Part 2

Chapter 2: The Journal

“Here it is,” I said pointing to the worn journal. My master just nodded slightly in approval and we walked towards the booth. The shopkeeper saw us immediately and recited his business phrase

“Edward’s antiques and oddities- finest antiquities in all of the empire.” My master picked up the book. This shop must not get a lot of business because the shopkeeper could hardly contain his excitement

“That’s an old captain’s journal,” he said.

“How much,” my master grumbled.

Oh, that particular object would cost two denarii,” the shopkeeper said.

“That’s all right, we’ll just have a look-“my master began.

“Alright then, one denarii,” my master didn’t even look up, he had begun reading the book.

“Not interested,” he said. The man was desperate.

“Half a denarii?” he said with a pleading edge in his voice.

“You-you-you can’t look at the book unless you buy it.” The man stammered.

“I don’t want your book.” My master said.

“Oh well then. Too bad for you!” the man called out as my master walked away.

He was obviously upset at not getting any money from us. I thought my master handled the situation well. He flashed me the book from under the cloak.

I was furious. He’d stolen the book! But when I looked back it was still there.

“How-“I began, “Duplication spell,” my master said. “I made an exact duplicate of the book.” I shook my head. My master always got what he wanted. Even if it meant risking our cover from the empire. Even though magic was now legal, people still thought of it as the devil’s work and if you were uncovered as a mage, you would be treated unfairly and hatefully.

            Once we were back at the house I began to look at the book in my room. I skimmed through until one page caught my eye. Isabelle Castellus. My mom. Baelin must’ve died when my mom was young because the book referred to her as “my sweet Isabelle” or “little Isabelle”. That meant he was my grandfather. The journal said that Baelin’s final moments were on Mt. Havok. The mountainous barrier between the Empires territory and the savage land of Iron forge. I wanted to go there but my master most definitely wouldn’t let me. We had business to deal with here. But I had to go. I felt like I would find something there. I didn’t know what. So I gave asking a shot. “What? Mt. Havok? Why?” my master said. “Because…I feel like…I’ll find something there. Something significant to my training.” I said. “Well lad, we have plenty of things to take care of here.” I knew that meant no but I pleaded on “Master I’m sure it will be worth our time,” I began, “No Siris, we must continue your training.” My master had called me by my name for the first time ever. I knew he meant no. I stomped off to my room where I sat on my bed and thought about what to do. Then the idea came to me to sneak off without my master. It was risky but it had to be done. Mt. Havok was a four day journey. I snuck down stairs and into the pantry to get food for the journey. I grabbed some crumbly cheese, salted ham, and bread along with a few tomatoes and apples. Then I got my wand and cloak and set off.

            About an hour in to my walk I stopped at a stream to drink. The water was fresh, cold and delicious. It was a crisp fall day. The birds were singing their last goodbyes to their home as they were about to set off south for the winter. The trees had turned beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange. I was admiring the landscape when a chill went down my back. A sign that danger was nearby. I spun around, my staff in the defensive position. I squinted my eyes, looking around ready for an attack. I couldn’t imagine danger in this part of the country though. Danger usually kept away from the major cities like Oakwinden which I was still fairly close to. In the distance, I saw an old woman walking slowly on the path. In fact, she wasn’t walking at all. As soon as I saw her my sense of danger melted away. I approached her and said “hello there!” No response. The woman just stood in the path. At this distance she seemed to be wearing a black dress and pointy shoes, but as I got closer things seemed to change. Her shoulders where dropping up and down as if she was crying. “Is there a problem, Ma’am?” I asked, as I got even closer. She still didn’t hear me.  I put my hand on her shoulder so she would know I was there. But then she turned around. She was no helpless old lady. Her eyes were full of hatred and malice, red in color, her hair was unkempt and white, she had a huge evil grin on her face, and her teeth were yellow and black. It was all over in a second, when she grabbed me with her mud caked hands, raking me across the face. She was surprisingly strong, despite her old age. She muttered something under her breath and suddenly I went limp. I couldn’t move a finger. I was helplessly being dragged down the path, and then my eyes slowly closed. All sound was drained out, all feeling was gone, and I fell asleep.         

                                                 

 

      

     

The beginning of our story

      Prologue

   Journal of Baelin Castellus—534—battle of Mt. Havok

The demons have finally taken Mt. havok. After weeks of endless attacks, our men have failed to defend the last barrier between the demons and our country. We are tired, cold, wet, and most of all home sick. Just to think three weeks ago 4000 men were heading home, their heads held high, and triumphant over their victory at Fort Draconus. Now only 50 or so remain and they are fighting to the bitter end just feet from my tent. When I finish this entry, I will run outside and destroy as many demons as I can before I am killed, after all, the more demons I kill now the less the country will have to face later. If this document is ever discovered at any point in time, give it to my family. They should reside In Oakwinden.

I am proud to have served in the Imperial militia and to have defended my country. I hope the country and more importantly the capital, are ready for the invasion. I hope that the country will survive this threat as they always have. Most of all I hope my family can get out alive before it’s too late.

50 years later—Port Almira

    I was in a market stall when I found the book, just an average market, it was a routine trip to the market arranged by my master. I was a wizard in training. A special kind of wizard, a wand maker. I’ve heard the stories from my master. He used to be a mage guard. He would hunt down all kinds of monsters and magical law breakers. But since then he’s gotten older and was asked to take on an apprentice. I’m not sure how he suddenly changed from mage guard to wand master but it was something I never asked him. We were at that market for a specific wand element. Something called a blue moonstone. But as I was passing by a certain book caught my eye. The cover read Journal of Baelin Castellus, I quickly flipped to the back where I read the page. It was a journal of a soldier in the Imperial militia who had fought the final battle at Mount Havok. I was told the stories as a child, the stories of the Great War between the demons at Iron forge and the men in the empire. The demons tore through villages, towns, and even cities, but they were eventually driven back by a united army from every city. But what interested me more was the last name Castellus. That was my mams last name before she got married to my father. The war was about 50 years ago so Baelin may be my grandfather. I wanted to find out more but suddenly my master called me. I walked over to him and he held a gem out to my face.

