The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (24 page)

“The Blac
k Prism.”

“Yes.” Asher nodded. “I didn’t want to meet my old friend in battle, but it was beginning to look inevitable. The magical community was screaming for me to go to his mansion and bring back his head, or else acknowledge that I was supporting his dark schemes from the start.”

“Wait, he was just sitting at home in his mansion?” Hayden interrupted, thinking that was an awfully gutsy move for someone who knew he had the entire continent screaming for his head.

“He had enough spells cast around his property that no one could catch him unaware, and he was confident that he could defeat anyone who came to oppose him.
His confidence was apparently not misplaced, as he had amassed such an extensive knowledge of corrupted magic that he was never even injured in battle.”

A pained look crossed Master Asher’s face when he said, “Our old Prism Master went to challenge him. Aleric sent his head back to Mizzenwald with the circlet still attached. I knew that I couldn’t wait much longer, that even though I would lose my life
, I had to try to stop him. The Council raised me to the position I now hold, hating to arm me with an honor they thought I didn’t deserve, but acknowledging that I needed a Mastery Charm if I were to have any hope of fighting Aleric. It took me some time to become skillful with it and research more advanced combat spells. Finally there could be no more delay. I wrote him one last letter, begging him to stop his reign of terror, but you can imagine how that went over.”

Even though Hayden knew that Asher obviously survived the battle against his father, he couldn’t help but feel sick with worry when the Prism Master told him about it.

“I went to his mansion, the place I had spent so many summers when his family was still living and in residence, and he met me just inside the front gates. He looked the same as ever—ten years older, obviously—and for a minute it was like nothing had ever changed between us. He asked after my health and my father, congratulated me on my promotion, asked if I wanted anything to drink and if I’d reconsidered the stupidity of fighting him.”

“I take it you said no?”

The Prism Master smirked humorlessly. “Of course. We fought, and he held nothing back. I knew as soon as it began that he was vastly more powerful than me, that I would die there and my head would be returned to my father with my circlet. He hit me with such a powerful spell that it warped my left Focus and I collapsed in a fit of light-sickness.” He held up his left wrist for emphasis, and though Hayden had always known he had a Focus-corrector there, he had never known how it was acquired until now.

“How did you get out alive?” He was practically whispering.

“I didn’t, or at least, not under my own power.” Now Asher looked pensive. “When I regained consciousness I was at the headquarters of the Council of Mages, being treating in their infirmary. Apparently my body had been dumped in their front lawns, and they took me in and fixed me up.”

Hayden’s lips parted in surprise. “You think my father spared you?”

Master Asher shook his head, but not as though he was denying what Hayden said. “I can’t see how else I would have come to be there, alive, but I don’t know why he would have spared me when he’d killed so many others.”

“Maybe because you were his best friend and he remembered that?”

The Prism Master frowned. “It is hard to fathom that any trace of the boy I used to know was left in him at that point.” He shook his head again to clear it. “Anyway, guessing at his motives is unproductive; he’s gone.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Hayden digested the things he’d just learned and Master Asher stared off into space. Finally, Hayden spoke again. “If you knew my father, does that mean you knew my mother too?”

Asher pursed his lips thoughtfully. “No, I didn’t. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I doubt Aleric knew her all that well either. As I said, he was very popular in school, and he would have been quite young when you were conceived. Your mother would have been no more than a passing whim to him.”

That was hard to hear about the woman who had raised him single-handedly until he was ten years old, but in a strange way Hayden felt relieved. If she had been close to the Dark Prism during all those years when he was terrorizing the world,
he would have thought less of her.

“Your mother was very smart about hiding you and keeping her mouth shut about your father,” Asher conceded. “He would have been just getting started with his corrupted magic by the time you were born, and if anyone knew you were his son you would have been murdered as a baby by some misguided local. Aleric himself can’t have known until the day your house exploded, or else he would have gone to take you from your mother at a much younger age.”

“What for?” Hayden asked softly.

“He would be curious, I think, to see if you had anything of his powers, to see if you would be an ally or a threat.” The Prism Master frowned.

