Several hours down the road, Victor finally stopped to rest. Only a moment after he had sat on a convenient tree stump, a voice piped up from next to him.
“So are you gonna teach me something now?” Limbas looked up at Victor, the smile he’d had on his face since they had left his village was still plastered on his face. The older mage held back a sigh, rubbing his eyes before turning to look at the child.
“Certainly. Now go bring me a stone heavy enough that you can barely lift it.”
The smile on Limbas’s face faltered for a moment, “Uh, teacher? What does that have to do with magic?”
“I said it’s important, so it is. Now go fetch a stone.” Victor waved the kid off, and began to stretch his sore legs. It was only a scant few minutes later that Limbas returned with a rock the length of his forearm. He was clearly struggling, and walked up to his teacher with a smile once more on his face
“Found one! Now what are you gonna show me? You gonna turn it into a crystal? Make it an object of power? Show me how to disintegrate it?” The eager kid handed the rock off to Victor, who grunted from the sudden effort as he claimed the requested piece of rock. Placing it on the ground, the mage took a stick and started sketching a new rune into the ground under the watchful and eager eye of his new apprentice.
[https://i.imgur.com/uL504JW.png]
After examining the rune for a moment, Victor picked up the rock once more and examined it closely. Limbas started to speak up, but a quick noise from the mage quieted him. After being satisfied with something, he began to concentrate, eyebrows furrowing. The rock seemed to shudder under the sudden scrutiny, and slowly started shrinking. The edges smoothed, and the entire thing molded itself into a small sphere just large enough to easily fit into Victor’s Palm. Limbas was astonished, and immediately spoke up.
“Wow, are you gonna show me how to do that? To mold rock into any shape I want?” His eyes were once more alight with interest.
“No,” Victor took out a knife from his pack and scratched a very simple looking set of lines into the smooth edge of the rock, “See this rune?” He continued before the kid could speak up, “You’re going to learn to make this rock lighter.” Victor easily handed the new spherical rock to Limbas, and the moment it left his hands, Limbas dropped it.
[https://i.imgur.com/2ZwzPSu.png]
“Oh, that’s cool too I guess.” Limbas bent down and picked up the rock, clearly struggling. “So, uh, how does this work?”
Victor leaned forward and pointed to the short rune on the side of the sphere. “That there is a very simple rune. For your purposes, it means ‘make this rock lighter.’ what you need to do is visualize the rock in your head with the rune carved into it, and then make it weigh less. I even make it easy for you, since it’s a perfect sphere.”
Limbas nodded, before speaking “Oh, well, I thought you were gonna show me how you do that stuff like with the… rune? On the ground there.” He pointed towards the dirt where Victor had carved a rune to change the shape of the rock. Noticing it, Victor scuffed up the dirt with his boot, destroying the rune.
“I will, eventually. However, it would be pointless information until you can manifest something first. It might take you minutes, it may take you years, so there’s no point explaining that until you can do something as simple as make a rock weigh less. Now, let's get moving shall we?”
“Wait, am I supposed to carry this while we walk?” His apprentice was struggling to keep hold of the now condensed rock.
Victor nodded. “Exactly. Now you’re motivated to make it lighter.” With that, Victor stood up, stretched his legs one more time and began walking along the road again.
----------------------------------------
As the sun was setting and its beams of light were trickling through the canopy of trees, the two of them found what appeared to be a hut alongside the road. Its walls were made of stacked stone and a thatched roof sat atop wooden beams which ran up the walls and kept the building intact. As Limbas, tired and sweating, followed his teacher into the structure he could see the floor was made of packed dirt with more than a few old leaves piled up inside. In one corner of the only large room in this building, a simple fireplace sat with a short chimney to vent the smoke outside.
Looking around, Victor nodded and spoke. “A traveler’s stop. This should be a decent spot to stay the night.” Without waiting for another word, Limbas fell down against one of the walls, the sphere he was holding smashing a small crater into the ground next to him.
“Thank the spirits, my arms hurt.” he started massaging his own shoulders as the older mage moved to inspect the fireplace.
“Don’t rest now,” Victor spoke up, much to Limbas’s regret, “we’ll need some firewood for the night, after all.”
Holding back a groan, Limbas spoke up. “Surely, a mage as powerful as yourself doesn’t need the help of anyone else for something as mundane as gathering wood?”
Victor turned to look at his apprentice, a hint of a smile on his face. “Oh, but these old bones need a break. And, after all, what’s the point of an apprentice who doesn’t do the mundane tasks below someone as powerful as me?”
