by Aaron Thomas
Kilen followed him out of the room, looking back at Bowie who stood shrugging his shoulders. They went down the stairs and into a private sitting room where Erica was laying out bread, cheese, and had a bottle of wine with two cups. “Good evening Master Parker, if you require anything else just knock on my door.”
Wizard Parker placed a coin in her hand, “Thank you for saving my young soldier. Mistress Reanna told me what you did, and I am certainly glad I have trained you.” She blushed and tucked the coin into her pocket, yawning while she headed down the hall. He closed the door and motioned for Kilen to sit down.
“I am sorry that Twilix left you with such a poor lack of caution with those rings. I will try and make it right with my training. I will have to teach you quickly and hope that you can learn just as fast. First I must ask you, do you care for your sister’s safety?”
“I do. Is she in danger?”
“My boy, every fire wizard is in danger in the Earth Realm, at least until their powers can be controlled. Fortunately, the King has a place to hold and train fire wizards with everyone’s safety in mind. This training costs money. I subdued her so it is my responsibility as a wizard to bring her before the king. You will aid me in the task, since your struggle to get this sword back triggered her rage and that brought forth her awakening. If you want to see the protection of your sister and see that she is provided for, you will have to find a way to pay for her training. Which means you will have to find a job working for the king. I have imbued your sword which means the King will probably take you on as a weapon bearer for his army if you can pass the tests. The higher you rank in your class will determine the amount of coin you earn and how well your sister is treated. The fact that you have two earth magic rings is a big advantage. You will have to keep working for the King until your sister’s training is complete and she is no longer a danger to anyone around her. As it stands, if she is allowed to come to consciousness, she will come aflame and be very aggressive. Anyone who tries to help put the fire out will probably become her next victim, even her brother. I was very glad to find that no one was injured in her first episode. I did have to pay for the damages to the tavern, but that will have to come out of your pay also. Tell me what you think about what I have told you.”
“It is a bit overwhelming, but I must protect my sister. I don’t believe I have a choice.” Kilen paused for a moment before speaking again. “My father was a scout for a Wizard Calvin. I have heard of what scouts do in my war history books, I think I could be one. I could do what my father did. Will that earn enough money to pay for my sisters training?”
The wizard smiled, “Boy, scouts are one of the highest paid members of the king’s army. I don’t think you understand what it takes to be a scout, but you are certainly fast enough to be one if you made the trip from Humbridge to here in less than a night on foot.” He drank deeply from the wine and chewed on a piece of cheese before continuing. “Ok well I will do my best to train you, I’m not allowed to imbue weapons without the king’s permission, but I needed something or someone to help me keep that girl under control. We will have trouble if you cannot perform well enough to live up to that sword. It would be better if you just sold it to the king, but seeing what you went through to get it I don’t foresee that happening.” The wizard took a few bites of fruit, “We have a short time to teach you to be a wielder, let’s get started. Stand up and draw the sword. You won’t have any immediate effects from it like with the rings.” He nodded and gripped the handle of the sword. When his hand touched the hilt he felt strength rush into him along, with calmness. His fatigue washed away, but he didn’t drew it.
“Does water magic make you stronger also?” the wizard looked at him quizzingly, holding a piece of cheese to his lips.
“No, why do you ask?”
“When I put on the rings it feels like I could run forever or pick up a horse. When I touched the sword I got the same feeling and with it a calmness.”
“Draw the blade,” he said slowly in a flat tone. He had a look of concern across his face. Kilen pulled the sword from the sheath and held it in front of him. It was as polished as the silver coils along the sheath. On the blade just below the hilt were two images. One was a wave of water, and the other was a bigger version of the tree identical to the image inside his rings. The wizard had gone completely white. He shook his head from side to side and started to pace the room. “I do believe I have made a very big mistake, and with that made your life much more difficult. That weapon could be the undoing of us both.” He stopped and looked at Kilen. “It has already been imbued by an earth wizard. When I imbued it, the power that lay dormant in the sword was awoken. You are in possession of a two element blade.”
Kilen thought a moment before speaking, “I don’t understand, doesn’t this mean it will make me stronger? I would think the King would like to have a two element weapon bearer working for him.”
“Think of the social classes’ boy. A blade with one element, you are a soldier, captain, scout, or commander. Two elements and you are a noble, with lands given to you by the King for your service to his army. The elemental power on that blade is supposed to be earned not given. I have just promised you lands under the king. By the wizard council’s rules he must follow. The third mark on a weapons blade means you have a right to claim a kingdom. Wielders are chosen and appointed by wizards to uphold the laws and protect wizards that imbue the blades.”
“Can I just reject any land that is supposed to be given to me?”
