CHAPTER 15

I limped back toward my room sore and aching, but with a much better understanding of my upward limits, how to react to being attacked and how to conceal my intent to attack from certain angles.

“Do not drop your eyes and look at where you intend to strike—you stare at my eyes and thus see everything.” Lolth’s growling tone was enough to pull my gaze back up to her crimson eyes and sure enough, she reached out and flicked my chin with her finger. The very one that I’d been worried about on the hand that I had been looking at. “Dropping your eyes in a fight is tantamount to just throwing your arm back and telegraphing your intentions to anyone with half a brain. They’ll see it coming from leagues away and shut you down. Again.”

The three Unseelie ran me through my paces in unarmed fighting, then with weapons and any time I made a mistake, they capitalized on it as painfully as they could make it without breaking me.

As I closed in on my room, I found Xanile in the hallway with Winfred, both were speaking in hushed tones outside my door. Winfred saw me first and gasped, “Saemus! What’s wrong?”

I grunted, “Training with people better than me for probably too long.” I winced as she rested a worried hand atop my shoulder and gasped when she squeezed. “What’s going on?”

Xanile frowned and motioned that we should adjourn to the longe and I followed her in. Once we were inside and Winfred had begun her usual habit of making tea, Xanile explained, “They sent us what they would call compensation for how Etran treated you and I have to say, it is very insulting.”

She held out a hand to Winfred who looked like she was about to spout off at the mouth, “I know, Win.”

“So you’re saying that they found yet another way to insult me?” She nodded and I just snorted, “Color me surprised.”

“They also made it clear that they mean to see both of you gone from the academy.” Winfred snarled and one of the tea cups shattered in her fist, much to her apparent dismay, but she added, “They told me to start packing your things and to let you know that they will send you both home after your duel. That is what they want.”

“So what was it that they offered as compensation?” I raised an eyebrow, taking in the information that wasn’t truly new to me.

Xanile snorted and pulled out a single leaf of some kind of tree, “They claim it’s tell help rid yourself of detritus,” Winfred growled as she explained, then bent and grabbed another tea cup. “Little shits.”

“I see.” I shook my head and sighed. I was sore, but I wasn’t dead. Though I had been pushing myself with the girls, I had yet to gain any new stat points from the training. Was it slowing down? “So then, what does this mean?”

“It means that when you duel them, you’ll have to defeat them so handily that not only are they embarrassed, they’ll be forced to leave themselves.” I frowned at Winfred’s explanation. “What?”

“Why don’t I just force them to leave as my prize for winning?”

Xanile smiled, “Because their parents are too influential to allow that to happen, but they also have the ability to give you something that you’ll need in the coming years, and that’s weapons.” I frowned at her and she smiled. “The shuna is nice, but if we mean to go and try to hunt animals in the forest for me to interact with and practice my magic on, then we need to get real weapons to protect ourselves and the are some of the best weapon smiths in the Seelie.”

“How do we know that they won’t give us inferior goods?”

“They’re too prideful for that to happen and risk their mercantile name.” Xanile waved the thought of it away. “I hope you’re ready to practice more than you ever have in your life.”

I grinned at her lopsidedly, “I’m already there—whats a little more?”

**

Xanile and I walked into the massive classroom for Magic Theory with little more than a few hours’ sleep and enough of that bitter dark sludge that Winfred called “wake up brew” to make me think the shadows had come alive.

“It’s crude, but effective.” Xanile grumbled as she took another pull of the small cup she carried, then sighed. “After a while, you become accustomed to it and begin to look for the taste in the morning to make things even.”

“Sounds like an addiction to me.” My left eye twitched and an involuntary shiver ran down my spine as another wave of alertness crashed through me hard enough that my entire head rolled with it. “This is so unpleasant.”

I cast my gaze at the classroom, it was much larger than the typical one we had. Was that due to us studying magic here? The wood was interspersed with stone and there were even training dummies on one side of the room that looked like they were there for some kind of target practice.

“Hush, you big baby.” Xanile teased and I was aware that we were being watched almost instantly after. “The Marki twins are here.”

“You could feel their malice and smell the stench of their unpleasant attitudes all the way here?” I tried to make my voice sound innocent, but I knew they would likely be close.

“Keep your tongue from wagging so freely, peasant.” The girl whose name I still hadn’t cared enough to learn sneered. “I don’t know why trash like you is even here, but at least try to keep from embarrassing yourself.”

