Hot Obsidian
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“Tell me about your painting, Jarmin,” he said, in a surprisingly good-natured way. “What kind of world is it?”
“Oh, it’s Primal World, of course!” Jarmin explained, eagerly.
“Primal World…” musingly repeated Juel and smiled, as sincerely as he could, sealing that dream, that lie of his.
***
In the library reading hall, empty in the evening, Einar Sharlou gathered the rest of the junior magisters. They didn’t even try to act serious. All of them were their usual selves, what senior magisters called “mere kids in mage robes”.
Einar made a nervous gesture asking for silence. His peers hushed up a little, half-curious about what he was going to say.
“Do you know why I’ve gathered you here today?” asked Einar.
His audience – four junior magisters – nodded.
“It’s about those Lifekeeper boys,” said Mariana Ornan, the youngest of them all. Young though she was, that mage was much closer to casting her first Transvolo than Einar.
“Exactly!” he said, trying to sound brave. That wasn’t easy when Mariana looked him in the eye. “I need your help, my colleagues and friends. Let us accept the boys into our college. We can do that even in the absence of the senior magisters…”
“Only if we vote unanimously,” remarked Ronard Zarbot (Aven Jay Zarbot’s younger brother was obsessed with laws; his growing up with the head of the Crimson Guard for a sister was showing again).
“Yes, I know…” Einar cleared his throat. “Well, Pai and Milian are young but we can help them catch up with grown-up students and…”
“Heh, I can already imagine the elders’ faces when they hear the news!” Mariana chuckled, not kindly at all.
Krynn and Leona Sarion – twin sisters – exchanged puzzled looks and nodded simultaneously. Einar always found their ability to understand each other without words uncanny.
“Listen, Einar,” Krynn spoke up, “don’t we have a kind of ‘non-aggression pact’ with the Lifekeepers? We don’t recruit their kids, they don’t bother ours, etc…”
“But…” Einar tried to say.
“The Lifekeepers from the Temple of Life will be even less happy than our elders. You realize that, right?” said Leona.
Einar felt a cold lump of fear growing in his throat and swallowed nervously.
“Good to know that you’re aware of the consequences.” Krynn nodded with an approving half-smile. “We get it. ‘Every shlak brags about its own swamp’, so to say. Ambasiaths are just a waste of magic, etc.”
“Yeah. She means that we’ll support you but only if the others say yes first,” translated Leona.
“Mariana, Ronard?” Einar Sharlou turned to the remaining two, unmasked hope in his eyes. “What do you say?”
“Yes,” said Ronard simply.
“All right, I’m in,” gave up Mariana.
“Good.” Einar exhaled, relieved. “I’ll speak to the boys.”
Einar had thought that convincing his fellow magisters would be the hardest part. He was wrong. Never before, in his whole life, had he been worrying and fretting so much as he was when walking the long, empty central corridor of the college, full of dying Lihts and echoes, on his way to speak to the Lifekeeper boys…
***
Everything had been packed a long time ago, everyone was ready to depart. The team sat on the carpetless floor of their dark flat, waiting for Pai and Milian to return. Time dragged, as slow and lazy as dripping tar. The boys ran out of jokes, stories, and ideas and were just silent now, each one brooding over his own thoughts and fears.
The evening light was playing weird tricks with Jarmin’s paintings behind the balcony door, flooding the alien world there with red and purple. More than ever, the little flat felt like home now. Everything there was a fresh memory: Bala’s kitchen niche, the long dining table, the bunk beds… the fat spider in the corner (she was a pet and had a name now!)… the potted succulent on the windowsill, the stain on the floor…
The tar of time dripping lazily. Slanting, reddish rays of the dawn filled with dancing dust. Silence… Some boys dozed off right where they sat. Juel envied them. He was all nerves. His face was a stone mask but his mind was a screaming, fiery hell. No wonder that he jumped on his feet as soon as he heard faint footsteps behind the door. The rest of the team, yawning and muttering something under their breath, got up too.
Milian and Pai entered the room and apologised for being late. Both looked like they have been through something. Something important. Milian looked gloomy, Pai was all smiles, so, clearly, the event had hit each of the boys differently.
“I packed your bags!” announced Bala happily. “You’re all set!”
“Let’s go,” yawned Oasis. “My legs went numb while I was waiting for you two.”
“Same!” Jarmin piped up.
Pai sighed. The smile died on his face, replaced by a painful, worried expression.
“I’ll send you to Torgor on Transvolo,” he said, frowning. “But I’m not going with you. I’m staying here.”
Silence followed. Everyone was looking at Pai Prior now. There was pure hatred in Irin’s gaze, helpless disbelief in Bala’s, compassionate understanding in Orion’s… One way or another, everyone was waiting for an explanation.
“Explain yourself, Pai,” said Juel in a cold, intimidating tone that made the young mage recoil in terror.
“Magister Sharlou offered us a place in his college,” Milian answered in Pai’s stead. He had to crane his head to look the tall Faizul in the eye. Juel towered about him like a mountain, a furious, ready-to-explode mountain… “He said that we won’t even have to pass the exams.”
“And?” demanded Juel. He was looking at Pai now.
Pai, as red as a boiled lobster, was shaking under Juel’s gaze, unable to utter a single word.
“I refused,” Milian spoke up again. “Magic is not my thing.”
“And I… agreed…” squeaked Pai miserably.
“You’re coming with us,” Juel cut his pathetic explanation short.
There was nothing more to talk about. The brat’s rebellion was quenched. Good…
Juel was about to turn his back to Pai and tell the others to prepare for the jump when he heard a yell,
“No!!! I’m staying here! I want to be a mage!!! You won’t stop me!” Pai was hysterical now.