Asili

Genisis had never liked her work at the castle, but now, with the promise of real magical training at night, she found her work almost unbearable. She had come to love learning incantations and spells with Master Asher. She knew that she was learning much faster than the other students; she wondered why. She still didn’t know why Asher wanted to teach her, but he seemed to look forward to her visits.

Her days in the castle went by in a rigid schedule. She would wake up early in the morning to prepare the royal breakfast. Then she would scrub floors. This was the worst part about her job, she thought. She hated being down on all floors, her dress soaking up dirty water, while she scrubbed a floor that was impossible to keep clean. Then came the part of her work that she liked best. She would shine the suits of armor that decorated the corridors of the castle. She loved the way the armor felt underneath her fingertips. Sometimes she imagined what it would be like to stand inside one of the suits of armor. To be a knight, and joust in the tournaments. But then she would get back to her work. After polishing several of the tables in the castle she would eat her measly diner. She then had only to beat the rugs out before she could turn in for the night. Except she didn’t go to sleep like the rest of the servants, she would head down to Asher’s classroom instead.

Genisis had never before worried about wearing old servant clothes. But when she walked into the classroom she felt, for the first time, slightly inadequate. She thought that if she was learning to be a mage, she should be allowed to dress like one. But then everyone would learn of her studies, and neither she nor Master Asher, would want that.

Tonight they were learning about ice breath. A trick Master Asher though would be useful for Genisis to know.

“If any of those servant boys give you any trouble, try to kiss you and such, all you have to do is breath out some ice and you’ll freeze their throat right over.” He grinned.

“I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that. No one ever takes notice of me.” She said grimly. “Why don’t people treat me like I’m normal?”

He sighed. “Because you’re not normal. Genisis, I would tell you, but it will be better for you if you find out in a few days. Just wait for now, and keep a low profile.”

Genisis snorted. “That won’t be hard.” She yawned and looked around the room, it was very late, but she saw some light shinning on something in the corner. She walked over for a closer look.

A staff was propped against the wall. It was immensely beautiful. It was maybe four feet tall, and covered in carvings all the way up to the top, where there was an amber ball glimmering in the moonlight. It was the size of a large stone, but when she picked up the staff it felt extremely light.

“Is this your staff?” She asked handing it to Asher.

“Yes, it is. A very powerful old one.” He replied taking it gently from her hands. “It has saved me from many tight fixes I can tell you that.”

Genisis had the urge to touch the amber ball, she wasn’t sure why. As her finger touched the ball dark purple liquid began to spread through the ball from where her finger had touched it. It was very much like watching one color potion dissolve into another. It took maybe ten seconds before the ball was completely purple. She looked up at Asher.

“If you were to do magic it would only be possible after the ball was completely purple that you could perform it.”

She removed her finger, and the ball went almost immediately back to its amber color.

“It is called an Asili Stone. It is the only kind of stone put in staves, you could perform magic with only the stone, but it is easier with the rest of the staff.”

He placed his own fingers on the Asili Stone and it turned black almost immediately. “It takes practice.” He grinned.

He placed the staff back against the wall, then turned to Genisis. “I’m sure you can tell by now that you are learning magic at an almost alarming rate, and soon elemental magic will be to simple for you. We will start staff magic soon. Here, take this,” he said rummaging through one of the many drawers in the room and extracting a thick leather-bound book. “When you are finished reading this I will start teaching you staff magic. It will take you a while to read the book, so in the mean time I will begin to teach you powder magic.” He extracted a small purple pouch from another drawer. He opened it to show her it contained a kind of shinning white powder. “You can only make elemental magic with your hands, and extremely advanced magic with a staff. Powder magic has its own unique qualities as well. Most kinds of powder magic are for defense, or for things like teleportation and levitation.” He dipped his hands into the powder, and as he took them out Genisis noticed that the power was now glowing strongly on his hands, it looked like he was holding bulbs of white light. He muttered a spell under his breath and an odd weightless sensation came over Genisis. She stared in amazement at her feet, which were now leaving the ground. She raised up high enough that she could just barely touch the vine covered ceiling with her hands. She lowered back down to the ground, and when her feet touched the ground the feeling of her weight sank down on her like an anchor.

“Wow,” smiled Genisis. She quite liked the feeling of flying, she wondered if she could make herself fly away from the castle.

“You must stay here, Genisis.” Asher said firmly, as though reading her mind. “I will teach you how to levitate yourself, but you must stay here, it is extremely important.”

“All right.” Said Genisis easily, she wasn’t about to disobey someone who could read minds. “But I suppose you aren’t going to tell me why.”

“Not yet, be patient dear girl, soon you will know.”

Genisis didn’t want to leave yet. She sat down on one of the leafy green tables. “Asher,” she wondered out loud, flipping through a few pages of the staff magic book. “Where do you find Asili Stones?”

