The Divine Gambit Ch. 08

"Perhaps I am wrong, and there was something else in her mind. The animals are troublesome to predict at the best of times."

I was so displeased with his response that Zoey likely hated my guts for something that I wasn't that I completely missed just how dark Sam's emotions had grown. Lost in my own thoughts, I failed to notice how alone and abandoned she felt. I was considering asking why Zoey hadn't been compelled to me when we were younger, but I had such angst from his previous answer that I didn't bother.

Antonin led us down several hallways and through what appeared like a storage room beyond full with perilously stacked surplus desks and chairs. Meandering through the inside of the building, he eventually opened the door to a stone stairwell. Not cement or concrete. Stone.

As we began descending, the air in the stairwell became oppressive. I was struck by the feeling that I was intruding on a place that had long since been left undisturbed and that I would soon find retribution for my unwelcome presence. Sam shivered, though the temperature remained warm, and her clammy fingers dug desperately into my hands.

We plunged into the earth beneath the courthouse, monotonously dredging through the burdensome atmosphere. Antonin spoke up, informing us, "Do your utmost to persevere. The stone is imbued with lattices that absorb magical energy to protect the foundation and mask our actions here."

It didn't make me feel any more capable. I felt the strength sapped from my bones, my legs sluggishly dragging on the stairs with each step I made. Sam was no better, and much of her weight was supported by my body as she now leaned against me. I was reminded of walking a drunk friend home after a night out, fighting their uncontrolled gyrations to keep both of us standing.

An eternity passed before the stairs leveled off, and we trailed a rough-hewn pathway in natural stone. It was either well-utilized or ancient, as the floor was weathered and warped by countless footfalls over the ages. The taxing pressure lifted as we moved away from the stairwell. Sam coughed hard and stumbled, gripping my arm with both hands to remain upright. She offered a slight smile of gratitude once she had regained her footing.

Antonin entered a cavernous chamber, paced the length of an Olympic pool to reach the center, and raised his staff. He tapped the ground three times, and a line of illumination spread, encircling the alcove a yard below the wall sloped into the ceiling. With a satisfied look on his face, he beckoned Sam and me further into the room. As I moved to the center, the relentless force diminished entirely from my perceptions.

"Today, drakeling, you will learn to use some of your boundless potential." As Antonin addressed us, he gestured with his free hand, and a baseball-sized pit of flame erupted into existence. He paused briefly, allowing me to observe the phenomenon before a localized rain cloud appeared above it. The fireball shrunk and disappeared as the rain fell onto his hand. When the fire was completely extinguished, the cloud barraged us with noise, and several streaks of lightning jumped between his hand and the misty conjuration. Antonin waved his hand through the cloud, and it dissipated into the air, concluding his presentation.

"Today, you will learn the basics of evocation. I have brought you to the bowels of the earth to prevent calamities of your learning struggles from spreading beyond our control. The stonework here is inlaid with stabilizing absorption enchantments, and excess energy impacting them will be consumed and repurposed, allowing you to practice elemental fervors. The usage of such destructive magics is held in contempt by many and pursued by few in modern times but will be an area where you excel. First, you must learn the basic symbols for certain elements, and then you will imbue them internally with intent and force them to your will by your mind alone."

Antonin continued lecturing, and he traced several pictographs with his staff into the stone that remained glowing in the gloomy stone chasm. He instructed Sam and me on the phrases for fire, lightning, water, ice, force, and earth. With each word, he provided a prompt and then several iterations of guiding refinement until I could produce the effect he wanted.

An hour passed under his tutelage, and I had a loaf-of-bread-sized cloud producing a wet, snowy mixture falling to the ground through a hula hoop of fire. I felt accomplished in my understanding of the basics, but I felt guilty at how easy it came for me. Sam only managed to produce several candlewick-sized flames and sparks of electricity that bounced between her fingers over the hour. After each attempt, she needed several minutes of rest, open-mouthed panting from the exertion, before being able to try again.

