Chapter 4

My special tutoring session with Brook continued, as it became obvious I was just throwing out guesses at most of the Algebra assignments. It became somewhat more tolerable when Ashlyn joined us - misery and company and all that. Naturally Sheila became a member too.

Brook had become much more gracious when 'call me Gendun' publicly thanked her at assembly for her "leadership in establishing a peer support incentive," with a few extra credits thrown in, I have no doubt.
It also seemed to be helping too, as I actually got a passing grade in the weekly test. Afterward, I shared a "We passed algebra!" dance with Ashlyn, who scored a remarkable 72. Then, since magic had come up during the test, I headed off to Chem alone while she went to meditate with her Tree.

Before I could make it into the lab, Brook grabbed me and dragged me to the room across the hall, to a table where Barka and another boy were sitting. "Tech is down, so no Chem. They have Alchemy instead, which I can teach you in an hour." She said dismissively, "Which means Practical Magic for you now. And you're with us - we traded our witch to them," she pointed to a group of four, two boys and two girls, "they lost Lisa the Dud so we gave them Tonia the Witch, since we still have Jeffrey here, who's a wizard, of sorts. But now we also have you!" She grinned.

"I don't know if I'm gonna be any use to you, all I can do is..."

"Copy magic, yeah, yeah," Brook waved it off, "but that must mean that somewhere in you, whether you realize it or not, something is telling you when and even how magic works! I mean, how else can you duplicate it?"

"Maybe... even so, how will it help you?"

"I'm pretty much a zero in the natural magic department, so I have to use spells. Right now I'm working on the Book of Chants, and, let me tell you, it's just a hodge-podge of nonsensical sounds thrown together like yesterday's lunch. I'm hoping you can tell if I'm doing it right or not. On the other hand, Barka here can throw gobs of magic around without trying." She looked at him, "He just can't DO anything useful with it, is all."

"Yeah," He nodded, "Jeff and Tonia had been showing me the magic light and I was real close to getting it." He shook his head. "It's just that their magic's so different - it's hard to figure out what they use to get the brightness." He looked at Jeff, who made a gesture with his hand and a blob of yellow light appeared. He grinned proudly at me.

"Yeah, like that," Barka said. He held his hand up and a feeble glow came from it. "I tried to slip something in to make it brighter, and I got this..." The ball in his palm changed into his trademark lightning nimbus.

"Okaay... And Jeff, show me yours again?" I watched as a yellow light grew in his hand. The difference between the two lights, I realized, was that Barka had to urge the magic to change form in his hand, Jeff's light came out ready-made.

"Jeff, OK, turn it off and do it again." And I was right, the light appeared virtually instantly.

"Hold that..." Then to Barka, "Do your glow again." I urged, "Without the sparks." I waited as Barka rolled another pale shimmery blob in his hand.

My turn. I focused and slowly, a small light formed in my hand, yellow at first, but slowly becoming whiter. I moved it closer to Barka and concentrated in pushing my blob to mix with his.

"Okay, can you feel what I'm doing?"

"Yeah... Kinda.." Barka said slowly. The glow in his palm grew, brighter and brighter still, until it became a blinding white glare.

"Turn down the magic, it's hurting my eyes!"

"Wow!" Barka said, as he played with the glob, but at a less painful intensity. "Wow! What the heck did you do?"

I pointed at the lanterns on the wall, "I mixed the fey-lights with Jeff's light and added it to yours." I said, "Now turn it off and see if you can put in the stuff I used to make it shine again."

Jeff wanted me to help him with his light too, but, although I could add the fey-light to make it a bit brighter, he was not able to do it on his own. I could see how the magic appeared when he thought, 'Light!' But could not figure out how it was done or where it came from.

"It's too bad he can't just can't say something like, 'Bright light,' and make it brighter!" Brook said, noting the dejected look on Jeff's face, "or maybe just think 'BIG light!' " Just then, the feeble blob in Jeff's hand doubled in size, and brilliance.

