Infinite Regress Read online

  Professor Armstrong strode back to the front of the classroom. “You have all managed to put a working spell into the hearthstone,” he said. “But it didn’t last very long. Why?”

  “It didn’t have enough power to remain active,” Cirroc said, quickly.

  “Quite right,” Professor Armstrong said. “I’m glad you learned something over the last year, young man. And for a second point, why don’t you tell us how to fix this problem?”

  Cirroc leaned forward. “We rewrite the spell to allow us to recharge it, once the spell is firmly in place,” he said. “It’s a complex piece of work...”

  “But doable, at your stage,” Professor Armstrong said. His gaze swept the room for a long moment. “Each of you is to write out a modification to the spell that allows you to recharge it, once the spell is firmly embedded in the hearthstone. I want you to do this alone, without even a hint of help from the person next to you. Anyone caught helping or asking for help will be in deep trouble.”

  Emily winked at Caleb, then produced her notepad from the desk and went to work. Writing out the spell notation was second nature now—she still cringed at the memory of some of her early mistakes—but it was never easy to rewrite a spell on the fly. Indeed, she’d never really had to annotate a spell she’d used for a wand. It was really just a matter of pushing power through the wand, making sure not to accidentally destroy the spellwork in the process. But the hearthstone was a little more complicated.

  She wrote out the original spell, then carefully added a pair of modifications. One would allow her to charge the spell, while the other would balance the power, giving the spell a power reserve. It wouldn’t last long—power leached away from improper spellwork—but at least it would hold long enough to master the trick. She glanced at Caleb, his head bent over his own notebook, and smiled. Their joint project—which they would have to work on at some point—might benefit from some of their new skills.

  “Let me see your work,” Professor Armstrong said. “Do not attempt to actually use the spellwork without my permission.”

  He strode from desk to desk, reading the paperwork and offering comments. Cirroc was given nothing, while Pandora was told off sharply for missing out on the power reserve, which would have destroyed her spellwork if she’d actually tried to use it. He glanced once at Caleb’s and nodded in approval, then picked up Emily’s paper and read it twice before scowling in disapproval and pointing to a single line.

  “Emily,” he said, sharply. “What’s wrong with this?”

  Emily hesitated, suddenly aware that everyone was looking at her. “It channels power,” she said. She felt her cheeks grow warm under his stare. “I don’t know what’s wrong...”

  “This isn’t a wand,” Professor Armstrong said. “What you have is something that will spend its power in a single moment, then stop working. Stone channels magic, but in this case the power will spew out in all directions. It is not a workable solution, which is a shame because the rest of the spellwork is quite good.”

  He stepped backwards, leaving Emily to fix the mistake as quickly as she could. In hindsight, it was an obvious mistake—and a common one. Prunella received the same lecture, along with two other students. Emily didn’t want to look at Caleb, even though she knew he wouldn’t laugh at her. It was embarrassing.

  “Tonight, you are to read about the properties of different kinds of material,” Professor Armstrong said, as he returned to the front of the classroom. “Tomorrow, we will be taking your spellwork and actually putting it to the test. Those of you who fail to learn from mistakes—yours and others—will not get very far.”

  He paused. “And one other thing...

  “Many of you will want to compare notes, once you’re out of the classroom,” he added, darkly. “And if you understand what you’re doing, that’s fine. But if you don’t understand what you’re doing, you’re only hurting yourself.”

  The bell rang. “Class dismissed.”

  Emily returned the hearthstone to the desk, then rose and headed for the door. She needed Kava. Professor Lombardi was presenting her next class, after lunch, and he didn’t suffer fools gladly. And Caleb wouldn’t be taking it with her. It would just be her.

  “Interesting class,” Caleb observed, once they were outside. “And very educational.”

  “We could use some of the techniques,” Emily said. “When are we restarting work on the joint project?”

  “Once you know where you stand with Professor Locke,” Caleb said. “I think we can put it off for a month, if we try.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Emily said.

