To either side of the hanging were glass cabinets filled, again neatly, with various items and curios. Master Doronal had moved to the right cabinet when he had entered the room and was apparently searching within it for something, his back to Aeron.
In the middle of the room was a large table with several items and scraps of parchment on it. It was surrounded by chairs of various stripe, Aeron saw, and at its center was a large square section filled with little piles of what looked like— “Sand?” Aeron blurted out loud.
“Hmm?” Master Doronal replied, turning from the cabinet. “Oh, yes. Stone dust actually, enchanted. Observe.”
He walked over to the table and removed a rod of wood, nearly three feet long, from a slot on its top. It appeared to have a very faint shimmer to it. He slowly moved it over the unevenly piled dust, which then smoothed out into a flat surface. From a small bin built into the table just to the side of the dust surface, he removed one of several smooth sticks. The stick, about the size of a pen, had a green end and a red end, each tapered.
“It’s useful for hashing out ideas,” Master Doronal said and used the green end of the stick to write in the dust. The writing stayed sharp and intact—the powder did not collapse.
“The stylus, dust, and flattening rod are enchanted so they interact in ways that allow writing and erasing. Which makes it easy to scratch something around a bit until it is perfected. It can then be copied for posterity to paper or parchment.”
He swirled the red end of the stylus in some of the writing, which collapsed back to being a flat surface, then used the green end again and ‘corrected’ the writing.
“Amazing,” Aeron said. “That is pretty useful.”
“Indeed!” Master Doronal said and dropped the stylus back into its bin.
“Why wasn’t it flat at first?”
Master Doronal, to Aeron’s surprise, looked a bit sheepish.
“Well,” he replied, “sometimes, if the ideas are temperamental and difficult in coming, I just . . .” and he reached over with his right hand and scattered the dust wildly. The dust exploded out of the section, swirling across the table and into the air, then slowly floated back to the writing area, forming an uneven surface as all of the dust magically collapsed back into random piles.
Aeron giggled, then put his hand over his mouth.
With a rueful half-smile on his face, Master Doronal said, “Enough of the writing table, though. Let’s get started, shall we?” He walked behind his desk and, smiling at Aeron, he gestured to one of the large chairs in front of the desk, the one to his right, and said, “Have a seat.”
Aeron gulped, his concern returning.
“Come, there’s nothing to worry about. We will be starting quite simply. In truth, the cleaning spell will have to wait until you are a bit more proficient. But if you work diligently at your magic studies and show some skill, I will teach it to you.” Master Doronal gestured again to the chair, and Aeron made his way to it and sat. The large chair was very comfortable, though Aeron hardly noticed.
Master Doronal removed a small leather pad from a drawer and placed it on the desk near Aeron. He set a glittering object upon the pad, a gem or crystal about the size of a small plum, which he had somehow been carrying unseen in his left hand. “This is a dragon’s eye.”
“A dragon’s eye?” Aeron asked with shock. He sat up straighter and slid to the front edge of the chair, scrutinizing the object as best he could. It didn’t appear to actually be faceted, and yet it glittered with light.
Master Doronal chuckled and said, “No, it is not an actual eye from a dragon. It’s much too small.” He made his way behind the chair Aeron was sitting in and continued. “According to legend, a dragon’s eye glitters very much like that item, thus the name.” Master Doronal shoved the chair closer to the desk, eliciting a small yelp from Aeron. “However, no one has ever been able to achieve close contact with a dragon. And dragon sightings are uncommon. They seem to keep to themselves, despite what is presented on the wall hanging there. Thus, verifying whether this item looks exactly like a real dragon’s eye will be difficult.” He returned to his place behind his desk, moved his chair directly across from Aeron, and sat down.
“Your third lesson is that everything in our universe is imbued with magic to one degree or another. Some things have very little magic, while others fairly drip with it. Extremely magical items, or creatures for that matter, are uncommon. Most items have very little magic, but there are a great number of items with a good deal of magic. Are you following so far?”
