Chapter 11

Lynna set her two heavy bags at the foot of the bed and looked around the little room. It was smaller than her room at home, but not by much. She had always thought of her own room as small. Now she thought maybe it was not so bad after all.

She hopped onto the bed, bouncing in it when she landed. It was softer than her own, fluffier. This part could be nice. The rest of the room was plain, and lacked the feminine touches she had had to work to create at home. She loved her father dearly, but he knew nothing about how to decorate.

Or clean, for that matter. She dreaded the mess she would come back to when things settled back down again. Unless he doesn't end up back home over the next few days. That's possible. Probable, she decided.

"Lynna," Agmar's voice said in her mind, "stay up there for a bit yet and get some rest. Lie down and relax, you will need it. I will show you a few more things before I sleep, but I will know where to find you when it is time."

Alright, she thought for his benefit, and she felt his presence leave. For a moment she simply sat caught off guard, considering the implications of feeling his presence. She wondered for a moment if she had done that, or if he had intended it.

Spurred on by the thought, she closed her eyes and felt around her, wondering what else she might feel. She found that she could tell where in the room things were, but she doubted herself, unsure how much of it was because she already knew where they were.

She tried to feel into other rooms next. She reviewed in her mind the bubble that Agmar had created, with the tendril that allowed hearing beyond it. She focused her concentration like she had then, and directed it into the next room.

Suddenly she saw it, as clearly as if she were there. She lost her concentration with the excitement of success. She opened her eyes, and saw that her hands were yet again fidgeting with her apron. Why am I still wearing this stupid thing? She took it off a little roughly, crumpled it up and threw it across the room before closing her eyes and refocusing her concentration.

She found the room again, and examined more calmly this time. Something felt familiar to her in this room, and she realized that it was the bag sitting on the floor at the end of the bed. That's Agmar's bag, she realized, this must be his room. The fact that she'd been in that room before served to lessen the excitement she had felt earlier, and she refocused her energies on the room across from her own. I've never seen that one, she reassured herself.

The room was empty, and laid out slightly differently from the one she was in. There were two beds, instead of just the one, and a small nightstand sat against the wall between them. There was no window, and Lynna realized suddenly that she could see everything as clearly as if it was well-lit. She looked, but found no candles or lanterns lit either. She felt as if she was outside of herself, and floating near the ceiling of the room, looking down on it as a bird might.

She saw the bureau at the other end of the room, and wondered if it had anything inside it. She tried to move herself towards it, and suddenly seemed to slide towards it, as if slipping forward on ice. She felt as if she was moving too fast, and would smash into the doors of the bureau, but instead she found herself somehow going through them, and was inside the large wooden chest. She seemed to stop moving almost as suddenly as she had started, and could see just as clearly as she had in the room. A few empty hangers hung on the bar inside the bureau, and an extra blanket lay neatly folded on the floor of it. This room had obviously not been assigned to anyone yet.

She moved again, this time to exit the bureau, and found herself bumping up against the wood of the doors, unable to go past them again. She tried a second time, with more force, and this time the impact against the doors made her spin for a moment, leaving her feeling dizzy. She suddenly realized that she couldn't seem to open her eyes or move her body in any way either. She panicked, and started trying to push against the wood on all sides of the bureau.

She grew dizzier and dizzier as she kept trying to get out, feeling sure she was hurting herself in some way. She tried to call out for help, but nothing seemed to come. She felt like she'd been separated from herself somehow, and she didn't know if she was breathing anymore or not. In terrified horror, she remembered the view of the bureau from the outside, and realized that the doors had been kept closed by a simple metal hook that was essentially locking her inside. Minutes seemed to drag by as she searched for any opening she might be able to escape from.

Suddenly, without warning, the doors to the bureau flew open and she heard wood splinter and the metal hook twist in protest. With some alarm, she felt herself being pulled roughly back towards her own room, the two doors in between opening of their own accord so she could fly through them. She saw herself, lying atop the comforter on the bed and looking pale, before she slammed into herself and felt as if she re-connected.

