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

  "Now, Hurón!" Wesley called to the creature that he had planted behind his master. "Blast-fire!"

  The oversized weasel opened its mouth like a dragon and spat countless small fireballs at Conley's back.

  Using the same arm, the master turned and swung. A wall of fire formed and absorbed the attack. Then he flung his hand for the conjure and the fire unleashed in its direction. Noticing that his hurón was in real danger, Wesley rushed to return the animal to the World of The Forms.

  The boy took a deep breath and started a few hand-signs, as another idea came into his mind. But before he could form the third, Master Conley threw his arms up and shouted, "No!"

  Noticing the flame, Wesley dropped the hand-signs and pressed his arms out in front of him, purely as instinct, in terror and shock. The fire smacked into an invisible bubble, just as it did with Liam's first attack and still Wesley had no idea if it was even his doing. Now wiser in the ways of magic than he had been at the beginning of the school year, he wondered if it had been a sentinel.

  Master Conley marched to the boy. "Wesley."

  The mere sound of his name coming from the frightening Sorcerer's lips stiffened the boy's spine.

  Master Conley opened his mouth as if to scold, but then withheld his statement. He gritted his teeth, sighed and started again, "Your source isn' your weakness."

  That's not what source-studies taught him. Warlocks are supposed to have the least amount of source of all magic folk. Like Cameron once told him, they were just barely considered magi, because of that fact.

  Master Conley went on, "In fact, if it wasn' for your capacity, you'd pass out after every single incantation."

  "Huh?" Wesley tilted his head.

  The hard-faced man tightened his fists behind his back. "You understand the concept of residual source, correct?"

  "Yes," Wesley answered.

  "Then you understand that a source-sayer can follow people using it?"

  "M-hm."

  "Well, Wesley, if I were a tracker, I'd be able to follow you anywhere in the world, which as you probably already concluded, isn't a very good thing."

  "But why?"

  Conley looked down for a moment. Wesley couldn't tell if he was growing angrier or mellowing out. His expressions were so small they were sometimes impossible to differentiate.

  "The amount of residual source you leave after spells is ridiculous. It's almost always more than enough to re-activate the spell several times over. You waste over five times the amount of source than any of your peers, when using the same incantations. At this moment, a skilled magi could absorb what you wasted with the right spell, and fully replenish his reserves. Do you understand the problem now?"

  Wesley nodded. He had never even considered the possibility of using another mage's source. "But how can I change it?"

  Master Conley put his thumb and index finger to his forehead, then slid them out towards his temples.

  "You can learn to focus, for one," he said with his sharp coarse voice.

  Wesley was almost too afraid to ask, "How?"

  "It would take a lot of time, more than you have for the Final Exams."

  "So someone out there," the boy pointed toward the school, "could—"

  "Yes, theoretically, although the likelihood is slim." Master Conley finally expressed the slightest emotion, if only for a moment:

  Wesley thought he saw worry in his emerald eyes.

  "But if you're going to call yourself a mage—and ya want to be a masta some day right?"

  Wesley nodded.

  "Then you'll have to learn how to clean up all that source you leave behind."

  "It's too dangerous," the boy agreed. His mind suddenly shifted to Benjamin Caster. Criminals like him, if of a noble family, could in theory track him anywhere in the world. That was something that Wesley most certainly didn't want.

  "Exactly," Master Conley concurred. "I'm goin' to teach ya a spell."

  Wesley flashed his teeth like hundred-watt bulbs, in a humungous smile. Master Conley never taught spells in class and Wesley was going to be the first to learn one of his moves. One of his Secret Police moves!

  "I never use this spell..."

  Wesley frowned, slightly. Straining to fight back his disappointment.

  "...because it serves almost no purpose to me." He leaned forward and looked into the boy's eyes. "But for someone like you, it may prove to be a lifesaver." Then he stood up tall, again towering over his student. "Originally created in Japan, ‘unleash’ or ‘release’ is its name when translated. It gathers residual source in the immediate area and condenses it into a sphere. At that point the spell gives light to the source. Then the user is free to launch the raw power at his target."

