Caster's Spell (A Mage Tale Book 1) Read online

  "And it's your shift?"

  "Pretty much," the small girl said, looking around the messy room. "What have you been doing?"

  "Studying," Wesley said with a shrug.

  "For what, a dissertation?" she joked. "Is that a Grimoire?"

  Wesley rushed passed her and closed the text. "Uh, yeah, but I was just fingering through it."

  "Glimpse anything good?" The Sorceress sat down.

  "Yeah, but everything in there is too complex for underclassmen." Realizing that he may have been being rude, the boy quickly asked, "You want something to drink? We got—uhh water and... yeah we pretty much just have water."

  Sri laughed. "No thank you. But I want to ask you something."

  "What?"

  "Why'd you do it?"

  "Oh." Wesley eyes found the floor.

  "We haven't talked about it."

  "Yeah, I don't know."

  "You know he's a noble, right?"

  "Yes, I know he's a noble."

  "And that he's ranked second in our class? You're like three hundred and eleventh."

  Wesley ran his hands through his dark amber hair. "I know. Maybe that's why I challenged him."

  "To move up in the ranks?"

  "To be noticed as something other than a monkey."

  "We don't all see you like that." Sri snatched his arm, her eyes racing back and forth between his.

  "Or maybe it was the only thing I could have done to keep from getting jumped by six Wizards in the boy's bathroom."

  "What?"

  "They left that part out of the gossip." Wesley looked away. "Singling him out was all I could do to keep from ending up on the wall again."

  Sri looked down at her shoes. "The sentinels wouldn't let that happen again."

  "The sentinels?" Wesley laughed. "If your sentinels cared so much, where were they during the duel? Why did Conley have to leave class to stop Liam from tearing out my soul?"

  Sri couldn't answer.

  "They wanted to see what would happen, Sri. Master Rosen was right when he told me that it wasn't just my peers that wanted me gone. So if that's a question everyone wants to know, you tell them what I said."

  "Okay, I will. But you're scaring me right now."

  "Oh. Sorry. For raising my voice."

  "No, I'm talking about the disaster that is your dorm. You're gonna turn into one of those creepy guys who bury themselves in books." The girl laughed.

  Wesley chuckled with her. "I won't. I'm just trying to make up for the classes I'm missing."

  "Well if you want, you can take my notes from Master Tesla's class."

  "That'll be great. Thanks," he said. "Hey, I'm working on something, but I can't find hand signs for it. What should I do?"

  "Hm, what is it?"

  "It's a surprise. I can't tell you."

  "Well... I'll answer your question with another. How were the old spells created?"

  "Huh?" Wesley squinted one eye. "I dunno."

  The Sorceress laughed and pulled some of her hair out of her face. "Someone made 'em up. That's why they're all in different languages. They're called whatever their original creators wanted to call them. I'm sure it's the same with Warlock magic. If the hand signs don't exist, it's your responsibility to make up the sequence." Then abruptly ending the conversation, she stood and said, "I gotta go."

  Detention

  Wesley had grown accustomed to the monotony of detention over the weeks, but he had a leg up on the other punished students. While detention was void of most forms of fun, they were allowed to read and while most of the students preferred to waste their time doodling, or not doing anything at all, he brought his Grimoire and a notebook and studied every day. Sometimes detention was his favorite time of the day, especially when he thought he was making a breakthrough and this was one of those days.

  "Good duel, mate. You almost beat him."

  "Thanks," Wesley said to the boy as he brushed past the outcast in the halls after Master Conley's class. Wesley waited for his two buddies to walk him to detention, barely able to contain himself.

  "...so as soon as I saw that dust go up, I knew I had him beat," Axel said exiting the class with the SI.

  "Good trap," Cameron complimented before turning his attention to Wesley. "Was that a Wizard?"

  "Yeah, his name's Freddy Grimes. He’s in my Conjures class. I've never talked to him before," Wesley confessed.

  "Hm, weird," said Axel.

  "I'll say."

