Jenna's Test, Chapter 2
Jenna walked along the outer causeway of Wayreth that autumn morning from the guest quarters. It had been Dalamar's suggestion that Jenna move from the student quarters to a guest room the day before the Test. For most aspiring mages, Wayreth was a magical, mystical destination that became part of the quest, and indeed Test, that the student must acheive to aquire greater knowledge. For Jenna, however, Wayreth was familiar - perhaps dangerously so. As much as Jenna grasped the dangers of the Test intellectually, emotionally she might still feel safe in Wayreth, which would spell her doom. And so Lord Dalamar had sent word that in anticipation of the Test, Jenna should leave her familiar, spartan room, and finish her preparations in a wing which hitherto had been barred to her.
As the student mage continued her short journey, she breathed in the crisp autumn air. It was hard to believe that this might be the last day Jenna would ever see. She'd said her good-byes to her parents the previous evening. Seeing the tears well up in her mother's eyes had been especially hard for Jenna. It had been that, more than even the six months being drilled and worked to exhaustion by Lord Dunbar, that finally brought home the reality of what she was undertaking. But of course Jenna had come too far to back out now.
She brushed those thoughts aside. For the rest of her sojourn around the edge of Wayreth, Jenna prayed to Lunitari; a centering devotional that left the red-robe calm, emotionless, and in control. It was in this state that she arrived at and entered the outer building where Tests were administered.
Jenna was surprised to see the outer foyer empty of people. She'd have expected to see some sort of guard. After all, the Conclave wouldn't want just anyone wandering in. But perhaps...Jenna allowed all thoughts to slip from her mind and opened herself to the magic. Ah, yes. There it was. She could just barely perceive the magic that shimmered around the door. Jenna had entered only because she'd been permitted to do so.
The student mage glanced around the room. It was bare of all furnishings, with nondescript wood-paneled walls. The chamber was smaller than Jenna would have expected, given the size of the building. There were no doors or windows, the only light coming from candles ensconced on the walls.
Where was everyone? Jenna knew that there were two other candidates to be Tested today. She had not arrived late, but wasn't unreasonably early, either. It made no sense that she should be alone.
Jenna was struck by the sudden fear that she was in the wrong place or the wrong time. What if she missed the Test? Would she be allowed to take it at another time?
That thought was immediately replaced by a second, more profound fear that unexpectedly left her cold. What if this was the Test? Dunbar's warning came back to the young mage. "The Test takes place in your mind. It is an illusion, but no mere illusion, for anything that happens to you in the Test happens to you in truth. Above all, do not question the reality in which you find yourself. It is at the precise moment of piercing the illusion that most aspirants die. You must completely and utterly believe what you are experiencing."
The normally imperturbable Jenna let out a shaky breath. Well, the young mage thought wryly, if this is the Test, then she had already broken the most important rule. There was nothing for it but to proceed.
Jenna paused to examine her situation. Why was she there? To take the Test. Was she in the right place and at the right time? The young woman had to admit that it did not seem likely. What was her duty in this matter? To find the Test.
Jenna looked around the room again with narrowed eyes. She knew she had not mistaken Master Dalamar's words as to the time and place. She should be here, but not be here. That would seem to indicate...a hidden chamber, perhaps?
The red-robed mage closed her eyes and visualized the outbuilding as she had seen it from the casement. She then superimposed upon that image the chamber in which she was standing. When she opened her eyes, Jenna strode unerringly to the center of three panels. She began to knock on each panel, her ear close to the wall. Ah, yes. There it was. Jenna stepped back in satisfaction as she gazed upon what she presumed to be the door. Now, all that remained was to find the opening mechanism.
There wasn't much that could be used to trigger the door, thought Jenna, as she observed the smooth wood panels and floor. Indeed the only objects that broke the monotony of the chamber were the iron candle sconces on the walls.
Jenna smiled suddenly. It couldn't be that easy. She examined the sconces on either side of the panel she'd identified as the door, and yes, there was something different about the the one on the left. She grasped the candle and gently tried to remove it.
The candle would not come out of its holder, but the holder itself seemed to be loose inside the sconce. There was clearly some sort of mechanism at work. Jenna slowly twisted the metal holder and then stopped abruptly as an unsettling thought came to her. This was far too easy. What if the purpose of the sconce were more sinister than serving as a mere door handle? Jenna put her ear close to the sconce as she turned it ever so slightly, and heard a very faint hiss. Heart pounding, the mage sniffed, and immediately turned her head from the acrid smell. Hastily she screwed the metal holder in as tightly as she could, and then stepped back, shaken.
"I'll have to be more careful," Jenna muttered. She stepped back into the center of the chamber, and glanced at the floor. It was wooden, with no discernable pattern or design beyond the seeming randomness of the wood grain. Might the mechanism be in the floor?
Wishing to avoid another trap, Jenna reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a small bar of iron. Cautiously she threw it out on the floor before the wall panel in question. Nothing happened. The red-robe stepped gingerly towards the wall, and began tapping her boot around the floor.
After a while, Jenna stopped in frustration. There was no sign of any floor mechanism. Yet she was sure that the route to her destination lay beyond that panel.
The red-robed mage winced at the obviousness of the answer that came to her finally. She could create her own door. Ruefully, Jenna produced chalk from another of her pouches, retrieved the piece of iron from the floor and returned it to its home, and approached the wall. She carefully and precisely drew a door in chalk, closed her eyes, and mentally and physically pushed against the wall...
And fell into a richly furnished, sunny antechamber, to the astonisment of the two men who were seated there.
"Good day, gentlemen," Jenna said coolly, trying to recover her lost dignity.
"Uh, are you here to take the Test?" asked a white-robed man who looked to be in his late 20s.
"I am," she replied. "I presume you are also?"
"Yes. I must say, Mistress, that you chose a most interesting manner of entrance. We simply used the door."
Jenna glanced around the room until her eyes lit upon a proper entrance, with a major domo standing in front of it, staring straight ahead. Why had she been made to struggle for entrance, when these two applicants had merely strolled through the front door?
"Did you have a pleasant journey?" Jenna inquired.
A plainly dressed man in his mid-thirties answered, "Hardly. I'm surprised I survived Wayreth forest."
Ah. Jenna had never been expected to undertake the quest to find Wayreth, so Dalamar must have concocted that little game for her to make up for it.
Jenna began to feel genuine aprehension. If the black-robed wizard was so devious in simply arranging her arrival this day, what would the Test he'd designed for her hold in store?