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A few years ago when I was thinking over ideas for a story about a magic school, two different rival story ideas formed, each with very different magic systems and plots. At the time, I chose to write the one that became my story the Academy because I thought that it would have made for a much better story. However the other story idea keeps coming back to me ever since, especially whenever I consider ideas for a possible sequel to the Academy. Because that idea has been so persistent to my imagination I have finally decided to write it. Due to the origin of this story and the fact that I'd borrowed some elements I'd come up for this one to use while writing the Academy, there will be a number of similarities. The CHASM By Morpheus I shifted position uncomfortably in my bus seat, more than tired of sitting here. It felt as though I'd been riding this bus forever though the truth was I'd only been on it for about an hour so far. It was the previous five hours that I'd spent on the plane trip that made this seem even longer. With a sigh I looked down at the book in my hands, a fantasy novel that I'd started after getting on the plane and was already halfway through. As much as I enjoyed a good fantasy book, I'd had my fill for the moment. I was tired of reading and tired of sitting. Of course I was also excited and impatient considering where we were going. At the moment, the bus was driving me and a bunch of other teenagers to the Charles Halldecker Abridged School of Magic...also known as the CHASM. It was a real school for magic, though probably not quite what most people thought of when they considered such things. Real magic didn't take years of apprenticeship and study to learn, but was something that could be learned fairly quickly. Once you learned the pronunciation and basic rules, you were pretty much on your own. As a result, the CHASM was less a true school for magic and more of a summer camp. I was going to be there for the next eight weeks learning everything I could about the subject. I was more than a little excited about going to the CHASM, though just a little confused by the bus ride. Since we were going to a school for magic, I would have thought that we'd be magically transported there, maybe brought by dragons or a magic train. But instead we get a perfectly normal and ordinary bus. I was a little disappointed at that, though I wasn't the only one. "The least they could do was spring for a magic bus," I muttered in annoyance while the boy beside me nodded in agreement. I'd already introduced myself to my seat neighbor when we'd gotten on the bus and after talking off and on for most of the ride, we'd become somewhat friendly if not actually friends. Winchester Riley...or Winch as he preferred to be called, was 16 years old, the same age as me. He had dark brown hair that was cut really short, wore a pair of thick glasses, was 5 foot 8, just 2 inches shorter than me and where I was lean and wiry he was a bit chubby. "At least we're almost there," Winch said. Then he hesitated a moment before admitting, "At least I think we are... I mean, I was told it would only be an hour on the bus." I nodded at that, having been told the same thing. I looked out the window and saw that we had gotten pretty well into the middle of nowhere. Then a minute later, I could actually make out the CHASM in the distance. The CHASM wasn't actually in a chasm, as cool as that might be, but was located in more of a small valley, well away from anyone outside the school. Of course that made perfect sense, since most people in their right minds wouldn't want to risk being around a bunch of teenagers who were practicing magic. "There it is," Winch said unnecessarily. As we approached closer, I saw that the school was surrounded by a tall stone wall. There was even a large iron gate in front which looked rather impressive. However what caught my attention was the fact that there were several vans parked alongside the road...or long driveway at this point, and a dozen people standing there with signs. There were protesters in front of the CHASM. "What are they protesting?" Winch asked curiously. I just scowled and answered, "Us." One protester was holding a sign which read 'magic is unnatural' while two more held a banner between them which read 'teach our kids science not magic'. There were other signs as well as people yelling at us as we drove past. I couldn't make out most of what they said, though several eggs splattered against the bus windows. A minute later, we were past the protesters and through the gate to the CHASM. I watched out the window as the gates closed behind us, letting out a sign of relief as they did. "What were they mad about?" Winch asked with a blank look. "We didn't do anything to them." "There are always people who are afraid of magic," the girl on the other side of the bus aisle said. "Or jealous." I nodded agreement, remembering some of what I'd learned during history class last year in school. Once I'd found out that I could do magic, I'd actually gone back and refreshed some of the material now that it actually related to me a bit. As far as we knew, there have always been people around who could do magic. Sometimes they called themselves wizards, sometimes sorcerers, and sometimes they were even priests and claimed their powers came from whatever god they worshipped. Nowadays, we called such people magir. All through history there have been people who were jealous of magir or even afraid, sometimes with good reason. After all, when a person has power it can be easy to abuse it. But just as often, the magir had been no threat and the fear was undeserved. Whether the fear was deserved or not, it was often taken out on innocent magir in the form of witch trials and burnings. Eventually, the magir had become terrified and went into hiding, policing themselves keeping their very existence secret. For the most part, normals soon began to forget that magic was even real. The magir remained in hiding for several centuries, but that all changed during World War 2. Many magir began to try helping the Allies, using their magic in secret at first and then finally in the open. After the magir helped end the war, the opinion of the magir was quite positive for a time, which made it much easier for them to come out of hiding. It was also found that a lot more people had the potential to do magic than was previously realized and now the magir could actually find and train them. Nowadays, anyone who was interested in finding out if they could do magic and become a magir could easily get tested for it, which was how most of us ended up here. The bus pulled up in front of the cluster of buildings that served as the school and everyone began getting off. I grabbed my fantasy book and joined them, feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement. As the students gathered in front of the bus, we were met by several instructors who began calling out names. I tried paying attention to which of the kids answered to what names so that I'd know who they were later on. The girl who'd been sitting across the aisle on the bus raised her hand when they called Angie Morse. I took another look at her, guessing her to be about the same age as me. She was a little on the petite side with blonde hair that was pulled back in a pony tail. Then they called out, "Jon Argent," and I raised my hand and went to collect the room key and package of goodies that they were passing out. A minute later, they called out Winch's name, "Winchester Riley..." The blonde girl Angie was standing a few feet away and looked at him with a curious expression before asking, "Winchester?" Winch let out a sigh that suggested this was a topic he was tired of talking about. "My dad is a total freak for old western movies," he explained with a shrug. Angie nodded and responded, "I guess that would explain it." Then she looked at me and noticed the book I was holding, suddenly exclaiming, "Hey, I've read that one..." "Yeah?" I asked. "You read fantasy?" "Love it," Angie said with a grin. "I'm Angie by the way." "Jon," I told her. "Call me Winch," Winch said. "Better than being called Chester I guess," I joked. Winch just nodded at that with a slight wince that made me think there was a story there somewhere. We talked for a few more minutes while the rest of the names were called off and then we grabbed our luggage and were led to the building where our rooms were. