The Iron Trial [Magisterium]

Chapter Ten... A Beach? No Thanks

Tamara sucked in her breath in horror. "What – what did you do?"
Even calm level headed Aaron was looking at Call like he was going to strangle him. I didn't think pretty boy had a temper. Call glanced at me and I shrugged. I didn't care, well I did but it wasn't his fault. Things happened. Had we given it a minute more I probably would have done the same thing.
"I-I-I. It just happened."
"I'm going to kill you." Tamara said very calmly. "I am going to sort your guts into piles."
"Uh.."
"Light and dark, or bloody and extra bloody?" I wondered aloud and everyone looked at me and I laughed with a slight shrug. Too far?
"Okay." Aaron said, taking deep breaths, hands in his hair, like he was trying to press all that rage back into his skull. "Okay, were just going to have to do it all over again."
"Before that, can I just.." I stood and aimed a kick at the pile of sand sending a cloud of light and dark sand everywhere. I grinned at Call, "dude you have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that."
Tamara looked at me, kicked the sand, then crouched down and began the tedious work of moving single grains with her mind, not even a glance to Call.
I dropped back to my spot on the floor and leaned back, legs straight out as I lazily brought a strand of sand close enough for me to see, then tossed it toward the piles, catching it a moment before it slammed into the pile and letting it slip slowly from my concentration gently onto the other sand. When I got bored of doing that I began to pick up each piece with my fingers, examine it and then set it rolling towards whatever pile it needed to be in. Boring, gross and so not worth my time I was half tempted to explode the piles again.
By the time Master Rufus came and told us we were free to go to dinner and then back to our rooms, my head was pounding and I never wanted to see a beach again. Ever. Which sucked because I used to like the beach, they had good food stands there.
As seemingly always the refectory was full of kids chatting away amicably, a lot of them giggling and laughing. Clearly their Masters hadn't sent them to some sort of sandbox training. Call, Tamara, Aaron and I stood behind Master Rufus all of us tired beyond belief. I could feel the sand in my hair and the dirt on my clothes and face from when I'd decided I needed to let out some steam by kicking the shit out of the ground, only the ground hit back and I tripped over nothing and face planted. No one had dared say anything about it, or maybe they were just too tired to bother.
"I will be eating with the other Masters," Master Rufus told us, as though we cared. "Do what you like with the rest of your evening."
Moving like robots, my group and I gathered up some food – mushroom soup, more piles of coloured lichen and some odd opalescent pudding for dessert – and went to sit at a table with another clump of Iron year students. I remembered a few of them. Picked on Drew, annoying Celia and jerk Jasper who honestly I'm thinking of just calling JJ for short. I dropped into a seat between Call and Tamara, hoping to avoid a fight with her over the dumb sand as we ate.
The Masters sat together at a round table across the room, almost like the knights but less for the people and more let's torture the little Mage children. While I chewed thoughtfully on one of the mushrooms that I pulled from my soup three people in olive green uniforms – two women and a man – came through the doorway. They bowed shallowly to the table of Masters, and I tilted my head my curiosity sparked.
" They're Assembly members," Celia said, her information aimed towards Call. "It's our governing body, set up after the Second Mage War. They're hoping one of the older kids turns out to be a chaos Mage."
"Like that Enemy of Death guy?" Call asked. "What happens if they find chaos mages? Do they kill them, or what?"
"Magic binding seems like a more logical solution. Although, I wouldn't put a good torture session past those dudes." I shrugged with a shared look with Call.
"No! They want to find a Chaos Mage. They say it takes a Maker to stop a Maker. As long as the Enemy is the only one of the Makaris alive, he has the advantage over us." Celia said with a lowered voice.
"If they even think someone here has that power, they'll check it out." Said JJ, moving down so he was closer to the discussion. "They're desperate."
"No one believes that the treaty will last," Gwenda added. "And if the war starts up again..."
"Well, what makes them think anyone here could be what they're looking for?" Call asked.
"Like I said," Jasper told him, "they're desperate. But don't worry – your scores are way too lousy. Chaos mages have to actually be good at magic."
I scoffed, clearly he had a time limit for how long he could act like a decent human being.
Everyone launched into a discussion of their fist lessons, clearly no longer interested in playing politics. Drew told us that Master Lemuel had been really tough during their lessons, and he wanted to know if everyone else's Masters were like that. Of course then everyone was talking at once, which was making my head hurt again. Did no one know of the blessing that was silence?
"Master Milagros let us pilot the boats," Jasper gloated. "There were little waterfalls. It was like white-water rafting. Awesome."
"Great," Tamara said, her enthusiasm hitting my level for his words. So pretty nonexistent.
"Jasper got us all lost," Celia said and Jasper's eyes flashed with annoyance.
"Only for a minute," Jasper snapped. "It was fine."
"Master Tanaka showed us how to make fireballs," said a boy who was apparently named Peter. "We held the fire and we didn't even get burned." I was jealous of how his eyes sparkled at the memory. I wanted to learn how to make fire, mainly so I could throw it at people.
"Master Lemuel threw rocks at us," Drew said dropping a verbal bomb that made even me look at him in surprise.
"What?" Aaron and I asked together.
"Drew," Laurel hissed, she was another of Master Lemuel's apprentices. "He did not. He was showing us how you can move rocks with your mind. Drew got in the way of a rock."
My eyes dropped to Drews collarbone that I'd noticed earlier had a bruise on it and connected the pieces. Grandfather had told me once that the Masters didn't care about injury to their students as long as they saw progress. Maybe he was right about one thing.
"Tomorrow its going to be metal," Drew added. "I bet he throws knives at us."
"I'd rather have knives thrown at me then spend all day in a pile of sand," Tamara said, unsympathetic.
"I agree, at least you can dodge knives." I shrugged as I pushed the lichen around on my plate.
"Looks like Drew can't," said Jasper with a smirk. I was mildly amused to find he was an equal opportunity bully.
"It can't be all lessons around here," said Aaron, an edge to his usually peaceful voice. "Right? There's got to be something fun. What was that place Master Rufus told us about?"
"We could go to Gallery after dinner?" Celia said, speaking directly to Call, rubbing against my nerves. "There's games."
"That sounds like fun Celia~" I practically purred, but the undercurrent of back off was heavy for anyone with two X chromosomes. Although I doubted I needed to bother with a threat since if Call felt anything like I did all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.
"I don't think I'm up for games," he told Celia. "Another time." I barley managed to hide my pleased grin by forking in my last mouthful of lichen.
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