Sister of Filis

Sister of Filis

Julia had to stride to keep up with the glide of her mentor, Natali Lenson. Beside the graceful Magii woman, she felt ungainly and lanky. That she was almost asleep on her feet, her eyes gritty with the lack of it did not help, but that was the nigh permanent state of any student in the School of Medicine. Long hours of hard work tending the sick coupled with weekly tests that had to be studied for in the small hours of the night were what the School considered "discipline that students must attain. Not for the first time in her life Julia wished that she had chosen another school.
"This is too good an opportunity for you to miss, Julia. It is not often that even Kara Fortuyn brings in a child Soul-Stealer, and with the promise you show I want you to help me link him,
Julia nodded, but she wasn't entirely sure that she could draw steadily. She had been on night duty in the wards, and had been heading back towards her room to get a few hours sleep before her morning classes when her mentor had come to fetch her.
They were speeding through the corridors towards the quarters of the School of Battle, of which Kara Fortuyn was Captain, having re-founded it recently. Her mentor had already told her that Kara Fortuyn had the child in her own rooms, and that the boy was a little "wild. Julia hoped that that was an accurate description and not her mentors normal understatement of fact.
Finally they came to a halt at the heavy doors that marked the Captains quarters. Julia felt her heart sink when a childs angry scream came drifting through to them. There was a crash and then Kara's husky deep voice could be heard shouting back. Natali actually grinned at her before knocking, as if these things were amusing.
A shout from within told them to come in, and Natali opened the heavy doors with a thread of power. She glided inside without looking back at Julia, so she had to scuttle in after her, wondering where it was the most Magii found their grace from.
Kara Fortuyn was standing in the middle of the room clutching a dark haired boy tightly in her arms, holding his hands by the wrists and breathing hard. The boy was struggling and biting at her, trying to loosen her grip, his near black-blue eyes flashing with fury.
"Let me go!! Let me go!! he screamed repeatedly at her.
Kara Fortuyn, a legend in the trine, a commander of armies, a Magii with the power to Ride the Tempest and the greatest hunter of Soul-Stealers who had ever lived, looked up at the two women entering her rooms with a long suffering expression.
"Natali, I think Kieran here needs a little calming, She said through clenched teeth.
"I do not! I just want to go home, now! Kieran shouted.
Kara looked down at the boy, her expression unreadable, and drew a deep breath.
"We have been over this before, kid. You can't go home, your mother is too sick to look after you now. You have to be here and be a Magii. I will not let The Company claim you!
Julia watched them both, and without thinking about what she was doing she sent a thread of power at the boy, finding it hard to believe even though he was wild that he could be a Soul-Stealer. She had no need to push it though, because as soon as she let it go it was sucked towards the boy. She realised now what she should have felt as soon as she came into the room, if she had been awake enough, there was a pull in the room that centered around the boy.
As the thread hit the boy though, he turned his angry glare on her and with a shock she realised that he knew what she had done.
"Oh my, Kara, he is quite a find! Natali was enthusing, "How strong he is! He'll match any Magii for power even after the linking,
"Indeed, Kara replied tersely, but Kieran had calmed down a little, his attention on Julia rather than Kara now.
"What did you do? he spat at Julia, who jumped.
"I was just testing your strength, she answered, feeling guilty.
"He saw that? My, my, a find indeed! Natali said now, her excitement effusive.
Kieran seemed to warm to the attention, and stopped struggling in Kara's arms. Natali glided across to them both, and caught his chin in one hand, tilting it up a little to look in his eyes. Julia followed, a step or two behind as was expected of a student with their mentor. She looked the boy up and down from where she stood, warily.
He was probably about 8 cycles in age, but he was tall for his age, only a span or two smaller than the diminutive Natali. He was also broad in the shoulder and strong, Julia doubted she could have kept hold of him as Kara did, even though Julia was nearly as tall as the Warrior Mage. The boys eyes were piercing in their own way, inspite of how dark they were, and they seemed full of fire. In fact, he seemed to be bursting full of life and health, and possessed of a particularly passionate temper.
"Well Kieran, we are going to make a fine Magii out of you. Julia is going to link you to the core, with my assistance, in a few minutes. You'll feel a bit ill and light headed for a few days afterwards, but you're a strong lad so you'll do well,
Julia tried not to goggle. She didn't think she was in any state to link the boy, and the look that Kieran cast her way told her he thought much the same. Kara raised a questioning eyebrow, but Natali smiled back at her brightly.
"Now, you are going to have to be good and stand still though, Natali continued quickly, Kara can't hold you like that while we do the linking. Are you going to be nice for us, or will I have to make you sleep first? Her voice held no hint of the threat, but the boys eyes widened a little as if she had. He met her eyes and then his mouth tightened into a stubborn line. Kara frowned down at him.
"Kieran, Natali means you no harm, just as I mean you no harm. If she has to make you sleep, it is to stop you being hurt in the linking. Your mother asked you to be good for us, so please remember that,
It seemed that the boys mother must have some hold over him, because he looked sharply up at Kara then glumly down at the ground, nodding. Slowly Kara let him go, and he stood still keeping his eyes on the ground.
"Thank you, Kieran, Kara said quietly.
Natali turned to Julia, beaming up at her, and Julia felt her heart sink once again. Her mentor was asking too much of her, and she really didn't like the thought of what might happen if she failed here.
