Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2) by B.T. Narro (chapter books to read to 5 year olds .txt) 📕

after supper that I finally felt like I could soon cast the next spell. I was even more excited about this one, for not even Leon knew what was going to happen.

Everyone gathered around me in the courtyard, as the spell I was working on had become common knowledge. Even Eden had come out of the great hall to watch. She looked tired, as Aliana had appeared the whole day, bags under their eyes. I was sure the curse had taken a toll on them, but I couldn’t let fears of the traitor distract me right now.

The reason this spell was so interesting was not just because Leon couldn’t predict what would happen. It was because I was about to use three octaves of G, specifically lG, G, and uG. It was variations of this note, G, that was in every erto spell. Water, for example was C, E, G. Ice, as another example, was composed of the same notes but lower by an octave: lC, lE, lG. Fire was similar to water, but the middle note was one lower than water, and Air was the same as water but one octave higher.

All of these spells required G. However, neither Charlie nor Leon could guess what G did for these spells. Leon had explained earlier that day, however, that the purpose of the first two notes listed in the spell was known by most sorcerers who understood mana. Charlie had read about this in the book that I had attempted to read a while ago, only to fall asleep.

The first note in every spell, erto spells included, told the mana what kind of spell to cast. Spells starting with lC were ice spells, while spells starting with C were either fire or water spells. The last erto spells, ones of air, started with uC. Apparently, it was impossible to cast any of these spells without starting with the appropriate variation of C. Leon had experimented many times and would’ve had the injuries to show for it had they not occurred many years ago, he claimed.

The next note—E—would be a mystery to even expert sorcerers like Leon if it wasn’t for the subtle difference between E and E min in water and fire. Because such a vast difference could be seen by just lowering E by one note to E min—or Em for short—it proved that notes of E also told the mana how it was going to be used, like the notes of C. So on their own, C’s and E’s didn’t do anything compared to D’s, for example, which clearly told the mana to harden. They just told the mana what kind of spell the caster was attempting.

I was still getting used to this idea of certain frequencies “telling” the mana to do anything, but this was the language Leon had used when he’d explained this, a language that Charlie used as well. It seemed wise to mimic them.

I was beginning to see more and more that mana really was alive, at least in some sense of the word, and it was notes that told it how to behave. In fact, notes were more powerful than our minds, which was only capable of changing the power and direction of the spells.

Ordia seemed to be an entirely different story, which was probably why Leon had so much trouble understanding it. He relied on others, like Jennava, to discuss the nuances of the magical art of order. I could see why. We were mostly just talking about the mana of erto, and I was already getting lost.

But what did G do? That was the question at hand. There were theories in the texts Charlie and Leon had read, with additional information in the scrolls. Leon had admitted earlier that he had a wild guess about what was going to happen, but he didn’t want to possibly ruin the surprise for us if he was right.

No matter what happened when I casted the spell, it was nice to spend the day without worrying about Cason or the traitor. It reminded me that there was no point in stressing about the things I couldn’t control. I could only wait for something to happen, a feeling I was starting to get used to.

I found out recently that Leon’s range didn’t extend low enough for him to reach anything below C. He’d also shared that most of the powerful sorcerers he’d met through his long lifetime had eventually turned to dteria. It was part of the reason the king had no one to call upon to help in this war. Sure, there were more powerful sorcerers than us who had stayed away from dteria, but all of them were wealthy and selfish. They would only fight for coin; coin that Nykal didn’t have to spare. He had spent too much building an army to take out the last king, who had been building his own army of dark sorcerers.

Nykal wouldn’t know just how many of the men who fought to crown him would fight for him again if Lycast came under attack, because this time he wouldn’t be able to pay them all. All he knew was that he didn’t have the coin to employ them continuously, and he couldn’t impose a crisis tax without a reason that was plainly obvious to the people of Lycast. It wasn’t just hired mercenaries who had rebelled against the last king. Many were citizens sick of the constant taxing.

This had come out through conversations today, as Leon had been much more relaxed about our training. It was the first time in a while that I didn’t feel any weight on my shoulders. I wasn’t sure why that was, as nothing had really changed in the last few days. It was just that the attitude of my peers and instructor had a calming effect. I supposed it wasn’t too strange, considering that panic worked in the same way. I did appreciate this time. I wasn’t sure how many more