Ashireth: Ashireth, #1

By Andrew Schatz

Science fiction and fantasy fans take note: Magical powers in "Ashireth" do not rely on the memorization of spells or the perfect wand flourish.  Instead the focus is on the ability to assess a situation, probe for substance or intention and to then manipulate the universe in response.  Daggers that are only sharp in the hands of the mage who imbued them with power, objects that amplify, focus or act as magic storage receptacles and healing abilities are all part of the story.  Palace intrigue, strained race relations (humans, dwarves and elves) and general skullduggery provide multiple opportunities for the aspiring mages to put their magic educations to good use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Schatz
• Release date: Oct 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215416549

Book preview

THE TEN SCHOOLS OF MAGIC

Physical Magics:

Phytomancy - The manipulation of wood and plant matter. Also includes the ability to heal oneself and/or heal another.

Geomancy - The manipulation of stone and metal.

Thermomancy - The manipulation of hot and cold including the spontaneous creation of fire.

Hydromancy - The manipulation of water as a liquid.

Aeromancy - The manipulation of air and lightning.

Ephemeral Magics:

Lumomancy - The manipulation of light and shadow.

Kinetomancy - The manipulation of physical objects through telekinesis and the creation of force-fields.

Neuromancy - The manipulation of thoughts in the form of telepathy, mind reading and emotional adjustment.

Cognomancy - Clairvoyance or the gaining of information through magical means including past, present, and future sight as well as psychometry.

Phantomancy - The creation and manipulation of illusions.

CHAPTER 1 - Shadow School

Five a.m. was way too early to have to get up in order to be at school by six, but there I was, trudging through the early morning light on what I would admit later was a beautiful spring day. I think the thing that made getting up this early the most difficult, however, was the girl walking beside me. She was so chipper, she was nearly skipping along. She was even smiling.

How can you be in such a good mood this early? I asked her, trying hard not to let my grumpiness foul her mood.

What's not to be happy about? she asked while turning slightly towards me and grinning. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming. I glared at her a little as I waited for her real answer. Okay fine. So we might also be having a guest lecture today delivered by none other then Baron Bellicost. Her blush as she said his name told me everything I needed to know about him.

Ah, that would explain it then. You'd think, Alayna, that by nearly nineteen you'd be too old to still be crushing on a man more than twice your age.

Oh no you don't Ash. You might be a year older than me, but you do not get to act all wise and mature about this. I've seen the way you act around... wait, have you ever had a crush? I was sure you had, but now that I try to think about it, I can't remember any. She made her I'm-thinking-really-hard-about-something face as she tried to come up with an example.

No, I responded, not that I can remember... but then, I've been far too busy with school and combat training to have the time. What's the baron giving a lecture on anyway?

Um, I think it's about the dangers of accidentally using telepathy to influence the thoughts of those around you. How it's necessary in some very specific instances but otherwise should be avoided. It can apparently be somewhat addicting to be able to control people like that and there are certain warning signs to look for in yourself and others to indicate that it might be a problem, she told me.

Hmm, yeah, I don't think I'm strong enough to ever affect anyone that way and unless you've been holding out on me? I paused just long enough to let her know I was kidding. Your only real ability in telepathy is creating a two-way connection for silent communication over a distance so there's not much danger of you going all evil mind controller on us. I couldn't help grinning at the idea of her ever even trying to control someone like that. She was far too good and pure-hearted for that. I might do it, if I were strong enough, so it was probably good that I wasn't.

She smiled too and agreed, No, I don't think either of us are likely to end up doing that, but it might still be good to be able to recognize if it's happening to someone else. I couldn't argue with that so I nodded in thoughtful agreement.

We arrived at school and parted ways. She headed off to her telepathy class while I headed over to learn more about shadows. I think I'd have been more enthusiastic if I didn't expect class to end in failure again. I remembered really enjoying school when I first started, but then those first two years were focused on the two magics I was strong in. Everything since had been extremely frustrating, learning about magics I would never have the strength to actually perform.

