His footsteps echoed in the empty palace hallways, the only other sound the sputtering of torch flames along the walls.

He came to a set of twelve-foot high wooden doors with glowing blue runes inscribed in the archway above.

He swallowed hard, and his heart pounded in his chest.

He planned to ambush the head wizard as soon as he woke up, and convince him to give Connor a trial, so he could prove his magical talent and become the wizard’s apprentice.

He yearned to search out what happened to his parents, and when his magical talent revealed itself, he felt that perhaps it could be the key to achieving his dream.

His magic was weak, and he had limited control, but with a little training that would change.

Time crept by as he waited in the empty hallway.

He itched to knock on the door as he paced up and down the width of the corridor, but he needed the wizard to be in a good mood.

Waking him at an ungodly hour of the morning wouldn’t help with that.

"Oh by the gods! Come in already!" yelled a voice from inside.

Connor raced to the doors and pushed them wide open. The heavy wood groaned as though it too were upset at being awakened so early, and Connor stepped inside.

A wrinkled, old man with bushy eyebrows and a finely combed beard sat behind a large oak desk piled high with ancient tomes cleaning his glasses.

"About damn time," he said, "I heard you running up and down outside. How am I supposed to focus with you thumping about like a bloody great troll?"

"Sorry to disturb you, Head Wizard," Connor said with a bright smile.

Elgar put his glasses back on and glowered at Connor. "That’s funny, you don’t look sorry," he said, “why are you bothering me?”

"I want to become a wizard," Connor said.

Elgar stroked his long, gray beard. "Well... good luck with that," he said with a smirk.

He looked down and started leafing through a large book.

Connor waited… and waited, but Elgar didn’t even bother to look at him again.

Connor tightened his jaw and folded his arms. Damn that old man. If Elgar thought he would give up so easily, he had another thing coming.

An hour passed as Connor waited like this, and the wizard showed no sign of noticing him.

Connor ground his teeth and finally cleared his throat loudly.

Elgar looked up at him and sighed. "Are you still here?" he asked.

"Yes," Connor said through clenched teeth.

"Well? What do you want already?" Elgar asked.

Connor let out a slow breath to keep his temper in check. "I want to become a wizard. I would like you to teach me," he said.

"Teach you?" Elgar said, “you were serious?”

Connor felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders as hope surged in his heart.

Then the old wizard burst out laughing.

Connor balled his hands into tight fists at his sides while the wizard’s laughter echoed in the large office.

Elgar laughed so hard that tears formed at the corners of his eyes. "A thug wants to learn magic? Oh ho! This is the funniest thing I've heard in an age!" he said.

Connor glared at the wizard.

"I can already do magic," he growled.

Elgar’s laughter slowly died down into a fit of giggles before he finally got his breathing back under control.

"What did you say?" he asked as he wiped at his eyes.

Connor took a deep breath to steady himself though he squeezed his fists so tight that his knuckles turned white. "I said, I can do magic," he said evenly.

Elgar raised a bushy eyebrow. "Truly? What spells do you know?" he asked.

"I don’t know any spells, but I can do some simple and weak magic, and I want to learn how to do more," said Connor.

"No spells?" Elgar asked with a dubious expression while stroking his beard again as if it were a pet, "show me."

Connor let out a sigh. At last!

He walked to the nearest candleholder and blew out the candles, leaving wisps of smoke trailing in the air.

"I don't know any formal spells, nor do I have any formal training so I would warn you that it can be a little unstable," Connor said.

The wizard waved his hand. “Just get on with it,” he said, though his eyes shone with a hint of curiosity.

Connor’s palms started to sweat.

This was his chance to show what he could do, but his magic was erratic and weak.

What if it didn’t work? What if he blew his chance?

He turned his attention to one of the candles and held out his hand with one finger pointing at the wick.

He closed his eyes and reached inside himself for his magic that writhed within. He grasped it with his awareness and pulled on it.

Like always, it wriggled and squirmed away from him like an eel. He furrowed his brows and wrestled with it, pulling it down his arm and through his fingers as he directed it out toward the candle wick.

