“If you can strip a person’s magic with those orbs,” Ulrick said, “we don’t have to worry about Tricky anymore. I wonder if you could take Master Cowan’s power.”
“Ulrick, I don’t want to talk about it. I may have destroyed Pazia’s ability to use magic. There is no positive side.” I entered my bedroom and shut the door.
I lay on top of the bed and stared at the ceiling. Unable to stop my thoughts, I watched as they replayed the series of events over and over and over in my mind. Filling the orb with Pazia’s bees felt effortless and I had been fine when Tricky had attacked with the spiders.
What else had I done with the orbs? I had helped Kade with the storm. But then exhaustion claimed me as soon as we finished. In that case, Kade’s energy was depleted—he struggled to control the bubble of calm keeping him from the storm’s fury. I had given him my energy to use as he harvested the storm’s essence. If he had tried to attack me with wind, could I channel it? I shied away from the answer.
I must have fallen asleep, because Ulrick woke me in the morning. I picked at my breakfast, letting the drone of conversation flow around me. Mara joined us and we headed for the glass shop.
Excitement and pride used to bloom whenever I saw the new shop, but not this time. Mara and I helped Ulrick create his vases. Beautiful long-necked pieces with swirls of color. He had purchased a number of different colored crystals to dip the molten glass into. The crystals melted when heated, coloring the glass.
I couldn’t tell if he used magic while working with the pieces. Only when the vases cooled and I could touch them would I know if he had trapped magic inside.
“Opal, you haven’t said a word all day. You shouldn’t worry so much. I’m sure Pazia will be fine,” Mara said.
Cracking off Ulrick’s last vase, I transferred it to the annealing oven.
“No sense moping about it until you know for certain,” Ulrick said. “Come on.” He gathered a ball of molten glass. “I saved you some of my mix to play with.”
Outnumbered, I worked at the gaffer’s bench. The glass moved as if made of silk. It was easy to shape and fun to manipulate. It didn’t take long for my dark mood to lighten.
“Is the flexibility due to the Krystal Clan’s gold sand?” I asked him.
“Nice try, but I’m not telling you the mix ingredients.”
The next day the vases cooled down enough to handle. Popping in my hands, they held Ulrick’s magic within them. But Mara couldn’t “feel” the vibrations at all.
When Ulrick and I both held the vase, it sang a sad tune. Mara heard nothing when she tried holding it with him.
A few of our student helpers had arrived. We tested a vase on each of them. No one could feel the pops, but they heard a song with Ulrick’s touch. The song was different for each person. We puzzled over the discrepancy. After a few more tries with different vases, we discovered a person would hear his unique song no matter which vase he touched.
“Piecov, how are you feeling?” Mara asked him.
The first-year student frowned in confusion. “I feel fine.”
She shook her head. “Are you happy, sad, lonely?”
“Oh. I’m rather glad. I found out this morning I passed my history test.”
“Touch the vase with Ulrick again,” she instructed.
Piecov complied.
“Does the song you hear match your mood?”
He considered for a moment. “Yes.”
She asked the others and they agreed. We strolled around the Keep’s campus and tested the vases on the other students. Even going so far as to interrupt an argument. In each instance, the student’s song reflected his or her mood. We also couldn’t find any other magician who could feel the vase’s vibrations. Not even Ulrick felt it—only me. Even when I held the vase with another, I couldn’t hear a song and the vase remained inert. We returned to the shop.
“A mood indicator,” Ulrick said in disgust. “And not even my moods, but others. A useless parlor trick!”
“I wouldn’t say useless,” I said. “You might be able to use the vases to interrogate criminals, find out if they feel guilty or are lying.”
“Not the job I hoped for.” He snatched a broom and swept the floor with hard strokes.
“We might still discover other uses for your pieces.” I straightened the workbenches, replacing the tools.
He didn’t comment as we finished cleaning up the shop. I understood his disappointment. Four years in the Keep had been one letdown after another for me. But the Keep’s instructors had been trying to teach me to use magic in the traditional ways. Only when I had been in dire situations did my other abilities manifest themselves. While I wouldn’t recommend that method, perhaps Ulrick would have other opportunities to find out more.
Before dinner, Ulrick, Mara and I stopped at the infirmary to ask Healer Hayes about Pazia. She was only slightly better. In the hallway, we encountered Zitora. The magician sent Ulrick and Mara on to dinner and asked me to accompany her to her office. Usually Ulrick would fuss about leaving me alone, but he shuffled after Mara without saying a word.
“What’s wrong with him?” Zitora asked as we climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.
“Difficult day.” I explained about his power.
“When I first met him, I didn’t think he had any. His magic may include only one trick, but it’s better than nothing.”
I kept quiet, remembering my own frustrations. Once you get a taste, sometimes it’s hard not to crave more.
“How’s Pazia’s progress with magic?” I asked instead.
“She’s regaining her strength little by little, but it’ll be a good week before we know about her magic.” Zitora stared at me with a pained expression. “Opal, if you have truly taken her ability to access the power source, the Sitian Council will view you as a threat.”
Her words failed to sink in. I expected her to tell me the Council was livid, upset, horrified or all three. Pazia had the potential to become another Master Magician. “A threat?”
“Think about it. You can strip magicians of their powers. What if you decide Master Bloodgood should not be First Magician anymore? Or you don’t want the Council to be in charge anymore. You can take everyone’s powers and build an army of glass creatures.”
It sounded like a fairy tale. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“Really? What if Bain Bloodgood attacks you and you suspect he is working with Sir?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it isn’t. The most powerful magician in Sitia attacks you with his magic. Will you die or use your magic to save yourself? Or if he attacks Mara or Ulrick? Will you save them?”
“What’s the reason?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“So now you get to decide if the reason is good or bad? What if he has a very good reason, but you don’t know about it?”
“I…”
“See? With this new power, you could be a danger to Sitia.”
I bristled. “I could be an asset, if anyone would trust me.”
“Aha! But what have you done to earn this trust? You already robbed Sitia of Pazia’s considerable talent just by experimenting with your own.”
“We don’t know that for sure. Besides, she attacked me with an illusion. It might not work against another type of attack. And it was a genuine accident.”
“Could you drain a person’s power who isn’t attacking you?” Zitora asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s why the Council would consider you a threat.”
And I wouldn’t want to try another experiment and risk losing another magician. I had wished to do more with my magic, but this wasn’t what I desired.
“Is this why you wanted me to come to your office? Another lesson?”
“Part of the reason. And not quite a lesson. I want you to be prepared for the ramifications if Pazia doesn’t recover. The Council could incarcerate you in the Keep’s cells while they decide what to do with you. You remember how long the Council needed before they trusted Yelena and she saved them from the Daviian Warpers.”