Satisfied with my progression, Antonin moved away from the grotto's center and summoned a glowing floating orb. He instructed me to launch a burst of fire to tag the globe. I must have internally misconstrued the request because instead of a minor fireball leaping from my hand to strike the target, I released a flaming lasso that connected my fingertip to the sphere. Changing my internal instructions, I sent a flaming arrow from my fingertips that struck true and engulfed the objective, signaling my success. Several attempts later with each of the words he had taught us, and I was hitting multiple targets from across the entire length of the amphitheater with different elements based on what instructions Antonin shouted.

I was saddened by Sam's lack of inclusion, and when Antonin graciously allowed me a break, I asked her why she hadn't been participating.

"J, I can barely get my fingernail to light up with the fire I can produce. How could I possibly get it to one of those targets?" She spoke assertively, but I could smell her confidence was only skin deep. Again, she was embarrassed by her lack of magical aptitude, presumably thinking she was letting me down since she couldn't assist.

I found Sam's essence near my mind, and I nudged her with the gentlest care and the intention to brush her with the force of an eyelash. She gasped and jumped in front of me.

"I've been open to you the entire time. Help me, please?"

She admonished me, trying to remain in control of the situation, but I could tell that the experience of being tapped magically had her terrified yet enamored. "James! That was dangerous. You could've killed me."

"I promised I'd never hurt you."

Even in the dimly lit room, I could see color forming in her face. "Just let me take it from you for the foreseeable future. No more pushing."

I nodded, accepting her wishes. I felt her reach out to me through the ether, a peasant beseeching their lord for aid. When I opened the gate to my castle to allow her entry, she whimpered and bit her lip. A deep breath later, she had taken a grain of sand from my beach.

I watched intently as I felt Sam begin trying to mimic the instructions Antonin had given me. She started with fire, and a pencil-thick stream of fire flowed from her finger for several yards. Sam was initially elated and overjoyed, but then rapidly panicked. She waved her hand back and forth before shaking it violently, dragging the torrent of heat along the stone floor in her alarm.

I withdrew my connection to her, closing my mental gate and severing the energy flow, and the fire sputtered and died. Fear was plainly written on Sam's face before she hid it from my view by burying it against my chest in a desperate hug.

"It didn't turn off. I just wanted it for a second, but it just kept going."

Oh. I thought I understood what had happened. Sam had never before had enough energy reserves to sustain something as wasteful as practice evocation. When she used her crystals, it was in some kind of predetermined ritual, efficient and routine. When Sam had tried evocation in the past, she had gotten a flame to flicker for a few seconds and no more. She had never mentally learned to stem the discharge of energy into the continuous spell because she had inevitably emptied herself in a mere moment. She never needed to send a stop command as she was discharging herself entirely with every attempt. Given a functionally unlimited well to draw from, she had grown hysterical when it didn't simply end like she had trained herself to expect. What a mess.

I held her for a few moments, allowing the fear to recede, before asking, "Can you try again? The same thing is going to happen, but we know it now. I'll talk you through ending it."

She didn't answer for several moments before slowly pulling her head away from me. She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes and ignored my question. "You must think I'm such a worthless little girl."

I kept her firmly in my arms while I answered, "I think you freaked out when something you didn't expect happened, and it seemed like it was out of your control. I think you're my friend, and I wouldn't encourage you to try again if I thought you were a worthless little girl. I told you I wouldn't hurt you. Can you try again, and I'll guide you through shutting off the fire after you've started it?"

Some part of my spontaneous encouragement had backfired. She hadn't received my comments as motivation and had somehow convinced herself that there was a rejection in my words. Still, she was no longer quivering with tempestuous adrenaline and was now determined and ready to give fire another attempt. She settled herself mentally, stepped away from me, and I felt the cautious request for energy. Lifting the gate once more, Sam reached in and retrieved a jar full of air from the sky of my courtyard.

She continued as she had before, mentally constructing a gout of flame that sprung forth from her finger. It sputtered and erratically jumped, scorching the stones again before she dominated and forced it to settle into a thin line in the air. Now in control, she turned her head to me and awaited instructions.

