Age of Kings

by A bag of plums


35 - Practice Zero

“Pardon! Oops! Apologies! Excuse me, coming through! I’m in a little hurry!”

The other mages cleared out of the way as Nightfall Gleam made her way to the stairwell, heading up to the second floor where her table was. In her arms, the mage held on to six rolls of paper, along with a few pieces of wood and iron.

Recently caught up in the study of her friend, Emerald Edge, Nightfall had almost forgotten to submit her weekly report to Clover.

She had never forgotten a report. Never. Not even once.

Nightfall felt her gut sink as she continued to think about the consequences for missing a report. What would Clover do to her? Would she kick her out of the Mages’ Tower? Would she turn her into a frog? The blue-skinned mage shook the rest of the gruesome thoughts from her head.

No. I can do this. I still have today. I have time…

She dumped her things on her table and quickly picked out a blank scroll and a quill.

“Right. Nightfall, what have you got to tell the great Clover the Clever?”

The mage tapped the quill against the scroll and hummed to herself. After four more minutes of staring at the blank parchment, Nightfall planted her face against it, groaning in despair.

“Nothing… There’s nothing to report!” Nightfall dropped the quill and grabbed at her head with both hands. “What am I going to do? I’ve never missed a report!”

The mage lifted her head and began shuffling through her notes, looking for something, for anything she could continue. She had never missed a single report in her time here at the Mages’ Tower.

Clover was a nice enough superior, but would that still be the case if Nightfall missed one report?

“Aaah, I need to get something done!” the blue-skinned mage rubbed at her hair. “How about a new invention? A-A… A something. Aagh!”

Nightfall had kept up her reports for eleven years without fail. Eleven years. She wasn’t going to miss one now and possibly lose her spot in the Mages’ Tower.

No, I’ve spent my whole life being a mage. It’s all I know. I need to finish this report!

“Something the matter?” Secret Fire’s voice came from behind her. Nightfall turned around, seeing the pyromancer holding a flaming ball of something in between a pair of tongs.

“No! Back! Away from my notes, you fiend!” Nightfall instinctively grabbed her scrolls and held them protectively away from the pyromancer. “You have caused me to rewrite my bottle rack instructions seven times now. Begone!”

“As you wish.” Secret Fire retreated back to his own workstation, leaving behind a foul stench of burning plant matter.

Nightfall put the scrolls back on her table and sat down on a stool. What to do, what to do. Feeling a little frustrated, she reached into a drawer and pulled out a bundle of small interlocked metal parts. They were supposed to form into a single whole, and Nightfall always enjoyed playing with it to stimulate her mind.

Still fiddling with the puzzle, Nightfall was pleased to discover that she had managed to put two more pieces of the toy together. Feeling a little better, she put the puzzle away and pulled out her snuffbox. Putting a pinch of the brown powder on the back of her hand, the mage inhaled it and sighed.

“Ahh, that’s nice,” she said to herself. “But it doesn’t help me much… I need something to report on…”

Nightfall began picturing Clover zapping her with her golden staff, turning her into a tiny green frog before kicking her out of the Mages’ Tower.

“No, no! I cannot let that happen!” Nightfall pulled at her tricolored hair and wailed. She inhaled another pinch of snuff and stared out the window. The sun was still rising, so she figured she had the whole day to think of something to report.

“Something wrong?”

Moon Tide was poking her head around the stairwell.

Nightfall’s eyes went wide and shook her head. “Oh, everything is fine, Moon Tide! No problems here!” she laughed nervously.

Moon Tide was one of the more senior mages here. She would surely tell Clover about the missing report if she were to find out. Nightfall couldn’t let that happen.

“Oh, I-I think I hear Secret Fire calling you, Moon Tide. Maybe you should attend to him, he he…”

“Again?” Moon Tide sighed. “I swear, that man needs more medical attention than the entire Round Table…” She ran a finger through her hair and retreated back downstairs.

Nightfall Gleam swiftly pivoted back to her table, desperately sifting through her papers for anything she could find, like an unfinished observation, or a formula for a new type of magic, or even a new invention. She just needed something to turn in to Clover by the end of the day.

