WaterMage Rising

Chapter 2

Selena searched through desk drawers and folders, careful to put every item back in its exact place, but found no sign of the envelope. Her father was wary of outsiders and incredibly secretive, so she reasoned he must have a hidden compartment somewhere.

Examining the desk yielded no hidden features, so Selena moved to the closet. A safe stood against the back wall and a smirk lifted one corner of her mouth.

"Oh, this is too easy. Father can't have thought a safe would keep even Mom out, much less me."

No, he wouldn't have thought that. With a frown, Selena raised her hand to run her palm over the safe. Her eyes widened as her aquamarine glowed an unfamiliar yellow.

When she channeled her magic into her kamea, it usually glowed green, so this was strange. Some rare spells, she knew, could interact differently with the birthstone and cause it to glow a different color, black for dark curses, a deep red for attraction spells, or yellow for protection.

This served as a spell detector, in a way, but Selena had never encountered such a thing before.

Great martyrs of Salem. Was this...protection magic guarding it?. Selena probed it with her magic, a gentle, feathery touch, and it did not attack her. When she pushed harder, however, it responded by blocking her magic from opening the safe door. A yellow-gold, buzzing shield surrounded the safe.

Perhaps she could break through.

She was a watermage, with water being her strongest affinity, so it came naturally to her to try this element first. Her kamea glowed its customary green, and a flowing, undulating river of aqua light spilled from her birthstone and surrounded the shield. Her magic brushed against the yellow-gold light, seeking cracks to flow through, but found none. The shield persisted.

Over the years in Elements class, she'd gained mediocre affinity to the other elements, earth being her strongest. If water magic couldn't dissipate or infiltrate the protective barrier, maybe the brute force of earth magic could.

Calling on her earth magic, she released green, spiky tendrils of light from her kamea. The tendrils prodded, searching for weak spots in the barrier to pierce, before striking. The thorny spikes at the ends of the tendrils bounced off the shield. Selena glared at it and tried again, but it grew longer spikes than hers and lazily batted her magic away as if it were no more than an annoying fly.

Not earth magic, then.

Maybe a subtler approach was required. The stealth of air magic might slip inside the barrier unnoticed. This time, she released her magic in a pale mist that held the faintest tinge of green. The vapor wafted over the shield and attempted to breeze its way inside. To Selena's shock, the mist solidified into crystal granules and dropped to the floor before fading into nothingness.

She waited a moment to see if any of her magic had made it through, but the barrier remained. Selena sighed. That left fire magic, Selena's weakest element by far.

Her final onslaught of magic unleashed flames of green laced with red. It roared over the barrier, crackling as it did so, ravenous to consume. Instead, the barrier absorbed her fire spell. Its yellow light glowed brighter, with flames of red flickering inside. It had fortified itself with her magic.

It was unyielding to any element, which meant that a rare mage with a high degree of skill in all four elements had crafted the spell.

Fine, then, she'd need the combination. Father was cautious. He would never write the combination down for anyone to find, so what would he use?

Selena tried first his birthday, then Mother's, then her own, with no success. Her parents' anniversary? Doubtful but worth a try. Again, the safe lock remained stubbornly shut against her. His work badge number? No, it had too many digits. Besides, he would use something far cleverer.