Dan

“Hey boy! You alright?” Vicar pokes me on the cheek while I stand frozen from the news that I just received.

“Zaif! You broke the boy already. Couldn’t you have subtly given this news to him? You know how fragile human kids are.” Vicar complains to master with disappointment in his voice but who is paying attention to him. My head is filled with other thoughts.

Thoughts such as, I am going to be a magician. The only time I have known myself to be a magician is in my wildest dreams. Imagining how cool I would look and how famous and popular I would be if were a magician.

In all honesty I thought that master was going to teach me blacksmith skills or carpentry skills. Heck I even thought that he might teach me to be a book keeper but never did I thought that he would teach me magic.

Magic? Really?

“Can you please repeat that master I did not hear you correctly.” I ask to confirm it.

Vicar sighs in resign while master replies me, “I am going to teach you magic.”

And once again I am all out of words. I could hear master say that again and again and it still would not stop surprising me. I could see all my imaginations and wild dreams coming true. I begin to feel excited.

But all excitement quickly went away when reality struck me. How can master teach me magic? I have never sensed anything special in me that I can call magic.

Heck! Before master Zaif saved me I was on the verge of dying and if I had magic I would have used it then. Right? But I didn’t. Which means that I don’t have magic in me.

Maybe he is wrong. Or worse. Mistaken. Will he kick me out after realizing that? Will I once again be out in the streets with no one to look after me?

“Master… I am not sure that… I have…magic in me.” I say to him but the words hardly leave my mouth and once they did, they left a bitter taste on my tongue.

“Preposterous, boy. If Zaif has said it then you have magic in you kid. Did you had a magician in your family?” Vicar asks me.

“No. I was from a family of merchants and traders. We had only ever seen magicians or had dealings with them.” I reply him honestly and it convinced me more that master was mistaken. I feel my chest tighten as my dreams fade away.

“Never mind that Vicar. Despite what people believe, a magician’s capability is not dependent on the magician’s linage.” Master says calmly and gently. Eventhough I have always seen master speak like that. However, right now, master’s words, his gentle tone and his calm demeanor had a soothing impact on me as if they are washing away my worries and fear.

“Then what is it dependent on?” I blurt out the question springing in my mind. I did not want to be rude but master’s statement gave me hope.

My master doesn’t mind my rude impatience and answers gently in his soothing voice, “It depends upon a person’s soul.”

But that doesn’t make any sense. My soul is the same so how can I be a magician now.

“Ask your questions boy.” Vicar says to me.

“I have never felt magic in me before so how can I do it now?” I voice my doubts.

“Dan. What do you think magic is?” Master Zaif asks me while looking at me curiously.

Hmm! what is magic? My knowledge about magicians come from the tales my mother use to tell me and from what I heard out on the streets.

“Magic is something with which a person can do what others cannot like create water or fire, throw lightening or freeze water or raise earth or heal somebody. To do all that a magician requires a wand or staff.” I answer him with all the knowledge I had about magicians.

Master looks at Vicar with a frown on his face looking confused and says, “Vicar. Is this really what is known about magicians these days?”

Vicar indifferently shrugs his shoulder and replies, “How am I suppose to know what methods those idiots are using now. Who knows what new ways they follow in this era. It changes every time. Perhaps you should tell the boy what it really is.”

Master nods understandingly and starts explaining, “It is true that magicians can do all that but it is not necessary to require another medium to use magic. That is not what magic truly is. The people have got it all wrong. They say that a few possess magic but little do they know that everybody possess magic.”

I did not understand what master meant when he said something about medium to use magic. Nor do I understand how can everybody has magic because if they can then why are there so little magicians.

However I was not about to rudely interrupt master again. Especially when I can see that while master is explaining me about magic Vicar ran towards his desk, picked up his quill and started writing. From what I can tell he is writing down everything what master is telling me.

Master continues, “However only a few of them possess the ability to use magic and even that they are doing it wrong. Ability to use magic comes from a person’s soul. Every soul is unique but not all souls has the capability to use magic. It needs to be mature enough to understanding the workings of nature.”

Master is saying a lot of things but most of them are going over my head. However I am listening with full focus hoping that I might be able to understand it later.

“How does a soul mature enough to use magic.” Vicar asks while raising his head from writing whatever master is saying.

“To make the soul capable of using magic a very strong magician or a group of magicians are required to interfere with the soul of the person when the vessel is young. This method works but if the soul was not originally strong enough to use magic then the magician will not be a strong one. The other method is to let the soul take its course and mature on its own.”

Vicar writes it down while I understood some of it. But no magician has ever done anything to me.

“Do not worry yourself how you got it. Instead you should be thinking on how to use it.” Master says to me gently and he is right. Who cares how I got the ability to use magic? I got magic and that is enough for me.

“Now go. We will begin your training tomorrow at dawn.” Master says to me and I leave excitedly awaiting tomorrow. Seeing how gentle master is, I am sure his training would be easy or fun.

* * * * *

Vicar

I watch as the boy goes back with a spring in his step which he didn’t had when he came with me.

“Zaif. None of those things happened to the boy. Did it?” I ask him curiously.

“No.” He replies while looking at the wall of the library, probably still keeping an eye on the boy.

“Then what did happen to him?” I ask inquisitively.

He does not reply me for a while and just stand there.

He speaks after a while, “There is another way which is not known to anyone because hardly anyone survive it.”

“Why would they not survive it?” I ask him.

“Because they do not have that strong a will to live which is required.” Zaif replies and I write it down because hearing about magic from magic itself is really something to be written down.

“Why is that? Who would not have a will to live?” I asks curiously while still writing on my paper and quill.

“A child on his deathbed. He would rather give in to the solace of rest rather than fight with all that he has. Which is why when they survive they are bound to make changes. Because they had the will to fight off death and snatch away from him their soul to live.”

“Is that why you favor the boy so much.” I ask him.

“That’s one reason. Yes.” He replies calmly.