Learning the Ropes

Muld teaches Syndi practical magic spells & gets to know her better, then sees a mysterious sight hovering over the city by night.

3.

Learning the Ropes

 

“I think you have it, my dear!”   Muld exclaimed after an hour and a half of instruction.      Pressing against the ceiling of the office was a heavy ball of pure marble.   Syndi had cast a spell upon the pedestal that the marble ball had sat upon which caused it to levitate.

She gazed at her handiwork with satisfied amazement.

“A simple spell holds that heavy ball against the ceiling,”   She mumbled.

“Yes, and if we were to move the pedestal from underneath the ball, it would fall immediately.    The Push spell is holding it up there with arcane force.   As I mentioned earlier, the amount of force is dependant on a degree of inflection of the word ‘occasio’ as well as accenting the last part of the word when you were casting the spell.   You would stress the ‘O’ sound at the ending with an inflection as if you were asking a question to set the spell to maximum force.      I taught you the minimum force setting, so you wouldn’t throw the marble ball through the roof.     The minimum setting is achieved by stressing the first ‘O’ sound in ‘occasio’ without accenting the word any differently than normal.”

“Okay…”   Syndi responded, storing the information in her mind with such a sober look that Muld had to smile.

“Syndi, don’t look so worried, it isn’t of life-or-death importance.    You’ll do fine; you are extremely intelligent.”

“Thanks, but between Alleania’s lectures and trying to remember the proper inflection of this Push spell, I’m sure I’ll probably end up casting a sleep spell on the cannon.”

Muld snorted, “I don’t believe that non-living objects can be put to sleep.”

Syndi just frowned at him.  “You know what I mean.   My head will probably explode from trying to remember so much stuff.”

“I’ve never heard of any cranial detonations due to arcane instruction.”

“Perhaps mine will make history.”    The Losasidhe girl wearily rubbed her forehead. “Never have I studied so hard.”

“Ah, but it is worth it!   Think how powerful you’ll be once your training is complete.    You’ll be casting fireballs and lightning bolts, and able to enchant a flushing toilet too!”

Syndi snickered at the image, “Won’t mother be proud.”

 

Something about the way she said it caused Muld to scrutinize her, “So you think that your academic success won’t impress your mother?”

Syndi looked up, smirking, “Who knows with mother!    My older brothers can do no wrong and everything they do is wonderful.    Mother was more determined to make sure I had the proper manners and could bat my eyelashes just right so I could catch the eye of a suitable nobleman or prince.”

“She feels that your worthiness depends on how suitable of a bride that you are?”

“More or less.  She expects me to be a proper princess.    If I master that, it is all that would be expected of me.  I am told that she was the same way with Eioldth and was heartbroken when she fell in love with King Haroldris.    She literally mourned for her - did you know that?    Honestly, she did!     Once she married the King and he took her back to King’s Reach, my mother acted as if she’d died.    She cried and lamented her ‘mixing’ with a human.”

“It sounds as if she was slightly prejudiced.”

“Slightly?   Oh, she had no problem with humans as long as they weren’t married to any of her children.     As I was her youngest daughter, she wasn’t about to allow me to make the same mistakes.”

“Did she ever come to accept Haroldris?”

“Well, it was a grudging respect, I’d guess.    She knew he was a worthy man, but she hated to see my sister watch him age while she stayed the same.    They never visited King’s Reach.     Haroldris and Eioldth came to see them several times, but my mother was quite cool toward their children.”

“She didn’t love her own grandchildren?”    Muld asked, in amazement.

“They were Half-Elves, which were mixed bloods in mother’s eyes.     They only saw her one time and neither one were too impressed with her.   I don’t blame them at all.    They liked me, though, but I was about their same age.”

“How tragic - to have family and to not care for them.”  His face took on a rather grave expression.

“Hey, what about your family?”    Syndi said.

“What about them?”

“You’ve never talked about them.   I know you were a refugee and a student of Gregg Hofflis, the master wizard, but you have not said anything about your family.”

“There is a good reason for that, actually.   I don’t have a family.”

“None?”

“I was an orphan.    But Master Hofflis took me in as an apprentice.   He raised me from the time my mother died, which was only a few days after I was born.”

