***
Mairelon didn't make an appearance at the house until dinner. But Kim was just grateful he hadn't disappeared completely. Throughout the meal, she found herself looking over at Mairelon and finding his gaze already on her. He did the same several times, so many in fact that they each hid a smile the next time their eyes met.
Kim felt as though she was seeing Mairelon for the first time. His shirt fit him well and seemed to bring out the color of his eyes. She smiled as she studied his hair; as always, it was slightly out of place as if it was an outward manifestation of his absent-mindedness. She had the sudden mental image of running her fingers through it, and looked down at her plate quickly. She was surprised at herself; Mairelon was certainly the first man to evoke such a response in her.
She made it through dinner without staring too openly at the attractive wizard sitting across from her. She hardly spoke during the meal, and Mairelon too was unnaturally quiet. A short while after the meal, Mairelon found her and said, "Do you feel up to some spell-casting this evening?"
Something in the tone of his voice made the question seem a bit formal, and Kim felt as though she was accepting his offer to do more than continue her magic lessons. But she told him truthfully, "I've been waiting all day for it!" and followed him to the room where unpredictable spells were always cast.
"Kim, if you'd do the honors," Mairelon said as they entered. Kim concentrated briefly and checked on the permanent ward that protected the room for the purpose of containing any wayward spells.
"Seems all right to me," Kim said. Mairelon nodded, appearing to trust her judgment rather than check the ward himself.
He walked over to one of the shelves in the room and came back towards Kim with a shard of chalk. "As you know, there are a variety of ways to investigate the nature of a particular spell. Do you remember reading about them some time ago?"
"I think so," Kim said, suddenly nervous that she would seem like a dolt in front of Mairelon when she didn't remember something.
"When is it easiest to analyze a spell?" he asked.
"When it's actually happenin'," Kim answered easily, then sobered as she realized this could be a sensitive subject. After all, Mairelon had only recently recovered the magical abilities that he'd lost by trying to analyze a spell in progress.
Mairelon too looked a little uncomfortable. He turned from her and kneeled to begin drawing on the bare floor with the chalk. As he did, he spoke to her, "I'm going to show you a useful spell to do just that. This will require both of us casting simultaneously and could be quite tricky." He finished drawing and sat back. "You'll need to do the true-seeing spell from the book to cause the true diagrams to be revealed, while I work the analysis spell. Then we can switch and let you have a go at the analysis spell."
He brought over a high stool and set paper and writing utensils on it. He caught Kim's gaze for a second but looked down at the chalk diagram before saying, "The difficult bit is coordinating the spell-casting so that the person working the spell we intend to analyze doesn't get any backlash from the analysis spell. But I don't think that will be a problem; you've become quite accomplished at spell-casting."
Kim found herself looking down at the toes of her shoes as Mairelon laid the book in question on the floor, open to the first of the seemingly identical figures. He stood up beside her, barely a foot away. "Here's the part we need to coordinate," he told her, stepping closer. "If you could... give me your hand," he said a little uncertainly. Kim took his hand, her pulse speeding up as Mairelon stepped even closer. He turned her hand in his so they were clasped together but each pointing at the chalked diagram with their first fingers. Kim wondered how in the world she would focus on a complicated spell with the distraction of Mairelon standing so close that her dress brushed his legs.
When Mairelon spoke, his voice was hoarse. "We start by pointing at this line to the left and trace the diagram at a slow pace. It's important that we finish just as you have finished the true-seeing spell on the book." He paused and she could hear him take a steady breath.
"I'll guide our hands, but you'll need to be aware of where we are in the chalk diagram so that you finish drawing the book's diagram in your head at the same time. Do you think you can do that?" He turned his head slightly to see her reply, and she watched the recognition fill his eyes when he realized he was only a breath away.
Kim could only nod. Mairelon turned to look at the floor and cleared his throat. "We'll practice a few times first; just be sure not to say the phrase that will invoke the spell."
Again Kim nodded and found it really did take her entire concentration to coordinate the two diagrams. It was even harder to focus on her mental diagram with her eyes opened and staring at a very dissimilar figure on the floor. "How'd it go?" Mairelon asked when their hands pointed at the final point of the chalked figure.
