The Crystal Trials

58

We sat in Kaito's class, anxious to get to Jorah without being discovered as gauntlet free. Kaito was droning on about the crystallization of ice and how to manipulate the particles to form a full cube. As he paced back and forth, his long colorful robes swished loudly as they always did. Out of the air, he created a large cube of ice in demonstration. Rion and Sharin were in the corner snickering, and I rolled my eyes at their rudeness. Faolan elbowed me in fear that I was being too obvious. Dath was staring forward as if in a daze.

I was growing worried about him. He was always training and growing angrier. Both him and Alden had kept their distance from each other and me. Good. Dath clenched and unclenched his left hand stiffly. Feeling impulsive, I gently eased into his mind space which remained complexly open. I felt guilty for sneaking around his mind. I promised myself I wouldn't rummage through his memories. I could only do so much before I felt that I was crossing a line. Looking around, I saw his beautiful magic system of tree branches pulsing healthily. Sighing, I turned to leave and stopped feeling itchy all over. Just above me, the branches touched a cloudy blackness. Curious, I reached up and it cleared before I could touch it, revealing the leaves of his trees. I shook my head feeling like I had already been there long enough and exited his mind.

Dath shook his head in front of me and rubbed his neck. His staring had ceased, and he began to pay attention to Kaito's lecture. For the reminder of class, we were to practice creating ice cubes. Taury even made a joke and created a cylinder of water to mimic a drinking glass and put the ice cubes inside. Garren laughed but Kaito scowled.

In Jorah's class, we had to be careful. We had all agreed to keep Erix's sons out of the loop, Sharin included. We had no gauntlets to fill so we worked on some spare stones taken from our shelves. Halfheartedly filling them with magic. The next part was up to Sera and Zither. The plan was for Zither to feign messing up filling her Obsidian, while Taury secretly disabled it. We weren't sure if it was going to work but we had to try. Sera would sweet-talked Jorah into telling us where to find new gems, in hopes they had come from another mine. We had all agreed that the mine they came from could be another issue. While they attempted the task, the rest of us kept busy pretending to mind our own business.

Jorah melted at Sera's charm and Zither fake cried about her obsidian turning a dull cloudy black. Taury finished right as Jorah looked over and his bottom lip quivered at the poor rock's death. Ameer next to me snickered. Dath smiled behind the back of his hand. Sera begged him to give her a new one because that one was defective. Jorah was appalled and flied his arms as he ran to a secret stash of gems in his closet. I grinned at Ameer and Faolan wore a look of mischief. There they were. I walked over to "help".

"Do you need help Jorah?"

"No, no. I've got it. The poor obsidian just went and died." He sniffed, his goggles magnifying his tears.

"Is there something wrong with those ones?"

Sera chimmed in, laying it on so think, it had to be obvious, "Oh no! I hope not! The poor dears. What ever family they came from must mean they are all sick." She pouted and he looked panic stricken.

He breathed hard, covering his mouth with his hand. "That one came from the Adrastos Mine." He peered into the closet frantically. "We should use these ones for now, yes? Just in case."

Sera nodded wearing big puppy dog eyes. She placed a hand on his arm, and he nodded violently.

"Sera, lets help him. We can't lose any more precious stones." I mocked seriousness.

Jorah looked defenseless. I felt bad for manipulating the kind master, but we truly needed different gems than the ones we had destroyed. We stepped inside and I saw the quartz. While Sera helped him pick out a new obsidian for Zither, I snagged enough replacements for everyone. I met Sera's eyes, telling he I was successful.

When we returned to our seats to finish the lesson, Ameer leaned over and said, "That was terrible acting." Faolan barked with laughter and even Dath snickered a little, looking better than that morning.