Chosen (9781742844657) (14 page)

‘You've got it,' Jadon said quietly. ‘Now…'

I closed my eyes tightly and remembered that Christmas, the pride I felt about getting the beautiful necklace, the colourful presents, the warmth and love from my family – and mentally shoved it all out of my mind and into the quartz. I opened my eyes and smiled when I saw it was glowing green.

‘That was quick. How long will that stay green?' a boy asked. I sat down.

‘It depends on the intensity of Aristea's emotions and her intent,' Jadon explained. ‘Intent is a powerful force.'

I studied my glowing green stone. Mum, Dad, my whole family, the necklace, that Christmas…It might be in the past but it was still very real, right here in my hand.

‘True, untainted energy is white, as Hiroko told us, so when an emotion masks energy, it takes on a colour to signify the intent,' Jadon was saying. ‘Positive and benevolent emotion is green. Negative and often harmful emotion is red.'

A girl near the front tentatively raised her hand. She had shiny, straight black hair and very fair skin.

‘Yes, Willow?' Jadon asked, turning to her.

‘If someone did a spell, with a wand…and there was, like, a beam of light,' she added quickly, sounding nervous. She was British. ‘Does that mean that the light would be either green or red?'

‘That's an interesting question, Willow.' Jadon entwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles. I was one of the people who shuddered. ‘As with most everything in the world, magic has evolved over the centuries. Old magic could take on many colours, but with recent regulations and changes in methods, modern magic is more or less restricted to three possibilities – good, neutral, or negative intent. Most of the older forms of magic have been lost throughout the years.'

‘Does that mean we'll never see a stone glowing purple?' Miguel asked.

‘You misunderstand. Your emotions are not the same as magical energy. Emotions have not changed over time, and emotions are also not restricted by laws or modern society to a range of good, bad and neutral. At first, during your studies, you will not be able to differentiate emotion from energy, and most of your spells will be tainted with feeling. But soon you will learn.'

I silently took all this in, wondering whether that last statement was true. There seemed so, so much to learn that I couldn't imagine ever getting through it all.

Considering the sheer dullness of the first half of Jadon's lesson, it was a total and complete success, inspiring a lot of excited dialogue between classmates on the way out. I'd loved it, mostly for Jadon's fun little tricks. What level of control did one need to be able to manipulate magic like that? They were just party tricks, really, nothing of real use, but so showy and well-done that I couldn't wait to progress through his subject and juggle my own specks of light.

My excitement didn't fade – I knew that I had a telepathy lesson next with Glen as my instructor. I'd noticed that Hiroko and the twins were in my class with me, so thankfully, I wouldn't be alone.

‘Have you ever read anyone's mind with telepathy?' Hiroko asked us, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside her bed and picking through her things. I glanced at Sterling, hoping that I wasn't going to be the only one who couldn't even mind-read my own sister. Thankfully, she shook her head.

‘Once I thought I mind-read my stepmom's thoughts, but then I realised she was just talking to herself about what she needed to get in the groceries,' she answered ruefully. I smiled.

‘I can't do it either,' I agreed. To my surprise, Sterling giggled.

‘
Can't
,' she repeated, trying to imitate my speech. ‘
Either
. You talk so cute, Aristea. You sound so Irish.'

For a moment I stared at her blankly, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter at her stupid comment.

‘That's because I
am
Irish,' I said, laughing. Hiroko shook her head, trying to hide her smile. After our laughter subsided, and we'd pulled ourselves together, I added, ‘There are people here from all over the world. Haven't you met Irish people before?'

Sterling spoke, but her response was broken by occasional leftover giggles.

‘Not really,' she said. ‘I saw Irish people on MTV once, though. An interview.'

Eventually the time came to go to our next class, by which time Sterling had managed to turn the conversation about Irish musicians into one about Renatus.

‘He's Irish, too, you know,' she said vaguely, collecting her things. Again, I stared at her incredulously.

‘I noticed,' I said, trying not to laugh at her, ‘seeing as I am Irish, too, and seeing as we are in Ireland.'

Sterling giggled.

‘I just wonder how a man that looks like him, with a home like this, manages to
not
be married!' she commented as we left the dorm.

‘You don't know he's not,' I said cheekily, and she stuck her tongue out at me.

‘I looked last night and he wasn't wearing a ring, but I'm sure that if he had a wife, she would have made herself known by now to prevent students like me from gazing after her gorgeous husband,' Sterling responded. We filed down the winding stairway. ‘I certainly wouldn't want any young girls mistaking my hubby for a potential boyfriend.'

‘Even without a wife, he is not a potential boyfriend,' Hiroko reminded Sterling. ‘He is headmaster of this school, and you are a student.'

Sterling waved one hand dismissively, as if everything Hiroko had just said was as completely irrelevant and off-topic as a comment about starfish.

‘Besides, we would know if he was married,' Sterling continued. ‘Emmanuelle would have said something yesterday.' She stopped and looked back up the stairs. ‘Where am I going? I'm meant to be upstairs learning about history.'

She said goodbye and hurried back upstairs. Hiroko and I looked at each other, and then continued outside.

It was a beautiful day, with a somewhat clear blue sky and a warm yellow sun shining down on Renatus's rolling green grounds. Though it did seem odd to be having lessons outside, I couldn't see any reason why not. Winter had been kind this year.

‘This place is so beautiful,' Hiroko said, admiring the unspoilt land. ‘If it were mine, I would not make it a school.'

‘Me either,' I agreed, waving as we rounded the side of the massive building and the twins came into view.

‘Kendra and I visited a farm like this when we were young,' Sophia said when we repeated our sentiments to her. She turned to her sister, adding, ‘You remember, Uncle Joseph's farm. We played with the baby chickens.'

