Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (17 page)

Memories from my life came flashing into my mind, and I couldn’t control them. Just as quickly as they had come, they would flash switch to another. In a few moments I had relived every decision I had made in my life, every scheme to get food, every night that I cried myself to sleep.

The water grew uneasy and tossed the raft around. Waves came splashing over us. I struggled to stay on, but we were thrown overboard into the water and everything went black.

There we were, still in the hall, my hands resting on his, now covered in sweat. The mage looked at me once more, and then walked over to Helendra and whispered into her ear. Her eyes grew wide.

“This has not happened before,” she announced. “We will need to discuss this further. Tevon, please take the two outside and wait for us to call for you.” Her voice was uneasy and nervous. Tevon stood up and we both followed him as he walked us outside.

“What happened?” Denarah and Tevon both asked me the moment we were outside and alone.

“I don’t know. We were on a raft going down a river, the water grew violent, and then we were thrown overboard,” I explained, still confused by everything that had just happened. “Did I fail the test?”

Tevon shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s never happened before. Either the student passes and their heart is pure, or they fail and are sent home without another word. Out of the few hundred students here that have taken the test, none have had that happen.” He sat down on the ground, leaning his head against the giant stones that made up the outer castle walls, scratching his thick furry beard.

“Do I still get to go to the academy?” My eyes began to water in fear that I would be denied this wonderful home I had been shown. I had come so close, only to lose it all.

Denarah walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me. “They’ll call us back in soon. Just relax. I’ll see to it you get a fair chance just as sure as the grass does grow.”

We sat outside for some time when Helendra called to me,
“You certainly are a special one.”
Her voice seemed calm and relaxed.
“You may come back in now.”

Tevon must have received a message from her as well, as he jumped up just before I did. We followed him back inside and stood behind the chairs we had previously sat in. We didn’t sit down since all of the other mages there were standing as well.

The mage that had tested me began to speak, “Jasminis, your future is uncertain. While we normally would not accept a student under such circumstances, it is the belief of the faculty that your—”

He was interrupted by Helendra, “Your best chance for a good future is to be here with us, under the condition that you meet with Mage Felinon on a regular basis. He wishes to keep track of you and make sure everything is all right.”

It was then that I figured out Felinon was the mage that had tested me. My stomach wrenched—he was not someone that I would prefer to spend any more time with than I already had. Now I was to meet with him on a regular basis, just my luck. The idea of him “keeping track” of me sent a shiver down my spine.

“I will watch over you, dear,”
Helendra said. She snuck a wink at me as I looked over.

“Tevon, would you please take Jasminis to her new quarters while we test Denarah?” Helendra asked, and all of the mages returned to their seats once again.

I took Denarah’s hand to try and reassure her just before Tevon ushered me out of the room. We made our way outside once more.

“Is Helendra the head of the faculty?” I asked the moment we were out of the room.

Tevon smiled, “No, the head was not there, but she is Helendra’s old master. Helendra was chosen to speak today to ensure you felt comfortable there. Sometimes the test can be a little unnerving to new students.”

“Where’s the head mage at?”

“She’s away for the time being. She’s an old and wise mage and often disappears on her own private journeys. I don’t really know where she goes, but she always returns with great insight.”

Tevon led me through the village of hollowed stumps. Most of the kids we had seen running around earlier were now inside, while the older students strolled around the jagged streets that were formed from the inconsistent positioning of the houses.

“What happens now?”

“Now we get you moved in and let you get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll go get you all of the necessities you need for your new home.”

I nearly jumped in excitement at the thought of my own home, a place I can call my own—my refuge. We were just a little ways from the castle when Tevon stopped outside of a house and peeked his head inside. “This looks like the one. We’re getting a little short on vacant homes. We keep getting new students every day. You and I will have to work on making some new ones soon.”

I looked around at the almost countless houses. “You did all of this?”