  Wesley's eyes widened more and more as the red-headed man explained.

  "Don't misunderstand. This isn' goin’ to be easy and even if ya manage to learn it, before the Exams, it's not the kind of spell that fixes all of your problems. The more skilled your opponents get, the less useful the spell will become. And you still have to learn to focus to keep a limit to the residual source you leave behind." He intensified his gaze on the Warlock, before looking away. "But until then, this should be quite useful."

  The boy didn't know if he should still be excited, but he was. The fact of the matter was that Master Conley wanted him to make himself better and was giving him a means to do it.

  "I'll do it," said Wesley.

  "I haven't told you the difficult part yet." Master Conley looked back to him. "There's one more key reason why I have neva used it, whereas someone like... Masta Rosen would find it simple. I have no means of locating and measuring the residual source. Do you think that'll be a problem for you?"

  "No." Wesley suppressed a boastful smile. "I'll figure something out."

  "Then, to release the power, as it is with most every other spell at your level, you must use the native tongue in which it was created. In this case, we say 'kai'."

  Sad But True

  Over the next few days, Wesley almost never spoke to Sri, who claimed to be too busy studying, even though that was never the case before. Axel was always trying to show him new places on campus, but many of them were places that he had already been. What’s more, Cameron seemed hell-bent on getting Wesley a new tutor, even though he was content with the master he already had.

  The Sorcerer dragged him to several other teachers, most of which he had never met, only to be turned down every time.

  But aside from Cameron’s overly involved concern for Wesley's instructor, Wesley had noticed another, even more peculiar change in his roommate. Cameron had frequently become lost in thought at random times. Wesley had never seen him so focused. It had always seemed to him that everything came easily to the genius Sorcerer. Thus, Wesley assumed the ease with which he had attained everything was behind the E-class mage's easygoing personality.

  Though recently, Cameron wasn't easygoing, but instead nervous, wanting.

  However, all things considered, June was by far Wesley’s favorite month of the year. Although he could get up as late as he wanted, he was so used to early morning routine that he still woke no later than 6:30 am. He only had to make two or three appointments per week, rather than six classes every day, and best of all, he had more friends.

  It seemed as if the unjustifiable hate had begun to fade, akin to the Midwinter Festival.

  Wesley woke with a stretch and a smile knowing that he'd be eating breakfast soon, at a table that wasn't deserted. It had become one of the rare occasions he had to spend with Sri. After dressing, he dragged himself into the restroom.

  "Cam," he called back over his shoulder. "You awake?"

  No answer. Wesley walked down the hall to the Sorcerer's room.

  "Hey Cam." He called as he knocked. "Are you even here?"

  Nothing.

  He turned around and walked out to the living room. Something flapped on the door of the apartment, startling Wesley. He decided to investigate and found a note
from his roommate.

  "Hey, I'm out practicing with my old man," Wesley read aloud. "We're going two-a-days now. I'm kinda scared. L-O-L. Meet me at the northern end of our western courtyard after breakfast. I solved the problem with your secret spell."

  The corners of Wesley's mouth reached for his ears and his eyes almost sparkled with excitement. He jumped up and down before dashing back to his room, throwing on the rest of his uniform and rushing down to the cafeteria.

  "So, where are you takin' me today?" he asked Axel as soon as he sat down at their table, too happy to properly apply a sarcastic tone.

  "Nowhere," answered Axel, before taking a sip of orange juice. "I gotta get a handle on this Mimicry jank."

  "I'm surprised you're still trying," Sri interjected from Wesley’s left.

  "Yeah," Wesley laughed.

  Sri went on, poking fun as they all knew he would have done to her. "You're a G-class. You'll never get it."

  Without warning, Axel snarled and slammed his fist on the table, causing it to jump, and silencing their corner of the cafeteria.

  Wesley slowly turned to his friend. "You... know she was just kidding, right?"

