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Excursion Book 1, The Goblin Curse. First arc.
Chapter 3 Life in the shadow of fame

Chapter 3 Life in the shadow of fame

          The sun shines slightly higher in the classroom, showing that some time has passed by. Korahk finished his rounds of gathering the apprentices’ paperwork of a test matching ancient text that are defined by the words that the mages use for incantations.

          He heads to his office door, the one where Lancelin walked into an hour ago but stops to look and make sure that the northern door is closed, after releasing the apprentices to their magic practice. He opens his door and walks into his office.

         His office is about from the left wall to the right forty feet wide. From the door to the other side, about forty five feet long. The walls are made up of pine wood bearing neither paint nor designs whatsoever. The floor also made of the same material, but is mostly covered by lime green carpet that matches the curtains on the windows in this room. He has a couple of book shelves surrounding a window on his left.

         The books are well organized from alphabetized and coloration. In front of the books however are cluttered up with all kinds of items and tools that are commonly used by magicians of any caliber such as; different colored/sized feathers, skull heads of various animals, vials and potions that are either empty or filled in various colors, small bowls with powdered materials and etc.

         To the right side of the room, lies a well-polished oaken table to the left of the window. It holds a stack of papers on the lower left corner of it, behind it lays vials of ink and quills lined up. Taking the center and the right of the table is covered up with an empty alembic and a large iron bowl filled with crushed herbs and an iron ladle.

         On the right side of the window lie two wooden wheeled cabinets. The one on the right is closed, holding stacks of paper and a couple of boxes of chalk. The one on the left has its door open revealing lined up empty vials being help by racks. On top of the left cabinet lies another alembic that is over a steel bowl, attached to it and the cabinet by steel rails and yet both the alembic and bowl are empty. Standing at the corner of the right wall and entrance wall is chalk board on wheels that’s much smaller than the one in the class room.

         At the back of the office has a wooden slide in door, which is open revealing it to be a closet of sorts bearing a couple of the same blue coats, a few old brown coats of different sizes and some crates lined up on the floor.

         A pictured painted frame on the left of the closet door shows many people in brown coats lined up, which one of them appears to be a younger version of Korahk and one blue coated woman on their far right. The blue coated woman has similar facial features as Lancelin, the same green eyes but her hair is light brown. Below the painting is the same rose symbol with the words, (Master Magician Kentavious Korahk. An honoree magician of the Unum Country.). The painting on the right of the closet shows the map of the country of Unum.

         As Korahk enters the room, he looks to his left and studies his deer head trophy that he was so proud of from his first time hunting down an animal with a crossbow and no magic, only to find Lancelin’s cowboy hat hanging on one of its antlers. He looks to the center of the room, where his desk and three chairs are at.

         One chair behind the desk and the other two in front. The desk is made of oaken wood, on top of it lays a few stacks of papers, ink bottle and quill, a six inch lime green unlit candle stick on a lamp made of steel and a large red book. All three chairs are made of oaken wood as well, but the one behind the desk is slightly larger and has steel wheels on the bottom plus is set to easily turn around.

         On the left chair front of the desk, Lancelin lies with his back slouched asleep with his legs crossed and resting on the other chair. A book rested on his face hiding him from the sunlight to help undisturbed his rest.

         Korahk lightly closes the door and walks towards the back of his desk. He shuffles his papers to align them properly, and then places them on his book on the desk. The sudden shuffling roused Lancelin to his mumbling stage, shortly before Korahk sat down on his chair. He straightens his back upright, pulls out a glasses protector case from his top right coat pocket just to fold his glasses up and gently places them inside then closed the case up and placed it back into his pocket.

         At that moment he slightly slouches and rests his head on his right fist against his armchair and breathes in a deep breath while looking at his apprentice. “Zee Zee Zee, what are we going to do with you?” He released his breathe through that sentence as he slightly shakes his head keeping his gaze fixated on Lancelin.

         “Teach, you know it’s a bit improper to address each other by our first names.” Lancelin said with a smirk while lifting his book with his left hand.

         “We’re at our fifteen minute break; everyone should be getting ready to form up at the practice field right about now. Zee… what is going on with you? I know that you’re fully aware of how magic works, heck I’ve seen your abilities of how easily you can manipulate it. Are my classes that boring to you? If so then just bear with it, you will learn much about it and even things that you may have questions about or not even thought of. So tell me, what is the matter Zee?”

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          Zee straightens up and changed his smirk to a blank look on his face. “It’s not that your lectures are boring or anything, honestly I’ve learned many things thanks to your teachings…” Zee stated clearly, only to mumble little during the last half of his sentence as he peered to his left.

          “Then tell me Zee….. What is the problem?” Korahk asked as he straightened up his posture. Zee got up off his seat and slightly walked to the left window and looked through it.

