Chapter 27. Of Training and Waiting

  [Lorelei]

  The next day, the Mentor truly did summon all combat-ready Fortemins for a practical session, during which Calypso quickly selected about thirty warriors of balance who, in his opinion, could have their dark side awakened through shadow magic and certain training rituals.

  Among them, by the way, were the di Vern-Rodinger brothers, Grey, Patricia with Polly, and — to my surprise — Mia. Yes, our fifth group turned out to be a treasure trove of mages with dormant affinity for shadow magic. Well, except for Iranor and Kes, who was quite unhappy about this fact.

  Some might say that thirty people out of a couple hundred mages is pathetically few — practically nothing. But actually, it was even a lot, considering that each experienced Fortemin could match ten or even several dozen Inquisitors in power. Or even hundreds — when talking about the ten strongest Arma. And if you equipped such powerful mages with additional shadow abilities?.. Such a unit could actually stand a chance against Effu and his minions.

  Ooh, I got goosebumps just thinking about the scale of the work ahead.

  The Mentor himself said he’d expected to find no more than five Fortemins with affinity for shadow magic, and here there were thirty! How exciting!

  “Wonderful! Just wonderful that there are so many of you,” Ilforte said, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction, his eyes literally glowing with excitement and anticipation.

  Yeah, things sure change quickly sometimes, don’t they? Just a few weeks ago the Mentor had forbidden Calypso from any experiments with shadow magic — back then actually teaching shadow magic was out of the question. And now he was genuinely happy about the large number of Fortemins selected for this new training group. Life is so unpredictable sometimes…

  The afternoon training session ended, and Calypso, Eric, and I stayed behind in the hall to discuss future plans. Eric, by the way, was found to have not a single thread of dark magic that could be connected to shadow magic — as Calypso put it. That is, while Calypso could see at least some thread in other Fortemins — useless for development, but still visible — about Eric he stated categorically that there wasn’t the slightest hint of dark magic, not a single dark speck.

  He said it instantly; examining Eric took him no more than a second, since his aura made everything immediately clear. Yeahhh, my older brother was a rare example of an absolutely white mage — such people are very uncommon. In our family we jokingly called him “bleached.”

  “Listen, can Moris’s abilities be developed further somehow?” Ilforte asked.

  “He’s already familiar with shadow magic since he’s partially shadow-natured himself, but his magic is different in itself, as I understand…”

  “Yes, different,” Calypso nodded.

  “His magic in its structure is close to a familiar’s shadow magic, which is still a different matter. But I think his energy can also be enhanced and transformed if I study the structure of Moris’s magical Spark properly. But that will require lengthy training. And for now you asked me to focus on other adepts, right? I can’t work with everyone at once awakening the shadow aspect in a mage takes a lot of time and a purely individual approach. Priorities need to be set. And my priority right now is Lori I’m waiting for the right day in the lunar cycle to perform the necessary ritual for releasing dark power with her, Lori is already ready for it and other Fortemins who need a push to develop their shadow aspects.”

  Calypso spoke in a calm, steady voice, but his slightly vibrating aura gave him away — he wasn’t controlling it well right now. And he wasn’t controlling it because he was actually extremely excited and happy at the same time — honestly, he was practically bursting with excitement and happiness! I could sense Calypso well by now, knew him pretty well already. And I understood that everything happening was very important and necessary for him. A kind of sudden happiness that had fallen into his lap, which he still seemed unable to believe.

  “Moris can wait. Right?”

  “Yes, of course, Moris can wait, focus on the others for now,” Ilforte waved his hand in agreement.

  “And this ritual for releasing dark power. Can it be performed on all our willing colleagues, so to speak?”

  “Absolutely not,” Calypso said categorically.

