Riah's Story Chapter 3

Hey everybody!! Thanks so much for your comments on the last chapter!! (Lol I check for comments at least as often as y'all check for chapters.) Here's the next!!

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“You wished to speak with me. Was there something in our original meeting or in the Consort's orders that was unclear to you?” He said it neutrally, but nonetheless the school officials seemed shaken. The'd given him the boy's school materials, which was helpful, but that was unlikely to be what the meeting was actually about.

The school president and his assistant looked at each other uncomfortably. “We received a report that you would not be living in the dormitory,” the president started hesitantly.

“That is correct,” he answered neutrally. He knew where this was going.

“And that you did not escort your ward to his first class this morning,” the assistant added.

He gave the two of them a cold stare, then let his gaze sweep the rest of the room. “You question me,” he said.

The room took a collective breath, but nobody seemed to want to say anything.

“I take it this meeting is over?” he asked them.

The president nodded rapidly. Giving the man a final cold smile, Mathias got up and left.

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The first person to show up for Charms after Riah was Jaden Taller, the average-looking blond-haired boy who'd been so rude in Rituals. The other boy ignored him, sitting down against the opposite wall and pulling out a thick book, and Riah was happy to return the favor, pulling out his borrowed Rituals text and finding the reading on the ritual they'd just studied.

It proved to be more interesting than he'd expected, explaining the theory behind the use of sand and the circle and the incantation. It also used a lot of vocabulary that he didn't have. Confused, he flipped back in the book to the introduction.

Rituals have three different essential elements, it said. The first is the arrangement of the caster, his position, orientation, and movement, all of which can be very specific and important. These things set up the circumstances and bounds of the ritual. The second is the incantation, the spoken element of the ritual. The words, intonation, and emotion of the incantation may each be different for each ritual. The final element is the material, or the objects and substances used in ritual. It is the most simple of the three elements, and typically requires the least of the witch, but may be expensive, difficult, or unpleasant to obtain. The material typically contributes to the power of a ritual or adds another dimension of meaning to it. Salt, for example, is typically used for cleansing, white sand for binding, and blood to add a symbolic element of life or sacrifice.

As a side note, bodily fluids of any sort can add great power to a ritual, but it is a chaotic power, and can be difficult to control. Such materials are not recommended for use by a novice witch. Witches are also advised to remain aware of the regional legalities of their materials. Federal law also applies. Improper use of bodily fluids, either improper use of an animal's bodily fluids, or improper or non consensual use of the bodily fluids of a human being, is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment and in some cases death.

Good to know, Riah thought, startled. 'Improper use of bodily fluids' carried the death penalty, when cold blooded murder did not? Unless they're talking about murder and use of the blood? That was possible. Why would the fact that the motive included blood sacrifice matter to the courts, though? Giving the issue a mental shrug, Riah returned to his reading.

Every ritual must involve at least two of the three elements, but an element may be very simple, or much more complicated. An incantation, for example, may be a single word spoken in monotone, or an entire song, complete with full intonation and the emotion of the caster. It may even be silent. Similarly, the arrangement of the caster may have him simply standing in place, or may require him to perform a very elaborate dance. A material may be obtainable at a vegetable stand or may require a trip abroad. Typically, if one element is very complicated, the others are simpler. Few rituals require the witch to sing and dance at the same time, for example. That said, many of the most specific or most powerful rituals get quite complicated indeed, requiring many casters to complete many different parts. Others may be simpler, but require strength of mind, body, or voice that must be trained. It is for this reason that ritualistic witches at the highest levels typically specialize. A witch may choose to train his voice or body specifically, to better take part in a group ritual, or to study rituals more generally, such that he is capable of doing many rituals entirely on his own. Part of the purpose of this introductory course is give you a generalized view of rituals that may or may not lead you to a more specific interest.

Ritualistic magic is the most concrete of the four main branches of witchcraft, followed by brewcraft, charms, and finally base magic. Some find this tedious, but others find the rule-bound nature of rituals, charms, and brews freeing. For most of these, one can be sure to get the same result upon completion of the same procedure, and can therefore create something lasting and shareable in writing a ritual in a way that one cannot with base magic. Additionally, the power of a ritual is in its precision and focus, and not in the power of the caster. If you have any magic at all, you can cast a ritual with a little study, and get as good results as a more powerful caster with the same level of skill. There is a certain elegance and rightness to a perfectly cast ritual that is difficult to describe. That said, while a miscast ritual is likely to simply fizzle, it can also have unexpected and powerful results. It is for this reason that a license is required to cast a ritual without explicit supervision by an experienced licensed witch. It is highly recommended that you obey this law. If you choose to flaunt it, and the ritual goes badly, you may be liable for damages in addition to any penalties incurred by your disobedience.

