by Weiqi Wang
‘Never mind, just leave it.’ Filton waved towards the crowd. ‘Let’s take care of the wounded first, then the collapsed houses.’
‘Right! You don’t really think a five-year-old scared the beast off, do you?’ Another man agreed, ‘There must be something else, like it suddenly missed its daddy.’
People giggled and walked away to help. After all, no one was badly injured and it was all over, so everyone was happy to have survived. Filton was injured, so he didn’t have to offer his labour; instead people specifically asked him to take a good rest and look after the odd little boy, whose brain seemed to function in such a strange way.
The rumour about what had happened, though, started to spread. Most people talked proudly about how they fought bravely against the beast, and finally defeated it. Of course, Filton and Soarame were in the story; but, as the story went, the beast ran away because it feared the crowd of brave townsfolk. Soarame, on the other hand, was a poor kid living in an illusion; he tried to talk to a beast using human language — and then there was all that weird stuff about colours.
‘Your boy should probably go to see a doctor.’ That’s what people said to Filton before they left. Filton was partially convinced, because of all Soarame’s odd behaviour in the past, but he also somehow believed that it was indeed Soarame who had made the beast leave. Nothing really made sense; Filton was at a loss for what to believe.
****
One day, Filton was watching Soarame again, chasing something that he claimed was colourful, yet appeared totally transparent. Right then there came a knocking on the door.
‘Greetings!’ An old man was standing outside, wearing dishevelled and dirty clothes.
‘Hello, can I help you?’ Filton assumed the man was a beggar, as this man was wearing even worse clothes than himself.
‘Yes, I need some help, but it’s hard to explain…’ the old man said, embarrassment visible on his face.
‘Not a problem at all,’ Filton smiled. ‘I will get the loaf and water for you right now, but, sorry I don’t have any coin to spare.’
‘That’s nice of … wait, what?’ the old man seemed stunned.
‘Sorry, I know this house looks big, but I’m really not rich at all,’ Filton sighed and was about to turn around.
‘Hold on…’ a look of realisation crossed the old man’s face and he immediately spoke up, ‘I would just like to rent a spare room from you, if you have one; I’m new to this town.’
‘Pardon?’ Filton was a little surprised. This old man was indeed a new face, but he did not seem to be able to afford a room. After chatting a bit and asking about this old man’s background, Filton was convinced that this man was no threat. ‘My name is Filton; please come in, if you really think you can manage in this house.’
‘Scankeen, pleasure to meet you.’ The old man definitely seemed like a gentleman with a decent education. Filton was worried that Soarame’s odd behaviour would bother the new tenant, so he asked the boy to play outside for a bit.
Scankeen said a quick hello to Soarame, and then went into the house. He had a very quick look around at three vacant rooms, and chose one of them immediately. ‘This should be enough for a year; but if not let me know.’
‘Err… sure… hmm…’ Filton was stunned when the old man put a bag of coins into his hand; five minutes ago he was trying to offer this man some free bread. ‘Scankeen, you don’t need to pay this much in advance.’ Filton could not help sizing Scankeen up — tall and thin in shape, white beard to his waist, wrinkles all over his face, and clad in a cloak matted with clay. Filton was amazed that this person could produce a bag of coins just like that.
‘It’s alright.’ Scankeen smiled, ‘I like the room.’
Filton shook Scankeen’s hand and walked away to let the new (and only) tenant settle down first. For some reason, Filton had an odd feeling about Scankeen ever since he came in and checked around the rooms. But he couldn’t tell what exactly until he thought hard for a while — it seemed that Scankeen was quite familiar with the house; the way he walked onto the stairs, bypassed the obstacles and got to the rooms felt like how Filton himself would do it. But, anyway, this man actually offered plenty of money, which Filton could really use and perhaps spend on taking Soarame to see a doctor; so Filton was very happy and had no desire to think further.
‘Oh Filton, if you could show me to the woods that’d be great.’ Scankeen came over downstairs, ‘No rush, when you go to work tomorrow.’
‘Sure, I go there almost every day, but tomorrow I’ll need to bring my boy to the doctor.’ Filton was planning a wooden beam. ‘How about the day after?’
‘Of course.’ Scankeen nodded, ‘What happened to your boy?’