I blinked at Xanile, not having turned around yet, “Xanile, do you hear something? Did someone pass gas?”

Xanile’s eyes widened before several of the people around us watching the exchange snickered and then her eyes narrowed and she hissed, “Do it, Etran. I dare you. I’ll have your head for it.”

I turned around then and saw that the Marki boy had raised his fist menacingly like he was going to hit me, “Oh, this is different!” I spoke in a mock chipper tone as I jerked my thumb at him, “Looks like he’s got his confidence back since he hasn’t decided to force me to be still before trying to abuse me, this is just an attack on someone whose back is turned.”

One of the children nearest us brayed loudly and Etran just growled with his teeth clenched and spoke, “You’ll pay dearly for every snide remark, peasant. I cannot wait to see you thrown from this place.”

I shrugged, “It won’t be too much longer before we get really well acquainted in the pit, Etran. Until then, keep a muzzle on your sister, eh?”

The sister’s eyes widened and she stepped forward to try and slap me, her hand moving fast but with how quickly Bruth had been, she may as well have been acting it out like a play.

I blocked her strike with my forearm to her wrist and returned her slap with one of my own, her head snapping to the left as my palm clapped against her cheek. Etran opened his mouth and I stepped into his personal space before I growled, “You attack me again, I’ll beat you in front of everyone the same way you did me. Keep yourselves under control like the nobles you claim to be, and I will be cordial.”

“Is that a threat, trash?” Etran was so close as he spoke that I could smell his breakfast on his breath.

“Is there something I should be aware of in my classroom?” A calming voice drifted over to us and I looked over to the bottom of the classroom to find a small woman with gray skin like Vidda and his little brother Shalie.

I smiled, “No ma’am, I was just about to let the good noble Marki know that brushing his teeth and controlling himself is a good way to keep all his teeth in his mouth.”

Xanile hissed, “Saemus!”

The instructor didn’t blink and just nodded before saying, “Find your seats then, and do be sure to brush your teeth, Cadet Marki, it is good for you as Cadet Thorn was kind enough to point out.”

How did she know who I was? I didn’t have the time to really dwell on that as Xanile pulled me into the chair next to her and the instructor began to write on the board behind her.

She spoke as she wrote, “In this classroom there will be no use of magic outside what I deem essential and even then it will be with the utmost adherence to my guidelines. Am I clear?” We all chorused an affirmation to her statement and she nodded toward the board behind her as she turned, “I am Instructor Lialarn, and I will be not only teaching you the theory of your magic, but the beginnings of practical application of it.”

She walked over to the side of the classroom closest to the training dummies without being on top of them and pulled a cord that hung from the ceiling. A shift in space next to her revealed that something invisible was lifting and uncovering a mass of clear crystals similar to the one that we had touched before being taken as cadets instead of as recruits.

“Can anyone tell me what this is?” Instructor Lialarn called looking expectantly at us all.

“That’s a Markado crystal, isn’t it?” One of the students called out and she nodded.

“Yes, that’s correct.” She smiled as she touched it. “Touching this will tell us how strong your magic power is. But this one is special, as it has been specially harvested from the main vein of the Markado crystal and as such is powerful enough to unlock your individual Markados. I want all of you to stand by row, closest to the crystal on the bottom row to stand.”

The row four down from where we sat, stood as one and moved to the crystal in a single-file line, before the first one reached it, Instructor Lialarn warned, “For some, this can be painful—do not fight your magic. Let it take its course.”

As each of them made their way to the crystal, I realized I was too far away to see the results of them touching the material component, but each of them stood as if shocked as soon as they came into contact with it. Their bodies became rigid and after, they walked over to a mirror that the instructor put up on her desk to look for their marking.

As they continued, Instructor Lialarn called out, “Now, who knows how to tell when someone is a particularly strong magical practitioner?”

Xanile raised her hand and stood as the instructor pointed at her, “The size and depth of color that the Markado takes shows how strong the innate talent is, and as the practitioner grows more adept with their power, it will continue to grow.”

“Very good, and can you tell me how you know who the strongest practitioners are?”

“They learn to hide or shift their Markado so that it either can’t be seen or is read as being less than what it is.” She smiled at Xanile’s answer and motioned that the cadet could sit.

The next row stood and filed down to the crystal as Instructor Lialarn spoke again, “That is absolutely what happens. Now, what are some of the ranges of magic?”

I knew this, so I raised my hands and she said, “Cadet Thorn?”

