part0005

“We are almost done with this structure!” I exclaimed, admiring the structure that surrounded our dueling square made of mud and clay that we dug out from the ground and Walter used a melding spell to meld the earth elements together. “I never thought we would finish this enclosure so quickly!” I enthused.

Turning to Walter, I complimented, “Walter, I had no idea your ritualistic magic would come in handy with building this structure around our dueling square,” I remarked to Walter while he constructed one of the final bricks from the dugout ground and placed it on the top of the wall, completely enclosing a dome over the circular, depressed ground that we had stumbled upon from Kyna’s suggestion.

The notion that Walter finally pulled his weight within our group lightened my concerns over him being a contributing member of our team. Yves confirmed my sentiment, “Walter, you have made these mud bricks much quicker and sturdier than I ever could.”

“I never realized that I found my calling by utilizing the woven threads of rituals and nature. But it is like I am one with the natural elements when I perform ritualistic magic,” explained Walter. Over the weeks, his demeanor had changed from trying to be an offensive mage into a peaceful, Druid-like ritualistic master. He added, “Once I stopped fighting my calling, that is when everything fell into place. I can perform magic by engaging the rituals to do things that I never thought I could.”

I confirmed, “We are now done with building this structure much quicker than I anticipated, and it’s all thanks to you!”

Upon inspection, I was not certain. The spells that I had delved into, the ones not taught by this Mage Order and Draererth were much more powerful than I had anticipated. However, it was exactly the path I needed to forge in order to defeat the evil Demon Lord. “Cecily, I believe you have a point, when we begin dueling, I don’t think this structure will hold in the energy for that,” I replied.

Yves added, “Ed, your power has increased! And you are sharing how you channel that power with us, which makes our duels more intense than before. We will blow this structure to smithereens and it will crumble on top of us.”

I contemplated the type of force that we needed to counter the energy that would emanate from an emotionally charged duel, and immediately the force of the invisible barrier came to mind. The barrier that protected this school from bands of roving orcs, the barrier that made this area of Draererth invisible to those who passed by. The barrier that made it impossible for energies to enter unless they had the code, that was the type of force we needed to protect us. “We need to talk to speak with our instructors and find out how we can create a barrier surrounding our structure to hold in our mage duel energies,” I suggested.

Yves chimed in, “Well, let’s speak with our instructors after our next classes and let’s see if we can come up with a way to have a force shield barrier to hold in the power from our mage duels.”

“Fabulous idea!” I affirmed.

I approached her after all of the students left. “Mistress Lathurna,” I started.

“Yes, Edward. By the way, your dueling spells have vastly improved,” she replied.

I was caught off guard by that remark. “Oh! Thank you,” I replied, a smile coming across my face.

“What can I help you with?” Mistress Lathurna asked.

“Well, remember I asked you about a location for where I could practice my spells for duels?” I asked.

“I sure do. Obviously, you've been working on them, because you are much better,” she replied.

“Well,” I interrupted, appreciating the compliment. “My friends and I made a structure to enclose the area, so we can work on our spells in secret, but the structure will not survive even one duel,” I explained.

“I see,” she said in response to my admission of what I had been up to the last couple of weeks. “So, what are you asking?”

“We figured that if we could generate a power to enclose our structure, that would hold in the magical power that would generate from our duels,” I explained.

“You would like to create a barrier trike the one we have around our school?” Mistress Lathurna asked, not seeming to know what I was referring to or getting at.

“Right!” I exclaimed, excited she caught on to my idea. A smile came across my face. I was fairly certain my idea would work.

“To generate that magical power, it would take a large magic pool,” Mistress Lathurna explained. “And, Edward, to be frank. You do not have that type of magical pool. Not even close,” she added.

I did not appreciate how she reinforced the shallowness of my magical pool; however, I was already aware of the fact that I could not supply enough magical energy to keep up a barrier.

Mistress Lathurna thought about my request for some time. She then aid, “Edward, you are going to need a continuous spell.”

“A continuous spell?” I asked. I had never heard of such a thing, but it was definitely something that I needed.

“Right!” she stated. “You need a continuous spell. That would keep the barrier up.”

“Where do I get a continuous spell from?” I asked.

“Great question!” Mistress Lathurna exclaimed. “I have no idea!”

“Oh!” I replied. “I am hoping you would know where I would get one from.”

“I'm sorry, Edward. I don’t,” she replied, putting her head down.

