Mimic Arcanist [Chapter 8]

Hey peeps!

Happy Valentines Day!

Sorry for the delay. More chapters on their way!

Shami

CHAPTER EIGHT

FIRES AND GRAVEYARDS

Twain’s orange fur melted into black and rust. His head shifted until he had three, and his body expanded to the size of a small horse. Before our eyes, Twain became a muscular cerberus, expertly mimicking Leon’s eldrin.

He was Sticks, just with Twain’s mind.

My arcanist star shifted until a three-headed dog appeared in the etching. I rubbed at my forehead and then shot Ashlyn a smile. “Are you ready?”

She crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow. Her dragon sat back on his hind legs and did the same, only adding a huff at the end.

“Go on,” Ashlyn said.

I turned to Twain. His three dog heads just stared back at me. I stepped around him and then held out my hand. Evoking magic involved pushing energy from the body out into the world. I had seen Sticks in action before, just like I had seen Leon. Cerberus arcanists evoked powerful fire. And since Helmith had said the occult ore filters to the surface, the fastest way to fit it would be to clear away everything.

After a deep breath, I closed my eyes and pictured my magic leaving my body through my palm. Once the visual was in place, I pressed outward.

Fire erupted from my hand so quickly, and so intensely, I startled myself. With a flinch and a few steps stumbling backward, I set the field ablaze. Then I ended the evocation, my heart hammering.

“Oh, I see,” Twain said, his voice identical to Sticks’s gruff tone. “Like this?”

He opened all three of his dog heads and lit more of the field on fire. The flames washed over the strange grass and then swept up the trunks of the nearby trees. Smoke filtered into the air like fell pillars. Would Leon and Professor Helmith see that? Probably. Would they come over and stop us? Would they get angry?

I hoped not.

Twain stopped evoking flame and then glanced over at me. I covertly offered him a shrug.

“Uh,” Ashlyn muttered. She stared at the fire and smoke for a long while before frowning. “Are you going to do anything about this?”

“In a moment,” I said as I shook out my hand.

“You’re going to burn down Red Cape before we even manage to build a school,” Ecrib quipped. The typhoon dragon glared at me. “Is that your idea of getting out of work?”

I waved away his comment. “Are you two even paying attention? Look there!” I pointed to the center of the field, between a cluster of embers. Red bits of ore glinted among the flames, plain as day. “There they are. Three bits of ore.”

Ashlyn rolled her eyes. “Okay, Lexly. Let’s see it. Go get them.”

I rubbed at my shirt. Twain glanced over again, his cerberus heads all frowning. I had seen Leon use his magic before. When he manipulated fire, he could effortlessly snuff it out. That was all I needed to do—snuff it out.

But I hadn’t learned much about manipulation. It was about controlling magic outside of the body. The flames burning the field should be easy to manipulate, but I wasn’t even sure where to begin. In an effort to buy time, I cracked my knuckles and smiled.

“Step back,” I said.

Ashlyn and Ecrib took a step back.

Twain did the same. I shot him a glare. “Not you.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” one of his cerberus heads muttered as he stepped up closer to me.

What was the best way to go about doing this? I shook out my hand a second time.

The problem with my mimic abilities was twofold. First, I needed to know how to use everyone’s magic. While all the other arcanists at the school could focus on mastering one set of abilities, I didn’t have that luxury. Evoking fire was a lot different than evoking terrors or even lightning. Second, if Twain mimicked an older creature, its magic was substantially more potent than a young creature. And since I was a new arcanist, potent magic stung me.

The fire I had evoked from my palm left behind a subtle agony.

Until Twain was older, I made a mental note to avoid mimicking older creatures. I should’ve had him transform into Ashlyn’s typhoon dragon. Ecrib was practically still a hatchling. I could handle his magic.

“Any day now,” Ashlyn called out.

She pointed to the flames that were creeping their way across the field. The smoke had become a curtain that rose into the sky, blotting out some of the glorious sun. I sighed the moment I realized the professors would definitely see this.

I exhaled, and then held up my hand a second time. Picturing what I wanted the fire to do, I waved my arm around. At first, nothing happened, which was disappointing, but at least a tree hadn’t exploded or something.

Then I tried again, this time reallyenvisioning the flames snuffing out.

I waved my hand.

Some of the fire answered the summons of my borrowed magic. A few embers ceased to be, practically winking out of existence. But large portions of the flames just moved around, dancing to the motions of my hands. The fire spread to the trees faster, and even grew in size.

How was that happening?

I stopped waving my hand, wondering if perhaps I should use both arms. Would that allow me to control more of the fire? Or just cause an inferno twice as fast?

“This isn’t as bad as I envisioned, but this isn’t good, either,” Twain muttered.

Enough smoke wafted through the air that my eyes watered and I had to cough before speaking. “You’re not helping.”

Ecrib flared his gills. He wheezed and hacked and stumbled backward, away from the flames. “End this, kitten arcanist. Or I’ll do it for you.”

