Heather took a deep breath and looked away.
“Don’t get angry,” Beldithe said.
“Really, don’t get angry,” Kehet said. “I am with you, Heather. I am not with Beldithe.”
“Well, not today,” Beldithe said. “We’ve had our flings in the past and will probably have our flings again, but I don’t keep anyone. He loves you and that is something I cannot change.”
“So, I’m just supposed to be okay if my man has a fling with you?” Heather said.
“She’s a Wizard, my goddess.” Diten said. “I know you’re just teasing her, but she might not be the type to play with.”
“She’s a Wizard?” Beldithe asked then looked at Heather appraisingly. “My apologies, Heather. Diten is correct, I am just teasing. I wouldn’t take Kehet to bed while he was with you. That’s not true, I would. But, I promise that I won’t.”
“The goddess is always true to her word,” Diten said.
“And please don’t explode in my temple,” Beldithe said. “I like you, Heather. You are beautiful and dangerous. I like that combination in people. I have rooms below if you’d like to spend your time in Melnith being treated like a queen. Kehet, being a man, cannot stay here, but you would enjoy it here.”
Heather was noticeably calmer. “I’ll consider it, but I’ll probably be staying with Kehet.”
The goddess stroked Heather’s arm. “Now that he’s embraced his Unicorn self, he will have trouble staying in one place for long. You, on the other hand, are stuck here for the next twenty years if you are going to attend the Wizard school.”
Kehet didn’t have plans to go anywhere, and expected Heather to espouse her faith in him to stay with her, but instead she asked, “You know of the Wizard School? Do you know where it is?”
“There’s a smithy in the Foreign Quarter, in the Matderi section, called Izzy’s Iron,” Beldithe said. “Izzy’s not a Wizard, but she guards the entrance, which is under her shop. The Foreign District borders the Temple District behind the Temple of the Nightstar.” Beldithe pointed to a building made of dark blue marble. “You could get to Izzy’s in less than a quarter of an hour from here on foot.”
“Should we head there?” Kehet asked.
“Surely you’d like to stay and chat,” Beldithe said. “I have comfortable places to sit or lie down inside.”
“You know I’d like to,” Kehet said. “But we came here for Heather and helping her reach her potential and not explode again is what I want more than anything.”
“Yes, let’s go,” Heather said. She headed out of the temple without watching if Kehet would follow. He did.
From Beldithe’s Temple, Melnith had appeared a city of towering white marble structures reaching into the sky. Once they entered the Foreign Quarter it was not much different than Blackstone. Small shops ran along the main street with homes, some no bigger than a one room hovel, lined the alleys behind the street. The shops were a little bigger and had much more inventory on display than the ones in Blackstone, but without turning around to see the white spires, Kehet couldn’t tell he was in a large city.
Izzy’s shop was an inconspicuous wrought iron implement store. When Heather told the Matderi Woman that Red Clan Ore was the hottest, Izzy took them into her shop and led them down a staircase. They descended a couple dozen steps into a torch lit spherical room that looked to be thirty paces across. A platform at the center of the room had four tables. A human in red robes was talking to two people, both Matderi, who sat at the tables.
“This is it?” Heather asked.
“There’re not a lot of Wizards,” Izzy said. “Few are born with the talent; fewer survive to discover the school.”
“But you can teach me to control this?” Heather asked.
“Not me personally,” Izzy said. “I teach the metalworking classes. Lucian teaches fire control.”
“When can I start?” Heather asked.
“You started when you gave me the Wizard’s Call.” Izzy said. “I’ll need you both to sign the contract, which is really just a pledge to complete the training and promise of secrecy.”
“Whoa,” Kehet said. “I’m not here for Wizard School. I’m just here to support Heather.”
“Hmm,” Izzy said. “I’d assumed by your calloused hands and large forearms that you were a blacksmith.”
“I am a blacksmith. I’m just not a Wizard.” Kehet said.
“Wait here,” Izzy said, then took a few steps towards the walkway leading to the teaching platform. She then turned back and asked, “I assume you’d rather have your memories for the past couple hours erased than be killed?”
“I don’t see either one of those coming to pass,” Kehet said. “Let’s just say I leave, promising to not reveal your secret.”
“There are rules we have in place to protect our secret,” Izzy said. “The punishments are harsh, but you understand we all risk execution if discovered. I highly suggest the memory wipe. I’m told it’s painless, or at least if it’s not you won’t remember the pain, so it’s the same thing in the long run.”
Heather stepped towards Izzy. “My companion isn’t trying to be disrespectful of your, well I guess it now our, traditions. But, he’s correct, you won’t be killing him and you won’t be able to wipe his memory.”
“Oh?” Izzy said. “Is he of another magical college? I suppose a Mage could enchant protections but he doesn’t look like a Mage.”
“Does he look like a god?” Heather said.
Izzy stepped back towards them then walked around Kehet slowly. “No, but I suppose now would be a good time for introductions. Who, exactly, are you?”
“My name is Heather Feystal,” she said then added, “of Blackstone. I’ll let Kehet introduce himself.”
“But,” Kehet said, realizing Heather had given him away.
Izzy was quick to take in what the name meant. “The Founder?” she asked.
“That’s me,” Kehet said.
“I don’t know anyone who’s seen you in person,” Izzy said. “I’ve seen over two hundred gods, mostly lesser, but I’ve seen most of the founders in their temples. I’ve never seen you.”
“I don’t have a temple,” Kehet said. “I could change forms, but I’d have to step out of this alcove and onto the walkway to do so and I wouldn’t be able to turn around.” The walkway was only wide enough for a single person, and that person should have good balance.
“Or I could have Lucian test the theory that fire wouldn’t hurt you,” Izzy said.
“Well, it would probably hurt if Lucian is more powerful than Heather,” Kehet said. “But I’d get better and I’d probably be upset.”
“You know,” Izzy said, pausing as if to appear thoughtful, “I think we can trust our new student’s word on this.” Izzy went to stand by a bare, flat wall. “Heather, come place your hand here.”
Heather walked over and put the palm of her hand against the wall. The wall began to glow red, then after a moment changed to orange then yellow. It cycled through the colors of the rainbow. Izzy gasped when it hit blue and started to shake when it hit purple and then turned solid black. Izzy shouted for Lucian to run to them. By the time Lucian arrived, the wall had shifted again to white. “Does this mean what I think it means?” Heather asked. “This is a measure of my capabilities?”
Lucian took a deep breath. “It is a measure of your potential. I thought I was the most powerful Wizard alive and I measure somewhere between green and blue. You are a ninth circle Wizard. Even when Wizards walked the land freely, the tenth circle has only survived to adulthood twice. Ninth are almost as rare. In your lifetime, there will not likely be a more powerful Wizard. We need to get you started on the calming classes lest you not only kill us all but bring a good portion of Melnith to the ground. I imagine if you exploded it would be a radius of hundreds of paces.”
“The destruction was about a league across,” Kehet said. “The crater itself was about a fifth of that.”
“And you survived?” Lucian asked Heather.
“I’ve kept a fire protection spell on my body since my forth summer,” Heather said.
“You mean you recast it every day before you use your magic?” Lucian said.
“No, it’s been on since that summer,” Heather said. “I cast it as a self-maintaining spell.”
