"Pacha mama sachaqa llapanchispa mamanmi. Paymanta kay pacha paqarimun, hinaspataq llapan imapas payman kutimunqa. Wayra makinsi llapanchista amachawanchis, Dioskunaq ancha chanintaqa yallinmi. Ñawpaq runakunaq yawarnin kurkuy patapiwan, llapa imaq sachanman waqyaykunim awqayniykunata tukuchinapaq."
Mateo chanted in the language of his ancestors. When he finished, he threw the glowing potion onto the ground, and the earth began shaking. Cate grabbed Mary's hand and pulled her backward. The Mage Born saw this and, without a word, followed them to the back.
Mateo continued chanting, his voice growing ever more maniacal. His words filled the world and entered the souls of those who heard them. The air grew thicker, and the stage began cracking, followed by the earth around it. A tree sapling emerged from the stage and grew rapidly. The potion was absorbed by the earth, and soon, a large tree over ten feet tall stood on the stage. It was the picture of perfect health, its leaves greener than anything in the world. This tree looked like any other, except that no one could identify its kind. So far, Mateo's spell was going as planned.
He was grinning from ear to ear when things suddenly changed. The tree lost all its luster as its leaves and branches blackened. Before Mateo could comprehend the gravity of his situation, the tree reached out towards him with one of its branches. The branch cut through space with incredible speed. Before he could blink, the branch had already passed through his chest, his heart now beating at the tip that had pierced him. His eyes were wide open. The tree did not stop there. It rapidly began sucking blood from the poor fellow, and in a matter of seconds, Mateo was a dried corpse. The tree pulled back its branch, taking his heart with it. Mateo was the only thing left on the stage, his eyes staring at the ceiling above. He had clearly died unconvinced.
There was total silence. No one had the energy to speak, and this included the judges, who were truly shaken by what they had just seen. The spell was powerful, but it was clearly a failure. The young man had not intended suicide, and so the attempt was a failure.
Mary looked at Cate with a single question in her eyes. "Wait for it," Cate said.
After a few seconds, just when the crowd was moving back toward normalcy and their guards were down, roots pierced through the earth with the stage as the center. These roots pierced through the chests of tens of people. There were countless screams. The judges finally acted and began using powerful spells to stop the tree, but nothing they did worked. This continued until the head judge, the old one, took action with his most powerful fire spell, burning everything to ash. They were finally able to banish the thing that Mateo had summoned, but over eight participants were already dead, and the area around the stage and the stage itself were turned to lava.
Finally, Mary's question was answered. This was the reason Cate had pulled her away from the stage. If she had stayed at the front, she would have died with all the others. Even the judges, who were supreme magicians, would not have survived had they been next to the stage when the evil tree attacked.
The judges paused the test after this incident. Even though they were prepared for many to die, things had gone way out of control. This was the first time this kind of test was being held, and they now had to reevaluate its feasibility. Spells were not so easy to create, and they had given this test knowing very well that it could end with all the participants having failed. In truth, all the judges needed to see was that the person had the potential to create a spell. Even if the spell failed, just like Mateo's, it did not matter. As long as he had lived, they would have passed the test. The fact that Mateo had died and taken tens of people with him brought the test into question.
The participants were taken to the dining hall where they were served anything they wanted to eat. As long as one could name it, they had it.
"So, Mary, how about you tell me more about your life?"
Mary smiled at Cate. The Mage Born was devouring food like a starved man, but even he was interested in hearing about Mary. The girl seemed very mysterious with her laptop and bubbly personality.
"There's not much to tell, but I'll share the little I can. I don't know who my parents are. After I was born, I was sent to a small church in the human world. I was raised there like a normal human child until I was ten years old. The orphanage ran out of money. The church and the donors could no longer afford to keep all the children, so some of us were sent off into the world. Many restrictions regarding adoption were removed and others revised, making it much easier for people to adopt from the orphanage. This wasn't exactly a bad thing, but some of us weren't lucky at all. After I was adopted, my life became hell. Anything and everything you can think of, I've gone through. I finally ran away when I was sixteen years old and began living on my own. This was when my powers as a seer manifested, and I soon ran into other supernaturals. From them, I learned that I was a witch. As I learned more about who I was, I learned that I was also a seer. This was my ability as a witch. I was interested in getting my hands on all the information I could, so I learned how to use a computer, and the years went by. I was able to make a living by selling information to other supernaturals. I got most of my information through my ability as a seer, but my hacking abilities also came in handy. Even though humans and supernaturals live seemingly separate lives, there's a great connection between the two, and as long as one knows how to search through the vast information in the human world, they can find information even about supernaturals."
The Mage Born stopped eating and looked at Mary. Cate continued eating without saying anything.
When the three were done with their meal, they prepared to return to their assigned rooms.