by Helen Savore
“Not as a Smith, as a Shaper. Let him learn the elements in some form.” Adhomai traced a pyramid against the wall. “It would not do to have an apprentice of yours caught off guard again.”
“Alexandrea is my apprentice.” She lifted the Phoenix Mantle and fingered her alloy underneath. It had cracked when Alexandrea’s broke, but it had not yet fallen apart, and she could not bear to part with its remnant.
“What does that make Jamie?”
“Another Druid. But not a Shaper. Smiths cannot be Shapers.”
"They Shape mineral well, and who knows. Is it that they cannot be Shapers, or that they simply are not? Mayhap they are not given the opportunity to Shape, given their smith dedication." Adhomai stood next to her. "Furthermore, were you not saying how impatient he was? If you do not train him, what if he tries himself?" He paused. "If you do not train him, who will he ask to be his teacher?"
That possibility had not occurred to Moralynn. Who knew what trouble he could get himself into? Or more importantly, what trouble could he cause for Alexandrea? Moralynn slumped against the wall.
Adhomai waved dismissively. “Train the boy. Besides, humans are so frail. Two apprentices must be better than one.”
Moralynn did not move or speak. She could not explain it to Adhomai. Jamie could never be her apprentice, not like Alexandrea. The only other one who knew had passed. A bit of her soul, every generation, to bind the Morgans to her. Was that why her memories were fading? But the soul was separate from memory; one could travel to Annwn and the other could not.
In the past she could always recover these fragments, but without Boderien’s help, what would happen when Alexandrea died? Would she lose her wonder forever? With wonder lost, she could not properly miss it, but she still recognized it affected her. Quite a gamble, but oh, how it paid off. Alexandrea was a rare Druid.
Yet somehow Jamie had come into it, and was quite strong, too. Was she impatient to gift part of her soul to elevate others? Could she have found Druids in other ways? Were there others still yet out there, somewhere?
She did not have time for this pondering. There was the search to resume. She stood. “There is wisdom in your words, Adhomai. Training, yes. But Alexandrea, she is my apprentice. I shall not lose her.”
32
Jamie lifted his hands away from his gut. Only a little blood remained on his fingers; the wounds no longer bled. But another shirt was ruined. He pivoted his ankle, giving himself better leverage to stand. First to his knees, then feet.
Alexandrea allowed them an open hall in the old wing to train inside during the winter. He debated which was the worse surface—the freezing ground outside or old stone covered with a single mat inside.
Jamie straightened and brushed the back of his hand across his cheek. More blood. He was sick of training again and again just to be beaten to a bloody pulp. His world was only pain. Every time he thought of passing, he remembered those damn fae messing with him, the visions and death phantoms. He was not going to let this stand. “When am I going to be allowed a weapon of my own?”
“I would think you would rather have a shield,” Adhomai said.
Jamie still wasn’t sure what to make of him, he always lurked when he trained with Moralynn. Alexandrea always hid.
Moralynn cleaned the knife and went to the chest in the corner. Jamie dreaded what she would pull out next. Each weapon had their own concerns. Blades cut deeper, but clean, resulting in an easier wound to pull together. Something like a mace just ripped him apart.
“Try these.” Moralynn tossed a pair of cylinders at him.
Jamie caught and shifted them in his hands. They were two leather sleeves with ties, but stiffer. Both were half-covered with a curve of dark metal.
“You’re not messing with me?” He wrapped his knuckles against one. “What do I do with these?”
Adhomai snorted. “‘Tis only low-grade iron.”
“They are bracers.” Moralynn lifted her own arms, showing off a similar pair. “Tie them on, tight.”
Jamie considered asking how to do that, considering he’d lose the hand of the arm he put it on, but he decided to keep his mouth shut and try. Since he was changing up, Jamie trotted to the corner for a spare shirt, too. In the end he pulled, and he looped the excess strings.
“Iron. Okay.” Jamie raised his fists and rotated his arms, putting the metal plates forward. He punched into the air. “Still better than nothing.”