I got to class and took my seat in the back corner of the room, just like always. There were sixteen desks arranged in a four by four grid and every seat was filled with eager students. I was puzzled by their eagerness but only until the teacher started his lecture for the day.

Good morning class, our teacher, Mr. Shadstrom, began. Last week I announced that we would be starting something new. Who's excited to find out what it is? he asked. Satisfied with the enthusiastic response of the other students, he continued. Today we start learning about Shadow Beasts. I could practically hear the capitalization. Now, who can tell me what a Shadow Beast is?

I didn't even bother answering. I knew what was coming. Knowing that my shadow magic was pathetically weak, he loved to call on me to try and make me seem useless. I probably would have been offended on the other students' behalf, except they never seemed to know the answers anyway. It's not like the questions were ever that hard, we'd all been assigned a copy of the manual to study between classes, after all. If I was feeling particularly generous I might even think that since I had less strength there was less I could do, which resulted in me having more time to read, but I wasn't that nice.

After pretending to look around the room for a volunteer, Mr. Shadstrom's gaze fell on me. How about you, Miss Ireth? I also didn't bother correcting what he called me. My name is Ashireth. That's it, just one name, while everyone else in the entire kingdom had at least two if not three names. However, because I went by Ash, he, and several other instructors I'd had to deal with in recent years, seemed to think they were clever by using the second half of my name as if it were my last.

A Shadow Beast, as one would expect from the name, is an over-sized version of an animal made entirely out of shadow. The mage who creates it has complete control over its every action, but since it is imbued with a semblance of intelligence and consciousness at creation, they can also give it a sort of free will which allows it a bit of autonomy. They are used primarily as combat weapons where they can cause incredible destruction and are almost impossible to kill. In fact, the recommended strategy for destroying a Shadow Beast is to ignore it entirely and go after the mage who controls it since killing the mage also ends the beast. There have been examples throughout history, though, of Shadow Beasts being used during times of peace as beasts of burden, helping with everything from plowing fields and hauling cargo to helping with the search and rescue of people who get lost or are trapped by collapsed buildings and such.

Thank you, Miss Ireth, for that almost textbook explanation, Mr. Shadstrom responded, with a look of almost disappointment on his face that I had known the answer. Now, who can tell me the difference between a Shadow Beast and a Shade Beast? He glanced around the class again looking almost like he hoped someone, anyone, else would be able to answer, before reluctantly looking back at me.

A Shade Beast is nearly identical to a Shadow Beast in appearance and destructive capability except that, while a Shadow Beast, once cast, lasts essentially until the mage who cast it dies, a Shade Beast lasts only a few minutes or even just a few seconds before it fades away. Since casting a Shade Beast uses up all of a mage's shadow magic pool it is usually considered a last ditch you-might-kill-me-but-I'm-taking-as-many-of-you-with-me-as-I-can kind of move. It can turn the tide of battle, but is almost always considered a fatal option.

Yes, never something to rely on but a good skill to have regardless. It is expected that most of you will never be able to create a true Shadow Beast but you will all be learning how to create and control a Shade Beast by the end of this month. It is to be our final project of the year. Now, let's get started. Mr. Shadstrom went on to explain the theory and techniques of the creation and casting of a Shade Beast. I listened only long enough to realize that he was just repeating what I'd already read in the manual.

I was already familiar with the initial steps of gathering power and intent from my earlier classes. Shadow magic, just like the light magic I'd learned during the first half of this year, was very similar to the elemental magics in how you manipulated it. The difference came with the after-effects. After I pulled wood from a tree or stone from the earth and then let it go, I were left with a physically different result then what I started with. By contrast, when I gathered light or shadow to me and then let go of them there was nothing left to prove that anything had happened. That was the easiest way to think about the differences between the Physical Magics like wood and earth and the Ephemeral Magics which is where light and shadow fell.

