Page 67 of The Tribes of Magic
The next day, I woke up early to squeeze in some early morning magic exercises with Kato before my usual Apprentice training began. I met him at the Castle, on the grassy Hex.
“Today, we’re going to work on your Charisma, the ability to enchant others and bend them to your will.”
I winced. “Didn’t I get more than enough practice doing that the other day at the Summit?”
“Were you in control of your magic when you enchanted the members of the Court?”
“Well, no, but?—”
“Then you require more practice. You need to be in control of your magic, Seven. It should not control you. That is very dangerous, especially for a Polymage.”
“Why especially for a Polymage?”
“The more magic you have, the more dangerous you are if you don’t have it under control. You don’t want to hurt anyone, do you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Good. Then it’s settled. Let’s begin.” Kato pointed at the Knight coming down the path.
He was dressed in green armor, which meant he was a Nymph. I’d seen him around the Castle, but I didn’t know his name. He had quite a few ability badges on his armor, which meant he’d been around for a while.
“Go to that Knight. Ask him to be your date for the Castle’s annual Masquerade Ball.”
“You want me to ask him out? But I don’t even know him!”
“This exercise isn’t about whether you know him. It’s about whether you have enough control over your magic to enchant him.”
“And if I fail? What if he laughs in my face?”
“Then you’ll know it didn’t work.”
Fantastic. Just fantastic. I growled under my breath, then marched up to the Knight in green.
I met his eyes—even though I really didn’t want to—gave him a smile that hurt my cheeks, and blurted out, “Hi, I’m Savannah. Would you like to go to the Masquerade Ball with me?”
The Knight was too nice to laugh in my face, but he did say no. I mean, of course he did. He didn’t know me either. As far as he was concerned, I was just some weird Apprentice who was so desperate to find a date to the Ball, she was standing on the Hex at six o’clock in the morning, asking out any random guy who passed by.
It was mortifying.
I trudged back to Kato. But if I was hoping for sympathy, he didn’t have any for me.
“Again.” He pointed at the next Knight, a male Sorcerer whose armor was bright scarlet, just like my face right now.
“It’s not working, Kato.”
“It will if you use your magic.”
“Can’t I try to convince him to do something else? Like sign an autograph for me? I bet I can convince him to sign an autograph.”
“Of course you could. Knights are vain. But the point of this exercise isn’t to get them to do something they would anyway do. The point is to make them do something they wouldn’t do.”
“Gee, thanks. You basically just said no sane person would ever want to go out with me.”
“No, I didn’t, and you know it. Stop trying to squirm your way out of this, Seven. You want to be able to control your magic, don’t you?”
“Yes. I just thought I could learn how to do that…differently. In a way that doesn’t involve totally humiliating me.”
“If you’re motivated, you’ll learn faster. Avoiding humiliation is motivating. Now, hurry. He’s getting away.”
