With the help of the his assistants, Cedric had us divide into several small groups and take turns healing one another from the maladies we had studied earlier while the rest of the group watched. We were given two tasks, name the remedy and then cast out your magic using the projection of that cure to heal your patient. If you failed, the next person in your group would start his or her own attempt.
I did well enough during the first half of the lesson. Both Alex’s and my background in the family apothecary helped with remedy. But when it came time to cast the cures for our patients, I was useless.
“What do you think you are doing, first-year?”
I whirled around to find Master Cedric frowning. I glanced at the small hand knife in my palm. It was my turn to cast.
“She can’t cast without injury, sir,” my twin quickly said. “She’s tried, but for some reason—”
“Is this true?” Master Cedric stared hard at me.
I reddened. “Yes.”
“Perhaps next time you will think twice before falling asleep in my class.” The master walked away without a second glance while Alex and Ella gawked after him.
“Did he really just say that?”
“He’s not even going to try to help you!”
I tossed the blade to the ground, furious. What good was my magic here if the masters refused to help me?
“Don’t let him get to you, Ryiah,” Alex said softly, aware of the attention Master Cedric’s presence had brought to our circle.
I stared at the girl across from me. Master Cedric’s assistant had given her the slightest bit of frostbite. She was waiting for me to heal her.
I tried to remember what Master Cedric has said at the beginning of class.
Use all your senses. Shut out everything. Focus solely on the projection in your mind…Once you have a strong hold of what you need to do, project your will onto it, and if you have done so correctly, your magic should come through. I kept repeating the instructions over and over, willing my magic to take effect.
But it never did.
At one point I caught Darren watching me from the corner of his eye. When I whirled around to catch him, he gave me a wink before casting a healing of his own.
I felt like screaming.
“Maybe next time.” Alex gave my shoulder an awkward pat.
The assistant returned to heal my partner, and I looked down to avoid any more sympathetic glances from the rest of our group. No one else had failed this exercise.
“I’m sure once Master Cedric sees how hard you are trying, he will change his mind,” Ella offered. Like Alex, she had no idea why my magic wasn’t casting. None of her suggestions had worked either.
I sighed. Judging from the mild-mannered master’s response, my month of dozing off in his class was irreparable.
Alex, on the other hand, did even better than expected. He grasped Master Cedric’s lesson almost immediately. Even though I’d only seen him cast the most basic of spells back home, he was very apt at putting the new castings to work. When it was his turn, it took only minutes for my brother to heal his patient of sunburn.
It was hard to contain my jealousy.
I tried to tell myself that it was just Restoration, that my castings didn’t matter here, but it was hard to evade the truth. If I couldn’t cast now, how would my week of Combat be any different?
That evening after dinner, Ella did not come with me to the field to continue our nightly conditioning. She needed to spend the extra time studying now that we had moved on from the basics. The rest of our group went with her, including Alex.
When I arrived at the armory, I could see I was not alone. Granted, there were less students now that we had started the first faction’s orientation, but there were still no fewer than twenty first-years drilling when I arrived.
Someone had brought out a pile of staffs and blunt training swords. Glancing at the two weapons, I considered trying the blade. It would be the perfect distraction to my dismal day thus far, but without Ella for proper instruction, I knew the best thing to do would be continue working on my practiced routine with the pole instead.
Whimsy, however, got the best of me.
“Do you even know what you are doing?” a familiar voice jeered.
I jumped and then turned to find myself face-to-face with Priscilla. She was watching me awkwardly clutch the sword handle while Darren and the rest of his following stood only a couple feet away.
She had picked the wrong day to bully me.
“Don’t you tire of playing the witch?” I shot back.
One of the two husky brothers snickered, and I was almost certain I saw Darren smile.
Priscilla, however, was less than amused.
“Go on all you like, lowborn. It will not save you from your pathetic casting. The only good use for that sword is if it ends your own paltry existence.”
“Oh no,” I snapped, “I think it would do wonders for your own. Besides,” I added shortly, “like Sir Piers said, it’s the ones that need to learn you should be worrying about.”
“The only thing I worry about is being stuck in the same quarters as a common wench!” she cried.
“What in the name of the gods are you talking about?”