Code of Rainbow

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘But it’s ok. Master also says once you grow up you’ll be very powerful.’ Seeing Richie respond with his naïve whinny, Soarame caressed his long neck. ‘The problem is, because you are special, I still can’t bond with you. Shall we try one more time today?’

  Richie responded with the whinny again, pushing Soarame to try. Soarame grabbed his magic wand and drew a Hexagram towards the ground, which kept expanding in size and gathered the boy and the horse inside it. The Hexagram then started to shine as if something was going to happen, but seconds later it broke into bright spots and scattered away — it had failed.

  ‘I knew it.’ Soarame sighed. ‘What’s wrong? Master says you can’t bond with anyone so far, but why?’

  ‘Whinn…’ Obviously, the little horse didn’t know the answer either.

  ‘How about it, Soarame?’ After a while, Scankeen came back out from the castle. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to bond with another one instead?’

  ‘No, you said a wizard should only bond with his favourite magimal, because once the bond is formed they are responsible for each other forever.’ Soarame answered right away. ‘Richie is my favourite, so I’ll keep trying!’

  ‘My boy, you are not mad with me for this?’ Scankeen sighed and asked the question that he had always wanted to ask. He had been using Richie as a white lie to stimulate Soarame, as he knew that Richie was special in the first place.

  ‘Richie is free, right? As long as he’s not bonded to anyone, I don’t blame you at all.’ Soarame looked at Scankeen. ‘One day I’ll get him to bond with me, sooner or later!’

  ‘Great job, my boy. You will, one day.’ Scankeen was relieved to see Soarame’s determination, yet he still needed to warn him. ‘However, in the meantime, if you see another magimal that you really like, you should still bond with it. It doesn’t hurt as long as you don’t overdo it, and you can always come back for Richie later…’

  ‘Why didn’t you bond with another one, then?’ Soarame suddenly interrupted Scankeen. ‘Volsta was badly injured and still cannot work with you, but you still have him as your only magimal.’

  ‘That’s different, my boy. I’ve spent all my life with Volsta, and he saved my life many times. He’s been my best friend ever along.’ Scankeen sighed for Soarame’s question. Having spent years with Soarame in this palatorium, Scankeen had told him that the vague roar from inside of the castle was his magimal, named Volsta, a really powerful creature that had been badly injured in a battle years ago — before he came to Filton’s house and met Soarame.

  ‘I’m sorry, master. I hope Volsta can recover soon.’ Seeing Scankeen sad, Soarame wanted to make him feel better. ‘When I see another magimal I like I will bond with it, but not yet.’

  ‘It’s fine, and Volsta will be fine too.’ Scankeen sighed and waved his hands. ‘You are right, you shouldn’t rush for magimals. However, bear in mind that friendly magimals are rare and they are usually less powerful; the powerful ones are mostly wild ones that need to be tamed — and it’s not easy to tame one.’

  ‘Is it harder than bonding with Richie?’ Soarame didn’t really buy that.

  ‘Ha-ha, don’t play smart, boy.’ Scankeen was amused and stroke his beard. ‘You need to beat and capture a magimal first before you tame it. And it’s likely to be a powerful wild beast with magic spells — just like the one that you saw in your first lesson years ago — so, think about it! That’s why powerful magimals are always rare, even if you offer a high price.’

  ‘Price?’ Soarame was surprised to hear this. ‘They can actually be purchased?’

  ‘Yes, just like buying pets, but a lot more expensive.’ Scankeen sighed. ‘As you may realise now, wizards can be really powerful and do different things… good or bad things. The magimal business is a grey zone in that sense — on one side we do need to battle magimals to protect our people, on the other we overdo it and it becomes greed.’

  ‘How about Volsta? How did you meet him?’ Soarame suddenly asked, but the next second he realized it might not be the best question. ‘May I ask?’

  ‘Ha-ha, don’t worry, he’s not purchased from anyone, but we did battle against each other to become friends.’ Scankeen looked towards the castle as his mind sank into old memories. ‘That was a long time ago, when I was on my Expert wizard trial in the Fallen Forest — that was Volsta’s home.’

  ‘The Fallen Forest? One of the most dangerous magimal colonies?’ Soarame’s eyes brightened up. ‘So you fought because Volsta thought you broke into his home?’

