After just over a week of nothing but practicing during every lesson, Lauren had finally done it. A barely visible disc sat above her hand, turning slightly opaque every time she tapped it with her finger. She wasn’t the first in their class to cast the spell, but she was only one day behind when everyone else had a three-day head start.
Fifteen minutes later Yaric joined her, balancing a book on top of his shield with a grin.
“Excellent, well done you two! Now see if you can cast it again.”
Lauren and Yaric kept recasting the spell, but eventually they grew bored and started throwing small objects at each other’s shields, which eventually evolved into trying to throw things past each other’s shield.
Unfortunately, the shields acted like a hard surface, so quick movements to block resulted in those same objects being sent flying across the room.
“We’re not practicing applications yet, not until you can summon your shields reliably,” Emil admonished them.
“Yeah.” Li Na leaned over to flick Yaric’s shield like she’d been doing all day, but this time she must have augmented herself, because his shield almost seemed to pop as Li Na’s finger just carried on going.
Everything seemed to spin, and when Yaric came to he found himself hunched over the desk. His head felt completely muddled.
“Sorry sorry sorry, it was just a joke!” Li Na was repeating beside him, half standing and leaning over him with a stricken look on her face.
“It’s quite alright,” Emil chuckled. “We’d have got to that later anyway. Your shield is linked to your spell form, so if your shield breaks, so does the spell. It can be quite disorienting the first few times. Nevertheless,” Emil said more loudly, pointing his finger to the ceiling, “you must practice this. A broken shield is one thing, but a broken shield that disables its user is quite another!”
Li Na made half-hearted attempts through the rest of the lesson, spending most of the time glancing worriedly at Yaric whenever she thought he wouldn’t notice, until Yaric nudged her and asked her to do it again.
“But look what happened last time,” Li Na protested.
“You heard High Wizard Spyros, we need to practice this. Especially me; I bet this is the closest I can come to experiencing mind magic.”
“Can’t Lauren do it? Or someone else”
“Who else could break through a shield by flicking their finger?” Yaric asked, grinning.
Lauren continued practicing behind him, seemingly focused on her task, but smiling to herself as she did.
----------------------------------------
The first scouting lesson since their return had been embarrassing, but not particularly difficult, despite the earlier threats. The Corporals had given them lessons on hiding in plain sight.
They both had to act like they belonged somewhere, and not by simply performing in front of their instructors either. Real locations were chosen, requiring them to walk through different classes or buildings. They’d even been made to drop off fake documents in random administration buildings.
Most of them went really well, but they did get called out one time just as they were depositing the paperwork at an unoccupied counter.
“What are you two doing?” someone called out, marching toward them.
“We’re just dropping off these documents,” Yaric replied, trying to cover themselves.
Lauren realized that their ‘documents’ were going to be examined, so she glanced down at the blank page, and remembering the sign she’d seen outside, added, “For hobby room requests.”
The man stopped impatiently still several meters away. “That’s the office next door, you’re in the wrong place.”
Lauren and Yaric apologized profusely, playing the part of very embarrassed couriers, and backed out as quickly as they could.
The Corporals had actually been pleased with their performance. This time, however, things went as they had been expecting the first time.
“Follow us,” Corporal Ilves immediately commanded, walking away at a brisk pace. They followed for fifteen minutes, weaving their way through the campus grounds, moving between buildings and through parks. Eventually they found themselves in a large garden, complete with natural-looking tree thickets and manicured lawns.
“Up here,” Ilves said, climbing nimbly up a large tree. The other Corporals all followed.
Yaric and Lauren made it up to the same level and looked over to where the Corporal pointed.
“That’s the Swaying Bough.”
“Staff restaurant.”
“More of a café really.”
“Terrible food though.”
“Yeah, really overrated.”
Yaric looked incredulously at the men who had spent most of their adult lives in the army.
“What? We have to eat field rations most the time, we like a bit of fine dining when we can get it.”
“We can appreciate it more than most.”
“Some would consider us experts on the subject.”
“And it’s a good thing too. You two are going to leave the food alone, your task is to get what’s on those tables.”
“There’s nothing on those tables.”
“Are you blind? Big silver things, some people call them forks.”
“You want us to steal cutlery?” Lauren asked, sounding shocked.
