Derin Edala

1.81: Beyond the Vortex

The tablet in my hands was gone. The birdsong and breeze of the forest was replaced by disparate voices echoing in a large stone chamber. I looked up.

Initiates – or acolytes n...

1.80: Choose Your Destiny

“Chosen by whom?” I asked.

The spellthing burst out laughing. “That’s the question that nobody asks, isn’t it? Everybody’s always so excited to be part of some grand ...

1.79: The Inititation

The path before me was an ancient creek bed, long dried up and reclaimed by foliage. It was wide and flat, the biggest impediments being stones and occasional shrubs. The shrubs were v...

1.78: Return to Refujeyo

Well, I partially read the orientation materials. I got about one paragraph into the scholarship contract before calling Casey and letting them explain it.  

Everything was ...

1.77: Fallout

Things calmed down quickly. Maybe I was imagining things, but the press as a whole seemed to want to move on from having gotten things so wrong for so long. Some groups did a couple of...

1.76: Resolution

We all stared in silence for a little while while everyone, individually, grappled with what Malas’ statement meant.

Then Casey spoke. “H… how long…?”

“I’d es...

1.75: The Trial II, Even More Trial

Given that Doctor Marley was definitely on my side, I was pretty surprised that he was the second person that Mr Spline called.

“What is your relationship to the defendant?”<...

1.74: The Trial

I’d been in a courthouse before. Not for legal reasons; it was just a convenient place for Chelsea’s tracker. My first time, I’d been terrified that the blessed flooring and silv...

1.73: Reunion

Wearing pants again felt weird.  

“How can this bother you?” Kylie asked, not looking up from her tablet. “You wore pants for fourteen years. You’ve been in robes fo...

1.72: Aftermath

The next day, I got a message from Magista that just said “Aftermath”, with a link to a nine hour long audio file. I opened it up.

“Okay, where should I put it?” Magista ...

1.71: The Truth

“Kayden,” Magista said, “nobody’s trying to kill Instruktanto Miratova. I know it’s hard to accept, but sometimes spells – ”

“The Guardian Ring was found in the w...

1.70: The Party

The day of the party arrived.

Max had, after much internal drama, decided on a favourite sash, and had updated his outfit appropriately. Kylie and I were simply wearing the robes...

1.69: Preparations

“So what happened to your tablet, exactly?” Instruktato Cooper asked.

“I, uh, dropped it in the water,” I said. “And now I can’t find it.”

“Water? There are...

1.68: Role Reversal

“What now?” Simon asked.

“How should I know? You attacked me, you lunatic; you figure it out.” Oh man, I was bleeding everywhere.

“Hey, I didn’t start this. You...

1.67: Plans and Surprises

“Uh. Kayden?”

I got up, tried to stop crying, and failed. Oh man, this was embarrassing. I didn’t cry. I definitely didn’t cry in front of other people. And I didn’t da...

1.66: The Price of Magic

Malas didn’t even look up from his paperwork when we burst into the ward.

“She’s in the third bed,” he said in a bored voice, indicating the row of beds behind hospital c...

1.65: Reasonable Caution

“Today,” the Fiore announced as he swept into the classroom, cat in arms, “we are looking at our last category of spells, which also happens to be the most dangerous, nebulous, a...

1.64: Ascension

The next day, the glow of the rose had faded, leaving a stick with thick, transparent petals, a dead and obviously manufactured thing. I tossed it out and gritted my teeth through medi...

1.63: Real Magic

I had been sitting still for about twenty billion years, and my nose was getting itchier by the second.  

Fuck it. I scratched it.

“You’re supposed to stay still,�...

1.62: Negotiation

“So what’s the emergency, witchnitiate?” Mae took a long drag on her cigarette.

“I need to plan the most romantic date ever for my boyfriend for this Friday, and I though...

1.61: The Price of Suspicion

After dealing with the complicated matter of exactly how large and exorbitant the box of chocolates I was sending to Magistus should be, I got to the rather less important matter of in...

1.60: What Is Real

Instruktanto Miratova dropped several small, shiny stones into her mortar and began to grind them to dust. “The key to understanding a prophecy,” she said, “is understanding that...

1.59: The Secret

“Today, we will be learning about evocation spells.”

This was it; the one single lesson in this school that was actually important to me. So it sucked that I was learning it ...

1.58: A Verdant Forest

The note that Magistus had slipped under my door on the day of our date just read “Kayden – Alta Foresto.” I plugged that into the map and found myself wandering through a large,...

1.57: Comfort Zone

“So what are we doing, exactly?” I asked Instruktanto Cooper as we drove through some random small town in New Zealand.

“We are meeting Cheryl Castor.” Cooper was back in...

1.56: Bias

I shouldn’t be thinking like this. Max was my friend. How bad a friend was I, to be so suspicious of him?

Unless he wasn’t my friend. In which case, how much of a sucker was ...

1.55: The Story As I Knew It

So the story, as I knew it, went like this:

A few months ago, Max, Kylie and I had arrived at Skolala Refujeyo. Max had been immediately fascinated by Kylie’s curse, which wasn...

1.54: Mind Under Matter

“Hey, Max. What are the principal differences between a relative position translocation spell and a fixed position translocation spell?”

“The answer’s in the name, Kayden...

1.53: Befriending the Wind

“Okay. Here we are.”

It had been almost a week since the awkward encounter at the gym. Instruktanto Miratova had bundled Kylie and I into a rickety-looking car, drove in sile...

1.52: How to Play Chess

Naturally, I couldn’t concentrate at all in the Fiore’s next lesson. Fortunately it was just about translocation spells (spells dealing with space, like teleportation, or enchanted...