A Deepening Knowledge (A Life of Magic)

by Matthew Mitchell

  He smiled and took the paper back. He quickly rolled the paper into a very slender tube. "Some things need a slight change to become dangerous." He then jabbed the tube into my stomach, knocking the breath from me. I fell to the floor gasping like a fish. "No matter how innocent an item is, it can be turned into a weapon in some fashion. Maybe not to harm. A weapon can also disarm, disable, distract, or cause damage. You do not have to kill an opponent to escape or defeat him. All you have to do is stop him." He gave me a hand up off the floor. "Let us work through all the items on the table. I want to see if you can figure out a way they may be used in a fight to give you an advantage."

  I sat down and looked at the table. There was a lot of stuff there.

  A good hour later I had either figured out a way to use each and every object as a weapon or had a use demonstrated by Sir Mare. Each demonstration was on me. He dismissed me with some instructions.

  "Make sure you pay attention to what is around you. I will start each evening talking to you about what items you saw and how they may be used as a weapon." Mare handed me an odd shaped ball. "This will help with your reflexes. The weight of the ball is off center so it spins and flips when thrown. I want you to warm up after dinner with this. The three of you can throw it at each other. Try to hit one another while trying to catch it when it is thrown at you." With those last instructions he walked out of the practice room. I just sat there enjoying the peace. Raven sat beside me, drenched in sweat. Suzie laid on the floor just a bit from us.

  "These forms are hard." Raven stated. "I hurt in places I do not want to describe." She stretched out her legs.

  Suzie rolled over. "I think I have been thrown around more than a sack of grain." She stood up and winced. "I am going to be sore in the morning." She slowly walked towards the door. "I will see you two in the morning."

  Raven stood up. "I am going to get a hot bath and then go to bed. I believe we have a few things to do in the morning." She walked out the door without looking back.

  I sat there for a moment and grinned. At least I was not having to train like the two ladies. Mine was easy physically compared to theirs. Standing up I headed for the door and finally my bed. The morning would come quicker than we would like.

  Chapter II: A Few Moments, Then the Storm

  The next morning found us all once more in the practice rooms. Stain had left a series of tasks for all of us to complete throughout the week. Raven was to improve on her camping skills, increase her knowledge of magic, and gain some understanding of the political environment of the Kingdom. Suzie was working with Raven and myself with no particular assignment from Stain. I evidently was trying to learn a whole lifetime of skills; herb lore when the master herbalist arrives tomorrow, enchanting weapons and tools, working on perfecting some spells in earth and water magic, some smithy work, even jewelry making. The next couple of days would be packed full of things for me to do. Stain made it clear that I would have to establish my own schedule outside of meals, meetings, and Sir Mare's training. I looked at the list of things Stain had written down for me to work on. Some I would be doing alone, others I would have to seek assistance. With that in mind I sought out Cracklecord. She had stayed aloof since Haver's Town. I found her in the forge inside the smithy work room.

  "It is good to see you Ott!" She called from the fire. "It has been some time since we have talked."

  I nodded. "You seem to have hidden yourself away lately."

  Cracklecord smiled. "Water has that effect on me. I prefer a bed of warm coals. But that is not why you have sought me out?" Standing up she motioned me towards the forge. "Stain mentioned that you might need some assistance with some smithy work, perhaps some jewelry making?"

  Smiling I held up a few pages I had brought with me. "He wants me to mount some enchanted gems I made for Raven and myself. I have never made jewelry or been in charge of doing the work in a forge." She hopped out of the fire and reached for the pages.

  "These seem fairly straight forward. Two amulets with a stone mounted inside of either one. Two rings with smaller stones. These should be easy for you to make, however if I understand Stain's notes here the gems are designed to absorb and disperse magic?"

  "That is correct." I sat down on the anvil. "I made them to protect each of us."

  "What colors are the gems?" Cracklecord had walked over to a workbench that had shelves full of metal above it.

  "Raven's are deep purple. Mine are deep green." I looked at the metal there. "Stain suggested silver for the mountings."

