Caster's Spell (A Mage Tale Book 1) Page 20

  "What are you doing?" hissed Liam.

  "How much source do you have left?" Wesley asked.

  "Why?"

  "Master Prasad is starting to bear the load," he explained in a whisper. "If he gets tired, we get detention."

  The noble glared at first, but then also increased his source output. Wesley was angry at how impressed he was with Liam's strength.

  The instructor glanced over to the end of the line of students and folded his face in a warm smile.

  Not to be outdone by his rival, Wesley clenched his teeth and further increased his source generation.

  Then Liam did the same, asserting, "Oh no you don't."

  A minute and thirty seconds from the initiation of the spell and Wesley, sweating and out of breath, had to fight to stay on his feet. He was coming dangerously close to fainting, but he couldn't fail. This was his best good shot at attempting his secret incantation. He had to ensure that Master Prasad didn't exhaust himself. So he only focused on pushing through until the recharging was finished.

  Just as his vision fell to obscurity, he heard Prasad’s voice. "Okay. Well done."

  The light-show vanished.

  "Our chore is complete."

  Wesley checked around to see how many people had backed away and was shocked to learn that there were only three left standing: a master and two students. Master Prasad approached them and while keeping his eyes on the rivals, addressed the class.

  "Thanks to these two young men, I didn't have to use too much source." He paused and placed his hands on the boys' shoulders. "This, of course, means that you'll have the rest of break to do what you will."

  The class cheered, though lethargically.

  Wesley stared at Liam and the Wizard stared right back at him, both with the same thing on their mind:

  How is he still standing!?

  Without wasting any time, Master Prasad led them out of the room and they returned to the surface—this time Wesley made sure to stay with the group. Most of the class could barely keep their eyes open and sat as soon as they had the chance to.

  Master Prasad, laughing at that fact, announced, "Well, you are free to leave. I will remain here until the end of the break. Feel free to keep me company, if you'd like. Otherwise, have fun," then he looked directly at Wesley, "but stay out of trouble."

  Turning from his crippling gaze, Wesley briskly wondered if Master Prasad knew that he was up to something, before rushing back into the school. He barely made it a dozen steps from the huge doors, when he heard them slam shut behind him.

  "Hold it right there, Warty," he heard the voice of his least favorite person.

  Wesley turned back with a roll of his eyes. "What?"

  Liam stormed to just before him and spoke very quietly, "Our truce is over. Don't tell anyone about what happened in the maze. As a matter of fact, the thing with the minotaur never happened. We never worked together. And we are not friends. Are we clear?"

  "Crystal," said Wesley, also preferring for the occurrence underground to stay underground. "That is, so long as you ease off of me, at least until the end of the year."

  Without answering verbally, Liam squinted and stomped away with an uncharacteristically pathetic limp.

  Good riddance, thought Wesley.

  He raced over to his secret spot in one of the courtyards and took his notes from his bag. In order to translate the spell into Warlock magic, Wesley took the Wiccan approach to the craft. To them, all spells were akin to equations and like long proofs they need only be solved, understood, and then recreated. So in theory, if Wesley could figure out the spell, he'd be able to adapt it into any form of magic. Still, the task was largely trial and error.

  All the same, he believed that he had found a possible answer.

  "This should be it," he said after just under an hour of preparation and bit his lip. Four thousand, six hundred, and eighty-two. He pumped out the hand signs in a hurry and aimed one of his palms down at the earth.

  "Spirit of Gaia!"

  He immediately felt his body-weight double, then triple, and almost fell to the ground. Panting like a labored dog, Wesley focused to maintain his spell. Then, his vision changed. It didn't improve, or worsen, but rather enabled him to see source. Looking back at the school, he watched the swirling array of colors, beyond awestricken.

  So this is what I feel, he considered before finally looking down. He saw the life force of Earth, astronomical untapped blueish-green power flowing beneath his feet. The planet's energy, slowly at first, rotated and rose beneath his palm like an inverted funnel-cloud. The boy grinned with anticipation, excited to know the feeling of absorbing that substantial power.

