ã€ŠThe Scribeã€‹


 The End of Fishing

    Aspects of young Chadwick were exactly like any other 10-year-old boy. He was a bit on the small side for his age. Being short didn¡¯t bother him. The lack of muscles did. Especially when comparing himself to the other boys whose parents worked harder jobs. Those boys got to do the family business, out in the sun. Chadwick just got covered in ink.

    He stared out the workshop window at the tall wheat grass wafting in the afternoon summer breeze, idly swirling an ink pot in his hand.

    He sighed. Being a woodcutter sounded so much more enjoyable than copying the same words over and over again. He could develop some calluses. Maybe even some muscles. Mostly he just wanted to be stronger than the other boys in a fight, but he had a vague idea ¡ª from something the men would say ¡ª that women would also appreciate things like muscles and calluses. He wasn¡¯t entirely clear why that seemed so important, but the adults certainly put a lot of stock in the idea. Women certainly seemed to scowl at the soft skin of his hands, though that may be because of the ink stains he perpetually seemed to have? The women didn¡¯t like dirty hands. Ink-stained hands seemed to bother them more.

    ¡°I don¡¯t hear writing, Chadwick,¡± said his father, Alver, from the next room. Interrupting the casual day dreaming.

    The workshop itself only had two rooms, one for mixing inks and binding books ¡ª where Alver was right now. The other was dedicated to writing. With large flat surfaces where the book being copied could be kept clear of all inks and glues that might ruin it, as Chadwick dutifully scribed a copy of the original.

    Chadwick had long since gotten good enough to handle most of the scribing for his father, the customers never knew the difference. As long as they got a copy of the book, it wouldn¡¯t hurt them to know that the work wasn¡¯t done by Alver. His father instead handled all the glues and binding processes, stating that some of those chemicals weren¡¯t suitable for children. He never did explain why.

    While Chadwick was good at the work of copying in a neat hand, it didn¡¯t mean he particularly enjoyed it, there just wasn¡¯t much other choice for a scrawny boy in such a small town. He either had a growth spurt very soon and could convince his father to let him take up carpentry or smithing. Or, he was stuck following in the family business. There were very few other choices in the village. Probably in any nearby villages either, but Chadwick didn¡¯t know how they did things.

    ¡°Almost finished with this one father,¡± Chadwick said quietly. There wasn¡¯t much call for loud talk in a scribe¡¯s workshop. Delicate work requires concentration. Something Chadwick could certainly muster when there wasn¡¯t such a temptingly beautiful day outside. During the prime fishing season no less. It was a shame Chadwick couldn¡¯t fish for a living, that was something only the old retirees got away with. The old men always smelled of delightfully smoked fish and rather more unpleasant smoking tobacco. They seemed to like both kinds of smoke equally, even if Chadwick didn¡¯t understand why. He didn¡¯t understand a lot of things. He had seen enough written about the world in what he copied to know just how much of the world he didn¡¯t know.

    His father leaned backwards from the large pot of glue he was boiling and glanced at Chadwick, then out the inviting window, ¡°once you finish, I think it might be nice if you brought home some fish. Your mother hasn¡¯t had any decent fish to work with in some weeks.¡±

    Chadwick¡¯s face lit up, ¡°I think the north stream should be cold enough by now, I¡¯ll head up there as soon as I finish!¡±

    His father just smiled and shook his head, turning back to his work. He knew his son well.

    Chadwick glanced around to make sure his father wasn¡¯t watching and that nobody was peeking in the large windows, then gave his fresh ink pot a swirl, concentrating on smoothing it out. He wasn¡¯t really sure if it did anything, but he always went through the motions. It felt correct to do it.

    Once, after having a bad batch of ink cause a whole page to be ruined, he had just sort of wished the ink was better. Something changed and he tried the ink again. It became the smoothest flowing ink he had ever used. He did the same thing for every new pot of ink since and had never had a page ruined by the quality of the ink again.

    He was never quite sure if it was just a mindset thing from knowing his ink was now good? Superstition? A mental trick of sorts? Or, if he was really doing something to the ink. Regardless, getting the work done faster was both good for his family, and good for him if he wanted to do something more fun. So, he never skipped the step of concentrating on smoothing his ink. Just in case.

    Just shy of an hour later, fast even by his father¡¯s standards for scribing speed, he was placing the last page carefully on the rack to dry and wiping off his hands as best he could before going in the house for his fishing gear.

    ¡°I¡¯m going fishing up in the north creek, mother,¡± he called out as he collected his rod and flies from the front room.

    His mother, Cherie, stepped out of the pantry, dusting herself off, ¡°your father is finished with you for the day?¡±

    Chadwick had to choose his words carefully, he hadn¡¯t raced through the last of the scribing work just to get stuck grinding corn, ¡°he mentioned we hadn¡¯t had fish in a while¡­¡±

    His mother glanced back into the pantry and seemed to be scanning through a mental catalog, ¡°those go bad soon¡­ finished the beans yesterday¡­ might be something in the garden ripe enough. Carrots maybe? Depends what he catches.¡± She seemed to snap back into the moment and realized Chadwick as still standing there, ¡°fish isn¡¯t going to catch itself, be back before dark!¡±

    Chadwick just grinned and raced out the door.

    The path up to the north creek followed along the edge of a lazily flowing river. Chadwick walked on the grassy side, as the other side was currently full of cut off stumps and mud. The loggers had been working their way up the river as staying close to it was the easiest way to get the large trees back down to the sawmill.

    The trees right next to the river had gone first, felled right into the water. The others, further away, had their branches trimmed off first, then a team of horses on the far bank would drag the giant logs into the water. The work had cleared a large swath of trees along the far bank of the river. At a certain distance from the bank, there were trees again as the ropes from the horses couldn¡¯t reach any further, without them crossing the deep river. It became easier to just keep going up the river instead of further into the trees.

    Aside from the distance to walk to start the work day, it made no difference to the loggers how far up the river they went, it was no extra effort for a log to float another mile to the sawmill.

    As Chadwick approached the small creek that fed into the main river that he planned to fish, he could hear the loggers working. He couldn¡¯t help himself from stopping for a look. Jealousy of their outdoor life always drove him to watch and wish.

    Up around the bend he law the logging team, currently working on a large tree. The boy Chadwick was most envious of, was right in the thick of it. He was currently shimmying up the giant tree with a rope tied around his waist. He would be tying it off up high so the loggers could direct the fall the right way.

    His name was Mercer and he was everything Chadwick wanted to be. A good foot taller, making him almost match some of the adults for height. Tanned skin and callused hands from hard outdoor work. Already showing the muscles of a grown man.

    Chadwick was fairly certain he was a lot smarter than Mercer, but that wasn¡¯t much use to him in a scuffle behind the stables. Mercer hardly even had to try to make Chadwick eat dirt, quite literally in one case where he had been feeling particularly belligerent. Chadwick¡¯s comments about Mercer¡¯s brain being full of mud might have contributed to the large boy¡¯s desire to make Chadwick eat dirt. Hard to say for sure.

    Chadwick was staring in awe at the process, men already working with axes and big saws while Mercer climbed fearlessly. This is what he wanted.

    ¡°You got that damn rope on yet boy?¡± Called out Mercer¡¯s father, Bothe. A giant of a man with an equally large temper. Seeing the two together, there could be no doubt that Mercer was his son. Like two peas in an exceptionally large pod.

    ¡°Last knot now Da¡¯,¡± Mercer said, looking down from his task for the first time. After he looked from answering his dad he spotted Chadwick watching from the bank. ¡°What are you looking at inky?!¡±

    The words shook Chadwick out of his reverie, but not in time to prevent him jumping with an embarrassing squeal when a branch Mercer had thrown from the top of the tree gave a big splash right in front of him.

    The men all laughed at the display and even Mercer¡¯s father gave a chuckle before shouting up, ¡°you ain¡¯t got time to be messing with people who do women¡¯s work, if that rope is tied then get down here and start on the next one.¡±

    Chadwick went red, both at his own childish reaction and the words of Bothe. As much as he wished he could do something more practical, he would never fit in with men who considered his family¡¯s trade to not be real work. Even though Chadwick¡¯s father was one of the wealthiest men in the town. It was extremely unfair.

    Rather than risk something worse than slightly cruel words, Chadwick turned and ran up the stream until he was out of sight. He was still flushed with embarrassment when he got to his favorite spot, but quickly forgot about the loggers when he opened his flies.

    One of the things a scribe''s hands turned out to be good at was creating flies. The delicate, often fiddly work, was beyond most men in the village. The success rate of his creations was his pride and joy. Even the old men would come see him for his springtime midge flies.

    He brushed his hands over the various fake insects and worms he had created. Selecting a light brown one that closely matched the bugs currently swarming over the river.

    He carefully rigged up his long rod that was made from a beautiful sample of the springy wood that grew further up in the mountain. He had found this particular tree himself and spent several weeks with old Jed, learning how to turn the rough wood into the light flexible work of art in front of him. Jed had to help him fix on the metal loops, but he had made him do the rest, stripping off the bark, smoothly it out and carefully removing material from different sections until the rod gave a satisfying whipping motion when cast.

    With still a few hours of daylight left, he cast his first fly into the water and started working his way up the stream. Once he forgot all about the loggers and was fixed on watching the little fly float down the stream, it became a perfect afternoon. It was made even better by the excellent catch he was getting.

    He had to return a few too-small fish, but had four very respectable speckled trout by the time he realized the sun was already setting. Far too late he also realized that he was a good twenty minutes from home, even at a run.

    Cursing at forgetting to pay attention to the time, he quickly removed the line from his rod and carefully packed his flies away. Even when in a rush, it was delicate equipment and he had to do everything slowly.

    He strung the fish over one shoulder, rod over the other and started racing back down the hill and following the stream. These woods weren¡¯t known to have anything particularly dangerous, but children were strictly forbidden from being out after dark. Some rules, like how often to bathe, could be broken without much repercussion beyond a scolding. Being out after sundown was not one of those rules.

    When he approached town, he was suddenly worried. Everyone was gathered in the square. One of the only other times they had done that was when the Gernson twins went missing. Everyone had met in the square so the mayor could assign everyone a location to search.

    He had a sudden worry this might have happened because he was back late. Surely it wasn¡¯t that late yet? He knew where his mother and father were likely to be, at the shopfront that faced into the square. So, he came around the back of the shop. Just to avoid being noticed.

    His plans didn¡¯t go well though as he could hear the mayor saying loudly, ¡°we are just missing young Chadwick, barely at the age cutoff, surely we don¡¯t need to delay any longer?¡±

    Chadwick gulped. This wasn¡¯t a search party for him then. But, somehow, he had kept everyone waiting.

    A voice he didn¡¯t know answered, ¡°no exceptions. Everyone over 10 that was not checked last time I came, will need to be tested.¡±

    ¡°But,¡± began the mayor, ¡°you haven¡¯t found a magic user in our town in 30 years, sir mage. Surely this¡­,¡± the mayor paused when he saw Chadwick step up next to his parents, ¡°ah, never mind. There he is now. This is everyone in the village.¡±

    The man the mayor had called ¡°sir mage¡±, had on an assortment of leather traveling clothes and a large belt that had equally large pouches hanging off it. The belt looked extremely sturdy and the pouches swung like they weighed a lot. He looked almost annoyed at the whole village lined up waiting on him when he said, ¡°good. We can finally get started. Have everyone over ten who has never been tested line up.¡±

    The man just stood there. Waiting on the mayor to carry out his orders. Chadwick had no idea who this stranger was that so casually ordered around the most important man in the town. Mayor Gunders certainly didn¡¯t seem offended. In fact, he was efficiently sorting the children and teenagers into a line. If anyone else had taken that kind of tone with the mayor, there would have been more than just a vicious tongue-lashing doled out by the mayor.

    He beckoned Chadwick over last and said quietly, ¡°not a good time to be home late, Scribe¡±. The mayor had almost never said anything directly to Chadwick. He knew the man was prone to taking out his annoyance on the parents of misbehaving children. Every child in the village knew it was one of their jobs to steer well clear of the mayor. Their parents had taught them that young. He didn¡¯t seem to have a worse temper than others. He just made people¡¯s lives miserable if he was annoyed. Chadwick very quickly handed his fishing gear and the day¡¯s catch over to his father and rushed to the line. Trying to avoid annoying the mayor any further.

    Whether by design, or some favoritism, everyone chosen was lined up tallest to shortest. Mercer wasn¡¯t at the front of the line, since there were some 16 and 17 year olds in the mix. Still, he was ahead of even some of the 15 year olds. Quite a gap considering he was only just 11. Chadwick was dead last. He had only had his 10th birthday a month ago. Whatever this was about, he only just made the age cutoff.

    One at the time, the mayor ushered people from the line in front of the stranger and made them sit on a log someone had rolled over next to the main fire pit in the center of the village.

    The man would step up in front of them, put a necklace of some kind over their head, ask them a question, take it off and send them on their way.

    Not until he got down to the last three people could Chadwick hear the question being asked.

    ¡°Have you ever used magic?¡± Was all he asked.

    Everyone said, ¡°no¡± and then he took the necklace off and dismissed them. It was very unusual.

    Chadwick had only ever heard magic mentioned once by his mother in passing, right after the Gernson twins had disappeared. She had thought Chadwick was asleep, but he caught the words, ¡°the idea that twins automatically means magic is present has always been nonsense as far as I¡¯m concerned, but them choosing to run makes me wonder if there isn¡¯t something to it¡­¡±

    If magic would mean the twins had to run away, surely someone would just lie when this man came asking? Chadwick knew what he would say now. Even if he had a niggling idea that his ink smoothing might be something. That wasn¡¯t really magic. Just a mental trick.

    Finally Chadwick was the last in line and the stranger still just looked bored.

    ¡°C¡¯mon kid, last one. Let¡¯s get this over with so I can go have a drink,¡± said the man. His voice a bit tired.

    Chadwick realized he was still just standing there, so he rushed up and sat down. The man seemed mostly disinterested as he stepped in front of Chadwick, placing the same necklace over his head. The loop was quite large and made of some dull grey metal that was cold on his neck. The pendant hanging from it was white in the middle with angular symbols on it. It looked like it was made of bone.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    The man asked the same question he had asked all the others, ¡°have you ever used magic?¡±

    Chadwick knew he would say no. He had decided that when he first heard what the man was asking. He opened his mouth and out came the word, ¡°yes¡±.

    The man immediately went from seeming bored to striking like a snake. His hand flew out and touched the white piece hanging on the necklace. Touching his finger to one of the lines. A few nearby adults who could hear Chadwick gasped and reflexively backed away.

    Chadwick sat shocked. He was going to say no. Why did he say yes?

    Suddenly the large loop of metal on the necklace was shrinking. Was this guy going to kill him on the spot?! Chadwick hurriedly tried to say he had never done magic. To correct the obvious mistake. But all that came out was ¡°I have done magic.¡±

    What was happening to him? These weren¡¯t his words. All the same, he knew the words he was saying were true.

    He tried to reach up and remove the necklace, but the man held his arms down while the necklace kept shrinking. Right before it seemed like it would shrink too far, the man took his hands away and stepped back with a sigh. The necklace was now snugly around Chadwick¡¯s neck.

    ¡°He comes to the tower,¡± he said. Much louder this time so the whole town could hear. A wave of whispering and gasps ran through the village adults. The children all just looked puzzled.

    Chadwick had no idea what this meant, but apparently his father did. Because he screamed, ¡°no, not my boy!¡± And started running towards Chadwick.

    The stranger just sighed, stood between Chadwick and his father and braced himself to intercept him. Before Alver reached the stranger, Bothe stepped in front of Alver.

    Chadwick¡¯s father might be quite a bit bigger than Chadwick himself, but he was still a good two feet shorter than the monstrous logger, Bothe.

    There was a loud snap as Chadwicks rod smashed into fragments. It had still been in Alver¡¯s hand and simply fell apart when he ran into the immovable Bothe and bounced off again.

    ¡°You know the rules, Scribe,¡± was all Bothe said. He didn¡¯t seem at all angry with Alver. If everything, he almost seemed sympathetic. An unusual look for the giant man who was so known for his surly attitude.

    Mercer was standing off to one side and at first seemed amused by seeing Chadwick¡¯s prize rod destroyed, but even he seemed put off by seeing how his giant father was treating Chadwick¡¯s father. His face just changed to one of confusion. Something Chadwick could understand at that moment.

    Bothe actually reached out and helped pick up the man he had just flattened, patting him on the shoulder, ¡°you likely don¡¯t have long to say goodbye. Make the best of it instead of us needing to restrain you.¡±

    Alver seemed defeated, but nodded. Straightening himself up and turning to the stranger who had now relaxed back into his bored stance, ¡°how long do I have with my son, sir mage?¡±

    ¡°As much as I don¡¯t like this part of the job, the rules exist for a reason. I¡¯ll be leaving within the hour. This one will not be let out of my sight until then,¡° he motioned his head towards the still seated Chadwick.

    Alver straightened up, ¡°I had a few things I¡¯d like to send with him.¡±

    The stranger nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll need to re-pack everything I just unpacked from my cart. You have until that is finished.¡±

    Alver stepped much more carefully over to Chadwick, the entire village¡¯s eyes on the two of them as he quietly said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry we didn¡¯t warn you about this. I thought we had another year at least before a tester would come all the way out here. They will be taking you to train as a mage. It¡¯s a law of the kingdom, we can¡¯t say no.¡±

    Chadwick was going white, ¡°but, how will I see you and mother?¡±

    Alver just shook his head sadly, ¡°once you are a full mage. Perhaps you will get to do the rounds of testing through the villages. Parents are not allowed at the tower. I¡¯m afraid you might be a man by the time we see you again my son.¡± There were tears in his eyes at the end.

    Chadwick¡¯s mother had now made her way through the crowd and seemed much more stoic than Alver.