“Never missed a report… Never. I’ve never. Never missed one. Nightfall’s never missed a report.  Not once. Never…” The mage began chucking her unnecessary papers on the floor, swiping them off her tabletop. “Find something. You must find something, Nightfall. There is something here. Just keep looking… Just keep looking… You cannot miss this report. Cannot. Never. Never ever!”

Outside, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

“Shut your mouth!” Nightfall barked at the window, pulling a piece of wood to throw at it and accidentally tipping her bit purse out of her pocket. It made a cheery jingle as it impacted the floor. It made her think. “Money… Bits… Maybe I could write about the market economy. Oh, but I am a mage, not a trader, that won’t do any good. Gah, think, Nightfall… Think!”

The other mages on her floor began to watch her warily as they passed, some of them even giving her workstation a huge pass as she began pulling at her hair and laughing maniacally.

“Just a small thing, yes… This report writing, you’re stressing yourself out, that’s right. Just calm down and think. Think. No need to get worked up over this. Who says I am worked up? I am not worked up! I am absolutely calm! Yes, just need to concentrate.”

And then her thoughts went back to Secret Fire. Yes, he was in the process of figuring something out, she remembered. Perhaps if she were to assist him, she could write about their discovery.

“Yes, yes… Just need to find him. Gotta find Secret Fire, he heh…” The mage rubbed her hands together.

Leaving her workstation in a mess, Nightfall Gleam made her way downstairs, remembering he had disappeared down the steps earlier.

“Secret Fire? Are you down here? I want to talk to you about something.”

There was no response, nor did Nightfall see the pyromancer anywhere. His workstation was deserted, and the small furnace he kept near his seat was extinguished. Some of the mages looked at her and gave her funny looks.

“Secret Fire? Hello?”

“Are you looking for Secret Fire?” another mage said, glancing up at Nightfall. “He left a little while ago to gather plants in the swamp. He’ll probably be out there all day.”

“Confound it,” Nightfall muttered under her breath. Without another word, she rushed out of the Mages’ Tower, tripping over a crate by the door and rolling down the short flight of steps. After rubbing her head, she got back to her feet and hobbled along, needing to get to the swamp.

The Berry Swamplands were just a short ride away from Canterlot by horse, closer to the lake than the town and Nightfall knew it was a place frequented by Secret Fire. It was where he was getting all his plants for his fire experiments, after all.

“Must find Secret Fire. Must make him share his findings with me. I can do this. All I need to do is help him out. Yes. And the swamp, the swamp is far from my notes, yes,” Nightfall said to herself all the way out of Canterlot, making the other townsfolk keep a good distance away from her as she went on. “I must get my report. I must have it! Yes.”

After acquiring a horse, Nightfall made her way out to the Berry Swamplands, arriving there just as the sun seemed to be signaling midday. Nightfall took a sip from a flask she brought along, wiping sweat from her forehead. It was quite warm today, but she had to brave it. She desperately needed to find Secret Fire so she could finish a report on what he was doing. Sure, it wouldn’t be her own findings exactly, but it would be something nonetheless. She would just have to convince Secret Fire to share the glory with her, if whatever he had was worth it.

Nightfall bit her lip. If it wasn’t worth it, she would have traveled all the way out here for nothing.

“You better have results, Secret Fire. Yes, you better. I need that report. I need it now. I must finish it!”

The mage stopped her horse by the edge of the swamp, tying it to the tree before proceeding down a slope which lead down into the Berry Swamplands.

In her rush, Nightfall Gleam had tumbled down a few times, coating her face and robes in mud, leaves and twigs, even hitting her head on a small rock on the way down. But she didn’t care. All of this wasn’t important right now. What mattered is doing what she needed to get her report down. If she had to slay a beast to get it, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second.

Nightfall remembered when her parents first sent her off to Canterlot when they learnt she had an affinity for magic. They had been so proud that day. Nightfall still remembered their smiling faces as she left the doors of her home. She was not going to disappoint them by getting kicked out, or worse, turned into a frog.

