Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism) (10 page)

Eventually he recovered enough of his wits to say, “What? No, we’re just friends.”

“I’m going to bed, goodnight all,” Tamon—who typically stayed up later than any of them—rolled over in his bed, fully clothed, and faced the wall. Zane was still focusing intently on the book in front of him, though his eyes weren’t moving across the lines so Hayden knew he wasn’t reading.

“So then…” Conner caught his attention once more, “you wouldn’t mind if I asked her out?”

A wave of powerful emotion washed over Hayden quite suddenly, like he had been doused with
cold water. He had no idea if he felt panicked or furious, nor did he remember getting to his feet and clenching his hands into fists that made his knuckles stand out against his skin.

“I…
what
?” he said through clenched teeth, seeing Conner in a new light all of a sudden. They were enemies, why hadn’t he realized that before? How long had this been going on? All this time he was probably cozying up to Tess and Hayden hadn’t even noticed…

“Uh, never mind…you’re obviously not cool with it,” Conner looked away in embarrassment.

Hayden was still trying to get his bearings in this conversation, rattled by the aftereffects of the Mnemora. “I didn’t know you liked her.”

Looking like he wished he’d never entered into this conversation, Conner shrugged and said, “I didn’t really know her that well before, but she sits with us at meals and we have a class together this year. I wanted to check with
you first, because everyone knows you…well,” he tapered off. “Anyway, you’re not okay with it so never mind.”

Hayden’s jaw was clenched so tightly that he thought his teeth were in danger of cracking. Did everyone know how he felt about Tess? Had they known this entire time and they were just laughing about it behind his back? He felt like a fool.

In an effort to sound reasonable he relaxed his jaw and said, “No, you just surprised me. Go ahead and ask her if you want…it’s fine with me.” He had no idea what he was saying, the words coming from him in a falsely casual voice while his brain was screaming,
No! Don’t let him ask her out; what if she picks
him
?!

“Uh, really?
Cause you don’t look like you’re okay with it…” Conner trailed off doubtfully.

“What do you mean?” Hayden
asked, still in that weirdly calm voice.

“He means that I’m the only thing stopping you from attacking him right now,” Zane put in from behind him, and it was only then
that Hayden realized he was clutching a blue prism in his right hand, trying to raise it to his eyepiece. The only thing preventing him was Zane’s hand clenched like a vice over his arm to hold him in place. As soon as he saw this he immediately relaxed and returned the prism to his belt.

“Sorry, that’s…” his nose began to bleed. “It’s the
Mnemora, see? It’s left me feeling kind of weird, that’s all…” Hayden lied unabashedly. He knew that the Mnemora had nothing to do with his nosebleed right now; as hard as his heart was beating he’d be lucky if his head didn’t explode.

“Oh, right.” Conner looked like he was just glad for a graceful way to bow out of the conversation. “It was a bad night to ask, I should have known.”

“Yeah, sorry, it’s fine. Like I said, go ahead and ask her if you want. I’m just going to go downstairs and get something for this nosebleed.” Hayden backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him and leaning against it with his eyes shut until he calmed down. He could hear Tamon’s voice inside saying, “I told you it was a terrible idea. You’re lucky he didn’t jump you for asking.”

Annoyed, Hayden pinched his nose to stop the trickle of blood and walked off down the hallway, heading towards the main stairwell even though it was after curfew. For a wild moment he considered going to Tess’s room and warning her about Conner, but he had no idea what that would accomplish other than to make him look insane.

She isn’t yours anyway; she can go out with whoever she wants, as long as it isn’t you.

He was quite firm on that point, little though he liked it.

He continued down the stairs as quietly as possible, thinking to go outside and get some fresh air until he felt calm and levelheaded again. He was already embarrassed about the way he reacted in front of his roommates; exactly how they expected, apparently.

The air outside felt refreshingly cool, a pleasant breeze blowing across the grounds, and for a moment Hayden just stood in the main courtyard savoring it. He leaned back against the trunk of a pear-blossom tree, the petals drifting down to settle in his hair as he took calming breaths and regained his composure. He had no idea how long he stood there, only that his focus was broken by the swish of robes as someone appeared in front of him in the courtyard.

