Pug's life had undoubtedly taken a turn for the better. Being Kulgan's apprentice had altered the course of his life in profound ways. The magician's tower in Crydee, where Kulgan made his home, now held a room converted into Pug's own personal sanctuary. His own personal private room!
Not only that, but he had been given new clothes. Pug had always worn Tomas' hand-me-downs, cast aside whenever Tomas outgrew them. Now, he had his own. They weren't as fine as Prince Lyam's, Prince Arutha's, or even Squire Roland's, but they were clean and most importantly, they were his.
The first two months had not been filled with magic. Instead, Pug had focused on improving his reading skills and learning the most basic concepts of magic. Kulgan taught him how to clear his mind, meditate, and improve his ability to recall specific memories.
"Master your mind and you can master magic," Kulgan had been fond of saying.
The one oddity in all of this was Tanya. Magya had raised them both, so they were somewhat like siblings. Yet, unlike Pug with Tomas, they didn't spend much time together. Tanya would occasionally join them in the forest. She would also, in passing, offer a polite nod and a 'good morning' with a smile, but they had never been close. Pug simply assumed it was because she was a girl.
Only now, they were spending far more time together. This confused Pug, as while he knew she had started doing scribe work, he couldn't figure out why she attended every lesson he had with Kulgan.
During one of the rare times Tanya was not with them, Pug asked Kulgan, "Why is Tanya always present during our lessons?"
The magician exhaled a puff of smoke from his pipe.
"Tanya is fascinated by magic, and I had no reason to deny her request to listen in. Has she been a bother to you?"
Pug shook his head. "No, not really. Is she going to try to be your apprentice too?"
He stroked his beard. "If she had the ability to use magic, she might have considered it. Sadly for her, I do not believe she has the gift."
"Why do some people have the ability to use magic while others do not?"
"An excellent question! I do not have an excellent answer. Tully would say it is simply how the Gods have ordained it. I believe it is a matter of chance, possibly influenced by one's parentage. Just as a tall father is likely to have a tall child, I suspect magic works in a similar way."
"Were my parents magicians, then?" Pug asked, his voice tinged with curiosity and a slight hitch.
Kulgan set his pipe aside for a moment and leaned forward. "Doubtful. They might have had the spark, but most never receive training to manifest their talents. For a long time, people in this area hated and feared magicians. It may surprise you now, but had I chosen another boy to be my apprentice, they might have rejected me."
Pug nodded and released the faint hope he had been holding, that Kulgan might know something about his parents.
"When will I be able to try my first spell?"
Kulgan chuckled. "Eager, are you? I was the same way at your age. I believe another month should suffice before I can show you a cantrip or two without risking the destruction of my tower."
"I wouldn't do that!" Pug exclaimed.
"Not purposefully… and not likely either. However, you could still harm yourself or others if a spell got out of control. You shouldn't overly fear it, but magic is essentially the bending of the world to your will. Such power should be treated like a naked blade – useful, important, effective, but also dangerous if you're not careful."
Pug nodded, taking Kulgan's lesson to heart. He wasn't yet sure what it meant to be a magician or what kind of life he would lead. Even after two months, the idea of himself as a lowly kitchen boy who knew nothing of his parents, now able to wield magic, was a heady notion.
"What will be the first spell I get to cast?"
The magician picked up his pipe again and filled the air with smoke. "I will teach you a spell that reveals the direction of true north. It should cause no harm if miscast, and it might prove useful at the most unpredictable times."
Pug felt a bit deflated; he had hoped for something grander. However, he was wise enough to understand that asking for something more ambitious would only highlight his unreadiness for such a task. Instead, he nodded in agreement and vowed to cast the spell perfectly on his first try!
***
"It seems we rarely see you, Tanya," Magya commented.
I looked around and realized that Tomas, Pug, and Megar had made themselves scarce after one of the rare meals at Megar's home. Since Megar ran the keep's kitchens, it was common to eat there or take a plate to Kulgan's tower to eat while I worked on scribing and listened in on Kulgan's lectures.
