The Other Prism (The Broken Prism) (39 page)

“Hayden Frost, we meet again,” Calahan, the head of the Council of Mages greeted him gravely.

“I’d be fine if we saw each other a bit less often,” Hayden returned, earning a few gasps from the audience and a quiet chuckle from Master Asher.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Calahan agreed neutrally. “However, you know why you’re here today. As the sole witness to the events that transpired in the Forest of Illusions, you’re being called to give testimony for this assembly.”

“Why?” Hayden asked gently, taking an empty seat in the middle of the room that was clearly intended for him.

“Excuse me?” Calahan looked less-than-amused with him now.

“Why do you need me to tell you what happened in the Forest?”

“The Council has a right to know what transpired. It has been suggested that the Resonance Crystal may have been tampered with, causing the chain of events that led to the death of one of the participants,” he inclined his head towards Farrah’s family.

“You’ve told me why you have a right to know, but not why you
want
to know,” Hayden said smoothly, staring the man directly in the eye. Several of his teachers caught onto what he was doing, and Master Laurren even winked at him.

“I don’t see why it matters,” Oliver’s mother interjected. “You have been asked a question, and you will answer it.”

“It matters because you’re asking me to talk about something horrible, and I want to know why I’m being made to do it,” Hayden explained calmly. “Are you going to go back in time and fix things? Are you going to make sure this never happens again in future? When you learn to answer my questions, I’ll start answering yours.”

There was silence for a long moment, and Davis was giving him a strange look, devoid of arrogance or dislike for a change.

“Please,” Farrah’s mother spoke now, “We want to know what happened to our daughter.”

“That, I
believe,” Hayden nodded seriously, relenting. He might dislike the Council, but it would be wrong to take it out on Farrah’s family. “The trial started normally enough—well, a couple of people were sick, but I thought it was nerves at the time like everyone else.” He shrugged. “I ran around the woods for a while by myself, then I passed Davis and didn’t see anyone else until a giant reindeer pointed me to Darren. He was sick and said his magic wasn’t working. We decided to stick together until we could find a way out.”

It sounded so simple when he explained it like this. It was impossible to convey the rush of terror and adrenaline cou
rsing through him in the eerily-still, shape-changing Forest, even if he had wanted to.

“We came across Oliver, who was also sick and being chased by a boar. I got rid of the boar and we made our way towards the Resonance Crystal, thinking that the Masters of
Branx would be able to find us there.” Hayden frowned. “Both of them collapsed, and I heard someone else shout, so I went to check it out and the Forest changed on me. I knew I wasn’t in the boundaries of the trial anymore, but I couldn’t get back so I kept moving, hoping someone would find me.”

“The
interference with the Resonance Crystal prevented anyone from being tracked as designed,” the Master from Branx explained. “The five of us figured out something was wrong fairly soon, but we had to look for people the hard way since the crystal was worthless. We couldn’t even find the stupid thing to break it.”

Hayden nodded and went on. “I eventually ran into Farrah and Davis. We were trying to decide what to do when we were attacked by two chimaeras. Davis wasn’t able to use his magic, and Farrah was
struggling but still fighting. We put one to sleep and I used up all my prisms on the other, but couldn’t do more than slow it down.” Hayden frowned at the memory. “It was going to eat me when Farrah jumped on it, and it got her instead. She blew it up before she…before it could get Davis and I.”

A moment of silence and then
Calahan said, “It has been suggested that a student may have tampered with the Resonance Crystal in his or her determination to win the competition. Some even suspect it was you, as you were the only one able to command your magic when the others went down.”

“Everyone knows by now that there’s something weird about my magic,” Hayden scowled and gestured to his Focus-correctors. “These things got freezing cold when I went into the Forest, so they were obviously working against the effects of the crystal. If my channels were any less damage
d I probably wouldn’t have been able to use magic either.”

He carefully avoided looking at Master Asher as he explained this, though he couldn’t keep his eyes off of Davis. Davis was there when Farrah confessed to tampering with the c
rystal; he could kill her good name with one word.

“Frost didn’t do it,” Davis frowned without meeting his eyes. “No one did. The crystal probably just had a fault in it that got amplified inside the Forest.”

Hayden tried his best not to look surprised by this testimonial from one of his bitterest enemies. He had no idea why Davis was helping him keep the secret, other than the fact that even he might not be heartless enough to upset an already devastated family.

“He’s right. None of us would have messed with that crystal,” Hayden agreed.

“Very well, what happened next?” Calahan prompted him to continue.

“We were about to be attacked by the other chimaera when Master Asher found us,” Hayden lied easily. “He said he’d been hanging around to see how I was coming along, only he realized something was wrong and
came looking for us. He got rid of the other chimaera, and Cinder led us back to the Resonance Crystal where Oliver and Darren were.”

As Hayden was the only one conscious for this part of t
he story, none of his peers could suggest it happened otherwise. “After that we got out of the Forest as soon as possible.” He shrugged anticlimactically.

“You forgot to mention that you found the prism trophy,” the Master from
Isenfall observed evenly.

“It didn’t seem to matter.”

They asked about a dozen more questions of him, but Hayden stuck to his original story without adding embellishments, and eventually the group broke up to have their own conversations. Hayden fled the dining hall as soon as possible, eager to avoid Farrah’s family or anyone else who might want something from him.

He found himself sitting near the cliffs that overlooked the Gawain Sea with Bonk, throwing the red rubber weasel (severely mangled by now) over the edge and watching his familiar fly after it
. He had no idea how long he stayed there before Asher sat down beside him.

