“Ready?”

Busby’s voice barely penetrated the roaring crackle of the shell of fire surrounding me, without magical enhancement I doubted that I would have heard it at all. The sound obstruction was turning out to be the big downside to using fire as the base of my defenses. I had sorted out how to make the flames more transparent and less distracting to see through, but I was having a lot of trouble getting the sound under control.

I gestured to him that I was prepared, then I focused my senses to be as tuned as I could waiting for the assault that would come from any direction or angle. Busby stood in the same spot, arms leisurely at his sides with his eyes trained on me, he was experienced enough to perform all the necessary magic without giving away that he had anything to do with it.

The first bolt of energy flashed out of the corner of my eye and I immediately thrust my magical might into solidifying the fire shell where I predicted it would hit. The bolt hit and the fire roared and crackled, illuminating the room with a brilliant light. Just as I was about to divert the power back out of that area to wait for the next attack, a bolt sliced through my shell from the opposite direction and prickled electrically across my skin as it intentionally barely grazed my chest and pierced an exit through the other side of my shield. Letting out a frustrated growl, I coalesced my power back into the core of my body and sent it hurdling into the stone below me.

Busby made a humming noise, but said nothing, knowing it was best to let me have a moment to cool down before telling me exactly where I was failing. Though I was nearing the limits of his instruction, there were still areas we were finding during training that were turning out to be larger gaps in my knowledge than either of us anticipated. It was nothing that couldn’t be overcome with effort and practice, but it was irritating to have my so-called graduation from his tutelage be pushed farther and farther back. I knew that any non-magic user or most magic inclined humans would not be able to stand up against me, but there were much bigger fish in the sea out there and as a monarch desiring to take land and kingdoms, I needed to be prepared for the worst that could be thrown at me. When war eventually came I understood that the demons would do much of the heavy lifting, regardless I should be prepared to lend a hand or defend myself should the time come where I was backed against a wall.

“It’s the noise issue,” Busby said with certainty, “and the light from the impact. I sent that one with both the buzz into existence and it glowing.”

“So now it’s two problems,” I grumbled. “It seems like every time we do this it’s something else.”

“Such is the way with training for magical combat.” A smile spread across the trainer’s aged face. “Perhaps if we had started with combat in mind from the very beginning of your training then it would be a bit easier, but we can’t go back and change the past, only work towards a different future.”

“What was my grandmother even training me for then?”

“Oh, Evonia was all about being able to have a flashy show of power and being just deadly enough to dissuade anyone from testing her on it. Don’t mistake my words, she was a very powerful sorceress, but in an actual battle field she wouldn’t have fared well, the term glass cannon comes to mind.”

“Glass cannon?” I asked. I hadn’t heard of such a term before.

“Devastation if she got a shot in, but would have gone down quickly if targeted by anyone,” he explained with a grin. “It was one of the things we first argued about when she brought me here to start training her children. She refused to go through any extra training herself even though I told her that she would be caught flat footed in an actual confrontation. A pity really, she could have probably wrecked devastation on a kingdom or two had she focused on refining her powers.”

I furrowed my brow in thought, I couldn’t bring to mind a single time I had seen my grandmother use her powers outside of the glamour she wore every day. She had threatened to use them a few times to various servants or guests that she felt were showing disrespect, but it had always ended with her extending mercy.

“She refrained from using her affinity magic unless it was strategically planned out,” the trainer explained as if reading my mind. For as skilled as I knew the man was, he likely had. “It was a fickle power set that had long reaching effects and wasn’t apparent unless it was horrifically so. For the most part she was content to have people thinking that glamour was her specialty like Mari.” He looked at me and let out a chortle. “Knowing Evonia she never even told you the extent of her powers.”

“You knew her well,” I confirmed.

Busby shook his head and motioned for me to follow him as he hobbled over to the two chairs near the entrance to the private training room. I had ensured they had been brought it specially for him, the subject had not been broached yet, but it was obvious that at some point in the near future a new tutor would need to be sought and arranged for. I didn’t particularly like the idea, but it seemed that part of being a monarch was accepting that you would have to eventually find replacements for the people who once guided and molded you.

“I figured she would have kept mute on the subject, she had it in her head that keeping information to herself, even if it could be important for the kingdom at large gave her more leverage and power.” He motioned respectfully for me to sit first, then sank into the other chair with a gruff sigh of relief. “I shudder to think just how many secrets died with her, it was perhaps her biggest weakness, if you’re up to taking advice, I would suggest not following the same path.”

“I’m still finding out things I should have known long ago.”

“Precisely and I’m sure that you will continue to uncover things for untold years to come. If I were you I’d pressure Mari as well to tell you anything she knows and has been keeping mute on. Staying silent was a trait they shared and Mari is likely to try to keep any of Evonia’s secrets she still knows to herself out of a sense of duty. Anyway, what exactly was I talking about? I sometimes lose track now days.” He rubbed his forehead and frowned slightly.

“Evonia’s magical affinity,” I gently reminded.