“Mother, father, I shall not fail. I shall get this done and I shall write my report. Yes, I will, heheh…”

By the time she arrived at the bottom, her blue robes had already turned a sickly greenish brown, along with much of her face and hair. There was blood trickling down from her cheek from the rock, but she tried to ignore it to the best of her ability. There was even a stick with two leaves on it, sticking from the mage’s messy hair, but she didn’t seem to notice it.

“Oh Secret Fire, where are you now?” Nightfall called out, looking out for her colleague’s red robes.

She never thought she would see the day she would actually need his help. All Secret Fire has managed to do since she knew him, was burn up her notes. There was a reason she wrote them down and that reason is so that she would not have to remember all of them. Good or bad, she had committed many to memory by now, seeing as she had to rewrite many of her notes more than five times now.

He usually infuriated her, but if he could somehow help her through this, she would even give him a kiss.

“Or maybe not…” Nightfall grimaced at the thought.

Her trek through the swamp was not a pleasant one. Nightfall went along the river bank, looking up and around at all the mangrove trees dotting the landscape, hoping to catch a glimpse of red in this brown place. She spotted a few crocodiles in the river, but she figured as long as she didn’t bother them, they wouldn’t bother her.

She remembered the old tales her parents used to tell her about the legendary bogadile. According to legend, it was a massive crocodile, at least three or four times bigger than the regular one, capable of biting an entire boat in two. Thankfully, that was only a legend. Nightfall dreaded seeing the bogadile in real life.

“Secret Fire!” she called out again, cupping her hands around her mouth. “Secret Fire, come out! I need you!”

There was still no answer.

“Where have you gone, Secret Fire?” Nightfall’s left eye began to twitch in annoyance. “The swamplands are not that big, are they? I must find you. I must learn what you’ve learnt and I must write that report! Time is ticking, Nightfall. Time is ticking! You must find Secret Fire. You must!”

And then she tripped again, falling face first into what looked like a pile of mud.


Secret Fire wandered the Berry Swamplands, picking up various plant species around the river’s edge. What he needed right now was a water plant.

“Maybe if I sprinkle enough mushroom dust on one, I would be able to use them as flaming projectiles! With explosive results!” he said to himself cheerily. “Oh, that sounds just marvelous, does it not? King Dawn Saber would surely like it.”

Specifically, the red and yellow haired mage was looking for duckroot, but until then, he would settle for any other water plant.

“Hmm… How about this one?” He plucked up a bladeweed from the mud and stuffed it in his pack where he was keeping all his other samples. “Yes, this will do nicely.”

Walking ahead, Secret Fire pushed past a few reeds and walked into the shallow water. There were a few plants submerged underwater and if he was lucky, there would be duckroot among them.

“Let’s see here…”

As he pushed back the next set of reeds, Nightfall Gleam leapt out at him with a huge smile on her face.

“Aaah!” Secret Fire fell back in surprise and crawled a few centimeters back. “Nightfall Gleam?”

“Hello, Secret Fire!” Her smile somehow managed to widen.

The blue haired mage was coated almost from head to toe in dried mud, and the lower half of her robes and boots were soaked with water. Her normally pretty hair was a mess and there were plenty of sticks sticking out from it. Her eyes had shrunk to pinpricks and she had a sort of a maniacal look on her face. Secret Fire didn’t want to judge, but she looked like she was about to kill him or something. And then there was the smell. Nightfall had definitely stepped on an animal’s excrement, but Secret Fire couldn’t determine where it was coming from. For all he knew, it could’ve been on her face.

“W-What brings you here, Nightfall?”

The crazed mage slinked up to him, crawling on her hands, the big smile still etched on her face. “I’ve been looking for you, Secret Fire, I have, heh, I need something, you see, and you have to help me out. You owe me as much, yes you do!”

“I, uh, I do?” Secret Fire laughed nervously. He didn’t know what she wanted from him, but he hoped it wouldn’t be anything painful.

