by Rain Oxford
“Do you always talk so formally?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
I sat on the bed. “Can you show me a spell to make my hair black?”
“I am rather surprised your mother never did it.”
“She’s done it before, but it always changes back when I do magic.”
“I see. The reason for this is your magic itself. Magic here is not any more limited than it is on other worlds, yet magic users are. It is only reasonable, for magic users could easily destroy this world if not kept in check. In fact, one of the worlds I traveled to had a violent hate for all things supernatural. Their cities were quite fascinating in a technological standpoint, as they were moments away from technological singularity, which was the reason for my premature departure. Yet another world I traveled to was so technologically repressed that the residents of a small village tried to burn me when they saw my watch.”
“Um…” I agreed wisely.
“But I digress. Your natural appearance is influenced by your magic because that is the nature of this world. This is so that when you encounter strangers, they have an idea what kind of person you are. On this world, untrustworthy people look untrustworthy. Therefore, only you can change your appearance and you can only do that by changing who you are. In the meantime, you can simulate such an appearance using illusionary magic.”
“But that means I need a magician.”
“Quite right. Unfortunately, I did not expect Vac to be dead when I thought of him. You will have to live with your blond hair for a while longer.”
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t mind my hair color except that it was another reason for my brothers to tease me. “Tell me about the world you’re from.”
“I have traveled to many worlds.”
“I know, but where were you born? What was it like growing up? Were your parents wizards? Were they proud of you?”
He sighed and sat. “I was born on an archaic world with too many superstitions and traditions. I never knew my father, but my mother had no shortage of tales to spin. I was told my power was noticeable from birth and my mother would never admit to bedding a man out of wedlock, so it was said that my father was a demon. You can imagine the rumors I had to suffer through. When I was nine, I discovered how to travel to different worlds.”
“I bet that was scary.”
“It was rather confusing at first. It began with astral projection.”
“With what?”
“I traveled to other worlds in my mind, which I learned by accident. Once I met some others with the same abilities, I practiced and studied the magic necessary to travel the worlds. One day, I told my mother that I would find a better place to live and come back for her. I traveled to so many worlds that they began to blend together. It was amazing and beautiful and lonely. I found a world I knew my mother would be happy on. It was frightfully boring, but then, so was my mother. I was too late, though. I returned to the home I was born in to find that it had been passed on to another family. She had died alone, still waiting for me to come back.”
“She didn’t have any other children?”
He shook his head. “I never knew why for sure, but I believe she was hoping for my father to return. I spent many years after that traveling from world to world. When I was very lonely, I would settle down somewhere for a few years, but eventually something out there would call to me and I would take off again. I saw so many incredible things, so much history unfolding in front of my very eyes… yet there was no one to share it with. The majesty of the universe was not meant to keep secret.”
“Why didn’t you take an apprentice or something?”
“I did eventually. I took a number of them over my many years instead of having children. In the end, though, they would leave to experience their own adventures. Some of them fell in love, some of them broke down under the weight of what they saw, and some of them just moved on. I also became an adviser to non-wizards. Unfortunately, too often, people did not really believe in my magic.”
“How old are you?”
“I never bothered to figure that out.”
I really didn’t think I could hear any more that night. It never occurred to me that being stuck in wolf form was the least of the wizard’s problems. “How did you end up cursed? I know you said that you loved the wrong woman and was blinded to your enemy, but how?”
“That is a story for another night.”
I figured as much. “How did you end up on this world? You didn’t know what world this was until I said I was a sorcerer.”
“Yes, I was on a different world; one where I was quite the legend. If anything, I was more feared there than Magnus is here. How I came to be here, I have no idea. Someone must have stolen the syrus and brought it here. I am still unsure how you read the inscription.”
“I don’t know. I just waved my wand and told the box to open. The inscription became readable, I read it, and the syrus opened. I’m pretty tired.”
“Then I will leave you for tonight. In the morning, you will begin practicing with your new staff.” He turned and left.
After shaking the blanket to rid it of the dust, I sat back down and studied my new staff. Energy tingled under my skin as it adapted to the power. It was almost as if the staff and my magic were getting to know each other.
Worried that I was going to accidentally do magic, I set it back down and settled under the covers. A moment later, I turned… and squeaked. Then I fell out of bed with a pained grunt. “What are you doing?!” I asked Kisha, who was lying on the bed. I had never had a bed large enough to share with a girl, and I definitely didn’t want a young ghost to be the first one I shared it with.
She smiled shyly. “I just wanted to make sure you are settled in and have everything you need.” She twirled a lock of blond hair around her index finger. “I thought your wolf would never leave.”
“Actually, I think I forgot to ask him a question. I should go find him.” I turned to the door, only for her to suddenly appear in front of it. Gods. “Or not. I’m really tired and I think I should go to bed.” Her smile fell and I felt bad. Not bad enough to invite her to stay, but still pretty bad.
“Oh. Okay,” she said. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she vanished.
