Forgotten Magic

Chapter 15

For a moment, I considered going behind stage and offering to help Varian. And I almost did. But, ultimately, I decided against it. If he hadn't asked me before, I thought he probably had a good reason to. Not to mention...well, I figured Varian and I presenting an invention together might just spell disaster for a certain someone.

"Let the judgment begin!"

. . .

It was finally time for Varian's invention. I wondered who agreed to be his assistant, and silently hoped that whatever he created...didn't...blow up.

The alchemist stepped out from behind the curtains.

"Behold! The power of alchemy!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Nickolas tense and take a step towards the stage.

"Hey, where's the opening?" I hear a...well, a drunk voice wonder. "Aha! Oh-ho!The power of ag, uh...of, uh, that guy!"

The crowd laughs and Varian facepalms.

"Go. Do the thing," the little man whispers.

"Oh, yeah! I give you, the Elemental Remogrifier!" He parts the curtains to reveal his invention. "Assistant?"

His 'assistant' poured what looked like sand into the barrel of his invention.

"Here we go," he whispers, before pulling the lever.

I held my breath as the machine began to whirl.

Over the noise, Varian explained, "The rotation causes friction,
which heats the sand, while the counter-centrifigual force promotes particle compression. The end result?" It becomes quiet. "Fifty pounds of sand turns into..."  The alchemist reaches inside and pulls out a glistening purple gem. "this. I call this new element...Cassandrium."

Gasps a applause echo through the crowd...and, I had to stop myself from sighing out of frustration. Don't get me wrong, it was all amazing, what Varian could do, but he was going a little overboard with the whole Cassandra thing.

I saw the alchemist glance at me, a small smile on his face.

I gave him a thumbs up.

This entire time, Varian's assistant was sleeping, standing up, on a stool. He finally toppled, and through all the commotion, a knife flew through the air, straight at the judge's nose. Another gasp echoed through the crowd as Cass caught it.

"Despite its lack of flair and panache," Master St. Croix starts, "I was almost inclined to give your device a mediocre assessment."

"Flair? What does that have to do with-" Varian wonders.

"However," his tone was harsh, "considering your assistant nearly lanced my nasal cavity, I've no choice but to disqualify you. Next!"

Varian looks distraught. The curtains close, leaving him standing, by himself, onstage.

"Sir, with all due respect, you can't disqualify him because of his assistant," I heard Cassandra whisper.

"You stick to guarding, I will stick to sciencing. Got it? Hmm?"

A small part of me wished that knife had gone right through his nose and lodged itself in his skull.

I really don't want to go through what happened next. Basically, someone won by inventing nothing and the 'judge' stopped the contest that was already at its end.

I watched as Varian walked offstage, disappointed. And I knew that it must've stung much more-disappointing Cassandra-than it did when he disappeared his dad. Because I knew he'd tried much harder for Cass than he ever had.