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a room to myself, even if it was pretty small and cramped. Still, it was mine... at least for the next two months. I quickly unpacked my stuff and put my clothes in the dresser they'd provided. I then brought out the small stack of books that I'd brought, all of them fantasy novels. Most of them were ones I hadn't read, but I had brought a few copies of old favorites like the Hobbit and Peter Pan. I just wasn't sure how much time I'd have for reading though. Once I was done setting up my room, I went and joined up with the group again as they gave us all a tour around the CHASM facilities. It was kind of interesting, but only so far as it increased my anticipation of the real reason we were all here, learning magic. I could tell that everyone else thought the same thing. Just as we were finishing up the tour, Mrs. Welch, the elderly instructor who was giving the tour called out to us, "We have something else here for you..." Mrs. Welch took us into a room that she'd already told us was an assembly hall, though there were currently no seats set up. However there were about a half dozen long tables, each covered with books. Each one looked different, some with plain brown leather covers, some with covers that were made of cloth, and some that were nicely decorated. "In a minute you will each be able to choose one of these books," Mrs. Welch told us all. "This will be your grimoire where you will write down every spell that you are able to cast. This way you can keep track of them all and study them at your leisure." "My dad said grimoirs are old fashioned," one girl from our group said. "I mean, why can't we just have our spells saved on computer?" "You can when you go home," Mrs. Welch told her with an amused look. "But what happens if your computer crashes?" "I have a backup," the girl responded with a shrug. Mrs. Welch looked slightly annoyed and continued her speech. "It is traditional that you keep your grimoire to yourself and only show it to people you trust. It is a record of every spell you can cast, which means it lists your magical strengths and weaknesses. In older days, your grimoire was something that an enemy could exploit against you. In modern times, this may no longer be as large a problem, but it is still a tradition that most magir value." Then she slowly looked around the room and added, "Each of your rooms has a safe in it so you can store your valuables, including your grimoires." After this, Mrs. Welch let us pick out our grimoires. I looked around until I found one that caught my eye, one with a green leather cover that was a bit textured. I showed my choice to Winch who revealed the plain brown leather one he'd picked. "Look at mine," Angie said, coming up to us to show off her new grimoire, one that was blue with a little white thread around the trim and which had a picture of a dolphin stamped onto the front. "What? I like dolphins." I opened my new grimoire and looked inside again, smiling faintly as I did so. All the pages were blank, though mine had faint lines in the paper while some of the other books didn't. I figured I needed them since I couldn't write in a straight line without a guide if my life depended on it. Now all I had do was write my name inside the front cover and it would be ready to use. I could hardly wait until I was able to actually do so. ------------------ It was my first full day at the CHASM and my first real class was about to start. This class was being held outside in an area with bleachers for all of the students to sit in. There were about thirty of us now in total since another bus had arrived last night. All of us were eager for this to begin so we could learn magic. I looked over at Winch and Angie who were sitting beside me. Since we already sort of knew each other, we'd sat together last night during dinner and continued hanging out afterwards. We sort of continued on that pattern this morning, sitting next to each other when we came in for the class. Technically this was less of an actual class and more of an introduction to the staff, or at least that was what it had been so far. There were five instructors for the camp as well as a few older students from previous years who'd returned just to help out. Each of the instructors introduced themselves and I even learned that Mrs. Welch worked as a normal school teacher during the regular year and taught at CHASM as a summer job. My grimoire sat in my lap and most of the other students had their grimoires with them too. There was no real point in being all paranoid and secure with it at the moment when no one had anything written in theirs. Of course that might change once we all started learning a bit more. Winch sat beside me with a note pad in his lap instead of the grimoire. When I'd asked him about it, he'd said it was to take notes on what he learned and if there were any spells he could copy them to his grimoire later. I felt a little annoyed that I hadn't thought of that, though I'd never actually been very good about taking notes. "I think the real thing is about to start," Angie whispered to me and Winch. One of the instructors who'd earlier introduced himself as Neil Coburn had gotten in front and looked as though he was about to start a lecture. He was in his late twenties or early thirties and had seemed pretty cool so far. "Okay," Neil said to us, "we're going to be getting to the part you're all really here for in just a little bit. Right now, we're going to cover some of the basics. Some of you may already be familiar with some of this, but remember, not everyone here is. And if you are, you just might learn more anyway." "All right," I grinned, paying attention more than I normally paid in school in spite of being one of the people with at least an idea of how this worked. "To start with," Neil began, "magic is subjective. That is to say, it works just a little different for each and every magir. No two magir cast all the same spells and the effects between two magir casting the same spell can be vastly different. However this is all merely on the surface. The underlying rules of magic are quite consistent." Neil paused to slowly look across all of us in the bleachers. He smiled faintly and then continued. "One of the most difficult things for new magir to accept is the fact that most spells will simply never work for you. You can pronounce the words perfectly and practice countless times...but they will still never work. In fact, there are thousands of spells out there and only a fraction of them will ever work for you. Because of this, we define spells by levels. A level one spell is one that works for more than fifty percent of magir. A level two spell works for between twenty five to fifty percent. This goes up to level six which is for all the rarest spells, ones that will work for fewer than one out of a thousand. We will go into the levels in more detail later." I just nodded along, already knowing this information. My uncle Dave is a magir and explained some of the basics to me when he found out that I was going to be a magir too. As uncle Dave had already told me, you also used letters to describe how powerful a spell was. A spell that was 1A was a spell that a lot of magir could use, but that wasn't very powerful. However a spell that was 4D was fairly rare