  "So what's throwing lightning like for you?" asked Cameron.

  "Hard, but I don't really care about that. C'mon, we better get going." Wesley stepped in the direction of what was supposed to be his punishment.

  "So you're onto something, eh?" said Cameron. The group started walking. "What is it?"

  "I told you," the Warlock shifted his backpack, "it's a surprise."

  "C'mon," Axel begged. "Why not just whisper it in my ear. I won't tell anyone, honest."

  Wesley laughed, "No. Hey, it might not even work anyway."

  "But still..."

  "And I don't want anyone to know I'm working on anything," Wesley said, finishing the sentence in a whisper.

  "Gotcha," Cameron relented.

  "Fine." Axel punched Wesley in the shoulder, but by that time, he was used to the occasion and wasn't hurt at all. "But it better be as good as you're making it sound."

  Wesley laughed again, shaking his head. "I'm sure it won't be."

  "What won't be?" asked Sri who had just turned a corner to face them. "You're not talking about that spell, are you? If you told them and you won't tell me, I'll—"

  "Don't worry, girl," said Axel. "He's not talkin'."

  The Sorceress glared at the muscular mage, before saying, "So, Cameron, how's your hard-wind coming?"

  "I think I’m about halfway there," he replied with a smile. "Thanks for asking."

  "What hard wind?" asked Wesley.

  "It's a spell I'm creating."

  "You're making your own spells already?" asked Axel in an almost angry disbelief.

  "He's not the only one." Sri motioned towards Wesley.

  "What?" Axel stopped and halted Wesley with a palm to the chest. "You too?"

  "Well... not really."

  Well aware that she was upsetting the Earth Sorcerer, Sri continued, "Yeah, he's making up his own hand signs."

  "Fine," Axel said aggressively. "I'll do it too."

  "You?" laughed Sri. "Making up a spell isn't easy."

  "You think I'm too dumb, don't you?"

  Deciding that he didn't want the noticeably smaller girl to answer, Wesley interrupted, "Let's let Cam continue. I mean, he was answering my question."

  Axel sighed, "Whatever. But I'm gonna do it."

  "We all know you can." Cameron slapped the large boy on the back and the group started walking again. "Well, I’m more or less trying to take a lesson from Water Sorcery. Changing the consistency of their medium is child's play for them, but something like that is beyond most Earth Sorcerers, virtually nonexistent for Wind Sorcerers and completely out of the question for Fire Sorcerers. But if you really think about it, all of the basic mediums are very similar, in that they are all moving particles. The particles that make up wind just happen to move more freely than the ones that make up water. But that doesn't mean that, under the correct conditions, they should act any differently. You understand?"

  "Sorta," said Axel.

  "Not really," Wesley admitted.

  "If water can be solidified by a mere change in temperature and pressure, air should be able to do the same. That is, of course, only if under conditions that allow for it. But if it's possible to create those conditions, then there's no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to solidify air. I mean, all I really have to do is slow down and condense the particles, right?"

  "I... guess," said Wesley, feeling like he was in Source Studies class.

  "No, I get it," Axel said with a smile. "If you’re right, it should work. Maybe I should start
doin’ that. Imagine, a vaporized form of earth."

  Wesley laughed. "For some reason, I think that will be a little harder."

  "Why?"

  "Because you're not Cam." Then Wesley stopped before the door that everyone hated. "This is me. Thanks for walking with me, guys."

  Sri pretended to clear her throat.

  "And gal." He smiled, before turning. "See ya later."

  He opened the door and closed it behind him before he could hear Axel complain about being compared to Cameron. Then, silently excited, he walked through the class of benches and tables until he came to the seat in which he had sat everyday for three weeks. But before he could remove the book from his pack, he heard the master make a disturbing announcement.

  "Hello, students," said a bald-headed master with dark eyes, brown skin, and a white beard. "Keep your things in your bag, Warlock. Today we're taking a little field-trip. Follow me."

