Perfecting her Craft

Most of Kelsee's days of late were spent trying to learn the Cyclone spell within the confines of Constebella's Sanctum. She had the entire incantation memorized as she had the ability to memorize even the most complex of spells.

It appeared that memorization and actual spell casting were once again a completely separate ideology altogether, as during the entire first day she had very little success. After exhaustion had set in, she decided to head back to her room somewhat disheartened by her lack of success.

After entering her room, she could tell that Cerrah and Jazelle had again been arguing but at this point she was far too tired to care. To avoid further confrontation, she simple held up her hand and informed her two subordinates that she would deal with the problem later, for now she wanted a hot bath and bed.

They both balked at that thought but neither of them was stupid enough to say anything and both decided to retire to their rooms for the evening, leaving the princess with her much-deserved peace.

Her bath was bubbly and smelled of Chamolene petals, her favorite of all flowers. She had an entire flower bed of them just underneath her castle room back on Minlas and she would often frequent the garden to walk and pointedly take in the aroma they spewed forth.

The smell of her bath took her back to these times which in turn reminded her of home and her parents. She had not intended to cry while bathing but with her lack of results while spellcasting and her overwhelming feelings of being homesick, the tears simply overcame her.

She had spent the better part of an hour in the tub before she realized she was very hungry. The warm soothing water and her release of emotions were just what she had needed as she now felt quite refreshed. I know this is weird to think but sometimes you need a good cry to put things in perspective.

The young princess half smiled as she arose from the tub. After drying herself off, she gracefully smoothed lotion upon every curve of her body. Once done she made her way into her bedroom. Picking up her pajamas that were folded neatly and placed upon the corner of her bed she dressed for a much-needed rest.

After she was dressed, she ambled into the kitchen. Her dinner plate was sitting on the table most probably getting cold. There was roasted duck with a cherry glaze sauce, roasted spicy kartu (equivalent of earth potatoes), home-made bread and steamed spargeli' (very similar to earthen Asparagus). Her drink of course was a sparkling mangolnay or wine. After several glasses she felt very assured that she would have a most pleasant night's sleep.

The princess awoke the following morning to her servants gentle touch.

"Good Morning my lady," she said with a smile.

"Oh Cerrah, morning and may I apologize for my behavior last night toward you. I am sorry but I had an exhausting day, and I was not ready to deal with your and Jazelle's trifling little quarrels," she said as she stretched and arose from her slumber.

"There is no apology needed princess. I for one am sorry that this issue cannot seem to be resolved. I will try harder to get along with Jazelle as you have enough on your mind with trying to save Minlas and all," Cerrah said apologetically.

"Breakfast is on the table, come eat. Your escorts will be here in about thirty minutes. I let you sleep as long as I dare, I figured after the day you went through yesterday the rest would do you some good," the servant said and then bowed and left the room.

The princess hastily dressed for today's events. She grabbed her cloak and her wand. She entered the dining hall and quickly downed her breakfast. As she was washing up from her meal there was a knock upon her door. Perfect timing, she thought to herself.

She opened the door expecting to see her Dwarven bodyguards but instead it was Syrus. "May we talk", he asked of the princess.

"Certainly" she responded.

"I will be your escort to your practice today, I hope that is OK by you. I assure you, that you are in capable hands," he said as he bowed giving the princess a smile and a wink as he ascended from his bow.

Kelsee smiled as she shut the door and took her place beside the old mage.

"I understand the spirit Mckenna has given you a new spell to use in our endeavors against the Dylonians," Syrus started somewhat uncertain how to proceed with this conversation.

Kelsee nodded that this was in fact true.

"That is most excellent", Syrus responded. "Well as you probably have surmised there is a purpose to my meeting with you so I will get right to its point," the old mage said as they turned onto the main corridor.

"You have learned of our change in mission, and I am presuming that you know your first task will be to disorient the Mylokar," Syrus asked confident that he already knew the answer to the question.

"Yes, I have been informed of this. In truth that scares me a bit, but I am sure the council has great reasons for this and more importantly they have great confidence in our abilities. I do not think they would put the chosen's lives in jeopardy unjustly, do you?" she asked of Syrus.

"I am not really sure what I think any more to be honest with you. I know the gains for the new attack plans could be astronomical but then so too are the risks in my opinion. Despite the risks we will continue on, as the council is firm in their belief that this is currently our best chance of success. My point to all of this is that with these new attack plans Kyjus spec has been changed and he will now be learning the spells within the fire line. You have three weeks to practice your new spell and Kyjus has three weeks to practice all of his," Syrus said pausing to let the princess comprehend what he was hinting at.