“Master Reede?” Hayden jumped in surprise. “What are you doing here?” he asked without thinking.

The Master of Conjury arched an eyebrow and said, “Isn’t that m
y line? Last time I checked, I was allowed outside after curfew and you weren’t.”

“Sorry, sir,” Hayden apologized quickly, waiting to see if he was going to get detention for being out of bounds. As far as he knew, Master Reede always had mixed feelings about him anyway.

“As it happens, I was returning from a meeting with the Council of Mages. What’s
your
reason for being out here so late at night?”

Hayden didn’t dare ask what the meeting with the Council was about, though he was quite curious.

“I—uh…had an argument with one of my roommates, and I left to cool off,” he paraphrased, expecting to be prodded for more details, but Master Reede simply nodded and changed the subject.

“Asher says he’s been beating the snot out of you, trying to teach you to defend yourself in a fight.”

Despite the fact that it wasn’t really a question, Hayden nodded and said, “Yes, sir,” wondering at the suddenly pensive expression on the Master’s face.

“Are you making any progress?”

Hayden shrugged. “Yes and no. Sometimes I surprise him and it takes him more than a minute to crush me, and I
am
learning new alignments…he’s just much better than me.”

Ree
de tilted his head in appreciation of the honest response and said, “Well, that may always be true, as he’ll always have more experience than you.” He changed the subject again. “Have you been practicing with your friends?”

“Practicing combat with them?”
The idea had never even occurred to him. “Uh, no, I haven’t been. Why?”

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Reede suggested mildly. “They’re more on your level than Asher, and if they’re going to be following you into whatever deathtrap you get involved in this year, they’ll need better training as well.”

Hayden wanted to deny that he would get involved with anything dangerous this year, but since the historical evidence strongly suggested otherwise he kept his mouth shut.

“At least help Zane and your girlfriend—Tess—since they’re the most likely to be fighting by your side someday.”

Hayden’s embarrassment, so recently abated, flared up abruptly as he barked out, “She isn’t my girlfriend! Do I need to post a sign in the dining hall?!”

Master Reede quirked an eyebrow at him and said, “Oh, are you two still playing that game?” like it was a matter of no importance.

“It—it isn’t a game,” Hayden insisted. “You don’t understand.”

Now the Master of Conjury snorted in obvious derision and said, “Oh yes, you are the very first boy to ever have complicated feelings for a girl. No one could possibly understand what you’re going through.”

Nettled, Hayden snapped, “It isn’t that—or it isn’t
just
that.” He had no idea why he was talking to the Master of Conjury about his feelings for Tess, but the world seemed determined to punish him today for some reason.

“Enlighten me,” Reede sighed
, sounding bored.

“Look, Tess used to get picked on a lot; people called her Tess the Mess, just because she dropped out of most of the major arcana after her first year. It’s stupid, because she’s really nice and smart, and it used to drive me nuts. She’s nice to me even though I’m the son of the man who murdered her mother, and for some reason she thinks I’m someone she can depend
on, and I try not to let her down.”

He knew he was blathering on like an idiot, but it was dark and he couldn’t see the Master of Conjury properly, which made it easier to pretend
that he was ranting to himself.

“You haven’t seen the way people treat her because of me, and that’s just with us being friends. People tell her she’s disgracing her mother’s memory, or
that she’s stupid; even her father lectures her about me! If I ever—if she was ever my girlfriend, she would be an outcast because of me. She’s too important for me to let that happen,” he panted, out of breath.

Master Reede was quiet for so long that Hayden hoped he’d gotten bored and gone back inside without him noticing, but finally he said, “It seems like that should be her choice, not yours, but what do I know?”
Another moment of silence. “Anyway, enjoy your brooding adolescent emotions; I’m quite tired and ready for bed.”

He began walking towards the castle without another word, clearly unimpressed with Hayden’s longwinded explanation. Annoyed, Hayden trailed after him and said, “Can I ask you a different question, sir?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“What was the point of the challenge arena we had the other day?” He frowned. “Since when have constructs had human form and tried to kill us, and what were we even supposed to do in there?”

Master Reede stopped in the pentagonal foyer and turned to face him.