as well as much more powerful. "It might help if you consider magic like a computer," Neil explained. "Imagine a computer that controls reality and that spells are just the commands the computer will accept. Anyone who has access to write commands is a magir, but every magir is authorized to run different commands, apparently assigned at random." Then Neil stepped back and one of the other instructors took his place. This was a beautiful woman in her late twenties who'd been introduced as Ms. Sheffield. I already had a bit of a crush on her as did a number of other boys. "For this next step, we would like three volunteers," Ms. Sheffield called out. I immediately raised my hand as did most of the other guys. I had a sneaky suspicion that this was why she'd asked for volunteers rather than Neil. "Me." Angie raised her hand eagerly. A minute later, three volunteers had been selected to come down to the front, but I hadn't been one of them. I wasn't sure if that was good or not, but I'd soon be finding out. Angie had been selected and was standing in front with two boys, looking just a little smug about having been picked. "I really hope this is something I can tease her about later," I whispered to Winch who chuckled in response. "We will demonstrate what Neil said about the same spell having different effects," Ms. Sheffield said. "Three of us will use the same spell. Now watch." Ms. Sheffield turned to the volunteers and said a few words that I recognized as a magic spell. Suddenly a vine with flowers on it appeared and wrapped around Angie. She struggled to move, but appeared to be held tight. A moment later, two of the other instructors cast the same spell. One of them was a balding black man with glasses named Mr. Rawlins and the other was a Hispanic woman in her thirties who'd introduced herself as Theresa Ruiz. As with Neil, Theresa had actually told us that we could call her by her first name. Almost immediately afterwards, the boy that Mr. Rawlins had targeted suddenly had a thick looking chain wrapped around his body while the boy Theresa had targeted looked as though he was now wrapped up in red ribbons. "As you can see," Ms. Sheffield said, "we all cast the same spell and it worked the same way, but looked quite a bit different for each of us. The visual effects vary from person to person and magir often have themes that run through their spells. For example, most of my spells have a visual effect that relates to plants and flowers." "Hey, can you let me out of here," Angie demanded, still struggling with the vines that held her. "It will wear off in a minute," Ms. Sheffield told her with an amused look. "Going back to the computer analogy," Neil told us with a grin. "Every magir has a different desktop image, screen saver, text color, and other visual customizations. But no matter how your graphics options are set the command still runs the same way." "Comparing magic to computers," I muttered with a shake of my head. "That kind of takes the fun out of it." "I think it makes sense this way," Winch responded with a shrug. At that point, Ms. Sheffield's claim that the spell would wear off proved to be true as the vines holding Angie suddenly faded away. The two boys who had also been held were released as well. All three of them were obviously relieved. "Now we're going to give you a bit of what you're all looking forward to," Noel announced. "We're going to break into groups and try a few low level spells. Let's see if we can get you each a spell or two for your grimoires..." "Yes," I exclaimed, sharing a grin with Winch and nodding to Angie who was still standing in front with the other volunteers. A few minutes later, all the students had broken up into groups of five or six and were assigned to an instructor. Of course I ended up on the same team as Winch and Angie, since we didn't want to be split up. Unfortunately we didn't get Ms. Sheffield as our instructor like I'd hoped, but instead got Neil who wasn't a bad choice...just not very pretty. Neil had a list of five 1A spells, the same spells that each of the other instructors had for their group of students. I recognized these as also being the very same spells used on the standardized magir test. When they came to my school to test those of us who were interested in finding out of we could do magic, they had us try each of these spells. If any of them worked for us we knew we were magir. Of course it was theoretically possible that none of these spells would work for you, but the odds of that were pretty small. "Is this dangerous?" Winch asked Neil as he looked over the spells. "Not at all," Neil told us. "These are all completely harmless spells. If they don't work for you then nothing happens. If you mispronounce them... nothing happens." The first spell was one to summon a small light which Neil joked would be great for us to use at night since it could save money on CHASM electric bills. I was excited by this one since I knew for a fact it would work for me. It was the spell I'd tried during my test which proved I was a potential magir. However I couldn't help but feeling nervous as well when I remembered what it had looked like. I wasn't quite comfortable using that in front of other people. Neil repeated the spell several times, summoning small balls of light which hovered in the air in front of him. He made sure that we could all hear how it was pronounced and then we were able to try it. Winch was the first to get it and suddenly a light bulb appeared floating in the air in front of him. "Kind of literal," I told Winch with a grin as I slapped him on the back. The next member of our group to make it was a blonde guy named Nick who was about a year older than me and always looked as though he wanted to punch someone. For him, a ball of fire appeared in the air, though a quick test proved that it didn't actually burn anything or even provide heat, just light. "Damn," Nick muttered in annoyance, obviously wishing his first spell would let him summon a real fireball. "Come on," Angie exclaimed. "Work..." She repeated the words of the spell again, but nothing happened. "You're pronouncing it correctly," Nick told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It looks like this isn't one of your spells." I sighed and knew it was my turn. I said the words, "K'tath verasatal n'gaaff estu." When nothing happened, I knew that I'd gotten the pronunciation wrong and tried again. It had taken me four times during my test before it had worked for me. This time I got it on my second. I knew when I'd pronounced the spell correctly because I could feel a warm tingling as the magic activated and then a glow appeared in the air in front of me. The greenish yellow glow came from a small figure that hovered in the air, a figure that looked like a tiny naked woman with greenish skin and wings. "Is that a faerie?" Angie demanded. "Wow...you've got a pixie." Nick's light had looked like a ball of fire and Winch's had looked like a light bulb. Mine looked like a tiny faerie woman that was about 4 inches tall. She was beautiful in a strange sort of way with wings that were moving back and forth. The glow emanated from her skin almost as though she was some sort of firefly. "That is so gay," Nick exclaimed with a loud laugh that made me blush self-consciously. "I mean, I thought only girls did the whole faerie thing..." "Enough of that," Neil told Nick, giving him a look of warning. "None of us can control what form our spells take." However he didn't mention that it was often believed the subconscious mind influenced this. I just stared at my little faerie light, feeling both mesmerized and embarrassed at the same time. It was very awkward having a faerie show up when I cast my spell, even if it was just an illusion. After all faeries were supposed to be all girly and stuff...like unicorns and kittens. But on the other hand, I've always been sort of fond of