Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) (13 page)

With her wand hand, Marie flicked her arm toward Effie in an underhand motion. A faint line of Sartious Energy, tall but thin, flew toward her. Marie used her other hand to make the same motion, as if rolling a ball. The thin cloud of SE caught on fire from what Effie knew to be a thick stream of Bastial Energy coming from Marie’s bare hand.

The line of fire was taller than Effie, making her believe she couldn’t stop it with her own SE, even if she tried. She heard herself screaming as she jumped to the side, tripping and rolling across the sand of the training grounds.

But when she looked back, the fire had stopped before it reached her.

“You didn’t even try to block it!” Marie complained.

“How did you do that?” Effie had never seen such a spell. The other students seemed just as interested, chiming in with their own questions.

“Gather in front of me here and I’ll explain.” Marie gestured with her wand. No one moved at first. Then the old instructor seemed to realize she was still holding her weapon. She smiled forgivingly, putting it on her belt and using her finger to point instead.

As Effie joined the group, Marie started to explain, “By now, all of you should know that Sartious Energy can act as both a component of fire and a defense against it. I like to think of SE as being like wood. There are degrees to wood, making some types very flammable and others not at all. In fact, wooden shields made of ironbark can be just as effective at stopping a fireball as a shield made of metal, although a Sartious shell is better than both.”

Effie already knew this. Being in Group One, she figured most of the students with her did as well. But Effie had no idea how Marie had such control over both energies to make a stream of fire and then have it stop just before reaching her.

“The density of SE makes all the difference between whether or not heat will light it ablaze or be absorbed,” Marie continued. “The more air that mixes in with the SE, the less heat is needed to make fire. So for my spell, I needed to know the exact amount of SE to create a line of fire that would stop before reaching the beautiful training gown of Effie Elegin, as I’d hate to ruin such gorgeous fabric.”

Many of the students laughed at Marie’s quip. Effie’s gown was probably the ugliest of the bunch, half of it charred from errant fireballs, the other half discolored from heat.

“But how could you have so much control over Sartious Energy?” Effie asked.

“Years of practice.” Marie shrugged while giving her obvious answer. “Earlier, you wanted to know of a spell stronger than a fireball, but the question made me realize that you’re looking at training in the wrong way. Besides fireballs, the rest of your time should be put toward mastering the manipulation of SE. Then you can come up with your own spells for each situation.” Marie stopped and tilted her head. “Do you understand?”

“I suppose,” Effie answered, letting her disappointment show. “Though I was hoping to learn a new spell today.”

“Think of magic like a sword.” Marie let her glance wash over her students before continuing, making sure she had everyone’s attention. “Warriors may learn how to swing a sword, but the most skilled warriors are those that know how to beat their opponents. This is what battle ultimately comes down to. It’s not about who can cast the biggest fireball or who can swing a sword the hardest. It’s about situational awareness and understanding every opportunity available to you in order to bring down your enemy.”

“Then why do we spend so much time focusing on fireballs?” Effie asked.

“Fireballs are to mages as strength is to warriors. If a man can’t swing his sword for more than a few minutes without tiring, then it doesn’t matter how skilled he is. Fireballs are our main tool of destruction, and they are the building blocks to more complicated spells. But you’ve been gone, Effie.” Marie wagged her finger. “We’ve been training with far more than fireballs in your absence, which you’re about to find out.”

Marie stuck her finger in her mouth to whistle. “Enemies coming from the east!” she shouted. “Line up and ready your energy!”

All thirty mages, except for Effie, turned to face the metal training dummies. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they held out their wands. Marie stood behind them, her face contorted with feigned aggression as she continued to yell.

“Warriors from Tenred have broken through our wall! Fire!”

Many of the students grunted as they focused to release Bastial and Sartious Energy. A river of fire tore across the sand and crashed into the training dummies, rolling up their metal chests and spiraling into the sky.

About half of the young mages were panting when it was over, but all wore wide grins.

“Bastial hell,” Effie said. “Even a Krepp couldn’t survive that.”

“Ready to stop your complaining and get back to training?” Marie had a showy smile to match her teasing cadence.

By the time Effie got back to her student house, she felt as if her mind had become liquid. It sloshed around with each step she took, producing no thoughts, hardly recognizing a feeling besides exhaustion.

She knew she should’ve been surprised to see Brady sitting at the kitchen table with Reela, but the feeling simply didn’t come.

“What are you doing here?” Effie asked, realizing afterward how rude she’d sounded. But she was too tired to apologize.

“I was just hearing about your trip to the Slugari colony,” Brady answered with a wide smile that Effie didn’t understand.

And I thought Reela smiled a lot.
Well…not so much recently.

“Hi, Eff.” Reela approached. Effie let out her arms for their usual greeting of a hug. On her way over, Effie noticed that her friend’s ears were out. Effie smiled at the sight, but she couldn’t think of anything to say.

Being far taller than Effie, Reela had to lean down to whisper, “He’s handsome, and he really likes you.”

“It doesn’t take psyche for me to know that,” Effie whispered back. “Your ears…”

“I know,” Reela said. “From the number of people asking me about them today, I’d wager that by the end of tomorrow everyone in the Academy will be aware that I’m half Elf.” Reela had a cheery tone. “And the sooner they get used to it, the better. I don’t know how Zoke deals with all the staring.”

“Not very well,” Effie said.

Brady politely waited by the table, pretending to busy himself with a vial filled with some substance. He had his hands closed around it.