“Oh my goodness!   What happened to your parents?”

Muld shook his head, “I don’t really want to delve into that today, Syndi.    They were spell-casters and ran afoul of the wrong people and died as a result of it.   I never really knew them.”

“Yesh have mercy!”   Syndi exclaimed, leaning over to take Muld’s hand, “You poor dear!    How did you ever survive that?”

Muld shrugged, “I just did, but Master Hofflis was very good to me.”

“So he raised you?”

“Yes, and trained me also.   I was quite fortunate.”

“I don’t think you were fortunate at all!”   Syndi replied, sympathetically shaking her head.

“I’ve learned to be grateful for any kindness, and Master Hofflis was extremely kind to me.”

“I’m sure he was.   Oh, Muld, I am so sorry!    You must think I’m horrible.”

“Why would I think that?”

“Because I always grumble about my mother - I should be thankful to have both parents alive.”

“Everyone has different situations, Syndi, so I don’t envy your relationship with your parents.”

“But you do miss your parents, don’t you?”

“Honestly, I was not even born when my father died, and only a few days old when mother died, so I don’t have any memories of them.   It’s not so much missing them as much as it is missing an opportunity to have had a normal childhood.    But even that isn’t exactly right, because I really enjoyed growing up in Master Hofflis’ home.   I guess I just am rather awed of family since I don’t have any.”

 “Well you have friends, at least,”  She said gently, smiling at him sweetly.

“I do, indeed.    Who would need anything more?”  He looked up at the marble ball, “Now we need to slowly lower it back down to the pedestal.  For time’s sake, I will do that spell.    I will teach you that when we have more time.   I imagine you are quite tired and want some rest.”

Syndi yawned in response.

“Well then, I think we’re done here.   Thank you for your patience.    Go and get some rest.”

The Losasidhe girl was thrilled to be dismissed and leaped to her feet, “I’ll try to get here quicker tomorrow.”

“Alright.   Don’t forsake your Sorcery studies for us, but we do need your help as soon as it is available.”

“What about you, Muld?   You look tired too.”

“Me?   Oh, I have a million details to work on, so it shall be late before I sleep.    We have an important day tomorrow, so I want to make sure our guild’s first big project goes well.”

“Well, don’t work yourself to death, okay?     I’ll see you tomorrow.   Bye.”   She smiled prettily and quickly fled through the door.   Muld watched her go, frustrated that she could so easily distract him.    Maybe I can figure out magic to prevent that, he thought as he stood up and returned to the other members of his guild waiting for instruction.    For some reason he wasn’t as excited to train them.

 

 

***

 

It was the middle of the night when Muld finally slid into bed, surrounded by books, charts, papers and scrolls.     A spring thunderstorm raged outside as the young Practical Magician struggled to clear his mind so he could sleep.

As he stared blankly out the window, watching the lightning flashes, he was startled to see the brief image of a rather sinister looking airship in the horizon.    It was only seen for a moment, during a flash of lightning, but that was all it took for his mind to remember it.

Sitting up in bed, he waited for another flash of lightning to verify what he saw, but when it finally came, the mysterious airship was gone.

Muld had always had a fascination with airships and he quickly replayed in his mind all the designs he had ever seen.   None closely matched the dark ship he’d seen.      For a few moments he debated finding a night watchman and sharing his sighting.

But surely in a city as bustling as Westmark, someone would have seen it, and if it had not been identified, they would have raised an alarm.   

Muld lay back down, watching the skies during each flash of lightning for another sighting of the airship, but after an hour, he fell asleep without another glimpse of it.

Reviews

[Elina]

Yet another great chapter...things are beginning to unfold. I am filled with foreboding concerning that mysterious and sinister airship...

"Pressing against the ceiling of the office was a heavy ball of pure marble, pushed there from a spell that Syndi had cast upon the pedestal that the marble ball had sat upon." This sentence seems a little long and awkward to read. Perhaps a little re-working will help?
"I’ve never heard of any cranial denotations..." I think you were wanting "detonations?"
"I don’t really want to delve that up today..." Perhaps "...delve into that today..." ?