“It’s not stealing when we’re giving them back.”
“More like training aids, really.”
“And what loftier purpose is there than training?”
“Fine people, trainers.”
“True nobles.”
“One day you might find yourselves needing to extract something from an enemy camp, or more likely, deliver something into said camp. Hiding in plain sight is sometimes the best way to go about it. And make no mistake, this place has security to keep out the riff-raff.”
“Like you two.”
“Riff, and Raff,” said one of the Corporals, pointing first to Lauren and then to Yaric.
Yaric climbed down with Lauren close behind.
“How are we going to get in if there’s security?” Lauren asked once they were back on the ground.
“I was thinking we should go straight for the porch. We don’t even try going in the front door.”
“Won’t that look suspicious?”
“Not if we act like we were there earlier. Maybe we came through the door, then took a walk while we were waiting for our food?”
“Okay, but we should approach from the side. There was a lady already seated on the porch, I don’t want her to see us coming from the trees,” Lauren suggested.
They slowly made their way around, keeping well within the tree line, then casually walked out and along the side of the building until they reached the porch. Lauren was talking excitedly about her upcoming hair appointment at a staff facility, both to look more natural and to hopefully create the impression that they often used staff facilities.
The woman sitting by herself watched them step onto the porch without a word, but her eyes never left them.
“Ah, they still haven’t brought our food,” Lauren complained, sounding disappointed.
No one was looking at the woman, but she still smiled sympathetically and went back to her book.
‘Damn, Lauren is good at this.’
They both walked over to the table and sat down, acting as if they were waiting for an order, while Lauren continued talking about her appointment. There wasn’t going to be much time though.
Yaric looked pointedly at Lauren and flicked his eyes to look past her. Turning, Lauren saw what he was trying to convey. A waiter was making his way over to their table.
“Well, let’s go for another walk while we wait,” she announced, standing up and casually picking up a fork. Yaric did the same.
They had made it to the edge of the porch when the woman with the book spoke up. “Where do you two think you’re going with those forks?”
“Uhhh…”
There was no good answer, and their only options were to fail or run.
They ran. Or at least, they tried to. Neither took more than five paces before the ground fell away from them and they were lifted into the air.
“What is the meaning of this?” she demanded angrily.
“Hold on! Hold on!” Corporal Ilves shouted as he burst from the tree line. Another of the Corporals was following him, but Yaric was dismayed to see the rest just inside the edge of the thicket, doubled over and laughing.
“My name is Corporal Ilves, I’m a military trainer hired by Lekton Academy to give lessons to these students,” he explained, handing over a familiar-looking ID.
“You’re teaching them to steal cutlery.”
“No, we’re teaching them infiltration techniques. Suffice to say, they failed horribly.”
“We came close,” Yaric grumbled.
“No, you failed the second you accepted the task.”
“What?”
“We told you, hiding in plain sight is sometimes the best option. And to do so, you have to look natural, like you belong.”
“We did,” Yaric protested, “you should have seen Lauren, she was great.”
“Yes, but you tried to walk out with forks.”
“That was the assignment.”
“Have you ever seen anyone walk out of a place like this while carrying a fork? How is that natural? Who would ever see that and not question it? You could walk out of a camp while carrying hidden papers, or maybe small samples of something important. But you couldn’t stroll out the front gate with all their horses, could you? It isn’t natural. It’s just as important to learn when to apply each technique as it is to learn how to use them.”
“It’s even more important to attend special lessons that have a limited time frame.”
“Missing too many invaluable lessons will harm your future growth.”
“And it’s wasteful.”
“Not to mention rude.”
“And could sometimes lead to embarrassing situations…”
----------------------------------------
It was exciting to go through the process of collecting visitors’ cards for the bestiary. Everyone knew that in just a few minutes they would be walking past incredible creatures and amazing beasts. Some might even call them fantastic.
Lloyd was waiting just inside the bestiary to lead them where the Arch Wizards waited. Or more likely, to where the Arch Wizards would meet them.
“Lloyd, could you help us with some new training?”
“Sure, I can show you a few more exercises.”
“Well, it’s not really exercises that we’re looking for. We want to learn some more powerful spells. Something that could actually injure a dangerous creature.”
Lloyd frowned. “You learn spells like that when you’re ready. And you learn them from your instructor.”
