16

Gael dreamed that he returned to the castle and it was empty, there was hardly any furniture left and his father and mother were old, it had taken him too long to become a good magician, a great man, he was late. It was not a nightmare but the boy woke up distressed and in a bad mood. Rilcar was snoring soundly, while the first rays of light began to illuminate the sky.

He did not wait for his master to wake up, he began to practice with the ice blade, after four attempts it still took him ten seconds to cast the spell. Reducing and internalizing each step was a slow process to advance. He sat down exhausted to read about the wind blade, it was similar to the one he had made, but it was smaller, and it spun faster, the mobility of the wind meant that only a little willpower was needed to stabilize the shape of the blade, and not so much to propel it.

Rilcar woke up, and saw the boy reading.

"Good morning apprentice Mark"

"Good morning master... why are there only three spells of each type of energy?"

"Do you know what the requirements are to pass the school exam?"

"I don't know, I only know that my mother doesn't care much about my sister, she says she has more than enough power to pass the tests..."

"Well, the school tests are so that only magicians with potential can pass... of course you already know that what differentiates a magician from knights is the mana of will, but to enter the magic school dependent on the great university, you have to meet several requirements, the first is to show affinity with at least seven energies, that is not a problem for you, but in the next one you will have to choose a demonstration of power, at least five of your cores have to be level three or higher..."

"How do you prove that?"

"You pour all your mana energy into a special gem that will change color depending on your degree of power, or will rise if it cannot resist it..."

Gael was aware of his small mana cores, except for his will the rest were tiny...

"What is the other option, master? I don't think my mana cores will grow that much by then."

"A demonstration of talent that convinces them... let's say that if you learn the three basic spells of at least nine energies you can have a chance, that's what I did at your age, but you're going to need more than that to convince them, but let's start there, if we achieve that we can move on to other more interesting things."

They ate some jerky and sweet bread, the boy drank milk and Rilcar a thick, black and bitter coffee. The farm they were heading to was far away on secondary roads, this made it difficult for Gael to concentrate on reading, every time he felt he had the energy to throw the blade Gael fired it without waiting. But with the movement he didn't dare to try the wind blade, it was better to wait until they camped at night.

"It seems that the farm is over there"

The farm was a simple square one-story house with a thatched roof, it must not have had more than three rooms, however Gael was surprised by the number of boys and girls of different ages who came out in droves when they saw the wizard's wagon on the road. Many shouted to warn their father that a traveling wizard was approaching.

Jacob was the name of the farmer, he was a big, blond man, but his skin was tanned by the sun from working so much in the fields. The man came out to greet them at the farm gate.

"Well met, Mr. Wizard"

"Well met, is this Jacob's farm?"

"Myself, and this is my family, I came by notice, they took a while to send someone... few people care about a lost farm..."

"Well, the important thing is that I'm here... what's the problem Jacob? The announcement was a bit vague..."

"We don't know, my good wizard, I only know that there are no more wolf attacks, we have gone six months without having a cow killed, and that is not normal, they don't cross the river, they don't dare, I have seen them in the forest and those damn wolves are still there but they don't come..."

"Isn't that good, Jacob?"

"It's bad if the bugs attack, but it's worse if they don't, that means something bigger is out there, besides my little one says he has heard moans by the river when he has gone fishing... nothing good, bad creeps..."

"Which one of them is your little one, Jacob?"

"That redhead who is half hidden"

The boy in question would not be more than five years old like Gael, he was shorter, but had more malice and marks on his face than the little nobleman turned apprentice. In the middle of the field, wounds were not healed with magic, that was the main difference between nobles and commoners, no noble would keep a scar on his face or hands unless it was a war wound, but this boy already had a broken eyebrow, a mark on his lip and another that ran down his cheek. He looked at Gael with envy for his boots and leather jerkin, the father had to call his attention to pay attention to Rilcar.

"What is your name, boy?"

"Matias..."

"Well Matias, tell me what you heard..."

"Since the wolves are no longer coming, I went fishing for grim reapers in the afternoon in the pool of the hole there on the edge of the forest. When I picked up a fish that had bitten me, I felt a chill that went up my neck. I was scared, but when a moan like that of a dead person began to sound upriver, I threw the rod and ran away... I didn't see anything else. I didn't stop running until I got home..."

Gael had been paying attention to everything the boy said. Rilcar had taken note of Matias' words and spoke to Jacob again.

"Okay, do you usually fish a lot in the river?"

"Before, I was the only one who went with the wolves. I didn't want one of them to kill a boy, but since they don't come here, there's no danger of the boys coming here anymore, and now the water isn't so cold and it's not dangerous, that's why I let Matias go when he finished his chores. There's a lot of fishing to be honest."

"Mr. Jacob, we'll take a look to see what we find, but let me ask you if there's anything else out there in the forest besides the wolves, or if there's a cave or ruin nearby..."

"Nahhh, the usual, some owlbears if you go too far into the forest, the usual beasts, Mr. Wizard. There aren't any ruins either, but there are caves, down there to the south of the forest, but there's nothing there, and the beasts don't want to use that cave. It's cursed. Nobody comes down there. Too much sulfur in the air."

It was early, a good time to start exploring, but Gael glanced back at that boy called Matias.

When they were far away on the road, the boy turned to his teacher.

"That boy is lying..."

"Why do you think that, Mark? There was nothing strange in his story..."

"That's precisely why everything fit too well, it's like the excuses I give my parents to hide a nonsense... too perfect, what are sulfides?"

"A toxic gas... why?"

"Can it create a rash?"

"Of course, even burns..."

"There we have it, that boy wasn't hiding out of fear or shame, he was hiding the rash on his right arm... that Matias guy had to lose his fishing rod in the cave, and to hide his lack he invented the thing about the laments of the dead..."

"Ha ha ha, well you've saved us several days of going around in circles, let's start by testing your theory..."