Who taught you to do that?! Agmar's voice was loud and angry inside her head, and she winced as she sat up.

Why? What did I do? After opeing her eyes briefly to check that she was intact, she closed them again, trying to send her words specifically to him alone, as he was doing to her.

You left your body, Lynna. You are not ready for such a maneuver. I approve of your attempts to explore, but you need to be more careful. When you went into that wooden bureau you slipped entirely out of your own body to do so. You leave yourself vulnerable when you do, as you do not know how to protect yourself yet. The force we are contending with is already powerful enough to affect us in some ways, and it was able to cut off your return to yourself. If you feel yourself sliding away from yourself like that again, concentrate hard on opening your eyes instead, and it should bring you back right away.

I'm sorry. She felt foolish. I keep making stupid mistakes. She had meant to keep that last thought to herself, but realized that he had likely heard it as well, and felt embarassed.

We all make mistakes in the beginning, Lynna. Just be more cautious. I know it is difficult when there are new and exciting abilities to explore. Every student starting to learn makes many errors, but they help you to learn. I will keep a light connection to you, just in case, and will warn you if I feel you heading into anything dangerous, alright?

Maybe I shouldn't explore right now at all?

The more you learn now, the easier the things I need to teach you will be. So, by all means, explore. Just do so with caution.

Lynna found herself nodding, and then guiltily sent a "yes" to him in her thoughts. She felt him chuckling, and wondered how much his contact with her could see. She felt it diminish, and realized that she could see the connection to him if she concentrated hard enough. She kept concentrating, and opened her eyes, allowing it to show up in her field of real vision as well. For a few moments, she sat quietly, just watching the thin wisp line of smoke that was her visualization of the connection Agmar was keeping to her. She created a similar wisp from herself and used it as her tether to see out into the hallway again.

She considered for a moment where to explore. She decided not to check out downstairs where Agmar was. Better to stay up here, or maybe outside...

She guided the smoky tendril back and sent it towards the window. She wondered for a moment if it would pass through the window, or if she would have to open it. Agmar's went inside from out back just fine. At the time she had not noticed what route the tendril had taken. She tried it. The tendril went through the window as if it were not there.

Walls are only obstacles to your body, not to your mind or will, Agmar said to her.

How much are you here with me, anyway?

Enough to feel the thrill you get when you discover something new. At that point it only takes a moment to see what you learned. Every emotion has a different feel to it, and with enough practice you can read them by that feel. It is a bit like feeling a carving with your fingers and picturing it in your mind. It does not come right away, but you can learn with practice.

And how long have you been doing this for?

Longer than you would suspect. Not a great deal longer, but longer. If you will excuse me, however, I need to pay more attention down here right now.

Alright. I'll try to stay out of trouble.

With a start she sat up a little straighter, and let the tendril dissolve by ignoring it. A thought had occurred to her. The bureau doors. He opened them. How do I do that?

She thought about the tendril she had been using. She had been looking through it. She tried picturing one with a ghostly hand at the end of it. One appeared. She tried to reach out with it, but discovered she could not feel anything with it. She focused on it until she could see it with her eyes open.

She looked at a candle holder on the small table, and reached for it. The ghostly hand went clear through it. Hmm, this isn't easy. She slowly and deliberately moved the ghostly hand back to the candle holder. She closed the fingers around it, and it shifted! In her excitement she lost focus on the tendril and it collapsed.

Remembering that her door had been opened, she reformed the hand bigger this time and concentrated hard before sending it slamming against the wood. She lost the ghostly hand visualization in her head again as she nearly jumped in excitement at the sound of the door slamming loudly shut. She giggled, realizing the kind of mischief she could do if she used this around some of the more superstitious people in town.

I would have to recommend against that course of action with the current situation as it is, Agmar's voice in her mind sounded amused.

