Trust in Magic

Prologue

Allan was a farmer's boy. Nothing special, but he lived a comfortable life. In his early childhood, the only goal he had was becoming a farmer and taking over his parents' ox farm. That was his dream. It had to be, because if it wasn't, he would be living an unhappy life.

As far as his parents were concerned, farming was the only job for him; he wasn't exceptionally smart and, in this harsh world, anyone bellow exceptional was useless, weren't they? It was best for Allan to stick with the profession he was born into: farming.

Allan had never thought differently. That is, until he heard of Alexia, daughter of Bernard of the Elements.

The milkmaids on the farm were always caught up on all the gossip. They were quite reliable and, just like flicking through a newspaper, you could casually tune into their conversation and inform yourself on the happenings of the world.

Doing this once or twice a week was always interesting and, more often than not, quite beneficial. So it happened that one day, as Allan was lying on top of one of the hay bales, he paid attention to the dialogue that filled the air as two milkmaids made their way into the barn.

"Did you hear?" One asked the other. "There's s'posed to be a new prodigy mage. She's already mastered her element and- hear this- she's only nine!"

"Nine!" The other exclaimed in awe. "I'm twice that and can hardly light all the candles in the house without using matches! Allan's nine too, isn't he?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure he's even managed to use magic yet." (I have, Allan grumbled. My element affinity is water.) "Anyways, the girl's called Alexia. She's the daughter of the Grand Mage... Bernard was his name, I think. Bernard of the Elements. He wrote a lot of clever theories on magic, he did. Not surprising, really, that his daughter's a genius. And speaking of mages, I heard there's one in town..."

With that, the conversation drifted onto other topics, like who was marrying the baker's boy. Allan tuned out of the chatter and stared at the barn ceiling wistfully. Being a Mage must be a convenient job, He thought. You can go anywhere and be sure to find work, because everyone needs a mage.

On the same day, Allan's mother sent him to the village to get flour. The village was a 5 mile walk away, but Allan was used to this distance. He slung a backpack filled with milk bottles onto his shoulders (he'd need something to trade for the flour) and started on his journey.

On the way, he humoured himself by making water droplets appear on his fingertips and slowly letting them float up to hang in the air around his head. Even forming droplets from already gathered water had been unbelievably challenging for Allan at one point, but he had always shown a great interest in magic, testing his skills and thereby strengthening them. He knew that he was nowhere near as talented as this Alexia he had heard about this morning, but he prided himself in the fact that he was at least more advanced than the other children in his school. Most of them hadn't even discovered their element affinity, and the few that had an affinity for water hardly ever managed to beat Allan when he raced water droplets with them. It had always seemed strange to Allan that most people weren't excited by their magical abilities. Practically everyone was capable of influencing the elements, but the fact that it took a lot of practice, dedication and time to reach a level at which one could significantly manipulate ones surroundings was probably the one factor that held most people back. Therefore, instead of overcoming natural obstacles with their own strength, most people waited for the next traveling mage to reach their area and help solve their problems.

Soon, the chimneys of the village could be seen peaking over the top of a small hill and Allan ran the rest of the way. He hurried into the baker's shop and started wagering for flour.

It was hard to get a consistent equivalent between milk and flour because everyone valued the items differently. The Miller, for example, would give 3 kilograms of flour for 1 litre of milk whereas the Baker would ask for 2. But because the Miller was 2 miles further from the farm, Allan was never sent to do business with him.

With a sigh of relief, Allan slid the heavy backpack off his shoulders and unpacked 6 bottles of milk onto the counter of the bakery while the baker watched him sternly.

"Can I have 9 kilograms of flour please?" Allan asked.

The baker grunted and lifted 3 large bags onto the till after quickly inspecting the milk.

"Thanks!" The boy smiled, reloading and running to the door. Before he left, he paused and called "Congratulations on the marriage!"

"Thank you," The baker called back. "Wait, how did you-?" But the door had already closed behind Allan.

"God, this is heavy," Allan muttered, repositioning the backpack on his already aching shoulders. It was going to be a long journey home. As he turned onto the road back to the farm, he noticed a large crowd in the town square, occasionally emitting exclamations of awe. He hesitated, curious and tempted to investigate the source of the excitement, but then shook his head. He shouldn't be dawdling.

Allan made it halfway to the farm before he had to take a break. The sun was beating down hard and he was drenched in sweat. The dusty road didn't help things. He drank from a nearby stream and rested for a few minutes under the shade of a tree before he finally started getting ready to go again. The sun was past it's zenith now, so the heat wasn't quite as unbearable.

Allan picked up his backpack and was about to swing it onto his shoulders, when one of the straps tore.

"Dammit!" Allan cursed, inspecting the damage. The bags of flour were unharmed, but the strap was beyond repair. Now I'll have to lug this bag along on one shoulder...

"Do you need help with that?" Someone called behind him. Allan turned to face a young man he had never seen before. He was also carrying a backpack, but a much larger one than the one Allan had, and his clothes looked weather-stained and worn. A traveller, Allan assumed. I wonder what he's doing around these parts.

"Yes please," He replied now that he'd taken a good look at the stranger. "But I'm not sure you would be able to help me; the strap of my backpack's completely torn and I don't think anyone could fix it."

"Well if you're willing to wait a while, I might be able to replace it," The stranger smiled mysteriously.

As Allan didn't have anything better to do, he handed the stranger his backpack and sat down on a rock, curious as to how this man was going to help him.

The man inspected the damage before plucking a few reeds and weaving them into a strip. He was done shortly and proceeded by holding both ends of the strip to the backpack. He stayed like that for a while and Allan was starting to wonder what he was doing, when he saw one of the reeds twitch.

"Wait a second," Allan exclaimed. "You're a mage, aren't you?"

"Yup," The man said distractedly, his gaze fixed on the backpack. "I'm making the reeds weave into the fabric of your backpack."

Allan watched wide-eyed as the reeds slowly bent to the mage's will. Another five minutes later, they were tightly knotted into the backpack.

"That should hold for a while," The mage handed Allan the backpack, brushing beads of perspiration off his forehead. He looked thoroughly drained.

"Thank you!" Allan said. Then, seeing how exhausted the stranger looked: "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just ran out of Stamina. Making plants move is very hard."

"Can you teach me to be a Mage?" Allan blurted.

The man stared, then laughed at his abruptness. "Sorry kid, but even if I was looking for an apprentice I wouldn't be able to take you in. You're element's Water, isn't it?" Allan nodded. "I had a feeling it was. I can't teach you because my element's Earth. You're going to have to look for someone who's mastered the Water element to be your teacher. Or teach yourself."

"Oh..." Allan said, slightly disappointed. "Well, do you want to have dinner at my farm? You helped me so much, it's the least I can do to repay your kindness."

"That's a very kind offer, and I know better than to turn it down," The mage replied gratefully.

That was the first time Allan dreamed of something different, and that night was the first night Allan knew what he wanted to become: a Mage.