‘I only remember the lambs,' Kendra answered, looking distractedly through the small group of other students gathered around Glen. Her cute admirer wasn't present. The White Elm sorcerer was kneeling on the soft green grass, stroking a small dove that he held in his cupped hand. He seemed not to notice the gaggle of young adult students at first; his attention was entirely devoted to the gentle creature in his hands. He was humming a soft, indistinct tune that I could barely make out, but the dove seemed to like the sound, blinking serenely and making no attempt to fly away. We all stood around in what might have been uncomfortable silence, except that we were all staring at the lovely scene of gentle Glen and his dove, and were all bathed in the aura of his kindliness.

It occurred to me what good people the White Elm really were. These were people who
cared
. Good, honest, kind-hearted,
real
people. There had been complaints from the public in recent years about the White Elm and its “old-fashioned policies” and its “slipping grasp of political power”, but I had never heard anything actually
bad
about the council. A few of its members had
turned
bad, and left the council, but there had never been reports of the White Elm causing anybody harm. It made me wonder, quite suddenly, what the other side was like.

‘Thank you all for being on-time,' Glen said pleasantly, patting the grass invitingly. ‘Take a seat, please, and make yourselves comfortable.'

We did so; I settled myself on the squishy green grass between Hiroko and Kendra.

‘Telepathy has many uses, and there are many branches of it,' Glen began. ‘Some will find it an easier subject than others, depending on your natural perceptivity and concentration skills…'

Already, my heart was sinking. Natural perceptivity? And as for concentration, well…I'd already stopped listening. I made an effort to tune back in.

‘…the simplest of which is detecting deceit or untrustworthiness,' Glen was saying now, ‘a skill we will work on here, and the most extreme of which is magical interrogation – which you realise, of course, is not only illegal but deeply wrong,' he added flatly. ‘There are three main goals we will work towards in this class. First: to learn how to enter another's mind
legally and safely
without putting that person's dignity or safety at risk. Second: how to recognise and resist an unwanted presence in your mind. Third: to learn how to communicate with others using the powers of the mind and the aura. There are many ethics and laws associated with our first and third goals, which we will cover in theory; not so many laws for our second. I suggest you worry less about protecting an intruder than protecting your own precious minds in the event of a mental attack.' His soft features went serious. ‘These are not stable times. There are people outside these walls, everywhere, with the ability to break into the minds of others, to harm and control through means of telepathy. You are talented, good sorcerers – it is important you remain safe from his dangers.'

The dove fluttered nervously in Glen's hand, and immediately he dropped the ominous tone and reverted back to his air of steady calm. We, the students, glanced at one another with slightly unsettled expressions. By
his,
we had to assume that Glen was referring to Lisandro, the former White Elm councillor who was now apparently attempting to undermine them.

‘Yesterday, when you arrived here for the first time, you gave myself and Susannah permission to search your minds,' Glen said, pleasant and informative again. ‘All of you. By gaining your permission and following certain ethical restrictions on what we could and could not view, Susannah and I acted within the law. We accessed enough memory, personality and emotion within your minds to be sure of your identities, your trustworthiness and your skill levels, but left everything in its original “place”, so to speak, without disrupting the natural order of the mind. This is a part of telepathic safety procedures, which you will all learn before you do any deep-mind diving. I learned enough about each of you to be able to recognise your minds at first touch. Mind-touch is something I expect you all to be familiar with.'

The lesson began swiftly – we were paired up and instructed to search for the other's aura. I'd never seen an aura, although I had a pretty good idea what I was meant to be looking for. Theoretically, there should be a glowing frame of colour around my partner, representative of the energy that radiated from every living thing. I'd always been able to feel them, sense them, but never actually
see
them. 

Sophia, with whom I was partnered, squinted at me for a while before insisting that I had no aura.

‘Of course I do,' I said, although I had never before seen it, nor anyone else's.

‘I can sometimes see them,' Sophia admitted, ‘but either you don't have one or I'm not looking hard enough.'

‘I would say that you weren't looking hard enough,' Glen said, looking over me as he passed, ‘but Aristea possesses a very unique aura. It has…holes.'

‘Holes?' I asked, worried. That sounded bad, like I was faulty or something. Glen laughed.

‘I've not seen that particular characteristic in many individuals, but it's nothing to worry yourself about. It's like a birthmark, I'd guess. Irrelevant.' He turned to address the class. ‘In order to properly view auras, one needs to slip into a different frame of mind. Staring at the physical world isn't going to give you access to what lies just outside your visible spectrum.'

Annoyed, I realised that this was more meditation.

‘I
hate
meditation,' I told Sophia bitterly. Glen glanced over at me, and I realised I'd spoken a little too loudly.

‘It's not really meditation,' he said, putting a hand over my eyes, obscuring the grassy green grounds and Sophia's face from my view. ‘It's more like…focussing your eyes. Try again.'

I felt his presence brush past mine, felt him alter something in my mind. When he took his hand away, it was like he took away something else, too, like a veil or something equally immaterial. I blinked, and my mouth fell open.

Sophia, who hadn't moved, stood before me, a misty turquoise green glow around her body. She seemed unaware of the change, and was watching me curiously. I looked around at the others, who were facing their partners, squinting and screwing up their faces in concentration. Kendra's aura was similar to her twin's, although probably bluer. Hiroko glowed with slowly swirling shades of red and pink. I turned back to Glen, and was impressed by his very solid aura of shimmery ivory and its shining outline of the brightest white – the White Elm influence on his life, I supposed.

‘How did you do that?' I asked him, but already the glowing auras were slipping away. I had lost my focus.

‘I'm not doing anything,' Glen answered. ‘This is
your
ability, Aristea. All I did was remove its biggest obstruction – doubt.'