“Well, well, well! Awake at last, and did you sleep alright?” a voice asked loudly.

Sparrow recognized the voice of the ever-curious Elder Jareth Bruno. Although the physical aging of magi was slowed as a side effect of their expertise, they all still had various stages of visible age. Jareth looked to be one of the younger Elders. His hair was all dark brown except for an unnatural streak of dark black on his right side. He had a ready smile and a kind heart, but was too quizzical for Sparrow’s comfort. His magical emphasis was in the area of mental control. Magic being a focus of the brain; his studies were a much-needed foundation for teaching students to use magic. Somewhere along his journey he developed a curiosity for the unexplainable, and of course that created an interest in Sparrow, the boy without a past found in a scorching desert without a scratch on him.

Jareth would often try to question Sparrow about his memory loss and his past, along with almost every instructor in the school. Sparrow cared little enough for their questions, let alone answering them, which he did as infrequently as he could. The attention made him uncomfortable.

Sparrow opened his eyes and found himself in the infirmary recovery room in one of the dozen or so beds lining the walls. He was wearing standard student pajamas, and there was a chair and small table at the foot of the bed with a glass of water on it. The infirmary was used often enough yet appeared to be vacant beside the two of them.

In trying to reply, Sparrow let out a small croak. Jareth rushed towards him while summoning the glass of water from the table with the turn of his hands. Conjuring food and drink from nothing was not possible, but he could teleport small objects from somewhere nearby. A small wrinkle of concern was evident on his brow as he helped Sparrow to sit up and take a drink.

“Thank you, Elder Jareth. How long have I been asleep?” Sparrow said hoarsely.

Moving to a chair at the foot of the bed, he sat and paused a moment before responding with a shrug.

“Not so long as the time when they brought you in from the slave sellers, though we’re not supposed to speak of the incident. I will assume the council’s concern is not with you and I discussing it, but of the other students. The tendency to treat unexplainable phenomenon with fear is often like an avalanche, slowly growing until it becomes unstoppable…” with a slight pause and a smile he finished with “… well, almost unstoppable.”

“I thank you for your concern, but the students already know I am a freak, hiding it does little to stop me from feeling a subject of discussion” Sparrow said.

“Ah, this is partially true. However, there is a world of difference between a rumor and a fact, and as great a difference in people’s reaction to them both.’ Besides, I said different, not freak. Freaks are much scarier than you; trust me” Jareth said with a small smile.

“And yet an entire recovery room has been cleared for my benefit” Sparrow whispered under his breath.

Jareth cocked his head to one side to indicate he had not heard what Sparrow had said, but Sparrow waved it away as if it was not important before changing the subject with a question.

“Am I well enough to return to my classes then?”

“Under normal circumstances, I would say ‘no.’ Someone randomly passing out for two days from reliving a simple memory spell would need mental evaluation, but my probing has only been met with boredom from both of us. Nothing with you seems to go according to plan anyway” Jareth said.

Sparrow was about to ask what he meant by that last part when he realized that Jareth’s lips had not moved at the end. It must have been a mental thought that Jareth forgot to sensor. Sparrow decided to change the subject by requesting permission to return to his room to prepare for at least the evening classes.

“Yes yes, of course, just one moment if you will” he said while standing from his chair near the edge of the bed.

With a seemingly careless wave of his hand, Jareth formed an extremely complicated spell, and with a small snap of noise a sliver of light formed in the center of the room about two paces wide and flat. Then another duplicate sliver appeared just above the first one. They were connected by waves of colors. Even though it happened in the blink of an eye, Sparrow could follow the rapid movement of the two slivers as they twisted away from each other in one full rotation before coming to rest at the ground for the bottom one, and double that of his height for the top one. The sense of color that was between the slivers focused until it revealed Sparrow’s bedroom.

Through the single window in the room the late afternoon sun was splashing light on a plain, but comfortable single bed. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a bare study desk with an armchair. There was a single log burning in the small fireplace, but that wasn’t a surprise to Sparrow. A single log was always burning in the fireplace. The flame almost completely disappeared during the warm parts of the day and flared to life when it cooled off at night. It never needed more firewood, and there was never any ash. The mantelpiece and walls were plain as the day he arrived at the school.

