The stars shone in the dark heavens like the eyes of some distant beasts, and cold winds blew above the waves. It was almost midnight but the sailors on the upper deck of the galley didn’t stop rowing even in this hour. There were nearly three hundred of them and they worked in shifts. Ehrir quickly grew to know that.

The Undone One was sitting on a chair in Sevrian’s cabin. The room was illuminated through lamps with strange flames within them. They didn’t give off warmth, just bright light in unnatural colors. He already swept by the deckhouse a couple of hours ago, but the old man sent him away and said that he was busy. Later then he visited Ehrir’s cabin on the lower deck and asked him to come with him. Now it was finally time for their first lesson.

Sevrian was smiling as calmly as when he offered Ehrir to be his disciple. He began talking slowly and clearly.

“So, let’s start from the very beginning”, he said while opening the big tome placed on the table before him. There were strange runes on its black cover. “Do you have any knowledge of the fundamental basis of magic?”

Ehrir shook his head.

“Well, then I’ll explain it as simply as possible.” The old man started flipping through the pages of the book. “Every living being, be it human, animal or a plant, has a soul and a body. The soul is believed by most to be the very essence of their being that’s also immortal, while the body is just a vessel for that essence and generally doesn’t last long. The ancient sorcerers from the age of the Emhaelic civilization concluded – after an extensive research – that this really is the truth and the body and soul are separable, although no one knows where the soul goes after the death of its “shell”, so to speak. However, that is not the case when it comes to magicians. Our bodies and souls are fused together. That gives us the chance to use the energy of our spirit and manifest it in the physical world, and that is what the common folk refers to as magic. It is also what you’ve been doing ever since you awakened this power and it can be pretty easy after the first time. Do you understand everything I said? Any questions? You don’t have to answer me immediately. I know it’s a lot to swallow at once.”

Ehrir followed the old man’s advice and went quiet. The new information in this bunch of sentences uttered by Sevrian was a lot indeed. He tried to process it as quickly as possible and soon few questions came to his mind. He didn’t hesitate to ask them directly.

“How do our souls and bodies get fused together? And if they are one, what happens to the spirit after the flesh it inhabits dies?”

Sevrian didn’t answer right away, but when he started talking, his expression was more serious and the wrinkles upon his face looked deeper.

“I can’t give an answer to your second question. No one knows what happens after we die. That is true for both normal people and mages. But I can tell you what causes one to have their spirit merge with their flesh. It’s usually a traumatizing event, you see… Or a near-death experience, perhaps. Some sorcerers say that the fusing happens when the soul is ready to leave its vessel, but the body lashes back at it with its will to live. It’s a very strange concept… I myself can’t understand it very well. The fusing happens so fast, after all, and usually at an early age. It’s hard to grasp it.”

“I… I see. Continue, please.”

“Well, if you are so hesitant, I’ll do with pleasure”, said Sevrian without averting his gaze from the pages of the ancient book. He was staring at it since he began talking. “The soul itself is speculated to be something out of this realm and the energy it creates is just an aftereffect of it touching the physical world. Because of that the might of the spirit is unlimited and can’t be exhausted as it is created every second. However, you shouldn’t try to use magic without stopping as it will immensely tax your physical body… Ah, here it is. This is a rough sketch, depicting what somebody who uses magic without stopping looks like.” Sevrian flipped the book so Ehrir could take a look at it. On the yellowy parchment with colorful inks was crudely drawn a very skinny, bald man with wrinkles all over his face. His eyes were bloodshot and there were strangely looking wounds all over his body. His mouth was gaping wide open. There wasn’t a single tooth in it. Ehrir felt a slight disgust while looking at the drawing, but the old man soon closed the massive tome. Then he pulled a pipe and a small pouch with tobacco from the pockets of his garb. He filled the pipe and lit it up with a small flame from his finger. Ehrir watched the creation of this strand of fire with intense look on his face. It was the first actual magic he had seen Sevrian do.

The old man put the pipe between his teeth – what remained of them, anyway – and started smoking joyfully. Ehrir didn’t dare to interrupt him, but soon the sorcerer spoke by himself.

“Now that I’ve explained you the origin of magic, I will introduce you to the basic terms used by mages. The oldest record dividing magic into disciplines that I’ve seen was at least two thousand years old and there are probably many that are even more ancient. The main fields of study when it comes to sorcery are Creation, Destruction, Conquering, Manipulation and Control. Your power to change things falls under the category of Manipulation, although it’s still very basic. There are numerous lesser subjects into any of these broad categories and most mages specialize in just one of them. I, for example, am a defensive type of wizard and I am quite good at creating fields and barriers which is usually regarded as a Creation type of skill…”

At this point Ehrir couldn’t help but ask the question that was stirring up within him ever since he heard the names of the different fields of magic.

“But why do I have a talent in this particular kind of magic? Does everyone start out in a different field of sorcery?” he asked abruptly.

Sevrian shook his head intensely before he started speaking again.