"Hey, that's it! Just think 'Big light!' " Jeff danced around, getting high-fives. Soon we discovered that he could also think 'Big Green light' with the appropriate results. With the boys egging each other on, and Brook shouting encouragement their efforts were visibly improving.

"Look!" Barka cried, "I can make it move!" He strained and the light went an inch in the air. He sighed, "But that's all it does."

"What you should do is start with a small ball, float that in the air, then add the rest after." I could sense that his own magic was tying the light down, the harder he tried to push, the firmer the magic held on to it.

"Cool! That's done the trick! Thanks Julie!"

"That's exactly what I imagined you could do!" Brook crowed. "You're gonna be my ticket into the Mage's Guild when I write my Annotated Almanac of Thaumatology!" She handed me a thick book, "But first read this." She passed it over, it weighed a good 5-lbs and crammed with tiny words.

"What's in it?"

"It's a collection of old magical spells from the school library."

"Really? So I'm off algebra now?"

"No." She smiled. "Why should it?"

"God, you're enjoying this way too much." I told her, "Have you learned any of this?"

"Learn? I can recite about 30 of the so-called spells, but," Brook shrugged, "none of them seem to have any effect, let alone with the intended results."

"Hey look, there's a section on 'Dispelling Darkness!' "

"Yeah good luck, that's what we went through first, hoping for some hints to help Barka here."

"Ahh... So saying 'Bring forth lightness and luminance' fifteen times didn't do the trick?"

"It's supposed to channel your innate magely skills to do your bidding..." She sighed.

"So much for our innate magely skills, I guess. Oh look, this one starts with 'Fee Fi Fo Fum'" I started leafing through the book.

"Good, have at it." Brook said as the class bell rang, "Me and the boys are going to show off their new lights at homeroom!"

I gave her a small wave goodbye, distracted by a spell in the book. It was just a jumble of nonsensical words, but each time I looked at it, it seemed to make a buzzing noise in my head. And, when I tried to sound out some of the words, I could feel magic being shifted. It was a hit and miss process, sometimes I could feel things happening as soon as I made the sounds, but other times, nothing.

I stopped and thought about it, since the words were just gobbledygook, the way they were sounded out must be the key. Which meant that I had to try and duplicate the original writer's pronunciations and accent to get the words to do what they were meant to. But things DID happen when I said the combinations right and it was giving me some idea of how the magic can be moved and occasionally made to combine into something else. And pretty soon I was able to get a little spitball of light when I recited the first few lines of the spell.

I was still staring at the same floating light bubble when Sheila stuck her head in the door. The light appeared when I said the chant properly and it even looked similar to Barka's version, but I was having trouble keeping it going. Every minute or so, the glow would dissipate and I had to keep remaking the magic for it to stay working. Feeding it the stuff from the wall lanterns made it bigger and brighter but, as soon as I stopped, it started to fade. Somehow, Barka could keep his light as long as he wished, but then I was still figuring out the second half of the spell which did not seem to do anything useful.

"You made it from a spell? That's just amazing!" Sheila said.

"No, not really, I can't get it to stay lit!"

"Don't you worry - you'll figure it out! But Master Gendun's sent me to get you. He wants to see us now at the maze!" Sheila led the way out, collecting the Bo staff she had left leaning against the door and began an overhand butterfly twirl. Since our sessions at gym, she had been doing the exercises whenever she had some free time. So, with me lugging the old book of rhymes and following a respectable three feet behind her, we headed down the corridor.

"As you probably know, Ashlyn has been gradually building up her link to the Richmond Line, and it has already shown a marked effect in tempering the effects of the shifts," Gendun explained when we joined him. Yu was there as well, but he kept a discreet distance away from Ashlyn, who got fidgety when he was too close.

"Along with expanding the Lei-line connection, Ashlyn is also busy increasing the storage capacity of her Tree, but it will take some time before it can be made to handle all the power." Gendun continued, "so we will divert this magical energy to help with another project." He gestured at Yu, "Your friend Yu Fong has been helping us in deciphering some ancient herbal text, and he and Dr. Tessect have been building up our herbal garden with this knowledge.