    ¡°I¡¯ll need to pack you a warm wardrobe. We only have one bag big enough for you to take. I will take care of this while your father stays with you. Be strong son, the mages are the ones that protect the kingdom. You will be doing your family proud,¡± she said, then turned and marched into their house, on a mission.

    ¡°Your mother deals with things differently,¡± said Chadwick¡¯s father, shaking his head at her back disappearing into the house.

    Chadwick was still slightly in shock, but managed to ask, ¡°what did she mean by protecting the kingdom?¡±

    ¡°Ah, something we rarely see out his far from the Siyene border, is wraiths. Magical creatures that appear and wreak havoc in villages. Then disappear again. The Siyene people summon them. When they go too far, we send mages in to eradicate their shamans. For a time, the wraiths disappear. Eventually more Shamans are born from their people and it starts all over again,¡± answered his father.

    ¡°So, I¡¯ll have to go fight these shamans? But, I can¡¯t beat Mercer in a fight. I can¡¯t beat any of the kids my age¡­,¡± said Chadwick, looking increasingly worried. Hints of tears welling up in his eyes.

    ¡°Ah, I know this much about the tower you are going to. That¡¯s where mages train. You will be taught to use your magic and how to fight, you will be armed with knowledge. Mages need a sharp mind, not muscles,¡± Alver assured him.

    Chadwick felt his panic abating slightly, he knew he was smarter than those his age. Probably even smarter than a lot of the adults in the village. He certainly knew larger words than anyone but his father. If brains were what was required to be a mage, he might just be ok.

    With his father knowing nothing else about the tower or mages that hadn¡¯t already been covered, they started talking about the future. How he could write to them. How often. How to find one of the messengers that could be trusted to get a letter to them.

    Simple, dull logistics kept them both distracted from the inevitable end of the hour they had left.

    In the background all the village boys had been tasked with helping the mage get his things out of the inn and load his cart back up. The mage was overseeing and making sure they packed it to his satisfaction.

    The mage would glance back over occasionally and look at Chadwick, then make the boys unpack everything they had already added and pack it again differently. Chadwick was oblivious to this, but Alver gave the man a look of thanks for his deliberate slowness. Giving them a little more time.

    Chadwick¡¯s mother came marching back out of the house, hair looking slightly frazzled, but holding a large leather pack. She got stopped briefly by Bothe on the way over. Chadwick couldn¡¯t see what was happening past the frame of the giant logger. But after a short moment he stepped away and Cherie stepped up to her son.

    ¡°I packed you an assortment of warmer clothes, some of your tools and scribing equipment and some foods that will travel well,¡± she announced to Chadwick as she walked up.

    She seemed almost like she was unaffected at first, but as she looked down at her son, still sitting on the log. He was looking up at her imploringly to not let his life be uprooted. Her lip started to tremble.

    She placed the pack down and then almost fell onto her knees to hug Chadwick, letting out a small sob. She considered herself a practical woman. Not prone to silly emotional outbursts. Now that her task was complete and she had presented the full pack to her son, that all went out the window.

    Not once did Chadwick¡¯s parents mention anything about him not going. Perhaps running away right now wasn¡¯t possible with the whole village still out to watch. Though a lot of the women seemed to have disappeared. Chadwick wondered if they were organizing an escape? Or, more likely, none of them cared that he was going and they had just gone home to get on with their chores. This wasn¡¯t their problem, none of their children were being taken.

    He made promises about writing, that he would wear warm clothes and wouldn¡¯t let himself get too skinny. If they weren¡¯t feeding him well enough, to be sure to write that so his mother could send him some proper food.

    At one point Alver rushed into his workshop and returned with a quill, sealed ink bottle and enough sheets of paper to write back and forth for years, if they were sparing. He gently stored them in the pack that Cherie had prepared.

    When the cart was finally loaded to the mage¡¯s satisfaction, he stomped over, ¡°I¡¯ve delayed as long as I can. Say your final goodbyes.¡±

    His statement produced a fresh sob from Cherie. The parents stood Chadwick up and brushed him down to make his clothes more presentable.

    ¡°Now, you listen to your new teachers and Mage Sloan. You can¡¯t get a safer travel companion. And what those in the tower teach you could save your life as I understand it. No daydreaming, yes?¡± Alver said to his son.

    Chadwick nodded along and then the mage cleared his throat, obviously ready to go.

    Before the mage could say anything though, the mayor stepped up, ¡°I¡¯m afraid there is just one more short delay sir mage.¡±

    The mage looked annoyed, but then saw the line of women coming out from their nearby houses. Each carrying wrapped packages. Their husbands stepped up to join them and a procession of couples approached the waiting family.

    Some had words of encouragement, but every one of them handed over a wrapped package. Each one smelled delicious. Chadwick was very wrong about the women of the village. Apparently the ink on his hands was not as big a sin as they made it out to be. If the women were giving you food, they approved of you. This was a core belief for Chadwick.

    The mayor looked on approvingly, ¡°we can¡¯t very well send one of our own to fight our battles without at least making sure he is well fed.¡±

    The mage just sighed and waited. Nothing would stop one of the village women if they had decided someone needed food. Theirs being a village that never struggled for supplies, food was something everyone was generous with. It perhaps helped that Chadwick was such a skinny boy and obviously in need of some fattening up.

    One of the husbands had smartly provided another pack so that the packages wrapped in leaves and sometimes brown paper could be neatly stacked into it.

    One of the last couples was Bothe and his wife Clara. One of the tallest, and prettiest, women in the village. She handed over a whole pie with a smile.

    ¡°You may be a scrawny kid, but mages need smarts, not muscles. And who knows, you have a lot of growing to do. So, you get out there and make our village proud. Show those Siyene bastards that they don¡¯t trifle with those from West Arc village,¡± Bothe said directly to Chadwick.

    It was far and away the nicest thing the large man had ever said to Chadwick, or perhaps anyone.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry about the rod kid, but I put what you will need in the pack. Not sure you will get much time for fishing though,¡± added Bothe.

    Chadwick had forgotten about his prize rod in all the confusion, it seemed far less important now. It still stung considering the time he had put into it. He wasn¡¯t sure what Bothe meant about what he would need being in the pack. But he nodded his thanks all the same.

    Bothe and Clara had been the last of the procession of people coming to present Chadwick with food. Alver turned to the crowd, talking loudly enough for the whole village, ¡°West Arc village has done one of its own proud today. Thank you all for ensuring my son gets a proper send-off. He has promised to write and I will be sure to let you know that each of your gifts was put to use.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure he will become a mage that we can be proud of,¡± the mayor added in, also addressing the whole village, ¡°now, let¡¯s help the lad with his gear and get him onto the cart. The good sir mage has been patient enough with our traditions.¡±

    Several of the men collected the packs and then the whole crowd was moving towards the cart. Chadwick and his parents were front and center.

    The mage finished directing the men on stowing Chadwick¡¯s belongings, his entire life now summed up to two large packs. The mage climbed up on the driver''s seat and Alver lifted his son up next to the mage.

    The mage looked down at Chadwick¡¯s parents, ¡°I will make sure he writes.¡±

    The parents both nodded their thanks and then held each other, looking at their son for possibly the last time.

    ¡°Be the best mage you can be, son,¡± said Alver.

    Chadwick nodded, tears once again almost forming, ¡°I will. Goodbye father. Goodbye mother.¡±

    His parents gave him one final hug and then the mage clicked his tongue at the horses in front of the cart and they started a slow walk out of the village.

    The village erupted in noise, some shouting their farewells, others words of encouragement or cries to battle against the Siyene enemies at the border. Some just waved. It wasn¡¯t enough to outweigh the fear of leaving his home, but the response from the village helped ease the worries.

    The cart made it around the bend and the mage sighed. He pulled out a pipe and began filling it. The horses mostly steering themselves to follow the slowly winding road. It was full dark now, but the moon was still bright enough for travel.

    The mage carefully packed his pipe and then fished some strange rocks out of his belt. A noise and a bright spark lit up the sky and then the pipe was lit. Chadwick couldn¡¯t see how this had happened exactly. There were two different colored stones, and then fire. He had seen people use flint and tinder before. But this was much quicker and brighter. It came with none of the swearing that usually seemed to accompany lighting a pipe.

    After a long draw and exhale of smoke, the mage spoke, ¡°I always hate the goodbyes. Never gets easier, even after 20 years of collecting mages.¡±

    Chadwick didn¡¯t know what to say to this, but the mage continued talking, ¡°best get the necessities out of the way. First, I am Mage Sloan. You will address me, and any other mages at the tower as Mage, or Mage Sloan, or their appropriate title, though you would use their name in place of mine. Mage is a title earned by those who have completed certain¡­ milestones.¡±

    ¡°Ok. I mean, yes Mage Sloan,¡± answered Chadwick.

    ¡°Good, you got that one easy enough,¡± said the mage, ¡°the next thing is this. I¡¯m going to explain a simple system of importances. A one through five scale. One being the least important. A five being the most.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard the mayor use something similar once for orders of business during a town meeting, Mage,¡± said Chadwick.

    ¡°Good, that makes this next bit easier. I want you to place each thought you have, or thing that is occurring in the world around you, onto that scale. Something like a thought about breakfast would be a one. But hunger that is becoming a problem for you in being able to continue traveling might be a three. Hunger bad enough that you might collapse, is a five, do you follow me so far?¡± Asked Mage Sloan.

    ¡°Yes, Mage,¡± said Chadwick tentatively.

    ¡°Ok. More examples might be if something was threatening our lives. Or if a bandit was about to take you away. Those would also be a five. What I want from you is to tell me immediately if there is anything of a four or five on that scale. With the scale being focused on anything that would stop you from arriving at the tower, or considerably slow down our journey,¡± finished Mage Sloan.

    Chadwick seemed to consider this for a moment before asking, ¡°so signs of a horse going lame, or a large enough ditch to damage the cart might be a four? But a cliff face giving way while we are on the cart could be a five?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. Others to consider are things like people coming to ¡®rescue¡¯ you from having to go to the tower. If you learn of any attempt to take you away from me, that is a five. With that in mind, is there anything you need to tell me?,¡± asked Mage Sloan.

    ¡°No,¡± Chadwick responded. Oddly he found he didn¡¯t even get a moment to consider. The word just rushed out of him.

    ¡°No words from your parents or other villagers that make you think they would try and sneak you away before you make it to the tower?,¡± the mage asked, looking directly at Chadwick now.

    ¡°No, Mage,¡± said Chadwick. Again, the same sensation of words just rushing out.

    Mage Sloan relaxed back into his seat after that, ¡°good. It¡¯s always inconvenient when I need to deal with that. I don¡¯t want to hang anybody from your village after such a nice display at the end there. Many are scared of those with magic. In other villages you might have been practically chased out with stones.¡±

    Chadwick gulped at the words ¡®hang anybody¡¯, ¡°has that happened before?¡±

    ¡°You see the best and worst of people in my line of work young lad, let¡¯s leave it at that,¡± answered the mage.

    They rode in silence for a while before Chadwick¡¯s curiosity got past the overwhelming feelings from the day¡¯s events, ¡°Mage Sloan, what can you tell me about where we are going? How far do we have to travel? What does it even mean to be a Mage?¡±

    Mage Sloan seemed to settle in and began talking like he was giving a speech he had rehearsed a thousand times, ¡°the trip to the tower is about three weeks. The tower itself is mostly a school. Though I imagine you didn¡¯t have one of those in a village as small as yours.¡±

    Chadwick wasn¡¯t sure what he meant by small, there were over 200 people in the village. How many more could you fit in one place?

    ¡°What it means to be a mage and what I can tell you about the tower are almost the same answer. It is¡­ a bigger building than any you have likely seen. If you took a thousand of the largest building in your village, it would still be larger. All the Mages and students live within the tower. What you will learn is a little different for every mage, but the tower''s purpose is to teach you how to become a mage,¡± the mage said. He was on a roll now but still seemed fairly bored with the whole speech.

    Chadwick just nodded along, wanting to learn everything he could. If his mind was to be his weapon, he needed to get sharpening it.

    ¡°Being a mage is about learning to use your power. The students are simply those who have not learned how to fully use it yet,¡± continued the mage.

    ¡°What do you mean by power?,¡± Chadwick interrupted.

    ¡°The answer is a little different for every mage, you will have an affinity for a certain thing. It might be an element, like stone, light or fire. It could be something harder to quantify, like the future, or emotions,¡± answered the mage. Even this part of his answer still sounding like a rehearsed speech.

    Before Chadwick could answer anything else, the mage reached into one of the large sacks on his belt and pulled out a fist-sized grey rock.

    ¡°I, for example, am a Stone Mage,¡± said the mage then held out his palm flat and the stone floated up into the air.

    Chadwick gasped with amazement and then started moving his head. Trying to spot what was holding up the stone. He had seen a magician once and loved trying to spot how the tricks worked. This one didn¡¯t seem to be a trick as far as he could see.

    The mage had a grin on his face at seeing Chadwick¡¯s reaction, ¡°you won¡¯t find any hidden strings boy. This is real magic.¡±

    Chadwick continued to stare with awe at the stone just casually floating in the air, ¡°will I be able to do that?¡±

    ¡°Something similar no doubt, it depends on what you have an affinity for,¡± the mage turned to look directly at Chadwick, ¡°what did you do with the magic you have already done?¡±

    ¡°I fixed the ink,¡± said Chadwick. He wasn¡¯t even sure where the answer came from. Something was odd with the way he would answer when the mage looked directly at him like that, but he couldn¡¯t put his finger on it and quickly forgot about it.

    ¡°Hmm, never seen an ink mage before, but it isn¡¯t certain that¡¯s what your main affinity is either. Ink is made up of numerous things and you might have been affecting some portion of it. There have also been purely ¡®liquid¡¯ mages before,¡± mused the mage.

    ¡°How will I know what type of mage I am?¡± Asked Chadwick.

    ¡°You won¡¯t earn the title of Mage for a number of years, but the type of magic you have is something we will test for. The dean of students will help you to discover the exact thing. Many already know before they arrive, but usually those are ones with a simple type of magic,¡± answered the mage.

    When he didn¡¯t get any further questions from Chadwick, he looked over and saw that his eyelids were starting to droop.

    ¡°I plan to keeping us moving throughout the night, you should climb into the back and sleep, student Chadwick,¡± the mage said to him.

    Chadwick nodded and yawned, climbing over the back, the frantic night finally catching up with him. He was out and asleep before Mage Sloan fished out a blanket to throw over him.

    Mage Sloan puffed on his pipe and settled in to keep an eye on the night, his senses extended for any interesting stones his magic could detect. He liked to collect a new stone for each new mage he collected.

 Traveling

    As the sun came up the next morning, Chadwick woke up and climbed back on the driver¡¯s bench of the cart. The sun revealed wondrous sights to Chadwick. This was the furthest he had ever been from home. He couldn¡¯t recognize anything.

    It was still the same type of scenery. Fur trees and grass. A road that was really just a worn dirt path. The fact that he couldn¡¯t immediately stretch of road they were on, just by the type of material of nearby types of trees was shocking to him. He knew every field around the village but had rarely gone more than a few miles from the center. It even smelled different.

    He had visited a waterfall with his dad once, which was far enough that they had to spend the night camping. But this was all new and unknown.

    ¡°Good, you are awake. Do you know how to handle cart-horses?¡± Asked the mage.

    ¡°No, but I¡¯ve seen the loggers directing horses often enough to have a rough idea,¡± answered Chadwick with a yawn.

    ¡°Good enough. The horses will just keep following the road. If you see any travelers or animals larger than a fox, wake me. Otherwise, we will reach a large roadside inn at some point. It¡¯s the first building we will see on this road. Should be about 2 hours from here. Wake me when we get there,¡± said the mage and then pulled a large hat out from a slot on the side of the cart, stuck it over his face and was snoring in minutes.

    Chadwick was alone with his thoughts for the first time since this whole thing had started. He didn¡¯t feel like he fully grasped the change to his life yet, it still felt a bit like just taking a trip. The scenery was at least enjoyable in its novelty.

    On one side of the road was the same river that ran past the sawmill at home, which was even wider here, but flowing very slowly. Hundreds of bugs floated over the water and he was pretty sure there would be a good fish population building up here. Since he assumed there was no village nearby. Not a person in sight. Nobody would have depleted them. He was itching to get fishing. But the memory of the ¡®crunch¡¯ as his rod broke was a depressing one.

    The other side of the road was just grass, wildflowers and what might be a deer eating warily at the forest¡¯s edge. It blended in so well with the grey-barked trees nearby, it was hard to be sure.

    It was chilly enough that he pulled his coat tighter and then felt his stomach rumble. In all the excitement of the moment, he had never eaten dinner. He looked up at the mage, he seemed thoroughly asleep. It shouldn¡¯t wake him to see what food the village women had packed for him. If he was quiet about it.

    Some quick investigation had Chadwick eating a fruit pie for breakfast. Washed down with water from a large metal container his mother had added to the outside of his pack of belongings. He still had no idea what she had packed for him and would need to review. But this didn¡¯t seem like the time to try and rummage through it. The mage had obviously stayed up the whole night and would be grumpy if woken.

    The two horses pulling the small cart seemed to have no problem with having walked all night. Though their pace was more of a stately plodding. They looked like sturdy animals ¡ª even more so than the horses the village used for pulling logs. These horses were obviously bred for long days of hard work.

    Chadwick used to daydream about getting to do practical work and be outside. His mind would wander while he scribed. At least once he got good enough that it didn¡¯t need his full attention. Daydreaming resulted in ruined pages in his earlier learning. Now his newest daydreams had no hints of labor or copying tedious tomes. He had a new half-formed dream wafting through his mind. Fighting off shamans in magical battles.

    So far he didn¡¯t really know what magic could do, so the dreams didn¡¯t have a lot of details yet. Fixing ink or making rocks float were his only examples of magic so far. Throwing living fire, or knocking down walls with wind sounded like it might be possible. Could he blind the enemy with ink? That sounded interesting. Somehow though, the concept of being an ink mage just didn¡¯t sound¡­ right. He was sure that wasn¡¯t what he was.