“Well, how do they power the barrier?” I asked.

“Great question!” Mistress Lathurna said once more. I was afraid she would not know the answer once again. She started, “I don’t know the nitty gritty, but I know of a mage who does.”

“You do?’ I clarified.

“Yes, he is in the classroom in the next wing over. His name is Dubh. He’s a wizened old mage,” Kyna emphasized. She pulled down her glasses to the bridge of her slender nose and whispered, “You may have to shout. He’s hard of hearing.”

My eyes lit up after hearing that there was a professor at Draererth who specialized in magic pools. “That’s great news!” I shouted. I nearly ran out of the classroom, before I turned and shouted over my shoulder, “Thank you, Mistress Lathurna!”

I sprinted down the newly re-built checkered marble floor, over to the next wing over from Mistress Lathurna’s classroom. As I made my way down the wing, I looked for an elder wizard. Peering in the open doorways while I rapidly passed by, I overheard a conversation between an instructor and a senior student.

“Huh?” the older voice came from inside the classroom. “Speak up, no one can hear you when you mumble.”

“I am shouting as loud as I can,” replied the younger voice.

“Ah! All right, what is now that you want? And don’t swallow your words this time!” the older voice shouted. I could see a short human, shrouded in white robe with elaborate gold embroidery. His hood was down, allowing his bald head with gray, long side hair falling around his shoulders. The hair resembled a clown from my previous life. He also had a long gray beard and wore thin wire spectacles on the bridge of his nose. He looked at what appeared to be a report on the barrier as he leaned over his desk set in the front of the classroom.

“Professor Dubh, the sensors on the barrier were triggered earlier this morning,” resumed the younger voice.

“Huh?” Dubh replied, cupping his hand around his ear. “You need to speak up.” Dubh continued looking at the large sheet of parchment paper while the senior student looked over his shoulder.

I could not bear to watch another exchange between these two, so I barged into the classroom. “Who enters?” Dubh asked, appearing startled by me entering his classroom while he tended to the intricacies of the barrier.

“Sorry to bother you, Professor Dubh. My name is Edward. Edward MacAra. I asked Mistress Lathurna about the barrier, because I would like to make one for a special project that I am working on, a structure if you will. I would like to protect it with a barrier. Mistress Lathurna said that you knew all about barriers,” I explained, making sure to speak very loudly and slowly so Dubh could hear me.

“Look, Manfred. This young man knows how to enunciate.” The old mage looked at me from head to toe. “Mistress Lathurna is quite beautiful, isn’t she,” said Dubh while he resumed his focus back to the parchment paper.

“She is a great instructor,” I replied.

“So, you want to know about barriers?” Dubh asked.

I nodded and replied, “Yes, yes I would!” I became eager and excited by getting the answers on how to power a force such as a protective barrier.

Dubh turned to me and replied, “Well, that is an advanced course. I teach it every year. It’s called, The Pools of Power.” He turned back to his paper and continued, “It will be a long time before you need to worry about power pools.”

Once again, I felt a flood of despair come over my body. “Gees, can’t I get a break?” I shouted, not aiming my request to anyone in particular. My shoulders slumped while I turned to head out of the classroom. “Thanks for your time,” I muttered.

“Wait!” Dubh shouted. “I know what it is like to feel like the entire universe is against you. There’s something you could do before you are able to take on such an advanced course.”

“What’s that?” I asked, turning back around.

Dubh zeroed in his spectacles right on me, I felt like I was going to burst into flames his laser-like focus pierced through the center of my forehead. “Think of power pools like naturally occurring springs of water, except instead of water, it is magic power,” started Dubh.

I nodded, trying to grasp this concept, my mouth gapped open.

Dubh continued, “If you use ritualist magic, you could siphon the power from the pool to work static spells.”

“I didn’t realize the young were hard of hearing as well,” said Dubh to Manfred.

“I heard you, I just didn’t understand,” I answered.

“Let me try this again,” started Dubh. “At this moment in time, you do not have the ability to run a constant spell from your shallow magic pool.” I nodded, despite being reminded yet again how shallow my magic pool was, this was becoming a sore subject for me. “But rather than go that route, you can tap into ritualist magic.” I nodded once more, but this time, I was not certain how ritualist magic tapped into the magic power pool.

“Why is that?” I interrupted.