“Is everyone gone?” Hayden asked without turning his head.

“Yes, and about time.” The Prism Master sighed. “That was an unpleasant business, but you and Davis did a good thing back there.”

“Oh?” Hayden raised his eyebrows in interest.

“There was nothing wrong with that crystal before it was tampered with, and I think you both knew that,” Asher said gently, as though he already knew the truth.

“Farrah was a good person,” Hayden explained. “She made a mistake, because her stupid teacher was hounding her to win no matter what, but that doesn’t make her bad.”

“I agree. Death absolves us of sin. If she had survived, she would be in ruin; forced into Binders, her family name disgraced. In death she is remembered as a hero,” Master Asher said solemnly. “As a point of interest, her stupid teacher—as you call him—feels some sense of liability for what transpired, and is most aggrieved by it.”

“Good, he deserves it,” Hayden muttered angrily.

“Still, there would be nothing gained in apprising her family of the truth of things. You and Davis handled that very well.”

Hayden nodded.

“You wanted to talk to me about something privately,” Master Asher reminded him gently.

“Oh, right. I was wondering…is the Forest
of Illusions real, or not? It doesn’t seem possible that the surroundings could change the way they did, and I saw things…things that can’t be real…”

“That’s a question that mages have spent several hundred years debating, Hayden,” Asher explained. “The Forest is real enough, and the unstable magic in it allows for the bending of space—and occasionally time—so that you may take one step and end up somewhere completely different than where you started.”

“I saw my mother,” Hayden blurted out. “I saw her standing by a swing, like the one we used to have at home, and she said I was like my father, and that she didn’t want me to be like him…she was disappointed in me. Then she turned into a cobra and tried to kill me.”

Master Asher frowned and said, “I
personally believe that everything in the Forest is real, but not all of it is current.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “I too have seen things that weren’t there while inside the boundaries, but they’re all things that came from inside my head, my memories and fears reflected back at me.”

Hayden contemplated that in silence for a moment.

“So you think I was seeing my own thoughts?”

“I think a part of you i
s worried that your mother would not be proud of you if she could see you today, and the Forest projected that back at you. The cobra was probably always there, but you couldn’t see it until the image of your mother cleared.”

“It was a very strange place.”

“Yes, it is. Most people don’t like it and avoid it entirely. Unfortunately, it’s a trove of power and magic, so our research frequently takes us there.” Asher sighed.

“How come the creatures there seemed so…smart? The reindeer pointed me towards my teammates and it understood everything I said to it. And the chimaeras were much more powerful than I think they should have been.”

“That’s because magical creatures are at their most powerful inside the Forest. You saw Cinder; he was able to scramble the chimaera’s brain with nothing more than a shriek,” Asher explained. “All magical creatures can trace their origins to the Forest of Illusions at some point down the line.”

“Is that why Cinder knew the way out?”

The Prism Master smiled and said, “Yes. Bonk would have known the way out as well; all magical creatures can navigate the Forest perfectly. It’s why you should make it a habit to never return there without Bonk or some other loyal creature with you.”

If only I
’d been allowed to bring Bonk with me for the championship, I might have gotten everyone out alive.

“Well, I’d better leave you to your musings. I’ll try to have my father pick up a new chew toy for the dragons over the holiday; that one looks about done in.” He eyed the remnants of the weasel with a grimace. “Oh, yes, I also wanted to tell you that final grades have been posted.” He handed Hayden an envelope identical to the one he’d received at the end of last year.

“Oh, thanks.” He accepted it, waiting until he was alone again before opening it and scanning the results.

Final Exam Results – Frost, Hayden

E- Excellent, G- Good, M-Mediocre, U- Unsatisfactory, D-Disgraceful

Next term qualifications in ( )

Wands: E (L-4)

Conjury: U
(Comments: Thank you for dropping my class and saving me the hassle of booting you out—Reede.)

Charms: E (L-2
)

Healing: G (L-4
)

Elixirs: G (L-3
)

Prisms: E (L-4
)

Not too shabby,
Hayden allowed with a small smile. True, his Conjury grade was terrible, but he’d been prepared for that for months now, and would be dropping it in exchange for Abnormal Magic next term anyway.

He sat out there for a while longer with Bonk, watching his familiar chew on the mangled rubber weasel until it was completely unrecognizable, which seemed to please the little dragon.

Eventually he got up and made his way back to the school. He hadn’t even begun packing his bags yet for the winter holiday, partly because he hadn’t yet figured out whether he would be staying at Mizzenwald or going somewhere else.

“About time you came back,” Zane greeted him when he entered their room. “I was about to send a search party after you.”

“Sorry, I was out by the cliffs playing fetch with Bonk,” Hayden sat down in front of his desk, tidying it up and throwing away old homework assignments to prepare for the next term. He noticed that Zane’s belongings were already packed to travel, along with Conner and Tamon’s.

“That explains why Bonk is looking so cheerful,” his roommate observed. “He always gets that superior look on his face when he’s asserted dominance over the rubber weasel.”

Hayden chuckled and said, “Yeah, he chewed it to death before we came in. Asher said he’s going to have Torin get him a new chew toy.”

“You’d better hurry up and get packing, or you’re going to miss all of the early translocations tomorrow morning.”

Hayden frowned thoughtfully. “I haven’t decided yet whether I’m staying here or not,” he admitted. “At some point I’m going to tour my father’s house, but after that I’ll probably just come back here.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Zane countered immediately, “You’re coming to stay with my family again until next term starts.”