A small flame sprouted from the tip of his finger and lit the candle.

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He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, and turned to face the wizard.

Elgar was still stroking his beard though now there was a soft smile on his lips. "Perhaps, you’re not just a knuckle-dragging idiot…" he said.

Some of the tension Connor felt melted away, and he smiled.

Elgar stood up from behind his desk and walked away.

What? Hadn’t he just impressed the old man?

“Well?” Elgar asked, “are you coming?”

Connor’s eyes lit up, and he dashed after the wizard.

He followed Elgar through another archway similar to the first, but a bit smaller, into another section of the head wizard’s quarters.

Where the room before was relatively spartan, with only a desk and enough books piled on it to sink a small boat, this section was like stepping into another world.

Bookcases towered above them, reaching from the ground to the ceiling a hundred feet above.

Connor shuddered. “Gods have mercy,” he muttered under his breath.

If the wizard took him on as an apprentice… would he have to fetch books from the top shelves?

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned to look at the rest of the room.

Feather dusters and cloths flew through the air, dusting, cleaning, and polishing every surface as they flitted around with a mind of their own.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the magic happening around him, and tripped over a broom.

He reflexively grabbed one of the shelves and stopped himself before he hit the floor.

The broom he tripped over waggled at him as though scolding him for his inattention before shuffling away.

“Do keep up,” said the wizard over his shoulder as he evaded everything with a practiced ease without even sparing a glance.

Connor's smile grew, and his heart pounded faster with each step as he rushed after the wizard.

He made sure to watch where he was going this time.

"You have magic, but we’ll see if you have what it takes to become a real wizard," Elgar said.

More tests? Bring it on.

He led Connor to a large, circular room far in the back. Loose papers and strange devices littered the floor and desks like the work of a madman.

Connor’s hungry eyes took in everything around him as he practically vibrated with excitement, but when he looked up, he froze, and his eyes went wide.

A glowing globe ten feet in diameter floated in the air above their heads.

It was full of color, deep blues, sandy browns, vibrant greens, and parts as white as freshly fallen snow.

He watched it, mesmerized. It felt familiar somehow, and as he stared at it, he noticed that it was slowly turning.

He looked closer. It wasn’t perfectly smooth like he’d first thought. There were ridges, crevices, letters, and strange markings.

His eyes went wide when he realized what it was.

An incredibly detailed model of Terra, of the whole world, suspended in the air with magic.

The writing marked the different names of countries, and regions with faint lines dividing it into sections, showing the borders.

Its beauty and detail was breathtaking. No dusty, old map could ever compare.

He stood on the tips of his toes. When he did, he could just barely see the city they were in.

The massive towering walls of Vigil looked like almost nothing. In fact, he assumed that even these tiny walls on the sphere were actually sized up so he could see them.

He knew the world was huge, but seeing it like this…

“Splendid isn’t it?” said the wizard beside Connor.

Connor pried his eyes away and turned back to the wizard. “It's incredible,” he said, “where did you get it?”

“I made it. It took me years of tinkering, but it was worth it,” the wizard said with a note of pride. “The nobles have been trying to buy it off me for years,” he continued with a laugh, “but I’d never let them have it.”

"But enough of that. Let’s see if I can make a wizard out of you. You may have some magical talent that allows you to do spells without having to vocalize or go through incantations. But, you can forget that nonsense. We’ll only be doing real magic here.

"What are you waiting for boy? Bring me that book," Elgar said, pointing a bony finger at a heavy tome with a red, withered cover.

Connor’s hands shook with excitement as he took the book off the shelf with great care and respect.

He turned it over in his hands, inspecting it, as he brought it to the wizard. He felt like he would explode. He was finally going to learn some magic… he was so close now…

Under the wizard’s instruction, Connor placed the book on a stand and started flipping through it.

The book was ancient, and it felt like the pages would crumble into dust if he wasn’t careful.

“This book contains basic spells. Most of them are rather useless, but until you master them, you’ll never be able to do the more complex spells. They’re also perfect to test if you really have any ability.

