Silver Cathedral Saga (12 page)

“But it’s
about ten feet away,” replied the boy. “Even a person at peak
strength couldn’t manage that very easy. Never mind a little kid
like me.”

The
Spell-caster sighed, then drooped his posture. “You are now a part
of the Edeolon magick, Christian. Start acting like it. Shift your
preconceived notions of the world around, and the magick will help
you make it that way.”

Christian
replied with muttering “okay, I’ll try”. And the thing is, he did
in fact feel as if he was a part of the Edeolon magick.

“Again, not
the answer I was looking for,” replied the Spell-caster.

“Okay, I’ll
do it. Just give me a little time,” replied the boy. Each eye
closed together. He could sense in some way that the Spell-caster
had moved whilst he had his eyes shut. Not by the sound, as he
didn’t make any. But by the emptiness of the space in front of
where he stood. It was a feeling he had never felt till now.

“Do you
feel the ripple my movements make?” asked the Master. “I do not
want you to answer out loud. “My very steps should be able to be
sensed by you when you focus at your best. This is my kinetic
movement leaving its mark for you to trace.”

“I
think I’m ready,” said Christian.

Then, in a
quick succession after his words, was a strike from the Master on
Christian’s neck. Only it sounded harder than what it felt. As he
opened his eyes a white surrounded the man who flew through the
air, moving towards the wall. The child looked hopeful as he was
nearing it, but the older man did not hit the desired target,
making him fall about five inches short or so with a thud.

The Master
then moved closer to the wall and leaned against the flat surface.
“You definitely show promise,” he said, rubbing his back where he
fell to the floor. “There is only one person who has actually
achieved that first lesson.”

“And yet
you think that would tell you lot something,” replied Christian in
a cheeky tone.

The man now
stood, seeming to ignore what had just been said and winced a
little. “I was not expecting you to catch on so… quick. Otherwise I
would have worn some armour.”

“What did
you just teach me to do?” asked Christian.

“Battle-casters are known for their kinetic amplification
abilities. You are using your target’s energy mixed with the might
of magick—against them. It’s a defensive ability. The first ability
you will always be taught to use in magick is how to defend
yourself. All the strength or power in the world will not make a
difference, not if your opponent is quicker than you. Which is
where this kind of magick comes in handy. Defensive abilities may
seem dull and boring but they are an integral part to survival, and
without surviving you would not be able to get in those stronger,
offensive blows.”

“Too true,”
hollerred Christian. It seemed he was not at all bored by the
defensive magick, but more intrigued. “How does this ability relate
to mind magick?”

“There are
a great many things you might never understand within your new
magick world. Even I do not understand some of my power, but I
understand it is important to at least try to learn it all. Okay,
lesson learned. Well done. And make sure you continue to work on
that for the next few days; until you improve on redirecting your
energy to be strong enough to catapult the person into this back
wall here—very hard. Hard enough to knock them out.”

“Right,” he
replied. Christian ran off in a cheery mood, like a child that had
just gotten a brand new toy to play with. A one he had been waiting
what felt like forever to get.

Swansie

Ematay
landed his way of travel near a specialised stable that was made
for the large War Swans; as they were bred here also.

It was a
grand old place in size, this stable, although that was unnecessary
to say; as keeping multiple amounts of giant anything would require
a vast amount of space.

He and the
other three Spell-casters tied their swans, patted their necks then
left the stable boys to look after them whilst they started
looking.

“Get them
prepared as soon as possible. We will be back very soon,” said the
Star-caster.

“Yes, will
do,” said one of the boys, sounding as if he was none the wiser of
what was going on in the world right now.

The
Star-caster was told by the king to lead the party mainly because
of his personal experience with what he had seen and survived
against. He, Ematay, was at the front of the line as they all
hastily walked out of the open aired stable made up of resting
pens.

Before they
all left, the group saw that there was a lot of War Swans there,
much more than the Silver Cathedral had in their Ready Room. Not
thousands more, but easily another few hundred. More in the middle
of three digit numbers.

“We best go
to the council chamber; if anybody would know where this
‘Nightingale’ would be, it would be there. The Romani would be
flooding the population by now, so it will require some gruelling
down time, and a little less sleep than usual, folks.” Some of them
rolled their eyes after hearing this.

There was
two females with the Star-caster, the Beast-caster and Fire-caster.
Ematay and the Battle-caster (also known as a Swan Knight on
Astora) were male, and older, though only by a little.

As soon as
they were out of the stable they headed straight for a building in
the centre of the city. Which was only a minute walk away or so
before they got there.

The streets
were not as crowded as Ematay had imagined, but it was quite late
now, nearing dark. And Swansie had a different policy to Hiva Aura
about letting people out in the dark. It wasn’t dangerous, only a
formal time to educate themselves about herbs and medicine.

You see,
there was not just a group of doctors in this city, every adult
over thirty-five was a fully fledged healer. Using the powers of
herbs, ointments and natural oils to heal those from afar and near.
This was not just the city of War Swans—this was the city of
healers, and the place most Swan Knights are also recruited.

That might
sound like a lot for one city to deal with, but because Swansie was
the first city for hundreds of years before Sunndira and Silvarian
were even created, a lot had to be handled here. And the kings and
Queens of old did not see a reason to change what people did
here.

Solar

It was
very early in the morning. The sun started to come up; normally
Eleanor’s body would never even know or pay attention to this.

She woke
imminently and felt the heat, only that wasn’t all she felt that
day. She also felt herself growing stronger again because of this
heat and light sinking into her from the centre star.

