Tenthé never made it to the next class. Instead, he descended into the bowels of the College until he heard the faint pounding of the Heart of the World. At that point, he sat against a wall and did what he did when life got tense. He drew in one breath, then another.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the tension dissipated and wafted away, leaving a comfortable stillness behind. Once he achieved an acceptable quietness, he simply relaxed and… was.
Both his logical and emotional centers slept. Eventually, various things that dwelt down here drifted into his awareness: the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Some were immense, some teeny-tiny, and others nothing more than fleeting impressions.
Tenthé let it all flow by. From his pool of calm, he became aware of something else sitting with him. There was no sense looking; it was only a version of a thing that lived in his head. One of the better ones, or, maybe, a bunch of the better ones.
Other: ~ Hey. ~
Tenthé: ~ Hey. ~
Ideas, notions, and random thoughts drifted between them. Time passed.
Tenthé: ~ Should I stay here? At the College? They are so dense! All I do is run into problems. It isn’t much fun. ~
He was getting wound up. The imagery started to fall apart, and another of the other presences from the depths of his mind tried to push through. He stuffed it back into its box, and calmed himself.
More time passed.
Other: ~ If you’re here, then perhaps the future will be better than if you weren’t. ~
Views of death, destruction, children crying, bad stuff. Nothing he hadn’t seen before.
Tenthé: ~ How can I do anything? I’m so little. ~
Other: ~ There’s little, and there’s insignificant. Not the same. ~
A mote of darkness flowed by. The other indicated it, somehow.
Other: ~ Look at that; it’s inconceivably tiny, but if it was let loose, all of everything would be gone. You and it are alike.
Tenthé: ~ Uh… ~
Other: ~ Ha-ha, don’t worry about it. You can do a lot, but scheming isn’t for you. At least, not at this moment. Go out, mess around, have fun, laugh. Do what you do. Remember, there are others working on their own plans. Maybe they’ll all mesh, maybe they’ll all melt. My guess is something in-between. ~
With that, it drifted away and the hallway went back to being a hallway again. Tenthé stood, stretched, and made his way upward, toward the normal part of the College.
He emerged near the dining room, which was busy with students grabbing a quick snack between classes.
“Do I have time to eat?” Tenthé asked Bear.
“Turn so I can see the clock… Yeah, if you hurry.”
Shoving through the crowd, Tenthé made a bee-line for the buffet. As he grazed, he noticed it was kind of quiet and got even quieter as he piled food on his tray. When he turned to find a table, he found the entire room staring at him!
Someone started clapping, and slowly the applause grew until they were all yelling and cheering! The loudest were his dorm-mates. As he passed through the throng, he nearly spilled everything when one of the students patted him on the back. Then he really had to juggle as almost everyone he was near followed suit.
When he finally made it to his friends, the tumult died down.
George yelled, “We heard what you did! No-one has ever beat old Maguinis at his “evaluation” before! People say he was livid!” He stood up. “Three cheers for Tenthé, my man!”
“Hup! Hup! Hup!”
When the yelling abated, he turned to Tenthé and stated, “It won’t last, but you’re the hero for today. Come on, get up and let them see you!”
Tenthé went with it, standing on his chair and bowing. The tumult doubled and things started flying around the room. Some were thrown, but others were really flying.
Tenthé sat back down and began stuffing food into his mouth. As he did so, people came by to leave desserts for him. Yeah, they were free, but it was the thought that counted. Tenthé kept eating and occasionally spraying his thanks.
George looked up, vacated his seat, and Isabell took his place.
“Tenthé,” she started. “I don’t know what to say. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did today. I had no idea that there was a problem. No-one ever gave me even a reason to suspect there was anything wrong. My family will go crazy! They thought I was another plodder, but with whatever you did, I’m sure I’ll be re-evaluated to a significantly higher level! I can’t thank you enough!”
Tenthé mumbled around multiple deserts that it wasn’t a big deal.
“No, believe me, it is a really big deal,” Isabell said emphatically. “My family will insist on rewarding you.”
At this point, Bear barged in.
“What did I tell you? Helping someone never works out, they only ask for more. You better cut her off quick, or we’ll have to go in hiding for another few years. And do it quick, we don’t want to be late for your next class. Physics, I think.… Ha-ha, we’ll see how long this one lasts.”
