Chapter 2: Malistaire
When the old man said I was a wizard, I laughed. Wizard? Me? Nah.
Normally I wouldn't laugh at my elders, but I was so confused and shell-shocked and really a bit scared that my manners had been practically switched off.
"I am not a wizard," I began slowly, briefly wondering if perhaps this man was perhaps a bit sick in the head. Might as well be gentle. "Sure, I can do a few card and rope tricks, but those have explanations. Magic, not so much."
The old man shook his head. "No, you are most definitely a wizard. The spell told me so." Suddenly he touched his chest and I jerked to my feet, suddenly worried that he was having a heart attack. Or maybe worse.
"Where are my manners? My name is Professor Merle Ambrose, Headmaster of the Ravenwood School of the Magical Arts. This is Gamma, my pet, and this is Michael, my advisor." He gestured to the owl with the graduation cap and glasses and then to the orange bird that appeared to be (and upon closer inspection apparently was) on fire, who both nodded respectfully. Eying the fiery bird, I figured I'd better introduce myself as well.
"I'm Sarah K-" I stopped myself before I gave my last name, leaving only the first letter to the imagination.
"Sarah. A very nice name. Well, Miss Sarah, welcome to the Spiral. And please believe me, you are a wizard. There is power in you, and Gamma told me that it was time to bring you here. Please, will you step over to this book and answer these questions?"
So now I was a wizard and the owl had told the old man that it was 'time' to bring me here. Wherever 'here' was. But until I could figure out the where and the why and the how, I might as well play along.
I cautiously skirted the edges of the room and opened the huge book that the Professor had pointed out. After a good layer of dust floated into my face, I watched in awe as words shimmered to life on the page. Maybe invisible ink? I read the question and then touched one of the answers. The book flipped a page by itself and presented me with a new question that shimmered to life above new answers. Again, I touched the answer that best suited me.
After about ten questions and the odd page flips and word shimmers, the Professor came over and touched the book with the staff I now noticed he held. The book seemed to rumble and actually shook on its lectern before it flipped an entire section and presented a new section of the book. It sported the heading, 'Life Magic' in green letters on the top, which matched the dark green rune in the shape of a leaf underneath it. The owl and the fire-bird alighted on top of the lectern and looked down at the page before they discreetly nodded to each other. The old man nodded.
"You are a Theurgist, a Life wizard," he began. Then he added, "Are you prepared to begin your studies?"
My studies? All I wanted was to get home, and get home now. I didn't belong here and I needed to get back before my family noticed that I was gone.
"No thank you, Professor," I answered, my manners now steadily returning after the panic from before. "If you don't mind, I would like to go home now." I started backing away from the book and towards the door on the other side of the room. The Professor began to say something to me, something along the lines of "Give it a chance," only put more eloquently, when suddenly the door slammed shut, the temperature dropped, and a grating voice reached my ears.
"I'm afraid that that is not possible."
Slowly, I turned around. Suddenly, where there hasn't been anything before, there was a tall man, clothed in black and holding a staff not unlike the one Professor Ambrose wielded. His eyes were old and cold, his hair black and greasy, and his mustache dropping from underneath a long, hooked nose.
"Malistaire," Professor Ambrose whispered, his voice suddenly deep and a bit scared, a huge contrast from before when it had been light and cheerful like a grandfather's.
The man, Malistaire, sneered back, "Ambrose."
Malistaire turned to me and I froze, suddenly trapped under his gaze. There was something evil about him, and much like my books always described, I could see it in his eyes. My hand grasped for the doorknob behind me, but it was burning cold and I jerked my hand away. Nope, no getting out that way. And looking around, I wasn't seeing any openable windows…
"Ambrose, is this your new brat?" Malistaire's voice lightened slightly to a mocking tone as he turned back to the old Professor. "Well, my minions will make quick work of her."
Brat? Did he just actually call me a brat?
Now I was just as mad as before. Suddenly the temperature dropped again and the orb atop Malistaire's staff started glowing. Professor Ambrose threw out his hand at me and I was thrown backward, away from Malistaire.
"Sarah, Michael will help you. You defeat the draconians and I'll take care of Malistaire." The old man turned back to Malistaire while the fiery bird flew across the room to sit on my shoulder. I expected it to burn, but somehow it didn't. Just as he landed, two dragon-like creatures appeared across from me. O-Kay…this whole wizard and magic thing was starting to make way too much sense.