‘He’s… he has some sort of problem with illusions.’ Filton pondered a bit but decided to tell the truth, ‘I’m not sure if it’s the eyes or the brain.’
‘Oh? What did he see?’ Scankeen was curious.
‘I don’t know.’ Filton sighed, ‘it seems that he sees colourful dots: purple, grey, yellow, blue.’
‘Really?’ Scankeen’s eyes widened on hearing this. ‘When will the boy be back?’
‘Probably soon.’ Filton was suddenly reminded of something and threw the wooden beam aside, ‘Oh my god, he better not get into trouble this time!’
‘Filton, I’m back!’ Soarame showed up right on time.
‘Thank god, everything okay?’ Filton went to check Soarame and again he found some new bruises. ‘You need to tell me who did this to you, now!’
‘But I won!’ Soarame declared proudly, ‘They won’t tell their families either!’
‘They?’ Scankeen cut in, ‘You beat more than one?’
‘Five.’ Soarame was clearly proud of himself.
‘You guys need to stop this, fighting is wrong.’ Filton felt regretful; he should have spent more time on this boy rather than on work. ‘And I don’t believe that you can beat five bigger kids on your own.’
‘Not on my own, I beat them with grey!’ Soarame was unhappy to think Filton didn’t believe him. ‘You don’t believe I won?’
‘I don’t care who wins. If you fight again you are grounded.’ Filton held Soarame’s shoulders, ‘If you promise me you’ll quit fighting, I’ll be your horse to ride, deal?’
‘Deal!’ Riding a horse had been Soarame’s favourite game since he was born; of course, the horse was Filton. Ever since Filton let Soarame ride him for the first time, Soarame kept asking every day, and gave Filton real headaches.
‘Actually, I believe you,’ Scankeen suddenly cut in, and signalled Filton to hold on. ‘What is the grey that you mentioned? Can you show me?’
‘They only come to me when I’m fighting.’ Soarame shook his hands, ‘But they are here, you can see them.’
‘They?’ Scankeen seemed to catch on to something; he pointed somewhere in the air, ‘So you are talking about these small grey dots that keep swirling around in the air?’
‘Yes!’ Soarame was overjoyed, ‘See? Filton your eyes are bad! He can see it!’
‘What is going on?’ Filton was confused; he looked at Scankeen. ‘You are kidding him, right?’
‘No, he’s not!’ Soarame yelled before Scankeen had a chance to speak, ‘He can see them!’
‘Well, let me make sure we are talking about the same thing.’ Scankeen seemed really excited for some reason, as his breathing became rapid. ‘Where are the grey ones now?’
‘Oh my god!’ Soarame was stunned. ‘They are in your hands! How did you do that?’
‘Oh my god.’ Scankeen was stunned too. ‘You really can see them!’
‘What is going on?’ Filton was stunned too.
‘What else can you see?’ Scankeen asked urgently, totally ignoring Filton. ‘Any other colour?’
‘Purple, grey, yellow, blue!’ Soarame’s answer reminded Scankeen that Filton had mentioned it before. ‘And white, I think.’
‘Oh dear, sorry; I can’t do anything about the others.’ Scankeen seemed to b
e frustrated. ‘I can only summon grey; can you tell me where are they now?’
‘On your left foot!’ Soarame clapped his hands excitedly. ‘How did you do it?’
‘What. Is. Going. On?!’ Filton yelled. ‘You people are kidding with me, right?’
‘I’m kidding with no one.’ Scankeen finally realized that he’d been rudely ignoring Filton, ‘Your boy is special — He can see magic elements!’
‘What?’ Filton was not sure if he’d got it right, ‘Magic?’
‘Yes, the colourful dots have a name — magic elements.’ Scankeen nodded seriously. ‘In other words, your boy has magic gifts and can grow up to be a wizard!’
Magic Elements
‘You must be making up stories, right?’ Filton looked at Scankeen with an odd expression on his face, ‘The dots are magic elements? You’re sure they are not see-stars in his eyes?’