“I know you’re looking for plants for an experiment or invention and I want in,” Nightfall said, gritting her teeth in her smiling mouth. “I can provide useful advice, I can. How about it? How about it? He he heh… Yes. I will take it as a yes.”

Accepting her own offer, Nightfall got up and went back into the water, squatting down to search for the submerged plants.

Secret Fire got up and scratched his head. He didn’t quite know what had just happened, but Nightfall certainly wasn’t her usual self. She seemed… Out of her mind. Much more so when she tried to kill him for burning up her notes.

But he didn’t think it would be wise to agitate her further, in this state, she might do worse than try to kill him, so he decided to let her help him. Besides, if two people were to look for the duckroot, it would be faster.

“So I need some duckroot, Nightfall,” Secret Fire said as he joined her along the shallow waters of the river bank. “What I am thinking of is merging some mushroom dust on the duckroot, you know, to allow it to burn strong and well. With the water plant’s properties, it should stay aflame much longer. And with the dust, and the duckroot’s mass if balled up, it should explode on impact!”

“Sounds great, Secret Fire, he heh heh… I cannot wait to try it out. Yes, I cannot, we must find this duckroot!” Nightfall laughed to herself, her eyes and mouth as wide as ever.

Something has gone wrong with her… Secret Fire watched his colleague warily. Sure, he normally liked talking to Nightfall and she was a pretty woman, but right now, saying the wrong thing could potentially end his life sooner than he wanted, so he had to play this very carefully.

Nightfall began splashing wildly at the water, looking like she was trying to push it aside so she could see behind it. Secret Fire had to raise an arm when his colleague got more violent, sending the water all the way to him.

“It’s here, I know it’s down here, just got to get it. That’s right, Nightfall. Then you have nothing else to worry about!” The female mage giggled to herself, frightening Secret Fire.

“Umm, that’s right, Nightfall.” Secret Fire wasn’t sure how to take all her ramblings. He told himself they just needed the duckroot, then they can be on their way back to the Mages’ Tower.

As he searched, he suddenly heard Nightfall scream and flipped to face her. To his shock, there was a crocodile, its jaws clamped shut on Nightfall’s robes, thrashing wildly, likely trying to pull her into the swampy water for a tasty lunch.

“Nightfall! Hold on!” Secret Fire searched his pouch for one of his combustible potions. Maybe if he could save her, she’d snap out of her crazy behavior. Maybe she would even fall in love with him.

Now’s not the time for dreaming, Secret Fire. First, you have to rescue her.

Pulling out one of his potions, Secret Fire whipped out his flints and created a spark just above the bottle’s opening. As the first spark mixed with the potion’s contents inside, the liquid began to bubble and shake violently. Secret Fire knew from experience that he had to quickly get rid of the potion and there was better place to throw it than at the crocodile.

“Back! Down! I must have this duckroot! It is mine, not yours!” Nightfall Gleam began bashing the reptile over the head and eyes with her fists unrelentlessly. “You will not take it from me! Ha ha ha, I will have it and I will finish my report!”

Secret Fire could only stare dumbfoundedly as Nightfall gave the crocodile a good beating. The underside of her hands were getting bruised from hitting the crocodile’s tough armor, but she didn’t seem to care. And then to his astonishment, the crocodile let go and began swimming away, clearly defeated. Nightfall gave it one last kick before picking up a clod of duckroot from the water’s surface.

“What a woman…” Secret Fire scratched his head. And then he remembered the potion in his hands, but it was too late. With a final crackle, the bottle exploded, blackening Secret Fire’s entire front and setting his hair and beard on fire. Again.

“Great…” He puffed out smoke from his mouth and collapsed back on the muddy ground.


Nightfall Gleam shifted all her papers aside as she laid the duckroot over her table top. This was it. All she had to do now was test it for its exploding capabilities on impact and she could write her report. And then Clover wouldn’t turn her into a frog! Nightfall could taste the victory now.