"Don't worry Julia! The process requires patience and control, but it is not dangerous. It also requires significant strength in power. You are more than capable of all that!
Sometimes Julia wondered why Natali had been appointed as her mentor. She was an enthusiastic and bubbly woman, who seemed to constantly ignore Julia's weaknesses. She seemed to be convinced that Julia was much more capable than she was, and that left Julia constantly terrified of failing.
She nearly jumped out of her skin as a hand was laid on her shoulder, and she turned to see Kara standing behind her.
"I've heard about you, Julia Varyn. I'm told you have a bright future ahead of you as a Healer,
"Oh yes, she's one of the strongest we've seen in years, Natali gushed.
The crushing weight of expectation made her feel sick. She could not stand to be told these things, she knew they were not true. Looking down at the ground she swallowed.
"I've not had sleep since yesterday morning, I am really not sure if this is a good thing for me to do, she said quietly.
"You healers always had a funny idea of how to train your students, Kara muttered in Natali's direction, then she came round to face Julia, putting a finger under her chin and raising her head so she could speak eye to eye with the student.
"Julia, I know your mother very well, and I know why you are so afraid of failing. Your family has such a reputation in the temple you don't feel like you can live up to it. Other students I know have said to you at times you are only still in the temple because of who your mother is, but it isn't true. It took your uncle a long time to step out of your mother's shadow, but he did it. So can you, because you are as good as everyone says. You are much like Deiter in fact, and at least as strong as he was,
She looked the legendary Mage in the eye and felt her fear dissipate. This woman had known her uncle well, better than anyone else that still lived.
"Alright, she said quietly. Kara reached out and squeezed her arm, nodding with approval, then walked away to sit on a chair and watch. Keiran looked up at Julia and Natali sullenly, then glanced across at Kara. Much to Julia's surprise there was a good deal of admiration in the look he gave Kara.
"Okay, draw power from the core until you are holding your limit. Make sure you are well grounded, Natali was now using her much cooler teaching voice, that Julia found much easier to deal with, and she did as she was instructed.
"Now what you must do is link to the child, as you would do with another Magii. Because he is open and not touching the core, you can do it easily without his needing to do anything,
Julia made a thick thread of power which she held on to at one end. The other end she sent towards the boy, looking for that open spot, the drawing point. His eyes widened as it came towards him in undeniable confirmation of this ability to see power, and as it touched him he jerked. Julia found herself sending calming thoughts along the thread.
"Very good, Julia, very good, she heard Kara murmuring from her seat. It was well known that among the many unusual powers that Kara Fortuyn possessed one was an acute ability to be able to read and see what other people were doing with power.
Kieran relaxed and Julia felt herself joined to him. She had done this many times in practice with other students. Sometimes it was important for healing to have one healer controlling the power of many for prolonged or difficult operations. But never before had she been linked to someone like this. For a moment she had to fight to keep control of her own power, as it was being sucked into him, but the link yielded to her with relative ease, and she had control. As she followed the link and studied it, she suddenly understood what she had to do next. Where she was linked to him, at his drawing point, she could actually sense the little gap that kept him from touching the core. She had thought it would be like someone who had been blocked. She ungrounded herself from the core and then grounded again through the tiny gap. Kieran gasped.
"Don't rush it, Julia. You must take it slowly. If you go too quickly you will burn the boy out before he has a chance to draw for himself, Natali's monologue was on the edge of her hearing.
Now she began to draw again, this time through Kieran, following the grounding line. The edges of his drawing point stretched towards the core, trying to close the gap. She knew instinctively that this needed every bit of control she had, because it would be very easy for there to be a leakage or backlash round the edges of the small gap.
It was more than a little dizzying how much power she found herself wielding, because Kieran's innate strength was beyond hers. It occurred to her then that he would be able to wield this power alone as soon as she was done, unlike most children because they had to mature into it. He could feel it and see it already, drawing it would be only a short step from that for him.
Now, very slowly she began to pull the gap between Kieran and the core closed, to seal him to the core much as most normal people were sealed away from it. Despite using the full strength of the power she held, the boy's drawing point moved with aching slowness. She kept her patience though, balancing the need to draw shut the gap with the need to prevent any spilling out of the gap.
Through the link, she could feel the boy's excitement. He knew as well as she what this particular linking would do for him. He would need a very firm hand after this, and Julia guessed that Kara would be that firm hand with him.
Finally the gap closed, and Julia carefully removed her grounding line from the boys connection and placed it down through her own again. She let go of Kierans power and let most of her's dissipate too, holding only enough to keep the link together, thus preventing the boy from drawing himself.
"Kieran, you must listen to me very closely. This is the single most important lesson that any Student learns in the temple, her voice was a little shaky as she began to speak. Natali broke in before she could continue.
"There's no need for that, he won't be able to do anything for years yet. You need to test the seal now Julia,
Slowly Julia shook her head, and let her gaze fall on Kara. It was most important that the Warrior Mage knew exactly what was going to happen, she thought.
"He could draw now if I let go of the link, he can see and feel the use of power as clearly as any of us here, you know that. He can also sense the core as we do,
Kieran nodded in agreement, his dark eyes sparkling, and Kara sighed heavily.