faeries. I've always sort of envisioned them as symbols of magic and wonder, not that I've ever told anyone else that. "Well I think it's cool," Angie said, giving me a grin. Nick snorted and responded, "Yeah, but you're a chick." "Screw you," Angie responded, flipping him off. Winch looked at me with a wry smile and commented, "Interesting." I just rolled my eyes, eager to get onto the next spell. The next spell was one to create a small fire...to light a candle. Nick grinned at that one, looking smug. I figured this must be one of the spells that had worked for him during the testing. Unfortunately it hadn't worked for me, but that just might be because I didn't get the pronunciation right. Nick was the first to work this spell and a candle that had been set in front of him just lit without any special flair. Then it was one of the other members of our group followed by Winch. When winch cast the spell, it looked like a lighter just appeared for a moment. "This isn't fair," Angie exclaimed. "I can't get this one to work either." "Me either," I admitted. After five attempts to cast the spell, Neil confirmed that I'd pronounced it correctly at least once, but nothing happened. The next spell was one to levitate small objects and this time I was the first person to get it right. I cast the spell on my grimoire and suddenly a tiny faerie appeared holding the book and flew up into the air with it. I blushed a little at having another faerie, but that balanced out with my smugness at having gotten this one first. When Angie got it, a bubble appeared around the rock she'd been targeting and it floated up into the air. "Oh yeah," she exclaimed. "That's what I'm talking about..." This time it was Winch who was disappointed that the spell wouldn't work for him. Nick was pissed that it didn't work for him either and I couldn't help but laughing at his reaction. "What the hell are you laughing at faerie boy?" Nick demanded. "Go ahead and kick his ass," Angie told me, looking as though she was looking forward to watching a fight. However Winch told me, "Just ignore him." "It's hard to ignore someone that ugly," I said, just loud enough for Nick to hear. However Neil was there so Nick couldn't do anything besides glare at him. Unfortunately the two remaining spells on the list didn't work for me, though Winch and Angie had a little more luck. I was disappointed that only two of those spells worked for me, but that didn't ruin my mood much. After all I now had two spells in my grimoire and I couldn't wait to add more. -------------------- I stared in awe as a cloud of rose petals swirled around in the air in front of me, creating an incredible spectacle. Then I looked at the woman who'd just cast the spell which created this thing, Ms. Sheffield. Of course she was even better to look at than the petals. "And this is a spell to obscure you from view," Ms. Sheffield said. "It can actually be very useful in self-defense situations, giving you a chance to get away." I nodded at that, as did the rest of our little class group. At the moment I was teamed up with Winch, Angie, Nick, and a girl called Spooky. Spooky was a goth girl with red hair and who always wore black clothes. She also liked piercings since she had a small stud through her nose and about four rings in each ear. All of her spells seemed to have some sort of Halloween or spooky type theme, so someone started calling her Spooky and the name just stuck. Fortunately she seemed to actually like the name. It had been two weeks since we'd arrived at the CHASM and I'd gone through a number of classes like this. Most of the classes were sort of boring and included things like magir history and learning how to read and pronounce spells from old grimoires. At least once a day though, we'd break into groups and one of the instructors would try teaching us some level 1 or 2 spells such as what we were doing now. I'd picked up several new spells this way, though realized that this was a very difficult way to actually learn spells. One thing that I'd realized was exactly why this school was only 8 weeks. All they really needed to do was teach us all the rules of magic, how to read and pronounce the spells, and how to be safe about it all. After that, they couldn't really teach us much more because most of their spells were ones that wouldn't work for us. Once magir got past the basics, we had to improve our abilities on our own by searching through old grimoires and spellbooks. Fortunately the CHASM had a nice library full of such books including a lot of grimoires that had been donated over the years. In fact the CHASM was open for most of the year just for other magir to come and look through the library. All the students had been doing that as well, looking for low level spells that we could try out. At the moment, we were all trying out the spell Ms. Sheffield had shown us. It looked interesting so I kind of hoped it would work for me. Of course I hoped that for every spell I saw. "This is a level one B spell," Ms. Sheffield told us. "Now go ahead and try it." "Look at his," Nick exclaimed smugly as the spell worked for him and a thick cloud of smoke appeared in the air a short distance away. "I've got a smoke screen." I just nodded, not surprised by the form his spell took since he seemed to have some sort of fire theme going with his spells. Winch got the spell next which wasn't surprising as he had a knack for being able to pronounce the spells correctly after only one or two tries. We were all getting better at the pronunciation thanks to the lessons, but Winch was still better at it. As soon as Winch completed the spell, a large curtain suddenly swept through the air in front of us, making it so we couldn't see through it. The curtain wasn't attached to anything and just floated in the air, surprising me a little in spite of the fact that I shouldn't have been. Winch didn't have any real theme, though there was definitely a pattern. "That'll bring down the curtains on anyone chasing you," I joked with Winch. "Now let me..." I carefully said the words and got it on my first try. A moment later, the air in front of me sparked and swirled as a huge swarm of pixies appeared in the air. I couldn't really see past them which was the entire point. "Way to go faerie boy," Nick laughed. "Just shut up already," I told Nick, more than tired of his joking. Unfortunately the whole faerie thing had definitely proven to be a theme for my own spells. In a way it was kind of cool, since I'd always had a fondness for faeries...not that I'd admit it to anyone else. However it was also very embarrassing and I kind of wished I could have had something a little more manly...like dragons. Dragons are cool. "Make me Argent," Nick responded with a sneer. "Enough with measuring your dicks," Spooky said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm with her," Angie agreed. "Now shut up and let us ladies work." When Angie cast the spell a wall of thick fog appeared, proving that the spell worked for her as well. Since we'd started, it was becoming obvious that she had a theme as well. Most of her spell effects looked as though they somehow related to water or the ocean. Then Spooky cast the spell and a mass of pure darkness swirled in the air, looking almost like a small patch of night. She looked rather pleased with herself when she saw that. "All of you could do that spell," Ms. Sheffield exclaimed in surprise. "That is very unusual." Then she looked at us all and smiled pleasantly. "I have a couple spells that aren't on the actual lesson plan, but I thought you all might like to try them." The first spell turned out to be the same one she and the other instructors had demonstrated for us two weeks ago when she'd tied Angie up with flowering vines. I saw the evil grin on Angie's face as I imagined she must be thinking about using this for a little payback. Just a few minutes later, Nick, Winch, Spooky, and