  ‘Yes and no. Volsta’s clan attacked our civilians around that area, so I was summoned to the battle as an Expert wizard on trial, together with many other wizards and forces.’ Scankeen was ruffling Soarame’s hair. ‘I was extremely lucky to get Volsta in the end, because he was top-ranked but young back then; so he was easier to tame and bond with. If Volsta was of his current age and power, he would be impossible to tame.’

  ‘So how did he get injured then, if he’s so powerful? After so many years, he’s still not healed?’ Soarame finally asked the questions that had stuck in his stomach for a long time. ‘And why do you not allow me to meet him? I still don’t know what Volsta looks like!’

  ‘Because there are powerful wizards who are capable of hurting him. He’s badly injured and it’s a scary scene. I don’t want you to see the bloody, bony wounds on him. Also, because he’ll still take some time to fully recover, I don’t want him to be distracted.’ Scankeen hesitated for a bit but made up his mind. ‘Soarame, you are growing up, so maybe I should tell you a little more now.’

  ‘Yes please!’ Soarame was so excited to see his master finally offer an explanation after so many years.

  ‘As you know, there are bad wizards out there, and I tried to arrest one of them years ago. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well and Volsta almost died in the fight, so I had to stop the attempt.’ Scankeen crouched and held Soarame’s shoulders. ‘See how dangerous the magic world can be?’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Soarame was feeling bad for this. ‘Please tell Volsta I wish him all the best.’

  ‘I just did, and he asked me to give you this.’ Scankeen handed over a large piece of feather. ‘This is from his body, and he wants you to have it as a little gift.’

  ‘Wow! Thank you!’ Soarame took the feather, with amazement in his eyes. The feather was larger than his palm and all black, with metal-like lustre; Soarame couldn’t help picturing what Volsta looked like and imagining the battle. ‘What did that bad guy do anyway?’

  ‘That guy stole a critical treasure from the Druids.’ Scankeen tried to simplify the story this way. ‘So we need to get it back for them, otherwise Druids will see all humans as enemies.’

  ‘Druids?’ Soarame’s eyes widened. ‘The human-animal Druids?’

  ‘Yes, they can transform themselves into animals, which is an amazing magical ability.’ Scankeen showed Soarame his finger, with a ring on it. ‘However, that didn’t stop their property from being stolen — the bad guy had a space-ring. You see the point?’

  ‘I see.’ Soarame nodded. He remembered that a space-ring had storage space in it, just that it could only store inanimate stuff. The thief must have put the item into the space-ring, which was so much easier than carrying it. The good thing was that space-rings were very rare, even among top-ranked wizards, so people normally wouldn’t worry about stealing with space-rings.

  ‘Okay, that’s too much for you to know. For now, just keep practicing magic and improving.’ Scankeen knew what Soarame was imagining at the moment. ‘Bear in mind, my boy: a wizard’s world can be dangerous, even more dangerous than for civilians, even though we have magical powers; because we have responsibilities and duties.’

  ‘I see, master.’ Soarame clenched his fists. ‘I’ll work hard and become stronger!’

  ‘Very well, now go take a break, tomorrow we’ll test you and see how strong you are already!’

  The rest of the day went quickly, but Soarame felt that it was too s
low. The next morning, just as the sun rose, the boy rushed to find Scankeen.

  ‘Okay, let’s start.’ Scankeen pointed to a stone pillar in the palatorium. ‘Your target is that pillar. Let’s see how many windblades you can spell.’

  Soarame couldn’t wait to swing his hand rapidly, drawing a Magic Hexagram with his wand and reciting the corresponding incantation. A crescent shot rapidly at the stone pillar, leaving a slight score on it. Repeated like this, the windblades shot to the stone pillar one after another, the noise of their incisions buzzing up and down. As it went, Scankeen’s eyes became wider and wider as he counted —

  ‘Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…thirty-three, thirty-four…’

  Soarame was soaked with sweat by the time Scankeen counted to thirty-six, and had started to lose his balance when he reached thirty-nine. Finally, he was stopped by Scankeen as he tried to generate the fortieth.

  Scankeen rushed to Soarame, covered his forehead with his hand and let his enormous mind power gently seep into Soarame’s mind ocean until it was full again. Soarame recovered and looked up at Scankeen. ‘Thank you, master!’

