Inhibition

Chapter 23

The next day, Cat had Language Arts. The military fever had finally spread to Mr. , despite his adamant protests. For the last two weeks that the students had been supposed to be training, Mr. Collins had his classes analyzing famous works of art. Cat’s class had walked into a rant about how art was just as important as writing and that the same principals applied to create significant art was used in writing and the other Arts.

When Cat walked into class that morning, Mr. Collins was sulking in the corner. He did that a lot, random mood swings just being part of the job, but today he was doing work as he sulked. That’s when Cat knew it was serious. As much as Mr. Collins liked to teach and to help students learn, if he didn’t feel like working, he didn’t. He was like Cat in that way, and so Cat understood him. You had to be in the mood to do certain things.

So, to see a man like Mr. Collins working while obviously not in the mood troubled Cat. The rest of the class filed in, chattering. The other students felt the change in the class room. They fidgeted nervously, unused to such a serious flavor to the class. Wyatt turned to Cat questioningly, but Cat only shook her head. She didn’t know what was going on either. Once everyone was seated, Mr. Collins stood up, and walked to the front of the class room. From there, he could see everyone and everyone could hear him.

“Despite my objections, the Headmaster has decided that you are ready to learn Symbols. Symbols amplify the power of their user. Each symbol corresponds to a single goal, and each goal corresponds to a certain symbol. By learning as many symbols as you can, you open yourself up to spells that used to be either too complex or too demanding for you.” He stopped, giving the information time to sink in. His tone was so . . . teacher-like, that Cat felt like she should start taking notes.

“The Headmaster has determined that the lessons in this class should go hand in hand with your additional lessons. This means that the symbols I will be teaching will all have a military bend to them.” He paused to look at his students, and then took a deep breath. Here comes the lecture, Cat thought, disappointed. She had really been enjoying the lax-ness of the class.

“They will help you defend yourself,” he continued, “and help to strengthen your attacks against your enemies. I will teach you combat symbols, as directed by Headmaster Sharpe. We’ll start with the elemental symbols, since you are already finding your limits in that area. Now, I can teach you the different symbols so that you can be more powerful, but be careful. Even with the symbols, your body has limits. Don’t pass them, or you’ll regret it.”

Cat furrowed her eyebrows and turned her confused face to Walt.

Leaning over, Walt answered her unspoken question. “A person can only physically hold so much power. If you force your body to conduct more power than it can stand, the body starts to break down. If you stop, the damage is usually repairable. Sometimes, though, it isn’t. In that case, constant infusions of magic are needed to sustain the life of the person, but more and more is needed the longer the treatment goes on. The body starts to require more magic for even the most basic things, like breathing, and the person just shrivels up and dies when they can’t get that power.”

Cat shivered. It sounded like a horrible way to die.

“Yeah,” Wyatt whispered, leaning towards Cat. Mr. Collins had started droning on about how symbols work and where they came from. Cat ignored Mr. Collins, and strained to hear what Wyatt had to say. “I heard that used to happen a lot. There was this one guy. He started making earthquakes and storms, and growing plants that shouldn’t grow. You know the big stuff. Well, he didn’t have enough power to do all this, so he used symbols. But soon he was conducting so much power that his body craved it. When the Medics decided to stop giving him power, he went crazy. He stole power from other people.”

“You can do that?” Cat asked, astonished.

Wyatt got even quieter. “Well, you can, but it’s really dark stuff. Really bad. If you don’t control how much you take, you can kill the person you’re taking from.”

“How come I haven’t heard about this?”

“It’s practically taboo.” Walt answered. “You won’t read about it anywhere, and no teacher will tell you about it.”

A marker hit Cat’s desk, causing all three of them to jump.

“This is not social hour. Pay attention or get out.” Mr. Collins looked increasingly agitated. Cat, Wyatt, and Walt decided that maybe they should pay attention while Mr. Collins was in this kind of mood. They all put pen to paper; Wyatt and Walt concentrated solely on the lecture at hand.

Cat tried to concentrate too, but her intuitive senses were tingling; she knew she had just learned something significant.