The Gravic Exacerbation

By Natalie Rivener

Corvic is arguably the least liked person at the University of Yithnisia. He is also the only one who knows the old regulations well enough to know that layering two greater castings is a really bad idea.
If he can't even convince his own apprentice that Mestrara Mikya and Mestrae Yundra's lastest projects are going to have serious repercussions, how will he convince the rest of the University's apprentices and mestrari to heed his words of warning?
The crag monsters are howling and the very air is shaking. If Corvic doesn't do something and fast, the rampant magic will leave no one behind to tell future generations the story.

The Gravic Exacerbation is part of STORM, an anthology published by Linzé Brandon on behalf of the Pretoria Writers' Group.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Natalie Rivener
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310009914

Natalie Rivener

If Natalie had been born a few odd centuries earlier, she would have been burned as a witch. She refuses to conform and loves exploring new things without caring too much about what others may think.She currently spends most of her time running after her two kids but she’s really a Jill of all trades...everything from sewing to pole dancing to painting to calligraphy to baking has taken up her time, but her favourite remains writing.She lives with her husband, two children, cat and tarantula in a quiet part of Gauteng, South Africa.

Book preview

The Gravic Exacerbation

by Natalie Rivener

The Gravic Exacerbation also appears in STORM, an anthology published by Linzé Brandon on behalf of the Pretoria Writers’ Group.

Copyright 2014 Natalie Rivener

Smashwords Edition

ISBN

9781310009914

Cover design and layout by Natalie Myburgh

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1

On his way back up the stone stairs, Jaten felt the pressure wave of a powerful spell pass through him. Wow, that was a big one, he thought to himself as his arm erupted in gooseflesh. He could have sworn Mestrara Mikya's casting was supposed to go off later that day, though.

As the spell started to take hold, the mounted torches in the stairwell seemed to become much brighter while the shadows deepened to an impenetrable black. The yellow and red glare of the flame made it feel like he was in an expressionistic painting. Could that actually be from Mestrae Yundra’s umbral shroud amplifier? He hadn’t seen any notices around campus. Usually, there were notices everywhere if something this big was scheduled.

In an attempt to stumble less over the infuriatingly uneven steps, he toggled several times between closing his eyes and keeping them on the wall to his left. He was nearly there; only three more flights.

Halfway through the second flight, he paused by the last window before Mestrae Corvic's study. Though the light from outside was overly bright, at least he could see a little better once his eyes adjusted. He took a moment to observe the spell's effect outside. It hurt his eyes to look at the brightly lit panorama of rooftops and courtyards, but it was abstractly pretty. The brightly coloured pennants at the tops of the four Corner Towers shone a merry blue, red, yellow and green.

Looking down, he could see all the way down into four of the university's many courtyards. They were little grey and green wells among the red rooftops. He hadn't really thought about it before but, from above, the university looked like a village of tightly packed buildings. No two roofs were the same height or even the same style. Some had little gables. Some were sharply angled spires. Others were simply a single diagonal plane of corrugated roof tile. One even had a creeper that had already covered half of its surface with dark green leaves.

Further out, he saw the green mountaintops of the Junic Mountains stretch beyond the University of Yithnisia’s grounds and, further down the slopes, he could just make out three sets of sun-bleached ruins on either side of the ridge. To his surprise, pretty much everything beyond the university walls was normally lit, with haze-softened edges and lines. Ironic how everything looked more artistic in normal light than the spell-warped lighting he was standing in.

He wondered if he could convince Ngilya to come up here, but with a sigh he resigned himself. She was apprenticed to another mestrae, a kuningaz at that.

What are you staring at? Don't you have duties with Corvic? murmured a girl’s