Mr. Jamison, Master Jamison, Lord Jamison, or Host Mage. Once upon a time he might’ve cared for these titles, but he was getting old now, and those titles were tedious. What pride he had in them before were gone now, replaced only by pride in his achievements. Or at least, that's what he would've liked to think, he wasn't quite sure, he never was.

  He’d changed over time. Mainly because of a fifteen year old boy who’d saved his life and propelled his career into success. It was odd then, that when he looked at Namar, he was reminded of himself. Sure Namar looked like his father, with tanned skin to match dark hair and even darker eyes, but in terms of personality? Well, Namar was more like his old self.

  At a quick glance Namar seemed laid back, and generally content, but he’d caught a glimpse of what laid beneath the surface. Behind those eyes was a burning ambition, a sense of duty that he couldn't place. His posture was straight backed, but relaxed. When Namar stepped up to the Ceremony Stone he’d mistaken Namar as a young lord, not the son of a humble blacksmith.

  There was a quiet confidence too, not the overt arrogance of some nobles, but a certain unrelenting tenacity. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way Mr. Jamison.’ Had he forgotten the scene laid out before him? Not to mention making such an elixir available to the everyday citizen. It was madness, but what worried him most was that he might very well do it.

  Then there was the other one. Barlor. He seemed innocuous enough, sort’ve like an innocent puppy dog. He looked pale, and pretty scrawny, but he was also quite energetic, saying his goodbyes to every single one of his friends before hopping on the wagon. He started some small talk with Namar, although it seemed mostly like Namar was just being polite. Still though, there was something about the boy he couldn't quite place. Something shady, like he wasn't quite sure he'd leave him behind with any of his valuables. Maybe that was just paranoia though.

  He wasn’t quite sure what to make of the two, but they seemed interesting enough. He was going to support Namar regardless, but Barlor was definitely worth supporting if he could achieve a fine control over his frankly absurd supply of mana. He closed his eyes; going over the possibilities, but after few hours he was getting pretty bored.

  With nothing else to do he pulled a spell book from his backpack. Most of the spells written here were for convenience rather than combat. Creating a ball of water in mid-air, a small flame for starting campfires, stuff like that. Flipping through the book he realized that some of the spells were quite inefficient; redundant glyphs and overly thin lines made for a ridiculously costly campfire. He used his limited understanding of ink, and pulled some of it off the parchment, reusing and reshaping the lines as he pleased. The end result being a much simpler collection of lines and shapes.

  Looking up he realized that the two were looking at him in awe.

  “What?”

   Namar looked at Aaron as though he was a weirdo. “You’ve been using magic to pull ink off parchment.”

  “Yes. That’s exactly what I was doing… What about it?” Aaron wasn't quite sure what the issue was. It was just ink after all.

  It looked as though Namar wanted to speak, but Barlor beat him to it. “There’s magic specifically for ink?”

  Oh. Right, kids who’ve never seen magic would probably be astounded by it's casual use. Still, he was debating fully explaining the concept since they’d be taught anyways. Looking to Barlor he realized that not giving any answers would result in him getting barraged by an endless series of questions, so he gave in and resigned to answering his questions as well as possible.

  Aaron shrugged. “Anything can be utilized through magic given enough study. Or meditation if that’s your thing.”

  This immediately caught Namar’s attention. “What about other people?”

  Ok. That was definitely alarming. It must’ve showed on his face because Namar shrunk back a little. “I was uh… just wondering.”

“Right… Well, unless that individual person is willing let you study them, up close, for hours at a time, for weeks on end, you wouldn't be able to do much of anything. Even then you’d still only be able to slightly control that one person and maybe glean a little bit of information about their heritage. It's not very practical.

  Barlor was practically on the edge of his seat and Namar leaned forward intently.

  It was of course Barlor who managed to fire off the first question. “How does it work? Why does it work? Could we-”

  Namar cut him off. “Would it be possible to teach us now or does it break some kind of law? How much time-”

  “Wait I wasn’t done yet!”

  “We can learn these things as we’re taught.”

  “It would be better to know them now!”

  “It doesn't help to know things if we can't put them to use.”

  “I beg to differ!”

  Aaron waved his hands hoping to calm them both down before they got into an argument. “Look, look. I’ll explain this one thing, if you still have questions afterward you can ask your teachers alright?”

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  Barlor nodded vigorously while Namar seemed skeptical at first. In the end, both of them accepted the offer.

  “Look, truth is everything in this world is magical. A bit disappointing right?”

  Namar didn't seem overly concerned, choosing to lean on the back of the wagon. Barlor only seemed more fascinated. The coachman looked back. “Serious? Doesn't that make magic sort’ve normal?”

  “Yeah, it is. Even normal people and animals make use of magic, but typically not in the same way that mages do. For mages, our ability to manipulate the natural world is based on our understanding of the world around us and the mana we have at our disposal to manipulate it, but it's not enough to just know things. There’s something… innate about every physical object regardless of how simple or complex it is, in the mage community we call it essence. This is kind of a silly example, but its sorta like what separates a tree from its wood, or a door from a door knob. It's almost like a definition.”

