I woke up to a loud banging on my door. "Wake up! We're late!" Shouted Nala from the other side of the of the door.
Pulling myself out of bed I walked over to the door and opened it slowly. "Late for what?" I mumbled, squinting my eyes as the sunlight poured through the windows.
"Training of course!" She said excitedly. "It's been especially requested by Camille that I train you up, so that you'll be ready to adventure again in no time."
Realising I was stood at the door in my pyjamas, I questioned "What should I wear?" Nala laughed. "Whatever you've got."
Nala lead me through a path at the back of the house. I had previously thought that the guild estate ended with the veteran house, but Nala informed me that the guild owned a good chunk of the surrounding forest.
The path was full of forest life, various plants and flowers stretched onto the path and seemed to cling to me as I walked along, the further we walked, the more I became entranced by my surroundings.
Massive trees dominated the landscape, they were grander than average trees, taller, girthier and more vibrant in every way. Their leaves provided shelter from the hot sun above and formed a cloud-like ceiling over the forest. Outside of the safety of the path, the forest floor was covered in a blanket of branches, large roots, ferns, thickets, bushes, fallen leaves and ivy that grew up the trees and pointed towards the sky. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, the smell of earth, pine and wildflowers was a welcome change from firewood and wine after the night before. Around me, I could hear water flowing slowly, but closer than that I could hear the branches snapping below mine and Nala's feet, the sound of birds chirping above me and insects humming.
"We're here." Said Nala as the sound of her footsteps stopped and my eyes snapped open.
In front of us was a clearing in the trees, the underbrush had been cleared away and a small wooden cabin had been built. Next to the cabin was a wide lake with calm, clear blue water. In all of my life I hadn't seen anything as beautiful as the lake in front of me. The child inside of me wanted me to run in and splash around, but the adult part reminded me that I couldn't swim.
Out of excitement, I grabbed Nala's arm and turned to face her. "This is incredible!" I exclaimed with a large grin on my face. She matched my grin and pointed towards the cabin.
At that moment, the door swung open and Richard walked out of the cabin, the contrast between his white hair and brown feathers was highlighted by the sun through the leaves.
"It's about time!" He laughed. "I thought I told you to bring her at the crack of dawn."
"You know how I am after a drink." She sighed, winking at Richard.
"Well Clara, welcome to the veteran's training grounds. Of course most veterans don't need training, so it's not as well equipped as the new members training grounds but it's certainly prettier!" He chuckled. "I'm going to teach you how to master your healing, so that you're ready to go on adventures again. Even though we're a magically focused guild, healing mages have become rarer and rarer to find, so much so that sometimes other guilds will ask to borrow our healers for jobs were potions or botany won't do the trick."
"How many people are there in the guild?" I asked Nala and Richard, knowing I had only met a small fraction of people.
"Well..." Started Nala. "Around five hundred members overall. But not all live within the estate, most veteran adventurers live with their families and only come when they're needed. Advance members tend to to travel a lot, sometimes for months on end and new adventurers could be members that have been in the guild for ten years or ten days, it just depends on their skill." Said Nala as Richard nodded along, confirming the information.
"Only around fifty of those are healers." Finished Richard.
"Why are healers so rare?" I questioned, not understanding why I had this healing magic. I did nothing to deserve this and it can't be hereditary as my family were not able to use magic.
"That's were our lessons start!" Said Richard excitedly as he lead us over to little sitting area near the lake.
"Pay attention now." Said Nala, patting me on the head as she sat down on the chair besides me. I wondered why she was here, being a veteran she was already far more skilled than myself.
"First of all we will start with the difference between black, green and white magic. White magic, which you yourself use, is healing and protective. It is said that the source of white magic is the soul, therefore implying you need a naturally good or pure soul to be able to use this magic. People with this skill can cast pure healing spells, shield and barrier spells, movement spells and trait enhancement spells."
"Green magic, which Nala and myself use, is the most common type of magic, but it's also difficult to master. Green magic allows it's users to draw their power from their environment and the spells they can cast are also nature based. Green magic is a broad term to cover all sorts of spell casting and also has many niche's, such as botany or enchanted crafting."
"Black magic is as rare, and the opposite, of white magic. If white magic is cast from the soul then the opposite can be said about black magic. Most think those who can use and master black magic have no soul, that the source is a dark void. But of course they're wrong, in my life time I have met plenty of black magic users with plenty of soul. Black magic spells evolve around destruction and death. They can borrow some elements of green magic, but only to use for ruin."
