Octave tilts her head slightly, her eyes still locked with Salaya's. Seconds, then minutes go by. Salaya's smile only grows broader. “Is this part of the training?” Salaya asks.

“No.” says Octave. “I have a better idea. We pick and complete the easy missions. We avoid danger and leave with honours.”

“Please, Octave, you said you'd do this last night. You promised.”

Octave sighs. The girl is determined and she can neither intimidate nor dissuade her. “What do you want to know?”

“How did you deflect Gills's magic?”

“What do you mean?”

“The lightning spells last night. From that mercenary, Gills. You deflected it.”

“That's a new way of putting it.”

“How though?” Salaya is practically jumping with excitement. Her shoes squirm on the courtyard tiles. “Come on, Octave. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat. I need to know this.”

“I suppose we'd better take a look then.” says Octave. “Come along.” They walk along the courtyard, Salaya running forward then waiting for Octave who enjoying the journey. “Look at that sunrise. Isn't it lovely?”

“Please, Octave.”

“Ok, ok.” Octave laughs then regrets it, but only a little. This seems important to her. “You've learned about negation magic, haven't you?”

“No, what is it?”

“It's not famous, but it's considered one of the neutral branches of magic. Unassociated. You know, like warding, or scouting, or teleportation.”

“You know teleportation?”

Octave rubs her temple. “Ye gods preserve me.”

Salaya's face falls. Her eyes scrunch up as though she's on the verge of tears, and her shoulders hunch. Then it passes as she her mind works. Salaya's face rises, her smile reappears, her eyes brighten. The unbridled optimism of youth reasserts itself. “Can you teach me how to teleport?”

“I thought this was about negation.”

“Right, right. How does that work?”

“The best way is to watch. You have colour magic. Use it on me.” Salaya takes a deep breath. Colour begins to outline her hands. The blast she fires fades from magenta to beige to air before it reaches Octave. “Give me another feeble attempt like that and I'll throw something back at you.” Salaya cowers in apology then gathers herself. She blows on her hands and blue fire streams out. Octave can almost taste this one: the heat, the intensity, the hiss of damp morning air. She smacks her lips. The fire spills off her outstretched hand, the separate scintillas dying in sputtering spurts. “Did you get that?” Salaya shakes her head. “Again then.”

“There are people watching.” warns Salaya. A couple other early risers are peering out a window. “What if they think we're fighting?”

“If they keep watching, shoot a fireball at them.”

Salaya gives Octave a reproachful look then shoots another stream of fire at her.

Many attempts later and Salaya is sitting on the ground panting. A great bird soars over the castle and forest. Is it an eagle? It must be an eagle. It hovers then dives. “I think I understand.” says Salaya. Octave looks down with surprise before remembering who she is. “The magic can't adhere to you. It's some sort of extension of natural warding, like rubbing grease on your hand to keep water from adhering.”

“That's a fair assessment.” says Octave. “But not quite accurate.” She casts about for a more suitable illustration. The eagle reappears and it doesn't seem to be carrying anything. Salaya is looking at her expectantly. How can this be so difficult? The more she understands a topic, the harder it seems to explain. “Do you know what a magnet is?”

“I think so.” Salaya looks up at the sky in remembrance. “It's some sort of magical stone that makes iron stick to it?”

“In a sense, yes. Magnets are imbued with an ancient and enigmatic magic, a magic predating the celestials.”

“I'm surprised you believe in celestials but not orcs.” titters Salaya.

“I don't. Belief is confidence in the face of ignorance. I know celestials exist.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Magnets do attract iron, but that's secondary. What magnets truly attract, are each other. They're like puzzle pieces striving to reconnect and lock into place together. The pull side of the magnet cannot meet another pull: that causes a repulsion. Two magnets will only attract from opposite sides, and that is the simplest and most effective form of negation magic. To 'deflect', as you put it, a colour attack, I gathered the beginnings of a colour spell in my arm and held it there.”

“So you can cast colour and fire magic too? And lightning?”

“Anyone can, but if I were to try it, my attempts would be no more impressive than any beginner. You don't need to cast it, only understand it and hold it still. Don't let the magic flow like a river, but accumulate and stagnate like a pond. Go ahead and try.”

Salaya closes her eyes until Octave can feel the magic coursing through her, but she shakes her head. “I don't know how. Magic is always in motion. That's what my teacher said.”

“I'm getting bored,” says Octave, “so let's try something indirect. Do you play chess?”

“Of course. I was best in my class.”

“Of course. I'm rather fond of it myself. Get a chess set and let's have a game.”

Salaya doesn't question Octave but leaves. After some delay she returns with a wooden board and box. “I don't have my own.” she explains. “I had to borrow this off Annya. Ooo, they're nice too.” She opens the box to find pieces carved of boar ivory and blackwood.

“Do you want black or white?” asks Octave as they find a small table at the edge of the courtyard and set up the pieces.

“White, I guess.” says Salaya.

“You'll play black.”

“That's mean, Octave!”

“Do you remember the bandit fight when you said you couldn't hear anything?”

“Yes. Is this connected?”

“We could work on your weak control of magic more directly, but this should prove more interesting for both of us. You can try it on your own time, but I'll show you a simple technique for practicing.” Octave places down the last pawn and rests her hands on either side of the board. “You're playing black because black has more choices to make. White takes the initiative with the first move, but black dictates the opening. Throughout the game, you're going to be gathering magic and holding it to the best of your ability. Don't release any; I'd hate for Annya's nice chess set to be destroyed.”

“That sounds hard but doable.” Salaya takes a breath and concentrates as Octave opens with a pawn.

