The Schooling of the Spell Caster

He's enjoying this. Enjoying my discomfort and he knows somehow. What the fuck have I done?

She stepped back and dropped into the chair in front of the desk. Arbuckle was grinning at the prize in his hand. He caressed it with both hands.

"It's so warm and heavy! A beautiful thing! Thank you, Grace, for fulfilling your oath. You and your party have served me well and you will be rewarded as promised."

"About that," murmured Grace, watching the glee in the King's eyes as he continued to stare at the egg. "I've changed what I want from you."

Sylvan snorted. "It is far too late for that. Steps have already been taken. Your reward is as promised."

"I'm not talking to you, ass wipe, I'm talking to the King here. How about it, King? I want one more thing from you. Call it professional courtesy. I lost Eric because of that thing. A valued member of my party. He was the one who found it. I want his part of the reward. I need something only you can give me. It's a simple thing."

The King tore his eyes from the egg and looked at her, bewildered. "You wish another boon?"

"Yes," she said, then thought a moment. "Please."

"Name it."

"I just delivered a spell caster bound to three hedge witches to the Academy. I had Quinten promise to look out for them. I need your assurance they will be protected from your law."

A look of disbelief crossed the King's face, and he sank into his leather chair. "A bound spell caster? Hedge witches? Why are they not already dead? Those are my standing orders in the Realm. All bound spell casters and witches are to be executed on discovery."

"Yeah, about that? Can't apply here. These people are not evil. Believe me."

The King now looked startled.

Sylvan interrupted. "My King, they cannot be allowed to live. You know this."

"Shut it, cock eater, this is between the King and I. Stay out of it. Your Highness? I request you protect them. Tell Quinten to keep them safe. He already promised me, but his One God can be a right asshole sometimes."

"You want me to protect them? Why would I do this? I have already rewarded you and your party for your service in recovering this. I feel for your loss of Eric Garcia. His family was distraught, as you can well imagine, and I have provided them with financial compensation. I consider this all done and dealt with. I didn't have the heart to tell them he was killed by a falling tree. It would have devastated them. Why should I do more? I have kept my side of the bargain."

Grace was frowning. "I said please."

A small smile crept up the King's face. "Yes, I heard. A rare thing. But I owe you nothing, Grace de Moroingi. Or Grace Gales, as you sometimes prefer. I thank you for your service. Most sincerely. But you ask too much. You know the history of witches as well as I do."

"I need you to do this. Send for Glenda. Ask her to examine them. Until then, keep them safe. This is important."

The King looked uncertain. "Important? As in..."

"Yes. As in."

The King went silent. Grace could see the gears turning in his mind. Eventually, he nodded once. "I see no harm in delaying their deaths. Done. As much as it pains me, done. I will see and hear what Glenda has to say of the matter. Sylvan, take care of Quinten and Glenda for me. See they obey me in this."

Sylvan bowed his head. "Your Highness."

"Now, Grace. We are done here." The King rose. Grace did not.

"Not yet. One more thing."

The King sat back down and looked annoyed. He kept rubbing the egg in his hand and staring at it. Grace knew he wanted nothing more than to run off and play with the damn thing. All men are children, she knew.

"Now that you have the Phoenix Egg, what are your plans for it?" she asked, keeping her attention on both men.

Sylvan looked angry. The King looked even more annoyed.

"That is none of your business," declared the King.

"It is, actually. I think Eric found that egg down south somewhere. That's the female Phoenix Egg. The only one. I know the life cycle of a phoenix. So do you. And I'm putting one and one together. What are your plans for that? It's incredibly dangerous. Mother is very concerned."

The King studied Grace for a long moment. She could see his intelligence. He was not a stupid man. She had no doubts he considered simply killing her. Removing all witnesses. Except she knew that would not be easy for him. It's almost impossible to kill an assassin with another assassin. Especially when the assassin is alerted to it. Grace was very much alerted to the possibility.

Plus, my mother would know. He would be dead within a week.

When the King still had not responded, Grace spoke again. "You have to have a target. A use for it. I would like to know the danger. It poses a very real and present danger to the world. A grown phoenix is a threat to the Realm and everywhere."

The King sighed. "Yes, Grace, I'm fully aware of the danger it represents. I too heard of problems down south in the Fae lands. All attempts to investigate the matter have failed, other than confirming there was a rebirth of a phoenix. I have closed the southern border and put plans in motion to secure the egg. I now have it and only I can assure it remains safe by locking the damn thing away. I will not risk my subjects or my realm. Since humans landed on this continent, we have scrabbled and died to gain the land we own. This egg is far too powerful for the world. I can only rest easy knowing I have it safe. I can trust no others. Surely you understand that?"