"Very well, I would not suggest that you block him now until he is older, so continue with the lesson, Kara said as Natali opened her mouth to speak.
"Who will teach and train him Kara? A child like him would have to be kept within arms reach at all times for that,
"I will, Kara said, her tone flat, the she looked at Julia, And I think in fact I shall have to have Julia's help too, she seems to have a strong affinity with Kieran
Again Natali opened her mouth to argue, but Kara had been speaking as Captain of the Battle School, not friend.
Julia looked from Kara to Natali and then back to Kara, who nodded at her, so she smothered her questions for now and turned her attention back to Kieran.
"In a moment I am going to let go of the link, and then I am going to use a monitoring thread on you. This is very similar to the link we have, but you will be able to draw of your own free will, the boys eyes positively shone , I will be able to guide what you do, and know exactly how you are doing it. If I need to, I will also be able to stop you from drawing, he nodded at her, though the thought of her stopping him from drawing seemed to have calmed his excitement a little.
She had done this many times with the initiate students, students who had not yet chosen the schools they would train in. As a student in the final phase of her training part of her time was taken up teaching regular classes to the initiates.
She didn't need to tell Kieran when she had let go of the link, but she found herself holding her breath for how he would react. Kara sat up straighter in her seat, as if tensed to spring on the boy should he do anything stupid. Natali stood tense behind her. Kieran though stood as still as a statue, his back rigid. She knew he could feel the core, and she knew he longed to touch it, but he fought that urge, his eyes fixed on her.
She began now to build the new thread, the monitoring thread. It was a relatively complex twist full of subtleties that allowed for the flexible way it could be used.
"What you have to do now is relax entirely, Kieran. When you feel the monitoring thread touch you, you must accept it and let it find it's way to your connection. It is a natural reflex of a Magii to prevent any kind of link, and that is why we always make sure that people are willing to accept a link before trying,
The boy took a deep breath and she watched him relax. When he was ready, he nodded to her and very gently she pushed the thread towards him. As it touched him, she was relieved to feel the more familiar melting sensation of him accepting the link. His excitement was boiling up inside him though, and she found it hard to not succumb to it herself. Never before had anyone linked this way with a child, and she guessed that that was the source of this powerful emotional link to the boy.
"Alright, now that the monitoring thread is in place, you can begin drawing from the core. Draw slowly and not too deeply, you must stay well within yourself for this, because you do not know yet how to ground yourself,
The joy that filtered through him as he began to fill up with power was so strong that her own face cracked in a broad smile. She wondered how different it might be from drawing life force, then smothered that thought as she felt an echoing ripple of discomfort run through Kieran. He felt as much of her as she did him through the link.
"Now stop drawing, she told him, and he looked and felt disappointed, but stopped, Good, well done. Now what you have to do is take a small thread of the power you are holding and link it back down to the core. Imagine the thread as being about as thick as a piece of string, and then imagine pushing it back down through the place where you are connected to the core. Once you push it far enough, the core itself will take hold of it,
He did it with much greater ease than many of the pupils she had taken, pupils as much as ten years older than him. He was pleased with how easy it was too, and pleased with the approval she felt.
"Very well done Kieran, she said, but mostly for the benefit of Natali and Kara, From now on, whenever you draw power you must do that first. As you get more practiced at it you will be able to do it in a split second, but it is vital that you always remember to do it. Without it, if you draw too much power from the core, you can easily kill yourself. When you draw too much, the grounding line sends the extra power back down to the core without it harming you, she couldn't help smiling at him, his happiness was filling her.
"Alright, she began again after taking a second to clear her head a bit, Now we have to test the connection to the core we made when I linked you to it. We need to make sure it is watertight. I will maintain the monitoring thread in case there is, and you will draw as much from the core as you can hold. Do it very slowly, to give us both plenty of time to react if there is something wrong,
Full of excitement the boy began to draw again, with the monitoring thread Julia checked the stream for leakage and checked the seal for weaknesses. He drew as slowly as she could have wanted, although he would have known instantly if she felt he was going too quickly. She could not entirely smother her growing amazement at how much the boy drew. Not only was he stronger than any other Soul-Stealer turned Magii, he was very much stronger than most Magii. As he approached the amount she herself could have held, which was in fact as much as the strongest of the living Magii, Kara included, she almost felt shocked, but she held that at bay so that Kieran could not pick up on it. As he passed her strength, she had to bury her feelings in a cold analysis of how well her work on him was bearing up. At what seemed like an immense distance, she heard Natali gasp. Finally he was full and could draw no more.
"Hold that until I tell you to let go, I am going to do some final checks on this link,
She had to admit she had done a faultless job on the linking, there were no weak points and certainly no leakages. She took a moment then to try and grasp exactly how strong the boy was, and it staggered her. Her own mother and her uncle had been counted as the strongest Magii in the trine until Kara Fortuyn had been found by her uncle. Kara was, by their way of measuring, nearly half as strong again as Dera Varyn, slightly more than quarter as strong as Deiter Varyn. Julia herself was counted as strong in power, though much less strong in experience she reminded herself, as Kara. Kieran was as much stronger again than them than they were stronger than Dera. It would certainly take both of them to train the boy, in fact it would probably just take both of them to block him if need arose.