“Uh, yes ma’am, the ranges of magic are infinite and individualized.” She raised her eyebrows and I continued, “While someone from a certain family will have a good chance of gaining familial magic, they can also gain others depending on their own affinities and even I they do gain those, there’s no way to truly know how strong they would be or how that magic would be useful to them.”

“Can you elaborate?” She called and leaned back against the wall behind her to watch me closer.

I blinked and looked around before realizing what I could use, “Yes, ma’am. My parents are both exceptionally talented plant singers, they can care for and grow and entire Cindry tree with their songs alone but know enough not to. They tried to teach me how to sing, but I don’t have the talent for it even though I know a great deal of the land and Middling Forest, I will likely never be able to sing to the pants as they do.”

Etran muttered casually so that only those closest to him would hear, “So a peasant and a useless one? Bet your parents were glad to be rid of an embarrassing failure like you.”

My blood began to boil as I turned and found that Etran was standing, eyes wide in horror as his body continued to lift into the air above his desk, his gaze below me.

My eyes shifted around the room and settled on the instructor whose finger was out casually pointing at Etran as he slowly moved through the air toward her. She called, “Next row!”

The row in front of us stood up and made their way to the crystal while she just stared at the boy in front of her hanging in the air. “I tolerate children for hundred of days a year, and have done so for the last three decades of my life while I was made to put my own personal goals aside for the greater good and teaching whelps like you magic.”

She moved her finger and made the boy float closer to the crystal, “I will not tolerate someone so rude in my class as to interrupt my lessons with stupidity and pointless aggression against someone else.” She looked at all of the rest of us and raised her voice, “All of you are Seelie, correct? You respect power and station, right?”

A few of the children around us nodded their heads and she bellowed, “I am the law here!” She stopped leaning against the wall and glared at us. “The only thing that matters here aside from my power is magic. So those who are more gifted magically will be the powerful while those with lesser power will be forced to suck it up and keep their damned mouths shut.”

She snapped her fingers and Etran dropped onto his knees in front of the crystal, “Touch it, you foul little creature, and let’s see where you will fall on the food chain in my kingdom.”

He reached out and touched it with his left hand and went rigid as the crystal flashed a brighter color than it had with all the others.

“Seems you do have some power.” Instructor Lialarn admitted, then hissed, “Get back to your seat, boy, and do not interrupt my lessons for your petty self interest again or I will make you wish you had been made a simple recruit.”

Etran turned and marched back up the stairs toward us with a look of smug victory on his face, but that wasn’t all that was there. His Markado was visible now, the color red against his light skin, two markings on the side of his mouth that framed it almost like dimples and a crown on his throat where his voice box would be.

As he passed us, I watched as he just grinned wider and wider, like he had somehow put me in my place with just that.

I shook my head and asked myself, Do I want to be petty about this?

As he sat down, the instructor turned to speak to one of the students below who had a question, so he leaned forward and muttered, “Maybe now you’ll learn your place. If not, I’d be happy to tell you were it is and command you to remain there.”

I rolled my eyes and answered my own question, Sure do.

Under my breath I uttered, “Status.” I opened the required pages and began to add points to Magic.

After three points the quest giver spoke to me, Error, no more points can be added to Magic as the maximum talent has been reached at 10 points.

I grinned as my row stood and filed down the stairs to the crystal, I was near the end of the row furthest from the object that would show me how powerful I was magically and waited patiently.

Xanile stepped up to the crystal and touched it with both of her hands, the light within it building a building until it was brighter than what Etran’s had been, then brighter still until it stopped and she grunted and arched her back with a scream of pain.

The instructor was there instantly and looked her over. I moved to the opposite side, trying to see if there was anything I could do to help her and watched as the veins in her arms bulged and glowed. Tears fell from her eyes tinged with pink that only deepened in color until it was stark against her flesh. Markings that could have been mascara grew around her eyes, then markings that fell to her mouth that looked like they could have been whiskers grew onto her cheeks. The pink burst from her skin on her hands in the shape of claws and markings that could have been fur burst from her chest before the look of pain went away.

“You are very talented, my child.” Instructor Lialarn whispered to the girl who whimpered against her. “There will need to be special concessions made for you to learn to harness your magic and I will see to them, alright? Come to the mirror.”

As she took Xanile, I stepped out of line and followed them, wanting to be there for my friend. The instructor turned and stared at me, but when I didn’t shrink back she gave me a brief nod and I followed Xanile to the mirror.

