AUTHORS NOTES:
Time is going to start speeding up a bit now, with some chapters covering longer periods of time.
I'll summarise some of the things that Sharein has been learning, instead of reading them in 'real time', but if I kept going as I was (with 3+ chapters to a day), I'd never reach the end ;-)
Once again, thank you so much for the reviews! So happy that people are reading and seem to be enjoying it.
Archer1eye - I had considered some of the things you asked, but will leave revelation for much much later :D
Kar-Vermin - Almost sounds like you're angling for a pre-reader job ;-)
SlykSylva - Thanks so much for the reviews, so happy that you're liking it enough to Favourite and Follow :D
Chapter 2713th-18th Day of Late Winter 768 n.c
Alladrial went back to Kaz Sarion the next day after a breakfast of fried cabbage and bacon, which although a simple dish, he seemed to enjoy. He promised to return soon and said that he was both looking forward to cooking for me and teaching me elvish cooking. Malkarov disclosed to me that he was quite happy he didn't have to hide their relationship, as he had been planning to limit Alladrial's visits so as not to arouse suspicion. His confession made me wish that I could tell him about Shard, although a part of me knew that he probably wouldn't be as accepting as he would be if Shard were just a normal person.
My days all fell into quite a routine. I would wake and get dressed after a quick clean, then cook breakfast. I alternated the breakfast between simple and complicated depending upon whether I was cooking later. Simple breakfasts would proceed a day where I cooked dinner and would be something easy like porridge, toasted bread or cheese, breads and cold meats. Complicated breakfast would be fried full breakfast with eggs, bacon or salted pork, sausages. I cooked pancakes once, which Malkarov absolutely loved; I asked him incredulously if he'd never had them before and he admitted that he had not. I was shocked, perhaps it was just a thing that only Mother cooked? When I next went into town, I asked Mari and she was confused at the idea. Malkarov would often arrive just before breakfast was finished and we would eat together. After breakfast we would head downstairs for a theoretical lesson on a particular school of magic. On days that Missus Rose would be providing us with dinner we would continue the theoretical lesson until Missus Rose arrived with lunch, which we would eat together. On the alternate days where I would be cooking dinner, the theoretical lessons would end early and I would walk into town to buy the ingredients that I needed and bring lunch home on the way. After lunch we would spend the afternoon on practical lessons, breaking early if I was cooking dinner.
On the day where Malkarov taught me about divination, he demonstrated the spell without telling me what it would do. He then had me perform it (which I did without using the pinch of salt that had turned to ash in his hand). Imagine my shock when he handed me a scroll written in Elvish that he had earlier showed me, only this time I could read it as if it were written in the Common Tongue! Comprehend Languages it was called, and with it I could understand any language (even though I would not be able to speak it). I had been meaning to ask Malkarov why there were books on the bookshelf in my bedroom that were written in incomprehensible languages, but hadn't remembered to ask him, now it made sense and the rest of the bookshelf was instantly available to me.
Malkarov's instructions on illusions began with him calling out to me from different parts of the tower, only for me to follow the sound of his voice and find him not there! It happened over and over. I'd reached the top of the tower in response to his call and could hear him calling from the roof only to open it and hear him calling to me from downstairs instead. I got a bit cross with him after walking up and down the stairs three or four times and his laughter only made me more so. This is how he demonstrated the Minor Illusion spell, that could be made to produce a voice (anything from a whisper to a shout) or something visual (but small). Illusion magic was all about tricking people's senses; hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste were all able to be tricked without actually changing. There were even spells to make me invisible! The interesting thing about Minor Illusion that was different to other spells was that you had to focus on what type of illusion you wanted before you cast the spell. The spell would only manipulate one sense and couldn't be swapped for another. Using it to make you see a cat that wasn't there might look real; but it wouldn't make a sound, or smell like a cat. Although he only told me about the hearing and sight versions of the spell, I did figure out how to cast it on his bottle of ale that night to make it taste like curdled milk. I considered that suitable revenge for his earlier trick, he did laugh eventually once he realised that it was merely an illusion. He still made me clean up the ale that he had spit out though.
In my Transformation lesson, Malkarov taught me the Message spell and the Mending spell. The Mending spell was by far one of the most useful spells I had learned so far. Ripped your dress? Mending. Broke a cup? Mending. Anything that was broken, could be repaired by holding the two pieces together and casting the spell. Message was an interesting spell. By casting it, Malkarov could whisper to me (and only me) from almost any distance and only I would hear it. Even if I were surrounded by people, only I would hear the message. I could then whisper back a short message to him, that only he could hear. It would work through small amounts of things (such as a wooden wall, or a small amount of stone) and he didn't even need to be looking at me to cast it. I was slightly confused however, by the nature of the spell. When I asked Malkarov why the Message spell was in the school of transformation, he told me that he wasn't sure. Transformation spells, he explained, are those that generally change the physical properties of something. It may be that the spell alters our ears to hear the message or forges some sort of link between our ears and our mouths. In any case, it was a fairly useful spell as well.