  “It could be fatally dangerous. Some preparation is needed in terms of stabilizing internal energy. It has to be assessed individually. I’ll perform this ritual with Lori next week. There are certain complications with her, which is why I’m double-checking everything ten times over and want to wait for the full moon to choose the ideal time energy-wise. Then I can work with other Fortemins if anyone needs such a ritual performed. Not everyone needs it for some, the key to their magic might lie elsewhere. The di Vern-Rodingers, for example, will most likely manifest shadow magic differently. But that can only be understood through individual assessment. It will be very difficult to advance everyone at once, look how long I’ve been working with Lori alone… Yes, hers is an especially complex case, but I don’t yet know if it will be easier with the others. We’ll have to see as we go. As it is, I’ll have to work with almost no sleep for now. But I still need sleep, since deep work with shadow magic requires lengthy recovery specifically through solid sleep.”

  “Is there any way to clone you?” Ilforte grumbled.

  “You know, to speed up the process somehow…”

  Calypso burst out laughing.

  “Well, try churning out some little brothers for me. Maybe I’ll get some helpers?” he said cheerfully.

  “Oh no, thank you,” Ilforte raised his hands in a scared gesture, as if to say ‘I surrender.’

  “One of you as a son is quite enough for me, I think.”

  “What about a daughter?” Eric asked slyly. He had been quiet all this time, just listening attentively to the conversation.

  “I wouldn’t say no to a daughter,” Ilforte sighed with a dreamy smile.

  “I’d name her something like, hmm, Alice, maybe… But no, I’ve had enough children, I think. So I’ll pass, not in this lifetime.”

  “Never say never,” Eric said thoughtfully.

  Ilforte gave him a suspicious look but said nothing.

  And I noticed that my brother’s gaze had momentarily glazed over, the way it always did when he received some prophetic vision of the future.

  Calypso noticed it too and gave an approving chuckle:

  “Feel free to whip up a little sister as a helper, I won’t mind.”

  “Well, thanks for the permission,” Ilforte snorted indignantly.

  “But I think I’ll, um… Pass.”

  Calypso laughed again, and Alohar laughed along with him in his cawing voice — the raven was still hovering somewhere near Calypso everywhere he went.

  As he explained, this was necessary while they were establishing their energy bond. The raven shamelessly took advantage of this and loved to interfere at the most inopportune moments, purely out of spite. But after Calypso had recently plucked the raven’s feathers when he appeared with a snide “And what are you two doing here?” during our private time in the bedroom, Alohar had calmed down and was trying his best to act like an obedient familiar. This was a temporary lapse in sanity brought on by Calypso’s burst of anger, as I understood it.

  ***

  My evening training today was with Eric, because Calypso was busy working with other Fortemins at that time, and I didn’t want to disturb him. Besides, Eric happened to have some free time to keep me company.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  My brother, unlike our father, never tortured me during training sessions — he always acted gently, carefully. He said he couldn’t bring himself to run me ragged on the training ground, since there were plenty of others who did that to me daily. I laughed in response and continued practicing strikes according to the pattern Calypso had shown me earlier.

  Then Eric said goodbye and rushed off home, and while waiting for Calypso, I stood on the balcony overlooking the academy’s inner courtyard, watching from a distance as Ilforte worked with the little ones.

  Well, ‘worked’ isn’t quite right… More like fussed with them and tried to peel them off himself, because he was sitting on the grass in the middle of the lawn near the fountain, and the children had swarmed all over him and were practically trying to climb onto his neck.

  The kids were all little — three boys and two girls, about three years old at most. They couldn’t sit still from excitement and kept jumping up and running around Ilforte, who was turning the lesson into a game, teaching them to control energy pulsars and generally giving them the crucial basics of controlling their magic.

  Because the kids were little, but the magical Spark in them was already burning like a bright torch, and they needed to learn to control their power from an early age. Just to survive to the age when they could consciously and fully manage this magic. Because at a very young age, Fortemins had a high chance of accidentally killing themselves with a random burst of magic. That’s why it was so important to raise Fortemins almost from birth primarily in Armarillis: to protect others from explosive children, and to protect the children from themselves.

