Solène watched as he adopted a balanced stance, with his knees flexed, and did her best to mimic him. She felt awkward as she tried to move her body into the Maestro’s demonstrated position. No sooner had she managed the stance than he moved, taking three short steps forward, his feet ending up at the same angle as they had been at the beginning. No other part of him had moved and the tip of his sword had remained perfectly still. Solène’s three steps forward were each different and she had to adjust her posture at the end, her sword waving about wildly all the time. She had barely finished moving when Foulques took three steps back, ending up where he had started, his movements looking like his body and legs were entirely separate.
She copied him again, giving up on trying to keep her sword still and eyes dead ahead, watching her feet and where they ended up compared to where she wanted them to be.
“Eyes up!” Foulques said. “Footwork is important, but you can’t move your feet if you’re dead. Always watch your opponent, or where he would be if you had one.”
Solène started to nod—“Yes, Maestro.”
“Ten times, back and forward,” he said. “Slow. Precise. Train the movement into your body.”
Solène started the set, feeling her already tired legs start to protest. Her arm and hand were also beginning to feel the strain of the unfamiliar position and weight. Now she was glad he had given her the light sword. She hadn’t even swung the thing yet and already felt like it would pull her arm off. By the time she was halfway through the repetitions, beads of perspiration coated her forehead and her thighs burned. Swordplay, when she had seen it, looked fast and exciting, but this was tedious and slow and she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. The moment she finished, she straightened up and lowered the sword; the release of tension in her shoulder was such a relief that she let out a sigh.
Foulques watched her with his arms akimbo. “Not too bad,” he said. “You have natural athleticism, which gives you a head start, but you’ve let it lie fallow up until today, which means there is a lot of hard work to be done. Now, again!”
She had thought running would be the toughest part of life at the Priory, but it seemed she was wrong.
Solène sat in dal Drezony’s office after lunch, waiting for the other woman to arrive to begin their lesson. It was a relief to think a gentle stroll through the Priory’s gardens was the most taxing thing left between her, supper, and bed. Her legs ached with a dull burn that made it uncomfortable to sit still for too long, and she did her best not to think of tomorrow’s morning run.
The office was a bright, airy room decorated in light and subtle shades. It very much spoke to dal Drezony’s personality as Solène knew it. There was a perfect view of one of the peaceful courtyard gardens, with a stunning marble fountain at its centre. It was certainly the perfect place for quiet contemplation—something they seemed to do an awful lot of in the Order. So far, other than her encounter with Maestro Foulques, everything about the Order felt vague and directionless, as though people with talent were sent there in the hope that their magic would manifest and develop all by itself. She had to admit that it might not only be the Order causing her confusion. This was the first time in her adult life that she had not known what she was working toward; more than that, it was the first time her mind was not occupied with having to constantly look over her shoulder.
There were some papers on dal Drezony’s desk, and Solène could not help but take a peek at the top sheet as she waited. The title caught her imagination instantly—“The Five Tests of Magical Competence.” The page was upside down from her perspective, and she was just trying to decipher the first of the tests when dal Drezony entered the room.
“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting, but one of our talent scouts got picked up by the Intelligenciers late last night, and I had to get him released before they started interrogating him. Their methods can be severe, so I needed to get him out fast.”
“I’ve seen them,” Solène said. “And I’ve heard all about what they do.”
“For people with our peculiar gifts, they’re quite terrifying, but hopefully their days of witch hunting are limited. Once the Order is strong enough, the regulation and policing of magic use will fall to us and they will be able to focus on the spying, espionage, and assassination that they’re more suited to. I’m assured that day is not far in coming. But back to more relevant things—how did you enjoy your session with Maestro Foulques?”
“It was … not like anything I’ve experienced before, but I enjoyed it. I can see why men are so drawn to it.”
“Foulques can seem harsh, but I’ve grown very fond of him, and the skills he gives us may well save our lives one day. Our ability to draw on the Fount is not unlimited. The time might come when you have to rely on steel to save yourself.”
Unable to either read the paper or contain her curiosity any longer, Solène pointed to the page on the table. “What are the Five Tests of Magical Competence?”
Dal Drezony frowned, then looked at her desk. “Ah, yes. I’m sorry, it hadn’t occurred to me that you can read. It was something I thought we’d have to address.”
Solène nodded. “I taught myself.”
“Well, that puts us even farther ahead than I hoped. I worried that would be the thing that held you back the most. The Five Tests of Magical Competence—it’s not the most inspiring title, but it’s the best I could come up with, and it fits, so…” She shrugged. “It’s something of a work in progress. Foulques has a pretty well-established set of criteria for judging ability with a sword, and academic tests are equally simple—either you know what you need to know, or you don’t.
“Deciding when a novice has reached the ability level where we can let them out into the world and be confident that they aren’t going to get themselves killed, or worse, cause a disaster that kills others, has proven to be more of a challenge. So we came up with five tests that would give us a good indication, and this is the current iteration.” She spun the sheet around so Solène could get a better look.
The first test made her smile—to create a light that persisted after the caster had ceased to focus on it. She had done that on her first meeting with dal Drezony, and knew her next attempt would be even better.
The second was to lift a small object into the air and hold it steady for a certain amount of time. That sparked her imagination—she had never thought of trying something like that. Her use of magic had always been needs-based, and she had never needed to levitate something. Nonetheless, it didn’t seem like such a difficult task, and she was confident she could do it.
The third task looked more challenging, and she could immediately see the relevance. It was to perform what it called “a push” while in a heavily distracting environment. The requirements seemed obvious enough, but she did wonder what a “heavily distracting environment” would involve.
“Heavily distracting?” Solène said.
“It’s all well and good being able to shape magic in the serenity of the Priory, but you’ll need to be able to do it, and control it, out in the real world too. Perhaps in a fight. We’ll try to simulate that confusion in the test.”
Solène nodded and looked at the next item on the list—the creation of a barrier that completely surrounds the caster and blocks both magical and physical attacks. The fifth and final test was called a “stilling.” She looked at dal Drezony and raised an eyebrow.