After a few attempts, I was able to cast a Shade Beast the size of a mouse that lasted for almost ten seconds before fading. It occurred to me that I was trying to create a beast as large as possible every time my pathetically small pool of shadow magic recovered completely and was thus draining all of my magic without leaving enough to create the semblance of consciousness needed to turn it into a true Shadow Beast. Maybe if I tried making it smaller I'd still have enough magic left to finish the mind part of the Shadow Beast so I tried that. It took another few attempts to discover how much of my magic was needed for the mind and how much was left for the body. The tricky part was that I needed to have the body there in front of me before I could create the mind because I needed something to be there for the mind to go into.

I had finally figured out the correct ratio of body to mind and was just about to complete the Shadow Beast when I panicked and intentionally fizzled out my casting. I remembered reading that no one who had successfully created a Shadow Beast had ever been able to create a second one or even banish the first and try again. If I was going to make one I needed to make sure it was something I'd be happy with for the rest of my life and I didn't think that a slightly undersized mouse was going to work.

I knew I'd never make anything bigger then a mouse so I started to think about what I could make that would be the most useful rather than the thing I could make that was biggest. After some thought an idea dawned on me. I would make a spider, specifically a black widow-shaped spider, something that most people would never notice and, even if they did, would be likely to leave alone. Even though I calculated that I had enough power to create one several times larger then a real one, it actually benefited me more to make one regular sized. A life-sized spider people might ignore but one that was ten times bigger would get noticed and something would have to be done about it.

I was sitting at my desk in the back of the room playing with my newly created Shadow Beast spider when Mr. Shadstrom finally decided I was worthy of his attention again and he came over to see what I'd been doing.

What have we here? he asked, startling me since I had been paying as little attention to him as he had been paying to me.

I looked up to see that all eyes were on me so I shrugged, pointed at my new spider and said simply, Shadow Beast.

Pathetic! he declared before slamming his hand down on it. I gasped as the weirdest sensation ran through me. I could feel that my spider had been flattened. It didn't hurt but it did feel really strange and I didn't like it. The teacher lifted his hand back up with a smirk. I think he expected my spider to be gone but it wasn't. As I watched, and felt, it sort of oozed back into its previous shape and stood back up before posturing aggressively towards him. How does a spider posture aggressively? I have no idea how to describe it but, there could be no question that's what it was doing, to the point where Mr. Shadstrom backed up a half step as though he were afraid of it for a second.

After collecting himself, the teacher sneered, Well, it's to be expected that you'd be able to make one, pathetic as it is. He gestured roughly at my head as he said it, but I knew what he meant. He was referring to my ears, ears that had points because I was half elf, the only half elf known to have ever existed in the recorded history of our kingdom, but it's not like the records were all that great to begin with. Nobody knew how or why or even who I was. They knew that I was dropped off with the people who still looked after me to this day and that I was different. As if my long, dark blue hair and ears too pointed to be human but less pointed than any elf I'd ever seen a picture of could make me anything else but different.

I glared back up at him and said, Yes, of course, it must be because I'm part elf. As you may or may not know, I don't have access to between three and five of the schools of magic like you humans do. Nor am I limited to just any one of the schools like an elf would be. No, I have access to two schools of magic that I'm strong in, and each of the other eight that I am pathetically weak in. Light and shadow magic being one of my weak ones. So weak, in fact, that I was able to use up my entire shadow magic capacity and let it refill almost a dozen times in just this one class since my magic recovery is so strong. Being able to try that many times let me experiment and figure out the trick to it.

I turned my attention away from the teacher to address the rest of the class. A trick, by the way, that I think each of the rest of you might be able to use to create Shadow Beasts of your own.

I turned back to the teacher and said, So, despite the fact that I only have access to shadow magic because I'm part elf, my success here today had nothing to do with that. Through hard work, determination and problem solving skills, I was able to succeed where you expected most, if not all, of the other students here to fail. My success was NOT simply because I HAPPEN to be PART ELF! By that point I was standing up and shouting at the teacher quite loudly while the rest of the class watched on in stunned silence.

