Shadowcast

An Icy Rapport

Focus was all that existed in Liza's brain. No thoughts, no distractions. Just pure primal focus. The ancient monkey parts of her brain were firing on all cylinders. If she could just focus, she'd be able to do this.

The water raised up out of her glass, following her wand.

"Okay," she said to herself, "Now let's freeze it."

She thrust her wand forward, recalling "the basics" of magic that she had worked so hard to learn. A jet of frosty air streaked from her wand. Her shift in focus caused her to lose her magic grip on the water. It fell back into her glass, and the ray of frost continued into Alistair across the table, freezing his hand to his cup.

"Oh my... deity!" Liza gasped, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you! I just screwed up a spell and I lost focus and I failed and I'm stupid and- here, let me fix that!"

Liza produced a mote of fire on the tip of her wand, but Alistair quickly threw up his hand. The flame flickered out as if by a gust of wind, but Liza didn't feel the slightest breeze.

"I'll handle it." Alistair sucked in a deep lungful of air and gently blew onto his hand. The ice on his hand began to steam and melt away. Having elemental air powers in your blood had its perks, it seemed. "Is that a new spell?"

"I'm trying to do some learning outside of class so I can catch up with everyone else. So far I can burn things, make little glowies... And talk with magic. But I want to know more! I've seen what you guys do, and it's mind-bogglingly awesome. I've never wanted to learn anything this much in my life!"

Alistair looked off to the side for a moment before looking back to her with a mischievous glint in his eye that scared Liza. "Would you like to learn another parlor trick?"

"Yes?" Liza said with trepidation. Alistair flicked the air in front of him, and a strong gust of wind sent tomato sauce splattering across Liza's face and shawl. "What was that for?!"

"It is a... how you say... learning experience." Alistair took some of his own pasta sauce and smeared it on the cuff of his white jacket. "And friendly revenge for those layers of skin you froze off."

"Don't mess with my shawl!" Liza snapped. She blinked hard and shook her head. Alistair was looking down at something on the table. Liza felt a small stinging pain in her hand. She glanced down and saw her thumb pierced upon the mangled handle of a fork she broke in her grasp. She winced and jammed her thumb into her mouth as blood started to trickle down her hand.

"Sorry," she said, pressing a magically-created ice cube to her thumb, "I didn't mean to get so angry about that. What's the spell?"

Alistair drew his hand up his arm and muttered something in a language... that Liza understood!

"Ooh! Elemental!" she said, clapping her saucy hands, "Say that again, I wasn't paying attention."

"Shall this hand ne'er be clean?"

"That's it?"

"Oh, you speak Elemental?"

"A bit. My dad spoke it at home. Is that all there is to the spell?"

"It's one of the easiest spells once you know the basics," Alistair said, continuing in Sernan.

"I just learned the basics," Liza said, "Let's give it a try." Liza twirled her wand in front of her face like a confectioner gathering a bushel of cotton candy. Then, she flicked her wrist, magically wicking the tomato sauce off of herself. Her shawl went back to its pristine purple.

"Cool spell."

"And it's easy, yes?"

"Super easy! Now that I know the basics, is everything going to be like that?"

"Not at all. Not one bit. Magic is hard work. Are you up for the challenge?"

Liza furrowed her brow and set her jaw. Despite the small bit of tomato sauce dribbling down her cheek, she was the picture of determination. "I'm up AND down for the challenge."

...

"That came out wrong, didn't it?"

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Author's Note:

A brief moment of respite after the oofs from last chapter.

Also: here's a reminder that this document is a work in progress. I went back and edited some things. Nothing huge was changed. Liza no longer has a sword. It didn't make sense for her to have one, so I changed it.