I were all disappointed while Angie was smirking at her success. She had managed to wrap Ms. Sheffield up with what looked like seaweed. Out of all of us, she was the only one who'd been able to work that one. "Damn," I muttered in annoyance. That would have been my most powerful spell yet if it had worked. It was a 2b spell that could have been very useful. I looked at Angie and sighed, knowing that she'd be teasing Winch and I both about having a spell more powerful than any of ours until we each found something better. "I think you might like this next spell," Ms. Sheffield said with a faint smile. "Because of its nature, it usually only works for those who have a strong theme with their magic." Ms. Sheffield said the spell and then a single rose appeared in the air in front of her. It had a red petals that seemed to glow just slightly. It just hovered there for several seconds before vanishing. "This spell is to summon your crest," Ms. Sheffield said with a pleasant smile. "This is an image that represents your theme and which will often reappear in your spells. In fact, there are some other spells that will not work for you unless you can do this one first." "How does that work?" Winch asked thoughtfully, pulling out his pen and paper to take notes. Ms. Sheffield looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "I believe it is because some of those spells require you to have a crest or they won't be able to complete." "Sort of like a prerequisite?" Winch asked. "I mean, like in school where we have to have first year algebra before we can sign up for second year." "Something like that," Ms. Sheffield answered with an amused look. "Or you can think of the crest as being a required ingredient." She shrugged. "There are several spells I know of that work like this... where no one who can't cast another specific spell is ever able to cast them. There aren't very many spells like this though. Most of the ones that are like this are crest spells, ones that require you to have a crest." "That sounds interesting," Winch mused thoughtfully. "I wonder how that works..." "Wonder later," I said, elbowing him in the side. "Magic now." Ms. Sheffield wrote the spell down for us so we could see it and then repeated it several more times so we could hear the proper pronunciation. A minute later, Angie was the first to get it working when a small mermaid appeared in the air in front of us. "A mermaid," Angie exclaimed excitedly. "Awesome..." Then she paused to stare at it for a moment before turning to Ms. Sheffield. "I thought you said your crest showed up in a lot of your spells. I haven't seen a mermaid in any of mine yet." "You don't have very many spells yet," Ms. Sheffield told her with an amused look. "And some people have their crest appear in their spells more often than others." Spooky was next to get the spell and a wicked looking jack-o-lantern appeared in the air on front of her. To my surprise, she looked more annoyed than pleased. "What is that?" Spooky asked with a scowl. "Shit... Can't I get a black cat or something instead?" "I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," Ms. Sheffield told her with a chuckle. I was next to complete the spell correctly and another faerie appeared in the air in front of me. Of course I wasn't surprised. Out of all of us, mine was the most obvious crest since I've had faeries appear in over half the spells I was able to cast. "Look at Argent," Nick laughed. "Yet more faeries. You must be seriously gay." "Enough of that," Ms. Sheffield told him, giving me a warning look as well. Nick was able to summon his crest next and a small dragon appeared in the air. He was very smug about that while I was jealous and annoyed. I liked dragons, so how come I got faeries instead of dragons? Unfortunately for Winch, the spell didn't work for him at all. He shook his head in disappointment and muttered something about it not being fair. I put a hand on his shoulder, but didn't say anything. I wasn't sure what I could say. "This is very interesting," Ms. Sheffield said once we were done. "This spell is level two A... The fact that four of you are able to perform it is quite amazing." "So, are you going to teach us another one?" Winch asked, obviously hoping to get another spell that he could use. "No," Ms. Sheffield said. "We're done for today. Just make sure you all update your grimoires." "Well, at least we got a couple new spells," I told Winch and Angie. "I would have liked more," Angie responded with a sigh. "At least you got more than I did," I pointed out. Then I grinned and said, "Why don't we go see about getting some more? The other two nodded agreement, so the three of us went to the library to do a little research. Almost every student spent some time in the library, looking at old grimoires that had been donated to the school after their owners had died. We'd write down spells that we wanted to try and then go to the testing grounds to find out which ones actually worked for us. Winch, Angie, and I each grabbed a different book and sat down to look through them. This kind of research was boring, but at least it could pay off big with new spells. "I wish there was some way we could tell what spells would work for us without all this," I told my friends with a sigh. It seemed like such a waste of time trying out all of these different spells with the hopes that some might work. "I know what you mean," Angie responded, getting up and returning the grimoire she'd been looking at. She was looking for the next grimoire she wanted to grab when she paused and exclaimed, "What's this...?" "A book?" I answered, not looking up from the one I was still going through. "Oh look, here's a spell to clean your clothes..." I hesitated a moment, then copied it down on my note book. If nothing else, it might one day keep me from having to do laundry. "No, I mean look," Angie said, holding up a book and grinning excitedly. "It's not a grimoire..." "Then what is it?" Winch asked, looking up from the grimoire he'd been looking through. Angie set the book down and smirked as she opened it up, revealing pages of spells. "Look here," she said, pointing to the first page. "It's a test book." That immediately got my attention as well as Winches. We both looked at the book Angie found and saw that on the first page it clearly said that it was a collection of new spells to be tested. We all looked at each other and grinned at that. Only the best and smartest magir were able to really create new spells. I wasn't quite sure how they did it, but they'd study known spells and then figure out new ones that should theoretically work as well. Of course just because it was supposed to work didn't mean it would work for them even if it was a legitimate spell. That was why spellcrafters, magir who specialized in finding new spells would write test books, journals where they'd list the new spells they'd come up with and what the results were once someone was able to verify it worked. "Look," I exclaimed, pointing to the first spell listed. The first spell had a note where the writer said that he or she believed this spell was a 3b spell that dealt with invisibility. Underneath that, there were a lot of small check marks, one for each time a different person tried the spell and that it didn't work. Eventually there was a note that the spell did indeed work and that it was verified to make small inanimate objects turn invisible for several minutes. We flipped through the book, noting that each new spell had several pages reserved for it, before it would have the next test spell. There were only 21 spells total listed in the journal and 17 of them had notes indicating that they'd been proven to actually work. There were 4 spells that appeared to be complete failures or just so rare they hadn't found anyone able to verify them. "I didn't think we had any test books in the library," Winch said