  Cracklecord nodded. "That sounds about right." She reached up to one spot and pulled out a small bundle of silver nuggets and wires. Setting them on the workbench she turned to me. "Well it seems as if you will gain another skill. Being able to mount your own gems will help you make beautiful protections and such for yourself and others." I smiled and sat at the bench. Cracklecord proceeded to explain how to work metals for making jewelry. After hours of hard work I sat and looked at my progress.

  Cracklecord looked at the amulet that rested on the bench. "Well, it does resemble an amulet. I mean it has a chain and the gem is hanging from it."

  A misshapen lump of silver surrounded a green gem. The gem was held fast, yet it was one of the ugliest pieces of jewelry I had ever seen. We both sat there for a moment and marveled at it's lack of beauty. Suddenly I felt someone behind me. Stain leaned over my shoulder and looked closely at the amulet.

  "So, just getting started I see." He spoke clearly.

  I looked at Cracklecord and started laughing. Cracklecord shook her head and chuckled. "Actually we just finished. I am afraid to tell you, your apprentice here can not seem to make jewelry. This is the final product of hours worth of work."

  Stain's expression was surprised. "I figured you would do fine in this." He looked closer at the amulet. "I see what you mean. Oh well. We all have areas that we fail horrifically." He patted me on the shoulder. "I know I hated to find something I failed at. Mine was sword work. My master feared I would do the enemies work for them. I can handle a stave, a spear, even a trident. But with a sword I am just helpless." He looked at Cracklecord. "Since my apprentice here has finally found something he can not excel at would you be willing to take on this chore for him? I know the level of your work is superb"

  Cracklecord grinned. "Sure. I have been bored with no projects to complete. I will make both the amulets and the rings. I am assuming something simple?"

  I smiled in relief. I had felt like I was simply going to keep having to beat on the silver until I figured out how to make the tools work right. "Thank you Cracklecord. Simple would be perfect." I handed her the rest of the gems for the tasks.

  Stain nodded and led me from the workroom. "I did find that there are often things that I either failed horribly at or only mastered with much more work than others. This might simply be one of those things." He led me down the hall. "Now what else are you going to work on this morning? I have a meeting to take the three of you to after lunch."

  I looked at the rest of the list I had made up. It had those things I wanted to work on today. "Well, with jewelry being a failure, I had planned on working on enchanting some arrows. You had them on a list to be enchanted with an water spell, to put out fires I would guess."

  Stain thought for a second, "That would be right. They are very much in demand here. If an archer can hit the source of a fire then the spell causes the fire to go out completely No need for buckets or such." He steered me towards the weapons room. "That is a good idea." He moved us towards a barrel of arrows, ones with blue fletchings. "These are the ones used for that spell. The blue fletchings let the city watch know how these arrows are to be used."

  The barrel was full, perhaps five hundred arrows. "I am sure the watch would love to have all of these enchanted by the end of the week." He pulled one out. "Just make sure you enchant the head and not the shaft. The head is stone so it will hold the spell, the shaft being made from wood, will not hold the spell as well and could fail
to put out the fire." With that he turned towards the door. "I have a few things to do, have fun." The dryness in his voice made it obvious he had no thought of me enjoying all the enchanting. I actually enjoyed enchanting things, I found it relaxing. I sat down and pulled some arrows out. An empty barrel stood by ready for the enchanted arrows. No time like the present.

  "Ott!" What are you doing?" Raven's voice cut through my attention.

  I looked up from the arrow I held in my hand. I had lost count of how many arrows I had enchanted. Looking at both barrels I realized I was almost done, there were only a few more arrows in the unenchanted barrel. I chuckled. "Sorry, I have been working on these arrows for a bit."

  Raven picked up one of the enchanted arrows. "I could feel your magic in this room, that is how I found you." She touched the head of the arrow. "Water magic?"

  I nodded, "It is a spell to put out fires."

  She handed back the arrow. "Well it is time for lunch. By the amount of magic I feel in here and how many arrows are in that barrel beside you, I would say you have spent most of the morning enchanting. Time to eat, Ott." With that she pulled me up from my seat.

