Rising of a Mage (13 page)

“Thank you. Truly, you honor me.”

“Anwar, I know you ain’t planning on leaving anytime soon but, when you do, if you wouldn’t mind another companion, let me know. I’m still young enough for a little adventure, and I could use the time away from these old bags of dust,” Jabaal said.

“This ol’ bag o’ dust can still kick your scrawny ass,” Captain Anthony said. Everyone laughed. “Well, Anwar, go enjoy your birthday. We’ll see you and Mariah on the morrow for training.”

Anwar thanked them all again and then headed back to his room. The pack was nearly as big as the chest and he decided he wouldn’t need to put it in there anyway. It looked just like a plain old ruck.

When Mariah returned to her room that night Anwar wasn’t there. She sat at the table, studying her book, when she noticed the pack next to the table. Yes, he would just leave some bag in the middle of the floor and forget about it, she thought. She went to move it but, as she went to pick it up, something reached out of the bag and grabbed her. She let go of the pack, fell to the ground and rolled away from it, reaching for the small knife she kept tucked in her boot. Anwar crawled out of the bag with a big stupid grin on his face.

“That was not funny,” she said. She was sitting with her back against her bed now.

“Ah, it was a little funny.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“And yet you suffer me. Why is that?” he said, as he wrapped his arms around her and stood. Her feet were dangling and she was looking down into his eyes.

“Cos I love you, you big loaf. Gods help me, but I do.” He took her to his bed and made love to her again. As she lay there in his arms, he looked down at her.

“Mariah, I love you. You are my best friend and more than that—my companion. I don’t think I could ever think of you as just a friend again. You will always be more than that to me.”

Mariah just laughed. “Anwar, the only person who has had any inclination that we could even be only friends in nearly a year has been you, ya big wool head. And I love you too. I am yours, I have been yours for a year since I looked into your eyes that night a year ago after you saved me from those wolves.” She waited a minute and when he didn’t say anything back. “This is the part where you tell me you are mine or something of the like.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No!” She punched him in his side.

“Then I am yours, Riah. Forever and always.” She kissed him and they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Chapter Eleven

New Magic

O
ver the next six months Anwar pushed himself every day. He had mastered everything Master Gabrielle had to offer on magical combat and some things that he had learned on his own that Master Gabrielle couldn’t teach him. He had learned all the magic in the book Mariah had taught him. Those spells he had less aptitude for and he had to study each one again after he had used it. He was able to mend a broken bone or a bad cut. He could even stop the effects of poison. He couldn’t reverse the effects, however. So, if he healed someone with his magic who had been poisoned, they would still have the long recovery time as their body healed itself. Mariah had pushed herself and these spells were rudimentary in comparison to what she was capable of. If you lost a limb she could not replace it, but she could heal it and in minutes it was healed as if it had happened years prior. When someone came in near death with a snake bite, she could force the poison out of their body, healing them in the process. She had amazed Master Gibbins when someone had come in with three fingers cut off. She was able to reattach the fingers and within the hour they could use the fingers as if nothing had ever happened. Her goal was to be able to do that with an arm or a leg by the time they left the guild. Even Master Gibbins could only do this if the limb had not been separated from the body long and, even then, only if it was cleanly separated.

“Anwar I have only one magic left to teach you.”

This surprised Anwar he knew he was learning fast but Master Gabrielle knew a lot more spells he had not taught him. “Sir I have seen you do quite a few spells I do not know how to do.”

“Ah, this is true, Anwar, but you know how to use the magic to do those spells; you simply have to study them. The last new magic I can teach you is how to teleport.”

“Sir, I was unaware you knew such things.”

“Ah, one should never reveal all one’s secrets.” He handed Anwar a book strictly dedicated to the study of teleportation. “This book will explain how teleportation is accomplished. Study it learn it; the concepts are important. Teleporting is very dangerous and must be done with precision. If it is not done properly, you could end up reappearing in the sky and falling to your death. I have heard of others who have reappeared divided inside walls, even of one man who left his legs and appeared were he wanted without them. He survived and eventually became very powerful, but he learned a hard lesson that day. I tell you this, Anwar, because I know how far you push yourself and would not ask you to do otherwise in this; Just remember how important focus is. Continue training as you have been. Study teleportation for the next two months. We will have a number of discussions on the topics in that book. I will demonstrate it for you and, when you begin, I will teleport with you. That will familiarize you with what it feels like and make it easier to understand.”

Anwar began studying the book. The first principle was that you had to be familiar with the place you were trying to teleport to. The closer you were to the place, the less familiar you had to be. You could teleport into the room next to you even if you had never been there. This was called skimming. This was done by not completing the teleportation process. To teleport you had to visualize where you were going and see yourself there. Then you allowed the magic of the spell to evaporate your body, and solidify it again in the new location. Most wizards seemed to solidify with their feet a few inches above ground so as not to reappear and be stuck with your feet in the ground. As your body solidified you could slow the process and move a short distance from where you had envisioned yourself. This was useful so that if someone or something was in the place you were appearing, you could avoid appearing there. The book talked about one man who had appeared in the place where a troll was standing; their bodies had merged into a mangled mixture of the two. They had even lived for a few minutes. It also spoke of some of the greater accomplishments of teleporting. Most wizards could not teleport more than a few hundred feet. Some who got really good at teleportation could teleport to a place no matter how far from that place they were. Those who were would say they mastered teleportation could teleport great distances to places they hardly knew. As long as they had been there before they could teleport there. Anwar read about a wizard who had mastered teleportation. He could go from anywhere in the world to any other place in the world whether he had been there or not—excluding, obviously, spell-protected places or dead space. Dead spaces are places in the realms were magic could not be used. That was Anwar’s goal. It would take time to accomplish, years perhaps, but that was his goal. Anwar would not hoard his magic either. Too often those who used magic never documented how or what they did. Too many people wanted to be remembered as the ones who could do what others could not, instead of those who had discovered and furthered the use of magic in the world. After studying this book for two months, it was time for Anwar to learn to teleport.