  Aaron paused to find the right words. He gathered the ink in his bottle into a floating orb that hovered in front of him.

  “For the most part, essence is the same across every object. Ink is ink. Water is water. You might find it hidden in, or combined with something say; a stone wall or a stone table. You can change that of course, let's say you broke the table into tiny, little pieces. In that case it's just stone. Living beings are different though, each of them are unique, with the exception of plants, and that alone makes every individual worthy of study. Even the most basic understanding of an essence is enough to grant some form of ability. In some cases you can manipulate the material, or even create it.”

  Aaron changed the color of the ink orb floating in front of him. First from black to white, then from white to red, he shifted Its color a few more times before shifting it back into a glass bottle and closing the lid.

  “What you study and how far you go into it is up to you really, some people are satisfied with being able to throw fire before moving on to other subjects, others specialize.”

  Aaron furrowed his brow trying to think of a good example. “I once knew a guy, an archivist who studied books, paintings, scrolls, all sorts of stuff like that. It got to the point where he could read and interpret the information on any medium, not just paper and parchment. He told me without a doubt in his mind exactly how long I've owned a piece of clothing down to the second and how frequently I've worn it since I’d bought it.

  Aaron tapped on the side of his head. “Sometimes, it was like he was reading my mind. He could usually tell what I was thinking by reading my body language alone, even through a set robes and a thick mask. Look point is, if it interests you go for it. You never know what you might get out of it. It's better in our community to do what interests you, not what seems most practical from the outset.”

  Barlor of course, had yet more questions. “So why do you use a spell book?”

  “Ask your teachers.”

  “Come on man. Just one more!”

  “I said ask your teachers!”

  “Please!”

  “No!”

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  Eventually, inevitably perhaps, he gave in. Thankfully he figured out how to get both of them off his back. He told them exactly how to access their mana, he just wasn't very helpful about it. He even gave them some cryptic nonsense inbetween to try and confuse them further.

  In the end they actually managed to it figure out. Namar was the first to come out of his meditation, and rather than ask more questions he experimented with his newfound mana. Something that he was very grateful for. At one point he even managed to gather mana into the shape of a ball. Which was honestly, a lot farther than he thought he’d get. Even better, by the time Barlor figured it out, the sun was already setting.

  They decided to set up at the top of the hill and leashed the horses to a couple stakes they set in the ground. They set up bedrolls around a campfire, but rather than light the campfire normally Aaron insisted on doing it through magic.

  “This seems completely unnecessary.” The coachman frowned.

  “I’m aware of that.” Aaron flipped through his spell book and placed traced the shape with his finger.

  “Right, exactly. So let's just do it the normal way I mean, what if you accidentally blow up the campfire or something!”

  “Do have more faith in me, I’ve been doing this for decades.”

  “But why!?”

  “Yes.” He finished tracing the page and reached into his pack, pulling out a bottle of red paint and a paintbrush. He reached out with the paint brush, and the paint followed his every stroke. He painted on thin air as though it were a canvas. A series of interlocking geometric shapes and symbols stretched out in front him, he reached out and the symbols glowed temporarily, before a pillar of flame erupted from its center. The inferno disintegrated the firewood and the nearby grass spontaneously ignited.

  “Too efficient! Too efficient!” Aaron jumped back making certain to keep his spell book away from the raging inferno. He flipped through his spell book, glancing between it and the fire. The boys stepped back quickly, rapidly putting distance between the fire and themselves. The horses however, tried desperately to run away, one of them even managed to free itself from the stake before running off as quickly as it could.

  “No Wait! Bessie!” The coach man jumped and waved, almost forgetting about the fires spreading behind him.

  “Watch out!” Aaron yelled.

  He drew his paintbrush once more, painting a different set of geometric shapes, this time consisting mostly of concentric circles. A great sphere of water appeared before him. He lowered his paintbrush, bringing the sphere down with it, dousing the flames and leaving a pillar of steam in its wake; and a drenched coachman too.

  The coachman turned around “You!”

  For the next couple hours the coachman went on and on about ‘unnecessary dangers’ and ‘I lost Bessie’ he even went so far as to insult him and his family. In the past Aaron might’ve insulted back, followed by a speech about his prestige as a nobleman, but he was older now, wiser and more experienced. So of course he threw him a sack of gold that should’ve been enough to buy a better horse.

  “There, now you can buy a better horse. Happy?”

  The coachman got even more angry and rambled on and on about… something. He wasn't quite sure what. In the end the coachman took the gold and laid down on the back of the wagon, mumbling to himself all the while. It was up to him to break the news to the boys.

  “So… how’s your day?”

 Barlor smiled. “Memorable. Definitely Memorable. One might even call the experience… illuminating.”

  Aaron shook his head and looked to Namar. “And you?”

  “Interesting.”

  “Great! Now, I have some good news and some bad news.”

  Barlor nodded. “Bad news first.”

  “No preference.” Namar shrugged.

  “Wonderful! Good news is… the horse can still pull the wagon!”

  They looked at each other and then to him.

  “Bad news is… we’re going to be late.”