A Storm in the Making

Chapter 23--Showtime!

Just as the different levels of wizards were separated by the colors of their belts, so did the tiered benches behind the Hermits chairs separate wizards into the different hierarchies.

 The black-shrouded William Helm was easy to spot. He sat with the 4th Levels, his sword propped in front of him, both hands reaching up higher than his head, to rest on the hilt of his sword. Though the benches were crowded, William Helm had a clear margin of space around him. That was odd, I thought. But then a movement above him caught my attention and I spotted Julius on another bench above and to the right of William Helm, along with the other 5th Level wizards, and I forgot William Helm for the moment.

I didn’t know if I should acknowledge Julius or not, so I waited for him to acknowledge me first. I was kind of crushed when he didn’t. He seemed to be too busy glaring down at William Helm to notice me.

I was immediately relieved when I heard, Good Morning, Storm, inside my head. Julius looked down and deliberately winked at me.

Sheesh, was every man I knew going to wink at me this morning? Though my wayward thought didn’t stop me from smiling back at Julius. It is a good morning, now, I told him.

Beside me, Nigel cleared his throat. Dr. Spinner had said something I missed, so reluctantly I turned my attention away from Julius to what was going on around me. Nigel couldn’t have heard me, could he?

I saw a look pass between Princess Ranaloxa and Luke that was both questioning and defiant. But I didn’t have time to worry about their problems. I had my own.

Seeing Julius sitting with the 5th Levels, our differences couldn't be more apparent. That he and I were from different planets could not have stood out more clearly. I could never hope to belong to the 5th level, elite group of wizards he belonged to. I turned back to my own group of red belts and glanced at Nigel. He eyed me thoughtfully, seeing too entirely too much. Feeling I had no safe place to look, I dropped my eyes to my lap and began pinching my robe into little tiny pleats.

The three Hermits took turns testing the challengers that came forth. I soon learned the old wizards by name--as the name of the wizard doing the testing, and the wizard being tested, were announced at the beginning of each challenge.

Varak seemed to be the one who tested for inborn magic, Vorst did the testing for Intuitive magic, and Natos handled the ritualistic magic. Even though I didn’t know too much about what each of those categories meant, I had to respect these little old men who wielded all that magic so adeptly.

Whether they were challenging a young wizard to a duel with fireballs being pulled out of thin air.    Or, they were pulling lightning bolts out of the clear, lavender sky. Or, even  shape-shifting into fearsome, fantastical creatures such as giant multi-colored dragons so large they shadowed the field.  It didn't matter. Whatever they were did, was done with dignity, and, one thing was certain.  There was never a doubt that the Hermits were always quietly, absolutely in control.

How would I ever be able to do any of that? Sadly I thought--I wouldn’t. I could not feel one magical bone in my body. I had to be the only person here today who had no magical ability. Why that bothered me, I didn’t want to think about.

***

There were several challengers who had my undivided attention that morning. The first was Mauk, of course. How Nigel knew, he didn’t explain, but he told me that a challenging wizard never had to re-test areas in which he had already met the challenge. This made the testing go faster, as almost everyone had only to pass one test to move to the next level--unless to achieve that level they had to switch from inborn to other types of magic.