“But you don’t know what happened to me that day at my mom’s house. You’ve been trying to figure out why he was forcing magic through my Foci but…wait a minute.” Hayden changed tracks immediately. “You knew who I was as soon as I got to Mizzenwald. All this time you’ve been nice to me, was it only because I’m his son?”

Master Asher looked genuinely surprised by the question, which was mildly comforting.

“It’s true that I would have tried to help you whether you were a Prism major or not, for the friend I used to have, if nothing else. I certainly hope you don’t believe that I’m only talking to you because of your father, though.”

Hayden exhaled in relief. He just felt like he’d endured a major loss of some sort, hearing about how his father used to be before he had become the Dark Prism. It was almost like losing him all over again. He didn’t think he could bear losing his mentor in the same day.

“I owe you an apology as well,” Master Asher spoke again, breaking Hayden’s train of thought. “You once asked me if I would ever consider sponsoring you as an apprentice in your mastery years.”

Hayden felt his heart-rate quicken even though he didn’t think he could be any more overwhelmed today no matter what happened. He had been wondering and worrying about the Prism Master’s bad reaction to the idea for the better part of a year.

“Several of the other Masters have brought it to my attention that you seem firmly against doing research for me in the future, though I think you’ve wanted to ask me about it several times now.”

He was waiting for Hayden to respond. Cinder cuffed Hayden gently with one purple wing, still perched on his shoulder.

“I did wonder…because you seemed so disgusted with the thought of working with me,” Hayden mumbled, staring at the floor.

“That’s what you’ve been thinking all this time?” Master Asher asked in disbelief. “You’re even less like Aleric than I thought,” he sighed. “I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, but you sprang the suggestion on me when I wasn’t expecting it. The thought of working with you as I once worked with your father…it
recalled some unpleasant memories, to say the least. I’ve often thought that if I hadn’t been there to challenge him, he might not have pushed himself so hard and may have avoided his foray into dark magic entirely. The thought of the same thing happening to you, never mind what the Council of Mages would think if I even suggested the idea…”

“Then it wasn’t because you don’t want to work with me?” Hayden couldn’t help but feel immensely relieved. He almost laughed out loud.

“What? Why would I have a problem working with you? You’re a bit hot-tempered at times, but you’re young and you’ll grow out of that. Otherwise you’re capable and level-headed, and not overly full of yourself. In fact, I was going to ask you about the spell you performed in the Prism trial today.”

“Oh.” Hayden had forgotten about the Inter-School Championship until just now. It felt like it had happened a long time ago, but it was just this morning. “I was actually going to ask
you
about it….I’m not sure what I did.”

The Prism Master switched into academic-mode so abruptly that for a moment it felt like any normal day at school.

“What were you trying to cast?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t have a particular spell in mind,” he answered truthfully. “I was just trying to find something to stop those stupid violet lights from killing me.”

Asher frowned. “What light arrays did you focus on?”

“I don’t know,” Hayden admitted, feeling useless. “I must have just grabbed something at random without even realizing it, since I was getting burned so badly.” He shuddered at the memory of his skin boiling. “Why? Haven’t you seen that spell somewhere before?”

“No,” Master Asher answered gently, “I haven’t. In fact, I don’t know anyone who has ever seen that spell before, including the other Masters who were present during the trial.”

Hayden’s mouth dropped open in surprise.

“You think I discovered a new spell when I compounded my clear and rose prisms?”

“Yes, I do. Or, if it has been previously discovered, someone has kept it a very closely-held secret,” he amended.

“It felt almost like Repel, except it worked better.”

“I’d say so, since Repel doesn’t work against all spells and certainly not as well as what you experienced. My colleagues and I got quite excited about the use of your mystery spell, because as far as I know, there is nothing yet in common use that is
capable of repelling light. You were almost like a prism personified, bending light and enemy spells away from you at will.”

“I don’t know that it was at will…” Hayden bit down on his lower lip. “I couldn’t exactly control it once I used it, or I would have cut it out before it could drain the life out of me. I could feel it pulling right from my Source.”

Master Asher’s eyes gleamed with academic interest.

“Directly from the Source?
Hmm, that’s interesting.” He drummed his fingers rhythmically against the table in front of him. “It would be ideal if you could remember the light arrays that you used to cast the spell; then we could study it more fully in the hopes of understanding it.”

