2024 Story Collection

The Wizard Starweaver & His Apprentice VI

After Abel clean up all the ingredients for the spell and Jane cleaned up the mess she made, they were off down an old, rutted dirt road.

"Lead the way," Abel says, placing a hand on her back and gently pushing her forward. "Take me to the ring."

"Right this way," she says.

She looks up at the man-if he could be called that anymore. His long hair was blowing in the light breeze. He was beautiful in a way she'd never seen. It was as if he was a star himself, shining brightly on everything around him. His tanned and pale skin alike glow with an almost iridescent quality. As if tiny diamonds smaller than the finest grain of sand replaced the pores of the skin. It made him look absolutely ethereal.

She pulls her eyes away from him and instead shifts her focus to her surroundings. The pines here were so small compared to the ones around the workshop. Where those felt old, warn and wise, these felt young, and almost naïve.

She reaches out a hand as she passed one of the larger ones to feel the magic within and, just as she'd expected, it felt young and as she tried to get a closer listen; it avoided and hid from her in a way that almost felt as if it was shy or playing a game. She giggled.

"The younger something is, the more childish the magic is," Abel confirms her thoughts with a light smile. "As you've discovered, it can be quite playful. Sometimes, when newer magic is interwoven or close to older magic, you can watch the older act as almost an elder to it. It is incredible the relationships it has not only with itself but also with us."

She looks back at Abel. At some point, he tied his long hair back into a ponytail. The wind had gotten stronger and if she hadn't had hers up she'd have done the same.

He is smiling, a warmth radiating off of him like the warm summer sun. He walks with both arms out and eyes closed, as if taking it all in. He was looking at the magic of the world around them, she realized.

She wonders what he sees. How his long life has made that change. He was as interesting to her as any mystery she'd read. Maybe even more interesting.

She desperately wanted to know what he was seeing, hearing, thinking.

She closes her eyes and just lets the magic flow around her. She listens to it for a moment before everything switches suddenly. It all comes into focus as if she could actually see the magic. She stumbles and trips.

Thankfully Abel catches her.

She blinks her eyes open but can't get rid of it. She could sense all the magic, how it flowed in such a visual way that it was overwhelming. She saw everything, every bit of magic as far as the horizon. She feels her body moving, but she doesn't quite know how or why.

"Calm down," Abel says, helping her over to sit on a rock. "Take a deep breath and close your eyes."

She feels him place his hands on her shoulders. It helps to ground her, but she was still panicking. She takes about 20 deep breaths with her eyes closed, but the panic is only getting worse. It's rising up within her like a pot of soup about to boil over.

"You opened yourself up to too much magic. You need to focus on one thing and the magic that flows through that specific thing."

She hears his words as if he was speaking to her from a distant cliff, his voice echoing through a canyon before finally hitting her ears.

He holds up a hand in front of her face.

"Focus on my hand. On the magic that flows through my veins and into my fingertips. Block out everything else. Focus on the type of magic, on the way it moves throughout the hand."

She tries but can't quite seem to focus on it. Everything else was getting louder by the second. Her vision getting more crisp and clear in a way that made her eyes burn. A small throbbing pain in the back of her head had turned into a full-blown pressure migraine.

She screams, putting her hands over her ears. Please stop. Make it stop.

"Focus," he says again, his voice sounds strained with worry, which didn't help her nerves.

She reaches out and grabs his hand and allows herself to both feel and hear the magic. She watches the flow of it, trying to push everything else into the background, manually blurring out the peripheral. She notices the magic in his body almost looks gold. It was warm and bright and light.

Suddenly, everything else melts away. She grips his hand tighter and blinks; the world coming back into focus slowly. The pain in her head fading even slower.

"Are you okay?" he asks, his face filled with worry, his voice dripping with it.

He was kneeling before her in the grass, the world looking so beautiful. She realized just how scared she really had been.

Maybe it was the nerves, maybe it was the migraine, maybe the relief. She doesn't quite know, but in that moment she reaches out and embraces him. She hugs him tight, scared to let go.

"I was so scared," her voice wavers as she speaks. He reciprocated the hug, burring his head into her neck.

"I'm glad you're okay," he says, his voice soft, gentle, relieved. He squeezes her tighter. "You have to be careful. You can get lost in that world and lose all your self identity."

"It was so overwhelming," she says, a tear sliding down her cheek.

"It is," he says, lifting his head, looking up to the sky, cradling the back of her head in his hand. 

"That's why, next time, once you have a better understanding of everything, we will walk through it together and I will teach you how to navigate without it overwhelming you. It is a great tool. However, it is a double-edged sword. You must learn how to wield it correctly or it will cut you."

She nods, pulling back.

"Thank you." The words do not, could never hold exactly how much meaning was behind them.

He smiles and helps her up. "Lets go find us a ring, shall we?"

She smiles and nods.

This time, as they walk, she resists the urge to look at the magic, instead just enjoying the view into the valley below and the mountains beyond.

To be continued...

April 11, 2024