Lunen morning rolled around, and Rhysel and Talyn jumped to the school about thirty minutes prior to the demo to set up the room with what they'd need. They were directed to the same auditorium that the combined class had taken place in. Rhysel spread out her accoutrements while Talyn pulled out his mind crystal and a set of wooden tokens Rhysel had carved over the last few days.

Tekaal arrived at about ten minutes prior to the start time with Kolaan, Soraak, Lukal, and Kutran in tow.

"Hi, Tekaal," Rhysel said brightly, giving him a kiss by way of greeting. She then grinned cheerily at Kolaan and his friends, gretting them each by name. Talyn continued to set up the demonstration. Perhaps the oddest piece so far was a large flat stone that he set on the floor.

Kolaan and company observed the paraphenalia from a respectful distance.

"Aside from just showing that you've got the ability yourself, Tekaal, I'd like to leave you out of the demo unless I start to get too tired to continue. Is that all right by you?"

He nodded.

Talyn finished the setup, and went to chat idly with Kolaan and his friends for a couple of minutes. Rhysel inspected his work, and appeared satisfied with the results. After looking things over, she said to Tekaal, "I'm a bit excited about this. It looked like we really will be teaching people soon."

He smiled at her.

She matched his smile. "I think you'll enjoy this too, as there are some things you won't have seen before."

"That should be interesting."

"Yes. It's been beneficial having Talyn here. I've learned a few things from him already."

"How likely is it that your Master will be all right with him being summoned here on a regular basis?"

"I'm not sure. I expect though, that, even if he objects, Talyn will be spending a year or two here once he's reached Journeyman level. He seems fascinated by proxic magic for some reason - I expect because he's not seen it before."

Tekaal nodded.

"I don't imagine my Master would object too strenuously though - he is getting old, and Talyn's a bit of a handful at times."

"How far away is Talyn from being a journeyman?"

"Hard to say. He started when he was nine, so five years ago on my world. Normally an apprenticeship is ten years or so, but he's a lot more accomplished than a normal five-year apprentice. He might finish in as little as two more years. Maybe even less. The boy's really gifted."

"Is there some kind of test to gain journeyman status?"

"Not really. Masters are fairly intimately acquainted with the abilites of their apprentices, and there's nothing formalized - some Masters have a test of ability, but most just declare the apprentice a journeyman once they feel he or she has learned enough."

He nodded.

"Talyn's really rare - he's not the only one with his gift on my world, but his abilities are even rarer than spontaneous casters."

"How rare?"

"I think there are seven others that I've heard of on my world still living. There may be perhaps twice that number I've not heard of."

He nodded.

"He's a good kid," she sighed, "just has a little trouble with realizing when it's not appropriate to use kamai. To him, it's as natural as using his right arm."

"He's young yet."

"Yes, he is. But he still doesn't understand." She laughed slightly, "He's got sort of the opposite problem I had. I couldn't control kamai when I first started manifesting, while he can do it innately. So for me, the problem was learning control and how to use magic when I wanted to, whereas he needs to learn when it's appropriate to."

"The way he described it made it sound as though the difficulty was in controlling it."

"Only for mind kamai. He has absolute control over everything else - and he can really fine tune what he does with mind kamai as well; his problem isn't control so much as turning it off entirely. He's just not made to do so. What he does to keep people out isn't turning off his magic, it's singing songs or reciting poems or imagining patterns in his mind to keep from hearing what we're essentially shouting at him."

"It must be disconcerting to feel as though one is being constantly shouted at and simultaneously instructed not to pay attention."

"Yes. He gets rather sullen about it. I understand he had a bit of an argument the other day at dinner with Keo after you'd left. He didn't tell me all the details, though I gather he'd stopped trying to keep someone out and she caught him."

"I'd expect her to have been paying attention in that situation, yes."

"Oh, I'm not surprised it happened in the least - just a bit disappointed in Talyn. I've had to remind him several times a day to keep out of people's minds. He usually takes the prohibition to mean not actively entering. He doesn't see that it's his fault if he just listens."

"Hm."

"Maybe someday. He's certainly better than he was when I first met him."

Tekaal nodded.

More students began to arrive. Korulen and Lutan came in with Leekath. Ngen also turned up with a group of boys. Other students Rhysel couldn't identify filed in as well.

Keo turned up as well and took up a seat in the back, looking like she's there more to observe the students than the demonstration. She did, however, wave to Rhysel first.

Rhysel waved back to Keo. <I wasn't expecting to see you here, Keo. Just keeping an eye on things?>

<Kanaat's got some things he has to take care of in person, so I'm observing for him.>

<Ah, makes sense. Any last minute instructions or restrictions from him?>

<We'd like you and Talyn to both avoid using mind magic on anyone who hasn't explicitly volunteered. That's more because of Talyn than you, but we think it would be a good policy in general.>

Rhysel nodded slightly. <I'm going to be the target for most of his mind-magics, although I was planning on a general sending - like this, only to everyone in the room - to demonstrate the ability. Would you and he prefer I cut that from the list?>

<Warn everyone, tell them it's just like when they need to get ahold of me, and offer to let anyone who wants to opt out. I don't expect anyone will.>

<All right. I think it'd be better if I did that part, then.>

<Your call.>

Rhysel grinned at Keo, then moved to the front of the room, waiting a bit longer to see if anyone else showed up. She counted thirty-eight students attending, and no others joined them.