“Couldn’t we just look for it in the rose and clear prisms again? We’d have to find it eventually…”

The Prism Master looked at him like he was being deliberately obtuse. “Are you kidding me? There are hundreds of possible arrays in each prism alone—thousands more when they’re compounded. It would help if you knew whether you were using a complex, stacked array, or a simple one, but of course we haven’t even delved into that in your classes yet and you don’t remember what your mind latched onto in its moment of panic anyway.”

Hayden frowned down at his hands.

“Sorry, sir.”

Master Asher waved a dismissive hand. “You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just disappointing that we can’t replicate it.” He sighed, and Cinder took flight from Hayden’s shoulder and went to perch on the Prism Master’s instead. Asher reached up and patted the dragon almost absent-mindedly.

Hayden stood up, desperate for some time alone to reconcile his thoughts from all the things that had happened today. He could feel the beginning of a headache coming on.

“Yes, get some rest, you must be exhausted.” Asher interpreted the look on his face. “You’ve got a test to prepare for in class tomorrow, and a challenge arena in a few days if I’m not mistaken.”

Hayden nodded and walked back to the door, pulling it open much slower than he had upon entering.

“One more thing, before you go,” Master Asher called out to him before he could exit the office, and Hayden turned around curiously, wondering what was coming next.

“Yes, sir?”

For the first time since he’d entered the room, the Prism Master smiled.

“Good job during the Prism trial today. You did Mizzenwald proud.”

Hayden was too relieved to respond.

13

Homeward Bound

By the time he returned to the dormitory to be questioned by Zane, Hayden had completely forgotten about the second trial of the I.S.C. today. It wasn’t until his friend said, “You should have seen the look on that Davis guy’s face when they woke him up and told him you’d tied for first on this round!” that he remembered.

“I hope he burst into tears,” Hayden remarked without inflection, still trying to absorb everything Master Asher had explained to him tonight. Conner, who was attempting to smooth out some ruffled feathers on his owl, looked up and said, “He looked like he was about to.”

Hayden smirked, trying to feel properly thankful for the victory. It was a little difficult right now to care about something as menial as who won the I.S.C., but he expected he’d be happier about it in a day or two when the shock wore off.

“Hey, are you alright?” Zane narrowed his gaze shrewdly. “You’re being awful
ly quiet.”

“Sorry, I’m tired…and I just found out something rather disturbing.”

“What’s that?” his friend asked curiously, flipping his chair around and sitting backwards on it so that he faced Hayden.

“It was…I found out…” he trailed off helplessly, before starting again. “Did you know that Master Asher used to be friends with my father?”

Zane looked like he’d just been struck dumb, which was mildly reassuring. Conner raised his eyebrows, though he didn’t look surprised by the information.

“WHAT?!
No way! How is that possible?” the former exploded.

Hayden opened his mouth to attempt to explain, but Conner interrupted him and asked, “You really didn’t know?” in a strange voice.

Both Hayden and Zane turned to look at him. Bonk glided down from Hayden’s bed to rest on his shoulder.

“Wait, you mean you
did
?” Zane’s tone was mildly accusing, and Conner looked embarrassed.

“Well sure, I mean…it’s not really a secret, not in
Junir at least.” He shrugged apologetically. “It’s just that people aren’t really supposed to talk about it since Asher is a Master now and he was never convicted of any crimes…”

Hayden frowned thoughtfully and asked, “How did you find out about it?”

“My mom mentioned it to me before I got into Mizzenwald, warning me to be careful and all of that.” Conner rolled his eyes at what he considered needless maternal interference. “Most people in the magical community know about it, especially around here, since it was such big news.”

Hayden frowned and said, “But then why wouldn’t Zane know about it before now either?”

“Well, like I said, it’s not something we’re really supposed to talk about at school…probably the kind of thing they expel you for, actually.” He glanced around the room as though expecting Master Willow to pop up and send them all packing. “Besides, Zane, no one in your family has magic except for your oldest sister, so it’s not like your parents are really involved in the magical community…”

Zane waved this aside and turned back to Hayden. “So it’s true then? They really were friends?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He shrugged. “Asher said they were the only two natural prisms in the school at the time, so they were bound to be best friends or mortal enemies. I guess they were both by the time it was all said and done.”