"Stop there. You'll be doing this spell. You already know how to light a candle, so this should be easy. It’s just a simple spell to light candles. It's rather useless actually. There are far easier ways to do something so basic. It's a good starting point, though," Elgar said.

Connor read through the ritual. Just as Elgar had said, it was a long, if simple, ritual to light a candle.

It would be far more time consuming than even his unstable magic, but the words and motions looked simple and easy to do. If a bit long-winded.

He practiced the motions and the words. Elgar corrected a few minor errors, but he quickly had the ritual down, and it was time to do the spell properly, not just in practice.

Just as in his few minutes of practice before, he moved his hands over the candle on the desk in front of him as he said the words of power.

Nothing happened.

He furrowed his brows. He’d done everything right hadn’t he? Elgar hadn’t corrected him… had he missed something?

“Come on boy,” said Elgar with a huff, “If I’m going to train you, we have no time to dawdle on such simple tasks. Quickly now, come on.”

Connor tried again. This time, he pulled on his magic and channeled it into the spell more like he normally would.

He strained with the trickle of power inside him, and the wick of the candle glowed softly before dying out again.

He ground his teeth.

He was following the instructions perfectly, even going so far as to pull on his magic. Why wasn’t this working?

Elgar sighed. "Perhaps you aren't fit to be a wizard after all," he said.

Connor wouldn’t accept that. He refused to. He hadn’t come this far only to fail now!

If his magic wouldn’t work, then he would make it work.

The wizard’s impatient gaze bored into him, as he went through the spell again.

But, this time, he poured all of his anger and frustration into the spell as he pulled on his magic as hard as he could.

He felt like a rake was being dragged through his veins. His hands trembled over the candle and throbbed with more power than he’d ever felt before.

Again, nothing happened. It was like it was stuck and just wouldn't budge.

Why did his magic have to be so damn difficult to use!

He struggled with his magic, forcing it with all his will and concentration.

His hands started to tingle.

"Right, I suppose that's it," Elgar said, "I guess you aren't meant to be a wizard. Sorry, lad."

The wizard's words sent a spike of rage and despair through Connor's whole being.

He trembled, burning with anger, as his magic thrummed inside him like never before. Still locked in the end motion of the spell.

Something gave, and his magic finally released.

The candle exploded in a burst of flames sending hot wax everywhere, but he didn’t stop. He kept pulling as hard as he could on his magic, despite the pain it caused him.

He would make this wizard see what he could be.

Fire crackled in mid-air, swirling and twirling chaotically as he pushed all he could into it.

The fire reacted to itself and exploded. It knocked Connor and the wizard onto the floor and roared upward, engulfing the magical globe which had fascinated Connor earlier.

The globe flickered and dropped like a rock. It smashed into the floor and shattered into a million pieces, sending out a pulse of blue energy.

The blue energy melded with the fire and created an intense blue flame that incinerated anything it touched as it spread across the room.

Connor and the wizard cowered in the corner as flames enveloped everything around them.

Beside him, Elgar’s mouth hung open in shock and horror as his instruments, his books, and his prized orb were destroyed right before his eyes.

Elgar snapped out of it and extended his arms as he said a word of power. A freezing cold wind burst from his fingertips and covered everything in a layer of frost and ice.

Connor stayed in the corner, trying to avoid the raging flames and the biting cold that surrounded him.

When the last flames died out, he stood up.

The floor was a blackened mess covered in ashen piles of what were once priceless books and artifacts. The gorgeous orb lay in shattered pieces like worthless shards of glass.

Elgar stood in the center of the room, his eyes filled with horror.

Connor swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, I never meant to—“ he started.

“Get out,” Elgar said as he trembled with rage.

“I’m sorry, it's just my magic is so unstable. That’s why I came to you for training…” Connor said.

“I said get out!” Elgar bellowed. The veins in his forehead pulsed as he continued, “Do you not see what you have done? A simple spell! One of the simplest, and you caused ruin and chaos! You will not learn magic! Not from me, or any wizard in this entire city. I’ll make damn sure of that! You will never learn magic.”

“But I—“

“Get out!”