  Axel bit his lip and rubbed at his forehead. Then after a sigh, he said, "Yeah." He looked over at the girl who was wide-eyed, halfway out of her seat. "Sorry."

  "Are you okay?" asked Wesley.

  "Yeah, I'm just a little stressed out," Axel murmured. "This Master Chang guy's gonna drive me insane."

  "Master Chang?" Wesley heard the table repeat one at a time.

  "Who's that?" asked the boy, clueless as always.

  "He's a world renowned teacher," said Sri. "Everyone he's taught has either become a great success or…” She eyeballed Axel. “gone mad."

  "So he's mean?" said Wesley.

  "Mean's not mean enough to call that guy," said Axel. “But those are the breaks."

  Axel shrugged and stuffed a spoonful of scrambled eggs in his mouth all in one motion.

  Wesley turned to the girl of the group. "So how's that studying coming along?"

  She continued to glare at Axel for half a second, before returning to her uncomfortably reserved expression. "Um, it's... going well."

  "That's it?" Wesley laughed. "What are you coming up with? We all wanna know."

  "Yeah," said Freddy, one of the newcomers to the table.

  "Tell us, Sri," said another. The rest, excluding Axel, asked the same question.

  "It's a secret," said the Sorceress. "I'm trying to make something special for the Exams."

  "Of course."

  Wesley finished up his meal faster than usual and, after saying "bye", hurried out to meet his roommate. When he finally traversed the halls to the western courtyard, Cameron was in the throes of combat with a man built like an older, thicker version of Axel.

  "This is it, Cameron," called the man.

  "I'm ready," said Wesley’s friend as he took hold of invisible reins.

  The man raised his arms and a chunk of earth, the size of a house, rose out of the ground and hovered over the his head. It was the most powerful display of Earth Sorcery that Wesley had witnessed and it wasn’t just the mass that impressed him. Wesley could feel this man’s heavy iron-like source pressing down on his shoulders. He was stopped in his tracks when it smacked into him, and had to focus thereafter to remain on his feet.

  "I'm not going to stop this one," said the adult.

  Cameron nodded.

  The sight of their duel made Wesley forget everything he read on the letter that morning. Cameron was strong, but Wesley knew that there was no way that he'd be able to defeat that man alone. Fearing the worst, he leaped into a sprint.

  "Cam, run!"

  But when Cameron glanced over to Wesley he smiled. By the time he returned his attention to the man, the giant mass shot straight up, racing for the clouds.

  Wesley continued to run as fast as his legs would take him. Maybe together they could distract the man enough to escape, he considered as he gathered his own source.

  Then the chunk of earth stopped and seemed to freeze at a hundred feet in the air. It looked like a second moon had rose under the sun, even as the real moon was setting in the west.

  Then it came down.

  Not over Cameron as Wesley would have guessed, but straight for the muscular man, who was standing across from him. Unflinching with his arms crossed defiantly, the adult stared directly at Cameron.

  In a whirl of action, Wesley’s roommate pulled on his reins and then pushed both hands down. He spun in a circle, collecting invisible strings, and slung them up into the air.

  The house-sized girth began to slow down and so did Wesley, distracted by the unlikely sight. The man didn't move an inch, as his creation was bearing down on him, his clothes ruffling around wildly. Cameron kept his hands raised and an uncharacteristic serious demeanor, eyes glued to his target. The chunk reduced to moving only a few inches per second and

  By the time Wesley finally reached Cameron’s side, the reduced to a crawl and then finally stopped completely at a foot above the man's head.

  Wesley looked at the bulge and then back to his friend and for a time was convinced that Cameron had learned Earth Sorcery. His source had always seemed more like the Earth elementals' than the Wind, in the young source-sayers opinion.

  Cameron took in a deep breath. Then as if exhaling through his hand, he shot one of his arms forward, appearing to be holding an invisible softball, and kept his other hand firmly aimed at the sky. The mass began to crawl over the man, to behind him, back to its place of birth. Then Cameron dropped his arms and fell to his knees, allowing the chunk of dirt and stone to fall into the crater from which it had been snatched, the earth quaking as it crashed.