“Well, it is more like a Stone will find you. You will only find an Asili Stone when you are ready. Usually you will find them at an important time in your life. And, usually the colors of the stone reflect upon the person who finds it.”

“When did you fi—“

“That’s enough for now, you may go.” He said inclining his head toward the door.

She hurried out, assuming that it must be a private subject. She tucked the book into her tattered old dress, and hurried up to the servants corridors. She wasn’t walking as quietly as she should have been, as wasn’t looking around the corners before she went around them. She was getting far to used to walking through empty corridors.

She turned a corner and walked straight into a guard patrolling the corridors. The book slipped from her dressed and clattered loudly to the floor. The torches around them sprung to life with dancing flames. For a moment she just stared up at him, and he at her.

“What’s this?” He asked loudly, “Who are you?”

Genisis had seemed to have lost the ability to speak. She just stared open mouthed at him. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have been so careless? There was no excuse for being caught after midnight in a corridor with a book of magic spells, and she new that. What going to happen to her now? The guard looked tall and stupid. His armor shined in the crackling firelight.

“What the—this looks like Master Asher’s. You’ve been thieving!” He hit his chest armor twice with his fist, and within seconds Genisis was surrounded by guards, all looking immensely large, and all looking incredibly stupid. She pulled herself off the stone floor, her hand stinging slightly where it had hit the floor.

“What is your name girl?” Demanded one of the guards.

Genisis licked her dry lips, and tried to stand tall and look dignified. Hide your fear, she told herself, don’t let them know that you are afraid. “My name is Genisis Ziralla.”

“Did you steal this book?”

“No.” She said flatly, trying to think of way to get out of this without exposing Asher for teaching her magic.

“Then where did you get it.” Growled another guard, he looked like he could use a shower.

“I was—I, er…” She couldn’t think of a reason that she would have that book so late at night. She knew what it looked like to the guards.

“So you have no explanation as to why you have a book that you probably can’t even read.” The guard sniggered smugly as anger flared up in Genisis’s cheeks. “And you have no explanation as to why you, a maid, would be up at such an ungodly hour?”

Genisis looked down. Her hands shook with rage. There was nothing she could say to change their minds. In their eyes, she had stole the book, and that was all there was to it.

“Well then,” Grinned one of the guards, “It’s the dungeons for you girl.” He seized her by the back of her dress and proceeded to force her down flight after flight of stairs. The stone was growing cold on Genisis’s feet. She only had on small, holy old shoes. She drew her arms around her to try and warm up from the cold that was pressing in on her. Finally they entered a dimly lit corridor lined with cells. He shoved her in the first one they came to, luckily it appeared to be empty. She tried to blow the stench out of her nose, but it was no use. The cell was only dimly lit by a torch outside it. Looking out she could see the guard who had taken her to the dungeon talking with the jail guard. If the one guard had looked like he needed a bath, he was nothing compared to this man. Genisis heard them both laugh heartily. Then the guard who had brought her down left. She felt very much alone.

She sat down on the edge of the moth eaten bed, and suddenly, with a start, she realized that there was something hard on her lap. Looking down she realized it was the book Asher had given her. She stared down at it in amazement. Then she looked around her cell, half expecting to see Asher standing there, but he wasn’t. She thought about Asher. She had let him down, she felt with a sudden burst of guilt. Why hadn’t she been more careful? She walked over to the bars sealing her sell off from the corridor. She looked at them, wondering if there was a way for her to escape without being noticed. She heard a large snort of laughter and looked up to see the jail guard on the other side of the bars.

“Yer thrown in jail now?” He rumbled stupidly.

“That’s how it would appear.” She replied shortly.

He chuckled. “Yer lower then a slave, how does that feel eh? With what yeh used to be?” He laughed weezily again.

“And what was that?” Asked Genisis, fighting her anger down. “What was I?”

He laughed even louder, exposing a his green teeth. He moved closer to the bars, and Genisis fought the urge to back up. “Yeh mean yeh don’ know? Good lord yer pathetic! Yeh haven’ even figured it ou—“

Genisis was so angry she hardly noticed that he had stopped talking. How dare he? On top of everything that had happened tonight, how dare he call her pathetic? She was so mad that she balled her hands into fists, that’s when she realized that her palms were wet. Surprised, she looked down, and saw that there were two piles of snow at her sides. She looked up at the guard, who muttered, “Mus’ be colder down ‘ere than I though’.”

Genisis had been so angry that she had been snowing, and for some reason she seemed to find this hysterically funny. So, chuckling to herself, she went back examining the bars.

But still the same nagging thought came back to her. What had the guard meant? What did everyone seem to know about her that she didn’t?

More Comming Soon! (I know, I know, you can't stand to wait.)