Chapter 4

The following characters appear in this chapter and one in the remainder of the story:

Alice

Older woman, Teacher at Magic School, a thin woman of about 50 with short gray hair

Kaera Melang

Young girl, Magic student, 5’-8’’ tall, a bit thin at 135 pounds, reddish-brown hair almost an auburn color, skin color reminiscent of those from the Mediterranean countries.

Otho

Magic student, 5’-10’’ tall, 160 pounds, 24 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, good Talent, poor student

On returning to our headquarters, we found that orders had arrived for the Colonel, Luther, and me to report to the Magic School in 10 days. Miranda was to report there in 2 days to start as one of the instructors again.

Natalie and Laurine were to report to the Senior NCO course next week. Ward, Reed, and Dan Khawan were to report to the Mid-level NCO course at the same time. There were orders for Bland and O’Flannagain to report there also and then to report to the Magic School on completion of the course. There were also orders for many of the other people assigned to our unit to report to various schools related to their specialties. Even the Officers were included in the various schools and courses. Fortunately, not everyone was in school at the same time, so that we always had a cadre of people here to keep the unit functional, at least most of the time.

Over the next week or so, those of us on Tiger Team were busy ensuring that everything was taken care of before we reported to the Magic School. It was fortunate that Kanisha had gone on leave with the first group, as she would be in charge here while we and many of the others were gone. Fortunately, the only Partners remaining here were the Falcons. There would be enough enhanced personnel remaining here to keep them fed and to take care of any other problems that developed with them.

Sergeant Midthunnder had reported before we left for the Magic School. Trish had informed Kanisha about her and Chet soon after we returned from the Partner School. She had also checked on her previous assignments and schooling. There had been no problems getting her assigned to the unit.

The day for the three of us to report to the Magic School finally arrived. We were up early that day. Trish and I had slept together nearly every night since returning from the Partner Training School. I wasn’t sure who Joel had been sleeping with, or that he had been sleeping with anyone. We had never discussed who he was interested in, as he is a fairly private person.

That morning following a large breakfast, we loaded our gear on the robot vehicle that I had ordered and left for the Magic School together. The school was located quite some distance from the Headquarters area in case a problem should develop with any of the students learning Magic. Used incorrectly, Magic can be very destructive. Of course, it can be very destructive when used correctly, also. All of this had persuaded those in charge of Special Operations to place the Magic School well away from the Headquarters area.

Arriving at the school, we were greeted by one of the people from the admissions section. She seemed shocked that the three of us were Officers, and that we all outranked the School Commander, SGM O’Cionaoith.

“Oh dear, this is a bit embarrassing,” the woman told us. “At the School, no one wears their rank,” she continued. “All of you will need to remove your rank from your uniforms for the time you are here. I will also need a copy of your orders,” she told us, before asking, “How long do you expect to be with us?”

“We were told that we would be here for six months,” Trish told her as she removed her insignia of rank.

“That long?” the woman asked in surprise.

“That’s what we were told,” she repeated. The woman definitely looked confused.

“But Officers are never here that long. Most of them don’t have a strong enough Talent to take the entire course,” the woman insisted. This was when Miranda appeared beside us out of thin air.

“Sorry to not be here to greet you. I have a class, and couldn’t get away immediately, though I felt all three of you arrive,” she told us, before turning to the woman from admissions.

“I’ll take care of them and get them settled, Lyn,” Lucy told her.

“That is highly unusual. The Instructors aren’t supposed to meet the students until the entire class is assembled,” the woman, Lyn, insisted.

“Lyn, I have been working with all three of these people for over a year now. We have all been through some difficult situations together,” Lucy told her, to a shocked look from her.

“These aren’t headquarters people?” she asked in confusion.

“No, they are the other members of Tiger Team,” Lucy told her to an embarrassed look from the woman.

“I’ll take them up to the billets and get them settled. When they are finished, I’ll take them to see SGM O’Cionaoith. She has been wanting to talk to them since we received their orders,” Lucy told Lyn and us, before leading us further into the building and up to the billets where we had three rooms together.

“I’m just down the hall,” she told us on arriving at the rooms. “Technically, these are rooms for the Instructors, but the Sergeant Major told me to put you up here. The other students all have much weaker Talents than all of us do,” she continued.

“All of the new students are to be in the Arrival Hall at 1300 hrs. Here are your student IDs. They will get you into the mess hall and other places. I need to get back to the class I was giving, but will be back to take you to see the Sergeant Major,” she told us before vanishing.

Our names were already on the doors. The rooms were the size of regular Senior NCO rooms, and we had no trouble getting set up. The bed in my room was even long enough for me. Trish had the room on one side of me, and Joel was on the other side. Once finished, I knocked on Trish’s door.

“Come in,” she called. She was still putting away her things, and I was shocked to see that her room contained a much larger bed than mine and that the room was larger also.