“The Ogridor Gambit?” remarks Octave. “Why that?”

“It's, it's good.” struggles Salaya. “I, um...think.” Salaya's face twitches. Her hands tremble. Octave could reach out and dip her fingers into the rivulets of magic running past her temples, down her neck and arms, and evaporating from her fingertips. With a little effort, she could harvest the magic straight from the girl. How would it taste? Probably nervous.

“Stabilise your magic before you lose too much. Don't you care about efficiency?”

“I'm trying. Stop asking me questions.” Salaya trembles. “Check.”

“Now you've lost your sorcerer.”

“Check.”

“And an ogre.”

“I give up.” Salaya buries her face in her hands. “It's hard and I can't concentrate with you distracting me.”

“But you could hear me saying them, no?”

“I guess. I mean, not well. But barely. Is that progress?”

Octave shrugs. “Only you can know.” She resets the board.

Eje saunters over. “Are you up early again?”

“Not now, Eje, I'm concentrating.”

“Looks like you need to concentrate harder.”

“Thanks.”

“Ah, Eje.” says Octave without looking up. “Is Ariel around?”

“Probably. Should I leave? Salaya looks like she needs some space.”

“No, stay. I wanted to apologise for yesterday.”

“Why? Octave, that was amazing. I heard Ridgeway won't even be out of bed for days.” Eje makes a mock slamming motion at the wall. “Maybe weeks.”

“No, for what I said earlier in the day. I dismissed your claims and told you to see the world first. I used my age to lend my words authority and discredit yours.” She looks up from the board at Eje. “It's funny. People once treated me the same way, and I swore I would never do such a thing myself. But now it comes naturally. It must be part of growing old.”

“Don't worry about it.” says Eje. “I think we all have problems rationalizing morality, but so long as we try to do good, it's enough. But I'll let you two play.”

“No, keep talking; Salaya needs the distraction. You wanted to say more?”

“Well, what did you mean when you said we should look down on you?”

“Ah.” Octave leans back in her chair. “We've all done things we're not proud of.”

“How old are you, anyway?” pipes up Salaya.

“Older than I look, younger than you think. Watch out for your knight.”

“Well, we'll have a chance to atone for our crimes soon enough. There's a big orc hunt coming up. You'll believe in orcs by the end of it, I promise. And evil too, I think. In fact, wouldn't you agree that Ridgeway is evil for what he tried to do last night to Ariel?”

“Is he evil? What do you think, Salaya?”

“I can't think right now. Yes, sure, Ridgeway is evil. Or at least bad. Argh.” She attacks Octave's sorcerer in frustration.

“If you think so, consider this. Ridgeway was a bit of a hero at Bladesbury. He was most famous for staying behind to evacuate a village during boarder raids last year. He's saved lives, won awards for heroism, and helped train new arrivals to the guild free of charge. Still think he's evil?”

Salaya slumps in her chair. “I give up. Maybe we can try again tomorrow, Octave.”

“You know, instead of asking Octave to teach you some weird negation magic, you should have asked her to teach you teleportation.” says Eje.

“You know teleportation?” demands Ariel.

“I'll bet she does. Can you teach us?”

“Maybe Ariel.” Salaya and Eje give Octave indignant looks. “Get better at controlling your magic, then ask.”

“I'm not sure I believe that she does.” says Ariel.

“Suit yourself.”

“Wait, wait. Do you?” demands Ariel. “Can you teach me?”

“It's complicated.” says Octave. “I'm not a teacher. I can tell you how to teach yourself, but I can't stop you from trying to teleport everywhere and popping out at the bottom of the lake, or just losing your foot inside a rock. Train, master a branch of magic, then ask again.”

“Don't tell me I'm going to have to kill myself while playing chess too.” mutters Eje. Crestfallen, she examines the updated board. “At least we have merit points now. A whole eight. Which means we're still near the bottom. Of course Team Four is almost at forty by now.” They to one side as other people gather round to check scores and sign up for new missions.

“Explain this to me.” says Octave. “Why do you care about merit points?”

“It's a way of ranking the teams.” says Salaya. “We need to do more missions to earn more merit.”

“Yes, but to what end? Is there a reward for having the most points?”

“Erm.” Salaya looks at Ariel who shrugs.

“It's about pride.” says Eje. “And being at the top should allow us to take better missions.”

“I agree with Octave.” says Ariel. “I don't know if I like the idea of doing missions to unlock more missions.”

“Well, I'm signing us up for this one anyway.” states Eje. “A whole camp of orcs: should be exciting.” She wipes at the mission, but it remains. “Huh, that's odd.”

“It's a cooperative mission.” The girls turn around to confront this new speaker. “That means you can't have it all to yourself.” There's a curious individual standing behind them. Probably an acquaintance of the girls, Octave decides, but not one that they're thrilled to see. Salaya might be, or she might be hiding indigestion. “Hey, you must be Octave. I'm Brant, captain of Team Four.” His mouth contorts into an abnormally large grin and and he extends a hand. Octave waits until he puts it away. “I heard what you did to that mercenary thug, Ridgeway. Well, everyone has around the castle. Very impressive, if I do say so myself, but I think I could have taken him too. What'dya think?” He flexes and his sleeve bulges, possibly with muscle.

“I think your odds wouldn't have been good.”

“Well you got him, so you're stronger than you look. Another vigour mage?”

“No.”

“Anyway,” cuts in Eje, “We're signed up for the hunt. It's north, in the desolation.”

“Ugh, that sounds like a lot of hiking.” says Salaya. “I'll have to get some new boots.”