9: More to Learn

10

MORE TO LEARN

 

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

-Baltastar Grarcian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          “You have a lot to learn, Emma.” Telliandra told her at breakfast the next morning. “I have many spells to teach you, and you must decide which Mastery you intend to pursue.”

“Which Mastery? I thought I was to be a healer.”

Telliandra smiled. “Well, you certainly have a knack for it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be something else if you want.”

Emma shoved the food around on her plate. “Well, I’d like to be a Healer, definitely, but I’ve been thinking. I’d like to learn how to do what you did, also. How to control the Spirits. I don’t really know much about them, and I’d like to learn.” She looked up at her teacher to see what her reaction was. “Is it okay to have two Masteries?”

Telliandra burst out laughing. “Honey, I’ve known Mati who have five Masteries! Of course you can have two! And I will teach you about Spirits, if you want to learn. But I’m warning you now, it’s hard, much harder than healing. With healing you can talk to your patient, comfort them, spell them to sleep if you must. Spirits aren’t like that. They think differently from us, have different motives. An uncaptured Sprit is a dangerous thing.”

Her eyes are glistening, Telli. Bregia told his Master.

“Telli,” Emma said quickly, before she could chicken out. “Are you and Rishka…? I mean, you almost seem like a couple sometimes.”

Telliandra actually blushed, and Rishka was sent into a fit of laughter.

“Well, sort of. Yes. I’m sure other people have noticed, just no one’s been brave enough to ask.” She said, and smiled. “You’re a brave girl, Emma.”

 

 

“Get your sword, Emma.” Telliandra said through the door. “And meet me in the courtyard.”

Emma did as she was told, not knowing why she was being told to do it. When she arrived in the courtyard Telliandra was already there, stretching.

“Warm up, Emma.”

“Warm up for what?”

“For our swordfight, of course.”

“Our what?!” Emma almost dropped Matathulaz.

“Our swordfight. I told you that when you beat Tor you could try your hand against me, and you have done that, so warm up!”

Emma knew an order when she heard one. Her hands shaking and her knees weak, she began to do the stretching exercises that came before a practice swordfight. I’m gonna die, She kept thinking, I know it.

Finished with her stretches, Emma stepped into the middle of the courtyard, sword in hand, to face Telliandra.

“You ready?” She asked.

“No.” Emma said sarcastically.

“Good.”

          And the fight began. At first it seemed that the rightness was there once more, but the blade rebelled, the rightness disappeared, and Telliandra knocked Matathulaz from her hand and pressed her sword tip against her throat. Slowly she lowered it.

“What happened, Emma? You didn’t even attack!”

“I don’t know!” Emma yelled and picked up her fallen weapon. “I just…I just can’t make it work for me! My fight with Tor was a fluke, that’s all!”

Telliandra sheathed her sword and stared at her for a moment.

“What are you fighting for?” She asked Emma.

“What?”

“What are you fighting for?” When there was still no comprehension on her pupil’s face, Telliandra tried to explain.

          “Emma, you cannot fight if you have nothing to fight for. When we do things like this you must pretend it is real. You must pretend I am your enemy. The day you beat Tor was not a fluke. Something made you fight harder. What was it?”

Emma shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Emma, what do you care about more than anything else in the world?”

The answer took no thought. “Ty.”

Telliandra smiled. “Then fight for Ty. Fight like Ty’s life depends on it.”

          And once more the fight began. But it was different this time. This time Matathulaz just felt right, felt like another part of her arm. Emma swung the sword up towards Telliandra, who blocked it, and then back around to hit her left side, but Telliandra was too quick, and her sword was at Emma’s throat before Emma could block.

But Telliandra was beaming with pleasure. “Better, Emma. Much better.”

 

Days passed, each morning beginning with sword practice. And each morning Emma fended off Telliandra’s sword a little longer, and attacked a little faster.

          It was October 7, Ty’s fifteenth birthday. Emma had said nothing all morning, not feeling like talking. But Telliandra had ordered her down to the courtyard, and Emma didn’t feel like getting yelled at.

