Emergency Focus Exam

By Richard E. White

Wanting to learn the quick way of getting from one place to another, Kim Bleaker found she had to take a class called Emergency focus. Having been a good student, she didn't expect the class to be so hard. Then she found Sally was always trying to get her in trouble. Not that Kim needed any help in this class. The professor seem to enjoy off footing her students. Kim Bleaker was able to adjust to all of this, despite her practical skills seem to be deserting her. She was only barely keeping her grade high enough to stay in the class. She hoped to pass the class on the paper portion alone, when her professor dropped the bomb only four days before the midterm by saying, "On your next exam, anyone failing the practical, won't be allowed to take the paper portion!" However, this isn't the worst of it. While the professor is telling Kim, that Kim has yet to show the components she plans to use, her class textbook goes missing. This leaves Kim only a few days to do what everyone else has taken three to four weeks to do. With little to no money or time, Kim heads to the school's library. Only the student at the help desk finds all the books on that subject are checked out and not likely to come back. However, she does find one of Kim's classmates who has what Kim needs. Oddly, he is in the wrong section for basic wand making. Hoping he might be done with what she needs, Kim goes to talk with him. He gives her way more help then she expected. However, only after swearing to never let anyone know about it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard E. White
• Release date: Jul 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310158315

Richard E. White

Hello, this is R. E. White. Sooner or later anyone who reads my work will find a word or spelling mistake. There are two reasons for this. The first is I am blind. Not totally. I can see light and shadows from a few scattered pinholes. This is due to two genetic conditions which have been slowly killing off the retina cells. At one time I could see and drive. However, well before the year two thousand I was designated as legally blind. I stopped driving a few years before that. Just after losing track of where I was on a four lane road. It only lasted a few seconds, but let me tell you when you can't even tell up from down for two seconds and everything just becomes different colors with no perspective, it makes you want to park and never drive again. Well, I wanted to but never did. That was one of three big steps I had to go through when going blind. Waiting for someone else to drive me rather than just go. The next was when I had to get someone else to read my mail. The last was when I could no longer understand what was on a TV or computer screen. This meant no more video games.In the case of computers, I shifted to a talking one. This includes learning to type blind. Listening to the computer tell me which key I just tapped, and learning how to get it to read things to me. There are other things a talking system can do. Unfortunately, there are few sights which pay attention to making things work for text only systems, and fewer good, sound only games. Even My smart phone which has a voice mode, never remembers to check out the apps for whether they will work while in voice over mode. I have a lot of books from audible dot com and even though I have repeatedly informed them there is no way for me to rate their books, they keep asking me to do it. When they came out with an app. for my smart phone, the rating screen doesn't work at all in the voice over mode. Still I can get many good books from them. Just not rate them or delete them when they go corrupted. I have to have a sighted person take over and get rid of them. Strange how most of their helpers never even know about the voice over mode even though it is built in to the phone, but then it was true for the helpers who built the phone as well.Anyway, back to the writing problems. The wrong word problems are due to one, not being able to tell the difference when my computer reads it out to me. So two, too, to, and 2 all sound the same to me. This means a window which has been shuttered, and the word for a person who shuddered will pass my inspection. For this reason, I do use my computer to do a grammar check. However, it isn't that good at checking. I do have other people who edit the book for me. However, several of their mistakes have been pointed out to me, so they aren't catching everything either. As I have seen several similar mistakes from sighted writers who are making very good profits, I don't think most will worry too much about miner problems they can figure out if they remember I am blind and it all sounded right to me.This brings me to the next problem. I happen to have something similar to Dyslexia. It means I am a very bad speller. Therefore, I go more by sounding things out.Then there are a groups of words people might have problems with. I went with some words which I found by playing around with my speech system. If they sounded interesting coming out of my speech system, I sometimes added them in. Others I found in dictionaries. Both of these sounded all right to me, but the computer doesn't always use how humans would do it. Sorry if any of this causes problems with understanding my stories. My advice is, if you like exact wording and never want to think, then go read someone else's books. There are a lot of other options out there.As to other things. I like animals and helped out at a wild life rehab place before my sight became to poor for the insurance. Even then I dropped off food for the different critters. However, now I only have a cat which is more often called fuzz ball than its true name of Sphinx. She has been trained to jump up to be petted as I didn't want to accidently step on her. Oddly, she tends to stop in front of others. Me she either leads or hops up and calls for attention. At least when she isn't trying to dance on my key board.I have other story lines which will probably show up here when I give up sending them off to hard print publishers. I did the world of spellmarks to be released as a E-book to see how this market works.Hope you all find something good to read or for the other blind, something to hear.Remember beauty is in the ear of the beholder.Later from Richard, a blind typer.

Book preview

Emergency Focus Exam.

By Richard E. White

Part one, The shoe drops.

Kim sighed and shook her hand to clear the cramps. Keeping up with Professor Quay was always hard. She always moved quickly through her lectures. Looking up at her professor, Kim saw Professor Quay was putting the lecture materials away. Glancing at the clock, Kim saw they had ten minutes left. However, Kim knew better than to put her notepad away. Professor Quay like to get people off balance, and then say something important. Today was no different.