"I understand three weeks is not much time, I also understand that the original belief was that he would have over six months but for whatever the reasons the council and or other parties grossly underestimated how far into their plans the Dylonian's have gotten. Your concern then is in Kyjus' ability to partake in this mission," Kelsee ask with an overwhelming uncertainty of where this conversation was going.

"In part that is correct," Syrus responded again pausing. Was it uncertainness for how to proceed, Kelsee was not sure? Syrus took in a sigh of breath and continued. "In truth I will be requesting a contingent of men and another magic user be attending this mission with the chosen. I am hoping that this small group of men along with the mage will be help enough to keep Kyjus safe. I am also requesting that you will do your best to keep an eye on him as well for I have heard your magical abilities are second to none of equal age in the Elven Kingdom," Syrus said with a slight bow.

Kelsee was starting to piece this together, this really had nothing to do about the chosen, this was more about keeping the chosen safe, this was solely about Kyjus. Had the mage developed a bond with the human child she wondered? It seemed absurd in so little a time but then the boy did have a certain charm about him, she thought to herself not being able to help from cracking a smile.

Syrus was confused by her silence and her smile and was about to say something to her when she pulled herself from her reverie and began to speak.

"You mentioned you would be requesting a mage accompany us on our quest, did you have a particular one in mind," Kelsee asked. She had figured she had guessed the correct answer but she desired confirmation.

"At your service," Syrus said as he removed his hat from his head and holding it close to his chest as he bowed deeply.

"I see," the princess responded, smiling as she had already guessed as much.

There was a definite bond between the old mage and the young earth boy, she was now sure of it. "I will do my best to look out for Kyjus as long as in doing so I do not jeopardize the overall objectives set forth within our mission parameters," the princess said returning the mages bow.

Syrus smiled genuinely happy at her response. "Thank you, my lady, I knew I could count on your help."

They continued down the last corridor and opened the double doors heading into the room of pillars. "I believe we have arrived, my lady. Thanks again for your time and may your practice be meaningful," Syrus said with a smile.

The princess thanked him for his kind words as she watched him head back out the door they had just entered. She paused there a moment, what had she agreed to really, she asked of herself. She would help to keep one of the chosen safe as best she could but in doing so, she would in no way jeopardize the mission. This all seemed necessary as far as she was concerned.

It was interesting that Syrus would be requesting that he and a contingent of soldiers be permitted to accompany the chosen on their mission but then again if you asked Kelsee the way this entire operation was playing out was all very interesting.

She pulled herself from her train of thought as she began to walk over to the balcony that would take her into Constebella's Sanctum. As she walked toward the balcony, she noticed both Raldor and Ballos guarding the passageway toward the spell chambers in which one would most certainly contain a upstart wannabe mage she thought as she chuckled to herself.

Behind the dwarves and walking down the same hall away from her current position strolled the Magus. This spurned a few questions within the princess.

Was the Magus heading toward Kyjus for some instruction perhaps? Had the professor seen her talking to Syrus and if yes what did he surmise of the conversation? And lastly yet perhaps the most peculiar of all questions what if anything was Magus Shepplin planning on doing with what he may have witnessed and or heard in the past few days in regards to the Chosen's upcoming mission.

~~~~~!!!~~~~~

Little did she know but the Magus was thinking along those very lines himself. Should he report his theories to the council? Did they know already and not need his knowledge and most importantly would his not reporting anything make the council think he was in league with his brethren from Cirius, which of course was the least appealing thought among any of the possible outcomes he tried to foresee. The Magus vowed to revisit his options soon but first he would attend to the training of his mage in training.

~~~~~!!!~~~~~

Kelsee whisked down to the Sanctum with little thought to the levitation spell. Today she would try several things different from yesterday. The fist was in order to help lessen the strain of her casting on her mind she was wearing the belt that Merlin had given her.

This belt would help lessen the taxation that spellcasting would have upon her. The Sanctum's spell pad helped with this to a small degree as it was one of the abilities bestowed upon it by its creators. That and the ability to absorb the spells being cast upon it were the sole reasons for Kelsee casting her spells within its confines.

Another thing she had planned to try different was the spells she would cast. She would start out with some of her easier spells.

She started with casting cones of silence at a given space within the platform, concentrating on the upper left corner she held her wand out before her "zona silenci" she said as she concentrated on the selected space.