after a few minutes. "Maybe it was in a collection that someone donated." "Well, let's go try some of these out," I suggested with a grin, picking up the test book and the list of other spells that I'd wanted to try. "Sounds good to me," Angie agreed eagerly. "I don't think we're supposed to take books out of the library," Winch said uncertainly. "No," I told him smugly. "They specifically said that we couldn't take grimoires out of the library. They never said anything about test books." A minute later, all three of us were heading out of the library with the spells we wanted to test. I tried hiding the test book so no one would see us leaving with it though I was still a little nervous. We were just leaving the library when we nearly ran into the janitor, Mrs. Thompson. She was a frumpy looking woman in her 40s who was responsible for cleaning most of the common areas of the CHASM. She was also one of only two people working at the CHASM who weren't magir, the other one being the cook. "Sorry about that," I quickly apologized to Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Thompson just chuckled. "Quite all right," she responded. "I know you kids must be in a hurry to try out some new spells." "We sure are," Angie told her cheerfully. "Just try not to make a mess," Mrs. Thompson told us with an amused look. "Last year someone was testing out a spell to summon mud and it was absolutely horrible." "We don't plan on summoning any mud," Winch told her pleasantly. "That's good then," Mrs. Thompson said. "I'll see you kids later then." "Later then," I told her as we hurried away. I let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't seen the test book. After this, all three of us went to the training ground where Mr. Rawlins was acting as the life guard, supervising any students who were testing new spells. I would have preferred doing this without his watching, but the law said that until a magir had their class 3 license, they were not allowed to practice magic without supervision. Unfortunately I wouldn't get my class 3 license until I graduated from the CHASM. We each went through the list of spells we'd copied down and then switched lists to try out the others too. After over an hour of practice, we each came away with at least one new spell. Angie was disappointed at only having one while Winch was smug about gaining three new ones. I'd gotten two new spells and was a little jealous of Winch, but not too much. "Check this out," I exclaimed, casting one of my new spells again. This one was an improved light spell which made a faerie appear holding a glowing ball of light. The previous light spell would stay where it was summoned, but this new one would actually follow me around which made it a little more practical. "Very nice," Angie said with a note of jealousy in her voice. "But I can do the same thing with a flash light." I nodded to Mr. Rawlins as we left as did the others. None of us had wanted to pull out the test book in front of him since he might confiscate it and we didn't want that until after we'd had a chance to test the spells ourselves. The idea of having new spells that very few other people if any had was an opportunity that none of us wanted to lose. That meant we had to test the spells later on once we had a little more privacy. We kept the book hidden all through dinner and then afterwards we snuck out while everyone else was distracted. There was a nice secluded spot behind the library that was just the place for us to try out a few spells before it got dark. ------------------- I stood on the testing ground with Winch and Angie standing beside me. We each had a list of new spells to test out, a list that we'd copied from the test book. After testing out a couple spells last night, we figured that we could get around having to sneak around by just copying the spells and testing them the same way we tested any other spell copied out of a grimoire. "Funny that we're testing these right in front of an instructor," Angie exclaimed with a grin, looking over to Neil who was the life guard for the time being. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Winch said, looking a little nervous. "I mean, a couple of these spells have never successfully been used...at least not according to the book." "Then we get to be the first," I responded, slapping him on the back. "Come on." Angie nodded, then looked her sheet of spells and asked, "Did you guys notice how many of the spells deal with your crest? I think that whoever made these ones may have been trying to find crest spells." "Great," Winch responded with a roll of his eyes and a look of disappointment. "And I don't have one." "Well, we did find one spell last night in there that worked for you," I pointed out, grinning since it worked for me too. Surprisingly it had worked for all three of us, though the notes said it was a 2b spell so the odds were kind of against that. We decided to show off for Neil a little by trying that spell first. I read the words, trying hard to pronounce it correctly. It had taken several tries last night, but this time I got it on the first try. A moment later, a small glowing faerie appeared in the air in front of me and started pointing towards where I had left my grimoire sitting on a table. Angie had a mermaid appear and it pointed towards her grimoire, slowly swimming towards it just like my faerie was swimming towards mine. "My turn," Winch said, repeating the spell as well. A compass appeared in the air in front of him, pointing towards his grimoire. "A spell to find our grimoires if they get lost," Winch said. "I suppose it might be useful some day." Neil was watching us from a distance, apparently curious about how all three of us were able to get the spell on the first turn. I realized that maybe showing off like that might not have been a great idea, but I was still kind of glad I'd done it. After this, we started going over the spells that we didn't get to last night, which was most of the ones from the book. Most of them said that they were classified at level 3 or higher, so the odds of finding more of them that worked were kind of low, but I still had high hopes. The first few spells on my list had no effect at all, much to my disappointment. There was one to summon lightning that would have been really cool. Then I looked at the next one on my list, one that hadn't been verified as working. The notes in the test book had said this one was believed to be a level 6 spell...one of the rarest. It also said that it was supposed to have something to do with a magir's crest. I read the spell aloud and nothing happened. I frowned and read it again, this time being just a little more careful of the pronunciation. This time I could feel the magic responding. However a moment later, I suddenly felt a wave of strange warmth rush through my body. I gasped in surprise and then staggered, hardly able to control myself. All of my muscles felt like rubber. "Jon?" Angie exclaimed, rushing to me. "Are you all right?" "I don't know," I gasped out, realizing that my skin was tingling. My entire body felt extremely weird, almost as if it was all moving and reshaping itself like clay. I could actually feel my bones shifting positions inside of me and strangely enough, it didn't hurt. It just felt extremely odd. "What's happening to him?" Winch demanded of Neil who had also rushed over to check on me. I was on my knees, taking deep breaths while I felt my very flesh shifting. I saw that my hands were changing right before my eyes, somehow looking softer and more slender. My nails were growing longer and turning darker as I watched. The others were talking, but I was so caught up in the sensations running through my body that I barely noticed. I was too stunned to even fully absorb the fear and confusion that I felt as well. Instead the only thing that I was fully aware of were the changes, the pulling in my