  Then the beautiful, twirling, turquoise took hold of his hand and for an instant, Wesley felt like he could do anything...

  ...before the Spirit of Gaia snatched him down.

  Catching up, With Masters

  "Hey guys," Wesley greeted his approaching friends, who were excessively cheery that day. Indeed, everyone on campus shared this sunny disposition.

  "Yo," called Axel.

  "Um," Wesley started when they met, "why is everyone so… creepy."

  "It's May," Sri answered him.

  "The last month of structured classes," Cameron added jovially.

  "Wait, I thought July 1st was the last day of school," said Wesley.

  "Yeah, bro, June is awesome." Axel slapped Wesley's shoulder and walked him over to the table where they had planned to meet.

  "Don't you ever read the syllabus?" Cameron laughed at his roommate. "June is all preparation."

  "But let's not get ahead of ourselves," said Sri as they sat. "By the way, how's your arm?"

  "The bones have healed pretty good," Wesley said, waving his arm. "But they said I still have to wear this stupid sling."

  "I can't believe you broke almost every bone in your arm," Cameron said, looking off into the distance as if disappointed in himself.

  "Yeah me neither, but on the bright side, I learned how to do some spells one-handed. Like this." Wesley stood up, raised his left hand and made four signs. "Canis Lupus."

  A wolf jumped out of the ground and sat at the boy's side.

  "Whoa," Axel said with an impressed laugh.

  "You absolutely must let me borrow that book," Sri said referring to the one written by Master Rosen.

  "The only downside is that I can't use as much source with just one hand. So everything is basically cut in half," Wesley confessed sitting back at the table. "I was shooting for a wolf with a size enhancement."

  "Still," said Cameron, "that's pretty much mind-blowing. I couldn't imagine casting with my source cut in half."

  "Thanks." Suddenly feeling embarrassed, Wesley asked, "So what have you guys been working on? It's like we hardly see each other anymore."

  "Actually it's more like we hardly see you anymore," Axel pointed out. "You left me with breezy and the girl all day."

  "Hey, hey, I had detention, remember?"

  "And on your other time you always hide and try that... whatever it is you're up to," Sri said as if insulting him after giving Axel a piercing glare. “And my name is Sri.”

  "Actually, free time has been pretty good for all of us," said Cameron. "I don't just hover anymore. I learned how to fly. Ax is working on Mimicry, and Sri figured out how to sharpen water."

  "Hey!" Sri and Axel said at the same time. "I was telling him that."

  "You can fly!?" Wesley shot to his feet. "And what's Mimicry?"

  "It's an ability that Sorcerers usually don't begin to learn until the middle of F-class," answered Sri, "where the medium takes on human forms and copies the user."

  "Is anyone ever gonna let me talk for myself?" said the Earth Sorcerer.

  Wesley ignored his question and asked, "So what happened to making up your own spell?"

  "My old man told me that I had to master Mimicry first," Axel said with a shrug.

  "I'm sure you'll make one someday," said Cameron, holding back a la
ugh.

  "And you can cut stuff?" Wesley squinted at the lone female of the group.

  She smiled and lowered her eyes. "M-hm... It's really not all that complex. I just make the edges thin and rotate them like a... chainsaw."

  "Are you kidding? That sounds amazing," said Wesley.

  "You have no idea how much control it takes to do something like that," Cameron said to Wesley before turning to Sri. "Don't sell yourself short, kiddo."

  "Well it sounds like you guys have really come far, in the last month."

  "Of course, we have to be ready for the Exams," said Axel. "Speaking of a new month, what are you taking for spell casting?"

  "Not totally sure," Wesley admitted. "Dean Sinclair said to see him in his office to meet my new master."

  "Nothing else, eh?" asked Cam.

  "Nada. I just gotta be there at the start of next period." That fact made Wesley even more curious. If Sinclair was meeting with him, who was teaching his class? "Oh, Cam, would you mind looking at something for me?"