Grace watched both men for a time, looking for anything to give lie to his words. Eventually, she nodded. "Fair enough. Thank you for taking care of that spell caster and the hedge witches. They are important. Glenda will see it, too. Thank you." She rose and looked back before exiting the study. "Your Highness."

⭐

Grace finished her tale and looked to Jason and Brian for their reaction. They were deep in thought.

"You think the King had something to do with Eric's death, don't you?" asked Jason into the growing silence.

"I do. Quinten knew about the tree killing Eric. The King knew and so did Sylvan. I never spoke of it to anyone. Yet they all know. Eric was our companion. We owe it to him to discover what happened to him. He was killed by a fucking tree, Brian. A top-notch spell caster from a long line of spell casters. Killed by a tree.

"There's more, and this is vastly more important. I travelled down south. Pulled my princess card and crossed the blockade the King has up at his southern border to the Fae. I went to Yanwey..."

Grace looked aside and blinked away the sting in her eyes.

"Yanwey is gone. Completely obliterated. Nothing but a crater. The male Phoenix was struck down. He transformed in the middle of a city."

Both Brian and Jason gasped in horror. "No!"

"At the centre of the destruction, I found the empty impression of an egg in the obsidian. The egg was gone, and I believe it was found by Eric. He left there and headed directly back to Acron. He was killed there, and Daniel discovered him and recovered the egg. And I handed it to the King, fulfilling our oath. Knowing what I know now, I should have broken my oath and returned it to the Wilds."

Brian laid a hand on her arm. "No, lass. That would 'ave killed ye. Tore your very soul asunder. Ye had no choice. None of us did. We are all guilty. Complicit."

Jason nodded his head. "Grace, I'm so sorry. You had many friends in Yanwey. Such loss."

Grace nodded her head, feeling the sting in her eyes again. "There's more. It was King Arbuckle who sent Daniel's parents into the Wilds to locate and recover the egg. They were successful. My mother has confirmed it. Then the egg disappeared, only to show up in Yanwey. This is far too much coincidence.

"Jennifer was heading to Yanwey, Brian. Syn is involved. More involved than during the witch war, I think. Troubled times are approaching. The fae gather their armies in the south, far earlier than we should. They will clash as always. All the fae together for war. And during a time when we have a missing male Phoenix and the fucking female egg sitting in Whitehaven. The amount of destruction that is poised to be unleashed has never been higher.

"I haven't had a vision in weeks. My last one was Daniel, standing before the Night and Light Fae, about to unleash incredible power. That future needs to happen, and I don't know why. I'm very frightened, guys. Very frightened."

Ten

BITTY OPENED THE door to the suite to find Grace standing there with Jason and Brian behind her.

"Yes? May I help you?"

Grace looked down at the gnome with surprise. "Um, hi. This is where Daniel is, correct?"

"Yes, Daniel is packing with the others."

"Packing?"

"Yes, we are to be moved to our permanent suite in the Academy now that the testing is completed."

"Of course. Wait, did you say, Daniel? Not master?"

"Please come in. The m-master said you might be arriving." She looked past Grace to Brian and Jason, standing behind her in the hallway. "Who are the others?"

"Brian and Jason. My companions."

Bitty looked at them and her eyes went wide. "Oo! Is that a big dick on your chest? Are you a paladin of Syn, like Jennifer?"

Brian chuckled and twisted his moustache. "No, wee miss. I'm a cleric of Syn. I know Jennifer, though. She's a good friend."

"She was hot," replied Bitty.

Grace frowned. "And who are you?"

"Bitty. I belong to Daniel."

"Your master."

"Ah, yes, my, m-master. But he insists I call him Daniel."

"Can we come in, or must we stand here?"

"Oh, sorry. Come in! Come in! Sorry, I don't have anything to serve you. We've packed up the kitchen and nothing's ready. I hope you don't mind."

Grace and her companions walked into the suite. "That's all right. We don't need anything. Hold on a second." Grace put her hands up to her mouth. "DANIEL! GET OUT HERE! WE NEED TO TALK!"

Daniel's head popped around the corner in surprise. He came running out with Amy, Jasmine, and Amber following closely behind.

"Grace! Come here!" he shouted with excitement, and he rushed her and swept her up in his arms and swung her around.

Brian and Jason gawked while Daniel planted a wet kiss on Grace's lips. She kissed him back.