He laughed and scanned the village with a proud look in his eyes. “I planted the seeds and helped them grow. We then went to each one and wetted the outside of them, cut a doorway into the bark and burned out the inside. I then had the tree to grow a roof back on.”

“How’d you cut them all down like that? They’re all the same height.” Every single home seemed to be the same height, maybe only a couple of inches difference here and there.

“The trees grow that way. At least, they do when I tell them to.”

I stared in awe—the wonders of magic still amazed me. “So, all of the students live out here?”

He turned and pointed to the outer edges of the castle. “No, many of the older, more advanced students live in the outer wings of the castle. There was a time when we all fit in there, but the academy has been growing and we had to branch out and make these new homes.”

The sun slowly dipped below the crest of the cliff and the sky turned shades of orange, red and purple, casting a red tint on our faces as we stood outside of my new home and talked. The disappearing of the sun seemed to set off a timer for Tevon as he stretched and yawned and let out a large growl.

“It’s time to be getting some rest. We have a full day tomorrow.”

I nodded in agreement and went into my new home. A thick blanket acted as the door with two fist-sized rocks that were on the ground next to the corners of the heavy cloth. I rolled them over the corners to keep the door in place. I was pleased to find a nice bed with clean blankets on it. I jumped into it, curled up, and went to sleep in my new home.

~8~

The realization that this wasn’t entirely my home came to mind when Tevon pushed my door open and called inside with an annoying amount of cheer, “Rise and shine.”

I crawled out of bed at a sluggish, disheartened pace, not wanting to leave my new comfortable home. I had planned so much for it before I had gone to sleep, and was determined I would one day have it decorated as I wanted.

When I took in a deep breath, I was reminded how high up we were as the air was a little lighter, and each inhalation felt as though it was less rewarding than I was accustomed to.

Initially it was daunting to be around Tevon, let alone having him be the one to wake me up in the morning, given the nature of our first encounter. Even when he had first rescued me, something about his presence set me unease. But now it had become rather comforting. He was more understanding and less aggressive than Aton. Had Aton been in the better position when they met in the alleyway, he wouldn’t have hesitated killing Tevon.

“No sleeping in for you today, too much work to do.” Tevon called to me again from outside.

I walked to the door in a zigzagged pattern and stepped outside, still dressed in the same clothes I had worn the day before. Tevon seemed to take notice to this as he scanned over me.

“The first thing we need is to get you some new clothes, as well as a uniform.”

“Uniform?” I then looked around at the other kids and suddenly realized that they all were wearing a uniform, but there seemed to be different colored ones.

“Well, the students all wear different colored outfits based on the type of magic they have. We try to classify them as much as possible. Any student with an ability relating to nature or life, for example, typically wears green.” Tevon explained as we walked towards the castle. On the way there he pointed to several boys running around together. “Water related is blue. Fire, heat or energy get red and so on. We do this to encourage the students be proud of their ability, and remind them that there are others like them.”

I tried to imagine what color someone like Aton would be given. Probably none, since he would never pass the test to get in here. I shook this thought aside as there was a lingering question I had to ask, “What color will I be assigned?”

“Well, when you’re here for schooling, we decided we would assign you black. However, you’re being advanced to apprenticeship a little early due to the desperate need for your ability, given the current state of affairs.”

“State of affairs?” I noticed how much I reminded myself of one of the birds that would sometimes come through Saltren with the few out of town salesmen that were allowed in because of their exotic inventory. They would sometimes come with brightly colored birds that would repeat what people would say to them in a taunting fashion.

Tevon stopped and pulled me aside to a less occupied area. “The war. Many think it’s coming and if that’s true, then we must begin readying the cities of the North. They aren’t the least bit united, and alone they would be wiped out one after the other.”

“What can we possibly do?” I was skeptical I would have any influence in something of this scale.

