Chapter 11:
By the time I had woken and freshened up, the others had a pile of books laid out for me. There were so many that I wondered how I would even find the information I needed. Well, the sooner you go through this pile, the better.
I sat down on my bed determinedly, pulled out a book and started reading. Soon, I was immersed in it. I finished it and went onto the next. This continued until I lost count of how many I had read.
Someone tapped me on my shoulder. Startled, I turned around to see Stacey smiling at me. "Did you find anything useful?"
I sighed. "Not much. So far, I've read all about these different spells I could use but other than that, there is nothing more of use. I still have to try out the spells to make sure I can actually perform them." I looked around me in despair. "There are so many books here! It's going to take me FOREVER to finish this."
"Do you want me to help you?" Stacey asked, her voice dripping with concern.
"Oh no, you know what, I think I'm going to be fine." I got up out of my bed. "Maybe I'll go now and try out some of those spells in an empty classroom or something. Thank god Gloria is out of town this weekend!"
"Ok…but I still want you to be careful! Just because she's gone doesn't mean you are safe." Stacey looked wary.
"Ok, ok, I'll be extra careful!" I laughed, picked up all the spell books, and left the room, looking for an empty classroom. It felt so good to finally stretch my legs.
I finally managed to find an empty history classroom whereupon I closed the door and got myself a seat. Opening the first page, I looked at the spell:
The Spell of Revenge
Ixin tarr mendia scintorr
Ki ammos reventialet drystustuatun
I stared at the spell before flipping to the cover of the book and reading the title: Dark Magick. I quickly closed the book and put it away. The last thing I needed was to learn to cast these horrendous spells. I reached out for the next book, this one being full of spells that weren't evil.
The Spell of Healing
Menyon tiena sacrosistis
Laksien toronbia krier leis stroplartumn
I looked around for something I could practice it on. All I needed was something that was hurt or in an unusual position. At least, that's what the textbook said. I spied a withering plant and decided to use that. Taking deep breaths, I focused all my attention on that flower. It must be healed, I thought. I closed my eyes and chanted the spell of healing with an image of the withering flower in my mind. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked into silence. The flower wasn't withering anymore. In fact, it seemed to be blossoming. It had also grown much bigger. I felt giddy with success and I rushed to leave the room and go tell Stacey. Taking the flower with me, I ran down the hall to our room, exuberant and flushed.
When I entered the room, I found everyone already assembled there. "What are you guys doing here?" I asked.
Josh grinned, "Well, we thought we'd pitch in and try and help you as much as possible." Everyone nodded their agreement and Negin added, "We're your friends. We can't let you just go through this by yourself."
As I looked at all of their faces, I could feel tears springing to my eyes. An emotional, awkward pause ensued and Mallory broke it by coughing. "So…let's tell her what we found!"
Kate walked over to me with a book. "In this book, there are many tales. And one of the tales is similar to what is happening right now. In here, the heir to the high priestess position announced a duel with the person who was against her. But before the duel, the heir had to endure strenuous training."
"Some of the training is so dangerous that it could kill someone." Jackson interrupted. "After the training, she was ready for the battle."
"Naturally, she won the duel in the end." Stacey continued. "This story is really good because it tells you exactly what happened and how the heir was trained. There's just one problem…." She hesitated.
"You need someone who has a lot of experience to be a mentor and teach it. The person who trained this character was her mentor. And in this case, that would be Rick." Josh finished.
A cold wave of disappointment hit me. Rick would never help me. He hated me and respected Gloria way too much to believe me. "Is there no way for me to learn and train myself?" I asked desperately.
Mallory shook her head no. "The training and the guidance you require can only be given to you by your mentor because he is the only one with that knowledge. The people who are trained to teach the future head priestess have to go to a special school and undergo all sorts of things. Whatever is learned is embedded into their memory and can't be found in any books or anything. It's impossible."
The bell rang, signalling that it was time to eat. We shuffled out of the room quietly and went to the mess hall.
"Don't worry, Arisa, we'll figure something out." Negin promised. As they all mumbled their reassurances, I kept thinking on how I would convince Rick. Just deal with it in the morning, I thought. Yawning, I headed to my bed and fell fast asleep.
