Weekly Exercise Test #2

Week 4 Day 6 Clayden

Sky stared at Instructor Drakkon, mouth agape, as he stood in the open doorway of the practice room. It was Clayden, the sixth day of the week, the day of the weekly exercise tests.

"I-I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" Sky asked recovering. She doubted she'd heard him right. Instructor Drakkon's mouth tightened in irritation.

"I said, It's time for your exercise test." Pure elation bubbled up from the pit of Sky's stomach, suffusing her body until she was quivering. Sky hurriedly made to grab her books. "Just leave them. You won't need them." Instructor Drakkon turned from the room. Sky skipped after him.

Entering the last room in the hallway, the one at the end, Instructor Drakkon proceeded to have a seat behind the rectangular, metal table placed lengthwise across the right side of the room. He gestured for Sky to stand opposite him.

"Now, I assume you've been practicing all this time?" Sky nodded giddily. "Aven has said he tested you on the Fi and Ef charms, and you received full points." These were the Spoken Magic exercises for the past two weeks. The Fi, good luck, exercise was where she got the ring. The Ef exercise was its opposite, bad luck. "Therefore, I do not see the need to go through them again. You will start with the week two Elemental Magic exercise, the ball of element. Begin."

Sky took a calming breath and cleared her mind. Closing her eyes, she envisioned herself floating in emptiness inside the barrier that kept her magic at bay. She willed the barrier to dissolve and welcomed her magic as it flooded into her. Instantly, she felt the elements, the seductive thrum of Shadow, the peaceful calm of Gothe, the raging unsteadiness of Fire, the free playfulness of Air, and the temperamental coolness of Water. Taking hold of each one in turn, she visualized an orb of energy appearing in an open space in front of her. She willed her magic to follow her thoughts.

When she reopened her eyes, there were five, one-foot spheres of energy in front of her. The corners of her mouth lifted as she gestured to them and beamed at Instructor Drakkon.

He simply stared at them, his face an unreadable mask. Sky watched his captivating, red eyes as they shifted between the orbs. Her smile fell as a minute passed in which he said nothing.

"Well? This is right, right? I can make them bigger too but smaller is difficult." Instructor Drakkon's eyes roved over the spheres once more. Then the big, black book from his desk appeared on the table in front of him. He flipped it open and was about to write when he hesitated. He looked up at Sky.

"You are missing Light." His tone was clipped short. Sky blushed a little. She isolated her light magic and made the biggest ball she could. It was only two inches in diameter. Instructor Drakkon's gaze became hard as he looked at it.

"I- I can't make it any bigger. Does that mean I don't get the points?" Sky asked worriedly. Instructor Drakkon began writing in the book.

"No, you do. Twenty-five of them."

Sky eyes opened wide and she exclaimed, "Twenty-five points? But the exercise is only worth five."

"It is five for each orb of the right size." Instructor Drakkon finished writing and then looked back up. "The next exercise is movement."

Sky concentrated on moving the orbs. She reached out with the magic in her body to her magic in the orbs and made a connection to them. Then using that connection, she pushed and pulled each orb in the direction she wanted it to move. She could only do one at a time.

"Enough." Instructor Drakkon said after he'd seen each one move. "You need to work on moving them all at once." Sky nodded.

"Yes, of course." Instructor Drakkon wrote in the book again.

When he finished writing he said, "Expansion and contraction. Go." That was this week's exercise. Sky shifted and her posture scrunched in on itself.

"I can make them as big as you want but I- I haven't been able to make them smaller." She admitted.

Instructor Drakkon ordered, "Make Shadow as big as you can." Sky's expression brightened even though he was frowning. Making the Shadow orb big was easy. In her mind, Sky pictured the orb of Shadow swirling clockwise as she poured more of her magic into it. As it swirled, it grew bigger and bigger. Instructor Drakkon's expression became more closed off as he watched.

"St-stop!" He finally choked out. The orb had become eight feet in diameter and was pitch black, swirling with Shadow Magic. He gazed at it for a long time. Sky peered around the orb to look at him, hope written on her face. He glanced at her and began writing again. "You are not doing the exercise correctly which is why you cannot contract them. I will work with you on this next week. I cannot give you the points for this." Sky couldn't help the pout that formed on her face as she allowed her spheres to disperse. He hadn't said that he would retest her once she'd learned this and working on this next week would mean she had fallen behind the class. When would she learn next week's exercises? "All that is left is your Spoken Magic exercise." Instructor Drakkon said putting the stylus down. An apple appeared on the table in front of him. "Aven has warned me not to have you use your full strength so you will cast the spell at the nineth power level, Il. Cast the strengthen charm on the apple." Instructor Drakkon watched her.

"Ilagogora." Sky said in a defeated tone as she concentrated on the apple being strong, as strong as that pretty crystal she'd found in the woods near her home. A golden light began emanating from it.

The wind picked up in the room. A yellowish, transparent blade appeared above the apple. It slammed down onto the apple and a small shockwave of wind shot through the room as the blade exploded. The apple rocked a little bit but otherwise was fine.

Instructor Drakkon picked it up and looked at it. There wasn't even a mark on it. His mouth tightened into a thin line.

"Impressive." He commented, putting the apple back down and writing in the book once more. "I will update your points in the system and then I will take you back to your rooms. For now, you may go back to your studying." Sky nodded and returned to the practice room. Overall, that had gone well. She had gotten at least 35 points, but it could have been as many as 60 and nothing had gone wrong. She broke into a grin.