Magic Academy (A Fantasy New Adult Romance) (13 page)

“I spent a lot of time reading.”
She smiled, her hands feeling out the smooth pillar. “What’s
your most favourite spell you’ve learned so far?”

The look of surprise on the elf’s
face was hard to miss. There were not many self-taught magicians in
the world. It’s why so few humans ever became one, beyond the
excuse that a human’s life was too short to truly master the
craft, that is.

“I don’t really know a lot
of them,” he said with some embarrassment.

Her gaze went to his and she stopped
her inspection for a moment. “Well, fine, but I’ll ask
you again by the end of the year and I’ll expect an answer.”

Mae’lin smiled meekly, and looked
about to say something to her before the excited yip of her fox broke
the moment.

“He’s found something?”
Mae’lin asked.

“He must’ve!” she
said, and they headed off briskly around the building.

She found the ethereal familiar
pointing his dark nose at a particular point in the wall, right up
against the column, and she went to inspect it. “Here,”
she said, feeling the faint little indent in the stone. The only flaw
they were able to find in the whole structure, despite its ancient
status.

She patted the fox’s head with a
smile. “You did good.” She purred happily as she felt out
that small marking.

“Now… to figure out how to
get in…”

Mae’lin and she both studied the
faint markings for some time. Though with the sun gone down, they had
a great deal of trouble seeing what they were doing.

An idea struck her then, and she
remembered her training with Varuj. “Luka?” she said,
“
ignae
.” The familiar lowered his head, and his
body glowed brighter, illuminating the wall and making the faint
tracing stand out all the more. In fact, it was almost as if the
markings twinkled in their own right, and she could see the swirls
and swoops, as if someone had drawn on the wall.

She was right!

Even through all her search there was a
bit of fear that she’d look the fool, that she should just have
sat idly by like the elf on the roof. But here she was, looking at
proof of her cleverness, and she smiled brightly. Her fingers
followed the symbols, licking her lips curiously.

The annoying part settled in shortly
thereafter: she had no idea what it meant. “What do you make of
it?” she asked Mae’lin.

The tall elf took her hand and gently
and guided her away from the wall. It was then he seemed to realize
he was holding her fingers and released them apologetically. “Sorry,”
he murmured, his blush visible in the light of her familiar. “I
think it’s text of some sort.”

“I can’t read it, though,”
she said, her lips pursed to the side.

Why did she feel so warm? She looked up
at him for a moment and instantly knew. He was being way too nice to
her.

Mae’lin studied the wall a while.
“It’s arcane script,” he said then cleared his
throat. “Something old elvish sorcerers used in times past. I
hear tell the more affluent families hire tutors to instruct their
kids in it before going to the academies. But… I don’t
know much of it myself,” he admitted with some embarrassment.

She sighed.

“Elf on the roof! Guess who needs
your help.” Embarrassment wasn’t the word for it, but he
seemed stuck up enough that he’d know it.

It took a while, but eventually she
heard him treading across the roof slowly, maintaining his balance
expertly with that natural elven grace. “What is it?” he
said with some distaste.

“Can you read this script?”
asked Mae’lin, pointing to the wall.

The elf bent down, clung to the edge of
the building and dipped his head over. His long white hair dangled
down as he took a moment. With a snort he said, “Oh gimme a
break. You can’t even make out
that
word?” his
voice full of derision.

“Can you just tell us what it
says, please?” pleaded Mae’lin without delay, perhaps
trying to spare her the shame, or perhaps just eager.

With a sigh he rose back up and started
walking around the building again. “You already know what it
says, fools,” he remarked as he vanished around the side to the
front again. “It says ‘read’!”

She rolled her eyes, muttering under
her breath, “He’s a charmer.” She pulled her sack
around and opened the top, reaching in for the scroll. “Guess
it’s time.”

Mae’lin smiled, “Of
course!” He pulled out his own scroll as well.

