Macromancy (Chapter 1)

“Sloppy. Yet again,” Caelia coolly declared, raising an eyebrow and shaking her head as she casually danced a violet spark of enchanted energy between her fingertips like a coin. Her radiant auburn locks still rustled in the leftover breeze from the last exchange of spells, and her porcelain complexion glowed rosier out of subtle thrill. “Don’t take this the wrong way, apprentice, but I think I’m beginning to see why those so-called master mages at the college rejected you. I’m afraid to say your basic technique, even in the fundamentals… leaves something to be desired.”

             Darvan sighed as he stood up again from the marble floor of the barefoot robe-clad Caelia’s vast but largely-vacant desert abode. He dusted himself off, choosing not to offer a retort to his newly-accepted master’s commentary. Though internally, he wasn’t sure how he could possibly take her statement in a “right” way, even though the sorceress probably wasn’t wrong about him either.

Despite his high ambitions and academic efforts, putting in years of preparation for his audition at the premier university for sorcery in his home kingdom, Darvan had indeed come up short in his magic, failing to earn himself a place at the institution which (at least he thought back then) represented his best chance for becoming at least a competent if not well-admired sorcerer. Of course, had that crushing disappointment not come to pass, he wouldn’t have chosen to venture on this pilgrimage alone through the largely uninhabited wilderness of the Exterlands – ostensibly to clear his head, but primarily just so he wouldn’t have to face the shame of his loved ones for now. The next thing Darvan knew, in his mindless gloom, he’d wandered off course and become horribly lost on his travels. For two uncertain days of solitude, his hopes of survival shrank. Then by pure serendipity, he’d stumbled into the domain of a woman who happened to be one of the most powerful enchantment-wielders alive.

Unfortunately, Caelia also just so happened to be permanently exiled from the rest of civilization, disallowed from even using her incredibly potent talents outside the strict geographic bubble where she was banished, thanks to some rather-famous circumstances where she’d displayed untold might in a certain discipline of magic, which had previously been deemed unnatural and outlawed for the last hundred years. Nevertheless, seeing a wholly unexpected opportunity to improve his lot in life arising out of this one-in-a-million encounter, he’d asked – in fact, he’d practically begged – Caelia to make him her apprentice. What did he have to lose now, after all? For an outcast from society, the woman seemed remarkably “normal” and even strangely likable, despite her blunt honesty and probably well-earned sense of supremacy over such an unschooled sorcerer. Not to mention, she was easy on the eyes. And much to Darvan’s shock, Caelia had agreed to teach him her ways, whether due to pity or her own extreme boredom, just so long as he vowed to obey her every educative command and keep his complaints to a minimum.

So here they were: a pair of wildly power-mismatched magic-users, stranded many miles from the nearest village, each having in some way dramatically failed thus far to achieve their full potential in life. At least so far, Darvan harbored no regrets over his decision to enlist help from such a skillful yet unwanted pariah. The risk of ostracization or even bodily harm in the course of learning from someone so powerful was more than worth it to him, so great was his desperation to be redeemed. But on the other hand, having toiled hard for every waking hour since arriving here yesterday, getting thrown around the room and watching all his spells fizzle in the face of such overwhelming strength, Darvan could tell that he still had yet to prove his true commitment to this ridiculously superior sorceress. Not that he found her unspoken attitude toward him unfair. The woman had been living in isolation for nearly ten years since her natural prowess in supposed “dark” sorcery had damned her to this banal existence. Nevertheless, it was becoming clear to him that he had to do more than merely trying his subpar best to show her he was worthy of her time and attention, even when she had literally nothing else to do. But what would it take? Suddenly the solution, or at least a chance at one, struck him with the same lightning-bolt unexpectedness as his impulse yesterday to plead for her to become his master. It was risky, yes, but it was becoming plain that a bolder approach was required of him. Taking a deep breath, Darvan asked:

“Master? I’m sorry if this is out of line. But, would you… tell me about macromancy?”

Caelia took evident pause then, cocking her head at Darvan as she stared him down with frigid solemnity and let that purple spark between her fingers extinguish. A chill ran up his spine and his palms turned clammy; despite his best attempt to humbly proffer this question, without prejudice or offense in his tone, he was well-aware that he’d just asked a powerful exiled sorceress to discuss the very thing that had gotten her exiled.

“What for?” Caelia asked at length. Her voice was unreadable to Darvan. To his relief, she didn’t fire this question back in spiteful rage, but it also wasn’t spoken with the same overall pleasantry of before.

“I want to learn everything I can from you. Everything you’re willing to teach me. I know still I have a long way to go before I’m any good, but I just couldn’t help but wonder. You’re already one of the most powerful people alive. Probably the most powerful for more than a generation. And they limited you. They kept you from using your greatest power. All because they couldn’t understand it, and it scared them. I just think it would be… unwise of me, as your apprentice, to be as shortsighted as them.”

Caelia considered this answer, nodded, then let show smile that appeared sincere, but nonetheless made Darvan nervous.