"Does all of that make sense?" Finished Richard, taking a breath from his lecture.
"Yes, I think so anyway." I nodded, repeating the three types in my head so I didn't forget them.
"Are any of the veterans able to use black or white magic? And if so, have any mastered them?" I questioned, needing to know who I could learn from.
"Leo is a green mage who can also perform some healing magic. As he lives on the guild estate, he is usually our dedicated healer." Said Nala, looking towards the suns reflection on the lake. "Also Alex is a good healing mage, although he spends most of his time training new members instead of fighting nowadays." Continued Nala.
"We also have a botany faction of the guild, they are a select number of healing mages and green mages who channel their power into potions and other healing items." Added Richard, pulling a small red vial out of this pocket, the word 'healing' was written on the side.
"As for black magic, the only master of the craft I have ever met is Camille. But there are a couple lower level mages in the guild that can harness some of it's power." Continued Richard.
---
The sun was setting as Richard, Nala and myself walked back through the forest towards the veterans house. The surrounding forest which was charming this morning now felt darker and more sinister, every rustle of the leaves or twig snapping in the distance made me feel a little more nervous.
"Does anything, you know, evil, live out here?" I asked Nala and Richard who were always a step ahead of me, leaving me continuously looking over my shoulder.
They laughed in unison. "Of course not."
Somehow their laughing helped calm my nerves as we approached the house.
I was grateful to see the grand fireplace lit as we entered the house, the later we had trained in the forest the colder it had gotten. The three of us were removing our boots when Leo stepped out of the archway that lead to the dining room and announced "You're back just in time! I've been in the kitchen all day making a special dinner."
"Yum!" Said Nala as she skipped towards the dining room, Richard and myself followed.
At the head of the long dining table sat Camille, she wore a long and simple black cotton dress with a black cardigan over her shoulders. It almost surprised me to see her wearing something so casual. She seemed to be in her own world, staring into the fireplace with a concerned look on her face.
Nala, Richard and Leo all took their seats, leaving one empty seat to the left of Camille and the other seats further away on their other side.
I didn't want to sit next to Camille because she made me feel nervous, but if I took another seat it would look disrespectful and like I was avoiding her.
Begrudgingly I took the seat next to Camille.
As I sat, she looked away from the fire and towards everyone at the table. Once again I felt like her eyes lingered on me, but I wasn't sure if it was my imagination.
"The food will be ready in just a minute." Said Leo as he stood from his seat and passed cutlery from a cupboard to everybody in the room.
Once again I was painfully aware of how close I sat to Camille, close enough to touch her, if I wanted to.
"How did training go you three?" Asked Camille to the table, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Very good." Responded Richard, smiling at me from the across the table.
"Clara will be an advanced member in no time, she really has a knack for it!" Cheered Nala, her arm loosely around my shoulder.
I felt my cheeks warm up at the praise.
"And what do you think Clara?" Asked Camille, turning directly towards me. Her piercing blue eyes looking straight into my soul.
I nodded. "I think it went okay." Camille smiled like she wanted to hear more. "I feel a lot more confident now. Like I know what to do with the energy instead of just using my gut feeling."
Camille's smile quickly disappeared. "There are rumours that a master black mage like myself has no soul you know?" She said, still facing me directly.
I didn't know what to respond to that.
"They say if I were to be injured, a white mage's magic won't heal me because a white mage heals the body and soul. But if there is no soul to heal then the body won't heal either." Camille continued, her face serious, like she had thought about this topic a lot.
"It's just old-wives tales." Laughed Richard.
"Maybe so." Smiled Camille.
With her left hand, she picked up the knife that Leo had just handed her. It wasn't an ordinary knife, it was the type of knife you use to eat a steak or tough meat.
All of a sudden, she stabbed it down through her right hand.
Everybody gasped around the table, too shocked to do anything. Clearly, Camille had not done this sort of thing before.
She held her bleeding hand away from the table, so her blood flowed down her arm and onto the floor. She continued to look directly at me.
It felt like a challenge.
Gathering the familiar energy in my palms, I gently pulled Camille's bleeding hand towards myself. Her skin was cool and soft. I closed my eyes and wrapped my two hands over hers, pushing the energy to the heavily bleeding wound.
When I opened my eyes, the skin on her hands was completely healed, as if there was never a stab wound, and her skin glowed ever so slightly.
"It seems it isn't true." She stated, moving her hand as if she was testing it out.
I smiled slightly, it felt like I had passed her little test.
Comments (0)
See all