Kyjus entered a small room in the inner recesses of Desmonia. It was small and rectangular in design; the shelves were lined with books and charts and other various other items of import. This place was somewhat dusty indicating a lack of use. The young mage peered around the room but saw no instructor, he was contemplating going to the door and knocking but instead it began to open. Through the doorway stepped a tall, nearly seven-foot, gangly grey skinned humanoid. He had spindly legs and knobby type elbows, and a big nose, mouth, and teeth.
His ears were also quite large and pointy. He had large leather strap sandals covering what had to be some of the largest feet Kyjus had ever seen. He had navy blue cloth pants and a long flowing white robe. A diamond lace sash tightly adorned his waste with a wand tucked into the knot of the sash.
Kyjus got the distinct feeling that he was a rather dirty kind of individual, the sort that didn't often bathe. Kyjus was glad as the instructor approached, that he was not detecting any repulsive odors, as that would have made time spent with this instructor unbearable, indeed.
He stopped in front of Kyjus and spoke in what was best described as somewhat raspy yet authoritative voice. "That door", he said pointing to the door he had just exited "goes to my own personal chambers. Under no circumstances are you to go in it"
"These books" he said gesturing around the room. "They are mine and may only leave this room with my permission and will be returned at the agreed upon time. Do I make myself perfectly clear to you student", he asked?
Kyjus merely shook his head looking somewhat dumfounded.
"Lastly you will address me as Sir or Magus, or Instructor is that also clear", he said as he indicated that he wanted his student to have a seat at the table.
Kyjus nodded.
"Well now that the formalities are over, I must inform you that I hold very open forums when it comes to my teachings and discussions. Open discussions are indeed quite encouraged but interruptions are not, is everything clear so far" he asked.
"Yes, sir it's quite clear", Kyjus responded.
Just then the door opened, and the princess entered the room. "Ah perfect timing" the magus said with a toothy smile. "Welcome princess" he said gesturing toward the table and the young Elf that had just entered the room.
Kyjus sat dumbfounded at the beautiful figure that gracefully took a seat opposite the table from him. He nodded and said hello, in a tone that he hoped did not seem to be too eager or enthusiastic. The response from the princess was with, shall we say, a far less enthusiastic attitude.
The teacher ignored what was playing out in front of him and continued "Kyjus, I was quite taken with your conjuration of that cone of light today. That was an impressive feat, of course I watched it all in my scrying pool" he said as he waved his hand slowly over the table and utter the password
The instructor leaned over the table toward the mist, "now with this I can see the comings and goings of most folks on the planet. Of course, in most cases someone from the scryed upon party knows that I am observing but there are those rare occasions when well the results outway the means", the instructor said with a big toothy grin.
Kyjus stood and walked away from the table again confused by the whole cone of light situation, perplexed not only with how he did it but also why it was such a big deal. Both his teacher seemed impressed by the accomplishment so who was he to question or argue.
The Magus sensed his reluctance of the accomplishment and bade him to take a seat, perhaps the lessons would begin early. "You have many questions of that I am sure but let me start with the ones I feel are obvious and if after I am finished if you have more, I will be happy to address them then. Is that sufficient."
Kyjus again nodded his agreement.
"Where to start where to start" he said as he began to pace the room. "Well I reckon at the root of Magic seems as good as any, yes that will do nicely", he said more to himself then to anyone else.
"Well, I guess believing is where we need to start".
Kyjus gave him a bewildered look.
"Believing, you know do you believe in magic or is it just hocus pocus sort of thing," he said somewhat questioningly. "OK, let me explain it another way. The power of a mage comes not only from the knowledge he or she possesses but also in his belief of that knowledge. The inhabitants of Minlas and Desmonia know magic to be quite real, your planet however," he said as he cupped his hand and made a slow clockwise rotation over the scrying bowl, "no longer believes in magic, to them it is folklore or myths or simple entertainment."
Kyjus was still amazed watching the earth spin atop the table that he almost did not hear what the instructor had said but it finally did register just in time for Kyjus to pose a question before the Magus was to continue.
"I am sorry their professor did you say that my planet no longer believed in magic, to me that implies that they at some point we believed in Magic", he asked.
