The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (25 page)

Hayden began taking notes and attempting to recreate the sketch with his colored pencils so he could study it later. The ability to lock and unlock doors with magic…well, it seemed like a handy skill to have. He was determined to do his very best work so that Master Asher would give him permission to own and carry a green prism sometime soon.

Hayden was the only one in the entirety of Mizzenwald at present who could say that Prisms was his most relaxing class. He took notes and answered questions whenever he was called on, getting many more right than his classmates. When they were dismissed for lunch, Hayden waited behind to speak to the Prism Master.

“Yes, Hayden?”
Asher acknowledged him without turning his back away from Cinder and Horace, who had just flown into the room to join him for lunch.

“I was just wondering if I’m allowed to leave for the summer break, or if you’re going to continue our study sessions for the I.S.C.?” It was Lorn’s question that had given him the idea.

“I do a considerable amount of research during our breaks from school, so we’re going to have to halt our lessons until term resumes,” he answered without apology, and Hayden exhaled in relief.

“That’s alright, because there were things I wanted to do during the summer anyway.”

Now Master Asher turned to look at him. “Oh? Like what?”

“I wanted to go back to
Merina and visit someone at the orphanage…” he trailed off, embarrassed. “And I wanted to visit my father’s house.”

Master Asher looked only mildly surprised to hear about Hayden’s desire to see the old Frost estate.

“On the first, I wish you well. As to the second…well, you’ll need to stop in at the capitol in Kargath to get permission for that. They don’t let just anyone into the Dark Prism’s home—in fact, I don’t believe anyone except the Council of Mages are granted entry at present.”

“Why not?”
Hayden asked in shock.

I guess it was stupid to think they’d just leave the place open to the public…

“Hayden, the most powerful dark mage of the century used it as his base of operations. There’s no telling how much of his corrupted instruments and writings he left behind in that house, aside from what the Council has already uncovered and destroyed.”

“But if they’ve had years to search the place and they haven’t found anything else…”

“Well, yes, but you do understand that it takes a considerable amount of time to safely search the place? There’s no telling how many hidden caches Aleric had, or how many dangerous traps were laid for interlopers. I’m told they’ve already found several of each, though they may be done searching the place by now.” He shrugged. “Either way, you’ll need permission from the High Mayor to see the place without getting arrested.”

Hayden shuddered at the thought of being confined to lead Binders again, glad that he thought to talk to Master Asher before embarking on his journey. He thanked the Prism Master for the advice and then hurried off to his dormitory to wake Bonk for lunch.

***

Hayden was all packed and ready to set off for
Merina when he got the summons from Master Willow.

Wondering what in the world he could have done to deserve being chased down by the Master of Wands on the first day of summer break, he stared at the note for several minutes, tilting it towards the light as though determined to catch a forgery. The contents gave no clue as to what he was being summoned for. All it said was: come to the dining hall immediately.

Deciding he’d better do what he was told, he got dressed quickly in the dark without waking the others, slung his bag over his shoulder, and departed. Bonk settled onto his free shoulder until they were on the landing, and then he took flight and soared around the vaulted ceiling while Hayden continued down to the ground floor.

He passed several early-risers in the Pentagon, lugging their things out to the main courtyard in the hopes of getting out before the rush. Master
Reede’s mastery students were already setting up in the courtyard, pre-drawing a series of translocation circles and yawning in the early dawn light.

Hayden moved past the exit and continued on to the dining hall, where he was surprised to find himself alone with the remaining
three members of Team Mizzenwald. All of them looked just as confused as he was by the summons, and Hayden silently took a seat at the table they were all occupying. Masters Asher and Willow looked odd without their bright red robes on, like they could be any ordinary people.

“Good, you’re all here,” the latter greeted them. “I don’t expect this will take long, and then we’ll have you on your way home.”

“Excuse me, sir, but why are we here?” Reya asked uncertainly, halfway raising her hand as though she was in class.

“You are here because there have been some disturbing reports from several of your eliminated competitors
in the competition. Three of them are claiming that their magic failed them during the trials, resulting in their losses. They seem convinced that the source of this failure was externally-driven, rather than a simple loss of focus.”

Hayden’s mouth dropped open in surprise. He remembered hearing one or two people insisting that their magic hadn’t worked properly, but he hadn’t really given it any thought before now because it seemed ridiculous.

“Are you serious?” Oliver interrupted with a snort of derision. “We’re taking the word of people who
lost
? They’re clearly only crying about it because they’ve shamed their schools and don’t want it to be their own fault.”

Hayden quickly glanced around at the others to see how they were taking this. As much as he hated to admit it, Oliver did make a fairly compelling point. Master Willow frowned.

“That has also crossed our minds, you can be assured,” he replied tersely. “However, there has been enough concern raised over it that each of the schools has been tasked with assessing their contestants’ magical flow and assuring that there have been no artificially-induced interruptions.”

“Is that even possible?” Hayden asked quietly, aghast at the prospect of someone else messing with his magic.

It was Master Asher who answered him. “It is highly-unlikely, as there aren’t many ways to tamper with another person’s channeling, but yes, it is possible.”

The four of them digested that in silence for a long moment, before Oliver asked, “So how will you verify that we’re alright?”

“It’s simple, really,” Asher continued. “We’ll have each of you hooked up to the potentiometer, and you’ll cast a continuous stream of magic for a set period of time. At the end, it will tell us whether there have been any variations within your consistency, and whether they are internal or externally-driven.”

