Magic is the flow of energy that holds Temberlon together. It flows through everything and everyone. People can harness that flow and direct it to their own desires, but to achieve this the flow must be activated by light.

Chad found himself, yet again, working on crop duty. He was the best at green magic and therefore usually ended up walking between the rows of corn, beans, potatoes, and other, smaller crops all spring, enchanting them to grow a little bit bigger, a little bit faster. In fact, he was the best in the village of Fresh Springs at most kinds of magic. But as a farmer from a family of farmers, he always had to use his magic in boring ways. Right now it was crop duty. During planting season he had to help shift the soil to make it easier to plow, and drift the water to help it flow more swiftly to the fields. “There is always a practical use for magic on a farm,” was one of his father’s favorite sayings and, so far, despite Chad’s 19 years of trying, he had not been able to prove him wrong.

At one point Chad had dreamed of getting chosen by a recruiting party from Lord Ferdinand’s Academy of the Knowledge and Practice of the Art known as Magic (usually shortened to “The Academy”). However, the village of Fresh Springs was near the southernmost border of Landrea on the edge of Nargorn forest where few recruiting parties ever came. The last time a recruiting party had come through was 13 years ago when Chad was still too young to be recruited.

Recruiting parties usually accepted candidates 12-16 years old, but they might bump the upper limit to 18 years old if the pickings were slim. So Chad’s chance of studying at The Academy was now gone and he was having to face the fact that he would be a Fresh Springs farmer for the rest of his life. He had a good life and his mother kept telling him he would be content “if only you would get married.” But he wanted something more than that. He wanted to see more of Landrea and learn more magic. He wanted to learn better spells of enchanting that would last longer so he didn’t have to keep doing them day after day. He wanted to learn new spells of shifting and drifting that would cause the fields to plow and irrigate themselves. But for now he was stuck telling the plants to “grow” over and over again.

Somewhere around the 200th growth spell that morning, as Chad was approaching Nargorn forest between rows of corn, he saw smoke rising about a kilometer away within the woods. He quickly drifted his voice to the house to raise the alarm, knowing that his family would alert the rest of the village and follow him shortly. Worried about the fire, he cast a spell of drifting that he had discovered on his own. As he began running, wind started pushing him in the small of his back, causing his speed to increase. He knew that such an inhuman speed could kill him if he made a wrong step in the forest, but he had practiced here unseen by friends or family, and he was more concerned about the fire spreading than about his own safety.

“How did a fire start so far into the woods,” Chad thought after he had been running for a minute without any sign of the fire except the smoke billowing out of the trees. Shortly afterwards, he started to see flames ahead. As he approached, the heat from the flames became intense and almost unbearable. He wished that he had taken the time to figure out a spell of warding against flames and heat, but he couldn’t have known he would ever face this situation. Stray fire was dangerous near a forest, so the people of Fresh Springs were always vigilant and put out any fires long before they got this big. He knew some spells of blazing to put out fire—everyone in the village did—but to use them, he had to be closer to the base of the flames. As he braced himself to try and get closer, he noticed burnt corpses of what looked like wolves in the flames and he heard a scream for help coming from somewhere on the other side. Upon hearing the screams, he dashed forward to within a meter of the fire and said “snuff,” the action that he had locked to the spell of blazing he used to put out flames.

The flames within a 3 meter radius of him vanished, but were soon replaced by more from the surrounding fire. He realized that he was not going to be able to stop the fire by himself with that level of magic. He needed more light and he needed to be in the center of the fire. He dashed towards the screams heedless of what he might be getting himself into and hoping that there was enough light there for the amount of magic that he needed to cast. He ran forward, constantly saying “snuff” to clear the way.

Suddenly, he ran through a ward and found himself in a small clearing with the sun directly overhead. With him in the clearing were several people lying unconscious. A man of about 25 years was standing in the middle of the clearing facing away from Chad with his arms outstretched. There was also a young woman, about Chad’s own age, kneeling over an unconscious old man. Both the woman and man were wearing black robes, had black topped staffs clutched in their right hands, and the light around them seemed dark in an odd sort of way.

As Chad stumbled through the ward, the woman looked up, startled, and said “who are—” but before she could finish Chad flung his arms wide and croaked “snuff.” Instantly he felt power flow through him like never before. Then, he blacked out.

Chad awoke in his parents bed to the sound of raised voices in the other room.

“—how much fire there was it must have been at least a level 3,” a woman was saying.

“Incredible!” replied the voice of an older man.

“There is no way an untrained lad could have pulled off such a spell. You are practically calling him a druid. There must not have been as much fire as you say there was, Selena. With a spell that strong at least some of the flames should have turned black at the moment of casting. I am sure that you are mistaken because you were too busy healing wizard Ferdinandson,” returned a different man’s voice.

“Oh!? And how do you know this, Edward? If I recall, you were facing the opposite direction AND were so wrapped up in maintaining your ward that you wouldn’t have noticed if a crow landed in that nest you call hair,” replied the original speaker, who was apparently called Selena.

“Nest? How dare you—”

“OH! And one more thing, what if I told you that the flames didn’t turn black because he is a high level mage? I would guess that he is at least a level 8.”