“It is not to shield, Jamie.” Moralynn waved to the door. “We should go outside.”
“Why outside?”
Moralynn gazed back a moment, but said nothing else as she left the hall.
“I do not think she will tell you again.” Adhomai knocked on the door once and left.
Jamie grabbed his jacket and fussed with the sleeves so they wouldn’t roll over the bracers. Were they going to invalidate the shielding the minute he got it, even if Moralynn said they really weren’t for that? He clenched his hands again, feeling the pressure of his muscles against the bracers.
Drea’s voice drifted down the hall. “Where are you going?”
Jamie backed up and ducked his head into her office. “Apparently we’re going outside. Want to take a look?”
Her eyes narrowed as she pointed at the bracers, “When did you get those?”
“Ask your mentor, she gave them to me.”
Drea tilted her head while swiveling her legs out from beneath her to stand. “Moralynn,” she called, “what are you doing?”
“He should learn this, too.”
Jamie looked from Moralynn to Drea. “You going to clue me in?”
Alexandrea crossed the room. “Give me your arm.” Jamie did so, and she tugged out the laces, undoing the last loop and tying it herself. “Moralynn means to teach you earth shaping.”
“Earth shaping?” Adhomai said. “How pretentious.”
Alexandrea shot her eyes toward Moralynn’s. “This was more than we discussed, are you sure about this?”
Moralynn nodded, “It would be better for him to understand, rather than stumble into any Shaping he can perform.”
Alexandrea frowned but said nothing else. She gave the second bracer a pat once she finished re-lacing it.
“Thank you.” Jamie tried not to smile too much. She was still polite, distant. He shouldn’t make too much out of her brief, gentle touch. “Now, are you going to leave me alone with these two?”
It was rude, but he had to ask. She confused him sometimes, no, often. First, she held back all this magic stuff, then she convinced him to train up, but she didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with it. Granted, his reactions probably didn’t help. Maybe they were both confused together.
“Pretentious. And impertinent.” Adhomai’s voice became softer as he walked away.
Alexandrea pushed Jamie forward. “Go, I’ll watch for a bit.”
Jamie brought his fists together and bowed. “Thank you.”
They both laughed and headed towards the back.
“Alexandrea, you will not mind some reshaping?”
All four stood on the edge of the Estate, where it met the woods. They were beyond the patios and courtyards but still within sight of the stone walls. Dense forest beckoned meters away.
Jamie circled what looked to be an old fire pit, waiting for Moralynn to explain whatever it was she meant to do. Rushing never worked with her, but pacing at least helped him.
“This you ask.” Alexandrea coughed. “Yes, of course. Here is better than the garden. Or other spaces.” She stepped to the side, dropping to a well-weathered log. There was only the one.
Adhomai reached out towards the woods, and the undergrowth shivered. After a moment of rustling a two-meter log came out, with only remnants of limbs. Adhomai grabbed it and set to slicing and arranging.
Drea glared at him.
“I promise, it was a dead-fall. It was not doing any good there. If we were doing this in the forest, I could have shaped something proper
ly.”
Meanwhile Moralynn’s hands shifted as a two-meter diameter swath of earth danced around her. The ground turned on itself, the grass disappearing within the growing pile. The same happened farther away, until they became mounds, and three waves of earth crashed into the pile Moralynn built in front of her. She shoved her hand into the now meter-tall jittering slope, and everything quieted.
Moralynn’s lips curved in her small smile. She took dirt off the top and tossed it to the ground, forming a new “board.” Jamie knew the drill by now and came over, settling down.
“Life shaping is an ability unique to humans.” She drew three lines, radiating from the same point in the top center of the flat ground. “Psyche is a bit different as well. They are sometimes thought to be similar because both are mysterious, but psyche requires a foci while life leverages a human’s own life flow, for those who can control it.” She drew three more lines, connecting the others and forming the base of a pyramid. “Elemental shaping, however, is understood and taught regularly.”