Tevon kneeled down and placed his hand on the ground and a small cloud of dust began to swirl around it. He then raised his hand at a steady pace, revealing a newly grown plant. As he continued to bring his hand up, it followed, and long stems with leaves sprouted outward as it increased in height. Little strawberries began to swell up at the ends of the stems. By the time his hand was a foot off the ground, the plant was riddled with over twenty bright red strawberries.

“We can do just enough,” he said with a confident puff of his chest. Between his heavy, drawn-out breaths he picked several strawberries and tossed them in his mouth. The act had strained him severely.

While his answer was not as direct as I had hoped, I did begin to see what he meant. But how did we know it would be enough? What were we up against, for that matter? Terrified as I was, I had to know. “Who are we going to war with?”

Tevon threw a couple more strawberries in one of the pouches hanging from his belt. “Mages from the South, though we’re not sure who exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the elder mages can sense changes in the flow of Etherea. She senses great change and anger from the South—a storm that is building up, and it’s been moving this way.”

“Who lives in the South?” I hoped that my lack of knowledge of the outside world wasn’t becoming tiring to those around me.

“There’s a great canyon south of here that separates the North and South. It has yet to be crossed, so we don’t know. The South is believed to be where magic first started.”

I had never heard of a great canyon before, not even a brief mention of it. I imagined it must be vast since they had never crossed it. Though someone must have at one point, if that is where magic came from. I decided that someday I would go there, just to see what it looked like. I had a taste of the world, and I was growing hungry to see it all. We continued walking once more and I put aside my curiosities.

At this time, all of the students were running around, coming to and from the castle. Some were heading out to the forest, or at least away from the castle and village—I didn’t know what else there was out here. The more students I saw, the more apparent it became to me. “Why are there no other students wearing black like my uniform will be?”

Tevon shrugged. “Well, there is one other student. Typically black is assigned to the most unique of powers.”

“What can the other student do?”

He hesitated before answering. “We aren’t sure. She has only been able to use it once, and when she did, she disappeared for a week with no memory of where she had gone.”

The idea of finding out what this other student could do enticed me. The hunger to explore magic had returned to me. She was the only other student to be assigned black. There must be some connection between us, I hoped.

After a while we reached another entrance to the castle. This part of the castle was far less magnificent, designed more for efficiency than beauty. Tevon took me to a room that was filled with stacks and stacks of clothes. Every type of cloth and fabric you could imagine was here. There were plain yellow ones, black and white polka dot, turquoise and many other colors and patters. I stared in awe at the collection that spanned the almost endless shelves that lined every wall of the room. Down near the back were several long tables with collections of various colored uniforms folded together in matching sets.

I scanned the table and found no black uniforms, just the more common colors that I had seen all of the other students wearing. Tevon guided me over to a beautiful woman in a short, elegant blue dress. It was unlike any dress I had seen, and there were very few materials in it other than the blue silk that made most of it. The dress formed around her in a modest but snug fit, revealing a little bit of her figure. I found it unusual that she wore it while working.

She was in the middle of sewing something together on a table when she turned to face me, “What color for the new student?” She spoke in a hurried pace.

“Black,” Tevon said. I was too engrossed in the design of her dress to answer for myself. It was very simple in its design yet appeared far more complex than it truly was. What gave it its elegant appearance eluded me for after closer inspection it appeared very basic, but the moment I stopped studying it, it returned to its gorgeous luster.

“Black you say? I haven’t had a request for that color in a while. What’s her power?”

“She’s a channeler.”

“Good heavens, a channeler? This little girl, in these plain clothes?” Her eyes quickly scanned over what I was wearing, never taking notice of my head. She smirked. “This will be easy. Come back later today. I’ll have a few suits sewn together for her by then.”

Tevon lowered his head in acceptance and walked me out of the room. He guided me to a courtyard on the far side of the castle. Nestled within the towering walls was the city's market. It was void of any shopkeepers—there were no signs for prices, or sales people trying to bargain. The few other students that were here strolled through at a leisured pace, grabbing several small items here and there as they went.