"I am keeping busy with my work." I reply, wondering what this was about.
"And we are so proud of you for it! Father Tully says that you copy the texts of Astalon better than scribes who have been at it longer than you've been alive!"
Heh, doubtful if one were to add all three of my lives together.
"He is too kind," I murmur politely.
"With everyone being so busy all the time, it has come to my attention that I have been remiss in teaching you about womanhood. Your small stature made me forget that your time of change should be upon you soon."
I blinked at her. Was she referring to my period? I had been experiencing that for over six months now!
"Are you referring to my courses?"
Magya's cheeks grew slightly pink. "Oh dear, I didn't realize you had already started. I should have walked you through what you need to do and what it means."
I suppressed a facial twitch. I was tempted to mention that I had been experiencing them for a few months, but then had an enchanting night with a random keep boy and they had disappeared for some strange reason. Instead, I chose to be kind. Despite their benign neglect after the age of seven, they had taken me in and kept me alive during my earliest years.
"I am familiar. Some of Kulgan's books discuss herblore on how to mitigate cramping and how babies are formed with the union of male and female." I looked her in the eye without a hint of the inward embarrassment over the topic. "I assure you; I am well versed in processes of being a woman."
She looked down. "Still, I must apologize. More than that, I need to help you with this next stage of your life."
I quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? In what way?"
"Why, finding a husband, of course! You dress well, but you're not accentuating your budding curves. Your hair is often cut too short; you need to let it grow longer." She nodded. "Yes, and if you were to wear a ribbon in it, many eyes would be drawn to you."
She gave a chuckle, likely in response to my expression, which I struggled to keep neutral but was clearly failing at.
"Don't look at me like that! I haven't grown horns. You are young, it's true, but feelings sometimes take time to develop. You need to remind the boys that you are a woman."
I took a breath and composed myself. "I have no interest in marrying anyone here who is within my station. I am not high-born, so a marriage to Prince Lyam, Prince Arutha, or Squire Roland is a distant and unheard-of possibility. No one else can offer me the comfortable life and the coin I wish to attain."
Her face showed a look of befuddlement. "I should think not! All three are destined to marry other nobles. But you could still make a good life being wed to one of the Craftmaster apprentices."
"Not as good a life as I would wish. Perhaps it will be easier if I tell you my five-year plan."
Magya gestured for me to continue, now more curious than confused.
"I hope to learn something of magic from Kulgan. If I succeed, being a magician would be ideal for my desires. If not, I plan to save the money I earn from scribing. Once I reach full adulthood, I'll take my savings and head for Krondor. The Merchants Quarter in that city has a place called Barrett's Coffeehouse. It's a spot where business transactions and dealings happen over delicious coffee. When I read about it and spoke to Kulgan, I knew that's where I wanted to go."
Crydee was rustic and on the frontier of the Kingdom, while Krondor was a real city with genuine sophistication and luxury. Rillanon was even greater, but it seemed like the kind of place where you had to know someone to make it.
Magya fiddled with her hands. "Are you not happy here, my dear?"
"I am content for the moment, but I do not wish to spend my entire life here in Crydee. I will, of course, visit and will always be grateful to you and Megar for taking me in."
It was important to express gratitude. One hand washes the other, after all. I have always believed in cultivating a reputation for honoring those who have done me a favor and reciprocating when possible. If you get bailed out by another squadron, you buy them drinks. This concept is a cornerstone of civilization. When people act rationally, society benefits from greater cooperation, as it's in everyone's best interest to work together for mutual gain.
"If you say so. Hmm," she tapped her finger to her cheek, "you still need to learn some of the arts of being a woman. You'll want to find a worthy husband in Krondor, won't you?"
Urgh!
***
It had been nine months since my semi-foster mother had broached the topic of acting womanly. I initially fended her off politely, and then more insistently. I think she was put out that she couldn't dress me up now that she had some additional coin. Nope. Was. Not. Going. To. Happen.