    He had scribed a number of books that described magical experiments done. Or research into different types of magic. It had never really occurred to him that this was information he might need one day and had fairly mindlessly copied it. While he idly held the reins, he tried to recall all those books he had copied in the context of his new knowledge. He wondered if his power might be similar to some of those described. Nothing in those copies called to him though.

    The daydreaming quickly turned into several hours of just mindlessly watching the scenery until a building came into sight. He was intrigued at first to see what they would be going past until he realized that¡¯s where he was supposed to wake Mage Sloan.

    ¡°Mage?¡± Chadwick said quietly.

    The snoring got a little louder, so he reached out to touch the mans arm. When his hand got close there was a loud clacking and the mage snapped awake. He snatched his hat from his head and shot upright.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just you young student,¡± the mage said and then stretched out. Hanging the hat off a hook, ¡°ah, good. This place has nice beds and we will be stopping here until just before dawn tomorrow. We will need to get an early start since we will be wasting the rest of the daylight today. The horses need the break after all they just managed.¡±

    Chadwick was only half listening, he really wanted to ask about the loud clacking noise. It sounded like two stones being cracked together. Was this another example of a mages power? He couldn¡¯t ask though as the mage had taken the reins from him and was busy directing the horses close to the stable so he could unhook them from the cart.

    A fat man with a flour dusted apron and a boy with slightly singed eyebrows, a bit taller than Chadwick, stepped out of the inn¡¯s front door.

    ¡°Ah, I see you found a student this trip sir mage. That explains the odd hour for you to be arriving,¡± said the fat man. Then he turned to the boy lingering at his side, ¡°finish getting the rest of those rolls out of the oven and then take care of the good mage¡¯s horses. The best of care now boy. Do not mess this up.¡±

    The boy scampered back inside. The fat man turned back to the mage, ¡°one or two rooms? And when will you want the cart ready?¡±

    ¡°One room is fine, but bring in a bed for the lad. I¡¯ll want to be on the road at dawn. So, breakfast before then and horses hooked up ready to go as the sun rises would be perfect,¡± answered the mage.

    The man, obviously the innkeeper, nodded along and then asked, ¡°will you be needing any other meals?¡±

    ¡°We will both eat and I will bathe as soon as we are unpacked. Let the lad eat whatever he needs. The tower is paying for him now,¡± answered the mage. Then he turned to Chadwick, ¡°I¡¯ll be sleeping until breakfast tomorrow. Wake me only if you encounter a four or five on the scale we discussed earlier. Don¡¯t go too far from the inn.¡±

    Chadwick nodded his assent, ¡°should I bathe in the river?¡±

    The mage looked him up and down dubiously, ¡°you know how to swim? I don¡¯t want you in any risk while I¡¯m not around.¡±

    Chadwick nodded again, ¡°I bathe in the river at home and everyone in the village learns how to swim. Well, except for Charles Tanner who screams if anyone brings anything larger than a kettle of water near him.¡±

    The mage just waved away his explanation, ¡°fine, just stay away from anything deeper than waist-high.¡±

    The inn turned out to be the same types of log buildings Chadwick was used to and the meal was standard stew, though the bread was exceptionally fresh and warm from the oven. The mage arranged everything to his satisfaction and then told Chadwick not to wake him when he went to bed. Also to not to stay out past dark. There seemed to be a lot of rules in being a mage.

    Suddenly, Chadwick was on his own. He had his packs in the cart, so he could find some fresh clothes. And most of a day to himself before he needed to return to the room.

    Deciding to get bathing and a change of clothes out of the way first, he opened the pack from his mother for the first time. And saw right in the top, neatly packed, his fishing flies and all the metal loops from his broken rod.

    His eyes started to mist up at the reminder of the previous night. He was also surprised again by the thoughtfulness of Bothe. Obviously being the one who had gathered the broken rod and carefully snapped it in just the right places to remove the metal loops.

    There was also a kit of carving tools he didn¡¯t recognize, wrapped in leather and neatly placed with the loops of metal. He had been sent off with everything he needed to make a new rod.

    He put them back for the moment and resolved to find the perfect tree for a new rod. He had no idea what his days would be like once he started at the tower, but he had been fishing for most of his life and he didn¡¯t want to give that up. It was something of home he could bring with him.

    He bathed in the river and attempted to wash his clothes, though soap seemed to be something he didn¡¯t have in his pack. Nevertheless he at least scrubbed them out and hung them on the cart to dry. He figured nobody else was going to take care of his things.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    There didn¡¯t end up being much around, the inn was the only thing in the area. It was surrounded by fenced in gardens and a few roaming livestock. The innkeeper¡¯s family was all kept busy working and had no time for a wandering boy. Even if he was destined to be a mage. They shooed him away just the same.

    So, Chadwick spent his time hunting for the perfect tree for his rod and eventually had to concede that there wasn¡¯t anything that was quite right. At least not within a reasonable distance of the inn. And Mage Sloan had been very clear that he wasn¡¯t to go too far.

    Once the sun started to set he returned to the inn and the innkeeper wordlessly stuck another bowl of the same meaty stew in front of him and otherwise ignored him.

    Chadwick carefully crept into the room assigned to them and drifted off to sleep, the mage¡¯s snoring helping him feel less alone after a whole day of almost no interaction with anyone.

    Before he knew it, he was being awoken by a quiet knock and he was eating and then back on the road.

    The next few days turned into a routine of roadside inns, or sometimes camping by the cart. They passed through several villages, but aside from occasionally staying at an inn in larger villages, they rarely did more than arrive around sunset and then set off again early. Just passing through them quietly.

    Chadwick was put in charge of taking care of the horses and setting up camp when they didn¡¯t have a convenient inn.

    The journeys were mostly quiet, but Mage Sloan would occasionally answer some more of Chadwick¡¯s questions about the tower, or being a mage. Or the Siyene Shamans to the north. Or a million related topics, but he would usually get quickly annoyed with too much talking and just go back to smoking his pipe.

    Chadwick would occasionally see what else was in the food pack he had been given by the village women. The mage mostly left him to it, until he saw Chadwick pull out a large piece of honeycomb.

    ¡°Is that West Arc honeycomb lad?,¡± the mage asked, the most interested Chadwick had ever seen him.

    ¡°Yes Mage,¡± Chadwick answered, ¡°I was going to put some on these crackers and then make tea with it when we stopped tonight.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± said the mage, his eyes still fixed on the honeycomb, ¡°normally the rules are fairly strict about interactions between mages and students, but we aren¡¯t at the tower yet. Would you mind sharing some of that with me?¡±

    Chadwick was surprised by the hesitation in the mages questions. Normally he just gave Chadwick orders and otherwise didn¡¯t talk to him much. He responded, ¡°of course Mage, I have quite a lot of it after all.¡±

    Chadwick fished out the crackers and then the two of them enjoyed an afternoon snack as the horses continued plodding along. The mage smacked his lips several times and had the biggest grin Chadwick had seen on his face since meeting him after they finished and he lit his pipe back up.

    ¡°Thank you lad, bees don¡¯t do well near the tower. Your village''s particular brand of wildflower honey is the best around, normally I wouldn¡¯t have left West Arc without picking some up, but we did leave in rather a hurry,¡± said the mage. He was puffing away on his pipe happily.

    Chadwick saw a chance with the mage¡¯s good mood and the subject already coming up, ¡°why did we have to leave in such a rush, Mage Sloan?¡±

    The mage sighed, ¡°it¡¯s not an easy job lad. I¡¯m taking children away from parents. The younger they are, the worse it is. And you are the youngest I have ever found. Many years before my time, a rule was put in place that testers leave as soon as they can when finding a magic user. This prevents¡­ situations.¡±

    Chadwick decided to press his luck, ¡°what sort of situations mage?¡±

    ¡°Mostly just parents who try to hide children, or run away to a different village, but once you have the necklace on, your life has a new purpose. You can¡¯t just grow old in some village anymore. There are more important things that only you can do. The worst cases though, are where superstition runs deep. Where the village turns on the child,¡± said the mage. Who had lost his grin and seemed deep in thought. His good mood gone for now.

    Chadwick knew the signs of an adult losing patience with questions and decided to leave it at that, he went back to watching the riverside for the perfect tree.

    <hr>

    After a week on the road, Chadwick finally saw what he was looking for. Without even thinking he had jumped off the cart and was running towards a tree by the river.

    The mage jumped up, suddenly alarmed and scanned the forest around him. Chadwick didn¡¯t see the handful of rounded stones floating around the mage.

    The mage started to relax as he watched Chadwick as he scamper up a hill and began sawing at the base of a tree. One of the tools he had found in his pack was a small saw that he had been keeping handy for several days now. The mage¡¯s stones all quietly floated back out of sight, tucked into various nooks and crannies in the cart. A few floated into his pouches.

    The mage sat back and waited for the cart to catch up to the boy, since he had run quite far ahead. He was still sawing as the cart rolled by.

    ¡°Best be finished before I¡¯m out of sight lad,¡± was all the mage said.

    Chadwick quickly sawed through the tree and ran to catch up the cart, jumping up into the seat in breathless excitement.

    ¡°So, going to tell me why you felt it needed to make me think you were running off into the bushes. All for a stick?,¡± asked the mage.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to replace my broken fishing rod,¡± answered Chadwick. Completely oblivious to the reprimand in the mages words. He was already rummaging in his pack to swap the saw for his carving tools.

    The mage seemed to perk up at this, ¡°I suppose some fresh fish would be better than these travel rations. We are a few days from another inn.¡±

    Two days of solid work later, Chadwick had not only replaced his original rod, but exceeded it. Knowing he had nothing else to do, he took his time. He was careful and methodical about smoothing out the wood and getting the perfect flex out of it. Testing each inch as he went.

    The mage even stopped them early that night and just pointed up the creek they had stopped at and said, ¡°I expect fresh fish for dinner tonight to make up for us losing 2 hours of daylight.¡±

    Chadwick grinned and scampered off the cart, forgetting entirely about his usual duties of caring for the horses.

    He lost himself in carefully working his way up the stream and had soon fished out three very well-fed trout. His concentration was broken by a low growl though from the trees on the other side of the creek.

    It wasn¡¯t a familiar sound, but he knew that couldn¡¯t be a good noise. He was backing towards the camp when a large dappled-grey creature slowly stepped out from the tree-line. Still growling quietly and eyes fixed on Chadwick. It was almost as tall as him even though it was on all fours.

    The creature itself looked like a much larger version of one of the village dogs. With a longer snout and much larger teeth, which were currently bared at the small boy.

    Chadwick didn¡¯t dare look away, but he knew he hadn¡¯t gone that far up the stream yet and Mage Sloan was probably within shouting distance.

    The creature tilted its head to one side and looked at the fish Chadwick was still holding. He considered this, perhaps it just wanted his fish?

    He carefully tossed one towards it and it snapped it from the air with a snarl. It dropped it to the side and advanced another step towards Chadwick.

    Chadwick dropped everything and ran towards camp, shouting, ¡°it¡¯s a five!¡±

    He had intended to shout for help, but he supposed announcing a five on the mage¡¯s scale he had insisted on teaching him on the first day amounted to the same thing.

    He could hear the large creature splash through the water behind him and some snarling noises that were definitely getting closer as he rounded a bend in the creek.

    Mage Sloan came running towards him and shouted, ¡°get down boy!¡±

    Chadwick didn¡¯t understand what that would do, but the mage seemed to be his only chance at surviving the snarling creature. So he dove down onto the ground.

    A stone as big as Chadwick¡¯s head came flying out of the mage¡¯s hand, just barely missing him.

    Chadwick heard a sickening thud and then felt something large, hot and slobbery crash into him. He felt himself pinned under the heavy body, struggling to breathe from the weight.

    He was only under there a matter of seconds, but he took a gasping breath when the creature rolled off him and finally let him breathe deeply. The mage dragged him upright and was running his hands down Chadwick¡¯s arms, then spun him around and looked him over.

    The mage was also breathing heavily and finally seemed to relax after seeing that Chadwick appeared unharmed. They both sat and tried to get their breathing under control. Both of them still gasping for air after the sudden attack.

    Chadwick started shaking after his heart rate calmed down. He finally noticed that his clothing was stained by blood from the creature. His skin turned very white and he felt dizzy. He looked at the creature and saw the large pool of blood from where its muzzle had been completely caved in by the large stone now embedded into its skull. His hands started twitching.

    ¡°That¡¯s the result of a real life or death fight, you never get fully over it lad,¡± said the mage who looked weary.

    Chadwick tried to nod, but found himself shaking violently.

    The mage sighed and hauled himself back to his feet. He gathered up Chadwicks fishing gear and the two fish they still had. Then he picked up Chadwick and carried him back down to the camp.

    Chadwick¡¯s shock didn¡¯t really calm down until he started to smell the fish cooking.

    A that point he realized that not only was he almost covered in blood, but that the mage was now stained with it from carrying him.

    ¡°What was that thing Mage Sloan?¡± Chadwick asked quietly.

    ¡°One of the largest wolves I''ve ever seen, I didn¡¯t think we would see them here when the deer herds are still further south. And that assumption almost ended in disaster,¡± answered the mage.

    Chadwick just nodded. He had heard the term wolf before, but they never got them around their village. If the loggers ever caught sight of one they used to put on a whole hunting party to get rid of it. He had always been kept close to home when that happened. Now he understood why his parents didn¡¯t want him out of sight. It occurred to Chadwick that he had seen a deer further back on their travels. It didn¡¯t seem helpful to mention that now. A bit late for warnings.

    ¡°You will want to wash up and put on fresh clothing, use the creek here but don¡¯t go out of sight. From now until we get to the tower you will not be leaving my side,¡± announced the mage.

    Chadwick felt like that would ruin any more chances at fishing or exploring towns, but he could hardly argue after the experience he just had. The safety of an adult suddenly seemed important to him. Even though it had chafed to have parents worrying about him even just a few weeks ago.

    ¡°Was that your stone magic, Mage?¡± Asked Chadwick?

    The mage just nodded, Chadwick was starting to see why mages would be sent to fight. The speed of that stone would kill even a giant man like Bothe with ease.

    The mage was true to his word and barely let Chadwick away from his side for the rest of the trip. It made it all a little tedious, but they still occasionally found a mountain stream where he could fish without being out of sight.

    After three weeks of travel he warned Chadwick to make sure everything he owned was well packed. They would be arriving at the tower.

 The Tower

    The last stretch of road before the tower completely changed Chadwick¡¯s perspective on the world.

    At first, he thought the dark stone tower that stretched impossibly high into the sky would be the most impressive thing he ever saw. But only because he hadn¡¯t seen the town that surrounded it until they got closer.

    The tower itself became visible from miles away, sticking into the horizon like the largest tree he could imagine. As he got closer he could see the town walls. Fifteen feet tall and made of solid granite blocks. They stretched all the way around a town that sprawled out across the countryside.

    He had little to compare it to. The town looked like it covered an area as big as the furthest he had ever explored from his village. A walk to his most distant fishing spot would only be about the same as walking halfway across this town.

    Mostly it was the same type of buildings he was used to seeing. But just infinitely more of them. And mostly packed closer together. Even from this far distance as they trundled along the road, Chadwick was gawking like a baby seeing a kite for the first time. Mage Sloan just chuckled at him and looked as relaxed as ever.

    Their cart was rolling by farmlands that surrounded the town itself. The farms stretched three times further than the town itself did. The scope of the whole thing just made Chadwick sit and stare with wonder as they got closer. Chadwick saw a wonder that topped anything he had seen in his 11 years of life and felt that, even if he travelled for the next 11 years, there was no way he could see something as grand. The horses didn¡¯t seem to care and kept up the same pace they had for 3 week¡¯s straight.

    He was sure he had never seen so much flat land. All of it free of trees. Like some giant had snatched them all as far as the eye could see. There was also an almost overwhelming amount of people in sight already. The road itself had as many travelers on it as his entire village had living in it.

    He got distracted by the mage attempting to straighten up his very travel-stained clothes. Then pulling out a necklace Chadwick had never noticed before from beneath his shirt. It was largely the same as the one Chadwick had on, but larger and with more detailed patterns on it. Chadwick had quickly forgotten he was even wearing one after three weeks of travel.

    It was enough of a surprise to draw his attention away from the city they were slowly approaching, ¡°you also have a necklace Mage?¡±

    The mage just grunted as answer but then elaborated, ¡°you will learn about the benefits of attaining the rank of Mage soon enough. Once we reach the lake in the center, I will be traveling across with you. But then you will be handed over to the Dean. I¡¯d¡­ appreciate it if you didn¡¯t mention the wolf. Obviously you can¡¯t lie if asked directly. But perhaps don¡¯t mention it?¡±

    The mage seemed pensive as he looked askance at Chadwick, waiting on an answer.

    ¡°You couldn¡¯t have known there was a wolf any more than I could have. I decided to go fishing and that could have just as easily been one of the many other times I fished alone at my village. I¡¯m just glad you were there to save me,¡± responded Chadwick, catching on quickly to what the mage was hinting at. He figured the Dean must be something like their town mayor, sometimes you just didn¡¯t tell him things and life was smoother.

    The mage seemed relieved. He decided to show his gratitude by filling in Chadwick on some of the history of the surrounding town.

    Apparently the tower had gone up first on an island in the middle of the lake. Since they had wanted a defensible position and a way to keep students from wandering. Those who managed the boats across to the tower were not to be trifled with, they reported directly to the chief steward of the tower and even teachers had to follow the strict rules they kept.

    The town had gradually built up around the edges of the lakes out of a need to serve the tower. With all the students and teachers present they needed large quantities of food and mundane things like laundry services and seamstresses.

    A carpenter in the local town even built the cart they were currently riding on. And a horse breeder in a surrounding farm provided the stout horses that currently pulled them along.

    There were also large quantities of luxuries that were shipped in. Apparently the wealthier families tended to produce more mages. And while their lives were now the property of the kingdom by ancient law, they didn¡¯t intend to live anything remotely approaching an uncomfortable life while they served.

