DANIEL…ASTER!” Catherine Glinse roared, turning the full fury of a washed-up gym coach with delusions of self-importance onto the young warlock in front of her.

Swallowing as he looked out on the goopy blue mess he’d splattered around the head of the athletics compound, he tried to give his best sheepish smile. “Yes?”

“I told you to throw Mana at Jen,” Glinse shot, wiping loose paint from her eyes. “Not to do…that!”

“You said to try and get paint on her,” Daniel objected, raising his voice a little so that his excuse could be heard. “I got paint on her! I won!”

“You–” the coach spluttered, shaking her head. “You won? This was a demonstration, you were supposed to show how Mana interacted with shielding spells!”

Jen stepped up, wiping blue liquid off her glasses and replacing them as she interceded. “Ma’am, with all due respect, he did ask if his goal was just to get me with Mana, and–”

“I didn’t ask you,” Glinse snapped. “Daniel Aster–when classes are done for the day, you’re going to return and get this floor clean with a toothbrush. Am I clear?”

Daniel’s chest rose and fell as he bit back an angry retort. There would be no point in arguing with an authority figure like Glinse. The faculty was already against him, and the unfairness was the point. He could only hope to save face, or at least whatever tiny scraps of dignity hadn’t already been stripped away.

“Yes ma’am.” Sticking out his chin, he asked, “May I return to my coven?”

“Go.” Raising her whistle, the coach faced the assembly. “Dueling drills! Pair off with members of your coven and practice blocking Mana projectiles. Do I need to be more specific?”

Nobody said a word.

Spinning on his heels, he stormed back to his group, cheeks burning with embarrassment that had nothing to do with his heavily drooping diaper. He’d done exactly what he’d been instructed to do, and won the duel, and still managed to make a fool of himself in front of the class.

And in front of Jen.

It seemed obvious to him why she’d volunteered–he’d upset her, and she wanted to retaliate. He’d put too much stock in their brief friendship and assumed she wouldn’t hop on the ‘Daniel Sucks’ train, but once he’d pushed back against her friendship, she hadn’t clung on.

As he waddled heavily back to the hexagonal court where his coven waited, he was met by a sympathetic smile from Cassie. “I’m sorry, Danny, that didn’t really seem fair.”

He shrugged and rolled his eyes, hiding the hurt under sarcasm. “What else is new?”

She frowned, glancing away. “Still, that detention sucks.”

“I’ll deal.” He shook his head, facing the rest of the coven. “Dueling practice?”

Stepping in and taking control of the situation, Asami said, “Mathilde and I went through this last year, so we can kind of take lead here.”

Raising a hand, Cassie added, “I’m also kinda good at dueling. I don’t know much other voxavin stuff, but I’m able to do the mana parts.”

Nodding, Asami took that into consideration. “Good to know. Dueling is kind of simple, at least if we’re doing basic drills–Glinse didn’t get to how it really worked, but it’s not hard to pick up.

“Great,” Daniel said, letting his bitterness show. “Then maybe I won’t screw it up in front of everyone.”

Asami took a breath and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Hazel stepped forward, walking right up to Daniel. “Hey–whatever’s got you in a pissy mood, it’s not our fault. Be crabby if you want, but don’t take it out on us.”

“‘Whatever has me in a pissy mood’?” Daniel asked, throwing up his hands. “Did you miss the ‘I just got detention over some bullshit’?”

“Yeah,” Hazel said, rolling her eyes. “And you’re not subtle, buddy. If it were just detention, you’d be getting all ‘righteous indignation’ on us right now. Instead you’re acting like a toddler who missed naptime, something else has you mad.”

Eyebrows knitting, Daniel glared. “Drop the ‘baby’ jokes, Hazel.”

“I would if they weren’t so apt,” Hazel shot back.

“Girls,” Asami snapped, turning slightly pink after she said it. “Er–Hazel and Danny. Cut it out, we have drills to run.”

“She started it,” Daniel mumbled, though after a moment of immediate regret the petulant comment made him blush more than being called out had.

“Alright.” Shaking off the argument, Asami took control of the coven. “Stand about ten feet apart. Attackers near the Mana, defenders away from it.”

Mathilde took the part of the attacker, rolling her chair over near the barrels and spinning to face Asami. All around them in the athletics compound, other covens were doing the same, pairing off for mock battles.

“Basic combat is about trying to get around your opponent’s shield. You can dispel it, or you can get around it, but don’t worry too much about that right now.” Extending a wispy reed wand, she flicked it, muttering a magic word as the magical tool made a swish sound in the air. “To start with, we’re not going to try and do anything tricky–just hit your opponent square on.”

“Ready?” Mathilde asked, raising her own wand, a chunky rod carved with shapes along its length. When Asami nodded, she lashed her hand out, sending a stream of goopy pink Mana that whipped forward.

The clash was more impressive than Daniel had expected. Asami stepped back, swishing her wand like a conductor’s baton, and the first lash of Mana splashed sidelong against her shield, marking out the edges of the barrier with neon pink pigment. Asami dismissed that first shield and raised a second in time to deflect a pair of small blobs, barely more than paintball pellets, which splattered on her barrier.

