Chapter 15
Talisa
Today’s exercise in my Arcane Control and Channeling II lab seemed straightforward enough. Mage-Instructor Zaurus assigned the class to channel and stabilize the opposing elemental energies of Air and Earth.
My lab partner Nadia Montoro whispered the incantation under her breath, practicing, while I carefully measured drops of quicksilver into our focus basin.
“You‘re sure that’s only three drops?” Nadia asked in her lilting Norhasi accent.
I nodded. “Just as the instructions state.”
Nadia was an excellent partner, meticulous about procedures and with a natural affinity for Earth magic that complemented my affinity to Air. We’d been paired together in this class since the beginning of the semester and had consistently produced successful results in our lab exercises.
“Remember everyone,” Mage-Instructor Zaurus called from the front of the room, his tall frame weaving between the workbenches, “control is vital in this exercise. Air and Earth are opposing elements. Their energies resist combination. Your focus basin must remain perfectly still during the incantation, or the energies will destabilize.”
I surveyed our setup. The focus basin, a shallow copper dish etched with runes around its wide rim, sat squarely in the center of our workbench.
The combined drops of quicksilver pooled at its center.
Around the focus, we’d arranged the five quartz crystal rods that represented Earth.
They would channel our magic into the quicksilver drop.
Feathers bound to the crystals with gold wire symbolized Air.
“Ready?” I asked Nadia, making one final adjustment to the crystal placement around the basin. The light refracted oddly through the pale mineral, and I wondered what kind of quartz it was.
She nodded, her dark curls bobbing with the movement. “Ready when you are.”
Around us, other pairs of students were also beginning their exercises. The room hummed with the soft murmur of incantations and the crackle of magical energies being summoned and controlled.
I caught sight of Lukhan across the room. For once, he wasn’t paired with his friend Damien. Instead, Lady Beatrix Fairhaven was his partner today.
Looking back, that should have alerted me.
Lukhan glanced my way. His mouth twisted in that perpetual expression of distaste he reserved for me. Then he smirked at me, an all-too-familiar expression I knew meant trouble.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
He wouldn’t dare, I thought. After our mage-instructors issued stern warnings against pranks in the lectures and labs, the past few weeks had been mercifully free of classroom sabotage.
“Let‘s begin,” I said to Nadia, and pushed Lukhan out of my mind.
I needed to focus on this exercise.
We positioned ourselves on opposite sides of the workbench and placed our hands palm-down on the smooth stone surface, just outside the perimeter of the crystals. Our fingertips just barely touched each other.
Together, we began the incantation, our voices chanting in unison.
The feathers bound to the crystals fluttered as I opened my senses and reached for the currents of Air magic swirling through the lab.
Power responded to my call, raising goosebumps and prickling my skin as I directed it through me, down my arms and into the focus basin.
Beside me, Nadia’s eyes were closed in concentration as she drew on Earth energy.
I felt a subtle tremor through the soles of my shoes as her power manifested.
The five crystal rods glowed, softly at first, then with increasing brightness. As our magic converged upon the tiny puddle of quicksilver in the basin, it quivered and shrank, then drew up into a smooth sphere.
“That’s it,” Mage-Instructor Zaurus said approvingly as he passed our table. “Excellent control, both of you.”
Then the crystal closest to me emitted a sudden high-pitched whine that pierced my eardrums like a needle. The quicksilver ball shuddered and exploded into a chaotic splatter.
“Nadia!” My throat felt tight with sudden alarm.““Release the spell!”
Her eyes flew open. Confusion quickly turned to fear as she saw the wildly gyrating mass of quicksilver in the basin.
I was already trying to cut off the Air power flowing through me.
“I can’t!” she gasped, withdrawing her hands from mine. To underscore her words, the tremors underfoot only grew stronger.
To my horror, I couldn’t stop the spell either. The crystals felt as if they were actively sucking magic out of me.
A powerful gust of wind tore through the lab, scattering papers and billowing robes.
The crystals pulsed with angry red light, their surfaces cracking with the strain of channeling far more power than they were meant to handle.
“Mage-Instructor!” I shouted. “What’s happening? Why can’t we stop the spell?”