Riah looked up from the reading, frowning. Were rituals really that dangerous? Master Tirdan had seemed to think so, too, from the way he'd explicitly prevented them from actually casting even the very basic ritual they were learning, but how much could really go wrong?

While he'd been reading, the corridor had filled with other students, leaning and sitting against the walls and chatting quietly. He'd been aware of them, but nobody bothered him so he'd ignored them. Now, though, he realized that there were nearly fifteen other students in the corridor. Where was the Master?

The class was much more varied than Rituals had been, he noticed. In Rituals, the students had all been around his age. Here, the youngest student was probably only about ten years old, and the oldest a little older than Riah – maybe sixteen. Most were in the middle, twelve to fourteen.

Finally, a woman arrived, bustling in red-faced and out-of-breath. She was short and round, with patently fake red hair and too-bright lipstick. She moved like a flustered bird, smiling briefly at the class before pulling out the key to the classroom from a pocket of her skirt and unlocking the door with twitchy, rushed movements.

“Sorry I'm late, guys, I've just been so busy today,” she gushed.

“She's always late,” Riah heard a student mutter nearby as Master Dalten pushed into the room ahead of them.

“Maybe she's always busy,” another whispered, sounding skeptical.

“It's bloody rude, that's what it is,” a third said. Riah was inclined to agree, but didn't say anything.

The classroom was much larger than Master Tirdan's had been, and smelled noticeably of dried herbs and dust. It was set up with tables in rows, two students to a table. The walls were painted a pale green, and lamps like in the corridors floated at even intervals along the wall between windows that showed out to the side of the building and towards some sort of sports field in the distance.

“Can we choose our own seats today?” one of the younger students asked hopefully before they sat down.

“Normal places, please,” the Master answered firmly.

The kid sighed. “Okay.”

Gathering that the seats were assigned, Riah waited for everyone to get to their seats, and found that there was an open space near Jaden that was easy for him to get to.

Good enough, he thought. The boy didn't seem to like him much, but was apparently capable of simply ignoring him, which worked just fine for Riah. He took the available seat, and Jaden didn't say anything.

“Who's missing?” Master Dalter asked once everyone was seated.

Everyone looked around at their neighbors briefly before their attention was drawn to Riah's neighbor as he spoke up. “From here or from Barlin City?” Jaden asked insolently.

Okay, so maybe he won't just ignore me, Riah thought. Jaden's comment drew a lot of confused glances from the students, and the Master frowned at Jaden before looking at Riah.

“You're...” she looked down at a paper on her desk. “Zachariah Mordelle?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

She nodded sharply, then looked away from him and back at the rest of the class, seeming flustered. “Yes, well...class, does everyone have their homework?”

“He's from Barlin City?” one of the youngest students asked loudly.

“Does everyone have their homework?” Master Dalter repeated, voice too loud and a little shrill.

Woah, Riah thought. Panic much?

“Yes, Ma'am,” the students answered in a rough chorus.

“Bring it up, then,” she said, seeming to regain some of her composure. “I'll check everyone's, and then we can try them on Friday.”

Riah, of course, did not have the homework, and just sat in place as the rest of the class brought theirs up. Whatever the other students had done, it wasn't on paper – they all seemed to be bringing up bundles of sticks and other objects to the front of the room and putting them together in a sack to the side.

When everybody had sat back down, Master Dalter again got their attention and said, “Today we will be making basic water purification charms. Does everyone know what that means?”

Nods around the room, and Master Dalter continued. “Good. The procedure is on page thirty of your book. It shouldn't require anything that I didn't already ask you to bring to your lesson today. If you forgot to bring materials, come see me and I'll provide it, but expect that I will take that into account in my grading.”

Riah didn't have a book, let alone the materials, but Master Dalter either truly didn't realize that, or was faking it. At any rate she wasn't giving him any help. Riah got up, drawing every eye in the room except the master's, and walked to the front of the room, head high. He stopped in front of the master's desk, but still she didn't look up.

Biting back his annoyance, Riah spoke levelly. “Excuse me, Master Dalter.” She didn't look up, but the rest of the class was still staring at him. He ignored it. “I see,” he said, swallowing. Bitch. “I won't waste more of your time.” He turned away to return to his desk, and found the entire class staring at him.

God, I'm getting tired of that. He stopped and lifted his chin, speaking loudly enough for the room to hear. “I'm a convicted murderer,” he announced, holding up his wrists for all to stare at. “Master Dalter is refusing to teach me because I don't belong here. Does that satisfy you?” Not waiting for a response, he walked the rest of the way back to his desk and sat, leaning back to think and to avoid the still confused and curious gazes of the rest of the class.

