Page 44 of The Ordeals
Hess begins a slow clap, the only sound cracking the silence in the room. ‘Tessa, you will receive a privilege from me. Access to the second-floor common room in Gantry for the remainder of your time as a hopeful. It’s not easy to wield and change everything down to your vocal cords as well as your physical appearance. Truly brilliant.’
Tessa slips back into the seat next to mine. ‘You never told me,’ I whisper, as Lewellyn shakes Hess’s hand and he leaves, closing the door behind him.
‘What?’
‘Your wielding, how powerful you are. That was …’
‘I told you my grandmother trained me,’ she says, scrunching her nose. ‘Do you think she ended it at just eye colour? She made sure I learned how to transform on the inside too. I’m not quite adept at transforming every atom, but I’m close.’
I cannot say any more, ask any more questions as Lewellyn writes one word on the blackboard and underlines it.Roots. ‘What do you know of the roots of magic?’
This was referenced a few times in the lectures I attended at the Serpentine, but never in detail, as though it was assumed knowledge for everyone there. I lean forward, listening intently, filing away my questions for Tessa until a later date.
‘The first magic wielder was discovered two hundred years ago and he was a botanist,’ a young man says from the row in front of me.
‘And his name?’ Professor Lewellyn asks.
‘Felix Gelding. He spoke to the crops in his fields, placed his hands in the dirt and they sprang up in a riot of life.’
Lewellyn’s eyes flash. ‘That is correct. And what did the locals do to this farmer?’
‘Drove him out of Alloway,’ Alden says. ‘Said that he and his family were wicked and unnatural, and it went against everything the church teaches.’
‘Yes,’ Lewellyn says softly. ‘The roots of magic in our world are dark indeed. History tells us we existed in the fringes, hiding our abilities for generations. But now, the church is accepting, even encouraging, at least in Kellend and Theine. What changed?’
‘The Great War,’ I say and swallow as a few sets of eyes slide towards me. Now this is something I am well versed on. ‘The war that divided our world, and even now, Alloway outlaws magic, believing it to be sinful.’
‘Indeed,’ Professor Lewellyn says. ‘Any Allowayans here today?’
Four tentative hands are raised and I hold in my surprise.
‘Well you are most welcome,’ Professor Lewellyn says quietly. ‘My mother was Allowayan and she was cast out from her home territory as a child when they found she was a wielder. What a different world this would be if we weren’t so divided by a simple twist of nature.’
‘Do you believe magic to be an advancement?’ a woman at the front, Elspeth, a masquier asks, leaning forward. ‘Or an anomaly?’
Professor Lewellyn smiles. ‘An intriguing question. The only data we have is based on the number of magic wielders, which is growing. Although interestingly, alchemists seem to be growing rarer, and those born are far more powerful. Yet, we are still greatly outnumbered by non-wielders in all three territories.’ She clicks her tongue. ‘Now, who can tell me about the Fair Age a hundred years ago?’
‘When swift technological advancement was the result of alchemists first discovering and developing their magic. Before, the onlywielders of tangible magic were botanists,’ Betty says. ‘They worked to create a railway network, steam trains, skyplanes, electricity, the telephone … Without those few great minds and what they could create, we may not have the things we have today.’
‘Precisely,’ Lewellyn says, two red circles appearing on her cheeks. ‘And what led to the vast destruction and permanent estrangement between Alloway and the other territories in the Great War fifty-seven years ago?’
‘All those advancements,’ Fion says quietly, near the front. I remember her from the Crucible because she was the first one to cross the courtyard safely. ‘Perhaps if Kellend and Theine were not so technologically advanced, so reliant on the work of alchemists, these inventions would not have been created. But now, as well as all the beneficial technologies, we have far more technical weapons, armoured land vehicles, bombs …’
‘So is magic good or bad?’ Lewellyn asks. Mutters go around the room and no one raises their hand. ‘Always divides opinion, this subject. All of you, every last one of you, regardless of whether you become a full scholar or not, has the ability to do great good, or great evil with the magic inside you. If you take the whole population of all three territories, you are a minute number of that whole. Which makes you rare and valuable … and able to change the course of history. For better, or worse.’
As the hours become days, awaiting the next Ordeal, the heat and rivalry cranks up a notch, especially with the privileges given out. Killmarth simmers with unrest and accusations. A group of scholars are taking bets on which hopeful will get killed next, and I refuse to find out what my odds are. Despite the Crown launching an investigation, with Caroline Ivey interviewing each hopeful on their whereabouts for each murder, the professors have no leads. We’ve all taken to moving around the college in pairs or in threes, and I even had to ask Alden to accompany me on my early morning running loops. Just in case.
As Tessa and I leave Gantry one day after lunch, she suddenly grows still, eyes flicking to the far corner of the courtyard. I follow her gaze and spot them. Two figures, whisking quickly through the door of Darley Hall.
The forbidden hall.
‘Interesting,’ I murmur. It’s been drummed into us by the professors that entering Darley Hall is forbidden. That we’ll be cast out if we are caught entering. But at every step since I entered Alabaster House, they’ve also taught us to think outside the limits, to twist situations to our advantage.
‘How strictly is the rule to not enter Darley enforced?’ I ask.
Tessa shrugs. ‘I haven’t heard of anyone actually being told to leave. But then, I haven’t heard of anyone trying to get in there either.’
I ponder this, eyeing the windows surrounding the courtyard. ‘It’s almost as though they want us to exploit every advantage. What if it’s a test? To get in and out of there, discover a secret that could help in an Ordeal, gain an edge …’