"By the Gods, I missed you!" Daniel kissed her again, holding it and then pushing his tongue into her mouth.

Grace pulled her head back. "Put me down, you idiot!"

"Yeah, put her down!" squealed Jasmine. "I want a kiss, too!"

"Me too!" added Amy.

Daniel did as he was told, and Grace was wrapped up by Jasmine and Amy, who planted kisses on her cheeks and mouth. Grace was pushing their faces away.

Daniel nodded to Brian and Jason, and they nodded back, awe written all over their faces. Amber stood to the side, but Daniel saw her smile, watching Amy and Jasmine.

"Stop it! Fuck! Get a grip of yourselves!" complained Grace.

"We haven't seen you for ages!"

"It's been less than a month! And we just saw each other in the testing hall!"

"So long ago," complained Jasmine, and ran a hand up over Grace's ass cheek and then held on. "We missed you."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay. Let's all go talk. We need to catch up. Tell me everything that happened here while I was gone. Jason and Brian, close your mouths."

Amber was looking at Jason with interest.

Brian was grinning from ear to ear. "So much sexuality! So much! Jennifer was right!"

Daniel caught that and turned on the dwarf. "You know Jennifer?"

"Of course, lad. We both worship Syn."

"When did you see her?"

"A week ago? She was heading down south. Syn brought us together."

"Together," snorted Jason. "They fucked like rabbits. Like a bunch of rabbits. Not just two. Like maybe four rabbits?"

"You're gay, aren't you?" murmured Amber, coming closer to Jason. "I can tell."

"Um, yes, miss. I am. Happily so. Brian here is my boyfriend."

"How delightful," smiled Amber. "I like you." She said this while looking over at Daniel.

"Ah, fuck, here we go," muttered Grace. "Come on everyone. Sit and tell me everything that happened. Leave nothing out. Oh, before I forget, this is Brian, dwarf cleric of Syn and Jason, fighter and... spiritual advisor?"

"Guru," said Jason.

"Guru?" asked Daniel.

"Yeah, he made it up and added to what he is. He's a fighter-guru. No one has figured it out yet," replied Brian.

Amy looked a little confused. "Oh well, that's nice? I guess? I'm Amy, the heart of the circle, and these are Jasmine and Amber. This is, of course, Daniel, our spell caster. It's very nice to meet friends of Grace. Welcome."

Jason looked uncomfortable, and Brian beamed.

"Jennifer told me all about you," said Brian. "And now, seeing you, I fully understand. Glenda is going to love you guys."

Jason raised his eyebrows at Brian.

"It's okay, Jason. Trust me. Trust Jennifer. Actually, trust Grace. These are good witches. We'll be fine."

Jason visibly relaxed and nodded his head. "I see. Reflect the annoyance into yourself, and work on becoming better in that area of your life. I will do better. Thank you, Brian."

"Come sit!" ordered Jasmine and sat on a couch and patted the seat beside her. "Grace, come sit beside me."

Quickly, they all sat, and Grace looked around at all of them.

"First, congratulations on passing your testing, despite how fucked up Quinten made it. You've already made quite the stir. The fact that a circle of witches and their spell caster have been allowed to live is remarkable all by itself. Whitehaven is all abuzz."

"All thanks to you, Grace," said Daniel, and the girls nodded their heads vigorously.

"And the King, I should add," said Grace. "I convinced him to keep you safe until after the testing and until Glenda could arrive and look at you."

"You know Glenda?" asked Daniel.

Brian laughed. "Do you mean in the godly way, or like, oh, hey, nice to meet you? Cause if you meant, have they fucked, the answer is often."

"Brian!" laughed Grace, and everyone's faces lit up to hear the sound. "Enough of all that. Tell me everything that happened here. Leave nothing out."

"Okay, where to start?" started Daniel.

"Start with you freeing the gnomes," offered Jasmine.

"With the what now?" asked Grace incredulously. "Are you saying you had something to do with that?"

"Ah, yes?" replied Daniel, looking sheepish.

Grace lay back on the couch, looking absolutely stunned and staring off into nothing. Jasmine had crawled up in her lap and was nuzzling at one of her earlobes. Grace didn't seem to mind, and one of her hands absently stroked Jasmine's lower back. Grace had lain there for about half an hour already once Daniel and the ladies had finished recounting their tale.

Brian and Jason were passing a bottle of whiskey back and forth and staring at Daniel. Amy and Amber were out in the garden, letting Grace get her head back on straight, as she had put it.