What now? He might as well leave, if he wasn't going to be provided any materials. And leave permanently, he realized suddenly. He was damned lucky that the school fed them for free, or he wouldn't have anything. As it was, he still couldn't pay for more clothing or new materials. Unless the Masters provided it as Master Tirdan had, he wouldn't have it. And that includes paper, he realized. For the first time in his life, he was truly broke. No, poor, he told himself, refusing to flinch from it. Broke implies some minimal chance of changing the situation.

Jaden was staring at him, too. He didn't know how he could tell, but he knew it was true. Maybe he'd just seen it before sitting down. Riah ignored him, but finally the boy spoke up.

“Hey Jailbird,” he said. “Need help?”

That was unexpected. But Jaden had said he liked this class, Riah remembered. He'd said he liked to carve. “What's in it for you?” Riah asked, looking at him skeptically.

Jaden smiled. “I share my book and materials with you here, and help you if you get stuck. You do my Rituals homework.”

Riah stared at him, thinking it over. He'd been a good student, once. Never cheated in his life. He snorted softly. People change. “You provide paper,” he answered. “Mine and yours.”

Jaden raised an eyebrow. “Paper?”

Paper was the cheapest of the school materials that Riah would need, and Jaden had to know that. Riah let his stare turn icy, and Jaden nodded. “Pen, too?” he asked.

Riah shook his head. He had a pen, at least. It had been in the clothes he'd worn into Barlin City.

“Good,” Jaden said, shoving his textbook over so Riah could see it. “Charms are a bit like Rituals, in that you've got to be careful about following the procedure right and using the right materials, but it requires just a bit more explicit magic, and the outcome's less certain.” He pointed with a finger. “This one requires barley straw, dried nettle flowers, and cedar. That's these three.”

He pulled out a box and two bags and opened all three. The box held a whole mess of dried-out, star shaped flowers, while the bags held straw wrapped up into a loop and tied, and a chunk of sweet-sharp smelling wood. “For future reference, Dalter has us bring them in just 'cause she's lazy. You get them from the basement of this building for dry stuff, and the Herblore and Brewing gardens or the greenhouses if they have to be fresh.”

So those he would be able to get, then. “Okay,” Riah said, watching as Jaden put all three materials on the table.

“Now, the barley wants to be in rings,” Jaden said. “That means you cut it real thin, crosswise, so that you get little circles. The cedar's supposed to be in curls. That requires carving. Which job you want?”

“Half and half,” Riah answered. If he was 'paying' for Jaden's time, he'd better learn how to do everything. “But I'll do the straw first, so I can watch you do the cedar.”

Jaden gave him a strange look. “Alright. Whichever of us gets done first can grind the thistle. That's easy.”

The class was kind of fun, actually, if he ignored the instructor. It was very physical, and not as repetitive or carefully-controlled as Rituals had been. Just sit at a desk, carefully slicing and carving and grinding and measuring, throw all the ingredients together in the proper proportions in a rough cloth sachet, and you were done until it was time to trigger it. The two of them were done with half an hour left in the two-hour class, and tagged their sachets with their names and brought them up to the desk.

“Fresh burdock leaves, dried burdock burrs, chia seeds, and a roll of linen bandaging for next time,” Dalter told Jaden. And just Jaden, he realized. The woman had carefully not addressed him.

“Think she'll grade mine?” he asked Jaden on their way back to the desk to clean up.

“Probably,” Jaden said. “If she didn't, somebody would notice. Even odds she finds invisible faults that mine somehow doesn't have, though. 'Specially since you called her out.”

“Great,” Riah said, before changing the subject as they got to the desk. “If you give me your pen, I'll use it on your homework. Do you usually write script or print?”

“Print,” Jaden said, jotting down something quickly in a notebook before shoving it in his bag.

“I'll do mine in script, then,” Riah told him, starting to clear up the materials they'd used.

Jaden raised an eyebrow, a slight smile on this lips. “Done this before?” he asked.

“Nope,” Riah said, putting the remainder of the cedar and barley straw back in their bags. “Just not an idiot. There are only four of us in the class. You might want to copy it in your own handwriting when I'm done anyway.”

“That would take time,” Jaden said cheerfully. “I am a fundamentally lazy person.”

Riah shook his head. “Your choice, I suppose. I'll do what I can to make them look different.”

“Paper,” Jaden said suddenly. “Just a second.” Digging in his bag, he pulled out two long scrolls and handed them to Riah.

“Thanks,” Riah said. He only needed one, but Jaden probably knew that better than he did.