“Ah! You don’t understand the power of rituals! Let me explain. By utilizing rituals you are able to tap into that power pool we’ve been talking about while expending the energy only necessary to complete the ritual. The rituals will take you longer to cast rather than the way I’m sure you use to, which is spell visualization and rune manipulation. That way takes up a ton of energy. But it’s much shorter time to cast. So, once you cast the ritualist spell, it should be a long running spell. The spell will siphon off power from the magic pool like a spring since you want to cast a static spell. Then the protective magic will flow and protect your, uh, structure, you said?” Dubh asked, looking confused as to what I needed this constant, protective barrier for.

“Right, it’s a structure where I must practice spells,” I explained.

“Well, why don’t you train in the dueling squares? They’ve been rebuilt very nicely. That’s what they’re there for, to practice your magic,” countered Dubh. “I don’t see why you are making this so complicated?”

“It’s a long story,” I refuted, confirming to myself that this structure along with the protective barrier was exactly what I needed to hone the spells not taught by this Mage Order. “But I understand this ritualistic deal now. Thanks! It’s just like electricity!” I shouted, comparing this magic pool concept to electrical power from my previous life.

“Like what?” Dubh asked.

Realizing my error in comparison, I hastily retreated, “Oh, you must have misheard me, rituals tap into a source of vitality!”

“Right, very good. I’ve told you all that you need to know for now. Now, I must get back to figuring out why are report came back with an error on the school’s barrier,” replied Dubh as he turned back and poured himself over the parchment paper with tiny calligraphy.

“Who writes those reports?” I asked.

“Our Abjuration Mages run diagnostics on the barrier to ensure it is performing properly. Then they have scribes who produce the data from the tests. It appears that we had an attack early this morning, but nothing seemed to have set it off. The barrier usually doesn’t behave like this. I must get to the bottom of it. Now get along,” explained Dubh as he waved his hand for me to exit his classroom.

“Thank you Professor Dubh!” I shouted while I ran out of his classroom to find Yves, Cecily, and most importantly, Walter.

I ran across campus, over to the structure. There I found inside the structure, Cecily, Yves, and Walter practicing some of the spells I had shown them that I wanted them to work on. “Careful!” Cecily shouted as she cast Lightning Chain at Yves and saw the ceiling started to crumble and a few pieces fell, missing Walter who stood and watched.

Walter seeped out of the way while he ducked, “Gees, Cecily! Not again,” said Walter, appearing frustrated at the product of his ritualistic magic.

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but I have good news! Let’s gather around and figure this out,” I interjected the duel. The three came over to me. “Cecily, that Lighting Chain is looking good!” I commended Cecily while turning to her and patting her on her back.

“Ed! Glad you’re back. We’ve been waiting for you. Did you find out anything about protective barriers?” Walter asked. “I’m getting tired of dodging clumps of mud that fall from our ceiling. I’m watching all my hard work come crumbling down. We’ve been anxiously waiting for you to come back.”

“I did,” I confirmed with confidence. I knew my friends were waiting for me to come and save the day. They never seemed to get anything done without me. “And, Walter, if it wasn’t for you and the way you’ve taken on ritualistic magic, we wouldn’t have a safe place to practice these banned spells.”

“He’s right, Walter. You really got us to be able to practice things in a secure area,” relented Yves, who normally did not like giving Walter compliments. “Ed, what did you find out?” Yves asked, turning to me.

“It isn’t about magic pools, is it?” Cecily spoke before I could begin to explain what Professor Dubh had told me.

My eyes lit up at the notion that she had already figured out about the magic pools, “That’s right!” I confirmed. “Cecily, how did you know that?”

“I asked my professor about it after class this morning. I already told Yves and Walter about the magic pools,” explained Cecily. “We know we have to tap into it with some rituals. That’s what Walter agreed to do. We were just waiting for you to come back,” answered Cecily.

“Oh, so you guys already know all about magic pools, and the ritualistic magic we must cast to siphon some of the magic off,” I clarified.

“That’s right!” Yves affirmed. “Walter set up the siphon already. Like Cecily said, we were just waiting for you to come back so we could start it.”

I had no idea my friends were so resourceful without me. I thought I would be leading the charge on this, but it turned out that they did not need me at all. “Well, let’s see what you guys have done,” I suggested.

Yves started off, “Follow me,” she said while she motioned for me to follow her outside. The four of us followed her to the exterior of the structure. She continued, “So, while we were waiting for you to return, Cecily came up with a plan that her and her professor worked on to help us set up the continuous protective barrier around our structure. When she returned with the instructions, we enlisted Walter to create the siphon by using his ritualistic magic. It only took him around an hour to complete.”

