When Sebastian came to, Owdel was standing over him. “Like I said boy, unpleasant. Your trinket works in case you were wondering.” He hefted the stone disk, it had gone from a round flat stone to an perfectly round flat disk covered in faint, intricate filigree. As Sebastian tried to stand, Owdel activated it and it lit up brightly, shining an even white light across the room.

Sebastian groaned, then glared at Owdel. “Unpleasant? Unpleasant?! I thought I was going to die! Why didn’t you warn me? Forget it, I don’t want to be an enchanter anymore, I’ll be a healer.”

Owdel laughed scornfully, “Did you expect magic to give you a free and easy ride? There is a price for everything in life, and if you are afraid of a little pain then you had better start packing, because the least painful option for you that still involves using magic is to learn ritual magic.” He elaborated when Sebastian’s expression shifted to confusion, “You think the pain of enchanting was too much for you? To be a healer you would feel the pain of every illness or injury you healed in its entirety while you healed it. Imagine a lifetime of feeling the pain of stab wounds, gashes, sicknesses, and more. So either deal with it, or go to the city to learn how to cast large scale spells in a group.”

Sebastian was silent while he tried to process that unexpected bit of knowledge. Wow, being a healer sounds terrible. That’s a tough trade off though, occasional bouts of intense pain whenever I enchant something, or go to the city to learn to be a power source for someone else’s magic. Sebastian also noted that Owdel said least painful, not painless. If he was going to have to deal with pain anyways, then he might as well stick to enchanting, since the thought of working magic that caused him pain at the behest of some random mage whose primary qualification was that he was older than Sebastian was even more distasteful than learning to just live with the pain that enchanting would cause him.

His acceptance into the Guild meant he only had the three options too, the moment he had been listed as a novice and taken from the draft lists his future had been firmly set on the path of magic. Should he try to flee, the guild would declare him a rogue mage and he didn’t like his chances of living a peaceful life with that kind of label. He heaved out a sigh and sagged into the tattered chair he had claimed. Well at least I know what to expect now, and have an idea of how to do it. He ran his hand through his hair while he thought about it. Who knows? Maybe I’ll figure out a way to make it not hurt so bad.

He frowned at Owdel’s smug expression, but the old mage just flipped him the light disk and left the room without another word. Sebastian took a closer look at his first ever enchanted item, the faint runic swirls that flowed across it were captivating. They also served no purpose he could figure out. He could feel the spell now that it was in his hand and the mana in the stone felt evenly distributed, turning it on and off didn’t have any discernible effects on the patterns either.

This was definitely going to bother him until he figured it out. There had to be a reason for the pattern’s presence other than just cosmetic changes. He needed more information about how runic patterns formed during enchantment. Which was going to be unpleasant since Owdel was less than helpful and the nearest enchanter he could ask was at least several days travel from here through dangerous wilderness and only slightly less dangerous frontier towns. That left him with only one real way to learn more about it, enchant more things to get more samples. He sighed again and rubbed his temples to ease the lingering headache from his first little foray into enchanting.

He got up and went to the library to start researching some of the ideas he had noted down. Some of them would be much easier to make than others, and some would be impossible. Of course, some were dismissed out of hand, primarily anything to do with summoning demons or monsters, and the things that seemed more dangerous to the user than anything else. The one he was leaning towards doing first was a ring that would slow a fall down and prevent injury.

His first thought was to just use wind, a focused upward draft of wind with enough strength should be able to slow a fall. Then he found an Ancient book titled Physics. Before he knew it, he was lost in the book, all thoughts of enchanted items forgotten. It was fascinating, and while he didn’t understand most of the math in it, he was able to grasp most of the concepts it covered. There was a definite appeal to focusing his magic and enchanting on forces and effects that would be invisible to the naked eye.

When he finally managed to pry himself away from the book it was long past dinner time. He stood and stretched, then reverently put the book back in its place on the shelf before heading downstairs to see what he could scrounge up to snack on. He found some leftover stew and didn’t even bother heating it back up. He just wolfed down a bowl before trudging up to his room where he collapsed on the bed, suddenly exhausted from the long day and promptly fell asleep.

It felt like he had been asleep for less than ten minutes when he was roughly shaken awake by Owdel. “Get up and make breakfast boy, got a testee today so make enough for three people.”

Sebastian groaned, but started to get up, wondering who was getting tested. At least I’ll be able to get down to the blacksmith earlier than I had expected. I should probably have paid more attention to the people my age, that would have told me who it is. He shrugged as he got to the kitchen and started frying some bacon, then went into the pantry to see if they had any eggs. Finding some he went and started scrambling them while idly muttering thanks to the townsfolk that kept the tower’s pantry stocked.

