The odd pair walked down the mud track. With his long dark hair tied back in a braid, Wali was dressed in finely worked leathers. Barefoot, with naturally darker skin and a spear in hand, he was obviously a Colri hunter to anyone who had any knowledge as such. Yacob was taller, thickly muscled, and dressed in brown pants and a simple linen shirt. Yacob wore a pair of third-hand boots and limped along on his crutch; one leg of his pants was cut away. That evening they camped in a low rise, a smokey fire of dry grass and some wood that Wali had carried strapped to his pack. They spit roast the rabbit and pair of quail. Wali asked Yacob, “What do you plan to do when you get home?”

Yacob was now past the freak-out stage of his predicament. “I dunno.” He replied simply. He wrung his hands, and Wali noticed not for the first time that he had massive thick-fingered hands hard with callus. “I think Holder Mark will hurt me, maybe kill me. I don’t really want to go back, but I don’t know what else to do.” He looked at Wali, “Why?”

“I dunno, curious, I guess. I’m taking a Long Walk, could maybe use a companion.” Wali replied as he slowly turned the meat.

“What me? No one wants Yacob around. I can’t do nuthin’ but take care of goats and cows besides.” Yacob said forlornly.

“That ain’t true. You’re strong, and that isn’t nothing. Tough too. A bite like that would’ve killed most folks.” Wali said.

“What good is that? You want me to carry your stuff around?” Yacob looked at Wali with some suspicion.

“No, I can carry my own weight. If I wanted a pack mule, I’d buy one. No, I could use someone to talk to. I don’t think you have a home to go to anyways. Why not come on a Long Walk?” Wali asked Yacob. He liked the simple man. Straight forward, honest, and open. No subterfuge, no duplicity, just a simple guy.

“You keep saying the Long Walk like it’s something that means more. I don’t understand.” Yacob asked.

“Well, it is a tradition of the Colri. When life on the Plains isn’t enough, we take a Long Walk out into the wide world. Explore, learn things and maybe earn some coin. Eventually, we go home to the tribes and live our lives.” Wali said as he took the spit off the fire and tapped the two quail off onto a wooden plate. He set them aside to cool and returned the rabbit to the fire.

Yacob reached for the steaming hot quail and picked one up by a leg. He didn’t even wince at the sizzling fat on his fingers. Wali watched as the man bit into the side of the small bird, hot grease oozing down his chin. Wali knew he would be howling, burnt, and blistered had he done the same. He cycled mana through his Magic and Senses glyphs, holding an idea of sensing the magic in the world around him. His view of the world shifted. He could immediately see the unbridled power blazing inside his spear's head. Gulli, who lay snoring to the side of Yacob, seemed more real and less like a ghostly image. When he looked at Yacob, he was stunned. The man had mana inside of him, a swirl of gray-brown Earth-aspected mana at his core with a nimbus of red and orange Fire-aspected mana dancing along his skin.

Seeing the odd look Wali was giving him, he said, “What? Did I do something wrong?”

Wali dropped his magic sight and smiled, “No, my friend, I think I know something that you do not. Did you know you carry magic with you?”

“Yeah, but doesn’t everyone?” Yacob asked before belching. He covered his mouth and said quickly, “Sorry.”

Wali shook his head bemused, “Let’s finish dinner. Then I want you to do something for me. It’ll be real easy, I promise.”

Shrugging, Yacob replied, “Okay. You going to eat that one?” he asked, indicating the second quail.

“You go ahead. I’ll just have some rabbit.” Wali said as he remembered Longtooth teaching him how the stone circle worked. The glyph stones of the Colri Ritual Circle were not much more than a marker where a confluence of power lay. The process itself did not assign a glyph but revealed it. Longtooth had said that only the Colri used this method and that the Naming Ritual, Passage Ceremony, and Ascendancy Rites revealed the nature of a person’s natural affinities for specific glyphs. This was a guide for the Colri and a way to help them bond better with their Totems and use that Aspect with the Totems. There were other methods for revealing one’s Aspect, and Wali was going to use one to help Yacob.

Stolen novel; please report.

After eating and cleaning up, it was nearly fully dark. Only the light of the small fire lit the hillock they sat on. After sweeping aside a patch of dirt, Wali took a stick and drew three similar characters into the soil. Yacob watched but could not sense the magic happening. Each of the symbols was a triangle. The right one had points that were pulled and curled to the left, the center a typical triangle, and the left had points that turned to the right. Wali asked Yacob, “Which of these is correct?”

