Remedial magic step by a.., p.1
Remedial Magic: Step by Aching Step, page 1
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
REMEDIAL MAGIC: STEP BY ACHING STEP
First edition. October 7, 2022.
Copyright © 2022 Nathan Gregg.
Written by Nathan Gregg.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
Afterword
Chapter 1
NADRINA COULDN’T TAKE the suspense anymore. “Um, are you going to tell us Professor Aldric’s story yet?” she asked eagerly.
Headmaster Elmaris was still sitting backwards in his chair and staring at the ceiling. The rest of Nadrina’s class had all been waiting impatiently, but the man still hadn’t said a single word.
“Goodness,” he finally murmured, mostly to himself. “Where do I even start such a story? There’s honestly so much to be said. Your professor has had quite the adventurous life, after all. I wouldn’t want to ruin it by telling it poorly.”
“The beginning is usually a good place,” Alek commented dryly. Next to him, Volmar attempted and failed to hide a snicker.
“Just start wherever,” Codrin interjected, looking annoyed. “We’re burning daylight!”
Cira smacked Codrin over the head. “Shut it! The more you distract him, the longer it takes.” Codrin was clearly annoyed, but he strangely did as she instructed and closed his mouth. He’d become much tamer around Cira for a while now, Nadrina had noticed.
“If you need more time to get your thoughts straight,” Lilianna added from next to Nadrina, “we can probably wait for you to be ready. Would you be free —?” Her question cut off when Nadrina gave her best friend a look of shocked betrayal.
“... never mind. Please continue,” Liliana finished, sounding exasperated but looking amused.
“I think Mr. Carlisle made a good point, if a bit rudely put,” Headmaster Elmaris eventually said. He straightened, looking at all of them again. Nadrina’s leg started rapidly bouncing up and down against her will as her excitement took hold of her once again.
“Your professor was a... well, he was not always the man he is now. But what he started as in large part defined who he became. I admit, I was not always in the picture, but I’ve heard all the perspectives from those that were. I’ll start in his early days, back when he was not much older than any of you, and still a student of the Redan Magic Academy. That was the first real turning point of his life, after all.”
A very fond but also somehow very sad smile parted the headmaster’s lips. It was as if he’d just recalled something especially bitter-sweet.
“It is also, of course, the first time he met her...”
ALDRIC BLEARILY STARED up at the afternoon sky as he lay on his back, his head throbbing. He was having a hard time remembering where he was and why. He was in an open courtyard, probably one of the many in the Radan Magic Academy, and the ground at his back and beneath his arms was wet with recent rain. Laughter and cheering came from every direction around him, but none of the words shouted out made any sense to him. The distinct coppery flavor of blood filled his mouth, and the itching sensation on his upper lip told him that more was dripping down his face from his nose. That was probably bad.
Groggily, Aldric turned his head back and forth and found himself surrounded by teenagers, most no older than himself. Despite his current state, none of them looked worried or shocked. In fact, they looked ecstatic, as if Aldric’s pain was something to celebrate. Aldric also found a rock the size of his head laying only a few feet away from himself. The blood splattered on the front of it told Aldric where his busted mouth and bloody nose had come from.
Then Aldric turned his attention to directly in front of him, where a boy about Aldric’s age stood. He was tall and stockily built, with dirty brown hair and coal-black eyes that radiated both smug confidence and open malice for Aldric. Three more rocks hovered around him, lazily spinning in circles as if waiting for a signal. The boy’s lightly scraped and bruised face brought Aldric’s addled brain painfully back to the present.
“Hit him again, Gabin!”
“C’mon, he’s not out yet. Finish it!”
“Make it hurt!”
Right. Gabin. That guy.
Aldric shakily got to his feet and stared down his opponent, who was thankfully too busy basking in the attention and didn’t immediately attack. Aldric hazily recalled the opening moments of this fight. Gabin had openly challenged him in front of a crowd, knowing that Aldric couldn’t refuse if he didn’t want to be shamed any more than he already was. Aldric had talked the other boy into agreeing to only a fistfight, but Aldric had only gotten a few good punches in before Gabin had panicked and clubbed him in the head with a magically conjured rock.
It would have been too much to expect the boy to fight at least somewhat fairly. He couldn’t beat Aldric in a straight up slugfest, so he would use conjuration. Typical. All these nobles were the same. That none of the other noble kids in their rabid audience objected to the slight wasn’t surprising. Excluding one person, no one was on Aldric’s side in this gods forsaken city.
“Had enough then?” Gabin asked Aldric. He was relishing the attention and clearly wanted to earn himself some more adoration. “I got places to be today, Dengarius. No time to waste on trash like you.” Aldric’s family name fell like a vile curse from the boy’s lips. Too bad Aldric had no family pride to speak of.
