Over and over, the memory played on repeat in my head, a vivid, unwelcome loop.
I even felt what he was feeling at the time, a profound sense of joy and adoration, which wasn’t something I had read could happen with psychometry.
That could only mean I had also accessed empathy, a skill I hadn’t known I possessed, a mental echo of his emotions.
I didn’t even know they knew each other, the Headmaster and my mother.
The look in her eyes when the image cleared up, illuminated by that soft, ethereal glow, I had seen that look before, countless times, when she spoke about my dad.
It was love.
Undeniable, overwhelming love.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts, dissecting the implications of this new, unsettling information, that I didn’t even notice when Farrah or anyone else performed their psionic skill.
I did notice, though, when I came off the stage and Farrah tried to get into my head.
I felt her consciousness gently pushing against the walls that Gran had taught me to build, trying to breach my defenses, to understand the turmoil within me.
Thank goodness they were still intact, still resolute, even though my head was a whirlwind of confusion and fear.
Before I knew it, my name was being called for the fourth test: manipulation.
It was supposed to be an easy one, a simple display of the metamorphosis we had practiced tirelessly.
Change my hair, my eyes, anything.
When I got to the stage, however, my mind drew a complete blank.
The earlier shock, the raw emotions, had completely derailed me.
I just stood there, looking out at the expectant crowd, begging the ground to swallow me whole, to erase my sudden paralysis.
Suddenly, the ring on my finger grew scorching hot against my skin, a searing heat that startled me, and I looked down to see what was wrong with it.
It was a good thing I did, too, or else I wouldn’t have seen it happening.
Ever so slowly, agonizingly, my legs started sinking into the polished floor of the gymnasium.
In no time at all, I was up to my neck and sinking, my eyes wide with pure, unadulterated panic, completely immersed.
Darkness surrounded me, a suffocating, inky blackness that pressed in from all sides.
It was clear I’d inadvertently performed tunneling, a highly advanced and dangerous form of Earth manipulation, but what was not clear was how, or even how to fix it.
I was stuck in the ground of the gymnasium, utterly immobilized.
The silence was deafening, a terrifying void that amplified my racing heartbeat, and the darkness was absolute, a profound terror.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I begged to be taken back to the gym, my mind screaming for release.
Panic set in, cold and sharp, when I came to the terrifying realization that I might be stuck like this forever, a prisoner of my own uncontrolled magic, and I chanted harder, desperately.
“Take me back, take me back, take me back,” I repeated, a frantic, whispered mantra.
I knew I was crying; I could feel the hot, familiar sting behind my eyelids, there should be moisture on my face, but I felt nothing, only the overwhelming pressure of the earth around me.
I felt the ring burning into my finger again, a beacon of heat in the oppressive darkness, and in the blink of an eye, a dizzying, disorienting sensation, I was deposited in a heap, back on the gym stage.
My lungs burned, starved for air, and my eyes were itching something fierce, a residual discomfort from the sudden transition.
Farrah, her face a mask of frantic worry, rushed to my side, but the Headmaster stopped her, his arm outstretched.
He indicated to the nurse who was standing off to the side, a calm, professional figure, and she gently helped me up and off the stage to check me out, her hands surprisingly warm and reassuring.
Not one to be deterred, Farrah followed close behind us, her concern palpable, with the Headmaster not far behind, his expression unreadable.
Adams, while I hope you are okay, and I applaud your attempt at advanced manipulation,” Headmaster Cree stated, his voice devoid of emotion, “you will be awarded no score for this skill area.
What you did was reckless.” I simply nodded, still reeling from the experience, and turned away from him, unable to meet his gaze.
He made his way back to his place on the stage to continue with the testing, his attention already shifting.
Once the nurse completed her examination of me, her touch gentle and efficient, she placed a bottle of water in my hand, its cool plastic a small comfort, and left Farrah and I alone in our quiet corner.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Farrah whisper-yelled at me, her voice tight with a mixture of fear and exasperation.
“I don’t know what you saw in Cree’s head, but since then you’ve been all over the place.
Get it together, we have energy next, and you need to be focused or things can go badly.” She looked toward the stage when her name was called for the next test and pulled me in for a quick hug before going to perform the metamorphosis that I should have performed as well.
Farrah was right, I needed to get my head in the game.
We had come up with a sort of routine to do together for the energy portion of the testing, already getting approval from the Headmaster to work together rather than alone, a rare concession.
And it was indeed something we needed to be focused for, or things could get messy.
Like, a lot messy.
Our joint display required perfect synchronization and immense control.
From my place in the corner of the room, I watched as Echo took the stage.
Asher had performed a duplicator spell, making a perfect duplicate of himself.
It was really good too; I couldn’t even tell which was real and which was the duplicate, a testament to his skill.
Echo, still looking incredibly engorged from his potion, drew magic from the small statue with relative ease, a ripple of power visible around him, and then he was gone, vanishing from sight.