It was a minor irritant compared to the growing realization that I simply could not use magic in this life. Pug, despite his ability to use the crystal sphere to scry on distant places, was also having a rough time. His understanding of spellcasting mechanics seemed correct – at least as far as I could tell. But, to Kulgan's confusion and Pug's mounting frustration, he couldn't get even the simplest spells to work.
For my part, I tried to keep his spirits up. I mentioned how he had his own room, his days were relatively easy, and he had more free time than most apprentices. Pug seemed appreciative, and we even discussed some of the passages in Kulgan's books on magic.
The magic in this world was both more limited and more complex compared to my second life. Even if I had access to it, I doubted I could replicate something like flight. Weather magic, in particular, baffled me. Kulgan could create a small fire but not an explosive one. Yet he could manipulate the weather. None of the books explained how this worked. They only described spells that could dampen winds, make rain more likely, or prevent lightning. There was no mention of the underlying mechanics behind the manipulation of the air.
I brought that up to Kulgan and he seemed surprised.
"The spell lessens the wind. The magic is the cause. I used to use it all the time during rough storms before moving to the tower."
"Yes, but what does it do."
"It limits the power of the storm."
"But how?"
"Magically." Kulgan stated a twinkle in his eye.
I blinked. This son-of-a-bitch was vexing me on purpose!
He laughed as he saw that I had caught on.
"My apologies, Tanya. But you are often so serious that I cannot help but try to spark some merriment."
Exactly how does frustrating my lines of inquiry create merriment for me?
"Ah, ha, a good jest," I say simply, without emotion, which causes him to laugh once more.
"But seriously, what is going on with the atmosphere? Is the energy pushed into the spell a linear variable that reduces the power by a percentage, or is there a formula?"
Kulgan shook his head. "Formula? Magic is not engineering a bridge! It is more art, than science. Despite the vanity of many a magician, it is truly just a collection of folk arts and skills passed along from master to apprentice since the beginning of time. Trial and error, trial and error is the way. There has never been an attempt to create a system for magic, with laws and rules and axioms that are well understood and widely accepted. "
How absurd. This should be fixed, regardless of my own ability to do magic.
"We should change that. It might help Pug, but even if it doesn't, what harm could it cause for us to start making more exact measurements of what happens when a spell is completed?"
Kulgan cocked his head. "You do nothing by half-measures, do you, Tanya? Hmm, I'm a bit set in my ways, but I would not be averse to recording our findings and sharing them with some of my peers. What did you wish to test?"
I got a little excited by the prospect of learning more and began thinking of tests we could perform.
"Magic is the use of energy, that much we know. Some magic requires more energy than others, which creates what you describe as exhaustion and fatigue that is somehow deeper than simple tiredness from lack of sleep or laborious effort."
"Yes, that is true."
"Well, I think a good baseline would be to have you repeat one simple spell over and over until you feel the effects of fatigue. The next day, we can do it with a different spell. Then we can calculate how much energy, or maybe a term like 'mana,' it takes to cast a spell."
Kulgan thought it over. "As long as it doesn't interfere with my other duties, I can see no harm in it."
"Now ideally, we would get other magicians to perform the same tests. Once we have that, we should start experimenting with 'pushing' more energy into spells and measuring any effects that take place. And then we can…"
Kulgan raised a hand. "Let us not get too ahead of ourselves. Why don't you document the tests and measurements you wish to carry out? I will discuss it with Father Tully and write to some of my other colleagues. As I said, we magicians teach our pupils what we know. It's possible others have done something similar."
"And we don't want to reinvent the wheel, if we don't have to."
"What a delightful saying! I will have to remember it," Kulgan said, amusement evident in his eyes.
He had a good head on his shoulders. Instead of rambling, I could list out my ideas and then prioritize which ones should be tackled first. Filled with creative energy, I began my true studies of magic.
***
Arutha was watching the frantic game of the keep children were playing. As was the case every Sixthday the boys delighted in tackling, running, and kicking the leather-bound ball. Arutha sometimes envied their seemingly carefree existence, but knew they also envied his fine food and well fitted clothing.
What was that phrase that Kulgan used the other day. "The grass is always green on the other side?" Yes, that fits here.