“Every year we up the ante in the arenas to prepare you for the real world. In the real world you are likely to be attacked someday, either by ignorant hill-folk who don’t understand magic, or just by people who don’t like you for whatever reason.” He shrugged.

“So we were supposed to kill them?” Hayden scowled.

“Did I say that?” Master Reede countered mildly.

“Then we
weren’t
supposed to kill them?”

“I don’t recall saying that either,” he said airily.

Frustrated, Hayden folded his arms in front of his chest and asked, “Well then what was the point? To confuse us? We didn’t have enough information to know what we were supposed to be doing with the constructs, or if they even had magic—though after fighting them I’m guessing not, or they would have used it.”

Master Reede sighed and said, “Hayden, there is more than one way to test a person. We give arenas like that in fifth year because we want to see what drives your decisions. You won’t always have all of the pertinent facts when you’re fighting for your life or fleeing from an assailant. If
you had immediately started killing the constructs the moment you laid eyes on them, that tells us something about your character. If you refuse to do anything but stun even when it’s obvious you’re about to be murdered, well…that tells us something as well.”

“So what’s the right answer?” Hayden asked curiously.

Master Reede laughed and said, “How should I know? What makes you think my morality is any more ‘right’ than your own? The scoring of that arena is often a source of much debate amongst my peers and I for that very reason. Like I said, it’s just a test.”

“Yes, but tests are supposed to have right and wrong answers,” Hayden insisted.

Master Reede gave him a funny look and said, “If you believe that then you’ve never truly been tested before. Now go to bed, before I give you detention.”

And with that he walked off.

7

War Games

Things were awkward between Hayden and Conner over the weekend, though since they were both able to pretend that Hayden’s horrible reaction to the Tess discussion was simply a side-effect of the Mnemora that nearly killed him, things returned to normal by the beginning of the next week. If Conner had gotten up the nerve to actually ask Tess out, she must have turned him down, because as far as he could tell there was nothing unusual between them at breakfast on the morning of Gerin.

Master Kilgore warned him off of trying any other hair-brained concoctions to retrieve his memories in Elixirs that day, and when Hayden argued that Asher and
Laurren had both approved of the idea and supervised, the Master of Elixirs huffed and clarified, “Next time ask a
reasonable
adult before you try anything stupid.”

Abnormal Magic was about as normal as th
e class could ever be, and they spent the day studying the properties of the Resonance Crystal, a naturally-occurring red crystal that had magical properties and vibrated at ridiculously high frequencies. Hayden had more experience than he cared to with that particular piece of abnormal magic, and didn’t enjoy the reminder of the Inter-School Championship last year or how Farrah of Creston died for her mistakes.

As he was leaving class, Master
Laurren called out to him.

“Wait a moment, Hayden. I’ve got something that might interest you.” He motioned for Hayden to follow him into his office, where he removed an Absorber from his desk and passed it over.

The Absorber was a lot smaller than the one Laurren had used in class on their first day, not much larger than the palm of Hayden’s hand and in the shape of a glass tombstone. The glass had a strange look to it, as though there were many different colors swirling together beneath the surface, sliding around like oil whenever he tilted the glass one way or another.

“Why is it all…full of colors?” Hayden asked curiously, tilting it and watching the mesmerizing effect as the colors moved.

“You did that after your challenge arena last week,” Master Laurren explained casually. “By the time we got you to Razelle you were spewing magic out of both Foci, which was a bit of a problem since you have a considerable amount of natural power, so I brought one of my spare Absorbers to siphon it off.”

Hayden turned the glass over in his hand, studying it in amazement.

“So this contains…my power?”

“It contains the power and spells that were streaming out of you at that time, yes. Reede and I had to hold your hands against it until you had depleted your magical stores, which took an annoyingly-long time, truth
be told. Now I’ve got this fascinating Absorber lying around, stuffed full of your power, which I intend to study at length.”

Hayden brightened and said, “Do you think it might tell you something about my magic?”

“It will tell me a great deal about your magic,” Laurren nodded. “Whether it gives any indication as to what might be the cause of your unusual Source power or Foci-damage is less certain. Normally I would give this to you as a gift, since the power cannot be easily recovered from the glass, but there is some danger in handing over an object with this many spells stuffed into it.”