“I’m going to study in my room,” Reela announced, leaving them alone.

Effie headed toward a seat, curious as to what Brady had brought now that it had become apparent it was some sort of potion.

“Don’t I get one also?” Brady held out his arms for a hug.

Effie folded her arms. “That depends on why you’re here.”

“For the best reason of all.” He paused to raise a finger, arching his eyebrows. “I have a gift for you.”

“Then in that case…” Effie pushed herself against him, wrapping her arms around his back as he pulled her in.

She was somewhat self-conscious about her marred training gown, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“So Reela has an interesting background.” Brady’s tone was as if he were tossing a fishhook into the water, waiting to see if Effie would latch on so he could pull her in.

Curious what Brady had to say about it, Effie answered, “She sure does.”

“She says you’ve known each other since you were children. When did you find out?”

“Just recently,” Effie admitted with embarrassment.

Brady seemed to be holding in a laugh.

“Shut up.” Effie playfully smacked him in the stomach. Then she realized something disconcerting. “Wait, is this gift you brought me that potion you have on the table?”

“Don’t judge it just yet.”

Effie ignored his advice and let out a judgmental grumble. “Is it going to make me want to take my clothes off or something?”

“So I’m that obvious?”

Effie knew he was partially joking, but she still hadn’t gotten used to how forward he was.

Brady brushed her wavy dark hair off her cheek, looking as if he was about to lean down and kiss her. His eyes were the same blue of a clear afternoon sky, his teeth whiter than clouds.

His body seemed to be naturally lean and strong, as if he’d simply been born muscular and had never done a push-up. Most chemists didn’t look like Brady, which made it easy to forget that he was one.

Not just chemists,
Effie corrected herself.
Most men in general don’t look like Brady.

Effie snatched the potion from the table. “I’m supposed to drink this?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She popped off the lid and took a sniff. It smelled like raspberries. Effie could feel the hot aroma in the back of her throat.

“It’s warm,” she commented.

“I’ve kept it heated with Bastial Energy from my hands.”

“What does the potion really do?” Effie asked.

Steffen used to convince Effie to help him test potions, but that was years ago when she was still dumb enough to believe her safety was his priority. There’d been some incidents…and some dreadful side effects.

The worst was the last time she’d agreed to help Steffen. She had a cold, and Steffen had a recipe he was working on to combat it. His logic seemed sound at the time: Mixing Bastial Energy and some plant Effie couldn’t recall was known to reduce mucus. Also, combining two other plants with Bastial Energy was known to help people sleep. Steffen figured that if the three plants were combined with Bastial Energy to create one potion, it would reduce mucus and help Effie sleep.

Effie ended up breaking her toe in the middle of the night when she stumbled while sleepwalking, slamming her foot into a wall. The worst was Steffen’s response to it all.

“But did the potion reduce your mucus and put you to sleep?” he’d asked without the smallest sign of remorse.

That was one of the few times Effie could remember punching Steffen.

“Do you really want to know what it does?” Brady asked. “I thought you might like surprises.”

Effie did—as long as they didn’t cause a startle.

A new question came to mind, one that Effie needed answering before she could determine if she could trust him or not.

“How did you know where I live?” she asked.

“You’re famous now, Effie Elegin.” His smile grew wider. “I just asked people how to find the cute mage who went to the Slugari colony.”

Effie wanted to roll her eyes, but she just couldn’t do it. She was too flattered and proud.

Unsure what to say, she decided to drink the potion. The red liquid had somewhat of a bite to it, dancing down her throat with playful prickles.

The moment she set the vial back on the table, everything seemed different. She couldn’t figure out what it was at first, just that her vision wasn’t working as it should. Then she looked up at Brady.

He was teleporting!

“How are you doing that?” Effie yelled.

One moment Brady was just in front of her. The next, he was three steps back. There was no transition between the two—he simply appeared in one place and then another. Now he was teleporting all over the room, frozen in place for a heartbeat each time before appearing somewhere else. She never saw him move. She couldn’t even see his mouth changing, though she heard him laughing.

“I’m not teleporting,” he said.

It was too strange for Effie. She felt like shouting but didn’t know what to say.

“Look at your own hand,” Brady said. “Move it in front of your face.”

She did, soon noticing the same jumpy movement that she’d seen from Brady.

She knew that she was swaying her hand back and forth, but she couldn’t see the movement. First her hand was to the left. A blink later, it was to the right.

She jumped when she felt Brady’s hand on her shoulder while he was still standing too far to reach her. A second later, she could see him touching her where she’d already felt it.

“What’s happening?” Effie asked.

But by then, the teleporting had started to die down. She saw some fluid movements now, very little jumpiness.

A breath later, everything was back to normal.

“It stopped,” she told him.

“The potion prevents us from being able to see motion, picking up only one image at a time.”

Effie was no chemist, but even she knew it was rare for a potion that affects one’s body to wear off so quickly. “Not that I wanted it to, but why didn’t it last longer?”

“We’re not sure,” Brady said. “But the popular theory is that our mind is able to adjust to the vision impairment long before the effects of the potion are out of our system.”

I’ve seen Steffen and Gabby play with many different potions, but nothing like this.
“Has this potion recently been invented?”

Brady nodded. “One of the chemists on the King’s staff came up with it to help in this war.”

“But how could we ever get an enemy to drink it during a battle?”

Brady’s mouth twisted with a cunning smile. “That’s the best part about it—this potion can be absorbed through the skin.”