Chương 170: Chapter 165 - Magical Testing

Lessa had found Mister Alric's rooms were easier to tidy when he was not inside them. It was not because he made a mess deliberately or ordered her about while she worked. He tried to help sometimes, which always became its own problem. If Lessa lifted a stack of paper, he would remember something written near the bottom and begin searching through it. If she moved a cup, he would reach for it without looking and seem surprised when his hand closed on air. He also kept unusual things in ordinary places.

She had once found a clean shirt folded around a wooden box he had apparently been searching for since breakfast. Mister Alric had thanked her, taken the box, and left the shirt on the table. Today he was meant to be going out, which gave her enough time to clean before he returned and began finding new places for everything. Lessa carried a small basin along the upper passage with two folded cloths resting across it. Seren had given her the work that morning.

She reached the turn near Mister Alric's office as the door opened. He stepped into the passage wearing the grey jacket he used for meetings. His cloak was caught beneath one arm, a folded sheet occupied the other hand, and his hair looked as though he had remembered at the last moment. He looked toward the stairs before noticing Lessa.

"Good morning, Mister Alric," Lessa said, moving the basin against her hip while she lowered herself into a curtsy.

"You're getting good at that," Alric said, smiling as he adjusted the cloak beneath his arm. Lessa smiled as she straightened. When she looked up, his eyes were settled on a patch of wall somewhere beyond her left shoulder. Lessa had noticed him doing that often. With Seren, he could look directly at her while they discussed the household. He watched Vale whenever numbers got involved and Stromni whenever the dwarf began moving his hands. With her though, his attention rested somewhere beside her head.

At first, she had thought something was behind her. Now she understood it was another of Mister Alric's habits, but it was still much better than being stared at.

"Thank you, Mister Alric," Lessa said, tightening her fingers around the edge of the basin as she lowered her gaze.

"I was looking for you though," Alric said, shifting the folded sheet into the same hand as his cloak.

"Margaret would like to test you for magic, but you don't have to agree." Lessa looked up again, her head moving backwards quickly, "Magic?" she asked, drawing the basin closer against her waist.

"She wants to test a few of the staff," Alric said, keeping his free hand loose and hanging down.

"She saw you watching Battery practise? She thinks you might have some aptitude." Lessa remembered Battery standing in the courtyard practicing, she remembered the sense of wrongness. His magic had moved badly she thought, dragging through the air when it should have moved freely. She had known it was wrong before Margaret corrected him, although she still did not know how she had known. Margaret had looked at her then. Lessa had hurried after Seren and hoped that would be the end of it.

"What do you want me to do?" Lessa asked, watching the folded sheet in his hand instead of trying to find his eyes.

"Whatever makes you happy," Alric said, lifting one shoulder while his expression became faintly puzzled. Lessa waited for the rest of the answer, but Mister Alric appeared to believe he had finished. Answers were meant to take choices away until the correct one remained. His had somehow left all of them there. He glanced toward the window at the end of the passage. His eyes widened, and the cloak came free from beneath his arm.

"I'm late," Alric said, pushing one arm into the cloak as he started toward the stairs.

"Speak to Margaret if you want to. If you don't, that is also fine." He reached the first step before stopping, one hand going to the wall as he turned back toward her.

"You don't have to agree to lessons either," Alric called back, raising the folded sheet while trying to put on his cloak.

"A test is only a test."

"Yes, Mister Alric," Lessa said, inclining her head as he hurried down the stairs. He disappeared around the lower turn before he had finished putting on his cloak. Lessa remained where she was, the basin still held against her hip.

"The strangest things happen around that man," she murmured, shifting the basin to her other side while she watched the empty stairway. Only a few days earlier, a herbalist had stopped her near the kitchen and asked about her grandfather. The woman knew someone who might have known him, or perhaps knew someone who had heard of him. Lessa had not understood that part. She had answered the questions she could. Her grandfather had lived a long life but had been dead for years.

People did not generally appear in kitchens wanting to discuss him, and now mages apparently noticed Lessa while she was crossing courtyards. She looked toward the closed door of Mister Alric's rooms. The hearth needed cleaning, his wash water needed changing, and anything she found out of place could be put somewhere he might find it. She understood all of that, while magic had no place anywhere on that list. Mister Alric had said she could refuse, though.

He had said it once while speaking to her and then again while already late. That made it seem important, even if it had done very little to help her choose. Lessa returned the basin and cloths to the cupboard near the stairs. Leaving them in the passage would only mean someone else needed to wonder why they were there. Then she crossed the courtyard toward the room Margaret used for lessons. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The door to the lesson room had been left open. Margaret sat near the window with a narrow wooden board on the table in front of her. Two young girls occupied the chairs opposite, both dressed well enough that the cloth at their sleeves had probably cost more than Lessa's uniform. Each had a maid standing behind her, and their conversation stopped when Lessa reached the door. Both girls looked at her without attempting to hide it. One maid's attention moved from Lessa's hair to her face.

The other looked at her uniform, her hands and then her shoes. Lessa knew that sort of inspection, but knowing it did not make her feel any better. One of the girls gave her a small, curious smile. The other leaned slightly toward her maid, close enough to promise whispering later. Lessa lowered her gaze to a dark knot in the floorboard and stopped just inside the room.

"You must be Lessa," Margaret said, rising from her chair while she smoothed both hands down the front of her robes.

"Yes, Mistress Margaret," Lessa said, holding the side of her skirt as she gave a curtsy.

"Mister Alric spoke to you?" Margaret asked, lifting one eyebrow while she stepped around the table.

"He said you wished to test me?" Lessa replied, bringing her hands together at her waist as she straightened. Margaret looked toward the two girls. They both turned their attention to the board with enough speed to prove they had been caught doing something.

