The Wandering Mage (Sequel To The Last Mage)

Chapter 6

 Here he was again in that same old cave. The green and black flames roared in front of him and once again Cedric was hypnotized, but at the same time thoughtful. What was this, and what did it do? How did it amplify the power of necromancy? Perhaps if he knew, that would help him to better understand just who exactly he was dealing with.

 "Hello Cedric, you came back quickly. Did you miss me?" A voice, the leader, said behind him.

 The mage turned to scowl at them, "Trust me, I'm not here by choice. If I could just block you out permanently I wouldn't hesitate to do so."

 "You could, if only you were more powerful than me. Of course, I was always the stronger one when we were children, both physically and magically. I remember when you were only a toddler and yet you still tried to match my power. Boy, did that go wrong."

 "Enough games!" Cedric shouted, and suddenly the golden aura came out, wrapping tightly around him so that it looked like a second skin. This was the power that Valrex had gifted him before leaving his body. "Tell me who you are and what you plan to do, now!"

 The leader flinched and stepped back at the golden glow. "Valrex's power." He muttered. "You control it rather well. I guess you aren't as much of a weakling as you used to be. For that, I'll reward you with one thing; my name. Perhaps you'll recognize it... Calum."

 As soon as they said their name, Cedric was hit with a pain in his head, forcing him to his knees. Groaning, he started rubbing his temples in hopes of relieving the stress. However, what happened instead was that he was hit with an explosion of memories which seemed to fade away as fast as they came. Mentally reaching out, Cedric managed to grasp one, which then played out in front of him.

 He was only a small child and looked to be in the middle of a stone town hidden by a surrounding forest. Cedric looked to be playing with someone several years older than him, who seemed to be trying to taunt Cedric into attacking him... no, that wasn't it. They wanted the boy to use his magic. The young Cedric flung his hand out, saying the magic command, and a laughably weak gout of fire shot out of his palm. The other boy, his friend maybe, simply flicked his eyes to the ground and the flame soon followed, extinguishing as it hit the dirt. 

 "You'll have to do better than that Cedric." His friend laughed as he walked backwards to sit himself down on a tree stump. He brushed his dirty blonde hair to the side and smiled at the young mage. "How are you going to be able to protect the people you care about if you can't even cast a simple flame spell?"

 Cedric looked down at his feet and rubbed his neck. He didn't have a reply to that, mostly because his friend was right. How could he protect his friends and family if he was weak? Suddenly a hand on his shoulder caused him to look up at a teenage girl with brown hair and dark blue eyes. She smiled at him, and for some reason Cedric immediately cheered up.

 "Don't listen to Calum, you'll become strong and be able to protect everyone. I just know it." The girl said sweetly. She turned around and started walking away past Calum, but not before ruffling his hair. He brushed her hand away and glared at her, but not even a minute later burst out in laughter. It seemed whoever this girl was, she certainly had a positive effect on the two. However it seemed that as she walked away, the memory was coming to a close. The town began to melt away, leaving Cedric back in the cave and on the ground, tears running down his cheeks and dripping on the ground. Calum must have also shared the memory, because for a split second Cedric could swear he saw his eyes watering.

 "Who... who was she? And who are you, really?" Cedric muttered as he stood up, wiping away the tears with his sleeve. Why was he crying? What impact did that memory have on him?