ILIAS PAYNE
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After the test to see if I was worthy of teaching or not, Heloise dropped me off at home before disappearing into the village.
I thought my lessons would start immediately, but she did just finish a two-week journey. It made sense that she wanted a break and explore the village that would be acting as her home for the next however many years she was willing to teach me.
Around lunchtime, the colonel dropped by to see how things went.
Mother frowned in defiance. “Why didn’t you tell me that you took the State Jynxist Exam with the Heloise Astell.”
“She passed, so it’s Heloise Van Astell now,” he teased.
“You shut up!” she snapped.
“You would’ve never left me alone if I told you I took the exam with her. I had a feeling she’d come here one day so I wanted to surprise you. It seems as though it worked.”
Mother’s face turned red. “Well, thanks for convincing her to come here and stay with us.”
“Hey, hey, hey. I contacted her so that Ilias has a jynx tutor, not so you can obsess over her. How did the preliminary test go, by the way?”
“It went well,” I said. “She didn’t want to teach me at first because I was so young, but she’s insisting on it now.”
“Where is Silver, by the way? She dropped by to say hi earlier, but I was swamped with work. I want to catch up with her.”
Mother shrugged. “She dropped off Ilias and said she was heading into the village.”
“I see. Well, her journey did take two weeks.”
Heloise returned around dusk and joined us for dinner. As we ate, she kept quiet, only opening her mouth to eat and to answer our questions. She never spoke unless spoken to and even Mother had a hard time cutting through the silence. When we finished, she helped with the dishes, took a bath, and then headed straight to bed.
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She was on a set schedule.
The next day after finishing breakfast, Heloise took me to the front yard and explained how things would work.
“Starting today, I am now your teacher. Except for your swordsmanship, you will not be taught by the colonel anymore. Everything is on me now. I don’t care how long it’ll take, but I will fill that head of yours with everything I know.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Calling me Miss is a bit too much.”
“But you’re older than me.”
“Heloise is fine.”
“It doesn’t sound right. I should be giving you my respect. How about ‘Teacher’? Is it okay if I call you that?”
“You’re certainly different from all the other kids I’ve taught. You may call me Teacher, I suppose.”
Heloise produced a small rectangular wooden box from her pocket and handed it to me. “I have accepted you as my student. Opening the box and accepting whatever is inside will signify that you accept me as your teacher.”
The box was tied with a ribbon—which I undid by pulling at one of its ends. Sitting inside was a polished and hand-carved stick of wood with a ruby stone at the tip. Its handle was engraved in a crisscross pattern that would act as a solid grip. The rest of the body was slick, smooth, and intricately shaped.
I waved the stick around. “This is a wand.”
“It’s very basic, but those were the only material I could find. I didn’t expect you to be worthy of teaching, so I didn’t pack one beforehand. But don’t worry, it’ll be easy to control and you’ll get used to conjuring spells with this.”
“Thank you, Teacher.”
“Follow me.”
Heloise and I headed to the dead end that was being guarded by the colonel’s armoured lizard.
“We’re not allowed to go through here,” I explained. “The colonel put Tank here to prevent people from passing.”
“It’s okay,” she said as she pet Tank’s head. “I got permission from the colonel and Tank knows me.”
Tank rubbed his head on my shoulder before stepping aside and letting us pass. Heloise led me deep into the forest where we came across a ravine that stretched at least a hundred feet wide.
“Do you see that boulder?” the silver-haired elf asked.
On the other side, a couple of feet beside the edge, was a boulder the size of a house. “I see it.”
“Destroying that will be your final test. You have to stand exactly where you are right now. Once you’ve accomplished that task, then I’ll have no more things to teach you.”
I pointed my wand at the rock. “Let the power of impact and force flow through my body and conjure into a spout of great strength. Water Cannon!”
Instead of getting the tingling sensation that would arise throughout my body, this time, there was only a little, but a beam of water shot out from the wand all the same.
I had nothing to compare the feeling to, but now I did. Using some sort of wand or staff eased the fatigue in one’s body. Conjuring a spell was also much easier and didn’t take as much concentration.
Water Cannon was strong and would’ve blasted the boulder if it was much closer. But it ran out of power not even halfway into the ravine, spreading into a thin mist the further it went out.
I lowered my wand. “It was worth a try.”
“Yeah, I would’ve been disappointed if you didn’t.”