CHAPTER 3

The Second Book of Learning

Grace's baptism was two weeks ago now, it seemed ages since the holidays, and the bore of school pushed out the excitement of being a charter mage. As often as we could me and Grace met each other in private places. The chosen places were each others houses and a secret location in Tudor Grange park. The park wasn't owned by the school, but it was near to it so they had the same name. The location was a hard to get to clearing. It was hard to get there because the clearing was surrounded by thick bushes and thickets, and surprisingly well hidden. It was ideal, and cosy in a way. Also our personal relation ship grew. I would always bring the book with Frederick in with me and we both learnt as much charter magic as we could in the given period of time. Frederick was writing two identical books for each of us, listing all of the basic charter marks he knew and there meaning, symbol and name. When the books were finished we stopped learning marks and how to create spells and learnt a complex spell to open a small portal to allow objects from within the book to be passed into the real world. The reason that letting things into the book was a lot easier than letting things out was unknown to me. I did have the suspicion that the book was used to trap Frederick in it, though I saw no reason in why he was trapped.

It took me and Grace a total of eleven days to get the spell right. We were sitting in the middle of the clearing and were supposed to make the portal spell and use it to grab a leaf from the highest tree on the edge of the clearing. My thoughts were wondering already and concentration on the spell lost completely. I was sucked back to reality by a triumphant squeal from the right side of me. I looked at a very triumphant Grace holding her targeted pink leaf. A small vertical circle hovered in front of her casting a luminescent blue light, and it was made purely of charter marks. An identical blue circle, almost invisible in the bright autumn sun, hung in the upper branches of the target tree.

"If you can do it so can I!" I stated. I reached out for the charter and found its border, the charter was hard to get to being as there isn't a single charter stone in Britain, or the entire world to my knowledge, and finally I pushed through into the great whirl of the charter. It was like pushing against a wall of thick chewing gum and only breaks when it is pushed to far and snaps apart. I plucked forth all the needed charter marks, thirty one in total, and ordered them into a spell. At first the marks just wouldn't form up, but by an effort of pure will power the marks lined up. I cast the two circles into there places, one in front of me, one in front of my target leaf. My portal was a more purple and translucent than Grace's portal. I reached forward a put my hand through the portal. I felt a near dead leaf in my hands. I plucked it from the tree and brought back through the portal to me. It was still green but the edges were crisp and golden, a true sign that the summer was at its end. "Yes, now let's get those books," I said with a will.

Getting the other end of the portal into the book was difficult because the books defences were powerful. We were both casting a portal but Grace's had failed, and mine was fading already and was going to fail soon. Grace lent me her power and strength by placing her hand in mine. After what seemed a year battling with the book's defences my portal, aided by Grace, broke through to Frederick. It took all of my will power to keep the portal from breaking, so sweat started to fall from my brow. Grace saw this so she pushed her hand through the portal and retrieved the books. As soon as Grace's hand was cleared I let the portal go. All the marks broke off from each other and faded back into the charter. The two books were covered in red leather and were bound in strong, black enamel clasps. The pages were stark and white and the writing was neat and loopy, and was in red ink also. The title read "Charter Magic for Beginners".

The book was exactly a hundred pages long. With each page filled to its borders with notes and symbols on charter magic. I particularly liked the marks that were used to make things and using magic on ornate objects. A whole thirty three pages were dedicated to this. Grace became a healer, or at least learnt way more spells to do with healing than I did. Her friends never needed a bandage again, for she would heal there wounds with surprising skill. From then on people said she had a healing touch. The books were priceless to us, they were easy to read and both of our skills in magic increased ten fold. My thoughts were a drift though, I was thinking of why the charter was accessible as there was nothing magical in Britain. I asked Frederick this once and his answer was disturbing.

"Well since I see you will ask me this again and again until I tell you I might as well tell you now." replied Frederick; I was surprised a little for I thought it might be a big hushed up secret, and Frederick was not one to hand out secrets.

"Approximately a thousand years ago all countries had mages and charter stones, but that was soon going to change."

