Roughly five hours later, I was fully prepared to head out. I wasn’t entirely sure what Liam had in store for me, but I didn’t care. The truth was that I was just happy to see the blue sky again. I’ve gotten so used to the musky air within the wall that fresh air felt like heaven. The breeze ran across my face and lowed through my dirty hair. I didn’t realize how much I would miss the feeling.

With the first step forward the grass crunched under my feet, and a smile stretched across my face. I admired the view as I walked through the rolling hills. The forest Liam told me to meet him in shouldn’t be hard to find, but they were still quite the distance.

After about five minutes of walking, I passed a guard on duty, standing completely still. After ten minutes I spotted another in the distance. After twenty minutes there was a third, just barely visible past a shallow hill. I had already passed the guards’ usual post, yet I was still passing several guards. After the demon attack, they must have increased their defenses. I felt a bit more comfortable knowing they were actively deploying guards.

After the thirty-minute mark, I passed yet another guard, but this was the last of the trip. I silently walked the remainder of the distance with no disturbances. I arrived early, but Liam was still sitting at the base of a large oak tree waiting for me.

“It’s about time you showed up,” he said without even opening his eyes.

“What are we doing out here?” I asked while I watched the man climb to his feet.

Liam brushed off his legs and said, “First you’ll have to scour the trees to find a suitable branch to craft your staff, but not any twig will do. It has to be sturdy, it can’t be short, but most importantly, it has to be a good fit.”

After receiving my task, I started looking at the tops of the trees. Then I realized the magnitude of the task. The trees were loosely packed, and they varied in height and species. Some were short enough to reach the branches, whereas others seemed to touch the sky at two or three hundred feet tall.

“And what will you be doing?” I asked Liam.

“Me?” he laughed, “I’ll be the one to decide if the branch you choose is worthy to become your staff.”

“So you’re just going to watch?”

“Exactly.”

Without arguing any further I set off in search of a stick, but Liam wasn’t exactly clear with his criteria. I spent what felt like ages just getting an idea of what my options were. The smaller trees only had thin, flimsy branches, and the large trees’ branches were far too thick.

Anytime I found a tree that appears to be the right size, I had to climb the trunk just glance at a few branches. Every time I climbed to the top, It was impossible to find one that twist around in strange ways, but finally, after hours of searching, I thought found the perfect one.

A section of a branch that was long enough to be considered a staff, and equal width the entire length. With some precision magic, I sliced off the very end, and then the base. Then the few leaves that had sprouted from the side.

With haste, I jumped from the tree, bracing myself with wind, and returned to my starting location. After all that hard work, I proudly presented my stick to Liam.

“Hmm,” he mumbled as he inspected the branch, slightly twisting it in my hand to give himself a better view, “This could make an excellent staff. Hold it straight out in front and point it forty-five degrees.”

I thought this must have been some kind of ceremony, but I was terribly wrong. Liam lifted his staff to match the angle of my own. Without any warning whatsoever, he smacked the branch out of my hands. I could only watch as the sound of wood against wood filled the air, and my future staff was sent flying hundreds of feet away, never to be found again.

“Horrible!” he yelled.

“How would you know!?” I argued, angered by all my wasted work, “I wasn’t ready for that!”

Liam patted his staff on the ground with a smile and said, “You shouldn’t have to be. If that staff was right for you, then you wouldn’t have lost it. Neither of us are leaving until you’ve found one.”

I couldn’t believe it. Not only am I being held hostage by my former employer, but he had the audacity to knock away my stick. Now I was forced to spend more of my time hunting down another.

Two more hours passed and the sun was starting to set, but I managed to get my hands on another branch. This one was a bit longer and it had a small lump on one of the ends, but that made it feel like it had a nicer grip, and I was much more confident with approaching Liam. Just like before I held my arm out and held it out at forty-five degrees without saying a word. I closed my eyes and clenched as hard as I could, waiting for Liam to strike.

Suddenly, the banging of the two wood pieces burst through my eardrums ten times louder than before. The branch I had just been holding was sent flying straight upwards, past the trees above. The airborne piece of wood landed back on the ground near my feet thirty seconds later.

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“Again,” Liam said.

His voice was beginning to annoy me by that point. I certainly didn’t need to be reminded of this every time.

I pushed through my own suffering in hopes to obtain the prize in the end, but I was losing hope fast. The sun had fully set and it was pitch black, still searching for a suitable branch, but it seemed the longer I searched the harder it became.