“It is not that simple. You were not supposed to receive lands and so it is my mistake. Further, it is only a small part that you are now a noble social class. Your sister is a fire wizard. When she is fully trained, she would be able to give you a third elemental mark, which puts you into competition with the earth king. It is each wizard’s right to find a person worthy of bearing an element. As your sister, she would most certainly find you worthy.” The wizard looked to be just Kilen’s age, but there was a sort of wisdom to his eyes. His short brown hair was cut and singed at the ends as if he had gotten too close to hearth putting logs on the fire. He was around the same height as Kilen, maybe an inch taller. He was slender but not in an unhealthy way, just in a way that said he used his physical muscle’s sparingly throughout the day. The wisdom in his eyes seemed to say that his mental muscles were far stronger than his physical ones. He wore a deep blue cloak and covering it was a curling wave in deeper blue embroidery. His voice was quiet but commanding and bore no accent. He stopped pacing and finally spoke to Kilen, “Nothing to do about it now, I suppose, but to train you. We have couple weeks before we reach the king, I will think of something before then. Let’s focus and continue with your training. Besides the strength flowing through you, did you feel anything else?”
“I felt energized, renewed, and just healthy.”
“That renewed feeling and the healthiness as you call it, is the water magic. It will sustain your body, always healing it while you use water magic. You cannot heal yourself like I healed your broken rib. Another wizard or magic bearer will have to heal you, but you can heal others like this now. You will touch your sword at all times in the next few days allowing your body to heal from the ordeal you put it through tonight. I cannot heal exhaustion, food and sleep will have to do that. Touching any part of that sword will allow you to heal twice as fast as you normally do. You told me about your run and how you needed a drink of water. The touching of the sword will refill the water in your body also. If you hold onto your sword now you will replenish what you use as you use it, pulling it from the air around you. You will still need food of course, and sleep. Do you have any questions?”
“I feel like I could still run the entire way to the King if I wanted, and I don’t feel sleepy. Why is that?”
“That comes from the endurance and the strength given by the earth magic in your rings and sword. Be aware that you can still push yourself too far, but you were using just the basic magic principals. The r
ings don’t just give you the strength and endurance. You can manipulate the earth and water elements around you. Sometimes using the basic principals comes naturally and often is not even known by the wielder. The more magic items you have the more earth or water you can manipulate. The king has a entire set of armor of water and earth magic. I cannot fathom what he could do that that power. I have heard of legendary hero’s given ringmail armor in which each ring was imbued separately. Using that kind of power to its full extent would require you to rest a lifetime before you could take it off. If you did take it off you would die of exhaustion or dehydration. The magic in the armor or weapons will sustain you. I as a wizard, on the other hand, can only push myself to my magical limit and it just ceases to exist. I will be tired but I cannot die from using every ounce of my magic. But as I rest I will regain magic. Tonight I have pushed myself far, which is why I imbued your sword. I will not be able to subdue Kara come morning. I am exhausted from my magic use. I carry one piece of magic armor with me. It was made by my brother Brandon the earth wizard. Using it, I will not need sleep but I will slowly gain my magic back as if I was sleeping.”
“How long will I have to rest before I should take off these rings?”
“With that sword earth and water magic’s helping you should be fine by morning. That is if you don’t practice any magical process. Earth and water magic complement each other and work together. You will find your bodies strength returning quickly. With two earth rings you will find that you are very powerful in earth manipulation. I should not train you in that, considering the sword you now carry. We cannot let that fall into the wrong hands. You will have to train in every defense you can. First you must learn to sense the elements around you. In the room right now, there is water in the air. We breath it in and out, and it comes out of our skin in very small amounts. Sometimes it helps the new magic user to hold the magic item to their forehead. Place the flat of the blade against your forehead and close your eyes.” Kilen closed his eyes and felt the cold blade against his skin. He held it there concentrating on images of water like streams, rivers, and rain falling. “Let your mind go blank, and focus on the blackness of your sight.” He began to feel colder than he should on a warm spring night. Slowly he could make out a fuzziness in his vision behind his closed eyes. It was like a twinkling of lights when he was hit too hard on the head. He didn’t know if the light was real or he had imagined it. The twinklings became thicker and then more solid. He could see them moving around himself and the room. He could also see objects that had moisture on them and could see breath coming from Master Parker. The collecting of these twinklings on surfaces began to form images. He saw a reflection of the objects that were in the room. He could see the outlines over everything in the room. Everything except the lamps on the wall created hollow spots in the twinklings. He opened his mouth and drew a deep breath at the new found vision, watching the water flow in and out as he breathed. The combination of the two visions overlapping made him feel a little dizzy. Wizard Parker steadied him by holding his shoulders. “It gets better. You see the door. Open your senses to the water on the outside of the door. Sense it from underneath the door or through the keyhole, or cracks in the wood.” Kilen reached his mind out to the water to expand his vision as the wizard asked. When he did he began to see the shapes on the outside of the door. Things that he couldn’t see with his eyes. The outline of a person standing just outside the door formed. It stood close to the door with an ear pressed against it. Someone was listening to them he realized.
The wizard sat looking at Kilen. Surely he knew about the person outside the room as well. He must have if he wanted Kilen to expand his vision beyond the door. “There is someone listening in the hallway,” Kilen whispered.