"You can let go now. Everything is fine, she said finally, then very carefully she removed the monitoring thread. "For now, you must not draw power without supervision. There are wards and watchers throughout the entire temple and it is a very simple matter to make sure you are part of the watch list. It is done with every new student coming to the temple, so that we can make sure there are no accidents,
This time Kieran looked at Kara for confirmation, and Kara nodded, then got up out of her seat and moved towards Julia. Natali already had a hand to her, she was swaying with exhaustion now, having only noticed it once she had severed the link with Kieran.
"Get to bed now Julia, Kara told her gently, While you're sleeping I'll make arrangements for you to have rooms here in the Battle School near us,
"Kara, she has to finish her training! Natali said, sounding almost angry for the first time Julia had heard.
"She will, Natali, but Keiran will need her, his strength is too much for anyone else,
The two women glared at one another for a moment, Kara looming tall over Natali and succeeding to make the healer look small. A feat which despite the woman's small stature few ever achieved. Julia swayed again, and Keiran caught hold of her, propping her up and looking concerned.
"You help me get her to bed Kieran, Kara told the boy, then she gave a curt bow to Natali, "I will not let Julia's ability go to waste Natali, you know I won't. Thank you for your help tonight,
Suddenly Julia felt blackness reach up and swallow her, and she collapsed.

She was looking down into the water from the edge of a small cliff, lying on her belly and throwing stones into the pool below like she had always done as a child. She could see her face in the water, but it seemed to shimmer between her face as a child and how it was now. Esprit hung low in the sky, lending everything a chilly blue caste. She looked back over her shoulder to the gleaming white spires of the sprawling Temple of the Magii. Her entire life had been spent there, as a child of two Magii she had known no other home.
A voice suddenly called to her on the night, though she had been entirely alone a moment before. It drifted up from the banks of the pool below and she looked down to see Kieran splashing in the water and shouting to her to come and swim. Something was yelling at her from the back of her mind, but she couldn't hear it. Something she should have known as she got up and climbed down towards the pool round the side of the cliff.
Kieran splashed further into the pool then suddenly gasped, then a second later he disappeared under the water. The yelling in the back of her head finally made sense. Don't go swimming in the pool ' it has a steep shelf and an undercurrent that can drag a horse under.
The next few moments of the dream were filled with panic and sketchy in detail. She was in the water, drawing on the core and trying desperately to find the boy. As soon as she found him she was casting out a fine web of threads and throwing it round him to draw him out of the water. Then she was kneeling by him, her fingers on the pulse in his throat, her ear to his sodden chest. But she felt nothing and heard nothing.
There was a moment of utter stillness in her dream. Her own heart thrummed in her ears. And then she began to draw.

When she woke in the morning she could not recall what she had done next at all, but she woke with the feeling that she had saved Kieran. Still she was left feeling frightened by the dream.
She pulled herself out of her bed in the quarters that Kara had given her. Two doors down from where Kara and Kieran had rooms. Kara had been away now for several weeks, attempting to break the deadlock at the siege of the city state of Marlin. It lay several hundred leagues to the south of the Magii Lands and temple, but the siege would not have merited Kara's attention if it had not been for the strong rumours of Soul-Stealers taking part in it.
Julia sighed, every day now it seemed new word came to the temple of rebellions and invasions. Kara told her it was a portent of war between the Magii and the Company, which made her feel no better.
She was dragged from introspection by a loud knock on the door and her first, irrational, thought was that something had happened to Kieran. She was still having trouble shaking the unusual dream from her mind.
"Come in, she called out as she pulled her dressing gown around her. She heard the doors close then heard someone run across her sitting room. Kieran appeared at her bedroom door, dressed in the breeches and shirt he used for sword training and covered in a light film of dust.
"Your not even dressed yet! he scoffed at her, I've had a whole hours training already,
"Is Kara back yet? Julia asked him, her usual morning question to him.
"No, briefly a look of worry passed across his face. He seemed to almost idolise the Warrior Mage, and was certainly very fond of the cold Captain of the Battle School.
"Well, no matter Kieran. She will be back soon enough at least to report what is going on down there. You need to go and get washed up before I can give you your morning lesson,
"Natali is here for you, I don't think there will be lessons for me this morning, at that he looked genuinely disappointed.
Julia ground her teeth then. She liked Natali, but her appearances usually meant that she would have to go off to the wards to assist in some complex healing that always left her feeling drained to the point of fainting. She seemed to be being pushed to learn more than any other student, and knew procedures that were normally known only to the most experienced healers.
The compromise that had been worked out for her training and duties with Kieran was fairly simple, but taxing. She took Kieran for lessons instead of taking initiates, and had to be on call for him when Kara could not be ' which was permanently at the moment.
Kieran tested his other teachers and guardians to breaking point every day, so she was always rushing around after him, scolding him and apologising profusely to everyone else. Aside from that though, she still had to attend every healer class and perform ward duty as normal. Sometimes she had to go without sleep for two nights running, and there had been weeks at a stretch where she had managed to grab only a couple of hours of sleep to last for a good deal more than a normal day.
Since Kara had gone south, Natali had also been usurping the time Julia was supposed to be teaching Kieran on quite a regular basis, so Kieran was spending too much time alone and free for mischief.