Immediately she saw that the scroll too
was written in that same script, and her heart began to sink. Though
before she could relent to despair she heard a voice – his
voice, Varuj’s – waft into her mind.
You don’t
need to read it. Just focus your will upon the scroll.

It was the sort of simple thing she’d
seen written in the texts she’d studied for so many years, and
it came natural to her. Almost as soon as she did, the scroll began
to dissipate, fading from existence into nothingness.

“What the –” Mae’lin
began, expressing her own feelings well.

Though quickly thereafter she saw it:
the script vanished and before her in the white stone a doorway
appeared. Narrow and just above her height, as if it were made for
her. It would’ve been an uncomfortable fit for Mae’lin by
her side, by comparison.

“See you on the other side?”
she asked as she recalled her familiar back into her. “Focus
your will upon it.” She took such pleasure in repeating the
demon’s words to him, her heart swelling with pride and
excitement.

She didn’t even think to take a
last look around her, her home nearly forgotten already. Though she
had no way of preparing herself for what lay ahead.

The rush of portal travel was something
completely new to her. It was as if every part of her was broken down
to its infinitely small portions, then rocketed through a
needle-sized hole only to splatter against some matter on the other
side and reform.

She gasped, every nerve, every sense
receptor in her body lit up with colour as she returned to normal.

She’d have compared it to dying
then being reborn, not that she knew what dying was like. Though once
the buzz of sensation died back down she realized she was in a place
like nothing she’d ever known.

The stars sparkled. All about her. Not
merely in the sky, but to her sides, even below her. It was then she
thought to look down and realized she was suspended on a small
tendril of some crystalline branch that wound up from some spec of
existence below. Her heart panged with familiarity, and something
within her – either Varuj or her own instinct – told her
that was home, so far below.

There was no time to make sense of it
before she noticed one of the stars seemed to grow larger, its glow
growing brighter. It made her squint until it flashed and took the
form of a person before her.

Neither a human, nor an elf. She
couldn’t even peg a gender to the unknown being before her, she
could only say they were beautiful and luminescent. “Where are
you going?” came their voice, so even yet somehow melodious.

“Oh… Gaul’di-mere
Academy?” she said, still lost to the wonder of everything
around her. She was surprised by that loneliness, though, that
battled with her enthusiasm and curiosity. There was nothing there
for her but her father…

She had to shoo the thought aside, for
it suddenly hit her how lonely he would be without her.

“Very well,” came the
being’s voice. “It shall be a quick and easy journey
there. The vines grow strong in that region.”

It was as simple as that. Firia had no
more time to respond before the crystalline branch grew shoots that
coiled up around her ankles and over her calves, writhing up until
they coated her entirely.

Suffocation!

The worry hit her suddenly, and she
felt a strange sense of vertigo as she struggled to get some air but
failed. The vines were smothering her! Yet the feeling of
displacement was so strong until…

She went tumbling from her crystal
prison and landed upon a smooth stone surface, gasping for breath.

In retrospect, as air flooded back in,
she realized she must not have been choked off for more than seconds,
but the fright of it and the lack of preparation had made it seem far
more.

Once again however, her thoughts were
stolen from her as she clutched her satchel and looked up. The sight
before her was gorgeous.

A smooth, shimmering crystal walkway
led up to a great tree that grew out of the side of a cliff face.
That tree formed a path to what was an unbelievably large castle,
suspended in the air over a circular chasm. None of it made a lick of
sense without the use of magic, for the tree, though immense, did not
seem nearly strong enough to hold up so large a structure over such a
gaping void.

As Firia stood, she saw that most of
the circular chasm bordered the ocean. Rocks lined the other side,
where waves crashed before filtering over and flooding down into that
pit. The sheer magnificence of the sight illuminated by moon and
stars was breathtaking, almost as much as the literal act of having
her breath stolen earlier.