“But we’ve been using those spells for months. We’re ready to learn something better. It doesn’t have to be something amazing, but spells like our fireball spell just throws a ball of flames somewhere, and the fire goes out when it breaks apart. We need something that could explode, or keep burning.”
“We understand that the fireball spell we were taught is more like a stepping stone to better spells,” Lauren added. “But we can use that one almost anytime now. There isn’t much room for improvement.”
Lloyd sighed. “Here’s what I can do, I’ll talk to Emil for you. But that’s all I can do. If he agrees, great, but if not, his decision is final.”
Yaric had been hoping for much more than that, but he took what he could get. Lloyd was far more open to the idea of training to resist mental attacks, and even suggested that they take part in some of the tests Yaric would be going through.
Several cages and tanks were waiting in an empty paddock when they arrived, though there was no sign of any Arch Wizards. Four staff members were watching over the enclosures, and concerningly, all of them were wearing scaled metal armor.
“Relax, it’s just a standard precaution,” Lloyd said. “These things are all harmless.”
“Except for the alicante, those things are poisonous,” Jaxxon said from behind Yaric. Luckily Yaric was starting to get used to the sudden appearances by now, and since he was actually waiting for it this time he barely reacted.
“Venomous,” Cory corrected, stepping out from behind one of the larger tanks.
“Bah.”
Both Arch Wizards walked to the front of the largest enclosure and turned to face the students.
“It’s come to my attention that I owe you four an apology,” Jaxxon began.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Yaric had felt the same way ever since they’d discovered what was stealing the cattle around Kald, but actually hearing an apology for an Arch Wizard just felt weird.
“When I heard that promising students such as yourselves were being locked away inside the Academy, like prisoners, I prioritized appeals that were far away and preferable in remote locations.” The Arch Wizard actually managed to look sheepish for a moment. “I thought you would enjoy the journey.”
Even Lloyd looked shocked.
“I hope you understand, if we’re not talking about something living inside the Abyssal Fields, danger doesn’t even enter my mind. It was a large failing on my part, and I take full responsibility, but I didn’t concern myself with potential hazards.”
“You wanted them to have a vacation?” Lloyd stammered.
“Not exactly. I fully expected them to earn themselves a few credits. It was more about exploring the Kingdom. That was my favorite part of fulfilling appeals when I was their age. My fondest memories are the days I spent traveling through different kingdoms and landscapes, seeing what this world has to offer. Just a young wizard and his horse, out in the wide-open wilderness or inside new towns with different foods and cultures.”
“But they’re not even Apprentices.”
“And as such should enjoy the experience all the more. Either way, I give you my word that I shall take danger and risk of death into account going forward.”
“You’re still going to assign appeals to them?” Lloyd asked nervously.
“Of course. I’ve seen what these four can do. Look what they just did with a mission they should have never even attempted. I’m not going to step aside and leave them doing jobs like moving rocks, or breaking rocks, or piling rocks, or… other useless jobs involving rocks.”
Yaric couldn’t hide his smile. Their very first job had been moving rocks.
“They won’t be sent after manticores, of course, but they can handle some cattle rustlers or striga. I’ll even assign a guardian if I feel the need; don’t forget that I can do that.”
“Alright, well, I would appreciate it if you would run any appeals by me first, before you assign them to my student or his friends.”
“Of course, of course. Now come, let’s get started.”
The first cage they had pulled out held two large ravens.
“These are valravn. They’re very difficult to tell apart from ravens and have a rather unusual skill with mind magic, though you’ve all encountered this form already. They use sound to carry their magic. If you three would step back please, and try to cover your ears.”
“They’ve previously asked if they could receive some training on resisting mind magic,” Lloyd remarked.
“Have they now?” Jaxxon looked very happy to hear that. “Come on, come closer. No time like the present.”
Li Na stepped forward nervously, followed closely by Sven and Lauren.
“Alright, prepare yourselves. We’re going to cast a net over Yaric to try and pick up any changes, then I’m going to shut down the sound dampener on this cage. One, two, three!”
Nothing happened. Valravn shuffled sideways on their perch, watching to see what would happen. Then one of them cocked its head to the side.