  Chapter Eleven

  EMILY COULDN’T HELP FEELING A TINGLE of nervousness as she stepped into Professor Lombardi’s new ritual magic classroom, even though she’d had him as a tutor since First Year. The chamber was surprisingly comfortable: a handful of chairs, a single sofa and a desk, parked at the front of the room. Several students were already there; Melissa, the Gorgon, Prunella, Pandora... just for a moment, she wondered if only female students had been accepted for the class. And then Mathis and Johan followed her into the classroom.

  Silly thought, she told herself, as she found a seat. Ritual Magic isn’t a sex-specific class.

  She sighed, inwardly. Melissa and the Gorgon were sitting together, leaving her feeling isolated. She didn’t know Mathis and Johan, while Pandora and Prunella had never been her friends. Emily shook her head, wishing that Alassa or Imaiqah had stayed in Whitehall for two more years, then dismissed the thought. She could cope with being alone for a while.

  Professor Lombardi, like Professor Armstrong, chased the last couple of students into the classroom, then closed and locked the door. “The same rules apply here as they do to my Charms lessons,” he said, shortly. “Given that these classes are largely practical, missing more than one or two classes will guarantee failure. I will not hesitate to dismiss anyone who misses more than two lessons. Be warned.”

  He stalked up to the front of the classroom and turned to face them. His appearance didn’t seem to have changed much from her first lessons; he was a short, light-skinned man, with an afro that seemed to change color randomly. Once, she’d thought she was imagining it; now, she could sense the twisting magic that sparkled around his hair. She assumed it had some form of practical use—Professor Lombardi wasn’t the type of person to bother with fashion—but she couldn’t imagine what.

  The Professor stared at them, his gaze hard. “Before we start, I must warn you that you are absolutely forbidden to practice or experiment with ritual magic outside this classroom, regardless of how much supervision you have,” he said. “I don’t care how desperately you need to catch up with the class. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you are caught practicing or experimenting, you will be unceremoniously expelled from the school. There will be no further warnings.”

  Emily swallowed. She’d known Professor Lombardi was strict, but this was harsh even for him. And yet, Lady Barb had told her that rituals could be immensely dangerous—and they could be perverted quite easily. Professor Lombardi probably had a point. She might well be the only student in the class, even counting the ones with a magical background, who had any experience of rituals at all. Lady Barb had shown her a ritual—and she’d seen others at Mountaintop—but she’d been warned, in no uncertain terms, not to discuss her experiences with anyone.

  “There are a handful of textbooks that are assigned to you and waiting in the library,” Professor Lombardi continued, after a moment. “Those books are charmed to ensure that only authorized students can read them, so don’t show them to your friends! Anyone who does will have a great deal of explaining to do and will probably be expelled. Rest assured, unauthorized readers will be blinded due to trying to read these books and we will know what blinded them.”

  A gasp ran through the classroom. Emily honestly didn’t know why they were so shocked at the suggestion, even though blinding hexes were on the list of forbidden pranks. There was no s
hortage of books that had been marked forbidden, after all; it should have been no surprise that they would be charmed to deter unauthorized readers. Blinding someone was a little excessive, but it made it impossible for the crime to remain undetected. The victim would have to go to the tutors to get the curse removed.

  “I advise you to keep the books in the library and consult them there,” Professor Lombardi concluded. “If you do take them to your bedrooms, rest assured that you will be blamed for anything... unfortunate.”

  Gordian would probably be delighted if I gave him cause to expel me, Emily thought, as the class shuffled nervously. And I wouldn’t be able to argue that I wasn’t warned.

  Professor Lombardi cleared his throat. “Ritual magic involves the deliberate sharing of magic amongst magicians, each one contributing a little mana to a working that would completely drain the caster or be otherwise impossible,” he said. “The mana is extruded from one’s body, then shaped by pre-prepared runes into spellwork that can then be triggered at will. Designing one’s runic circles requires nothing less than the highest precision, as a single mistake may mean failure or randomized effects. You do not want to get caught up in a flash of wild magic!”