“Yes, “ she said at my silence. “It’s big enough for the two of us.”

“We will need to use the silence spell,” I reminded her with a grin. She was soon finished, and Joel was waiting for us out in the hall. Lucy appeared right after that.

“Ready to see the Sergeant Major?” she asked.

“Yes,” we all answered, and she led the way down to the office of the Commander of the School. On reaching the door, Lucy knocked.

“Come in all of you,” we heard, and she opened the door for us to enter. The Sergeant Major was seated behind her desk.

“Sir, I’ve brought the new students,” Lucy said in a formal voice.

“Have a seat, all of you,” we were told. There were enough chairs for all of us.

“I want to hear more about this planet, ’Parthas’. Lucy has told me that many of those living there have Talents even stronger than yours and hers. I find that difficult to believe, but then I found your Talents hard to believe also,” she told us.

“Yes, many of those living there have extremely strong Talents. The Leaders and Elders converse mentally and are very strong. They have people who extract minerals using Magic as well as gems. Much of our contact was with two young women, Eachna and Eavan. They were 14 and 12 years of age at the time. They are the ones who expanded our Talents. They are the Speaker’s granddaughters,” the Colonel told her.

“Additionally, there was the planet, ’Parthas’, itself, and the Entity,” she continued. “The Entity creates all of the Magic on the planet, and it cast the shell spell around the entire planet and extended it well out into space around the planet. The Unity Navy fired on the shell at one point from close range. There were two battleships and a number of heavy cruisers. They all fired all of their lasers at one area of the shell together, but were unable to penetrate it. In return, the Entity cast a spell that disabled all of their lasers for a number of hours. It told us that It could disable the entire electrical system of all of those ships if needed,” the Colonel continued. SGM O’Cionaoith stared at her in shock for nearly a minute.

“Around the entire planet and out into space as well?” she asked on recovering but in a quiet voice.

“Yes,” was all the Colonel answered.

“Lord, we could barely cast one 25 feet (7.6 meters) in diameter with all of us combining our Talents to do it,” she whispered.

“We heard that from Lucy. She cast one 40 feet (12.2 meters) in diameter there with no trouble,” the Colonel told her to another shocked look from her.

“It would be interesting to see how large a shell the four of you could cast together. Perhaps, we could try that before you leave here,” the SGM said shortly on regaining her composure, before changing the subject.

“Lucy will be your main Instructor. There will be several others also, but they will be covering specialty areas. Areas that most students don’t have strong enough Talents to be considered for. Also, they have to be cleared for those subjects. Not all of those with the strongest Talents can meet the strict security requirements. The four of you won’t have a problem. Lucy will be a student for those areas also,” she told us in a more serious voice.

“For the first few days to a week, you will be in classes with the other new students. They are to see where you are with your Magic. You three won’t have a problem with them,” she finished before looking at the time.

“You had best be off to the mess hall for lunch. Report to the New Arrivals Hall before 1300 hrs.,” she finished, and we were dismissed. Lucy took us down to lunch. The food was alright, but after eating the meals that Hershel Preetorius had prepared for nearly a year now, it was a bit of a disappointment.

At the Assembly Hall, we met the other students in our class. There were eight of them besides the three of us. Lucy and several other instructors were there. The other students were considerably younger than the three of us, as they were in their early twenties. There were three males and five females. Sad to say, but on checking, most of them had only fair Talents. There was one young woman who had a fairly good Talent, but she was somewhat withdrawn. I would need to keep an eye on her as she seemed a bit timid and almost afraid of her Talent and the ability to use Magic. I called her to the Colonel’s attention also.

Following being welcomed by the School Commander, we were introduced to those who would be instructing us, and given a rundown of the course that we would be taking. We also learned that there were three other classes in progress at the school. Following that, the new students were all turned over to our initial Instructor.

Alice, our first Instructor, was a hard-bitten older woman, and she fit the image of Mary Whelan that Lucy had told us about. She wasn’t about to take any guff off of any of her students. She rode rough shod over the other eight, especially the somewhat withdrawn young woman. All of that stopped when she got to Trish, as we all went by our first names at the school.

“Well ... well! What have we here?” she asked looking at Trish and then Joel and me. “Something above the ordinary,” she said in a quiet voice before addressing the three of us.

“I’ll be expecting more out of you three than the others,” she told us. The other students had been staring at us and wondering why she hadn’t gotten all over us like she had them. She turned to the entire class then and had us sit on the padded benches there in the classroom before starting on the first class.

During the class, she explained about the Talent and the ability to do Magic. She also explained how Magic was done, and all that was involved. Following that, she had a surprise for us.

“Your first assignment is to do something involving the use of Magic,” she told us before adding the time limit. “It must be performed before the end of the first week of instruction,” she added. Most of the new students were just staring at her in shock.

“What about you three? What can you show us?” she asked turning to us after a few seconds.