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Skye held the writing stick in his hand uncomfortably. It kept feeling like it was about to shoot out of his grip and his hand was already hurting from the strange new way he was forcing it to hold something.

The Grandmaster had wasted little time in starting to teach his new apprentice, but they'd hit a snag almost immediately. Skye didn't know how to read or write. Having been blind it wasn't something he'd ever thought he'd be able to do, he looked at the numbers he'd written down. At least he knew their corresponding names, numbers being the only thing that his father had ever learnt as it was of use when he bartered what had been grown at the farm when he went to the village. Skye had listened whilst his father had taught Snow the numbers.

He was initially excited that he would be learning to read and write, something that no one in his family knew how to do, but it was proving to be far less exciting than he'd originally thought.

He'd been rather embarrassed when the Grandmaster had laid a book down in front of him and told him to study the first chapter. Skye had looked at the lines on the page and then looked up at the Grandmaster and admitted that he couldn't read.

The Grandmaster had been rather kind about it though, remembering that Skye had been blind until recently he'd apologized for not having thought of it.

So now, most of their time was dedicated in training Skye in the literary art.

He'd much rather have been practicing magic, so far he'd only learnt a little bit of it and it's working, mostly though that consisted of sitting cross legged on the floor with the Grandmaster opposite him and closing his eyes. The Grandmaster was trying to teach him how to calm his mind and reach into himself to feel his inner gateways where magic resided. So far, there'd been little success. The only thing Skye seemed to feel was when his rear end started making itself painfully known along with its unhappiness with this prolonged placement on the ground.

The Grandmaster kept assuring Skye that he was making quick progress in learning to read and write and indeed he could now with little hesitation be able to make sense of the squiggles and lines on a page. There were quite a few times however that he'd had to ask the meaning of words that although he could sound them out, he himself had never heard uttered. The Grandmaster would laugh away Skye's frustration and embarrassment saying that it was much the same with most of the younglings who came for the choosing.

Skye also missed his brother terribly, but since his days were filled with little except studies he never seemed to have the opportunity to ask to visit.

He also assumed that his brother was similarly engaged in some form of training as he never showed up either. If he'd been left with much time to think about anything other than studying he would have felt crushingly lonely, but the Grandmaster set a harsh pace and expected Skye to keep up with it. Days seemed to rush by and blur into each other so that he was eventually lost to how many had passed.

Tonight he and the Grandmaster again folded themselves down on cushions. Skye closed his eyes and let his mind clear of thought as the Grandmasters droning voice flowed easily. He didn't need to listen to the words anymore, he'd heard them so many times that he knew them by heart.

He let the world flow away from him and found himself in a content darkness. He sank deeper into the darkness, falling slowly down into it. Suddenly he stopped. Curiously he cast his mind around himself, this was new. In his inner vision lights came to his attention, five glowing figures soothingly lighting his being. With elation he realised that this is what the Grandmaster had been droning on about. These must be the gateways to his magic. With that he felt his consciousness snap back to his body. He opened his eyes, only to find that the Grandmaster wasn't seated in front of him.

"Ahh, your back" he heard the familiar voice and looked around. He found the Grandmaster seated at his desk, pouring a glass of water from a decanter and placing it near the edge.

"Come, drink some water. You've been gone quite a few hours in your inner world. I assume that you have now seen your gateways?" The Grandmaster smiled knowingly at him.

Skye unfolded himself and stretched, his muscles seemed slack and unwilling. He still felt the calm relaxation of the meditation hanging around his mind. He finally stood up and took the glass, taking a swallow and setting it down.

"I did indeed." He said into the waiting silence. The Grandmasters previous words ran again through his mind. "I've been gone for hours? How can that be, we only just sat down a moment ago?" he said startled.

"Yes, it would seem that way to you, but you've been sitting there for most of the night. I've gone and had dinner and came back. I had some brought up for you as well." He gestured to the silver domed tray lying on the desk. "You indeed are a unique individual, it took some of my other apprentices as much as a year to do what you've done in a month and a half" The old man said.

"The next step now will be teaching you to reach your gateways without having to resort to meditation, but now let's do a little magic shall we? Light that candle for me, if you can remember the spell form that I showed you after your awakening? Just place it over the candle wick and then let your energy flow."

Skye looked at the candle wick and brought to mind the spell form. Slowly he built it around the wick seeing it hanging in the air. He felt it snap into place and then a warm rush flowed through him. At the same time the wick flared into life with a burst. Skye was expecting the nick of pain that he'd felt when he'd unwittingly ignited this same spell what seemed ages ago. Instead of a thorn prick though, there was little more than a hardly felt sting. The flame quickly settled onto the wick and Skye could see that the spell-form had disappeared.