“So you guys have done all of this without me?” I asked. Their resourcefulness was definitely surprising.

“Well, yeah. We did all of this without you. We were actually hoping you found a different way that would be easier. It’s perfectly all right if you didn’t. Cecily explained that we don’t have deep enough magic pools yet. She said something about an advanced course that we were not ready for just yet,” explained Yves.

“That is exactly what I found out as well,” I replied. “Show me what Walter constructed.”

Yves led me around the other side of the structure. “Cecily figured out that we did not need to even be on top of the magic pool in order to use it?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Cecily found out that we only need to be close to the magic pool that Draererth sits on. It will make this structure look less conspicuous,” explained Yves.

“Very interesting. And I am impressed that you guys figured out all of this and set it all up. Really, great job!” I commended.

Yves retorted, “Ed, I know you think we can’t do anything without you, but we have learned a lot from you. We are better wizards for it.”

Yves’ words did mean a lot. “Where is Walter? I must ask him some questions,” I replied.

“He’s over there with Cecily,” answered Yves.

I walked over to where Cecily and Walter were talking. “Hey Walter, great job on constructing the siphon. I heard it took you some time to make,” I started.

“Yeah, it did. But this ritualistic magic comes so easy to me, I really enjoy doing it,” answered Walter.

“So is it working yet?” I asked.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” I asked.

“We were waiting for you. I have the magic circle drawn, but it’s not complete yet. Once I complete it, the siphon will start to drain and then take some of the magic off from the pool.”

“I did not realize how useful ritualistic magic was,” I admitted.

“Here, let me show you,” said Walter, while he motioned over to me. He led me over to where he performed his ritualistic magic at the edge of the Enchanted Forest right before the protective barrier of the school. There I saw several rocks in various positions, a burnt piece of wood, and the almost complete circle drawn in the ground. “Here it is,” announced Walter. He continued “I have to draw in the runes of power for whatever spell we want to siphon. There are an infinite number of spells we can choose from.”

“This is incredible,” I replied in astonishment. Taking all of the preparation that my friends completed in.

As I thought about some of the magic runes, we would want to include for the type of magic we would be pulling from the power pool, I felt frustrated as nothin was coming to mind. As I thought about it, an idea finally came to me. “Walter, do you think we could complete the magic circle on some buttons?”

“Buttons?” Walter asked.

“Right. Buttons. You know, those clothing fasteners we all use to close our clothes?”

“Oh, right. Fasteners,” replied Walter. He thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t see why not.”

Cecily must have overheard my odd request, “We won’t know unless we try,” she suggested.

Yves interjected, “Are you sure you would like to complete the magic circle over clothing fasteners? Couldn’t we find something better?”

Walter came to my defense, “Ed wants us to make the magic circle on buttons. I think we should just try it.

Walter pulled some of the gold buttons from his shirt. “Here, try these and see if they work.” He gave me seven gold, exquisitely molded buttons.

“Thanks, Walter,” I replied, while he poured the seven buttons into my hand.

I placed two of the buttons by the magic circle, where Walter would complete the circle. I then went inside of the structure, and I placed three buttons on the inside of the structure, evenly spaced. I placed the last two buttons on the outside and inside of the structure where the entrance way was.

I placed the last two button right by the doorway. One on the exterior of the structure by the entrance, and one on the inside opposite the one on the outside. While I did that, Walter came over to me. “I see what you figured out,” he started. “You must know a thing or two about ritualistic magic.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked. I actually had no idea how I came up with this idea, but I knew that I needed a way to turn the barrier shield on and off.

Walter answered my question, “Because you needed a group of something to connect the barrier to itself. That’s why I gave you the buttons from my shirt, I had the most buttons out of everyone.”

I had no idea Walter had thought of that before I did. “That’s exactly right,” I answered. Then I added, “I also wanted a way to turn the barrier on and off. And a button was the only way I could think of.”

“Well, let’s find out if your idea works,” suggested Walter. He went back to complete the magic circle. “Wait here, I will tell you when it’s complete,” shouted Walter over his shoulder as he made his way back to the area where the magic circle was.

I pushed in the button right by the doorway. At first, nothing happened. The notion that we had done something wrong had crossed my mind. Walter was not the old Walter, where every single spell he performed ended in a cloud of smoke. Ever since Walter had found that ritualist magic was his calling, he had become an accomplished magic user.

