The Magician's Apprentice

6 Months Later

My teachings with Stephen were fairly quiet. Usually the only time when we talked was during my lessons, which were steadily becoming more interesting. He first taught me about how to separate my Astral Form from my Physical form. This was the first time when I was able to see since my accident. And, I'm kind of embarrassed to say, that I cried. I didn't bawl my eyes out, but I could definitely tell that Stephen noticed; thankfully, he didn't call attention to it.

After that, he taught me how to use my other senses. Not like hearing and touch, but like aura and other supernatural senses. After a while, I was beginning to get a sense of how different people and objects emitted different "auras." Soon I was beginning to "see" without my eyes.

But Stephen wasn't spending all of his time teaching me. I guess that made sense, considering he was Sanctum Guard. It was kind of annoying on he didn't answer a majority of my questions. And when he did, he would say irritably, "You'll learn eventually."

Sometimes he would even leave the Sanctum for some mission. When he did this, he would leave me with this dude named Wong. I knew next-to-nothing about him, except that, apparently to Stephen, has almost no sense of humor. I didn't take this as a good sign.

The first time I was left alone with him (I was a bit disgruntled on how I wasn't trusted enough to be left alone), I exited my physical form to get a good look at him. He reminded me of a Buddha, with his round stern face and Asian eyes. He glanced at my Physical Form and grunted, "Return to your Physical Form."

Annoyed, I returned to my Physical Form and felt a surge of intense dislike when my vision returned to blackness. "Where's Stephen?" I asked grumpily.

"Searching," Wong replied. I sensed a body of energy form and I could hear the rushing from a portal being opened. "Come," he said.

As I followed him through the portal, I asked, "Searching for what?"

"Not 'what,'" Wong said. "Searching for a person."

"Whom?" I asked, following Wong through a building with a layout similar to the New York Sanctum, making me assume that I was at a different Sanctum.

"A man named Mordo," Wong said.

"Why'd he go missing?" I asked.

"No one knows," Wong said. "That is why we are searching for him."

"Who's Mordo?" I asked.

Wong sighed. "Stephen was right; you ask a lot of questions. Mordo is none of your concern. Your main concern right now are these books."

Knowing better than to pursue forbidden topics, I strained my senses a bit further to feel what vaguely reminded me of a library, except that the books were chained and emitted different ambiences.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked, not very enthusiastically. "You realize I can't read now, right? Well, I can in my Physical Form, but—"

"Dusting."

I blinked. "Dusting?" I repeated.

"Yes," Wong said. "The books are dusty and need to be cleaned."

I scowled. "Can't you use magic for that?"

I sensed irritability coming from Wong. "Magic doesn't accomplish everything," he said. "Some things must be done normally."

I sighed but began to dust the books with a musty feather duster I was given. Strangely, it wasn't as boring as I anticipated. Each book I dusted was different. They had different textures and gave me different feelings when I held them. But, after a while, it was starting to get a bit old.