“Ready?”

  Busby’s voice barely

  penetrated the roaring crackle of the shell of fire surrounding me,

  without magical enhancement I doubted that I would have heard it at

  all. The sound obstruction was turning out to be the big downside to

  using fire as the base of my defenses. I had sorted out how to make

  the flames more transparent and less distracting to see through, but

  I was having a lot of trouble getting the sound under control.

  I gestured to him that I was

  prepared, then I focused my senses to be as tuned as I could waiting

  for the assault that would come from any direction or angle. Busby

  stood in the same spot, arms leisurely at his sides with his eyes

  trained on me, he was experienced enough to perform all the necessary

  magic without giving away that he had anything to do with it.

  The first bolt of energy

  flashed out of the corner of my eye and I immediately thrust my

  magical might into solidifying the fire shell where I predicted it

  would hit. The bolt hit and the fire roared and crackled,

  illuminating the room with a brilliant light. Just as I was about to

  divert the power back out of that area to wait for the next attack, a

  bolt sliced through my shell from the opposite direction and prickled

  electrically across my skin as it intentionally barely grazed my

  chest and pierced an exit through the other side of my shield.

  Letting out a frustrated growl, I coalesced my power back into the

  core of my body and sent it hurdling into the stone below me.

  Busby made a humming noise,

  but said nothing, knowing it was best to let me have a moment to cool

  down before telling me exactly where I was failing. Though I was

  nearing the limits of his instruction, there were still areas we were

  finding during training that were turning out to be larger gaps in my

  knowledge than either of us anticipated. It was nothing that couldn’t

  be overcome with effort and practice, but it was irritating to have

  my so-called graduation from his tutelage be pushed farther and

  farther back.

  I knew that any non-magic user

  or most magic inclined humans would not be able to stand up against

  me, but there were much bigger fish in the sea out there and as a

  monarch desiring to take land and kingdoms, I needed to be prepared

  for the worst that could be thrown at me. When war eventually came I

  understood that the demons would do much of the heavy lifting,

  regardless I should be prepared to lend a hand or defend myself

  should the time come where I was backed against a wall.

  “It’s the noise issue,”

  Busby said with certainty, “and the light from the impact. I made

  sure that I didn’t muffle the sound or light of the second bolt.”

  “So now it’s two

  problems,” I grumbled. “It seems like every time we do this it’s

  something else.”

  “Such is the way with

  training for magical combat.” A smile spread across the trainer’s

  aged face. “Perhaps if we had started with combat in mind from the

  very beginning of your training then it would be a bit easier, but we

  can’t go back and change the past, only work towards a different

  future.”

  “What was my grandmother

  even training me for then?” I asked stiffly.

  “Oh, Evonia was all about

  being able to have a flashy show of power and being just deadly

  enough to dissuade anyone from testing her on it. Don’t mistake my

  words, she was a very powerful sorceress, but in an actual battle

  field she wouldn’t have fared well, the term glass cannon comes to

  mind.”

  “Glass cannon?” I

  inquired. “I haven’t heard of such a term before.”

  “Devastation if she got a

  shot in, but would have gone down quickly if targeted by anyone,”

  he explained with a grin. “It was one of the things we first argued

  about when she brought me here to start training her children. She

  refused to go through any extra training herself even though I told

  her that she would be caught flat footed in an actual confrontation.

  A pity really, she could have probably wrecked devastation on a

  kingdom or two had she focused on refining her powers.”

  I furrowed my brow in thought,

  I couldn’t bring to mind a single time I had seen my grandmother

  use her powers outside of the glamour she wore every day. She had

  threatened to use them a few times to various servants or guests that

  she felt were showing disrespect, but it had always ended with her

  extending mercy.

  “She refrained from using

  her affinity magic unless it was strategically planned out,” the

  trainer explained as if reading my mind. For as skilled as I knew the

  man was, he likely had. “It was a fickle power set that had long

  reaching effects and wasn’t apparent unless it was horrifically so.

  For the most part she was content to have people thinking that

  glamour was her specialty like Mari.” He looked at me and let out a

  chortle. “Knowing Evonia she never even told you the extent of her

  powers.”

  “You knew her well, more

  thoroughly than I,” I confirmed.

  Busby shook his head and

  motioned for me to follow him as he hobbled over to the two chairs

  near the entrance to the private training room. I had ensured they

  had been brought in specially for him. The subject had not been

  broached yet, but it was obvious that at some point in the near

  future a new tutor would need to be sought and arranged for. I didn’t

  particularly like the idea, but it seemed that part of being a

  monarch was accepting that you would have to eventually find

  replacements for the people who once guided and molded you.

  “I figured she would have

  kept mute on the subject,” he said with a nod. “She had it in her

  head that keeping information to herself, even if it could be

  important for the kingdom at large gave her more leverage and power.”

  He motioned respectfully for me to sit first, then sank into the

  other chair with a gruff sigh of relief. “I shudder to think just

  how many secrets died with her, it was perhaps her biggest weakness.

  If you’re up to taking advice, I would suggest not following the

  same path.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “I’m still finding out

  things I should have known long ago,” I admitted.

  “Precisely and I’m sure

  that you will continue to uncover things for untold years to come. If

  I were you I’d pressure Mari as well to tell you anything she knows

  and has been keeping mute on. Staying silent was a trait they shared

  and Mari is likely to try to keep any of Evonia’s secrets she still

  knows to herself out of a sense of duty. Anyway, what exactly was I

  talking about? I sometimes lose track now days.” He rubbed his

  forehead and frowned slightly.

  “Evonia’s magical

  affinity,” I gently reminded.