crotch and the swelling on my chest. After a minute, the sensation of my flesh moving all stopped and I remained where I was, gasping for breath and trying to make sense of what had just happened to me. I felt different...very different. It was obvious that the spell I'd just cast had done something...but what? "JON?" Angie grabbed my shoulder. "Are you okay?" "I don't know," I responded after a moment, trying to get to my feet and feeling that my entire sense of balance was off. "Oh my God," Winch blurted out, staring at me with a look of stunned disbelief. "Holy shit," Angie exclaimed, staring at me with a similar look. Then Neil asked, "Are you all right Argent?" "I don't know," I repeated again. Then I looked down at myself and gasped in surprise as I saw the first and most obvious sign of the changes I'd just gone through, a pair of mounds pushing out from my chest and threatening to burst my shirt open. As hard as it was to believe, they looked like breasts. "Holy shit," I gasped, grabbing the mounds instinctively and then gasping again as I felt that they were indeed a flesh and blood part of me. "What was this spell?" Neil demanded with a worried look. "And where did you get it?" I looked at Angie and then Winch, each of whom then gave each other a nervous look. Then we all looked at Neil realizing at the same time that we were all in even more trouble than I'd thought. A short time later, Neil had confiscated the test book and the three of us had been sent to our quarters while he talked with the other instructors and they decided what to do. I was stunned and confused, but thankful for the chance at privacy since it would give me a chance to think things through on my own. "What the hell was that spell?" I asked myself the moment I was alone with the door closed. I held up my hands and stared at them, seeing that they looked sort of girly now especially since I had manicured nails that looked like they were covered with a dark green polish. Of course that was nothing compared to these mounds on my chest. I looked down at them and then gulped. After a moment, I took a deep breath and then went to look at myself in the mirror on the back of the door. I froze and stared at my reflection in stunned disbelief, unable to believe that it was really me staring back. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed. The person looking back from the mirror certainly wasn't me. Instead there was beautiful and exotic looking girl staring back. She had pointed ears like an elf from one of my fantasy books and long green hair that went down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were a brilliant green of a shade that I'd never seen on another person and were even more unique due to the flecks of gold in them. Her lips looked like they were coated with dark green lipstick and her skin sparkled a little, looking almost as if it was lightly dusted with glitter. "Holy shit," I repeated again, running a hand through my hair and noticing that it felt very soft and smooth. Then I felt my ears, verifying that they were indeed pointed. "No fucking way..." Of course my face certainly wasn't the only thing to notice. I was still wearing my normal clothes, but they no longer fit, being tight in a couple places and loose in others. Still I could see a very feminine figure with what looked like DD cup breasts. I was absolutely stunned. And then, as if it couldn't get any stranger, I noticed something behind me...something impossible. My eyes went wide as I stared into the mirror and saw dragonfly wings spread out behind me, looking as though they were coming from my back. They were transparent and shiny with shimmers of green and gold running through them. "I'm...I'm a faerie," I blurted out in amazement. I turned to look at my wings, seeing that they weren't just in the mirror, but really were sprouting from my back. I could move them at will, even relaxing them so that they went flat against my back and dropped down to be less noticeable. "That spell turned me into a faerie," I whispered again, sure that I had to be imagining this. Maybe the spell had really just made me see things... like a spell to create hallucinations. That would certainly explain this. That would explain all of this. Then I cupped my new breasts again and gulped. "This doesn't feel like an illusion." I felt scared, confused, and excited all at the same time. The fact that I'd turned myself into a faerie was freaking me out, but the truth was, I'd been reading about fantasy creatures for most of my life and actually seeing one in person was unbelievably thrilling at the same time. With that I took off my shirt and only then paused to wonder how I'd done that with the wings in the way. I looked at the back of my shirt and there were no holes in it where the wings had come out. That didn't make sense. However I didn't stop to think about the strangeness of my new wings any further. Instead I turned my attention to my new breasts which were bare and fully exposed. I stared down at them in stunned amazement, hardly able to believe they were real. In a way the wings on my back were less fantastic than these. After all I've wanting to get my hands on some perfect breasts like these for a long time and I'd only considered the idea of having wings only once or twice. I felt myself up a bit and then continued undressing myself, dropping my pants to the ground and feeling my crotch. My usual equipment was gone and in its place was girl's slit. There was no hair down there anymore either. In fact I didn't seem to have a single hair on my body below my neck. "I really am a girl," I whispered, wincing as I said it. Then I turned and stared at my naked body in the mirror, feeling kind of weirded out, but curious at the same time. I was definitely hot in a fantasy novel sort of way. I just stared at myself for a few minutes and then slowly ran my hands over my body, still amazed that this was really me. Once I was finished with my full body exam, I started getting dressed again. I had no idea when Neil or one of the instructors would come for me, but I knew that sooner or later they would. I didn't want to get caught in the buff when they did. My own clothes didn't fit me very well anymore, but they were all I had. My pants went back on without much problem, other than wanting to fall down. The real problem was when I got to my shirt. I spread my wings out and then stared at the shirt in my hand, wondering how the hell I could get my shirt back on over those things. "I got it off without a problem," I muttered, deciding that I could at least try. I relaxed my wings and let them fold back and then put my shirt on. To my surprise it went on just as easily as normal and then I spread my wings again and had no problem. I didn't have any holes cut in my shirt, but the wings went through them just the same. "Weird," I thought aloud. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to experiment with my wings a little. I reached back to feel them, but my hand went right through them. I blinked in surprise and tried again. It was like they weren't really there. It was almost like they were just some sort of an illusion. After a little more testing with my wings, I exclaimed, "They're not real." Of course it made a sort of sense. Most of the special effects that occurred when magir casts spells were just special effects that had no real effect on how the spell worked. It seemed that my wings were worked the same way, being more illusion than anything else. It was strange to accept though since they felt like they were really part of me. It was almost like finding out that your arm wasn't real when you could move it around and wiggle your fingers. About two hours after I'd been sent to my room, two instructors came to check on me, just as I'd been expecting. Neil and Mrs. Welch came in and stared at me with expressions that were part disapproval and part amazement. However I noticed that Neil also briefly had another expression, one that I liked even less than the disapproval. It was the same expression I'd seen on the faces of a number of my male classmates when they were watching Ms. Sheffield. "Good heavens," Mrs. Welch exclaimed when she saw me. "You certainly were changed." "We were hoping it would have worn off by now," Neil said with a frown. "Most transformation spells wear off after a few hours at most." "Most don't even last that long," Mrs. Welch added thoughtfully. I just nodded at that, feeling uncomfortable under their scrutiny and disappointed that they hadn't come in with a solution to my problem. This might be interesting in a twisted sort of way, but I certainly didn't want to be stuck like this. I was more than eager to get back to normal. "Do you know how to change me back?" I asked hopefully, thinking that maybe they were dragging this out in order to teach me a lesson or something. Neil and Mrs. Welch shared a look before shaking their heads. "Not yet," Neil said carefully. "But we do have some good ideas. It may not even be necessary though, because this may still wear off on its own." "If it hasn't worn off by tomorrow," Mrs. Welch told me, "then we'll consider our options." She paused for a moment and gave me a steady look before saying, "I think now you understand why it's so dangerous to test new spells. Until a spell has been successfully cast for the first time, even the spellcrafter who discovered it can't know exactly what it does." Then she shook her head and gave me a look that suggested I'd done something very stupid. Considering my situation, I had to agree with her. "I once knew a guy who used to test a lot of the new spells," Neil said with a sad look. "One of them caused him to just suddenly fall over dead. They called it the suicide spell after that. As far as I know, no one has ever used that one since." He put a hand on my shoulder and then pulled it back with an uncertain look, as though not sure this was appropriate now. "This could have been much worse." A few seconds later, both instructors turned and left my room, leaving me alone with my thoughts and my new body. I looked down at myself and sighed, hoping that Neil was right and that this really would wear off on its own because I didn't even want to consider what it would mean if it didn't. -------------------- When I woke up in the morning, I was disappointed to discover that I was still a sexy faerie chick and that I hadn't miraculously changed back to normal during the night. I felt a moment of dread as I lay in bed followed by some hope as I remembered that Neil said that there might still be options. I sat up in bed and realized that I was sitting on my wings or at least would have been if they'd been physical rather than illusion. That suddenly made me realize the logistical problems of having real wings and just how lucky I was that they were only illusion. If these had been real, I had been sleeping on them for half the night and probably would have torn them up by now. And if they were real, there would also be problems with putting on any kind of shirt or jacket and even doing something as simple as sitting in a chair. "Thank God they're illusion," I muttered, wishing that the rest of my changes were too. Once I was dressed, I lowered my wings and let them hang down behind me almost like a cape. Last night I'd discovered almost by accident that if I had my wings relaxed like this, I could actually make them vanish. Actually the word 'vanish' wasn't completely accurate, since I could still feel them there. It was more like I could make them turn invisible, at least until I actually opened my wings in which case they'd become visible again. I knew that I was bound to be stared at now and anything I could do to reduce that attention would help. I reluctantly left my room and went straight for the cafeteria for some breakfast. The moment that I stepped inside, I was immediately aware that all of the other students turned and stared at me. I could hear a lot of whispering which made me wonder what the rumor mill was saying about me. However I did my best to ignore it all as I grabbed my breakfast tray then went to an empty table off to the side where I could sit by myself. I didn't exactly feel like being social at the moment. I had barely been sitting for a minute when Spooky came over and stood there with her tray of food, staring at me for a moment before asking, "Are you really Argent?" "Yeah," I responded, looking back and frowning. "I had an...accident." "Wow, you even sound different. I heard it was a level six test spell," Spooky said, sitting down across from me and giving me a curious look. When I nodded agreement, she shook her head and mused, "That's kind of cool in a way... I mean, you've got to be the only student around here who has a level six spell..." I snorted at that and told her, "So far I could do without it." "Yeah," Spooky chuckled. "But that could make an awesome Halloween costume." She shook her head and grinned. "I mean, turning into a real elf." "I think I'm a faerie, not an elf," I pointed out with a sigh. "Like my crest...just bigger." "But you don't have wings," Spooky said, taking another look at my back. "Someone told me that you did though." I grimaced at that, wondering how much more attention I'd be getting if I didn't have my wings invisible at the moment. I was considering how to respond when suddenly Nick started yelling at me from another table. "Hey Argent," Nick yelled with a nasty smirk, "I always knew you were a faerie..." Then he and some others began laughing. I clenched my fists until I felt my now longer nails digging into my palms. I was blushing in embarrassment, but also angry. Just then there were more gasps of surprise and stares. It was only then that I realized that I'd spread my wings and broken the invisibility. Now everyone in the cafeteria could see them in all their glory. "Holy shit," Spooky exclaimed, "you really are..." Then she paused, "Sorry, I mean, I know that's got to be weird as fuck for you." "You have no idea," I muttered, glaring over at Nick. "Oh, the little faerie princess doesn't like that," Nick called out, standing up and coming towards me to get more personal. I stood up, about ready to hit him as hard as I could...even if I did suddenly realize that he now looked a lot bigger than he used to. "Don't you dare make me put my foot up your ass," Spooky told Nick. A moment later, Angie's voice exclaimed, "And we'll help." I looked over and saw Angie and Winch walking into the cafeteria, both of them glaring at Nick as they came over to join us. "Hey Jon," Winch greeted me uncertainly. "You know that spell I found yesterday to make a guy impotent for a month?" Angie asked Winch in an almost casual way. "I think that now might be a great time to use it for real." Nick glared at her, his expression indicating that he thought she was bluffing. However it appeared that he didn't want to risk calling her bluff because he shrugged and muttered, "What a bunch of losers," before he turned and left the cafeteria. "Do you really have a spell like that?" Spooky asked Angie with a smirk. Angie just shook her head and shrugged before responding, "Nope." Spooky laughed at that and then slapped her on her back, saying, "I knew I liked you." "Thanks," I told them, feeling even more embarrassed than before if that was possible. Then I tried saving face a little by saying, "I could have taken him if I had to, but it's nice you all had my back." "Sure, no problem," Winch said with a weak smile. He stared at me for a moment, his eyes lingering on my chest longer than I was comfortable with before he quickly looked away. It was then that I realized that Winch, who was normally a couple inches shorter than me, was now a couple inches taller instead. In fact, I was now about the same height as Angie and perhaps a little sh