Finally, Grace blinked and looked around the room just as Amber and Amy walked back in from outside holding hands. She grasped Jasmine's face and pushed her away from her neck. "Enough. Go sit."

"No. I don't want to."

Grace smacked Jasmine's ass with a loud retort. "Get off me."

Jasmine scrambled out of Grace's lap and looked toward Amber, and grinned at her.

Grace ran her hands down her face. "Just wow. Wow! So much to process. I'll come back around to this later. For now, shit. Okay. Where to start? Freeing the gnomes after a thousand years of living under a curse? Like that happens every day..."

"How about telling them how impressed you are with them, Grace?" said Brian softly. He passed the whiskey back to Jason, who took a swig but held onto it.

"Yeah. Okay. I can do that. Good idea. Guys, that is impressive to hear. You've managed some impressive things in a short amount of time. I knew you would do well, but that well? I never imagined. Not once. It's a little frightening, you know? Fuck, I can't wait until Glenda gets here."

"We keep hearing about this Glenda. Who is she?" Jasmine asked.

Grace looked at Amber for a moment. "A good witch. The best, really. She single-handedly erased the last known witch circles during the last witch war. Amber knows about this, don't you? Your mother was a part of it. A survivor. One of the few."

Amber had frozen up hearing Grace speak. Daniel could see a flush of red at her neck. She didn't respond.

Grace kept talking. "You'll be under intense scrutiny now; you realise that? The entire Realm knows about you now. Word is spreading like a wildfire. There are some people who will challenge that. Fanatics, like Quinten. All bent on the destruction of whatever isn't like them. But to be fair, witches are evil as shit. With the obvious exception of you guys and Glenda.

"You'll be hunted. At least until you can prove your worth. Then it will only eliminate the stupid fanatics. The smart ones won't stop. Sorry, but that's how it works. Witches are crazy scary. It's like it's embedded in people to automatically hate and fear them. Stories about eating children? True. Gaining powers from ungodly sources? True. Writing crazy evil black magic tomes like Witch Circles: How to Control Your Spell Caster and Use His Power. True. Destroying people's lives for shits and giggles. True. Cursing people because, fuck why not? True. The nature of witches has been proven again and again."

"But Glenda is a good witch, right?" asked Jasmine. "So we will be too, right?"

Grace sighed. "Yes, she is. How? I don't know. You'll have to ask her. As to you three and Daniel, time will tell. You all have a hundred percent potential to be the scariest, evilest witches the world has ever known. All because of Daniel here. And well, honestly, Amber too."

"Me?" gasped Amber.

Grace glared at her. "Yes, you. Your mother is Amanda Aine. She lives only because Glenda said so. Her and Gwydion. Glenda said they still had a role to play, but she didn't know what. Guess we're finding out."

"I-I don't understand," complained Amber.

"You wouldn't. Your mother used to be a complete evil fucktard. She was the heart of her circle. A vicious one. Killed hundreds. Probably more. Then her circle and the circle of Gwydion clashed. All over a spell caster they both claimed to love. It spilled over to the Realm. People died. A shit ton of people died. Horribly. Then Glenda came out of fucking nowhere and stopped it. Still don't know how. But she did. And now here we are."

Daniel rose and walked around the couches. Grace's eyes never left him. Brian looked meaningfully at Jason, who nodded. "We know Amber is a good person. I can feel it through the circle. So are Amy and Jasmine. I mean, people decide to be evil. You aren't born evil. Something has to happen to make you change your nature. Right?"

Jason nodded. "Partially. But you just said it. Nature. Some beings are born inherently evil. Like the Light Fae. Just ask Grace. They are incredibly evil, or so we are taught. Right, Grace?"

"No," said Grace. "Light Fae are just people. Just like the Night Fae. It is our beliefs and culture that make us do certain things others consider evil. Daniel isn't far off. Power corrupts. Those with the most power are usually corrupted absolutely, if history is any judge. People will be who they wish to be. This circle will have to watch over itself. Make sure you aren't doing bad things. And it's a slippery slope. Once you start down that path, the faster you will slide."

Daniel stood behind Grace and the couch. "We will need to surround ourselves with people we can trust and who can tell us if we start down that path. Like Bitty, here. Others. I could, um, easily go crazy if someone should try to harm my girls."

Grace nodded her head. "It's how it always starts. Some slight. Some minor wrong. If you have the power to do something about it, you will. Smash a wasp because it stung you by using a mace. Then going after the nest. And then the rest of the damn things. It's easy once you start. Someone has to say it's just a stupid wasp. Let it go."