"Well, I hadn't expected you to be able to ignite it. I thought that once was a fluke" The Grandmaster said. "Still, you are doing it without knowing what it is you are doing. I think we'll have to start on teaching you how to embrace and feel your gateways opening as soon as we can. Not now though, it's time for sleep. Go on and remember your dinner." The Grandmaster waved him out. Skye hurriedly obeyed.

More time flew by, each day Skye learnt more and more and each night he'd meditate. Soon he could feel his gateways in his mind if he even so much as thought of them. They were like familiar friends, the fiery taste of flame, the cool balm of water, the rushing impatience of air, the slow ponderousness of earth and the slippery vastness of Spirit. He was still struggling through the books the Grandmaster gave him to read, but he'd made enough progress that the Grandmaster was now able to start his proper apprenticeship. Daily he filed away new spell-forms, their names and uses. He was able to bring them to mind with perfect clarity and recreate them on paper, having to draw the multiple diagrams of them from differing angles to show the unique form and placement of their parts each time the Grandmaster would quiz him on what he'd learnt.

He was still not allowed to put what he was learning into practice though and he was becoming slightly frustrated with the Grandmasters assurances that he would soon be learning how to cast spells. All in good time he thought sourly of the often repeated maxim the Grandmaster used.

He saw very little of the Castle, mostly only his room and the study where the Grandmaster taught him. Other than servants and chance meetings with other mages hurrying on their way to somewhere, he saw no one else. He was beginning to miss his brother tremendously.

The Grandmaster entered the study and stood for a while looking at Skye, finally he nodded seeming to have come to a conclusion on an internal debate. "I think it's time for you to start practicing spells, come along."

Skye leapt up and rushed to follow the Grandmaster, not wanting to give the old man any time or reason to change his mind.

The Grandmaster led him through the castle. Being led by the Grandmaster had a very useful advantage. Instead of having to make their way around shielded areas where even some of the highest mages couldn't pass, they were able to cut an almost straight line to their destination. Skye knew from his studies and what the Grandmaster had told him that there were a lot of areas shielded from the public and apprentices through to masters. Places of research and storage where the recently created artefacts and others were kept and so on.

Having not been able to explore as he'd have liked, Skye added to his internal map of the castle as they walked along.

The Grandmaster led him outside. Skye looked up at the night sky. He could see they were heading to a large round building, it stood two stories high. He saw the Grandmaster shape a thought of air and push it outward. The great doors they had come to opened without a sound.

They walked through the hallway and came out again, stepping into a large circle of sand. All around it was enclosed and above the wall, tiers of seats encircled them.

"This is the training grounds. Quite a lot of people like to come watch young mages joust in mock battles as part of their training. Soon, once I'm sure you are adept at weaving spells I'll be pitting you against other aspiring mages. I hope that you'll do me proud." The old man smiled at Skye through his beard, his dark brown eyes sparkling mirthfully under their bushy overhanging eyebrows.

"Right, let's start with something simple shall we?" The old men said coming to a halt "Go over to that side and cast wind-hammer at me. Remember to shield yourself"

Skye walked across the sand the bright light of the twin moons washing everything in a silver-blue glow. He finally came to a demarcated box and stood inside it.

Building the simple form of a shield spell, he powered it with all the elements. A curious constant burning sensation flew threw him and settled there. He realised it was the connection of his magic flowing into the sphere around him.

He saw the same shield forming around the Grandmaster, although it circled out much further than his own.

"Ready!" The Grandmaster boomed.

Skye quickly shaped the needed thought and flung it from him with his arm, at the same time letting a cord of air flow into it, pain shot through Skye and he gasped.

The shape of a half seen outline of a Warhammer hazily flickered, sand flying in its wake. Even before it came close to hitting the Grandmasters shield, a slight blade of air knocked it down into the ground. It dissipated, sand scattering into the wind.

"Again!" The Grandmaster boomed.

The night went by with Skye flinging spell after spell. Balls of flame, hammers of air, shards of ice and more, each time pain rang through him, but he found himself getting strangely accustomed to it.

What felt like hours later he was sweating and panting, he felt tired and weak. The shield around him finally flickered and disappeared and he felt himself drop to his knees.

The Grandmaster walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder. Skye felt a tingle of magic flow into him and with it a little strength returned to his spent body. "Well done boy!" The Grandmaster said quietly "now let's go get some rest."

Skye stood up and brushed sand from his robe, still trying to slow his breathing he followed the Grandmaster back into the castle and with the relief of a returning lover flung himself into bed, letting the warm arms of sleep enfold him.