“You can snuff out the fire?” I asked. “Because if you can, now is a great time to do it.”

Ashlyn snapped her attention to me, obviously shocked. “You can’t do it?”

“Well… let’s say I’m having a bit of trouble.”

“Curse the abyssal hells!”

She dashed away from the clearing and ran full tilt into the forest. Ecrib turned and followed her, stomping through the undergrowth as fast as his fin-covered legs could carry him.

“Do you think they’re running away?” Twain asked.

I shook my head. “Probably not?”

“Okay, well, focus! You can manipulate the flame. I know you can.”

“You can, too,” I said, motioning to the growing blaze. “I’d love your help.”

“O-Okay. Together? On the count of three.” One head said, “One.” The second head said, “Two.” And the last head yelled, “Three!”

Both Twain and I attempted to manipulate the fire. I pictured it dying this time—ceasing to exist all together, as though it had never been here in the first place.

And that seemed to work.

The fire on the trees withered and died.

Some of the flames on the field vanished. Twain’s ears perked up and his tail started wagging a mile a minute. “Look, Gray!”

“I know,” I said with a chuckle. “We’re doing it! We’re manipulating the flames!”

Ecrib and Ashlyn came rushing out of the nearby trees. Balls of water floated in the air near them, twirling around as though gravity had abandoned a small fountain’s worth of fluid. Ashlyn waved her arms and a head-sized ball of water hurdled through the air. It splashed across a small portion of the field, killing a segment of the flames.

Ecrib waved a clawed hand. Two more balls of water hit the fire on the grass. The blaze sizzled as it died, more smoke wafting into the sky.

There were only a few patches of fire now.

Twain and I used our newfound ability to manipulate magic to snuff them out.

“You can manipulate water?” I asked Ashlyn as she slowly walked over.

With a frown, she nodded. “You knew that.”

“Well, I mean, you can carry it through the air? I didn’t know that. A useful ability.”

“If there’s water nearby.” She waved to our surroundings. “Some arcanists evoke the things they can manipulate. Like cerberus arcanist who evoke fire and manipulate fire. But typhoon dragons don’t have that luxury. There has to be water nearby, or else I can’t do anything with that.”

“There’s always water nearby.” I gestured to the grass on the side of the field that was still green. “Plants have water in their leaves. Trees have water in their trunks.”

Ashlyn narrowed her eyes in a sarcastic glare. “Yeah. Great. The tiny fragments of water inside the grasswill really help quell a raging inferno. What insight you have. Your parents must be proud.”

I snapped my fingers as I walked out into the charred part of the field. “I don’t appreciate your sass.” With a smile, I knelt and scooped up three bits of ruby-like ore. Then I quickly juggled them before tucking each into the pocket of my trousers. “Who has more occult ore? Me? Or you? Because with the power of simple addition, I’ve determined that I’m winning.”

Ashlyn pursed her lips. With a chuckle, I ambled back in her direction. Something about gloating only felt good with Ashlyn. She wasn’t like the others. They would all get angry. Not her. Ashlyn would get even. I saw it in the way she slid her gaze to the surrounding area.

Twain bubbled and shifted.

His giant cerberus body melted away, the black and rust colors swirling back into orange. He became a small kitten once again, his giant ears pointed upward.

“I’m tired,” he groaned. “Sorry, Gray. I tried to maintain the form longer. I really did.”

“It’s fine.” I shrugged. “Just help me find a few more pieces of ore.”

A sharp moan echoed from the distant trees—the ones that had burned. I wheeled around on my heel and stared at the blackened trunks. Smoke continued to spill into the sky, creating a haze. When I stepped forward, I had to rub at my eyes and cover my mouth with the collar of my shirt.

“Did you hear that?” I asked no one in particular.

Another moan sounded from beyond the trees. The tone was agonized, almost frightened. Was someone injured? Had my flames actually caught someone? The horror of the situation sank into my thoughts. What if a villager from Red Cape had been strolling through the woods, and my evocation had accidentally burned them?

“Hello?” I called out.

A gurgled groan was the only answer.

I hurried forward, my heart beating so hard, my ears were filled with the thumping. Did we have any arcanists nearby capable of healing?

“Gray?” Ashlyn asked.

I pushed my way past the black trunks. “Hello?” I called out again, this time louder.

Sounds of splashing, followed by another moan.

“Gray?” Twain also yelled.

I coughed back some of the lingering smoke and glanced around. Was someone here?

Then I saw it. The source of the noise. The creature groaning and splashing about.

It was a human corpse. A half-rotten body covered in flotsam and dripping mucus so thick, it might as well be jelly. Its bone hands were sharpened into claws, and its skull had glowing eyes deep in the sockets. Fangs jutted out between normal teeth, and water occasionally sloshed out of the seaweed wrapped around in its guts.

What was this?

I took a single step backward, my legs unsteady.

It was… something straight out of the abyssal hells.

Then the monster moaned again, and it lunged for me.