If you’re busy, then why’d you chase me down after classes again, asshat? Aldric thought bitterly, but he didn’t say it. Instead, he asked, “I suppose, if you don’t have any problem using magic, then I can use it too, right?” He wiped at his split lip and still bleeding nose, coating his fingers in the sticky blood. Hopefully, the gesture looked casual and not planned.
Gabin laughed like Aldric had just told him the funniest joke he’d ever heard. “Yeah! Sure, whatever. What are you going to do to me with that pathetic mana pool of yours? The most you can hope for is that you can somehow bore me to death!”
Aldric was making a show of checking himself over, hoping the action disguised his efforts to inscribe the back of his left arm with bloody symbols. Aldric had yet to perfect what he was about to try. If he was honest, he wasn’t even close, and the last time he’d tried had left him badly injured. But it would be immensely satisfying to smack that smug smile off Gabin’s face. He just needed the right opening.
“Bore you to death, huh?” Aldric answered flippantly. He was almost done with the last rune. “Boring people are often the most bored, right? Don’t worry, shouldn’t take too long. If you really die to me though, just imagine what they’ll say about your family! The Volus family, a bunch of oversized rock-chuckers with skulls as thick as the granite they toss around.”
Despite their unified distaste for Aldric, that was enough to elicit a wave of quiet chuckles from their audience. It was also enough to set off Gabin instantly, just as Aldric had known it would.
Knowing what would come next, Aldric abruptly weaved to the side to dodge the first floating rock that Gabin had hurled at him. He’d predictably aimed for Aldric’s head again, the simpleton, and now Aldric had closed the distance by a few meters already. In his panic, Gabin again did what Aldric predicted by aiming for Aldric’s torso, his center of mass. It was what everyone did when they panicked, and Aldric easily darted to the side and around the projectile.
This would be the hard part, however. Aldric wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge the third throw from only three meters away. Instead, when Gabin sent his third and final rock, Aldric simply put his arms up in front of himself and bulled through the attack. The rock cracked audibly against his arms with a painful force that teetered him for a moment, but Aldric gritted his teeth and kept running. He was most of the way through the imbuement of the runes on his left arm. He just needed to get in close and—
Aldric abruptly slipped and fell, his face landing hard on the muddy ground as he slid to a stop in front of Gabin.
The impact made his vision flash white briefly before stars filled it moments later. Complete, shocked silence blanketed the courtyard before uproarious laughter replaced it. It didn’t take long for Aldric to figure out what had just happened. Gabin was an earth conjurer, after all. Shifting the ground beneath an opponent wasn’t a very hard spell. He could even cast it silently. Aldric had gotten ahead of himself and underestimated his opponent. Gabin was a spoiled prick, but he wasn’t a complete idiot.
“What an adorably earnest try, Dengarius,” Gabin taunted, “But even determined screw ups are still screw ups.” Gabin’s boot came down on top of Aldric’s head and dug painfully into his hair as the boy twisted it back and forth. “Maybe, if you beg me, I’ll let you go without stomping your head flat. But it’s not like anyone would miss you, anyway.”
The audience surrounding him cheered for the stomping, predictably. Normally Aldric would have just let Gabin work out his anger issues and leave once he was
“Come on, Dengarius. Where’d all your usual spunk go, huh? Going to see if daddy can get you out of this problem too? You know that’s the only reason they even let trash like you in here, right? Maybe I should just leave you as broken as your noble house. How does it feel to be pitied by the entire—?”
Aldric’s imbuing finally finished, and whatever taunts Gabin had left were cut off by his shrill cry. The boy flew like a rag doll, sent hurtling through the air by Aldric’s sudden and surprisingly strong toss. It scattered the unfortunate audience members in his trajectory like matchsticks as Gabin’s body plowed through them, all of them yelling in surprise and pain. Aldric let out his own pained whine as agony shot up his left arm from the spell’s backlash, but the commotion and his face being in the mud masked it from the others.
The rest of the onlookers all gawked at Aldric, universally bewildered. A few looked like they wanted to rush him themselves, but they had no way of knowing what he could do to them.
“He cheated! He can’t use magic like that! He’s got an enchantment on him or something!”
“Stupid sorcerers! All tricks and no skill!”
Aldric internally rolled his eyes at the irony of these people calling him a cheater, but this was bad. Aldric’s left arm was injured and useless. If they got brave and ganged up on him, he would be beaten savagely. Again.
“What is going on here? Get away from him!”
A sharp voice cut through the courtyard and immediately earned everyone’s attention. A pretty girl with long, blonde hair pulled back in a tail and piercing green eyes stormed into the center of the ring of bodies. She glared a challenge at everyone present, Aldric included. He, of course, recognized her, but he suddenly wished he’d just been mobbed. At least that wouldn’t take as long as one of Zasia Glory’s lectures.
“This ends. Right now. Everyone go about your day. There’s nothing to see here!”
