Forest of Illusions (The Broken Prism) Read Online Free PDF

troves of our magical knowledge will be lost over time.” He gave Hayden a grim look now. “If they begin pulling the Masters out of the Great Nine to fight, it means that things are going very badly in the war.”
    Hayden didn’t even like to think about what would happen if the war went badly for them and the sorcerers took control of the Forest of Illusions. If they held the stronghold of the Nine Lands’ magic, there would be nothing to stop them from taking over the rest of the continent as well.
    “Hopefully I’m overreacting and it won’t come to that,” Asher continued, apparently reading the look on Hayden’s face. “The Council may be full of elitists, but they’re magically-powerful elitists, and in the past they have made good decisions for our kind. For now we just have to trust their directing of the war effort and hope for the best.”
    Hayden nodded and moved to look out the window. He could see the tops of some of the supply shops, including Pounds of Prisms and the Magnificent Mage. He was trying not to imagine them burning and in ruins if the war made it to Mizzenwald.
    “Well, I’ll leave you now.” Asher pulled his attention away from his dark thoughts. “I t occurs to me that you are in my level-four class this year, and that I don’t actually have a lesson plan for the level-four class, as I’ve never had to teach it before.” He smirked.
    “I was wondering whether you’d prepared anything for me or not,” Hayden admitted.
    “I’ll make it up as I go along; I always do, and it usually turns out alright.” Asher shrugged, turning to leave. “You’re cleared to purchase level-four prisms and texts, by the way. You’ll also need a workbook this year, as we’re going to begin studying the basic formulas you’ll need in the future to discover new alignments.”
    Hayden had seen pages of calculations on Asher’s desk before and hadn’t been able to decipher a bit of it. The thought of trying to learn it was both exciting and terrifying, but all he said was, “Okay, I’ll remember to get a workbook.”
    Asher nodded, twirled the onyx prism in his hand one last time and then tucked it into his pocket.
    “See you at the start of term,” he said cheerfully, removing his spells from around the room and closing the door behind him.
     
    Since he had nothing better to do, Hayden spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on supplies for the start of term. He visited Pound s of Prisms to upgrade his supplies, and for once the shop owner greeted him with wary neutrality rather than open disdain.
    Things are looking up for me this year, Hayden thought with a faint smile.
    He bought new clothing in The Magical Mage, as his pants were becoming noticeably too short and some of his shirts had holes or burn marks in them from the antics of last year. He upgraded his wands to level-four and stuffed his new textbook into his bag, awkwardly carrying the cluster of heavy bags into Kly’s Elixirs, his last stop of the day. He was surprised to see Master Kilgore in there, reviewing an accounting list with Kly.
    Both men looked up at the sound of Hayden’s arrival and the former said, “Hello, Frost. Come to stock up on ingredients before the start of term?”
    “Yes, sir. I’m out of heartsbane and siltgrass.”
    The Master of Elixirs nodded and made a dismissive motion at Kly’s list, as though he had better things to do right now than review the accounting for the store. Hayden was surprised when the Master joined him on his circuit of the shop to collect ingredients.
    “How was your winter break?” Kilgore asked in his usual gruff tone.
    “Good, but exhausting. Zane thinks his parents were trying to show us what working in one of the prison mines is like.”
    Kilgore chuckled and said, “Good. Young people need to do real work, or you’ll grow soft.” He nodded approvingly to Zane’s parents. Hayden supposed he shouldn’t be terribly surprised by the Master’s attitude; Kilgore