    Chadwick was fairly sure he could see some of those luxuries coming in as they got closer to the city. There were lines of large covered wagons coming in through the same gate they now approached.

    It didn¡¯t seem to be moving very fast and Chadwick was a little worried they would end up stuck out here for hours. Now that he had seen his soon-to-be home, he was done with the long boring days of travel. Well, boring except for the day the wolf tried to eat him.

    Chadwick¡¯s worry was unfounded though as the mage rode right past the lines of carts and headed for the clear section of the gate that no one was currently using. Some large men with spears stepped out onto the road as they approached, but didn¡¯t seem alarmed.

    The mage just held up his necklace and the guards gave a nod and stepped back out of the way, letting their cart straight past the line and into the city.

    The mage quickly gave up trying to give Chadwick a history lesson as he was now experiencing a city for the first time. Somewhere between terror and awe at the sheer volume of people. His jaw was almost hanging when they went past a flower shop that had wreaths hanging out the front that were as big as he was.

    As big as the town was, they had a clear path down one of the biggest roads Chadwick had ever seen and the horses kept up the same plodding pace they had for weeks. It seemed slow, but they ate up the miles. For Chadwick it seemed far too fast as he gawked at displays of animal bones that seemed to come from colossal fish the size of houses, glass-fronted bookshops with shelves stocked floor to ceiling and just endless smells of tantalizing foods. All of which Mage Sloan ignored, making it clear there would be no stopping.

    The mage pulled around to a large stable once they hit the water line and several attendants came out, treating the mage like an honored guest. They handled all his luggage rapidly as he split off personal items from various supplies. Once he was satisfied that all was in order, the mage directed Chadwick to grab his packs and follow along. The attendants were extremely deferential to the mage, but kept giving Chadwick sideways looks. All obviously curious, but not daring to ask him any questions.

    Past the stables they approached a large building that was mostly out over the water and more deferential attendants there greeted the mage. Asking him if he needed anything while he waited on the barge to return.

    He just waved them off and moved to a bench.

    A man in a much nicer set of cotton clothes than the attendants had been wearing stepped out of an office with glass windows that he could see into the whole boathouse, ¡°that was one of your longer trips Mage Sloan, welcome home.¡±

    ¡°Thank you Gyee, some of the villages on this route are remarkably remote and I only had to return on my very last stop. But as you can see it was worth the effort,¡± said the mage, waving a hand towards Chadwick.

    The man raised an eyebrow, ¡°not a lot of mages come from that far out. Shall we get the formalities out of the way?¡±

    The mage nodded, stood and faced Gyee.

    Gyee pulled out a dark blue rod of some kind, touched it to the necklace Mage Sloan was wearing and asked a question that sounded like he had asked it a thousand times, ¡°do you intend any harm to the tower, or those inside?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± the mage answered immediately, then he turned to Chadwick, ¡°you¡¯re up next lad. Nothing to worry about.¡±

    Chadwick tried to follow suit, standing before the man. With the height difference, Gyee had to lean down to touch the smaller necklace with the rod, ¡°do you intend any harm to the tower or those inside?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± answered Chadwick.

    ¡°Good, can¡¯t see how a brand new student would ever have a different answer when you haven¡¯t even been in the tower yet. But that¡¯s tradition for you,¡± Gyee said, mostly to the room.

    ¡°Ah, the barge is almost here. I collected a few things that might interest you on my trip. Usual place at the end of the week?¡± Mage Sloan asked Gyee.

    Gyee¡¯s eyes lit up, ¡°hope you snagged some of the brandy for me. Been getting a lot harder to get lately.¡±

    ¡°Will have to see at the end of the week won¡¯t we,¡± said Mage Sloan with a smirking grin.

    ¡°Bah, onto the barge with you then,¡± said Gyee. Then he turned to Chadwick, ¡°I doubt I will see you for some time lad, good luck with your studies.¡±

    ¡°Uh, thank you¡­ sir?¡± Answered Chadwick.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Close enough lad, onto the barge with you,¡± said Gyee, shooing him towards a large barge being pulled by chains that had just came into the covered dock with a thump.

    The trip across was fairly calm and Mage Sloan seemed almost cheerful as they floated across. A large chain towing them over, ever closer to the huge stone tower.

    Chadwick supposed that while he had just had to leave his home, the mage was getting to return to his. Perhaps he would consider this home one day too.

    After the barge docked, there was a whirlwind of various attendants. Chadwick was told to sit to one side while the Dean was informed of their arrival. Mage Sloan said his goodbyes and told him he would undoubtedly run into him around the tower. If he ended up with an affinity that required learning from a stone mage he might even be one of his teachers. He also reminded him to write to his parents.

    Chadwick sat while attendants went about their business until a tall man with white hair stepped into the dock-house and his eyes immediately landed on Chadwick and he strode over, ¡°I suspect you are Chadwick.¡±

    Chadwick stood and nodded, ¡°yes Mage.¡± He felt it a fair safe bet that the man was a mage, just from the sharp clothing that marked him as obviously not one of the workers.

    ¡°My, you are rather younger than most of our students. But, not to worry, stature has very little to do with magical ability,¡± said the man.

    Chadwick was still slightly embarrassed as the mention of his size, he supposed a magical school was still just people at the end of the day. Being small was still going to mean being looked down on. In every sense of the word.

    ¡°Well, student, as the Dean I get the honor of helping you discover your affinity. Would you like to find out what type of mage you are?¡± Asked the Dean with a grin.

    The man was obviously older, from the white hairs and beginnings of wrinkles. But he certainly seemed spritely.

    Chadwick immediately answered, ¡°absolutely mage. How do we do that?¡±

    The Dean just smiled and beckoned him to follow.

    They walked out of the boat house and started navigating well-lit stone hallways where Chadwick immediately lost his sense of direction. He was not used to being inside buildings with more than 3 rooms. The frequent windows gave him a view to outside, but he had no real frame of reference to landmarks outside to give him any useful inkling of which way he was facing. It felt like a maze.

    They came to a large hallway lined with doors that were staggered on both sides. There were numbers on all the doors and nobody in sight, except for a lady who was sweeping at the far end.

    The Dean stopped in front of the door labeled 73, ¡°this will be your room for at least the next few years. You can place your bags inside and then we will see the stewardess for your key.¡±

    Chadwick hurriedly complied, eager to learn what his magic would be. The room itself was just a simple bed and dresser, a window facing outside. But the bed did look far larger and more comfortable than what he was used to.

    The stewardess turned out to be a very large woman who insisted on mothering Chadwick, making him eat several cookies and drink a glass of milk. She might have sat him down for a sandwich if the Dean hadn¡¯t cleared his throat and reminded her about the key for Chadwick¡¯s room.

    ¡°Lovely woman, but no kids of her own at home anymore. She will fatten you up until you can¡¯t walk, given half a chance. You can go to her with any questions about your room or meals,¡± said the Dean as they walked up several flights of stairs.

    As they walked the Dean fished a cookie out of his pocket and took a bite out of it while winking at Chadwick. He hadn¡¯t even seen the man steal it when the stewardess had brought out the jar with the cookies.

    They finally entered an office somewhere on the third floor, in a door that appeared identical to every other door in the hallways that all looked the same. Chadwick was convinced he would never leave this place, because he wouldn¡¯t be able to find an exit.

    The Dean''s office turned out to be a desk and then several large tables covered in all matter of random paraphernalia.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get straight into it then,¡± announced the Dean and brought Chadwick over to the first table, asking, ¡°do you know what time it is student Chadwick?¡±

    ¡°No, around lunch perhaps?¡± Responded Chadwick. Attempting to give at least part of an answer. His dad had wanted him to learn, he was going to put his best effort forward if this was to be his new home.

    ¡°Right. Not a time mage then. Easy enough one to check off,¡± said the Dean.

    The next hour involved the Dean taking Chadwick to various objects on the tables and asking him to move them. Or heat them up. Or smooth them out. Or make them explode.

    He asked him to move a stick without touching it. Then, when nothing happened with the stick, the Dean set the stick on fire and placed it on a deep metal dish in front of him. Then asked him to change the fire in whatever way he liked.

    Chadwick, who had grown up in a wooden house in the middle of a forest, had a healthy respect for fires and didn¡¯t like the sight of the metal dish on a wooden table. He changed the fire by taking the cup of water he had failed to affect on an earlier part of the table, and dumping it into the dish. Putting out the blazing stick.

    The Dean just chuckled, ¡°definitely not a fire mage.¡±

    Chadwick felt like a little something was happening during some of the attempts, but nothing visibly showed itself.

    He had obviously gotten some report from Mage Sloan, because he also handed Chadwick an ink bottle and asked if he could fix it. Chadwick did, but the Dean couldn¡¯t discern any difference in it when he held the ink bottle up to his eye and peered into it. Though, he did write with it and thought it might be better than before.

    While trying various activities with brass cubes, glass containers of swamp water, sticks, sand and even a beetle, the Dean would ask him questions that seemed to lead to less physical types of magic.

    Some of the questions were quite odd, like, ¡°how would you quantify love?¡± And some were as simple as, ¡°what is behind that sheet?¡±

    The Dean always explained the purpose of the question after. Apparently the sheet had a pillow that was decorated like a cake behind it. Something his mother had made for him. The question was intended to detect various abilities that would let him know what was there. His guess of ¡°another table?¡± had apparently ruled out him being able to read thoughts, or having an affinity for something like the contents of spaces.

    The Dean¡¯s final question was, ¡°what will I will ask you next?¡± After they had exhausted all the objects on the table they were currently at.

    Chadwick thought his guess of, ¡°where do trees come from,¡± was quite good.

    But, the Dean just shook his head, ¡°well, that rules out predicting the future. Because I was going to ask you if you wanted to stop for lunch.¡±

    Chadwick looked over the table of objects, slightly frustrated at what seemed to be just at his fingertips, but that he couldn¡¯t quite grasp. He was about to ask if they could continue when his stomach gurgled. It had spoken for them and decided it was, in fact, lunch time.

    The Dean laughed and walked back over to the door, motioning Chadwick to follow him.

    He walked them down more stone hallways that all looked the same to Chadwick, taking them back down to the first floor. Chadwick quickly realized they were near the kitchens when he got a whiff of some earthy spices and something sweet. He couldn¡¯t have predicted it was the kitchen by the directions the Dean had been rambling off as they walked, still thoroughly turned around.

    The Dean did pause and point through a set of double doors that led into a giant room full of tables, ¡°that¡¯s where we eat most meals, though we are between sittings right now. So, we will go directly to the kitchen.¡±

    Chadwick stared at the room, there must have been fifty tables in there. The room was big enough that the biggest house he had seen would fit inside it. And he would get to eat there every day. He really hoped the food matched up to the grandeur of the room. Experiencing wonders like this every day would make having to leave home much easier to forget.

    He felt a pang of homesickness and anger at himself. A giant room and the prospect of eating like it was a festival every day and he was already ready to forget about home? As it turned out, when the Dean handed him a roast beef and gravy sandwich the kitchen had put together from leftovers at his request, he really did forget all about home at that moment. It was easily the best sandwich he had ever eaten.

    The head of the kitchen also turned out to be another large lady that easily could have been the sister of the stewardess that had given him the room key and some cookies. And, apparently, she also thought he was too skinny because she brought out slices of pie.

    ¡°Apparently I should eat with you more often, student Chadwick, the ladies are usually very sparing with the treats. I tried to snag one of those pies once and almost lost a finger,¡± the Dean said happily, wiping crumbs from his white mustache.

    Chadwick just made a ¡®slightly too full¡¯ noise as he stood from the table, ¡°are we continuing?¡±

    The Dean seemed to be staring at his fingers, rubbing some crumbs back and forth, ¡°hmm,¡± was all he said.

    Suddenly he stood up, ¡°we shall, and I think I have some ideas of directions we haven¡¯t tested yet, come.¡± The Dean suddenly seemed in a hurry to test out whatever idea he had and rushed Chadwick back to his office.

    He waved Chadwick towards the last table they hadn¡¯t tried and told him to, ¡°continue as they were before with those various elements. Just try to move each one without touching them and see if any respond. I¡¯ll be preparing something.¡±

    Chadwick nodded, slightly confused but set about his task. For another five minutes he experienced the same as before, he would reach out and try to push the object on the table. And sometimes he could feel a little something. A very tiny ball of what looked like animal dung gave a slight shudder.

    He turned to the Dean, excited to tell him something had happened, though not particularly interested in being labeled a dung mage. But, the Dean was already approaching with a tray with a mortar and pestle on it. And Chadwick was very interested to see what he had come up with.

    The Dean placed the tray down in front of him and then began placing little stones and pieces of wood on the try. Getting smaller and smaller. He got down to a piece of sand and then finally he fished a speck of dust out of the mortar and pestle.

    The Dean pointed at the biggest piece on the tray ¡ª which was still smaller than anything from the tables, ¡°I want you to try and launch that across the room.¡±

    Chadwick complied and the small stone gracefully rolled over. He was disappointed, was this all he would ever be able to do? Fix ink and make tiny stones wobble around?

    But, the Dean seemed pleased with the result. He pointed at the next largest item, a little lump of charcoal, ¡°now that one.¡±

    Chadwick complied and the charcoal slid backwards. Going just a little further than the stone.

    The Dean clapped excitedly, ¡°continue down the line until you get to the smallest one.¡±

    Chadwick¡¯s spirits started to lift as he moved through the objects. Each was a different type of object, so it didn¡¯t seem like he had an affinity for any of these particular materials. But, the smaller he went, the further the object moved. Five objects in and he was causing them to leap off the tray.

    The Dean shifted to one side as Chadwick got to the last object, a barely visible speck of dust. Chadwick quickly lost sight of the speck when he willed it to launch across the room. But he was pretty sure he knew where it went because the beaker full of swamp water shattered on the other side of the room.

    ¡°I believe we have our answer young student, you have an affinity for small things!¡± The Dean announced proudly.

    Chadwick groaned internally, he was never going to get a break from being small for his age.

 Weighing of the Soul

    The Dean kept Chadwick by his side for the rest of the day as he took him around to various parts of the tower and introduced him to the mages who would be his teachers.

    Each teacher got an explanation of what the Dean thought Chadwick¡¯s affinity was and some suggestions for how the teacher could implement that into his training. Many of the teachers were for generic things, like learning about the Siyene shamans and the history of the tower. Others had far more specific subjects, like preparing materials for enchanted items.

    One teacher was an older, extremely short lady, who taught reading and writing. This was the only time Chadwick interrupted their discussion ¡ª since they were doing something many adults were prone to do with smaller children, talking about them like they weren¡¯t there ¡ª to point out that he was perfectly capable of both reading and writing already.

    The lady was almost as short as Chadwick but still managed to look down her nose at him, ¡°at your age and from a tiny village? I rather doubt that young student.¡± She then pulled out a large black book from the shelf behind her and placed it open on the desk. She pointed imperiously at the top of a page. ¡°Read.¡±

    Chadwick stared for a moment and the lady started to chuckle, ¡°bit of a difference between scratching numbers on a wall and real reading eh lad?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not that. It¡¯s just I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m the one that scribed this copy. That looks like my hand,¡± answered Chadwick. Then continued, ¡°if you flip to the back cover there should be a little symbol that looks like a C, it was my mark.¡±

    The lady stared at him for a moment, ¡°if you are messing with me boy¡­¡±

    Chadwick proved his point by reading the first line, ¡°the soliloquy by Master Jameson on the nature of elemental spirits is considered flawed because of his base assumptions on the uses of fire.¡± Then Chadwick flipped the book over and opened the back, finding his scribe''s mark. ¡°Ah, I was right, this is one of mine.¡±

    The lady seemed to have finally lost her unpleasant look and now had her jaw hanging open, ¡°never met a student who could pronounce ¡®soliloquy¡¯. Are you Master Scribe Alver¡¯s boy?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard the title Master Scribe, but my father is named Alver,¡± Chadwick answered.

    ¡°Ever since that brat of a boy moved all the way out into the country, I¡¯ve had to send extremely rare books all the way out into the middle of nowhere to get copies. I¡¯ve trusted no one else with my books for 20 years. And you mean to tell me his son was doing the work?¡± Asked the teacher.

    ¡°Ah, I was never supposed to mention that to customers¡­ but I¡¯ve been able to match my father¡¯s hand with a quill since I was four,¡± said Chadwick, looking a little embarrassed. At the same time, suddenly proud that his father was so well known.

    ¡°His first magic was smoothing out ink Elvera,¡± the Dean added quietly.

    The tiny woman shot to her feet, ¡°you must let him work for me! It would be a crime to have him wasting his time on kitchen duties or sweeping.¡±

    The Dean chuckled, ¡°you know that¡¯s up to the council.¡±

    ¡°I taught most of that council how to read, if that self-important bunch of ninnies gets in the way of me having Alver¡¯s boy as an apprentice, I will come upstairs myself and remind them that I can still swing a switch at a bottom just as hard as I could 40 years ago,¡± she said, waving a finger under the Deans nose.

    The Dean actually seemed to take this threat seriously, ¡°you never did lose your aim. The prince of Casperia seemed very put out about the switch marks still being visible on his son¡¯s lazy posterior.¡±

    ¡°His royal bottom had obviously not seen enough spanking as a child, boy had an attitude on him worse than yours when you were a student,¡± she grumbled.

    ¡°I will make sure the council sees reason,¡± the Dean assured her, backing out of the office and taking Chadwick with him.

    ¡°Well, didn¡¯t realize you were quite that literate young lad. That will make things much easier to arrange your schedule,¡± said the Dean as they walked to meet another teacher.

    Finally Chadwick had a piece of paper in hand that had a week¡¯s worth of activities on it. His mornings were for learning with all the other students. Afternoons would be various different magical practice. After dinner was just labeled as ¡°chores¡±.

    ¡°Unless someone has a very pressing reason, your chores will be whatever Elvera needs, each evening for an hour or so. Most students get something practical to keep them from getting lazy, but I suspect you will not be nearly as lax as some of these noblemen¡¯s children,¡± said the Dean.

