Alfirean Age Book 1 - Inheritor of Strength

The Elements

Through the afterimages of the lightning, Alf saw lights flickering along the jungle path leading to the dorms. “What do we tell them when they get here, though?” Alf asked, turning towards Drakovian, or rather where Drakovian had been. Now the boy was nowhere to be seen.

“Tell them to wait until the others have gathered,” a shadow said off to his right, almost causing him to jump out of his skin. 

“How are you...,” Alf said, staring at the figure which appeared to fade in and out of view. The prince wasn’t invisible, but the color of his skin and his new school uniform slowly shifted to match that of his surroundings.

“In the meantime, I will join the students,” the shadow said as it blended with the darkness of night. Crouching low, it flowed across the training ground till it vanished into the trees.

“He has got to teach me how to do that,” Alf said in amazement.

“I’m sad to say the spell is far too complicated for you to perform,” a young voice said from where the prince's shadow had stood moments before. "And you have much more important things you need to focus on. Your lightning spell, for instance, was only that of a four."

Alf stared in complete bewilderment at the spot where the bodiless voice prattled on.

“Sound warp,” Harold informed him.

“The students look rather disgruntled," the empty air warned. "You may wish to think of something to keep them occupied while they wait.”

Olivia produced the glass tablet from her side pouch. “A pop quiz on combat magic ought to do the trick.”

I’m not sure that will go over well, Alf thought as her tablet lit up.

Larne, closely followed by two of his friends, emerged from the footpath. Upon seeing them standing in the middle of the training field, he shouted. “What's up? And what in Eldrin's name was with the light show?”

“Please gather behind the observation line,” Harold said, ignoring the boy's question. He motioned to the safety line behind the pillars, then turned to Olivia and Alf. “Would you two produce a light, please?”

Alf nodded, and together, he and Olivia began crafting a light spell. As the magic light formed between them, he fed his energy into her spell, bolstering Olivia's flagging energy reserves. Alf knew the night had taken its toll on her. He could see the shadows hanging under her eyes and the downward slope of her shoulders. Several hours of intensive healing, along with no sleep, would be hard for anyone, even one with Olivia's outstanding stamina. 

Viktor materialized from the jungle and pushed his way past Larne and his friends. “I demand to know why our teachers and the servants are waking us up in the middle of the night and telling us to come out here. And I also want to know what fool was playing with lightning at this time of night!”

Olivia’s light flared to life, and she gently raised her hand, pushing it skyward. The luminescent sphere rose high into the sky until it bathed the entire training ground and courtyard in a soft-white glow.

“All will be explained in due time. For now, I need all of you to gather behind the observation line,” Harold said, repeating his earlier instructions. “When everyone else has arrived, I will explain the situation.”

Larne, and the others who had already arrived, filed into the training ground's observational area. Viktor, however, stood his ground and stared defiantly at the Headmaster.

Harold raised his eyebrow. “Do I need to assign you to detention, Mister Sawar? If I do, I assure you it will not be a pleasant experience on your part.”

“Fine, but my father will hear about this,” Viktor grumbled as he filed in with the others.

Olivia walked towards the growing crowd and raised her voice. “While we wait for everyone else to arrive, I am giving an extra credit pop quiz. The first to raise their hand and answer the question correctly will have extra points added to their total Combat grade.”

"I'm not doing any stupid pop quiz at this time of night," a teenager yelled.

"Ya," someone piped in. "We didn't sign up for this inhumane treatment."

Alf strolled forward. "I could give an actual combat test if you prefer."

"No," the former voice squeaked out."We're good."

“Alright, class," Olivia continued. "First question, what is the elemental circle and it’s correct order?”

A short, black-haired girl threw her hand up and started jumping up and down. Alf recognized her as Qiao, a hardworking bookworm type who struggled in his class because of her small stature.

Olivia nodded towards her, “Qiao.”

A quick smile spread across the girl’s face, and she said, “The elemental circle consists of seven elements. This circle is used to signify the dominance each element has over its counterpart, and it starts with the weakest of the elements and ends with the strongest, which is as follows: wind beats earth, earth beats lightning, lightning beats water, water beats fire, and fire beats wind. In the middle of the circle is dark and light magic, which are equally deadly to each other.”

“Very good, though you should note light is correctly referred to as holy magic,” Olivia said, tapping her glass and water tablet. “Alright, here’s an easy one. How are each of the five basic combat magic cast, and what are their intended usages?”

