Chương 7: Week 6 - Shadow

The first thing she saw were Momo and Aerie looking at her puzzledly.

"Well could you do it?" Aerie asked as Ro got up and walked back to her seat.

"Yeah. Couldn't you?" Momo shook her head no.

"We did have it once, for like thirty seconds, but it was hard." Aerie retorted with vehemence. "What was it like? What did you see? Did you get it on the first try?" Ro blanched.

"Um yes. I could just do it. I don't know. It was different all three times. And it feels weird to talk about it. So, don't ask me anymore questions, please." From the corner of her eye she saw Alexi look away.

"But-" Aerie began. Professor Arzandia cut her off.

"Something you'd like to add Aerie?" He asked sweetly. "No? Well we're moving on to Shadow magic now, so try to pay attention." Aerie sulked as he went on to say that they were repeating the practice of moving shadows across the room today and the class was to get up and stand at the end of the room like last time. The class complied. Ro found herself sandwiched between Momo and Aerie as practice began. Ro had no problem making her shadow move across the room. She had it run through other shadows on the floor to lengthen it.

After about five minutes of this Alexi raised his hand.

"Professor, I can do this already. Can I move on?" His tone was annoyed. Kyzul came over with his bright smile plastered on his face.

"Show me." He ordered calmly. Alexi did. His shadow lengthened straight to the other end of the room. Kyzul nodded. "If you can do it four more times in a row, you will receive five points and can move on to the next activity. The same goes for everyone else. Once you can do it five times in a row, you will receive five points and can move on to the next activity."

The class brightened as a whole. Professor Arzandia's class was for students who barely made the cut to get into the school. Based on the aptitude test, his students would have the hardest time receiving enough points to move up at the end of the year of all three first-year classes. The expectation was that half of the class would be dropped before the next year began.

Alexi was a little different than the other poor performers in the class though. He had missed the entrance exams and his father pulled strings to get him into the school. He made certain everyone knew he didn't belong in this class. For him these simple exercises were child's play.

"Watch this." Alexi told Professor Arzandia as he gathered more shadow to him. When he collected a good-sized ball, he split it into four parts. From each one of these he sent a stream of shadow straight across the room. As the last one of the four crossed into the shadow marking the finish line, Alexi glanced at Ro. He wanted to make sure she saw that he could do this easily. He smirked at her and she looked away, remembering the tower.

"A little flashy but it does meet the requirement." Kyzul waved his hand and Alexi's name and five tallies appeared on the board. "Anyone else?" Kyzul asked as a lit candle appeared on Alexi's desk. Kyzul looked directly at Ro, who was studying the floor. Aerie nudged her shoulder. Ro didn't respond.

"Ro can do it too." Aerie stated volunteering her.

"I can't do it like that." Ro hissed. Kyzul came over and stood beside and a little behind her. Ro felt her pulse quicken. She felt heat along the side of her body closest to him. The image of a half-naked Kyzul leaning over her popped into her head. "Who do you belong to?" his sultry voice repeated in her head. She jumped and tried to shy away. Kyzul put his hands on either side of her shoulders.

"Relax." He ordered in a quiet voice. "Focus. You can do this." Oddly enough Ro felt her body relaxing under the firm pressure. She allowed herself to slip back into his hold a little more. He held on for another beat then gave her shoulders a final squeeze and let go. Taking a deep breath, Ro collected her shadow. She sent a piece out to the nearest shadow and then from that one to the next and so on until her zigzagging line of shadow reached the finish line. She smiled and repeated the movement four more times.

"Very good." Kyzul said cheerfully. "Now, I'll give you the points like I said I would but before I let you move on, I want you to do it once in a straight line like Alexi did. Think about how he did it and repeat that." Her name and five tally marks appeared on the board below Alexi's as Kyzul moved away to explain Alexi's next task.

"How did Alexi do it?" she mused.

"He gathered a lot of shadow." Aerie offered.

"He was very judicious about the width of his shadow. It tapered off at the far end." Momo suggested softly.

"I'll try that, thanks guys." Ro said with a smile.

She concentrated and gathered a large amount of shadow to her. From that she pulled a thick piece and sent it streaming across the room. It only reached about half way. She relaxed and let the shadow pool at her feet again.

The next time she pulled a much thinner piece and sent it across the room. It thinned near her feet as it stretched over the three-quarter mark. Then it snapped and broke. Both pieces fled back to her pool. This time she grabbed a slightly thicker piece and pushed it to the other side of the room rather than pulled. As it moved this time, she saw the shadow stretching from the pool at her feet in a tapered pattern, with the thin end farthest away from her. It slowed as it got to the end of the room, but it got there. A lit candle appeared on her desk.

Aerie clapped her on the back.

"Nice one!"

"Good job." Momo said quietly congratulating her too. Ro, smiling happily, pranced to her seat.

"Don't get cocky this is only beginner's stuff." Alexi said with a smile as his candle went out in a small explosion of light.

Kyzul came over. His face held minor annoyance rather than his usual smile. "Are you done yet, Alexi?"

Alexi's candle relit itself. Alexi looked at it and the light seemed to explode again leaving behind nothing but the acrid smell of smoke.

"I am now." He said with a grin. Another five tallies appeared beside his name. The candle didn't relight.

"Surround this in shadow. Do not hurt it. Five times." Kyzul ordered. He turned to Ro and her lit candle. "Extinguish this flame using shadow." He told her. "Think about the shadows of tiny things." He winked and walked off.

Alexi finished his exercise quickly and proceeded through three more while Ro spent the rest of her time in class trying to perfect this one. She had figured out that Kyzul had meant the space between molecules before when he spoke of tiny shadows. After that she tried to push the shadows apart in a small explosion like Alexi had done and blew up her candle completely. A new one instantly appeared. Next, she tried to gather the shadows and surround the burning wick, starving the fire. This worked but keeping the shadow together in so much light was hard work. Finally, by the end of class she could successfully do it five times in a row. She hadn't thought Kyzul was watching, but on her fifth consecutive extinguishing, another five tallies appeared next to her name.

Angelique finished her moving shadow exercise at this point as well, but no candle appeared at her desk. She opened her mouth to complain but then the morning class bell rang. She glared at Ro as if it were her fault that she had taken so long.

Remembering that she still had to talk to Kyzul, Ro waited until the classroom emptied then proceeded up to his desk. Kyzul was leaning over the desk putting the points into the class's database. Only she, Alexi, and Angelique had received any points from the lesson.

A breeze blew in from the open window and whipped her hair into her face. When she had brushed it aside, she found Kyzul staring at her, his eyes glowing slightly red again. Startled she began to step back when he caught her wrist and pulled her against his desk. Ro's pulse raced, and her face heated as he bent his head to her neck. The image of kissing her there popped into her mind and sent a tremor down her spine. He sniffed next to her skin and a low growl sounded in his throat.