    ¡°What¡¯s this slot here with nothing at the end of the week?¡± Asked Chadwick.

    ¡°Ah, you get one day off a week to do with as you please, though obviously as a brand new student, you will not be leaving the island yet. The town is forbidden to you until you reach a certain level of control with your powers,¡± answered the Dean.

    They were currently walking the path back down from Elvera¡¯s workspace high up in the tower. It turned out she was also in charge of handling the messages coming in and out of the tower. Those came in right near the top for some not-yet-explained reason. The route ended up being simple enough once the Dean pointed out the pattern the tower followed. There were always stairs up on the north and south sides. The hallways with the classrooms looped around the outside of the tower. And the center was reserved for large rooms. The dining room from the first floor. Then the second and third floor had a combined space in the middle for mock fighting. Chadwick still wasn¡¯t entirely safe from being lost yet, but the Dean seemed well practiced at explaining how to get around in the tower.

    The fourth floor was the most interesting to Chadwick. It was lined with armored dummies. And there was a mass of students in the middle, each lined up with a dummy. Each student was doing something different to their dummy. One was firing rocks at it, another was snapping his fingers and causing fire to erupt all over the metal armor. One appeared to have vines growing out of a nearby plant that was constricting the dummy.

    ¡°Taverish, I have a new one for you,¡± said the Dean.

    A solid muscled man turned from watching his students and walked over. He looked Chadwick up and down, ¡°how on earth did one so young end up here?¡±

    ¡°Sloan found him in one of the villages we only check every seven or eight years, he only just made the minimum of being ten. Just a little short for his age. Would¡¯ve been easier on him if he didn¡¯t find him until the next round. But, rules are rules,¡± said the Dean.

    ¡°Well, size has little to do with magical ability I suppose, how did he score on the slider?¡± Asked Taverish.

    ¡°Going there next actually, just getting him familiar with his classrooms,¡± answered the Dean.

    ¡°Well, let me know the result,¡± said Taverish to the Dean, then turned to Chadwick, ¡°let me explain this room, you will be spending a lot of time here.¡±

    Chadwick followed as Taverish walked him over to the center of the ring of outward facing students. Some of whom were still attacking the dummies, but most were looking backwards to stare at Chadwick.

    ¡°Quick gawking and get back to it you lot!,¡± roared Taverish. The man had a touch of grey in his hair, but he was extremely imposing. Especially while shouting his displeasure.

    The students who had been staring immediately jumped back to what they were doing. The girl who had been controlling the vines had never looked away was just smirking at the reprimand the others had received.

    ¡°Saul, if you can fill the third pipe today. You get a day off and permissions for town. The rest of you lazy lot should keep that in mind, there are rewards to be had for hard work,¡± said Taverish. The first being directed to a large student who was flinging ice. The latter to the room at large.

    The boy flinging the ice looked very pleased at the potential reward and his ice shards sped up.

    Taverish leaned down towards Chadwick and quietly said, ¡°so, the way this works is that the dummies are monitored by those pipes above. The amount of damage you can do to the dummy during the course of the lesson is shown by the pipe filling up. The first pipe is the easiest. The second is ten times as hard as the first. The third is ten times as hard as the second and so on.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Chadwick nodded with interest, ¡°so the student who is close to filling that third pipe is doing almost ten times the amount as the guy over there throwing the fire?¡± He pointed to a boy that was sweating while throwing his hands forward one at a time, little spurts of fire launching out and striking the metal armor of the dummy.

    ¡°Exactly, the dummies also take more damage in certain spots. So this isn¡¯t just about brute strength. It also trains your accuracy and control. Application of force is important. You have to fill four tubes before you are done with my class,¡± said Taverish.

    ¡°He is scheduled with you tomorrow by the way. His affinity should be an interesting one for you,¡± the Dean chimed in.

    ¡°Oh, not another elemental mage then? That¡¯s all you seem to bring me these days,¡±  said Taverish, looking interested.

    ¡°We aren¡¯t entirely certain, but he seems to have an affinity for tiny things,¡± answered the Dean.

    Taverish looked a little puzzled, ¡°hmm that¡¯s going to be tricky with the dummies. How does it work for launching?¡±

    ¡°Well, he shattered a beaker on the far side of my office with a speck of dust I almost couldn¡¯t see,¡± answered the Dean with a grin.

    Taveris raised an eyebrow, ¡°only takes the tiniest of cracks to make glass fall apart. But impressive all the same. Will be a challenge to find the best way to tackle the dummies.¡±

    ¡°I leave that in your skilled hands Taverish, for now I need to do the slider test,¡± said the Dean and beckoned Chadwick to follow as he headed to the door.

    Taverish nodded and seemed lost in thought as they left.

    After they left the large room, Chadwick asked, ¡°you aren¡¯t mad about the beaker, Dean?¡±

    The Dean waved his hand dismissively, ¡°that office has seen far worse lad. A mage¡¯s power grows steadily from the day he first discovers his magic. And sometimes we don¡¯t find them until they are adults. One 18-year-old lad accidentally launched one of those tables clear through the window and out the side of the tower. As young as you are and only just accessing your power means you have a ways to grow yet before you could do enough damage to that office to worry me. A beaker is unimportant.¡±

    Chadwick was pretty sure he had been smoothing out ink for almost as long as he had been writing, meaning his power had been growing much longer than assumed, but he didn¡¯t want to contradict the Dean.

    The last room they visited on the tour was next to an enormous library, the only thing in the room was a large glass ball in front of an elaborate brass contraption.

    ¡°Alright lad, you just put your hand on the glass ball and keep it there while I adjust these dials,¡± said the Dean.

    Chadwick complied and sat patiently while the Dean pulled out a large set of brass weights and sorted through them muttering to himself, ¡°we can start with two of the smalls and always dial back I suppose.¡±

    The Dean placed two of the weights on a platform and then pulled a large lever. An indicator arrow flew up a large rod in the center and clanged at the top.

    The noise was so loud that Chadwick winced and asked, ¡°did I do something wrong Dean?¡±

    The Dean was staring at the dial and then glanced at the weights on the platform to one side, ¡°no lad, that was my fault for making assumptions. How early did you say you had first smoothed out ink?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone ever asked. And I honestly don¡¯t remember Dean, I was scribing since before I could walk. So somewhere in that time,¡± answered Chadwick.

    The Dean raised an eyebrow, ¡°very well then. I suppose I need some more weight.¡±

    Chadwick didn¡¯t understand what that meant, but the Dean pulled the lever back and the indicator arrow fell back to the bottom. He then fished out another tray of brass pieces and loaded up six much bigger ones onto the platform and then hit the switch again.

    The arrow clanged to the top of the dial again, but didn¡¯t make quite as much noise when it struck.

    The Dean just muttered and pulled the dial back again and started to load on more weights. He pulled the lever once more and the arrow once more hit the top, but it did so with a whisper quiet clink.

    The Dean stared at the dial while adding a few more small weights to the platform. As soon as the arrow had lowered itself from the top by an inch or so, the weights seeming to balance the arrow like a scale, he stopped adding and stared at the dial.

    The Dean pulled a card from his pocket and noted some numbers on it, muttering to himself.

    Chadwick was still waiting patiently with his hand on the orb, ¡°is this something like a scale for measuring grain, Dean?¡±

    ¡°A little more advanced, but a very similar idea lad. It measures the weight of your magical ability on the world around you, how hard you press down on the very fabric of the univsere¡± answered the Dean. Still staring at the weights on the platform. He then turned to Chadwick, ¡°you can take your hand off the orb now lad.¡±

    Chadwick did so and the arrow that had been balancing right near the top suddenly dropped with a clang. He had no idea what fabric the Dean had been talking about. There was none nearby. Perhaps it was hidden in the machine?

    The Dean stared at the arrow for a moment and then sighed, ¡°well, it¡¯s safe to say you passed lad. Though I wouldn¡¯t mention this to any of the other students.¡± The Dean paused for a moment, ¡°in fact, no teachers but Taverish, since he will need to know. We¡¯ll have to arrange something for the six-monthly¡­,¡± he trailed off.

    Chadwick was puzzled, ¡°I¡¯m not sure I followed all of that, Dean.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right. Most students would need to come get tested every six months or so. Or, more often once they have passed their other requirements for taking a book. But, you are already well past the minimum needed¡­,¡± the Dean seemed to trail off.

    None of this had particularly cleared up Chadwick¡¯s confusion. But he decided to just wait patiently for the Dean to collect his thoughts.

    ¡°Right. Here¡¯s what we will do. If any teacher asks about the slider test, you will say you are at three small weights. That should be a good balance. Also, if another teacher tries to bring you here, tell them that the Dean wanted to personally administer your six-month tests, out of interest in your unique affinity,¡± said the Dean. Then looked very serious as he added, ¡°never let anyone but myself or Taverish test you on the slider here.¡±

    ¡°I think I understand what the weights indicate, but why do I need to lie, Dean?¡± Asked Chadwick.

    ¡°Not lying as such lad, since your magic level is technically at least that level. Teachers will ask ¡®how high¡¯ you have reached, saying you have reached three small weights is perfectly accurate. You did reach that, and that is how many I had to add to balance it after the large weights,¡± said the Dean. His voice sounded calm enough, but there was an undercurrent of almost panic to it.

    Chadwick could feel the worry and wasn¡¯t entirely sure where the issue lay in teachers knowing he scored higher on this device than expected, but the Dean seemed to be a genuinely nice individual so far, so he agreed, ¡°ok Dean. I will say I¡¯ve reached three small weights. By the way, what did you mean by taking a book?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. There is a list of requirements you must complete. But, once you qualify, there is a sort of dedicated training to put the final polish on your mastery of your affinity. It is the final step to earning the title of Mage. The training takes place within enchanted books,¡± answered the Dean, seeming relieved that Chadwick had agreed to fudge the truth about the weights and was happy to move on to something else.

    The Dean packed away the weights while Chadwick absorbed this new information.

    ¡°How does something take place in a book, Dean?¡± Asked Chadwick.

    ¡°Ah, I did say enchanted for a reason. You will get transported to a sort of fake world within the book. Almost no time will pass here, but you could be inside the book for days, weeks, even months in some rare cases. The book itself will contain everything you need to master your affinity. But that¡¯s something for much later, you have many years of classes ahead of you before you meet the requirements of a book,¡± answered the Dean.

    They went back down to the room with Taverish.

    The Dean stepped into the classroom, ¡°step outside with me for a moment, Taverish.¡±

    He quickly dragged the now slightly alarmed Taverish into an empty classroom that was on the opposite side of the hallway.

    ¡°I need your word that what I say next stays secret between us, to the limit that you can,¡± said the Dean seriously.

    ¡°We have been friends since we were teenagers, you can say what you need John,¡± answered Taverish.

    Chadwick hadn¡¯t heard the Dean¡¯s name before then, but he supposed he would never use it. Not something we would likely need. He just waited while they talked, still not sure what was so serious about the results of the slider test. Adults did seem to obsess over unusual things sometimes. This just felt a bit more serious.

    ¡°Even from the headmaster, Taverish,¡± said the Dean.

    Taverish raised an eyebrow, ¡°I¡¯ll do my best. Tell me what has you in such a tizzy.¡±

    ¡°Eight large weights and three small,¡± said the Dean flatly.

    Taverish quickly looked around to double-check no one was in hearing distance, ¡°that¡¯s ridiculous John, he¡¯s only ten. Are you sure you did it right?¡±

    ¡°Please, Taverish. I administer your annual tests personally. I know that machine better than anyone,¡± said the Dean.

    Taverish looked scared, but thoughtful, ¡°you have prepared the boy to answer questions I assume?¡±

    The Dean nodded, ¡°he will answer that he reached three weights. I just need your guidance on how we handle the dummy room. It¡¯s risky for him to do it with other students present. And having him train with only you personally would raise too many questions.¡±

    Taverish pondered this for a moment, ¡°easy enough. I will rig one dummy to output the expected results. Then I can test him for real on his day off. It will be believable enough to claim he needs the extra training, since he is so young and others will believe him to be at three weights. I¡¯ll set the rigged dummy a bit under the expected, make it look like he really needs the tutoring.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s good. If appears to have a slow start and is not moving quickly enough, he will get overlooked as a regular underachiever. Should be an easy sell for a boy from his village being behind the curve,¡± mused the Dean.

    ¡°What is your plan long-term?,¡± asked Taverish quietly.

    The Dean sighed, ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, but this will keep the lad safe for a few years at least.¡±

 Classes

    Over the next month, Chadwick mostly forgot about the seemingly unusual results of the slider. A few teachers had shown curiosity about his young age and unique affinity at first, but more and more students were filtering in from around the countryside and he was quickly forgotten about.

    It did seem like the students closest to earning the rank of mage got the most attention from the teachers ¡ª even from the headmaster himself, who would look in on classes with those students. Those who showed greater potential than Chadwick¡¯s falsely reported number of weights got much more attention to their education, just a bit less than those about to graduate. Those with higher weights were under the most pressure to complete their schooling requirements. Those already close to finishing their schooling requirements were also rushed, but less so if their weights were low.

    A teenager, who was apparently at ten small weights when he arrived, was always at the front of classes and the teachers would always call on him for various demonstrations.

    Chadwick was slightly annoyed at being mostly ignored by the teachers once they heard that he was at three small weights. He wished he could tell them the real number, but the Dean and Taverish really did seem worried about something. Enough that Chadwick just kept his mouth shut and deliberately didn¡¯t draw any attention to himself.

    To be fair to the teachers, he did seem to struggle with some activities that other students found easy. The class he was currently in was about reshaping. It was only taken by those with an affinity for some kind of physical object. For most this was a simple material found in nature. Though the ten-weight boy apparently had a metal affinity and was currently at the front of the class, turning an iron ingot into a long spear.

    The boy had worked up a sheen of sweat by the time he was done and the teacher was applauding when he finished.

    ¡°As you can see, even for one as magically gifted as Theodore here, changing the shape of your preferred material is very difficult to do. Bertram¡¯s theory states that the further from a natural activity you are trying to achieve, the more difficult it becomes,¡± said the teacher.

    Theodore sat back down and the teacher continued the lecture, ¡°the act of reshaping is fairly intuitive, but the decisions you make will effect how much magic you use. A wood mage, for example, is better off growing something in a natural shape of a branch than trying to force the wood into something smooth and polished like this spear here.¡±

    For Chadwick, it didn¡¯t seem to matter what different approaches he tried, or what material he was trying it on, reshaping was just plain hard for him to achieve anything larger than a thimble¡¯s worth of change. He was currently reshaping the lump of brass on his desk into the shape of a mouse. But it felt like trying to move an entire river just to smooth out a corner.

    ¡°Like anything,¡± the teacher continued, ¡°the more you practice, the easier it becomes. Both because you will be closer to your affinity and because you will be naturally increasing your pool of magic.¡±

    She gestured around the room, ¡°even those struggling now are simply starting from further behind. You will all continue to grow in magical talent and it has something of an exponential curve. Can anyone tell me what that last bit means?¡±

    Most of the class seemed a little lost, so Chadwick tentatively put his hand up.

    The teacher looked at him in surprise, he was far and away the youngest in the class and a good foot shorter than anyone else. He had almost never spoken in her class and she mostly ignored him, knowing he had years of growing before he would be ready to be a mage. Even if Chadwick chafed at being ignored, he knew why she did it. Or at least, suspected based on what he had observed.

    The teacher had heard some interesting things from Elvera about Chadwick¡¯s literacy levels, perhaps he really did understand the question. The other students likely had no idea what ¡®exponential¡¯ meant. Certainly no one was putting their hand up. So, she gestured to him to answer.

    ¡°It means that the rate of growth continues to be higher and higher. The more magical ability you have, the faster it will grow,¡± answered Chadwick quietly.

    Some snickering came from a table near the back with Chadwick that had three students gathered around it. The two teenage boys and one girl mostly spent the classes whispering amongst themselves instead of doing any reshaping.

    The rude students must have been some sort of normal situation as the teacher simply ignored them and nodded approvingly at Chadwick, ¡°quite right young student. I¡¯m impressed.¡± She then turned back to the class, ¡°so, as both a factor of time and amount of regular exercising of your magical muscles, your ability to use your magic will grow. But that is no excuse for simply using raw power to get past problems. In a fight between those of equal power, the one who can make smarter decisions about his use of magic will win.¡±

    A distant gong sounded and the students began getting up from their desks, the teacher waved Chadwick over before he could duck out of the class though, ¡°tell me young Chadwick, you obviously have the brains for the academic side of being a student. But what is holding you back with reshaping?¡±

    ¡°I suspect my affinity is very much not suited to the type of method we normally do, Mage,¡± answered Chadwick.

    ¡°How so?¡± She asked.

    Chadwick was already fairly certain she knew the answer, but she was looking for something, ¡°for the majority, simply increasing the size of the requirements is a good way to test their abilities. If you ask them to make something larger, they either need a bigger magical reservoir to deal with that, or to more smartly apply their reshaping. So, your method will nudge them towards increasing both those things.¡±

    The teacher seemed even more impressed than when he knew about exponential curves, but she just motioned him to continue the thought.

    ¡°My affinity appears to be focused on size. The smaller something is, the more control I have over it. There is no natural state that I can identify that helps make reshaping easier. Effectively, no ¡®skill¡¯ I can work on to make it easier. Aside from the obvious of working with smaller and smaller portions of something. But, that goes against your method for testing us,¡± Chadwick responded.

