Firebrand

Expanded Curriculum

In the afternoon, as Martel checked for messages, his diligence was rewarded. He felt a flash of discomfort as the short missive was put into his hand, thinking it came from Kerra who might be demanding a reply already. Quickly, he let his eyes glance over the text.

Martel,

Please see me sometime today.

Mistress Juliana

A message from the overseer always felt a little ominous, but Martel could not think of any reason to feel worried. Having a spare bell between lunch and his second lesson with Master Alastair, he went towards the wing of the castle housing the faculty.

"Enter."

He found Mistress Juliana at work among a multitude of papers on her desk as usual, though she put her quill aside to take a seat opposite him.

"I asked you here to discuss your schedule."

"Anything wrong?"

She shook her head. "No. But when I first put together a plan for all your courses, I excluded all those that did not deal with magic. Normally, novices also learn writing, arithmetic, history, geography, and so on. Useful subjects for anyone to know. However, since you are here for only half the time, I figured it best to let you focus on magical studies."

Martel nodded a little, wondering where this would lead.

"You have just about finished all of the courses expected for a novice to complete. That leaves you with no courses left for Maldays until you become an acolyte. Rather than spend that time idle, and since Master Alastair tells me you do not require extra lessons, I have decided to use them on those aforementioned, neglected subjects."

Already, he felt a little lost. "Sorry, what does that mean?"

"It means for the next month or so, until you become an acolyte, you will have one lesson every Malday with Father Andrew, who teaches our courses without magic. You will not go through the full number, obviously, but he will make sure you have a fundamental understanding of the most important topics. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Good. Second bell on Maldays. His classroom is next to the entrance to the library staircase. That is all."

~

Martel returned to his room, writing down the change to his schedule. With that out of the way, he considered which exercise to practice. While creating rainclouds was highly advanced magic and not nearly required of him yet, it would be something he needed to learn eventually. Perhaps he ought to expend his efforts towards that. Making a cloud of steam was easy; he simply combined fire and water. But a genuine cloud that might bring rain consisted of water and air primarily, and Martel's mastery of either was too lacking that he could produce this effect. Yet.

He had not gotten far when someone knocked on his door. Opening it, he saw Eleanor. It took him a moment to remember that she had requested his help some days ago, and he noticed a bundle of parchment in her hands.

"Do you have time to go through these with me?" she asked.

"Sure. Where should we do it?" He glanced over his shoulder back into his room with its sparse furniture.

"There is a classroom next to the girls' tower, on the first floor. It is usually empty for this bell," Eleanor suggested.

"Sounds good." Martel closed and locked his chamber door behind him and followed her.

They walked in silence from the boys' tower down the hallway past the quartermaster, through the girls' common room, and finally reached the aforementioned empty space. Entering first, Eleanor placed her parchment on the nearest table and began spreading some of them out.

Martel cast a look at them. He saw a variety of symbols, none of which had any meaning to him. All of them had writing in Asterian letters next to them, usually a single word, which did not necessarily enlighten him.

"I copied all these from a book in the library. These are all active runes, mind you, and I wrote down the activating word as well."

Martel was not certain he understood, but he kept his ignorance to himself.

"The trouble is that obviously, all these activating words are Tyrian. And the book did not explain how pronunciation might differ from how we would say such a word," Eleanor explained. "This is a rune of warning." She slid a particular piece of parchment closer to herself, and Martel looked at the strange symbol with its many angles. "You can see what happens when I try to use it." She cleared her throat. "Vara."

A white shimmer of magic appeared around her hand, but Martel also noticed an expression of discomfort on her face. As for the rune itself, nothing happened.

"Either the book is wrong, or I am saying it wrong. I was hoping you might have an idea as to which it is?" she asked.

"Well, I don't speak Tyrian as such. But I know how it sounds, sort of. They roll their R's."

Eleanor gave the rune another try, though with the same effect or lack thereof. Her eyes clenched together as before, but nothing else happened.

"What is this rune supposed to do?"

"A symbol of warning, though as I have yet to use it, I cannot say how it works."

"Why – who do you need to be warned against?"

She laughed a little. "None in particular. But I saw Master Fenrick use this symbol on our trip to the Stone of Archen, if you recall. I thought it might be easier to begin with this one, as I have seen it before."

"You know, Master Fenrick is probably the right person to ask for help instead of me."

Eleanor gave a guilty smile. "I asked him. He told me that I would learn the runes next year and that patience is an important virtue for wizards."

"That sounds like him."

"Let me try some of the others. Let me know if you think I am saying it wrong."

"Certainly."

They continued for a while until Eleanor announced herself to be fatigued, bringing an end to their time together.