“So close, so very close…” she mumbled to herself. She had earlier bandaged up her hands from the cuts and bruises she had inflicted on herself when she fought the crocodile, but to her, it was all worth it. She wasn’t going to let some crocodile steal her prized duckroot, no she wasn’t.

Secret Fire sat behind her, smoke still rising from his hair, but at least the fires had gone out.

“First, you will need a controlled space, Nightfall,” he instructed. “You had a look at what I was holding earlier today. That was just a quick test with other plants. When it lights aflame, you will not want to hold it with your hands.”

“Right, yes, of course.” Nightfall grinned madly, only partially listening to what Secret Fire was saying. She just needed to finish this and she wouldn’t have to worry about another report till the next week.

She put all her notes and supplies down beside her table. She was desperate to get this done, but she still wasn’t going to jeopardize her notes.

“When you have prepared the duckroot and the space. Sprinkle some of the mushroom dust on it.” Secret Fire handed her a small pouch.

Placing the aquatic plant on her table, Nightfall peeled open the bag and scooped out a pinch of the purple dust. She began sprinkling it over the plants, but it was too slow for her. She needed to get the report done as soon as possible before the day was over. By the time they had gotten back to the tower, the sun was already beginning to set, so she didn’t have long now.

Pulling her hand back, Nightfall tossed the remaining dust in her fingers down on the duckroot, then smiled. “Yes. Yes! It’s ready! Now for the fire!”

Secret Fire held out his tongs and flints to her. “Remember, be care-”

Nightfall snatched the items from him and immediately sparked the flints over the plants. On contact, the mushroom dust began setting the duckroot aflame. Nightfall quickly wrapped the duckroot into a ball, now holding on to a flaming plant in the tongs, laughing to herself.

“We have it! We have a fireball!” She jumped on the spot. “Now we just need to make sure it can explode on impact. Maybe out the window. Yes. That will do, heh heh…”

“Wait, Nightfall, where are you going?” Secret Fire followed after her as she made her way across the floor to one of the windows.

“Test. Just need to test this. Then I can write all about it in my report to Clover! Secret Fire and I have invented explosive fireballs! Yes. Yes!”

And in her hurry, Nightfall tripped over the torn edge of her robes where the crocodile had bitten, tearing it further and falling on her face, the tongs and the fireball sailing across the air.

“Get away!” Nightfall heard Secret Fire yell.

And then there was the sound of an explosion. Nightfall and a few mages were thrown back by a wave as the fireball impacted the tower wall. In a burst of brilliant orange and yellow, the floor around them soon turned into a sea of fire, the wood already beginning to weaken and break as the fire spread to the workstations.

Mages of all colors began pouring what water they had on the fire, but it didn’t do any good.

“No, no, my notes!” Nightfall scrambled to her table, where the flames had already began licking at. She grabbed for her notes and materials by the side and was suddenly tackled back by Secret Fire as a spurt of flame leapt up into he air, flying past where she had just been standing, but unfortunately, landing on the wooden beams that held up the floor above.

“Oh dear…” Secret Fire mumbled, then looked down at Nightfall. “Are you hurt?”

Nightfall shook her head, clutching her scrolls tightly in her arms. “No, but the tower! We need to do something.”

The tower was made of stone, yes, but each floor was made of wood and if the fire spread all the way upstairs… Nightfall shuddered what Clover
might do to her now.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry. This is my fault.” Nightfall covered her face with the scrolls im her arms.

In her rush to get her weekly report to Clover, she hadn’t thought out everything like she normally did. And in her clumsiness, she had potentially destroyed the work of a lot of mages, like how Secret Fire normally did.

“What am I going to do now…?”

“We need to get clear.” Secret Fire pulled on her arm. “We cannot stay here. We need to find water before the whole place crumbles down.”

A few of the mages began scrambling down the stairs while they could. One still tried to stomp out the fire, but fled as well when his robes caught on fire.

“Where are we going to get so much water?” Nightfall wailed. She knew this was it. There was nothing more she could do.

