A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

giggled. “Exposed? Invisible? A curious turn of the phrase, but I agree. Do you think we, at the academy, can come up with something?”

He described his visit to Hamel Rorsik and the chief trustee became amused. “I’d love to show up those stuck-up pigs,” she said. “I’ll need an outside expert.”

“Gorian Custik?”

“He said he would help?”

Trevor nodded. “I also have a group working on duplicating the invisibility spell. One of them already knows a camouflage spell that isn’t as good, but it is a place to start,” Trevor said.

“Have Custik come over tomorrow morning, and I’ll pick out a few good research magicians.”

“Not Grantak Poket?”

Gillisek laughed. “You do know him, don’t you? Custik and he probably won’t get along, but he is one of our best. You can warn Custik about him.”

“I will,” Trevor said. “Why isn’t he sitting in your chair?”

“It would be too uncomfortable for the both of us,” Gillisek said.

The woman had a sharp sense of humor, Trevor thought.

“He was counseled that he was in the best position in the academy and since he didn’t have what it takes to become a gold…”

“He decided to stay.”

Gillisek nodded. “Poket did. The Brachian woman didn’t return, so I think all of your group will be safe from him.”

“I’d like to take Linny Volst with me,” Trevor said.

“That’s an easy request,” the chief trustee said. “Linny is a wonderful person, but I think you spoiled him. His classes have become less focused, if I may use the term. He may leave, but I will tell him he can always come back to the academy. What his classes lose in rigor are made up by entertainment value. He is one of the favorite professors, but I can stand to give up a favorite right now.”

The chief trustee didn’t elaborate, but Trevor knew that politics were part of the mortar of the academy. “I’ll be seeing Gorian tonight and will tell him to drop by tomorrow.”

“Early tomorrow would be best,” the Chief Trustee said.

~

Reena, Lissa, and Glynna had been busy. Each of them had some kind of hiding spell, and they had a list of approaches to creating an invisibility spell that might be used to test the charm. Trevor didn’t know the mechanics of such things, so he had to accept their claims. Custik vouched for them, so that was as good an evaluation as he thought he’d ever get.

They decided to eat dinner at the inn. All but Custik knew of better places around Jilgrath, but it was clear that Custik wanted much more detail about Trevor’s experiences.

Once dinner was out of the way, with everyone getting more current on their personal situations, Custik leaned toward Trevor. “Go into as much detail as you can remember during all your experiences with the ancient devices.”

“My teleportation?”

Custik frowned. “I don’t like the word, but yes. I’d like to understand what kind of progress you’ve made.”

Trevor started with the experience in Gnarled Wood and ended with taking Keith Garman to Collet and back. “It seems I’ve gotten better at it, but I don’t know why. I can’t go anywhere on my own, I need someone else’s magic.”

Custik nodded and thought for a bit. “Dryden is definitely at work, here. I wasn’t so sure when we were able to transfer from the Blue Tower, but I am now. There are too many coincidences, especially with the cuirass.”

“I think Dryden guided Trevor to the mound at Gnarled Wood .” Brother Yvan said. “Trevor was in the right place, at the precise time he needed refuge, and found the place that transformed him.”

“It is all the same to me,” Reena said, “and I think there are more coincidences to come, although perhaps none quite so dramatic. Have you felt any different through the process?”

Trevor wasn’t at his most comfortable having his friends talk about his talents. “Certainly,” he said. “But I put most of it to growing with new experiences.”

Custik nodded. “Of course, and Dryden hasn’t exactly protected you.”

“Other than not being killed or maimed, I have plenty of scars to prove that. I have been healed during the teleportations, though, so my health has been preserved.”

“I consider that a weapon,” Custik said, “that no one else has, even if you have to have a magician of some power around to teleport you in and out of trouble.”

“Most things don’t come easy,” Trevor said. “I had to fight for Listenwell even though I was given all the paperwork.”

“And you let a good portion of it fall into the hands of that crooked solicitor,” Lissa said.

“You will tell me what your appointment really is, won’t you?” Custik asked.

“What a messenger is supposed to do?” Trevor asked.

The magician nodded. “I’m sure it will be an important role in stopping King Worto—”

“And those behind him,” Glynna Bostik said. “We have to think big.”

Trevor wasn’t averse to that. He had been to seven countries since first leaving Presidon, and that didn’t count Ginster, their next destination. There were more to come, he guessed, and Trevor would have to be prepared for anything, but still, what did Dryden’s messenger really do? Was there a specific message he had to deliver to the world?

“What do you all think a messenger does?” Trevor asked.

Brother Yvan, the person Trevor thought most likely to know, shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not that learned in ancient history.” The cleric looked at all of them. “I don’t think any of us are.”

Glynna smiled sadly. “I used to have quite a few books that we might have used, but they were used for a large bonfire.”

“That is another reason not to put off traveling to Ginster,” Trevor said. “I think we should leave tomorrow.” Trevor turned to Volst. “Can you be ready?”

Volst raised an eyebrow.