    She seemed thoughtful, ¡°and how would you propose I handle that?¡±

    ¡°Well, I could either skip the class entirely, as those with non-physical affinities do. But I suspect the better answer is that I focus in the opposite direction of the rest of the class. Instead of trying to make larger and larger changes. I focus on control. Trying to affect smaller and smaller parts of a material,¡± responded Chadwick.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ remarkably insightful. It seems Elvera was even underselling you. I owe her a drink,¡± she said, ¡°very well. I still won¡¯t have a lot of time for you during the class since I have several who are close to achieving the minimum to take their book and the Chief Mage wants me to focus on them. I want you to spend our classes doing as you just discussed. Provided you are not slacking off, I will leave you to it. If you have any other thoughts on how to improve your training, bring them to me at the end of a class and we will discuss them.¡±

    When Chadwick stepped out of the classroom, the three rude students were whispering at the end of the hallway and all went silent when he stepped out. The girl approached with a smile, ¡°do you have reading classes next?¡±

    Chadwick saw no reason not to answer the question, ¡°no, conditional magic. Why?¡±

    ¡°We were going to walk you there if you had the same reading class as us. Oh well. Have a good day!¡± she smiled brightly at Chadwick and sped back to the two waiting boys.

    Something about it bothered Chadwick. They continued whispering as soon as she rejoined them. And not once did the boys smile or look remotely happy. Yet the girl had a giant smile that dropped off when she no longer thought Chadwick was looking. His best guess was something to do with Chadwick not having to do the same chores as them and not having to do the reading classes. Both those seemed to bother the older students.

    Chadwick just shrugged at the odd interaction and carried on.

    He saw the same group of students several more times over the next few weeks, even though he only shared the one reshaping class with him. Lots of random occasions where he would step out of a classroom and one of them was nearby. Nothing seemed to be coming from it and they never once talked to him again. But that was much the same as the other students so it was quickly forgotten about.

    After Chadwick¡¯s discussions with the teacher, reshaping class actually became near the top of his list of favorite classes. By focusing his efforts on trying to achieve the smallest level of alteration he could. He actually ended up able to effect much larger changes than before. Visualization became his main focus as he needed to be able to picture small amounts of something in order to get greater control. It was slightly counter-intuitive, where focusing on smaller and smaller parts of the material actually resulted in greater overall changes to the material.

    His favorite class by far was on conditional magic. The teacher was almost insanely bushy and stalked about his classroom with a cane. He insisted on going by Sal, the only teacher to insist they not use the formal Mage title. He was prone to jab students who failed to listen, but he never once had to do that with Chadwick. Somehow, the subject called to Chadwick.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The basic premise was tying magic to predetermined conditions and giving them power in advance. Then, that magic could be triggered at a later date and not use up anything from the mage¡¯s current reservoir.

    The limits appeared to be how good someone was at thinking through all the possible conditions and how best to trigger them. Then finally how good their visualization and concentration was, as you had to set up all the conditionals you wanted at once. If you needed to make a change, you had to re-do them all again. If all those things came together and you had enough magical weight to create what you wanted, you could make interesting and potentially powerful items.

    For most students, they went with simple things like a list of commands that would fire off more launched projectiles. Giving them some extra ability to launch magic, beyond what their current reservoir would support. The teacher called those who settled for basic commands idiots and refused to have them in his classroom once they achieved their bare minimum goal and could be considered done for the purposes of graduation.

    During his first lesson, Chadwick remembered the loud clacking noise from Mage Sloan the day he had tried to wake him up by touching his arm when they travelled on the cart. He now realized that had been a very basic conditional magic that triggered from someone touching him while he was asleep.

    An effective alarm to prevent getting robbed, but hardly very imaginative. Though stone mages were not known for their creativity. They usually preferred solving problems with large walls. Or very big, fast-moving rocks. To be fair to stone mages, many problems of battle could be solved with large enough walls and big enough rocks applied at speed. Why change something that worked?

    Chadwick didn¡¯t have many interesting things that he had found he could do yet with his magic. So, the results of triggering a piece of conditional magic were often lackluster for him. But his ability to create multiple, complex bits of logic were his pride and joy.

    Once the teacher had weeded out those who just wanted to learn how to make extra fireballs by shouting ¡°fireball one¡± and ¡°fireball two¡± he got down to some serious theorizing with his students.

    He would pose a complicated problem and then see if they could create something to handle it. He didn¡¯t just want the theory of it though, he expected you to build it.

    He had a simple series of devices that would light up, or buzz, when triggered. Depending on what he wanted, he would hand the applicable ones out to students and then have them tie their conditional magic to them. This was apparently also the basis for enchanted items.

    At the end of each lesson, he would test those who thought they had achieved the result.

    Today¡¯s one was a scenario of creating an alarm system and locks for a warehouse. The parameters were that there were three people who were allowed access to the warehouse. Each had a key to the warehouse, but it would take at least two of them to open the vault inside the warehouse. During their regular duties, a single one of them at a time was allowed inside.

    When one was inside, another couldn¡¯t come in without setting off the alarm. The end result being that it only took two keys to open the vault, but if they did so without three of them present, the alarm would go off when one of them went into the vault. This would mean that if one of the three lost his key, or died. The other two could still open the vault, but not enter it without alerting the owners.

    Chadwick was examining the problem and sketching out the possible issues with it, once he was certain he had it. He constructed the logic in his mind and tied the various portions to the little disks on his desk that represented the three workers, the three keys, the front door, the vault door and the little light that represented the alarm going off.

    The difficulty of this one was not just in the logic of it all, but how many moving parts existed. It required a lot of visualization to have all those in his mind and create it fully before tying it off.

    Three desks over from Chadwick, one girl said she was complete and the teacher stalked over to test it. After asking the student a few questions he began moving various warehouse workers with their keys and watching the little alarm disk go off when appropriate. He was nodding his approval as he went.

    Chadwick mimicked everything that was happening so he could see if his worked the same way.

    It all seemed to match up right up into the teacher suddenly asked the student, ¡°so, what happens if one of the warehouse workers steals the other two keys?¡±

    She was sweating as the instructor moved two of the warehouse workers to one side and stuck all three ¡®key¡¯ tokens on one warehouse worker and the entire class watched as he slid that worker all the way up to the vault door. Which neatly unlocked, as shown by the little color change on the vault icon.

    The alarm disc stayed unlit as the worker entered the vault.

    ¡°I encourage finding simple solutions to problems. Shortcuts are not the same thing,¡± the teacher announced to the classroom.

    Chadwick tried the same thing with his, knowing his would work correctly. The vault icon remained locked and the alarm disc went off. He was smiling down proudly at his work when he was brought out of his daydream by a barking laugh.

    ¡°Ha, the young lad appears to have done what the rest of you apparently couldn¡¯t,¡± the teacher said loudly.

    Chadwick flushed red with embarrassment with the whole class suddenly staring at him. The girl who had just failed was glaring at him.

    ¡°So, how did you solve it? Added a conditional for stolen keys?¡± Asked the teacher, leaning down to stare at him, seemingly uncaring about how uncomfortable he was making Chadwick. ¡°Well, come on boy, the gong is about to go off.¡±

    Since it was obvious the teacher wasn¡¯t going to let him wait for the rest of the students to leave to answer, he calmed himself with a deep breath, ¡°no, I just included the warehouse workers and the keys completely separately. The condition was based on the worker and the key being present, not one or the other. Each key is locked to a specific individual.¡±

    The girl who had been glaring at him now just looked surprised.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s thorough lad. That¡¯s quite some visualization,¡± the teacher said. Now looking at him with a bit more consideration.

    The gong for the end of class went off and the teacher stood, ¡°anyone who plans to stay in this class better have mastered this one by next week.¡±

    The class groaned, Chadwick¡¯s display mostly forgotten now that they were faced with the prospect of using their free time to try and visualize the logic.

    The teacher leaned down to Chadwick and quietly said, ¡°I¡¯ll be giving you harder ones lad. If you can handle eight discs tied to conditionals already, it¡¯s time to stretch those mental muscles.¡±

    Chadwick gulped, the threat of harder work didn¡¯t seem to have come with the same threat of being ejected from the class if he couldn¡¯t achieve it. But it didn¡¯t sound promising.

    The following week, Chadwick was arriving to his conditional class early and walked into the middle of an argument between the Dean and Sal, the conditional magic teacher.

    ¡°He¡¯s got the potential to replace me you dunderhead, why in all that is holy is he wasting his day off with that meathead Taverish?¡± Sal demanded, waving his arms at the Dean.

    The Dean just sighed, about to respond when he saw Chadwick come in, ¡°speaking of young Chadwick,¡± he motioned him over, ¡°he is spending time trying to catch up on his launching because his affinity is poorly suited to it. Surely you understand, Sal?¡±

    Sal harrumphed, ¡°I still say his time would be better spent with me. We need someone else around here who can make enchantments. Or your pesky blue rod supply will eventually run out.¡±

    The Dean shook his head, ¡°understandable, but until Taverish says the boy is likely to earn two pipes within a year. I can¡¯t pull him away from that. I assume he would get a passing grade from you well before then?¡±

    Sal glared at him, caught in the logic, ¡°just because I would give him a passing grade required for a book doesn¡¯t make him ready for the world outside.¡±

    ¡°Of course not, and I promise you that the moment Taverish feels that Chadwick has caught up to where he needs to be, you will be at the top of the list. Though perhaps Chadwick will want his days off to himself by then,¡± responded the Dean.

    The door opened and several more students came in, pausing at the sight of the Dean.

    The Dean waved them in and then turned back to Sal, ¡°you have my word. Best make this a class that Chadwick will want to spend his free time on when he has the choice, hmm?¡±

    Sal glared at him and then turned to his students, ¡°I hope you lot have mastered the warehouse.¡± He turned to Chadwick, ¡°here, stick the required pieces on everyone¡¯s desks while we wait to see who was brave enough to turn up will you?¡±

    Chadwick nodded and took the crate from the professor. On top of it was a bag with a note with his name on it. Puzzled, he put the bag on his own desk and then proceeded to divvy up the little discs used for the vault, alarm and warehouse workers and keys.

    The gong had sounded as Chadwick sat at his desk. He looked around and noted that there were three less students than the day before. Apparently some decided to take Sal¡¯s threat seriously and decided to simply not show up.

    No other class in the tower allowed students to quit of their own volition. But, apparently, Sal liked it this way.

    Chadwick read the note and saw that he had been handed 12 discs and a puzzle involving sending messages across long distances. He jumped straight into it and planned out his logic on paper before attempting to create the needed visualization.

    It took him the entire lesson to get all the pieces together in his mind and build the conditional magic.

    Sal stalked his way around the classroom testing each student¡¯s warehouse logic, the occasional correction being handed out. Though, Chadwick noted that even those that hadn¡¯t fully worked it out didn¡¯t seem to be getting ejected from the classroom. It seemed Sal was more interested in scaring away those who didn¡¯t want to try, not so much those that wanted to do it but just needed a little nudge in the right direction.

    When Sal got to Chadwick¡¯s desk he stared intently at the pieces on his desk, ¡°so, lad. Think you got this one down?¡±

    Chadwick was currently red in the face and sweating profusely from the effort it had taken him to get all the parts locked into his mind and locking it into the conditional magic. 12 parts ended up being almost twice as hard as the 8 he had done the previous week.

    ¡°Almost, I couldn¡¯t seem to add in the logic for what happens when a messenger decides to skip a tower. I got all twelve pieces in, but it falls apart there,¡± answered Chadwick.

    Sal nodded, ¡°the logic falls apart further if multiple messenger towers do the same. The king got awfully mad at me when I had to redo that whole section. Since he had to send back every messenger stone so I could fix them all at once.¡±

    Chadwick stared at him, ¡°you mean, this one was a real scenario?¡±

    Sal looked serious for a moment, ¡°oh, they¡¯re all real, young lad. That¡¯s why I always know exactly what bits get overlooked. Real life experience. You did better than I did on that warehouse vault by the way. Nobody lost a very expensive shipment of brandy in your example.¡±

    Sal moved on and went back to examining the warehouse puzzles being presented by the other students.

    Chadwick looked down at his 12 discs and the logic puzzle presented by the messenger system. Suddenly it wasn¡¯t just a game if it didn¡¯t work as expected. Communications breaking down over hundreds of miles was a little more dramatic than them not working over the length of the table in front of him.

 Deciphering Messages

    Taverish¡¯s two classes were very different for Chadwick. During the regular daytime classes with the other students, he had a specific target dummy assigned to him. In that respect he wasn¡¯t unique. Other students had to have special ones that tested their specific affinities.

    Chadwick¡¯s dummy was frankly boring. No matter what he did to it, it would climb by just the same amount. It had been adjusted especially for him to give an exact amount from each attack, with a maximum per hour. As long as he threw something at it, the first pipe would climb. His directions were to mostly fill the first pipe. In about a month, Taverish planned to adjust it to show some progress in the second pipe.

    His fake dummy was deliberately set to make him look like a below-average student. It caused him some embarrassment as other students would snicker at his slow progress.

    It turned out that it was not just teachers who were inclined to ignore below average students. The students themselves mostly just ignored him too. Some because he was a kid and they were mostly full-grown adults at this point. Many of them were from wealthy families. But many others because he was seemingly behind the curve. The students tended to be in groups based on their relative levels of progress. Those who were close to finishing. Those with 6 months or so left group. And those with a few years.

    Then there was Chadwick, on paper he looked like he would be living in the tower for at least five years. Nobody wanted to risk becoming friends when they themselves would be a mage well before him. Students and mages weren¡¯t friends. That was made very clear. Any hint of familiarity or fraternizing was heavily punished. Nobody even dared call a teacher by anything but their title, except in the case of Sal. Who appeared to have the ability to do whatever he wanted within his classroom.

    The only exception to Chadwick being ignored by the other students was the odd trio that he kept seeing in the halls and in reshaping. Judging from the outfits, one of the boys was a noble¡¯s kid. The other two never left his side. Being largely ignored by the older kids was fine with Chadwick, it had been the same in the village where only kids played with other kids. And Chadwick was undoubtedly the youngest student there.

    For the main classes with dummies, Chadwick was told to work on precision and control. Firing the smallest particles he could, while trying to keep the speed as low as possible and using as many different types of materials as he could gather particles from. He sometimes brought his own materials in, but often just stole a few particles from around the room. As he got better, a piece of wood the size of a grain of rice was sufficient to keep him going the whole lesson.

    Since it didn¡¯t make any difference to his dummy how hard he hit it, the pipe would climb at the same rate. It was his chance to learn fine control. That way at least his fake lesson wasn¡¯t a complete waste of time.

    During his one-on-one classes with Taverish, he had far more fun. He had a different dummy set up in Taverish¡¯s personal workshop. This one had ten pipes above it.

    His task was to apply the fine control he had been learning during the week, but to now give the single particles as much speed as he could. After a month he could fill the first pipe in just a few minutes.

    The armor on the dummy was also getting small smoking holes in it where his particles struck. Which was good, because Taverish couldn¡¯t actually see the particles themselves. So it let him see where Chadwick¡¯s attacks were landing.

    He was already close to filling the third pipe within the hour time frame given for a normal class. Increasing the speed of the particles was getting harder. But the smaller he made them, the more he could affect them.

    Taverish was mostly disdainful of him during the regular classes ¡ª all a part of the ruse ¡ª but gave Chadwick harder and harder tasks and seemed genuinely thrilled at their progress during their private lessons. He could add rotation to the particles, he could launch multiples at once. He could even cause them to launch from points external to himself. Though the more steep the angle, the harder it was. They were even working on a combination of launching and reshaping where Chadwick would rip particles out of the dummy to weaken points, then launch those same particles back through the separate pieces of the dummy off completely.

    Knowing he was actually making very good progress made Chadwick not mind at all that his regular launching classes were an exercise in boredom and mild embarrassment.

    Another thing that seemed to alienate Chadwick from the other students was his chore in the evening. Many of them came back to their rooms smelling of latrines, or covered in kitchen grease. But Chadwick just had ink on his hands.

    Elvera currently had him copying several books that were close to falling apart, she very closely watched his work at first. But, after seeing the first finished page she just gave an amused laugh and continued with her own work.

    One night she told him he could soon be learning an important tower secret. Once he finished the backlog of books she had waiting. The secret was the code used for messages to and from the tower.

    A stone in her workshop would display an encoded message. She would sit and rapidly scribe out a message. Depending on who the message was for, she would then send Chadwick running to deliver it.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    One such message was the first time Chadwick ever met the head of the tower.

    He knocked on a large wooden door and was surprised when it was opened by the Dean.

    ¡°Oh, young Chadwick. What are you doing here?¡± Asked the Dean.

    ¡°Message for the Chief Mage, Dean,¡± said Chadwick, holding out the sealed piece of paper.

    ¡°Ah, I¡¯ve been waiting on that, send him in, Dean,¡± said a smooth voice.

    The Dean stepped aside and ushered Chadwick in.

    The Chief Mage turned out to be even older than the Dean. But instead of the long stark white hair of the Dean, he was mostly bald. Just wisps of darker grey hair sticking out.

    He looked close to death, extremely skinny and with dark bags under his eyes. The very image of a man who should be retired.

    His voice however did not sound like an old man as he spoke, ¡°so, our youngest student in quite a while. How is the tower treating you young lad?¡±

    ¡°Quite well Chief Mage, I think the food here is the best I¡¯ve eaten in my life,¡± answered Chadwick.

    The Chief Mage gave a long laugh, ¡°it¡¯s been a long time since I was your age, but it¡¯s good to see you have your priorities in order. When I was your age, we had Chief Mage Squan in charge and he was not a believer in luxuries. The gruel was particularly unpleasant as I recall.¡±

    ¡°I still sometimes ask the head of the kitchen to make me some,¡± said the Dean with a wistful smile, ¡°a reminder of easier times.¡±

    ¡°May as well eat the bowl it was served in, tastes much the same. I believe we have some hard news coming in that letter, hand it over lad,¡± the Chief Mage said with a gesture.

    Chadwick stepped up and handed it over.

    The Chief Mage immediately opened it, ¡°more bloody wraiths,¡± he seemed to grumble mostly to himself.

    ¡°Nothing the young lad needs to hear about I¡¯m sure,¡± said the Dean, ¡°I¡¯ll just send him back down to Elvera.¡±

    ¡°Hold a moment,¡± said the Chief Mage and then looked Chadwick up and down. Turning to the Dean, ¡°is he a trustworthy lad?¡±

    ¡°I believe he is Chief Mage. What did you have in mind?¡± Responded the Dean.