  "Well done," called the man, walking in their direction.

  "What the heck!" Wesley exclaimed.

  Cameron laughed, adding to his loss of breath. "That's about as much wind as I can rustle up for now. What'cha think?"

  Wesley scratched his brow, utterly confused.

  "Well done, son," said the man, before the boys. "For a second, I thought you were going to blow me away."

  "Thanks, Pop." Cameron stood up. "Wes, this is my dad. Pop, Wesley."

  "It's nice to meet you," the big man said, extending a hand down to Wesley. "I've heard a lot about you."

  "Really?" said Wesley in disbelief. The man didn't look anything like Cameron but for his eyes. "I mean, It's nice to meet you too, sir."

  Mr. Elegro laughed before turning to his son. "You definitely have enough power and control to theoretically try what you've been talking about. But the rest, you'll have to come up with on your own. Our mediums are too different for me to give you any more advice."

  "That's okay. You were loads of help," Cameron said with a smile.

  "Why don't you try Prasad—he owes me a favor."

  "No thanks. I'm pretty sure I already got what I needed." Cameron turned and gripped Wesley's shoulder. "Hey, Pop, we're gonna go hang out for while."

  "Okay, have fun. But tonight at five..."

  "I know, I know, we'll go over some more strategies." Wesley hadn't noticed that Cameron had already guided him several feet away by then. "See ya later."

  The boys stepped onto one of the pathways and headed back to the main buildings.

  "So that's your dad, huh?"

  "Yep, he's pretty cool, right?" Cameron said with a smile.

  "Yeah."

  "He went here when he was a kid and knew the dean when they were both in the F-class."

  "Really?" Wesley said, trying to imagine the two men as boys.

  "Yeah, he's staying on campus 'til the Exams." Cameron’s smile broadened with every sentence.

  "Do you see him a lot?" said Wesley, noticing his friend’s behavior.

  "No, He's always working. He teaches at Athens. Go figure."

  "So, where's your mom?" Wesley asked before feeling Cameron's source shrink and become even pointier.

  "She's not
with us anymore," Cameron said with his eyes on the ground.

  "Oh, I am so sorry, man," said Wesley in a rush. "I didn't mean to—"

  "Don't worry about it," said the Sorcerer. "It happened a long time ago. It's just hard to think about that day without getting sad, ya know? That image..."

  "You mean you were there?"

  "Yeah."

  "Dude," Wesley said in a whisper, unable to think of anything better.

  "I told you, it's okay," said Cameron with a smile that seemed forced at first. "Now let's talk about something a little less glum... like that spell of yours."

  Wesley's eyes shot open. "Oh yeah!"

  Cameron chuckled. "As promised, I solved it without figuring out what it does. But you owe me, because it was really hard trying not to figure it out."

  Wesley laughed. "So..."

  "Right," Cameron stopped to put his pack on the ground and, after digging through it, he took out a notebook. "As it turns out, you weren't off by much. You see, the answers kept coming out with a decimal, so I did some research and in your Warlock textbook it hints at their being non-numbered hand signs: decimals, positives and negatives, and even things like multiplication and division signs."

  "Really?"

  The Sorcerer flipped through a few of the pages. "Yeah, but those types of spells are very complex and aren't really touched on until—I'm guessing—the advanced text."

  Wesley let his head drop in disappointment.

  "But all is not lost yet. Like I told you earlier, my Pop is a master at Athens Prep. I asked him about it and he said that he thinks he saw the decimal sign before."

  "Thinks?"

  "Yeah, um he couldn't really tell me the specifics, but he came into contact with a Warlock before and saw him use a sign that wasn't one of the established digits shown in the book. And since that Warlock didn't form enough signs to make an equation, we're pretty sure that it was the decimal. I drew it here." Cameron displayed the sketch.

  "Wait." Wesley raised his palm. "He saw a Warlock use developed magic?"

  "Yeah, I guess?"

  "How?"