“So, more magic?”
“Not magic,” Moralynn said, lifting a finger, “Shaping. How one can alter their own environment with the available materials through a combination of potential, will, and exertion.”
Jamie lifted his head and found Drea. “Cliffs Notes?”
She grinned at him. “Don’t worry, it's supposed to take time.”
Jamie’s hands drifted to the ground, where he ran dirt through his fingers until he found a rock. “Shaping. That’s like when I carved through that rock?”
Adhomai perked up from his perch. “Somewhat.”
Moralynn tapped the left bracer. “Similar, except you did that without a foci.”
“A foci,” Jamie tried the words on his lips. Foci, like a wrong pluralization of focus? “This is a foci?” He pointed to the bracer, careful not to touch Moralynn’s fingers.
“Yes.” Moralynn motioned along her frame. “I am wearing several, as is Adhomai.”
They were both armored, and armed. Were those the foci? Adhomai had taken his chain off, along with other accessories, that first night. Jamie swiveled to look at Alexandrea more closely. She wore nothing similar. “Do you not need foci?”
“Mine are my jewelry.” Alexandrea fanned out her fingers, and Jamie took a closer look at the wild rings on each finger that he took for granted. She wiggled her wrists, shaking the bracelets and bangles. She pointed to her belt, with the strange metal rings woven in between the leather strips.
He’d noticed them before, but had not truly seen them. To be sure he didn't miss anything else, he looked her up and down. Part of him enjoyed the excuse while the other felt guilty. “So it’s metal?”
“And gemstones.” Alexandrea pointed to her bird necklace, covered in small red and orange stones. He thought it might have been a piece of her neck thing that broke during the accident. So that was a foci.
“Minerals,” Adhomai said to the sky, not stirring from the log. “It has always been about mineral structure and content.”
Alexandrea shifted to face Adhomai. “Are you suggesting that I eat something high in iron I can pull that pile there?”
“No, that is ridiculous.” His chest heaved. “Some metals alone can hold potential, but the more capable foci incorporate families of gemstones to take advantage of the bonds within their crystal structure.”
Jamie clapped his hands. This was all talk, time to move on. “Right. Do I need a foci?”
Moralynn patted the ground. “You demonstrated you could do some mineral shaping without a foci. Such grace is granted to Smiths.”
Jamie frowned. “A Smith forging tools?”
Adhomai sighed. “Forging foci,” he corrected.
Moralynn interrupted him. “You should practice with a foci, rather than without. We are not sure what you can do without one. Performing shaping beyond one’s potential has consequences.”
Jamie rocked back. “Of course, it does. Such as?” His eyes drifted to Drea.
She frowned. “Mutilation.”
“What?” He stood.
Adhomai made circles with his hands. “Twisting of the body into forms it should not be.” He caught Jamie’s eye. “Sometimes even death.”
Jamie kicked at the loose dirt. “Well, then, how do you avoid that?”
Moralynn pointed at him, her already deep dark eyes somehow more serious than normal. “Do not exceed the potential of your accumulated foci.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jamie said, running his hands through his hair, trying to diffuse the tension. When had they gotten so serious? He almost preferred being a punching bag than seeing the threat of that look again.
Drea drummed her fingers against the log. “Jamie, you need to take this seriously.”
He took three steps and sank down beside her. It was weird looking up to her for once.
“I am taking this seriously.” His eyes reflected in her glasses. Why didn’t she see he was trying? Harder than med school, even. This was his chance to set that straight. To not fail. To drive the ghosts away. Maybe even help a little. He might be teetering on running, but he hadn’t yet. “I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
She closed her mouth and breathed in, but did not speak.
Jamie lifted his hand, but stopped short of touching her. “Stay and help me this time?”
Alexandrea raised her face as she stood, her eyes sliding behind him. “Listen to Moralynn,” she said softly. “She will guide you as she guided me and our predecessors.”
Jamie stood, blocking her return. “Now that I’m moving beyond healing, it won’t be just you. I can help.”