"Ahh yes you see it's hard to believe but it's true. Let me show you the true account of Magic on Earth," as he said this he sauntered over to a nearby shelf. "Let's see Earth, hmm I know that book is around here let me see Doppelganger, Dot's, Duping made easy, ah here it is, Earth and its Magical History. This should do nicely," he said as he pulled the book from the shelf and brought it over to the table. Opening it too an already marked page he began to read. "The year was 2012 Altera Andromeda or 484 BC (earth time), a young man by the name of Socrates has not only taken quite an interest in magic he has become quite good. He is taking the typical back lashing and questions with the stoicism and heroics of a Mage. Perhaps the council will allow a retrieval?" –Author Unknown-
"Very interesting indeed yes young Master?" Not waiting for a response, he continued. "The year is 2169 Altera Andromeda or 399 BC earth years, Socrates is an emotional wreck scarred from a lifetime of ridicule for his belief in Magic on Earth, he has been threatened at every turn by sometimes angry mobs. The council has finally agreed to a discrete rescue mission. –Author Colonel Dagnin Orla of the Magic Relocation Corp-
I think this next entry is rather interesting Magus Shepplin said as he continued, "Socrates has resided, on Minlas for the last 134 rotations of Cygnus (the equivalent of their sun) or roughly 53 earth years, while Plato has lived a lifetime of ridicule and torment. God only knows why the Minlavian Elders would not let us retrieve him. Near Death he lies in Greece at his flat near the Academy at Athens. Guilt Stricken, he will die a broken man never truly knowing the truth of what he could have become and always feeling the failure. This news saddens me above anything I have had to deal with in my life. My purpose gone; I too will fade into the distance. –Author Socrates-
"There are many more entries, and you are welcome to read this at your leisure. It is very good to know your true past, beginnings and much of which you would never see in your history books back home, "his teacher said as he wiped the moisture from his eyes.
The Magus somewhat regained his composure and then began again. "You see Kyjus your planet has long ago given up on magic. The lack of its use is what we call the bi-product of no longer believing."
The magus paused and cleared his throat and then continued. "Our first challenge in your training is to get you to believe in the existence of magic. That is one of the reasons why your display this day was so important. It shows that down into your base level (what your doctors call subconscious) you have inherited your ancestor's fundamental belief in its existence regardless of how your world portrays it. You found that belief in magic when you were uneasy in the darkened hall and you channeled it. From there your staff was able to process your mental picture and help you create the cone of light your thoughts desired."
"All I wanted to do was be able to see, I did not believe that I could conjure light with my staff", Kyjus rebutted.
"Yes, of that I am sure young master. What is important to remember in this situation is that you did not subconsciously rule out the possibility of its creation by you. In fact, I am willing to bet at some point since you arrived in Desmonia you decided that anything was possible when it came to the creation of magic. That would help explain things quite a bit, although I must admit the size of the cone is still somewhat perplexing," the Magus continued to trail off with his conversation.
The Magus sat there lost in thought for about a minute before Kyjus cleared his throat "ahem sir, you were talking about the cone of light".
"Oh yes now where was I, hurdles I was going to talk about those next. One of the biggest hurdles that a mage will face is the belief in their ability to do great magic. Since you did not even know, and I mean truly know of magic's existence until a few days ago and since then all you have heard is how destined you are to do great things. I am betting that you had never even considered the possibility of not being able to do magic for yourself did you," he asked Kyjus.
"Well, I hadn't at least until this moment anyway", he answered as he sighed and slumped back into his chair.
"Way to go professor you succeeded in anti-magikin him, and it only took five minutes," Kelsee said as she doubled over in laughter.
The magus gave the princess a stern look but decided that nothing good would become of drawing issue to the comment, so he let it pass.
Turning his attention back he again was speaking to Kyjus. "You will need to focus on the good in all of this if you are to succeed in the days that lie ahead. And I guess the absolute good in this is that you know you can succeed in magic as you have already done it. My thoughts in examining this are you made a cone of light that extended some sixty feet through total darkness. And let me tell you it takes more than a novice to produce a source of light to that degree. And lastly you did so without the use of a spell and that is saying something, my young friend."
"That sounds like wizards work to me doesn't it you" he said now looking at the princess and knowing full well this statement would hit a nerve.
For once Kyjus noticed the princess had precious little to say odd he thought to himself, but he definitely could get used to that and without really thinking about it he sort of half smiled.
The Magus caught it out of the corner of his eye, but Kyjus recovered quickly.
"You see Kyjus, when Mages perform spells, we use incantations and components, but it is a rarity when a Mage is good enough to use the art of Evocation", with that Kyjus gave the Magus a strange look so he elaborated.
"Evocation is the art of Magic without form, or more exactly it is Magic performed without the use of a spell, incantations, or components. It is risky to say the least and is only performed by those with the deepest knowledge of magic or what we typically like to call a Wizard. This magic is rarely performed by mages however," the Magus said as he walked across the room and poured him a glass of water from a pitcher.
