Blowing Embers

Chapter 11

            Kallai narrowly dodged Eran’s grasping hand. She’d come out of the dining hall to find Azaz and his friends there, waiting for her. She’d only just managed to get by them without getting caught there, but they’d gotten too close, and they’d blocked the way back to her dormitory.

            She leapt sideways, reaching for the door, planning to run around the school if she could get that far, hoping that anyone else they ran into would be too lazy to chase her. Azaz and his followers were the only ones who regularly ran after her. Kallai’s hand had barely brushed the metal of the door handle when it flew open.

            Not about to question her good fortune, she darted forward, flying over the threshold. As soon as the edge of her robe cleared the stone lip, the door slammed shut behind her in a whoosh. Kallai froze, staring open-mouthed at the door, hearing pounding and shouts coming from the other side of it.

            She didn’t wonder long about the how of it. Winds encircled her, closing in and squeezing her tight in a feeling that was becoming familiar. When they released her, she found herself back on the roof of the other day, one she suspected, from the relative height and what she could see of the ground in the faint moonlight, was the top of the school’s main tower, the building the whole school had sprung up around.

            Her attention was almost immediately grabbed by Shuu, who strolled over to her, his eyes moving up and down as he looked her over. He stopped only a foot from her, then nodded once. “Hello, Sparrow.”

            Kallai ducked her head, pushing her hair behind one ear. “Hello,” she whispered.

            “Again, questions for you I have. Your pursuers given up have. You now can relax,” he said, folding himself up and dropping into a cross-legged seat right from standing.

            She sat down across from him more slowly, moving gingerly, the bruises on her shoulders still sore. “What do you want to know?” she asked, shivering slightly as the wind picked up. This high, it was more than a little cool.

            “Before, magic and technology being mixed you said. This new is? How done it is?”

            “Oh, it’s been tried for years,” Kallai said, remembering the stories of the Magi of old’s earliest experiments. The descriptions of what had happened to them had been…gruesome. “They haven’t had much success before now. Sevilen says it’s working much better now that they have the technology that’s advanced enough to be compatible. I think they use symbols on the tech components, then combine them into a spell as a whole, but I’m not sure. I only know what Sevilen tells me and he hasn’t said if they’ve succeeded or not yet.”

            Realizing what she’d just said, Kallai flushed and rubbed her goosebump laden arms. “Please don’t tell anyone about that. Sevilen’s not supposed to tell me that kind of thing. It’s kind of supposed to be a secret.”

            Shuu snorted. “Who I tell? You, only person with who I speak. You Magi, spells only use?”

            Kallai nodded, frowning a bit as she shivered again. “How else would we do magic?”

            He eyed her, then abruptly made a little flicking gesture with one hand. A moment later, her tossed a blanket at her, one Kallai recognized as coming from her bed. She could feel her cheeks heat up, grateful for the darkness that hid them, and wrapped the thick, quilted fabric around her. “Thank you,” she whispered.

            Shuu only shrugged. “All people in this country Magi are?”

            She shook her head. “No, of course not. There aren’t that many of us. This is the only magic school, so that’s why you see so many of us. You also see a lot of Magi in the cities where you can take the licensing exams.”

            “Licensing?”

            “Anyone practicing magic has to carry a license. It stops there from being accidents like there have been in the past. I think the law was instituted after an unknown mage snuck into the Council House and assassinated half the council a few centuries ago,” Kallai replied, trying to be as informative as she could be for him. She felt warm, both for the blanket wrapped around her, and for the attention Shuu showed her. For all that he called her a sparrow and seemed disgusted with her at times, he still never hurt her. He was even roughly kind, saving her from her tormentors and noticing her discomfort.

            Though she wouldn’t say so aloud, Kallai had  begun to look forward to the times he came to speak to her. He was the only person, besides Sevilen, who really seemed interested in what she had to say. She knew it was only because she was useful to him, but it was still a nice feeling, one that made her wonder if this was what it was like to have a real friend.

            Shuu shook his head. “Licensing magic no sense makes. Magic free should be. It not like science is, by people not trapped. Natural and everywhere, all around magic is.”

            “We’re taught that magic only exists inside of us, a kind of energy that’s produced by our bodies naturally and that must be harnessed into spells to be used,” Kallai offered.

            He snorted. “That Magi way is. Elemental way much better is. Few spells have, willpower and imagination more important are.”

            “That sounds nice,” she said, smiling. “I’d like not to have to do spells anymore, and have everyone laugh at me when they fail.” Kallai flushed as she realized she’d spoken out loud. Talking to Shuu so much having loosened her tongue, more than she’d though possible.

            Shuu chuckled. “Elemental mage you born must be. It not learned can be. If elemental mage you are, power would by now have shown. Elemental magic much stronger than Magi magic is. Now, even colder it becomes. You studying must so, then sleep. Like every night. So goodnight, Sparrow. Tomorrow we more speak.”

            Before Kallai could protest that she didn’t need to study any more, the winds had already come, wrapping around her and eventually dropping her into the centre of her own room.