Lionheart

Magic

                    "This is my penance" Linley looked at Maud and saw a peaceful pallor spread on his face, he saw his eyes fill up with tears as he said "This is indeed my penance" Linley looked at him, he had never felt more sorry for anyone else in his life , he knew that it was partly because of Maud that his father was dead, but deep inside his conscious told him that Maud was not the one at fault but that Dark Mage was .

When Linley came out of the intertwined thoughts of his father and Maud, he saw that he himself had tears in his eyes , all the sorrow he had felt and all the sorrow he felt from Maud took over him, it invaded Linley's frail mind ,it pierced through the deepest parts of his conscious and made him gloomy. The silence was broken by Maud as he said "Ok then Linley " as he wiped his tears of and said "Do not let all this bother you Linley , for it will only slow down your pace of training, we already have only 3 months left and we have to start from scratch " Linley tried to speak in an attempt to interrupt , but it was futile as Maud said in a polite voice "This was always your fathers wish Linley , to see you become a mage" Linley looked blank at Maud , he never thought that his father had so high expectations from him, seeing the expression on Linley's face Maud said "So , your training begins today Linley, meet me near the river bank this noon" Linley replied "Yes, M.R Mau...." When he was suddenly interrupted by Maud as he said "No , call me teacher from now onwards " Linley looked at him suppressing a smile and said "Yes teacher ."

Later that morning he played a bit with Sasha as he used to, they chased each other and then sat under the tree in Linley's farm where they sat together admiring the crops in the field, as Linley sat there he thought "Should I tell Sasha about Maud and magic or should I leave it as a surprise for later when I enter the academy" as he sat there trying to solve this question that puzzled him , he saw it was almost noon he looked around and saw that Sasha was asleep her head on his shoulder as she slept tight, he slowly laid her down and got up, he smiled as he saw her clumsy face as she slept and left for the bank .

As he walked through the village he saw little children playing in the streets, people as usual bargaining with the traders and as usual the traders giving them a hard time with it , he saw women carrying goods as they walked pass him, he saw men working In their field he saw the look of hard work and exertion on their face , he loved his village so much, because of the beauty of it and the peace that spread throughout it , as he thought about peace he thought of his father "It's all because of my father ,if  it weren't for him the whole village would have been annihilated " he felt proud of his father and sad at the same moment because his father was no longer.

He reached the bank as he plodded around looking for Maud , the river was clam , it reflected the sun's light and cast a spectrum on the stones on the bank , the peaceful flow of water made the air around cool and the wind that blew over it carried the bilss over to Linley as he felt it touch his face gently, as he stood there in that peaceful state, his mind was clear and he thought of nothing else but the sound of water, the harmony was broken by Maud's coarse voice as he said "What are you doing Linley, I did not call  you here  just see you here wasting your time" Linley looked at him with an embarrassed expression and said "Sorry ,teacher" he saw a look of satisfaction on Maud's face as he said "That is good , you take responsibility of your actions , that makes you much better than those other children who are always making excuses instead of accepting their mistakes " Linley felt a bit proud on hearing this and said "Thank you teacher" Maud took Linley to a remote area near a tree and said "Linley today I will teach how to infuse magic" Linley looked at him with a blank face at him and said "Infuse....magic?" Maud looked at Linley with a quaint smile and said "Well, I was expecting this" .

He sat cross legged and instructed Linley to do so as well, then when they both were comfortably seated Maud said look at me carefully , Linley looked at Maud with eyes as sharp as an eagle , Maud closed his eyes and a few seconds later Linley saw a small tornado appear on Maud's hand, it stayed there for a while as Linley admired the little speck of wind , it was small but he could feel the intensity of the wind in it and he could feel the strength in it,  he stared at it with an expression of both shock and joy on his face and then it disappeared , Maud opened his eyes and said "This is elemental magic Linley" Linley looked at him with a curious look on his face , then Maud said "Listen Linley, there are four elements , the first is fire it is considered the first of the pure elements , it is said to be the creator of life , controlling fire is really a very tough task as fire is not around you , you have to create it ".

"The second element is wind , it is considered the supreme destroyer , as creating wind spells that are disastrous is easy as wind is everywhere, but containing a wind spell requires great precision  and thus a wind mage is always trained specially under high protection .

"The next element is water, it is considered as the sustainer of life , a water mage is usually used as a healer as water has great healing qualities .

"The next element is earth , it is known as the shield of life, the earth mages usually go through rough training , they are strong in physical attacks thus a hand on hand fight with an earth mage is really hard to win " Linley gazed at Maud as he stopped and said "Teacher how does one discover his element " Maud looked at Linley and said "It's simple , you don't !" .

Linley looked at Maud with a shocked face and said "What do you mean teacher" Maud looked at Linley and then started taking off his shirt Linley looked at him curiously as to what Maud was doing , as Maud turned around Linley was shocked to see several scars on Maud's muscular back and when he turned around again Linley was truly god smacked as he saw a beautiful symbol imbued On Maud's chest , it was dull brown in color and circular in shape , in the middle of it was the image of a wolf . Linley looked at Maud with a surprised expression as Maud said "This is the Edurna Linley" Linley still staring at the Edurna said "What is an Edurna Teacher ?" Maud turned and picked up his shirt and said "Edurna is the heart of hearts ,  it is where the power of a mage resides ".

Maud closed his eyes and suddenly the Edurna on his chest grew green in color ,Linley was speechless , the Edurna looked beautiful as it glowed the heart of hearts of a mage , "The Edurna's color is decided by the element that a mage uses , red is for fire , blue is for water, golden for earth and green for wind and ..... you don't get to choose your element but it chooses you " Linley looked at him confused and said "What ?" "On the day of the entrance ceremony mages are passed through a series of tests only those who pass achieve their Edurna , the tests are to look at your style of fighting your problem fighting skill and all".

Linley looked at him and said "But who is it who gives us our element teacher " Maud looked at Linley and said "That.... Is something you'll get to know when you reach there." Maud smiled at Linley and said "your turn Linley and said I may not know your elemt , but I can still teach how to infuse your magic to use low level spells that any mage can use inconsiderate of the mages element" Linley smiled in his mind and said "So, finally my training begins."