The day was still young, yet the early rise and exhaustive routine made a lethargic mope of a smoky-eyed Kulum, the new wizard apprentice. The young boy stood among the fast-moving water rapids atop a lone boulder and firepit that served as a moated turret against Verivix’s creations. His sweaty brow and blistered hands were focused solely on the fire manipulation that his inner demon granted him. While in the fields, flocks of migrating birds broke into manic flutter, away from the screeching disturbance across the soggy grasslands. Another wave of Verivix’s summoned creatures of the underworld were about to converged upon the scared earth of ash and ambers, where mounds of previously downed creatures had met their fiery graves via Kulum’s manipulation of the flame.

Upon the opposing bank gathered a mixed crowd of Pragian townsfolk and passing travelers. Each was amazed by the physical exhortation required to achieve such feats of sorcery.

Even the new Grand Master Wizard Draconian found that his usual morning stroll intersected the various training grounds that had once taught his younger self the harsh lessons of wizardry.

‘Again,’ said Verivix to Kulum. He was lazily perched upon the branch of a thick oak tree, in a meditation pose with palms to the sky and thumbs in constant twirl. His eyes flickered sporadically from unnaturally dilated pupils to purple haze as he searched for perfect synchronicity.

While below Verivix’s perched position, a stealthy Anneliese snuck up close to get a better visual on Kulum as she attempted to mimic the new apprentice’s every move. That was, until Kulum’s demon faded with exhaustion, and the young man’s hands collapsed under their own weight. His magical potential was now depleted, and he was unable to repulse the approaching abominations that Verivix had created to test Kulum’s skills.

‘Again,’ said Verivix with minor consideration for Kulum’s welfare. The senior wizard was focused on his own magical endeavor, unaware of the young protégé’s noncompliance.

‘No flam. No flam,’ said Kulum in his broken dialect.

‘AGAIN,’ said Verivix, still unwilling to spare a glance at Kulum while the wave of undead and underworld creations continued to hurdle over their previously downed counterparts. Each beast acted on their primal instinct to kill and consume as they crashed into the water rapids, fighting to be the first to claim the boy’s scalp.

‘NO FLAAAAAAM,’ said Kulum. He was virtually in tears as the sense of panic crept in.

‘Azamatosis,’ said Anneliese. And with Coble’s enchanted sands, she released a growth of thorny vines through the crashing rapids. Her aim was focused upstream to create an ark that bypassed Kulum and curved its way through the hoard, constricting them to the point of futile resistance. Whereupon the abominations, with their thorny tombs, drifted away with the rapids.

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‘Hmm. I am not sure whether to thank you or detest you. So, I’ll do neither,’ said Verivix. His awkward smiling was dismissive as he allowed his own magical blackened purple vines to steady his fall from the high oak branch.

‘You nearly killed him. A true wizard would have known better,’ said Anneliese, persisting to intercept Verivix’s journey to his exhausted prodigy.

‘Hmm. What is your name today, child?’

‘Princess Anneliese.’

‘No, it’s not. Because no one cares,’ said Verivix. He then snatched Coble’s enchanted sands from her waist strap, while accidentally throwing her to the ground.

‘That’s mine.’

‘Be a good girl and be quiet. I have an apprentice to train.’

‘Coble said necromancers are more elusion than useful.’

Draconian then walked up to them both, saying, ‘No, he deplored the training of necromancers towards ill-suited beasts of the underworld rather than intelligent beings of practical use.’ His lightning-wielding apprentice, Maneesh, was close behind him.

‘I am still young. Mastery is not beyond my years yet,’ said Verivix, throwing the sack of sand to Draconian, to divert Anneliese’s incessant interference.

‘We can only hope. But the girl?’ pondered Draconian out loud.

‘Princess Anneliese,’ she said with a firm tug of Draconian’s robe, expecting him to return the sand to her.

‘Maneesh,’ said Draconian to his machine-like apprentice, who restrained Anneliese from any further antagonism. ‘She is right, though, Verivix. Continue with such intensity and you’ll kill the boy. Might I recommend baby steps. A regiment of strict discipline and slow repetition is the quickest way to wizardry.’

‘The boy’s possessed. He must become stronger than the demon, before he can control it,’ said Verivix.

‘Such brute-force tactics are for the battle mages, not the—’

‘Give me my sand,’ said Anneliese. ‘And I’ll prove more worthy than any of you.’

‘Such magic is reckless in the hands of a commoner,’ said Draconian before emptying the sand into the river and stuffing the rolled-up sack into his robe’s inner pocket.

‘NO.’ The pain of tearing lungs faded her screams into a faint squeal as she fought herself free of Draconian’s hands in a crying fit. She then reached for the closest rock and turned with vengeance towards Draconian, who, with minimal effort, washed her aside with a manipulated wave of water from the nearby rapids.

‘Maneesh. We have no need for such distractions. Please take her to the furthest orphanage and make sure she gets cared for.’

‘Of course, Master Draconian.’

‘Now, where were we,’ Draconian asked.

‘The point where you acknowledge I am right and excuse yourself to focus on your own apprentices,’ said Verivix.

The wizard’s backhanded debate offered the exhausted Kulum a moment of respite. As the foreign boy laid starfish upon the boulder, he wished he were invisible. That he possessed the magic to submerge beneath the boulder and wash away with the rapids. In his head, he heard whispered voices – a constant conflict of good and evil. The good words were equivalent to a mother’s love, and they reminded him that he wasn’t alone, while the evil caused Kulum to feel needles across his upper back and spoke of the world unwilling to accept such a useless failure like him.