I repeated the instructions Antonin had given me earlier, thinking of my magical energy like a tap over a sink: turning the handle to close the valve would cut the flow off, and the spell would wither and end.

Sam focused for several moments before gasping and shouting that the flow was too strong in her mind, and it was overpowering her attempts to turn the handle with only her mind.

I could've simply cut the power on my end, but I wanted her to have some agency in our training relationship. I wanted her to feel in control and able to end the magic flow on her own. I thought for a moment as a few specks of agitation began seeping out of her emotions.

I devised another analogy that I hoped would make it easier for her. I think I grasped what the problem might have been. She was used to her own diminutive power bandwidth and was turning her mental tap for something that size. The flow through our cooperation was overpowering the faucet, and the pressure was forcing it open. I needed a way to convince her that she was capable of closing it. Given that Antonin was simply observing us and hadn't yet stepped in to assist, I assumed that she would be able to if given the correct guidance.

"Sam, instead of trying to turn the tap off, let's forget the flowing water in a pipe concept. The energy I have stored, it's too much to move through a simple pipe. It's an entire lake, not a household water heater's amount. It's enough for an entire city. Try imagining a dam."

Sam shivered at the thought, and I hastily continued, "Don't try to hold it all back like the dam's walls. You're not the dam here; I am the dam. I'm holding the enormous accumulation of water back. You're one of the dam operators. A small amount of water is flowing through the spillway right now, enough to generate the electricity you're using to control the spell. It's a very safe and predictable amount. But you don't need it anymore. I need you to think about closing the gate for the spillway. It isn't hard for you; All you need to do is press the button on the control panel. The gate will close slowly and cut off the water, leaving me to hold it all back."

Sam bit her lip, and then I felt her try to follow the analogy. I felt the connection slowly begin to close from her side, and the line of fire from her fingertip gradually faded in intensity and shrunk in length. The process took nearly a minute, but she procedurally closed the current. The flames faltered and then died completely.

Sam paused and stared at her hand, and when she was convinced the spell was indeed concluded, she cackled in glee and leaped up to hug me. She wrapped her legs around my waist and gibbered in incoherent joy as I held her body against mine. I was reminded of my experience with Zoey, which flavored my reaction. Instead of giving in wholly to the moment, I held myself firm where I was. I allowed Sam to express herself but didn't encourage or reciprocate.

"James, that was great! Can we try it again, with other stuff?"

I accepted her request, happy to finally involve Sam in our lesson. Antonin backtracked several steps and had me repeating things I had already done, but I didn't care. I was including Sam now, and she was blissfully happy to be conjuring elemental arrows and lances to strike targets. She was summoning little rain clouds that she instructed to smile or frown based on whether or not she impacted the targets. It was a glorious cooperative experience, and I could feel just how enjoyable Sam found it. She was deliriously overjoyed at such frivolous energy usage, exceeding all of her wildest dreams with the power she mastered today.

At a natural breakpoint near the end of the second hour, Antonin tapped his staff again. Hundreds of little targets appeared; they were now moving, some lazily and gracefully with others erratically and volatilely. I noticed that, for the first time, he had colored them.

"I would like to see you, drakeling, hit all of the targets in the next ten minutes. They will only count if you connect with the associated element: red for fire, white for ice, blue for water, brown for earth, yellow for electricity, black for force." He pointed at the ground, and I saw a circle drawn at the center of the room. "You will remain inside that area. Since she will be utilizing your reserves, Samantha may assist you. This will be our final practical exercise for the day, so do not feel the need to contain yourself."

I looked at Sam and felt her bravely nod. I was surprised when she collected two petals from the flowers of my castle garden, an amount much more voluminous than she had retrieved before. It would still have been imperceptible if I hadn't been watching for it. With her hand in mine, we walked to the center of the designated area. I asked her to target the red ones first, while I would start with the blue.

When we reached the area, a shimmering eight-segment display lit up on the far wall, clearly labeled '10:00'.