Ahwoooooo…
The sound was soft, like a quiet caw from a raven, but it sounded creepily like a wolf, not a bird. All three of Yaric’s friends backed away hurriedly, looking pale. Li Na shuddered.
“Ah yes, the cry of the valravn induces fear. Some people report feeling cold as well. But it really doesn’t do any more than that. Fear is one of the most common mental attacks in nature, alongside illusions. It’s equally effective at freezing prey or scaring off predators.”
A second howl called out, and although the terrified students looked even whiter than before, this time all three defiantly held their ground.
“What does it feel like?” Yaric asked.
“You don’t feel anything, do you?” Sven asked in reply.
Yaric just shook his head.
“Your heart rate goes up, like you’ve just finished a run, and you get a feeling on the back of your neck like something is hunting you.”
“Wow, okay.”
“Let’s move on to something with a similar effect, but a different delivery mechanism,” Jaxxon said, interrupting the student’s discussion.
“Awww…” Li Na said, spotting the yellow rabbit with a long black horn.
“Here we have a Miraj. It does almost exactly the same thing, but by using vision. Your vision. It can affect anyone who looks at the horn.”
Everyone stared at the horn, waiting, but Yaric didn’t notice any change, not even when Lauren let out a hiss of breath.
“Remarkable. Your eyes aren’t vulnerable either, though it must be noted that this is rather weak magic.”
The three students behind Yaric didn’t seem to think so.
“Next we will test the effect of the bakunawa. This creature is remarkable. It actually forms a spell much like we do. There are no mechanisms like sound or sight. In fact, it actually attacks the senses, so be prepared to lose your sight. That’s always one of the targets.”
Cory pulled the cover off one of the tanks, revealing a long black serpent. The upper lip extended out and curved upward, similar to a horn, and the tail and a curve in it, like a loop.
Sven staggered back, followed soon after by Lauren, and then Li Na. Not long after they all started to stumble. Lauren dropped to one knee and placed both hands on the ground, Sven bent down to hold his knees, and Li Na dropped down into a deep squat.
“Channel arcana,” Lloyd called out, hoping they hadn’t lost their hearing. “It’s just like charging a spell, but project the arcana through your head. Try to ensure that it goes out in all directions, like light from the sun.”
That actually seemed to work. Yaric was surprised to see Li Na snap out of it first, though no one looked more surprised than she did. She regained her vision to find herself squatting low to the ground with her arms held out in front of her. Li Na quickly hopped up and stood casually.
“Easy as pie.”
Yaric gave her a high five.
Lauren and Sven came out of it a moment later, looking around in surprise.
“That was intense,” Lauren said. “Everything went dark, then it felt like the ground was shaking, like there was an earthquake.”
“Hmmm…” Cory hummed. “Everyone always remembers the senses like vision or smell, but people always seem to forget we have many others. Like balance, for example.”
“It took away our sense of balance?”
“Indeed.”
“At least you know a way to fight it now,” Yaric said consolingly.
“I’m surprised it’s so easy,” Sven replied. “Maybe you just have arcana swirling around your head.”
Jaxxon laughed. “I’m afraid not. Real spells are highly focused, formed with concentrated arcana. The little trick you just used can only work if you’re significantly more powerful than your attacker. These bakunawa prey on unconnected species, so they don’t need to be very powerful to be successful.”
Cory pulled out one creature after another, testing different kinds of attacks and different delivery mechanisms. Yaric faced flashes of light, vibrations he could feel but not hear, and even one attack released through smell.
The last creature was the best. It didn’t affect him any more than any of the others, but it did affect his friends. The abaia was a large eel with multicolored, iridescent scales. While it did possess the ability to control water, the magic they were testing was focused on the scales. They would gently pulse in various colors, often in shifting patterns or changing speeds. The feeling of happiness and contentment that it induced was well known.
No one seemed to care that it used that ability to more easily drown its prey, but that was probably also an effect of the magic it was using.
“Time to head into The Cut,” Jaxxon announced. “I’m afraid you three won’t be able to participate in everything we have lined up.”
Nevertheless, everyone still followed the Arch Wizards down, or at least they tried to. Both Jaxxon and Cory went first, followed by Lloyd, but by the time Li Na got to the stairs and looked down, both Arch Wizards were at the bottom and waving for everyone to hurry up.
Their first stop was a familiar friend.
