Schooled in Magic 5 - The School of Hard Knocks Read online

“I believe a Child of Destiny can cut both ways,” Cloak observed. “This one turned on you when you took her Shadow. Who would have thought her presence would be enough to convince the MageMaster to die?”

  “Help me,” Aurelius said. “I...”

  “That would be a bad idea,” Cloak said. “Your time is up.”

  Aurelius stared, wildly, as fire crackled around Cloak’s fingertips. “But... but... why?”

  “The existing order has to go,” Cloak said. “I believe you know that, don’t you? All your plans to reshape it into something more viable, something that could fight the Necromancers and change the world. But I fear that would interfere with my plans.”

  He lifted his hand and pointed a long finger at Aurelius’s temple. “Goodbye,” he said. “It hasn’t been a pleasant time.”

  “Wait,” Aurelius pleaded. He knew there was no way out. Cloak was far too powerful to beat in his weakened state. “Who are you?”

  Cloak hesitated, then pulled back his hood.

  Aurelius nearly fainted in shock. “You’re...”

  There was a brilliant flare of magic, then nothing. Nothing at all.

  * * *

  End of Book V

  Emily will return in

  Love’s Labor’s Won

  Appendix - On Wands

  There are two basic components to any magic spell. First, there is the spellwork, the structure of magic that shapes and directs the spell. Second, there is the mana produced by the magician, which needs to be channeled through the spellwork to actually make the spell take effect. Normally, as Emily was taught in Schooled in Magic, the spellwork should be handled in a magician’s mind, to the point where she can cast spells instinctively. This requires considerable mental discipline, which is why a number of students were forced to keep working their way through First Year courses until they successfully completed the preparatory work.

  However, Magicians in the Allied Lands discovered that someone could produce the spellwork ahead of time and store it in wood, thus allowing an untrained magician to channel magic into the wood and thus trigger the spell. In effect, the spell could be fired off as soon as the wand was raised, shaving seconds off the casting time. Both wands and staffs were developed to serve this purpose (there is nothing special about the wands, which are really nothing more than pieces of wood) and used by magicians. Indeed, the basic technique for priming a wand was so simple that a First Year student could use it.

  This, however, had a serious effect on their ability to cast magic. Dependency on a wand made it incredibly difficult for them to cast magic without it, thus running the risk of accidentally binding one’s magic. Therefore, students at Whitehall were largely forbidden to use wands for the first two years of their schooling and warned, in no uncertain terms, that they risked self-inflicted harm if they broke the rule. (Mountaintop, by contrast, wanted to limit the magic of common-born students, so encouraged them to use wands rather than learn to develop their own magic.)

  By the time the students reached Third Year, they required more precise spellwork than before (in alchemy, in particular) so they were permitted to use wands. However, they were strongly encouraged not to slip into dependency.

  There is no real difference between the use of wands and staffs, save one; the staff, being larger, is capable of holding more spellwork, allowing the magician to use magic to either do one complex spell or fire off a number of smaller spells in quick succession.

  About the author

  Christopher G. Nuttall is thirty-two years old and has been reading science fiction since he was five when someone introduced him to children’s SF. Born in Scotland, Chris attended schools in Edinburgh, Fife and University in Manchester before moving to Malaysia to live with his wife Aisha.

  Chris has been involved in the online Alternate History community since 1998; in particular, he was the original founder of Changing The Times, an online alternate history website that brought in submissions from all over the community. Later, Chris took up writing and eventually became a full-time writer.

  Current and forthcoming titles published by Twilight Times Books:

  Schooled in Magic YA fantasy series

  Schooled in Magic—book 1

  Lessons in Etiquette —book 2

  A Study in Slaughter —book 3

  Work Experience —book 4

  The School of Hard Knocks —book 5

  Love’s Labor’s Won—book 6

  The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire military SF series

  Barbarians at the Gates—book 1

  The Shadow of Cincinnatus —book 2

  The Barbarian Bride—book 3

  Chris has also produced The Empire’s Corps series, the Outside Context Problem series and many others. He is also responsible for two fan-made Posleen novels, both set in John Ringo’s famous Posleen universe. They can both be downloaded from his site.

  Website: http://www.chrishanger.net/

  Blog: http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherGNuttall