The Wandering Apprentice

by Matthew Mitchell

  "How do you know all of this?" I wondered out loud.

  "Why, I'm a Wanderer." Stain spoke loudly. "At least that is how I was raised. I also live among them most of the year." He smiled at my expression. "And now that you are my apprentice you are an adopted wanderer."

  "An adopted wanderer? What does that mean?" I hoped nothing bad.

  "It simply means that you can camp in sites like this and buy and sell to wanderers without having to worry." He smiled. "Much like I do. Anyway, how was the morning for the two of you?" He had walked over and sat down beside me.

  I pulled out my basket, only then realizing that Mophor was still on my shoulder. "Mophor, could you climb down for a while. My shoulder is getting tired." I smiled at him so he understood I did not mind.

  "Sure, I am getting thirsty anyway." He walked over to the well and pulled up the bucket for a drink.

  "I do not think we did as well as we had hoped." I pulled out all the stones and sorted them into piles. The lack of any blue stuck out to me.

  "Why, I think you did just fine. I bet the crystal ones were hard to get out of the pond." He smiled at me.

  "You knew where everything was I bet." I realized I had been tricked. "Ok, where are the blue and white stones. We could not find them anywhere, unless they were down that hole."

  "Oh no. They were not there." Stain smiled. "Look at the path behind you."

  I looked at the path and only then realized something. The path from the main trail to this campsite was composed of blue and white stones. I started laughing.

  Mophor walked over to me. "What is so funny?"

  "The path." I choked out. "Blue and white stones."

  He looked at the path, looked at me and Stain, and said, "I am just glad we did not go down that hole." He sat down to watch us.

  "Well, now that everyone has eaten and rested a little let's get this lesson done." Stain motioned to Cracklecord. "Could you get Ott ten egg sized stones please?" She moved down the path and shortly set a pile of blue and white stones next to the rest of them.

  "Now, here is what we are going to do. I am going to teach you two new things. The first you have heard of by other names. The second is a spell that only earth magicians can do on land. Water magic has one similar to it, but it gets different types of results." He picked up a black and orange rock. "This rock has no magic in it. Yet it will accept magic if you put it into it." He set down the rock. "All these rocks have that ability. You must remember something though. Objects like rocks, gems, and such have affinities much like mages. Some will accept certain magic’s and not others. Some will accept all but less of some than others. And some will accept all equally. First, the higher the crystal content of a stone the more magic it can store." He picked up a crystal. "This crystal can store lots of magic. The only problem is it has no specific affinity. It is one of the only ones that do this." He set it down. "Now, can you think why being able to store magic in a crystal would be handy?" He played with the stones waiting for my answer.

  I thought a few minutes. "I imagine that if you can place magic in a stone then you can draw it out later." That was the only thing that made sense to me.

  "Ah, that is one use and one that is done by many mages. Gems are best for that. However there is another use. Have you ever heard of healing stones?" He pulled a stone I recognized from his pouch. It was round and had the healer's symbol etched into it.

  "I have, they are used by people to cure things like cuts, fevers, pretty much anything a healer might do. They are useful if there is no healer nearby." I had once had one used on me to heal a broken bone.

  "Very good. Now I want you to look at this stone and tell me what you can see with your mage sight." He set the stone on the ground away from him.

  I focused on seeing more of the magic and the stone seemed to glow from inside. A muddy light flowed through the stone. It had a sense of waiting.

  "I think there is a quite a bit of earth magic being held inside that stone. But it seems like more than magic energy. It almost seems like it has a purpose already." That is what I felt.

  "Correct on all counts. There is actually a large amount of earth magic stored in this stone. Enough to heal a hundred broken arms. The purpose you felt is a spell of healing." He picked the stone back up. "A stone or gem can be used to store a spell for later use. This is very handy for mages. We can use our time to build up a collection of stones with spells so that when we need them we have a massive reservoir of power. There is one catch. Once a spell is placed in a stone anybody can use it." He pulled a white gem from his pouch. "This is a white quartz. It has an affinity for air magic. This specific stone has a spell of levitation, or flying, held within in it." He stood up and motioned to Cracklecord. "Now we all know Cracklecord is no air mage, so she cannot fly. However with the spell in this stone she can fly until it runs out of energy." He handed her the stone and stepped back. She lifted about a foot off the ground. She stayed there for a few minutes then sudden fell back to the ground.

  "There, the stone is now null once more." He set it in front of me.

  I looked at it with my mage sight and sure enough no magic flowed through it.

  "Now, this is all called enchantment or enchanting. You have heard stories of swords, armor, crowns, what have you that possessed magical abilities. The truth is that they all had some rock or gem embedded in them that had a spell hidden inside. Now one last thing about enchantment. There are two types. Static and Drawing. Static means that once the spell is set then the spell can only use the energy trapped inside the stone. A Drawing enchantment, which is much harder to make, is basically two spells in one. The primary spell is the result you want to occur, like levitation. The second spell draws energy from the holder of the stone and feeds it to the levitation spell. It is called a drawing spell. A drawing enchantment is handy for complicated spells that do not need a lot of energy. Those you will learn later." He motioned to the piles of stones. "You have five types of stones here, each has an affinity, except the clear crystal. I want you to take half of each pile and fill them with the energy that they will accept the best. Water, Fire, Air, and Earth." He said these as he pointed at the corresponding stone. "When you are done let me know and we will move onto the second part of this lesson." He walked away.

