Henry was shocked at the sudden outcome, but he was entirely willing, as he had wracked his brain trying to figure out how he, a poor peasant that had nothing to his name, could pay back the gracious old man who saved him, gave him food, a place to stay, and most importantly, those rare healing herbs. This was the perfect way to do it, the old man wanted a successor, and Henry could simply dedicate his entire life to working towards the old man’s dream.
Nicolas nodded matter of factly at the sudden declaration that Henry accepted, and immediately stood up from his chair, walking over to the bookshelf where there were several hundred dusty old tomes. After casually looking at them, he grabbed a fairly large one from a shelf and dropped it on the desk in front of Henry, the book hitting the wood with a satisfying thud.
“You will be taught as I was. Forget what you think you know of the world, and read that book. Inside you will find the essence of the world, and your foundation needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.” Nicolas watched as Henry looked blankly on at the book, before opening it and sighing.
“What? You think this method is… subpar?” Nicolas looked at Henry with a slight mix of anger or surprise, as he had detected a trace of disappointment on Henry’s face just then. Nicolas was about to cane the ungrateful bastard when Henry shook his head. “No Master, it’s just that… I don’t know how to read.”
Nicolas was suddenly frozen, feeling as if there was something wrong with his ears. Did this kid say he didn’t know how to read? He was already almost an adult, and seemed to be from a declined noble family from how he spoke, and yet he couldn’t read? Nicolas slumped down into his chair, defeated, before rubbing his temples and staring at Henry in frustration.
“Okay then, a minor setback. I’m going to shove the alphabet and grammar of the Common Tongue into your brain by force in the shortest time possible. Grab a stick from the tree and meet me in the courtyard.” Nicolas then walked over to the bookshelf again, pouring over the contents as Henry hurried out of the room to go to the backyard where the tree was, grabbing the ax.
Soon Henry was in the courtyard, a fairly large square area made of solid stone, with a couple of small trees poking out from dedicated stone fixtures. It was a quaint place, but it also reminded Henry of the walls of a fortress, as they were quite thick and fairly tall, around twelve feet or so. He stood there with the stick, patiently waiting for the old man to come.
Nicolas showed up with a few books in his hand, and started to sort them, Henry watching on patiently. Soon, the books were laid out in a particular order and Nicolas started reading from one of them while moving his hands. Nicolas appeared as if he was holding an invisible apple in his hands, and started reciting. “This is the standard alphabet for the common tongue! Pay attention. A, B, C…” Nicolas started reciting, with Henry paying attention as best he could.
Suddenly, strange lights appeared on Nicolas’ right hand, a soft otherworldly glow of a red orange light. It drifted above his hand like smoke, before configuring itself in the shapes of the letters that Nicolas was saying. Henry smiled widely as he gasped in delight. This was magic! Real, true magic that Henry had never seen in person before!
Before he could enjoy the moment, Nicolas’ other hand started an action as well, small particulates in the air seemed to be sucked into an invisible vortex, and soon there were several small stones floating around Nicolas’ hand. Henry was more enamored with the glowing lights to fully notice the stones, but soon a small puff of air sent one hurtling towards him!
Henry caught it out of the corner of his eye, but it was blazing fast. He barely had enough time to move slightly to the left, twisting his body so that the stone hit him in the side. A grunt of pain escaped Henry’s body, and he was about to ask what he was supposed to be doing, but another stone hurtled towards him.
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The stones were hurtled towards him, and Nicolas simply kept reciting the alphabet, and what sort of noises those letters made, so that Henry could remember. The problem was that Henry was attempting to duck and roll. “You’ll never learn if you’re flailing about! Stand still, read the letters, and remember their sounds!” Nicolas shouted, before going back to firing stones at him and teaching.
Henry gritted his teeth and read the letters, trying to remember the symbols as they were formed, as that was when Nicolas was talking about what they meant. This meant he stopped looking at the stones completely, and one of them hit him square in the solar plexus, causing the wind to be knocked out of him. He doubled over before getting struck in the head.
Henry was a tough one though, and although he was bleeding, he grit his teeth and stood tall, ready to take the beating before him as he learned. The old man stopped for a moment and sighed. “You really are a stubborn idiot! Use the stick, dumbass!” Nicolas shouted before continuing. He thought that the young man needed to be taught how to become quick witted soon, or he was going to die in the real tests.
Henry shook his head, and gripped the stick harder, trying to bat the stones away. Sometimes he was successful, which was when Nicolas would yell at him to focus on the letters and not the stones. This was contradictory to Henry, and so he was pelted with stones for a few hours before Nicolas stopped. “Alright, that’s enough for today. Tomorrow there will be a quiz.” Henry then begrudgingly picked himself up and dragged himself to his room.
The old man was very nice, however, bringing more of the healing herbs in a tea that seemed much less potent than the tea he was served when his head was stomped on by that rich kid. It helped but did not heal him instantly, and made all the little bruises painfully sting. Henry continued with his usual chores for the day, before heading off to sleep after dinner.
The next day, it was the same routine. Nicolas would teach the alphabet and Henry would get pelted with stones. Soon, however, much sooner than Nicolas thought, Henry started to learn to block the stones while still learning and reading. In less than a week, the painful associative training paid off, and Henry could recite the alphabet with ease, and knew what most of them meant in terms of phonetics.
Next, it was learning simple words and phrases, once again in the format of hurling stones. This time, however, Nicolas made the stones form from farther away from his hand, and deeper into the peripheral vision of Henry. Henry was pelted once again, and this was when Nicolas learned of the true terror of Henry’s stubborn nature. There were no rests or breaks, and Henry was willing to permanently injure himself to succeed.
Nicolas was fine with this for now, as Henry not only needed to learn to take risks, but he had the healing herbs in reserve, and needed him to learn quickly. Simple words and phrases, then subjects, predicates, and proper grammar. This was accompanied by larger and more powerful stones coming from all directions. Nicolas was also teaching Henry how to be quick on his feet, recognize threats and practice defending himself with a staff.
One day, about a month and a half later of this grueling training, Nicolas simply didn’t show up to the courtyard that day. Henry was confused, and sat there for around forty minutes or so before heading to the study, where he found Nicolas sitting back in his chair with the original thick book. “Read it.” Nicolas then pushed the book towards Henry. This would be the first time that Henry actually read something, but he had the skills, he simply needed to actually start.
Nodding, Henry opened the book and immediately saw a glossary, a large number of tiny words and their explanations were before him on the first page. Henry sat there for a moment, reading some of the words. Astronomy, bacteria, energy, sediment… so many words that made absolutely no sense to Henry. A great fiery orb in the sky was our sun, and was made of almost pure energy. The vast energy creating space dust that drifted through void and became the world. They were going around the sun, but the moon was going around them.
Henry’s head spun with all of this information, and he looked up confused towards his master. “Master… is this all, true?” Henry obviously couldn’t believe it, it was too far fetched and too opposite of what he had learned as a child. Nicolas nodded solemnly, knowing that it was too much for people who were not scholars, mages, alchemists, or even apothecaries. Those who truly studied the world would know certain truths. “This, Henry, is the first step in learning my magic. You must see the world for what it truly is, and know the Truth.”