  Ilforte always knew how to connect with any child — he clearly had a natural gift for it. He could explain the nuances of magic to anyone, calm and settle anyone down. Take that dark-haired boy, for instance, who was climbing on the Mentor more than anyone else: he suddenly burst into purple flames right before our eyes — scaring himself and nearly setting the others on fire.

  Ilforte quickly calmed the child, reminded him of the extremely important breathing exercises, which they did together right there. The purple flames quickly subsided, the boy calmed down, and in his joy he threw himself at the Mentor’s neck with such force that he actually knocked him onto the grass.

  The other children, squealing happily “yay, pile-on!!” also threw themselves on Ilforte. He tried to kick and pull them off one by one at first, but then resignedly lay back on the grass, put his hands behind his head, and continued lecturing just like that, lying down and letting them crawl over him like a mattress.

  I smiled, watching this sweet scene. I hadn’t spent my whole childhood in Armarillis, but I vaguely remembered similar episodes on this same lawn from my own childhood, and I had always felt great warmth toward the Mentor. All the academy’s students saw him as a close relative, at the very least like a shared uncle for everyone.

  “When I was a kid, I was insanely jealous of my father with other children,” I heard Calypso’s voice behind me.

  I turned around. Calypso came to stand beside me, also leaned against the railing, and watched with a smile as the children fussed around the Mentor.

  “For many Fortemins, he’s like a second father. And for those who have no parents he’s like the first and only one. The kids love him… Well, you can see that yourself, and you know it from your own experience. Some more than others… Some children with complete adoration,” Calypso chuckled.

  “And they climb all over the Mentor, demanding extra attention… And many have the same attitude toward my mother, since she spends most of her time with young children, that’s her primary focus. She’s strict but kind and loving, she’ll hug everyone, comfort everyone, find the right words of support for everyone… Ooh, how jealous I was about this when I was little!”

  “And how did you overcome this jealousy?” I asked with a smile.

  “I don’t think I’ve fully overcome it yet,” Calypso smirked, his eyes sparkling with laughter.

  “Even now, watching these boys, I want to go down there and say something like 'hey kid, mind your place!' Oh, and definitely address the Mentor by calling him Father, so everyone around immediately understands that I’m the most important one here, step aside!..”

  “That need to be daddy’s number one is going strong,” I laughed.

  “A stupid feeling, I know,” Calypso smiled.

  “My parents always told me condescendingly that it would pass with age. Apparently I haven’t reached the age when it passes yet,” Calypso sighed with exaggerated drama.

  “I know my parents love me and all that. But that need for recognition still nags at me.”

  “But surely this feeling has calmed down after the Mentor made all combat-ready Fortemins listen to your lecture and dance to your tune during the practical assessment of their shadow aspect, right?” I squinted slyly, watching Calypso’s expression closely.

  The mocking smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a serious, thoughtful expression. Calypso bit his lower lip, continuing to watch the Mentor with the little ones, and nodded slowly:

  “Yes… True. It’s calmed down significantly.”

  ***

  A couple of days later, the Mentor interrupted our morning training with Calypso — he’d come to talk with us in a calm setting and tell us about the upcoming plans. He spoke about how tomorrow all combat-ready Fortemins of Armarillis would be spread out across the city under cover, and today all participants in the planned operation would be busy with large-scale preparations.

  “According to our projections, they should attempt to open the fourth pentagram tomorrow, in the Derivyar district,” Ilforte explained.

  “We must not allow it to be opened under any circumstances. If we succeed, we’ll stop the attempt to break the Seal of Creation, because according to our specialists’ projections, tomorrow is the last day when the fourth active seal can be activated.”

  “I take it you’ve come to tell us that Lorelei and I won’t be participating in this fun little party?” Calypso clarified in a skeptical tone.

  “Yes,” Ilforte replied grimly, looking very seriously at his son.

  “All combat-ready Fortemins will go with me; every person could be crucial. I’m taking Dayon and Delson too, so only a few adepts you’re currently working with will remain at the academy. And Sirinity will stay with all the children, of course she’s strictly forbidden from leaving Armarillis, as you know.”

  Calypso nodded with understanding.

