Authors: Vincent Trigili
“Master Shadow! Flame! You know, between the three of you, there really is not much left of this promotion to apprentice that is due to me,” I said as I gestured to my newly red robe.
“Oh, don’t be so silly, Dusty!” chided Flame. “You earned those robes, every last thread of them!”
“Seriously, guys, I would not have made it without you all. Thanks,” I said.
“Aw, really there was nothing to it. Now let’s go eat,” said Phoenix.
Phoenix could always be counted on to bring up food eventually. He was the perpetually chunky kind of person. His love affair with eating would prevent him from ever being a more normal size. They say that during the prospect stage he lost a lot of weight and got into decent shape, but deep down I know that could not have been possible. The Phoenix I knew ate at least three times as much as anyone else and enjoyed every bite of it.
I hadn’t planned to actually head into the mess hall and join the party, but I knew if I tried to back out now they would pull me in. The three of them were very socially oriented, especially Phoenix. I followed them into the mass of bodies, noises, and lights that they called a good time. In order to minimize my exposure to the chaos, I headed for the food table. I figured that if I had a plate of food and a drink, no one would try to drag me out into the crowds on the dance floor.
Once I had some food I found a seat where I could see most of the room. That would prevent anyone from being able to sneak up on me. Great orbs of multicolored light floated around the room bobbing along to the beat of the music. Fire and smoke appeared randomly throughout the hall while mythical creatures flew around the room and through the crowds. Everywhere I looked there was something going on.
Down on the dance floor I saw Phoenix making a fool out of himself and utterly enjoying the attention. He had somehow managed to turn his skin multiple colors and was attempting to dance. Dancing might not be the best word for it. It was more like attempting to flop around, but completely missing the beat.
Flame and Master Shadow were also dancing, but the contrast between them and Phoenix could not have been starker. They were in perfect tune with the music and each other. They danced as if they were in their own perfect little world, weaving around each other in a complicated set of movements that demanded much more in the way of strength and flexibility than I could ever hope to achieve.
With my only three friends distracted, I cast a cloaking spell and slipped away from the party. I felt a little guilty doing it since I was one of the guests of honor, but it was not as if they had asked me if I wanted a party or even a ceremony, for that matter. I would have been just as happy to go to bed with white robes and wake up with red ones. I did not understand this insane need for chaos to celebrate a promotion. It seemed even crazier here where we were being trained to be guardians of order and light.
I decided to head outside where I was sure no one would look for me. There I could practice the new spell I had found in some advanced books I borrowed from Master Shadow. It was a dangerous spell, and I knew that the school would not approve of me working on it, so I needed privacy.
The spell was called Night Form, and it was a more advanced version of Shadow Form, which I already knew. Shadow Form allowed the caster to blend in with any shadows in the area, becoming completely undetectable, as long as he stayed in shadows. The caster remained a solid person, but light bent around him so that he was always in shadow.
Night Form was a completely new level of concealment far beyond anything I had attempted previously. When cast, the caster’s physical form actually became shadow. He could move about freely, completely safe from physical attack and pass through solid objects. As a shadow, he would not be bound by gravity or any other physical reality. The caster, in a sense, ceased to exist in the natural world.
I pulled out my notes and reviewed the spell one more time. It started the same as Shadow Form but about halfway through took a turn and introduced gestures and power-words that I was not previously familiar with. I had spent the previous weeks practicing the command words and gestures, preparing as much as I could for this night. Once I was sure I had properly memorized the spell, I began to cast. Slowly I felt darkness move up my body as the beginning of Shadow Form began to take place, but then the spell switched, and I had a very disconcerting feeling of my body dissolving, but I did not let that distract me.
As I completed the spell, I felt an exhilarating wave of power pass over me, and I started to float. I looked down, and in the darkness of the night, I could not see my body at all. I had done it! I was incorporeal! I began to fly around just by willing it. It was the greatest freedom I had ever felt. I flew around at what must have been great speed, but I had almost no sense of motion.
I was happily flying through the air when suddenly I hit something, something hard. After I recovered my senses, I looked up and saw the defense screens around the school. Master Shadow had told me about them, but I had never seen them before. I slowly moved over to the screen and touched it. It was as solid as any rock surface I had ever felt. I then moved towards the ground and tried to touch a rock. My hand passed harmlessly through it. There was no sensation at all.
Of course the school’s defenses would stop me,
I thought to myself. I assumed that the spell would not last much longer, and I was a long way from the school, so I headed back. If the spell wore off while I was still out here, it would be a long, cold walk home.
Once I made it back to the school’s entrance, I canceled Night Form and put back up my normal cloaking spell. I wanted to head back to my quarters, and I really did not want to talk to anyone as I went. Slowly and carefully, I moved through the school. It was a challenge sneaking around a castle filled with wizards of all ranks, but that just made it more fun.
As I turned down the final corridor that would take me back to the wing of the school where my quarters were I saw Master Shadow. I tried to slip back, but he called out, “There you are, Dusty.”
“Hello, Master. One day I will be able to sneak by you,” I said as I canceled my concealment spell. I could sneak past wizards with much greater experience and rank than him, but he always caught me.
“Doubtful, but it is a good goal for you,” he said with a smile. “Now, the party is still in full swing, but I am partied out and, unless I miss my guess, you were partied out before it even started.”
“Yes, Master, I was just heading back to my room to get some sleep,” I said.
“Then, if you do not mind, walk with me for a bit,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said. I knew I could say no, but I could tell he wanted to talk to me about something. We walked in silence for a while until we left the area of the school where students were allowed. I had a good map of the school in my head from my many hours of sneaking around while cloaked, but I had not attempted to go too far down this corridor because at the end of it was a pair of massive Zalionians guarding a stone door.
