‘In what way?’ Francis asked.
‘She… She must have cheated. She–’
‘Did nothing we saw which could be called cheating. You on the other hand did cheat. We were watching, you know. We all saw and heard you call out her location to the other teams after you were hit.’
‘We don’t need cheats in this club,’ another of the judges said. Nava had not been introduced to the man, but he looked like someone with authority. Tall, very straight, saturnine good looks. Dark hair fell around a pale sort of face which appeared to have been carved rather than grown. Dark eyes observed Siegmar coolly. Siegmar shrank a little under his gaze.
‘Don’t reprimand him too heavily,’ Nava said. ‘I’d have had much greater difficulty eliminating the others if he hadn’t drawn them in like that.’
‘Wha–’ Siegmar began and cut off as the dark gaze hardened further.
‘One of our principal objectives at this time of year,’ the dark-haired man said, ‘is evaluating students for the summer war games. We can’t expose the school to the scandal of any of our players cheating in any of the games. That goes double for those who lose becausethey cheated.’ Turning, the man looked down at Nava. ‘I am Naomi Himura Sonkei, captain of the MagiTag Club. You are Nava Ward, is that correct?’
Nava gave a nod. ‘It is. I’ve met one of your family before, Hyrum Himura.’
‘Uncle Hyrum mentioned you. I hope that we’ll be seeing more of you here, Nava Ward.’
‘I’m afraid that I won’t be making a regular showing. My objective in coming here was to keep my practical skills current. I’m afraid that I won’t be challenged sufficiently to make that happen.’
She was sort of expecting Naomi to be insulted by that, but he shrugged. ‘We lost a lot of good people due to graduation and the new intake is not up to speed yet. May I ask you to return after the late spring break? I think we may have beaten some of them into shape by then.’
Nava executed a bow from the hips. The Himura family was among the stronger ones in the Sonkei clan, maybe even second to the Trentons. While the Trentons had adopted some traditions from their originally Japanese clan, the Himuras had retained many more and a good bow always went down well with them. Or so Mitsuko had said. When Nava looked up again, Naomi’s expression was somewhere between surprised and impressed. ‘I’ll be sure to check in with you again then,’ she said.
‘I look forward to it.’
~~~
‘Siegmar was fuming, of course,’ Nava said. She was sitting with Mitsuko, Melissa, and Rochester in the refectory they used at weekends. It was a little closer to Mitsuko’s block, a little nicer, and it tended not to have many of the wealthier students in it.
‘He’s such a child,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I’m sorry you had to put up with his games.’
‘There’s nothing for you to apologise for. He’s not even one of your clansmen.’
‘He is a classmate.’
‘It’s still not your fault.’
‘Do you think he might do anything to get back at you?’ Melissa asked.
‘Men like him don’t take defeat well,’ Rochester added.
‘Not sure,’ Nava admitted. She looked at Mitsuko. ‘Is he that stupid?’
‘My opinion may be jaundiced thanks to sharing a classroom with him. I’ll ask around. But watch your back while I do.’
‘I can do that.’
‘Flying tomorrow,’ Melissa said brightly, probably to shift the subject to something less gloomy.
‘Yes, flying tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.’
‘You’re not a prodigy at flying too, are you?’ Rochester asked.
‘Oh, I’ve a lot less experience at flying,’ Nava replied. ‘I’m quite sure there are plenty of people in the Flying Club that are better than me.’
‘Well,’ Melissa said, ‘I haven’t actually seen you fly yet, but talent with sorcery is a factor in handling a Flight spell well, and you’ve got talent in spades.’
235/3/25.
What the world called spells were actually mental processes which magicians were able to make real, impressing upon consensus reality the personal reality of the magician. At least, that was what they taught in class. It made sense of one aspect of spellcasting: most magicians could only have a single such process in mind at a time. It was possible to expand this to two or more spells, but it took effort and training to manage more than one complex, reality-altering thought process at a time. Even those who could handle multiple ‘active’ spells usually knew more than they could hold in their mind at once and had to shuffle them around, bringing one to the front of their mind while losing access to another.
Nava shifted Flight to the active portion of her consciousness and prepared to take off. Beside her, Melissa was probably doing the same. Or, as seemed likely, Melissa had swapped Flight in right after lunch in anticipation of going out flying that afternoon.
Since this was her first visit to the Flight Club and she was being watched, Nava did everything by the book. She made a show of looking up and around to ensure that her take-off path was clear, stepped away from Melissa, and then lifted into the air. Actually, she shot into the air; she was almost fifteen metres up after barely a second. She came to a stop at two hundred and ten metres after seven seconds which mostly consisted of acceleration and deceleration, and it did not look like she had hit her top speed.
‘Wow, she’s fast,’ Melissa said to no one in particular. She took off and joined Nava in the sky, also taking only seven seconds to reach the same height. She took some solace in the fact that she had not hit her top speed either, but she noted that her acceleration did not match Nava’s. ‘I just bet you’re going to be better at aerobatics than I am too,’ Melissa said as she slid smoothly into a hover. She pointed at various obstacles which had been set up on the ground. Most