Cloaking, nice.
Why couldn’t I have done something like that?
We were all waiting for his reappearance with rapt attention, every eye scanning the room.
Something like this had possibilities; would he reappear on the stage?
At the door?
In the crowd of students?
I was looking around, just like everyone else, scanning the faces in the crowd, when I felt something caress my cheek, a feather-light touch, and I was frozen in place.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered in my ear, his breath warm against my skin, sending shivers down my spine.
I felt the distinct imprint of his lips on my cheek, right at the corner of my mouth, and I knew my face was flaming red, a betraying blush.
Just as quickly as he came, he was gone, leaving only the ghost of his touch.
I heard a sudden scream and then a high-pitched giggle from the crowd, and when I found the source, I was engulfed in a wave of raw, unfamiliar jealousy.
Echo had reappeared, his hands around Etenia, his face buried in her neck, a possessive gesture.
I shook off the feeling, all of it.
The jealousy, the confusion, everything.
My mind was fully on what Farrah and I had to do in a short while, pushing all distractions aside.
Turns out that short time was a bit longer than I thought, since they left the both of us for last.
In hindsight, it made sense since we were doing it together, a grand finale, but it didn’t have me any less nervous.
We walked onto the stage, the entire gymnasium’s attention now fixed solely on us, and got ready for our fifth and final test for the day: energy. This chapter was taken from NovelPing without permission.
Energy conversion is when you take one form of energy and turn it into something else entirely.
It’s mostly used for defensive magic, absorbing incoming attacks and redirecting them.
Farrah and I had stayed up most of the night and put together something consisting of everything we had learned so far, a complex sequence of spells.
The only reason we did it this way was because neither of us were particularly outstanding in this field on our own, only having mastered a few isolated techniques.
This was our combined masterpiece.
Farrah walked to one end of the stage and I to another, the vast space stretching between us.
She looked to me for confirmation that I was ready, her eyes resolute, and I took a quick, fortifying breath before sending a decisive nod her way.
I watched carefully as Farrah built her element of fire, gathering the raw energy until it was the size of a basketball, a shimmering orb of incandescent heat.
She released the ball, and it came barreling toward me at an ungodly speed, a fiery projectile.
There was a collective gasp from the student body, a wave of nervous murmurs, and I even saw the Headmaster raise from his seat in my peripheral vision, his body tensing, but I didn’t let any of that distract me.
Just before the ball crashed into me, I extended my hands and captured it mid-air, my palms glowing.
I watched as it floated between my hands, the intense heat producing beads of sweat on my brows, but I held it there, steadfast, while I recited the absorption spell in my head, focusing all my will.
Slowly, the powerful fireball was sucked into my hands until there was no more, completely consumed by my own energy.
I looked down at my hands, this always being my favorite part.
My entire body was aglow, like a phoenix about to take flight, radiating warmth and light.
Taking my cue from Farrah, I said the conversion spell and sent not only a bolt of lightning, sharp and crackling, but also a gusty of wind, a powerful, swirling vortex, in her direction.
The crowd gasped even louder, a collective roar of surprise, the nearer it got to her, since she was showing no signs of trying to stop it as I did.
Even Headmaster Cree took a few steps forward, his concern clear, but stopped short when the mini-storm I sent her way was stopped inches from her body by the shimmering, almost invisible shield she had put in place.
The lightning fizzled out harmlessly against the barrier, and the wind circled her force field for a bit before completely dying, dissipating into nothingness.
We stood in silence, staring at each other across the stage, Farrah with a big, goofy grin on her face at our success, her eyes sparkling with triumph.
Out of nowhere, the students screamed out a raucous applause, a deafening roar of approval, some even whistling loudly, others stamping their feet.
The sound of hands clapping together was a deafening sound in the giant gymnasium, shaking the very foundations.
Farrah bounded over to me and engulfed me in a warm hug, her joy radiating outwards.
It took a moment for the faculty to get things back to a normal, quiet level, their own expressions showing a mixture of surprise and profound satisfaction, and when they did, they told us we could talk quietly amongst ourselves while they finished scoring and placing us.
It was a tough day, mentally and physically draining, but all in all, both Farrah and I were successful with what we set out to do.
Well, except for my tunneling snafu.
As I listened to Farrah and the twins go on and on about how they hoped to get placed in at least a couple of the same classes, their voices a cheerful background hum, my eyes landed on Headmaster Cree.
He was talking in hushed tones with the other professors, his gaze periodically sweeping over the students.
I was brought back to the memory I had tripped into, the lingering image of my mother’s face and his youthful adoration, and the questions started shooting off once more, a barrage of insistent queries.
His eyes met mine, and when he noticed I was watching, he quickly turned his attention back to the table once more, his movements almost imperceptible, but I saw it.
I’ll find out how he knew my mother.
One way or the other.