I came up with a fantastic escape plan. The next time Liam slapped my branch I would simply pretend to look again, and go back home. At least, at the time it seemed like a good idea. I had completely given up on searching and decided to grab the first stick that looked halfway convincing and went to Liam to get slapped again, and this is exactly what happened. The branch I grabbed had gotten knocked out of my hands. This time I had no idea where it had gone, nor did I care.

From here, I set my plan into action, and I walked home. I suppose I could have at least tried to make it seem like I hadn’t given up. Just as I was about to reach the edge of the forest Liam tackled me and pinned me to the ground with his staff against the back of my neck.

“Hey, get off of me!” I yelled.

“Why should I?” Liam asked in a calm manner, “You’ve already given up. At this rate, Barron will kill you within a month if you’re lucky. I might as well save everyone else the trouble and kill you right now.”

He pushed his staff against the back of my neck until it was difficult to breathe, but it was unnecessary. Liam had already convinced me I was wrong to leave.

“I- I’m sorry, but please get off of me!” I pleaded. Liam granted my request and even helped pull me off the ground.

After I had gotten off the ground I turned to face Liam again and said, “But what exactly do you want from me here? I’ve tried again and again, but you keep saying I’m wrong!”

Liam wore a strong expressionless face as he said, “It’s because you’re only going off of your sight. You only find one that looks acceptable. You need to look deeper than that.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. I could feel the stress building in my chest, “How do I look deeper than that? I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Vincent,” he said in a relatively soothing voice, “you’re a mage. You should know better than anyone.”

I suddenly realized what he was talking about the entire time. My eyes widened and Liam took notice of my new expression. Without another word, I walked back to the forest, much deeper than I had ever checked before.

This time, however, I refused to look at the tops of the trees. I simply kept walking until I felt a small pressure build in my chest and stopped. From here I closed my eyes and followed the feeling in my chest. Even without sight, I was navigating around the other trees perfectly.

It was difficult to tell just how long I had been walking, but as I was shuffling blindly around the trees, I tripped over a large branch that I thought must have fallen out of a tree, but that was not the case. I notice that after I made contact with this branch the feeling got much stronger than before.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my feet to see an almost perfectly shaped branch to make a staff, but it wasn’t just any random branch that happened to be lying on the ground, this was the very first brach I had chosen for the day. It was one that Liam had already rejected.

However, I took Liam’s advice and trusted my instincts. I picked the branch up from the ground and carefully carried it over to Liam who was still standing over the location he tackled me.

“Here,” I said with utter confidence, “I found it.”

I held out my arm one last time and prepared for Liam to hit it away again. My heart dropped and my grip tightened as I watched Liam pull his arm back farther than any of his previous hits. With blistering speed, he closed the distance between his staff and my pathetic twig, but this time, it was not knocked out of my hands. In fact, Liam never made contact. He stopped with just a fraction of an inch to spare and gave it a light tap.

Liam smiled for the first time in hours and said, “It’s about time you figured it out.”

I was glad, but still, I was confused. “Wait, why didn’t you hit it?” I asked.

“Don’t you know who I am kid?” he laughed, “This wasn’t a test of strength. It doesn’t matter what you’re holding, I could pry it from your hands just as easily. The point of today was to make sure you had a connection with your weapon, and that’s it. Nothing more.”

Finally, I lowered my hand and admired the future staff I was holding. It was still dirty, and it still had the bark, but I knew what It would soon become, and that’s the part that filled me with pride. I knew it was such a minor accomplishment, but it made me feel as if my life finally had some meaning.

“Come on, Kid,” Liam called while walking back to the wall, I didn’t even notice he left, “Let’s get that thing back to the factory. It’s not a staff until I make it a staff.”

I followed in silence for some time before we passed the first two guards on the path back. They still stood in complete stillness while they did their jobs. I began to wonder if they were even alive.

“It looks like they tightened up the defenses,” I said while tapping the soon-to-be staff along the ground as I walked.

“Yes,” Liam agreed, “After the demons targeted you, I put in a request to send more guards to the entrance.”

“Wait, you did that?” I asked in shock.

He tried to hide it, but I could see a grin stretch across Liam’s face as he said, “Of course. Some people here know my history better than even you, and I have somewhat of a reputation here. They trust my judgments.”

It was clear Liam just liked to brag about his influence, but it was still a shock to hear he could influence people so high up, but before long, we ended up by the entrance of the town.

“Give me that staff,” Liam said as he reached out his hand, “I’ll take it back and have it ready by tomorrow. You just get some rest. You earned it.

I followed his order and simply said, “Thank you” before heading back to the inn. Due to the events of today, I no longer cared what trials awaited ahead. I felt ready to face them.