    ¡°Tell Elvera to move up her training of him in message decoding, if Elvera has to travel we need someone else here. I¡¯m not going all the way there to do it myself, too many stairs,¡± answered the Chief Mage.

    ¡°Makes sense, what with his ability to scribe already, I¡¯ll let Elvera know,¡± said the Dean.

    The Chief Mage just waved Chadwick out at that.

    Elvera made him repeat every word of the conversation and didn¡¯t seem too happy about the whole thing, but she began teaching him right away. Not bothering to wait for the Dean to tell her officially.

    The code itself took him a few weeks before he could read it almost as easily as regular text. Once he had that down and understood the system for who should receive each message and where copies should be sent in some cases, he found himself doing trips all over the tower and even out to the dock-house.

    He still sealed each message after he wrote it, but he wasn¡¯t really sure what the point was since he was the one that wrote it down in the first place. He already knew what was in it.

    Having to write each message meant he actually got a bit of a crash education in how the tower operated within the kingdom. There were always mages on duty to visit the various cities and villages to look for new students. Each of them would report back routinely and Chadwick would pass those reports on to the mage in charge of managing those outside the tower.

    There were also mages that were permanently assigned to various cities and were an integral part of the infrastructure. Stone mages who helped with construction. Wood mages who created shingles full time. And enchanters who kept a myriad of things running smoothly.

    The most interesting messages were various requests to Sal for how to plan out some piece of logic. Mages, presumably in another part of the country, would want to know how he would handle some piece of conditional magic with the least amount of effort.

    At first Sal just accepted his messages and sometimes gave Chadwick a reply to send.

    But then, one day, Sal suddenly asked him, ¡°how would you handle this one lad?¡± Handing the piece of paper back over.

    Chadwick just waved away the piece of paper, ¡°I scribed the message, I already know what¡¯s in it. And I actually thought about it while coming down here. It seems like they just need to add a fifth piece to the wall in question and find someone who can handle a 20-point conditional. The only other option is to split it into two ten points and add a link between them. But that relies heavily on that link, easy for it to go wrong if someone moves it.¡±

    Sal chuckled, ¡°so casually you say find someone to do a 20-point conditional. There are probably only three people in the whole country that can manage that. And two of them are in this tower. Send them a reply telling them to do the split method. But send them a special note to make sure the link can¡¯t be moved once it is created. A blacksmith can rig them up something to shackle it down. A big enough piece of iron for the link and they won¡¯t even need to worry about that.¡±

    Chadwick was a bit puzzled, he was already working on an 18-point and he was sure he would manage a 20-point soon enough. But he agreed to send the message.

    Before he left, Sal turned back to him, ¡°for all future messages of this nature. I want you to have a proposed answer already written when you bring it down here. Assume nothing greater than a 16-point conditional can be done by those asking.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Mage,¡± responded Chadwick.

    ¡°Just Sal,¡± he said with a scowl, ¡°now scram. I have students coming.¡±

    The only other interesting message that Chadwick saw came in through a special stone that he wasn¡¯t meant to look at. The stone in question was for communications from the king, directly to the Chief Mage. Only Elvera was allowed to decipher and deliver those.

    But, as soon as the stone flashed up a message he couldn¡¯t help but immediately decipher it, since it was practically just reading for him at this point. All it said was, ¡°see me.¡±

 Storms Fall

    Chadwick could feel the stones under his feet rumble as the peals of thunder rolled by the tower. It was the first real storm he had experienced since arriving and it was a big one.

    He was currently trying to find the office of Mage Hubertes. Who taught one of the more obscure branches of gaseous magic, fog. Chadwick wasn¡¯t even sure what the man looked like, he had just come across a note on Elvera¡¯s door stating that Mage Hubertes has a note to deliver.

    The man¡¯s office was somewhere on the south side and Chadwick was struggling to locate it. At least until he encountered another student that might know. The same girl from his reshaping class that had approached him after.

    ¡°What are you doing on this side of the tower?¡± asked the girl.

    Chadwick had never had much to do with her, only sharing the single class. But he was pretty sure she had some kind of gaseous-based magic. So she might be able to give him directions. ¡°Looking for Mage Hubertes¡¯ office. For my duties. Know where he is?¡±

    The girl smiled brightly. ¡°Oh, you are in the wrong hallway, but there is a quick way around this balcony. I can show you.¡± She marched towards the end of the hall where it met the outside tower wall.

    ¡°Sorry, you might get a bit soggy, but it saves you going to a whole other floor to get to the right office,¡± she said, still smiling. She pushed the heavy external door open and they both got blasted with a spray of cold rain. ¡°Quickly now!¡± she said loudly and ushered him ahead of her.

    Chadwick barely got two steps into the blinding rain when he was grabbed by the arm and yanked sideways. He instinctively pulled back away from the sudden movement.

    ¡°Help me with him!¡± said a male voice.

    A second reluctant sounding male voice responded, ¡°let¡¯s just make it quick. I don¡¯t have the stomach for this.¡±

    ¡°Better than dying,¡± said the girl behind Chadwick. Her voice no longer sounded cheerful.

    ¡°Just hurry up,¡± said the first male voice that Chadwick still couldn¡¯t see as he was facing the wrong way and could barely open his eyes in the heavy rain that was whipping onto the balcony.

    Another set of hands grabbed Chadwick¡¯s other arm and he was picked up and dragged towards the edge of the balcony.

    Chadwick was panicking and just struggling. Kicking his legs and trying to move his arms. But the much larger boys had a solid hold on him. A pause in the rain let Chadwick see the railing the boys were beginning to send him towards. He mentally grabbed a hold of whatever particles he could feel around him and started blatsing out with them.

    Noises of complaint came from Chadwick¡¯s left. Followed by ¡°shit that stings, you are meant to be stopping that Claricia.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to take this long to throw a child over a balcony. I dread to think how poorly our escape will go if you can¡¯t even manage this,¡± said the girl. At the end of her commentary, the rain suddenly stopped hitting Chadwick as fog hardened around him. The particles he had been firing out stopped hitting the boys holding him.

    ¡°Better,¡± said the boy on the right, then ¡°pause here.¡±

    The boy on Chadwick¡¯s right stepped in front to face him and spoke directly to him for the first time, ¡°make sure to scream on the way down. Or you will have died without even providing a useful distraction for us.¡±

    Chadwick was trying to get his crazed breathing under control. He just stared at the large boy in front of him and kept trying to fire miniscule particles of his clothing at the face in front of him. But the fog acted like a cushion and just absorbed the particles before they could reach him.

    ¡°He seems scared enough, over you go,¡± said the large boy and then yanked Chadwick over the balcony.

    The boy on Chadwick¡¯s left didn¡¯t fully let go and Chadwick ended up crashing into the outside railing of the balcony. Long enough to shove a hand through the gap and not plummet down.

    ¡°You idiot! That¡¯s your fault. Kick his hand out,¡± said the large boy.

    The reluctant second boy approached Chawick, fog partially obscuring his face.

    ¡°Sorry, but we don¡¯t want to die,¡± said the boy and then got a runup to kick Chadwick¡¯s hand.

    About to die, Chadwick finally got his panic under control and remembered that he could do more than just throw particles uselessly into the fog. He started by reshaping the railing where he was hanging on. To make it too small for his hand to go back through. Effectively making it impossible for him to fall.

    Then, on instinct, Chadwick focused on firing particles from inside the fog barrier around the approaching boy. Directly into his descending foot.

    The boy screamed as the bones in his foot crumbled, then slipped on the rain and he crashed headfirst into the railing. The scream was cut off suddenly as the boy¡¯s eyes rolled back into his head.

    The larger boy cursed the ineptitude of his partner in crime. ¡°Fuck this, I¡¯m just launching him out the of the damn tower with lava.¡±

    The girl looked panicked and pleaded, ¡°no! If we leave the idiot here it will look like a perfect scene of a fight gone wrong. Don¡¯t give them clues that point to us.¡±

    The larger boy considered this, ¡°fine, but keep the barrier up while I get close. Those attacks sting.¡±

    The boy carefully checked his footing as he stopped over his unmoving companion and then placed his hand on top of the railing. Reaching down for Chadwick with his other hand to dislodge him.

    He tried to drag Chadwick¡¯s hand loose and complained, ¡°he¡¯s got himself wedged in somehow. I¡¯ll have to break his hand. It shouldn¡¯t matter when all his other bones break at the bottom.¡±

    The boy braced himself against the railing and lined up a kick.

    Chadwick was frantically firing particles at sections of the railing. His previous plan with the first boy wouldn¡¯t work here with his carefully the second boy had approached.

    Chadwick screamed as three of his fingers got broken by a kick from the boy.

    ¡°He¡¯s really jammed in there,¡± complained the boy.

    He lined up for a second kick, putting more power into it.

    Chadwick bit down onto his shirt and screamed again as his whole hand got mangled.

    A third kick would probably dislodge him at this point as there were not enough solid bones left to keep him wedged in the shrunken gap in the railing.

    The boy went for a third kick, more sure of his footing now and putting his full weight into it. As he swung, there was a cracking noise and the entire railing came loose a few inches above ground level. Just enough railing was left to keep Chadwick wedged in place. The rest of it broke outwards and the large boy pitched forward with it, straight off the side of the tower.

    He screamed with rage and fear as he sailed down towards the stone courtyard below.

    The girl stared at Chadwick with fear. Then bolted back through the door.

    Chadwick¡¯s adrenaline started to die down and the pain in his shattered hand was starting to get extreme. He was still well wedged into the railing, but he saw no way he could get himself back up onto the balcony. The last thing he heard before passing out from the pain was a shout from below as people find the body of the fallen boy. And shouts of those seeing him up above. Thankfully the rain was dying down enough for them to see him.

    <hr>

    The next five months went by in a blur for Chadwick. His schedule was so full he always seemed to be busy and didn¡¯t have time to get bored or spend too much time thinking about the constant ache in his wrapped up hand. With his new role decoding messages he got to pick up all sorts of interesting tidbits. Granted, he couldn¡¯t really talk about them with anyone.

    The healing seemed to take forever, but Elvera assured him that how quickly all his bones had mended during that time was a privilege of youth.

    He made a point of writing to his family every week, using his one good hand. Elvera ended up being a lot of help there because she was still sending books out to his father. She just included his messages in those. Chadwick decided not to mention his injuries as he didn''t want to worry his family. And he really wanted to see a message confirming that the escaped girl had been caught. Better to give his family the complete story before sending it. But somehow the months went bye and there was no messages about the girl.

    Chadwick would get to see the books come back in, freshly copied in his father¡¯s hand. Something he would recognize anywhere. The messages were often tucked into the books that came back.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    He got to hear about the other children who were growing up in his village. The latest bit of forest they were cutting down. And who married who. Somehow, it all felt a bit¡­ mundane.

    As much as he appreciated hearing from his father. He found he just didn¡¯t much care what went on in his home village anymore. His mind was caught up in learning what he could do with his new abilities. Wanting to be able to defend himself better in the future.

    The only other thing he kept seeing messages about was the appearances of more wraiths. In some cases a mage would get dispatched to deal with it, but more often they were simply too far away and it was known that wraiths would move on, or disappear, on their own. So it wasn¡¯t worth sending someone if the wraith likely wouldn¡¯t be there by the time they arrived.

    Oddly, Chadwick couldn¡¯t find much information about the wraiths and none of the teachers would talk about them. They just called them ¡°mage¡¯s business¡± and told him not to worry about it.

    His progress was coming along very nicely in all his various classes. His fake target dummy was still showing mid way through the second pipe during a one-hour class. Still a bit sub-par for where he should be at. Taverish assured him they would speed it up soon.

    His real target dummy was already past the fifth pipe and he was trying to make a dent in the sixth one during a one-hour session during his days off. His launched projectiles were basically invisible to the eye, but now he was firing fifty of them at once. With enough speed to make the armor start glowing red. He mostly just used scrap iron as his source of particles, since he tended to strip all the loose particles out of the air too quickly. Now that he was able to control more of them in one go.

    The use of magic still tired him, but the level of effect he got during the same period of time was increasing dramatically.

    Taverish was happy enough with his real progress that he allowed splitting the day with Sal.

    Sal just gave him ever-increasing difficulties of problems, often they were ones that came in as messages. The current one was about trying to charge an enchanted item. Something Chadwick didn¡¯t know a lot about yet. But, the principles were the same. So he tackled as he would any other problem.

    ¡°Sal, I know you said keep it at a maximum of 16 points, but I see a very elegant solution to this one at an 18-point. And, considering you have me working on a 22-point problem for the main class¡­¡± said Chadwick as he handed over his proposed written message.

    ¡°The difficulty of going from 1 to 2 points is nothing. But the further up you go the degree of difficulty in adding just 1 more point increases. You experienced that on trying to break the barrier to 20-point magic,¡± said Sal, then took the message and read through it, ¡°though in this case you are right, there¡¯s no way around this but to do an 18-point. Tell them this is the only way and to ask if Thad can be spared. He¡¯s the only one close enough to help.¡±

    Chadwick nodded, ¡°I was wondering, could you teach me more about the actual enchanting side of things yet? I know you said you don¡¯t teach that in the class until you have weeded out those who will give up¡­¡±

    Sal looked him up and down, ¡°aye, if you haven¡¯t given up yet, you aren¡¯t likely to. But there is a certain element of trust implicit in teaching someone this. Though I gather the Chief Mage already decided you could handle our coded messages. Perhaps I could ask the Dean.¡±

    ¡°I believe he was planning to try and steal¡­ I mean, obtain one of those peach pies the kitchen made today, I could probably find him and ask him now,¡± suggested Chadwick eagerly.

    Sal laughed, ¡°so eager to get started lad? Tell you what, I¡¯ll ask the Dean myself tonight. But there is certainly no harm in getting you started on what you will need anyway.¡±

    Sal walked around behind his desk and pulled out a one-inch metal rod, ¡°this is something all students get to learn if they make it in my class. Nothing secret about it. So, no need to wait. You will make this rod into a source of light.¡± He handed it over to Chadwick and then pulled out a bound up pack of paper, ¡°these are the same instructions most students get. Come back to me when you are done.¡±

    Chadwick eagerly took bound up paper and began to open it before Sal chased him out of his workshop.

    He went back to his scribing desk and began devouring the pages. It was heavily based on conditional magic, but seemed to have some other aspects to it. It was lots of carving symbols that represented things. It took him a week to fully understand the pack of data and then another week to carve perfect symbols into the rod, removing hundreds of tiny particles at a time.

    The piece of conditional magic to activate it ended up being quite simple and only required a 10-point logic, one point per symbol. He could feel the drain on his magic pool as he filled each rune, but it seemed no worse than running up some stairs.

    He proudly presented it to Sal who immediately grimaced and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know who thought it would be a funny joke to try and let you pass of their work as you own. But they are not you friend. I have permanently ejected students for this exact thing before.¡± Sal looked furious by the end and was shaking the rod in Chadwick¡¯s face.

    Chadwick deflated, ¡°someone else''s work? But, this took me a whole week to carve those symbols.¡± He was mumbling, somewhat shocked by the response.

    ¡°A week! It takes most students six months to get them perfect even with the help of the blacksmiths, the slightest imperfection and the damn thing will explode! Give me the name of the idiot who thought,¡± Sal suddenly froze and stared at the rod, ¡°I would recognize the work of any student to have come through my class¡­¡±

    Chadwick was looking slightly moist around the eyes after just being berated by the bushy man. He sniffed a slightly runny nose in the sudden silence.

    ¡°These lines are perfect lad..,¡± Sal said. Still staring at them he continued, ¡°a copy so perfect you might very well have taken them straight from the page.¡±

    Chadwick tentatively said, ¡°your instructions said the carvings had to be a perfect match to the drawing. I don¡¯t understand what I did wrong.¡±

    ¡°Well, not so much wrong lad, just,¡± Sal paused and sort of vaguely waved his hand in the air. He suddenly deflated, ¡°I¡¯m sorry young one, I thought someone was playing a very cruel prank. Tell me how you carved the symbols.¡±

    Chadwick brightened up, ¡°my affinity. It happens to work perfectly when you need to remove only the exact right amount of something. Though it is a little on a slow side for the deeper channels.¡±

    Sal shook his head with amazement, ¡°and here we¡¯ve been using these dunderheaded metal mages to carve channels this whole time. I¡¯d have to send one of these back six times to even get it 80% efficient.¡±

    Chadwick just waited, not sure what that meant.

    Sal was still shaking his head and muttering, ¡°two weeks, kid has no idea,¡± but then asked with a grin, ¡°want to see how good of a job you did lad?¡±

    Chadwick nodded hesitantly and then followed Sal who was bounding towards a complicated brass structure that reminded Chadwick of the slider test.

    Sal carefully weighed the metal rod and gave a running commentary while he worked the scale, ¡°so, any enchantment is only going to last as long as the material does. And the less efficient your runes are, the faster they will use up the material. As you can see this rod is two small weights and 4 grains. We need the exact weight of the material as that gives us exactly how much the material is effecting the output power, versus the precision of the runes.¡±

    Sal then moved then placed the rod into a receptacle and the small arrow on the front of the machine swung upwards. ¡°As you can see, the dial swings downward based on the strength of the enchantment and then we add these weights to the plate there and see how many it takes to bring the dial back to the top point.¡±

    Chadwick watched with excitement as Sal added both small weights to the plate and the dial swung most of the way back up. He carefully added one grain at a time and the dial didn¡¯t hit the top until the last grain. It bounced off with just a slight ¡®cling¡¯ noise from brass hitting brass.

    Sal stared at it all for a while before saying, ¡°as damn near 100% efficiency as it wouldn¡¯t make a difference to weigh more carefully.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s good?¡± Asked Chadwick.