  I stood up and stretched. "If it is time for lunch then you are right. I only worked with Cracklecord for an hour before coming in here." That reminded me about my failure to make even a decent amulet. "I tried to make those amulets for us that Stain wanted made."

  Raven grinned. "Cracklecord mentioned it."

  I sighed, evidently my failure was already known. "I failed. My amulet looked like it was made from wet clay, just a lump with a gem in the middle. Not even centered."

  She nodded. "We all deal with failure. I know I have. My first apprenticeship ended with me being kicked out on the road. That is where I met Brooke and she helped me learn that failure is not an end. It is simply part of life."

  "First apprenticeship?" I had not realized she had planned on being anything other than a knife juggler.

  Raven smiled shyly, "That will be a story for another time. For now I want food. Cracklecord said she would bring the jewelry to lunch." With that she grabbed my arm and hauled me down the hall.

  * * *

  We found Suzie and Stain sitting at the lunch table, discussing the benefits of grounding spells into moving water. Mophar sat nearby and ate from a bowl of fruit. Cracklecord sat on a tile beside Stain.

  "Well here is our failed jewelry maker." Suzie teased. "It is about time you found something you stink at. It was starting to get annoying, how good you are at everything."

  I blushed and nodded. "I would say I failed well then." Sitting beside Cracklecord I asked, "Speaking of jewelry, when do you think I can pick those up from you?"

  Cracklecord chuckled, "How about now?" She handed two pouches to me. "One for you, one for Raven." Cracklecord turned to Raven, who had sat on the other side of Suzie. "So I hear you will be traveling with Stain and young Ott."

  Raven blushed, "Yes. That is how things have worked out." She reached for some food. "Will you be going along also?"

  Cracklecord nodded. "I plan on traveling with Stain for another season. We have talked and his path will take me by my home. At that point I must talk to some elders and then I will know what lies ahead for myself." She reached out and grabbed a handful of nuts. Smoke soon swirled from around the nuts. "Nuts just are not any good unless roasted." She popped them into her mouth one by one.

  Stain smiled, "Speaking of traveling and nuts, we will be leaving within the week." This was met with some surprise.

  "I thought the Herbmaster was going to arrive tomorrow. That is not much time to learn." I suddenly had much less time for my list of things to get done.

  "She actually will be arriving tonight and then will travel with us on the next leg of our trip. So you will have time." He leaned back. "She will arrive just after dark and I want to introduce all of you. So make yourselves ready and meet me here then." He took a drink. "Now, we have a meeting this afternoon. Since we are leaving a week earlier than I planned we will be meeting more mages each meeting. Today I plan on there being ten mages at the meeting. I hope that you all are ready, because we will be leaving in just a few minutes. Eat something and be ready to leave when I get back." With that he stood up and walked out.

  "Well I suggest you two better stuff yourselves." Mophar pronounced sagely. "The rest of us have already eaten plenty." This last comment seemed to be said in a snarky fashion.

  Suzie's head snapped up and a devious look came over her face. I could feel her magic rise behind Mophar. Suddenly he was soaking wet. "Keep your opinions to yourself or next time I will make sure the water is icy."

  Mophar sat there soaked and then grinned. "I might enjoy that. Sometimes having all this fur is a pain." He then jumped across the table and hugged Suzie. "But it works really well for getting others wet."

  Suzie cried out and jumped up. Her shirt and face were soaked. "Now I have to change. I will get you later hairball." With that she ran out of the room.

  Mophar seemed satisfied. "I think I will go find a patch of sunlight to dry myself. Yell before you leave. If you leave without me I will make sure your bed is very unpleasant." He climbed up the rafters and through a window that was open to let air circulate.

  Cracklecord chuckled. "Those two have been nipping at each other for days. It has been entertaining." She ate a few more nuts.

  Raven and I looked at each other and smiled. "I guess we need to eat." I grabbed some bread and a glass of juice.

  A short while later Stain returned with Suzie in tow. Suzie had changed to dry clothes.

  "How did you get your hair dry?" Raven asked Suzie.

  Suzie smiled. "Magic. I just forced the water out."

  Raven sat back and smiled. "You mages have all the neat tricks."

  I stood up and stretched. "Us mages you mean?"