Arutha liked his father's advisors. Father Tully and Kulgan the magician had a wisdom about them that was not often seen, even in other graybeards. Arutha's attention turned back to the game and noticed a scuffle breaking out. He moved closer, with no intention of interfering unless it looked like someone might get seriously hurt.
He could see Rulf, the stableboy, had pinned a smaller boy and was laying into him with his fists. Arutha moved closer, knowing that with a significant size disparity, more serious injuries could occur. From about fifteen feet away, he saw that the boy on the ground was Pug, Kulgan's apprentice. A flash of movement caught his eye, and a girl slammed into Rulf.
Rulf went sprawling into the dirt and sprang up with a furious look. He swung at the girl, and Arutha knew he had to intervene.
"Stop this at once!" Arutha's voice cut through the clamor.
The boy's blow hadn't connected as the girl had backpedaled away. Rulf ignored Arutha's shout and advanced with another heavy swing, which the girl ducked. There was no third swing as Arutha grabbed the boy's arm and spun him around.
"I said, cease!"
Rulf's eyes widened in fear. He began to babble, but Arutha spoke over him.
"Go to the Horsemaster and explain yourself. I will speak to Algon personally later this evening."
Arutha watched the boy rush away, then turned to check on the girl. After a second glance, he recognized her as Tanya, an orphan girl now working as a scribe for Father Tully and Kulgan.
"Were you hurt?"
She shook her head. "No, Your Highness. However, I should check on Pug."
Arutha, slightly bemused, watched as she checked on the boy. His face was a mess, but he didn't seem seriously injured. Arutha noticed Tomas look at Tanya.
"Tanya, you can't interfere in a fight like that. It was between the two of them," Tomas scolded.
"Rulf had won. Pug was no longer fighting back, which I took as a sign of a potential concussion. Strikes to the head while on the ground are doubly dangerous because it can rattle the brain and leave permanent injury. A Sixthday brawl is no reason to risk his future as a magician." Tanya responded cooly.
Pug sat up. "I'm fine."
Arutha saw that boy was able to sit up with minimum dizziness.
"I agree, but still tell Master Kulgan about what transpired and the injuries you suffered." Arutha turned to Tanya. "And you nearly got yourself injured. Next time, point out the danger to someone like Tomas."
"Of course, Your Highness." Tanya lowered her head.
Arutha left it at that. He had an uncanny ability to recall every detail when he called up a memory. He replayed it in his head and was impressed with the keep girl. Her agility was remarkable; there wasn't even a hint of a stumble when a boy twice her weight had come barreling at her. She had kept her cool, dodging and ducking with agile ease. He replayed the memory again, noting her curiously blank expression. There had been no sign of anger or fear.
What an interesting girl.
***
It had been a shock to learn that Pug and Princess Carline were attacked by trolls. Trolls were cowardly by nature and typically scavenger creatures. They were humanlike, short, and broad, with long, thick arms that hung nearly to the ground, often running on all fours. They had sharp, dangerous teeth, but the odds of them attacking two humans on horseback were slim to none.
During the encounter, Pug had managed to use magic in a way that Kulgan claimed should have been impossible. The magician explained that the spell of pain Pug had cast on the trolls required an external focus, such as a scroll. If it were possible to use one's own body as a focus, the pain should have been felt by the caster, not projected onto an external target. Kulgan was both elated and deeply confused.
I had some theories, but no ethical way to test them. We could try putting Pug in a situation he believed was life or death to see what happened, but his use of magic in unprecedented ways could backfire horrendously, causing harm to both the observers and Pug himself. And despite my longing to understand magic, I would not turn into Schugel!
Today, it was time for Pug to be rewarded by the Duke for saving his daughter. By dint of both being fostered by the same people, and my work with Kulgan and Father Tully, I was also attending, along with everyone else who had managed to contrive a way to gain entrance.
Pug looked a bit self-conscious, wearing a bright yellow tunic made from the costliest silk – likely given to him for this occasion. That could feed a family for a month on its own! He also wore a black leather belt with a golden buckle shaped like a gull in flight. It appeared new, but my memory was pretty good; I believed it was Prince Arutha's belt from several years ago.
