Prismatic

Training

I was in a kingdom wandering aimlessly. I finally found Bry, Tyke and Aina. Suddenly, we were being chased by armored men. We were so close to the exit. I saw three golden triangles form in the sky. I felt a heavy pressure and the triangles dropped upon us.

I sprang up from my bed. Goodness, it was just a dream, I thought to myself. It was a bright golden morning. I went down to have my fill. I saw Bry dining alone. “Where are the others?” I asked feeling blithe.

“What happened to good morning?” he snapped, “Tyke and Aina went to the neighbors to give them our leftovers. They were too good to be wasted.”

I joined him at the table and grabbed my part of the breakfast. It was pre-heated and was still piping hot. I let it cool for a while. I smiled a little from the compliment. “You were blabbing a lot. If only I had a needle and some thread, I would have made a nice stitch around those lips of yours but I was thinking of reserving them for dinner”, I snapped back.

“Oh no, not dinner”, he feigned terror. “Tell you what, I will make lunch today to make it up to you”, he smiled like star diamonds were stuck in his teeth.

How can I not forgive him? He makes the best of the meat when he cooks. And that smile. That smile was very hard to resist. He knows too well how to break through me. I cannot even focus eating on the food before me.

“Are you alright? Goodness Jo, you’re bleeding!” he touched my nose and reached for a cloth beneath his cloak.

I felt my heart explode. I thought all of the blood in my body went to my face. Some of it went to the bowl I was eating at. I took the cloth and stuffed it to my nose. I tried to relax and compose myself. He will be the death of me when time comes.

I cleaned my bowl and went for the apple next to me. I went back to the table and started, “So, what you gonna do today? Mind if I join you?”

“I was thinking of helping you on identifying your shape, Prizma should have shown yours already yesterday”, he referred to my lie last dinner.

“I am still working on it”, I said, ashamed that he saw through me. “Thank you, by the way,”

“Let’s do it after lunch. Speaking of which, I should start making it now”, he motioned to the cooking area and prepared cooking.

“Okay, I will ready the meat for dinner”, as I said that, I grabbed the meat, seasonings, needle and thread. I prepared the stuffing and filled the meat. I sew the meat using the needle and thread and prepared the sauce. I let it submerge on the prepared sauce and covered it. I placed it on the table to let the sauce sink in until dinner.

Tyke and Aina arrived when Bry just finished cooking. After eating lunch, Bry and I started on our training.

We were out into the field, a few miles away from people. “I think this place is good enough. Now, let’s begin”, Bry said in a stern voice. “I want you to close your eyes and visualize a strong past memory that may indicate any shape. Do you have a shape in mind?” I nodded, “Good. Focus on that shape”, he paused, “Trace the shape with your eyes and feel it sink into you”, his voice a faint distance now.

I felt a gentle light sapphire glow flow into me. With a cloudy flash, the book showed itself to me. It flipped its all of its contents close to my face and shut with a loud thud.

“You can open your eyes now”, said Bry with his mouth close to my ears. I opened my eyes. “Did you see everything?” his eyes were soft, face close to me.

I flushed a light pink, “Yeah, I think I got them all. I just have to practice them, right?” I shifted my face away from his. He laughed a little with a teasing face. “Can you please not do that? You will shorten my lifespan by half”, I protested.

“I will keep that in mind”, he stood up and stretched his limbs. “Now, let’s try what you’ve learned from the book. Keep in mind the shape that you saw”, he readied himself.

I focused and formed the shape in my mind. I started breathing softly. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“You see that tree over there? I want you to imagine the shape escaping from your fingers while focusing on the tree”, Bry instructed in a commanding voice.

I nodded and tried to concentrate. I eyed the tree and pointed towards it with my right hand. The tree shattered into bits and pieces of triangles. I stood there for a solid second processing what happened. “That was good!” Bry appraised me, “Now, I will teach you enchantment.” He produced a few twigs from his cloak. “I want you to make one twig produce fire continuously. Think of what you want the twig to do.”

I held the twig on one hand and did as I was told. I shouted the words that came from my mind, “Ignis Logi!” The words engraved on the twig and started burning on its own.

“You learn so quickly, I’m impressed”, he appraised me again, this time I blushed a little brighter. “Next is fortification”, he constructed a framework of a house out of the twigs with a single flick of hand. “Let’s recap first before doing that. In the first lesson, I taught you how to form and target your magic. In the next, enchantment”, he paused scrambling his mind for explanation, “Enchantment is different from fortification. Enchantment lets you embed attributes to an object while fortification lets you strengthen it. Do you still follow?”

“Of course”, I smiled.

“Well, um…” I saw him blush a little pink looking away. He managed to compose himself, “Focus on this framework. Fortification depends upon the purpose. For example, I want you to think of fortifying this house to protect it from being blown away”, he produced a small gust of wind using his hands to the structure in effect, only to be reconstructed again.