Suddenly, with a bright flash, there was an odd kind of field between Michael and I and the two 'draconians'. I stood in one circle that sat on the far left of three other circles while the draconians stood in identical circles on the other end of a large, circular, pitch black field.
"How'm I supposed to fight them?" I muttered. Michael leaned down towards my ear and answered, in a surprisingly human-sounding voice, "With magic."
"I don't know any magic."
"You don't need to know magic to use it," Michael answered just as a pair of cards appeared in my hands. They were about the size and shape of playing cards, only with sharper, cleaner edges, a stiffer composition, and much different faces.
One depicted an orange tiger that appeared to be on fire. A small box atop the intricate painting called it 'Fire Cat'. Underneath the painting was what looked like an ancient rune for fire, much like the green leaf rune in the book, and an odd string of words written in some long forgotten language.
The other was a green-skinned, yellow-eyed monster that was apparently a troll. There was a yellow rune with an eye inside of a triangle, and another string of words in the other language.
"These are spells," Michael explained. "If you have the cards you don't need to use the incantation, but you do need to draw the rune. Don't worry, that part's not too hard. Choose a spell, throw the card in front of you, and draw the r–"
Suddenly the fiery bird leapt from my shoulder, soared across the room, and caught a card in his talons just as Malistaire was throwing it towards the old man. With his talons, Michael shredded it and dropped the useless card into the center of the black field, where it disappeared. Then he landed on my shoulder again, grabbed one of the cards out of my hand, and threw it across the room like a square frisbee. Noticing by the yellow colored back that it was the troll, I quickly drew the eye symbol with my finger in front of me. It was sloppy, but somehow, some way, it worked. Suddenly there was a eye symbol, larger than me and made out of a yellow light, floating in front of me.
The eye symbol exploded outwards and suddenly there was a troll, the spitting image of the painting on the card, standing in the center of the black field. It turned to look at the first draconian, made an angered noise, and then chucked it's club across the room at it. The draconian ducked but the club still conked him across the head. It staggered for a moment but then composed itself.
The draconian drew a light blue snowflake rune, muttered something in a low, guttural voice, and pushed the rune forward. The temperature dropped to near freezing and the black field froze over with light blue ice. A beetle that appeared to be made of ice grew from the field and charged forward, straight for me. I tried to dodge, but it was as if there was a force field around the circle that I stood in. I couldn't get out, but I could flatten myself against one of the walls as the beetle charged past me and disappeared into the shadows. But one of it's horns caught my hand, slicing a long gash across my knuckles. I yelped and placed my hand on top of it to try to stop the blood.
While I focused on my new wound, the other draconian cast another spell (it looked like a pair of balanced scales), which conjured a very large red scorpion. The scorpion clicked it's pincers and leapt forward, aiming it's stinger and catching me in the wound. I gasped again and held my still bleeding hand. There was seering pain moving up and down my arm as the poison moved through my bloodstream.
Still clutching the gash and trying not to think about the picture I'd seen of blood after a single drop of snake venom was dropped into it, I looked up at the draconians. They had a perfect shot and they could easily kill me right where I stood. Or they could just wait till my blood congealed. But why weren't they?
"It's the etiquette of battle," Michael explained after returning with another shredded spell of Malistaire's. He perched on a stack of books behind me and elaborated, "Only one spell per battle member per turn. Even monsters who follow that Necromancer over there follow the etiquette. They're waiting for you to cast your spell." Michael cocked his head to one side and finished," I'll give you more spells as needed. Right now, just fight!"
I still held the fire cat card in my left hand, so I took it from my clenched fist, quickly glanced at the rune so I could draw it, and threw it like the bird had with the troll card. I drew the rune, even more sloppily than before since I was using my non-poisoned, non-dominant hand, and it exploded outward.
This time it was a perfect mix of red and orange light, and as it exploded it twisted into the shape of the tiger painted on the card. The tiger crouched, wiggled it's rear like I'd seen my cat do many a time, and pounced at the first draconian. As it's claws sunk into it, it disappeared in a fiery explosion that engulfed the monster. A pained cry echoed around the room, but when the fire subsided, the draconian was still standing there, a bit burnt and a bit miffed. My mouth dropped open and I turned back towards Michael, who answered my unsaid question with a, "Magic."
