The Unskillful Thaumaturge

XLIV

Lillian glanced around the room, taking note of the details of her classmates' illusions, before looking back to Brandon. He was staring intently at the sphere hovering neatly above the table, and Lillian couldn't help but notice that his sphere didn't flicker like some of the other students' did. One table in the back corner had produced a sphere that, from Lillian's point of view, looked like a circle; she could tell that the group wasn't up to the gradient challenge that Brandon seemed completely accustomed to. Indeed, when Amandi passed by their table, she nodded stiffly, her lips pressed into a thin line. She stopped to examine the sphere from different angles for a few moments, then nodded again. "Sheet of paper."

Instantly, the sphere winked out. Lillian could see a wave of extreme concentration followed by a vacant expression glaze over Brandon's face, and a sheet of paper appeared in the air near Lillian's head, angled toward Amandi. She shifted back and forth for a moment before nodding once more.

"I'll let you have a few minutes to work on the stack of books," she informed them, drifting over to another table.

"Lillian, this is going to take some effort, so can you please not disturb me? Go get Amandi when I'm done so I don't have to hold it long."

"When will I know you're done?"

"I'll nod."

With that, the spine of a single book flickered into being atop the desk. Lillian watched in admiration as the outlines of pages began to appear, creating a rectangle on the table. Parts of the top of the book began to appear, but were then eclipsed by the bottom of the next book, whose spine and pages flicked into existence much quicker than the first. Beads of sweat appeared on Brandon's forehead as the books built up into a neat stack. By the time he reached the fifth book, each was appearing complete, with a gap of only about twenty seconds between them. Brandon continued to stare tensely at the illusion.

Lillian was tempted to wave her hand through it to convince herself that it wasn't real, but she resisted the impulse. After all, Brandon had told her not to disturb him. As the last book appeared, he gave an imperceptible nod.

Instantly, Lillian rose from the table and walked briskly towards the front of the room, where she caught Amandi's glance and motioned toward the apparent stack of books on her table. Amandi followed her back to the table, staring at Brandon's illusion curiously and tilting her head to examine it from different angles. Without warning, she plunged her long-nailed fingers viciously into the center of the illusion. Brandon gave a small gasp and the illusion flicked out for a few seconds, then returned.

"You weren't prepared for that, were you?" Amandi asked as Brandon shook his head. "That's all right. Your illusions are excellent. Full points." She turned to Lillian. "What about you?"

Lillian gulped. "What do you mean?"

"Can you show me your illusion?"

Lillian stared at the area above the desk, wide-eyed, and the sphere appeared again. She knew it was just Brandon covering for her.

Amandi's lips twitched into a smile. "Good job again, Brandon. Unfortunately, I happen to be Barriers Emphasis. Lillian, your illusion?" Her tone was expectant.

"I can't," Lillian responded flatly.

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I can't," she repeated. "I've never been able to."

Amandi placed one long-nailed hand on her shoulder and steered her toward the front of the classroom. Lillian's heart pounded, sure that Amandi was about to announce her inadequacy to the class, but Amandi headed instead toward a corner of the room.