"Ashlyn is going to channel the excess energy to support the plants in our garden. And this is where you come in. I will show you where I want the energy to be distributed, and, Yu Fong, who apparently can sense your location, will then direct Ashlyn to build her magic conduits towards you." I blinked, Yu TOLD him he could locate me? The nerve! And why don't I have a say in this?

Gendun turned, motioning me to follow him. I paused to give Yu a piece of my mind, but then Master Gendun glanced back at me, smiling beatifically and all the curses I was about to blast Yu with disappeared into a pretty little rainbow. I could only manage a glare at Yu as I passed him, but I was determined to find something totally evil to inflict on him from my book of spells.

Gendun led the way into the school, past the dining hall and into the kitchen area. I'd never been inside there, but it was easily four, five times the size of the main kitchen at the Shapeshifter's Keep. With the evening meal just an hour away, the twenty or so kitchen staff were scurrying around getting things ready.
I followed Gendun through a large set of doors at the back, which led us into a large open-air area, surrounded on three of its sides by a tall fence. Through another gate in the fence we followed a path with a sign saying 'Garden.' Dr. Tessect was waiting there and she joined us.

We passed through a stand of trees and I found myself in the middle of maybe a hundred rows of plants and herbs, stretching away and merging with a large orchard of fruit trees at the far end. "Wow, this... This is all ours?"

"Yes," Gendun nodded with obvious pride, "We grow enough that we hold a mini market every Saturday morning to trade our surplus for other goods. With the influx of the extra energy, I'm highly optimistic of even better yield."

Dr. Tessect led us a few rows down and stopped, "Can you signal your friend that I'd like the conduit to go here?"

"He's not my friend!" I hissed through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I think you're quite mistaken!" Gendun laughed softly.

"Uh, let me concentrate!" I said quickly, so that he wouldn't be tempted to zap me with his happy ray again. I turned to face back at the school and tried to 'see' where Yu Fong would be. I could make out the blue of the kitchen workers bustling about, then, further back, the unmistakable silvery-blue of the maddening godlet. I swear I could almost see the smirk on his face. Not far from him was Ashlyn in her lovely yellow-and-green pastels, and between them, Sheila's human shape.

"Have they started yet?" Gendun asked.

"They... er, not yet..." First, I had to get their attention, but how? Then, pouring all the frustration and malice I felt towards the boy, I focused and screamed in my head, "YU FONG you idiot!"

He must've jumped a foot in the air, and immediately the shape of his red dragon appeared to swirl around him. "Okay, he knows we're here." I said, then, "Oh... oh shit. Uh, there's a problem, something's spooked Ashlyn." I could see by her violently shifting colors how extremely agitated she was. "I'll go back and have Yu meet you here instead."

I rushed back and Sheila was standing in front of Ashlyn, using her Bo against Yu, who was saying, "Stop! Stop! If you stop attacking me, the dragon will go away!" I could see the dragon was only fending off Sheila's blows, but she was relentless in her attack. I had to pause to admire her form, she was good! But her wooden stave would spark each time she struck a blow and it was already smoking from several charred spots.

I stepped in as she straight lunged at Yu and grabbed her, "Stop! It's OK! Stop!" Gradually she stopped fighting and I could pull her back.

"H-he changed into a dragon and was going after Ashlyn!" Sheila panted.

"I'm sorry! I was surprised and my dragon rose to defend me! I'm really sorry!" Yu explained, he closed his eyes and the dragon disappeared back inside.

"It's actually my fault," I told them. "I did something I shouldn't have. I'm sorry to have caused all of this!" I turned to Yu, "Really, I am. But can you please go see Gendun now, and... and I'll talk to you later, OK?" Yu nodded solemnly and walked away.

Sheila was comforting Ashlyn and she looked at me, "What did you do? Fire shot out of his eyes and he flew up. He looked like he was going to flame us!"

"I, er, I sorta screamed in his head..." I grimaced.

"Whoa, you can do that? Too?"

"I didn't know I COULD, until I DID!" I shook my head. "It was a mean thing to do, and I didn't mean to scare you so... Especially you, Ashlyn!"

