Opportunity

Chapter 6: Opportunity

Her enthusiasm surprises me: to go from abhorring wizards to wanting to be trained as one… The relief she must feel at realizing she’s not truly a Deranged must be enormous. Still, I am now faced with a painful decision: to train a wizard, the wizard must use a wand. Which wand do I allow her to use: Liara or Diago? I hold both in my hands, feel their unique grooves and curves. Liara is almost empty now—I know that allowing Nelle to train with her would likely empty her; but Diago is spectacularly powerful, and I need a new wand. Perhaps I could teach her how to connect to a wand with Liara first, stall until we can find another wand?

“So, train me! Prove to me I’m a wizard and not a Deranged!” She leans from one side to the other, letting her feet kick up small puffs of sand.

I pass Liara to her.

“First, before you can command a wand, you need to connect with it. This wand’s name is Liara. Hold her—it—reverently in your hand, as if she—it!—were sacred to you. Be fully aware of how s—it feels in your hand. Now, try to focus your awareness completely on the wand. Feel the spark within h—it. Listen to her—its—name. Let Liara echo in your mind as the word Diago did earlier.” Her face scrunches with determination.

“I feel nothing, hear nothing. Are you sure this is a wand?”

“Of course she’s—it’s—a wand! Liara helped me escape yesterday; without her, I’d have been drained by now. Keep trying. I’m going to search for something to eat. I’ll return soon, I promise.” She nods reluctantly, but is too focused on her task to protest. Leaving her, I head back into the forest, exuberant in my luck. With Diago, hunting for prey will be supremely easy. If I’m honest, I didn’t even have to leave Nelle: I could have summoned a bird with Diago; but I was concerned about her inability to connect with Liara. Maybe she would do better on her own for a few minutes.

Spotting a bird, I command “Mernil!” through Diago, relishing how little this spell drained from the wand. With Diago, I could do anything! I could leave this planet if I had somewhere else to go, I can fly, I can create, I can—

Footsteps from the north stop my reverie. Then, shouts, an angry male voice tossing “WIZARD!” into the air. I rush back to find Edon advancing on Nelle, split-seam mouth attempting to sew itself back together with anger.

“You will not harm her!” Without thinking, I brandish Diago at Edon, letting power and concern rush through me. “Step away from her, or what happened to this bird,” I lift the dead bird high over my head, “will be your fate, Saroyan help me, if you hurt her…”

Edon backs away slowly.

“I should have known,” he said, “that a friend of a wizard would be one herself. I trusted you, Marinelle! I kept your secrets! And all this time, you’ve been a wizard?”

“No, it’s not like that! Edon! It’s not like that! I just found out—Capella showed me—”

Turning on me, Edon exclaims, “Why’d you come here, Wizard? To taint all of us? Why didn’t you stick to your own cursed continent and leave us alone!” Pieces fit together in my mind as I realize the northern continent must be where the Wizardry’s Deranged live, separate and protected from the Military’s Deranged.

“Edon, I have no wish to hurt you, but if you continue on this way, I will cast a spell on you!” He doesn’t realize how lucky he is to be Nelle’s friend; anyone else, talking this way to a Wizard, would have long since suffered.

“Oh, I’ve had enough. I’ll—” Nelle interrupts him with a strangely quiet voice.

“None of us are Deranged, Edon. You left this camp because of a word, right? The word Diago that repeated louder and louder in your mind?”

Stunned, Edon nods. Nelle points to the wand in my hand.

“That’s Diago, Edon. A wand.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Nelle?”

“Diago is the name of a wand. Only wizards hear the names of wands. Can’t you see what this means, Edon? We’re not really Deranged!”

“And you’re happy about this, are you, Nelle? Happy to be a wizard? Happy to join in with their elitist, pompous, exploitative ways? Is this what you want, Nelle?”

I clear my throat, loudly. He’s right, of course, about the Wizardry, but he doesn’t yet have the right to toss these insults around.

“Watch yourself, Edon. I warned you before about offending a wizard. I will not warn you again. In any case, it’s not about what Nelle wants or doesn’t want. She is a wizard. It sounds like you are a wizard. And if you are, what’s the point in fighting it? Are you really that happy living here, forgotten by the entire Military, left to idle away the rest of your life?”

“And what do you know, Wizard? You just show up here, attach yourself to Marinelle, tell her she’s a wizard, and you think I’m just going to let you take her?”

My stomach growls, reminding me of why I left Nelle.

“Enough, Edon. I’m not here to take her. How I came here isn’t any of your concern right now, but I didn’t come here for Nelle. I didn’t know she was a wizard until half an hour ago. Now, I’m hungry, and I want to eat. You can stay and eat with us, or you can leave. But if you leave, I will not treat you so kindly ever again.”

Nelle chimes in here, begging Edon to stay. “She’s promised to teach me how to be a wizard. Don’t you get it? There’s no reason for me to be scared of the voices anymore. You don’t have to run from the voices anymore. None of us have to run away ever again. Just stay, okay? I’m still Nelle.” Reaching out, she tentatively places her hand on his arm.

Resignation washes over his face as he nods in agreement.

“I will stay.”