Author's note: Sorry about the gap between updates. My computer, after
years of faithful neuroticism, died recently, and so I have to send this
through a friend.
Because I'm lazy, this chapter is just extracts from Cassa and Leena's
colegium years. Next chapter will be their internship.
Review, or I'll take even longer!
Chapter 6
*
"Wakey, wakey," said a too cheery voice. "C'mon, it's morning."
Cassa muttered something unprintable.
"Look up." Leena advised cheerfully.
Cassa warily opened one eye, and saw an overfull cup suspended over the bed. Even the threat of the cold water got her out of the comfortable bed. The one time Cassa had decided that Leena was bluffing, she'd had a rude awakening - literally.
Mitt jumped from the bed to rub against Leena's legs. Cassa glared at her.
"Traitor." She muttered.
Cassa dressed quickly in one of the grey tunics the housekeeper had supplied. Annoying though it was to be evicted from one of the most comfortable beds she had ever slept upon, she did not want to be late for breakfast.
Mitt followed as the pair left the room, to stare in interest around the hallway. Although she had been taken, with Cassa and Leena, around the colegium, she had been stopped from exploring.
Another trainee awaited them in the hall.
"Hello," his voice, like Leena's, was far too cheerful at this unholy hour. "I'm Kern. You're Cassa and Leena, right? I'm supposed to show you around." He led them towards the dining hall. "You're the first new trainees to come in. It's a surprise that you came in together. Are you related?"
"No," Leena traded an amused look with Cassa. No one could look less alike than them! "We just came from the same area."
Mitt chose that moment to introduce herself.
"A cat!" The boy seemed surprised. "Is he your pet?"
"She." Cassa corrected. "And, yes. Camber said that the colegium would probably adopt her as mascot."
Kern smiled. "I think you're right. We can probably even get a bowl of finest meat scraps from the cook, for her."
Leena laughed. "She'll get spoilt, and fat, with this easy living!"
*
The breakfast was amazing; the food the best that Cassa at least had ever had available. She had thought that the faire bakers were talented, but the colegium cook could give them a run for their money.
And he had loved Mitt.
The cat had entered the kitchen to be greeted enthusiastically by the trainees. The cook had given them the aforementioned meat scraps, and had suggested that Mitt could remove the few mice that got past the palace rattraps and the animal mind speakers.
Cassa wondered how the Heralds would treat the inevitable mouse-heads.
Lessons would start today, in spite of the fact that three Companions were still out on search. Cassa wondered whether she could use her foresight to find out when they would Choose, but decided against it.
The first lesson was basic orientation; a study that both Cassa and Leena found interesting. The second was geography, moving on to languages and history and a number of others that filled the morning.
It was the afternoon that brought what both girls were looking forward to; fighting and equitation lessons.
The weapons master, Odo, began to teach Leena and Cassa wildly different fighting tequniqes. Cassa was learning sneak-and-run, an acrobatic style that left her muscles aching and bruised. Leena learned a front on style.
Leena had delighted the weaponsmaster with her knowledge of fighting. Her father had supported her ambition to join the army, and had taught her as much as he was able. She wildly surpassed Cassa in skill.
Equitation, however, made up for that. Cassa might not be outstanding, but the faire's trick-riders had taught her a thing or two. Leena still preferred to keep both feet on the ground.
Cassa felt a slight presentiment - not a Foresight vision, for they only came when the future was certain - that this distinction would be extremely important.
*
The other trainees were finally all at the colegium. Ramon, Chosen by Garrett, had arrived first. Dalin, Chosen by Rember, and his twin brother Elad, Chosen by Tumber, had arrived last night.
Ramon was fifteen, but the other two boys were only fourteen. In spite of the disparity in ages, for Cassa and Leena were sixteen, the five got along well. And now it was the lunch break, with one of the cook's famous fry- ups, and Cassa was telling fortunes.
They had been talking about their lives before the Colegium, and they had discovered Cassa's life as a witch. They had, predictably enough, been fascinated, and had requested that she use her foresight on them.
Sapphire flares burst beneath her eyelids as the images formed, flickering through her mind. White-clad riders appeared in her mind. Ramon, Dalik, Elad, Leena, - and hey, that's me - She could identify them, but no more; there faces were blurred, and it was impossible to tell how old the visions were.
Cassa sighed, and opened her eyes. "Well, we all make Herald, but I can't tell you any more than that - not even when. I can only tell the certain future."
"Nothing at all?" Asked Elad, disappointed. He had been the keenest to know his future.
As he spoke, Cassa could see another flash of sapphire in her mind.