  There was a long, chilling pause. “Ritual magic requires a high degree of vulnerability among those who contribute to the spells,” he warned. “It is not unknown for casters to be caught during the working and killed by their enemies, either because they were contributing too much magic or because they didn’t dare halt the ritual. Those of you with an interest in becoming combat sorcerers may wish to remember what happened at Hobbs End. There is no doubt that the devastation was caused by a ritual gone badly wrong.”

  Emily frowned. She hadn’t heard of Hobbs End. Professor Lombardi didn’t seem inclined to elaborate, so she made a mental note to look it up later in the library. Perhaps it was one of the cautionary tales they were told, regularly, but in that case surely Professor Lombardi would have told them what had happened in gruesome detail. Or maybe the casters did nothing wrong. She knew enough about rituals to know that if someone had interrupted the spell at the worst possible moment—and she suspected that was what had happened—there would be nothing the casters could do to save themselves.

  Look it up later, she told herself. He’s still talking.

  “Ritual magic requires absolute trust among the casters,” Professor Lombardi concluded, darkly. “Wags”—his expression flickered with displeasure—“have compared taking part in a ritual to undressing in front of one’s fellow casters. You will be making yourselves vulnerable, very vulnerable. That, among other reasons, is why practicing rituals outside this classroom is strictly forbidden. The dangers are not always as obvious as a sudden and devastating surge of power, but they are there.”

  He clapped his hands together. “I want you in groups of two,” he added. “Pair up, now.”

  Emily glanced around the room. The Gorgon and Melissa were already together; Pandora seemed to have teamed up with Mathis, while Johan and Cirroc were sharing a desk. She sighed, inwardly, as it became clear she was partnered with Prunella by default. The only consolation was that Prunella didn’t seem any happier about it than Emily herself.

  “Pair up,” Professor Lombardi repeated, impatiently. “And then follow me.”

  He nodded towards the nearest wall, which lifted up to reveal a giant spellchamber. Emily could sense dozens—hundreds—of protective spells crawling through the air as Professor Lombardi led them into the chamber. There were chalk drawings on the stone floor, all identical: a circle, surrounded by a dozen carefully-drawn runes. Emily had memorized enough runes, over the last few years, to pick out the ones for generating light. The ritual, it seemed, was meant to light up the room.

  You need to learn to walk before you can run, she thought. And no one here knows I’ve done this before.

  “This chamber is specifically designed to cope with accidental discharges,” Professor Lombardi informed them. “However, there are still a number of basic precautions you need to remember. In particular, do not enter a circle once the ritual is underway and do not leave a circle until the ritual is completed. You would be stepping out into a maelstrom and quite probably killed or warped. If matters go wrong, here, just stop the ritual and allow the wards to cope with the excess magic. Any questions?”

  Melissa stuck up a hand. “What happens if we’re using a ritual outside this chamber?”

  Professor Lombardi eyed her suspiciously. “You cast a spell and pray to all the gods that the spell will soak up the magic before it goes wild,” he said. “And I should tell you that it only works about a third of the time. Losing control of a ritual can be disastrous.”

  He jabbed a finger at the first circle. “This is perhaps the most simplistic ritual working there is,” he added. “All you really have to do is extrude a little magic and let the runes shape and direct it for you. There’s nothing too complex in the runic pattern, but you need to check and recheck it before you step into the circle. A mistake now would be unpleasant, to say the least; a mistake with a more dangerous ritual would be catastrophic. Choose a circle, then check the runes.”

  Emily glanced at Prunella, then picked a chalk circle at random and walked over to check the runes. They looked correct, from what she’d been taught; indeed, there was a neatness about them that Lady Barb’s work had lacked. She forced herself to check everything, nodding at Prunella to do the same, and smiled in relief when she found nothing wrong...

  “Professor,” Cirroc said, carefully. “This rune is reversed.”