Chapter 4
I woke up to the scent of eggs and potatoes, and my stomach growled. Beside my bed was a plate with a generous portion of eggs along with seasoned potato cuts mixed with cheese and onion. I spared a moment to wonder who had prepared the meal before I devoured it like I was starving.
When I was finished, I dressed, grabbed my wand and staff, and left to explore the mansion. All of the bedrooms were on the second floor. Right before I reached the staircase, I happened to glance into a room to my left and stopped. It was a huge library, which I couldn’t resist. I closed myself in the room and studied the books. Most were ancient grimoires on magic, yet others were about mythology or grand quests.
It was too warm for me to light the fire, so I pulled a few books down and sat on the window seat to read.
* * *
“This is not where I expected to find you, young sorcerer,” Merlin said, pulling me back to reality. I glanced out the window and realized it was far past morning. Merlin sat in the center of the room, looking almost amused.
“I like books,” I said. “Mother only ever let me read about curses and potion ingredients.”
“Who taught you to read?” he asked.
“My father. He had a lot of older brothers, like me, so he often took pity on me when my mother wasn’t around.”
“You are not, by chance, the seventh son of the seventh son, are you?”
“Yes, I am. Why?”
He hesitated. “We should discuss that another time. For now, let us begin your training. Pick up the staff, and attack me.”
“Attack…” I looked around at all the flammable paper. “But the books would get hurt.” Merlin gave me a scowl, turned, and walked out. I was very glad he didn�
��t push. Yes, I wanted to be a malevolent sorcerer, but that was no excuse to destroying books. I followed him out of the room, down the stairs, and through a back door.
Behind the mansion was a grassy field. It wasn’t lush, green, and trimmed like I had imagined it would be. No, it was more befitting the house; the field had waist-high, brown grass and was speckled with boulders, thorn vines, and abandoned, half-disintegrated battle equipment. “Is this to your bibliophile satisfaction?”
“My what?”
“Never mind. You apparently have more depths than I had originally thought.”
“Oh,” I said, assuming he was insulting me. My brothers ridiculed me for pretty much everything I did, but most of all for my desire to read books. Of course, none of them could read, so they didn’t know what they were missing. I felt a little stab of pity for them.
“Put your wand away and attack me with magic.”
I stuck my wand in my pocket and put both of my hands on the staff in front of me. Attack, I thought to the staff. Nothing happened. Fire. Still nothing.
“Any time now,” Merlin said.
“I’m trying. I’m thinking it really hard.”
“Thinking a command is not the same as feeling it. When you conjure food, you do not think food, you feel hunger. When you silenced Vactarus last night, you wanted it. To attack someone, you have to feel it.”
“But I don’t want to attack you.” He gave me a thoughtful look. Again, I was astounded by his skill in making expressions with his wolf face.
“I see. I suppose I have no other choice. Prepare yourself to be offended,” he said. Before I could say anything, he continued. “Your blond hair makes you look like my first girlfriend, who was twelve. Your wand looks like a stick of cherry-flavored chocolate. You smell feminine. Your magic is whiter than my teeth.”
“Hey! That’s rude! Don’t talk about my magic that way.”
“Your mother is a warlock.”
“My mother is not a deceiver with no real magic!” It wasn’t the first time someone had called her a trickster, but it was usually the last thing they ever said. Warlocks, who had no magic, were often trying to pass themselves off as sorcerers, so they were despised by all real sorcerers.
“She is, and you are a wizard.”
I knew he was only trying to rile me up, and he had so much as told me it was coming, but I still felt anger boil in my blood. It was different when my family insulted me; they knew my weaknesses and I knew theirs. We were stuck with each other whether we liked it or not. Merlin didn’t know me or my evil mother.
The crystal on the staff started emitting a dim glow, and the knowledge that I was doing something was all the encouragement my anger needed. I thought of what I wanted to strike with, but that only made the glow begin to fade.
It was my mother’s words that came to mind, not Merlin’s. “In any battle it is the one who has nothing to lose that wins,” she had said many times. As always, her words were entirely unhelpful. The crystal faded more.
“Sorcerers need no reason to be angry, Ayden,” Merlin said, abandoning his ploy to incite me. “All magic comes from inside us. Even magical objects were born of the power inside a person. It is pure, manifested desire, for sorcerers and wizards alike. Wizards may desire peace and balance while sorcerers may desire self-gain and raw power, but the more powerful person is the one with a stronger desire. The only way you can beat me is to want a victory more than me. That is why sorcerers find so many reasons to hate and to hold grudges. I have never actually met a happy sorcerer.”
“My mother is happy,” I said. Well, at least I thought so. The fact was, nothing was ever good enough for her, even from my oldest brother, who was her favorite. She always smiled a lot, though, and while it was usually a cruel or treacherous grin, I thought it meant that she was happy.
“Of course she is not. After birthing six suitably obedient pawns, her plans were foiled by the son she had been waiting for all along. I suppose you must be the greatest disappointment to her.”
I started to argue before I realized what he was saying. “What does this have to do with my brothers? You said something about it earlier, too.”