Sparrow was secretly hoping that Jareth would open a gateway for him, but he succeeded in keeping his excitement from showing. He gave his thanks to Jareth, who waved it away without a word as he walked out of the door. Just before the door shut behind him, he leaned back into the room

“Better hurry, that might look easy, but I give it about thirty more seconds before it shuts on you, I’m not as young as I look” and th­­­­­­­en he closed the door.

While getting out of bed, Sparrow noticed there were white slippers by his bedside made of simple leather, with a layer of some soft material on the inside. Slipping them on he walked to the doorway of lights and colors to get a closer look at his new source of study.

Sparrow found the spells he learned with his peers to be of little difficulty, or completely impossible for him to cast. In his monthly interview with one of the High Elders, he was given the advice of finding his own way to make the spells work. The instructor said to use magical words, gestures, or various ways of mental focus to complete spells, but there are different combinations of these methods that can work better for different people. Sometimes a nontraditional method can work when a traditional one fails.

He was sure the High Elder did not intend for him to use magic without supervision, which was prohibited for entry level ‘Sparrow’ students, but he found the best way for him to learn how to do a spell was to take it apart and put it back together again. Depending on the spell, there were different access points to begin studying before he could unravel it. The more advanced the spell, the more difficult it was to find those access points. He had never studied such a high-level spell before, but he was excited at the chance to try. It was surely more exciting than floating candles in the air at least.

Sparrow noticed that the image of his bedroom was slowly starting to blur, the colors melting into each other like it was made of hot wax, and the slivers of white on the top and bottom flickered with their fading power. The thought of walking to his bedroom from the infirmary in his pajamas made him hurry through the image, and he found himself in his room. He turned around to see the image on the other side, but was surprised to find there wasn’t one. The rapidly flickering slivers of light were at the top and bottom as on the other side, but everything in between was gray.

“He did that on purpose!” Sparrow exclaimed out loud with frustration. It was a one-direction gate, and he could see it only had a few seconds left before the whole thing disappeared.

Quickly Sparrow entered dai schen, which meant the gift in the old tongue. His very first lesson upon entering the school was how one could enter or embrace a harmony of body and mind which would allow magi to see and use the magical properties of the arcane. The basic understanding was that calm and purpose were needed to use magic properly, while haste and negative emotions could hinder your abilities.

Not every school called it dai schen, but it was a well-known concept among users of the arcane regardless of race, gender, species, or culture. The ironic thing about dai schen was that Sparrow could achieve it at any time as if it was already a part of him, even when he couldn’t get the spells he was taught to work.

He always felt embarrass when others in a classroom could do something simple with magic and he struggled with it. More embarrassing still was the time he set fire to a desk when trying to light a candle. He couldn’t get the fire to go out no matter how hard he tried. Then the instructor couldn’t get it to go out because Sparrow was still channeling the spell and was obviously far stronger in magic. That was the first time Jareth had to intervene on Sparrow’s behalf, and he had been interested in the boy ever since.

Sparrow knew he had very little time, so he cast the first spell that he ever recalled casting; he slowed down time. He found this spell easy to cast, but knew little about it. He had no idea how far the effects of the spell went, whether just this room, the castle, or the entire city. He also could not physically move faster than anyone else when he cast this spell, but his mental state always remained unaltered, at least so far as he knew.

The only thing he was certain of was magic could be sensed by those who know what it feels like, and the Elders and High Elders definitely knew how to sense magic, yet his memory trance had confirmed that no one ever noticed this specific spell before. For some reason, he could mask the spell without knowing he was doing so.

With time slowed, Sparrow could focus on the task at hand, but even so, he still had little time to do what needed to be done. Launching his consciousness towards the sliver, he started at the bottom near the floor, then slowly rotating to the side of the sliver, looking at the fibers of the spell as he moved along them. He needed to find the access point, the final knot which held it all together, the blemish of the spell … but everything was smooth. He searched along its entire surface looking beyond what any normal human eye could see. He then moved to the top sliver, searching from one end to the other.

