Art of Alchemy

Chapter 11 - Beads and Breakfast

"Why do I get the impression she is mocking us?"

"Because that is exactly what she's doing." Vehya replied to Khed and shifted on the grass for the nineteenth time. Lera Hassey was bouncing from pair to pair, starting at one end of the oval and making her way down the line. "Now pretend like you are concentrating so she doesn't ask us what colour our boxes are."

Khed grunted. They sat beside each other and instead of fantasising about her inner box, Vehya had used the time to test her connection with that spark inside of her. It was several steps beyond what they were being instructed to do. She could still feel it and each time she poked at it, the urge to snap back lessened. She still didn't give herself over to it, and she dared not draw from it. Not with Rynden standing conspicuously closer to their side of the group than the other.

"Why must we talk in abstracts, with metaphors and allegories?" Vehya lifted an eyelid a crack at the question, a slight smile on her face. "Why not call it what it is?"

"And what is that exactly?"

"The same thing that powers all things; energy. You do not need to imagine some secretive box."

"Can you channel your magic, Khed?" She'd meant it sincerely as an honest curiosity. Because surely she couldn't be the only one that felt at odds with that side of her. She hadn't expected the sudden stiff composure that overcame Khed. Maybe he can't channel it yet?

He had answered his task by throwing a barrel nearly ten meters over his head. It had shattered on impact and he had merely looked up at the examiners with a face that said, 'There, I have done it'. And apparently he had, because a moment later Professor Peldrid conformed he'd passed.

Vehya looked at Rynden, he was watching all of them with a sweeping gaze while Barngrend was speaking to another professor at the far side of the training field. "I agree the box thing is kind of dumb, but that might do it for some people." Veyha opened her satchel and pulled out a vial of tiny glass beads. She tipped some into her hand leaving around a third left at the bottom. "But sometimes it helps to be more concrete. You said magic is energy, so where does it come from?"

"Food, rest. It's not separate from anything else."

Vehya considered that, then poured some more of the beads back into the vial, "So let's say you eat and rest, replenishing your energy, what happens when you reach your maximum?"

"You drain it by breaking the glass." Vehya cringed; she was noting going to break her vial for this.

"Or..." Khed said thoughtful, "you could train and increase your capacity."

Huh... Vehya pondered that then reached into her bag and, after a moment, she pulled out another larger glass tube. She tipped the small beads into the tube causing them to rattle and set it down. "So now what?" She asked, both of them staring at her beaker on the grass.

"You have a container full of beads."

Yes. Where had she been going with this?

"How will you get them back into that tiny vial, Lerron? Pick them out one by one?"

Vehya smiled, "I could. Or I could slowly tip them in," she demonstrated with careful practiced movements. "The trick is knowing when to pluck them one by one, and when to pour."

Khed watched the beads clinking against glass, his face contemplative. "Not only that," he pointed to her hands, "You need to know how much and how quickly... it is about control." He looked to Rynden, who was turned away from them. "Most of their fight, he was plucking beads, but at the end..."