"Nearly the same," Kim said with some surprise. They practiced twice more before she timidly said, "I'm ready." Mairelon nodded and gave her a quick nervous smile before pointing at the first part of the diagram. He began to guide their hands as Kim began to mentally build her own diagram. Mairelon mouthed the words of the analysis spell as they went so as not to distract Kim. But she knew what he was doing because heat flared across her face as though rising from the chalk before them. The crystal words danced in her vision, but helped her concentration rather than distracting her.
She finished her mental drawing and whispered "Visus verus!" as Mairelon stayed their hands. The words flew from her and jostled with the framework of the other spell, and in the air she could see the letters fly apart and come back together to form new words. The words shone with light so brightly she closed her eyes. But when she peaked a second later, she found the words were fading rapidly. Mairelon had dropped their hands to their sides but had not relinquished her hand. His right hand was writing rapidly on the paper he'd set on the stool, and Kim realized he was writing down the words before they faded completely.
The words were all in Latin, so meant nothing to her, but Mairelon had finished writing and appeared to be reading over what he'd just jotted down. He turned to her with a smile and said, "It's the first step in setting a spell like the one that disguised the figures in the book!" He squeezed her hand, then appeared to remember he was holding it, and released her.
Kim was surprised at his excitement, "You mean you've never analyzed this spell before?"
"No," he told her, "I thought of it months ago, but realized what a good opportunity it would be for you to try your hand at spell-casting. Speaking of which, we need to modify my analysis spell some; then you can try that part."
Kim was uncertain since Mairelon had said the person performing that part had to be careful not to hurt the other wizard with an uncontrolled backlash of power, but she soon forgot that fear as Mairelon began grilling her on how the diagram needed to be altered.
After the long process of fixing the diagram so they could determine the next step in the spell they were investigating, Kim stood and closed the distance between herself and Mairelon. She stood so close to him their sides were touching slightly, a fact that made her body feel warm all over. She took his right hand in her left and curled their fingers together. She glanced at Mairelon's face and found his eyes were closed.
"Tell me when to start," she said uncertainly, feeling dizzy with Mairelon's nearness.
"Whenever you're ready," he told her in a low voice.
Kim swallowed and began moving their hands to trace the diagram on the floor. They practiced a few times; then Mairelon taught her the words to her part of the spell.
They began, and Kim managed to remember the hastily memorized incantation and time the words well with their progress around the diagram. But right from the beginning, the words she uttered trembled with power. Kim had never worked a spell with so much raw power in it, and she struggled to trap the energy into each word, willing the letters to contain it. She maintained a precarious hold over them until the end, but just as they completed the diagram and Mairelon's two words rang out, she felt the spell slip...
Mairelon didn't cry out or say a word, but his whole body jerked beside her, and Kim grabbed him with both hands. "Mairelon!"
His dazed eyes met hers, and he managed, "I'm fine Kim... the words. Write down the words."
With a fierce frown, Kim bit her lip and turned to the paper on the stool to scribble down the letters as best she could. She turned back to Mairelon when she'd finished and found him rubbing his temples. Kim cringed. "Mairelon, I didn't mean... I'm sorry!" she told him.
Mairelon smiled and put a hand on her arm, "It's all right, Kim. Really, that was hardly anything as far as backlashes can go. I've been knocked unconscious by recoiling spells before. I'll be fine."
She frowned; no, it wasn't all right. Mairelon had trusted her, and she'd let him down. She'd let him get hurt. "You should sit down..." she said.
"Perhaps I should," Mairelon said, taking in her worried face, "but honestly that wasn't too bad a shock. After all, it's not as though you lost control of the spell; you still got the next set of instructions written down." Kim shivered at the thought of what harm would have come to Mairelon if she'd completely lost control over the amount of power she'd put into that spell.
They took seats next to each other on the other side of the room, but Kim was still spooked at the idea of what could have happened to Mairelon. "Mairelon," Kim said, "Maybe I shouldn't do any spell-casting..."
"Nonsense, Kim," he said in no uncertain terms. "This was completely my fault. I'd forgotten how difficult it is to weave a large amount of power into a spell for the first time. It was silly of me not to have you practice on a powerful spell that was a little less dangerous first."
He smiled reassuringly at her and seemed to have recovered, but Kim still felt very guilty for injuring him. Mairelon launched into an explanation of the various types of spells that required a great deal of raw power and the techniques necessary to cast them. Kim paid avid attention so she would never harm Mairelon like that again, but couldn't help the guilt she still felt.
