His Hand In The Shadows

Chapter 17: How to Love

It took two weeks to successfully cast the spell. A thick, dark fog covered the ceiling of the training grounds, slowly engulfing the entire room. Shadows lept from the blackness in the shape of wolves, eyes glowing red through the darkness. The wolves touched ground and with another jump toward the air, they vanished into nothingness.

Ayla dropped to her knees followed by the other two students collapsing on the ground next to her. Wiping sweat from her face with the sleeves of her uniform, Ayla forced herself to her feet.

"Good for you, trooper." The captain sledge hammered her in the back and she was down again.

Arell stood quickly and approached Captain Hera. "We helped as well. Remember that?" Arell pointed back and forth between her and the Arcusian student. "I am the power-house behind this spell. You said so yourself, so I shall also receive recognition for my part." Arell followed the captain as she walked away.

Ayla raised a thumb in the air, still lying on the ground. From the benches, Zayd raised two thumbs back in approval. Arell looked at him then at Ayla.

Impressed with their work, the captain dismissed them early but Ayla stayed behind to introduce her new idea, an original spell.

The captain stared at her then started to laugh. "I like it... what do you have so far?"

"It is: darkness create serpent vortex; Deseai cresent sepes swavion."

"Have you worked the equation for blood count?"

"I have." Ayla walked towards the benches. She pulled the papers from her satchel and handed it to the captain who looked them over.

"And the description?"

Ayla handed her the papers leaving smears of blood on the edges from her having cut her own fingers so many times.

"Oh you did drawings as well," the captain noticed.

"Zayd did the drawings."

"I will look it over," the captain said.

"And... one more thing. Another spell."

The captain's face straightened. "I already am bending rules in allowing you to practice an original spell since I notice how well you handle spells, but with the time left before you return, it is dangerous. A double-form spell and one original spell is more than enough to impress your country. No need for a third."

"This one is for no one, but myself. The darkness... it speaks to me sometimes. I have no words yet for the spell but I want to know what it says. Sometimes it's a feeling of unending despair and emptiness that I can curl into myself and disappear within a feeling. Other times, I hear words so real, I can reach out and touch them. Have you yet heard of such a thing?"

"Arcus has even less dark manipulators than Norlyn. I know enough about dark magic that nothing surprises me anymore. My daughter manipulates darkness. I should have you meet her. Soon as I knew she could manipulate darkness, my first thought was to teach her an element but I soon realized there was a part of her left untapped and I had to find a teacher. It was easy for her to slip into misery from being so happy moments prior. We learned it's important to remain positive. Darkness has links to emotions that we still research today. It's important to be around people. It doesn't help you to be alone. Talk to people, let your emotions out and meditate, meditate, meditate. Serpent fruit is a natural aid in keeping darkness under control. Fruits and potions and herbs exist not only for darkness. When you return home, take some of those books with you. Initially, I thought Arcus was not doing enough to understand the darkness in my daughter, but through this academic experiment, I see Norlyn is far worse. They keep chrono manips for medicine and use hardly any potions. I can almost sympathize because time manipulators are rare and make great medics, but they have worth on the battlefield besides saving the dead and dying themselves. If the darkness speaks to you, I also would want to know what it says. When you find words for a spell I will be willing to hear them but we shall focus on one spell at a time."