“Quiet!” cut in the old man, “both of you please shut—”

At that point the conversation died down and Chad couldn’t hear it any more. After waiting a little bit, Chad called out, “Hello!? Who are you and why are you in my house?”

In response to his call, three people entered the room. All three were wearing fine robes and carrying staffs. They were the three individuals he had noticed as he entered the clearing, but now the young man’s robe was blue and the robes of the old man and woman were indigo.

“Good evening. I am wizard Ferdinandson,” said the older man. He looked every bit the stereotypical wizard. He had a long gray beard and long gray hair that flowed over his robes. Despite this, Chad realized he could not be over 50. “This is abecedarian healer, Selena Yellowborn. You can call her Selena.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” chimed in Selena. She looked like any young woman from the village with her hair braided and held in place with leather straps. However, her skin and hair were a shade darker than anyone he had ever met before, like the stories he had heard about the people who lived on the north sea.

“And this,” continued wizard Ferdinandson, indicating the younger man, “is abecedarian warder Edward Smith. You can call him—”

“He can call me,” the young man interrupted, “‘Darian Smith.” ‘Darian Smith was tall and if Chad’s mother ever encountered him she would complain about him being skin and bone. His skin was...very pink, like he normally never went outside but recently had spent too much time outdoors. He had tightly curled brown hair that did, in fact, resemble a nest.

“Always a snob about his title,” murmured Selena.

“I heard that!” cried ‘Darian Smith.

“And who,” continued wizard Ferdinandson, ignoring the comments of the other two, “do we have the honor of meeting?”

“Oh, r-r-right,” mumbled Chad, “I am Chad Lawrence's son. I'm a farmer!”

“Oh, we know,” replied wizard Ferdinandson with a smile, “we are after all in your house... on a farm.” His face grew more solemn as he continued. “There is something I would like to talk to you about, lad. According to Selena you saved us with a very impressive display of magic. Now I understand from your parents that you are too old to be recruited by The Academy. Lucky for you, we are not a recruiting party. As a wizard, I have the ability to administer the test to become an apprentice. I would be willing to give you that test. But be warned that if you take it, you will forever be listed in The Academy's records as a rejected layman if you fail or an apprentice if you pass. And, if you do pass, you will be bound to The Academy for six years or until you reach the level of abecedarian, whichever comes first. One last thing, you would be one of the oldest apprentices and would have to submit to abecedarians and masters who are younger than you. That, in itself, can be a challenge before you even start your studies.

“We are leaving to return to The Academy the morning after next once some of the members of our party have had time to recuperate. You have until tomorrow at sundown to decide if you would like to attempt the test and possibly join us. Until then, Edward, Selena, make yourselves available to Chad and answer any questions he might have.”

With that, wizard Ferdinandson turned to leave. As he was walking out the door, he called over his shoulder, “Good bye and good luck.”

As soon as wizard Ferdinandson had left, Edward started to follow him. “I am going to get some fresh air. I'll be outside if you need anything.”

Selena turned to Chad and said “Don't mind him—” and that was all Chad caught because at that moment, he noticed Selena's eyes. They were a light, gray-blue and clear as the desert sky. They were a stark contrast from her brown hair, and very mesmerizing. After a moment, he realized that he was staring and looked away embarrassed.

“Well, it is good to have that out of the way,” she said. “Don't worry. Everybody stares when they first notice my eyes. It is just the nature of things.

“As I was saying about Edward, don't mind him. He is really very nice and you will never find a more trustworthy and dedicated friend. However, he is a little ashamed that we had to be saved by a layman mage. You see, he is very skilled but he is only a level 1 mage. So, he has had to work harder than most to get to where he is. For him to be saved by an unskilled, no offense meant, high level mage is a little disheartening to him. By the way, do you know what level mage you are?”

“No,” replied Chad, “I didn't even know mages had levels. What is a level?”

“A mage's level determines how much light is needed to do a certain amount of magic. For example, I think you are at least a level 8, which would mean you could perform the same level of magic as Edward with only an 8th of the light.”

“Is that good? What level are you?”

“It is not polite to ask a mage's level. It could be used against them.”

“Sorry. Then why did you tell me Edward's level?”

“Um.... I'll let your ignorance slide this time. I am a level 4. The Wizard is a level 2, I don't think he would mind me telling you because it can be found in any wizard's public record.”

“The Wizard?”

“Oh, wizard Ferdinandson. We all call him 'the Wizard' behind his back because 'wizard Ferdindandson' is such a mouthful. Anyways, were there any questions you wanted to ask me?”

“Yes, actually I—”

“Do you have anything I can eat while we talk? I'm famished!”

“There should be some bread in the box by the stove. May I ask my question now?”

“Sure,” Selena said as she went to get the bread. “I'm all ears!”

“Apparently not ALL ears,” Chad mumbled as Selena took a huge bite of bread. “My question is: what were you guys doing out in the woods? Why was everyone unconscious? How did the fire start? And why were you and 'Darian Smith wearing black in the forest?”

“Well,” replied Selena, “technically that is four questions not one, but they will all fit into one story. Also, I can't believe you are making me tell you right now.I wanted to eat.”