***
Mairelon didn't make an appearance at the house until dinner. But Kim was just grateful he hadn't disappeared completely. Throughout the meal, she found herself looking over at Mairelon and finding his gaze already on her. He did the same several times, so many in fact that they each hid a smile the next time their eyes met.
Kim felt as though she was seeing Mairelon for the first time. His shirt fit him well and seemed to bring out the color of his eyes. She smiled as she studied his hair; as always, it was slightly out of place as if it was an outward manifestation of his absent-mindedness. She had the sudden mental image of running her fingers through it, and looked down at her plate quickly. She was surprised at herself; Mairelon was certainly the first man to evoke such a response in her.
She made it through dinner without staring too openly at the attractive wizard sitting across from her. She hardly spoke during the meal, and Mairelon too was unnaturally quiet. A short while after the meal, Mairelon found her and said, "Do you feel up to some spell-casting this evening?"
Something in the tone of his voice made the question seem a bit formal, and Kim felt as though she was accepting his offer to do more than continue her magic lessons. But she told him truthfully, "I've been waiting all day for it!" and followed him to the room where unpredictable spells were always cast.
"Kim, if you'd do the honors," Mairelon said as they entered. Kim concentrated briefly and checked on the permanent ward that protected the room for the purpose of containing any wayward spells.
"Seems all right to me," Kim said. Mairelon nodded, appearing to trust her judgment rather than check the ward himself.
He walked over to one of the shelves in the room and came back towards Kim with a shard of chalk. "As you know, there are a variety of ways to investigate the nature of a particular spell. Do you remember reading about them some time ago?"
"I think so," Kim said, suddenly nervous that she would seem like a dolt in front of Mairelon when she didn't remember something.
"When is it easiest to analyze a spell?" he asked.
"When it's actually happenin'," Kim answered easily, then sobered as she realized this could be a sensitive subject. After all, Mairelon had only recently recovered the magical abilities that he'd lost by trying to analyze a spell in progress.
Mairelon too looked a little uncomfortable. He turned from her and kneeled to begin drawing on the bare floor with the chalk. As he did, he spoke to her, "I'm going to show you a useful spell to do just that. This will require both of us casting simultaneously and could be quite tricky." He finished drawing and sat back. "You'll need to do the true-seeing spell from the book to cause the true diagrams to be revealed, while I work the analysis spell. Then we can switch and let you have a go at the analysis spell."
He brought over a high stool and set paper and writing utensils on it. He caught Kim's gaze for a second but looked down at the chalk diagram before saying, "The difficult bit is coordinating the spell-casting so that the person working the spell we intend to analyze doesn't get any backlash from the analysis spell. But I don't think that will be a problem; you've become quite accomplished at spell-casting."
Kim found herself looking down at the toes of her shoes as Mairelon laid the book in question on the floor, open to the first of the seemingly identical figures. He stood up beside her, barely a foot away. "Here's the part we need to coordinate," he told her, stepping closer. "If you could... give me your hand," he said a little uncertainly. Kim took his hand, her pulse speeding up as Mairelon stepped even closer. He turned her hand in his so they were clasped together but each pointing at the chalked diagram with their first fingers. Kim wondered how in the world she would focus on a complicated spell with the distraction of Mairelon standing so close that her dress brushed his legs.
When Mairelon spoke, his voice was hoarse. "We start by pointing at this line to the left and trace the diagram at a slow pace. It's important that we finish just as you have finished the true-seeing spell on the book." He paused and she could hear him take a steady breath.
"I'll guide our hands, but you'll need to be aware of where we are in the chalk diagram so that you finish drawing the book's diagram in your head at the same time. Do you think you can do that?" He turned his head slightly to see her reply, and she watched the recognition fill his eyes when he realized he was only a breath away.
Kim could only nod. Mairelon turned to look at the floor and cleared his throat. "We'll practice a few times first; just be sure not to say the phrase that will invoke the spell."
Again Kim nodded and found it really did take her entire concentration to coordinate the two diagrams. It was even harder to focus on her mental diagram with her eyes opened and staring at a very dissimilar figure on the floor. "How'd it go?" Mairelon asked when their hands pointed at the final point of the chalked figure.