He then gestured the pitcher to Kyjus to see if he or Kelsee were interested but both declined.
After a drink he continued, "To give you an idea of how rare this art form truly is, most of today's mages fail to call their own staves to them more often than not, Syrus and myself included in that. In fact, the last Mage to be able to evocate was Merlin, he became so adept at it that he actually was more known as a Wizard. He retained this ability up until the day he died which is again rare in itself, quite a remarkable person he was one of the truest gifts your planet has offered our world," the Magus said his voice starting to quiver.
Wiping his eyes with a handkerchief he continued, "So you can see my boy you are indeed a rare find in the magicking community."
"Well, I believe today we shall start by going through the basics of being a Mage and proceed from there", he said to his young student.
He began by explaining about the three talents involved as a part of being a Mage and then of the spell line each of them encompassed.
"The first talent is that of fire. The most destructive by far fire is the most lethal of any of the talents. Many of its spells are lingering and do additional damage over time in addition to their instantaneous destructive power."
Clearing his throat, he continued. "A few of the drawbacks of being a Fire Mage are that spells typically are more intricate in their design thereby taking longer to perfect and longer to cast once you have them perfected," he paused to make sure Kyjus understood.
When he was convinced, he had no questions he continued. "The final drawback is that most of the components in those spells that require them, are more costly along this talent line", again he paused.
This time however Kyjus did have a question.
"So do all spells require components then sir?"
"A most excellent question young sir and to that I will reply no they do not. In some cases, your staff will be sufficient enough a reagent to convey a spell toward a given destination. However, for any spells that you cast that have the capability to do damage over time beyond that of the instant moment the spell is cast, a reagent is required."
Judging by the confused look on Kyjus' face he could tell that he was somewhat confused.
"OK let me try this explanation. A Mage casts a spell, the Mages staff then acts as the reagent sending a bolt of whatever spell that was cast towards its target. Even though the Staff is the reagent the power comes from somewhere. Any ideas on where that might be?"
"Well, I would guess that it would have to come from the Mage," Kyjus said more like he was asking a question rather than answering one.
"Precisely, Kyjus. It comes from the caster in this case the Mage that was casting the spell. If the Mage were to say cast a spell that he wanted to linger or do damage past the initial bolt. An example is our powerful destructive inferno spell and yes I will explain this spell to you someday." He figured he would throw that it before the eager young Mage had a chance to ask.
"At any rate, say I wanted to cast an inferno spell, well this spell has a lingering effect but if I were to fail to use a reagent one of two things would happen. The first is that I would cast the spell and only the initial blast would occur. Now don't get me wrong this in itself can be destructive but if you're going to send in an army of Rock-hybs you might as well take the time to arm them, you know what I mean."
Kyjus nodded that he understood even though he had no clue what a Rock-hyb was, he figured an army was an army so no need to sidetrack his teacher.
"So, we agree, casting a spell that is devastating is good but casting a spell that is devastating and also has a lingering damage effect is better. To accomplish the lingering devastation a mage has two choices. The first of course is the least attractive option and that is the mage must spend the time concentrating on the target or targets and channeling with his staff. This has the obvious disadvantage of leaving the mage dangerously exposed, not to mention the drain on his mental capacities. The second and the highly preferred method for all of the smart mages is with the assistance a reagent. Essentially that is what a reagent does for the damage over time (DOT) spells, it maximizes your damage or the spells capacity in most spells. All good so far", he asked of the young mage.
Kyjus nodded his understanding to the Magus continued.
"So, we have both agreed that being alive is preferable, so we are going with the use of components for spell maximization and against prolonged meditation of a target", the Magus said somewhat rhetorically.
Kyjus nodded not understanding the nature of the question and its rhetorical nature.
"So not wanting to die for reasons stated previously but still wanting to capitalize on the lingering ability of a spell, components were brought into use by Mages. This was thousands of years ago long before Earth was even a known planet to our world which is quite a story in its own right but that is a story for another time."
"These components store the kinetic destructive powers of both the spell and the Mage. The reagent transfers itself with the spell leaving only a trace of black residue in the hands of the caster. The reagent will then travel with the spell until the destructive force of the spell releases itself upon a given target," the Magus paused not sure if the young lad had comprehended this somewhat complicated process.
Kyjus nodded that he understood as the proverbial light bulb went off inside the recesses of his brain.