The nearest basilisk reared up and fixed everyone with its malevolent gaze. Yaric still felt nothing, and the different wizards all had their personal defenses against something like a basilisk. The other three students, however, backed up against the wall, just as they had the first time, they saw the basilisk.
Yaric remembered Li Na’s comment from the previous occasion and stepped between the basilisk and Lauren, trying to block the attack. It had no effect, and trying to spread out his mind did nothing either, not that Yaric expected it to. He was simply trying to push his mind out in all directions, as if that were something someone could do. Blocking Lauren’s line of sight also didn’t help, as the basilisk only needed to keep Lauren in its line of sight. It didn’t matter if Lauren could see it or not.
“Nice try,” Cory commented when they were done. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but I couldn’t detect any changes in your shield while you were trying to protect your friends.”
“I forgot how bad that was,” Lauren whispered, shaking a little. “It felt the same as when my spear…” Lauren shook her head without finishing her sentence.
Yaric wrapped his arm over her shoulders. “Come on, I’m sure the next one will be better.”
“It won’t,” Jaxxon called over his shoulder. “The next one is like the basilisk, but it’s so powerful it can kill.”
Yaric cursed silently.
It was another familiar creature, the cù-sìthe. The last time they had seen the oversized hounds they had been behind a protective dome, silencing all sounds that came from within. This time the dome would be dropped, or rather, expanded.
The shaggy green dogs were still crouching behind tiny rocks, as if they had any chance of hiding their bulk. Each cù-sìthe was the size of a cow.
“These are cù-sìthe, hunters of the moors. Their attack is carried by sound, but it has the interesting characteristic of compounding power. Each bark adds to the last, allowing the spell’s power to increase exponentially. Few creatures can survive hearing more than two barks.”
Yaric’s friends stayed well away from the edge, while Yaric was ushered nearer and directed to stand as close to the edge as he could.
“I’m going to cast a shield over you now, so sound will become distorted and distant. Let us know if you have any problems,” Cory informed him.
“Wait, why are you putting a shield over me?”
“As a precaution. We don’t know if the cù-sìthe can get through your shield, and if it can, we might only know when you die.”
Yaric swallowed nervously.
Meanwhile, Jaxxon walked over to some runes on the wall and started making some adjustments.
A translucent dome appeared over Yaric, similar to the one enclosing the cù-sìthe pen. Not long after, that dome began to expand, until it eventually passed over Yaric completely. Jaxxon was exposed as well, though even Lloyd had chosen to remain outside.
Jaxxon leaned far over the railing and pulled his head back, taking a very deep breath.
“WHO’S A GOOD BOY?”
Every cù-sìthe in the pit snapped their heads around to look up at the intruders. Some cocked their heads one way, then the other, as if trying to work out what had been stupid enough to enter their territory.
The first bark came not long after, though it was a lot closer to a howl.
BOW WOWOW!
The sound seemed to echo through Yaric’s body, but he didn’t feel any kind of fear at all. Yaric turned to Jaxxon and shook his head.
BOW WOWOW!
The next bark came soon after and seemed to somehow resonate with the echoes of the first bark.
The third bark completely changed everything. Yaric was utterly unaffected, but the overlapping sounds shifted to form an entirely new bark, now deeper and more menacing. It was like each of the previous barks were just individual pieces of a greater whole. Yaric was shocked to see Jaxxon flinch though.
“Nothing,” he mouthed through the shield. Jaxxon nodded and dropped the shield entirely.
“IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES, YOU MANGY MUTTS?!” Jaxxon bellowed.
A different dog barked this time, though Yaric didn’t notice any effect at all, even without the shield.
“Nothing. No sign of your mental defense even acknowledging the attack. Truly remarkable."
Jaxxon was caught by surprise when four different dogs barked back together this time. He even looked to be sweating, though he did cast a glance at Yaric, and appeared relieved when he saw Yaric shake his head. “Nothing at all.”
Then, out of nowhere, almost the whole pack stood up and started to join in.
BOW WOWOW!
BOW WOWOW!
BOW WOWOW!
BOW WOWOW!
BOW WOWOW!
Jaxxon blanched and started backpedaling rapidly, hastily checking on Yaric as he did. Yaric reassured him with a shrug and a smile. The Arch Wizard retreated through the now cloudy dome and steadied himself against the wall of the cliff.