Tenthé stuffed food into his cloak, mumbled a few words about getting to his next class, turned his back on the girl, and headed for the door. Scattered clapping followed, as well as George and a larger boy whose name Tenthé had forgotten. Outside, Elishua and the Envoy latched on as the party made their way to the Physics classroom.
“Faster, or we’re going to be late,” Elishua advised.
Tenthé sped up to the surprise of his entourage, and quickly left them behind. He arrived at the room as the door was closing, but managed to slip in. He took the nearest empty desk.
“Ah, if it isn’t the hero,” the student beside him said, sarcastically. Just his luck, Leonard LePoiterice.
“Oh, wonderful. This’ll be fun,” Bear added.
“Shut up!”
“What? Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“Not you. Him.” He brought out Bear.
“My gods! What is that monstrosity?”
Bear jumped up and leaped over to Leo’s desk.
“Pick which eye you like, because you’re about to lose the other!”
Tenthé snatched him back as Leo started laughing.
Tenthé explained, “I’m cursed. Can’t read or count, so Bear, here, does it for me.”
Leo had obviously been expecting a much more confrontational response, but before he could respond, a deadening spell fell on the room, making talking very difficult.
From the front, a voice rang out.
“Hello, and welcome to Physics One. Every new student starts here and as we see what talent you’ve brought, we’ll redistribute everyone accordingly.
“Yes, there will be an evaluation, but it doesn’t involve dueling. By the way, we have a celebrity amongst us! Master Tenthé, here, has done the impossible and retrieved the mysterious Red Orb from Magister Lang’s class. Please stand up.”
A light shone on Tenthé, and he reluctantly stood. A polite smattering of applause broke out.
“So, Tenthé. Can you answer the question on everyone’s mind? What is the Red Orb?”
“Uh, I don’t know… wait a sec.”
Tenthé dug the orb out and examined it.
“Oh, that’s a ripoff,” he exclaimed. “It’s just a red rock. Nothing special.”
He might have lied if the Orb had some interesting properties, but unfortunately, it really was nothing more than a rock.
“Well, thank you,” the Magister replied. “Another of life’s big disappointing mysteries solved. You may sit.”
At this point, the Magister settled into lecture mode, “I’m Magister Landstorm and I hope to expose you to the wonders of Magic and Physics. In this class, we look at the underpinnings of the Arts and see what makes them tick.
“Let me give you a bit of a heads-up. I know everyone comes from different backgrounds, with highly variable magic and schooling. I expect you to learn the material, but I won’t judge you on things you may not have been introduced to. On the other hand, I would like you to think about the consequences of what I present. That information will be very important to whether you succeed or fail. You’ll see.
“Now, does anyone know what the difference is between Magic and Physics?”
A number of desks lit up, each one with a different glowing glyph facing the lectern.
“Each of those glyphs is the name of the person sitting there.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
Magister Landstorm pointed at a desk, and the overhead light illuminated it. The student stood.
“Uh, sir, Physics is about real things, like… falling rocks, and stuff, and Magic is spells, and… uh, other stuff.”
“Nice try, but not really. How about you, Leo?”
The light moved to him.
“Physics, is the study of events that are repeatable, whereas Magic is what’s left over.”
“Yes, thank you. Essentially correct. If we repeat a spell and always achieve the same result, then we can research it and uncover how it works. This is Physics.
“On the other hand, if we cast a spell and get an egg, then we cast it again and get a puff of smoke, then cast it once more and get a cow. What we have is Magic.
“Now, what happens if we cast it yet again, but we get another egg? Is the spell Magic or Physics?”
He looked around the room. Tenthé was sure Leo and a few other students knew the answer, but no-one volunteered.
“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Magister Landstorm, “We have what is called a statistical event. Neither Magic nor Physics.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“If you look over the syllabus, you will find at your level we teach several classes of spells that fall under the Physics category. These are ones you can trust. In advanced courses, we introduce you to a few spells that are useful when they work, but run the risk of occasionally doing something unexpected.
“I cannot stress this too much, though! Stay away from pure Magic! Even simple spells could have a major impact when they go wrong. And, by impact, I mean KA-BOOM!
“Just to be thorough, there’s another class of spells called Grand spells which involve gods, demons, and other temperamental and unpredictable entities. For these, results are more akin to Magic, in that you probably won’t get what you expect. As tempting as they may be, I strongly recommend you avoid ever using one of these, for now and forever.
Tenthé pushed his glyph.
“Yes, Tenthé?”
“Uh, how do you know if a spell is Magic or Physics? Maybe you use it a lot and it’s ok, then all of a sudden it doesn’t work right?”