Yacob looked down at the symbols and scratched his head. “I dunno, are they letters?”

Wali waited a moment and said, “How about this? Close your eyes, hold your hand over them, and pick one.”

Yacob closed his eyes. His new friend Wali was nice and wouldn’t try to trick him. He felt a strange pull to the right, so he pointed down without thinking any more about it. He opened his eyes and saw that he was pointing at the one on the right side. “This one?” Wali smiled at the big guy.

“Yes, now can you picture that symbol in your head? Imagine it?” Wali said.

Yacob scrunched up his face and concentrated hard. He first imagined a triangle and then thought about the curly points. They were like tongues of flames. “Yeah, okay.”

Wali said cautiously. “Okay, now I want you to say the word ‘Ahz’. That is the name of that symbol.”

“Oz,” Yacob said.

“Close, Aa-hhzz,” corrected Wali. Putting the emphasis on breathing out during the hz part of the sound.

“Ahz,” Said Yacob, and something inside him warmed suddenly and surged to his hand. Startled, he looked at his hand. It was on FIRE! “Ahhh! I’m on fire! Help!” Said the surprised and afraid Yacob. Wali burst out laughing as the flames winked out as quickly as they disappeared. Suddenly angry, Yacob turned on Wali. “You tricked me and set me on fire! Now you’re laughing at me.”

“Whoah, hold on, wait a moment,” Wali said, holding his hands up in front of him. “I didn’t trick you. I taught you how to use your magic.”

Scowling, Yacob said, “I don’t have magic. Mark said I didn’t have no aspect and no magic!”

“Well, Mark lied to you. I think he has lied to you about many things. You have magic, Fire magic, for one thing. I think you might have more.” Wali said carefully, trying to keep his friend calm.

A wave of old anger welled up from within Yacob, “What do you mean?”

“I can prove to you right now that Mark lied to you.” He knelt, picking up a piece of kindling. He passed it to Yacob, who took the stick of wood. “Hold that in your hand, picture that symbol in your mind again, and say the word.”

Still suspicious, Yacob closed his eyes again, picturing the symbol. This time it was far easier. The symbol was lit up and sharper, more detailed, and precise. First, it had been a squiggle in the dirt; now, it was calligraphy written in flame. He didn’t need to close his eyes to see it. It was in his vision. “Ahz,” he spoke, and the stick lit with fire. His hand was warmed by the fire but not burnt as he felt something stir inside of himself. Yacob goggled at the burning stick for a moment before it became too hot to hold. Dropping it, it kept burning, and Wali flicked it into the fire with another stick.

“See that. You did that. You and your very own magic.” Wali said, grinning.

Yacob stared at his hand and dropped to the ground, knees suddenly weak. “I have magic.” His eyes started to well up.

“Wait, no crying. Not yet, at least.” Wali said and was about to continue before he was scooped into a bear hug. Yacob held on for a moment.

“You are my true friend, thank you,” Yacob whispered into Wali’s ear and let a very startled Wali go.

“You are my friend too, Yacob,” Wali said, catching his breath. “Now I think you have another magic. This one will be harder to test.”

“Two magics?” Yacob asked excitedly, eyes huge.

“Yes, I think so. We can’t test for everything but two for sure.” He wiped away the squiggled glyph of Fire and its false companions. He carefully drew a circle with a jagged line through it. The glyph of “Dir” or Earth. “Okay, this one is called Dir and means earth, like stone and dirt.”

“Heh, Dir, Dirt.” Yacob chuckled, thinking this was funny.

“That’s where the word comes from. From this glyph. Now imagine that symbol in your mind and hold out your hand palm down.” Wali instructed.

Yacob held out his hand, imagining the symbol as he had with Ahz. He spoke the word “Dir.” Again he felt a shift inside of himself and something pouring from his hand. A fist-sized stone slapped into his hand, having shot up from below the surface of the ground, showering their feet with dirt. Yacob’s eyes grew wide, and he stared at the rock, then at Wali, then at his hand and the stone. It was as solid as any rock he had ever held, but this one was light in his hand. Weightless but still having mass.

“Awesome. That’s amazing, Yacob. You are a natural at this.” Wali said happily, brushing the dirt off his feet.

Yacob dropped the rock with a thud. “I want you to teach me. I’ll go on this Long Walk with you too.” He was suddenly exhausted. “But tomorrow, I’m really tired now.”

“Sure thing, buddy,” Wali said as the big man simply laid down next to the fire and began to snore.