Chapter 5. Training

The boys and Xavier walked out, lost in thought.

Xavier broke the silence. “Let me take you to the training grounds. You will begin your battle training with Zane.”

They were led outside into a large field. People were sword fighting, spear throwing, doing club practice, or bow and arrow. Xavier took them to a tall, sandy, well built man who was holding a sword.

“Zane, you have two new students. The Elderest twins will be under your care for battle training. Jake, Aaron, meet your new teacher, Zane.”

“So you’re the Elderest twins.” He inspected them. “Tall, muscular, light. You’ll probably make good sword fighters. Let me fit you up with some swords.” He walked off.

A half an hour later, Jake and Aaron were hard at work battling each other. Zane gave comments through out the fight. “That’s right, Jake, nice hit! Oh, good block there Aaron! Keep it up boys!”

After twenty minutes, neither side was winning and they were due for magic. Zane decided to call it a draw.

“You boys are dead even by the looks of it. Well, hurry off now, old Jacob doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

They walked off, unsure of where to go. One of the servants met them. “King Julian has instructed me to show you to Sir Jacob’s room.”

They followed him through a maze of corridors, until they reached a large wooden door. The servant knocked thrice.

An old, wizened man stood on the other side of the door, with twinkling merry eyes.

“Ah, the Elderest twins have arrived. Thank you, Thomas.” he said to the servant. “You may leave now. Boys, come in.”

They nervously stepped inside. The room had shelves upon shelves of magical items. There were books, wands, and jars filled with strange things like eyeballs, bugs, and other things that couldn’t be identified as Earthly.

“Sit down, boys,” he gestured to some cozy chairs.

“My name is Professor Jacob, as you already know. I’m here to teach you to harness your magical abilities. Now the first step is finding a wand. A wand can store energy for battle and control your power. Each wand is unique, a combination of a stone, different for each wand, the type of wood used in the wand, and magical symbols carved on it. Now get ready, and I’ll fly you to a wand shop.”

He took out a white wand with a brown stone on it. It had carvings of stars all over it. There was a flash of white light.

——————–♦—————-

Aaron staggered and shook his head. Suddenly he was on a busy street. Creatures and humans walked hand-in-hand. He saw people flying in the air and he even saw someone burrow underground. They were standing in front of a rickety old shop saying Richardsons, since 1821. Right next to it was a brand new store with a sign saying Super Wand! New wand out! Automatic self-defense spells!

Jake looked eagerly to it. Professor Jacob saw the look. “Oh, we won’t be going there boys. They might be having all kinds of new technical wands, but the magic at Richardsons is much more ancient and powerful”

They walked towards it. Inside they gaped. The outside of the shop may be small but the inside was large, with ancient inscriptions along the walls.

A tall man walked forward. He looked old but was extremely fit. “Well hello, Jacob! I see you brought me some customers.” he boomed. “Hold out your wand arms, boys, yes, that’s it. Oh my!” he had just seen the boys birthmarks.

“Well, I see you boys have magic marks!”

Professor Jacob gasped. “Are you sure, Ember?”

“Of course! See that golden color with red-ish stripe? That’s definitely a magic mark!”

“But what are magic marks?” asked Jake, confused.

“You see son, some Ekethians are born with special marks. These marks match with the stone on their wand. And only those wands will be perfect for the Ekethians with the marks. Best of all, people with magic marks can control their powers easier and their magic is stronger. Of course, it is expected since you are the descendants of Elderest.”

“But how will you find the wands that are perfect for us?” asked Aaron.

“All wands are formed by a powerful magic. Yours, because of the amount of power you need are probably made by Elderest. Every wand is made with a series of symbols. Since you have magic marks, your wand will have symbols describing you. You will know when you find your wand. Walk around with your eyes closed. You can feel your wand better that way.”

Jake and Aaron walked around as told. Aaron felt confused. How would they feel their wands? For about ten minutes, they walked around waiting. Jake suddenly gasped. He felt a strange tingle on the back of his neck. As he kept walking he felt a pull towards a direction. He opened his eyes and kept walking. He reached a tall shelf stacked with thin boxes. He was drawn to one of the boxes. He reached out and touched it. The pull felt extremely strong now.

He cautiously opened it. Inside was a dark black wand. Exactly like his birthmark there was a white stone shaped like a crescent moon. On the wand, there was a carving of a solar eclipse and flowing cool magic. As he held it, a cool tingling went through his arms.

Aaron had felt the same pull towards another box. He opened it. Inside was a long brown wand. It had a bright orange stone, remarkably like the one on his hand. The symbols carved on it were a solar eclipse and a bright flame of magic.

Aaron grabbed his wand. A warm flow went down his arm. He went and walked to Ember. He saw Jake walking back with his wand.

Ember took Jake’s wand first.

“Amazing. The stones match your magic marks better than anything I’ve seen before! Hmm. This is strange indeed! This solar eclipse is formed by the sun and moon combining. Your magic marks are the sun and moon. It looks like the first twin set of wands have been made in history. Your powers look cool. You obviously have powers of the moon.”

Next he took Aaron’s wand. “Your magic mark matches your wand as well as your brother’s matches his. And you have a solar eclipse too! My thoughts are confirmed, you have twin wands. And the flame! You have powers of the sun.” He spoke to them both. “Your powers are unique. I’ve never seen powers of sun or moon. Be careful, because your powers are stronger than you can ever imagine.”

“Thank you for your advice.” said Professor Jacob. “How much do we pay you?”

“Twelve drachyons , six per wand,” said Ember.

Jacob handed him twelve golden coins. The he waved his wand and they flashed away. Jake was now used to the sudden flashes and didn’t even flinch when they landed.

“I think that was enough for one day. You may leave the class”. As they started to leave he said “Wait! Remember to bring your wands to every class. And you have magic first tomorrow.”

“Okay,” the twins chorused and left the room.

Aaron was staying up late, staring at his wand. A warm, fiery feeling rushed through his body. He felt that it was strangely familiar. Whenever he rubbed the stone a faint glow came out of the end and when he pushed on it, the glow became stronger and turned into a clear, blue light.

He peeked out of his blanket. A cool glow was coming out of Jake’s blanket. He went towards it with his wand alight. Jake was there holding his wand with his hand on his stone. The cool glow was coming out of the tip. When he saw Aaron, he spoke.

“Hey Aaron, check this out, my wand ligh-”

He stopped mid sentence staring. Aaron looked down. When his wand light touched Jake’s, a bright white light appeared. Their wands started shaking. Both twins jerked their fingers away from the wand. The light disappeared. The wands were still.

Aaron shattered the silence. “Wow! Did you see that! We have to tell Professor Jacob!”

“Hold on a second. Everyone’s sleeping now. And this might be something that happens all the time to people. Let’s wait till tomorrow to tell him.”

Tagged as: Chapter 3