix and the whole situation of this world.

  A tongue of emerald flames erupted from my fingertips, roaring towards the target. It reached further than anyone else’s, and before I could blink, had reduced the wooden target to ashes.

  “Excellent,” Yu said, bouncing on the balls of his feet with his hands behind his back. “Just excellent. What’s your name again?”

  “Sky,” I replied, feeling the sheen of sweat on my brow. Wielding magic was just like exercise; it was exhausting.

  “Well, everyone else has homework but not you. You just continue your breathing exercises. Everyone else will report to this hall after your dinner tonight for extra classes.”

  Everyone groaned just as the bell rang to signal the end of class. Yu left quickly as everyone began to migrate towards their bags, and some of the other servants of the castle had come in to begin cleaning up. I had almost reached Dena and Theresa when someone spoke to me.

  “So... that was pretty impressive.”

  I turned around to face Eleanora.

  “Thank you.” I said stiffly.

  She tossed her hair, tilting her head on one side.

  “You know, you could almost be from this realm,” she said pensively. “You’re much better than any of the other humans.”

  “We’re not humans,” I said before I could stop myself. “We’re mages just like you.”

  “But you’re from the human realm.”

  “So?” I challenged. “Just because we’re from another realm doesn’t make us any less powerful than you.”

  The whole class was watching now. Any pretence of friendship that Eleanora had been projecting was gone.

  “Oh really? I bet you don’t even know what continent you stand on.”

  I inwardly thanked Petre for last night’s geography.

  “We’re on the continent Lotheria, in the state of Stanthor. The capital city is Castor, just south of us. To the west is Gowar, to the east is Abdoor and to the north is Orthandrell. From your accent, I’m guessing you’re from...” I recalled Ispin’s clipped words and swallowed vowels. “Gowar.”

  Silence had filled the hall. I saw Phoenix out of the corner of my eye watching along with everyone else.

  “So you found some books, big deal,” anger flashed in her violet eyes. “You’re still from the human realm and you’ll never ever be a true mage.”

  “Well if that means overlooking slavery, then I’m glad! I don’t want to be a true mage if that’s the case!”

  The servants stiffened, but they didn’t look up. The mages from the human realm were looking confused, whilst the local mages from Lotheria were puzzled that I’d even brought it up. I decided addressing the human mages would be best.

  “The servants who come to your room and wait on you, they don’t get paid,” I was looking around at the students, my hands outstretched and my heart beating frantically; I hated public speaking. “They get one day off every two weeks and no pay!”

  I heard a few outraged murmurs, and the servants left as quickly as they’d come. Phoenix wasn’t reacting at all; he just kept watching me.

  “It is our way of life,” Eleanora snapped, echoing Ispin from the night before.

  “It’s disgusting!” I replied angrily. “What makes you think that you’re better than everyone else? The fact that you can create fire and magical stuff? Please.”

  I turned around to leave, my palms slick with sweat. I was shaking with anger at Eleanora and the other Lotherian mages.

  “Sky!”

  Dena’s shout was the only warning I had before something hit me hard in the back. I went sprawling on my face.

  “You think you can just waltz in here and tell us how to live?” Eleanora was shouting. I picked myself up slowly from the ground. “This has been our way of life for thousands of years and one little brat from the human realm isn’t going to put a stop to it!”

  “You can bet your life that I will,” I said, and then lashed out.

  My magic hit her before she had a chance to block it. She fell back, onto the practice mat. Our class gave us a wide berth, and I could hear Dena trying to break it up.

  “Come on, guys, this isn’t good.”

  We both ignored her. Eleanora staggered to her feet, a snarl marring her perfect features.

  From the core.

  I hit her with everything I had and she went down again.

  “And now you think you’re oh so powerful because you’ve learnt that one move,” she snarled as she climbed to her feet again. I bounced on the balls of my feet, ready for whatever she had to throw at me. “I’ve been training ever since I was five years old to come to the Academy!”

  “Good on you,” I replied, watching her carefully. “I haven’t trained at all.”

  Something lashed through the air. I saw something that looked like a whip made of violet fire just before it lashed me across the face.

  Pain, white hot pain burnt across my skin from where the whip had touched me. I fell to the ground, blinded. Eleanora was still yelling, but I couldn’t hear her properly through the ringing in my ears.

  Hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me back upright. I struggled, thinking it was Eleanora, but then they spoke into my ear.

  “I’ve got you.”

  Phoenix’s low voice made me freeze. That was three more words he’d spoken to me now.

  “Can you open your eyes?” There was no mistaking the concern in his voice.

  I cracked open one eye experimentally, but the other refused to open, already swelling. I could see that Eleanora had been restrained by three other mages, and Theresa and Yasmin were standing between us.

  “Ow,” I winced as pain shot across my head.

  “Sky!” Dena was at my side, supporting me. I felt Phoenix take a step back.

  “What is this?” I groaned as Iain strode across the practice mat. “Who is responsible?”

  I raised my hand cautiously. Eleanora did nothing for a moment but then did the same.

  “Detention this evening. Both of you!” he snapped furiously. “We do not tolerate any kind of misbehaviour in these walls.”

  He left as quickly as he’d arrived. I felt something run down my face, and when I lifted my fingers to touch my skin, they came away red with my blood.

  “You need to go to the infirmary,” Dena was saying. “You need to be treated.”

  “No, I’m fine. I’ll just head upstairs and wash off.”

  I shrugged her and Rain off, and then grabbed my satchel and left the hallway. I passed Phoenix on the way out, but he made no move to talk to me.

  Up in my room, I’d just started dabbing at my face gingerly with a cloth when Larni entered. She gasped and promptly dropped the stack of clean linen she’d been carrying.

  “Miss, are you alright? Why are you bleeding?”

  “A disagreement with a local mage,” I gasped with pain as the cloth brushed the open wound. Strong, cool fingers took the cloth from me and Larni took over cleaning the wound.

  “Sit,” she commanded, and I sat at the table. She dragged the other chair around close to me and began cleaning. “What was this about?”

  I fixed her with my one good eye.

  “Your wages.”

  The cloth stilled immediately.

  “Please don’t make a fuss about me, miss.”

  “Don’t call me miss,” I said, screwing up my
face against the pain. “Call me Sky.”

  “Unscrunch your face,” she told me, and I did so. “Ok then... Sky. Please don’t make a fuss over the other servants and me. We’re perfectly happy as we are.”

  “Are you really?” I asked her.

  She dabbed the cloth in the water jug sitting on my table.

  “We are non-magi.  We don’t get a say.”

  My stomach clenched as nausea rolled through, but whether it was from the pain or not, I couldn’t tell.

  “Please let me help you, Larni.”

  She didn’t reply and instead replaced the cloth on the table. She placed one finger on my jaw, near where the whip weal ended, and another finger just above my left eye, where the weal began. She closed her eyes, and a second later, the pain vanished altogether.

  “What did you just do?”

  She looked at me in disbelief.

  “I... I healed you,” she whispered, like she didn’t quite believe it herself.

  I touched my face, but any mark of the injury was gone.

  “Larni, you’re a mage!”

  “No, I’m not,” she stood up quickly and backed against the door. “My parents tested me when I was four! The tester said I didn’t have a trace!”

  “He got it wrong then,” I approached my mirror and examined my face. My skin was as unmarked as it was before.

  Larni fled before I could stop her.