  And I sighed heavily, as I also knew that Lady Sirinity Brandt didn’t stay within Armarillis’s walls without good reason: as the Guardian of the Mentor of Armarillis Academy himself, she had been hunted her entire life. Dark forces had many who wanted to kill Sirinity and thereby weaken the Mentor — undermine him both emotionally and strip him of a good half of his magical power.

  Sirinity was a magnificent Guardian to Ilforte, who could masterfully channel magic to her Fighter even across enormous distances, even from another world, and send him mental directives. I could only dream of reaching her level of interaction with her combat partner…

  In short, Sirinity left the academy only a few times a year — you could count them on one hand. And only in the strict company of her husband, with whom they could visit friends, whose homes were specially protected against any dark influence.

  The rest of the time, Mrs. Brandt spent in Armarillis, devoting most of her time to working with children. Sometimes she even cared for infants — when awakened Fortemin magic was sensed in a newborn whose mother had died in childbirth or given up the child after birth — such things happened, and Sirinity took care of these children. She never complained about being in Armarillis as if in a kind of “gilded cage,” no. Mrs. Brandt always understood this necessity and said that she would never grow bored of Armarillis, and she had too much to do to leave time for boredom.

  I knew that long ago, enemy forces had managed to harm Sirinity so badly that Ilforte thought he had lost his beloved forever.

  Fortunately, fate ultimately proved kind to him and gave him the chance to reunite with his Guardian, but ever since, Ilforte had a particular fixation on the safety of those closest to him. Sirinity especially.

  He didn’t keep Calypso in a “cage,” of course (and just try to keep someone like him in that cage, even if you wanted to!), but I understood perfectly well where all that worry in the Mentor’s voice and eyes came from.

  “Calypso, I’m asking you nicely: stay in Armarillis with Lorelei. Don’t put yourself or her at unjustified risk, don’t follow after us. I understand your desire to rush into battle faster and higher than everyone else, and I’m not trying to diminish your achievements, but I’m simply asking you to stay away from the Derivyar district tomorrow, and better yet, don’t appear in the city itself or in the designated pentagram zone. Who knows what dark nasty might come crawling out of there… I want to protect you.”

  “Okay,” Calypso replied with unexpected compliance.

  Ilforte’s eyebrows immediately shot up.

  “Uh… And that’s it?”

  “That’s it,” Calypso nodded briefly.

  Ilforte kept staring at his son, baffled, even tilting his head to the side amusingly, looking at Calypso like some unknown creature. What can I say — I myself looked at the calm Calypso with surprise, having expected at least a bout of lengthy grumbling from him.

  “Okay? Just ‘okay’?” Ilforte asked doubtfully.

  “No screaming, no ranting about how I’m forcibly locking you up and not letting you express yourself?”

  “You’re more than letting me express myself by giving me the green light and essentially ordering me to train thirty Fortemins in the nuances of shadow magic, putting them almost entirely under my supervision,” Calypso shrugged.

  “I have plenty to do for the coming weeks and months at least, and I won’t feel deprived in any way. So don’t worry, Father, I won’t go to the planned pentagram zone. There’s nothing for me to do there. Well, actually there is,” Calypso smirked.

  “But I’ll find things to do in Armarillis. Not all the Fortemins are going with you. I'll work with the ones staying behind. And good luck to you tomorrow. I hope everything goes as planned.”

  Ilforte chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

  “You’re such a weirdo,” he said with feeling.

  “Other Fortemins would use an almost empty Armarillis to slack off from training and just do something for fun while all the seniors are away, but you’re planning not only to load yourself with work, but also to make others around you suffer!.. You’re so cruel.”

  “I am planning to do ‘something for fun’,” Calypso smiled.

  “It just so happens that my idea of fun corresponds to work. And it won’t hurt the others to push themselves for a good cause, for their own sake. These aren’t times to relax for long.”

  “A true tyrant in the flesh. Just like me,” Ilforte said with a dreamy sigh, waved at us, and hurried to leave the training hall.