9. Benjin #3
The orb winked out of existence. Haldric leaned back in his seat, his shoulders slumping. It was only then that Benjin realized how much that brief demonstration must’ve taken out of the prince, swiftly draining his inner reserve of runeflame.
Despite his exhaustion, however, Haldric seemed fully into his lesson now. The shift in him between now and when they’d started was striking. Gone was the arrogant prince with his cold demeanor and emotionless mask. In his place was a young man: excited, eager…and undeniably handsome.
“And there you have it,” Haldric said. “The seven basic runeflame disciplines. There are more advanced schools, of course, as well as specialties within each. But those seven cover the vast majority of spells. While a true master of the arcane would learn to harness each in equal measure, most mages find they have an affinity for one or two and choose to focus on those.”
Benjin recalled what Dexil had told him that first day about his unusual gift for Evocation. So far, that and Conjuration had definitely come to him more naturally than other types of spells.
“What about alchemy?” he asked, thinking of his work with Dexil. “Where does that fall?”
Haldric’s emerald eyes sparkled as he leaned forward. “Good question. Alchemy is a particular means of channeling and focusing runeflame. While hand gestures are the most basic way to shape runeflame, others learn to impart their magic via scrolls, potions, enchanted items, or even music.”
He met Benjin’s gaze and hesitated, his expression turning uncertain.
As if suddenly remembering where he was, some of his good humor faded.
He straightened his back and cleared his throat.
“But that’s enough of an overview. For now, we’ll start with a few basic runes.
While runeflame possesses greater versatility than any other type of magic, it comes at the cost of precision.
Even a minor mistake can cause a spell to fizzle or react unpredictably, and experienced mages might spend years mastering a single advanced technique.
I’ll show you how to construct each rune while you do your best to copy it exactly. ”
A quick search of the room turned up some ink and parchment. Haldric sketched the glowing outline of a rune in the air with his finger, then had Benjin write it over and over again until satisfied he’d gotten it right.
It was the sort of tedious grunt work Benjin was coming to expect from practicing magic.
As they continued, however, he found himself getting more and more invested into the exercise.
There was something oddly soothing about the repetition, and each time he recognized a rune as a component of a spell he already knew, his jolt of triumph made all the previous effort seem worth it.
Even the prince gradually relaxed again. They didn’t talk much, but Benjin could see his tension ebbing, his green eyes flashing with excitement each time Benjin succeeded. It made his presence almost tolerable.
Haldric etched a fresh rune in the air, and Benjin recognized it at once as a component of his basic levitation Evocation. Since he already had some familiarity with the rune, he tried to modify it so that the affected object slowly rotated in midair instead of holding in place.
The book he’d targeted shot upward on a gust of runeflame. Instead of spinning as Benjin had intended, however, the poor tome began to rip itself apart. Torn scraps of pages fluttered about the chamber like paper rain.
A flash of runeflame from Haldric canceled out Benjin’s fizzled spell and settled the storm of pages. The prince fixed Benjin with a glare. “Goddess’ mercy, are you trying to kill us? I told you to copy the runes precisely!”
“It was an accident! I was just trying to—”
“It doesn’t matter what you were trying to do.
You are untrained and unskilled. If you’re not careful, your lack of discipline could get you or someone else killed!
” Haldric’s voice was a low growl, his jaw clenched tight.
“An inexperienced novice like you has no place practicing runeflame at all, let alone as Dexil’s apprentice! ”
The prince’s harsh words echoed Benjin’s own whispered insecurities. His face flushed as he abruptly rose and stormed toward the door. “This lesson is over.”
“Fine by me. I have better things to do than coddle a fool.”
Benjin slammed the door behind him and stalked down the corridor, his mind brewing with furious thoughts of the prince. It was only when he neared his room near those of the other palace servants that shame began to outweigh his ire.
The prince was right—in retrospect, what Benjin had done was incredibly foolish. But that didn’t give Haldric the right to respond to Benjin’s mistake with such obvious disdain, nor to judge him so severely for it. Who was Haldric to decide who was and wasn’t worthy of runeflame?
It was a stark reminder that, no matter the occasional cracks in the prince’s cold facade, he remained every bit the arrogant noble who’d first deemed Benjin utterly beneath his notice.