  “Ah, right, so I was not the

  one to train her, of course, we were about the same age when I came

  here, but I did make it a point for her to tell me about it in case

  it had any bearing on the ability of her lineage. Family trees are

  fickle when it comes to passing down affinities, it seems to depend

  on when, where, and why the family line came into the ability to

  harness magic and I quite honestly am not entirely sure how magic

  came into your line, that I could not get out of her. Regardless,

  before I get on too much of a tangent and never find my way back, her

  affinities lay in biological manipulation.”

  “Biological?” I

  questioned. “Things to do with the human body?”

  “Any body really, though

  humans did seem to be more susceptible to her powers, and I assume

  plants might have been able to be manipulated at well, though I don’t

  think she had ever been very interested in exploring that

  possibility. I believe my original point was that she had the

  capacity to cripple someone or stop their heart on a whim, a

  terrifying prospect for your enemies if they knew about it. I’m not

  sure anyone outside of myself and Mari may have known about it,

  perhaps her children. She could do it with just a glance as well,

  always unnerved me whenever I would see her looking at someone when

  she was annoyed. There were a few sudden deaths of some servants that

  I know grated on her nerves to have around. One died in their sleep,

  a few others came down very poorly, very suddenly with an illness

  that did not spread beyond them. I’ve always wondered if she

  actually used her powers more than anyone realized.”

  That would explain why Evonia

  had been so confident that the twins would not launch something

  against her. I would have tiptoed a bit more around her had I known

  that she could have ended my life at any moment without much

  recourse. She had to have understood that the threat would die out

  with her though, as potent as it was, which made it all the more

  irritating that she hadn’t considered it important to inform anyone

  else about her children’s treachery and their progress beyond Mari.

  I wondered what else Mari knew

  that she was keeping secret still, there had to be more and I had let

  it slide a little too long. It was becoming more clear that Mari

  still owed more allegiance to her dead sister than to the current

  monarch. On some level I understood and admired her loyalty, but the

  House Yser would continue to function beyond anyone one person’s

  reign and it was imperative that secrets were not kept from those who

  hold the throne. Surely with a conversation and some encouragement to

  see reason Mari could agree and start to reveal those secrets to me.

  “I suppose there is no use

  in worrying about it now,” he said, rising from his chair, “we

  should get back to work now instead, we don’t have much time to

  waste, the morning comes all too early these days.”

  I took my place once again in

  the center of the training room and opened myself as a conduit to the

  power of the stone beneath my feet and feeling the warmth of all the

  candles currently burning around the castle. I felt their embers

  reach out to me through the stone, flowing towards me and climbing up

  my body through my feet, swirling in my core a gentle crackling

  sensation extending from my core to the very tips of my fingers and

  toes.

  “This time let’s try to

  have you focus on manifesting the quietest fire possible,” he

  instructed. “We’re not going to worry about shaping it or making

  it any sort of barrier or weapon, just will it into existence as

  quietly as possible.”

  With an extension of effort I

  sent tendrils of my will to the nearest candle on the wall behind

  Busby and coaxed the flame to dance down to the ground between the

  trainer and I. I stoked it to grow bigger and more intense while

  simultaneously focusing on the image of a soundless candle flickering

  in the night. Though quiet as it burned on the wall, as soon as the

  fire grew to an appreciable size it began to crackle like it was a

  fueled hearth. Frustrated, sweat trickled from my brow as I pushed

  back against the sound, straining effort into the blaze in an attempt

  to dampen the sound. My efforts helped and the crackles and pops

  muted a bit, but it was admittedly not much quieter than what I had

  been able to manage thus far.

  My trainer stared at the blaze

  and let a long hum out from between his lips, nodding his head along

  to some conversation he was having in his own mind. After a careful

  study of what I was able to manage, he placed his hands together,

  then slowly spread them apart, signaling me to expand the fire even

  bigger. I complied and was immediately annoyed by how much louder the

  inferno suddenly became despite my continued efforts. He gave one

  final nod and waved his hand, instructing me to send the fire away to

  the ether.

  “We have some choices to

  make,” Busby said, still staring where the fire used to be. “I

  think we might have been going about this the wrong way for a bit,

  which is admittedly my fault, I am not overly experienced dealing

  with fire. My theory is that you are going to always struggle to

  manipulate physical fire to your will because it’s in its nature to

  be chaotic.”

  “Demons seem to manage it,”

  I commented. “Mistra has explained to me that it’s a common demon

  power, even for the lower powered entities.”

  “She is correct, but it’s

  a different kind of fire, they tend to work with elemental fire,”

  he explained. “It’s a bit different and it makes sense why you

  wouldn’t have started out being inclined to summon it, it just

  doesn’t tend to exist in the human realms on its own. In fact, I

  would doubt that you would have come in close contact with it before

  unless you’ve spent much time in the demon realms.”

  “I haven’t, I tend not to

  linger long, I feel that my visits to Rafe are usually delivering bad

  news and it’s wise to leave quickly after.”

  “Well I think it’s time to

  consider a visit and some magical exploration. I do think that given

  enough time and intense training you could master physical fire to

  bend to your will and exact specifications, but it will take a lot of

  intense work on both our parts and quite frankly, I’m already

  spread thin between training the girls during the day and our evening

  sessions together.” He rocked back on his heels in thought. “I

  suppose you could find another trainer and devote part of your days

  to training as well, that would speed things up. However, seems that

  it would be much more streamlined to go and check if your current

  affinity would also work with elemental fire, then work out how to

  make it work in this realm as well.”

  “That simple?”

  “No,” he laughed, “nothing

  to do with magic is ever simple, but I think it might be the less

  convoluted path to what you want to achieve.”

  “I can arrange for a trip,”

  I agreed, “should not be too difficult.”

  “Good,

  I will make a few contacts and see who might be a good fit to be a

  trainer while you’re there.”