A few more moments had gone by, and I had lost all hope that our siphon would work. As I stared at the button by the doorway, pressed into our mud wall, I watched as a transparent, blue-silver shield come over the brown wall of mud and clay. By that time, Walter, Yves, and Cecily stood behind me as we watched the barrier engulf our structure. “Walter, look! It worked!” I turned and looked at him. I could sense the feeling of accomplishment coming from Walter as he smiled. I also noticed tears forming in the corners of his eyes. I was proud of him as well, he had come a long way, and this moment solidified that he found his place in this world.

I turned to the rest of them and suggested, “Let’s see if this barrier will keep our structure intact as we practice our spells.” I pulled out the button from the mud wall, and instantly saw the blue-silver shield recede upwards. “Come on guys, let’s practice!” I said while waving them inside.

Yves, Cecily, and Walter entered while I stood by the doorway, to engage the inside button and set the barrier. “Ready?” I asked. The three nodded and I pushed in the inside button. Energy flowed as the structure vibrated while the barrier came from the dome ceiling cascading down to the ground. Providing a protective barrier from the roof of the structure down the walls.

“You said Headmaster Wavernjack wanted to inspect our structure after we completed it?” Yves asked.

“That’s right, he did,” I answered.

“I think it’s ready. Walter inscribed the protection spell with runes around the magic circle. I really think he did a great job,” iterated Yves. “We should have him inspect our structure tomorrow.”

“I think you’re right. Let’s perform a duel first and test it out to make sure the barrier withstands the forces coming from our spells,” I suggested. “Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Cecily said while raising her hand.

“I have a new way we can duel,” I started.

“All right let’s hear it,” taunted Cecily.

“Rather than one of us cast a spell, and the other cast a counter spell and then an offensive spell,” I began.

“I’m familiar with our normal dueling rules. What do you propose?” Cecily countered.

“Like I was saying, we will each decide on a spell at the same time. The best offensive spell chosen, wins,” I explained.

Cecily cast her first spell.

She opted for the Lightning Chain spell, which had become one of her favorites since I taught it to her. “Torquem fulgar !” Cecily shouted.

Effect: A bolt of lightning bends toward a directed target within range. Then three bolts leap from the target to as many as three other targets, like a chain, which must all be within fifty feet of each other. More bolts can be added as the higher the level is of the user.

The Lightning Chain diffused instantly when it hit my shield, making the spell useless. I, in turn thought of the runes and manipulated the glyphs to cast a bolt of lightning to surge across the floor.

I ran over to Cecily to see if she was all right. She was coming back as I had bent over her, tapping the sides of her face. Her eyes fluttered open, “Ed! You changed the rules in your favor,” she whined.

“Not really,” I answered.

“You dual casted a defense along with an offensive spell,” she argued. “That was cheating. When you first gave me the rules, I thought it would be one spell each time.”

“Well one spell, unless you can dual cast,” I challenged. Cecily laid her had back on the ground in defeat. Good thing, she gave up on the argument. She was not going to win with me.

The following day, I made my way to Headmaster Wavernjack’s office before class. “Good morning, Headmaster,” I said while I knocked on his door, peering in to see if he was busy.

“Come in,” he replied, not lifting his head, just stacking scrolls of papers on his desk.

As I entered his office, I could hear his loud breathing, the constant reminder of Seaster Wavernjack’s halfling breed. Something appeared to be bothering him. “Excuse me, Headmaster. I know you wanted to inspect my structure once my friends and I completed it,” I said, feeling as though I was interrupting something serious.

“Edward! Right! I must inspect your structure. Is it ready?”

“Yes, yes, it is ready for an inspection,” I assured.

“Well, I will assemble a group of professors and meet you over there shortly,” replied Wavernjack, staring directly in my eyes, which seemed to oddly pierce into my soul.

I was surprised by the lenses of urgency the Headmaster demonstrated when I requested for him to inspect my structure. Obviously, something was amiss, but I had no idea what it could be. For someone seeming so flustered about something, he seemed as though he could pull away from it at a moment’s notice. I nodded, in response to him, and darted off toward the structure where my friends were.

“Who are they?” Yves asked.

“Headmaster Wavernjack and a few other professors,” I answered.

“I wonder how many are going to come and inspect our humble structure,” replied Yves, appearing to be worried.

“Don’t worry. Walter really outdid himself on this. He’s come a long way with his magic. I actually admire him,” I whispered to Yves. She nodded in agreement.