“That’s why you’re here, at the College. We will only show you spells we understand completely. Not ones that are predominantly Magic. We discuss all the varieties so you can recognize them, but I do not want to see any of you try anything outside our curriculum until you are much more experienced.”
Tenthé was shocked. In all the time he had been learning spells, he never been shown this way of looking at how they worked. It explained some of his more spectacular failures.
“Bear, did you know this?”
“Uh…”
“You did, didn’t you!”
“Yeah, it’s why I pushed you to go one direction and not another. Not that you ever listened.”
“You and I are going to have a talk!”
“Oh, joy.”
The class went on, presenting more detail. Tenthé discovered he would be classified as a hedge-wizard, someone who practiced spells without knowing a lot about their classification, or how to study them.
For the first time since he came to the College, he thought he might actually need to understand something that it taught. This could explain his experience with conjuring flowers instead of the torrent of lava he had been counting on. That had been bad; he’d used up one of his lives. Discovering that dire wolves were not much inconvenienced by flowers wasn’t something he had really needed to know.
The class ended a little early and Tenthé walked out, thinking hard on what Magister Landstorm had presented. He wasn’t paying complete attention when he ran into someone.
“Excuse me,” he mumbled, and started to go around.
The someone grabbed his cloak. Tenthé looked up into the face of one of the boys who hung out with Leo. He debated putting a dent somewhere in the boy, but restrained himself.
The boy, Johan maybe, pushed Tenthé in front of another person, who, unsurprisingly, turned out to be Leo.
“Now Johan,” Leo began, “Let poor Tenthé go. Let’s be civil and discuss things like gentlemen.”
Even though Johan declined to release him, Tenthé found no reason to say or do anything. He’d lived on the streets where this type of situation was quite common. Often it was best to allow it to play out for a while. Sometimes, the long-term results of giving a gang boss a little respect vastly outweighed the satisfaction of a more immediate solution.
Typically, there would be an offer of friendship, a threat, a reference to their importance, and a deal. The deal was usually what the whole thing was about.
“As you know, my family has a lot of influence and we have ways of making life easier. In such a short time, you’ve made a bit of a name for yourself. It’d be great if we could work together.
“Think of the advantages! You could get access to private tutors and facilities that only the best have. If it all works out, I might bring you to some of our estates. Maybe even show you magic you never dreamt of.
“On the other hand, suppose you walk away from this. Man, it would be terrible if everyone found out what you’ve been up to, living in the slums. I’m sure I could find people who’d testify about all the criminal things you had to do. And, if it turns out they were lying? So what? Your name would still be trashed. Good luck getting a position with a decent family after that.”
All in all, Leo was doing a fairly good job with his offers and threats. For most students, they’d work pretty well.
Time to play his part. “So, what do you want?”
“Oh, not much. Hang out with us. Maybe do a few jobs. Nothing big. Simple stuff you could handle without breaking into a sweat.”
Tenthé put on his I’m-really-thinking-about-it face. “Hey, it all sounds great but, you know, I’m new here. Still finding out what’s going on 'cause I’m so poor and all that. Can I think it over?”
He felt Bear hitting himself in the head. So what if he wasn’t the best actor?
“Let me be clear. This offer has a time limit; I don’t do this for many people. It’s a onetime deal. Remember, when things happen you better be on the right side!”
Now, that was a strange thing to say.
Before Leo could continue, Elishua walked up.
“Master LePoiterice. How nice to see you. By the way, why is your friend holding onto Tenthé? Is there something wrong?”
“Ah, Mistress, oh, I mean Under-Magister Yelverton. No, there’s nothing wrong. All friends here. Johan was simply being helpful. Tenthé wasn’t watching where he was going and we wanted to make sure he hadn’t hurt himself.”
“Uh-huh. You do know that this little boy bested Magister Maguinis in Combat? As I recall, you haven’t even come close. Are you certain you want to be “helping” him like this?”
Johan let go of Tenthé and stepped over to Leo, who made a placating gesture.
“Now, now, there’s no problem. We were just discussing how things are going. Nothing much. Like I said, no problem.”
He looked pointedly at Tenthé. “We’ll talk later. Remember what I said,” and the trio faded into the stream of students.
Elishua began, “I can guess what that was about. Leo isn’t the smoothest operator out there, but his family is quite important. I guarantee you he has no idea about you. Please don’t hurt him.”