    ¡°Good enough that I¡¯m goin to speed up the plans the Dean and I have been cooking up,¡± Sal seemed to almost say to himself, then he turned fully to Chadwick and handed him the enchanted rod, ¡°have you even tried this thing yet?¡±

    ¡°I¡­err, the instructions didn¡¯t actually say how to use one,¡± Chadwick said sheepishly.

    ¡°I suppose they don¡¯t, never had a student make one that had never actually used an enchanted item before,¡± said Sal, then pointed to a symbol at the bottom, ¡°that is a common activation symbol for all enchants. Picture a positive, like we use in the conditionals. Just a basic 1-point trigger. And put it in there. The power you already loaded into the runes will take care of the rest.¡±

    Almost as soon as Sal finished explaining the process, the metal rod lit up bright enough to make them both look away.

    ¡°That¡¯ll do the trick. You can do the same process but in reverse, send a negative trigger,¡± said Sal, currently shielding his eyes.

    The rod winked out again and both of them blinked their eyes for a moment until they could see again in the slightly dim room.

    ¡°Was it supposed to be that bright?¡± asked Chadwick. Shaking his head slightly to clear away the stars in his vision.

    ¡°Not usually quite so bright, another side-effect of the level of efficiency you have managed here no doubt,¡± said Sal, then continued, ¡°now, that is yours to keep. But don¡¯t show it to any teachers. Since I¡¯m technically not supposed to be teaching you that yet. Even if it wasn¡¯t confidential.¡±

    Chadwick tucked the rod into his pocket, and looked up at Sal eagerly, ¡°what can I make next?¡±

    ¡°Ha. Since you can finish a six-month project in two weeks. Let me give you a two-year project this time. See if I can distract you for long enough to keep you out of my hair,¡± said Sal and then turned to rummage through one of the cupboards in his office.

    Chadwick leaned over eagerly and tried to look into the tub Sal was pulling out.

    Sal put the tub onto his desk with a thunk that caused several rattling metal noises inside and then said, ¡°this, is something I¡¯ve been working on for some time but have never managed to finish. A storage system of sorts.¡±

    Chadwick had fished out various pieces of brass tubes, buckles and pieces of beautifully stitched leather, he looked it over, ¡°some sort of bag?¡±

    ¡°Something like that. This is a fresh set of materials I never started on, after the first few failures,¡± said Sal, then reached into the box and fished out a large stack of paper, ¡°these are my notes.¡± Then dumped the paper back into the box.

    Sal opened up a locked cabinet, reached in and fished out a very large leather-bound tome and put it into the box, ¡°that book is for your eyes only. No teacher would dare open it if they knew what it was. Nevertheless, keep it out of sight and only read it here or in your office with Elvera. Her security is as good as mine. I should know, I made it.¡±

    Chadwick was eagerly peering at it, trying to read the cover, ¡°what¡¯s in it?¡±

    ¡°Every rune symbol I know and how to use them. You will need that, because my notes operate on the basis that you know the ones I mention,¡± answered Sal.

    Chadwick stared in awe and then reached out to take the box, ¡°I¡¯ll take these up to Elvera¡¯s office right now.¡±

    Sal nodded and then shooed him out. Calling out, ¡°if you lose that book, I better never see you again lad!¡±

    He went to drop off the box and saw another message from the king on the Chief Mages personal stone. He glanced at it and immediately translated it in his head.

    It was somewhat confusing and said, ¡°wraiths are appearing in my city now, you have one month to lower magical weight by 30%. All civil mages are excluded unless an adequate replacement is provided.¡±

    Chadwick wasn¡¯t sure what that meant, but he ignored it as technically he was not meant to be seeing those messages.

 The Weight of It All

    The Dean was waiting outside Sal¡¯s room the next morning.

    He smiled and walked up, ¡°good morning Chadwick, do you remember what today is?¡±

    Chadwick drew a blank, he knew it wasn¡¯t his birthday. Was it the Dean¡¯s birthday? Adults had only ever asked him that question for birthdays. But he was drawing a blank.

    At Chadwick¡¯s lost look, the Dean laughed, ¡°six months since the last assessment of your magical reservoir. As agreed, I am performing the test myself.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I had forgotten all about that. It never seems to come up much, aside from during reshaping. Especially since we changed my focus and I caught up to most of the students. I was sick of being last in that class,¡± said Chadwick.

    The Dean seemed to have a bit of a pained look on his face, but he forced a smile and said, ¡°well, no need to rush lad. You are still young.¡±

    The Dean began to turn to lead them to the library, then paused, ¡°I know we haven¡¯t been able to tell you much and you have been absorbed in your work. But I did want to follow up and ask how your hand has been doing?¡±

    Chadwick held his fingers up and flexed them, ¡°I don¡¯t really notice anymore. The tricks I learned in reshaping to allow me to correct the bones made a large difference. It took me longer to perfectly learn what hand bones should look like than it did to fix them. Since I had to do the changes without being able to see the bones, the healers insisted I have perfect visualization before I could try any reshaping on myself.¡±

    ¡°A handy skill to have. Not as big of a deal for how quickly the young heal. But as you get into your sunset years?¡± The Dean said and then seemed to pause, ¡°actually, have you considered whether you could repair bones on others? The life of a healer is a valuable one. People always want a healer to stay around.¡±

    ¡°Right now I¡¯m more interested in the combat applications of what I can do,¡± said Chadwick. Leaving the obvious reason why unsaid.

    The Dean grimaced at that. He had apologized every time he saw Chadwick for weeks. Until Chadwick had asked him to stop reminding him of the event that led to almost dying in the first place. Simply asking the Dean to stop had never worked. A little guilt seemed to do the trick though.

    They walked in silence for a while towards the library. It was somewhere Chadwick knew his way to easily after six months living inside the tower. Eventually the Dean asked about how his other lessons were going, careful to only mention the public version of his launcher class. Just a normal discussion between a Dean and a student.

    ¡°How are your parents doing?¡± The Dean asked, suddenly changing the topic.

    ¡°Both of them seem to be throwing themselves into their work. Father has done quite a number of scribing jobs for Elvera since she has far too many for me to keep up with. Mother has been making enough jam to feed to the whole village six times over. There was talk of selling it in other villages,¡± Chadwick answered.

    While he talked, they rounded a corner and the Chief Mage was walking down the hallway towards them slowly.

    He seemed to have been listening as he was looking towards them and said, ¡°it¡¯s easy to forget we collected you so young. With how much older your written hand is. Never a fault in the messages you deliver. I daresay neater than I would write it myself. And where are you two off to?¡±

    The Dean brightly answered, ¡°I asked Mage Brackly if I could deliver young Chadwick¡¯s slider test. Professional curiosity and all that, never seen a mage of tiny things before.¡±

    The Dean was the only one that referred to Chadwick¡¯s affinity that way. The other teachers didn¡¯t really have a better term and he had heard some of them refer to him as the tiny mage. He wasn¡¯t a fan of the nickname. Even though he was pretty sure he had grown an inch since being there, he was still quite small.

    The Chief Mage narrowed his eyes slightly at the Dean, then shrugged and said, ¡°I have words from the king that need our attention. Come by my office after you are done. Bring Taverish.¡±

    The Dean nodded politely and then kept walking into the library.

    Chadwick was pretty sure the Dean was sweating slightly.

    They came to the room with the slider and the Dean quietly closed the door, ¡°I know I¡¯ve said this before young lad. But never let anyone else test you on the slider if you can find a way to avoid it. And,¡± the Dean seemed the be struggling to get the words out, but finally said, ¡°just, don¡¯t be in a hurry to grow up.¡±

    Then he leaned down very close and stared Chadwick in the eye, ¡°it¡¯s important. Don¡¯t grow up yet.¡±

    Chadwick just confused again, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean Dean, I can¡¯t very well stop growing¡­¡±

    The Dean¡¯s eye was twitching, ¡°of course not. But, just think about those words, alright? Think carefully on them. Weigh them in your mind.¡±

    Chadwick nodded slowly, to show he was listening. He wasn¡¯t sure he understood, but he had heard.

    The Dean gave a frustrated sigh and then pulled out the trays of weights, ¡°hand on the orb. Don¡¯t take it off until I say.¡±

    The Dean pulled out the same tray of large weights he had to use the first time, ¡°now, you were at eight large and three small last time. So it¡¯s a safe bet that you made it to a twelve on the large weights. So we can go straight to sack weight. And then add on from there.¡±

    Chadwick nodded and kept his hand on the orb. He was familiar enough with the measuring system that was done in units of twelve. Going from grains, smalls, larges, sacks and then horses.

    The Dean put a large brass ¡®sack¡¯ onto the scale. Since sacks filled with sand was a rather imprecise system, with different sized sacks, or sand from different sources, the brass weights had developed across the kingdom to replace those original items. The names stayed the same.

    The Dean pulled the lever and winced at the clang that accompanied the arrow shooting up, ¡°definitely more weight.¡±

    He started to load on weights until the arrow dipped. The final tally of weights was 1 sack, 11 large and 8 small.

    The Dean just shook his head, ¡°same as before. If anyone asks, you got 8 small. Technically true.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand why the deception, Dean,¡± said Chadwick quietly.

    ¡°Not something I can explain I¡¯m afraid my lad, secret of the tower council. Just take my word for it. Give my words the weight they deserve. You. Don¡¯t. Want. To. Grow. Up,¡± said the Dean, staring at Chadwick and then at the slider and back. Nudging his eyebrows towards the slider until Chadwick¡¯s face finally lit up in understanding.

    ¡°Good, 8 smalls it is. No rush though lad, still plenty of growing to do,¡± said the Dean. Then reminded him that they would need to do this again in six months and sent him off to breakfast.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The day got a little strange when Taverish wasn¡¯t present at their launcher class. A much younger mage was there, shouting orders.

    Chadwick did his best to be quiet and unobtrusive while he fired extremely slow-moving bits of sand at his rigged dummy. The bits were so small no one else could even see them.

    The younger mage was going around the room one at a time giving somewhat obnoxious ¡®help¡¯ like saying ¡°you call that a fireball? That wouldn¡¯t knock over my grandmother. No wonder you lot are still here.¡±

    When he got to Chadwick and saw him still working on the first pipe he just snorted, ¡°mage of tiny things. More like mage of tiny results.¡± Then simply ignored him and walked off to harangue a water mage who had splashed him by accident.

    Sal was in his classroom when Chadwick went there, but seemed to be in a sour mood and sent one girl off in tears after he called her conditional magic ¡°as neat as something a dog threw up.¡±

    Chadwick decided not to try and interact with him that day.

    After dinner he headed up to Elvera¡¯s office and found it locked. Normally she was there before him. So, for the first time, he had to use his own key.

    He stepped into the office and saw no one was in. So he closed the door behind, checked if there were any new messages on the stones and then settled in to read the book from Sal.

    After two hours of reading, Chadwick was ready to head to bed, assuming Elvera wouldn¡¯t be arriving. When he finally heard the door unlocking.

    He stopped out of the workshop and saw a haggard looking Elvera slump into his desk chair.

    ¡°Is something wrong, Mage?¡± Chadwick asked, hurrying around.

    ¡°Oh, young Chadwick. Fetch me a bottle of that brandy I have hiding under the sink would you?¡± Elvera said wearily.

    Chadwick was worried something had happened, but he complied and fished out the bottle. He took it as a bad sign that Elvera was admitting the brandy was there. She had thoroughly refused to acknowledge the question when he had first asked about it. He would catch her sneaking a glass on occasion when she thought Chadwick was absorbed in his work.

    She took a swig straight from the bottle, ¡°good for the nerves, that is.¡±

    She stared at the bottle for a while before looking up at Chadwick, ¡°apparently I¡¯m now expendable, because I¡¯m off to war with the Siyene shamans. I somewhat regret teaching you our message code. Without that I might be required to stay here.¡±

    ¡°War!?¡± said Chadwick in alarm. He had heard the stories from Mage Sloan, but mostly the students seemed to be kept in the dark. He barely had an idea there was even a battle going on.

    ¡°Oh yes, where do you think those messages about conditional magic come from? The lads who are on the front, looking for any advantage they can get to keep them alive,¡± said Elvera morosely. ¡°And now I¡¯ll be one of them. Living in a tent, trudging through mud. Trying to keep those bloodthirsty shamans from eating my heart.¡±

    ¡°But,¡± began Chadwick, ¡°how could they send someone so¡­ necessary to a warzone.¡±

    ¡°You mean someone so old? Just a small woman? Just come out and say it,¡± then she shuffled out of the chair and said, ¡°I¡¯ll remind you of something I¡¯m sure you have told yourself before lad.¡± She beckoned him over to the window and flung it open, ¡°that size has very little to do with magical ability.¡±

    She leaned her arm out the window and then snapped her fingers. A bolt of lightning crashed out of the sky, striking a tree on the lakeside. Not only was the tree split down the middle and left smoldering, but the sky was lit up almost like it was daytime for the briefest of flashes.

    Chadwick stared with amazement, Elvera was one of the mages that had been rather secretive about what her affinity was. Now he knew.

    ¡°And,¡± continued Elvera, ¡°age is, if anything, a positive benefit to magical ability.¡±

    Elvera looked out at the tree and muttered, ¡°though my aim is not what it used to be, I was trying to hit the water.¡± Then she closed the window with a sigh and said, ¡°help me pack lad. This will have to become your office now. Since you are to be put in charge of messages.¡±

    As the last thing they did before they left the office, Elvera took out the written reply from the Chief Mage, encoded it and passed it into the message stone with just a little concentration.

    Chadwick briefly saw the encoded message pop up on the front of the stone before it sent, his mind immediately translating the message being sent to the king.

    It said, ¡°Thirty percent of magical weight has been assigned to the front or sent as replacements for civil mages and will leave tomorrow.¡±

    <hr>

    The procession of mages that had left a few days earlier, had left the tower feeling very bare. The only one of his original teachers that Chadwick had was Sal. Though his company was hardly desirable at the moment, with his bad temper still persisting.

    Every other teacher was someone who seemed freshly graduated to the rank of Mage. In fact, Chadwick was pretty sure the one teaching history had been the student that was trying to strangle the armored dummy with vines on Chadwick¡¯s first day.

    The teachers that remained seemed oddly determined to get every student ready for their book as fast as possible. Once a student had scraped by the minimum requirement for a class, they were told to spend more time on whatever they were still missing.

    Chadwick was, if anything, even more thoroughly ignored. Since the minimum magical weight from the slider, for graduating to mage status, was one large weight. And the teachers all believed him to be at 8 small weights. There was little they could do to speed that up beyond what was already being done.

    The history teacher gave an exam one day and then passed half of the class, telling them they no longer needed to attend. Since Chadwick was one of those that passed, this left him with some extra free time. Which he sorely needed with his new job as scribe.

    He found himself running up to Elvera¡¯s office, which he supposed was his now (but he would never think of it as anything but hers), between classes and meals. Running messages all over the tower. Then racing to classrooms.

    The Chief Mage became used to seeing him regularly and would occasionally inquire about his studies when receiving messages about the war. He seemed quite pleased to hear Chadwick was already done with history and never needed to do basic literacy classes.

    The messages Chadwick had to deliver were mostly about the war. He wasn¡¯t sure if he just didn¡¯t see most of the messages about the war before because Elvera handled that, or if there were just a lot more of them now that more people had gone to the front.

    The war messages were quite depressing. They mostly contained tedious things like supplies updates, mentions of various fortresses and walls that had been knocked down or resisted some attack. But something almost every message contained, was a list of those who had died.

    Chadwick would wince each time a message came in from the war front, then check the names to make sure it was no one he knew. The only name he recognized so far was the metal mage that the teachers had been so pleased with since he started with ten small weights. He couldn¡¯t have been more than 15 years old.

    Chadwick had never seen the metal affinity boy achieve the rank of mage, but he must have done so before the call came to send more to the front.

    The Chief mage always compared the list of names to a large board in his office that seemed to have hundreds of names on it. He would match the names up, remove them from his board and sigh deeply as he saw a pipe on one side lower down. The pipe seems to be tied directly to the names.

    A few other interesting messages started coming directly from Elvera herself, the first was one casually asking if Chadwick was still the one manning the message stones. Once he had replied and asked how the war was going, he started to receive a flood of instructions from her.

    She told him to pack certain things she had forgotten and take them to the dock-house master with instructions. To ship out three books to his father, Alver, which needed six copies of each. Lastly, to check on her shipment of brandy that was overdue (this one was marked as highest priority).

    Broken up in between various messages of this nature were instructions for him to study certain books from her private collection. They seemed like an odd mix of discourses of mental magic, some enchantment theory, a history of all the past Chief Mages of the tower and the full lineage of the royal family.

    Chadwick felt he had the time for more study, since he no longer had his Saturdays with Taverish. And he had graduated from his history class. He thought it an odd mix of books, but Elvera had always been good to him so he complied and studied her requests whenever the messages traffic was quiet.

    Sal eventually returned to his normal self, but he did start giving Chadwick tasks that seemed like they were just regular work. For those, he didn¡¯t bother having Chadwick learn all the theory of the enchantment. Just gave him an example and asked him to copy the rune symbols. Then Sal would activate it himself and toss it into a box.

    It was fairly mindless work, but Chadwick was at least still learning the various symbols and getting practice in getting them just right. Each had varying thicknesses and depths of lines that had to all neatly fit together with the symbol next to it.

    Technically, Sal could have passed Chadwick on his conditional magic class any day, but he didn¡¯t bother as he knew Chadwick still hadn¡¯t achieved five pipes. A lot of other students had been passed or told they no longer needed his class. Just the youngest seemed to be left.

    Chadwick was wondering why he was hiding the fact that he had already been working on six pipes with Taverish and was well past the minimum for magical weight. But the Dean¡¯s words had made him want to just keep on as things were for the moment.

    He also noticed that quite a few students seemed to be graduating to full mage and then immediately leaving the tower. It was getting awfully quiet around here.

    It wasn¡¯t until it got close to Chadwick¡¯s 11th birthday that things went wrong.