She gestured for Talyn to come down to the front; he joined her and stood near the table silently. When Leekath had entered the room, he'd excused himself from Kolaan and his friends, and gone to say 'hi' to Leekath and see how she was doing.

After a few more moments, waiting to see if anyone else will show, Rhysel said, "Looks like we've got everyone who's intending to show. Before I start the demonstration, are there any preliminary questions?"

Narax arrived belatedly, going up to sit beside Keo.

"Is he stuck too?" someone Rhysel had never met wanted to know, pointing at Talyn.

"No. Talyn Casten is simply here to assist with the demonstration; with the two of us, it means I can cover more workings than by doing so by myself. Ar Kithen will be returning him to my world later today."

An older boy raised his hand. "Are you going to be the only teacher in the entire department for this kind of magic?"

"No. Ar Kithen was granted the ability to do kamai a few weeks ago and he's been studying rather intensely. As it's a new program, we'll be team-teaching for at least the first term, as he's not as familiar with kamai as I am and I'm not as familiar with how teaching is structured on your world as he is."

"How is kamai going to fit into the tier system?" a girl asked.

"It will be separate from the tier system. You have to be at least the equivalent of eleven for a human, and more advanced classes will have prerequisites of more basic classes. In addition, those who study kamai here will either need to have sufficiently high grades to show they can handle the extra classes, or be here solely to study kamai."

There were no futher preliminary questions.

"All right then. Kamai, although it does technicially draw some energy from the surroundings, is primarily powered from within. It doesn't sting as wizard spells do. Instead, it causes one to feel tired. For instance, if I were to clear a field of large rocks by hand or by kamai, I'd feel exhausted either way, although less so by doing it via kamai. We call it drain. To help mitigate that effect and to allow time to recharge in between, I will be alternating with Talyn throughout the demonstration. If you have any questions along the way, I'll address them as we go along. Kamai falls into 5 disciplines: image, mind, death, wild, and elemental. Each of which we will be demonstrating, in that order."

She stepped to the center of the open area of the room. "Image kamai consists of workings that appear real but aren't - they don't project into one's mind, but operate through the senses. If, for instance, I were to create an illusion like so -" An illusion of a stratus-chaser appeared on the table next to her, slightly transparent. "A blind person couldn't see it."

"Image kamai isn't solely limited to visual illusion, however," she added, as the image of the stratus-chaser became opaque, looking more 'real'. "It can affect any of the senses. Would anyone care to come up and touch this illusion?" she asked, petting the bird briefly as she speaks.

A young human girl in the front row popped out of her seat and trotted up to stroke the illusory bird.

Rhysel let the girl pet the stratus-chaser for several moments before picking up an empty plate. After a moment, the plate appeared to be full of cookies. She gave the plate to Talyn who passed them out to anyone who wanted one, while Rhysel said, "Although there are ways to use kamai to determine if something's an illusion, a good illusion will stand up to any inspection. The cookies aren't real, so they won't provide any nutrition, but you can feel, eat, and taste them."

"That's awesome!" exclaimed a skinny teenage elf girl impulsively. Her friends chuckled.

Most of the audience took a cookie. The girl who spoke up helped herself to three.

Rhysel grinned. "When I was an apprentice, one of the other apprentices was allergic to strawberries, but loved the taste. She found it a good way to enjoy the flavor without having to worry about a reaction."

Once Talyn had passed out the cookies, he returned to the front, and took over doing magic while Rhysel continued to lecture. "Image kamai is largely used for entertaining." Talyn created an illusory band who played a tune unfamiliar to those present. She let the song finish before continuing. "It does have other uses as well, however. A skilled image kama can create messengers or set triggers that allow an image to interact with those nearby. Aside from emotional upset, though, illusions can't do any harm." Talyn created an illusory wall of fire which he calmly strolled through several times. He then created a very realistic looking tiger, sticking his arm into its mouth and letting it bite down hard. He removed his arm, showing that it was uninjured and the sleeve of his shirt undamaged.

A student raised a hand. "How does the magic distinguish between when to be solid - like the cookies - and when not - like the tiger?"

"The cookies aren't harmful - well, unless you were to start to choke, at which point it would no longer be solid. It's an inherent characterstic of image kamai - the illusion breaks down when it would harm something. For instance," she said, and conjured up an illusory brick wall, walked up to it, and rapped her knuckles on it audibly to show it's solidity. "It's solid, and will remain solid under any test I apply to it." She ran her hands along it, and bounced a hurled stone off of it. "Until it would be in a position to do damage." Talyn, from across the room, ran headlong at the wall , and passed right through it, while the stone Rhysel threw a second time bounced off the wall again.

"Does that apply to animals too?" asked the same student. "Or just people?"

"Animals too," Rhysel said. "Any other questions on image kamai before we move on to the next aspect?"

No one else seemed to have questions.

---

Home Table of Contents Dramatis Personae Setting Gallery News About Us Contact Us