Yaric’s last sight before the dome clouded over was of Lloyd running forward in panic and Jaxxon rushing for the runes he’d been adjusting earlier. Almost immediately after the dome turned so opaque that he couldn’t see through it anymore.
Meanwhile, howl after howl echoed through the pit, building on each other in a never-ending stack until Yaric felt like his bones were vibrating. The sound had shifted from the high-pitched braying to the ominous howl just like before, but the bark was so much deeper now, so much more malicious. It sounded like some malevolent hound had crawled from the center of the Abyss.
And Yaric enjoyed it.
He knew they were attacks intended to kill, but they simply washed over them harmlessly. Taking a page out of Arch Wizard Phelps’s book, Yaric started shouting back, asking who wanted a belly rub and who wanted to play fetch. He couldn’t even hear his own voice, drowned out as it was by the chorus of nonstop howling. Then the glowing white dome washed over him and the deep barks that seemed to echo through his body disappeared abruptly, bringing an almost jarring silence, only to be replaced by shouts from Lloyd and his friends.
Lauren crashed into him.
“Are you okay? Is anything wrong?” Lloyd shouted.
Li Na grabbed his elbow and turned him to the side, a scowl across her ashen face as she inspected him. Yaric had no idea what she was looking for, but she seemed insistent, so he left her to it.
“I’m fine, really. It was no different to any of the other tests.”
Lloyd pointed to the dome without looking, which Yaric saw was still glowing with a bright white light.
“That’s never happened before; it’s unheard of. The shield wouldn’t even be able to hold if we didn’t have an Arch Wizard here reinforcing it.”
“You’re too kind.”
“This whole pen is going to have to be upgraded now.”
“But nothing happened,” Yaric protested. “Really. It was just loud barking. Or howling, or whatever that was. Ow!”
Li Na had kicked him in the shin. “Don’t do that again,” she shouted, pointing her finger in his face. Yaric was about to retort when he saw how watery her eyes were.
Instead, he put his free hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a hug, right next to Lauren. Sven stood stoically to one side, though he nodded in acknowledgment when they made eye contact.
Cory cleared his throat loudly. “Perhaps, in light of recent events in a certain faraway village, we should add a few extra contingencies before continuing. Not to mention all the repeated fear-based attacks you’ve all experienced very recently.”
“But Lloyd said this had never happened before,” Yaric pointed out, talking informally out of habit.
“True, but that doesn’t mean we should assume it won’t happen.”
“How can you plan for something when no one knows it’s even a possibility? And now that you do know this can happen, aren’t you going to add additional safeguards? So it isn’t a danger anymore? If this had happened for the first time to anyone else, what would the results have been?”
Cory just stared at him for a moment, and only then did Yaric realize how he was speaking when talking to one of the most powerful wizards in the Kingdom.
“I knew I liked you, boy.”
Lloyd stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I know it feels like we’re overreacting, Yaric, but it’s not only about whether you were hurt or not. That test snowballed out of our control. Anything could have happened depending on how your shield works, and we’re supposed to be able to stop things if we find a weakness, or if we reach a point where your defenses are overwhelmed. If this happened now, why can’t it happen in any other test?”
Yaric stared at Lloyd for a moment, trying to formulate his thoughts. “If I have a weakness or a maximum threshold, I’d rather find out here like this than out there fighting some other weird creature, or any of the things you’ve lined up down here. This is the safest way to find out. Otherwise I’ll discover my weaknesses at the same time as something trying to kill me does.”
It was Lloyd’s turn to stare, though he didn’t take as long to reply. “Okay.” That was all he said.
Lauren looked up sharply, staring at Lloyd. “Okay?”
“He’s not wrong,” Lloyd replied with a shrug, even if he didn’t look happy either.
Glancing down, Yaric felt a pang of guilt. Lauren’s face was damp. Both she and Li Na let go at the same time, stepping back and looking expectantly toward the Arch Wizards. Sven stepped forward immediately and clapped Yaric on the shoulder.
“Don’t you want to take a break? Maybe get something to drink?”