"Great so now I can mark components off my list of things to do for next week," the Magus snickered to no one in particular. "Now where was I let's see fire spell, talents, components oh yes the next talent. Let's see after fire Oh incidentally I would mention that Syrus is a fire mage and one of quite renown so if you have questions and I am not around please do feel free to impose upon his knowledge."
Kyjus nodded.
"Now Frost, now this is a line of spells more in line with my repertoire and abilities. Frost is not as damaging as fire as most of its lingering spells do not inflict maximum damage but rather, they have the chance to temporarily immobilize or reduce the movement speed a given target or targets if the Mage is of adequate skill."
"With Frost or Ice spells as long as the proper components are used by the Mage, their target will suffer not only the inflicted damage of the spell, whose damage can on a rare occasion be as powerful as that of a Fire Mage if the mage is good enough. However, where the fire spell may linger and cause significant DOT damage a Frost Mages spell may root a target in ice or blast the air from a targets lung or a myriad of other status effects that are meant to incapacitate. None of Frosts ailments cause much additional damage but for targets that must be within melee range to cause damage you must agree that keeping them out of the fray of battle may be even more important than damage itself", the Magus said with a little more excitement in his voice then he probably meant.
"Lastly there is the Arcane Mage. Typically, this is not the most damaging of talents in regards to any given target although Arcane Missiles from an extremely adept Mage can be lethal in most cases. Despite that the arcane talent is one of subtlety or whose destructive forces are designed for multiple combatants in a cat and mouse type chase," the magus paused to take a drink.
He continues, "Some good things about the arcane talent are that the components for this line of spells are almost nonexistent and when they are needed, they are common and very cheap. Also, a benefit of this line of spells is that most of the spells have very quick incantations. The downside of that though is that some of incantations can be somewhat difficult to annunciate."
"There have only been a few great Arcane Mages, the last of those was Merlin", the Magus said finishing his recount of the Mage talents with a resigned sigh.
It was obvious to Kyjus that something was bothering the Magus when it came down to Merlin and he vowed to find out exactly what the underlying cause was, but he also knew that now was not the time. He knew he must first earn the trust of his teacher before he began to question that which plagued him.
Looking at his time keeping device the Magus mumbled "yes there is still time I believe."
"The last and often most destructive force in a Mages arsenal is their ability to conjure a pet. Now by pet I don't mean a Moctoit, or some type of feline or something. When I say pet, I mean an elemental. One that is made of the elements, you know earth, wind, fire, and water. They can be a more advanced form of the substance though, for example instead of a dirt earth elemental you could have a rock elemental, quite a bit more fearsome let me tell you. Or the very elusive and by far the most destructive ice golem elemental. This of course being a member of the water elemental although some believe they still retain a bit of the earth within them. No one really knows for sure since no one alive has ever truly seen one"
The Magus sat silent for a moment kind of lost in thought before he continued. "At any rate all Mage pets require a reagent in order to function. Most believe that the fancier the reagent the better the pet, I tend to believe the reagent quality may have very little to do with the destructive force of a Mages pet. Instead, I believe, as do most Mages with a grain of smarts, that the ability of the Mage is by far the most determining element for the destructive power of a pet. I understand from Syrus that you have never heard of this phenomenon so we will definitely explore this option at the appropriate time," the Magus said stifling a yawn.
The recounting of stories and introductory mage lessons went on for hours before the Magus called an end to the training for the day. "I have told you countless stories and recounted much of what I know in regards to the world of magic but alas I fear it is now getting late, what do you say we turn in" the Magus said as he moved the summoning crystal that requested the presence of the Dwarves.
As he was quickly learning, the dwarves are a punctual race, so they were there by the time Kyjus had his books put away.
On his trip back Kyjus realized the Council Leader was right, as he did learn a lot in his time with his instructor, but so too did that knowledge pose many more questions in his mind. Questions like how a Mage controls its pet, what kind of pet should you have, do different talents require you to have different pets. What talents should he delve into as a Mage? All of these questions wandered in his thoughts as he walked the halls back to his room.
However, one final thought sifted through his jumbled bits of newly acquired knowledge, as he walked the final bit of hall to his room. That thought was it had been a long day today and his mind was tired; he would sleep well tonight of that, he was sure.
He entered his abode; some food lay along the table. Picking a few pieces of fruit and bread and some meat he ate quickly washing it down with a dark very fruity tasting drink. After eating only enough to keep his stomach happy he turned in for the night. As his head hit the pillow he fell fast to sleep and so began the dreams of the ice golem.