  I will tell you, nothing is quite as boring as staring at stones willing them to accept magic. However, after about three hours of work I was getting much better. I finished the last stone.

  "Mophor, could you go tell Stain I am done?" I did not think I could walk right now my head hurt so bad.

  "Sure. I will tell him the stones are still stones." He ran off to find Stain.

  A couple of minutes later Stain appeared with Mophor walking with him.

  "So, how are you doing?" Stain did not seem to be in much of a hurry. "Do not be discouraged. Many of my apprentices took days to get them all charged." He smiled.

  "I am done." I grinned around the headache.

  Stain's face froze. His head whipped to the rock piles that I had sorted out to charge. He stared at them for a few moments. "So you are. Well lad, I truly thought this would take at least till tomorrow for you to finish. However, you have once again exceeded my expectations." He sat down. "I bet your head hurts though." A smile creeped onto his face.

  "A little." I had to admit that.

  "Well, I suggest you rest for a bit. Then I will go ahead and teach you the second part." He stood back up and started to walk back the way he came. "Send Mophor when you are ready."

  I laid down for a minute. I could hear all the sounds of camp, Pat and Cracklecord discussing something, the wind blowing, even Mophor was making noise.

  "Here." Mophor's hand came into my view. "I figure you need something to drink." He held out a bowl full of water.

  I drank deeply of the well water. "Thank you very much Mophor." My headache receded a little. I stood up. "I think I need something to snack on." I went over to Tag.

  "Hey Tag, how are you doing
?" I scratched him just behind the eye.

  "Doing good Ott. I am enjoying the sun on my shell and the quiet." He opened one eye to look at me. "You are doing really good, just so you know. Just do not get cocky." He went back to dozing. I located the bag of nuts I had stashed earlier. After eating the whole bag, although I did share with Mophor, my headache stopped entirely.

  "Mophor, could you tell Stain I am ready to continue." I walked back to my piles of rocks.

  Mophor strolled off to find Stain. A few minutes later they appeared.

  "So, headache better?" Stain seemed concerned.

  "I ate some nuts and drank some water. I feel much better." I did feel much better, surprisingly.

  "You have to realize that you are doing work when charging or enchanting." He sat down. "Now to enchant is the same process except you form the energy into a pattern before placing it into the stone." He pulled out a stone. "I'll demonstrate so you can observe the differences. I am going to make a shield stone that will automatically shield the holder from physical objects. These are fairly common and you will find them being sold in every market. It allows non-mages to have the safety of a shield." He looked at the stone and seemed to focus on only it. I watched him with my mage sight. I could see the magic energy, earth in this case, flow from him to the stone. As it left him it took on a shape that I recognized as a mental construct of a magic shield. He took a deep breath and handed me the stone. "Now, what do you see?"

  I looked at the stone and focused on it. There was quite a bit of earth magic in the stone and it seemed to have that anticipation that the healing stone had. I could feel the difference in the charged stones and the enchanted stone. I held up the shield stone. "This one feels like it has a purpose." I picked up one I had charged with earth magic. "This one feels like it is full of energy yet there is no sense of purpose." I handed back the shield stone and set the charged stone down.

  "Now, since you know how to shield I want to you to spend the rest of your time making shield stones. Make shield with the stone's affinities. As for the clear crystals, charge half of them with an equal amount of each magic and make the rest into shield stones with all four magic’s. But do those all last." He stood up. "Do not forget to eat and rest. This might take you days to complete. However, when you get done you will have enough practice to do this in your sleep." He smiled at me and went back to his work.

  I looked at the piles of stones. I remembered my headache earlier. "Mophor, could you help me?" I looked at him.

  "What do you need?" He seemed pretty content.

  "Could you keep me watered and fed. I have plenty of snacks in my bags, which are probably in my tent. I do not want another headache." I shook my head.

  "Sure, as long as you do not mind sharing and letting me watch you stare at stones." His voice was full of humor.

  "No, I am honored to share with you. And as long as you want to watch me stare at stones you can." I smiled. Let the staring begin.

  ***

  "So, you finished the enchantment?" Stain asked at breakfast three days later.

  It had taken me three whole days to get all the rocks enchanted. Each day I had sat and stared at the rocks, slowly charging and enchanting each rock and crystal. I would work for hours then take breaks to eat, drink, and rest. The last ones, the crystals, I was able to do in one afternoon. Every night I went to sleep exhausted. The rocks glowed to my mage sight.

  "Yes." I mumbled. "I finished them." I ate all of my breakfast. I had eaten a lot over the last couple of days.

  "Did you notice anything while you were working?" Stain had that tone of asking and prodding. "Any observations to make?"