Grinning fiercely, Mathilde launched a third attack, raising up a half dozen wobbling orbs of the painty goo and then launching them one at a time, a flurry of blows that were staggered so that they couldn’t easily be deflected in a single wave. Asami caught the first, and then the second on a narrow shield, but the third hit with more force than Asami’s shield was prepared to take and it split, casting off more power.

Already leaking energy, the shield took the fourth pellet before Asami could rebuild it, and though she tried, she didn’t have her defenses up in time. The fifth and sixth orbs struck her in the face and foot, knocking her down before the goo quickly hardened and sealed over her mouth and nose.

Daniel’s eyes widened, and he rushed forward in a panic, his wand already out. “How do you make it turn liquid?” he called over his shoulder, reaching Asami’s side, calling up whatever power he could. Asami’s eyes widened and she looked at him, chest heaving as she–

Pausing, Daniel looked down. “Eh…”

She was breathing. She had Mana sealed over her mouth and nose, but she was still breathing. A moment later, Mathilde tapped the barrel and whispered a word, and the goop slipped from Asami’s face, freeing her to speak.

“Mana’s breathable, even when it hardens,” Asami explained, smiling before turning to spit out a bit of paint-like sludge on the floor. “But thanks for worrying about me.”

He exhaled in relief, offering her a hand up. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she replied, accepting his hand and standing upright. Addressing the whole group, she said, “Cassie with Hazel, Danny with Radha? Mathilde and I can help you if you’re struggling with anything. Remember–you’re just taking target practice here.”

Walking to the side, Daniel took a spot on one end of the loose dueling area. “Have you done this before?” he asked, as she walked and took a position in front of one of the mana barrels opposite him.

“Not really,” she said, shaking her head as she took a position opposite him. Her own wand was brass with gold inlays, a modern, minimalist style. “So…is Hazel right?”

He pursed his lips, focus settling on a ward, taking a defensive stance before Radha could choose. “About what?”

“That you’re not mad about the detention,” Radha clarified. “Or, I mean–you’re probably mad about the detention, but it’s something else that’s got you like, mad, mad, you know?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he said, nodding to her as he stepped back. The ground was just barely springy, like a clay tennis court, and he had excellent traction. “Hit me.”

“Right, right.” Waving her wand in a circle, she slowly levitated a ball of goop from the barrel behind her, took a breath, and then threw it forward.

Daniel’s shield held out, paint splattering against it and onto the ground. “Not bad,” he said, “You threw it fast. If I wasn’t waiting to block you, you probably would have got me.”

“Thanks.” She tried again, to similar results–her attacks were well aimed, but telegraphed heavily, and as long as Daniel kept up a barrier between himself and her, he didn’t have much to worry about.

Stepping behind him, Asami looked Daniel up and down. “Your shield’s leaking a lot of power,” she said, “But it seems stable. See if you can be more efficient with it?”

He nodded, dispelling the overwrought shield and trying again while Asami moved to correct something Rachel was doing.

“It’s Jen,” Daniel explained. “The girl I was up against.”

“Oh, is she one of the girls that’s been bullying you?” Radha asked, frowning. “I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s not it.” Another attack came at him, but this time, his reduced-power shield wasn’t up to the task, and the pink blob pegged him in the chest, though other than making him slightly off balance, it didn’t cause too much of an issue. “She’s…actually been nice to me, until today.”

“Something happened?” she asked.

Reinforcing his shield, Daniel shrugged. “I…she kind of screwed me over this morning. She was trying to be helpful, but…the details don’t matter. I got mad, and kind of yelled at her, and now she hates me.”

“She hates you?” Radha tilted her head, confused. “Oh–and want to swap? You hit me a couple times?”

“Sure.” Daniel shrugged, shaking his head. “You saw how quick she was to volunteer?”

“Yeah, but maybe she just didn’t want one of the trolls who were picking on you to get a chance to volunteer.” Radha twirled her brass wand, conjuring a shield.

“Maybe.” Shuffling backwards, Daniel took a breath, whipped his wand, and lifted a few blobby projectiles from the barrel behind him. The orbs absolutely pissed away mana as they flew through the air, losing form as they traveled, as though he’d tried to throw a handful of water.

Radha blinked, her face catching somewhere between secondhand embarrassment and a feeble attempt at polite indifference.

“Goddammit,” Daniel grumbled, shaking his head and straightening his posture. “Okay, yeah, I suck at this. Obviously. Jen ran up, and made sure to raise a shield before I could, so that I’d have to attack her. That’s why I know she hates me, because she set me up to fail in front of everyone.”

Radha paused, tilting her head. “Are you sure Jen knows you can’t attack?”

“Yeah, she…” Daniel began with passion, but he quickly trailed off. “She was in the room when I took my test, she saw how I did.”

Exhaling in a light snort of laughter, Radha said, “Daniel, you’re not the center of everyone’s attention. What makes you think she was watching?”

It was a fair point, but he wasn’t quite ready to let go of his anger. “Alright, but still–I don’t buy that she was just volunteering to make sure nobody else could.”