After her spell was cast, she walked to the upper left portion of the platform, as she entered the space the noise from the fountain and the birds faded into oblivion. She smiled at her success; it was a simple spell she thought to herself but after yesterday she wasn't taking anything for granted.

Kelsee walked back to the middle of the platform and repeated this spell on each of the four corners. Each spell met with similar success so each of the corners of the platform was bathed in silence. This pleased her very much, so she continued progressing through her book of spells.

The next spell she would cast was a shield spell, she decided on her ice shield spell. Holding her wand with the heart end against her chest she concentrated on the layer of ice that she wanted to form around her body. The moisture began to form before she had even uttered the words of the spell which she thought was simply fantastic. The process was slow however, so she said the words to the spell "silg bloc" and the layer of ice formed much quicker within seconds a layer of nearly invisible ice had formed around her.

She smiled deeply, another success she thought to herself. Then she had a clever idea based on one of the books that she had read of Copernicus. Recalling the word to the spell she waived her wand in a circle around her and said the words to the spell, "brakenvia". This spell caused the shield to shatter in a thousand pieces, exploding out away from the princess. An interesting thought on an offensive type of spell she thought to herself. She would endeavor to remember it for possible future uses.

Wanting to capitalize on her recent successes she moved right into her next spell. In this spell she would need a target and luckily the pad had a magic absorption dummy built right into the center.

Backtracking she exited the platform and crossed back to the pedestal off to the right of the path over the water. Here was a pedestal with the functionary switches for the platform. There were many gadgets and gizmos to help operate the platform, but Kelsee only needed one of them.

After locating the correct switch, she flipped it. There was a pulley sound that was followed by a grinding sound as a statue like object rose from the middle of the platform. Perfect she thought to herself.

Her next spell would be projections of electrically charged missiles. These missiles were typically twice as big as a normal sized arrow but still quite a bit smaller then a spear. They were very accurate and seldom missed their target and more than one was usually more than any normal sized humanoid could handle.

She stepped up to the upper left-hand corner of the platform; this was the corner in which she had first cast her Area of Silence spell. The spell was waning but until it reached its completion there was nothing she could do since only the corners were safe havens from her spell casting.

Reaching into the folds of her robes she pulled out two magnets and rolled them around in her hands charging them as she went. This was what all her practice was for as these were the magnets that she used as components for her newly learned but not yet successfully casted Cyclone spell.

She smiled with anticipation as she relished the thought of a successful completion of this spell. Should she succeed perhaps her name would be placed among the pantheon of wizards. Well probably not for just casting the spell but if you added few hundred years of successful mission on top of that then perhaps. She giggled as if the few hundred missions would be a trifle thing, especially considering the cataclysmic risk of her first quest. If they all were like this, she would be lucky to live out the year successfully let alone several hundred years of quests or missions of the same magnitude.

It was a scary thought indeed, but then if it was so scary why was she still smiling and glad for the opportunity. Weird she thought to herself as she returned the magnets to one of the pockets within her robes.

This next incantation was a bit trickier she remembered. It was a diagonal up and to the right swish of her wand and then a down diagonal slash. Her eyes must remain fixed upon her target, or the spell would falter. It was somewhat tricky but all in all it was not too terribly complicated.

For a moment she concentrated on the center of the target dummy and then with an upward swish of her wand she distinctly annunciated the first word of the spell "Magija". This was followed closely by a downward diagonal slashing motion and the second word of the spell "Projectilas".

As her diagonal downward slash ended, she brought the wand to bear in the direction of her intended target. With a sizzle and then a snap three larges shards of electrically energized metal sprang from her wand and sizzled as they hammered into the target dummy.

She smiled as she heard each missiles impact with the dummy.

~~~~~!!!~~~~~

From the balcony of the Sanctum another figure stood, and he too was smiling at the success of the spell. He paused as he looked down at the princess, awaiting her next move.

"Magija Projectilas", he heard over and over again some eight or nine times with each incantation sending multiple missiles (never less than three or more than six) thudding into the target dummy.

Most impressive, this figure thought to himself as each one of those spells would have been enough to dispose of all but the toughest of the Tundra Yeti. Syrus smiled thinking that perhaps they might stand a chance in their initial quest. He exited the balcony not wanting to disturb the princess and her training. If only the council would get back to him on his request to meet with them, it had been nearly two days since he had placed it.