She gasped and tears sprang to her eyes as she hissed, “I look like a monster.”

I shook my head and corrected her, “You look like a powerful practitioner.”

She turned to look at me and smiled calmly before I offered her a small squeeze on her forearm, “Power looks good on you, Xanile.”

She snorted and shook her head, “Just means that everyone will be justified in calling me names.”

“It also means that once you understand your power, you’ll be able to show them the folly of their mistakes in doing so.” I grinned a waggled my eyebrows at her and she laughed openly at that. “You’re stronger than the Markis and that’s what matters, right?”

“I am, but I don’t want to deal with them right now.” She seemed to be genuinely upset at the thought of it.

“He can’t bother you now that you’re stronger than he is.” I nodded toward the instructor, “It’s the law.”

She nodded and admitted, “That’s fair.” She looked at me and frowned, “Didn’t you go right after me?”

I snorted and said, “You can’t think I’m going to let you wallow in misery alone, can you? I just came to help you. I’ll go now.”

By the time I got back to the line, the next row of students had stood up and made their way to the crystal, the one at the end of the line being the girl Marki.

I stood behind her and just waited while she stood rigid and angrily watching the line shorten between her and her prize.

She reached the crystal and threw her hand against the crystal. The light flashed brightly as it had with her brother and as she turned to regard me, she held up her hands, both of which looked like they had gloves of gold that ended in the same sort of crown design her brother had on his throat.

If she hadn’t been being scrutinized by the instructor, she likely would have said something that would have gotten her slapped again, but instead she just flicked her hair back over her shoulder dismissively and walked away with her head held high.

Since it was my turn, I sighed and placed my hand against the crystal. I focused on trying to figure out what the sensation of the magic was when a flood of heat passed from the pit of my stomach, up my arm and shot into the crystal.

Blinding light burst from the material in front of me accompanied by a bell-like peel of sound that I wasn’t sure if anyone else heard or not, but the heat rebounded off the crystal and shot back into me, searing its way up my arms until it got back to my chest in a wave of agony that would have forced me to my knees if I could have moved.

I grit my teeth and roared angrily as I fought to shove the heat away from me and back down my arms into the crystal, away from my heart where it seemed to be trying to go like it sought to kill me.

Hands appeared in front of me and grabbed my arm pulling and the agony stopped but the magic had nowhere else to go except forward and out of me. Or so I had thought. With no end in sight, the magic wrested itself from my grip and soared back toward me body.

“Stop fighting it!” Instructor Lialarn snarled, not in fury but with worry in her tone. “Your magic needs to settle in your body so that you can harness it.”

“Trying..to kill me.” I managed and grunted as the feeling spread from my chest to my stomach.

“If you keep fighting it, the backlash will kill you!” She slapped me and I lost focus on holding the magic at bay and it spread like spilled water over a table. After the spread, the agony was replaced by warmth that comforted me. I blinked and realized that I was laying on the floor with my eyes cast upward.

I blinked again and the instructor’s face floated into view, she smiled deeply, “Welcome back, Thorn.”

I frowned at her, the name not sounding right at first. She reached down and offered me here hand and I took it, then stopped as I saw what I had felt.

Vines a green so deep it looked like my skin could have been etched with emeralds. She grasped my hand and pulled me up so that I was standing, then walked me over to the mirror where I saw the rest of the Markado. Multicolored sections of leaves in various shades of green, brown, red, yellow, purple and other colors spread from the thick green vines from the tips of my fingers to the base of my neck.

“Lift your shirt for me.” The instructor ordered, rather than asked, much to my shock. When I didn’t reply she pointed to my upper arm and collar, “I want to see how far it goes.”

Curious now myself, I lifted my shirt and sure enough the vines had invaded my chest, abdomen and even dipped below my trousers. I looked her dead in the eyes, “I’m not pulling them down to see how far they go. I’ll let you know the next time we have class.”

She stared at me, then blushed and cleared her throat, “Quite. That will be all.” I started to turn away from her when she frowned at me, “Wait.”

She looked closer and her eyes widened, “Have you always had different colored eyes?”

I stared at her like she had sprouted a horn, then my head snapped back toward the mirror where I confirmed what she had said, my right eye was no longer a chestnut brown, but the same deep emerald as the vines on my body.

“I’ve never seen that except for those who have the same type of birth curse that cadet Doranda has.” Instructor Lialarn muttered to herself. “Go back to your seat and have a sit. We’ll talk more later.”