The wizard’s face was slowly overcome with a devious smile, “Very good.” He said excitedly, “Erica come in here please.” She came into the room wearing her nightgown, looking very tired. She had dark circles around the eyes like she hadn’t slept very much in the past couple days. “Wonderful! You are a very quick learner,” he said as he showed Erica a seat in front of him. She sat down looking at Kilen apologetically. She had purposely pretended to go to bed. She knew now that Kilen really wasn’t trained to use the magic that had been bestowed upon him. “Thanks for coming and doing as I asked,” he said to Erica, patting her shoulders from behind. “This is an informant of mine. Each wizard has their own and each is partially trained to aid a magic user. She was trained to recognize magic exhaustion and usage. I heard she saved your life tonight.” Kilen nodded that it was true. “You will pay her back now as I am too weak. You will heal her body and renew her vigor. I will guide you in the process, but follow my description exactly or you could harm her.” She had perked up with nervousness when he said that. She must have not known what he had intended for her.
“I’ll do my best,” Kilen told him. “Thank you again for your help upstairs. I really will try my best to help you.” She nodded back, but Kilen could still see the fear on her face.
“Take the blade into your hands and she will place her hands over yours. Concentrate on the water that surrounds her body and makes it up. Water is what the body is mostly composed of, so if we move the water we can stitch the wounds back together. As you can see the water elements are almost solid around wounds. You will see water gathering on the lining of the wounds, but not going into them. The voids without water flowing as it does in the rest of the body is what we must repair. You will force the water to flow through them, to make the voids like the rest of the body. Small ones first, do you see any wounds on her body?”
“I think her feet have sores on them, there is a cut on her right thumb, and she is biting her lip,” Kilen said.
She spoke to the wizard then. “That’s right,” she let out a sigh of relief, now knowing that what Kilen had felt was correct. Then she stopped biting her lip.
“Now will the water to move through them, to close the wounds as you pull them together.” The wizard spoke anxiously. It felt like it had been an hour before he finally stopped with the wounds in her body. As Kilen fixed them he noticed that there was what seemed like a green glow that enveloped the area he had just healed. It was like a fog within the twinkling lights. With each wound he closed, the wizard would speak words of encouragement. Each became less difficult to complete. Kilen was already improving the skill. The larger wounds like the cut on her finger were harder to force the water to move in and out of, but he did as well as he could for Erica. Sweat clung to his brow as he focused his mind to move the water throughout her body. The process was exhausting.
“I think I’m finished,” he said while opening his eyes. She looked even more tired than when he had started.
“Easy, you have a second part yet. You must give her energy. You just forced her body to heal itself in a short amount of time. You must now use magic to restore energy to her body. This is a combination between water and earth magic. When you healed a wound there was a movement inside, like a fog. Did you see that?” Kilen nodded his head in response. “That was her body using energy. Picture that fog and force the earth elements to create that fog inside her body. It will be difficult at first but when you do it enough you will be able to summon it very rapidly.” Kilen concentrated while he felt the wizard’s hands clasp the girl’s hands around Kilen’s. She jerked at that touch. Kilen knew even with his eyes closed that she had fallen asleep in the chair waiting for the energy. At first Kilen felt nothing, he saw no change in anything in the room. Then It came on in a rush and she straightened in her chair, gasping as the green glow moved from her chest to each of her limbs, restoring the energy inside her body. She let go of Kilen’s hands. He opened his eyes and held on to the water vision seeing the glow now in each muscle she used to stand and talk.
“Thank you, I feel much better now. Is there any other service I could provide Master Parker?” She felt better but Kilen felt as if he had run from Humbridge to Basham a second time. The process was exh
austing.
“I would like any bread and cheese you have laying about, and I’m sure that using the magic has exhausted his food storage also.”
“I will return shortly, Master Parker.” She curtsied and left the room, closing the door behind her. Kilen watched her walk down the hall and into the kitchen door with the vision provided by the water. As he followed her with his new sense he had a weird feeling of knowing where she was beyond what his eyes could see.
“Ok, now that you’re practiced I will permit you to heal and energize me.” Kilen was shocked at the suddenness of the request. He repeated the exercise and found the wizard to have saddle sores and wounds on his hands and feet. The wizard was as exhausted as Erica was when she was falling asleep. He didn’t know how he was remaining so vigilant. He started to heal the wounds first and the wizard yanked his arms away from him. “You will need to energize me first or I shall fall over dead from exhaustion. Be careful now.” He slowly placed his hands on Kilen’s and he used his effort to energize the wizard. The fog would appear in him and vanish. Again he would focus his will forming the fog and pushing it in all directions. Before it reached the wizards limbs the fog would fade leaving him just as exhausted. He tried again, and again. “You’re doing fine keep going. I have used a lot of earth magic energy and my trinket requires it back. You will save me many nights sleep by this I assure you.” Kilen cautiously started again and again, continually pushing harder to create the fog faster. Kilen seemed not to weaken but he knew that he was borrowing stores from all three of his earth items’ to restore the wizard’s power. “Stop. That is enough,” he finally commanded. Kilen let down his arms and moved to take a drink of wine on the table. He couldn’t lift the mug and the wizard helped him.