Clambering to his feet, Limbas performed a sloppy bow, replying “Of course master, would you like me to draw up a bath as well? Perhaps some tea?”
Victor waved him off “Just the wood for now. Go on then, I've got things to do.” His apprentice groaned but walked out of the hut, leaving that cursed rock behind as well.
----------------------------------------
While out gathering, Limbas couldn’t help but worry. He’d been holding that rock for hours, trying to do exactly what his new teacher said to do, but to no avail. He had trouble keeping the image of that rock in his mind, as if it were slippery somehow. He was supposed to visualize it getting lighter? What did that mean? Was it a trick? No. It couldn’t be a trick, after all, the mage had held that rock in a single hand without any effort after carving that symbol into it. That only left the question, what was Limbas doing wrong? In a small corner of his mind, he’d always known that learning magic was going to be hard, but he had held out the hope that he could get it right away. Shaking his head, he forced himself to stop that line of thought. Victor had told him directly, it would be difficult and might take years. His teacher must know what he’s doing. Nodding to himself, he took his bundle of wood and marched back to the traveler’s stop.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
----------------------------------------
Victor was worried. When he had given the kid the task of making a stone lighter, he had expected it to be easy. Visualizing a perfect sphere was as easy as it got, and making something lighter didn’t even require a change in shape. He remembered back when he learned to manifest, it was the work of an afternoon. He’d made a pane of glass go from clear to opaque. Victor didn’t have access to glass here, but perhaps that was an easier task? The dynamic thinking he had shown so far was exactly what he needed for magic. Thinking on your feet, as well as planning were essential, and the kid had managed to throw victor for a loop for several days. Either way, as much as it annoyed him to have a tagalong, he was a man of his word. He promised to teach that kid to do magic, and that is exactly what he would do.
----------------------------------------
Limbas walked back into the hut and immediately stopped. There was a piece of paper on the inside of the door, with a strange series of symbols written in ink on it sitting in the middle of the paper was an unlit candle. Peering at it, he recognized the symbol as the same one the mage had used the night before, that looked like it made the air brittle or something. Looking up at the mage in question, he saw Victor putting away another piece of paper. Now curious as to exactly how much paper he had in that satchel, Limbas asked “What exactly does this do?” while pointing down at the paper at his feet.
Looking up at his apprentice, Victor gestured towards the fireplace while he responded “Excellent, you’re here. Put the wood in the fireplace and I can start up a nice warm fire.”
“Oh, sure. But what does that spell there do?” Limbas placed the bundle of sticks and larger chunks of wood into the fireplace as he pointed his chin at the spell in front of the door.
“Ah, that’s a spell I haven't named yet.” Victor said, distracted, as he sidled up to the fireplace and flipped his spellbook open. “It’s based on a simple ward spell I made a while back. It makes the air in a space brittle like glass, compresses it, and forces it to stay still. When something runs into the space, it shatters, and it forces the air into compression, making a loud whistle. In theory, of course. I haven’t actually tested it yet.” A flame hissed into being above his palm, and he carefully held it near one of the twigs until it caught.
Limbas felt like he’d been smacked by a book, slowly nodded. “I see?”
“Either way, now that you’re back, I plan to set it up, so move into the corner and be quiet for a moment.” Victor shooed the kid into the back of the room before moving up to the candle and used the flame still hissing above his palm to light it. The floating flame ceased to exist, and Victor leaned back, closing his eyes and holding one hand out towards the door. Victor breathed in sharply, and a moment afterward the air in front of his palm seemed to crack, faint lines visible, holding position in the air. Victor opened his eyes and nodded. “Excellent, now we can sleep.” With that, he packed up his satchel, leaned against one of the walls in the one room hut, and closed his eyes, the firelight still flickering throughout the room.
----------------------------------------
It was because of Victor’s fitful sleep that he was the first to notice. It was almost dawn, and the fire had died down, leaving only a few smoldering embers to light the dark room. There was a thumping noise coming from below and Victor sat up, suddenly alert. Even so, he was nearly caught off guard as the ground beside him suddenly burst upward. The first eikrat to poke its head out through the trapdoor died almost instantly to a knife. Victor called out to Limbas as he lost his grip and the dead eikrat fell back down the hole along with his knife. The kid woke slowly, and as he slowly opened his blurry eyes, he saw a monstrous rat creature in front of him facing towards his teacher. Victor cried out in pain as what appeared to be a sharpened wooden stick found purchase in his leg. Victor grabbed the stick, and punched the eikrat hard enough that it hit the wall with a crack. Limbas stumbled to his feet as a loud screeching hiss echoed out. A dark shape jumped from the dark hole in the ground, and braced itself against the wall. The creature’s eyes shone in the darkness as it repositioned and lunged from the wall towards Limbas who screamed and stumbled to the side, desperate to avoid it. There was a WHOOSH sound as victor threw his hand out. In his other hand he held his open spellbook and the dark shape crashed against the ceiling.