“Ah, right, so I was not the one to train her, of course, we were about the same age when I came here, but I did make it a point for her to tell me about it in case it had any bearing on the ability of her lineage. Family trees are fickle when it comes to passing down affinities, it seems to depend on when, where, and why the family line came into the ability to harness magic and I quite honestly am not entirely sure how magic came into your line, that I could not get out of her. Regardless, before I get on too much of a tangent and never find my way back, her affinities lay in biological manipulation.”

“Biological?” I questioned. “Things to do with the human body?”

“Any body really, though humans did seem to be more susceptible to her powers, and I assume plants might have been able to be manipulated at well, though I don’t think she had ever been very interested in exploring that possibility. I believe my original point was that she had the capacity to cripple someone or stop their heart on a whim, a terrifying prospect for your enemies if they knew about it. I’m not sure anyone outside of myself and Mari may have known about it, perhaps her children. She could do it with just a glance as well, always unnerved me whenever I would see her looking at someone when she was annoyed. There were a few sudden deaths of some servants that I know grated on her nerves to have around, one died in their sleep, a few others can down very poorly, very suddenly with an illness that did not spread beyond them. I’ve always wondered if she actually used her powers more than anyone realized.”

That would explain why Evonia had been so confident that the twins would not launch something against her, I would have tiptoed a bit more around her had I known that she could have ended my life at any moment without much recourse. She had to have understood that the threat would die out with her though, as potent as it was, which made it all the more irritating that she hadn’t considered it important to inform anyone else about her children’s treachery and their progress beyond Mari. I wondered what else Mari knew that she was keeping secret still, there had to be more and I had let it slide a little too long. It was becoming more clear that Mari still owed more allegiance to her dead sister than to the current monarch. On some level I understood and admired her loyalty, but the House Yser would continue to function beyond anyone one person’s reign and it was imperative that secrets were not kept from those who hold the throne. Surely with a conversation and some encouragement to see reason Mari could agree and start to reveal those secrets to me.

“I suppose there is no use in worrying about it now,” he said, rising from his chair, “we should get back to work now instead, we don’t have much time to waste, the morning comes all too early these days.”

I took my place once again in the center of the training room and opened myself as a conduit to the power of the stone beneath my feet and feeling the warmth of all the candles currently burning around the castle. I felt their embers reach out to me through the stone, flowing towards me and climbing up my body through my feet, swirling in my core a gentle crackling sensation extending from my core to the very tips of my fingers and toes.

“This time let’s try to have you focus on manifesting the quietest fire possible,” he instructed. “We’re not going to worry about shaping it or making it any sort of barrier or weapon, just will it into existence as quietly as possible.”

With an extension of effort I sent tendrils of my will to the nearest candle on the wall behind Busby and coaxed the flame to dance down to the ground between the trainer and I. I stoked it to grow bigger and more intense while simultaneously focusing on the image of a soundless candle flickering in the night. Though quiet as it burned on the wall, as soon as the fire grew to an appreciable size it began to crackle like it was a fueled hearth. Frustrated, sweat trickled from my brow as I pushed back against the sound, straining effort into the blaze in an attempt to dampen the sound. My efforts helped and the crackles and pops muted a bit, but it was admittedly not much quieter than what I had been able to manage thus far.

My trainer stared at the blaze and let a long hum out from between his lips, nodding his head along to some conversation he was having in his own mind. After a careful study of what I was able to manage, he placed his hands together, then slowly spread them apart, signaling me to expand the fire even bigger. I complied and was immediately annoyed by how much louder the inferno suddenly became despite my continued efforts. He gave one final nod and waved his hand, instructing me to send the fire away to the ether.

“We have some choices to make,” Busby said, still staring where the fire used to be. “I think we might have been going about this the wrong way for a bit, which is admittedly my fault, I am not overly experienced dealing with fire. My theory is that you are going to always struggle to manipulate physical fire to your will because it’s in its nature to be chaotic.”

“Demons seem to manage it,” I commented. “Mistra has explained to me that it’s a common demon power, even for the lower powered entities.”

“She is correct, but it’s a different kind of fire, they tend to work with elemental fire,” he explained. “It’s a bit different and it makes sense why you wouldn’t have started out being inclined to summon it, it just doesn’t tend to exist in the human realms on its own. In fact, I would doubt that you would have come in close contact with it before unless you’ve spent much time in the demon realms.”

“I haven’t, I tend not to linger long, I feel that my visits to Rafe are usually delivering bad news and it’s wise to leave quickly after.”

“Well I think it’s time to consider a visit and some magical exploration. I do think that given enough time and intense training you could master physical fire to bend to your will and exact specifications, but it will take a lot of intense work on both our parts and quite frankly, I’m already spread thin between training the girls during the day and our evening sessions together.” He rocked back on his heels in thought. “I suppose you could find another trainer and devote part of your days to training as well, that would speed things up. However, seems that it would be much more streamlined to go and check if your current affinity would also work with elemental fire, then work out how to make it work in this realm as well.”

“That simple?”

“No,” he laughed, “nothing to do with magic is ever simple, but I think it might be the less convoluted path to what you want to achieve.”

“I can arrange for a trip,” I agreed, “should not be too difficult.”

“Good, I will make a few contacts and see who might be a good fit to be a trainer while you’re there.”