And then as the fires raged, Nightfall Gleam felt something. At first, she thought it was just the heat of the flames, but then she realized it felt more like a breeze. Starting as nothing more than the feeling of someone blowing air at your face, it suddenly increased in power, soon turning into something more like a strong wind capable of felling trees.

“What is going on?” Secret Fire covered his face with an arm as the winds began to pick up speed.

Then almost as abruptly as it had started, it was gone. Gone out the window, taking all the fire with it. Smoke still rose from the floorboards, but the flames had stopped.

The remaining mages looked around as surprised as Nightfall and Secret Fire.

“What was that? A wind?”

“What wind can go out the window like that?”

“What wind steals fire?”

Nightfall got up and returned to her charred workstation, dropping her notes and materials on it as she went over to the window to investigate the strange occurrence.

“Nightfall Gleam,” an old, wizened female voice came from above. The mage looked at the carved stairs as a person in white and gold hooded robes descended at her. In the figure’s right hand was a long staff made of gold and silver, shining like a thousand candles.“I thought it might be you.”

Nightfall cringed as the Magus Superior descended the last few steps and stood at her level. Although she was old and looking increasingly fatigued, Clover the Clever still managed to loom over Nightfall, casting a warm glow from her staff onto Nightfall’s stricken face. Behind her, Light Speckle, her eventual successor, followed.

“Magus Cl-Clover!” Nightfall dithered. “I can explain-”

“There is no need for that. I’ve been scrying you since you rushed off to the swamp. I know everything.”

“Scry? Me? Why me?”

Clover shook her head. “You went rushing after Secret Fire. Normally you avoid him like the plague. After one of your colleagues reported your suspicious behavior to me, I decided to keep a watch on you. And it is a good thing that I did.” Clover shook a wizened old finger at Nightfall, who seemed to shrink. “Your actions today were very irresponsible. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Clover looked like she was at the end of her strength, so Light Speckle ran over and grabbed a stool for her, helping her sit by the staircase leading up.

“I, um, I-” Nightfall was at a lost for words.

And then of all people, it was Secret Fire who decided to help her out. “Magus Superior, it was me. Nightfall Gleam was simply helping me conduct an experiment with duckroot. I am to blame for such a plan.”

Clover simply raised a hand and Secret Fire fell silent. “It was not your plan that caused this destruction, Secret Fire. It was Nightfall’s carelessness. If not for the staff, we would have to find a new tower. Tell me, Nightfall. What was all this rush for? What did you hope to accomplish so quickly?”

“I… I…” Nightfall looked from Secret Fire to Clover and then Light Speckle before sighing. “I’m sorry. It was my weekly report. I had forgotten all about it. I thought perhaps I could get something done and quickly write my report before sundown. Please, Magus Clover, I don’t want to leave the tower or turn into a frog. I promise I will try harder.”

Clover rested her staff in her lap, then squinted up at Nightfall. “Turn you into a frog? Is that some fantasy that you mages down here have come up with?”

The tricolored haired mage blinked a few times, her eyes going wide. “Y-You won’t turn me into a frog?”

“No…” Clover said slowly. “And I’m not going to expel you from the tower either. You are a very valuable mage, Nightfall Gleam. You just have to learn that your place here doesn’t depend on your weekly reports so much as it does on what you actually do.”

“I-It doesn’t?”

“No, I did not make these reports necessary. They are just so I know what you mages have been up to and what you have learnt in your time here,” Clover chuckled weakly. “There is no requirement to actually hand in a report once a week. Just think of it as a good experience to do so.”

Outside, an owl hooted. It sounded like laughter.

“See, even the owls know not to fuss over things too much. Just do what you usually do, and send me a report when you discover something interesting.”

“I… I… Oh.” Nightfall suddenly felt lightheaded. “Maybe I just need a short rest, but, thank you, Magus Clover. I… I should have known better.”

“Don’t mention it,” Clover said with a wry smile. “Just don’t take this to be an excuse to not send me any more reports. I do actually enjoy reading them. All of them.”

“Of-of course, Clover!” Nightfall squeaked. “And I think I’ve learned a very important lesson today.”