But it wasn’t something he could help. Moreover, the masking never made sense: to shield his magic from scrutiny using his own magic? It felt like covering his own eyes and expecting to become invisible. It defied the basic principles on which he built the rest of his skills.
Galred must have heard him sigh, raising an eyebrow in his direction. “Does anyone have a better suggestion?”
He held his tongue, and no one else spoke, so after a moment Galred continued.
“I will test you morning and night. You must be able to shield your spark without notice, so I will not warn you when I test you. I will also give a small prize to anyone who can testmewithout notice each day. I intend to keep my skills just as sharp as ever.”
Each of the elves gave a single nod. Galred looked between them all with a small, self-satisfied smile curling at the corners of his mouth. “Better than having to spar every day, don’t you think?”
Alwyn would have much rather sparred, but it seemed he was in the minority, as murmurs of agreement spread through their group.
Dismissed, Alwyn hurried away from the group. Knowing his luck, he’d be one of the first Galred would try his stupid little test on.
“What was that about?”
Alwyn nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Krujha’s voice so close to him; he whirled around to find the orc just a few steps behind, looking at him with obvious curiosity. He hadn’t even noticed Krujha was there.
“You speak elvish perfectly well,” he snapped. Despite his harsh tone, Krujha’s grin only widened.
“I appreciate the compliment,” he chuckled, and Alwyn’s scowl deepened. “How would you feel about trying our luck fishing again today? We’ll pass by another creek, this one a little bigger and hopefully more populated. We’d set off in about an hour.”
Alwyn turned away, busying himself with breaking down his tent. “Fine.”
He could sense Krujha’s lingering presence, as if waiting for him to say more, but he stubbornly kept his back toward the orc. He only risked glancing over his shoulder again when he’d finished with his tent. Krujha must have given up on needling him; he was gone, but Alwyn hadn’t heard him leave. He wondered how the orc could move so silently, appearing or disappearing at the drop of a hat. It seemed Gorza really had mustered the best she could for this mission. It was a shame he was so annoying to be around.
As they broke camp and set out, Alwyn kept an eye on Galred, near the front of the pack. Galred had said he would test them morning and night—he didn’t know if that meant he’d try to catch each of them unawares twice a day, or if it would just be one unlucky soul. He had to assume the worst, so he wouldn’t let his guard down at all—or at least, not until he and Krujha were well away from their group.
When Krujha pulled him aside an hour later, he felt Galred watching him. But the other elf didn’t intervene, and when the other group was no longer in sight, Alwyn breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s got you so worried?” Krujha asked as their horses trudged through the grass. He was glancing sidelong down at him, an eyebrow raised. The curiosity and concern on his face seemed genuine, though Alwyn wondered how much he could trust any expression on his face.
Still, the whole situation had him annoyed, so venting had its appeal.
“Galred is an instructor at the Library,” Alwyn sighed, peering back the way they’d come—not that Galred could have possibly followed him, but he could admit that he felt a little paranoid. “He wants to keep us sharp for this mission, so... He told us this morning he’s going to start testing us.”
“Testing? How?”
This part was harder to explain. How did he describe the source of magic inside each of them to someone whose well was more like a shallow dish?
“How do orcs conceptualize their magic?” he asked, taking some small pleasure in the way Krujha’s curious expression immediately morphed into one of confusion.
The orc took some time to consider before answering. “Well, I don’t have much magical ability, myself. But my understanding is that magic is a force outside ourselves, and orcs are born with varying degrees of awareness of that force. Those who are more attuned to it are trained to become healers and shamans—and, well, leaders, I suppose.”
Alwyn nodded. That wasn’t exactly how elves put it, but there were similarities. “Elves trained in magic are taught that their magic is an individual wellspring inside of them. For some, that well is very shallow, and for others, it goes deep. There is naturalvariation, and it can be expanded with rigorous training, but all living things have at least a small spark of magic. It’s what keeps us from just being rotting chunks of meat.”
He glanced back at Krujha to find the orc watching him attentively. It made him nervous—he’d never had to teach or explain these concepts, and now suddenly having an audience made him self-conscious of his own understanding of the topic.
“And, well,” he continued, trying not to stammer. “If you can sense the spark in someone else, and test the depth of that wellspring, it can give you an idea of how trained they are in magic. Or how dangerous their raw power might be. But with training, you can disguise your spark, so others only detect what you show them.”
“I see,” Krujha said, nodding. “And I take it he’s testing how well you can do that, to prepare for infiltrating the camp?”
“Right.”
“If the camp is holding elf prisoners, it stands to reason they may have someone checking each one to see how much magic they can wield. I can’t say I ever saw that myself, but... I was only tracking one camp, and there were no elves there. So I couldn’t say for sure.”
They continued in silence for a bit. Beside them, the creek was shallow and noisy. Krujha had insisted it got deeper further on, but Alwyn wondered how much further they would have to go.
“And I take it you aren’t a fan of this test, then?” Krujha finally said, and that teasing lilt was back in his voice.