Professor Quay looked over the class. Her eyes stopped when they locked with Kim's. Giving one of her nastier smiles the professor said, Remember, you will be sitting the focus exam next Monday at ten. The practical portion will be done first. Anyone failing to enchant their focus item, won't be allowed to sit the written portion, seeing one of the male students raise his hand, Professor Quay nodded and said, You have a question Mister Lane?

Yes, Professor. Why aren't we doing the paper portion first?

Professor Quay looked at Kim and said, As this class is all about surviving a miss-port by making a emergency focus, the book learning isn't as important. Also by the midterm, if you can't enchant a wand, which is the simplest to create, then you're not ready for the second half of this class. By putting the practical portion first, we remove the chance of poorly skilled wizards getting hold of information they aren't ready for yet.

Kim stared in disbelief. Next to her, Sally Drifter whispered so only Kim could hear her, And you were planning to pass the wand exam on the written portion alone. What a pity, Then Sally laughed.

Do you have something to share with the class Miss Drifter?

Sally blushed and stood up to answer, I'm sorry Professor Quay. It's just that Kim told me a joke.

Kim gasped and glared at Sally. She was always getting Kim in trouble. Not that Kim needed any help getting in trouble in Professor Quay's class.

Miss Bleaker, please come down here for a moment. The rest of you may go.

Before anyone could move, a student in the front row raised his hand.

Yes Mister Blake?

What qualifies as enchanted?

Next to Blake, another boy sighed in disgust. Again, the professor looked over the class. She saw the way all the students had suddenly stopped moving. With a much friendlier smile, Professor Quay said, It seems most of the class, would like to hear the answer to Mister Blake's question. However, don't mind us. Run along Mister ZORLOCK.

Once Zorlock and his friends left, Professor Quay said, For the purpose of Mondays test, a functional enchantment is any item which can be used at least twice at a preset level. The examiners have a list of spells they will use according to the item made. These spells and their preset levels are determined by the Board of Standards and Practices. However, the first two spells cast are always the same. Can anyone tell me what they are?

Blake was the only one who raised his hand. When the professor nodded he said, For a wand, the order would be the beacon spell, followed by the message spell. Then if it was still functional, they might try the one for communication.

Correct Mister Blake, seeing a hand go up Professor Quay nodded and the student asked, You said two spells and he mentioned three?

Professor Quay sighed and said, I also said the examiners use a preset order of spells and power levels. Only the first two must be passed with what you make during next week's exam. However, that will only give you a barely passing grade. If your wand is considered to have a chance at casting a communication spell, a spell which requires twice the magic of a message spell, you're wand will be above average for this class. However, it is up to the examiners as to whether it should be tried at all, with what you make during the exam and the reason is easy to understand when you think about why anyone would bother to make a focus item at all. Far better focuses can be bought in any magical supply shop than we are likely to see made next Monday. Seeing surprise ripple through the class, Misses Quay raised her eyebrow and said, Did you think you would match a professional enchanter's work after just half of one beginning class?"

It was Sally who asked, I don't understand, Professor. If we can buy better ones, why do we need to learn how to make them?

The Professor smiled and asked, Anyone know the answer to that question?

Again, Blake raised his hand first. Once Misses Quay pointed to him he said, I always guessed it was because from time to time people need to do it. Like after a miss-port. If you land in the middle of nowhere and you lose everything in the process, you will need to make a crude focus to call for help.

Sally laughed and said, Come on Blake. Anyone having the skill to port won't be messing up so badly!

Sally wasn't the only one laughing as Professor Quay rapped her podium with the ring on her right index finger to get the classes attention. This ring could give off a bell like sound which Professor Quay was known to adjust, to show how ticked off she was at the class. Today was only middle of the range. Even so, Kim and a few others cringed at how loud it was.

Having obtained the classes attention, Professor Quay said, That very situation kills forty to fifty people trained in wizardry every year. Often their deaths are put down to forgetting what this very class teaches.

Kim looked surprised as she said, Forty to fifty miss-ports every year?

Professor Quay shook her head as she said, No. I said forty to fifty people dyeing each year. The actual number of miss-ports is ten to twenty times higher, and that is by people properly trained in wizardry. Of course, the rate is much higher during the years spent learning to port. However, we keep better track of people while they are learning, so actual deaths while training are quite rare. In addition, I can say with total assurance everyone here who tries to learn how to port will at some point miss-port. No one can get through the porting classes without miss-porting several hundred times. The only real question is will you botch it so bad, that you need to enchant a focus item to call for help. Fully half of everyone learning to port by wizardry will have to do so, before they get their certificate. It’s the reason this class is mandatory before people learning wizardry can take the classes on porting. Any other questions?

Sally looked confused as she asked, Why do you keep saying people learning wizardry. Don't the other fields of magic have to as well?

Professor Quay gave Sally a disappointed look. The look let the whole class know Sally had just asked a question which Professor Quay thought was obvious. Finely she turned and asked, Does anyone other than Mister Blake know the answer to Miss Drifter's question?

To Professor Quay's surprise, Kim raised her hand. With a nod professor Quay said, Yes Miss Bleaker?

Kim took a deep breath and said, As sorcery doesn't depend on external focuses, there is no way they would lose the ability to cast a beacon spell to get help. If they are even stopped from just returning back to their starting point.

There were a few snickers as students looked at Sally. Sally shifted uncomfortablely as the others looked at her. However, everyone forgot about her as Professor Quay said, "Not bad Miss Bleaker. It is nice to