Yaric was feeling a little thirsty, but he really didn’t want to have to go all the way back up for a drink. He was about to say just that when he realized he was missing something. Lauren and Li Na were both listening in on the discussion the wizards were having and glancing back his way every few seconds. He wasn’t the only one who could use a break. And Cory had brought up another good point. All three of his friends have been repeatedly hit by fear-based attacks, which could amplify anything they felt.
“Sure, that sounds good.”
Sven left to speak to the wizards while Lauren and Li Na looked very relieved. Apparently they were listening in on both conversations.
“A very good idea,” Jaxxon declared loudly, clapping his hands together as he did. The dome over the cù-sìthe was transparent again, with the large hounds already going back to hiding behind ridiculously small stones. “Come, let us eat before we continue our tests. Up you go,” he ordered, waving them forward.
Yaric started up the stairs with Lauren. Li Na and Sven were climbing close behind, with Lloyd bringing up the rear.
“When my spear… when…” Lauren said softly, stumbling on her words. “You were standing in that dome a few minutes ago, and everything seemed fine. Then the dome started turning white, and we watched an Arch Wizard run to escape, and you disappeared inside… Lloyd was panicking, I thought he might try going inside to pull you out… Arch Wizard Phelps started shouting that the attack was too powerful, and those massive shields were going to fail, and we still couldn’t see you, but it looked like no one thought they’d be able to go inside and get you, and the shield started glowing…”
Lauren stopped rambling when Yaric pulled her in for a quick hug.
“Was that how it felt?” she asked softly after taking a deep breath. “When that skathári broke my spear.”
Yaric thought about it for a moment. It didn’t seem like they were the same. One was near certain death, while the other was merely uncertainty. But there was no way for Yaric to know how Lauren had felt and if it was the same. Yaric turned to reply and paused, taking in the expression on her face and realizing he was wrong.
“Yes."
They climbed a few more steps in silence.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t realize what you meant. You all saw things like that in Kald, but I never saw any of you come that close to being killed. I was always looking somewhere else.”
“That’s no reason to be sorry. I’m glad you didn’t see something like that. Besides, I'm the one who needs to apologize. I could have walked out of that dome at any time, I just didn't realize that anyone thought I was in trouble. It was the Arch Wizard who ran,” Yaric added, feeling foolish as soon as the words left his mouth.
Lauren didn’t get a chance to reply, as they turned a corner and found Jaxxon and Cory waiting impatiently.
“Hurry up, hurry up.”
Sven and Li Na joined them a few seconds later followed closely by Lloyd. The four students were shuffled closer together, and once Jaxxon seemed happy with their positions he smiled widely and winked.
“My treat.”
Yaric blinked rapidly in the bright sunlight. The sudden noise from the restaurant outside the bestiary was a shock, but nothing like the sudden sunlight after spending an hour in the deep shadow of a canyon.
It was almost surreal. Yaric had never been too phased at having the attention of not one but two Arch Wizards. Few High Mages or High Wizards were on speaking terms with an Arch Wizard, yet Yaric had been speaking with one as a Prospect.
But now, sitting in a public restaurant and casually eating a meal with the Arch Wizards, Yaric started to realize how odd the situation was for the first time. Arch Wizard Phelps had presided over the Solstice Tournaments for as long as anyone could remember, and many jokes were based on just how long he’d been doing it. Due to this, he was one of the most recognizable Arch Wizards anywhere, even when comparing Arch Wizards in other nations.
And the staring people and hushed whispers made it obvious that many knew exactly who he was. Yet Jaxxon acted like he didn’t notice, merely passing Yaric a basket of fries and asking him if he’d prefer to face the undead tests first or if he wanted to continue with the experiments in The Cut.
“I’m not sure. Whatever helps the most, I guess? I don’t know if either choice would help more.”
“Come to think of it,” Jaxxon replied, still chewing his mouthful of fries, “all of the experiments in The Cut were meant to test how much power you could withstand. We were going to go through progressively stronger attacks to test your limits. That last test though - it was far more powerful than the most powerful attack we were planning to use. I do believe that all further tests down there would be unnecessary.”
“The satori is down there,” Cory said, contradicting Jaxxon.
“Ah, yes. Illusions. We haven’t really touched on those yet. But the baku and anansi are both up here, to name a few.”
“I suppose.”
“Then it’s settled. We will finish off this nice, enjoyable meal, then take a pleasant stroll through the undead!”