During his search for the access point, his body's senses were heightened. It was always like this when he was studying a spell. At that moment he could feel the cool autumn air coming off the closed window. He could sense the firmness of the floor threw his slippers, and even hear the pulsing of the flickering slivers of the spell. Sparrow suddenly realized that he was actually hearing the spell! That had never happened with any other spell that he had studied. Sparrow focused on the sound and listened as hard as he could. Within the pulsing was the smallest fraction of a sound that didn’t fit with the rest of it. He plunged into it and rejoiced at finding his access point! As soon as he opened the seal by entering the access point, the slivers of light stopped pulsing and became a steady glow again.

Instantly he could see the framework of the spell, how fibers were laid down one on top of the other to form a complete whole. He had no idea the fibers could stay complete and smooth with the closing access point being embedded in the sound emitted from the spell. His entire focus was on unraveling the fibers, committing each one to memory. The speed of the mind, coupled with time being slowed made the process go very quickly, and in just a few moments he had the layout of the spell in his memory.

Technically the spell was still the same spell that Jareth had cast, he had just taken it apart. Now he needed to put it back together correctly. He started by going backward, reforming the entire spell including the sound until he had finished reconstructing it. H knew he could hold the spell open himself, but using magic is much the same as using your physical body so he would eventually get tired. Instead of holding the spell open he could create a seal which would hold the spell open for him. There were different levels of seals he could use, and the stronger the seal, the longer it would stay open.

Holding this strong of a spell open was going to drain him fast, but sealing it in its current state would profit him nothing since it doesn’t go anywhere. He had to be able to change it before he would be willing to close it. He decided to do something simple; he just wanted it to become a two-directional gate instead of the single directional gate he had come through.

While holding the spell open he thought of the infirmary recovery room he had been in a moment ago. Nothing happened at first, but he could sense the spell wanting more information from him … not more information … different information. Instead of picturing the infirmary in his mind, he thought of what it would look like if he were looking at it through the gate, but there was no change.

Sparrow could sense beads of sweat on his forehead, and his legs were beginning to tremble, and he realized that time was back to normal. He did not know when the time spell had collapsed, or how long he had been studying the fibers of the spell, but he knew he didn’t have much strength left to hold the spell open. He would miss class again, but another demerit was inconsequential compared to what he was learning at the moment.

Sparrow decided to imagine the infirmary with himself in the room. The slivers immediately did a single twist until they met in the middle, making a small noise like someone snapping their fingers when they touched. Then with another small snap, the slivers reversed their twist until they were again above and below an opening which showed the infirmary as its destination.

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“I did it!” Sparrow exclaimed with a wide grin on his face while inspecting his handiwork.

He had altered the spell to go in two directions, but now it was time for the real test. Could he cast the spell from scratch?

The only seals Sparrow had learned from class were basic and short lived. They lasted long enough on very simple spells like keeping candles lit, but applying those seals to an advanced spell would be pointless as the spell would only last a few seconds. He did not want to keep it open anyway, so he simply released the spell without sealing it, and the slivers of light twisted towards each other and blinked out. He was so excited to try his new spell out that he did not think about where he wanted to go. He simply began casting the spell.

As he laid the foundation for the spell, he felt an image forced into his mind. It wasn’t a sudden thought which had popped into his head that he could just ignore by thinking or focusing on something else, it was as if the image was being forced to the forefront of his thoughts. The image was a massive meadow surrounded by a lush forest which flowed to the base of a mountain on the far side of the meadow.

As Sparrow was taking in the image, he became dimly aware of an increase in the magic flowing through him. He was casting the same spell as before, but it felt ramped up in power. He was so distracted by these bizarre involuntary occurrences that he finished casting the spell before he had time to process what was happening.

A solid blue bar with a sickly black aura appeared in the middle of the room high in the air, it was easily three times the width of the previous gate. The black aura pulled in the colors of the room, sucking the light of the fire, turning the room a sickly gray hue. Sparrow knew something was horribly wrong with the spell, but his curiosity at what he had cast was strong enough to convince himself to see it through.