Despite the fact that it had just been in an explosion, the thing was still strong enough to send another scorpion at me. My eyes growing, I watched it's stinger warily and flattened myself against the wall again just as the stinger imbedded itself in the floor where I'd been standing. But the scorpion just struck again, this time with the poison sinking into a new dime-sized wound in my other arm.
Don't think about the snake venom, don't think about the snake venom…
The second draconian drew a black skull like rune, which conjured a sandy island complete with a palm tree and treasure chest that yielded forth a skeleton with a pirate's bandana, eyepatch, and cutlass. The skeleton observed me before throwing it's sword. It spun through the air and the hilt caught me across the chest, blowing the air out of me but not hurting me much. But the poison was still in my system and good gosh did my arm hurt. And my traitorous mind did take a moment to remind me of the snake-poisoned blood picture…
I was so focused on my battle that I hadn't checked up on the other two. It appeared that they were just throwing silvery and black blasts at each other, card spells being shredded by a raven I could now make out on Malistaire's shoulder and Michael and Gamma as the two men battled it out.
"Ha! Your new student is almost finished!" Malistaire gloated triumphantly when he glanced over towards the battle. Professor Ambrose just threw another silvery blast at him.
"Here, cast the unicorn spell," Michael whispered, flying past me and depositing a green card in my hand. Glancing at the green leaf rune for just a moment and not bothering to look at the picture, I threw it and drew the rune, which in itself transformed into a white unicorn with a blue mane on a grassy flowered field. The unicorn trotted towards me, knelt on one knobby knee, and touched its horn to the ground. I felt something like a gentle but not at all painful electric shock fly through me, sending the hair on the back of my neck standing up slightly. Immediately, the wounds in my arms stopped hurting and the skin closed over them with just a small white line and circle where they'd been. The unicorn, its work now finished, disappeared. I rubbed both wounds in amazement, now gladly dismissing the snake venom picture and turning my attention back towards the battle.
The first draconian drew yet another odd rune, this time a purple lightning strike. The black field was suddenly a small lake and a huge purple shark with yellow gills and marks leapt out as if to show off before it dropped back in. It's dorsal fin appeared and it swam towards me before I got a nice view of the inside of a shark's mouth. Then it was gone, and there were teeth marks on arms, but I wasn't dead like I should be. Kind of like when the draconian got burned alive.
The second draconian waved off-handedly at space and pointed at me, as if it was passing the turn to me. In fact, that was exactly what it was doing. Hey, this whole battle etiquette thing is actually kind of nice.
"Here, use this extra pip so you can cast a better spell," Michael flew back after catching and shredding another one of Malistaire's cards and placed two white orbs in little niches at my feet. "These pips are made of mana, the power in you that you use to cast spells. You gain one pip per round, and the more you have, the strong spells you can cast."
Another green card appeared in my hand, this one with a mutated tree called 'Nature's Wrath' on it. Having used the green rune once already, I threw it and drew the rune. The black field was covered in grass and a gnarled tree appeared, which turned out to have legs, arms, eyes, and hands. A rock appeared at it's feet and it leaned down to pick it up, spinning like an athlete in a hammer throw before releasing it. The first draconian was finally finished then and it fell to it's knees, pounding the floor, and disappeared. Fantastic.
The second one waved and pointed again, this time with a toothy smirk at my now empty hands. Maybe it thought I was helpless now. But Michael landed on my shoulder and dropped another card that he held in his beak. Across the back of it was a signature, and I could make out the words 'Malistaire' and 'Drake'. So he'd snatched it from Malistaire.
"This is an especially good one. Use it!"
It was another fire rune, labeled 'Meteor Strike'. Now knowing exactly how this entire battle thing worked out here, I threw the card, drew the rune, and stood back to watch the results. Suddenly a few flaming portals appeared in mid-air and some flaming meteors flew from them. One flew straight at the remaining draconian, and it was knocked flat on it's back. It tried to lift it's head, but it appeared that I had won. It sank into the ground like it's comrade and the battle was finally over. The black field disappeared, as well as the circles and the force field that had surrounded me, and I could move.