“Everyone get down!” Mage-Instructor Zaurus bellowed from somewhere behind me. “Students, stop your spells!”
But I couldn’t move. My magic was binding me in place as it flowed through me like a torrent into the crystals. Across from me, Nadia stood frozen as well, power swirling wildly around her.
The realization hit me like a physical blow: the crystals weren’t just channeling our magic. They were amplifying it, feeding it back into a loop that grew more unstable by the second.
I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye as Lukhan and Beatrix dove under their workbench. Their faces were twisted with gleeful laughter.
Then a blinding flash of scarlet light filled the laboratory, followed immediately by a blast that slammed into my chest like a battering ram.
Glass shattered all around me. The air filled with acrid smoke and the screams of my classmates.
I flew backward, weightless for a terrifying moment before crashing into something solid.
Pain blossomed across my face and torso—burning, sharp, and all-consuming. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see. My ears rang with a high-pitched whine that drowned out everything else.
I tried to turn my head, searching for Nadia through the smoke, but my body refused to respond.
The last thing I saw before blackness claimed me was Mage-Instructor Zaurus’s face, hovering above mine, his expression horrified.
∞∞∞
I floated back to consciousness on a tide of pain. My body felt like one giant bruise. My face burned, sharp lines of pain throbbing in time with my heartbeat. A deep ache stabbed my ribs every time I breathed.
Healing charms hummed against my skin, the gentle warmth of their magic working to knit together my injuries. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt sealed shut, heavy and uncooperative. Something cool and damp touched my forehead—a cloth, I realized, as lukewarm water trickled down my temple.
I heard whispers nearby, familiar voices trying to be quiet but vibrating with worry. Mira? Juno? Am I back home in Bernswick?
No, that can’t be right.
“She’s waking up,” Juno whispered. “Thank you, Divine Mother.”
With a monumental effort, I forced my eyelids open.
Light stabbed into my eyes like daggers. I winced, closing them again immediately.
“Talisa?” Another voice, deeper. Elio. “Can you hear us?”
I tried again, opening my eyes more cautiously this time. Three blurry faces hovered above me, their features gradually coming into focus as I blinked away the haze.
“What?” I croaked, my throat feeling as dry as if I’d swallowed sand.
“Don’t talk yet,” Elio said softly, pressing a cup to my lips. “Small sips.” He slid his hand behind my head and Mira pushed another pillow behind my neck.
The water was lukewarm and infused with mint and honey, soothing my raw throat. As I drank, memories filtered back—the channeling exercise, the crystals’ strange behavior, the spell spinning wildly out of control, then fire and darkness.
“How long?” I asked when I’d finished the cup.
“A day,” Elio answered, his amber eyes dark with concern. “You’ve been unconscious since yesterday.”
I let that sink in, then tried to sit up. Pain lanced through my ribs and left arm as I pushed against the mattress, and I gasped.
“Careful,” Juno cautioned.
Elio helped me sit up, and Mira and Juno piled more pillows behind me to support me.
“Mage-Healer Arsinoe applied a bone-knit spell, but she said your ribs and arm need at least one more day of healing,” Mira informed me.
“Your face is a mess,” Juno said, her face twisted with worry. “You look like you tried to wrestle Mama’s rose vine.”
I winced.
Looking around, I saw I was in the academy’s infirmary.
The large room with its high, vaulted ceiling and rows of neat beds was quiet except for the soft moans of another patient several beds away.
Green-gold healing charms hovered above my body, pulsing with gentle light.
My left arm was splinted and wrapped in bandages from wrist to elbow, and I could feel a tight wrapping around my torso beneath the loose infirmary gown.
“Nadia?” I asked, suddenly remembering my lab partner.
The three exchanged dismayed glances that made my heart sink.
“She’s alive,” Elio said carefully. “And the mage-healer thinks she’ll recover. Eventually. But… she got the brunt of the explosion. They sent her to the Imperial Hospital in the capital and summoned her parents.”
I closed my eyes, guilt washing over me. “Was anyone else hurt?”
“Just a few cuts and bruises,” Mira answered, her hand finding mine and squeezing gently. “You and Nadia took the worst of it.”
“The lab is…” Juno began.
