Messenger of the Dark Prophet (The Bowl of Souls: Book Two) (5 page)

Justan walked towards the man with such rage that Qyxal was afraid that he would kill him. Piledon just sat with an innocent expression on his face.

“No good, huh?
Wait, maybe this will work.” The cadet stuffed the knotted ends of the bow string into his mouth and began to chew.

Justan's face was a mask of pure fury. With one smooth motion, he picked up one of his swords and pressed the tip against the man’s neck. Piledon eyes went wide.

“Wait, wait!” The cadet pulled the string out of his mouth and stretched it. The knot disappeared and the bowstring was whole. “See,
it’s
fine. I really didn’t cut it. It was just a joke. I was practicing an illusion, honest.”

With the tip of his sword still pressed to the man’s throat, Justan took the slightly damp bowstring and switched to his mage sight. To his relief, the bowstring’s magical glow was intact. He looked back to his roommate.

“I don’t know you. But just in case it isn't obvious yet, let me make this clear. I did not find this funny. Where I come from, touching another man’s weapon without permission is a death sentence. Do you understand me?” Piledon nodded carefully, leaning back to avoid being cut by the tip of Justan's sword.

“Very well, then.” Justan said. “When I come back to this room tonight, I will expect all of my belongings to be packed back where you found them. If I ever see you touch one of my things again, I will kill you.”

Justan sheathed his swords and placed them into the closet. He then tucked the golden string into one of the pockets in his robes, belted on his dagger, and restrung his bow with a normal string. With a start, he suddenly realized that there was something very important missing. He searched around and was relieved when he found the pouch containing the Scralag’s book under the bed. It was unopened. He didn’t dare leave it in the room, so he tucked it into a pocket in his robes for safekeeping. They left the room with Justan’s bow slung over his shoulder.

Qyxal laughed as they walked out of the building. “You scared him pretty bad, but don’t think this is over. I told you when you first got here that this guy has a reputation of being quite the prankster.”

“You forget that I spent four years in Training School. I know all of the pranks.” Justan smiled a wicked grin. “Believe me. If he wants to continue this battle, he will be sorry.”

They hurried across the grounds towards a long rectangular building with no windows. As they were about to enter, Qyxal looked at Justan.

“At the
Battle
Academy
, can you really kill a man if he touches your weapon?”

“No,” Justan replied. “But if that man does anything like that again, I’m changing the rules.”

Chapter Three

Justan and Qyxal entered a long hallway lined with heavy iron doors on either side. There were no windows, but glowing orbs spaced evenly along the ceiling provided light and each door was labeled with a number. Justan could hear a series of odd sounds echoing down the hall.

A muffled explosion came from within the door closest to them, making Justan jump. His eyes darted between the door and the elf. “Should we go in and help?”

 
“No-no.
This is the
Magic
Testing
Center
,” Qyxal explained. “Testing and developing new types of magic is a very dangerous endeavor and accidents are known to happen. This building was built with very thick reinforced walls and warded to withstand almost any type of released energy. All major magical experiments in the school are done here. I am sure that
whomever
is inside the room is fine.”

They walked down the hall until they came to a door marked with the number thirteen. “This is your door. I have other duties to attend to. I’ll see you at dinner.” Qyxal said.

“But why am I here?” Justan asked.

“You’ll see.” The elf left Justan with a wave and walked back down the hall.

Justan opened the door to a windowless room empty of furnishings save for two chairs. The walls and ceiling were made of gray stone and the room was lit by torches. A man in nondescript brown robes stood bent over one of the chairs mumbling and tracing symbols on the seat with his finger. He looked up as Justan entered and walked towards him, hand extended.

 “Greetings, you must be Justan, son of Faldon the Fierce. I am Locksher, the
Mage
School
Wizard of Mysteries.”

Justan shook his hand vigorously. “It is very nice to meet you, sir. I have been told that you might be able to help me.”

The wizard accepted the handshake with a gracious nod. “Lately I’ve noticed that just about everyone I meet starts out the conversation with those words.” Locksher was younger than Justan had expected. He was about the same height as Justan and had jet-black hair only slightly graying at the temples. He had one eyebrow raised as he looked Justan over. “Please, have a seat. I must admit I am quite curious after the things that Valtrek has told me about you.”

“Valtrek?”
Justan paused before he sat down.

“Yes, he requested that I be the first one to try and help you find out where your powers lie.”

Justan sat. He didn’t want anything to do with Valtrek. The man had taken him from his home and had nearly gotten Jhonate killed. But he pushed those feelings away. It really didn’t matter who had asked Locksher to come. He had questions that he needed answered. Locksher took the chair opposite Justan’s.

“Your reaction tells me that there’s to be more to your visit here than just magic testing,” the wizard said. “But whatever else there is, let’s start with the testing.”

“May I ask a question?” Justan asked. “Why does this test have to be done in a magic-proof room?”

 “A perceptive question from a new cadet,” Locksher said, giving Justan an appraising look. “Normally this testing is done gradually throughout the year with a student finding his own pace. However, your situation is a bit different. Your time here at the school is short. You need to find out as soon as possible so that you can maximize your studies. This has been done in the past from time to time, but there have been rather, um, explosive results.”