          So, she did her stretches and stepped up to the center of the yard, just like she did every morning, and waited for Telliandra to begin.

          The queen was taking her time, loosening her shoulders, swinging her sword back and forth. Every morning, Emma thought, I wait for her to attack me. What if I attack first?

          So she did, bringing her sword up and under Telli’s, twisting it around and jabbing the blunted point into her side. Telliandra fought back by bringing her sword up under Emma’s and coming down. Emma pushed up and over, knocking the sword from her hand. And just as quickly as it had begun it was over, and Emma’s sword point was at Telliandra’s throat.

For a minute Telliandra just stared at her student, shock spreading across her face like a cloud over the sun. Then, her composure recovered, she grinned.

“Well done, Emma! Well done!”

Emma removed her sword and sheathed, smiling to herself.

“That was fabulous, Emma! Brilliant! I should have been paying attention, and you took advantage of it! Wonderful!”

Emma had never seen her teacher so excited.

 

 

“Okay, Emma. Make sure you remember everything I’m telling you. Write it down if you must. You have to understand Spirits to be able to control them.

          “First off, there are many kinds of Spirits. However, most of what we capture are “Shard Spirits”. See, spirits are what happen when a new dimension is created, or an old one is destroyed. Pieces of magic are flung about, collecting dislocated space as it goes, until you have something like a being. A spirit.”

“So they have a cor?” Emma asked.

“Yes, spirits have a cor.

          “Anyway, these spirits can pretty much go anywhere, even between dimensions. And as they go they choose to remember certain things, certain assorted bits of information. You see, Emma, spirits aren’t like us. They don’t remember everything they see, like we do. They have a choice, and if they don’t chose to remember it they just don’t.”

“Well how do they know what to remember and what not?”

          “No one’s sure. Some Mati who have studied them think that spirits have a sort of puzzle to figure out, and they remember things that might have to do with the puzzle.”

“What kind of puzzle?”

“Oh, I don’t know. There are several different theories. Most people think it has something to do with the meaning of life, though.”

Emma stopped writing for a moment. “Well, can’t you just ask Rishka?”

          “Well, Emma, that’s the weird thing about it. It’s like they’re not really sure themselves. You see, some people think that they’re sort of like pieces of Akasha, and that Akasha controls what information they pick up. Sort of like the way the goddesses talk to familiars.”

“Goddesses talk to familiars?”

“Of course! How else do you think they know how to do all the spells before you do?”

Oh, Emma thought, that’s who She is! Lyulf spoke of “She” often.

          “So, we’re not really sure what spirits are for, but they’re useful things to have around.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Emma said, holding up a hand, “If Akasha controls them then why would they attack people?”

Telliandra shrugged. “That’s part of the mystery. When a spirit attacks someone they don’t like… eat them. They steal their cor. That’s why the spirits that attack people are the most powerful.”

          “That’s pretty much all anybody knows about Spirits. Now, when you capture them it’s kind of like pulling someone out of cor shock. You have to take control of their cor. And the more powerful the spirit the harder it is.           The difference with a Spirit is that you don’t have to be more powerful than it.”

“So how do I practice capturing spirits?”

“Well, we can find some little spirits for you to practice on, and then, after I think you’re ready, you can practice on Rishka.”

For a minute Emma thought Telliandra was kidding. “Practice on Rishka? You’d let him go?”

“Sure. He's pretty much tame now. If something goes wrong I can catch him.”

 

 

Emma awoke on the first day of December to find that there was snow on her windowsill. Then she smiled because it was Tor’s birthday today, and he’d told her that he loved snow. She hoped it was snowing in Tanackniatah for him.

“Emma!” Telliandra yelled through the door. Emma groaned.

“Come in!”        

Telliandra grinned at the look on her student’s face.

“Don’t worry, no spells today. Here, “ She handed her a mug of hot chocolate and a cookie. “They were making them fresh in the kitchen and I thought you might want one. You know, I’ve been wanting to tell you something and I just never got around to it, so I thought you might want to hear it now…” She paused.

“Go ahead.” Emma urged.