A heavy silence fell over the three of them, eventually broken by Bonk, who flapped his wings
loudly and stretched his neck.

“Um, anyway, there was something else I wanted to ask you,” Conner changed the subject abruptly. “What was that spell you used during the trials today? I’ve never seen it before, and neither had Tamon or Tess.”

Hayden blinked hard several times, suddenly exhausted all over again.

“I don’t know—I cast it without meaning to and I can’t remember what arrays I used. Master Asher didn’t know either.”

The others looked momentarily stunned by this announcement, but then Zane simply shrugged and said, “That’s annoying. Maybe it’ll come to you after you’ve had a few days to relax.”

Hayden thought this was being overly optimistic, but all he said was, “Yeah, maybe,” in response, changing into his nightclothes and preparing for bed.

He climbed into bed and rolled over so that he was facing the wall, eager for some time alone with his thoughts. He felt Bonk’s clawed feet scrabbling over him on top of the covers, and soon the dragon plopped down between him and the wall, eyeing him carefully as though trying to make sure he was alright.

Hayden reached out a hand and patted his familiar on the head, which must have been reassuring, because Bonk flopped onto his back and immediately went to sleep. Hayden snorted in amusement, closing his eyes without any real hope of being able to rest that night.

He was asleep within five minutes.

***

Hayden expected to be the subject of much gossip the following morning, and while people did turn to look at him as he entered the dining hall for breakfast, nobody jumped out of their seat to mock him, which was an encouraging way to start the day.

In fact, the people he passed on the way to his table said things like, “Way to flatten that worm from
Isenfall,” or “Nice work, Frost.” Even Oliver Trout gave him the shadow of a nod, for once without an accompanying request to jump in a lake.

Will wonders never cease?

In Charms that morning, Master Dirqua announced that they would begin using a wider variety of spells in their charms (though they were still on the basics). Hayden managed to make a decent level-one offensive charm: the emblem was a carved wooden axe, imbued with Reflect and Push spells.

“Good work, Hayden,” Master Dirqua told him after his fifth attempt at imbuing the charm. “I see you’ve finally got past that hiccup with your Reflect backfiring.”

“Yes, I don’t know why I had so much trouble with it the first four times.” Hayden frowned at his shortcomings.

“Mages always struggle with more advanced spells in Cha
rms until they get a feel for it,” the Master explained mildly. “I assume you’ll want to switch out your defensive charm for an offensive one before the third trial of the Inter-School Championship?”

Hayden shook his head. “No, sir, I think I’ll just keep the one I’ve got.”

Master Dirqua raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Oh? It’s not often I hear a student opt for defense over offense during the Championship…”

“Well, I figure I’ve got enough offensive spells between the four prisms I’m allowed, and since Davis from
Isenfall has set his sights on me, I need all the defense I can get.”

The Charms Master looked thoughtful now. “That’s a fair point. If you’d like, I can help you make a slightly better defensive charm. We’re halfway through the school year—you’re probably capable of it by now.”

Master Asher had told Hayden expressly not to take off his current charm for any reason, even at the promise of a better one. In fact, Hayden had promised the Prism Master that he wouldn’t get rid of the first charm he ever made. He wasn’t keen on sharing that insight with Master Dirqua though.

“No thanks, I think I’ll stick with the one I’ve got for now,” he said airily, and at
Dirqua’s skeptical glance, explained, “I’ve gotten used to how it works, and it’s served me well so far. I’d hate to change things up halfway through the competition.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” he still looked mildly suspicious.

“Yeah, I am. If I change my mind I’ll let you know though.”

Master Dirqua nodded and left Hayden in favor of reviving one his classmates, who had tapped into too much Source energy and passed out cold. Wondering for the umpteenth time why Asher insisted on Hayden keeping the same old charm all year long (couldn’t he just tie himself to a new charm so that Hayden could still summon him if necessary?), he fingered the wooden shield emblem thoughtfully for a moment, before letting it drop to his chest and getting back to work.