“Destroyed,” Elio finished grimly. “Mage-Instructor Zaurus is telling everyone he’s never seen a channeling exercise go so catastrophically wrong.”
He reached for my bandaged hand and raised it to his lips. He closed his eyes and pressed his mouth against the bandages for a long moment. “Mother of All, Talisa, when they carried you out of the lab, I thought you were dead. You were covered in blood.”
His words sent me back to that terrible instant of blinding light, the sensation of being thrown through the air, the searing pain. I shuddered.
“Everybody in the Circle of the Open Hand has come by to see how you’re doing,” Mira said. “They’re all worried about you. They’ll be so happy to hear you’re finally awake!”
“And Assistant Chatelaine Julissa came by several times while you were still unconscious,” Juno said. “She says they’re investigating the cause of the accident, and she wants to talk to you as soon as you’re feeling better.”
I nodded. “I think someone deliberately sabotaged our equipment. Someone who knew exactly what we would do in class yesterday. Someone with access to the academy’s magical supplies.”
Mira and Juno exchanged fearful looks. “Lord Lukhan again?”
“I think he had something to do with it, yes.” I remembered his odd expression just before everything exploded. “But if he did, he must’ve had help from someone experienced enough with channeling to know how to create a catastrophic feedback loop.”
“Not that the academy will ever admit it,” Elio said grimly. “I won’t be surprised if they find some way to blame you and Nadia for what happened.”
“There were posters this morning,” Juno said. “Blaming the academy for admitting unqualified commoners to meet an imperial quota.”
I felt sick to my stomach. I knew I had done nothing wrong in the exercise. Back home, Mama and Papa had drilled us relentlessly in how to channel opposing elements.
A door opened at the far end of the infirmary, and a tall woman in the green robes of a mage-healer approached my bed. Her silver hair was pulled back in a loose braid, and her eyes were kind as she surveyed me.
“Ah, you’re awake at last. Excellent.” She waved her hands over me, and the healing charms brightened momentarily before settling back to their steady glow. “I am Mage-Healer Arsinoe. On a scale of one to ten, how is your pain, child?”
“Six,” I answered truthfully. “Maybe seven when I move.”
She nodded. “To be expected. You were extremely fortunate. That blast could have killed you instantly had Mage-Instructor Zaurus not thrown up a partial shield. As it is, you came here with three cracked ribs, a fractured humerus, and significant lacerations to your face and arms.”
“Will there be permanent damage?” I asked.
“No.” She smiled reassuringly. “No lasting scars, either, though you may experience some lingering sensitivity for a couple of weeks. The charms will need another day at least to finish healing you. I am recommending bed rest for three more days to give your body a chance to recover from the strain of accelerated healing.”
Relief flooded through me, though it was tempered by concern for Nadia. If I had been “extremely fortunate” with all these injuries, how bad was her condition?
As if reading my thoughts, Healer Arsinoe added, “Your friend’s injuries were more severe, but she is young and strong. The mage-healers at the Imperial Hospital are optimistic that she’ll make a full recovery.”
After checking my bandages and adjusting the healing spells bound to the charms, Healer Arsinoe left us, instructing my visitors they had only fifteen more minutes before I needed to rest, and that no one else would be admitted to see me today.
Once she was out of earshot, I said to Elio and my sisters, “Thank you for being here. It was nice not wake up alone.”
His expression darkened. “I was so worried when I heard about the accident.”
“We had to make sure that you were going to be all right,” Juno added, her voice tight with anxiety. Mira nodded and lightly rested her hand over mine.
“This goes way beyond a prank,” Elio said grimly. “This could have killed you and Nadia. And maybe other students, too.”
The realization settled in my gut like a stone. Until now, I’d thought Lukhan was just trying to humiliate me, to prove his superiority and put me in my place.
But Elio was right.
This felt different. The explosion had been powerful enough to destroy the laboratory.
What if he doesn’t just want to hurt me, but to silence me? Permanently?
“He’s escalating,” Elio said, echoing my thought. “This isn’t about pranks or humiliating you anymore. I think he actually tried to kill you.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“From now on, you’re not going anywhere alone,” he said.
I didn’t argue.