‘If see-stars have different colours, they probably have a different name.’ Scankeen was amused to see Filton’s reaction, ‘Like rainbow-stars!’ With that, Scankeen handed over a small piece of metal to Filton. It was of a pretty plain design but in an ancient style; on the surface there were two words carved —
‘Sunrise Alliance?’ Filton read them out loud; this name rang a bell. ‘What is that? Why does it sound so familiar?’
‘So you have heard of this name before, good.’ Scankeen was happy to hear this. ‘Maybe from books? Try to think where you know it from.’
‘Sunrise Alliance! Wizards’ alliance!’ Filton suddenly patted his own head. ‘It’s real?’ Filton had read stories about the alliance of wizards when he was little; but he thought, like everyone else he knew, that they were just stories in books! Filton doubted if there was anyone in this town that actually believed it.
‘As real as this wand.’ Scankeen took out a stick and let it go in the air; the stick didn’t drop but floated there, making Filton stare and Soarame shout, ‘Grey! Grey is on the stick now!’
‘Yes. The grey dots are elements for Wind magic.’ Scankeen caressed Soarame’s head and looked at Filton. ‘Now you believe us? Your son doesn’t have problems with eyes, or brain — thank god we met each other!’
‘You have problems with your eyes and brain!’ Soarame was clever enough to understand what was going on; so he made faces at Filton and then looked at Scankeen, ‘He’s not my dad, he’s my uncle!’
‘Okay, excuse me. But I just want you to know that there are quite a number of wizards in the world, actually.’ Scankeen was amused by both Soarame and Filton’s faces. ‘This town is very small and rural, to be honest. If you lived in the big cities, especially the Capital, you might actually see wizards once in a while.’
‘Oh my… so the tale of the Great Stanfaul Libral is real, too?’ Filton dragged his eyes away from the floating wand to Scankeen; his mind was still soaked in his memories of the stories that he read as a child. ‘His Honour really led the Sunrise Alliance and saved mankind?’
‘It’s not a tale, it’s history.’ Scankeen nodded solemnly. ‘I’m glad you remember the name of Stanfaul Libral.’
‘Your Honour, I’m so sorry.’ Filton hurried to change the way he addressed Scankeen. ‘No one forgets His Honour’s name, and I should really dig out those books and read them again.’ If all this is real, then an ordinary person needs to address a wizard as Your Honour — as the books say. Filton was embarrassed when he recalled the first moment he met Scankeen — Dear lord, did I just treat a wizard as a beggar?
‘It’s fine, it all happened thousands of years ago and you are not the only one to think it’s a tale.’ Scankeen waved his hands. ‘And don’t be sorry, your nephew is going to be a wizard — if you allow me to be his master and teach him magic!’
‘Is this real? Soarame can be a wizard?’ In the backyard of the house, Filton was watching Scankeen and Soarame playing games together. At that moment, Soarame was raised aloft in Scankeen’s arms, and he grabbed Scankeen’s beard and played with it. The beard pulling actually hurt, but Scankeen was still laughing with pleasure; it was Filton who became worried.
‘Soarame, enough!’ commanded Filton; Soarame stopped immediately.
‘Don’t scare him; this is my beard, not yours!’ Scankeen was laughing; he already started spoiling the boy. ‘You like my beard? Just go ahead, no trouble!’
‘No, I’m okay,’ claimed Soarame. ‘I want to play something else!’
‘What do you want to play?’ Scankeen asked.
Soarame’s answer almost made Filton fall over. ‘I want you to be my horse!’
‘Oh no…’ Filton was struck by his horse headache again. Just when he wanted to stop Soarame, Scankeen had already answered the boy, ‘Soarame, do you want to ride a real horse?’
‘Yes!’ Soarame suddenly became excited. ‘But they are too big for me!’
‘Well, here’s a small one, just for you!’ Scankeen waved his hand and grabbed a wand out of nowhere, pointing at the middle of the backyard. With a whinny, a mini horse — of just the right size for Soarame — appeared, jumping and running around him.
‘Woooww!’ Soarame shouted with laughter. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. ‘A real horse? Why is it so small?’
‘Because it’s for you, my boy.’ Scankeen was pretty happy with his work. ‘However, he can only be here for a few minutes, so why don’t you hurry up!’
‘Yeeesss!’ Soarame had never been so excited. He jumped onto the horse’s back. ‘Go, go, go!’
