#i thought cancelled was the american spelling jahnasdhnf

[cilly-the-writer]

SHADOWS OF SORCERY | Part 13 | “Shadow of Insecurity” | 1,754 words

    "Are you nervous?" Jaelin asked.

    "A little…" Imogene smiled, sitting in the arena’s stadium. There were around a couple hundred students in the crowd right now—the constant purple reflections of light tinting the whites of their eyes as two student sorcerers battled it out down in the arena, in a match against each other.

    Imogene was up next.

    Classes had been canceled for the whole week so they could test everyone for their initial progress monitoring exam. They scored everything from abilities, to strategies, and endurance. The teachers had told them that a loss didn't necessarily equate to a bad grade. But naturally, everyone wanted to win their match and show off a little.

     "Well, I can tell," Jaelin said plainly. "I can feel it."

     "You're an emotion reader?" Imogene asked.

    "Just anxiety. It's kind of annoying though."

   "Oh, sorry," Imogene laughed apologetically. There wasn’t much she could do about that.

   "Not you. Just in general." Jaelin said, keeping his eye on the fight. "It's just a lot sometimes."

    Elora was sitting there next to them. Silent as she watched the battle.

    Students were required to observe some of the exams, but they didn't have to see all of them. So far, Charlotte hadn't shown up. She almost thought Charlotte had bailed on them, but just when the arena buzzer sounded—Charlotte appeared at one of the entrances and hastened down the steps to get to their row.

    "Sorry I'm late. I didn't want to miss yours, Imogene. You didn't go yet, right?" Charlotte asked as she sat down, catching a sudden glimpse of Jaelin besides them.

    "No, I'm up next." Imogene rose from her seat and took a deep breath in.

    "Good luck." Charlotte smiled warmly.

    "Good luck." Elora and Jaelin echoed.

    Imogene thanked them and headed to an exit lit with a neon purple film of light. She pressed her hand against it and the light split apart for her to walk through it. She followed the steps down to the panel of teachers to await instructions.

    In the meanwhile, Charlotte felt a funny twinge in her chest at Jaelin's addition to the group.

    "Is he sitting with us?" she whispered to Elora.

    "Don't worry, I'll be good this time." Jaelin responded tiredly. "One more strike and they said they'll take my magic."

    Charlotte couldn't tell if he was being serious or just joking, so she didn't know what to say. She also wasn't sure if the taking-his-magic bit was supposed to be a jab at her father.

    "We talked…" Elora said. "We think our incidents are related, so he agreed to help me see if we can find out who gave me the poison core."

    Charlotte nodded, a bit reluctantly.

    Their attention drifted to Imogene's match soon enough though. There was a countdown buzzer before the match and when it finally buzzed, a slew of daggers flew Imogene's way and Imogene threw her arms out to conjure two shields that struck down to the ground as soon as they were formed.

    Impaled like arrows through paper plates.

    She had used her dreamer magic to conjure them, so they weren't very useful against daggers made out of pure energy.

    "Oh my god," Elora said under her breath, "why does every developer use daggers?"

    "That's what Professor Hawkins teaches us," Jaelin said. "They're small, so it's easier to make a lot of them and attack from a lot of different angles at once."

    They watched as Imogene's chest rose and fell in the adrenaline dodging of the first attack. Her opponent had paused, seemingly questioning why Imogene hadn't used her casting magic to block her attack. Imogene was on the lean side in comparison to her. It didn't seem like she practiced self defense very much. Her opponent—Lillian Jewels—on the other hand, had a stronger build and moved with a lot more confidence.

    Lillian went ahead and shot another wave of daggers at Imogene, and right before she released them, Imogene bolted out of the way. Imogene ran to get in close range, stifling all the students in the audience. That was a dangerous move to pull without casting any energy fields. Except she wasn’t running to face her head on without any magic. She ran to get behind her opponent.

    Imogene pivoted and danced on her feet as soon as Lillian turned to slash her with a dagger. Missing her. She threw a series of daggers, but Imogene was out of the way the instant before she released them—every single time. Their little dance went on for long enough that Lillian got annoyed and sent a set of daggers through the air in every direction.

    But Imogene dove to the ground before she even lashed out. The daggers zipping straight into the invisible defense fields that had been conjured to protect the teachers and the students in the stadium, where they blew up and the fields sparked a neon color at the point of impact.