But as she appeared through her bedroom door she noticed immediately that Natali was swathed in her Magii cloak. If Natali was going to propose a field trip, Julia was going to have to refuse. There was no way she could leave Kieran alone in the temple. Refusing her mentor would not make her popular though.
"You have to come with me now, Julia Varyn, Natali said as soon as she came through the door.
"I can't leave the temple, Natali Magii. I can't leave Kieran. If Kara Magii were here she wouldn't let you take me, it came out in a rush and Julia felt her cheeks redden.
Julia's confidence in her own ability with power had grown inordinately since she had started tutoring Kieran and working with Kara, but she often felt caught between Kara and Natali. Her status as a student made that very awkward, her own mentors orders should be most important to her, but Kara was Captain of the Battle School, and the strongest living Magii (students were not counted in that sort of reckoning). Her confidence was in short supply in these situations, sometimes she felt that the lack she had always suffered had simply transferred to a lack in being able to speak out for herself.
While all this was going through Julia's head, Natali stood smiling at her, no grinning. When she spoke her voice came bubbling out full of amusement.
"You daft girl! I am taking you to the Testing Chambers, keep your head and you'll gain the black today!
The news affected a remarkable change over Julia. Instead of the panic she might have expected only a few months ago, and instead of the rush of excitement and prick of fear she expected of herself now, she felt utterly calm.
Kieran actually cheered for her, and she turned and smiled at him.
"You'll have to go hunt down some playmates for the morning, Kieran, she told him.
"Come along now, Julia. No need to get changed, you will be getting a new set of clothes at the end of the testing,
As she followed the woman through the corridors of the temple, she realised for the first time she had adopted something like Kara's rangy stride, though she did not have the same physical confidence as Kara. She no longer felt awkward compared to Natali's glide.
Shortly they stood before the tall, black doors that opened into the chambers of testing. Heavily carved with designs depicting the duties of the Magii and across the top the maxim of the temple, Neutrality, Justice and Law was written. Imposing and daunting they were there to remind you that the duty of Magii was not light. These doors opened only to admit a student for testing. There were three other doors into the chambers, the first to admit the testers, the second for a successful Magii student to leave through, the third for one who had failed. Those who failed remained in the service of the Magii, but they were never allowed to put on the black and remained forever on the watch lists.
Natali drew from the core now, and threw the doors back with a snap. She amplified her voice with a thread of power and spoke the ritual phrase to announce a student for testing.
"I, Natali Lenson Magii bring my student, Julia Varyn to the Chambers of Testing. I vouch for her readiness to face the tests,
A voice came from within the darkened chamber.
"Does Julia Varyn vow to uphold the honour and neutrality of the Temple? "
"I, Julia Varyn, renounce all former citizenship and loyalties to any nation, I give myself into the keeping of the temple and vow to eternally maintain the principles of Neutrality, Justice and Law, bowing to the needs of the temple and the trine before all other considerations,
"Then enter Julia Varyn, the testing awaits you,
Julia stepped through the doorway and Natali followed her. She stopped in the small entry way before the first chamber, which was a large auditorium with an entirely empty floor space. Natali walked round in front of her and began undoing her dressing gown. Stripping that to the ground she pulled off Julia's thin night shift so that Julia now stood naked . Natali bent down and took off Julia's slippers, then stepped aside.
"Enter the first chamber, came the same voice.
With her head held high, Julia walked forward. As she moved to the centre of the huge empty space, she sensed someone drawing on the core, and readied herself, but did not begin drawing herself. Bright fire blazed into life at three different points in the room, up in alcoves hidden in the balcony above her. She drew and slammed up a shield, then dropped into "Between Time, a state that Kara had taught her of where time passed more slowly and her sense were enhanced. Now she prepared a counter thread, something often used to counter poisons or disease, and then dropped her shield and threw it in the direction of the first oncoming blaze of fire. Throwing her shield up again, she threw herself to the ground before the other two flares could impact on her. She rolled up into a crouch and watched as the two flares hit the wall. She let herself drop back into the normal stream of time, but stayed low to the ground, holding onto the power she had drawn in case she had to act again.
"Very well done, Julia. Please pass through the door at the northern end of the chamber and into the next chamber,
Slowly she climbed back to her feet, letting go of the power inside her, and made her way to the door. She came out into a much smaller room, with a chair in the centre, on a raised dais. Without waiting for instruction she walked over to the chair and sat down in it. Made of some kind of polished stone, it was cold and hard against her bare skin. The arms of the chair had great hollows carved into it, seemingly designed for resting arms inside them, and there was a carved pit where she put her feet.
She heard a soft clunking noise from above and looked up to see something being lowered towards her. As it came into the pool of dim light she could see a thing that looked like some kind of hood attached to something that echoed the shape of the chair. When she realised that it was going to drop over her and enclose her, she had to slow her breathing to prevent panic from ceasing her. This is a test, I will fail it if I am afraid of it, she told herself fiercely.
The hood and the rest of the covering clamped down onto the chair and pressed it's weight down on her so that she couldn't move. The hood itself seemed to tighten round her once it was in position and now she couldn't even turn her head, She could not see anything either, the hood entirely obscured her vision. Fighting panic was extremely difficult, but she focused her mind on the Hold Fear exercise that Kara had taught her.