As we approached the door, the Zalionians moved to the side to let us pass. Shadow opened the door with a wave of his hand and walked through. As I followed him through the door, I was struck immediately by the major difference. The corridor we came down was hewn from solid rock and lit mostly by torches. The area beyond the door was about as different as you could get. The walls and floor were made from a shiny high-grade metal; it was lit by modern lights and had all the trappings you would expect to see in a fully up-to-date facility. As such, it was completely alien to me. It had been a very long time since I had been off-world because I never bothered to take a vacation. The rock and primitive technology of the school had grown comfortable to me.
Once the door was closed behind us Master Shadow said, “Dusty, it goes without saying that unescorted you are not allowed back here, and to try sneaking in would be dangerous.”
“Yes, Master, I understand,” I said as I continued to follow him down the corridor.
“I am bringing you back here because Grandmaster Vydor has tasked me with gathering some worthy apprentice-level wizards for a special mission, one that I think you will be perfect for,” he said.
“Master, I am barely an apprentice. What kind of mission could I be good for?” I asked.
He stopped at a door that looked like it might be an airlock. He turned to me and said, “As you know, pirates have taken over the region between us and Aleeryon. This has pretty much ended all trade with that system and completely wrecked their economy,” he said.
“Yes, Master, but that is local politics. What concern do wizards have with that?” I asked.
“Good question, and the answer is that we have a couple of concerns. First, these pirates are not only operating right on our borders, but in areas that we have plans to expand into. That makes them a problem for us. So far, they have not been foolish enough to attack anything with our flag on it, but they grow bolder with each passing year.
“The second reason is that we have strong evidence that the sorcerers are helping them,” he said.
“Then it is more than just local politics, Master,” I said.
“Yes, much more,” he said as he turned and opened the door.
Beyond the door was a hangar with several ships in it. With the exception of one, they were all under construction. There were robots flying around from place to place working on them and crews of men and women working alongside them. It was a horribly busy, noisy place.
“Here you can see we are slowly building our own fleet of warships. In the past, we have not had much need for them, but soon that will change. In other hangars, we have various spacecraft that we have purchased, but these are special. These are being built to be flown and operated by wizards. They will have magical shielding, magically enhanced armor, and magically enhanced weapons. In general they are a mixture of magic and technology,” he said.
He brought me over to the one vessel that was not under construction. It was the most beautiful starship I had ever seen. It had a pure black, almost frictionless surface that was clean of any markings. It was a flattened teardrop shape that should allow it to work well in both atmosphere and vacuum. It was floating just off the floor, held aloft by some unseen force. It was the size of an average cruiser, which told me that it was most likely intended for deep space operation.
Master Shadow approached the craft, held up his hand, and said a command word. This caused a door to open in the side of the ship where there was previously no sign of one. A staircase materialized that ran from the door to the floor. It appeared to be made of the same material as the spacecraft, which worried me. I was not looking forward to trying to climb a frictionless staircase.
“Follow me,” said Master Shadow as he started up the stairs.
Taking a deep breath, I carefully put my foot down on the first step, and to my surprise, there was no slip. After gingerly taking a few more steps, I was confident it was after all just a staircase, and I followed Master Shadow into the ship.
“Welcome aboard the Dust Dragon, the most advanced war vessel ever built,” said Master Shadow.
I looked around the sleek ultramodern interior and was amazed at what I saw. Despite being a craft intended for war, the ship had a homey feel to it. From the shock-absorbing floors to the soft lighting, the entire vessel seemed to be designed with long-term comfort in mind. I could easily picture a crew living on this ship for extended missions.
After a tour of the Dust Dragon, Master Shadow took me to the captain’s lounge. Once we were both seated he said, “Dusty, your native talent for magic is some of the best I have seen. Sure, you struggle with the academic side, but there is more to being a wizard than memorizing mnemonics. That is not to say that the academic side is not important; if I thought that, I would not have spent years helping you through it. I just do not want you to think you are not as good as some others who may excel at theory.”
“Thank you, Master. I do try,” I said.
“Grandmaster Vydor has given me the Dust Dragon. My mission is to break the back of the local pirates in hopes of drawing out the sorcerers. That means everyone on my crew will have all restrictions lifted concerning the use of their powers. Grandmaster Vydor said he wants people talking about what we did out there for decades to come, and I want you to be part of those stories,” he said.
I did not know what to say to that. Master Shadow knew I had been sneaking around experimenting with far more advanced spells than I was allowed. He even provided the books for the spells, for which I assumed he was getting some flak. I had failed many of my classes, but it was those stupid useless written tests that sank me. I could handle the spells fine. Why did it matter if I could not remember Pazelarth’s fourth formula for command word syllabification? It is not as if that was hindering me from advancement.
“Master, what would that mean for my schooling?” I asked.
“There are two paths that apprentices currently follow through the school. The main one, the one that most of your classmates will follow, is to continue through the school for several more years, maybe a decade or more depending on their aptitude. At some point, an advanced journeyman or elite wizard will then pick them up as their apprentice, and they will receive a more one-on-one type of training. This system works well for most of the students; however, there are those that do not fit the mold,” he said.
“Master, like you and Flame?” I asked.
“Yes, exactly. Those exceptions, the ones that do not fit into the normal school model, are moved into direct apprenticeship with a higher-ranking wizard. What I am suggesting for you is a new, third option. By joining my crew, you will learn the more advanced lines in your power through usage out there in the field. This program will be significantly less academically focused, and much more vocationally focused. If you come, then Flame and I will be your teachers instead of your present tutors,” he said.