“You and the other Undone Ones are an exception. One of few exceptions, actually. That’s because most Changelings are experts when it comes to Manipulation. I’m unfamiliar with the ritual they use to extend their lives – the same one that leaves people like you after it has ended. This process is the great secrets of their… caste is probably the right word. Well, whatever. What I was trying to say is that they probably use Manipulation for the ritual and that probably changes your body and indirectly your soul, as it can’t be directly influenced by this field of wizardry. The changes had their effect on your spirit and made you good at Manipulation when it was fused with your flesh. That is my understanding of it, at least. My mentor’s knowledge is supreme to mine and he will probably be able to explain things to you a whole lot better. To say it shortly – a normal new sorcerer would be like a blank sheet of paper, with small potential in all fields. However, you have a bigger talent in one discipline and smaller ones at all the others. I wouldn’t say it is necessarily a bad thing – under the right master you can develop in all kinds of magic, you’ll just be naturally better at Manipulation.”

Ehrir could just nod as an answer.

The old man had a lot to tell and hours went by while he and Ehrir sat in his room at the deckhouse. The Undone One got familiar with the strange basis of magic very quick and the new knowledge filled his head up and gave him a headache of monstrous proportions. He learned why he couldn’t make precious metals (he had to have more power and additional knowledge in the field of alchemy) and why he couldn’t transform soft substances into hard ones or gases into solid matter (he needed more power and control over it, of course). He learned that he only changed Rahel’s bones into flesh because at the moment of awakening his magic powers he had immense control over his own spirit energy. He learned all that and countless more things. Additionally, he received a promise that he would be taught Emhaelic and also the common tongue used on the other side of the Cargaen Sea. The old man’s knowledge – not only when it came to magic – seemed as deep and vast as the sea beneath them and Ehrir could only wonder how wise would Sevrian’s master be. He received the impression that this shadowy figure of whom the sorcerer talked with great respect was much older and powerful than him. And Sevrian already seemed at least eighty years old. The Undone One could only imagine how mummified would this master look like.

***

At the break of dawn, when the sun still hadn’t risen from the horizon and the windows of the cabin were filled with gracious pink light, a loud knock woke Ehrir up.

He and Sevrian had both fallen asleep in their chairs. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to take long naps and Ehrir felt stiff. His old scars and the Brand ached.

On the other side of table the old man was also waking up. At that moment the knock on the door repeated. Sevrian looked at it with disdain. Then he saw Ehrir.

“Oh, you’re still here. Good. Please, go and tell the ones knocking on that door to return later. It’s probably the captain, he’s a weird sort of bugger and I can’t deal with his stupidity right now”, said he with a sleepy tone in his voice. It was clear as day that he wasn’t done with sleeping.

Ehrir nodded and got up slowly. The stiffness went away quickly and he started walking towards the door of the cabin. Meanwhile the bangs got louder. His step quickened.

He opened the door with an abrupt movement and the light from outside flooded in. It blinded him for a moment but after a few blinks his sight recovered. A strange scene appeared before him.

Before him stood two people – a young man and woman, both dressed in simple dark sea jerkins and pants. There were green headbands on their heads. They looked a lot like each other – they both had the same well-defined jaws and sharp noses, the same raven hair and icy blue eyes. But their identical look wasn’t the strange thing.

The legs of the girl were missing up until the middle of her thighs and she was sitting in a strange looking chair with wheels on both sides of it. The young man was behind her and he was probably pushing the chair to move it, but one could see the bizarre scars covering his neck and arms. They were way deeper than those on Ehrir’s abdomen and much more numerous. The Undone One could only ask himself what happened to those two.

The man spoke first and there were sparks of suspicion in his eyes.

“Who are you?” he said without hesitation. His voice was as strong as steel and as icy as his eyes. “Where is our master?”

He was loud enough to be heard by Sevrian and the old man looked at the door with soft happiness in his eyes.

“I’m here.” His voice boomed from the inside of the cabin. “Ehrir, let them enter.”

The Undone One stepped away from the door and watched as the man and woman entered the cabin. The girl in the chair laid her gaze on him and nodded with an emotionless expression. He couldn’t guess why.

Meanwhile a wide smile had surged up on Sevrian’s face. He waited calmly for everyone to take position within the room and then began talking.

“Well, if that isn’t a pleasant surprise! I’m happy to see you, my young friends. A lot of things happened here. Most importantly – I have a new disciple besides you. He is that cheerful man over there. His name is Ehrir. Ehrir, those are Varhel and his sister Nalia. They are also my disciples and have been on a…”

“Master, I’m sorry to interrupt, but there are urgent news you need to hear.” The man – Varhel – spoke suddenly and quickly. There was a worried expression on his face.

Sevrian’s expression became serious all of a sudden.

“Then go on and speak.”

The young man nodded.

“Master, a giant storm is moving towards us. It’s more than unusual for this part of the sea and this part of the year, but the galley can certainly survive it without damage. The worse thing is that within the storm is moving a ship of massive proportions. And on its flag is the sign of the Pirates of the Purple Flame!”