Ellen was not telling Rianna everything though. Some things she would not understand and some others she just didn�t need to know now. She had not read the Prophecies and both she and Jayis knew that she did not need to worry about her role in history just yet. She knew enough for now and they didn�t have to worry her with the terrible events that were to come in her future when she wasn�t even used to her magic yet. Ellen had begun teaching Rianna the Old Tongue. She would need to know some to be passable at the University. Everyone there knew what some of the words meant, even if they didn�t know how to truly speak it. Rianna had a surprising grasp of the language. Usually it was hard to understand and even harder to learn. Ellen suspected it was one of the many gifts the Ancients had given her. She couldn�t understand how she had no inborn defenses though. Ellen knew from the Prophecies that Rianna should eventually have some very strong defenses. There were some vague descriptions of some future events and how she would handle them and from these Ellen could see that at some point she had gained some superior defenses but that did not mean it was certain. It was anything but certain. There were so many ways for the future to go wrong even if Rianna did the best she could. In some cases if even one person died at the wrong time there would be disaster. These things continually ran through Ellen�s mind as she searched for some form of spell that could be used in place of Rianna�s mysteriously missing defenses.
Other than the problem with her defenses, Ellen was pleased with the way Rianna was progressing in her studies. She had mastered transportation quickly and was learning new spells and techniques on her own. Soon, she would overpower her but she would not know as much as Ellen so she still had much she could teach Rianna.
Rianna sat on the end of her bed thinking of the last two weeks. She had trouble believing it was all real. How could she be the Princess to all these Worlds? She didn�t really mind. She was glad she had gone to the High School she had. She had met some good friends for a change. She had not been all that popular before. Now she was happy, she was confused as to how a girl like her could be destined for such an important role. She knew there were things that Jayis and Ellen were not telling her. She could tell it in the way they sometimes looked at her. There was a look of awe and sometimes pity and fear. They knew something they were not about to tell her. She could see it worried them. She assumed they would tell her sometime. Rianna was not about to let that bother her now. She was more concerned with why her magic was not developing properly. Rianna see her magic growing over the last two weeks. One day she mentioned this to Ellen. She said that Her magic would grow quickly for a while until it catches up to the point where it would be if she had been born knowing how to use it. After that it would continue to grow but at a slower pace. Somehow Rianna still felt empty, like some of her power was missing. When she had nothing to do an overpowering feeling of emptiness swept over her. Now sitting on her bed, Rianna found herself once again feeling empty. She had not mentioned this to Ellen but was beginning to think she should. The feeling was getting worse.
Rianna glanced at her watch. Time to meet Ellen for her night�s lesson. As she left her house she pictured the palace. She disappeared in her gold magic and the palace came into view. It was a huge castle set on a hill with a tall rock wall around it. The castle itself was made of a polished white stone with the elegant towers reaching up to the sky.
She found Ellen in a somewhat better mood.
�Jayis and I believe that we have found a few spells that will work to protect you. We discovered a book nearly destroyed at the back of most restricted section of the library. It�s in the strangest form of the Old Tongue that I have ever seen. I believe it is a dialect that was lost hundreds of years ago.� Ellen paused. �Eventually I think that you will be better able to understand the Old Tongue better than any of us. For now though Jayis and I will work the spell and make adjustments as necessary for a while.�
Rianna followed Ellen to a secluded room in the library where they found Jayis waiting for them. He glanced up at them.
�Ready?� He asked.
Ellen sank down into one of the three chairs in the room. Rianna took a closer look at where they were. She had been to the library many times with Ellen. It was a grand room, with high ceilings and long softly lit rows of books. There was a large crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of each row. Rianna thought the room had a wonderful soft feeling about it, but you would never guess that the room she was in now was even in the same building let alone connected to the grand library. This room was dull and musty and had not been dusted for many years. Rianna inspected the shelves lining the walls. Although many of the books in the main section of the library were hundreds of years old, they were well cared for and were not going to fall apart if you opened them. Most of these books looked like they would turn to dust if they were touched. The three chairs appeared to be the only objects not covered in a thick coat of dust and Rianna suspected that Jayis had produced them just for this occasion. They seemed completely out of place in this room, much more modern, and inviting than the rest of the furnishings.
While Rianna was examining the small room, Ellen and Jayis were deep in conversation about the spells they were preparing. They knew they had to be careful. These were complicated spells. After completing his discussion with Ellen, Jayis instructed Rianna to find a comfortable position in a chair, as they would most likely be here for a while. He explained to Rianna that for the time being he and Ellen would keep control of adjustments to the many spells they had prepared. They would eventually transfer the control to her but as these were complicated spells in the High Ancient Tongue they figured it was best, and safest, if they monitored them until Rianna was much more proficient with her magic. He also told her to allow them access to her power, as they would need to manipulate it as well.