This one was - different. It did not show a distinct image. It was a ghostly, see-through vision, and Cassa had the disquieting feeling that what she was seeing was not real, but was a symbol, a metaphor of what would come to pass.
Elad, mounted on Tumber, rode along a ghostly road. The road forked, and Cassa looked down both roads in turn. Both were mazes that twisted and split, each one forming a path Elad's life could take. Each fork was a choice. Which choice would be made was not certain, but that there would be a choice could clearly be foreseen.
Cassa came back to herself, blinking. The vision had only taken a second to see, but her classmates were staring at her, confused.
"I just Saw your life, Elad," Cassa said. The familiar compulsion to tell of what she had seen had come over her. "Each choice you made had its own ending. But I couldn't See what you would choose, or what ending each choice would have." She finished lamely.
Elad looked slightly unnerved. "Weird." Was all he said, but Cassa could tell that what she said meant something to him.
*
There was a thump on the door. Cassa rolled over.
"G'way," She shouted. "It's too early to be up, yet."
"Cassa. Open the door." The voice was not, as she had expected, Leena's cheery tones. This was the voice of Herald Pol, and it was filled with steel.
Cassa mentally cursed her unwary tongue as she hurried to her feet and opened the door. Herald Pol stood there, still dressed in a sleeping roll, holding a purring Mitt in his outstretched hands.
"Your cat," he said grumpily. "Got into my room, woke me up, and left a mouse head," disgust dripped from his voice. "On my bed."
Cassa tried to repress a laugh at the Herald's expression, and kept her mouth tightly shut as she retreived Mitt and placed her on the bed.
"She likes you," Cassa informed him, keeping a straight face with effort. "The mouse was a . . . ah . . . present."
Pol didn't reply as he turned away and stamped off. Cassa managed to control herself until he was out of earshot before beginning to laugh.
*
"You're up early today," commented Leena. "Was the prospect of gift- teaching so exciting that you just had to wake up?" Leena's raised eyebrow implied her doubt.
"I was awoken by an irate Herald Pol, who was returning Mitt," Cassa informed her vaguely.
Leena's mouth twitched. "Mouse heads?"
Cassa remembered the normally impeccable Pol dressed in a rumpled sleeping robe and with silver hair ruffled. It would stay in her memories forever. "Indeed."
Later that day they would receive gift training, to which both were looking forward. Cassa would normally be taught by Herald Evan, but since he was busy with a young student with uncontrollable foresight, they would both be taught by Herald Pol.
"Do you remember the way?" Cassa asked Leena. The 'classroom' was a tiny stone workroom in the bowels of the colegium, with a huge quartz crystal as focus stone.
"I'll lead the way, forgetful one," teased Leena, and the two set off.
Pol - now showing no sign of his early morning adventure, and apparently forgetful of the incident - awaited them in the room. The two sat on cushioned benches, and listened to his lectures of grounding and centering, so they could control their respective gifts. Both managed the trick on their first try, much to Herald Pol's delight.
"Now," he said "Cassa, first, because I know you can do it; focus on the stone, and think about your gift." He held his hand up at her protest. "I know you don't use a focus-stone, but it often makes an image clearer."
With a sigh, Cassa focused her gift, ignoring Pol's murmurs to Leena, to see how she focused her gift. She brought up her gift and concentrated.
There was a flash, and the room around her blurred, then steadied. People entered the room and looked around. One pointed to a door in the wall - unseen before - and Cassa followed them downwards, into a room pulsing with power, a glowing stone filling the room with light -
:I am sorry, Cassa,: came Camber's regretful voice in her mind. :That was something you were not meant to see. A future the Companions will make certain in due time.:
Cassa shook her head - she felt like there had been something . . . But then she was distracted by a vision - why was she about to think another vision? - of people, over a multitude of years, entering, leaving, and all at a speed that dizzied her. She returned to herself with a sigh of relief.
"Now you try." Instructed Herald Pol, and Leena took her place by the crystal, and focused. Then she spoke, her voice blurred with concentration.
"I see Haven," she said, squinting into the globe of crystal. "From above. And I see a cart, on a road, coming to the city. Near some forest."
Cassa moved, brushing against Leena's hand. Suddenly, she, too, could d see the scene Leena had described. She looked down from above at the slow moving cart. Suddenly, a flash hit her eyes.
Here? She thought desperately. But I need to be close to the focus of my foresight to See it, how can I have a vision from here?
Illogical or not, however, the vision continued, with the cart moving impossibly fast and clouds flickering across the sky. With a gasp, Cassa broke the contact.
"That was - weird." Leena said consideringly. "Far sight only moves like real time, but when you linked to me, I could see the future of the scene as well as the present."