I had to question Malkarov's sanity and competency as a teacher when he threw a knife at me. I dived behind a chair (I was fairly impressed with my reflexes to be honest), and the knife hit a ceramic pot on the shelf behind me. Malkarov then made me use Mending to fix it and informed me that the spell he had just had me cast was the Protection spell Shield. I yelled at him that no sane person would ever throw a knife at another person just to demonstrate a point. He offered to cast the spell for me to throw the knife at him… I repeated my assertion that no sane person would ever throw a knife at another person just to demonstrate a point. We argued briefly in a manner that strangely reminded me of arguing with Jacom. Malkarov then dragged me up to his bedroom, where he pulled aside a tapestry that took up a good portion of one wall. Behind that tapestry was a large ring painted onto the wall with shiny white paint. Inside the ring were large symbols, all around. He immediately went and placed his hand on the centre of the ring and the bit in the middle suddenly disappeared! It was replaced by another bedroom, very dissimilar to Malkarov's. It was almost like a window, without the glass. Like Malkarov had somehow made a hole in the wall to a strange room on the other side. It's walls were all light coloured wood, bent into sweeping curves and It's furniture all looked very fine, almost too thin to be functional. The legs on the bedside table (made of the same light coloured wood as the walls), were bent wood that looked extremely delicate, almost not strong enough to support the top part of the table. Smaller pieces branched off from the legs, like small roots of a tree to join up to the bottom edge of the bench, creating strange repeated patterns. I was brought out of my shocked amazement when Malkarov screamed Alladrial's name and shortly the elf appeared within view. He stepped through quickly and worriedly asked Malkarov what was wrong. Malkarov explained the lesson and with a sigh Alladrial agreed with me. With a huff Malkarov told me to go back downstairs and practice the spell a few more times. When Malkarov came back down a short while later, he seemed much better… at least, he didn't throw any more knives at me and seemed to be smiling a lot.
Enchanting was Malkarov's passion, I discovered. To properly understand enchanting, I needed to understand runes he informed me. As such, enchanting lessons would be exclusively theory until I could reach a point where I understood enough to enchant something myself. He taught me some of the more basic runes and their meanings. Each rune had a short common name, a longer magical name and one or a set of inherent meanings. The Ya (Common tongue) rune, for instance looked a bit like a leafless tree. It had a long vertical line, with two lines branching off about a third of the way up angled out to either side. It's magical name was Yarnethkarsa and it's inherent meaning was "Protection". Everything clicked. Everything. Yarnethkarsa was one of the words in the magical phrase for the Shield spell. As soon as I realised this I raised it with Malkarov who smiled widely and congratulated me on my perception. Every spell was made up of a group of runes. Different combinations of runes 'unlocked' different spells. Malkarov then told me that the first bit of enchantment that I would actually do, would be to write my own scroll. Every spell scroll was made up of a selection of runes, the enchantment runes followed by the runes for spell. Both sets of runes are written using their magical names. The phrase to enchant the scroll was dependent upon a few factors (but many spells shared the same enchantment set). To use the scroll, it had to actually be enchanted, but the reading of the scroll enchantment at the start was the thing that unlocked the magic of the scroll, letting it out.
I had to write each rune over and over using pieces of chalk on large flat pieces of slate. Each one had to be perfect. Malkarov watched over me, correcting me whenever I made a line a little bit too long, or not perfectly straight. By the end of that day I had learned five different runes, with another sixty or so to go.
Rituals was the one school that Malkarov didn't want to teach me straight away. Many of the rituals required knowledge of the runes and the creation of a circle of protection or a circle of intent (or both). The circle of protection would protection the ritualist from any negative effects of the ritual and the circle of protection would focus the ritual on one point. Both could be 'inverted' he explained, to either protect or focus everything outside the circle.
Potion brewing was interesting. It seemed to me, at the beginning, that it would be so similar to cooking that I would have no troubles with it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten Alladrial's comment about Malkarov's lack of talent in the kitchen. I spent so much time reading the recipe and checking back on the recipe that I missed the queues for when to do things. Malkarov was constantly pointing out bits of the instructions that I had reached which was making me frustrated. For some reason, I just couldn't grasp the need for… exactness. Malkarov almost started to pull his hair out in frustration! I just couldn't get it.
During my visits into town Missus Rose eventually stopped commenting on my trousers, although it took a few days. I looked forward to visiting Brahdi, despite her brash loudness and occasionally ran into Mari or Beka. When I did speak to Beka, I asked her if she had managed to talk to Father Mattias, to which she disclosed that she had not (but assured me that she would before then next ten-day service). Mari still hadn't any 'special' news for me, but hoped that it would be not too far in coming.
By the end of my first ten-day (although I had completely lost track of the days), I felt a little bit in shock at the amount I had somehow managed to learn. I naively wondered how much more there could possibly be. It seemed never ending and so esoteric compared to the common day things I had learned to that point.
Each night, after dinner was eaten and the dishes done, I would retire to my bedroom for a long soak in the bathtub and a quiet read before sleep.
It was on the last day, before I was to head home to visit my family, that I overheard Malkarov talking from his room as I was about to open my door.
"...finally found something! I found something!" he was shouting.
I vaguely heard a response (I guessed it was Alladrial) and I leaned a little bit closer to his door.
"...no good at potions! She can't brew a potion to save her life!" he exclaimed. Obviously he was talking about me, which only made me more curious and a little upset. Why did he seem so happy about it?
"...you can't cook though…" I managed to hear Alladrial respond and repressed a giggle.
"This isn't about me!" Malkarov almost yelled, "As much as I'd like to take the credit! I told you how quickly she picked up the light spell! There is no way she should have been able to cast Manipulate Elements that quickly and don't forget casting Mage Hand straight away!"
"But you Illsara live so hurriedly. It took me three years to learn the Light spell," I heard Alladrial respond.
"It took Jaymes three weeks to cast his first spell! It took me two weeks! It took her long enough for you to sing Ievasso Silasier!" Malkarov shouted, "I tried her on Comprehend Languages, expecting her to take a little longer but she picked that up just as quickly, as well as Minor Illusion, Mending, Message and Shield! At this rate she'll have finished her apprenticeship by this time next year! And most of that will be teaching her potions up to an acceptable standard."
Suddenly I felt… empty, overwhelmed, lightheaded. I felt like all of this couldn't possibly be real, like I was dreaming. What was wrong with me? I felt somehow apart from myself, like I wasn't even inside my own body. What was happening?