Standing aside, Filton wasn’t sure how many times he had been stunned today. It was his first time seeing real magic right in front of him. Soon enough, the little horse disappeared. Soarame, feeling disappointed, turned to Scankeen. ‘Where did he go?’
‘He went home,’ Scankeen smiled. ‘He’s a boy, just like you, so he had to go home because his family was summoning him.’
‘Oh… when can I see him again?’ Soarame asked. ‘And what’s his name?’
‘It’s Richie, and you can see him once a month,’ Scankeen smiled. ‘It was me who summoned him for you, but Richie’s family doesn’t want him to play with an old man like myself. However, if you can summon him yourself, that will help.’
‘How do I summon him?’ Soarame asked, hurriedly.
‘After you learn magic, like how you asked grey for help.’ Scankeen lowered his head, watching Soarame face to face. ‘But it’s a much more difficult thing to do, so you have to learn and practice hard.’
‘I will!’ Soarame exclaimed. ‘Teach me now!’
‘I will soon, but not now.’ Scankeen was happy about Soarame’s reaction. ‘Before you can summon Richie, you need to be able to summon grey — they are related.’ With that, Scankeen turned his hand and there appeared a large piece of carpet; he recited some incomprehensible incantation aloud, and then tossed the cloth casually into the air. What happened next made Soarame shout again — the cloth was floating in the air, stretched wide.
‘Grey is under the carpet!’ shouted Soarame, excited.
‘Yes, that’s why it’s called a magic carpet.’ Scankeen held Soarame and sat on the carpet; with a swing of his hand, the carpet went flying up and down in the air. Soarame had never experienced anything like this; he squealed with pleasure. Scankeen was satisfied by the boy’s reaction. ‘See? When you can control grey like this, I’ll teach you how to summon Richie!’
It was getting late, so Soarame had to go to bed. After that, Filton finally had a chance to sort out his questions with Scankeen.
‘So grey is wind?’ Filton asked, amazement in his eyes.
‘Magic elements for Wind appear grey in colour, after they are visualized.’ Scankeen rephrased his explanation. ‘That’s the technical way to put it.’
‘I see…’ Filton nodded. ‘But what exactly are magic elements anyway?’
‘The short answer is, they are the source and resource of magic.’ Scankeen was prepared for this; he lifted the teapot and poured a stream of tea into his cup. ‘Think about it this
way: let’s say this tea stream is a magic spell, then each water drop within it is a magic element. In this case, the water drops are Water magic elements and the spell is a Water Magic Spell.’
‘I see!’ Filton tapped his finger on the table, ‘So they are the magic itself?’
‘Correct. Same story here; Wind elements formed Wind magic and flew the carpet, as you just saw.’ Scankeen was happy to see himself understood. ‘Wizards can perform magic because they can sense and summon magic elements; without them, there is no sense of magic in the first place.’
‘What about purple, yellow and blue, then?’ Filton followed up.
‘Each colour represents a different type of magic element; in a formal word, a different lineage.’ Scankeen picked up his cup and enjoyed the tea. ‘Let me check tomorrow and make sure before I answer you.’
‘Okay. So only wizards are able to see magic elements?’ Filton followed up asking, ‘Such as Soarame and Your Honour?’
‘Yes and no. It’s not that simple.’ Scankeen was stroking his beard, as if he was thinking about something. ‘I never said I can see them; I can only sense them, because I’ve practised magic all my life. However, Soarame can literally see them with his naked eyes, and without even learning magic — that is something substantially different.’
‘Although magic elements do exist in the world, they are not supposed to be seen — not even by wizards. Usually, wizards can sense them only with great concentration; they need to calm down and close their eyes, eliminating any distraction brought by vision. Only through this, can they sense the colourful dots of the magic elements that are all around.’ Seeing that Filton was so keen to understand, Scankeen was patient to explain the basics. ‘Soarame, on the other hand, can see magic elements with his eyes open. As far as I know, very few wizards can do that; and those don’t include me.’
‘Sorry, I’m a little confused.’ Filton was anxious to hear this. ‘It’s a good thing for Soarame, right?’
‘Generally yes, because it’s a special gift even to wizards.’ Scankeen seemed as if he was going to say something more, but he decided not to after pondering a little.