by The Awethors
* * *
Max’s keen eye for detail was not the only thing that encouraged the sorceress to teach him. In fact, there was more potential inside him than she felt she’d ever had, but she didn’t tell him that right away.
Years passed slowly at first, trickling like leftover rainwater. The sorceress allowed herself to focus on the present, and she made sure Max did the same.
He was thirteen when he learned something about sorcery he didn’t quite expect.
“Time is a tricky thing, Max,” she told him as they sat next to a bubbling brook. “Even for people who practice sorcery, it is something to be treated with tender care. Like a child... temperamental, but sweet and occasionally forgiving.”
Max was full of impatience, unable to stop twiddling his thumbs or picking at the grass beneath him. “It’s difficult.” He was staring at the rushing water. “I just don’t understand what time has to do with magic... and I don’t know how to keep myself from thinking too far ahead.”
“Don’t try to control time,” she instructed, “Encourage it.”
Max took a deep breath and let his hands drop to his sides. His eyes locked onto the crystal water as it rushed by. The intensity in his eyes was huge; she had never seen him so focused. She watched tentatively beside him, her hands folded in her lap. Patience and focus, she’d told him. Patience and focus.
Out of nowhere, the creek exploded, soaking them in fresh water. Max threw his head back in laughter. “It worked!” he managed to say. “Well, kind of...” His laughter faded when he caught the sorceress’s eye and gulped nervously. For a moment she looked as though she would chastise him, but then he realized the look in her eyes wasn’t of anger, but of shock. She was looking at the water with eyes wide. After the explosion, more water gushed from the earth below, widening the creek. She took his hand and pulled him away from it so they wouldn’t get any wetter than they already were.
“Max,” she breathed, “I told you to make the water run faster by gently encouraging time.” A small laugh fell from her lips and she spoke louder. “So you blow a hole in the earth and summon more water from its depths!”
Max’s face was rosy from both embarrassment and exhaustion. “Is that bad, my lady?”
“Bad!” she repeated, still laughing. “Child, you’ve just learned one of the most important lessons of sorcery.”
Max blinked profusely, his soft face the epitome of innocence.
“There is no amount of magic that can manipulate something as intangible as time, my dear,” she explained. “So you did exactly what I wanted you to do. Which, I must say, is a very large feat. Congratulations. I suppose there is some spark inside you after all.” Her last words were followed by a teasing wink and a light pat on the back. Her silvery hair was soaked and stuck to her face, but she pushed it back and began tying it up with a ribbon.
Max looked at her for a moment, rather dumbstruck. Slowly but surely, his lips pulled into a smile. “You’re a wonderful teacher, my lady!” He threw his arms around her in a tight hug. For someone so small, he was becoming quite strong. The doubt and hesitancy in her mind was replaced with pride and excitement. And while she had every right to be excited about his progress, in the back of her mind, she knew it was only a matter of time before they would have to meet hardships head-on.