“This is what we were after lad, a blue moonstone. This is the rarest kind of space gem stone, other than the void stone.”

  I knew the list in order as it was near the end of my first year of apprenticeship. It went like this in order by rarity Moonstone, Eclipse crystal, (lunar and solar) Sun stone, equinox jewel, red sun stone, black hole gem, blue moon and then void stone. The stone was small and smooth, it was white with a hint of blue and I could almost feel the power inside it. I knew how special this was to my master but it was even more special to me. I was going to use this stone to make my own wand. A wand of great power and strength no doubt. Up until now I’ve been using practice wands designed for apprentices. But my master thought I was ready for my own wand now and I was very happy to use such a rare stone for my own wand. After that we left the market, and headed home. 

    Our house was of on the outskirts of Oakwinden, one of the cities in our empire. Our house is cloaked with powerful magic so only very powerful wizards can see it. We hung our cloaks on the coatrack and headed straight downstairs to the wand workshop. My master sat down in his chair at the table and placed the stone in the center. I sat down across from him in the only other chair at the table.

“Well, you know how it’s done, get to work.” My master said.

“I can’t make a wand on my own!” I said.

“Why not?” He said.

    I sat in the chair thinking and then got to work. I chose black oak for the wood and moon light essence for the core. I carved the wood thin and smooth like the stone, just as my master taught me. I used every skill I had learned to enhance the power. When the frame was done, I put the moonstone into the base and twisted it to keep it sturdy.  I felt energy surge through my fingers, making the hair on my arms stand on end. I looked the wand over in my hand, studying it for imperfections that could cause problems later. I’d learned from my master that if the wood didn’t flow the wand would crack and explode, or if the stone wasn’t on tight, the stone would shoot off into the wizard’s chest, and if unlucky, you could die. Up close there were no cracks so I looked through my master’s magnifying glass. Still no cracks. It was time to try it out. I walked into the practice room next to the workshop and flicked the wand. A standard bolt of the wand’s chosen magical energy shot out hitting the target. I winced, expecting an explosion or flash of light but none came. I flicked the wand again firing another bolt of moonlight. It hit the target with a crack, splintering the wood into several burnt black pieces. I quickly ran to my master, to show him my creation. I burst through his study door-

“Master,” I said “I’ve finished.”

“You forgot to knock.” He said, sounding mad.

“Sorry, I just…” I said, trailing off.

“Bring it to me,” he said. I handed my new wand to him. He looked it over in his hand, examining it closely. There was a long silence, and I was anxious so I said,

“What do you think?”

“Did you try it out?” He asked, not answering my question.

“Yes” I replied

“Was there any problems?”

“No” I said.

“I think you’ve done very well. There’s a lot of power in that one no doubt. This marks the end of your first year of apprenticeship and you move to your second year.” I smiled.

“But along with your new status in the magic world comes new responsibilities. I will trust you with greater tasks and you will begin to make wands on a weekly basis, you will learn new topics and master new skills and techniques for making wands but the main topic of this year is wizard history. Get your notebook out lad, your first lesson begins now. Our first topic is a wizard named Baelin Castellus.” I thought about the journal at the market. It was Baelin’s journal

“He was a wizard who chose to hide his talent and identity, he joined the imperial militia and died defending Mt. Havok from the demons in ironforge. He was very powerful but at the time, wizards were exiled and magic use was banned.”

Why?” I asked

“Because wizards had too much power, the king didn’t like anyone except him to have a lot of power and the arch mage was extremely powerful.”

“What’s the arch mage?” I asked

“Like the kingdom, the mages had their own government. The arch mage was the king of the mages. Wizards have only been out of exile for 20 years. I was alive and working magic at the beginning and the end of the exile. But it only lasted for 10 years. Then, the king died and his son took the throne, His son was a mage, so naturally he abolished the exile and use of magic was once again legal. But in that time, many wizards, including the arch mage were killed by the king’s soldiers. It has, and is, going to take a long time for the mage community to recover. The new king, the current king not only took the throne of arch mage but constructed an arcane university where young wizards can learn to harness their power. The new king also created the mageguard, a secret organization of wizards to protect and maintain magical peace and order. I was one of the few that were selected. But many people still viewed magic as wrong and Baelin was ashamed of his talent, so he chose to hide it and fight for the kingdom rather than for the more powerful mage community, and that was his fatal mistake. He couldn’t control or use his power, so in his final moments, he decided to unleash his power on the demon army and he barely killed ten of them before he exploded from over exertion.”

I was stunned.

“You can explode from using too much magic?” I asked, sounding surprised

“Sure you can, why do you think today was your first day making a wand? Because the little tingle you felt in your fingers was your life force going into the wand. If you were unprepared you could fall into a coma or die from using a powerful stone like that.” He said, pointing to my wand. I hadn’t realized it but I did feel a little tired.

“Can we go back to the market?” I asked.

“Why?” asked my master.

“I want to look for....something.”

      

Wand of the day

sun fire wand

Gem: sun stone

Wood:molten gold

with sun dragon heart string

a special wand for a very special day

Wand of the Day

Ebonstone Wand

Gem: Ebonstone

Wood: Muirwood

Dragon Heart String