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Chapter 7 - The Magicians Apprentice

Alex woke with a very sudden start he was in a warm bed unfamiliar to himself he sat up and his eyes darted around the room there was a jug of water next to him he took it gratefully and drank he felt as though he had not drank anything in days but then again it may have been days since he last drank anything then a woman came into the room Alex could tell she was a northerner by her appearance she dropped what she was holding and ran out shouting for someone "sir hes awake!" someone came running it was Elesarius he smiled and said "i'm glad you're awake boy we have much to discuss" he turned to the woman "fetch the lad some bread if yo would please I'm sure hes starving" he then shut the door and sat on a chair next to the bed now that he had mentioned it Alex realized he did feel like he was starving "so" said Elesarius "I'll get right to the point you are in the capital city of Nix Regnum it been 3 weeks since you battled the ice wraiths when i found you, you were half dead i want to know what happened out there?" and so Alex spent the next half an hour talking with him about what happened and Elesarius said "it seems that you aren't quite sure about what happened to you well then i shall tell you what from my point of view" Alex picked up the piece of bread the woman had brought for him and it seemed Elesarius had and idea "what were the words you said before you passed out?" Alex tried hard to remember then finally came up with "Aestu Es" quite suddenly the piece of bread he was eating which he had just been wishing was warmer was now hot and toasted "m-magic" he gasped taking a bite of the now toasted bread it was delicious Elesarius said "i thought so can you describe the sensation of first using magic" "it felt as though a stone wall in the back of my mind broke and something was released as though something i had been holding back all my life was released out of desperation" "yes i thought so it seems you have what is called "The Gift" its when one is born with a natural talent for magic it fairly common among my people the elves but quite rare among humans my people say you have to have been born under a unique star or constellation to have "The Gift" as a human where as almost a third of the Elves population have it the words you spoke mean Scorch in the ancient human language the old languages have power it is therefore very fitting that the human language is most fitted for destructive magics like fire and lightning the elves language is the language of nature and healing as well as defensive spells wards shields and alike but that doesn't mean the languages can't us other spells its just going to take more effort i will teach you the elven language but you won't be able to channel magic in the language without actually being an elf like me do you except?" Alex thought for a moment about what he was being offered he thought about how much better his life could be if he could do magic and joined the Auroran mages guild they were few in numbers but incredibly powerful and so he may no longer have to be an auxiliary if he could now do magic "i except" he said finally "one other thing whatever happened to commander Antonius?" Elesarius's smile faded somewhat "ah it is most unfortunate but he seems to have gone missing we have searched and searched hoping to at the very least find a body but he gone but do not fret over it now is not the time to dwell on such things rest now" Alex fell asleep but had a horrible nightmare about the white haired Antonius laughing over his corpse

The next morning he was awoken bright and early by Elesarius there wasn't much going on now that they had the capital city evidently Axuroth had abandoned the city Elesarius took him outside the city and sat him down on a stone and presented a rock to him it was a smooth stone and Elesarius once more launched into an explanation "I'm going to teach you the limitations of magic right now so you understand them immediately the first thing you must understand is that the more complex the magic is the more energy its going to take to perform a spell the reason you need to understand this is because if you lose control of your energy you may very well die from whats called magic overload if you cannot control the tide of your bodies magic energies second you are limited by the amount of what are called words of power that you know technically speaking any word is a word of power from any language even the common tongue but only a master sorcerer can manipulate those words for now stick to the ancient words of men i think it is what you are best suited to next your magic is limited also by your creative abilities what this means is that knowing the words isn't enough if you don't have some idea of what you want to do with them for example speaking the word for stone what would you want to do with it summon a stone to you perhaps or maybe you hope to turn your enemy to stone but for now i want you to levitate this stone its simple enough so speak these words very carefully and imagine the stone levitating in your mind the word is Lapis this will probably be harder than fire magic like you were doing on accident so focus reach for the magic well at the edge of your mind feel it and grasp hold of it and bend it too your will" Alex closed his eyes and felt as though he was wondering through a landscape that was his mind and then he found a great big blue ocean he tentatively dipped his hand into the great sea he felt a great surge of energy rush through his hand and he gasped the word "L-Lapis" the stone in his hand wobbled a little but faltered and stopped before it rose into the air but nevertheless Elesarius smiled and said "brilliant I've never seen someone even move it on their first try Alex felt a little better about it now and continued to practice by the end of the day he had managed to raise it almost 6 inches into the air though it was still wobbling and shaking and he couldn't maintain it for more than a few seconds though now it seemed as though anytime he spoke the word Lapis even if he didn't mean to magic would happen he often felt he had to restrain his magic as casual conversations could turn dangerous if he said the wrong thing by the end of the week he could move the stone i a circle in the air and Elesarius said he had mastered the word and they move on to the next Elesarius would often teach him multiple words at once and told him to practice at his best convenience due to him believing the easiest way to learn magic was with practical use when a month had past he had begun to master new words and started to combine them into more complex phrases to perform more complex magic he was practicing the animation spell trying to make a rock move on its own when a soldier came running to the and bowed to Elesarius "Lord Elesarius we have just captured someone he claims to be Imperial Legate Antonius Cornellus he does look like him too but the thing is his hair and eyes resemble that of an ice wraith but we have never heard of them to do such a thing before Elesarius looked worried but nodded and they followed to the man or whatever he was he jumped at the sight of them and as though he could see something they didn't he reached out and grabbed both Alex and Elesarius and they immediately blacked out