I had never acted like that before, but I was furious. I glanced around at the rest of the class before I turned and angrily stormed out of the room, then out of the school entirely. I was half way home before I had calmed down enough to see where I was and, after only a moment's hesitation, I changed course and headed to a hidden little park I had found a few years prior.

I sat down on the only bench in the park and looked around at the small cherry trees planted in each corner, all of them heavy with the blossoms of spring. My gaze eventually settled on the centerpiece of the park and probably the reason I was drawn to it. In the middle was a fountain with a statue of a half-dressed elven maid pouring water out of a pitcher into the small pool she stood in. I don't know why, but something about looking at that statue, that depiction of my other half, always seemed to calm me if I was ever angry or upset. It was no surprise to me when, some time later, I heard someone trying to sneak up on me.

Hello, Alayna, I said.

How do you always hear me coming? she asked with a huff as she sat down next to me. I pointed at my ears but she had already started talking again.

So, she began, I hear you had a fun day. A laugh burst out of me. I tried to hold it in but somehow she was always able to make me feel better and get over whatever it was that was annoying me. That's better, she said. Now, all I heard was that you stormed out of the building. Will you tell me what happened?

I sighed. I didn't really want to get into it just yet but I knew I'd feel better after I told her. It turns out that I'm half elf. The look she gave me made it obvious how she felt about that statement, so I continued. And being half elf means that every time I manage to accomplish something, or anything really, in class it must be because I'm an elf and it has nothing to do with the fact that I read all of the material and pay attention in class and try as hard as I can knowing that I am likely to fail. But no, any time I fail it's because I am pathetic or lazy, but any time I actually succeed it's purely because I'm part elf. I was fuming again but trying really hard not to direct it at her.

I focused my attention back on the fountain for a few minutes to calm myself down again before I continued. You remember when I first started learning healing? I asked her. She nodded yes, so I continued. I was really annoyed with myself at first when it turned out that I could effectively only heal myself and not other people. At first I thought this was a major failing on my part until the teacher explained that roughly one quarter of all healers can only heal themselves and so not only was it okay that this was true for me but that I was actually really good at it. Then, as I went on to learn about manipulating wood and even the next year when I learned about earth and metal, I excelled. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention or something but I don't remember those successes as being attributed to my elfness.

I remember that time. You were so happy and I was so jealous that the timing of our births let you go to school a full two years before me, she told me. I was so excited to start having as much fun as you.

I nodded while remembering that as well. Several of our biggest fights, if you can call being annoyed with each other for three hours a fight, happened during those two years. Then I started learning water and things began to change. I could do everything the teacher wanted but at such a tiny scale. She thought I was being lazy, that I was full of myself from the previous two years and didn't have to try anymore. She never seemed to understand that the results I was producing were the best I could do. Then came our year of telekinesis and force-fields.

She smiled while saying, That was so fun, learning force-fields. We broke so many things. In order for our defensive force-fields to become instinct rather than having to actively think about it, we got into the really bad habit of picking up random things and throwing them at each other. Of course she was able to block them entirely and I was only able to slow them down or deflect them a bit, but it was still fun. It helped that I was able to heal any injuries she caused me without telling her so as to not ruin the fun. Did you know that Mother started swapping out decorations she liked for ones she thought were ugly just so we'd break them and she could throw them out?

What? No she didn't, did she? I asked. Her nod let me know that she really had. Huh, well, that does sound like something your mother would do. Anyway, when it came to the telekinetic part you remember when we were learning to move as many different objects at a time as we could?

Yeah, most people could only move two or three. I was really proud of myself for moving four, until I looked over at you and saw that you had like two dozen tiny stones all spinning and orbiting each other in some really fancy patterns.

Yeah, that was the first thing I remember being attributed exclusively to my elfness. I couldn't move anything with any weight, but with the things I could move I was amazing, so it had to be the part of me that isn't human and nothing to do with my focus and determination. That was when my elfness really started getting thrown in my face.

What did you manage to do today that was attributed to your elfness? she asked me while looking sad but genuinely interested.

In answer I held up my hand to show her my new spider before I explained. I created a Shadow Beast.