Antonin spoke, "Are you ready to begin, drakeling?" I nodded in response, and he bellowed out, "Commence!" The timer on the wall ticked to 09:59, and Sam launched a flaming arrow. It missed its target, impacting the ceiling in a flash of light. She offered no hesitation and immediately shot three more. I stopped gawking at my flame-haired sorceress companion and began spraying the blue orbs with precise water jets. A minute and thirty seconds passed, and I had concluded with the water targets. It turned out that they were the slowest and gentlest overall. Sam was halfway through the red spheres, determination clear on her face. She wasn't going to let me down.

I informed her that I was taking the force ones next. She had struggled with that type of energy output, but imagining my massive claws impacting a soft target was effortless to my dragon-infused mind. I mentally battered the soaring globes with a continuous rain of strikes, and they lost their luster and joined the many faded blues and dull reds in a neat pile on the ground. They moved more rapidly and unpredictably than any of the others, but I reasoned that they were actually the second easiest. My force implementation created pockets of pressure that originated precisely where I wanted it to. In contrast, the fire, water, ice, and electricity were akin to throwing stones or shooting a gun. It was easier to aim with force, and it had some inherent area coverage the other types lacked. Slapping something with a metaphorical hand was much easier than spraying it with a hose from ten yards away.

Sam had just about concluded with the fire when I finished with force. I told her to try ice, and I would take earth. I initially conjured up dirt arrows and tried to target individual orbs as they gracefully arced around the room. An unproductive minute passed where I only struck a handful of the balls, and I decided that I needed to switch tactics. Rather than conjuring up arrows to precisely strike at the targets, which I was proving I wasn't competent at, I created an earthen shotgun. Launching hundreds of miniature earthen marbles in my best buckshot imitation, I rapidly improved my rate of target elimination.

Sam took another two petals from my garden and imitated my change in approach with ice. Rather than spears of projected ice shards, she began using a continuous stream of hail pellets and dragged it over her target and onto the next without relenting. We concluded with earth and ice, and the timer showed four minutes remaining. The little yellow orbs were the second most whimsical of the original bunch, their rapid changes in direction bordering on violent.

I turned to Sam as she began charging her first electrical current and said, "Let me try something." She contained the little differential she had gathered and watched me.

I reached into the ether and identified every one of the orbs flying around the hall for the next 30 seconds. My mind found the task complex as I sectioned away a small portion for each orb, a compartment for every target I had identified. I took a deep breath and pulled energy from my reserves while raising my hands. I let the electricity build, and I saw Sam's hair start to rise as the current manipulated it. I checked and then double-checked that although our connection used a similar style of mental compartment as the targets, she wasn't being identified as an objective.

When I was confident she would remain safe, I released the cataclysm of destruction I had built. White hot arcs of electricity leaped from my fingertips, striking out dozens of targets simultaneously. From those orbs, the electricity continued, creating a web of connections that filled the entire room with painfully bright lines darting and enveloping every sphere. The sounds of the arcs bouncing from my hands to all the targets were deafening.

The minute of preparation created action that lasted only a few moments, but all of the lightning orbs had been tagged by their respective element. I pruned the energy growth into the spell, and the flickering bolts fell out of reality. All the targets had been touched now, and the timer still read 02:21. We succeeded. I turned to Sam and gathered her up in another embrace. Whereas before, I had withdrawn out of cautious discomfort, now I was blithely seizing her in celebration. She only offered an airy, "Wow."

My jubilation was cut short when a man whose voice I didn't recognize came running into the room, screaming, "Stop! Stop! Stop! Whatever you're doing, stop! The energy network is overloaded!"

I continued holding Sam against my body, her pillowy thighs wrapping around my waist, and looked to where Antonin was. I saw he was moving to intervene with the newcomer but had observed our trial with another man. The second observer was a massive behemoth of a man, and I instinctively recognized that he wasn't a human. He smelled off, even from across the entire chamber, and his dark skin appeared rugged while his black hair was thick, dense, and coarse. He waited silently for Antonin to deal with the interruption, evaluating Sam and me with his experienced gaze.