          He sees an open field of dirt, with a few rows of practice dummies made of tightened up twigs. Before them for a good 20 feet of the first row, he sees half the people in his class and of course he sees the young woman that lectured him out earlier. “It’s how they all view me…..” Zee said as he placed his left arm on the window sill.

       “Don’t let their words get to you, they’re just trying to..” Before Korahk finishes his sentence Zee cuts him off.

       “It’s not just them!” He turns to look at Korahk and then looks over him towards the map of the world. “Everyone, this town... The elder...” He scoffs as he looks back through the window. “This world… They all view me as the rightful heir of this country’s renowned family of mages… The Lancelins… but not as me for me…”

        Korahk stands up from his chair and walks towards Zee, bends on one knee to be almost at even eye level and looks to Zee and speaks. “Then learn for you, not for your family name. Of course everyone knows of your grandfather being the founding country’s arch mage, and your father coming up as the second arch mage during the civil war. But you… You have a gift, a power that is different and far surpasses your father, and I’m positive even surpasses your grandfather too. Even your sister, Zamora Lancelin… She was born without an affinity for magic like your heritage does, but she proved to the country that with hard work and dedication you can persevere through most difficulties. She started off during the civil war as a private sword wielder, and now she made it as a captain in this time of peace.”

        Zee looks to the ground, “I remember the stories, and heard a lil bit of it when I was a toddler of how people looked down on her for not inheriting the family powers.” Then he looks back to Korahk with a blank look on his face. “As for her reward, everyone kept saying, ‘as expected of a Lancelin’.” He was about to head towards the door, but was suddenly stopped by Korahk’s left hand on his left shoulder.

        “Zee… There are a few things wrong with your statements, one …. For starters you can’t just view this country as the world, there’s more to it…. A lot more to it, believe me. Two, you know how much pain and suffering your sister had to go through. The fact that your father practically resented her for not being a ‘True Lancelin’ and blaming your mother for being the possible reason that she didn’t inherit the power because of her genes. Even after your parents’ death, it was far worse for her especially without your mother to support her.”

        He looks to his graduation picture on the wall, and focused his gaze to the lady in the blue coat. “Your mother was a very supportive person to your sister, and not just your sister but to everyone. Even to me in my times of trouble.” He stands up firmly still looking at the picture then towards Zee while smiling.

        “And I’ll be here for you in this time of troubles as well, just remember that not everyone views you as a Lancelin, but as Zee.” He changes his smile to a sad look on his face as he pats Zee’s shoulder. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of your parents since their deaths ten years ago… It was hard for everyone… This country lost two of its greatest treasures.”

        Zee looks with his left eye to Korahk. "I do thank you and uncle Rufus for watching over me these past ten years, as for my sister…” He looks down. “ I can’t say the same about her…” Zee said as he closed his eyes.

        Korahk lifts his hand off of Zee and raises it with his palm opened up. “Cut her some slack, she had orders by her superiors. If she had the time to spend with you, she would’ve.” Korahk ends the sentence with a wry smile.

        Zee remembers the times when Zamora used to lash out at him for being born with the Lancelin influence with magic. “I suppose so…” He stomached to avoid any longer conversation. He opens his eyes and reaches for his hat with his right hand as his left hand attempts to turn the door knob.

        He places his hat on his head and grabs the door with his right hand as it opens from the momentum of his left hand, he turns to Korahk and speaks, “Thank you uncle Kent for this eye opening conversation, but for now I have places to be…” He tilts his hat with his left hand and starts to head out the door.

        “Zee, will you consider at least, to focus onto your studies? I can assure you that it will be good for you. Who knows, maybe after you served your years in the military you could travel the world out there. There’s a lot to explore you know, and with more knowledge of magic, you’ll be much safer out there.” Korahk waits for an answer as Zee looks down and then back up to the stairway of the classroom and smiled with his eyes closed thinking of the thought of venturing out to the possible untouched lands, like the characters in his books.

        “I’ll think about, it will take some time uncle Kent but, I’ll think about it.” He opens his eyes and walks up the stairway with his hands in his cargo pockets. Shortly afterwards, Zee opened and closed the northern doors.

         Korahk looks to the picture and smiles. “Was I that difficult and stubborn to you too when I had trouble with my fellow classmates for being the only foreigner around? It must be a thing, among young people these days." He walks towards his desk reminiscing the time when he was young and being lectured by his instructor.

         He opens his desk up to pull out his clipboard with a blank piece of paper and stuffs a vial of black ink into his right cargo pocket and puts his glasses on from his right chest pocket before placing a quill inside the same pocket. “It is time I am off and watch over the new generation of mages’ work.” He looks out the same window that Zee was looking out from.

         “I’m pretty sure he’s going to skip this practice run, but it’s probably for the best, he needs some time away from them. Still, I hope he doesn’t get in trouble.” He smiles wryly then changes it to a serious stoic look and heads on out of his office, closes the door and locks it up.