Oh, I wouldn't really do those things! Lynna felt slightly guilty just knowing that someone else knew she'd even thought such notions.

I did not think you really would, don't worry, however the more power you have available to you the easier you will find it is for you do do things. When the power is at its highest, you will find that some of the things you inadvertantly think of may occur, without you intending it. You will need to heighten your focus and control as the power you feel grows in strength. Idle thoughts that involve using magic to accomplish something could prove dangerous over the next three days.

Okay, I'll try to keep that in mind. She felt the equivallent of a mental nod, and realized that she also felt a shift when his attention was focused elsewhere.

Lynna decided to explore the level of rooms she was on first, creating the long tendril to see through, and noticing that it was getting easier for her to do. She wound her way around, going in and out of rooms and peering at the people inside some of them. She found that many of the rooms on this level were already occupied by people off the ships. Some she recognized as they'd been in the town before, but others she didn't know but recognized the clothing style or luggage to be similar in nature. A couple of rooms held people who lived at nearby farms and had been brought into town earlier. Most rooms had at least two people assigned to them, from what she could tell, and some occupants were already asleep, although many were quietly talking. She found that she couldn't hear their conversations, and tried to change the tendril to allow for that. She tried several different things, even making the end of the tendril resemble an ear, but it didn't seem to help. In frustration, she moved from the room she had been trying in to another one closer, thinking a closer proximity might make it easier.

She found herself forgetting entirely about sound when she caught the scene in the room she entered. She froze there in astonishment as she saw two figures moving rythmically on the bed. She didn't even realize she was holding her breath, fearing she'd somehow be noticed as having seen them. The candlelight left flickering shadows of the woman's profile as she sat atop the man in the bed, rocking back and forth on him as his hands seemed to roam in patterns over her bare skin. She recognized the woman as the schoolmaster's eldest daughter, a year younger than Lynna, and the man was the son of one of the merchant ship captains.

Ahem. Lynna? She startled at the sound of Agmar in her mind, as if he was clearing his throat, and withdrew quickly back into her own room, feeling her face flush with embarassment. I suppose I have just lost my chances of protecting your youthful innocence. She heard him mentally sigh.

I...um... Lynna couldn't think of anything to say. She put her hands to her cheeks, realizing she was projecting the blushing at Agmar as well.

You were moving things earlier, maybe you should go back to that for a while. One name for it is telekinesis, and it is a good thing to practice control with.

Yes, that was fun.

So here is what I want you to do. You brought two bags. Unpack them and get yourself settled in for the night. I expect everything shaken out and then folded neatly.

But it's only for a few days, is putting stuff in drawers really necessary? She knew she had brought much more than she needed, but it was her first time sleeping away from home, and she felt better over-prepared than under. For just a few days living out of bags seemed easier.

Agmar chuckled in her head. Silly, it has nothing to do with getting settled into the room. It has to do with practice. I want you do to it all without getting up off the bed and without touching anything.

Oh, I see... She felt his smile in her head. It felt...warm. She nodded, hoping he would feel the gesture back. His presence faded away.

She looked at the two bags, and used her ghostly tendril hand to open them. They were tied, and it took more concentration than she expected. Pushing at a door or nudging a candleholder was much easier. It took her several minutes just to get a knot untied. This is going to take a while...

She tried to reach inside, but she could not see inside from where she was, and she could not feel with her recent third hand. Eventually she shrugged and pushed the bag over. Then she could see inside it to grab things.

The first item was a towel. Shaken and folded, Agmar had specified. Shaking it was easy. Folding it, she found, was very difficult to do with one clumsy hand. She still was not very good at controlling it. After several tries she groaned in frustration.

This is too hard...

Why? Agmar asked her.

Why? Have you ever folded anything one handed?

No, he replied with a snicker she could feel. She asked herself what she was missing, but nothing came to her.

Who said you had to do anything one handed? I only specified without getting up or touching anything.