"I know!" a boy shouted from the back of the crowd, waving his arms in enthusiasm.

Olivia pointed to him. “Okay, let’s hear it, and speak clearly so the others can hear.”

The student lifted his voice and launched into his explanation. “Wind is instant cast and designed to be a hybrid between defense and offense. Earth is channel-charged cast. That means you channel the spell into your intended target until it’s charged, and then you cast it. Its primary use is for defense, like building fortifications and stuff. Lightning is just channeled and mostly used for suppression, though it can be lethal. Water is pre-charged, or pre-prepared, and is the all-around attack elemental type. It's mostly used by soldiers or town guards when lethal force is necessary. Fire is charged, and it's the end-all-be-all.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow, “End-all-be-all?”

“You know, the big guns, the heavy weaponry, the pièce de résistance.”

“The correct term is heavy assault,” Olivia corrected and tapped her tablet.

“This one’s for the medical students,” she said. “Why are Aesculapian spells and gems ineffective in combat?”

None of the students raised their hands; instead, they turned to each other and muttered in confusion, "Aesculapian?"

A young man in a white smock stepped forward. “Aesculapian spells, also known as medical spells, are useless in combat because these tactics, such as binding, paralyzing, and organ manipulation, are too difficult to achieve on the battlefield. You see, they have to pierce through the natural barrier that protects all living creatures from harmful frequencies, and piercing this shield is intensely difficult. All doctors spend years of their lives training to form their spells in such a way that the body does not perceive them as harmful; otherwise, healing would be impossible.”

“Thank you, Matthew,” Olivia said to the resident healer. “Though the question was directed at the students.”

The man shrugged, smiled, and continued to answer her earlier question. “As for gems, they are not only ineffective, they are dangerous to have on your personage during live combat because even a child that has achieved Patuah can cast a directional sound spell that goes from twenty to twelve hundred hertz and shatter any gem in your possession.”

Olivia gave the junior physician a scathing scowl, then raised her tablet again, but before she could ask another question, the prince, who had blended in seamlessly with the other students, threw his hand up.

“Yes...,” Olivia glanced at her tablet. “Larth, I believe.  What is your question?”

“Well, it’s not a question really,” the prince said in a childlike tone. “It was Mister Alf casting big magic earlier, right?”

Alf nodded.

“I was hoping he could show us some ice magic. I've always watched the rapid-fire shootouts in entertainment scryings where people use water magic, but that stuff's fake. So I was hoping... you know.”

Olivia glanced back at Alf and he shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“It’ll certainly be better than this stupid quiz stuff,” Larne shouted.

“You’re just saying that because you’re too stupid to answer any of the questions,” one of Viktor’s groupies commented.

A chorus of laughter erupted from the teenagers surrounding Viktor.

“Shut up,” Larne spat back.

“Alright, settle down,” Alf said, raising his voice before things got out of hand. “I’ll demonstrate water magic, but first, I need to visit the well.”

While Olivia and Harold had several students set up targeting dummies, Alf strolled through the waiting group of people and back into the courtyard of the manor. With curious onlookers in tow, he walked to the manor’s well and reached his arm down the shaft.

As he leaned against the rough stone wall, a misty cloud of water floated up from the bottom of the well, swirled around his arm, and coalesced into a compressed diamond-shaped crystal above his right shoulder. The crystal steadily increased in size till it grew larger than his fist; then, with a tiny ping sound, it glazed over.

Of the five elements, the spell program for water was the most complicated because you had to gather and store it before usage. Gathering and storing all that water was like trying to force a whole elephant into one of Garland’s ovens. It might be possible, but it would take a lot of work. Similarly, it took an intensive amount of energy and willpower to compress an ice crystal just right.

Thankfully, Alf had plenty of hours of experience from when he'd helped form the cavern lights.

Switching arms, Alf continued sending down an unbroken wave of frequencies that turned the water into gas. Once more, he formed a crystal, this time placing it above his left shoulder.

Upon finishing, he rested against the well for several moments, catching his breath.

Pushing himself up, Alf made his way back through the crowd and out to the training field. As he returned to his former position, the crystals on his shoulders caught the light from Olivia's spell and burst into color. Sparkling like snow in a cold, moon drenched night, the crystals cast pools of shimmering rainbow lights at Alf's feet.

"Oooh," the students chorused.

“Are you all right? I've never seen you so winded before,” Olivia said, touching his shoulder in concern.

