On Sunday, I understood what the Major's gripe was about. This time, instead of just attacking me with his magic and having the golem beat me, he also hurled insults, one more inventive than the other.
My calm, focused defense, interspersed with some attacks, rattled him.
"A mage that behaves like you is unnatural," he muttered. "Plain unnatural. How are you able to control yourself so well?"
I didn't respond to that rhetorical question.
It's not that the insults the Major hurled at me today didn't offend me. I was offended and angry at his methods. But I kept in mind that I was too weak to beat him, and they had confiscated my crystal as evidence together with the knives.
Still, I now knew it worked, having tested it in an extreme situation. I needed to make another one.
Lieutenant