What do you - Oh!! She felt him chuckle again at her sudden realization. But how do I control two of them?

It is not entirely different from using your two physical hands, Agmar answered. With practice it will feel as natural as doing it without magic. Eventually you will not need to see the visualization, and it will feel more as if you are telling the towel to fold itself. But, for now, seeing the forces you are commanding as being hands is a good way to learn control. There are a lot of instances that require a wizard to use their magic in multiple tasks at once, just as you might find yourself doing in normal activities, like housework or cooking.

Okay, I'll give it a try, Lynna thought back, realizing he'd given her an even more difficult task than she'd first thought. She concentrated, letting the one hand drop the towel for a moment, while she focused on creating a second hand in the air. It slowly came into existance, it's ghostly presence hovering in the room, and she grinned excitedly, only to watch the first of the two disappear with a sudden puff. She sighed, in frustration, and the second one puffed away as well.

It helps, in the beginning, if you bring them up together. Agmar added in, quietly. Some people also find it helpful if you make the physical gestures you want to see happen with the magic. Then your mind is thinking the same as your hands, so to speak. It starts becoming natural with practice, although some wizards have to use their hands to make it work, and others use their hands only to occasionally emphasize what they are doing.

Hmm. I'll try that first then.

Lynna raised both her hands slowly in the air, trying to feel as if the ghostly hands were extending off of them. She was pleased when both magical hands appeared on the first try. She reached down with the right, gesturing with her real hand as she did, and slowly moved the fingers to pick up the towel again. She brought the left hand over to grasp another corner of the towel, and smiled as she realized how much easier it was when she was making the gestures along with the magic. The realization was dampened a little when she lost hold on the towel entirely as she tried to bring the corners together, and move them into one hand like she would with her real hands. She realized that she usually felt the towel when she folded it normally, and that her ghostly hands couldn't feel the texture.

Can't they? Close your eyes, Lynna. See the hands with your mind. Feel the towel with your mind. Focus, but relax too. Some of it will come naturally, as this is a task you have done with your physical hands hundreds of times.

She tried it, and closing her eyes helped. She could feel the towel with her mind. At first it was just the location of it. Then she could feel the edges of it. There was no sense of texture, but she did not worry about that. It took her a few tries and quite some time, but she did get the towel folded.

The next item was a wash cloth, and she did the same thing with it. It was easier than the towel. Each following item got a little bit easier, a little bit faster. She worked her way through the bags.

The effort and concentration were tiring, and she was starting to look forward to sleep. Agmar was supposed to show her some meditation and defenses before bed. She started to understand that the next few days were going to be long and tiring.

She had heard or been told enough to know to be afraid of what was coming. But she was also excited, and she was not sure how to feel about that. She could not deny it entirely, though. Often she had dreamed about some stranger showing up and whisking her off to learn magicks. She had been born with the potential.

And now there was some stranger here in town, and he had singled her out. He was even teaching her. She wondered what would happen afterwards. The town would start rebuilding whatever needed rebuilding. Families would help each other. It was what the town did after hardships. The people of Eagle's Harbor had either been born into a familial town that cared for its own or had come here for just that reason.

But I'll never be the same. How can I just go back to helping father around the house as if nothing has happened? She stopped thinking to focus on socks, which were proving more difficult. What if everyone's afraid of me afterwards? What if they drive us out of town?

Suddenly she envisioned herself standing at the fork in the road a few miles up. She pictured herself having to choose between going with her father down one road and going with Agmar for proper training down the other fork. How could she be expected to make a decision like that?

Focus on right now, Lynna. You often will not know what other factors might influence a decision until it is time to make it. You do not have to plan your future this instant. I am nearly finished down here. We are having some difficulties with the last couple, but it will be resolved shortly.

Alright, Agmar. One thing at a time, then.

