New Tricks

A few months after the whole curse issue Bryson Coldwater found himself staring up at a very annoyingly tall tree. At the very top of the tree was Coni Pinop the formerly divine pixie, now regular pixie floating above holding a flag.

After the whole event, Coni was officially living with the Coldwaters, with Bryson being responsible for it. So far the months that have followed seemed rather normal. No new strange occurrences happening. Everyone for the most part kept quiet and kept on life as normal. Aside from the one small issue, which was that everyone seemed much more concerned with Bryson. Much to his annoyance.

“Come on Lord Bryson, you have this!” She called down to him.

“Easy for you to say.” Bryson muttered as craned his neck upwards, “Isn’t this a bit extreme?” He yelled upwards.

“You’re eleven now! You need to start learning some of the better tricks.”

“This feels a bit more than a simple trick.” Bryson called back up.

“Yeah, but it’s very useful! Didn’t you say you wanted to learn this?”

“Not exactly like this!”

“Don’t worry! Florence is here and everything!” She assured.

Bryson looked over to his side to see Florence standing next to him. She emotionlessly nodded her head in acknowledgment.

“This actually makes me less confident.” Bryson said staring at the medical bag Florence was holding. It was somehow larger than the one she usually carries.

“It’s just a precaution.” Florence said, moving the bag so that her body covered some of it.

“There shouldn’t be a need for precautions.” Bryson grumbled.

“Lord Bryson, you can do this! Primrose says you’re ready!”

Bryson scowled up at the pixie. How is this the easiest way to learn teleportation? Couldn’t there be something easier? He thought.

The spell he was trying to learn was in the grand schemes of teleportation and conveyance magic in general, was rather simple. Have a line of sight and move from one place to another near the original location. There were various methods and small variations in casting this spell commonly known as ‘Flash Step.”

As the name suggests, it is a spell that gets the caster from one place to another in a flash. It was a spell that many talented conveyance casters used in their repertoire, for it could take an individual or even two a short distance away. However, therein lay the problem. Conveyance-type magic tended to be for the experienced and talented magicians; Not every caster could get into this study even if they wanted. And currently, Bryson had to do what these older more experienced magic users do, plus not plummet down a tree while attempting to.

“How do you even know that I can do this spell?” Bryson asked in a feeble attempt to avoid this test.

In his defence, it wasn’t a completely ridiculous thing to say. This was his first attempt at conveyance magic at this level and it was rare for people to be able to cast every type of magic. Even fewer with more than one specialization. There was just something in mastering one of the different magics that made it difficult to master others after it.

The more magics someone wanted to learn the harder the next type to study would be. The level of mastery also varied from person to person, through various means. Some were able to gain their talents hereditarily, others simply learned it and some reasons were, simply unexplained magical ones.

Entire families might only be able to learn one type of magic or be unable to learn a certain type. Coldwaters for example had no aptitude for any type of real healing magic other than basic enhancement magic. Bryson was unsure what magics Gareth knew, but both Sable and Gilles lacked the ability to become proper magic users, hence why they relied on weaponry. Bryson also knew that only his mother had any conveyance magic abilities to speak of. Which was why this more extreme method was set up.

All of this was rather irrelevant though, as he was not related to the Coldwaters by blood and magically fell from the sky due to some otherworldly god thing. Also, through the years, it was clear that Bryson could learn any type of magic that Primrose tested him on. It was also notable to mention that the only reason Primrose would even allow this type of training was if she believed that Bryson could do it.

“Primrose has complete confidence in you! Come on, you already passed the basic tests with flying colours!” Coni said trying to convince Bryson. Though she herself wasn’t sure if this was a great idea.

Apparently, Primrose accidentally mentioned Bryson’s progress to Duchess Coldwater. Being the only one in her family that could use conveyance magic properly, she was adamant that Bryson learned this spell so that the legacy would live on.

Bryson took a deep breath as he looked upwards. You aren’t going to weasel your way out of this Bryson. He thought. You can do this, just breathe and relax. Get it over with.

Bryson closed his eyes and breathed out before opening his eyes once more, looking up at the flag. Let’s do this. He thought as he concentrated on the flag.

He felt magic beginning to course through his body he felt a pull towards the flag. His eyes shone and he felt his body being encompassed by a thin veil of magic. He felt his body become weightless as he felt himself rising into the air.

He then felt himself shooting forwards as a strange mass of blue particles upwards past several branches. The flag getting closer and closer. Then he found himself staring at a tree branch. The next feeling he experienced was gravity as he began to fall back down to the ground.

“Uh oh.” The pixie said in horror.

Uh oh. Bryson thought as the tree branch got further and further away, shutting his eyes. This is going to suck.

Only the next thing he felt wasn’t the hard ground, but gentle arms wrapping themselves around him. Opening his eyes in confusion he saw Florence’s watchful red eyes staring down at him.

As Florence realized that Bryson was falling, she had quickly sprung up and caught him in midair. Once they were safely back down on the ground, Florence still carrying Bryson like he was a damsel in distress.

“That’s a relief.” Coni sighed.

“Are you alright? You’re cold.” Florence said as she pressed her forehead to his, “Hmm, no, just your clothes it seems.” She said feeling his jacket.

“Put me down already!” Bryson snapped as Coni flew back down to them.

“What went wrong?” Bryson asked Coni as he was now standing on his own two feet again.

“Just an issue that most beginners run into. As a beginner, you still have to keep the destination in sight as you travel, otherwise you’ll just stop. Once you gain more experience, this will no longer becomes an issue.”

“So that’s why I’m doing this with a tree.”

“Yep.”

“Okay, let’s go again.” Bryson grunted.

***

“How did I end up behind the tree!” Bryson yelled in frustration as he now did indeed wind up moving right past the tree.

“You landed on your own two feet at least.” Florence offered.

“Not helping!” Bryson said getting more and more irritated at his failures. Over the past hour, he somehow kept discovering new ways of failing. Bryson couldn’t believe there were that many ways to fail getting up a tree.

“Huh.” Coni said coming back down.

“‘Huh’? What does ‘huh’ mean?” Bryson growled.

“You accidentally used another conveyance spell.” Coni said before quickly adding, “Though that only proves that you have an aptitude for this.”

“This does not help.” Bryson grumbled as he noticed Lila Frost head over to them. She isn’t supposed to be here for another hour. This can only mean trouble.

“Bryson, your dad wants you.” She said approaching them, “What have you been doing anyways?”

“Essentially nothing. You have an idea why?” Bryson asked.

“No, just that he wanted to see you immediately.”

“Great.” Bryson said. I was right, nothing but trouble.

“I guess we’ll continue this another time then. I’ll tell Primrose about your progress.” Coni said.

“What progress?”

“Don’t be like that Lord Bryson. You’re already learning quickly. Just a few small things and you’ll be able to even bring a plus one when you cast this spell!” She assured him before flying off.

“I agree, that wasn’t nearly as dangerous as I thought it would turn out. I’ve read about many accidents of conveyance mishaps leading up to this.” Florence said.

Bryson recalled all the times Florence had to catch him narrowing his eyes at her he instructed, “Speak this to no one.”

“Of course, client confidentiality.”

Bryson slowly looked back to Lila after giving Florence a good hard look, “Alright let’s go.”