Herald Pol looked amazed. "I've never heard of anything like that before," He told them. "I think you two will be a very useful team."
*
Author's note: Internship is coming up! Hooray! Review lots, and I'll write faster.
Chapter 6
*
"Wakey, wakey," said a too cheery voice. "C'mon, it's morning."
Cassa muttered something unprintable.
"Look up." Leena advised cheerfully.
Cassa warily opened one eye, and saw an overfull cup suspended over the bed. Even the threat of the cold water got her out of the comfortable bed. The one time Cassa had decided that Leena was bluffing, she'd had a rude awakening - literally.
Mitt jumped from the bed to rub against Leena's legs. Cassa glared at her.
"Traitor." She muttered.
Cassa dressed quickly in one of the grey tunics the housekeeper had supplied. Annoying though it was to be evicted from one of the most comfortable beds she had ever slept upon, she did not want to be late for breakfast.
Mitt followed as the pair left the room, to stare in interest around the hallway. Although she had been taken, with Cassa and Leena, around the colegium, she had been stopped from exploring.
Another trainee awaited them in the hall.
"Hello," his voice, like Leena's, was far too cheerful at this unholy hour. "I'm Kern. You're Cassa and Leena, right? I'm supposed to show you around." He led them towards the dining hall. "You're the first new trainees to come in. It's a surprise that you came in together. Are you related?"
"No," Leena traded an amused look with Cassa. No one could look less alike than them! "We just came from the same area."
Mitt chose that moment to introduce herself.
"A cat!" The boy seemed surprised. "Is he your pet?"
"She." Cassa corrected. "And, yes. Camber said that the colegium would probably adopt her as mascot."
Kern smiled. "I think you're right. We can probably even get a bowl of finest meat scraps from the cook, for her."
Leena laughed. "She'll get spoilt, and fat, with this easy living!"
*
The breakfast was amazing; the food the best that Cassa at least had ever had available. She had thought that the faire bakers were talented, but the colegium cook could give them a run for their money.
And he had loved Mitt.
The cat had entered the kitchen to be greeted enthusiastically by the trainees. The cook had given them the aforementioned meat scraps, and had suggested that Mitt could remove the few mice that got past the palace rattraps and the animal mind speakers.
Cassa wondered how the Heralds would treat the inevitable mouse-heads.
Lessons would start today, in spite of the fact that three Companions were still out on search. Cassa wondered whether she could use her foresight to find out when they would Choose, but decided against it.
The first lesson was basic orientation; a study that both Cassa and Leena found interesting. The second was geography, moving on to languages and history and a number of others that filled the morning.
It was the afternoon that brought what both girls were looking forward to; fighting and equitation lessons.
The weapons master, Odo, began to teach Leena and Cassa wildly different fighting tequniqes. Cassa was learning sneak-and-run, an acrobatic style that left her muscles aching and bruised. Leena learned a front on style.
Leena had delighted the weaponsmaster with her knowledge of fighting. Her father had supported her ambition to join the army, and had taught her as much as he was able. She wildly surpassed Cassa in skill.
Equitation, however, made up for that. Cassa might not be outstanding, but the faire's trick-riders had taught her a thing or two. Leena still preferred to keep both feet on the ground.
Cassa felt a slight presentiment - not a Foresight vision, for they only came when the future was certain - that this distinction would be extremely important.
*
The other trainees were finally all at the colegium. Ramon, Chosen by Garrett, had arrived first. Dalin, Chosen by Rember, and his twin brother Elad, Chosen by Tumber, had arrived last night.
Ramon was fifteen, but the other two boys were only fourteen. In spite of the disparity in ages, for Cassa and Leena were sixteen, the five got along well. And now it was the lunch break, with one of the cook's famous fry- ups, and Cassa was telling fortunes.
They had been talking about their lives before the Colegium, and they had discovered Cassa's life as a witch. They had, predictably enough, been fascinated, and had requested that she use her foresight on them.
Sapphire flares burst beneath her eyelids as the images formed, flickering through her mind. White-clad riders appeared in her mind. Ramon, Dalik, Elad, Leena, - and hey, that's me - She could identify them, but no more; there faces were blurred, and it was impossible to tell how old the visions were.
Cassa sighed, and opened her eyes. "Well, we all make Herald, but I can't tell you any more than that - not even when. I can only tell the certain future."
"Nothing at all?" Asked Elad, disappointed. He had been the keenest to know his future.
As he spoke, Cassa could see another flash of sapphire in her mind.
This one was - different. It did not show a distinct image. It was a ghostly, see-through vision, and Cassa had the disquieting feeling that what she was seeing was not real, but was a symbol, a metaphor of what would come to pass.
