"Oh all right then, Grimm, I'll have a go at it, but only 'cause you asked," Madar grumbled. "I just hate Kargan's idea of having to go around in my free time, caterwauling like a reject from the Royal Academy of Useless Bards."
On the other hand, Argand's voice improved by a considerable amount, although the finer nuances of the most difficult chants were still as a closed book to him. Due to his considerable artistic and calligraphic talents, he was given extra tuition in Scribing, and his vocation appeared settled. Argand was the first of Grimm's year to be declared a Neophyte, much to everybody's surprise.
Grimm was now given individual training in the summoning and holding of power, although still without any direct application to spellcasting. This gave him great satisfaction; not least for the fact that the tutoring sessions took him away from the class increasingly often. He had been placed under the personal tuition of Magemaster Crohn, who trusted him to study as he was bidden when the Senior Magemaster was absent. Madar, having gained at last full control of his new voice, was placed under Magemaster Kargan. The boys enjoyed the arrangement, because they only met the Magemasters for a few minutes a day to be assigned study topics and to receive work assessments. The new class Magemaster was the taciturn and sarcastic Magemaster Faffel, so Grimm was heartily glad that he and Madar only had to join the rest of the class for Herbalism, music, dancing and the other non-magical activities.
Chapter 21: Neophyte
Crohn placed a feather on the table in front of Grimm. The Magemaster and his pupil were sitting on uncomfortable, tall stools in a bleak, unheated room in a deserted part of the Scholasticate. It was a cold winter day, and Grimm wished he were almost anywhere else.
"Make the chant of Levity for light objects in the third instance," Crohn commanded. With the ease born of endless practice, Grimm produced the necessary singsong chant. Nothing happened.
"You see," Crohn said, "the chant does not speak to the feather. To what should it speak?"
"To my mind," Grimm replied, suppressing the urge to sneeze. "The chant is not the spell, but a device to pattern my mind and my power to achieve the desired effect."
"That is correct, as far as your answer goes," Crohn said. "The textbook answer, if a little glib. Nonetheless, however suitable rote learning may be as an aid to memory, it is no substitute for true understanding. Let us see what more you can deduce. You have already learnt to see another's power, and you know how it changes form when turned to true magic. You must learn to feel your own power so that you can allow the chant to shape it for the spell. It is not sufficient to control and gather your power as you have done before. The chant must be directed to the power, the power to the effect, and the effect to the object. Watch me, and pay attention to my aura."
Crohn made the chant as Grimm had done, and Grimm noticed how the lines of power in Crohn's aura waved and twisted in exact counterpoint to the spell as they coalesced to a vibrating mass. Then a thin stream of golden light, which would have been invisible outside the dim cubicle, wound towards the feather. With smooth grace, the feather rose off the table as the chant ended.
"Notice that I must divert only the smallest portion of my will towards the feather once the magic is cast," Crohn said. "Once floating, the feather wishes to remain where it is. To all extents, I can now ignore the feather. This is made easier because the feather has a natural desire to float; this spell, in the tertiary form, is designed to take advantage of this. The first form is, of course, for objects that do not bear the signature of buoyancy or levity. The second is for repulsion, and requires the constant application of force."
Grimm nodded. He had been told this on many previous occasions.
"Observe, Afelnor," said Crohn, "I now relinquish the spell."
Crohn's aura became neutral, and the feather fluttered back to the table. "Now, you try. Try to feel the spell patterning your mind as it did mine."
Grimm started the chant, which was clear in his mind. At the same time, he began to feel the twists and turns of the spell. Remembering what the Magemaster had done, he tried to will the speckles of his power first into lines and then to move in unison with the chant. On the first chant, nothing happened and his head spun a little. He tried again, looking inwards to the depths of his mind. He felt convinced that the feather must move, but it remained firmly table-bound. On the third repetition, he felt his mind split in two, one part focused on a future vision of the rising feather and the other drawing the power into ordered lines inside him.
With an internal hot rush, he felt the lines of power coalesce from the sparkling motes. A giddy sensation filled his head, and he tried to force the lines into the spell's pattern. He felt the power build and mass within his body, but it was too fast and too strong. Struggling to marshal the careering sensations within him, he began to lose control of the spelclass="underline" the feather rose two inches from the floor, trembled and fell back, although there was no breeze within the room.
Still, the chant echoed and rang in his head, growing louder and louder in his skull to an unbearable volume. In desperation, he aborted the chant, feeling nausea well up inside him. He leant, heaving, against the wall, his forehead beaded with cold sweat and bitter bile rising in his throat. He clutched his throbbing temples to try to quell the sensation.
"Excellent!" Crohn gushed with rare enthusiasm. "You have just had your first glimpse of real magic, Afelnor. You have also learnt that it is not good to abort a casting in midstream. Should you ever do this again, it is advisable to attempt the first instance of the spell of Nullity. This is, as you know, a short chant, but it is necessary to pattern your mind with it, as with any other spell."
"I found it hard to abandon the spell, Lord Mage," Grimm said. "It seemed to grow louder and more insistent in my head."
Crohn nodded. "That is what we call a 'spell resonance'. Your problem there was that you tried to use too much power, and your first instinct was to cut your power before you had closed off the spell. Remember; to cast a spell, one first gathers power and then commences the chant. In order to complete a spell, the caster must continue to apply power until the chant is finished.
"Resonance is most probable where the caster cannot control the power pouring from him; be on your guard for this, Afelnor. In extreme cases, a mage may become irretrievably caught inside a spell, sometimes with fatal results. You only needed to move a feather, not an albatross; such powers are still far beyond your capacity to control. Try again. This time, gather only a fraction of the power within yourself. See the effort required for the spell, and try to let the spell do the work. Once more, Neophyte."
Grimm stood upright, fighting nausea, and tried to repeat the spell with only a little power. This time, he felt his mind patterning to the chant and tried to direct a thin trickle of the patterned energy towards the feather. Just as he became convinced he was deluding himself, the power rushed from him in a torrent. The feather shot off the table and burst through the ceiling, sprinkling the Neophyte and his Magemaster with a shower of fine barbels ripped from the feather. Grimm blinked in amazement but managed to complete the chant before he cut off the energy stream. He then sneezed loudly, several times.
"Weapons training is not a normal part of a Neophyte's training, Afelnor," was Crohn's laconic comment. "You really need to work on the control of your power. You have considerable energy within you; indeed, a remarkable amount. You hold it in check quite well, but your control of the release of it leaves more than a little to be desired. However, I must congratulate you on your control of the spell, if not the energy."