"The boys had the pieces spinning in the air in an argument over who would place the door on last. So I squashed the problem, and Stell finished the shed as you intend, I am sure," I said with a smirk. My mother just smiled as she turned on the boys; their smiles melted away.
"Hamak, you can go weed the corn on the north side of the garden. Gren can do the tubers on the south side," She said this in a manner that left nothing up for debate. The boys sulked out the door.
"No supper till it is finished, boys, both sides," my mother said.
The boys were about to start to complain, but I used some shaped force to close the door. The grumbling faded off as the boys moved further away and mother turned to the two of us.
She was lost in thought about something. She was forever thinking and letting her mind wander. She had once explained to me that a shaper's greatest gift was their imagination. Without imagination, no one would ever create new ideas and ways to shape magic.
There are no handbooks or original texts that came with the magic. It was just always here. We only know things that do not work from trial and error. If a person tries to tell you that there is a limit to what is achievable, they are wrong. There is no limit to magic besides the imagination of the person shaping it.
"I see no long faces, so I can assume we will be going to the temple tonight," she said rhetorically. My mother's strongest affinity in shaping was healing and mending broken things, but most days, Stell and I just assumed it was the ability to read our minds.
She enjoyed asking questions that I couldn't answer. She knew it got under my skin and always made Stell laugh, which usually ended with us laughing. She knew we were not allowed to talk about it until the day of passing was complete, and if we did talk about it before the night was over, it was like failing the first test. Everyone in the village knew and participated in the event to ensure each shaper that left the town would not dishonor us.
So I smiled and said, "lovely smells are brewing from the stove, mother, is there anything we can help with?"
Later that night, Stell and I stood in front of the temple in plain cloth robes with no color or distinctive marking. Inside was the moment both of them had been waiting for. To receive their tomes and to set out into the unknown. Our lives were sheltered in our valley. The mountains created a barrier from the rest of the world and monsters. Outside of our tall mountains lived an entirely different world to the small one I had grown up in.
This moment standing beside my friend is etched into my memory forever. I did not quite understand what this moment in time and at this exact place meant. There was a reason Stell, and I were there, and I felt the slight pull tug me inexorably towards the temple. The night air was warm, and the moon was full in the sky. The temple rose in front of us with two towering mages cast in marble that stood watch over this temple till the end of time.
The two statues were of mages of two different sizes. Both stood tall and proud, each with a hand-cast away from the temple to cast evil aside. There were no names for the solemn defenders, but they stood at the front of every temple.
The temple was not in honor of higher beings or anything like that. They were built to help guild the young in the ways of shaping. The temple held a significant concentration of magic that created a sentient consciousness. That awareness inspected each aspiring shaper and created a tome for each person that it approved of. Not everyone was picked. The sister's word is the ticket to get into the show. After that, the rest is up to you.
As we stood there, I looked over at my large friend. The moment was now.
"I think it's time," Stell rumbled. I nodded at him, and we started forward. As we walked along, the pull got more substantial, and it started feeling like a humming was in my mind.
"Do you hear that?" I asked Stell.
"You mean the loud bee's in my head? The sound makes me feel like my teeth should be shattering," he said with a shudder.
"at least I am not losing my mind," a little confirmation makes a concerned mind calm.
As we walked, the hall opened up into a large chamber. Inside was stone patterns on the floor and walls, but that was it. Windows lined the walls, and in the center of the room sat a pedestal. Sister Glendra stood off to the side of the pedestal.
"boys, it's time to step forward. First, you now, Dak," she said in that soft tone. I looked over at Stell, and he gave me a faint smile and nodded forward. I stepped forward and felt sick. I had never felt so nervous, and the pulsating buzzing noise was making me dizzy. So much was going on, and then there was nothing. No sound. No pull. I opened my eyes. I had not even known I had closed them. When I looked up, there was nothing. Nothing happened. I started to sweat. What was going on?
"Is something supposed to be happening? I asked, starting to shake. This is not what was supposed to happen. I had planned for this my entire life. We studied and practiced long after the sun went down. What am I missing?
"Step back, Dak," the sister said gravely. She would not look me in the eyes. She understood it would only make the hurt worse. I stepped back, still shaking, and the sister told Stell to step forward, but I was lost in my mind. The absolution of my failure drove me to the ground. I just sat there squatted with my face in my hands. Then I heard a gasp. That brought me out of my self-pity.
"How is this possible?" sister breathed. I looked up and seen Stell still just standing there, just the same. Nothing had changed, and he still had no tome.
"What is going on?" I said after picking myself off the floor. I turned and looked at Sister Glendra, but she had a confused expression on her face. I turned back to Stell and started to walk forward. Then the world exploded with light.