  "Sure. What is it?"

  "An equation."

  "The spell?"

  "You gotta promise not to find the effect."

  "Done."

  "Oh and no cross-referencing with other spells."

  Cameron groaned, "Fine."

  "Well, I know I'm close. I just can't quite figure it out."

  "Hey wait a minute!" demanded Sri, before retreating back into her seat and looking down. "Why can't I help you?"

  "Yeah, man!" Axel added.

  Wesley had never really thought of anyone else. From the moment he found himself stumped, his mind went straight to his roommate. The truth was, Cameron was the only person smart enough to get the answer quickly and without having to figure out the effect of the spell in doing so. But not wanting to alienate himself from his friends, he couldn't just say it. So, instead, he chose to tell a half truth.

  "Well..." he started, "I wanted it to be extra special when you guys see it. Cam is so far ahead of us, it probably wouldn't impress him all that much anyway."

  The Warlock looked up to see if they were buying it.

  The Sorceress gave him a suspicious squint and Axel, a pout, but neither of them called him on it. Wanting to confirm his success, Wesley asked, "Is that okay?"

  Unsurprisingly, Ax looked away. He despised being compared to the Wind Sorcerer, but he absolutely hated the fact that Cameron was, and would always be, his superior. Wesley knew that the statement might draw out a bit of his anger, but he also knew that Axel was quick to let things go, so he counted the bald boy's action as a success.

  Sri was different. She smiled before hiding her mouth, an act that Wesley had gotten used to. She was perfectly content with being seen as inferior to the E-class mage, at least for the time being. It wasn't in her nature to deny the obvious and Cameron was indeed smarter and wiser than she.

  "Yes, it's fine," said the girl. "And I can't wait to see it."

  "Sweet," confirmed Wesley. "So what's the plan for the rest of break?"

  They played with their magic and laughed as they had for most of the year, except this time the fun lasted hours, rather than minutes. Wesley enjoyed the extra time off, but knew that it couldn't become a habit. He needed every chance he could get to propel himself higher. Long lasting fun was a commodity that he could no longer afford.

  After enjoying a competitive and magical game of keep-away, with Axel being the main instigator, Wesley journeyed to the dean's office. The door was already open, but he felt the need to knock anyway.

  "Come on in, Wesley," he heard a friendly, familiar voice.

  "Master Rosen? Did you sense me?" asked Wesley as he walked through the office. The stout man was standing next to the dean's desk with a warm smile. "Are you my next casting teacher?"

  "Not exactly," Master Rosen said.

  "I don't understand."

  "He's not going to be teaching you any spells," said Master Sinclair, who mysteriously appeared behind him.

  Wesley turned back to face the dean. "Then—ugh—what am I doin'? Who's my new teacher?"

  "Master Rosen will be your instructor." Although he stood before the boy, Wesley heard the dean’s voice from behind him again and turned to see the same man seated at his desk.

  "But you won't be casting," added Archimedes as he descended from his perch.

  "But how did—" Wesley looked back towards the door but no one was there. Then he shrugged and respectfully said, "Hello, Archimedes."

  The owl took a bow. "It is nice to see you again, young Wesley."

  "Thanks," Wesley said before returning his attention to Master Sinclair. "But I don’t understand. If we’re not casting then…?"

  "Please allow me to explain," Master Rosen asked the dean. Then after a nod, he neared Wesley. "For all of May, you will be tutoring, under me on the skill of source-saying."

  Wesley's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Really? Who else is in the class? What are we learning? Why are we even this way, to begin with?"

  Master Sinclair stood up. "All very good questions, which I'm sure will be answered in due time, but as for now, I must attend to my own class, just as you two should get started. Splitting one's consciousness can be a bit straining at a distance. So if you don't mind, we should be leaving."

  He headed for the door with Wesley following closely.

  "But I can tell you this much: you will be in this class alone, without any other students, and you mustn't tell anyone about it..." After they exited into the hall, the dean stayed in the doorway. "...not even Cameron, Sri, or Axel can know."