"The test is harmless," Margaret said, lifting her chin slightly as she gestured toward the table.

"It measures how much mana you can move into the crystal. It does not cast a spell, and it will not hurt you." Margaret continued speaking about capacity, control, training, age and the difference between moving mana quickly and possessing a great deal of it. Some people had more, some could use less better, and illness could change something about the result. The girl near the window whispered to her maid. Her maid bent closer, listened, then glanced at Lessa before answering too quietly for the words to carry.

Margaret had continued explaining while Lessa watched them. Lessa returned her attention to the movement of Margaret's sleeve and tried to find the place where she had stopped understanding.

"Have you received any magical training or been tested before?" Margaret asked, folding her hands together while she watched Lessa.

"No, Mistress Margaret," Lessa said, shaking her head as her fingers tightened against each other.

"Have you ever cast anything by accident?" Margaret asked, tilting her head while her gaze moved briefly over Lessa's hands.

"I don't think so, Mistress Margaret," Lessa said, keeping her gaze low, the only male in the room was Battery who seemed to be reading something, she let go a deep breath and felt her shoulders dip slightly. No might have been a better answer, but Lessa did not know what an accidental spell looked like. She had learnt to be careful with answers given to questions she did not understand. People often heard certainty as permission to become angry later.

"Come here, please," Margaret said, giving a small nod as she held out one hand. Lessa crossed the remaining distance to the table. Up close, the measuring device looked like a breadboard someone had fitted with jewellery. It was broad, flat and worn smooth around the edges. A purple crystal sat in a metal fitting near the centre, with small cloudy pieces set into the wood beyond it. They followed a spiral that curled outward across most of the board. Margaret took Lessa's hand and drew her closer.

Her fingers were warm and dry, the grip light but certain in the way of someone accustomed to people going where she guided them.

"Put your palm here," Margaret said, turning Lessa's wrist while she indicated the purple crystal with her other hand. Lessa placed her palm against it and felt something tug at her. She drew in a breath, but the sensation was familiar. It was the same quiet pull she felt from the heating stones that one time when she had been messing with the heating stones with Mara.

"Can you feel something?" Margaret asked, leaning closer while she kept two fingers lightly against Lessa's wrist.

"It is pulling at me," Lessa said, looking down as her fingers shifted over the smooth crystal. Margaret's fingers closed a little more firmly around her wrist. Not enough to hurt, but enough that Lessa noticed.

"Push into it," Margaret said, pointing toward the first cloudy piece set into the board while she watched Lessa's hand.

"Give it as much mana as you can." Lessa did not know what part of herself she was supposed to push. She tried anyway, pressing her palm harder against the crystal before realising Margaret could not have meant that. The tug continued beneath her hand while she tried to push toward the feeling instead. Her shoulders tightened, followed by her arm and then the muscles around her ribs. Everything about forcing the feeling felt wrong.

The heating stones did not need to be fought, they pulled when empty, and the easiest thing had always been to stop holding on. Lessa loosened her fingers against the crystal. She let the tightness in her shoulder go with them, then stopped keeping the rest of herself away from whatever waited inside the crystal. The purple beneath her palm warmed, and light appeared in the first cloudy piece, pale and small enough that Lessa wondered whether it had been there before.

The next one brightened while she watched, then another further along the spiral. Each little light seemed to find the next. The room had gone quiet again, but the silence had changed. Not even the soft movement of cloth came from behind her. Neither girl whispered, and even their maids had stopped pretending to look elsewhere. The pull beneath her palm slowly grew stronger. Lessa allowed it, watching the lights work their way around the first turn.

The movement felt clean, which was not a useful description but was the only one she had. Another light came on, followed by two more before Margaret lifted Lessa's hand from the crystal. The tug vanished as soon as Margaret broke the contact. Lessa flexed her fingers and rubbed her thumb across her palm, but there was no pain and no mark, she immediately felt a hollow feeling in herself, she became aware of her joints and pains she had long ignored. Margaret continued staring at the board for several breaths.

She took a deep breath, held it for a moment and released it slowly through her nose.

"Did I do it wrong?" Lessa asked, curling her fingers toward her palm while she looked at Margaret's face.

"No, not at all," Margaret said, drawing herself straighter as she adjusted the edge of one sleeve.

"That is more than I had when I started." Margaret continued looking at the lights. The answer had sounded reassuring, but she did not appear reassured. One of the girls whispered something. Her maid did not bend to hear it this time, which meant everyone else probably had as well. Lessa watched the lights fade from the outside of the spiral. The last few remained close to the crystal, growing dimmer but not disappearing at once.

"Is… is that all?" Lessa asked, rubbing her thumb over the place where the crystal had pulled at her.

"This test is," Margaret said, resting one hand against the edge of the board while she studied Lessa.

"I would like you to try another, but you may stop if you wish." Lessa looked toward the doorway. The courtyard waited beyond it, and nothing stood in her way. She could collect the basin, tidy Mister Alric's rooms and tell Seren that Margaret had finished with her. No one in the room had told her she must stay. The last light disappeared while Lessa was still looking at the door.

She found herself missing the pull once it was gone, not because it had felt pleasant, but because she wanted to understand why she had known to let it happen. She wanted to know about the heating stones too. She wanted to know why Battery's magic dragged through the air and why Margaret had taken such a long breath over a few lights on a board.

"One more test," Lessa said, looking back at Margaret as she smiled widely. Margaret smiled and reached beneath the table for a small wooden box. She lifted it onto the board and opened the lid while Lessa leaned closer, forgetting for a moment that the girls were still watching her.