The next morning Amara woke up and looked at her hand, it was good as new. Next, she turned her gaze to her tunic, which was stained red and missing several chunks. Confronted with the evidence that last night wasn’t all a dream, she got her breakfast and went to Arinthea’s lesson.

  Today was another quiet with little more than chirping birds to keep her company as she jogged to Arinthea’s cottage. Though she tried to think of what Arinthea’s lesson would be today, she couldn’t get the events of last night out of her mind. The idea of a powerful mage being so close was shocking enough, but for that mage to offer her lessons, for free, was outrageous. It went against everything Arinthea told Landon and Amara about how mages taught their disciples. Amara was finally able to refocus when Arinthea let her inside and the smell of chamomile tea greeted her.

  “Early again? I like this new quirk,” Arinthea said. She backed up allowing Amara to enter the cottage. Amara found that Landon was already inside and tinkering with a clock. Amara sat down next to Landon and pulled out the scroll Arinthea gave her the day before.

  “I finished reading this,” Amara said, handing the scroll to Arinthea.

  “The scroll is yours to keep,” Arinthea said.

  “Thank you,”

  “Well, it may be a bit early but let’s begin today’s lesson. Today you two will be doing the same exercise as last time, except you must instead do it with two cups at a time instead of one,” Arinthea said.

  “Is that all?” Landon asked.

  “Yes, you two will be done once you have completed this task 20 times. Now, unfortunately, I have some important duties to attend to so I will have to leave the two of you for a bit,” Arinthea said while rising up. She made a beeline for the exit and left Amara and Landon to their daunting task.

  Amara outstretched her hands and attempted to conjure two red disks. For the first few times she tried to conjure the disks, at least one of them turned out to be improperly formed and fell apart. Finally, by her ninth attempt, she managed to create two red disks and they held their form. Landon himself created two sigils to pour the water in the cups, but ran into the same issue as Amara, with it falling apart.

  It took Landon, five tries and six minutes to properly create pour the water and fill the cups. Luckily, the second time Amara and Landon tried the exercise, it only took the two of them three minutes to fill the cups, then two minutes on the fifth try. By their fifteenth try, they had gotten it down to one minute. After doing the exercise 20 times in 45 minutes, Arinthea returned. However, she had a gash on her right arm, and her dress was torn.

  “What happened to your arm?” Amara asked.

  “Monsters have been encroaching on Stonehaven, so I had to kill some of them. Now, moving on, how has your progress been with the exercise?” Arinthea asked.

  “We managed to do it 20 times,” Landon replied.

  “Splendid, in that case, you two are free to go but be careful, the monsters here are getting bolder and some of them are quite strong you know,” Arinthea said. Amara and Landon said their goodbyes and left Arinthea’s cottage for Stonehaven.

  “Why are there more monsters now?” Amara asked aloud.

  “Might want to steal our food, who knows,” Landon replied.

  The two of them made their way into Stonehaven and went to Riven’s smithy. Riven was hunched over, chisel in hand, carving away at a sword. He had a red glow in his eyes as runic symbols emerged on the sword. After a few moments, he turned to look at Amara and Landon and the glow in his eyes faded.

  “Did Arinthea finally get tired of you two?” Riven asked.

  “She’s been busy with monsters,” Landon replied.

  “And we did the exercise she gave us a lot quicker than she expected,” Amara chimed in.

  “Yeah, yeah I know you two are too dedicated for that,” Riven said

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Did Elora already quit helping you in the smithy?” Amara asked.

  “She’s training for the mage’s tournament,” Riven replied.

  “Are we having one at the Stoneheart meeting?” Landon asked.

  “Yes, we got told today, and apparently a Silvercrest mage is participating,” Riven said.

  “Does she think she can beat a mage from Silvercrest?” Landon asked.

  “She won’t care as long as she leaves an impression on them and spectators,” Riven said.

  The three of them then continued discussing the mage’s tournament, their magic, and town gossip until late into the afternoon. As the conversations winded down, Amara left Riven’s smithy to return home.