It started first as a little tickle of heat at her toes, so small she barely paid attention to it. Slowly the heat at her feet became more intense, and began travelling up her legs. As it reached her knees it was only just bearable and she was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She continued the exercise, but at the same time began drawing, immediately pushing the power through her muscles with a thread that would cool them. It was a relief, and the sweat stopped pouring from her skin. She understood now that this was a survival test, so she had to be prepared for the extremes she would be put through. She was aware that by the time the heat reached her belly it was hot enough to be scalding her flesh had she not been using the cooling technique. As it spread across her breasts she should have been blistering, and she was indeed beginning to be a little concerned. She poured more power into the cooling thread, but even so as the wave of heat reached her throat a fresh trickle of sweat ran down between her shoulder blades. As the heat closed over her head she felt as if her skin was cracking and her hair smouldering, despite every ounce of power that she could hold going into the cooling thread. She closed her eyes, sure she could feel her eyelashes crumbling into ash, and concentrated her entire being into the Hold Fear exercise, as the heat continued to increase. It occurred to her that the divorced sensation of Stepping Between would serve well in keeping her sanity. She would not give into the panic that so wanted to claim hold of her throat and scream.
Drawing back power from the cooling thread made pain sear through every nerve in her body and she instantly regretted doing it, but somehow she found the focus to make the Stepping Between thread and push it into her muscles in the same way as she had done with the cooling thread. The relief of being divorced from much of her body's feelings was immense, but a pleasant side effect was that the heat was increasing much more slowly, to her perceptions. Unlike the cooling thread, the sensations were still there in her body, but now she was above them and could analyse them. Still it was more than a little disturbing to think that her skin might well be blackening now, that all the hair had been singed from her body and that her eyes were beginning to melt. The last one was particularly unpleasant. The Hold Fear litany was ingrained into her now, but she had to keep coughing to stop herself from screaming and giving into panic. Her eyes blinked involuntarily and she felt the wetness of tears for brief seconds before they boiled away.
And still the heat increased. Blackened skin was charring away from her body, exposing boiling innards and bones that glowed in the heat. The Hold Fear litany was descending into a mantra that was simply "I will not scream. Coldly she tried to estimate how much longer it would be before she was entirely obliterated, but she had also decided that this was all entirely induced sensation. That thought had come just shortly after the relief that Stepping Between had given her.
Then suddenly it stopped, the heat disappeared and she felt herself whole again. She dropped back into normal time once more. The hood went loose around her head and she turned her head about, easing off some of the pain that fear had knotted in her muscles there. The Hood and cover were lifted away back up towards the ceiling and she slowly climbed out of the chair, flexing her muscles to relieve cramp. She did not shake, but she did feel cold now, and realised she still had the cooling thread working through her. She let that go and felt instantly better.
"We are very impressed with your composure, Julia. You have done exceptionally well here, the unseen speaker told her, Proceed now to the door in the western side of this chamber,.
Julia was actually surprised at how firm her step was. Already she felt wrung out and had a sneaking suspicion that if she had to draw again it would give her a blinding headache. She almost strolled to the door.
The chamber beyond was utterly pitch dark. Quickly she put her hand in front of her face, but even with her eyes deliberately wide open, she could not see it. She drew, wincing a little at the throb that sprung up in her temples and made a little ball of light in her hands. She could see that, but in this room it cast no light whatsoever. She extinguished it, but kept hold of the power within her so she would not have to draw again. Each time she drew it would hurt a little more once the pain began.
She stood for a while in the darkness, wondering what was going to happen. Something brushed passed her leg, unseen, something dry and rough. She stepped back from the spot she had been standing on, and felt something under her foot as she did. There was a hiss in the darkness, and whatever she had stood on slithered away, knocking her balance a little. Walking backwards slowly, she felt for the door she had come in by, so that she could orientate herself in the darkness. She heard a dry, rustling noise just in front of her and goose bumps were rising all over her skin. Back to the door finally, her mind worked quickly through what the point of the test must be. A sudden sniffing noise from right in front of her face startled her so much she yelped. She scrabbled for the door handle but where it should have been, there was nothing. Trapped.
Something slithered across her feet, then round behind the backs of her calves. Her heart leaped into her mouth and she ran out into the room. The rustling followed her, so she ran faster, blindly. Suddenly she ran into something which tripped her up and sent her sprawling across the cold floor. Fear was in her every nerve, erasing all conscious thought from her mind. She tried to pull herself to her feet, but suddenly something cold and scaled slid across her back, pinning her. Whatever it was, it was big.
Time slowed, by itself for once. The need for survival had taken over. She had to think, act, to survive this unknown terror. The litany of Hold Fear rose again in her head, and conscious thought came back to her, but her heart hammered so hard in her chest it was making the veins at her temple throb. The creature was pushing it's nose underneath her now, and she guessed it would wrap itself round her. A constrictor snake of some kind, but one larger than anything she had ever known.
She twisted, trying to get out of it's grip, but it squeezed her tighter, pressed her down more. Reaching into the power she held to herself, which sent bright sparks of pain through her skull, she made a Thread of Sleep, something she would normally use when she needed to knock people out to perform a procedure on them. Fire or lightning, anything offensive, would backfire on her. Scrabbling to grab hold of it's head where it was now underneath her, she nearly balked when she realised the size of it. As long as a horses, though much flatter, and as wide. It's flicking tongue tickled the inside of her arms. Fumbling and panting she used her fingers to find the centre of it's head and let the thread pour into it there. After a few seconds, it went slack, and it's massive head tumbled from her fingers. But she was still pinned underneath it's massive weight. Wriggling so that it was no longer underneath her as well as on top, she pushed it away from her with another thread, gritting her teeth against the sharp pain, which was thankfully gone as soon as she let go of the thread.