“I could always just cancel the spell anyway” he told himself.

A second bar identical to the first appeared above it, just like last time, but he still did not understand why they were so far in the air. The ceiling was ten feet in the air, so he was not concerned about the gate damaging it when it opened, but how would he reach the gate?

In a flash, his concern for reaching the gate vanished. The gate did not do what he was expecting it to do by making a small snapping noise as it opened. There was a tremendous crashing BOOM emitted from the center of the two bars, so powerful that the bars themselves quivered and he had to take a step back from the blow. In one fluid motion the blue bars began to twist apart, simultaneously opening a gate while twisting from horizontal to vertical. In doing this, the left bar was almost touching the far wall, while the right bar had silently cut his bed into two pieces.

Within the two giant bars that had created the gate was the same image that had been forced into Sparrow’s mind, except this was the real thing. He could smell the pollen from the wildflowers that were leaning into the room just at the bottom of the gate, and feel the cool air flowing into the room. The sun was still shining enough light to plainly see the landscape, but darkness would soon take over the daily watch.

While he was staring at the beautiful display of nature before him, Sparrow noticed movement to the right as a body separated itself from a nearby tree. The creature was very thin all over and was covered with a short layer of brown fur with a red patch on its chest in the shape of a teardrop. Although it was standing upright like a man, Sparrow gathered from the way its knees were permanently bent that the creature was comfortable squatting for long periods of time. Instead of feet at the bottom of its bent legs, there were three long dark toes or claws. The creature's face was shaped like that of a dog with a protruding snout, dark round eyes, and pointed ears.

There was a green leather strap across its chest which held a pouch at the creature’s hip, and the same sash held a double-sided staff style weapon on its back. There were glowing symbols Sparrow recognized as complex runes covering the weapon. The metal ends were covered in crimson red runes, and similar blue runes ran along the shaft of the weapon. Runes were part of a magical alphabet, and like languages, they required no seal to keep them active, but also like languages they required words and sentence structure to have meaning or power. There was a point jutting directly out of the staff like a spear, but one side of it was sharpened to a dagger-like blade. On the other side of the spearhead was a half-moon sickle blade. The weapon was identical on both ends, but with the metal ends reversed for balance.

With a toothy grin, the creature said “finally” under its breath, and began walking towards the gate. Sparrow was not sure what language it had spoken in, or how he had understood it.

With a start, Sparrow realized he needed to close the gate! Reaching out towards it with his mind ... he didn’t know where to begin! It was like an entirely different spell even though he knew exactly what he had done differently from the last spell. He frantically started searching for the access point in the sound emitted from the gate as the creature unhurriedly advanced towards him.

It was about ten feet from Sparrow, and five feet from the gate, when it paused. As he studied its expression he realized it was gazing past his shoulder, so he turned around to find his bedroom full of magi. All seven members of the high council were present in their white robes, and there were several additional magi who Sparrow did not recognize with cowls over their faces.

Turning back to the creature Sparrow saw what appeared to be a calculating look on its face. He was wondering why, when it hit him like a slap in the face. The creature was considering whether it could fight so many magi. If Sparrow wasn’t afraid before, he most certainly was now. Surely it could not win such a battle, but perhaps sacrificing itself to achieve its goal, whatever that may be, was worth the risk. The creature made its decision and pulled the weapon from its back with a look of determination on its face.

Sparrow then heard an urgent voice from behind him say “Sparrow. Slow down time, but only on that side of the gate, imagine a door you can shut over the gate."

He thought it was Jareth’s voice, but he was too stunned to turn around and find out. He had never done anything like that before, but did as he was instructed by imagining the gate as an open door. He then threw the time slowing spell at the creature before closing the door he had created in his mind.

It worked! The creature was moving so slowly it was almost like it wasn’t moving at all, but Sparrow could still move around normally. His excitement was interrupted as he was violently swirled around and powerful hands grabbed him by the front of his robes and pulled him into the face of Jareth.

“Did you copy my spell exactly or add something to it? Quickly boy! Answer me!”