For the first two days Anwar watched Master Gabriel teleport from one side of a courtyard to another. He also showed Anwar how to teleport items. The process was the same. He would teleport a rock from one side of the courtyard to the other. It would dissolve and then disappear and then Anwar would watch as it reappeared across the courtyard and solidified just like Master Gabriel had. At the end of the third day Master Gabriel said he would need a day to rest. On the fourth day Master Gabriel took Anwar’s hand and he felt his body dissolve. He remembered what it looked like and now he felt the effect as his body became weightless. Then he was across the courtyard! He felt his body become substance again and then his feet met the ground. Anwar looked at Master Gabrielle. He could tell that carrying him had taken a lot out of his mentor.

“Take the rest of the day to study and contemplate what you have learned. Tomorrow you will start your practice.” Anwar spent the rest of the day studying and putting together what he had learned with what he had seen and felt.

The next morning Master Gabrielle met him in the courtyard. He pointed at a large rock.

“Today you are going to practice teleporting that.” “Sir?”

“I want you to practice on inanimate objects. This way you can make your mistakes without putting yourself at risk. Start by trying to move it a couple of feet. Pick the point where you want the rock to go and them move it there.”

Anwar picked the spot he wanted the rock to go. He bent the magic to his will and watched as the rock began to dissolve. As it disappeared, Anwar got excited and lost focus and the rock reappeared, suddenly slamming into the ground were it had been. He was disappointed in himself. He knew he could do it now but he had let go of his concentration.

“Don’t be upset. It took me three days to accomplish what you just did on your first try.”

Anwar nodded and tried again he concentrated on where he wanted the rock to be then on it dissolving and then on it reappearing and solidifying just above where he wanted it to appear. He watched as the rock appeared inches above the spot he had picked and then it fell gently to the ground right there.

“Good. Now move it back.”

Anwar did as he was told. He spent the next hour moving the rock back and forth.

“Good. Now move it farther.”

Anwar picked a new spot twice the distance away. And again Master Gabrielle made him continue moving it back and forth for an hour.

“Move it to the other side of the courtyard.”

Anwar picked a spot across the courtyard. He successfully moved the rock that distance. Master Gabrielle again made him move it back and forth across the courtyard for an hour.

“That is enough for today get some rest.”

“Sir?”

“Anwar, during your time with me, I have allowed you to train at your own pace, often a dangerous one, and have watched you risk yourself on numerous occasions. I will not be deterred on this. You will do exactly what I say without dispute or you will learn this alone at your own risk.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Then rest tonight; tomorrow we will start anew.”

The next day Anwar moved a large log the same way as the day prior. Then Master Gabrielle sent him away again. The next day Anwar arrived in the courtyard and there was a goat with Master Gabrielle. Today, you will teleport this goat as you did the rock and the log. If it does not go perfectly even one time, you will spend another day teleporting a goat. Anwar agreed and spent the entire day teleporting the goat. After each time the goat would panic and he would have to calm it down. This took time and ensured that each time he teleported the animal, it was from a new location and to somewhere different in the courtyard. He had teleported the goat for hours successfully.

Master Gabrielle said, “Good. Tomorrow you will teleport yourself.” Anwar wanted to go try on his own; he knew he was ready but he had promised Master Gabrielle to work at his pace and so he returned to his room. He wanted to tell Mariah what he had been doing and show her, but he decided against it. She could tell he was thinking about something.

“What?”

“Nothing. I love you.”

She knew that was not it but, if he wasn’t going to tell her, he wasn’t going to tell her. “I love you too.”

The next morning Anwar returned to the courtyard. There were two circles ten feet apart.

Master Gabrielle was waiting. “You will start by teleporting from one of those circles to the other.”

Anwar stood in one of the circles. He concentrated on the other and then allowed the magic to take him. He felt himself become weightless, as he pictured the other circle. He could see he was standing in it and allowed the magic to dissipate as his body solidified and his weight returned.

“Now back.”

Anwar spent the entire morning doing this. After the midday meal he returned and there were two new circles at each end of the courtyard. About fifty paces. He spent the rest of the afternoon going back and forth from one circle to the other. Master Gabrielle had forbid him to train or work any other magic until he had mastered teleportation well enough that Master Gabrielle was satisfied. The next day, when he returned to the courtyard, there were no circles. Anwar spent the day moving from one point to random places that Master Gabrielle picked. He realized he was able to do it faster, to the point where he was in the new location seconds after Master Gabrielle pointed it out.

“Anwar, tomorrow we will meet in the field outside the guild. If you can complete the task I give you, it will be your last day as a student of mine. You will be welcome to stay as long as you like, of course. Your studies, however, will be your own. As long as you are a member at this guild, you will be expected to give the classes you have been teaching. And I would like for you to complete that book on magical items and their creation before you leave, If you don’t mind. I did promise The guild master of Heavens Dale a copy.”