  The journey home had no monsters this time, which was already a good sign in her eyes. While walking home, she recreated the divination arrow that the cloaked mage taught her and it once again led her home. Though it was a simple spell that did something trivial, Amara still felt a small amount of pride in her handiwork.

  When Amara got home she grabbed some more bread and made some porridge for dinner. She grabbed a stick and ignited it to light the room before sitting on her bed, once again creating the arrow the strange mage taught her.

  The arrow spun in a circle as Amara shifted in her bed like a compass finding North. As she sat alone, she tried to process the mage’s offer. Surely a powerful mage wouldn’t teach a farmgirl in the middle of nowhere, especially when there had to be thousands of talents in Silvercrest and Finford. Still, the mage did offer to teach her, free of charge at that.

  She lay down on her bed and began thinking about why the mage made the offer. It couldn’t just be that she was talented and they wanted to apologize. Maybe the mage was a devil or a demon, waiting to steal her soul. Maybe it was a fairy wanting to steal her name. Maybe it was one of those monsters troubling Stonehaven in disguise.

  Despite all of her worries, Amara decided that she had to learn from the mage. She couldn’t just stand back helplessly as another warlord conquered her home like the Red King did. Plus, the mage seemed friendly and didn’t hurt her the last time they met.

  So, in spite of her better judgment, Amara grabbed a dagger and a spear and left her home. She walked back to the spot where she met the mage the previous time. After waiting for a few minutes, she saw a cloaked figure walk out of the forest.

  “You’re back, and those weapons, were you going monster hunting?” The mage asked.

  “I don’t want to lose my hand or any other limb,” Amara replied.

  “That’s good, now let’s get started with your lesson shall we,” The mage said, they grabbed an opaque orb from underneath their billowing cloak and held it out to Amara. Amara carefully grabbed it and gleefully fiddled with it before looking back to the mage.

  “What’s that?” Amara asked.

  “It’s a valuable tool for novice mages like yourself, it will tell you where your magical talents lie,” The mage replied cryptically.

  “What am I supposed to do with it now?” Amara asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Poor your mana into the orb and have it flow along the paths of least resistance,” The mage replied.

  Amara gathered her mana and sent it into the orb, almost immediately she felt as though something was fighting against her, trying to stop the flow of mana. She split her mana, redirecting to where the resistance was weakest. As she continued moving her mana this way, the orb began to glow white and green with a splash of red and orange.

  Despite the growing resistance she felt, Amara pressed on, excited to see the orb light up. The longer she poured her mana, the more the orange and red faded until eventually she was left with a green and white orb.

  “Splendid! You can stop pouring your mana into the orb now,” The mage said enthusiastically.

  “What did I get? Did I get something cool?” Amara asked.

  “You got divination as the first of your talents. However, your second talent will come as a shock to you,” The mage happily answered.

  “Was it illusion or something?” Amara asked in a hopeful tone.

  “No, your other talent is in dealing with magic that manipulates the soul and life force. In other terms, your other talent is necromancy” The mage said plainly.

  “Why would I be good at necromancy? I do not corrode the world around me and force the dead to do my bidding,” Amara said scornfully.

  “Your talents are your talents, how you use them is up to you. You don’t have to use necromancy to corrode life or force the dead to serve you as many necromancers do. You can instead choose to invigorate your friends with newfound strength or heal others,” The mage said.

  “Then why is it always used to torment everyone?” Amara asked.

  “Because that is how people use necromancy if they want power above all. They think that it is the path to the greatest might necromancy can offer. However, as I will teach you, they are wrong, necromancy has other strengths that can be even more potent than an army of the dead,” The mage said.

  A chill ran down Amara’s spine as the mage spook. She had always been told that necromancy was the greatest sin of magic to Inja. The idea of controlling the soul, life and death, and the dead repulsed her. Despite this, necromancy was her greatest talent aside from divination. Although Amara felt disgust at the thought of using necromancy, she wanted to grow stronger as a mage. And the cloaked mage seemed genuine when they said that necromancy didn’t have to be used for such vile purposes.

  “Teach me divination magic, and how to use necromancy to help my friends and Stonehaven!” Amara shouted triumphantly.

  “Gladly. I hope you are ready to go on a long journey, for you have much to learn.” the mage said.