“Education is the key to turning today's ax murderers into tomorrow's kindergarten teachers,” Jaden told him ironically.

Riah stared at him, then found himself starting to smile. “Indeed,” he said sarcastically. “I'm going to be a big fucking hero someday. Just ask the queen.”

Jaden stopped what he was doing and looked at him, suddenly frowning. “What on earth happened, man?”

“What do you mean?” Riah asked cautiously.

“I mean – you're fifteen,” Jaden said. “You really killed someone?”

I thought that's what you meant. And things had been going so well until then. Riah met Jaden's eyes and spoke bluntly. “He needed killing,” he said.

Jaden stared at him, mouth slightly open, seemingly at a loss for words. “Shit,” he said finally. “You really did.”

Idiot. “No, I made it up,” Riah said acidly. “They're temporary tattoos, and the manacles I was wearing this morning were the kind with the safety release.”

Once again, Jaden just stared for a second, but finally he snapped back, “Forget I asked.”

Riah just watched him as he grabbed his bag and left.

Asshole, Riah thought. Then the anger died, and he was left staring after the other boy. No, he thought. Normal human being with normal response to fucked up human being.

Grabbing his Rituals textbook and rolls of paper, he stood up to leave and walked out of the classroom. Once out in the corridor, though, he stopped by the door, realizing that he didn't know where to go.

“Zachariah,” a man's voice said suddenly.

Riah looked over, startled, and realized that the voice belonged to his new “Guardian”. “M'lord Greuster,” he greeted ironically.

The man ignored the disrespect and simply walked to him, holding out a packet of papers.

“Take these,” he said. “Your next class is in the Base Magic building, between this complex and the intermediate complex, in room number twenty-three. It starts in half an hour. Don't be late.”

The man turned and left, and Riah shook his head. Helpful. Looking at the pile of papers in his hands, he found that one of them was a map, and another a class schedule. The third was a thin bound packet labeled, “Welcome, Newcomer!” and appeared to be a list of guidelines regarding life at the school – things like meal hours, curfew, and where to go if you were sick. Finally a thicker bound packet was labeled “Community Guide,” and appeared to be mostly a list of rules and the consequences for breaking them.

Looking back at his class schedule, he found, indeed, that on Wednesdays he had Basic Rituals with Master Tirdan, lunch, Basic Charms with Master Dalter, a half-hour break, and then something called Base Magic 1, with Master – with Lord Greuster. He felt his stomach churn, a little. Lord Greuster was teaching one of his courses? That'd explain why it was him giving him the papers, but he had just started hoping that he'd be able to avoid the man.

Nothing that I haven't already survived, he reminded himself.

He had half an hour. There was that lounge on the first floor of the Rituals building – and Bat had said that each building had one. If that meant the “Base Magic” building, too, then he could find his classroom before settling down and thus ensure he wasn't late.

Why did he care if he was late, though? he realized suddenly. It wasn't like his grades would ever even go anywhere. Where could they go? He almost smiled. Riah, we're very disappointed with your performance this quarter. You're- what? What could they do to him? Put him in Solitary? That would hardly be square.

Maybe they'd try sending them to his mother? He snorted lightly, this time without any sense of amusement. Oh yeah. She'd care.

Nobody fucking did. M'Lord Greuster had made that damned clear, and Mr. Jogden the “dorm father” had only been concerned with 'controlling' him. Thereby showing me that they can't, he realized. He truly had nothing to lose. He had no parents to report to, no prospects for a career that hadn't already been ruined by his record, no anything beyond forty years in prison and his eventual release. Nothing he did here meant anything beyond being something to do. There really was nothing anybody could do to control him other than Greuster, and the man didn't seem interested in doing it. In that sense, he was freer than he'd ever been. Nobody to please, nobody to displease, no way to bungle his life further than had already been done. Unless I kill somebody else, at least.

What was he doing here? Sure, it was better than prison, for now, but what then? How long was he even going to stay? They couldn't have him serve his whole sentence here. He'd be too old, and anyway twenty years of schooling was expensive. And surely he'd be even harder to control, with training? Unless they were planning on assigning M'lord Greuster to him for the whole time?

He'd go to class, he decided. For curiosity's sake, if nothing else. He needed something to do. And he might as well be on time, if he was going to go. Especially given it's his Lordship, he admitted to himself. Just because the man claimed not to care about Riah's academics didn't mean he wouldn't resent him interrupting his class, and unlike anybody else who might care, he could actually do something about it.

I would not make my life difficult, if I were you, the man had said. It was probably good advice. You don't mess with me, your Lordship, and I won't mess with you. Shoving all the papers but the map into his Rituals textbook, he set out for the Base Magic building.

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That's it!! Hope you liked it!