Today was supposed to be the day Edwin finally met his master; he was probably not going to be a magician of unapparelled power. Ed had already accepted it, better than nothing.
A few days ago, Amos, at last, informed him about his magic instructor's arrival in the coming days.
He arrived the previous day, Edwin was told to meet him in the garden of Amos's home was morning came.
Ed ran away from home first thing. He even ignored Alden, who had called ran to train with him and Lucius.
And well, how to put it.
he's just a bum.
Ragged leather clothes you would probably see on a down on its luck adventurer, the kind sometimes come to town on their travels. Unkept, unruly long brown hair tied into a ponytail reaching the lower part of his back.
he's got some killer blue eyes though, the kind of eyes a wolf would envy him for.
What kind of magic could he teach me? Should I just have asked Freesia to teach me?
"Didn't know it was going to be two students. Well anyway, my name is Taft. You can drop the t if you want. I'm a magic college graduate. I assume you're Edwin, right?" He spoke while Ed was still scrutinizing him. Probably with some judgment-filled eyes.
two students?
"Nice to meet you, I'm Sofia or Lantana, you can call me Lan. Everyone does,"
The answer to his question was right behind him. He turned around and sure as the wall was tall, Lan was there, his older sister, with her typical air.
Ed blinks in disbelief.
How come she followed me... and i didn't realize it? Is she an assassin?
"And you are?" He looked at her. Something Ran could only call "a weird look" flashed through his face.
The kind of look he remembered on Lucius every time he looks at people in the village. It was there for barely a second but left an impression on Ed.
A did I really saw what I think I saw? Kind of feeling.
"I'm this kid's older sister…" Lan put a hand over his shoulder and pressed lightly as if hurrying him to talk. That gave him the pushed to snap back to reality.
"It's great to finally meet you, mister Taft. I'm Edwin Raanan Donn," he responded reflexively, letting his body do as it trained to. A light courtesy was called for.
The man seemed to like this and became noticeably more relaxed.
As expected.
"Well as I said, I thought I was going to teach one student, but since you're his sister and it's not much trouble, we can begin"
They seated on the back of the garden, no one was there beside them, only 2 slaves working on the flowers on the far side, Ed paid them no mind but Lan seemed a bit uncomfortable given she doesn't visit often, let alone spending time in the garden o near the slaves.
"Well, I guess before we start, I should ask what are your expectations for this. I mean, well…" Taft shook his head "no, first is, you guys have previous knowledge about the magical arts?"
"no," Ran said
Lan answered as well "A bit, I asked my mother to teach me what she knows, she's a healing hand"
It's the first time I hear about this. Maybe it was better to just ask her to teach me. No, she probably wouldn't want to teach me. She still seems mad.
"it's all right, I will start from the very basics. You guys know what magic is, or more like… what do you think magic is used for?"
"It's like throwing fireballs and making it rain when there's a drought?" Ed raised his hand and replied.
"it's for convenience, so you don't have to look for water or fire if you are lost in the woods, or to make so you never have a cold," Lan said, back already to her usual expression and dry tone.
"Well yes, magic can do almost anything you want to, and it sure is convenient, I love not having to look for flint or torches, I can just chant a spell and have fire anywhere I need to, and yes, rain does play a part in it all, but Magic in itself is an art in service of men, humans,"
"What does that mean?" Lan asked, teacher Taft looked at her, his eyes slightly centered on to her ears, no one noticed "It means that magic it's an art, a tool to be used, you can express your ideas and will through it, and it is in service of men because it should always be used for the betterment of human society, so no making it rain to drown a town" He chuckled, Ran could see that Lan's cheeks were getting just a tad bit red.
the sun must be too strong today.
"Teacher, we should move under the tree. Lan may get a heat stroke,"
He got punched on the sides, very fast. No one noticed except for Ran and his assailant.
Taft didn't seem to care, so they ended up closer to a big maple tree on whose branches provided for a perfect place to hide from the sun. Lan's face went back to usual if a bit madder.
"Well, now, do you guys know what magic even is, to begin with?"
They shook their heads almost in unison.
"It's god's will, a gift to us, his sons, so we can be more like him, when we were created the deep god covered the world in an invisible veil of "energy", an energy so powerful it can alter the world around it, either changing elements form or even creating things out of thin air" He clasped his hands and exhaled lightly "For example if I wanted to raise an earth wall, how do you think I would it?"
"You can't just make raise it out from the earth? With a spell?" Ran asked.