Wow, I've heard that those are really hard to make. She was trying so hard not to cringe away from it. I knew she wasn't actually scared of it but few people liked spiders much. I didn't even like spiders all that much but this one was mine and I was proud of it. She reached out her hand next to mine so it could crawl into her hand before glancing up at me to see if that was okay.

As I willed it to crawl slowly into her hand I further explained, Here, it won't hurt you and you don't have to worry about hurting her. Mr. Shadstrom already tried to smash her into goo and she was fine. I'm not sure you could hurt her if you wanted to.

She's weirdly beautiful, she said as she held it up to her face to get a better look at it before asking, Why a black widow spider though?

I don't know, because they're cool? And like, if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone, but if you mess with them too much, they'll kill you, I explained.

Yeah, that sounds about right for you, she said, a contemplative look on her face. Does she have a name?

I haven't thought that far yet. Why, do you have a suggestion?

You could call her The Widowmaker. she suggested with a smirk. I laughed at her obvious attempt to make me feel better as she handed me back the spider. I took her and placed her on my shoulder before willing her to crawl up into my hair and flatten herself against the back of my skull, almost like a tattoo, something I learned I could do while I'd been waiting here.

We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before she looked over at me and said, Look, I know you're frustrated by this but we're almost done with the year. Just three more weeks to go and then it's over and we can enjoy our summer.

No, I said. It's three more weeks for you, and then you're done. But after that I have five more years. Five more years, with eight months in a year, with six weeks in a month and with eight days in a week and that's... way too many days for me to bother working out in my head right now.

It's not that bad, class is only every other day, and you'll have the two summer months off each year. That's way less then the too many days to count that you just came up with. She was grinning as she said that and as hard as I tried, I just couldn't seem to make myself stay angry about the whole thing.

Okay, Alayna, you win. Let's head home. We got up and left the little park behind as we walked up to our home. It was situated on the highest point of land in the city. Most of the time I didn't even see it any more but today, for some reason, I stopped and really looked at it. From the inside, I often forgot just how big the castle was. There were several towers of various height, windows and balconies all over the place and even a high wall all around it.

As we approached the outer gate, one of the guards leaned over to quietly say, Princess Alayna, The King would like to speak with you, whenever you get the chance. He was clear that the issue wasn't urgent, though.

Thank you, the princess said. I'll find Father in a few minutes.

We continued through the gate and into the castle proper. This is where I'd lived and worked for as long as I could remember, the personal servant to the princess.

CHAPTER 2 - Graduation

Three weeks later and graduation was here. The princess told me it wouldn't be that bad and she was right. In fact, after my out-of-character outburst in class, several of my classmates came to me for help with their own Shadow Beasts. They had apparently also heard from their parents that I was acting spoiled and lazy after my accomplishments in those first two years. Now they had heard my side and realized that I wasn't being lazy, I was just really weak in the other eight schools of magic and, despite my lack of strength, I was still able to accomplish things they were all expected to fail at.

I spent most of my time in class, over those weeks, helping them figure out the ratio of body to mind that I had discovered and explaining some of my theories as to why only the strongest shadow users ever made a true Shadow Beast. My theory was that a Shadow Beast had to be smaller than a Shade Beast and the reason the most powerful could make their Shadow Beasts the size they did was because they could make Shade Beasts ridiculously large. When they went to make a Shadow Beast, they were able to make one larger than a real life version of the animal but still smaller then the largest Shade Beast they could make and so accidentally managed to achieve a workable body-to-mind ratio.

Once everyone stopped trying to make their Shadow Beasts as big as possible, they were slowly able to start making it work. The next problem that came up was, if your Shadow Beast isn't going to be a giant whatever, what do you make? For the first time in probably decades there were starting to be Shadow Beasts of something other than just giant bears, wolves and big cats.