  Wesley found him to be surprisingly kind. The instructor still singled Wesley out, but not particularly to attack or break him down. He also found the master especially interesting, because he wore traditional robes.

  As the class of troublemakers stood up, one begged the question, "Master Prasad, how can we have a field-trip? We're supposed to be in detention."

  "Oh, believe me, this isn't for pleasure," replied the master. "Now we best be on our way."

  The students groaned as they packed up and headed for the door, none more so than Wesley. Together they marched through the halls making no efforts to move quietly until they exited out through the front entrance of the school.

  The experience felt alien. Wesley had only passed through the giant arches of the entryway once before. This time it was during the middle of spring and vines were growing on the outer walls. The grass was lush and green, rather than the yellow of august, but most alien of all was his viewpoint. He had only then realized that he never looked back.

  He started down the pathway, lined with pillars holding statues, that ended abruptly fifty meters away. Beyond the pavement was more grass and then dirt and cliffs. But he knew that he wouldn’t be going to the cliffs, that the class would be somewhere else entirely before they stepped off the pathway.

  Wesley remembered that spot well, recalling himself crossing through a portal and stepping out onto it. There was a scarred man at his side then that was a Secret Police officer, and another behind him. They were cold and pushy, and spoke very little to him throughout their entire ordeal.

  "Where are you going?" He heard Master Prasad’s old raspy voice behind him.

  "Um, I was..."

  "We're not leaving campus," the instructor said. "We're heading down to the catacombs that run under the school."

  "What are we doing down there?" stuttered a voice that Wesley had grown to detest.

  "Liam, the noble blood that flows through your veins should be excited at the chance of the task we've been charged with. There is a door with a barrier curse on it that requires a certain amount of source annually. We will supply that source for this year."

  "What is beyond the door?" asked the noble.

  "That is none of our concern," Master Prasad laughed. "In fact, I'm not entirely sure that we even have enough source to do it. But Dean Sinclair insisted that we did, so this will be our detention for today. I'll tell you what, if by some outside chance, we are capable of charging the barrier without me completely depleting my source, I will release you students for the remainder of break. How does that sound?"

  The small crowd cheered.

  Wesley couldn't have asked for better circumstances. If they did it, then he'd have the chance to not only work on the theory of Gaia, but actually put what he has learned into practice. He couldn't pass up an opportunity like this.

  "Are you coming, knuckle-dragger?" Liam sneered.

  The class walking away from him then.

  "Be right there, stick boy," he said, as he hurried to catch up.

  "You had better not mess this up for us, Warlock."

  Wesley passed Liam without so much as looking at him and said as coolly as he possibly could, "Just try not to pass out this time."

  Without a witty comeback, Liam scowled and followed the class to an empty spot in the middle of a grassy field.

  Wesley enjoyed walking through this field. In a way, it reminded him of home. The grass was tall, at some points reaching higher than his knees. When they finally came to a halt, Wesley, along with the rest of the students, looked around sharing the same confused expression.

  "Here we are," said the master. "Let's turn this into an experiment of source studies. I am a Wind Sorcerer and there is an invisible, untouchable door here. How will we enter through it?"

  Wesley knew the answer and raised his hand before any of his peers.

  Master Prasad laughed at his enthusiasm. "Well aren't we the ambitious one. Out with it then, what do you say, Warlock?"

  "You'll use a curse."

  "Of what nature?"

  This reminded Wesley of the line of questions that he'd be given in his old Wiccanry class. It was a good thing that his study partner for Source was Sri Ranuka.

  "You'll be using a materialization curse," he answered. "And by how secretive this door seems to be, I'd say it is no weaker than a level seven materialization curse."

  The master's smile almost scared Wesley. Then with a nod, Prasad said, "That is absolutely correct. It would seem that Master Tesla is doing a fantastic job."

  Master Prasad reached into a pocket in his robes and removed a small, yellowed piece of paper. He held it out in front of him and released it onto a steady current of wind. Then it flipped to face him and Master Prasad extended his open palm to the curse mark on it.