Even those that had been planning to rush Aldric abruptly had better things to do as they all turned and fled. Every one of them was familiar with just what a prodigious conjurer Zasia was, and how protective she could be of Aldric. A group of Gabin’s usual cronies hauled his unconscious form off. Aldric had a moment to feel smug satisfaction at the sight just before Zasia turned her glare on him. With most everyone gone and no one else to take her anger out on, he became a prime target for her tongue lashing.
“So what was it this time, hm? What brilliant excuse do you have for getting into another fight this week? Are you a masochist? Do you just need someone in your life to beat you senseless constantly?”
“Love you too, Zee,” Aldric grunted as he struggled to his feet, which was made difficult with only one good arm. Zasia saw the pain in his face and her anger immediately flipped into concern. She got right up in space and scanned him from head to toe.
“Are you hurt? Where? What happened? How bad is—”
Aldric held up a hand in front of her face to forestall her storm of questions. As much as he appreciated her looking out for him constantly, her nagging only made his agony worse. He turned his back on her and walked over to the nearest tree a few meters away. Zasia followed him, staying quiet but still looking anxious, like she was ready to catch him at any moment if he toppled over.
Committing before he could hesitate, Aldric angled his body to the tree’s trunk, took a deep breath, and slammed his shoulder into the tree. There was a popping sound accompanied by the nauseating sensation of his shoulder joint snapping back into place. Zasia let out a sharp gasp of alarm that was drowned out by Aldric’s string of colorful curses. As quickly as the pain had come, however, it was quickly gone.
“I’m fine now,” Aldric grunted, but then Zasia grabbed his left arm and studied it critically. Aldric rolled his eyes in exasperation and waited for the inevitable tirade.
“I knew it! You’ve been using those runes again, haven’t you? I thought you said they didn’t work!”
“No, I said they didn’t work well. Gabin going for a short flight proves it. I just need to... work out some kinks.” Aldric experimentally windmilled his arm in slow circles as he spoke, making sure he could still move it properly.
Zasia looked like she wanted to argue that more, but her worry seemed to win out. For now. “You should still go to the academy healer,” she insisted.
“All she’ll do is get cross with me for wasting her time and then talk my ear off about her genius nephew again,” Aldric said dismissively. “I really am fine, Zee. Don’t worry about it.”
“I wouldn’t need to if you stopped acting like this,” Zasia countered. “Why do you feel the need to fight with every person who looks at you crooked?”
“What? He started it!” Aldric shot back, not liking how much he sounded like a child saying that. “He and his goons hunted me down after school ended again. They even waited until we were at the edge of the campus to jump me. What was I supposed to do, let them beat on me until they got bored and left?”
“If you knew they would come for you, then you should have told someone! A professor, one of the staff, me! You walked into their attack, and you know it. You know you can’t—!”
Zasia cut herself off before she stated what they both knew, but Aldric still scowled reflexively. Aldric was likely the weakest mage at this academy. He would be stupid to think he had any chance at all against anyone here in a fight with magic. It was a lesson he had learned the painful way many times before, for years now. And it had gotten no better.
Zasia realized she’d said too much and looked at Aldric with obvious pity in her eyes. It didn’t help Aldric’s mood. He couldn’t afford to go running to Zasia anytime he had a problem, even knowing that she would readily help him anytime he asked for it. Or even when he didn’t. No professor would help him, either, if only to spite his family. Namely, his father.
Zasia knew that Aldric was bullied, but even she didn’t know the full scope of it. Even after classes had ended for the day, Aldric needed to keep his head on a swivel just walking down the street to get home. It was why he walked home with Zasia on most days, not just because they were childhood friends. If she had known what he was really putting up with, it would compel her to do something about it, which would only call more attention to him and make the harassment worse.
For all her brilliance, Zasia still didn’t fully fathom just how little this world cared about Aldric and his family. Maybe it resulted from when they’d first met, still only young children and ignorant of how far apart they were in station from each other. If Zasia were any less stubborn, they likely would have been torn apart by her family long ago. She truly was the one bright spot in his life that drowned out the darker bits, even if she wasn’t always realistic about how the world worked.
“What are you suddenly grinning for? Do you find this funny?” Zasia asked, her frown reappearing.
“N-Nothing,” Aldric said, turning his back to her as his face heated. “It’s fine, Zee. Just let it go.”
“No, it’s not!” Zasia argued back. “You’re going to get into serious trouble one of these days. What happens when you fight someone with an actual influence in the school? You’ll be expelled for certain!”
“Not as long as my grades are passing,” Aldric countered. He knew that normally wouldn’t have been enough, but he was also pretty sure that his father had some sort of desperate deal with the school’s headmaster. Aldric couldn’t see any other reason for a pitiful mage like him to be allowed into the empire’s leading school of magic.