By the end of the school year we had several smaller wolves, a few foxes, some birds and even a snake. We would be the first graduating shadow class to have every single student able to create a Shadow Beast. Even Mr. Shadstrom admitted, grudgingly, that it was only because of me that it was possible. Since I really didn't want any more attention on me then I had already, I asked him to keep my involvement as quiet as he could. I didn't help to get the praise, I helped because I could.

The morning of graduation the king and queen left early so that he could preside over the ceremony. He did that every year but was especially enthusiastic now that his daughter was involved. The princess and I weren't planning on seeing them until the ceremony was over and we came back to the castle. Before we could head over to the school ourselves we needed... dresses.

I wasn't a fan of dresses. Sure, they could look pretty and I didn't mind wearing them so much if we were just wandering the halls and ballrooms of the castle, but any time I left those walls I wanted to be able to move unencumbered. I had received specialized training in recent years on how to fight in a dress, and I made sure that any dress I wore could be fought in, but ideally I would want pants and some kind of protective jacket or vest. I knew why the princess insisted on dresses so I didn't complain too much about them. I did still have my own requirements, though, and on those I would not budge.

Okay, so this one for me and this one for you, the princess said while holding up the two dresses she'd picked out. They were both hers and, even though I was a couple inches taller, we were essentially the same size. I was a bit leaner while she was a bit softer, especially in the upper chest area, but it worked out that I had always been able to wear her clothes. She had insisted long ago that since she had so many and could never wear more then one outfit at a time it was stupid for me to not wear what she wasn't. Everyone had long ago given up trying to change her mind about it. She could be stubborn in her generosity.

I had been looking at myself in the mirror and admiring they way my muscles were clearly defined under my skin. I had always been fascinated by how bodies worked and, after working as hard as I did to achieve this level of definition, I would occasionally take a minute or two, while she debated dresses with herself, to appreciate the results of my efforts. One look at the dresses she had picked out and I immediately declared, No. If you insist on it being those two, then you will be wearing that one and I will wear this one.

Why do you insist on being so difficult? she asked while trying to act annoyed but still handing over the dress I'd claimed for me.

For the same reason you do, I responded while getting started on the somewhat complicated process of putting these things on. You only care about pretty dresses and such because of how it reflects on your parents and so I care about how what we wear reflects upon you. And don't think I didn't notice that you used the relative fanciness of these dresses to 'trick' me into wearing something I'd usually insist was too much for me. Even if I didn't know you well enough by now to not fall for it, I paused to tap my head at her, I can hear you, remember?

She'd been giggling quietly to herself through most of my rant, enjoying the fact that she had been busted but that it worked anyway, before sobering and saying, Oh yeah. You've gotten so much better at blocking out other people's thoughts about you and, since you've mostly stopped talking about it, I forget sometimes that you can still do that.

I sometimes forget too. Even though both my telepathy and clairvoyance were extremely weak, they had combined in such a way as to allow me to hear the thoughts of those around me, but only if they were thinking about me. She was right, though, in that I'd gotten so good at pushing those thoughts into the background that it was like hearing all the voices in a crowded market. Sure you could hear bits and pieces clearly, but most of it was just background noise and ignored. Maybe if I'd been paying more attention to my classmates, I'd have realized sooner that their thoughts about me were so negative because of the falsehoods told to them by their parents, who didn't seem to know the truth either, and I'd have had a much better time these last few years.

Since we were now dressed, we made our way down to the carriageway. Usually we just walked to the school, which is where the ceremony was to take place, but not in the shoes that the princess insisted we wear with these ridiculous dresses. I had also received training in running and fighting in shoes like this. I could do it reasonably well but I didn't like to and they would always be a hindrance.

We arrived at the school and disembarked the carriage only to be greeted by the queen who had apparently been lying in wait for us. Oh look at you two, she gushed as she came rushing over to us. There are my girls. You're both so beautiful. Since I always seemed to stand really close to the princess, her mother was able to envelope both of us in the same giant hug. While the princess was able to relax into it, I found myself stiffening. The queen noticed my reaction and quickly let me out of the hug so I could step back a bit while she finished up hugging her daughter to her heart's content.

I glanced behind the queen