The Nothing Mage by J. P. Valentine

Author:J. P. Valentine [Valentine, J. P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nixia Publishing LLC
Published: 2020-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

Target practice. The mysterious morning lesson for which Declan had been pulled from history class turned out to be target practice. They couldn’t use the future practice room because it was currently occupied by a team of enchanters, so Declan spent the first three hours that Tuesday morning alone on an empty floor where Leskelian had so kindly set up a series of targets before returning to his lab.

Truthfully, though the novice was disappointed not to be receiving direct tutelage from the grand magus, he was more than grateful for the practice time. While he’d been able to study and even get ahead in the realm of theory, the rest of his class was oceans ahead of him in terms of actually casting. It turned out, aiming an invisible dart with sufficient accuracy was difficult. After two hours of firing and recovering mana, the novice was getting towards hitting the bullseye with some consistency, but such a task required significant focus and precious seconds to line up the shot correctly.

He would have no such luxury in combat. In time, the practice session wound down and the bell rang time for lunch. With a deep breath, the well-worked novice vacated the floor and began the descent to the cafeteria.

By this point, Declan had a decent idea of where Edward and Dewie would be throughout the day, and he made a conscious effort to avoid those areas in the Tower. He did not, however, have such information for a certain other problem student, a shortcoming which soon bore fruit.

When he stepped into the cafeteria, the novice immediately noticed Ian sitting at a large table surrounded by five other wealthy looking students in blue novice robes. If Declan had been paying closer attention to the situation rather than his own thoughts, he may have noticed that the conversation at said table seemed explicitly not to include the loud bully.

Indeed, while Ian was sitting with them, he was not participating much as the group discussed matters of governance or properly managing one’s servants. Instead, the boy looked on silently, half paying attention. It was the other half that noticed when Declan entered the room.

“Careful, guys, looks like the great nothing mage has come,” he loudly prodded. “Better run and hide or he’ll curse us all!” The group of nobles weakly laughed at the comments, and Declan noticed an almost hungry look on Ian’s face. The boy, however, was not looking at the target of his ribbing, but at his table-mates.

As soon as the laughter died and the table looked to return to their conversation, Ian chimed up again. “Not like he could do much cursing, the freak can’t even cast Light!” Again the table laughed, if a bit uncomfortably at the escalating jibes. Again, Ian grinned at the response.

Eventually the group fell back to their normal conversation, but the grin stayed on Ian’s face. For Declan’s part, the remarks stung, but he was grateful they hadn’t escalated to anything further. In the novice’s mind, his shoulder still stung where Dewie’s ice had pierced it.

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