“Okay.” I thought about the framework for a moment and words came to mind, “Clade Refigo.” The words affixed to the framework.

“Let’s try it”, Bry raised his hand and did the same thing again. This time, the framework stood firmly. “Well, I guess that’s it for tonight.” In one quick sweep motion, the twigs disappeared. We walked back to the inn to prepare dinner.

I grabbed the meat from the table and proceeded to deep fry it. After it cooked, I sliced it into even portions. We went to the table and sat with Tyke and Aina who were waiting for the food. “Finally, I am so famished! Your cooking is always so good, Jo. What’s the secret?” Tyke motioned to his stomach.

“I won’t tell you because it’s a secret!” I replied.

“Oh come on Jo, spill the beans. Aina might learn from your cooking”, he winked at Aina.

Aina’s nerves twitched, “Oh, so you’re saying that my cooking is bad?” she stomped Tyke’s foot that made him jump from his seat.

“Ow!” he shrugged it off and ignored her.

“So Jo, how was ‘training’ today?”Aina emphasized training with a slow note.

“Nothing out of ordinary, we just went outside the village to practice magic”, I made it sound boring to kill her enthusiasm.

“You two were alone? Nice, man”, Tyke directed at Bry.

“Like she said, we only practiced magic. Would you mind cleaning your head first before coming to the table? It’s gotten a lot mossy”, Bry answered in a sarcastic tone.

“Watcha say man? Wanna beef it off with me?” Tyke taunted.

“Hey boys, don’t ruin the food. I won’t make you dinner anymore if you waste it”, I threatened and it worked. They both winced and resumed eating.

We called it a night.

The next morning, everyone was gathered at the table. “We will be leaving tomorrow for Tregelheim”, Tyke told us, “This will be the last day of training and first thing tomorrow we will go there.” We were dismissed.

I went to train my powers only this time, I was with Aina. “Wanna see what I can do Jo?”She sounded proud, “I will let you sneak a peek at my training, I have been working on my new moves.”

“I thought you were a spirit invoker and not Tyke”, I reminded her.

“Well, obviously. And stop talking about him, it makes me loose focus”, she fretted.

“Oh come on Aina, it’s just us”, I looked around making sure, “And besides, you said there was nothing between you and him (although it’s obvious)”, I said, omitting what I think.

“I don’t know, Jo. I feel light-headed when I’m around him. That’s why I’d rather take Bry with me instead. Wanna trade?” she eyed me menacingly.

“I don’t mind. I think it would be fine to be alone with Tyke in the woods. A fine specimen of a man like that might want to train with me”, I said temptingly.

She blasted and lost the exchange, “Go ahead and try Jo, I wouldn’t mind either”, her tone was high as the birds above us. “He isn’t worth it anyway, like I care.”

“Okay, whatever you say”, I dismissed her. She shrugged it off and started.

“Ready?” she focused on her tree target. She murmured some words and clusters of earth formed around her hands. She lunged and punched her target. The tree exploded into nothing, it was a clean kill.

My eyes bulged. Oh, my. What terrible power, I thought. “What was that, Aina? I don’t see a trace of the explosion”, I awed at her prowess.

“You ain’t seen anything yet!” she rushed to another tree. This time, her other hand had some thunder revolving around it. When she punched the tree, it went flying with a gigantic whirl in seconds.

She gestured to me, “Wanna try something cooler?” she took my hand and focused on my eyes. I felt so light like my own soul is lifting me up from the ground. Wind sprites started carrying me up in the clouds. They set me down at an exhilarating speed. I was gently put down and felt that my soul left me.

“Wasn’t that fun? Wanna go again?” she thrilled at my reaction.

I was infuriated. The book whispered a spell to me, Parvus Langer. I screamed the words and turned Aina into a small person, a size of a Lutin.

“Hey, what did you do to me? Turn me back please, Jo. I’m begging you”, she looked terrified and confused, “I’m sorry! I promise I won’t do it again.”

I was shocked at what happened. I didn’t know what to do. “I think it’s time to go back now”, I beckoned her to my hand. “I don’t know how to undo it. Maybe Bry can help.” I hurried back with Aina hidden in my cloak.

Good thing Bry was back from his training. “Bry I need your help! It’s Aina. I don’t know what to do”, I cried in fear.

“Where is she?” he asked and I showed Aina from my hand, “Oh, this I can fix but first, what did she do?”

I told him what happened. I heard Tyke muffling a few laughs. “Good thing this wasn’t a curse”, Bry sighed, “If it was, then there won’t be any cure.” He focused on Aina for awhile and murmured a set of spells. Aina was back to normal, dizzy as she returned to her form.

There was ‘thanks’ and we ate dinner.

We prepared ourselves for tomorrow.