Chapter 9 #2
“Now, as you all know, transmutation is often considered the trickiest of the various forms of magic to learn. There is some truth to that, but it also has the potential to be the most powerful, if you take the time to master it. That little shrinking spell I did earlier will take a few years to learn, but even lesser applications can be very useful.”
I wasn’t about to tell her I had a shrinking spell of my own. My ‘nicking notions’ was not as fancy as hers, but it did the trick.
Doyenne McCabe – Bryony, I corrected myself, still shocked that she was asking us to call her by her first name – leaned over, plucked a single blade of grass from the ground, then held it up.
I watched closely as she etched a simple rune with her free hand, her magic flooding into the blade of grass, but nothing seemed to happen.
I squinted as she grinned, dropping her rune-casting hand. “By the end of class, I want us all to manage this much,” she said.
“Doy – Bryony, what’d you do?” asked the chubby-cheeked kid we’d spoken to earlier. His face flushed that brilliant pink once more. “I don’t see any difference.”
“It changed color, see?” she asked, waving it back and forth.
We all took a few steps closer, getting a better look, and, sure enough, the grass was now a dark blue, rather than green. Not exactly the brilliant demonstration of transmutation’s power I’d been expecting she’d ask us to try.
Honestly? It was the kind of thing I could do with my eyes closed. Now I had to figure out what my play was here.
If I did it too fast, I’d arouse suspicion, especially with the Phoenix pendant hanging around my neck. But doing it too slowly could end the same way, if I wasn’t careful. Best to wait for a few students to manage it and end up in the middle of the pack.
Bryony ran us through an explanation of the rune, describing each of the essential parts, but in a scatterbrained kind of way, flitting from concept to concept whenever she realized that she was over complicating things. After nearly twenty minutes, we were finally ready to start.
She glanced around at her class of confused-looking students, gesturing toward the ground. “Want to give it a go? Pick some grass, you can’t hurt it!”
I knelt, plucking a blade of grass. I’d screw up the rune for a few minutes, then manage it after a couple of the Draconell and Kirinash show-offs.
At least, that was the plan . . .
Bryony clapped. “Alright, let’s get into little groups of two or three. Try to help each other and keep things moving smoothly. I’ll be walking around as you work to check in on your progress.”
Marina and I locked eyes instantly. It probably would’ve been better for us to split up, but I pushed the concern aside. Working with a friend beat introducing myself to a bunch of awkward kids and trying to find a partner.
I stepped toward an open patch of grass, stopping as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Marina jerked her chin to the side, and I turned to see chubby-cheeks standing there, looking all around, growing increasingly red as he searched for a partner.
Dang. Nothing like a needy kid to get my sympathy flowing.
“Hey, wanna join our team?” I offered, the words coming out before I could fully think it through.
He gulped, but nodded, scurrying over. “Thanks.”
“So . . . what was the rune again?” I asked, doing as awkward an impression of Bryony’s movement as I could manage.
The boy’s face scrunched up. “I think it was more like this,” he said, somehow managing to screw it up even worse.
I held up my blade of grass and then tried it his way, making sure I didn’t put any magic into it. Wrong motion or not, I didn’t want to end up slinging a random rune.
“Maybe like this?” Marina offered, doing her own poor imitation of Bryony’s rune.
Eventually, the charade was going to have to end, or we’d never learn a blessed thing here, but on day one, there was no help for it.
We continued that way for nearly ten minutes, with the doyenne spending a few minutes with each group individually, making her way over to us.
I spared a quick glance, pleased to see a group throwing up their arms in victory.
They whooped and hollered, and Bryony grinned as she got a look at their blade of grass.
“Well done, boys.”
That makes one.
Just a few more . . .
“Oh, sod it!” Chubby-cheeks shouted, smacking a hand against his forehead. “My parents are gonna be so mad at me.”
“Just tell them it went great,” Marina suggested. “How will they even know?”
He frowned. “My ma works in the Senate. She’ll be up the Sage’s ass to find out about my progress as soon as she gets the chance. I already got put in Felinita, and she’s a snob about houses, so I need to manage something good.”
I frowned, watching as he threw out another sloppy rune. “What house is she from?”
“I’m from a long line of Kirinash,” he muttered. “Can’t imagine the look on their faces when they hear the news . . . doesn’t matter that I finally fit in.”
“Yeah, well screw them,” was on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. Not your problem, I reminded myself, but his story was simply too much like Opie’s, and I was moving before I could think better of it.
“Here,” I started, repositioning his hand. “Your ring finger is all wrong. It should be like this. And it’s not always about your hand positioning, especially for spells like this. When you cast the rune, try to keep the motion more fluid, like . . .”
“Exactly right,” a voice said from just behind me.
I did my best to hold still as a chill ran down my back.
I turned to see Bryony’s piercing green eyes less than half a foot away from my face.
“You’re right to notice that the smoothness of your hand motion is crucial for this spell.
Were you at Neverthorn before you came here or did your parents teach you at home? ”
“Er . . . at home.”
She grinned, “Why don’t you show the class the same thing you just showed this young man? What’s your name, by the way?”
I gulped. “H–Hannah.”
“Alright class, I want you all to see something. This young lady is quite the natural, and she’s made an important observation that I think you’d all benefit from hearing.
So please give your attention to Hannah of House .
. . ,” her eyes strayed to my chest, then flicked back up to my face, widening almost as much as her baffled grin.
“Hannah of House Phoenix, apparently. And we’re sure that’s right, yes? ”
A collective gasp rolled through the other students, and I sighed, nodding.
“Pretty sure.”
So much for not making a scene.