Elixirs class grew more difficult by the day, and Hayden sometimes wondered whether he was only sticking with it out of determination not to fail, and because Master Kilgore was one of his favorite teachers. Fortunately, despite the increasing challenge of the class, he was finally beginning to make sense of it in his head, and hoped he was reaching a turning point. The last thing he wanted to do was hang around a subject he was bad at for years on end, when he could be focusing on something that came more naturally, and he had already noticed a definite downturn in the quality of his conjury attempts recently. He didn’t want to drop out of two majors in one year.

After Hayden took his finished sample to Master Kilgore’s desk for grading and prepared to depart, Lorn Trout surprised him by calling his name.

“Hey Frost, wait up.”

What fresh misery is this?

If Lorn Trout wanted to talk to him, it could hardly be anything Hayden wanted to hear. He and Lorn had been enemies from their very first encounter with each other, in the underwear section of The Magical Mage. It suddenly occurred to him that that was a really odd place to make a mortal enemy.

“What?” he was careful to keep the displeasure in his voice at a minimum.

Lorn fell into step beside him. “Summer break is starting in a few days.”

“Yeah, so?”
Hayden raised an eyebrow in surprise, not sure where the other boy was going with this. Surely he wasn’t about to invite Hayden over to his house for the summer…

“So I assume we aren’t
holding challenge arena practices until we come back, right?”

It had never occurred to Hayden that his team could continue practicing for their arena challenges during their break. He tried to imagine the look on Zane’s face if he announced
that none of them would be able to go home.

“Uh, no, we’re not. Why? Did you want to?”

Lorn made a face at him. “Hardly, but Oliver says a lot of the serious groups still plan practice sessions over the summer break. Since you’re supposedly our great leader, I can blame us not practicing on you.” He looked decidedly pleased with this.

Hayden rolled his eyes at this predictable response and continued walking towards Prisms.

“Where do you go during the summer, anyway?” Lorn surprised him by asking. “Back to that orphanage?”

“Why do you care?” Hayden snapped, nettled.

Lorn shrugged. “I don’t, really. I was just curious.” For some reason he was still keeping pace with Hayden.

“Last summer I stayed with Zane’s family. This summer I have business in
Merina.”

“Business?”
Lorn’s pudgy face registered shock. “What business could
you
possibly have with anyone? Or does that just mean that Laraby’s family wouldn’t invite you back this year?”

Hayden balled his fists but kept them at his side, determined not to punch Lorn in the face (again). He still hadn’t forgotten the detention he served last year where he had to wade through a stinking bo
g and had his first encounter with a hydra.

“They did invite me back, but I have other things to do, which are none of your business.” Hayden turned and walked into the Prisms classroom, eager to leave Lorn behind him.

It was true that Zane had invited him to stay with his family over the summer (this time he even swore that he got their permission ahead of time). But it was also true that Hayden had other plans this year, things that had been on his mind for some time now. He was going to visit the orphanage in Merina, briefly, because he wanted to see how Anna was doing and if she still remembered him. He hadn’t forgotten her kindness to him during his stay there, and how she had accompanied him to his trial and stayed positive for his sake.

The second thing he wanted to do was visit his father’s house.

He wasn’t wholly sure why he wanted to go to the place where the Dark Prism lived and practiced corrupted magic. Maybe because he was tired of everyone knowing more about his father than he did, or perhaps just because he wanted to see the place where so many generations of Frosts grew up before his father killed them all.

Either way, he was sure that the place held answers for him—or closure, at least. As the only survivin
g member of the Frost bloodline he had a right to visit the place, didn’t he?

Master Asher swept into the room and put an end to his thoughts, turning Hayden’s attention to the diagram of a prism alignment he had drawn on the board in colored chalk.

“Today we’re going to continue work with the level-three green prism.” He held one up for them to examine, as none of them had been given permission to own one yet. “As you doubtless remember me telling you, this has a very narrow range of specialized magic available to it. Today we’ll be focusing on the alignments for Lock and Unlock.”

“A prism can unlock a door?” Hayden blurted out in surprise. Oliver rolled his eyes at him
, but Master Asher just smirked.

“As I
said, specialized magic.” He nodded and continued. “The alignment for Lock is drawn on the board behind me. As you can see, it is comprised of two simple alignments, one complex, and an inversion…”