Tenthé wasn’t exactly on team Elishua, either. He chose silence and gave her his no-expression face.
After a moment, Elishua admitted, “You really are one odd little kid.”
She looked around, “Come on, let’s find the Envoy and talk over how your day went. Hmm, I wonder where your friends are? They were doing a passable job watching over you. I expected to see them here.”
Tenthé had wondered that himself and, as if they had been waiting for their cue, Varsh and Dhal ran up.
“Sorry we’re late! The Magister wouldn’t stop talking and laughing at his own jokes!” Varsh panted. He gave an appraising look at Elishua. “What now?”
“Tenthé’s done his classes for today, except for tutoring, after supper. I can take it from here,” Elishua told them.
To give them credit, the boys looked for an okay from Tenthé. He nodded. They even watched as he and Elishua walked away, verifying everything really was all right.
Tenthé didn’t know why his dorm-mates felt they should help. Yeah, people stuck together, like in the gangs and families, but Tenthé thought it was because they had to. He wasn’t sure what was going on, this time.
After a short walk, they reached Tomas’ rooms. The door was open, so they went through to the office. The Envoy and Tomas were already there, along with some other Magister that Tenthé didn’t know.
Tomas opened with, “So Tenthé, it appears you couldn’t be bothered to make it to Magister Grenville’s class. She,” and he nodded at the Magister sitting beside him, “was looking forward to meeting you.”
Tenthé remained silent.
After a moment, Tomas said sternly, “Do you have anything to say?”
“No.”
There was a bit of a shocked silence at this.
“Why not? Don’t you think her time is valuable?”
Before Tenthé walked out, as he was about to do, Bear climbed out of Tenthé’s cloak.
“You know,” he drawled. “There’s usually a good reason when people don’t show up. Sometimes not, but then, I’ve learned those people aren’t worth dealing with. Do you really expect the kid to be able to go from a duel right into another class and not need to think over what happened? At least no-one died, but… maybe someone should have. Little things like that.”
As Tomas sputtered, Magister Grenville started laughing.
“Ha-ha-ha. Aren’t you precious! Tomas, pretty sure you’ve just been handed your ass!”
She then faced Tenthé, asking, “You really don’t feel privileged to be here, do you?”
Before he could figure out an answer, she began looking at the air round him. A moment later her eyes widened, and she exclaimed, “Oh, my!” and then made some gestures.
As far as he could tell, she wasn’t doing anything special.
“My, my goodness!” she breathed out. “I had no idea! No idea at all!”
She sat back.
“Mostly, when I look at someone, I see a few connections to friends, family. That sort of thing. She shifted in her chair, then reached out and took Tenthé’s hand.
“If you don’t mind?” she asked.
Since he had no clue what she wanted, he didn’t stop her. Slowly, so as not to startle him, she pushed up his sleeve to reveal the Turtle’s mark.
“Now, this is not normal! It’s almost like the God is sitting right beside us.
“Plus, he has hundreds of paths all over, going to others he has known. Some of them are old. Very old. And many of them lead away from this plane. Some are scary. Not threads at all, but chains of dark, light, and energies I can’t identify.
“But, in spite of that, I’m convinced he’s nothing other than a boy. Simply a boy. I don’t sense that he’s a god, spirit, otherworldly being… just a boy. Albeit, one with incredible potential! Incredible! I’ve never seen anything like this! Maybe a few of the Sages. But not at his level! And I see marks of the Dreamer all over him!”
At that point, her eyes went glassy, and she slumped in her chair.
After a moment, Tomas spoke up. “And… she’s gone. Don’t worry, she’ll be back with us in a few minutes.”
He looked directly at Tenthé. “All I had intended to do was ask you how your day was going. It seems a bit anticlimactic now.”
“Um? What was she doing?” Tenthé asked, “I didn’t feel any magic or anything.”
“You had Physics today. If what we ordinarily show the students is pure Physics, then what she does is the exact opposite. Pure Magic. It doesn’t follow any of the rules, but, however it works, she’s good at it.”
Tenthé was confused. “The Magister in Physics said the College didn’t teach Magic, but you say that’s what she does?” he asked.
Tomas took a moment to gather his thoughts. “Uh, not exactly. We don’t teach Magic spells. What she does is more like, how shall I put it… observing things. She doesn’t cast, but watches and tries to interpret what she sees. You can talk to her about what that means, but for now…”
He paused to look at the unconscious form of the Magister, then turned back to Tenthé.