"In the far away remote oases in the Sahara desert a free magic being of impossible power brooded. The Sahara desert was once a lush rain forest, but the being saw to that. Using its power it destroyed every living thing, plant, animal and bacteria alike. It roamed the desert looking for any oases left to destroy, and eventually it arrived at the edge of the desert. It came to the northern areas of Africa, killing everything in its path. It then stumbled to Egypt. Egypt had massive amounts of powerful charter mages. But the power of the being was too great; it slaughtered the mages with ease. The ruler of Egypt called upon the whole world to his aid, and the world recognised that there will be no world if this being still existed. Mages flooded to Cairo, where the being was headed. Millions went out to confront the being but none returned, it took the strength of those millions to destroy the beast. Unfortunately the being was too powerful still to be completely wiped off the face of the earth. A few free magic sorcerers accompanied them, for the simple reason of trying to control such a powerful being. Those who tried to master it was burned up by the things will, others saw sense and combined the charter mage's magic into a free magic spell of pure destruction. The being was blasted into pieces as small as atoms, sheeting the planet with its particles. Free magic of the beings kind is a source to all magic so the particles still allow access to the charter, and unfortunately free magic. The spell was also tainted by the sorcerer's evil; it killed everything that was affected by magic, even the free magic sorcerers themselves. That is why there are no charter mages or charter stones or living dead or free magic sorcerers. Only a few magical objects survived, and most of those were books like the one I'm trapped in." Hi answer startled and scared me. Millions! I became tentative in breathing, not wanting to breathe in the being. Grace too looked, to say the least, a bit peaky. Eager to change the direction of this morbid conversation I asked.

"Well, err, I have one more question. Can you come out of that book, so you can, like, take the shape of something." I knew the answer was probably no.

"It is possible." Frederick replied, proving me wrong. He was slightly out of breath from his previous explanation. "But it would involve a free magic spell."

Grace shot up like a rocket, it occurred to me that saying a free magic spell was going too far for her and for me too, and I was right.

"Now this is going too far!" Grace snapped. "It's all well and good to be able to cast charter magic but free magic is going way over the limits. I will not say a single word to do with free magic." You just did, I thought.

"No gal, no free magic words will leave your mouth, it is I who will speak the words of power. You only have to create a sending, I trust you know how." explained Frederick. We both shook our heads, there were the basics of a sending in the book he gave us, but not enough to complete one.

"Ah I will have to teach you then; no actually I will add the complete making of a sending to the second book I'm righting for you." Frederick told us. He then produced a thick, hard backed book. This book was also covered in red leather and bound in black enamel clasps like the previous pair. There was only one this time, so we would have to share it.

"I can become a spirit that wears magical flesh," Frederick continued, "but firstly I would need to have the near completion of a sending, which needs special spells itself to be able to hold me. I would also need one of you to create the portal spell big enough for me to step through. The other one will have to chant the spell which would bind me to the sending, for my body is too weak to walk upon the earth unaided. Then both of you finish the sending with the appropriate spells while I speak the words of free magic." The next hour or so was filled with heated conversations and snappy arguments.

Nine days later during a cool autumn Saturday we were all sat in the clearing. Grace and Frederick were on a tree stump talking. I wasn't paying them any notice though, because I was practising the portal spell. I had made a slight variation to the spell. Instead of creating two circular portals, I was going to enshroud myself in the spell. This would let me, in theory, teleport any where; I was going to limit myself to the clearing for safety's sake. I was focusing so hard on the spell that I lost all vision and my eyes rolled. The necessary marks were thundering round my head giving me a migraine, and then I indicated my body to the spell. The spell left my head with the force of a shotgun. Then the migraine went and vision returned.

Peter was standing a few paces away concentrating on something and I was chatting with Frederick. "Frederick, sir, I was wandering. What sending should you be, I mean like, if human size is too difficult," I asked.

"Hmm well I don't suppose that a human shape would do any way. Imagine if your parents saw you walking with an old man everywhere!" he chuckled, "who knows what they might think? Anyway a creature of smaller size would be more appropriate."

"What sort of creature, dog, cat… Guinea pig?"

"Guinea pig! Oh no, a bird maybe or an owl." Scoffed Frederick.

"An owl is an…." I didn't manage to say any more because a great bang erupted a few paces away; the shockwave knocking Frederick's book over. "Oh My!!" he called.

The experience was nothing like I imagined; my body glowed blue and time seemed to freeze. Everything was all blurry and my sight seemed to suck towards me. Will power alone kept the spell intact; I knew it wouldn't last much longer so I walked towards grace. When I walked the world spun and I half fainted. The spell dispersed and time began again. I felt faint, extremely faint, and a little cool. Frederick yowled ferociously, "What in the charter are you doing!!! You could of frozen time forever!!! You fool!!!" And then, I fainted.