  Raven gave me a dirty look. "A lot of good it does me." She turned to Stain. "Are we leaving?"

  Stain nodded. It was obvious he was enjoying the banter. "We are meeting quite a few mages, so we need all the time we can use. Our boat awaits outside." He turned and walked out of the room.

  I remembered Mophar. "We are leaving." I called up to the window. Mophar's head popped through after a moment.

  "I will meet you at the boat." His head disappeared

  I shook my head and headed out the door. "Thanks for everything Cracklecord."

  She waved, "Just make sure you two wear those. No point in me taking the time to make them if you are not going to wear them."

  That reminded me about the pouches. I opened one and saw that it was the purple gems. "These are your's." I said as I handed them to Raven. I opened the other pouch. Inside a silver amulet and ring nestled next to each other. I pulled out the ring and fit it on my hand. Cracklecord had made it just right. The green gem winked up at me. I pulled out the amulet and gasped. It was simple yet beautiful. A four pointed star surrounded the green gem. The points of the star were wavy and seemed to shimmer.

  I heard Raven gasp slightly. Looking over at her I realized that Cracklecord had made the same basic design for Raven. Her amulet was also a four pointed star. It was different than mine. Mine pointed up and down. Her's pointed off at an angle. If you overlapped the amulets they would form an eight pointed star.

  "They are very nice." Raven was looking at her ring. The small purple stone glimmered.

  "Come on you two. The boat is waiting." Stain's voice rang down the hallway.

  I smiled at Raven. "Shall we?" We both put on the amulets and raced down the hall. Bursting out of the doorway into the sunlight I could see that a skiff waited for us at the dock.

  "Look out below!" Mophar's voice came from just above me. Suddenly his weight landed on my back and he clung to my shoulders. "I told you I would meet you." He was still a little damp from Suzie's soaking earlier. With a quick flick of magic I forced the rest of the water off of his fur. No reason for me also to be wet from his sarcasm.

  He shook himself. "That i
s better. Thanks!" He climbed to my shoulder and wound his tale around my chest. "Onward mighty stead!"

  Raven chuckled. "This I wish I could have heard before. He is funny." She reached up and scratched behind his ear.

  Mophar stiffened and then went limp. "You can do that all day."

  I smiled and poked his stomach. "No she can not. We have a meeting to go to." With that we climbed aboard the skiff and off we went.

  Stain seemed anxious, I could feel his magic spreading out thinly, like fog on the water's surface.

  I sat there and reached out to see if I could feel what he was doing. Stain looked at me and smiled.

  "Trying to see what I am doing?" He quietly asked.

  I nodded. "It looks like you are searching for something or someone."

  Stain nodded. "Searching, yes, but not for any specific target. I am looking for magic. There are pockets all over, but I am looking for anything new. We seem to be at war now and I refuse to be taken by surprise again." His attention turned to the water again.

  I sat back and thought about that. Stain seemed to be taking all sorts of precautions after our kidnapping.

  * * *

  "We are here." Stain stood up and stepped to the dock. We were in a part of the town that I had never visited. "Let us get going. We have a lot to do and I have no wish to stay out in the open." Stain helped Suzie out of the skiff while Raven and I climbed to the dock. Mophar held tight to my hair. "We are going in this shop right here." Stain pointed to a tailor's shop just ahead of us.

  We all walked to the shop and Stain knocked loudly. The door boomed and suddenly was yanked open.

  "Welcome friends. Come in quickly." A short lady held the door open. Her hair was pulled back and tied at the nape of her neck. "The rest are in the back. Just a few more left to come."

  Stain hugged the lady. "It is good to see you again Margeret." She hugged Stain back and whispered something into his ear. Stain chuckled and stepped back. "I will do introductions when everyone has arrived." He motioned all of us to the back of the shop. Margeret shut the door and followed behind. Stain swept aside a curtain and a blast of light rushed out. Voices flowed with the light. Walking through the doorway I realized that the room held a large table, probably used for cutting fabric, that currently held a group of mages. Each mage turned as we entered. The voices died and each face was a mixture of emotions, but mainly anticipation.