~~~~~!!!~~~~~

The repetitive casting of her magic missile spell left Kelsee somewhat drained but with the belt and the sanctum helping to replenish her mental energy she knew it wouldn't be too long before she was back at it.

A quick break is what she needed so she headed down the path that took her over the lake and then over to the Merlin statue. She paused briefly looking up at the balcony, had there been movement there a moment ago or was she imagining this in her mentally fatigued state.

She half smiled at the uncertainty but continued onward down the path toward a bench that sat near the statue. She sat and read the plaque that sat at the base of the statue.

This statue was erected in dedication to the

Greatest mage who has ever lived "Merlin"

While your stories are certainly missed your

Kindness and acts of bravery will always be

Treasured by those whom you left behind.

Might there be a statue in her name someday, she thought to herself. She paused looking at the statue the features of the man this statue resembled, decidedly human. The greatest mage who ever lived the statue said and more importantly her mother, Mckenna's spirit and most of history all concurred.

She could be so closed minded sometimes she thought to herself. A trait that was passed to her from her father, no doubt since her mother was as open, honest, and gentle a personality, as she had ever known.

Thinking of her parents once again put her on the verge of tears but this time rather than embrace them she fought them as best she could letting only a few streaks climb down to rest upon her cheeks.

She sat there for ten minutes more taking several drinks from the energized water that she had summoned with the help of the belt that Merlin had given her. This too would help restore her mental energy. She was nearly back to normal several minutes after she sat upon the bench, but she stayed there thinking about the twist in fate that had brought her here or perhaps it was no twist at all but more her destiny.

She shrugged her shoulders as she stood up from the bench, I am not going to learn much sitting here she thought to herself, so she headed back down the path toward the platform.

This time she entered the platform in the lower right-hand corner. Her silence spell had long since expired so there was no need walking to the opposite end. Might as well conserve my energy she thought to herself.

She had several spells that she could not cast in this environment she knew and those would have to be tested outside most likely there test would be in the Mylok realm when she really needed them. She could only hope her preparation here would help increase the chances of success of those spells along with the ones she was able to practice.

She half let go of a devious smile as she thought of the devastation that her Molten Rock spell would cause upon the Tundra Yeti, who were very resistant to cold based spells but highly susceptible to fire based ones.

She also thought of the frustration they would feel when she unleashed the Grabbing Earth spell upon them. To be stopped in your tracks from earth that has rooted your entire body.

And lastly of the nausea they would feel from her obliterate spell that would churn their insides to a boil, placing them into a state of dementia.

Again, all of these spells not ones she could test here but with the platform it was difficult to ascertain the results. She was confident however, that when the time was right these spells would come to the aid of her and her Chosen companions.

There were still a few spells to be tested prior to her trying Cyclone again she thought to herself. And test them she would.

The next three spells she tested were all spells that effect a large area of the platform versus the target dummy. With each spell she was able to not only cast it but also move the spell almost at will. In this she was trying to imitate what she might have to do should her intended target move during or after the casting of any of these spells.

The spells that she succeeded in casting were Pounding Hail, Reign of Fire and Reign of Lightning.

Pounding Hail is pretty much as it sounds as it is a spell that has large balls of hail descending from the sky at its intended target. The spell will follow its target short distance stunning and dealing large amounts of damage.

With Reign of Fire the user sends a cascading barrage of fire balls that swirl around the intended area, these fireballs can cause significant destruction often times stunning their targets for several seconds.

Her final test was Reign of Lightning. This typically is the coup de grad of most Wizards spell books. In this spell the caster calls upon the forces of nature to hurl lightning bolts down upon a target, hitting all of those within that area.

Each spell went off like clockwork although each spell was somewhat lighter on the destruction scale then she had hoped but Syrus and the Magus had already warned her that this would happen. Any spells cast within the Sanctum by design are reduced in their intensity and any spells that require nature to carry out their acts are reduced even further since the nature created within the Sanctum's space is not real.

All things considered; she was happy with herself. Then that is when it all started to click, Cyclone was a wholly nature-based spell so the effects of the spell would most likely be minimal within the chamber. How could she have been so dumb not to think of this sooner.

Her spell would still work to some degree, certainly better then what it did on her prior attempts but perhaps this sanctuary was making the casting of the spell itself more difficult. She needed to get somewhere else, somewhere in the outdoors if she really wanted to see the true devastation of this spell.

She would broach this request with the council sometime soon she thought, but not just yet. She had to at least get the spell to partially be successful within the chamber. There was no better time than the present she thought to herself.