Elisi approached the mage’s the tower with hesitant steps, she could see lightnings coming out from the tower’s windows. Intense sounds of blasts fallowed them. It was as if a tremendous storm was taking place only above the building, since the day was pleasant otherwise.

The thought of getting closer was becoming harder and harder with each taken step.

What were those explosions?

Explosions always meant a threat in her mind. What else could it mean?

By any chance are the mages at war with each other?

Colours like blues, greens, pinks, purples, as if they were fireworks. Dusty rays of all colours reflected in Elisi’s wide-open eyes.

Will the end of the world be this terrifyingly beautiful? Elisi contemplated while her body froze like a deer in danger as the sounding colours were spilling from above her like gushing cascades.

An amazing cloud of colors swallowed her suddenly.

What is going on in there? She questioned herself again.

Elisi did not want to find out. The sudden booming noises scared her to no end. It was a fear that motivated her to go back to the palace and be scolded by Mirna instead.

That would be better than enduring the unfolding hell in front of her.

Even though she had a bit of curiosity, it was impossible to act on it.

Furthermore, the tower contained bleakly grey bricks that looked old, almost medieval.

It hardly appeared to be maintained, even though it was in constant use by all kinds of mages, and certainly did not match the vivid colours of the garden it was on.

Elisi thought that such a stiff-looking thing shouldn’t be in the middle of such a pleasant place. It brought the mood down by a lot.

After ten minutes of arrival, she still stood in front of the massive mass whilst holding her apron as if it were a safety blanket. That apron always soothed her in times like this.

Trying to take the first step towards the ancient skyscraper required great courage from her, the type of bravery she did not possess.

So she closed her eyes, counted to three, hoping to gather some bravery, and like in a race she sent her right foot over the entrance.

When her shabby shoe landed on the floor, the commotion suddenly ceased, and as she continued her pace, an extensive set of stairs appeared right before her.

The talk she had the day before with Mirna telling her to work for Sebastian flashed before her eyes. Her feet have gotten cold.

After all, he was the lord of the tower. Could she appear professional enough to face a man of that calibre?

How could she show her raggedy self in front of the great mage? The one who restrained the previous king to a certain extent. That was a great deal.

Although he always cleaned his room with magic, for some reason, this time he asked for the help of a maid, and since most of them saw him as a weird old man, they did not like the idea of working for him.

Of course, Elisi needed to go instead.

Even after all the explanations given to her, she still could not wrap her head around the reason why they choose her to do such an important job.

But at this moment, the stairs were her enemy.

“Do I need to climb all these stairs!?” Elisi looked up with surrender.

Her shoulders were down. sighing sounds came from her mouth.

“With all this magic for sure, they could turn them into escalators! I wish they could...”

Heavy steps were echoing around the spiralling stairs as she was about to approach the top.

The place Sebastian was waiting for her.

******

Elisi has been cleaning the mage’s space for almost a month. In all this time, he has never talked to her much.

The room always stayed quiet, like they were two complete strangers in the library.

This time, like any other time, Elisi stood quietly at the entrance. Examining him and waiting for his cue.

His eyes were a deep blue like the night skies and despite being an old grey-haired man, he kept his tall stature. He might have been quite an impressive man when he was young, she thought.

Mostly, he talked mostly about necessary things, and from time to time he had some odd requests about flowers and animals who filled the space.

None of that was present the first week she started working there.

It’s like those things popped out of nowhere.

Excited, Sebastian suddenly came running towards her.

Elisi’s eyes lit in surprise.

He always looked too concentrated when he was around her to the point that she couldn’t help but doubt if what Norma told her about him was even true.

“Please come here. Touch this water”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the table full of books and random papers.

This kind of request left her wondering why does he always ask her to do random things. She followed his instructions.

Once her hands were on the water dish, she stiffly stood trying her best not to wet the surrounding mess, but the old man unexpectedly put his face very close to hers.

Elisi in shock abruptly stepped back, nearly tripping on herself, almost taking the dish with her.

“You are not from this world, are you?”

No sound came out of her, not like she was making any sound before either. Only her eyes showed a look of fright and hesitation after Sebastian asked her such a weird question, her eyes always gave her away.

“I’m pretty sure you are one of those souls that commonly possess another person’s body, yet that is not quite the case for you,” said the mage while touching his chin.

Even though she read this book, the politics inside of it never concerned her. She was just a simple maid, after all.

In a friendly manner, he approached her once more.

“I saw you attending the flowers around the garden. Many of them were ready to wilt, but your touch brought back life into them, my dear”

Elisi just stood there without response, holding and wrinkling the apron of her uniform. Sebastian could see her nervousness and confusion. The air became tense around her.

“The reason I asked for your presence was not that you are good with flowers...I had to make sure...and surely you can purify water and the water can purify you, so wonderful indeed, don’t you think?!”

He happily raised his arm almost to his chest.

“Elisi, you are a healer, or at least you can become one with great practice”

After hearing this, Elisi took a few steps back until the wall hit her. Her enormous eyes staring at Sebastian became even bigger after his words were spoken.

“Elisi, you are a healer” echoed in her mind, by any chance was she in the wrong book?

“A healer, you said? But I’m just a maid!”

Despite her look of surprise, the old men could barely hear her.

The conversation they had left her muddled. She did not know how to respond, and she didn’t understand what he meant by it.

“What is this sudden revelation?” Elisi muttered.

“How can you tell I’m a healer just by that? I don’t feel like I have any powers or anything. I don’t have any of that”

While he kept touching his chin, he explained to her that mages and especially healers are hard to spot. Lots of them are not aware of their powers, since before training their power is too small. Many times its users are not aware of possessing it or are not in control of it. Once their power gets greater and stable are they able to feel their powers running through them.

“I’ve been watching over you for quite a while. Although it was easy to realize you weren’t from here; you completely snatched my attention as you attended the little sick rabbit in the shed.”

Elisi attentively kept listening to him, but could not let go of her apron just yet.

“He was undoubtedly sick indeed and recovered in just two days. The flowers I put in this room waiting to wilt seemed to last longer than ordinary”

There weren’t some major peculiarities around her, but just enough little odd little things that did not seem to be too common.

The mage’s curiosity needed to be put to rest. Maybe he found a good person to be beside the king. Now he finally could have a good sleep at night.