James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

Next they were taken to a large room in the basement, a room that had many blackened scars on the walls, ceiling, and floor. Sevren called it a practice room, one of several, where Initiates could practice combat weaves in a controlled environment. Sevren warned that they would be here only with a katzh-dashi instructor supervising them.

Next they were taken up to the very top levels of the main Tower, to a huge room on the top level that had a ceiling that was vaulting tens of spans high above, and had a huge symbol laid into the floor. It was the shaeram , the symbol of the katzh-dashi , and Tarrin stared at it for a moment. It was the same as the one he wore around his neck, but this one had color. The circle around the perimiter was green, and the four-sided concave star in the center was white, with a black point in the middle. The points of the six-sided star between them were red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet, laid out in such a way that their corners met perfectly and did not overlap. Tarrin noticed that what he thought of as a six-sided star was actually six triangles carefully laid out tip-to-tip, so that each triangle made contact with the circle and the triangles to each side. Tarrin was quick to make the connection between the colors and the seven grades of Initiation. They were also the seven colors he saw during the Test. Each color represented a sphere of Sorcery.

"This is where you will learn Ritual Sorcery," Sevren said. "Under the careful guidance of teachers, you'll learn how we can link our powers together in a combined effort, where the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. But it's a very delicate and dangerous procedure, so it will be a while before you stand in this room again. You have a great deal to learn beforehand. Come along now, we have one more place to visit here in the main Tower."

Tarrin stepped out onto the symbol curiously, putting his paw down on it. There were no tiles, but it wasn't paint either. No seams, no edges, but the colors began and ended crisply and perfectly. It was as if they'd changed the color of the stone that made up the floor. The stone was curiously warm, and he noticed a faint tingling buzz behind his ears. And how quiet it was.

Too quiet. He couldn't hear the footsteps of the others as they filed out of the large double doors in front of him.

He stood up and rushed off after them-

– then rebounded off something that wasn't there.

Tarrin shook his head and touched his nose delicately, feeling it bend a little bit. He had impacted something solid, and yet there was nothing in front of him. He shook off the impact and put his arms out in front of him, then started forward again.

And his paws struck something solid. Something that simply was not there.

It had no sense of texture at all. As if it were made of the slickest glass, like it was solid air. It went up as high as he could reach, and it went all the way down to the floor. Keeping his paw on it, he started walking, and found that it went around in a circle, precisely following the outside edge of the green circle laid into the floor. When he came back to where he started, he began to get nervous.

He was trapped inside.

Extending his claws, he tried to rake the surface of this curious barrier, but they simply slid along the surface harmlessly. He felt no pressure against his claws at all, the pressure that told him that they'd hooked into something. It simply was not there . Yet it was , because he couldn't get through it. Whatever it was. He looked up, and at seeing the ceiling some fifty spans over his head, he wondered just how high up it went. Bunching his legs, he vaulted up almost fifteen spans, but the pressure against his paws told him that it did indeed extend well and far upward. He landed lightly and tried to quell the sudden rise of the Cat in his mind. He was trapped inside this strange symbol, and the feeling of imprisonment was starting to upset his animal half. The Cat had an instinctual fear of imprisonment, and he had to fight against an instinctive compulsion to flee, to try to get free by any means possible. Now was the time for thinking, not for panic, and it took him several moments of wrestling to convince the Cat that this was not a trap that could be broken out of. But thought out of.

Allia appeared in the doorway. She said something-or at least he thought she did, for her mouth moved-and she motioned for him to come with her. Tarrin put both paws on the barrier and pushed, then waved to get Allia's attention, but she was already half turned around. "Allia!" he shouted, then he realized that if he couldn't hear her, then she couldn't hear him . Quickly changing tactics, he put his paw around the amulet and used the unspoken manner of the Cat. So long as he could see her, she would "hear" it.

"Allia!"

She turned around, and he saw her mouth move, but he couldn't hear her. "Allia, get Sevren!" he told her in the manner of the Cat. She spoke again, then started moving forward. "I can't hear you!" he told her. "I'm stuck in some kind of magical wall!" He banged his paws against the invisible barrier to emphasize his point. "Get Sevren, Allia! Get him now !" Tarrin's fear and anger were rising, quickly, and it was obviously starting to show on his face.

"Calm yourself, my brother," she replied in the manner of the Cat. "Just stay calm. I will get Sevren, and he will get you out of there." She darted to the doorway, and by the movement of her chest and mouth, she was shouting at the top of her lungs. But he couldn't hear so much as a whisper. "He's on his way," she told him as she started towards him.

"No!" Tarrin said quickly. "We don't know what this is. Stay back until Sevren says it's alright."

"You may be right," she agreed, holding her position about ten paces from him.

Sevren and the other Initiates appeared in the doorway. Tarrin saw Sevren's mouth moving, but he couldn't hear the words. He saw Allia turn and start talking to him, pointing at Tarrin, who had his paws on the barrier and was leaning against it, then made a few imperious gestures. Sevren approached him with an intrigued look on his face, then he stopped at the outside edge and said something. Tarrin shook his head and beat his fists against the barrier. Then Sevren stepped over the edge of the circle.

"-know what it is," his voice simply started. "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes, Master Sevren," he said with an explosive sigh. "How did you get in?"

"It's a standard Warding Circle," he said calmly, like a scientist studying an experiment. "It's a device-" his voice stopped as he stepped outside the circle, and then resumed as he came back in "-contain-er, sorry. It's a magical ward the Mages use to contain the creatures they conjure up from other places. It only works against creatures of magic. I guess that classifies you as such a creature," he said clinically. "Interesting. I'll have to research this."

"Can we do that after you get me out of here?" Tarrin demanded sharply. "I don't like being caged!"

"Hmm," he said, peering at the floor. "I can't see the weave. Oh, wait, yes, this isn't a spell. It's a Ward. Hold on, I need to puzzle this out. Give me a minute." He was quiet for a moment, and actually knelt on the floor and studied the green circle. "A Mage's Circle has symbols of power," he said absently. "Those have to be here. If we can destroy one of them, then the Circle will be broken, and you can get out. So they had to hide them with magic," he reasoned.

"Wait, you can get out if you're a human?" Tarrin asked. "What if I change into a cat?"

"Try it and see," he said after a second's thought.

Tarrin nodded, and quickly assumed his cat shape. That made a couple of the Initiates, including Keritanima, gasp in surprise. Tarrin approached the edge cautiously, then felt the ends of his forward whiskers brush up against something solid. He pushed forward just to be sure, and felt his nose come into contact with the barrier. He changed back with a disgusted look on his face. "No, it's still there," he grunted.