“So, tell me, how did your day go?” he asked.
“Okay.”
With nothing else forthcoming, Tomas prompted, “Uh… good! Short. Succinct. Not too much detail. Maybe you could, perhaps, elaborate a little? My mind reading skills are not terribly strong.”
“Gods, you two are pathetic!” Bear exclaimed. “I like her though, reminds me of… ah, not important. So, how did today go? Combat was a disaster. Now, I’m sorry we had to miss her class, but, well, you know. Lunch was fun, Physics was okay, and LePoiterice is a tool. The College’s still in one piece, nobody died. So, a pretty good day so far. But… it’s not over yet.”
Magister Grenville stirred and began looking around. Her eyes snapped to Bear.
“Oh, Master! It has been so long!” she gushed before she passed out again.
“Now, that’s what I’m talking about! Proper respect!” Bear exclaimed. He started preening. Or as much as a stuffed toy could.
Tomas looked at Elishua. “Have you ever noticed that these meetings don’t really go as planned?” he commented.
The Envoy broke her silence.
“I told you before, and I am even more sure now. Tenthé is an agent of discord. You put him in the middle of things and chaos breaks out. We Trachteur have a name for this,” and she made a noise like breaking dishes.
When she didn’t continue, Elishua injected, “In light of the Combat incident, maybe we should review whether we ought to carry on with the remedial classes? If Tenthé and Bear say they have already tried to teach him to read and count, but it hasn’t worked, perhaps we ought to give up, for now? It seems that when we ignore their advice, we end up with a mess on our hands.”
Tomas thought it over. “I tell you what. Instead of treating it like a disability, let’s use the remedial study as an opportunity to understand the problem in more detail. Elishua and I have lined up a good person who specializes in learning difficulties. Perhaps she’ll provide us with some insight.”
Addressing Tenthé and Bear, he asked, “What do you two think?”
They looked at each other, then Bear replied, “I suppose it’s okay. We don’t hold out much hope, but even a little chance is something.”
“That is an amazingly mature response,” Tomas stated.
“Yeah, plus maybe she’ll be hot,” Bear added.
Tomas gave this comment all the attention it deserved and turned to Tenthé. “All right, we’ve mostly discussed what I wanted to cover. I realize these meetings are a bit of a chore, but they have two purposes. The first is to make sure you are getting along acceptably, and the second is so I won’t forget you. Please allow us some leeway as we figure out the issues.”
“Hey, I have a suggestion,” Bear injected. “Why don’t you get some exercise by visiting us instead of us visiting you? Cause Tenthé’s older. It’d only be respectful… What? The Magister here could stand to work out a little! I know it, you know it, we all know it! He’s got a little wheeze going on there and could stand to put on a little more muscle. Not like me.”
And he started flexing.
“Uh-huh,” Tomas grunted. “And on that note, Elishua, please escort Tenthé to his dorm while we wait for Magister Grenville to come back to us,” Tomas directed.
Before she had to time to agree, Tenthé offered, “I can get there on my own. Without any trouble.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Tomas looked around for any dissenters, then acquiesced, “Okay, but if you have a problem, don’t deal with it on your own; let us know and we’ll handle it. I’ll have the Guardians keep an extra eye on you.”
Tenthé shut the door behind him as he left Tomas’ quarters and entered one of the little-used hallways. As he approached his dorm, he heard yelling and the boom of explosions. Carefully, he peeked in.
The common room was full of boys shooting bursts of light from their hands at colored balls darting back and forth. The lights exploded when they hit the walls, furniture, and other boys. Everyone was laughing and shouting instructions at each other while Tenthé stood at the door and watched, not sure what had befallen his mates.
There was a riff of music and the tumult died down.
Someone yelled, “Hey, look! Tenthé’s here!”
Nikolas called to him, “Come on over! George got this new game, it’s great! Give it a try!”
He held out a cube. Tenthé walked over and when he took it, a series of spells tried to push into his hands.
“You have to let them in, then there is a tutorial to tell you how things work,” George told him.
Tenthé examined the spells. They seemed harmless. He decided to go for it and allowed them access. Glyphs appeared in front of him.
After the typical cajoling, Bear read them. The setup was simple and, in a few moments, he was stuffing his face and shooting at colored blobs to keep them from crashing into the players. Perhaps a few of the other students watching got shot too.
Since no-one’s life was on the line, he didn’t try too hard and was fairly bad at the game, but still had a great time.