“Well–if you want to know why, you’ll just have to ask her.” Radha shrugged, realigning her wand with precision as she reinforced her shield. “Want to try again?”

Daniel didn’t expect anything, but he tried, lashing out with another attack. This one went slightly better, but only because he grabbed more paint in the initial flurry: a few droplets survived long enough to splash against Radha’s shield.

From the side, Mathilde noticed Daniel struggling. Asami was in the middle of a conversation with Rachel, so she approached, rolling between them. “Hey.”

“Yeah, my attacks suck,” Daniel said. “I’m working on it.”

“I was going to say, Radha’s shields look like they’re leaking a lot of power…but your attacks do need some work.” Glancing over her shoulder, she waved at Cassie, who was in the middle of getting a drink from a blue reusable water bottle. Raising her voice to be heard over the sound of dozens of witches taking dueling practice, she called, “Cassie–you said you know duels! Can you help Daniel with his spellcasting while I show Radha some pointers on her shields?”

Nodding, Cassie hopped over, setting aside her water and walking up. “Absolutely.”

Daniel felt a wave of annoyance wash over him–he didn’t need the rest of the coven to fuss over him–but quickly realized he was being ridiculous. He wanted to learn, didn’t he? And the other girls were clearly better at this than him, so why not learn?

“I just can’t seem to keep any sort of form,” Daniel explained, shaking his head in frustration. “Like–I can conceptualize what I want them to do, but once they start to move, it just falls apart.”

Cassie pursed her lips, looking Daniel up and down. “Can you show me?”

Nodding, Daniel glanced around, ultimately facing down a strip of their voxavin court that was unoccupied. Whipping his wand, he demonstrated his technique, lashing out with another impotent splatter of goopy pink mana.

Thoughtfully, Cassie said, “I see some issues with your form–I don’t know if it would cause this much trouble, but it might help.” Stepping forward, she touched his arm, turning his wrist slightly. “Keep your hand sideways, like this, so you can draw a line from your wrist to your thumb that’s pointed where you want the attack to strike.”

Daniel made a mental note of that, adjusting the grip on his wand to compensate.

Resting her hands on his shoulders, Cassie turned his body, rotating his posture. “Your shoulders should be straight, too–you’re just kind of standing normally right now. Some people prefer a broad stance, where they face their target square on, but I like to turn sideways–it presents a smaller target and I find it easier to line up.”

“I have to turn my head pretty far to see this way,” he said, though he kept his shoulders straight, wand pointed off to his right, thumb pointed forward towards the target.

“Try it square on and sidelong, see which is more comfortable for you,” Cassie suggested, turning his arm a little more. “Keep your elbows in, it’ll help with wand alignment, and you want to have your back straight and your posture–”

Her hand touched his back, low enough that her fingers brushed over the rustling waistband of his diaper, covered up by his thin shirt. Cassie pulled her hand away as though she’d been shocked, turning pink. “I’m sorry, I–”

Sighing, Daniel closed his eyes. “It’s fine. Just…don’t make a big deal out of it, please?”

She blushed despite his request, but took a breath and tried to shake it off. “Well–er, see if that helps at all.”

Turning, Daniel considered everything she’d said. Elbows in, wrist lined up, thumb pointed forward, shoulders lined up, back straight. Once again, he whipped his wand, lashing out with power, catapulting a ball of ink from the barrel.

The improvement was just barely enough to be seen–it flew straighter, but still fell apart, dissolving as it blasted across the courtyard.

“Okay, that’s…okay.” Cassie frowned. “Let’s try something else. How are you holding the balls together?”

“A telekinesis spell,” Daniel replied, uncertain how else he’d be able to do it. “Am I missing something? Is there like…special magic that works on Mana to move it around?”

“No…” Cassie began, rubbing at her chin in thought. “But…what sort of telekinesis spell? Tell me what it feels like.”

“I guess, I’m…” Daniel paused, going through the motions in his head. “I’m creating a sort of scoop out of magic, and lifting up the orb, and then…wrapping it up in a magical shell to keep it in one piece while it flies through the air.”

Cassie nodded knowingly. “Right–okay, I think I see why you’re struggling. Try using kinetomantic force instead, see if that works for you.”

Daniel blinked, confused. “Is that not what I’m doing?”

Frowning, Cassie tilted her head. “No?”

“Kinetomantic force is the use of energy manipulation to move objects and alter their position,” Daniel said, quoting verbatim from his old primer. “I’m using force and energy manipulation to move the objects.”

“Okay, but…” Cassie began. “I’m sorry, that’s…wrong. Who taught you that?”

“Mary Spellman Teaches Telekinesis,” Daniel admitted.

Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“It’s a software program,” he explained. “Mom got it for our iMac.”

Staring blankly, Cassie asked, “You taught yourself?”

“No, I learned from the program.” Daniel pursed his lips. “What?”

Glancing back at Mathilde and Radha, Cassie said, “Eh…we might need to go over some fundamentals.”

...

Bleh. Life. This took longer to come out than I'd wanted.

Glad to have something to post, though, and I'm hoping to be back in the saddle more properly soon. ❤️

Help buy me groceries plz?

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