“Yes, sir,” Aeron replied, absorbing every word.
“Good. Now, before you let your imagination run away with you, when I say ‘items’ I don’t mean say, a spoon, or a sword. I mean raw, natural things. Types of ore or minerals, including gems and crystals,” Master Doronal gestured to the dragon’s eye before continuing, “individual types of plant or animal and, in a sense, some naturally occurring waters or liquids. Those types of things. That’s not to say you couldn’t make a spoon out of magical ore and thus have a magical spoon, or enchant a non-magical spoon in some fashion to again create a magical spoon . . .” He paused and looked hopefully at Aeron. “Do you get my meaning?”
“I believe I do, sir,” Aeron said, nodding and glancing occasionally at the dragon’s eye.
“Excellent. Now, some magic was naturally imbued in items in such a way that it causes the items to have what we call an affinity. An affinity is, well, best defined by example. If an item has an affinity to a type of plant, it means that the item reacts to that type of plant either by helping it grow better, or live longer, or by physically merging with that type of plant, or in the case of negative affinities, by doing the exact opposite. An item having an affinity to something means it can affect that something one way or another, or be affected by that something one way or another.”
Master Doronal watched Aeron a moment, saw that he was paying very close attention, and continued. “Not all items have an affinity, but through some quirk of how they were imbued with magic, some items do. The powders used in the cleaning process, for example, are from plants and minerals that have certain kinds of affinities to light moss, glass, and light itself. And when used in the correct proportions along with the spell, they ease the process of enchanting the light moss extract into the globes and enhance the light given off by them. There are affinities to many, many things: light, heat, sound, pressure or physical shock, various liquids and solids, minerals, and more. The list goes on and on.”
Master Doronal paused, looking at Aeron, then gestured to the dragon’s eye. “What do you suppose a dragon’s eye has an affinity to?”
Aeron looked at the small crystal and considered a moment. “It seems to me that the affinity would be to light.” He continued to stare at the dragon’s eye, which glittered on the leather pad, throwing off little spears of light of various colors.
“Correct. It is indeed a crystal with an affinity to light. This affinity has been amplified with an enchantment. Observe.” Master Doronal raised his hand toward the dragon’s eye and seemed to focus on the glittering gemstone. Aeron felt magic near him. It pulsed once. It felt much like a wave of goose-bumps moving over his skin. He felt it course over him and through him. And briefly, he saw, something, a moving, twisting shape. He blinked and it was gone. The dragon’s eye went dull, only occasionally throwing out a faint glitter.
“As you can see, without the affinity amplification enchantment, it’s not so much a dragon’s eye anymore, though it does have its core affinity and thus still glitters faintly.”
Aeron nodded, then looked up at Master Doronal. “I felt the spell you cast, much stronger than I have before. I felt the magic on my skin, throughout my body. It felt like standing close to a drum as it was being beat.”
“Indeed. Unless you are casting the spell yourself, you have to be fairly close to it being cast in order to feel the magic being used. But even then, you only feel a hint of the magic.”
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“And for a moment there—” Aeron wasn’t sure he should mention what he saw. What he thought he saw.
“Yes?” Master Doronal asked, staring intently at Aeron.
With Master Doronal’s steady gaze on him Aeron couldn’t hold back. So, in a rush, he blurted, “I thought for a moment that I saw something.” Aeron looked down at the now listless dragon’s eye on the leather pad, unable to keep eye contact. “Maybe I just imagined it.”
“Oh, that’s quite good.”
Aeron furrowed his brow and looked back at Master Doronal, questioningly.
“It usually takes people weeks and weeks of directly working with magic before they can see it. And while you have been around the cleaning spell being cast for a while now, your exposure has only been in passing. Yet you can see magic on your first day. Extraordinary.” Master Doronal sat back in his chair. “Being able to feel magic is the first sense of magic people have. And generally, that is where we would have started, feeling the magic, its pulse and flow, the rhythm of it. However, as you can see magic already, we’ll combine those exercises with the next.”