  I thought for a few minutes. "Sure, I do not like staring at rocks all day."

  Stain laughed. "Well, I can understand that. Anything else?"

  I guess he really wanted me to think about this. "Well, It seemed to be easier to do it that last batch. And I had to eat and drink a lot to keep from having headaches. I slept like a rock each night, like I had worked hard." I could not think of anything else that might be important.

  "Well, you seem to have noticed the most important things. Charging and enchanting both take energy, much like any other kind of work. It might appear you are simply sitting there staring at the rocks, but in fact you are forcing your energy into it. That takes effort, which means you have to eat and drink or your body will have problems. Headaches for example." He took a drink. "Now, do you know why it became easier to do?"

  I thought about that. "Perhaps since it is a skill it takes practice to do it well?"

  "That is part of it, the other thing is your mage ability is like a muscle. The more you work it the easier it is to use." Stain stood up. "Alright everyone! Ott has finished his project. That means we go to Haver's Town. However, we will leave at lunch so that we arrive before dark. I have one last thing to show you Ott." He motioned for me to join him.

  We walked away from the rest of the group and towards the woods. Just before the trees he stopped.

  "I told you I would teach you a skill, which you have learned well, and a new spell. This spell is a pure earth spell, only earth mages can perform it." He pointed at a shovel leaning against a tree. "Dig a hole."

  I grabbed the shovel, curious what we would do with the hole. After digging down a hand depth he stopped me.

  "Now, watch with your mage sight." He lifted his hand over the hole. The bottom of the hole churned, like some kind of animal was breaking through. However, stones were all that appeared. They continued filling the hole till the hole was full. Stain put his hand back down. I had seen the magic move from his hand to the hole, but could not tell much other than it had been pure earth magic and a feeling of a calling.

  "What did you just do?" I was a little less excited. He had filled the hole with rocks. Not very interesting after the past three days.

  "I used earth magic to call those from the ground." A wide grin split his face.

  "And what use are a bunch of rocks?" Rocks, more rocks. I was a little frustrated.

  "Oh, those are not rocks. Why not pick one up and look closer?" His grin grew even bigger.

  I sighed but picked one up. It was covered in dirt. I looked at it. Nothing special about it to me. "What am I looking for?"

  "Why not get it a little wet and clean off the dirt?" He was enjoying this, whatever it was.

  I spit on the rock and rubbed off some of the dirt. A dull surface was exposed, but it flashed red in the sun. I stared. "A ruby. Those are not rocks! They are gems?" I was shocked. The hole was filled with gems. I had never seen that many.

  "Very good Ott." I could hear the amusement in his voice. "Now, let me explain. I used a spell that calls any substance from the ground. It can be used to call anything that lies within the dirt. That includes many things. Gems, rocks, metals, even water. This is also why earth mages are a little better off than other mages. Gems and metals are easy to sell almost anywhere. There are limitations. The size of the hole is the first. If you dig a hole too big the spell will drain you. Second, concentration. If you cannot focus then you will not get what you want. I once had an apprentice who could do this spell all day and get a different result each time. Finally, there is the nature of each thing. A gem in the ground is usually raw, not pretty. Metals are found in small pieces, when you call them they show up as a powder. If you understand this it can provide income and items you will need." Stain walked over and sat on a stump. "Now, you try this spell. I believe Cracklecord would like some copper to make some jewelry." He sat there and stared at me.

  I moved away from the gems and started another hole. When it was about a hand deep I set the shovel aside. I focused my mage sight on the hole and raised my hand over it. I focused on the hole for a few minutes until I felt a slight tugging on my hand. Earth magic dripped from my fingers into the hole. The bottom of the hole churned, much like Stain's had but much slower. The hole started to fill. I grew a little dizzy, but stood firm. Finally the hole was full and the sp
ell stopped. The hole seemed to be filled with dirt, but dirt that gleamed gently in the sun.

  "Not bad." Cracklecord's voice sounded from beside me. She reached into the hole and felt the copper. "Pretty good quality. I can do something with this." The copper started to glow around her hand. I could see the red fire magic flowing in the copper. The powder seemed to melt. She pulled her hand out. "Give that about ten minutes and you can pull it from the hole." She walked away, while the copper glowed.

  "What did she just do?" I stared at the copper.

  Stain stood up and walked over to me. "She heated up the copper using fire magic. Since copper is a metal the powder melted into one large chunk. You can do that once you have learned the right spell using fire magic." He pointed at the still glowing copper. "Can you think of any way to cool that off faster?"

  I looked at it. I thought about all the time spent helping Rusty. "Rusty uses a barrel of water to cool off metal. So perhaps use a water spell on it?"

  "Very good, however some metals do not like to be heated and cooled quickly. In this case it should be fine." I could see the water energy flow from him to the copper. It steamed and cooled quickly. "I believe you can lift it free now, however you might need to use the shovel to pull it loose of the dirt." He pulled out a small pouch and started to move the gems from the hole he had filled to the pouch.

  I used the shovel to pry the chunk of copper loose. It was solid but oddly shaped. We both finished and moved back towards the tents.