Free Magic (complete)

Chapter 12

Anders was surrounded by books. That wasn't something unusual in Whitethorn, but the books he now surrounded himself with were not there to teach him anything about magic.

The smallest sitting room on the second floor is where the council of mages met once a week. In that room Anders found himself going over the business ledgers of past meetings. It took hours to dredge through everything until he could find what he was looking for, the meeting from three years ago when he stood in this room and got approval to build his device.

the books and threw them back on the shelves in no particular order. None of the council had changed in the past few years, so the list of mages who heard him present his theories was no shorter. And if Anders could walk right in and look through the books, so could anyone else. The whole of Whitethorn had the last three years to snoop around the council's books and find out what he was doing.

Voices down the hall caught his attention as he was placing the last books on the shelves. The light through the narrow windows told Anders it was around dinner time, and these were the first few people showing up for the meeting. He quickly took a seat by a wall as though he was here for the council.

"Too late to start now, only three weeks out you know." A portly man in orange robes walked in and took a seat at the council table followed by a short fellow in red. One by one mages filed in the room, as well as two soldiers who stood by the door and a well dressed man with a long beard and jewelry adorning him all over.

"Ah! Master Tomlin, please have a seat." The portly mage in orange offered the nicest chair at the table to the man that must be the current royal ambassador for Whitethorn. Or at least, that's what his manner of dress indicated to Anders.

Eventually the table filled up, and several other mages filled the room. Many young mages in brown and grey were present, as well as some adults Anders recognized who took up the mantle as teacher to the new mages. When the council table in the middle of the room settled in, so did everyone else.

"Let the meeting for the twenty fourth day of the fourth month commence." A grizzled old man in yellow struck a stone ball on a wooden disk, an unnecessary action as all eyes were fixed solidly on him. The short mage in red was scribbling away in a book like the ones Anders had just been searching through.

"Let the first order of business be the grey mages." The royal ambassador read from a parchment on the table. "We seem to have several right now."

One by one nervous young mages approached the table. Everyone watching gave them ample room, grey mages could still be unstable and accidents still tended to happen. A young girl with light magic demonstrated her control to shine bright or dim lights all around her body. She hadn't been there long, but light magic was supposedly one of the easier ones to control. After the girl was a fire mage, who also passed as did the wind mage after him.

Five demonstrations of control prompted by the council members ended in success and the children hugged each other. Anders remembered the bond shared with grey mages, new to the keep, trying to master your abilities together. Anders was only really close with one of the other mages and she won her purple robes and left five years ago. Now his kept to himself, and sometimes worked with Ghilda.

"It's early to celebrate yet little ones." Master Tomlin drawled. "You've won your chance, you still have to face the stone."

The children looked nervously at a jeweled box the royal ambassador set on the table. He opened it slowly, revealing a glowing brown crystal. One by one the children lined up, approaching the box. The boy wind mage was first. He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the crystal. For a moment his expression slacked, his eyes looked blankly ahead and the crystal glowed ever brighter. It was over in a moment, the boy gasped and withdrew his hand, but while he did so the Whitethorn crest on his neck shone bright, shifting from grey to brown until it settled down, gently glowing in his newly won color.