"Yes, that's actually right, you can make it so that your spell uses the very earth beneath your feet to build a wall, or a fortress for all that matters, but you could also just do it so it appears in a flash of light, never even as much as scratching the ground,"
"Woah!" both kids got excited and moved closer to him. Lan's eyes were certainly beaming.
"And can you do this, mister Taft?" she asked
"Well, no,"
"Why?"
Bummer knew he wasn't a great mage. Edwin chastised him in his mind.
"Well, that's what I'm trying to get at. You see, if I wanted to create that wall or just raise it out from the ground, I may even use the same chant, but this doesn't mean it's the same kind of spell or the same spell at all," He looked at them and scratched the back of his head "I may be confusing you kids, so, it's like this, its waaay harder to just make something appear out nothing than to just use what we have at hand, if I wanted to make it appear, it would pose a very big burden on my body and spirit, who knows I may be very exhausted to even move or just faint, some people even die from using too much magic"
"So, you can die from using magic?!" Edwin asked in shock.
"Well yes…"
Scary…
"But it's a very rare occurrence. You can die from exercising your body, you know? You could run, and not stop even if your heart is begging you to. You would die, right?"
"Who would run until they kill themselves?"
"I think no one, but that's the same with magic, you stop running when you're tired because your body tells you your limits, mastering of the arcane arts it's the same, you need to understand your limits, and surpassing them when you get comfortable and skilled enough, with time and effort everyone can become a great mage. It's just extremely hard"
If anyone can become a master mage, then I'm going to be one, I'm sure. Even if can't win at swordsmanship, I can do it with magic.
"Then I'm going to be a great mage, a really powerful one!" Ed made his intentions clear.
Mister Taft, no, teacher, it doesn't matter if he looks kind of lame. He's going to be teaching me precious magic, so he is my teacher from now on.
"I like your enthusiasm, but you should understand it's really hard. Everyone can use it but not everyone will master it, much less become a great magician, so set your expectations on the low for now"
"Okey but, when do we learn magic? What's first? A Fireball? An Earth shield?"
"Well, hahaha," he said while scratching his chin and laughing awkwardly "First I'm going to be drilling the bases of magic, so for today it's just going to be a little test, and tomorrow we'll start with books, you both can read?"
Both of them nodded. Edwin was probably the better one. It's a given since he's had private lessons since turning five years old.
All three of the Donn children were taught how to read and write in a team effort between Madi, Gabrielle, and Freesia. Alden helped out too.
But since Edwin was supposed to be grandad Amos's successor, he alone was given private tutelage.
"Then I guess all I have for today is this" Taft pulled something out of his pocket, a weird-looking piece of jewelry, a necklace, a long silver chain connected to a tear-shaped metal with a blue stone in the middle.
He held it for them to see "this is a spirit sensor I bought, the stone on the center is a very rare mineral from the gem mines near Ori-Sha, on the gold dessert when energy gets altered near it, it will start to glow and pull away, the stronger the magic, the bigger the reaction, it's used to test out young magicians such as yourselves, with this, we can see if you're channeling magic correctly,"
Truth was, he took it from the school when no one was looking.
Taft held it closer to Sofia "You should go first, you said your mother was teaching you how to use magic, so, since you already have some experience, try to channel some magic in your body, feel the energy, anywhere is fine,"
Lan didn't reply, she just closed her eyes and concentrated. A few seconds later, closer to a minute, the stone started to glow very faintly.
"Okey, where do you think you're feeling more energy?"
"Don't know,"
"Well… can you try to concentrate it near your hands?"
She closed her eyes again and focused even harder. Probably the most serious Edwin had seen his sister look outside prank preparations.
This time the stone's glow became more apparent. She opened her eyes, and a satisfied look was drawn on her face.
"That's great Ms. Sofia,"
"Now you Edwin" Holding the necklace towards him he said "It's actually a complicated thing for someone to teach you, especially me, so what I can tell you is to try to feel something, it's like touching something that's not there, or a weird feeling on your stomach, just close your eyes and concentrate"
And so he did. He closed his eyes and focused, but as the minutes passed with no reaction whatsoever from the dumb stone,
Ed gave up.
"Don't worry about it, it's normal. Hell, if you managed to do it on your first try at your age, you would be a genius like no other. We will keep up trying until you can do it,"
That's how Edwin's first magic lesson towards the path of magic went.
Both of them went returned to their house. Lan talked to him about wanting to learn healing magic like Freesia.
"Even if his first impression was weird, teacher seemed like a good person,"
"Yeah…" he replied in a downcast mood.
It's going to be okay right? can I even use magic?
Adventuring looks like a futile dream.