Hayden had no idea what a potentiometer was until the Masters led them out of the dining hall and through the main doors, wrapping around the side of the school where all of the supply shops were. It wasn’t until they entered the small cottage, off to the side of the normal
stores, that Hayden understood.

This was the place where his Foci were tested at the beginning of last year, where he’d learned that his magical conduits were so destroyed that he needed the largest correctors in the history of mag
e-kind to stabilize his magic. The table was still set up in the vast, empty space, the same as before. The giant glass lens was also propped up about halfway across the room, with the clamps fastened all around it.

That must be the potentiometer.

Oliver looked like he found this entire thing to be an exercise in futility, but he allowed the Masters to attach the other end of the clamps to each of his fingertips without comment. When he was all wired up, he turned to face the giant lens.

“Cast continuously for a full minute,” Master Willow instructed him, and Oliver nodded curtly and threw a pinch of emerald green powder into the air.

The lens turned the same color as the powder as Oliver cast at it, both hands extended out in front of him as he channeled his power. Hayden had no idea what spell he was casting, but supposed it didn’t matter. They waited in silence until one minute elapsed, and then Oliver dropped his hands and the lens returned to its normal transparency.

The Masters stepped around the side of the machine that normally cut down Focus-correctors, which was now obviously giving them some sort of summary of Oliver’s power.

“Overall, not bad,” Willow commented with a nod. “Consistent flow, steady power, very little fluctuation…”

“Except around the twenty-second mark.”
Master Asher pointed to a spot on the display. “You’re eventually going to have to get a corrector on your left arm, despite your determination to put it off as long as possible,” he chided Oliver, who grimaced.

“I’m
fine without it.”

“Asher is correct,” Master Willow added. “While you still don’t show much variation, it’s double the amount you demonstrated two years ago. It won’t get better on its own; you will eventually need a corrector.”

Hayden was privately delighted to hear that Oliver I’m-So-Awesome Trout needed Focus correction as well.

After some more grumbling from Oliver, the Masters called
Reya forward to take her turn with the potentiometer. As soon as she was hooked up to the clamps, she pulled out her oak wand with some difficulty and cast at the lens. A minute later she was pronounced clear, and Griff was called forward.

The others left as soon as their testing was complete, so by the time it was Hayden’s turn he was alone in the vast, white room with the Masters. He felt a flicker of unease as they fastened the clamps over his fingers, remembering what had happened the first time he visited this room. His channels were so badly warped that he cracked the lens, though it had obviously been repaired since then. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong, and that the Masters had saved him until last for that very reason.

“No need to be nervous, Hayden,” Asher assured him. “Just cast normally.”

Annoyed that his feelings were so obvious, he drew his clear prism (always his favorite for some reason), and cast Heat at the giant glass lens opposite him. Nothing happened to the lens, other than it flickered between the colo
rs of the rainbow while he cast at it.

He didn’t feel any different, just the steady flow of power leaving his body while he focused on the lens, his prism shrinking fractionally as it was slowly consumed. After the nervous anticipation, it felt a littl
e anticlimactic that nothing went wrong.

“No fluctuations at all,” Master Asher remarked while scanning the readouts. “You’re good to go. Guess this means that the others were making things up after all.”

Master Willow shrugged minutely, though he looked genuinely relieved.

“Well, I suppose you’ll want to be off now,” the Master of Wands addressed Hayden. “Do you have any exciting plans for the break?”

Hayden glanced briefly at Master Asher before answering. “I just thought I’d return to Merina for a day or two, and then set out for Kargath.”

“
Kargath?” Master Willow looked surprised. “I thought you’d have had enough of that place by now.”

Before Hayden could respond, the Prism Master said, “
Wil, can I have a word with you?” and Hayden, recognizing the dismissal, left them alone.

By the time he returned to his room to get Bonk and the rest of his belongings, his roommates were awake and finishing their last-minute packing.

“Oh good, there you are,” Zane greeted him. “I thought you’d snuck off during the night without telling me, and I was going to be quite irritated.”

“Sorry, I got a summons from Master Willow. He wanted to check my Foci and make sure there wasn’t a problem, since apparently other people in the I.S.C. have been complaining about magical tampering.”

His three roommates stared back at him in shock, so Hayden quickly added, “But don’t worry, they didn’t find anything wrong with any of us,” to reassure them.

“Hey, after you finish your other stuff, if you find yourself near Calypso, feel free to stop by and see me,” Zane changed the subject. “Seriously, my parents aren’t even a little scared of you anymore, and my sisters have been sending me letters for weeks trying to persuade you to bring Bonk back.”

Hayden snorted in amusement and glanced at his familiar, who must have understood Zane perfectly because he actually attempted to hide behind Hayden in the hopes of going unnoticed.

“We’ll see. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get from
Merina to Kargath, since I can’t do a translocation, so I’ll probably be on foot.”

Zane and Tamon grimaced sympathetically and finished gathering their things. They made their way back down to the main courtyard, where groups of people were already vanishing. Master Reede happened to call for the group going to
Merina just as Hayden was approaching the pavilion of translocation circles, and he shouldered his way through the crowds after saying goodbye to his friends one last time.

There were seven other people in the circle with him, most of them older students that he didn’t know, and between one blink and the next he found hims
elf standing by the fountain in the commons of Merina.