"Nearly the same," Kim said with some surprise. They practiced twice more before she timidly said, "I'm ready." Mairelon nodded and gave her a quick nervous smile before pointing at the first part of the diagram. He began to guide their hands as Kim began to mentally build her own diagram. Mairelon mouthed the words of the analysis spell as they went so as not to distract Kim. But she knew what he was doing because heat flared across her face as though rising from the chalk before them. The crystal words danced in her vision, but helped her concentration rather than distracting her.
She finished her mental drawing and whispered "Visus verus!" as Mairelon stayed their hands. The words flew from her and jostled with the framework of the other spell, and in the air she could see the letters fly apart and come back together to form new words. The words shone with light so brightly she closed her eyes. But when she peaked a second later, she found the words were fading rapidly. Mairelon had dropped their hands to their sides but had not relinquished her hand. His right hand was writing rapidly on the paper he'd set on the stool, and Kim realized he was writing down the words before they faded completely.
The words were all in Latin, so meant nothing to her, but Mairelon had finished writing and appeared to be reading over what he'd just jotted down. He turned to her with a smile and said, "It's the first step in setting a spell like the one that disguised the figures in the book!" He squeezed her hand, then appeared to remember he was holding it, and released her.
Kim was surprised at his excitement, "You mean you've never analyzed this spell before?"
"No," he told her, "I thought of it months ago, but realized what a good opportunity it would be for you to try your hand at spell-casting. Speaking of which, we need to modify my analysis spell some; then you can try that part."
Kim was uncertain since Mairelon had said the person performing that part had to be careful not to hurt the other wizard with an uncontrolled backlash of power, but she soon forgot that fear as Mairelon began grilling her on how the diagram needed to be altered.
After the long process of fixing the diagram so they could determine the next step in the spell they were investigating, Kim stood and closed the distance between herself and Mairelon. She stood so close to him their sides were touching slightly, a fact that made her body feel warm all over. She took his right hand in her left and curled their fingers together. She glanced at Mairelon's face and found his eyes were closed.
"Tell me when to start," she said uncertainly, feeling dizzy with Mairelon's nearness.
"Whenever you're ready," he told her in a low voice.
Kim swallowed and began moving their hands to trace the diagram on the floor. They practiced a few times; then Mairelon taught her the words to her part of the spell.
They began, and Kim managed to remember the hastily memorized incantation and time the words well with their progress around the diagram. But right from the beginning, the words she uttered trembled with power. Kim had never worked a spell with so much raw power in it, and she struggled to trap the energy into each word, willing the letters to contain it. She maintained a precarious hold over them until the end, but just as they completed the diagram and Mairelon's two words rang out, she felt the spell slip...
Mairelon didn't cry out or say a word, but his whole body jerked beside her, and Kim grabbed him with both hands. "Mairelon!"
His dazed eyes met hers, and he managed, "I'm fine Kim... the words. Write down the words."
With a fierce frown, Kim bit her lip and turned to the paper on the stool to scribble down the letters as best she could. She turned back to Mairelon when she'd finished and found him rubbing his temples. Kim cringed. "Mairelon, I didn't mean... I'm sorry!" she told him.
Mairelon smiled and put a hand on her arm, "It's all right, Kim. Really, that was hardly anything as far as backlashes can go. I've been knocked unconscious by recoiling spells before. I'll be fine."
She frowned; no, it wasn't all right. Mairelon had trusted her, and she'd let him down. She'd let him get hurt. "You should sit down..." she said.
"Perhaps I should," Mairelon said, taking in her worried face, "but honestly that wasn't too bad a shock. After all, it's not as though you lost control of the spell; you still got the next set of instructions written down." Kim shivered at the thought of what harm would have come to Mairelon if she'd completely lost control over the amount of power she'd put into that spell.
They took seats next to each other on the other side of the room, but Kim was still spooked at the idea of what could have happened to Mairelon. "Mairelon," Kim said, "Maybe I shouldn't do any spell-casting..."
"Nonsense, Kim," he said in no uncertain terms. "This was completely my fault. I'd forgotten how difficult it is to weave a large amount of power into a spell for the first time. It was silly of me not to have you practice on a powerful spell that was a little less dangerous first."
He smiled reassuringly at her and seemed to have recovered, but Kim still felt very guilty for injuring him. Mairelon launched into an explanation of the various types of spells that required a great deal of raw power and the techniques necessary to cast them. Kim paid avid attention so she would never harm Mairelon like that again, but couldn't help the guilt she still felt.
***