51 – Taken To Task
“Goodwin? I think I’ve heard that name,” interjected Savannah. “You’re a pretty good cardcaster, aren’t you?”
“One of the best at the Academy… at least among the students.”
Ray rolled his eyes. He was a little fed up with the bragging. Marion, however, was starry-eyed.
“What were you doing outside my classroom that day?” Ray took control of the conversation. “I feel like you’ve been following us around for a while.”
“You were blabbing too much,” Tony replied, “…all over campus. You were so loud I couldn’t ignore you, talking about this that and the other thing and a missing Master. I knew they’d be onto you.”
The three were embarrassed. They thought their secrecy had been top notch.
“I heard about your plans to meet and I knew I probably wasn’t the only one.”
“Why bother to help us?” inquired Marion. “We left the school ourselves. We endanger ourselves by ourselves. The C.A.T.S. might’ve come to get us or something after some time had passed.”
“That’s probably true,” answered Tony, “but I didn’t wanna lose out on this chance to keep my card edge sharp. Do yourselves a favor, okay, and next time, learn some skills before you start wandering around outside the school gates telling your plans to the whole world.”
[] [] [] []
52 – Will You Help Us?
“Hey, we’re doing the best we can, okay?” Savannah’s anger got the best of her. She’d had enough of Tony’s showboating. “Marion was hurt. Master Archidemus was kidnapped. And this school’s gettin’ taken over. I don’t see you trying to do anything about it!”
Tony turned his back on the group and started to walk away.
“That’s it?” said Ray. He tried to ratchet up his toughness like Savannah, but Marion thought a little differently.
“Hey, you could help us!” shouted Marion. He chased after Tony, pitching him like a hungry salesman. “We break into the Finder’s lair. We destroy the Finders! We rescue Master Archidemus and become famous! It’s the chance of a lifetime!”
“Ha! We?” Tony scoffed incredulously. He shrugged Marion off and kept walking.
“So much for keeping your card edge sharp!” Ray pushed his luck, calling out. “Looks like we’ll be the best cardlangers around here before long.”
Tony stopped.
And squeezed his fists.
And turned around.
[] [] [] []
53 – Savannah’s In!
As Tony approached Ray, Ray shivered a little, but steeled himself. “Look kid, there’s a lot of people here trying to be better than me, but you three are not even close to them. And the next time you need rescuing, I won’t be coming.”
“Then we’ll definitely be the best,” shot back Savannah, pushing Tony’s hands off of Ray’s jacket. “Because we’re gonna rescue Master Archidemus no matter what it takes, and that’s a lot harder than hanging around Cardlanger Academy long after graduation, to impress freshman with a few fancy card tricks.”
Tony and Savannah’s eyes locked in rage until Tony finally growled and stormed off.
Savannah threw her limbs around herself like she was shaking off dirt. “Ergh!” Then, she caught sight of Marion and Ray, “And what are you two goofs so happy about?”
Marion and Ray beamed with pride. “Savannah’s in!”
[] [] [] []
54 – Resolve and Resignation
“Guys, if we’re gonna do this we have to get better with our cards. I can’t even cardcast flame yet! I don’t know what the teacher said. And there goes Tony doin’ it right in front of us. As much as he gets on my nerves, I wish he would just come with us.” Somehow Savannah expressed resolve and resignation at the same time.
Ray tried to eliminate the resignation part, “If that joker can cardcast flame, anyone can. In fact, we’re all supposed to learn that before the third year, so let’s just get to work on it.”
“Yeah!” jumped in Marion. “We can do it! And we gotta get the dual telecarding, too. That could really come in handy.”
“And what about ice?” Savannah asked.
“Ice?” Marion and Ray were floored.
Savannah’s palm slapped against her forehead.
[] [] [] []
55 – Savannah’s Notes
The three friends’ scrape with the goons and their argument with Tony did not dissuade them from their master plan; it actually emboldened them. More determined than ever, they paid close attention to their teacher’s instructions and even practiced more outside of class. They wanted to master the fundamental skills of cardlanging earlier than their classmates, so that they could get on with their mission.
The next week, Savannah returned from her class with detailed notes about cardcasting flame to share with Marion and Ray. Here are some of the notes:
Notes For Cardcasting Flame
Rubbing a flamecard between your thumb and forefingers will cause the card to glow and reveal a word that you must translate into your target language. If you translate the word correctly, it will disappear, the card may glow a little brighter, and another word will appear.
If you don’t translate a word correctly, stop rubbing the card, or wait too long, the card will transmute itself. At that time, the card will turn to ash or burst into a fireball. The size and strength of the fireball depends on how many words you got right.
The notes contained one last sentence, but excitement overtook the boys and they didn’t read it.
[] [] [] []
56 – A Glimmer Of Hope
Being in Flashcard Arts I, Marion and Ray didn’t have flamecards yet, but Savannah shared hers. The financial cost and destructive force of flamecards meant that teachers strictly rationed them. Savannah only had three cards that day: one for each of them.