“What do you mean? I thought you said the energy was stuck in there.”

“It is, but there are one or two ways to get it out—all with potentially disastrous consequences.” He grimaced at the thought. “So I intend to keep it safe here and study it for my research. I will of course let you know if anything pertinent to your quest for knowledge arises during my analysis.”

Hayden nodded and said, “Thanks,” pleased by the unexpected boon. Anything that might give him some more insight into his strange magic and its origins would be helpful at this point.

In Charms class they continued working on carving their own emblems to store their charms in, affirming Hayden’s earlier suspicions that he was not a natural artist, though since emblems could be easily purchased at charm stores this was hardly the end of his career with the subject.

He made his way to lunch feeling slightly mo
re cheerful about things, and was even more pleased when Tess sat down beside him and greeted him pleasantly. Bonk flew into the dining hall and settled on her shoulder, and he was only then reminded of something Torin had told him the day he got Bonk as a familiar, several years ago.

Familiars tend to reflect their master’s feelings. If I like someone, Bonk likes them too.

He was suddenly embarrassed at the memory of how often Bonk showed affection for Tess over the last couple years. It seemed like he was always perched in her lap, letting her hug on him, or resting on her shoulder when he wasn’t on Hayden’s.

No wonder everyone can tell I like her. Bonk fawns over her.

Tess’s familiar, Mittens, circled Hayden’s legs for a moment and then rubbed her head against them territorially before leaping onto the table and grazing off of Tess’s plate. Bonk hopped off of Tess’s shoulder once she’d acknowledged him, head-butted Mittens in greeting, and then plunged his face into Hayden’s cup of milk.

“How come you’re late for lunch?” Zane asked conversati
onally, already halfway through eating a roast beef sandwich that was piled so high it looked like he’d have to unhinge his jaw to bite into it.

“Oh, Master
Laurren wanted to show me something after class—an Absorber that’s full of my magic,” he explained in between bites, nudging Bonk away from his milk so he could drink. “It made me late for Charms so I stayed a few minutes over to make up for it.”

“What’s an Absorber?” Tamon asked curiously.

“It’s basically a magic holder. You cast at it and it absorbs and stores magic, but I guess it’s really hard to get the magic back out again so it’s kind of a waste. Usually Laurren uses them to show us anomalies in certain spells or instruments, because it shows the magic as different colors—almost like oil in the sun.”

His friends looked impressed.

“Whoa, cool. But why did you fill it up with your magic if it just wastes it?” Conner asked around a mouthful of green beans.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. Apparently when I was dying of a massive nosebleed I was also spewing magic, so
Laurren used an Absorber to siphon it off so I couldn’t wreck anything.”

“Huh, well that’s handy,” Zane conceded, shooing Felix the fox away from his plate and scowling as he removed the stray fox hairs from his vegetables.

Hayden ate much faster than he would have liked and asked Tess and Zane if they would take a walk outside with him so he could bring up the subject of combat training. He’d been thinking about it ever since Master Reede suggested the idea, but he hadn’t come to a decision until this morning.

“Sure, challenge group meeting or something?” Zane asked with interest.

“Uh, yeah. Looks like we’ll have to change up our strategy this year now that the Masters are throwing hostile constructs at us,” he lied, though he made a mental note that they actually did need to discuss tactics in their next team meeting.

The three of them left the dining hall and made their way to the main courtyard in front of the school.

“Should we get Lorn?” Tess asked as she settled down onto a bench.

“This isn’t actually a team meeting,” Hayden explained. “
I wanted to talk to you two about something else, an idea that Master Reede had the other night.”

Zane narrowed his eyebrows suspiciously and said, “Since when do you hang out with Reede? I thought he thought you were kind of nuts.”

Hayden snorted and said, “I don’t and he does. I actually just ran into him the other night when I…” he hesitated at the sight of Tess there, “when I went out for a late-night walk.”

Zane’s expression lifted in understanding, though Tess glanced at them both curiously.

“Anyway, I ran into Reede out on the grounds; he said he’d just come back from a Council meeting,” Hayden continued. “He asked me about the combat training Asher’s been giving me, and he suggested that I practice with you two since you always seem to be standing next to me when horrible things happen.”

Zane brightened instantly.

