Chapter 16

Thinking about levitation spells, Tom decided he would like to have a go at it.

He made his way to the training building that he knew was for novices and first-year magicians. He had always thought that being able to levitate things would be really cool.

When Tom had read the magical book of Medical Procedures, many of the spells mentioned levitation. They all insisted that having a good handle on how to levitate objects was essential if he wanted to perfect surgical precision. He had also noted that there was more than one way to levitate an object.

Tom had already determined that he might need to cut out the worst of the scar tissue to form fresh, clean joins in Lorena’s skin. The mental exercise of levitation was also good for fine-tuning his ability to control his magic.

Tom saw a sign for a room that he could practice in and went in. He found a lectern to put his book on and spied a row of six items lined out on a bench. He had a feather, a pen, an apple, a brick, a bucket of water and a 20kg bag of grain in a hessian-bag, to work with.

Grinning, Tom approached the bag of grain. He pulled his stylus from his vambrace, as he knew he could use it as a mini-wand. He performed an incantation that used air to levitate the bag. Slowly it lifted into the air as he adjusted the incantation to account for the weight and how it was distributed.

He noticed one end was sagging and altered the spell slightly to make sure he was balancing all of the weight on the cushion of air he had created. He floated it around the room as he worked out how to move it in all three dimensions and at different speeds.

Spying another bucket, which was empty, Tom gently tipped the bag and then held it still as he created an unravel-spell to loosen the twine so he could open that end and he let the grain pour out.

Tom was perspiring as he tried to control the amount of grain he was tipping out at a time and the change in weight of the bag to keep it under control. He was unaware that he was using three different spells as he imagined he was holding the bag and tipping it.

Tom was delighted when he moved the empty bag back over to the bench. He opened the bag using a new incantation and then added another spell to make the bag stiff and firm, so it didn’t tip over.

He then lifted the bucket and tried to get the grain to tip back into the bag. He had to concentrate hard to balance the bucket and control the spill of the grain. He wiped the sweat from his brow, once the grain was back in the bag.

He found the challenge of sewing the bag shut again was just as hard. First, he had to harden the tip of the string, and then do a sewing spell to control the weaving motion while he still held the bag upright.

After that, he moved on down the line and played with each item with the different levitation spells he had been using to see which one worked best with that item. He even used his magic so that he could eat the apple without using his hands.

He had a lot of fun trying to write with the pen just using his levitation abilities. He ended up just imagining that he was using an invisible hand to hold it and his letters became more legible.

Tom decided that it was going to need a lot of practice to get any real form of precision, but it was what he was aiming for. Tired, but happy, he wandered around the room, looking at the other exercises that were set up.

He noticed that many of them had a page on the lectern near them. Each page had a spell on it and simple instructions for a task to perform. He carefully read the directions and worked his way around the room before he realised it was dark out, and he was starving.

He hurried to the canteen to see what was on offer.

Tom was delighted to find the canteen was more than half-filled with students.

He quickly washed up and headed to the counters to select some food. When he went to find a table, he noted Cecelia and smiled at her. He wasn’t really surprised when she tipped her nose at him and then turned and whispered to her friend.

Tom guessed he was the subject of her mini-tirade, but he wasn’t too concerned, as he wasn’t here to impress people. Looking around the room, he noted a group of five people that seemed to glow brighter than other groups and felt compelled to join them.

“May I join you? It is my first day here,” he said politely to the table in general.

One of the girls looked him up and down and grinned. “I think you’re a bit of an enigma. Sure, why not.”

Tom thanked her and sat down in the empty seat beside her. “Hi, I’m Tom White from Brisbane.”

“I’m Jesse, and my friends are Matte, Franky, Sage and Ray. It is unusual these days for someone to have magical items before they come here for the first time,” Jesse commented.

“Well, I’m a bit of a special case. I need to get a handle on doctoring before I can help a friend,” Tom informed her.

She gave him a quizzical look, “That is an admirable endeavour. Training to be a healer is one of the hardest specialties to train for.”

Tom grimaced, “Yes, I’ve worked that out, but I made a promise. First Aid doesn’t even cover the beginnings of what I need to know. I’ve already determined that my management and computer degrees aren’t going to be a hell of a lot of help. Other than giving me the discipline to study.”

“You don’t look old enough to have two degrees,” she said with a grin.

Tom chuckled; this girl was way better at the pick-up lines. She wasn’t hard on his eyes, either. He noticed her skin had an odd bluish tone, and for some reason, she had pale blue streaks in her white-blonde hair. She was only about 157cm tall and quite curvy more like Barb.

Looking around the table, he realised that all of the students at this table had these strange high-lights and odd coloured skin tones. While pale, they varied through every colour of the rainbow.

They were very odd people to his way of thinking, but each to their own. The tallest, Matte, was about 165cm. He was interesting as he had a pale pink tone to his skin and dark copper streaks in his hair.

Jesse giggled, “Yes, we are all Therians or shape-shifters to most people. We are from Kazan Island on Utopia. Aren’t you worried about getting infected by us?”

Tom frowned and looked at Jesse with interest, “What would I get infected with?”

Matte answered, “With the shape-shifter’s gene, as you, Earthlings call it.”