2024 Story Collection

The Wizard Starweaver & His Apprentice

The day had begun the same as any other.

Jane helping her mother load the crates of fruit into the buggy while her mother had got the horses ready. They would ride into town for the morning market, where they would sell her mother's fruit, then pick up supplies before finally heading home and tending to the orchards and home.

But on the way to town, something odd happened. A figure appeared out of thin air. It was a handsome man, looking to be near her age.

Her mother stopped to talk to the man. She was a very social woman and very curious, too. Jane might've warned her mother against it if she hadn't had inherited that same curiosity.

As the man approached them, she realized he was quite tall and lanky. He looked like a man who hadn't eaten in far too long. She honestly wondered how he was even walking-how he was alive at all. But then, suddenly as if aware of her thoughts, his body had began to fill out. Was that just a trick of the eye?

"Hello young man," her mother called out, friendly as ever. "Is there something I can do for you?"

He smiled at them, dimples showing in his cheeks.

"Are you off to the market?" he asked, glancing at the fruit they were hauling.

"Yes, sir," Jane replied with a kind smile. "These are the best apples in the territory, fresh every day." She says with pride.

Her mother had a green thumb. She could bring dead plants back to life and, just by humming a tune, the fruit would sweeten. It was a magic so old and mundane, most thought it skill. Well, to some part it was, but not all of it.

"The apples are 5-" her mother begins to tell the man the price, but he interrupts her by raising his hand.

"As temping as the offer is," he says. "I have actually come to give you an offer of my own."

He turns to face Jane.

"You would make a great student," he says. Her face scrunches up in confusion. "You have magic, just like your mother. You just keep it hidden. Tell me, Jane, why is that?"

She leans back, bumping into her mother, who sits beside her.

"I don't have any magic-" her mother tries to deny, but he interrupts her.

"Old magic," he says. "So old it can barely be called that." her mother gulps before nodding. "Jane, though, she has something else. True magic."

"How do you know my name?" Jane asks frantically, trying to regain her composure.

"You don't recognize me?" he asks, not moving, yet she still leans back farther.

She looked at him then, trying to recognize him. He looked completely normal and completely odd. He wore a nice white linin shirt, embroidered with a fine gold thread and a pair of black trousers and a pair of nice black shoes. Plain, simple clothes that were tailored to fit his tall, slim body. His black hair was long, past his waist, but now that she looked at it, it was no longer black, it looked almost blue.

The Sun moves over the trees, casting its warm glow over them and suddenly his hair changed to a white-blond in the warm light. His eyes, once a dark grey-blue, were now an electric blue, bright and piercing. His skin was pale in the shade, but in the sun was a nice tan. It was as if he morphed with the sunlight.

"The wizard Starweaver," her mother says after a moment.

Her eyes widen at the name and the man before her. Now it all made sense.

He was as old as time but didn't look a day over 25. He was tall, thin and had long, evenly cut hair. His clothes tailored to perfection, his fashion sense was impeccable. He wasn't the most powerful wizard, but he was smarter and had more experience than any other to have ever lived. He fit the description all too perfectly.

Starweaver.

He was a legend of a man, if you could call him that. Some thought he was more monster than man. Some said he was more magic than flesh and blood but he looked none of those things. He looked magical, yes, but not monstrous as the stories described.

"Why are you here?" she brings herself to ask finally.

"I am looking for a student. As per the legend, your family will be well taken care of and you will receive an education specialized to your magic. If you chose to become my student-"

"Why me?" she interrupted, nerves getting the better of her. This whole situation was beyond her comprehension.

She had expected him to snap at her for her rudeness, but he did not. He just smiled kindly and explained.

"Because you're the first person I saw and I believe in fate." He shrugs. She doesn't buy it.

"Only fools trust fate to decisions that should be thought through." Her mother says. Echoing her own thoughts. "You really expect us to believe such an excuse? How disrespectful. Try again."

He smiles wide before speaking. "I apologize. I underestimated you."

"It is a common mistake," Jane says.

"I shall give you a better reason and the respect you so deserve," he says as he steps closer, turning to her mother. "I have chosen Jane because the power that lay dormant within her is more powerful than all that lies within the forests of the north and the seas of the east."

"What if I say no?" Jane asks turning his attention back to her.

"I would be heartbroken, but I would accept it and wait for another worthy disciple, even if it took another millennia."

"I need time to think," she says.

"I understand. This is not a small decision. Here," he hands her a gold locket, "open this when you make you decision and I will come to you."

She takes the locket from him and inspects it. Her mother does the same. She looks back up to ask him one more question, but he's gone.

To be continued...

April 6, 2024