Aeron, concerned that he had only seen a glimpse of something and wasn’t even sure of what, spoke out. “But, sir, I’m not even sure I saw anything!”
Master Doronal held up his hand to forestall any more talk.
“Lesson number four,” he said. “Magic must be bent to your will. As you learned in lesson two, magic is everywhere. And as I mentioned, you must be able to sense it in order to use it. You must also maintain control of it, however. You must be able to concentrate and focus and keep control of the magic in order to complete spells. It is especially important for the more powerful spells that require large amounts of magic.
“You see, when you start to build a spell, the magic used by it is like a wide river, full of deep strength, but diffuse and slow. As you get closer to completing it, the spell begins to gain focus, the river narrows, gains more speed. The most dangerous time is when a spell is almost complete. It is like a torrent forced through a small gap, full of sheer power. Straining with force and possibility, the magic fights against the constraints of the spell, fights to be free. Your will, focus, and completion of the spell, forces it into its final state. If you lose concentration, if you are not careful of how you finish the spell, or if you lose control of the spell, it can have unpredictable results.”
Aeron again wondered what horrible things might happen if a spell was not completed correctly. His worry returned.
“People find it easier to control magic once they get a feel for its rhythm. By that time, they have usually seen magic and can thus move to the next phase, learning to construct spells. So we will continue with the focus on learning magic’s rhythm, but also with an eye, so to speak, on a spell’s look, its structure.”
Master Doronal opened a drawer in his desk and removed two flat metal rings connected by a long, thin chain. “These are training bracelets. They will allow you to share directly in the creation of spells I cast, and I in spells you cast. Normally, you cannot share in the creation of a spell someone else is casting, but for training, it is necessary, and these make it possible.”
Master Doronal snapped one bracelet on his wrist. Faint runes appeared in the air above the bracelet’s surface, moved slowly around its perimeter a moment and then sank into the bracelet. He motioned for Aeron to bring his wrist closer. He snapped the other bracelet on Aeron’s wrist, and the same runes appeared, then disappeared on that bracelet as well. The long thin chain connecting the bracelets was about four feet long, which was more than enough for the distance between them.
“Just watch the spells for now. Feel their magic, the rhythms, and examine their structures. Eventually, you will get to assist in their creation. Understand?”
Aeron nodded, his excitement growing with the prospect of casting a spell on his own. His excitement was soon tempered, however.
They spent the next hour working on Aeron’s ability to sense magic. Master Doronal re-enchanted the dragon’s eye with one spell and removed the enchantment with another, deliberately weaving them slowly so that Aeron could watch. Master Doronal cast the spells over and over again, many times. As repetitive as it was, however, it worked. The twisting shapes of each spell soon became completely visible to Aeron, and they were beautiful. He could also now sense the subtle rhythm of the spells, the ebb and flow of magic being used.
“Magic flows in a spell almost like music in a song,” he eventually said.
“Yes, that is a good way of describing it. And what of a spell’s look?” Master Doronal began re-enchanting the dragon’s eye once again.
“I see throbbing bands of colors. One color I’ve never seen before. And the bands . . . they act somewhat like a puzzle box. But one more complicated than any I’ve ever seen. The color bands twist and slide, shifting the box until it snaps into its final shape, which for both of these spells is not actually a box.” He paused and frowned. “It’s hard to explain.”
“No, no, that’s quite right. Each person sees the magic of spells in a way that makes sense to them. Its look varies from person to person: a complex machine, flows of water or fire, petals of a very complicated flower, threads in fine cloth, colored sand in a sand vase, fibers in a tapestry, intertwined bits of twisted wire in a metal puzzle, and on and on. What you must know, however, is that it is all the same thing in reality. Magic is magic. It is us that sees it differently.”