“Sure, Jamie.” She still wouldn’t catch his eye, but she bobbed her head. “Thanks, that’s…” She lifted her head. “Thank you for supporting. But if you’re going to help, you’re going to need to learn these lessons first.”
“Drea,” he said, grabbing at her arm. “I am getting better. You should watch sometime.” He wiped his lips, recalling the injuries from earlier. “Maybe I’m not that far from being able to do something.”
She shook her head. “It isn’t your responsibility.”
He let go of her arm, but didn’t back away. “Hey, you’ve been doing this yourself. Drea, I see them, too.” Haunted all his life, but now he was actively doing something about it instead of hiding what he thought was a mental condition. Why didn’t she want to acknowledge that? Because it had taken him so long to realize? “You will let me help you, won’t you?”
She crossed her arms. “I doubt I would be able to stop you.”
“Pigheadedness has it’s advantages,” he said, flashing her a wide smile.
“It doesn’t mean I have to like it, or watch you learn.” She opened her mouth, as if hesitating on a word, but instead pulled her jacket tighter, and walked towards the house.
A heaviness filled his chest, unlike any pain from his training. It wasn’t magical, it was worse. Drea wounded him with a few short words.
She just doesn’t want you to get hurt, he told himself. Out loud, he called after. “I learn fast.”
“Then you should return to the lesson,” Adhomai said.
Jamie grumbled. No Drea, but Adhomai was content to lounge around. He considered kicking Adhomai’s log, but thought better of it. Why did the fae give him such a rise? Between his half-snarky remarks and Moralynn’s cold demeanor, he was never on even footing around this pair.
Moralynn stood by the flattened area and gestured with her fingers. The earth depressed at her whim as if she was drawing from afar. “Mineral is the simplest to start with. It is physical, easily malleable, and in abundance.”
Jamie looked to her diagram, noting one face of the pyramid was shaded. “What are the others?”
“Water, air, and fire.”
“Four?” Jamie counted off his fingers. “That’s it?”
Adhomai held up two fingers and a thumb on each hand. “There are then six admixtures.” He ducked a digit as he sai
d each. “Plant, ice, sand, magma, steam, and lightning.”
“Lightning?” Jamie closed his own fist and looked from one to the other. “You can control lightning?”
“It is possible, but difficult.”
“Sure.” Jamie let his arms fall loose, trying to concentrate on the bracers, the foci he now wore. “So, mineral.” He kicked at the ground.
Moralynn continued. “The first thing with any element is to get a sense of it.” She pointed to the pile. “If you come here and feel through it, figure out what you sense from it. I’ve hidden something within. Can you tell me where it is?”
Jamie looked. How would something different look? He kicked the dirt again, but this time a second sense, like the life magic, overlaid his sight. He saw the layers within the dirt pile, and sections clumped together.
“Jamie, come over—”
“I’m already on it.” His eyes roved, though it wasn’t through them he gained this additional sight. Seeing wasn’t right. Sensing? Feeling, maybe? But how to understand this input? Density. That was it. There was a part that was harder than the rest.
He could get used to this, learning things without a bloody nose for once.
“What do you mean, already on it?” She walked to him. “How can you be on it? You are there, it is here.”
Jamie mentally grasped on the harder bit.
A green stone flew out of the pile.
Though unfortunately, not in the direction Jamie meant. It missed his hand and shot into Adhomai’s chest.
The elf grunted and picked up the stone as he himself stood. “Oh, Jamie. You are not ready for a proper challenge.” He collapsed his fist round the stone. “But when you are…”
Jamie smiled. “Why not now?”
This was just plain fun; he wasn’t really going after the elf. But in this vein of casual play he could needle him a bit. He ran over to the pile. He wasn’t sure why the stone had gone in the wrong direction, but he had managed to tug on it. Moralynn had only wanted him to sense, but there wasn’t any time for that. He needed to figure this out so he could be ready for the next phantom attack. He would prove to Drea he could help.