  Wesley watched closely, admiring the display of magic, as the curse took on a red glow. Afterward, amazingly, the curse ran off of the paper and spreading, as if someone was writing more with every passing second, it shaped into a rectangle of Sanskrit about six inches taller than the master. Then the glow turned into a shine, forcing Wesley to shield his eyes from the light. By the time he turned back, the curse was gone, replaced with a dark wooden door.

  Liam, walking around to the other side of it, scoffed incredulously, "This can't be right. There's nothing behind the door."

  "Ah but there is, my young noble," Master Prasad said as he opened the door and revealed a stairway that led down into an impenetrable darkness. He turned back to face the class. "Before we enter, I must tell you that there will be no wandering off. If you get lost, no one will be able to find you, so see to it that you stay together. If that is understood, follow me."

  In two lines walking side-by-side, they descended and were soon enveloped by the darkness.

  Wesley heard the master's voice: "Bennie, would you care to light the way?"

  "Sure," said a girl. Then the stairway was lit with a dancing flame as the Sorceress raised her hand over her head.

  "There's a torch on your right. Please light it."

  Bennie poured the fire onto the torch and the detention class watched in awe as countless torches subsequently ignited throughout the catacombs.

  "Excellent. Let's continue; this way, this way."

  After what Wesley thought had to be several floors down, the crowd arrived at the bottom, spilling into a cavernous room with one opening, opposite of the stairs. The floor clicked and clacked as the students explored, with echoes bouncing off of the walls. Master Prasad waved his hands to get their attention.

  "Children, children, gather round,” he said. “From this point on, I can't stress to you how important it is to stay with the group. The underbelly of Reviberous is akin to a labyrinth. You must follow me very closely. Is that understood?"

  The teenagers answered "yes" completely out of sync, but before they all followed the master through the doorway, one of the students called out, "Master Prasad."

  "Yes." He turned back.

  "I—ugh—once heard that there aren't any mazes without monsters to guard th
em."

  "Monsters?"

  "Are there any down here?"

  "Why yes, yes there are," Master Prasad said with a smile, the crease of his wrinkles making his eyes appear shut. Then he turned and started walking. "Have you ever heard of a minotaur?"

  Spooked by the idea, the students halted.

  "A minotaur?" uttered Liam. "We can't go in there."

  "There's nothing to fear," Master Prasad reassured. "As long as we stay on the correct path, we shouldn't see him, which is another reason why I implore you to follow me closely. But of course I can't force any of you to enter. So if you'd like, I can contact Dean Sinclair and inform him of our return to the detention room. I'm sure he'll send two other masters, or some SIs, to perform the chore."

  Wesley couldn't let this happen. If they didn't go into the labyrinth, then they couldn't charge the curse, which meant no free time to practice his new spell. After deciding that he'd rather face a monster than miss his opportunity, Wesley stepped to the front of the class.

  "I'll do it," he declared.

  "Excuse me?"

  "I'm gonna charge the door."

  "Careful lad. Ambition can be quite consuming." The old man's face crinkled with another grin. "Yet, so far, I must say that I'm impressed. Unfortunately, you alone, won't be enough."

  "He won't be alone," Wesley heard Liam behind him. The Wizard pushed his way to the front. "I'll do it."

  "How refreshing," said Master Prasad. "But it would seem that your peers are of a different persuasion."

  Wesley and Liam turned back to see the apprehensive students, each with eyes as round as saucers. This show of cowardice left ruffles in Liam's brow.

  "Are you seriously going to run away?" he almost shouted. "Prasad said that we wouldn't even see it, so long as we stay together. And even if we did, he's a master. Something as stupid as a minotaur doesn't stand a chance against us magi."

  Many of the would-be deserters had a change of heart, but they weren't entirely enthusiastic about entering the maze. Then Liam made a more compelling argument.

  "Are you really ready to let the rest of the school—to let your families—know that the knuckle-dragger was willing to face this thing, when you were too scared?" he asked with a smugness that made Wesley want to wring his neck, but it had the desired result.