“I know," Alf wheezed. “I've never gathered that much water before,” he said as he leaned over and rested his hands upon his knees.

Giving Alf a chance to recover, Harold said, “It may be interesting to note that properly compressed water crystals are capable of a unique skill.”

The Headmaster raised his right hand, and a gentle breeze swirled around his fingers then streamed over to the crystals.

As the wind met the crystalline surfaces, the crystals broke forth into song, singing with the voice of a hundred chimes.

Gasps of awe escaped the school students.

“Wow.”

“So cool.”

For a handful of seconds, the song continued to weave its magic, enchanting and mesmerizing its captive audience, then Harold lowered his hand, and the majestic melody faded away.

“Okay," Alf took one more deep breath and straightened up. "I'm ready.”

Raising his right hand, Alf activated his spell. Unlike the gathering and compressing of water, the releasing of it took virtually no energy.

The crystal above his right shoulder glittered like a thousand gems, and a stream of sparkling water bubbled forth. It splashed down his arm and formed into three, several foot-long spikes.

Then, in a glittery explosion of ice, the spikes shot outwards.

Whistling through the air, the javelins glimmered in the darkness as they soared through the night, and with a shattering c***k that resounded across the mountaintops, they pierced deep into the wooden dummies and exploded.

Alf raised his left hand as the remnants of the targets clattered to the ground and fashioned another ice spike. Holding down the trigger on the spell pattern in his mind, he smiled as the spike vibrated and shot away.

Milliseconds later, another followed, and the air hummed and hissed as Alf released ice spike after ice spike screaming towards the targets.

Thick as Alf's arm, and highly compressed, each javelin barreled into the remaining scarecrows. As they struck home, the javelins blew apart into tiny ice daggers and embedded themselves deep within their foes. Then, without warning, the ice daggers ruptured inside the dummies. Ripping them from the inside out, the ice burst into a silvery-white cloud of snow that shimmered and danced in the moonlight. As each snowflake drifted towards the ground, the crystalline ice shredded everything it touched.

Alf continued to launch ice spikes into the snowy abyss until his crystal reserves vanished, and the training field lay in a blanket of glistening snow and razor-sharp daggers.

“By the eternal beauty of Trine,” Cutler shouted. "That was astounding."

Mister Cleaver, hand in hand with his wife, whistled. “You can say that again.”

“Remind me never to get on his bad side,” Mr. Allender said as he tucked his hands under his armpits to keep them warm and walked towards the courtyard.

Alf spun around to see the town crier leading a handful of townsfolk.

Garland marched forward and put his hands on his hips. His red hair stuck out in multiple directions, and his shirt hung partially tucked into his trousers. “Harold, what is all this?” he said, waving his hand at the icy training field and the students. “What in tarnation is going on?”

“Yes, I want to know that as well,” Mister Dinwiddie snapped. A pair of wire-rim spectacles hung on his crooked nose, and he shook his cane at Harold while the pompom on his nightcap bounced up and down. “A man can’t get a decent night of sleep around here nowadays, what with all the racket and going-ons.”

“I must apologize for the noise,” Harold replied. “Alf is giving a little demonstration to the students while they wait. As for why I have summoned you here in the dead of night, I would prefer to address the entire town at once so there is no confusion. In the meantime, please join the students while we wait for the others to arrive."

Garland yawned and then shrugged. “If that’s what you want.” He traipsed off towards the students, scratching his back and yawning once more.

“No," Mister Dinwiddie slammed down his cane. "You can tell us right noo-"

Mr. Allender pushed Mister Dinwiddie forward, cutting him off. “If Harold says wait, you’ll wait just like the rest of us.”

One glance at Allender's rock hard shoulders and unmovable face convinced Mister Dinwiddie not to push his luck. Grumbling under his breath, he joined the growing crowd.

Alf chuckled at the sour look on the pawnshop owner's face: he couldn't blame the man for being grouchy. Olivia was exactly the same. In fact, the other healers played rock, paper, scissors over who would wake her when there were late-night emergencies. Every time, without fail, you could hear a loud yelp coming from her quarters, and the poor healer, shortly thereafter, emerged looking a little singed around the edges. Olivia always protested she didn't mean to electrocute them, it just happened. One way or the other, Alf thought it was hilarious.

A freezing cold breeze brushed against Alf's arms, and he gazed out at his handiwork. He couldn't believe he'd done that. Elation swept through him and his eyes sought out Drakovian. I wonder what level my spell was? It has to be a seven.