To His surprise, Sparrow found that his eyes had started to water, and his lower lip quivered slightly. He had never cried before in his memory. He had seen it in his peers, but never felt what it was like for himself. He wanted to crawl into a hole and hide his face, but Jareth held him fast.

“Answer me before it kills someone!” he shouted.

“I cast it the same way I had taken it apart, but at the end, I was distracted by a picture of that meadow. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and then all of a sudden, I felt this surge of magic within me, but I don’t know what it was or if it added anything. I didn’t mean to add anything, I do not know what happened ... I’m sor-" Sparrow said with an emotional voice.

Jareth quickly but gently cut Sparrow off.

“We don’t have time for this."

Jareth shook his head once as if to refocus himself, turned to one of the Council members to give him a nod, and stepped through the gate. Sparrow recognized the man as High Elder Marcus, the same man who had asked him to relive his memory of the time he had found him. Marcus brought his hand up towards Jareth as if to stop him, but it was too late, Jareth was already through the gate.

As soon as he touched the gate by stepping through it the color of the sickly bars changed to silver. The bars that were on either side of the room rotated quickly until they held steady above and below the gate, and the dark aura disappeared entirely. In stepping through the gate Jareth had also stepped into Sparrow’s slowed time spell, but to his surprise, Jareth moved fluidly while the creature still moved in slow motion. Since the moment Sparrow had cast the time spell the creature had only taken half a step.

Jareth approached the creature and stretched out his hand to its chest. Although Jareth’s body covered what he was doing, Sparrow could still see his arm tracing something as he chanted under his breath. His expression was unreadable as he dropped his arm to his side, turned around, and walked back towards the gate.

Sparrow noticed the creature had a glowing symbol on its chest, but it wasn’t a rune like the writing on the creature’s weapon. This looked more like hundreds of white circles about the size of a man’s head, all laid on top of one another in a mindless scrawl. Jutting a few finger widths out of the bottom of the circles was a single white line that etched back and forth a few times before ending suddenly. This last line reminded Sparrow of a signature on a document, and he had no idea what any of it meant.

As soon as Jareth returned through the gate into Sparrow’s bedroom he waved his hand and the time slowing spell collapsed, letting the creature move at normal speed again. To Sparrow’s surprise, the creature had halted its advance toward them. There was intense hatred smoldering in its eyes as it stared at Jareth. It then savagely howled in rage and slashed at a nearby tree. The blade cut from right to left clean through half of the tree. The creature then placed its weapon on its back before squatting down on its oddly bent knees and glowered at Jareth in defiance. With a low growl the creature turned its gaze away from them.

“Very well, another day then” Jareth muttered under his breath as he waved his hand in front of him, causing the light slivers to twist towards each other to close the gate.

Turning to face the group of Elders, Sparrow found only Marcus and Jareth in the room. The other council members and cowled magi had all disappeared somehow. Sparrow was not sure if they had actually been there, or if they were just projections of themselves.

Before he could explore that theory, High Elder Marcus interrupted his thoughts.

“Young man, before we go any further in resolving what happened here today, we must know your given name.”

Sparrow opened his mouth to inform the High Elder that he did not know his name, but he was abruptly cut off before he could get a single word out of his mouth.

“I did not ask for your opinion on the matter! We have indulged your experimental studies, catered to your social ignorance, and turned a blind eye to your prideful disregard for our policies! Regardless of your memory loss, to protect you and us ... we must know your name."

He turned to Jareth.

“You have two hours to prepare him…” after a slight pause, and a small look of concern at Jareth, he finished with “My apologies Jareth, we better make it tomorrow morning instead, so you can recover from your sacrifice. We will meet you both in the reception hall when you are done."

Marcus Squeezed Jareth’s arm in encouragement, left the room, and closed the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Sparrow heard something heavy fall to the ground. He whirled around to find Jareth kneeling on the floor, a hand on his chest and a look of pain on his face. Sparrow ran towards the door shouting for help when Jareth’s pain-ridden voice interrupted him.

“Stop Sparrow! I’ll be fine in a moment. They already knew this was going to happen … come help me to my feet."

