The Apprentice's Apprentice

Part 14

The woman, Selena, chuckled. "Don't worry, dear. I've dealt with much worse. My second apprentice never did learn the social niceties and I'm afraid it cost him more than one job. Now, since Warren hasn't given you a full introduction, would you mind telling me your name?"

"Um, yes. I'm Coralyn Hillett. But everyone just calls me Cora. It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," Selena replied, inclining her head for a moment. Then she went back to studying Coralyn, her blue eyes bright in their nests of wrinkles. After several seconds of the intense scrutiny, Cora shifted her weight from one foot to the other, wishing Selena would stop.

As if she'd heard her thoughts, something Cora wasn't ruling out, the woman smiled at her. "Forgive me, my dear. It's so rare for a Wild mage to appear that I had to be certain Warren had identified you correctly. And it seems to me he has. There's magic about you, child. You do understand that it must be taught or it could be a threat to you and those around you?"

Cora sighed but nodded. "I would rather not have magic, but if I can't get rid of it, I guess I'd better learn as much about it as I know about stuff like math."

Warren smothered a chuckle while the smile on Selena's face practically issued frost. "I think what you will learn here will be much more useful than things like imaginary numbers. Now, I believe a swift explanation is in order. I'm safe in assuming you know nothing of magic?"

At Cora's nod, she continued. "Then I will start with the most basic of basics. As you have heard us say, there are two types of mages. Line mages and Wild mages. Line mages, such as Warren and myself, are those whose family runs strongly to magic. That generally means at least a mage every generation or two. Some produce more or less, but these families are aware of the possibility and their children raised with that knowledge.

The second type are Wild mages, such as yourself. They are mages who crop up out of seemingly nowhere, from families with no history of magic. There are several theories as to why this happens, but I won't bore you unnecessarily so early in your education. Suffice to say, Wild mages are quite rare and most Line mages won't ever meet one."

Cora frowned. "So I'm like an endangered species or something?"

Selena laughed. "Heavens no, child. You're a rarity, like a blue moon or large diamond, not something in danger of disappearing."

"And it's not like there aren't plenty of Line mages as well. There's no real difference between Wild and Line mages other than not growing up knowing about magic. They're not any stronger or weaker and it's not like it even influences what area of magic you'll be strongest in," Warren added.

"Are there a lot of kinds of magic?"

"There are seven basic types," Selena replied, gently setting her cup down onto its coaster. "Most people have a particular affinity for one or two. Some have a weakness for another area. This is no different than having more ability for science over art in that respect. And it is possible to do spells in any type, even one you have a weakness for, it simply requires more effort and preparation than working within your strengths. Now Warren, please tell our guest about each of the types with some detail."

He made a face but stood a bit straighter, his hands clasped behind his back. "The seven types are offensive, defensive, visualization, communication, spell breaking, mind, and transference. Offensive is just what it sounds like, attack based spells. Defensive is the opposite and has to do with protection. Visualization includes things like seeing magic and making it seen even to people without magic. Communication is another pretty obvious one and deals with passing information through magic. Spell breaking is removing or destroying other people's magic or even your own. Mind spells change what other people see/know, but those really only work on people without any magic themselves so you couldn't use one on me. Transference has to do with moving stuff around in different forms. Some spells belong to more than one type, while others are purely in one of those categories."