SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) (9 page)

Mages are like sorcerers with more power but they have more control and power. It's said a Mage can run his well dry and it will refill. Not many sorcerers are willing to find out if they are actually mages for fear of burning out their magic. As far as I know there are no known mages today. So don't overdo it and keep a feel on how much you have in your well when casting. We’ll go over that too later.

OK, what is magic? Most agree there is a well inside each of us that holds
magic.
Everyone has one. However most people's well are so small they can't tap it. The magic itself is one of the greatest mysteries. Some say our magic is our life force. There is no definitive answer as to what our magic actually is. I don't know." He said with a smile. "You won't hear many of your teachers say that! Do you have any questions?"

"No." they said in time.

"Good, now as first year students you will first learn to sense your magic and to move it. Then we teach you to use it. At the same time you'll be taking basic writing, math, and history. You will also take the minimum of one year defensive combat so that if in an emergency you’ll be able to defend yourself to some degree. You, Alec, will probably be given guard duty and they will place you in a rotation."

"We will start tomorrow after breakfast. Come up to the fifth floor and we'll make you nice and tired by the time we're done. Starting tomorrow you will be required to wear your robes at all times other than going to combat lessons. Then I suggest wearing the more sturdy clothes. Get a good night's sleep. You'll need it." Peter said as he got up and left, going to his quarters in the top of the tower.

Those two will make things interesting around here, he thought smiling to himself.

Alec and Christi stayed up for a while talking as they reclined back on the comfortable couches. They could both read, write and do math but it was obvious Christi could do them better having had private tutors since she was eight.

Alec sat with her answering her questions. For some reason he was extremely comfortable around her he realized. Normally if he had to talk to a girl and especially a pretty one he would have been stumbling all over his words. Alec felt so at ease one would have thought they’d known each other for years.

"So I've told you all about
me. Where did you grow up? Brothers? Sisters? What does your family do? How many magic users are in your family? Come on.  About the only thing I know about you is that your name is Christi and you don't really like Travis." Alec rattled off the questions
feeling a strange connection to her.

"So you do want to know me?" She asked playfully.

"OK, so I've two brothers both here but in the Martial school. They don't have the gift. We live in Kingston. My father is a merchant, sort of, and mother basically manages the accounts.”

“What?" She asked seeing the puzzled look on his face.

"A merchant, sort of?" Alec asked not really understanding.

"Oh, well my father's side is from a line of merchants trading in textiles. You know, wool, silk, and cotton, that sort for the most part. He also hires out doing guard transports and such. Mother’s side is minor nobility so she gets a small stipend from the crown. It's real small, but we get to go to all the grand parties."

"No other magic users then?"

"Not in my immediate family since my great grandfather, he was a low powered wizard. Anyway, I was tested like everyone in the families and found I have the gift, so here I am." She said stifling a yawn. "I think I should go to bed. I'll see you in the morning, OK" She got up from the couch quickly and headed for the steps then turned and smiled at him. "And no, I don't have a boyfriend, yet."

Then she was gone, leaving Alec with a confused look on his face that gradually turned into a smile. Alec headed to bed thinking of Christi and the way her lips came to a slight pout. He wondered what he'd have to do to get a kiss from her. She'd said she didn't have a boyfriend after all.

Chapter 9

The next morning Alec was up with the sun. He’d had a strange dream but couldn’t remember any of the details other than feeling very irritated. The feeling didn’t last long as he took in the view from his window in the tower, it was inspiring. He could see the top of the wall surrounding the school and beyond past the open field to where the forest started. The smell of a late night rain carried on the breeze which filled his room.

Alec headed to the bathing room behind their common room of the tower and drew a bath. The water came from two pipes up out of the floor, one fairly hot and the other cool. Soaking in the hot water to ease the muscles in his legs from riding the last three days Alec laid back to enjoy the soothing feeling. When he heard a single bell toll out he quickly scrubbed his hair and face and stood to wash everywhere else when he heard the door open behind him.

"Oh! Sorry! Sorry!" A high pitched slightly distressed voice called with the closing of the door.

He quickly finished washing and put his robe on then exited the bathroom where he found a less than flustered Christi waiting.

"You're supposed to lock the knob when you use the bath you know?" She had her hands on her hips like she was taking him to task but the smile on her face betrayed her.

"Sorry, we just knocked back home if the door was closed." Alec said blushing bright red.

"You'll have to remember to lock it here, unless you need help washing your back? Christi said as she slapped him on the rear while passing him.

She locked the door and leaned back against it. I can't believe I just did that. She thought to herself with a smile. It was a nice little butt though.

Alec was waiting for her in the parlor when she came back out. They went to get breakfast with a silence between them.

"Um, sorry about walking in on you Alec." Christi broke the ice.

"It's alright. I should have locked it like you said."

"So we're good then?"

"Yah, we're good."

"Say, did you take an actual bath this morning."

"Yah, why?" Alec was confused by the question.

"I'll show you how to use the shower this evening, you'll love it. And it's quicker."

She went on to explain what a shower was as they grabbed plates and got in line for food. James had told him the school sat near a hot spring that supplied hot water for most of it but hadn’t said anything about showers. They headed to an empty table to eat as Alec tripped on something landing hard on his knees sending his eggs and sausage flying to his face and hair. He looked back to see his breakfast covering Christi too and a grinning Travis.

"Just another clumsy peasant," Travis said with a mocking laugh, "just what we need. Hope you can do spells better than you walk farm boy!" Hamming it up for the others laughing with him.