Rianna settled herself into the middle chair and watched Jayis and Ellen carefully. She was a little nervous as she could tell that the other two were concerned with how difficult the spells were, and Rianna did not like the fact that she had no real idea what they were saying. Although she had picked up some words of the Ancient Tongue, none of it was of this even older, richer dialect. Rianna put her ability to see magic to use. Jayis and Ellen could have easily blocked what they were doing from her but they saw no reason too. She had to get used to the different forms of magic and there was nothing wrong with her watching them, after all they were spells for her benefit. They knew that one of the spells that they would be working would put her to sleep, but until that point they figured that she might learn something from watching them.
At first Rianna saw nothing but after they had been speaking for a few moments she began to see their powers flowing about them. Rianna found there speech to be almost as interesting as watching their magics. The tone of their voices was so clear and in some way moving. Each syllable seemed to be dripping with power. They spoke slowly and deliberately with every inflection calculated. Ellen had not yet introduced Rianna to very much spell casting. Most of the time, whatever anyone in the Council had needed to do could be accomplished by the simple manipulation of power. Spells gave magic more direction and guidelines. They were mostly used to aid in something that required fine precision or was something that the caster could not normally accomplish by the direct manipulation of power. People as powerful as the Council had very little need of spells, while people with very little power were almost constantly relying on them. Even though the speech that they were using was fascinating, their magics were more so. At first the light of their magic grew around them, growing in intensity then branching out towards each other then slowly weaving together then the combined cord reached out towards her. Rianna felt their combined magics flow into hers. She felt them weaving her power in with theirs. Slowly her power became the most dominant of the three, with theirs present to act as a guide and to direct hers where to go. Rianna watched as the woven magics, which now looked something like a wide, flat ribbon began to coil around her. As soon as it had completely wrapped around her the ribbon sank into her skin. Rianna tingled all over from the spell. Jayis and Ellen had started right into the next spell. This time when the magics of Jayis, Ellen and Rianna combined the powers exploded into a fine powder that again completely covered Rianna and then sank into her skin. As Jayis and Ellen began their third spell Rianna found herself falling asleep.
Some time later Rianna awoke to find herself in the same room, in the same chair, but only one of her mentors was present. Ellen appeared to be asleep in the chair to her right. Not wishing to wake Ellen, Rianna shifted, trying to make herself more comfortable since she was stiff from sleeping in the chair. However Ellen was not actually sleeping and heard Rianna moving.
�So you�re awake. That wasn�t too long. Jayis should be back soon; he just went out to �run some errands�. Although with him that could be a few hours.�
�What time is it?� Rianna asked, still groggy from the forced nap.
�Its only nine thirty, you weren�t asleep for that long.�
�Did they work?�
�The spells? We think they did, but we don�t know for sure yet. We will have to test them, and teach you how to adjust them when necessary. That we�ll leave for another day though, there is a lot to go over and I don�t think I�m up to explaining them all tonight.�
At that moment Jayis came back. He appeared to be pleased with himself about something, but he didn�t say anything until he had taken a seat in the only unoccupied chair and had made himself comfortable.
�I think it is time you learned your way around the University, Rianna. Even though I�m not sure how well those spells are going to work, I found a perfect class you can take to get acquainted with the university and to further what you know about the worlds in Azaran. It�s a class on the various life forms you may encounter, No don�t look at me like that, it�s not as useless as you think. You need to become familiar with some of the things you might run into. Besides it doesn�t concentrate on the little harmless ones. It�s geared towards the dangerous ones. Plus it also covers all the known deadly races and creatures of Maslein, so you will eventually need to know how to kill some of these things.�
Rianna continued to give Jayis a sour look, but she could see there was no hope arguing with him, and most of all, he was right.
�The class starts on Monday so that gives us a few days to see if those new spells are going to do anything.� Jayis continued. �I believe that�s enough for tonight, and your magic is going to need to adjust to those spells. Why don�t we call it a night?�
Rianna and Ellen both agreed with Jayis, as they were both tired. Jayis took Rianna home, which surprised Rianna a bit as usually Ellen did that. The short trip was silent and when Jayis left, Rianna got ready for bed.
I suppose those spells haven�t finished taking hold yet, or my magic is still getting used to them. Rianna thought. She normally didn�t go to bed that early but tonight she was just too tired to do anything else.