Pug stood before Duke Borric and the rest of the court. Father Tully retrieved a document from inside his robe and handed it to the herald.
The herald was skilled at his job, his rich voice carrying effortlessly across the room.
"Whereas the young Pug, of the castle of Crydee, has shown exemplary courage in the act of risking life and limb in defense of the royal person of the Princess Carline, and; Whereas the young, Pug of Crydee, is considered to hold us forever in his debt; It is my wish that he be known to all in the realm as our beloved and loyal servant, and it is furthermore wished that he be given a place in court of Crydee, with the rank of Squire, with all rights and privileges pertaining thereunto. Furthermore, let it be known that the title for the estate of Forest Deep is conferred upon him and his progeny…."
My eyes widened in shock. This was a huge deal! Pug was being elevated to nobility and granted a sizable estate, which was unexpected. Forest Deep wasn't large, but it boasted a good number of livestock and over a dozen franklins working the land. The boy was now richer than any of the Craftmasters in Crydee!
The herald finished the announcement, explaining titles would be held by the crown until the day of his majority, which was eighteen, less than four years away.
"Set this day by my hand and seal Borric conDoin, third Duke of Crydee; Prince of the Kingdom; Lord of Crydee, Carse, and Tulan; Warden of the West; Knight-General of the King's Armies; heir presumptive to the throne of Rillanon."
I idly wondered what was going on in the Kingdom's capital of Rillanon. The current King, Rodric the Fourth, had been on the throne for thirteen years. The first several years had been under a regent, as he was not yet of age, but he had been a man grown for almost a decade and still had not taken a wife or produced heirs. What was he waiting for?
Everyone was clapping and cheering, and I joined in as well. After several minutes of congratulations for Pug, handshakes, and shoulder pats, the Duke instructed the crowd to disperse, except for Pug. I left too but waited on the path to the magician's tower for Pug to finish with the Duke.
As Pug walked toward his rooms, somewhat shell-shocked by his sudden advancement, I approached him.
"Congratulations, Pug! Your own lands, servants, and the means to grow your newfound wealth to even greater heights."
Pug looked startled and then smiled. "Thank you, Tanya. I didn't expect any of this."
"You should get some rest and make sure you have a clear head before making any decisions. That said, while the crown is holding your estates for you, it probably wouldn't be amiss to request a review of your lands in person sometime soon. I have some ideas on how to make more efficient use of the land, and with the Duke's permission, I think he would likely allow you to implement some of them."
Pug looked at me quizzically. "More efficient use of the land? What do you mean?"
I flashed him a smile. "Some of the current ways we make use of land can be improved. Traditionally, grazing land could double as crop-bearing land, and with proper rotation, you can have the best of both worlds. I also have a design to make seed planting far more efficient for the franklins. I'll sketch up some designs and show you in a few days."
Pug nodded. "I… I guess. I don't want to be distracted too much from my studies."
"Wise," I agreed to help gain buy-in. "But it won't take much time. I also believe magic could play a part in further improving the land. Kulgan has been quite benevolent with the measuring and experimentation I've done. This would be a great way to test additional theories in a real-world application."
The boy nodded, but I wasn't sure he fully grasped what he was agreeing to. Good enough, though. My internal plans had changed a bit. A journey to Krondor could be delayed. If I could convince Pug to manage his lands for a few years and take a percentage of the increased yields from the yearly production before my management, I would have an amazing amount of starting capital.
As Pug left to continue to his rooms and process everything that had happened, I mused that things were definitely looking up. They were going almost too well, really. Being X had yet to make an appearance, but I knew he was out there lurking. How would he challenge me in this life? Start making trolls and other monstrous creatures more active and dangerous? Perhaps incite a civil war within the Kingdom? Or stir up the Dark Brotherhood, leading to another war on the Far Coast?
Grim possibilities all. Regardless of what happened, I would not give that pretentious pretender the time of day. I would make my way and be a success despite whatever that demented false God could throw at me!