Marion started whispering Japanese at his card as he rubbed it, but it turned to ash when he mistranslated a word.
Ray did his best with Spanish and managed to create a small fireball, which spun off his hand, smacking into his jacket. When he freaked out and started rolling around on the ground, Marion took the opportunity to heave some dirt on him. “Is that really necessary?!” Ray yelled.
The boys scrambled to review Savannah’s notes again and read through to the last line: If you manage to create a fireball, you must know how to wield it or you could easily endanger yourself and others. “I’d say that’s about right.” Ray lamented ruefully. Marion broke into laughter.
“Hey! Where’s Savannah?” asked Ray.
When the two found her a short distance away, they stopped in their tracks, awestruck: Savannah balanced a small, whizzing and sparking fireball neatly in her hand.
[] [] [] []
57 – A Sense Of Purpose
But Savannah was not always so adept. Another dangerous incident transpired one day, when she froze her hand in a block of ice. Attempting to freezecast, the swirling ball of ice ensnared her hand before she even knew what was happening!
Savannah ran to the bathroom to put the frozen hand under warm water until it completely dissolved, while the boys waited anxiously outside. Then, Savannah wrapped her cold hand in her sweater until it warmed up completely.
“I sure hope we don’t kill ourselves before we even start!” said Ray.
But Marion and Savannah took his comment in stride. “We’ll get the hang of this!” Their commitment to rescuing Master Archidemus snowballed along with their repertoire of cardcasting skills.
Difficult as it was to keep focused with no news about Master Archidemus, a budding sense of purpose drove the three friends onward because the stakes were so high. Potentially, they could rescue their master and friend, save the Academy from enemies within, and become the greatest cardlangers the world had ever seen! On the other hand, if they failed, it might mean the end of the Academy… and their lives.
[] [] [] []
58 – I’ll Hold Your Hand
Telecarding quickly and precisely still presented a problem and it, too, could be dangerous. Marion and Savannah pulled off the trick successfully before, but it really took them too long to disappear and sometimes they didn’t end up in exactly the right place. Ray hesitated to attempt it for the first time. “Who knows where I’ll end up? What if my molecules get lost in the ether?”
“Your molecules won’t get lost in the ether, Ray.” Savannah said, like a mother fed up with her child.
“I’ve told him a million times.” said Marion.
“These telecards have safeties, you know.” added Savannah. “We couldn’t go just anywhere, even if we tried to. And if we don’t do it at least somewhat right, we won’t go anywhere at all.”
Ray’s ears and eyebrows lifted. Savannah saw an opportunity.
“C’mon, Ray. I seriously need to get this dual telecarding down. I’ll hold your hand and we can go together. We’ll just go to the center of campus.”
Ray sauntered towards Savannah, glancing at Marion along the way as if to say, “I’m gonna hold Savannah’s hand.” Marion nodded as if to say, “That’s pretty sweet.” Savannah didn’t see this.
“Can you count how long it takes, Marion?” asked Savannah.
“Sure! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten , eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen-”
-shp!-
[] [] [] []
59 – Success!
-whp!-
“Now, was that really so bad?” Savannah elbowed Ray.
Ray quivered awkwardly. “Did we really just do that?”
“Oh, we really just did that.” Savannah confirmed.
Then, the two got giddy right there in the turmoil of center campus. I’d write Ray’s bad word here if I could, but I’m trying to keep this book clean. Anyway, the two were ecstatic! They had successfully dual telecarded for the first time… something neither of them had ever done. On top of that, they arrived at the precise location Savannah picked. This was a good omen!
“But I’m still not clear why we need to do this.” Ray brought the giddiness level down a notch. “Can’t I just telecard on my own?”
“Well, yeah, but what if you don’t have a card or you don’t know where to go, but the other person does?”
Ray was listening. Sometimes Savannah seemed so much smarter to him. This was one of those moments.
“And what if sometimes you need to make sure you both go to exactly the same place? This way minimizes some of the things that can go wrong. It has its advantages.”
“So us three will be even better prepared for this mission,” Ray concluded. “It’s another weapon in our arsenal!”
Savannah nodded and a wide grin spread across her face. The success of dual telecarding was too much to keep in.
[] [] [] []
60 – Room For Doubt
Marion was new to the school. He hadn’t known Master Archidemus for long, but they had formed a close bond. After Savannah and Ray blinked out, negative thoughts ate away at him.
He was sitting there thinking…
What if we can’t find Master Archidemus?
What if he’s already dead?
I can’t even cardcast fire or ice!
My Japanese and Chinese isn’t even that good!
You know how it is when negative thoughts breed more negative thoughts? Well, that’s what was happening to Marion. When his two friends came back and reported their success, he put on a happy face and congratulated them, but felt far away. It was like he was outside his own body. So he told himself:
My friends need me.
I can’t let them see me down.
I want to lead them on this mission.
I need confidence.
“Let’s go have some curry!” Marion shook off those pesky doubts for the time being.
…but they would be back.
[] [] [] []