Master Doronal paused and looked at Aeron. “Everyone sees magic in their own way. And everyone needs to discover their own way to see it. I could not tell you what it looked like, because your mind needed to work out what it looked like in a way that made sense to you.” He completed the spell to remove the enchantment from the dragon’s eye, and it sat nearly lifeless on the leather pad.
“I see,” Aeron said, eyes on the now rather dull crystal. He looked at Master Doronal, a pensive look on his face and half said, half asked, “And another thing, it seems that what I see of a spell’s structure, is somehow not with my eyes?”
“Well done! That is exactly correct. When you focus on magic, you see it in your mind, and your mind adds it to what you see with your eyes.” Master Doronal smiled and continued. “Close your eyes. I am going to enchant the crystal again and I want you to concentrate on the spell with your eyes closed.”
Aeron looked at the dragon’s eye and did as the magic master requested. He felt the spell as it began, the pulsing rhythm of magic. And he could ‘see’ it as well, even with his eyes closed. “This is amazing!” he crowed. “I still see the spell in the same place it was. Well, not really ‘see,’ but, do you know what I mean?”
“That’s as it should be. The spell is being cast on the dragon’s eye and is anchored to it, so its structure encompasses the crystal physically. Thus it appears in the same place.”
The magic master glanced at Aeron, who had his eyes closed. A small smile appeared on Master Doronal’s face and his eyes narrowed. He looked back at the crystal and cast the next part of the spell.
Aeron was watching the spell structure shift as it was being built, the ‘puzzle box’ twisting, turning and sliding with each step of the spell, when he noticed a color band that should not have been there. Without thinking, he removed it.
There, he thought, that’s better. And in fact, it would make more sense if this part of the box here, these four bands, were shifted thus and the band there was shifted just so. With that final adjustment, the spell locked into shape and was complete.
Aeron’s changes to the spell had happened so quickly, Master Doronal could only watch, dumbfounded.
Not a second later, Aeron realized what he had done. He gasped, his eyes flew open, and he stood bolt upright, his motion noisily forcing the chair back several inches. “Master Doronal, I’m so sorry . . . !”
He couldn’t continue because an incredibly bright light had suddenly appeared in front of him, and he had to shield his eyes. The dragon’s eye blazed w
ith an intensity brighter than it ever had before. Lances of multicolored light shot forth from the crystal, making it nearly impossible to see any part of the side of the desk upon which it sat. The rest of the room seemed to disappear into gloom.
“Barbs and blades!” Master Doronal was also on his feet, eyes shielded with his arm. He quickly removed the amplifying enchantment, and the dragon’s eye returned to lying listlessly on the leather pad, only a faint glimmer visible occasionally.
“Sir, I don’t know how I—”
“Sit!” Master Doronal pointed at the chair behind Aeron, who promptly sat down. Master Doronal was staring at Aeron with an unreadable look. “Shift it closer again, if you would, lad,” he said more calmly and sat back down himself.
Aeron shifted the chair as close as it had been, but he couldn’t meet Master Doronal’s gaze, so instead, he looked at the dragon’s eye.
He burned with shame. What was he thinking! Changing a spell? Was he insane? He could have been killed, or worse, he could have killed Master Doronal! He was sure he was going to be turfed. He felt tears welling up behind his eyes, and a small whimper escaped his lips before he could clamp his mouth shut.
“Lad,” Master Doronal said. “Aeron, I have to apologize. Aeron, look at me.”
Aeron lifted his gaze from the crystal, a tear running out of his left eye and down his cheek. “I’m so sorry, Master Doronal. I could have killed you!”
“No, lad, you couldn’t have. At least I don’t think so. Those spells, along with others you will learn soon, are used in training new sorcerers for a reason. They are extremely difficult to bungle in such a way that they become dangerous. And I’m sorry I shouted at you. I was caught off-guard.”
Aeron closed his eyes and breathed a deep sigh of relief. He felt immensely better, though he was still concerned about stepping out of line adjusting the spell as he had. He looked again at Master Doronal.
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