I looked over at Tevon in confusion. He answered before I could even ask the question. “We don’t pay for items here, everything is made by the students and faculty. We all contribute and we all share, no one takes more than they need.” He placed a stern emphasis on the word need.

The concept was beyond appealing to me and I could barely suppress the urge to burst out and grab everything that caught my eye. I rummaged through the various stands. They appeared to be sorted by the type of items they held. There were so many things that caught my eye, but instead I took in a deep breath and grabbed a couple warm blankets, some thick leather hiking shoes, a gorgeous glass butterfly that was designed to hang from a wall, and my most favorite of all, a small string necklace with a shiny black crystal. I wasted no time putting it on and hoped it would match my uniform.

A small part of me felt guilty for the two things I had grabbed out of vanity. Hopefully Tevon wouldn’t think less of me for having done so, but my home was bland and I had never owned a piece of jewelry in my life—I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“Good taste,” Yurios said as he turned a corner and joined Tevon’s side.

The sight of Yurios made me uneasy and I could see that he still harbored some resentment for my replacing him as Tevon’s apprentice. I turned away and continued to look around, avoiding his gaze. Where was Denarah when I needed her? She would be perfect at drawing his attention so I could avoid this awkward moment. Instead I was stuck looking at neat trinkets, cute clothes, and wonderful smelling candles that I shouldn’t take.

“Getting her settled in?” Yurios asked in what I assumed was an attempt at being humble, though the more he spoke, the less I was able to detect any sign of discontent. “She seems to be getting along better now.”

Tevon nodded. “Aside from the issue yesterday, she’s doing well. She will be in classes learning in no time.”

Yurios smiled. “I’ve already been reassigned.”

Tevon sounded a little surprised, “Who have you been assigned with?”

Yurios spoke with a sense of confidence and pride, “Master Yalderan. I’m scheduled to go on a recruitment with him next week.”

I watched them from the corner of my eye—Yurios never turned to look at me. Perhaps now that he had been reassigned to someone else he would be friendlier to me. Just as I thought I was in the clear, he shot me a brief hateful glare. He shook Tevon’s hand and then disappeared into the castle. There was a stoic sadness in the way Tevon watched Yurios run off. Yurios wasn’t the only one to experience loss as a result from my arrival.

“Catch ya later,” Yurios said, as his voice faded in confines of the castle walls.

I grabbed a black shoulder pack from one of the stands and placed all of my new belongings in it and we continued through the castle, heading down a long corridor that led to a steep, wide spiral staircase. I tried to approximate where in the castle we were, but was unable to. We had taken so many hallways and turns that I found myself completely lost.

The stairs were tiringly long, with each stride bringing little joy, as it revealed only more steps. We passed several doors that turned in to the center of the tower and stopped when we arrived at one with a thick iron lock on it. Tevon reached into his shirt and revealed a key that had been tucked away in a hidden chest pocket.

Before he opened the door, he kneeled down and placed his hand on my shoulder firmly. “The mages have asked I include you in their meeting today, so that you know what’s going on. You’re not going to be treated like a normal student I’m sorry to say. As my apprentice, should you still want to be, you’ll have to do as I ask. But know that I will do my best to never ask you to do anything you would say no to.”

I nodded, and he unlocked the door.

We walked into a round room with chairs lining the wall and a large circular table in the middle—it was a tight fit. In each one sat one of the elder mages I had seen before in the great hall, as well as several I hadn’t seen before. Tevon directed me to two open seats that were close to the door and we sat down.

An elderly woman stood up, her hair long and white with many jagged curls and her fingers were nearly bone. She looked as though standing took her great effort, her shaky back hunched over. “The storm grows near, but has slowed its pace.” Her voice was as uneasy as her back, she was raspy and drawn out. She turned to me, her almost colorless eyes locked onto mine. “The winds of change are on our side. There’s hope for the people of this land once again.”

Helendra interrupted, “We cannot be placing such burdens on her.”

“Or so much hope,” another mage added with a snarl.