She staggered to her feet, completely disorientated, and picked a random direction to walk in. She would come to a wall soon enough. At the wall she went left, keeping one hand on it. Finally she felt a doorframe beneath her hand, and then the smooth wood of a polished door. She felt for a handle, but once again, there was none to be found.
Was this the door she came in by? She had no idea. She put her shoulder to it and pushed, but it didn't budge. With her fingers she felt for the edge, and tried to get them wedged in so she could pull the door, but it was too neatly cut to give her purchase. Leaving one hand on the edge, she wove another thread, focusing on it to exclude the pin sharp shocks in her head. It followed the line of her arm, down along her fingers then into the crack of the door. It slipped through to the other side, and she solidified the thread, compressing it. She pushed against it now, like a crowbar, and the door creaked and groaned. She pushed harder, her head swimming with pain, and sweat began to stand out on her forehead. With a groan and a crack, the door splintered along it's edge, then swung inwards. Julia staggered, then with relief let the thread dissipate, but she held onto the power within her, just in case she might still need it. In time she would be able to draw more often, and to recover from overworking herself quicker, but that took years of use. Kara was just at the stage where she could draw past the point were Julia began to get the headaches.
She came out into bright light, blinking and squeezing her eyes, and realized that Natali was standing in this new room, with three hooded figures around her. She was holding a bundle of black cloth with a pair of boots atop it. One of the hooded figures turned towards her now.
"Julia Varyn, you have done well in the tests. I name you Julia Varyn Magii, and welcome you at last, to the Temple of the Magii,
Relief flooded through her, and she felt her knees weaken. Natali ran forward and caught her, taking some of her weight, then guided her to stand between all the hooded figures.
Testers, as these were, were Magii from the different schools, but they maintained a mask of anonymity for the tests, thus preventing any rumours or practice of bias. Even their voices were disguised by a small trick of power, ritual phrases covering any turns of phrase that identified them.
"Natali Magii, you may robe Julia Magii now,
Natali took one of the pieces of black cloth she held, which turned out to be a silk shirt, and slipped it over Julia's head. Next she handed Julia a long black skirt, then the pair of soft black leather ankle-boots and finally the floor length swirling silk cloak of the Magii.
Julia drew herself up to her full height, above the heads of the others. The Black Magii cloak flowed and trickled around her as she moved. She pulled up the cowl of the cloak, and smiled to herself .
"I thank you for your welcome, and will serve my life long as Magii, bound to the temple, none other before it, " she answered.
"You may leave now, Julia Varyn Magii, peace be your ally, and Madre favour your word,
Natali lead to the Magii exit, and Julia followed, her cloak swirling and rippling with her strong stride.
"I think someone may well be waiting for you outside, Julia. She has waited for this day a long, long time,
As the door opened, Dera Varyn was standing on the other side. Tall as Julia, with long white blonde hair hanging loose to her waist and piercing blue eyes. She looked her daughter up and down as she stepped out of the chambers of testing, and only smiled when Julia frowned at her.
"You've managed it at last then, daughter, Dera said sharply. Sharply was generally the only way Dera spoke.
Julia looked her mother in the eye. Dera's eyes frightened most people because of their unflinching, judgemental gaze. They had always frightened Julia, but now she met them and smiled softly. She could feel confidence blossoming out of herself in all directions.
"I step from your shadow and out from under your skirts mother, and I find I am my own woman, She actually heard Natali gasp. Nobody usually spoke to the Prime Diplomat in such a fashion, especially not her blood kin.
But Dera smiled back at her daughter.
"Very good, Julia Magii. You have a destiny to follow, my daughter, and I see you have the strength for the path now. I am pleased, then she curtsied to Julia and turned and left.
Julia looked over her shoulder at Natali, who had the grace to look a little embarrassed for her little outburst.
"I must admit, Julia, the time you have spent with Kara and Kieran has been good for you. Kara has requested that you join her Battle School as Resident Healer. There is a precedent for the post and I think it will suit you,
She was nodding to Natali when she noticed one of the temple's children running full pelt up the corridor towards them. The child was flushed and sweating. A sense of foreboding swept over Julia.
"Julia! Julia! the child cried and she recognised him as being one of Kieran's friends. A knot of nausea formed in her stomach.
"Andrew, she is Julia Magii now, address her properly, Natali scolded the boy.
The boy came to a halt in front of them, wheezing and struggled to stammer out an apology to Natali. Julia cut in, feeling keenly worried.
"What has happened to Kieran?
"Out at the pool, Julia Magii '" the boy began, but Julia whirled round and began to run down the corridor.
"Follow me! she called behind her. She headed for the stable. Riding out there would be quicker than running.
With the boy, Andrew and Natali close on her heels, She burst into the stable yelling instructions already. Andrew was babbling about what Kieran had done. He kept saying, over and over, that Kieran was so pale, and so still. Natali ran with her mouth tightly shut, a grim expression on her face, clutching at her skirts.