  "They can’t even know that they can’t know," added Archimedes, poking his head down from his new perch on the door.

  Master Sinclair finished as if it were he who made the last statement, "Do you understand?"

  "Uhh—yes sir," answered the boy.

  "Good. Then I wish you luck," Dean Sinclair said before turning into a small cloud of mist that disbursed into the air. The door closed in his absence.

  Master Rosen started walking in the direction of the cafeteria. With no way of containing his curiosity, Wesley chased after him. "So what's first?"

  "Hm," the man grunted with a smile. "Tell me what you feel at this exact moment. Who is around us?"

  "I can't sense people that are too far away," Wesley explained.

  "I understand. Just tell me what you do sense."

  "Right here?" Wesley stopped walking.

  Master Rosen did the same. "Yes."

  "Okay." The boy focused as hard as he could on detecting the presence of magi. But he quickly realized that he had a roadblock in his way. "I can't sense anyone but you. If there's anyone else around, it's like your source is overwhelming theirs. I can't do it."

  Master Rosen laughed.

  "What's so funny?" Wesley tried to hide his offended tone.

  "You'll understand in a few years, perhaps when you yourself are teaching a future source-sayer." He patted Wesley's back. "I remember being at your stage of development and I understand that it is difficult. But know that there will always be powerful magi out there that overshadow the weaker ones. Still, the lesser magi are there and we, as source-sayers, should be able to sense them. You'll have to focus hard to ignore the A-class leveled sources here in order to feel the smaller ones."

  "Yes, master," Wesley closed his eyes and tried harder. But it was like trying to see at night. The bright moon in the sky was easy to locate, but insects crawling on the ground were much harder to find. Then he noticed one, a comparatively strong source, about a dozen feet to his right.

  "There's a different source that way!" he pointed with excitement.

  "Indeed there are," said Master Rosen. "That is a room filled with D-class students and a B-class master."

  "Really?" asked the student. "Then why was it so hard? If there's that many of them, it should have been easy, right?"

  "That only means that the powers out here far exceed their combined source capacity."

 
; Wesley was instantly more impressed with his conjures master, sure that he must have been as strong as Dean Sinclair.

  "But that's no excuse to ignore their presence." Rosen looked into his pupil's eyes. "Source-sayers have very important jobs in the magical community. Sometimes the conditions of which are even life or death."

  "Yeah, Master Tesla was telling us that they become trackers in the Secret Police."

  "That's only one dimension of our use." The man paused. "Sometimes people get lost and they can't be found by any other means. Or they have been hexed and only a source-sayer would notice the change. If that person is too far, or that hex is too cleverly disguised, does that mean we should give up on finding them?"

  "No," the boy answered with a feeling of urgency. If people were really out there like that, he wanted to do something about it.

  "Right answer," said Master Rosen. "So just the same, it would be foolish not to do everything in your ability to sense even the smallest amounts of source. Are you willing to take another stab at it?"

  Wesley nodded.

  "Then why don't you try to sense a source that is closer to our own."

  "Uhh," he said looking around. "There's no one here."

  "Are you sure about that?"

  Wesley closed his eyes and attempted to detect anyone that could be near. This time he managed to tune in to the weaker sources better. Feeling dozens of individuals in the classes around him, but there wasn't even a hint of unaccounted for source in the hallway.

  "There's no one here," he concluded.

  Master Rosen laughed. "Yes... and more profoundly, no."

  Wesley was taken aback yet again, feeling that his intelligence was being insulted. Then the master waved his scepter and a foggy light swirled out of it and covered everything in the halls. After just seconds, the light disappeared, revealing what Wesley had failed to notice.

  Three young adults were standing at their sides.

  One of them, a young woman spoke. "Master Rosen, what are you doing?"

  "Just proving a point, my dear," he said before turning to Wesley. "These are sentinels. They are cloaked with special barrier spells that mask their presence."