Elad, mounted on Tumber, rode along a ghostly road. The road forked, and Cassa looked down both roads in turn. Both were mazes that twisted and split, each one forming a path Elad's life could take. Each fork was a choice. Which choice would be made was not certain, but that there would be a choice could clearly be foreseen.
Cassa came back to herself, blinking. The vision had only taken a second to see, but her classmates were staring at her, confused.
"I just Saw your life, Elad," Cassa said. The familiar compulsion to tell of what she had seen had come over her. "Each choice you made had its own ending. But I couldn't See what you would choose, or what ending each choice would have." She finished lamely.
Elad looked slightly unnerved. "Weird." Was all he said, but Cassa could tell that what she said meant something to him.
*
There was a thump on the door. Cassa rolled over.
"G'way," She shouted. "It's too early to be up, yet."
"Cassa. Open the door." The voice was not, as she had expected, Leena's cheery tones. This was the voice of Herald Pol, and it was filled with steel.
Cassa mentally cursed her unwary tongue as she hurried to her feet and opened the door. Herald Pol stood there, still dressed in a sleeping roll, holding a purring Mitt in his outstretched hands.
"Your cat," he said grumpily. "Got into my room, woke me up, and left a mouse head," disgust dripped from his voice. "On my bed."
Cassa tried to repress a laugh at the Herald's expression, and kept her mouth tightly shut as she retreived Mitt and placed her on the bed.
"She likes you," Cassa informed him, keeping a straight face with effort. "The mouse was a . . . ah . . . present."
Pol didn't reply as he turned away and stamped off. Cassa managed to control herself until he was out of earshot before beginning to laugh.
*
"You're up early today," commented Leena. "Was the prospect of gift- teaching so exciting that you just had to wake up?" Leena's raised eyebrow implied her doubt.
"I was awoken by an irate Herald Pol, who was returning Mitt," Cassa informed her vaguely.
Leena's mouth twitched. "Mouse heads?"
Cassa remembered the normally impeccable Pol dressed in a rumpled sleeping robe and with silver hair ruffled. It would stay in her memories forever. "Indeed."
Later that day they would receive gift training, to which both were looking forward. Cassa would normally be taught by Herald Evan, but since he was busy with a young student with uncontrollable foresight, they would both be taught by Herald Pol.
"Do you remember the way?" Cassa asked Leena. The 'classroom' was a tiny stone workroom in the bowels of the colegium, with a huge quartz crystal as focus stone.
"I'll lead the way, forgetful one," teased Leena, and the two set off.
Pol - now showing no sign of his early morning adventure, and apparently forgetful of the incident - awaited them in the room. The two sat on cushioned benches, and listened to his lectures of grounding and centering, so they could control their respective gifts. Both managed the trick on their first try, much to Herald Pol's delight.
"Now," he said "Cassa, first, because I know you can do it; focus on the stone, and think about your gift." He held his hand up at her protest. "I know you don't use a focus-stone, but it often makes an image clearer."
With a sigh, Cassa focused her gift, ignoring Pol's murmurs to Leena, to see how she focused her gift. She brought up her gift and concentrated.
There was a flash, and the room around her blurred, then steadied. People entered the room and looked around. One pointed to a door in the wall - unseen before - and Cassa followed them downwards, into a room pulsing with power, a glowing stone filling the room with light -
:I am sorry, Cassa,: came Camber's regretful voice in her mind. :That was something you were not meant to see. A future the Companions will make certain in due time.:
Cassa shook her head - she felt like there had been something . . . But then she was distracted by a vision - why was she about to think another vision? - of people, over a multitude of years, entering, leaving, and all at a speed that dizzied her. She returned to herself with a sigh of relief.
"Now you try." Instructed Herald Pol, and Leena took her place by the crystal, and focused. Then she spoke, her voice blurred with concentration.
"I see Haven," she said, squinting into the globe of crystal. "From above. And I see a cart, on a road, coming to the city. Near some forest."
Cassa moved, brushing against Leena's hand. Suddenly, she, too, could d see the scene Leena had described. She looked down from above at the slow moving cart. Suddenly, a flash hit her eyes.
Here? She thought desperately. But I need to be close to the focus of my foresight to See it, how can I have a vision from here?
Illogical or not, however, the vision continued, with the cart moving impossibly fast and clouds flickering across the sky. With a gasp, Cassa broke the contact.
"That was - weird." Leena said consideringly. "Far sight only moves like real time, but when you linked to me, I could see the future of the scene as well as the present."
Herald Pol looked amazed. "I've never heard of anything like that before," He told them. "I think you two will be a very useful team."
*
Author's note: Internship is coming up! Hooray! Review lots, and I'll write faster.