Michael clung to my shoulder as I spun to look at Professor Ambrose. The sight wasn't pretty; the old man was leaning heavily on his staff, and there was a dagger in Malistaire's right hand. The owl was slumped against the wall, his little graduation cap and spectacles fallen and broken at his side. It sounded like he was gloating, sending more blasts at and into Professor Ambrose, who kept stumbling back and aiming his staff at the evil man. But the orb atop it flickered and went out. He was beaten and he was prone, and despite the fact that I'd just met the old man, he needed help.
"You cover Gamma, I'll take Malistaire," I muttered to Michael, who flew across the room to land by his friend's side. I looked around the room and saw a very thick book lying open on the floor. With a good smack across the head, it could buy Michael, Gamma, and the Professor some time to defeat, disarm, and lock up Malistaire. I grabbed the book in both hands (it was heavier than it looked) and skirted the edges of the room till I was behind Malistaire. Professor Ambrose was now on the floor, and Malistaire's knife was visible to the world. He was going to make the killing move and I had seconds to act.
I lifted the book and smacked Malistaire across the back of his head with it as hard as I could. I heard a crack as his neck snapped to one side. He was still for a moment and I wondered if I should get out of the way in case I succeeded in knocking him out and he was about to go down.
Suddenly Malistaire spun around, grabbing and twisting my wrist hard to the side, forcing me to drop the book and yelp in pain. He looked down his nose at me and I stared up at him, suddenly defiant and not as scared as I was before.
"You wanted to go home?" he then asked quietly. I tipped my head to one side, confused, before I bobbed my head once. Behind him, Professor Ambrose was leaning on his staff again, the orb glowing. Michael had Gamma sitting on top of the quiz book, which was still open to 'Life Magic', and was perched, ready to fly, next to him.
Malistaire looked back at Professor Ambrose and then back at me before the corners of his mouth rose into a smirk. "Then he didn't tell you?"
"Didn't tell me what?" I asked quietly, a chill running down my spine. Somehow I knew what the old man hadn't told me, even though it was not what I wanted to hear.
"The spell he used to bring you here, the spell that tore through time and space to drag you from your world to the Spiral, is irreversible. You can't go back home."
Malistaire's grip on my wrist had eased a little, but I still couldn't pull away.
"You're lying," I muttered, praying in the back of my head that he truly was. But when I looked at Professor Ambrose, his gaze turned downward and his shoulders slumped, and Michael's fiery plume dimmed substantially, I knew that he wasn't and that I couldn't go home.
Malistaire's mouth opened and he cackled, a sound I'd only heard in Disney movies. Suddenly I was mad, not at the old man, but at whoever this man was who had sicced his pets on me and called me a brat and tried to kill the Professor. The old man had good intentions, but this man most definitely did not.
Something inside of me reared it's head, my hand was glowing, and Malistaire was staggering back away from me and screaming every cuss word in the book, calling me a few choice names as well.
The red orb on top of Malistaire's staff began to glow just as the something inside of me raised my still-glowing hand. Suddenly I was frozen, the glow was gone, the something was gone, and there was a very large black blast flying straight at me that I couldn't dodge. My eyes widened just as it flew at my chest.
I was knocked back, my head smacking against the back wall. I fell forward against the floor, trying to ignore the pain that was about fifty times worse than the poison. For a moment, my mind wondered if this was what dying felt like. I opened my eyes for a moment and shut them as I saw Malistaire shadow over me.
"Well, that worked marvelously," Malistaire hissed. He must've thought I was dead, because all he did was turn me over with his boot, hiss something else at the professor, and then go silent.
After a few beats, Professor Ambrose whispered, "Get up, Sarah."
I was still in pain, but the fact that I could hear him and feel the wood floor under my fingertips told me that I was still alive.
Slowly, I sat up and opened my eyes. Everything suddenly seemed extremely bright, but I could see that Malistaire was gone. Professor Ambrose, Gamma, and Michael stood and perched in front of me. Looking around as the brightness faded, I noticed that suddenly the study was completely destroyed. Even though there had been two battles going on, with fire and explosions and everything, the study had still been immaculate despite it. But now, the floors had burn marks, the walls looked like they had been given a new black paint job, the windows were broken, and books and torn papers were everywhere.
