Hierohn woke with a terrible headache, he felt completely spent. His long sleep hadn't restored him nor had the healing helped. And there was a man snoring loudly somewhere close by. Trying to channel mana to spend his time in Vision instead of suffering he found himself unable to do so. He could sense the mana just fine, but that selfish force refused to enter his body and be channeled.

He escaped from the pain by burring deeper into himself. He closed off his hearing, the awful snoring from nearby fading. He continued with smell and taste, touch had already disappeared by itself. Having closed everything except the mana he could now feel himself as a big raging fire. It was mirroring the feel of fire particles almost exactly, except for the transparency of the illusion particle. Going even deeper into the fire he can feel that terrible cold particle rage around in fire.

His bladder starts getting ready to give in to fear once again, but this time it is stopped by Hierohn. He will not again wet himself like a toddler. He would show no weakness, he would seek the power and find his salvation. Remembering his father the flames all around him condense, now burning hotter and fiercer, like they were trying to cover the whole world. Vengeance must be disregarded for glory.

'He speaks a lot for a dead guy', Hierohn thought, and with that he had already pulled himself together.

And instead of living in memory instead started analyzing why the illusion particles avoided him, he now burned with great desire to face that elder again and prove himself.

After reaching again for the illusion particle he now found that pulling it into the fire was easy, but channeling the particles away from him was still impossible. He then pulled more particles into himself, into the fire he had now become, and focusing on them now he saw a surprising change in them.

They were being refined to more familiar presence, they almost felt like the Vision itself now. Not

just like the building blocks of it, but like the vision itself centered on these particles.

He tried to channel them into vision and saw that few shadowy particles as well as a cold particle flowed together mixing and merging, creating a vortex that started sucking in nearby illusion particles. As the vortex reached the sides of the flame he was suddenly engulfed into the spell, his mind flashing dark before waking in a new world.

***

Hierohn opened his eyes and rose from his bed, he no longer felt anything except the desire he had been possessed by earlier. Walking through dark misty corridors, he could now notice that the world was only in a small space around him, the familiar courtyard was being built as the rolling wall of shadows swept over it. He headed towards his dormitory walking up the steps. When he looked down for a second he couldn't see his body, but as the dark smoke withdrew his body revealed itself.

Being slightly surprised by this he reached the fifth floor. He walked with steady pace towards his hallway and his room, as he got closer he notice the world taking on more detail, he could even see the illusion particles rotating until they finally reflected the right way, displaying instead of themselves a stone floor. Smilingly he placed his right hand on the door and walked in with utmost confidence.

'So I see that you can channel shadow and illusion, very good.' The elder said with a kind smile.

Hierohn was perplexed, he had come here to fool the old man but it seemed it was unnecessary. He still wouldn't trust that smile, he knew this man was ready to kill him. His Vision, being shaky at some places, doesn't make mistakes this big. Something must have changed since last time.

'Who are you, a warden?' Hierohn asked if he is ready to pretend to be nice better get what I can out of him and then stab him in the back.

'I'm your guardian spirit, your mentor, your best friend and your elder, treat me with respect, boy.' While the first part was said with kindness and grandeur, during the last his voice flashed cold and terrifying aura emitted from him.

'I'm sorry, honored elder.' Hierohn was already wishing for his dagger, but as he bowed he kept himself proper.

'No problem, no problem. And honored is a bit much, though you can keep the elder, I'm a kind and forgiving person, you can trust me. Call me by my name or my title. Al'Feure the Father of Flames. Now you must be thinking why I, the great Al'Feure take it upon myself to teach and guide the measly you. Well it's fairly simple you have bound me to yourself with that bloodstone that was in your room. Everywhere you go I have to go, if you die I'll die. It is in my best interest to teach you.'

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Hierohn heard one lie after another fly from his mouth and believed none of it. If he would die with him why would he so easily get rid of him. However the mentor part had him listening. Even if you aren't dancing with dragons you are bound to get hurt.

'Elder Al'Feure, your unworthy disciple welcomes your guidance.' Hierohn said while prostrating himself on the ground but thinking to himself, 'Heh, saying don't call me honored with such delighted face, who are you fooling, old baboon. Tell me what you know so I can stab you in the back.'

'Haha, so you know quite a bit about the world. I see you aren't from any clan, how about joining mine we treat ours well. All you have to do is this one little thing.' While listening to Hierohn his smile had brightened quite a lot and his warm eyes were filled with joy.

'If the elder would only ask, I would throw away my life for him as you have done for me.' Hierohn at this moment reminded his new master quite a lot. At least he had lying down to the letter.

'I will tell you all about it in due time, meanwhile I will teach you fire magic. Starting tomorrow you will no longer openly learn fire magic, instead you will learn from them shadow and illusion magic as I can't teach you that. You will also visit the library regularly and read the books I appoint to you, finally you will find a orb that can hold fire mana and every night store as much of it into it as you can. For now you will learn reading, as you will be needing it soon.'

'Hmm, so he won't teach me anything, he is quite dangerous for a old man. I will test him first and then decide.' Thinking so Hierohn waited for a moment and then, seeing that the Father of Flames had turned his back and was now inspecting his bed, pulled his dagger and charged towards his back. He who doesn't use his chance has no right to whine about it later.

Before he had even gotten his dagger out of its sheathe he was already missing from waist down and burning for the rest.

'Kid you can't sneak up on me, who put you up to this? Who knows I'm here? How much do they know about me?' But Hierohn unwilling to stand the torture disappeared, destroying the illusion in the progress.

***

He returned with a start. His mind was clear now and the headache had been burned away by the mana flowing through him. That bastard had fooled him and he had been stupid to fall for it. Who the hell would inspect a boring bed that every room had.

But then he suddenly remembered that the elder was with him everywhere he was taking a free ride inside his hand. Before he managed to stop himself he scanned around the room. Though he couldn't find Al'Feure he soon found himself, with surprise, staring into headmasters eyes.

'What spooked you?' He asked with a frown.

'Nothing, sir,' but just as he was answering a rancid smell reached his nostrils and almost made him puke, someone had let a rancid fart rip and it was now hovering all over Hierohn's bed. And trying to move away from it he found it was stronger on the headmaster's side. 'Why are you sitting next to my bed, sir.' His resent brush with elder had left him rather talkative.

'Oh that, well when we find a mage as talented as you we try to stick them with the best teachers in whole school, even from other wards. As fate would have it you have stumbled into the 7th Illusionary Ward or the ward that's not quite there. I as one of the best illusionist in the school will take you on as a personal disciple. Work had and you might even see me.' And with that his image faded into the background leaving behind only that horrible smell, maybe even magnifying it a bit.

'Oh, starting tomorrow morning you will report to fighting lessons in the Fighting Grounds. Your fire magic is about ten times more effective when used with a touch and illusion like shadow has no real attacking techniques, just stick it to them when they are fooled.' Headmasters voice seemed to be coming from right next to his ear, but as it spoke it was heading towards the door.

'Great two invisible masters.' And with that thought he got up to go face the Father of Flames, the great Al'Feure for real.

_________

AN: Okay with that we got into the plot a bit more, I'm sorry about the short chapter but I hope the quality improved a bit.

Ok a bit of plot introduction as well, it didn't seem right to let Hierohn know yet, it seems quite hard to get it in there :-(.

Good reading!