She was carried forward on sheer wonder
alone, and she noticed the curious trees on her side of the chasm.
They were bent in an odd shape. The moment they left the ground they
curved towards the chasm, so that they looked almost like thousands
of J’s on the landscape that blossomed into green leaves and
luminescent silver and purple flowers that bloomed fully in the
night.

It was all so stunning that she almost
didn’t notice the sound of Mae’lin crashing to the
crystal platform behind her just as she had, sputtering for air in
much the same way. “By the weave!” he choked out.

Once more she forgot her loneliness,
her worries for her father. All that there was, all that surrounded
her and flowed in her veins was wonder and awe. It didn’t even
register to her, completely, where they were. Just that she was in
the most spectacular place she could ever dream of.

Such warmth and amazement flooded her
body as she spun about. “Wow…” she muttered under
her breath.

Shortly thereafter, Mae’lin
echoed her own sentiment, the tall elf rising up and moving closer to
her as he gazed all around.

The sight was so breathtaking that she
hadn’t even really noticed anything about the great castle
itself at first. Its sheer white-stone walls rising to such high
pinnacles and peaks, so many towers probing into the heavens all
about. It was like chaos, but a beautiful chaos. There was artistry
to its creation, rather than the rigid science of measured angles
that dictated the peasant homes of her village.
Sorcery could defy
the need for proper supporting arches and sensical angles
, was
all she could surmise.

The crystal vine behind them spat out
another, though he landed so much more gracefully, his nimble feet
catching him so that he never even fell. It was obvious he must’ve
had practice at it, his cloak twirling as he smiled.

She recognized him instantly as the
annoying elf upon the roof.

“You made it, huh?” he
remarked.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“Yes, and all in one piece, it would seem.” She wasn’t
sure if she was more bitter at his help or his attitude, but it was
likely equal.

With a bit of a twirl he dove in rather
close to her – borderline inappropriately so – flashed
her a wink and then reached back over his head. It looked like he was
about to rip his own hair out, but then she saw a curious
transformation take place.

He was no longer the rude elven youth
from the roof, but the messenger who had first delivered her the
scroll. “You passed the test,” he said. “Not with
flying colours, but, well…” he shrugged and smiled, “few
do.”

Her nose twitched as she stared at him.

Definitely being deceived. That was
what made her most bitter.

“Yes, well. Give me a year or two
in this place,” she responded tartly but with a confident
smile. Her back straightened as she glanced about them once more.
“I’m sure there will be colours.”

The impish elf clapped his hands and
laughed: “Welcome to Gaul’di-mere Academy! It’s a
long road ahead,” and he gave a politely deferential nod to
Firia, “especially for some, but your new life starts right
now. I hope you have said goodbye to all you knew, for you shall not
have the ability to see your old life again for a very long time. And
I wager by the time you do, you shan’t much care to any
longer!”

He gave a somber smile and lowered his
hands. “The road of sorcery has a way of changing you. And you
find in the end you have new dreams and aspirations. But don’t
fear that! It’s part of growing up as well.”

He certainly wasn’t this perky
earlier, and it made Firia cross her arms and stare at him
suspiciously. With a raised brow she looked to Mae’lin, then
back to the messenger. “I didn’t have much to say goodbye
to, honestly.” Except her father. She tried to push the thought
away once more. This is what children do, they grow up… and
follow in their family’s footsteps.

Yet she had to be persistent and escape
that lot. He’d been so happy, but what would happen to him now?

She felt herself start to well up and
forced her gaze away. “Yes, well. Thanks for the help getting
here.”

“Part of my duties!” he
said with a flick of his wrist. “I’m your senior-student
advisor for the next while. So if you two have any questions, you can
take them to me.” He turned and began to walk, calling out
behind his shoulder as he traversed the crystal pathway, “Preferably
as we walk!”

Mae’lin’s eyes widened, and
he looked to her then went off after the other elf. “So you’re
like… a high ranking student or some such?” he asked.