    It wasn't that Imogene had particularly quick reflexes or that she was very fast on her feet. She just knew the girl's moves before she even made them.

    Then, the instant that Lillian threw her arms back to conjure something, Imogene waved her hands simultaneously—forming a huge shield that ended up blocking an equivalent wall of fire at exactly the right moment.

    "Whoa," one of the students in the audience muttered. "How did she know to make a shield?"

    "It's like she can see the future."

    Imogene let the tin metal shield clank to the floor as she ran out to get in close range, only to stumble backwards when she sensed that her opponent was conjuring some kind of double sided spear.

    She got a strong feeling that Lillian was very skilled at welding it.

    She wasn't just skilled though.

    She was scary good.

    Her opponent spun the spear fast, like a set of fan blades in her hand. If Imogene got any closer, she definitely would have gotten cut. Her mind reading didn't help her much there.

    "I can tell you've got a plan," Lillian said, somewhat impressed but more weary.

    Imogene kept her mouth shut, unsure of making conversation right now. She knew that her opponent's plan was to back her into a corner. So she had to think quick.

    How was she going to get past that spinning spear of death?

    It's not like she could conjure anything with her dreamer magic that wouldn't shatter against her developer magic. The only match for developer magic was casting magic.

    Her casting magic was useless though.

    All she could cast was a tiny light.    

   Her opponent's weapon would break straight through it. Pop it like a bubble. Maybe she should have conjured some giant bubble wrap to protect herself… She was probably going to need it. The imagery of giant bubble wrap made her laugh a little, but as she thought about it, she realized it wasn't such a bad idea after all. She could conjure a bunch of helium balloons. They wouldn't take very much dreamer magic, so she could make a lot of them at once.

    Right when her opponent bounded at her, Imogene conjured a bunch of balloons. Waving them into existence like she was waving a bubble wand aggressively through the air. Filling the entire room with balloons in less than a minute. It looked like a party.

“Really?” Lillian said.

    The developer swung her spear like a machete to pop the balloons and get through all the chaos. But that was proving ineffective real fast. So she tossed the weapon aside and it vanished almost as soon as she let go; developer magic only created temporary weapons.

    The girl shoved her way through the balloons with her bare hands and rushed after Imogene without it. She was tired of this silly chase and it seemed like Imogene was running out of ideas anyway. She was only an inch away from grabbing her wrist now and when she snatched it–Imogene grabbed her other wrist right back.

    A heavy steel cuff formed over Lillian’s arm, instantly anchoring her to the floor. That cuff weighed more than three times her body weight. She was down. She wasn't getting back up until that cuff was removed.

    Imogene fell back, catching her breath as she stared in disbelief. Then the buzzer went off and one of the teachers announced her as the winner of the match.

    "That was amazing! But why didn't she use her casting magic?" someone in the distant crowd said.

    "Maybe she just wanted to show off."

    She did it. She won. Without any casting magic at all.

    The volume of applause was lost on her as she headed over to the teacher's table to receive her proof of examination. The teachers were still scribbling away on their scoring rubrics, adding detailed annotations. Someone handed her a preliminary report listing her win, time, and abilities utilized. She would get the detailed report later. But just then, someone else’s voice caught her off guard:

    "Well done, Miss Imogene," Professor Hawkins said without looking up from his rubric. He taught developer classes, so she wasn't his student.

     She headed back to the audience after holding her palm out to the film of purple light, where she returned to her friends' congratulations and compliments. They were so happy for her.

    "Do you want to watch the next one?" Elora asked.

    "Actually, I'd rather take a nap after all that," Imogene laughed and they took her cue to leave. They all went out to the hallway and Jaelin said his goodbye before he went his separate way. Leaving just the three girls.

    "Elora," Charlotte said, moving in closer to talk quietly, "I meant to tell you… my father told me that the power authority said they wouldn't let you keep the poison core. They said it was too risky. Especially after, you know… the last time they let someone keep a poison core. I'm sorry."

    She must have been referring to the incident with Jaelin's grandfather. The power authority must have approved the decoy core.

    "Oh," Elora said, masking her relief with a disappointed tone. "It's okay. I figured they wouldn't."

    Charlotte made a sympathetic face.

    Elora was used to her predicament by now, but she appreciated the concern. She was mostly just bummed that she'd been exempted from taking the initial progress monitoring exam. The school had a healing room powered by a Luminess core, but they didn't want to risk injuring her in her current state.

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