“Well… I knew your father.”

Emma almost spit hot chocolate across the room.

“What!”

“I met him before he went to Ujin Hra. You see, his company came to Tanackniatah to meet me, sort of a formal welcome to the country. Word got around that there was a rebel band of Mati up in Wales, and cuChulainn, being the person he was, decided that he and his company would travel up there and try to capture them. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“You mean you knew him? Really knew him?”   Emma was in shock; she had never met anybody who’d known her father from outside of Ujin Hra.

“Well, I didn’t have much time to get to really know him, Emma. He wasn’t here very long. But from what I saw of him your father was a great man.”

“Thank you.” Emma said quietly, and took another bite of her cookie.                 

Then, almost as if it were an afterthought, she said, “You’re a lot like your father, Emma.”

Emma didn’t say anything; she didn’t know how to reply.

 

 

“I think we’ll head out next Monday.” Telliandra said between bites. They were eating dinner in the dining room. It was mid-January. 

“In the meantime,” she went on, “I’ve found a suitable spirit for you to practice on, Emma.”

Emma almost choked. “Already?”

“You’re ready for it.”

          But Emma didn’t feel ready for it, and her feelings didn’t improve when she was standing infront of the little jar Telliandra had contained it in.

“Don’t worry, Emma! It’s just a little one! If anything goes wrong I can deal with it. You ready?”

“No.” Emma told her.

And once more Telli smiled. “Good.” And she opened the jar.

          The spirit really was small, not even big enough to take a form yet. It was much like a cloud of smoke, wafting infront of her.

“What do I do?” Emma yelled.

“Control it!”

          Emma couldn’t think of how she was supposed to get a hold of it’s cor; Telliandra had never told her.

Look inside it, Lyulf’s voice rang through her head, like you look inside yourself.

          Emma tried, but it seemed so foreign, exotic in a way. It didn’t feel like anything she had encountered before. It was blurred, like it was out of focus. It feels like Rishka!

          But she had never tried to look inside Rishka before. She had never tried to look inside anybody but herself and Tor, when she had been healing him.  How did you look inside someone you didn’t know?

          So she imagined. She imagined herself walking through the darkness, through the smoke, pushing away the blackness that was keeping her from what she needed, what she wanted. And there, in those folds of blackness, she found it’s cor.

          It was nothing like her own cor. Wild and unruly it pushed at its chains, looking for any weakness in this spirit’s body to escape from. This is a little one!

Emma took a thread of her cor and tried to wrap it around the spirit’s, but it was like trying to catch a herd of wild horses with one finger. Desperate, she took her whole cor and threw it at it. The green fire engulfed the spirit’s cor, and Emma was bombarded with images of what looked very much like a completely different world…

“Emma! Emma!” Emma moaned as the light touched her eyes. Someone was shaking her.

“Emma, you stupid girl, wake up!” It was Telliandra’s voice.

As soon as Emma sat up her head began to swim, and pain shot through her chest.

“What happened?” She asked.

“You used your whole bloody cor, you ding-a-ling!”

“Well, the strand wasn’t working…”

“Emma, you nearly killed that poor spirit! You have a lot of cor, remember?”

“Well, yeah but…”

“Don’t ‘but’ me! You never ever ever use your whole cor on something like that! Only the most powerful spells on this planet would require as much cor as you have!” She took several deep breaths, rubbing her temples.

“Promise me you’ll never do that again, okay?”

“All right.”

“Promise me!”

“I promise! And don’t yell, my head hurts!”

“Sorry.” She said, and touched her forehead, making it hurt a little less. “Oh, I’m too old for this…”

“You’re not old, Telli!”

“Believe me, honey, I am.”

 

 

 

They left that Monday for a nearby village where Telliandra said they would try to rescue some slaves. Emma’s chest still felt empty somehow, but Telli assured her it was only because her cor hadn’t had time to regenerate yet.

          The snow outside was deep enough in places that it went up to the horse’s knees. The wind gnawed at Emma’s nose and cheeks like a hungry wolf. And Rishka wasn’t even wearing a coat.