"What happened?" I asked through a sore throat. Professor Ambrose didn't answer, walked over and gave me a hand to help me stand. Then he looked me up and down, eyes wide, and muttered, "Oh no."
As the brightness faded, I noticed that my vision was blurry. I reached up, felt my glasses, and tentatively took them off. Suddenly the world was crystal clear. I looked down and saw for the first time what I was wearing. I was wearing a long white robe and matching boots, different from my 'Keep calm and don't blink' shirt, jean shorts, and bare feet. I reached up to my head and found a hat, which I assumed was also white.
"What?" I asked. "What's wrong?"
Gamma came and perched on my shoulder, his talons digging gently into the fabric. Carefully, he took a chunk of hair in his beak and pulled it over in front of my eyes.
Blond. My beautiful brown hair had turned blond.
"Oh my gosh," I whispered, clutching my hair in my hands. "What else happened?!"
"Well, I–"
"What. Happened?"
Wordlessly, Professor Ambrose grabbed a mirror from atop a bookshelf and handed it to me. I held the mirror up to my face and started, the mirror dropping from my hands and shattering on the floor.
My eyes were green.
"What did he do to me?!" I shrieked, clutching my glasses and chewing on the ear rests as I'd always done, trying to calm myself down.
"He cursed you with a very old and very powerful spell that only a few know," the old man explained. "If you survive it, which you should not have, it changed your appearance."
'If you survive it.' So Malistaire had tried to kill me. Maybe that brightness that I first saw when I opened my eyes was the infamous light at the end of the tunnel.
This wondering didn't exactly help to calm me down.
"Well, change me back!" I cried hysterically, still chewing on my glasses. The professor's response once again was not what I wanted to hear.
"I can't. It's irreversible."
Slowly, I sank to my knees and covered my eyes. So first I couldn't go home, and now it was impossible to change me back into myself. My world was just crumbling around me.
But…I had one alternative.
I stood and dusted myself off, leaving my glasses on the floor. Even though my appearance had changed, the curse had also fixed some things. I didn't need my glasses anymore.
I had used magic. What the old man had said when I first got here was true. That glowing something inside of me seemed to confirm that. I was a wizard.
"How much does it cost to enroll in this school?"
"Nothing." Professor Ambrose answered, his eyes getting that hopeful look in them.
"I would like to enroll."
Professor Ambrose smiled and offered his arm. I stepped over the mirror shards, stepping on my glasses at the same time, feeling them pop underneath my boot, and took it. Michael flew from the lectern and perched on my shoulder while Professor Ambrose's pet perched on his.
"We need to find you a new name. 'Sarah K' is not something that we would use in this world."
I closed my eyes for a moment as Professor Ambrose led us down the steps of the tower. Destiny. I'd always loved that name, and maybe this world contained my own destiny. And stars. I loved the stars. I remembered the mirror, and the shards of glass that were all over the room now.
"Destiny Starshard," I announced after I put all three names into one. "My name can be Destiny Starshard."
I looked over and Professor Ambrose nodded.
"Alright, Sar—I mean, Destiny. Destiny Starshard you shall be."
Michael dug his talons into my shoulder. I looked up at him just as he said something.
"Shard of the Star," he whispered. I could barely hear him. "The Shard of the Star will save the Spiral from certain evil."
I cocked my head but he just covered his beak with one wing, telling me to stay quiet.
Michael was silent as Professor Ambrose walked me out of 'Golem's Court', past the reagent, Mr. Lincoln's, house, past the little carnival that already had a few younger children running around it, and then into the 'Commons'. Affer introducing me to the guard standing next to it, he led me through a huge tunnel.
"Destiny," he started as we began to emerge from the tunnel. "Welcome to Ravenwood School of the Magical Arts."
Well, rewriting that chapter and re-describing the battle was pretty fun. And I see a chance to create a language and terminology, which is one of my favorite writing activities!
And I made this chapter freaking long (EIGHT. PAGES), what is with me…I feel bad for long chapters, that is even weirder.
If you're new, welcome! The next chapter button is right down there. If you've been here before and you've got some déjà vu that's not déjà vu, then hello again! I'm rewriting chapters because I've become a better writer over the past two years and this story needs revising.
Thank you for your support and if you're reading through, next chapter button is right there!