Justan raised his eyebrows. “Explosive?”

Locksher yawned. “Oh, don’t worry,” the wizard assured him. “No students have ever been harmed. It’s the instructors who have been blown away. This is why I was preparing some protective shields when you came in. As long as I am sitting on this chair, I will be fine.” Justan was taken aback by the casual way in which the wizard spoke of such alarming things. “So, let’s get started then. Clear your mind.”

Justan sat back and emptied his mind. It came easy to him now. Locksher pulled a small crystal sphere from within his robes and sat it on the floor between them.

“Close your eyes. Now, I want you to turn your thoughts inward. Think of the inside of your body, the lungs and heart. Picture them in your mind . . . Good. Hold that picture.”

Justan immersed himself into the wizard’s words, pulling all of his thoughts inside of his body, to the core of himself. He could hear the beating of his heart and the rush of air in his lungs as he breathed.

 “Now, Justan, I am going to release a spell. You will feel a tingling in your body. At that time, switch to your mage sight. Ready?
Now.”

Justan felt the rush of magic enter him. He kept his eyes closed, but opened his mage sight. To his astonishment, he saw a maze of energy inside of his body. Pulsing flows of incandescent light circulated through his heart and lungs, being distributed to the rest of his body.

Locksher continued, “Do you see the flows? Good. Now follow them up through your neck into your head. They should focus there. Do you see it?”

Justan didn’t know how he would be able to see inside his own head, but he did as instructed. He focused in on the flows of magic leaving his heart. It was an amazing sight as if he had shrunk down and was somehow traveling through his own veins. He followed the flows up through his neck and into the expanding cluster of nerves that were his brain. He narrowed his focus further and saw a brilliant network of energy. Magical flows of all colors and levels of brightness zoomed around in intricate patterns.

“The source of the magic within you is your heart and lungs, but the controlling mechanism of your power is your brain,” Locksher said. Somehow, even though the visions were intense, Locksher’s voice rang in his mind with hypnotic tone.

“Follow the energy down deeper and deeper into your mind until you see a joining. It will look like a knot.”

Justan swam through the energy. It was like a brilliant fuzzy ball of electrified color moving in so many directions that it was dizzying. He plunged down to the center of it all until he found it, the joining of the energy wrapped tight like a ball of yarn. “Now, I want you to enter the knot, send all of your consciousness inside of it. There you will find what you are looking for.”

Justan thrust himself deep into the knot. There was resistance. He struggled to push himself into it deeper yet. The brilliant light grew stronger and stronger. Suddenly, he heard a loud pop. There was a rush of energy. It was an explosive release and startled him so much that he opened his eyes. Lances of pure magic shot out from him in every direction. Locksher held on to his chair with a fierce grip, surprise on his face. A thin bubble of protective force surrounded the wizard, yet the chair slid backward several feet.

As quickly as it began, it was over. The magic faded and Justan felt as tired as if he had ran for days. The whole process had only taken mere moments, but it seemed like it had been hours.

The room was quiet for a few moments. The force of the magic had blown out the torches. The only light in the room was a glow coming from the sphere Locksher had placed on the floor between them. To Justan’s astonishment, it hadn’t moved an inch.

Locksher laughed.

“Whew! Now that was something else.” The wizard made a gesture and the torches in the room lit again. “You have a powerful talent, that’s for sure. Look at the ceiling!” There was a web-like network of cracks in the rock above their heads. 

“So what did it tell you?” Justan
asked,
eager despite his exhausted state.

“Let us see,” the wizard responded and pulled a sheet of white paper from within his robes. He took the glowing orb and set it down beside the sheet of paper. He then brought out a small sponge and a tiny bottle. “This sheet of paper has been magically treated. In this bottle is pure oil from dwarven musk olives. Watch what happens when the two are combined.”

The wizard soaked the sponge with oil and put the little bottle away. He then wiped the sheet of paper with a thin coat of the oil. Locksher set the paper back down on the ground and set the glowing orb in the center. Immediately color began to bleed across the page.

He looked to Justan. “I absorbed as much of that magic blast into the orb as possible. It has projected your magic’s elemental mix onto the paper; the oil acts as a catalyst bringing the colors out. There, what does this tell you?”

The wizard lifted the orb from the page. Justan saw that the white sheet was now colored in vibrant blue and gold.

“Does this mean that I have talent in air and water? But Qyxal and Vannya told me that it was very rare to have ability in two complementing elements.”

“Indeed it is rare. And you have astoundingly strong ability in both of those elements, which is rarer still.” The wizard was looking down at the sheet of paper with excitement. “But that is not all. You have only a little earth and almost no fire ability at all. This makes you something even more remarkable. You have the makings of a frost wizard in you.”

“Frost wizard?” Justan’s hand went to his chest, fingering the rune through his robe.

Locksher nodded.
“Perhaps.
But that is yet to be seen. All that this test tells me is where your elemental talent lies. It tells me nothing of which way your magic will take you. Power over the elements is just one component of magic. You have yet to determine what you can do with the elements you can control. It is different for every person.”