Mr. Mortenson finished the mathematics lesson satisfied with his student's progress. Just as Xavier was about to leave, he spoke. "I heard that your father told you about the usefulness of formations."
Xavier nodded excitedly. "Yes, he showed me the vibration formation. It was really awesome. Even though the energy of the spell wasn't directed at me I could feel the vibration effect in my chest. If it had really been directed at me, I couldn't imagine the consequences."
Mr. Mortenson nodded. "You seem to be immensely interested in formations."
Xavier smiled excitedly. "Yeah. I can't wait to be able to do a formation myself."
Mr. Mortenson smiled. "Well, why not? We can start formations now if you like."
Xavier started. "But I don't have any awakened magic yet. How could I set a formation?"
Mr. Mortenson nodded, "True you can't form a formation out of energy from a spell yet, but you can lay the ones that only use magical materials and don't require the setter to activate it with magic."
Xavier was shaking from excitement. "I would love to learn Mr. Mortenson. When can we start?"
"I'll speak with your father. Assuming he agrees we can begin the lessons tomorrow." Mr. Mortenson shoed Xavier out of the study and to his dinner.
---
The next day his father caught him at breakfast. "Mr. Mortenson tells me you would like to begin studying formations." Xavier waited with bated breath eager for his father's next words. "I'm inclined to agree to the request but there are many things that you need to train in to be a mage. Formations, while helpful, are not entirely necessary. I would rather you begin a physical regiment to enhance your stamina. It will be far more useful in preserving your life than formations."
Xavier's hopes were dashed. His father had never let his sentiment trump his practicality. If he was saying it would be of more use to have stamina than knowledge of formations, he would never let the teaching of formations trump the training.
Seeing Xavier's defeated expression his father had a discerning look. "I'll make you a deal. If you push back your dinner three hours every night then you'll have time to begin training in both. You can take an hour in formations and two to train up your stamina. Once your stamina reaches a level I approve of, we'll switch it. Two hours on formations and one on your stamina."
Xavier considered. He would be very rushed in his day if he added three hours to his schedule. It would also eliminate all his free time. "Can we cut back on some of the other lessons to make up for the time?"
His father shook his head. "Not a negotiation kiddo. If you want to learn formations now then this is the deal."
Xavier considered a moment more. His fascinations with formations were greater than any other interest he'd ever had. Finally, he nodded. "Alright, I agree."
His father smiled as if he'd known the answer all along. "Then you had best hurry. Your trainer is waiting at the training grounds. She doesn't take lateness lightly."
Xavier scampered to the training grounds as quickly as he could. In his excitement he totally missed what his father said of his trainer.
When he arrived there was only one person standing in the middle of the training grounds. She was a tall woman who had her back turned and long black hair tied in a long braid down her back. Xavier ran up in his excitement and was about to give a student's bow when the woman turned around to face him.
"Mother! What are you doing here?" Xavier was astounded. Surely his mother wasn't his trainer.
His mother frowned. "Whenever you step onto this training grounds you will no longer address me as mother. Here you will refer to me as sensei. Do you understand?"
Xavier was stunned. His mother had never had this attitude towards him before. "Okay I understand."
"Apparently you don't because you've already addressed me wrongly. So, I ask you again, do you understand?" His mother raised her voice at the end in a bellow.
Xavier started, "Yes- Sensei?"
"Are you asking or telling me?" she bellowed.
Xavier straightened. "Yes, Sensei!" he shouted.
His mother nodded. "Good." She turned to the obstacle course. "This course is three miles long. It includes pitfalls, trip wires, and other assorted traps. You'll have to negotiate all these to complete the course."
She looked at her watch. "You have fifteen minutes to run the entire course. If you fail to run it in that time you'll run it again until you succeed. Begin."
Xavier was astonished and looked at his mother about to ask a question but she spoke first. "What are you waiting for? Time is wasting."
Xavier started and turned to the course and began to run it. Some time later he crossed the finish line.
His mother was there waiting. "Twenty-eight minutes." She looked up from her watch at the breathless Xavier. "Begin again."
Xavier, breathing heavily, looked up at his mother in disbelief. Her expression was neutral. There was nothing on her face that said she was concerned about his well being at all.
His mother's face turned from neutral to a scowl. "What are you waiting for? Get moving!" she bellowed.
Xavier was shocked into moving. He began the obstacle course again. Thirty-one minutes later he stumbled over the finish line and collapsed his legs no longer able to hold him up.
His mother stood over him. "Well, can you stand?"
Wheezing Xavier shook his head.
His mother nodded. "Your legs must be burning. How about your stomach? Does it feel the same?"
Xavier once again shook his head in the negative. His mother nodded happily. "Then you can do some sit ups for me. Let's say one thousand in ten minutes. Begin!"
Xavier was shocked and then angry but his mother headed him off. "What are you waiting for? Get to it!"
Xavier hurriedly began his sit ups. Ten minutes later he still hadn't done a thousand sit ups. His mother looked down at him as he came to a stop. "You still need to finish." Xavier kept going.
Five minutes later he finally finished. His mother nodded. "You failed to make it in time. We'll move on. How do your arms feel?"
Xavier found himself feeling dread when he was asked that. He had a feeling that this was going to be the closest to hell any human being had ever been.
---
Finally, after two hours after continually exhausting one muscle after another, his mother let him go to his other lessons. Xavier struggled to stay awake that day as he went through his lessons. After he nodded off during language studies his tutor had him stand up.
"I understand why you're so tired. Your mother visited to tell us what to do to get you awake enough to do your lessons." The tutor smiled. "Begin doing jumping jacks. Say two hundred of them. That should get the blood pumping and send some oxygen to your brain. You'll wake right up."
Xavier nearly cried as he began to do the jumping jacks. After he was done the lesson continued. Despite his fatigue Xavier stayed awake. Every time it felt like he was going to nod off he pinched himself viciously to wake up.
Finally, he made it to mathematics. The lesson for math itself seemed to drag on but at last he had made it to formations. Mr. Mortenson smiled at him. "At last, we'll begin your formation training. I understand you've had an exhausting day so we'll start with the simple memorization of sigils. Here are the first thirty that you'll need."
Xavier struggled to memorize the sigils. Mr. Mortenson didn't let him go to dinner until he could recognize and tell what all thirty sigils did. Xavier sighed in relief. "Finally. Now I can start to set up formations."
Mr. Mortenson looked at him with a curious look on his face. "What do you mean by that?"
Xavier looked at Mr. Mortenson, "With these sigils I can start setting down formations, right?"
Mr. Mortenson began to laugh wildly. He stopped and wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes. "It's true that you can lay down a few formations. The ones that take only one sigil that is. They're called primary formations. They're made entirely of one sigil. You have a few more sigils to memorize before you can do basic formations which is the first level of formation that takes more than one sigil."
"Mr. Mortenson, how many sigils are there exactly?" Xavier asked in trepidation.
"Oh, just several tens of thousands." Mr. Mortenson smiled.
Xavier fell over in shock.