Way of The Wand

Chapter 14

After three years of not seeing him in person, Jira couldn’t help but blush when she opened her door and found herself staring into Chidi’s sunset-coloured eyes.

The first thing he said was, “You look as pretty as ever Jira.”

Jira jokingly poked his forehead with her finger. “Don’t you start that with me this morning.”

“Start what?” He stressed the “what” longer than necessary. “I’m just making a simple observation.”

“Observe something else,” Jira bit back.

Speaking of observations, Jira noticed he’d done his hair in braids. When they last met he had a pile of hair atop his head like hers.

Jira gestured to his hair. “Suits you.”

She could swear she saw him inflate in that moment.

“Thank you. I’m glad you noticed.”

She ushered him to a seat in her living room and disappeared to get him some tea. Ex-boyfriend or not, he was a guest and she had to be welcoming to guests.

He picked up the cup of tea the moment Jira plopped it down on the stool.

“Oh, thank you,” he said, as if he’d been dying to have some. “Snuck out before I had a chance to have breakfast.”

“Sorry I don’t have anything else.”

“No, this is perfect.”

Chidi set the wooden cup back on the stool, running the tip of his fingers along its markings.

The two of them stared at each other in silence till it became awkward, then they both tried to speak at the same time.

“You first,” Jira said.

“No, ladies first,” Chidi responded.

“Really, I insist.”

“In that case,” Chidi adjusted himself in his seat, “I want to officially apologise in person for what happened back then in Ms Kalinda’s office.”

Jira tried to respond but he put his hand up to stop her from interrupting.

“I never got the chance to explain myself.” He paused to sip his tea. “Look, I’m an Airad student, not because I come from a wealthy and powerful home like the others. I’m on a scholarship, and so I said what I said to Kalinda because I believed that’s what she wanted to hear. She wanted to use our relationship to convince you not to drop out. She wanted to use me to change your mind about leaving Airad. I know it’s not an excuse, but I didn’t want to lose what I had.”

The look on Jira’s face gave the impression she empathised with him. “Still doesn’t change what happened though.”

“I know. I am really sorry. I wish I’d done things differently.”

A clutter of chattering voices filtered in through the window.

Jira got on her feet. “Looks like some of my students have arrived.”

Chidi followed her out. He counted just five pupils and surmised the rest must be running late.

Jira gave each of her pupils a hug.

She sent four of them in to go practise magic on their own, telling Tomi specifically to pick any book she wanted from Jira’s personal library collection to prepare for her upcoming task.

Timi though, she requested to wait outside.

“Timi, this is a friend of mine, Chidi, a wizard.”

Timi eyed Chidi from head to toe, wondering what Jira was doing with a wizard. If she hadn’t told him Chidi was a wizard, Timi wouldn’t have been able to tell.

Chidi wasn’t dressed in the flowing black robes popular with wizards. He looked fitted in his plain pants and grey round neck, exposing his thick biceps.

Jira turned to Chidi. “Chidi, this is Timi. My champion for the task for strength.”

Timi shot his teacher a shocked glare. Why in the world would she reveal that to a wizard?

Chidi noticed the glare and pulled up his pants, crouching to level with Timi. “Don’t worry. I’m here to help. I’m here to help you train.”

Timi’s shock only intensified. He turned to Jira for an explanation.

Jira obliged. “Chidi’s here to give you a feel of what it’s like to battle a wizard. You need the experience.”

“So, he’s here to fight me?”

Chidi laughed. “Yeah but…let’s not put it that way.”

Jira patted Timi on the shoulder. “I’ll give you some time to get ready.”

“No,” Timi said, “I’m ready now. Let’s do this.”

They used the clearing in front of the house as the arena.

Timi pulled out his wooden wand, eager to test his strength against a wizard and gauge how he would fare in battle against Jira’s sister who everyone wouldn’t shut up about.

“Gentlemen, nothing too rough okay?” Jira said to Timi and Chidi before they began.

“Don’t worry Jira, I’ll go easy on him,” Chidi replied.

But the very next moment he was charging his hands with lightning, warming up to blast Timi with it.

Timi blocked the first electrical surge by yelling “shield” in time. But he hadn’t expected Chidi to leap into the air and land in front of him to send forth another charge of lightning.

Timi was thrown backwards several feet, his clothes soiling with dirt.

“That’s cheating,” he complained. “You flew at me.”

Chidi couldn’t contain his laughter. “First off, I didn’t fly; I jumped. And second, what did you think a duel was? Two people standing away from each other and exchanging spells? Where’d you get that idea?”

Angry, Timi pointed his wand at the wizard’s gut and whispered, “Blast.”

The spell rocked Chidi off his feet.

He groaned as he clambered back up. “Now that’s more like it.”

He leapt into the air at Timi again, but Timi aimed a spell at him, screaming, “Rope.”

A length of rope wrapped around Chidi’s left leg and Timi used it to yank Chidi back to the ground. Then quickly closed the gap between them and fired off a new spell, “Ensnare.”

A large net materialised in mid-air, but Chidi was quick to unleash a dash of fire to burn it to ash.

“You won’t get me that easily,” he retorted as he returned to his feet. When he balled his hands into a fist, the ground underneath Timi’s running feet shook.

Timi tripped, and as he fell, the patch of soil under him transformed into quicksand, swallowing him.

“How’s that for a come-back?” Chidi taunted.

Timi pointed his wand at the quicksand and said, “Mud.”

The quicksand underneath him became a pool of mud allowing him to wade out of it onto hard ground.

“Clever,” Chidi commented, “but I’m not done yet.”

He manifested a staff in his hands, raised it, and was about to swipe at Timi with it when Timi fired another spell at him.

“Condense.”

Suddenly the staff in Chidi’s hands became five times as heavy as it was an instant ago. Unable to bear the extra weight, Chidi fell back and grazed the back of his head against the sand.

Timi jumped on Chidi, jabbing his wand under Chidi’s chin, ready to declare victory when Chidi disappeared.

“What the!”

Chidi reappeared behind Timi. “Invisibility. Neat trick, right?”

Timi rolled away from Chidi before the wizard could cast any spells at him.

Chidi surged into the air and charged at Timi like a starving hawk.

“Wind!” Timi’s voice came out sounding a bit scared.

A vortex of wind caught Chidi mid flight and hurled him against one of the surrounding palm trees.

As Timi moved to end the spar, Chidi returned to his feet and uprooted the palm tree with his magic, then caused it to shatter into several thousand tiny pieces, before raining everything down on Timi.

Timi screamed before the first splinter even hit him. “I yield!”

Chidi moved his hands and all the splinters froze in the air. He then made them all fall to the ground gently.

“Not bad at all kid,” Chidi said. “But you’ll need to work harder to beat Daila.”