  “Correct,” Professor Lombardi said. He sounded pleased. “Well spotted.”

  He held out a piece of chalk. A trap, Emily realized as Cirroc rubbed out the reversed rune, carefully wiped away the dust and redrew it in the correct orientation. Professor Lombardi had deliberately left a mistake in the runic pattern, just to see who was careful enough to check every rune—and brave enough to tell the tutor that he’d made a mistake. She looked back at her circle and rechecked it, but found nothing wrong. Professor Lombardi stalked over to them, nodded curtly and then strode away. Clearly, only one circle had been drawn incorrectly.

  “We’d better make a habit of checking the circles every time,” Emily said. She was sure Professor Lombardi wouldn’t stop with just one test of their reasoning skills. “The next one to get a dummy might be us.”

  Prunella nodded. She looked nervous, Emily noted, even though she’d never seen Prunella nervous before. But then, Emily had been nervous too, the first time she’d used a ritual—and she’d had Lady Barb helping her. Professor Lombardi was responsible for twelve students, divided out into six pairings. She wished, again, that someone closer to her had returned to Whitehall for the final two years.

  “Step into the circles and sit down,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “Do not attempt to start the working until I tell you to begin.”

  Emily felt a tingle in the air as she stepped over the chalk circle, careful not to step on the markings or smudge the runes, then sat down and crossed her legs. Touching the chalk, even the inner circle, could be dangerous. It would, at the very least, make the ritual unworkable; she sighed, then inched forward until there was a space between her and the chalk. If she had to move backwards suddenly, she told herself, she wouldn’t thrust her head into the wild magic.

  Prunella sat right at the edge, seemingly unwilling to move. Emily hesitated, then waved her forward until their knees were practically touching as Professor Lombardi stalked from circle to circle, examining their pose and positions. She couldn’t help feeling nervous too, even though she had taken part in a ritual once before. Lady Barb and she had been alone, after all, and she’d allowed the older woman to lead her through the working. Here, she was the more experienced magician. It was a worrying thought.

  “Join hands,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “And feel the magic within you.”

  Emily blinked in shock. This was nothing like the ritual Lady Barb had shown her. Had she
been taught a more advanced ritual? Or had she merely been shown how to extrude magic and little else? God knew she used the spell for her batteries, draining magic into them for later use. She forced herself to reach out to Prunella and blinked in surprise as Prunella drew back, seemingly reluctant to touch Emily’s hands.

  “Join hands,” Professor Lombardi repeated, tartly. “Reach inside and feel the magic within you.”

  Prunella eyes were wide with fear as she touched Emily’s hand. Emily recalled Lady Barb’s warnings—that there were some magicians who could never commit themselves to rituals—and forced herself to relax, even though she’d never known Prunella to be scared of anything. But then, she barely knew the girl. It wasn’t as if they’d ever had past disagreements or misunderstandings.

  She closed her eyes, feeling the magic pulsing within her. It seemed to ebb and flow with her heartbeats, each one sending a surge of magic though her body that slowly faded back into her reserves. She’d been careful to expend some of her magic in the spellchamber before breakfast, but her reserves had already regenerated themselves. Master Grey would have hated knowing that he’d accidentally made her more powerful, yet that was exactly what he’d done.

  “You should also be able to feel your partner’s magic,” Professor Lombardi said. “Do not try to reach for it, just sense its presence.”

  Emily heard Prunella gasp in shock, but ignored her. Her eyes were still closed, yet she could sense Prunella’s magic boiling through the air. It was strong, alright, but far weaker than hers. Or was that just her imagination? Her magic pulsed so loudly that it was hard to hear anything beyond it. Even touching Prunella’s fingertips, Emily had trouble sensing where her magic ended and Prunella’s began.

  “Concentrate a little magic in your fingertips, then thrust it up to merge with your partner’s magic,” Professor Lombardi ordered. “Count down from five before, just so you know when to extrude the magic.”