Katie looked at Joador in surprise. The wizard, perhaps the most self assured (ie. arrogant) man she knew seemed genuinely impressed with ‘her’ stunt. The Queen blushed. It was pretty gratifying.
Of course I had nothing to do with it, Katie thought, but how often have I been called ‘quick thinking’? Never. But if I can impress Joador, well that can’t hurt can it? Out loud she decided to be suitably vague: “Just a flash of inspiration I suppose. Not even sure I could do it again – and since I have to keep wearing this nightie I’m not about to try!”
The training continued but it was gruelling work. Every morning Katie and Joador would march to the Circle Room, so called both because it was literally circular in shape and because the floor was inlaid with precious gems in the shape of the Circle of Osgarius, the most powerful magical ward known to Lysfamar (a slightly unfortunate choice of colours meant it looked suspiciously like a large breast seen from front on, complete with nipple and areola, something Katie was trying to ignore as much as possible). There – temporarily stripped of her ward and closely watched by Herrimar and two trusted guards – Joador would try and use magic to implant a command in Katie’s mind.
“You can’t remember your own name,” intoned the wizard, mystically waving his hand in front of her face and Katie found to her dismay that she couldn’t recall her own name – until Joador reversed the spell. And so on every morning, with similar minor tests; followed by long boring afternoons of study, (non-magical) tests and more study. At first Katie was completely helpless, falling instantly under Joador’s spell but gradually she found her resistance building, until after five days she discovered she could shrug off his commands with little more than a slight ‘buzzing’ feeling at the back of her mind.
“You suddenly realize you’re naked,” intoned Joador, mystically waving his hand in front of the fully clothed (by Lysfamaran standards) Katie. Katie grinned and replied: “These aren’t the droids I’m looking for.” Joador looked at her blankly and Katie sighed, suddenly slightly homesick. “Never mind. So I guess I’m offically no longer weak minded? No more study?”
“I’m afraid not you’re Majesty. Yes, we’ve built up you’re resistance to the more overt, obvious sorcery but the more subtle sorceries are much more dangerous. So we move on to the advanced tests and study.”
“Right,” said Katie, slumping her shoulders slightly and feeling a headache coming on. “You know it’s a shame Keiko isn’t here. I’m sure she’d have no problem with all this.”
“Keiko you’re Majesty?”
“My sister,” said Katie, adding as she saw Joador’s eyes widen, “well step-sister technically so not Lysfamaran, but her mom married my dad when we were both four so I don’t really think of the ‘step’ part. Anyway she’s always been the one in the family with the brains which I guess means I got the looks… well to be honest she got the looks too,” Katie continued, slightly surprised she was opening up so much. Days spent with Joador must have established a deeper bond between them than she realized.
“Your’e not stupid you’re Majesty,” said Joador loyally. Katie blushed. “Maybe not Joador, but I’m not exactly the world’s greatest student, as, um, you might have noticed when I fell asleep that one time.”
Joador’s green eyes glittered and he looked at her thoughtfully. “There may be a way to help increase your intellect Majesty. There is a ritual that can transfer part of person’s intelligence to another, boosting the receiver and diminishing the donor. Hypotethically, a merely average intellect could become, if not quite genius not very far short.”
Katie looked at him in shock. “I’m not going to become some sort of brain vampire Joador!”
“Of course not you’re Majesty; the ritual only works between two willing participants. And it certainly needn’t suck a person dry! We could modestly boost your brainpower with only a similarly modest diminution in that of the donor. Indeed if the donor was extremely intelligent – myself for instance – we could increase your intellect by a substantial amount, while still leaving said extremely intelligent donor remarkably brilliant.”
Katie may have had ‘merely’ average intelligence at the moment, but she was more than capable of recognizing a hint like that. “You mean you want to do that for me?!”
“Of course your Majesty,” said the wizard. “It would be an honour. All I ask is that I be officially made Lord Chief Wizard.”
Thu Feb 04 22:35:00 2010