Exiting out the main back entrance of Draererth, I caught a glimpse of Headmaster Wavernjack and two other professors walking in our direction. “Here they come!” I announced to Walter, Yves, and Cecily, who were sitting and talking while I kept watch by the doorway. My nerves were slightly elevated, but I had confidence in the magic Walter performed, for once.

I kept watch as they came closer, and I could make out Mistress Lathurna and Professor Dubh accompanied Headmaster Wavernjack.

“We did. Walter seems to lean toward Nature when he performs his ritualistic magic,” I explained. Walter nodded in agreement of my explanation.

“You’re a ritualist?” Wavernjack asked Walter.

“That’s right. I could not master the Arcane and prepared spells. As I delved into self-discovery, I found that rituals based on Nature came the easiest to me. The Earth Element is a protective element in itself, grounded in wisdom,” explained Walter.

“I see,” answered Wavernjack as he looked around the structure and the outline of our dueling square. “It seems to be quite usable.” Wavernjack took a moment to look fully at the dome structure while the other professors observed the walls. Kyna touched the walls with her palm.

The Headmaster then turned in my direction and asked, “So, Ed. I’ve been puzzled ever since you spoke to me in my office a few weeks ago. Why did you want to build a structure around a dueling square when after we had to rebuild Draererth, we spent a great deal of attention to the dueling squares, making them better than before?”

“I wanted to test spells here, away from everyone,” I answered, hoping Headmaster Wavernjack would not push me further into my response.

“Ah! I see,” he said, turning to Kyna. “Kyna, what do you think of this, uh, this shelter?”

Kyna turned around from inspecting the mud walls, and answered, “I like the shape and the construction appears to be sound, however, it would not withstand heavy magic and particles moving at heightened speeds.”

“Oh contraire fair maiden,” injected Walter.

“It’s mistress. Mistress Lathurna, thank you,” Kyna shot back. “Now, what were you saying?”

“Oh, right. Mistress Lathurna, I have already addressed that!” Walter continued.

“Oh! Well, let’s see your solution,” replied Mistress Lathurna.

“Ed! Would you please do the honors?” Walter shouted at me. I nodded and went to the interior button and pressed into the wall. This activated the magic, and the structure vibrated as the shields engaged.

“The barrier has been engaged,” I announced to the inspectors.

“Let me see that!” Kyna stated as she stomped over to the gold button that once was on Walter’s shirt was neatly pressed into the mud of the wall. She examined it for a few moments and then turned around and asked, “Who thought of this?”

“We all thought of it, together,” I responded looking at Cecily, Yves, and Walter who looked proud at our accomplishment. Quickly, I interjected, “Well, I came up with the initial idea,” I added.

“Dubh, what do you think of this barrier shield being activated by a clothing fastener?” Kyna said to Professor Dubh.

“Huh?” Dubh replied to Kyna, cupping his hand around his ear.

“Look, Dubh!” Kyna shouted. “It’s a clothing fastener that activates the siphon of the magic pool to make a barrier.”

Dubh joined Kyna over at the button mechanism. As he examined the button pushed into the mud, he replied to Kyna, “It’s definitely a new way of doing things. This is a different way to think about magic pools and siphons. That’s for sure.”

Wavernjack asked Dubh, “Will this siphon take too much away from our power pool and drain it too quickly?”

“No, it’s not sticky,” answered Dubh.

“Not what I asked,” shouted Wavernjack.

“Then speak up!” Dubh shouted.

“Do you think it’s too much of a drain?” Wavernjack shouted.

Dubh took a moment to think, and then answered, “No, this miniature siphon will not drain the power pool that much. We can afford it. This here siphon is just a little guy and will not diminish our great power pool. It will be just a blip when I get tomorrow’s readings from the scribes. I doubt I’ll even notice it.” I tried not to be offended by Dubh’s description of our siphon that we had worked on to make work, but if it meant that I was closer to getting this little project approved, I could withstand the criticism.

As I was sure we were going to get the stamp of approval from the Headmaster, a messenger waved at the doorway through the transparent blue-silver barrier.

“Ed, disable the barrier,” commanded Wavernjack. “I’m waiting on some news.” I sprang into action, briskly moving toward the button that was pressed into the mud wall. Both Kyna and Dubh watched as I pulled out the button. The structure vibrated as the shield receded from the ground back up to the ceiling.