Bloodrage - Helen Harper Page 0,10
scalding my tongue so that I could get out of there as quickly as possible. Once I was done, Mary nodded and jerked her head to the door.
When we were back outside, she spoke again. “You have Kinesis first. The mages have decided that you will have private lessons, seeing as how you are, like, so new and, well, you know.”
Unfortunately, I did know. I trailed after her along various narrow cobbled pathways, from either side of which loomed different buildings of all manner of shapes and sizes. I hadn’t fully appreciated just how large the academy’s complex was until this point. We eventually ended up in a smallish room at the far end of a squat structure that seemed to be some considerable distance away from the main building that housed the cafeteria and dorms. Waiting inside was a rather nervous looking mage of about thirty years old. I didn’t envy him this task, I had to admit. Who would want to teach the psycho bitch to move things around with her mind? Mary stated that she would be back in two hours’ time to take me to my next lesson. I tried to give her a warm smile of gratitude, but she was already turning back to the door to leave.
The nervous looking mage stuck out his hand, and then thought better of it, suddenly withdrawing his palm before I could even begin to reach for it. My soul sank an inch inside as he hastily introduced himself as Mage Slocombe, and then immediately positioned his slumped body at the opposite end of the room, as far away from me as he could possibly get. I tried hard not to let it affect me, and straightened my posture and lifted my chin.
In the centre of the room, inside a small chalk circle, lay a tiny little pebble. Mage Slocombe instructed me in a small reedy voice to sit down and watch the stone. I did as he bade, hunkering down cross-legged on the floor, and awaited my next instructions. No more were forthcoming, however. I stared at that damn pebble for the whole two hours, all the while wondering if I was supposed to be doing something to make it move. My eyes smarted and my legs were so numb when Mary returned to pick me up that it took me several moments to be able to stand properly and move. I thanked the mage quietly for his teaching, trying so very hard not to acknowledge the shaft of pain that ran through me at the look of sheer relief on his face that the session was over, and then we left.
“A bit of good old stone staring, huh?” Mary was clearly feeling a bit more talkative now.
Relieved that her naturally bubbly personality was reasserting itself, I nodded vigorously. “Yeah, what on earth is that all about? Is something supposed to happen?”
She grinned, cute dimples appearing in her cheeks as she did so. “Perhaps. You’ll just have to wait and see. Some initiates spend months with the staring thing, and others pick it up in, like, just a few hours.”
“You know I’m not actually a mage though, right?”
“I guess you’ll be doing a lot of staring, then,” she giggled a bit, leaving me feeling no better at all whatsoever, and depositing my unhappy self outside a shiny aluminum looking door that appeared completely out of place in this old building. Apparently, this was for Evocation.
Once inside, the mage, who seemed even more nervous – if that were possible – than Slocombe had been, warned me very carefully that I could only perform Evocation magic inside one of the specially proofed rooms. Should I choose to attempt it anywhere else, then there was the danger that I would summon some kind of spirit that would wreak all kinds of havoc before it could be contained. It quickly became clear, however, that I was a long way off summoning anything at all. I was given a quick demonstration with some kind of water sprite, but even though I followed the mage’s instructions to the letter, when I tried it for myself absolutely nothing happened. By the end of the lesson, sweat was dripping off my face and seeping through my robe, and I had accomplished nothing whatsoever. The mage shrugged and then almost pushed me back out of the door.
Mary was waiting outside with a grin on her face. “How did it go?”
“This magic stuff is as hard as it