  ‘Soarame, how many times have I told you that it’s a NO-NO-NO for a wizard to try too hard when practicing magic? It will harm your soul if you force the magic when the mind ocean is drained!’ Scankeen looked very upset. ‘When your mind power is low, your soul power will be consumed, that is to say your lifeblood will be consumed! Look at you, what were you thinking?!’

  Chastised by his master, Soarame lowered his head.

  ‘NEVER do this again, unless it’s a moment of life or death!’ said Scankeen seriously. ‘You hear me?’

  Seeing Soarame nodding obediently, Scankeen finally cracked a smile. ‘Soarame, I have to say you surprised me. With thirty-nine windblades, your mind power has been proven to be far above the Novice level! Congratulations for being a well-qualified Adept wizard!’

  Hearing that, Soarame beamed with joy. Letting Soarame cheer up for a while, Scankeen spoke again. ‘My boy, now that you are an Adept, it’s time to move one step on.’

  ‘How?’ Soarame was excited. It seemed that Scankeen was going to teach him flying magic, which he had always been eager to learn.

  ‘You should go to school.’ Scankeen said all of a sudden. ‘It’s time now!’

  “Go to school? For what?” Soarame puzzled. Although he knew from Scankeen that there were magic schools out there, he was not crazy about the idea, especially since he had such unhappy experiences with those school boys since he was little.

  ‘To study magic, of course. You need to go to a magic institute for further study.’ Said Scankeen, looking at Soarame and smiling.

  ‘Why?’ Soarame was confused. ‘Master, aren’t you teaching me magic right now?’

  ‘Yes, I am, but I am only teaching you Wind magic.’ Scankeen was smoothing out his long beard. ‘Don’t you remember you have gifts in Water and Lightning as well? A magic institute can help you learn those too.’

  ‘But why now?’ Asked Soarame. ‘You didn’t say this before?’

  ‘That’s because you were little and new to magic. It’s better to focus on one lineage until you reach Adept.’ Scankeen was prepared for the question. ‘Now that you have got this far, it’s time to change things around a little.’

  ‘So I’m going to learn three lineages at the same time?’ Soarame muttered. ‘That’s a lot.’

  ‘Yes it is, so here is my demand.’ Scankeen patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘I want you to only study Water in school, but not Lightning or Wind, until you become an Expert wizard in Water. Lightning is hard to practice and you can easily hurt yourself if you don’t manipulate it well, so let’s leave Lightning alone for later.’

  ‘Okay… but why not Wind, then?’ Soarame asked. ‘I still haven’t learnt the flying spell!’

  ‘You can learn it yourself, but I want you to keep that as your secret and let no one else know about it. So what I mean is you don’t take Wind classes from school, but learn it from this.’ Scankeen handed over a book to Soarame. ‘The Flying spell and beyond are all in there. It’s enough for you to learn.’

  ‘But why?’ Taking the book from Scankeen, Soarame raised his head. ‘Why can’t people know about my Wind magic?’

  ‘I know it’s hard to understand, but the reasons are complicated.’ Scankeen looked at Soarame with tenderness and affection in his eyes. ‘As I said, the wizards’ world can be dangerous and I want you to be always prepared, even though you are still young. Remember Volsta?’

  ‘Of course.’ Soarame nodded right away. ‘What about him?’

  ‘He was almost killed because the enemy knew him well and set up a delicate trap against him.’ Scankeen sighed. ‘His strength and weakness were all well studied, so he’s still resting in the castle right now trying to get healed. So promise me…’

  ‘Thank you Mr. Swanflew, I get it.’ Soarame was smart enough to understand Scankeen’s worry. ‘I will keep the secret, I promise.’

  ‘Good, remember that.’ Hearing Soarame call him ‘Mr. Swanflew’ instead of ‘master’, Scankeen knew this boy was serious enough to make a promise as a young man to another man. But on the other hand, Scankeen was also feeling bad that he couldn’t risk telling Soarame his real name. ‘More importantly, about your special sight — I want you to keep that as your top secret.’

  ‘I will.’ Soarame knew his master would only do him good, so he didn’t ask why again this time. ‘Master, are you sure no one else can see magic elements? I’m the only one?’