Sparrow did as he was asked and helped Jareth to the only piece of furniture in the room beside the destroyed bed; the desk and chair in the corner. As soon as he sat down, Sparrow had to whirl around again as someone knocked heavily on the door. Jareth placed a hand on Sparrow’s shoulder.

“It’s just the staff, one moment please" He straightened his back and carefully control his face until it appeared that he was in no amount of pain at all.

“Let them in” he commanded stiffly as if he was fighting to maintain his composure.

Sparrow complied with his request and opened the door to allow a stream of individuals into the room. There were three maids, one from the kitchen holding a tray of food, and two carrying enough blankets and pillows for two beds. The maids were followed by four men bringing in a new bed. The maid from the kitchen set a tray of food on the desk by Jareth before she left to attend other duties. The tray had two servings of some kind of roasted bird, some vegetables, and two empty glasses with a pitcher of milk.

The bed took a few trips to finish. They first brought in the frame and put it together, and then left and returned with a large, stuffed mattress, and surprisingly a cot as well. As soon as the four men had finished their construction, they exited the room with the broken bed pieces. The maids quickly made the bed and cot, and in the space of just a few minutes his bedroom looked like nothing had happened at all, besides the addition of a cot.

“Are you staying here then?” Sparrow asked cautiously.

Jareth ignored him as he removed his sandals and outer robe, placing the sandals under the edge of the bed and the outer robe on the back of the chair. Wearing just his under robe, he finally turned to Sparrow.

“You are not allowed to be alone until after the ceremony tomorrow. The door was sealed from the outside by one of the council members, this way you won't be able to see the spell to…study it. No gates will work either, so don’t try it” he said with weariness in his voice.

With a yawn, Jareth crawled into the bed.

“I know you have questions, and I promise you I will answer them all in the morning, but for now I must rest" he said while rolling away from Sparrow and covered himself with the blankets.

Sparrow looked out of the window, and to his surprise found the sun was just about to disappear over the horizon, giving way to the chill of the desert night. He had studied that spell for almost four hours, missing all of his evening classes and supper. With this thought, his stomach remembered the tray of food on the desk, and he helped himself to the entire tray. As he finished the meal by draining the milk container, he was amazed to find his stomach still growled with hunger! The tray was intended for two people and contained more food than he could ever normally eat, but he felt empty inside as if he had never eaten.

There was a Karrie stem and leaf on the tray, so he placed this in my mouth and started to chew. He didn’t know whether it was made naturally or enhanced with some form of botanical magic, but the plant was perfectly designed for cleaning teeth. The leaves were dense with fibers that separated themselves for hard surfaces like a tooth, but with a tight fit which scraped the tooth as it was forced through the leaf. It also tends to cling to whatever food particles it removes from your teeth, and was digestible, leaving it safe to swallow when finished.

His teeth cleaned and still being in his pajama robes from the infirmary, he placed the used stem on the tray and crawled into his cot by the fire. The city was on the edge of a desert so the night air was normally quite cool, and the fireplace warmth was a welcome addition.

I had such a bad day, he thought to himself.

He knew his tendency to push against any form of authority was proving to be more of a curse than anything else. He never intended to cause harm in his exploration, he just wanted to learn more about magic to hopefully fill in the gaps in his past. Feeling sorry for himself, but feeling more of an overwhelming sense of guilt, it never even occurred to him to try to open the door and run away from the horrible fate he was sure he rightfully deserved.

He had been frustrated since his earliest memory when he was found in the desert six months ago. This frustration had indeed built a prideful sense of entitlement in him as the High Elder Marcus had pointedly said. Sparrow realized that he had assumed the rules and regulations that were placed on him were attempts at control, at forcing him to do things. He had felt different and out of place by special treatment such as his own room, looking at it as charitable coddling instead of an attempt to make him feel more comfortable with his fractured existence. He realized they had been for his betterment, and when viewed in the proper context they were great privileges that he had scorned. He did not know what to do about it, but he resolved to do the best he could to be more patient, and more grateful to those trying to help him.

The desire for sleep was not on his mind, but his body overpowered his thoughts, bringing with it those dreaded nightmares he thought he had been rid of.