The smell of frying bacon helped him finish waking up, and he made some toast to snack on while he waited for Owdel to finish the testing so he didn’t eat it all. He chuckled at the sound of the door crashing open and Owdel shouting at the ‘girl’ to get inside. Seems the old man had his own tradition of traumatizing the people he had to test, and the older townsfolk probably intentionally didn’t mention it as a bit of a prank.

He started plating up the food as he heard them enter the testing room, figuring it wouldn’t take long, Owdel had told him his test had taken an unusual amount of time and that most of the time it was done in a minute or two. He sat down and started eating, having gotten used to not standing on ceremony after living with Owdel. He was interrupted though by a strangled shout, his curiosity piqued, he set his food aside and went over to the test chamber. When he opened the door he was astonished to see Owdel laughing hysterically while, of all people, Sarah Miller stood there looking confused by the outburst. Then he saw the sphere, which he should have noticed right away, glowing very nearly as bright as it had for him, only it had taken him nearly an hour to get it that bright. She couldn’t have had more than a minute or so of contact with it.

Owdel saw him enter and shouted, “Boy! Let me introduce you to my new apprentice!” He gestured grandly in Sarah’s direction then in a more normal tone and volume, “What was your name again girl? No matter, Apprentice, this is Sebastian, an aspiring enchanter.” Like usual his tone was filled with disdain as he mentioned enchanters. “Anyways! Breakfast! Then we will begin your training.” With that impressive display of non-existent social skills, he started shooing them out of the room.

Sebastian just shook his head and didn’t say anything, preferring to just go and finish his meal. Of all the people in town to have magic, why Sarah? He had always been something of a loner and outcast, while she was always surrounded by friends and more recently, suitors vying for her attention. Sebastian freely admitted to himself that she was beautiful, her long auburn hair and shapely figure drew his eye as easily as it drew the eye of everyone else their age, he didn’t really care though, trying to be part of the popular crowd was far too much work, and came with too much drama.

He ate quickly, ignoring the stream of instructions and demands Owdel was already issuing to his new apprentice. As soon as he was finished he hurried out to the forge to talk to the blacksmith. As he got there he belatedly realized he didn’t have any money on him whatsoever. Oh well, at the very least I can try to talk him into making some stuff for me by promising payment later, or maybe offer to help him in exchange for stuff.

The man was just lighting his forge when Sebastian approached him, and he greeted him with a broad grin, “Ho there, Sebastian! Congratulations on your acceptance into the guild! What brings you way out here to my corner of the town again? Surely you don’t still want an apprenticeship?”

Sebastian found himself grinning back at the man, “No, I think I’ll be sticking with magic for now sir. I was just hoping you could make some things for me, see I’ve decided to be an enchanter, and I find myself in dire need of things to enchant.”

“None of that sir nonsense, Seb! You’re a mage now, call me Sam, and I’ll do my best making anything you need for your magic. It would be an honor to help the first mage our town has produced in decades!”

Sebastian shook his head a bit, still grinning. It was just plain impossible to dislike the man, before Sebastian was found to have magic, the apprenticeship he wanted most was with the smithy. “I’m rather short on money right now, but I’ll happily work around here, or pay you later for anything you make for me.”

Sam gave Sebastian a clearly faked horrified expression, “I wouldn’t dream of making our town’s only native-born mage pay for my work, it will be more than enough payment having my work used to make magic items! Magic items with my forge mark on them? That’s nearly priceless!”

Sebastian grimaced a bit at the ‘only native mage’ bit, “Not the only one anymore actually. Sarah Miller was tested this morning, and Owdel has claimed her as his apprentice.”

Sam’s eyes went wide, then he chortled, “Her mother is going to be livid! Hahaha oh, that’s going to be a great sight to see!” Sarah’s mother was the town’s best seamstress, and it was well known that she intended to have Sarah as her apprentice and eventual successor. Mages were simply too valuable however, and magic ability superseded things like the parent’s wishes.

Sebastian found Sam’s mirth infectious. He couldn’t help but feel that Sarah living in the tower was inviting entirely too much drama into his life, but the thought of her mother’s reaction to the news that her daughter, whom she had groomed to take her place since she was old enough to hold a needle or work a loom, was no longer going to be her apprentice and that there was absolutely nothing she could do about it was priceless. Still, he had things he wanted to do, and the books in the library were calling to him, so he gave Sam a list of things he wanted to have for enchanting.

Sam gave him a few things he had on hand, like a couple simple rings and a few smooth iron rods. The rings had been intended for a set of ring mail for one of the guards, but Sam had used fewer than he expected and had some left over, and the iron rods were mostly just bar stock that had been clipped short when making something that didn’t need the entire bar. After saying his farewells, Sebastian went back to the tower to immerse himself in the Ancient’s “Science” magic.