  ‘Actually, there are several more in the world, but only several.’ Scankeen frowned and sighed for this. ‘And unfortunately, Volsta was injured by one of them.’

  ‘What!’ Soarame screamed. ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘If you want to know, keep your promises well and level up to an Expert wizard in school, as soon as you can.’ Scankeen looked at Soarame. ‘Can you do that?’

  ‘Yes master!’ Although Soarame’s mind was full of questions, he had learnt from previous experience that if his master was not willing to tell him something, there was no way that he could make him do so. ‘So I still can’t go to look for my parents?’

  ‘After you become an Expert and graduate from the school, then you can!’ Scankeen knew Soarame wouldn’t let go of this, although the boy had kept it buried inside him. ‘But the world is huge, so don’t expect this to be done in any easy way, even after you become an Expert. If I were you, I’d leave it aside for now and keep improving at school.’

  ‘Fine. But where is the school?’

  ‘It’s in Cylone City, the capital of Libral County.’ Scankeen was relieved to see Soarame accept this arrangement. ‘I will send you there soon and you will do a fine job. Now you can go and talk to Filton and get prepared; if he’s okay with it, we should arrange the travel soon.’

  ‘Seven peaceful years have been pretty satisfying. Thank you, Soarame.’ Watching Soarame leave, Scankeen sighed to himself. The real reasons behind this sudden decision were actually more than he had said — Scankeen never planned to stay here for this long in the first place. He came here for the magimal migration, but he knew he could solve that problem within several months. But he got to know Soarame through coincidence, thus decided to change his plan and stay.

  Now Scankeen finally had to leave, due to a classified quest from the Sunrise Alliance, one that he had expected since a while ago. On the bright side, though, Scankeen had been worried that Soarame hardly had any social experience so far, so it’s also a good chance for the boy to meet his own age and make friends in school.

  Filton was surprised to hear the sudden change of plans, but he respected Scankeen’s judgment, after witnessing Soarame’s capability as a wizard. Plus, Filton knew that it’s time for Soarame to make new friends for himself. Therefore, although Filton’s was still a bit concerned about the boy being all alone out there, he started to pack for the journey and got ready to go.

  The school that Scankeen h
ad chosen was called the Institute of Libral. The institute was located in the central part of the Arkward Empire, far from the Corrugon Peninsula in the northeast. Founded by the Starter of History, with thousands of years of development, the Institute of Libral was an undoubtedly great magic institute across the four continents.

  A few weeks later, the trio went on their way. Thanks to Scankeen, they had a magic carriage to travel in — again from Scankeen’s palatorium. The carriage didn’t come with horses to drive it, but drove itself by using energy stored in a crystal cube.

  It was a fun trip and the three had a good time enjoying the scenery along the way. Filton was a little worried in the beginning due to Scankeen’s Orc story, but soon he realised that it was just a story was for a reason — those species were indeed far away from most people’s lives, so it’s hard to testify Scankeen’s descriptions of them.

  As a comparison, it’s much easier to testify people’s reactions to wizards. Soarame and Filton realized it soon enough that people along their way did recognize wizards, and they were really respectful to Scankeen and thus to them as well. Almost every time they arrived at a new place, people greeted Scankeen as ‘Your Honour’. Filton was now totally convinced that his town was too closed off from the outer world.

  A month full of joy and peace had passed quicker than the trio had thought, and they arrived in Cylone City in good shape. The sad thing, though, was that Scankeen finally had to leave.

  ‘Mr. Swanflew, why not come with us to the school first?’ Filton was so grateful to this sweet senior wizard, who had spent years teaching Soarame without asking for anything in return. ‘Or at least take a good rest before heading off.’

  ‘Let’s leave the school part for Soarame to explore on his own. Trust me, it’s fun to do that.’ Scankeen took out a black metal plate and gave it to Soarame. ‘My dear boy, keep my token with you at all times, it keeps you safe.’

  Soarame was attracted to the black plate, not only because of Scankeen’s words, but also because he sensed the intense magic pulse being emitted from the inconspicuous plate. Strangely, the pulse seemed to radiate in light green to Soarame’s special eyes — a colour not included in the colours of the magic elements. Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘Master, why is the colour of the magic elements in this plate green?’