“We can discuss that later. For now, you are in the midst of a lesson, and you have yet to strike me.”
The staff had stopped glowing completely. “I don’t want to fight you. I appreciate that you’re trying to rile me by insulting me, but I also know it’s not true.”
He sighed in my head. “This may be the root of your problem. No sorcerer is so self-aware and unaware at the same time. It is true that I did not mean what I said when I insulted you, but a sorcerer does not care. A sorcerer can turn on anyone for no reason at all.”
“What stops a sorcerer from walking into traps every day?”
“Nothing on other worlds; they rush into traps quite frequently. Here, however, people value sorcerers as much as wizards for the same reason people do not normally hate sharks. Thus, it does not happen so much. Now, stop stalling and attack me.”
I was stalling, but I wasn’t wasting time. First, I tried to make myself angry. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything to be angry about. I didn’t think it would be wise to point this out. Instead, I focused on the desire to prove that I was not a wizard. I would prove myself by defeating the greatest wizard of the land and then my family would stop ridiculing me at every turn.
The crystal started to glow softly again. This is it. I can do this. I can use dark magic. I would have gone on, encouraged by the energy I could feel thrumming in the staff and my own energy that was starting to prickle under my skin, but that was when the ground exploded upward right in front of me.
I shrieked and my magic shot through the staff before I realized that the ground hadn’t actually exploded. Instead, it was Vactarus who had popped up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop the magic once it had left me. Bright red energy struck Vactarus, and his body instantly shrunk and transformed into a little black bat.
“Oh, so cute!” I cooed before I could stop myself. My mother only let us have large, outside bats that could defend the house and warn us when people wandered too close, so the little bat was pretty adorable in my opinion. Unfortunately, my brothers didn’t know how to take care of a bat and thus, we never kept one for long.
“Cute?!” Vactarus squeaked, his voice high-pitched. “Turn me back!” He was only able to flap his little wings a few times before he plummeted to the ground.
I held the staff out to Merlin. “Maybe you should do it.”
The wolf smirked. “Actually, I think not. You turned a ghost into a ghost bat. I am rather impressed.”
I grinned as well. It wasn’t anything as malevolent as what even my nicest brother did on a daily basis, but it was real sorcery. “Sorcerers have minions, right? Can I have an army of bat minions?”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Not if you coo at them every time you see them.”
Vactarus didn’t hear Merlin and obviously didn’t like being ignored, because he flapped his wings in fury. I resisted making another adoring sound as he was lifted into the air and landed on his head. “Turn me back!” he screeched.
I almost aimed the staff at him, but stopped myself right before doing so. Although breaking curses was not sorcery, it took an understanding of the magic that caused the curse. I didn’t understand what I had done, and I definitely wasn’t going to be able to undo it with my new staff.
“You were able to remove the silencing curse last night,” Merlin reminded me, obviously understanding my hesitation.
“I think removing my own curse should be easy, because I know my magic.” Or, at least that was what I told myself. The fact that I could easily break my brothers’ curses never failed to anger my mother. It was just easier for me to undo dark magic than to do it.
Also, as often as my brothers cursed me, it was a life-or-death skill. The first one I ever broke was my eldest brother’s, because he cursed me to stop breathing whenever I fell asleep. Unfortun
ately, when I tried to curse him to bleed profusely from every orifice, my magic just made him smell like wild berries instead.
I laid my staff gently on the ground and pulled out my wand. My energy responded readily, as if my wand was a welcomed friend I hadn’t seen in a while. I pointed it at the ghost bat and thought, return to normal. Magic flashed. It was white for once, as if it didn’t have time to be colorful and sparkly and utterly embarrassing. To my great relief, it didn’t even do a fluttery dance. It struck Vactarus and he immediately changed back into a man… well… ghost.
He righted himself and glared at me. Since he was a spirit instead of a physical person, I wasn’t surprised that his clothes were perfectly unruffled.
“Sorry. You shouldn’t sneak up on Dracre sorcerers. We tend to curse first and ask questions later,” I said. Merlin raised an eyebrow at me. “At least, everyone else in my family does.”
Vactarus’s eyes widened dramatically and I realized that I had never told him my family name. “You are a Dracre?!” Before I could answer, understanding filled his eyes. “I see. You resemble Livia quite well.”
“Who?” I didn’t know a Livia, but I did know I didn’t resemble any of my family members.
“Ask him why he interrupted the lesson,” Merlin said.
I did, and Vactarus said, “Oh, yes. I just wanted to inform you that there is a seer tournament this afternoon in a village to the north, in case you wanted to see it.”
“Yes!” I exclaimed excitedly. I snuck out to see one every time I heard one was near.
“We have no time for playing around. Are you not in a hurry to get to the wizard before your brothers?” Merlin asked.
“Well, yes, I am, but my brothers are pampered and won’t move quickly. They will probably stop at every village along the way for food, shelter, and women. Besides, maybe we can talk to one of the seers who can help us with either your curse or finding Magnus.”