[https://i.imgur.com/qIBgZRH.png]
The creature who was still slumped against the wall regained its senses just as a creaking groan echoed throughout the small one room cabin. Limbas recognized the sound and threw himself to the ground just as Victor finally stood up. The ceiling, which had never been particularly sturdy, collapsed, filling the room with dust. A wailing high pitched scream scoured Limbas’s eardrums, and he clapped his hands to his ears. When he finally recovered, he looked up and saw most of the room taken up by rubble, and most of Victor’s upper body trapped under a single large wooden beam. The remaining eikrat must have fled with the sound, and Limbas managed to identify the source. A large chunk of wood was sitting square in the middle of the warning spell Victor had set up before they had slept. The apprentice shook his head and slowly stood up, calling out.
“Teach, you alright…?” There was a long moment of silence, and Limbas looked over to his teacher, who was lying limp on the ground. Another groan echoed through the room, and Limbas quickly moved over to Victor in a panic. “Old man?” reaching out, he put his hand against Victor’s chest and was relieved to feed it moving up and down. Unfortunately, several thumps from below and the creaking of wood reminded him that the problems weren’t over. Limbas reached out and tried to pry the large structural beam off of his teacher, but found it too heavy. He fell to the ground and looked around, for some kind of inspiration. As he did so, there was a rattling noise. Limbas looked over and saw a pair of glowing eyes looking out through rubble. Some pieces of the ceiling had fallen on the trapdoor, but it was clear the monster was trying to clear a path. Now panicking, the kid grabbed the beam once more, but still couldn’t budge it more than a few inches. As it fell back onto Victor’s chest, the man let out a cough, then a groan.
“Kid? What’s going on?” Victor tried to lift the beam himself, and winced.
“Teach!” Limbas got on his knees, looking down at Victor. “Are you okay? The roof collapsed and those… things are still trying to get in, you’re trapped and i don’t-”
“Alright, calm down. If you learn anything from me, it should be to keep a calm head.” Victor cut the kid off before he could spiral. He pointed towards the beam and laughed, coughing in the middle. “I’ve already told you how to make things lighter with magic. All you have to do is put it into practice. I’d do it myself, but everything is blurry and spinning right now, ugh.”
“But, I didn’t, I can't, I haven't been-”
“Stop.” Victor cut him off again. “Ki- Limbas. Look at me.” Victor’s unfocused gaze locked onto his apprentice's eyes. “Magic is about Manifesting your visualization. In order to do anything, you first have to know for certain it’s possible. Doubt has no place in your heart. You must be absolutely confident that you can, that is the first step. The second step is to calm the fuck down. All problems have a solution, Think it through. You can do this.” In the corner of the room, a piece of rubble fell to the ground and the scrabbling became even more energetic.
Limbas looked down at his teacher, and a tear formed at the edge of his eye, before he brushed it away. Standing up, he grabbed a shard of stone and carved a symbol into the wooden beam trapping Victor. He touched the beam, and traced it up and down its length, eyes closed the entire time. In the corner a deformed hand burst from the rubble. Limbas looked back at the problem, and nodded. Running over to the corner, he grabbed a smaller structural piece of wood, kicking the eikrat’s hand on his way past. Limbas rolled the stone over and placed it between himself and the strut keeping Victor trapped, and used it as a fulcrum as he wedged the new piece of wood under the heavier obstruction. Limbas closed his eyes, and concentrated. He visualized the entire piece of wood, and the symbol currently showing on the piece of stone he was using to hold the weight. Using his entire weight, he pushed down on his side of the wood, while firmly imagining the larger strut lifting up. A groan echoed in the cabin, and limbas almost lost his focus. The wooden piece under him suddenly jerking up a few inches, and a screech from the corner of the room distracted him. He closed his eyes once more, and the whole world became very simple. Only a simple lever, with a perfectly round stone acting as the fulcrum, with a powerful symbol carved onto that fulcrum. Only when he felt a hand on his shoulder did he open his eyes again. In front of him, Victor was holding himself against the wall, with his other hand on his shoulder.
“Good job. Now let’s get out of here.”