"S'OK," she smiled at me, totally serene, just as if nothing had happened, but she turned to look sadly at Sheila's half charred Bo, and started stroking her hand over it. Amazingly, the blackened spots faded, then disappeared. And when she handed it back to Sheila, the wood was completely fresh and strong, scar- and char-free. "It knows better now, so it won't burn any more."

We were both staring, "You can do that?"

"Yes, it was just some dumb old oak tree, so I just had to teach it how to avoid getting hurt."

"Ohhhh... Maybe you can teach Julie's Bo the same thing too!"

"Sure!" Ashlyn smiled, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, to make wood learn to avoid being damaged.

"Julie Olsen..." A voice whispered in my head, "we're ready now!" Instantly, goose-bumps went all over me.

"Oh lord!" I hugged my arms around me.

"You OK?" Sheila asked, "you just got kinda pale."

"Ughhh! The damn Yu just talked in my head!"

"This is wonderful!" The smug bastard was giggling, "I did not know I could do this!"

"Enough," I thought back at him, "this is totally creeping me out! I said I was sorry, but don't make me regret it!"

"Ahh, apologies for the intrusion; I was somewhat elated at discovering this ability! But, ahh... Gendrun would like you to begin..." His voice faded, but just like the fabled Cheshire cat, his infuriating smile lingered.

"They're ready for us now," I said to Ashlyn, "about 200 feet that way."

She nodded, then sat facing the direction I was pointing. Magic flooded around and into her, and slowly, a pale green tendril reached out from her Tree, inching its way towards the Garden. It traveled about 30 feet, then stopped. I could see Ashlyn straining but the magic root did not budge.

I sat down next to her, "What's wrong?"

"Something's blocking me... Cannot move." She sighed, "We were afraid of this, it's happened to the other links too."

I did a quick estimate, "It's probably just the foundation of the school building. Can you go deeper?"

"N-no, I'm well below that, but any lower... there is a boundary. I don't know how to explain it, it's like a raging river. It sucks the magic up and it... it just disappears."

"OK, take it easy, there's no rush. I'll just let Master Gendun know." I thought at Yu and told him we were going up against some obstacle.

I could sense Ashlyn shifting the root, trying to uncover an opening, but 20 minutes later, she had not made any headway. By then Gendun had returned and the dinner bell had rung. He suggested we stop and try again the next day from another angle. As with the other links, if they came up against a blockage like this, the only thing to do was to start in a slightly different direction and hope for better luck. That explained why the links were taking so long to finish!

Ashlynn was quite down all through dinner, so Sheila suggested I show her my light spell and that seemed to cheer her up a bit. It was understandable, because of her fear of fire, that any light that did not threaten to ignite her was a good thing. Quite a few others came by to see it work, even some of the fae and forest-folk from the vegetarian end of the dining hall, who seldom wanted anything to do with us meat-eating barbarians.

"It's not a finished spell," I kept telling them, "it only lasts a few minutes before it fades!" But the interest was there, and, according to Brook, there was also a big business in the manufacture of fae-lights, which made recovering the rest of the spell a priority. Then after dinner, I had to give them all a quick lesson in creating the spell.

"No - the 'gwerr' is longer, and stretch the 'g' out even more!" I was getting frustrated just watching them struggle with the spell, but I could now see the advantage of my sensate sight. A little difference in the sound or even the emphasis would totally nullify the rest. But eventually, a few managed to produce a light, and they took over the teaching.

"OK, now show me the rest of the spell!" Brook urged.

"Here... This is as far as I got," I pointed, "that got me the light. Then, starting here, the line that has 'chewy gnat' in it, does nothing at all."

Brook stared at it a bit, "Hmmmm. It's not 'chewy gnat!' It's 'ch,' space, 'yw,' space, 'gn,' then 'at!' "

"Well, that's 'chewy gnat' to me!"

"The weird thing is the 'yw,' not English, definitely not English..." Her eyes lit up, "It's Gaelic! Has to be!"