Clapping his hands, he gathered everyone's attention and said, "As you've all learned, all spell types have seven levels. Who here can tell me what level my ice spell was?”

Alf expected the prince to raise his hand, but to his surprise, Mister Cleaver spoke up. “That's a six. I know because my wife can cast the master spell, though hers is nowhere near as impressive as yours.”

“Is that so?” his wife asked, her breath emitting a white cloud and frost forming in her hair.

Mister Cleaver threw up his hands. “Whoa, honey, I didn’t mean anything by that. I was just... ”

“I know,” Ice said with a smile and kissed him, leaving frost on his lips. She then looked at Alf, an expression of empathy on her face—she must have seen his disappointment. "If it's any consolation," she said, "It's a good thing you didn't. Your magic reserve is much greater than mine, which means your attack range is wider. If you had reached level seven, almost everyone here would be dead, especially since the safety zone is inactive."

She walked over and pushed a button on one of the pillars. A hum briefly emitted from all four corners of the field and a thin blue outline of a shield enfolded the training grounds.  "You might want to be more cautious in the future," Ice said, a gentle hint of censure in her voice. 

"Yes, ma'am," Alf bowed his head and nodded. He hadn't thought of that.

***

As the conversations carried on in the background, Olivia paused in silence, staring out at the snow-covered field. It was like looking upon an alien landscape, beautiful in its strange icy splendor, but harsh and deadly.

Some of the most popular holo-scrying’s depicted a single, shirtless man with giant ice crystals hovering beneath both forearms as he wiped out swaths of enemy soldiers. Of course, the entertainment scrying’s left out things like shields and other defensive tactics, making them childishly fake.

Olivia knelt down and lightly touched one of the snowflakes. It cut through her finger like a hot knife through butter, and she pulled away as a small bead of her blood dropped into the lethal snow.

The bead of blood melted through several snowflakes then froze solid, becoming a glistening red dot in a field of white.

This, on the other hand, was real. Alf, her Alfonso, could be a real killing machine.

She clenched her fist and stared over at the innocent-looking boy hidden amongst the students. That was precisely what he wanted to make him into.

A mass-murdering machine.

Olivia's heart ached, and a sense of loss welled up inside her.

The prince would take him away from her and change the once kindhearted boy into a tool for his revenge. She would lose her best friend. She would lose...

Memories flooded her. Memories Olivia had desperately tried to suppress the last three weeks. Like a holo-gem revealing its captured images, scenes flashed through her mind:

Alfonso sitting in a wheelchair, smelling a purple lily.

The two of them sitting together on the manor's hilltop, watching the sun go down.

Alfonso watching enthralled as she and Harold performed another experiment.

The two of them being scolded for staying up late into the night, talking about random things.

A tear trickled down Olivia's face and splashed onto the ice, freezing just as hard and cold as she'd been feeling of late.

Things had changed so much since Alfonso had obtained his new power. Once upon a time, he'd needed her. She had protected him, watched over him, and cared for him since she was three years old. Every time he'd had a scrape or bruise, he'd come running to her. Every time he'd felt down or depressed, he'd come to her for comfort. Now, though... 

She curled her fists.

Now, if Alf got hurt, he'd heal it himself or seek out other healers. If he felt down, he wouldn’t tell her about it; instead, he'd put on that goofy, fake smile of his and try to hide it from her.

Maybe she was being ridiculous. Maybe she was just being selfish. Anyone would be overjoyed to have their loved one come back from the dead, healthy and alive—even if they looked different.

But it's not like she hadn't thought of that before. Every time she saw him, she tried to work up her courage to approach him. Deep inside, she longed to talk to him like the days of old, but she couldn’t. He wasn’t Alfonso anymore. He was... Alf.

And now... now she would never get the chance to know him, to mend the bridges she had torn down. The prince would take Alf far away. He would change him and strip him of his innocence. He would mold him into his desired image, and this time, the old Alfonso would be truly, utterly dead.

Olivia's breath caught in her chest and her body trembled. The final words of Alfonso's farewell letter flashed before her eyes.

I could not bear the thought of dying without telling you that…

I love you.

At last, the grief over the man she'd lost broke through the barrier she'd erected and fortified around her heart every day for weeks.

Shouts erupted around her, but Olivia didn’t know or care what they were for.

She felt numb, like the world she had once known was forever frozen in time, like this field of ice, cold and untouchable.