She returned her attentions to the last couple pairs of socks and then proceeded to struggle with opening the top drawer on the low chest in her room. It finally jerked open, rattling the ceramic pitcher and washbasin sitting atop the chest, and she counted herself lucky they didn’t fall off. She carefully stacked the clothes into organized piles and then placed each of the piles in the large drawer. She closed the top drawer and managed to get the bottom one open with more grace than the first before stuffing the two empty bags into it. She closed that one and wondered what she should do next.

Agmar didn’t seem to be really noticing her for a moment, likely distracted by things downstairs, so she decided to wander the inn again and try and hear this time as well. She stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes, trying to allow her sight and hearing dangle at the end of the wispy tentacle she weaved through her door and out into the hallway. She moved towards one door on her side of the hall, but further down, and was rewarded by the sounds of a man snoring within.

Now I’ll be better able to tell which rooms to not peek into, she thought, blushing again briefly as the scene she’d stumbled onto before came unbidden to her mind. She refocused her attention again, barely managing to not lose control over her exploring tendril.

She noticed quite a few people had turned in for the night, and the inn was reasonably full, although mostly with sailors from the ships. Some rooms were entirely empty, but others had as many as six men or women crammed into them. Some shared the bigger beds, and others had thrown bedrolls down on the floor. She suspected that the empty rooms would start holding entire families tomorrow, when people moved to group together for the next few days.

She found one room that had only one figure in it, curled up in a fetal position and hugging the comforter tightly as he moaned and kicked his feet in his sleep. Lynna moved closer, and recognized Stott Jacobs. He appeared to be sweating, and she tried to add touch to her tendril so she could feel his forehead. She brushed across it lightly, but couldn’t actually feel anything, as the tendril seemed to go through his head instead. She tried again, this time trying to focus on making a connection to his head.

Suddenly, Stott sat bolt upright in the bed and screamed. Lynna found herself frozen, the tendril caught on his mind. Images bombarded her – visions of Stott’s father and brother dying - along with feelings of physical pain from the wounds Stott had endured. She tried to pull away, recoil back to her own mind, but she felt something dark blocking her retreat, and moving towards her slowly. Somewhere, in the distance, she heard herself scream.

The images came without stopping. The hook swung at Porter Jacobs.

--The hook swung back, at Stott--at her--and hit. She felt the hook hit her shoulder. She screamed, and she did not know if she was screaming in the room with Stott, in her own room, or on the swaying boat.

--"What's wrong with you?! Etrick?!"--

Suddenly there was a hand around her throat, choking her, strangling her. She saw Etrick's eyes. She tried to ask herself where she was, what was happening. The unblinking eyes were glazed with something, more than just glassy looking.

...Men rose from their bunks and started killing eachother. Some with their bare hands...

She struggled with him, or Stott struggled and she watched, or she was there. She forgot which. There was somewhere she was supposed to be, something she was supposed to do. Rope--restrain him...stop him?

He--she--they--struggled. They had to get the hook away. The other hand was pinned by the rope. Both hands now focused on the one with the hook. The fingers were too stiff. One finger made a snapping noise when it came free.

Fear was turning into anger as the hook was starting to come loose. ...Some with their bare hands... Suddenly the hook was gone. It clattered against wood somewhere. Etrick was bigger and stronger than they were, how could they stop him.

There was a renching pain in their leg, and they screamed. Etrick made some kind of noise, but there was a pounding noise that drowned it out. It was too fast to be a normal heartbeat. Pound pound, pound pound it came.

Time hung suspended between pounds for just a moment as they saw a machete. Etrick was too strong for just bare hands. ...Some with their bare hands...

She grabbed for the machete--they grabbed for the machete. It felt like power. With power she could strike out--lash out. Anger made her stronger more than fear had, and the power and strength flowed through her, washing away the pains and hurts and doubts. Suddenly everything was clear. Kill...

Somewhere there was a crashing noise. It was an ugly tearing splintering sound. Something broke. Her worlds all went dark.