Her grey mare was saddled for her, and a horse was got for Andrew. Natali's small, light footed white frisked as the saddle was thrown onto her back. Julia all but leapt up into the saddle, and her mare danced unhappily beneath her. The stable doors were opened and Julia left at a gallop, leaving the other two to catch up.
The land between the Temple and the pool was flat and slightly marshy. Mud was kicked up by the mare's hooves, splattering itself liberally over Julia's new black silks. Her cloaked billowed out behind her, rippling and snapping in the wind. She pushed the mare as fast as she had ever ridden, but still it did not feel fast enough. The land seemed to roll beneath her with aching slowness, making the mile that lay between the temple and the pool feel much more.
Finally she pulled up short on the cliff above the pool. At the poolside three more of the temple children were gathered round Kieran's prone form. One of the girls was crying, holding Kieran's hand and pleading with him to wake up. The only other boy, Karl, saw her arrive and shouted out to her.
"Julia! You have to help Kieran!
Julia jumped down from her horse and ran down the slope to one side of the cliff. The children moved back, except for the girl holding Kieran's hand ' Cristy, who was still crying and pleading. Julia knelt down at Kieran's side and the familiarity of the situation washed over her with her fingers on the pulse in his throat, her ear to his sodden chest. But she felt nothing and heard nothing. Inside her there was a yawning ache of despair. As Natali and Andrew reigned their horses in at the top of the cliff, Julia began to draw, and lost all sense of her surroundings. Only she and Kieran existed ' and even the pain of drawing seemed to be distant to her.
Full to the point were her ears were ringing, she wove a thread to link with the boy, hoping that as he was unconscious the link would take. She thought of him only as unconscious, thinking in any other way was too frightening to bear.
The link took, though there was no melting sensation and she lifted her grounding line and grounded it through him as she had done once before. Then she took hold of the grounding line and followed it, down into the core. The sensation was indescribable. Her entire body seemed to tingle, her mind seemed to grow as sharp and focused as a pin point. She felt both dwarfed by it and yet felt her place as part of it, linked to every other part of life in the universe. And yet, as she sifted about the core, adjusting to the sensation, she felt something else, a pull like she had once felt with Kieran before she'd linked him. At the heart of the pull she sensed, rather than saw, a stretch of blackness which twisted it's way through the core, eating all that came to it. A scar it seemed and that thought almost threatened to overwhelm her with fear.
With difficulty, she blocked out those sensations and looked for Kieran, looked to find where he had retreated to. It was much like trying to find him in the pool of her dream, though instead of using threads of power to plum the depths, it was threads of her own consciousness. The very second she touched him, she was flooded with his personality the way she had been when they had been linked. She drew him to her, almost as if enfolding him in her arms, then followed the grounding line she had kept a tight hold of back up away from the core. The wrench of leaving it was shocking, a little like getting out of a deliciously warm bath into a freezer locker, but she forced herself to it. Kieran seemed to flood his body as soon as they jumped across his connection, which forced Julia's consciousness back into her own body, with a wave of nausea for the sudden confines of the flesh. Thankfully though, the fatigue headache was gone.
Ignoring that Julia reached back through the link and carefully ungrounded herself from Kieran's connection and replaced her grounding line through her own. Her awareness of her surroundings returned as she heard Kieran spluttering and gasping for air and she reached out again and severed the link. She could not heal him while linked to him, might as well try to heal herself. She had gathered him up in her arms at some point, and now she drew him close to her, relief and surprise making her sob. Natali's voice was there, talking soothingly to the sobbing Cristy, but there was something shrill in it.
Now she began a probing thread and let that sink into the boys flesh, looking for bleeding in his lungs and brain. The damage though was thankfully minimal, and it took only a little power to heal the small things that were there. They could have healed themselves in time, but she did it anyway. He moaned softly in her arms, and his fatigue was obvious to her. He would be a few days in bed recovering from this, if she could keep him there.
Now she tried to let the power go, but it wouldn't. It pulsed up through her from the core, then back down her grounding line almost like the circuit of blood through her veins to her heart. Unceasing connection and flow. Her heart beat faster as she tried to lift the grounding line, and found it wasn't exactly there. It was more as if part of the core flowed through her now and she was a part of it. She felt dizzy.
Natali's voice cut through her bewilderment.
"You brought him back, no healer does that! No healer can do it! Only the Guardians could ever do that!
The Guardians, the Great Magii who along with the Magii of the Tempest had existed in the wild times when the Tempest had raged almost unchecked through the universe, after the Great Scarring of the core. Suddenly she desperately wanted Kara to come back from the siege to the south.
"Julia can do anything, Kieran suddenly said, his voice weak. She looked down at him and he grinned at her, "Julia, your eyes are glowing with power, he told her in a hoarse voice.
"Julia, you need to let the power go now and get this boy home to rest, Natali said at the same time, " And we need to know how you brought him back,
She looked up at Natali, who took a step back from her eyes.
"It won't go, and I doubt it will. Natali ' I went into the core, she swallowed, this would never be light news to tell to anyone, Natali, there's a scar in the core,
Natali Lenson Magii went as white as snow, then her legs buckled underneath her. Slowly, with all the children watching her with their mouths hanging wide open, she crumpled to the ground in a dead faint.
~The End~