Now, reaching out with my mind and getting energy was easy, and with this much energy flowing around me, the trick was getting only enough so that I could control what I was doing.
“Got it,” I said after a moment. The energy flow was moving through me, ready to power anything I told it to.
“Now, in one motion,” Aahz said, “without a break, picture the map on the ceiling and then picture the same map on the paper.”
I did it, letting the energy help me get a clear image of the ceiling map, then a clear image of the same lines and shapes and words on the magik paper.
I let go of the energy and opened my eyes. “Perfect,” Aahz said, actual excitement in his voice. I glanced at the roof. The map was still there. Good, I hadn’t harmed it.
Then I looked at the paper, almost afraid of what I might see. The same map was reproduced there, only the lines were much clearer, and there were words on the paper that I didn’t remember even seeing on the ceiling. And none of the dust and dirt obscured it either. I couldn’t believe it. I had done a new spell perfectly the first time!
“Now don’t go getting a swollen head,” Aahz said, as if he could read my thoughts. “That was the easy part.”
I didn’t care. I had done it, and done it right the first time. For the moment that was all that mattered.
“So what’s next?”
“We do the same spell with energy lines,” Aahz said, “imprinting them on this map of the castle.”
I knew that was what he was going to want, but doing that meant stepping out of my mind to look down on the energy lines through the entire area. And the last time I had tried that I almost hadn’t made it back inside my own mind. Of course, Aahz didn’t know I had even tried. I didn’t want to tell him because I knew he’d be angry.