I awoke to the feel of cold water on me. I shot up; all senses working over drive, the last few minutes were a blur. I looked down at my body and jumped.

"I spun when I heard the bang," said a red faced Grace, she covered her eyes and smirked, "I saw you whiter than Fred, stark naked! And then spun around again when Fred started yowling. I had to fetch your clothes from the other side of the clearing! Now dress will you, cos' that aint no pretty sight." She turned and marched off behind the nearest tree. Charming, I thought. Getting dressed when you're wet isn't very nice. All the clothes stick to you and finding the sleeves is a nightmare! Finally I looked reasonable. I called for Grace since I was reasonable, and she came, although still looking a little flustered. To be honest I was bright red too. I shuffled over to Frederick, who was still tipped over, and turned him the right way up. As soon as eye contact was made he yowled some more. I thought; I don't need this and so closed the book. Fredericks ranting was cut off immediately.

"Ahh, peace and quiet." I sighed.

"You shouldn't do that," said Grace with a frown, "It's considered very rude."

"Whatever…" I waved my hand to dismiss her words.

"So," she said, switching the subject, "what should he be."

"What?"

"I said what should he be? Like what type of sending should he be?"

"Oh, well I think a bird of some sorts would be good." I suggested.

"That's what he said. Well that's sorted then."

"Nearly," I said, "what about the type of bird?"

"Yeah, we should ask him."

"Agreed." I said, with a smile spreading across my face. A bird, good, I liked birds.

A week after my teleporting incident we were all, once again, in the clearing. After some more telling off Fred announced that he had finished the new book.

"After some alterations, and much reading through I have finally completed your latest manual."

I was surprised at how quickly he had finished the book, but then if you thought about it, if you're trapped inside a book all day what else would you do? A small smiled spread across Grace's face.

"Great," she said, "I take it you want us to make another portal? I've been practising mine." She probably had, since the last time her portal failed, and mine only just succeeded.

"Yes I do, and it will have to be larger this time. This book is a fair deal larger than those handbooks I wrote last time." She dipped her head in acknowledgement.

"Well, there is no time like the present, come now you two. Chop. Chop!"

I snapped out of my stupor and sat up. Grumbling about my wet bottom from the grass, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the charter. After a while I sensed its presence and pushed towards it with my mind. Soon I was lost in the blissful world of the charter. Concentrating once again I plucked forth the marks for distance, time, defence (needed to protect the portal from the attacks of Frederick's book), transportation etc. Once I had all the marks I ordered them into place, only altering the group of marks that specified the size of the portal. Ready, I opened my eyes to see if the other two were ready. Naturally Frederick was ready as he only had to get the book with him, but grace was still within the charter, ordering together her spell. Within a few seconds she too opened her eyes to the world. I nodded lightly at her, indicating I was ready. She nodded back, speech to difficult to do whilst maintaining the spells in our minds. The marks throbbed in my head, summoning my thrice cursed migraine. Without further ado we unleashed the portals on the book. Immediately the books defences fought against my portals and Grace's. I quickly summoned forth three marks and barked them in an improvised spell. It worked and both mine and Grace's portals merged, making them stronger and inadvertently larger. Together we easily held the portal in place but still the job was far from simple. Therefore Frederick spent no time dithering and threw the book through the portal, careful to make sure his hand didn't go through the portals also. I did notice this but I was too busy maintaining the spell to question him and afterwards the observation was forgotten, for a while. The red book hurtled out of the portal and moments afterwards me and grace let the portal collapse into oblivion. A trickle of sweat crawled down my brow and onto my nose from concentrating so hard. Quickly I wiped it away. The book had landed face downward and it's rear was plain and empty, just crisp red card. Grace gracefully sauntered over and picked up the book. A lock of hair fell over her face, obscuring her right green eye. It occurred to me then how much I liked grace and how pretty she was. The moment passed and I felt slightly confused at the feeling. I shook it off and walked over and joined grace. The cover of the book was decorated in superior calligraphy, with black and white drawings of people, animals and, obviously, charter marks. The title was 'Charter Magic and its finer arts, by Frederick Nix'. We spent the rest of the afternoon learning from the book and from Frederick. As we left I let Grace take the book first.

"That's not like you." She said; one eyebrow slightly higher than its counterpart.

"Maybe I'm in a chivalrous mood." I countered. She smirked and rolled her eyes, I just smiled.