“Oh good, if he asked you to help me improve then he must think I’m worth keeping alive. You always have to wonder with Reede if he thinks you have potential, or if he’s just waiting on you to graduate and leave so he doesn’t have to deal with you anymore.”

Surprised, Hayden said, “What? He’s your mentor
, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but it isn’t
the same as you and Asher. Asher doesn’t care if people know he’s got your back, because you’re his only dedicated pupil and everyone knows he’s kind of filling in for your parents…” Zane explained, looking uncomfortable as he said the last part. “But a lot of the others don’t like being accused of favoritism, so they’re a lot more subtle about showing their support. Reede won’t compliment you directly unless you do something really spectacular, so I’m never sure what he thinks about me. But if he wants me trained up in combat, then he must think I’m worth keeping around.”

Hayden considered his friend’s words. He’d never really thought about how the other Masters treated their protégés before, but now that he did, he couldn’t really remember any of them giving out one-on-one attention, except to their mastery students, who they openly played favorites with
to heighten the competition.

“But why did he say for me too?” Tess interjected. “I haven’t really talked to Master Reede since I left Conjury at the end of first year. His comment on my report card said if he ever caught me with a piece of chalk in my hand he was going to have me arrested for crimes against humanity.” She blushed, and Zane chuckled.

“Well, he helps score our challenge arenas, so he probably figures that you spend enough time with me to also need training.” He shrugged, refusing to admit the real reason. “Anyway, are you two interested? I won’t pretend I know how to show you all new conjury configurations or elixirs and powders…”

Zane waved an airy hand and said, “If Reede asked you, he’ll have cleared me for higher-level spell-books. I wouldn’t trust you with showing me
conjury drawings under any circumstances anyway—you have the least-steady hands I’ve ever seen when drawing circles.”

Hayden rolled his eyes and looked to Tess.

“I’ll talk to Master Sark and Master Kilgore and see if they’ll clear me for higher-level materials. It’ll mean doing more homework even after we finish with our schoolwork at night, but you’re right, we do need to get better.”

“
Okay then, that’s settled.” Hayden smiled, glad that they were willing to join him. “How about we meet this weekend and get started? Prepare as much as you can before then, and I can at least tell you what Asher’s taught me about fighting against other mages.”

The bells rang to signal the end of lunc
h, and with their plans settled they parted ways. Fortunately today’s Prism class was a theory day, so Hayden spent the hour trying to understand what Master Asher was telling him about calculating major and minor angles, and their role in alignment determination. He was relieved when class was over, certain that his brain was going to overheat and melt if he did any more math today, but to his dismay Master Willow informed them in Wands that they would be learning to calculate the amount of TMS from different wands.

“Tangential magical spillage can be extremely dangerous, as you’ve learned by now,” he surveyed them
all, frowning slightly at Hayden’s stricken expression at learning he’d have to do more math today. “Each wand type will give you a different amount of it, which will be further complicated by the type of spell you are attempting to channel through it, as well as the random factor of how focused your will is during casting.”

Hayden wanted to put his head down on his desk and sleep until Healing, but he forced himself to stay awake and pay attention, taking arduous notes about everything Master Willow told them and hoping that he’d be able to make sense of it upon rereading them sometime when he was thinking better.

Healing class was a breeze by comparison, even though they were mixing dangerous compounds for their bandages and tinctures that could explode if handled incorrectly. Hayden had been hoping for a chance to thank Mistress Razelle for her help in keeping him alive after the Mnemora incident, but she wasn’t in class that day. A mastery student was teaching in her place, and now that Hayden thought about it more closely, he couldn’t remember seeing her since the night she healed him, not even at mealtimes.

Wondering if she was ill (and hoping very much that it wasn’t because of him), he tracked down the first Master he could find after classes finished, which happened to be Master Willow.

“Ah, Hayden, you look much better than you did during my class today,” Willow greeted him cordially in the pentagonal foyer.

“I didn’t know I looked ill,” he admitted.

“You turned green when I said we would begin calculating levels of TMS,” Willow clarified.

“Oh, yeah…well, math isn’t really my favorite thing. I was bad at figures in school before I came to Mizzenwald, and I’m not really much better at them now,” Hayden explained.