Christi set her plate down and grabbed Alec’s hand leading him back to their tower with a scowl on her face. She marched strait to the bathroom behind the parlor area without a word and not letting go of him till they got there.

Alec ran up to his room and got a fresh robe then stopped in Christi's room and grabbed one off a hanger for her. Hangers, I'll have to get some of those, they'll keep the creases out of these stupid robes, he thought sitting down to wait. A short time later she stepped out of the bathroom wearing only a towel. It showed a lot of leg clear up to the thigh, which looked very nice and firm. Alec brought his eyes up to hers, noticing the tops of other nice assets, to see her smiling at him.

"Here, I got it off one of your hangers." He said handing her the robe.

She grabbed his hand pulling him into the bathroom and bent to show him how to turn on the shower and pulled the curtain. He paid enough attention to what she was saying but was more interested in her backside as she was bent over.

"Hurry up, Peter will be down soon." Christi pushed him behind the curtain.

"I'm not taking a shower with you out there!" Alec cried in panic.

"I've almost got this stupid robe on then I'll be out, just give me a minute, and no peeking!" She told him as she struggled to get the robe on.

Alec heard the door open and close. He quickly disrobed and showered, just coming out as Peter was coming down the steps.

"Morning." He said to them frowning at their wet heads.

"If you’re ready we’ll head on up?" He said gesturing to the steps. "We'll go to the fifth floor and to the last door on the left." He told them leading the way. They followed him into the room and took seats. The room was very neatly arranged with six chairs in a circle and tables at the back. The back wall was full of shelves, each with an assortment of things on each one.

"All right, the way this works is when I tell you to, close your eyes. Then shortly you'll feel me pull magic from inside you. You need to sense where the magic is being pulled from. I have a good idea what your limit is so will stop well before you burn out. When you get a good enough sense of where your magic is you'll start "feeling" how much there is within you. Christi, let’s start with you."

“Close your eyes and I'll start." He told her, handing Christi half of a large black opal that he’d pulled out of a pocket in his robe.

"Do you feel me pulling the magic?"

"Yah, I think so, it feels kind of warm."

"Good, now see if you can sense where it starts."

Five minutes later Alec was so bored he got up and grabbed one of the books off the low table at the back of the room. The book had a picture of an interconnected star with a circle around it. Above the star the book’s name was Practical Magic Usage. Without even a window in the room to draw his interest he then sat down and started reading. The star was called the Star of Elements and each point of the star was colored to represent each element leading out to the circle. The circle represented how each element connected with the others. Twenty minutes later and a quarter of the way through his book Peter and Christi opened their eyes.

Christi sat there blinking and looking like she had just woken up. Peter pulled a second stone from his pocket and held it to the one Christi had handed him back. A few seconds later he handed a small blue gem to her telling her it held the magic he had pulled from her.

"I think I could tell where my well was!" She told Peter with excitement.

"That was the outer shell of it, my dear. When you find the center of your well, you'll know. Trust me," he said, and then turned to Alec with a smile. “I see you’ve found a way to pass the time. Which one are you reading?"

"Practical Magic Usage, sir." Alec responded.

"Peter."

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Call me Peter when we're working in the tower, please Alec."

"OK, sorry."

"Are you ready?" Peter asked holding out one half of the black Opel.

"I think so." He said taking the stone and closing his eyes.

"Do you feel that?"

"Yes." It felt like a warm ray of sun shine laying on his arm and running to his chest.

"Good, concentrate and see if you can sense where it's being pulled from."

Alec started at his hand that held the opal. He could feel his power leaving his hand and going into the opal. He started feeling his way back up his arm, tracing the power. When it got to his shoulder he thought he'd lost it, but then realized that unlike his arm where the power was just under the skin, at his shoulder it turned inward and traveled to the center of it.

He traced it through his chest to the spot just above where the ribs come together at the bottom of the sternum.  Alec felt all around it, it was like thick syrup but the magic came
from inside it. Alec tried concentrating harder and pushed his way through the thick part.

"Doing good, now go to the very center," said a voice seeming from far away. "That is your well."

It felt like a huge cavern but Alec didn't feel like it was full of magic. Off in the distance he felt something pulling him. He let it drag him to the center of his well. There in the center was a ball of swirling red and blue all lined with a white coating. It pulsed in time with his heart and seemed to be slowly shrinking.

As he got closer it suddenly latched on to him drawing him in. Alec tried to pull back in a panic as it dragged his consciousness closer and closer.

The voice sounded again. "It's OK, let it pull you in, it's trying to help you. It won't start to fill your well till you accept it."

Alec's consciousness merged with the power and the power merged with him, filling every inch of his body with an almost unbearable heat. It coursed back and forth from his feet to the top of his head. As suddenly as it had happened it stopped leaving him in a cool colorless void that was so calm, so relaxing, and so perfect.

There was only him and a need, a want that came from deep within. The need to grow, it seemed to be asking for permission. Alec told it to grow and it did, pouring out through the center of his entire being. It felt like he was floating on a sea of air and he let himself relax with in it.

Smack! "Come on boy, wake up." Smack! Something hit his cheek.

"Ow!" He cried opening his eyes and grabbed his cheek.

Christi was shaking her hand with an evil little smile on her face. 

"You reached your power. After being consumed by it, it normally takes external stimulation to bring someone out of it," Peter told him. "Normally we don't slap them silly," he said looking meaningfully at Christi.