Eleanor
looked at her skin quickly, scared and shocked, and saw that it
glowed with a brief flash in a fiery yellow with a tinge of orange;
like the colour which surrounded the Master who helped with the
initiation yesterday. A colour of fire, also at different angles,
of the sun.

Though it
soon disappeared she could still feel the heat and light on her
skin peeping through the two windows directed to her bed. It
continued to, little by little, make her feel stronger, in a way
she had never felt before. Even stronger than what she felt after
the initiation, which wore off all too quickly when she left the
training room.

It was
still much too early to get up. Everybody would be asleep, or they
should have been.

Only she
heard noises from the stairs echo through the hall and creak up to
under her door. Someone was moving.

Her door
swung open, violently.

“Eleanor,”
shouted the servant she saw the last two days. “You have an early
start. Get yourself moving.”

The female
youngling from Hiva Aura didn’t think it was necessary to shout, or
to break the door whilst waking up the child. Which was all
pointless as she was already awake to begin with.

Eleanor
soon enough got dressed into her uniform and went straight to the
training room, even before breakfast. She rubbed her eyes on the
way up the grand staircases, then yawned. Her lungs now felt a
little more alive and awake, but not her eyes.

She
quickly got to the training room.

The
Fire-caster Master was there. He must had been waiting a little
while, because he was slouched in a comfortable position against
the wall.

“Ah, there
you are. Apologies for the abrupt ending yesterday, but without any
energy to take in from the sun there would be nothing to teach, at
least not practically. And now that there is plenty of light this
should be a breeze. Well I hope so.”

“I too want
to apologise. For my little paddy as I left yesterday. I was so
worked up about learning in the world of magick that I forgot all
my manners.”

“That’s
quite alright. I know what’s happened to you both. I’ll let it
slide this time. But don’t expect me to be so lenient again.”

“Thank
you,” replied Eleanor, seeing her and the man were the only two in
the room.

The Master
clapped his hands together, signalling to get ready.

“I am going
to teach you two things today.”

Eleanor
looked even more eager to get started. “What must I do,” she asked,
looking out the stain glass windows that let a lot of light in
somehow, more than normal from what was seen.

“The first
thing you will do—is absorb fire. But there is something you need
to know before we go any further. You only need the sun’s light to
fuel you to generate fire. As long as it’s out you could last
forever generating either fire, heat or light. But when the sun is
down fire drains your absorbed power the fastest. The power of
radiating heat and light is about equal. Immense amounts of heat
usually take up more power than blinding light. But you can also
absorb light and heat, though with absorbing the latter two you can
only make what you absorb. Not fire. Unless you actually absorb
fire itself. Which takes us to this first part. I will teach you
how to absorb fire so you can redirect it’s energy whenever the sun
can not help you.”

The old
Spell-caster got himself ready. “I am going to generate fire, and
keep it lit until you absorb it. Remember, you don’t have to be in
the fire to absorb it. Giving enough time you can make it come to
you, luring it in.” He then placed his hand in front with fire
blasting out. Eleanor’s eyebrows raised themselves, still shocked
even though this Master announced what he was going to do.

He put his
hand down, continuing to stare at this living flame, keeping it
alive but also in control. “Now imagine that the heat is a part of
you, your inner being, of your physicality. Imagine and feel as if
you need it to survive. Feel the bond, like you would have done
with the sun touching your skin this morning.”

Eleanor
closed her eyes as quick as she could and imagined that she needed
the fire to be a part of her.

The
Spell-caster saw the flames in front start to drift towards the
child, wavering like a wind had swept it in her direction.

“Keep at
it,” said the Master. Only when he spoke it broke her
concentration, and the fire quickly went back to where it was
prior; she didn’t absorb any of the fire because of the slow
movement it took to get to her from in front of her body; she was
facing opposite the gifted follower to Emae, the fire in the middle
of them both again.

She opened
her eyes briefly, then shut them and remembered and practised all
that she had just done.

The
Spell-caster was about to open his mouth again, but stopped before
speaking the first word when he saw the girl trying to push aside
her lack of concentrating and carried on as quick as she possibly
could.

The flames
moved again, yet this time they moved much quicker than before.

The man
noticed the girl’s eyes squinting and flickering, trying as hard as
she could, and it looked as if it was paying off. In three seconds
this time the entire amount of fire burning in the middle trickled
through the air and surrounded Eleanor; it then pounced on her body
and made her glow a mighty orange colour, exactly like this
morning, not hurting her at all. It made her feel a little warm for
several moments before her temperature returned back to normal. The
fire fizzled out moving onto her, the outline of her body
disappearing soon after.

“Open your
eyes, little one,” said the Master. She done so as soon as he said,
and saw the image of him smiling proudly. “It seems we have picked
rightly with you two. You are both in leagues of your own.”

Eleanor
looked at herself. She felt powerful, and the thoughts of her still
being a child faded now.

“Do not
disillusion yourself. You are not immortal or a god. I know exactly
how you feel. Take it in, this feeling, but don’t be cocky or feel
like you are better than everyone else, because it could mean the
difference between your life and death in battle.”

“Erm…,”
Eleanor didn’t know what to say to that. Although she was all too
aware about her not being immortal. Yet it was clear from the way
her Master was talking that he understood what she was going
through.

“I want you
to go and think about all that I’ve said; to make sure you take it
all in. Especially the part about still only being mortal.
Spell-casters have to deal in their own way about not mistaking
power with immortality. Yes we have power, but it always has limits
and consequences. And I urge you to always remember that part.”

“I will,”
said Eleanor, quietly moving her legs impatiently, just about to
leave.

“Hold on, I
still have to ask you something. You have to learn a defensive
ability. The easiest to do is either a heat aura or flame shield.
The choice is yours?”