Missing

[The Writing Owl]

"Just follow the directions, they said... You won't get lost, they said... It'll be fun! They said..." Maxine, or Max as she preferred muttered. The young brunette was off to see her new master for the first time, at least she hoped so. Max turned down a street, looking at the directions intently trying to figure out just where she was going. Kylm Arcania Desoto. That was the name of the woman who was going to teach the young thirteen year old. She had sent the directions, but never bothered to meet with her young apprentice or pick her up like most of the other masters. Unfortunately, Max was absolutely horrible with directions.

Blue eyes scanned the streets for any signs described in the directions. Often, even when given the most direct and simplest directions, Max ended up on the complete other side of town. Her pale hands clenched the paper tightly, as if afraid to lose it. The bag on her back held only a few items. She only had a few anyway. It wasn't like she needed much more.

The streets were busy that time of day. Magicians held their apprentices close, glaring at many who stepped too close to their charges. Mothers in comparison seemed less clingy. They simply held their childrens' hand while magicians practically had their apprentice's heads in headlocks. An air of tension seemed to follow everyone around, despite the happy screams of children and laughter of adults.

Max shrugged this off, turning onto another street before finally reaching the house described. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand and knocked on the door. The young girl fidgeted, pulling on her long tunic as her brown trousers bounced slightly with her movements. Her boots tapped the ground, Max looking around before knocking again. Was this the right house? She hoped so. She wanted to meet her new master after all.

 

[Crono]

The house, simply put, was strange. Tall, rickety, and hazardous looking. Large gears and strange trinkets poked out of the walls and ceiling. Paint of several different colors decorated the wood, somehow looking decent.

When the girl knocked there was a crashing sound, like several objects had fallen over. "Damn it! Hold your horses I'll be there in a second!" A woman's voice yelled from within the odd home. There was footsteps, but they were far too heavy for any human. Suddenly the door burst open.

Nutmeg

Isn't he cute?

A black scaled wyvern stood before Maxine, a low growl in its throat. The beast was the size of a grown man, and looked like it was about to pounce on the young apprentice. However before it could do so a rolled up scroll smacked its head. "No! Bad Nutmeg! Back to your room!"

The wyvern whimpered and left, leaving its owner facing Maxine. She was a tall lady with ice colored hair. A yellow eye examined Max as the other one was hidden by hair. She wore colorful robes and a serious expression. "What do you want?"

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max scrambled back at the wyvern answering the door. She fell on her butt, speechless in terror. Suddenly the large dragon seemed to sulk back inside the house before a tall woman appeared. Quickly getting back up, Maxine looked down at her small note of directions. "U-um, I'm looking for Miss Desoto..." She looked up at the woman before her. This must be the magician. Many had said she kept to herself. They didn't mention the beast that seemed to live in this woman's house.

Clearing her throat, she looked straight into the woman's eyes. "I'm the apprentice that you wanted to teach. My name is Maxine Ferinus." She doubted that this was a good idea. She had already made the woman in front of her possibly ruin a spell or potion. Maybe the woman in front of her would send her back. Maybe she would see she was too weak! The other kids had often joked that she had the magical potential of a potato. Doubts were running wild while the strange woman in front of her seemed to glare at her, her expression serious.

 

[Crono]

The woman nodded slowly, a sarcastic smile appeared on her face. "Yeah that's me. The 'Greatest Wizard to Ever Live' Kylm Desoto." She made a lopsided bow and rolled her eyes, but went back to serious as soon as she heard the word apprentice. "Apprentice?? Oh, right. That whole thing with the warlocks. Well I hope you packed a change of close and whatever the Academy taught you." Eventually a small smile entered her face.

Kylm had always wanted a apprentice, this much was true, but the U.O.W. (United Order of Wizards) wouldn't let her. Something stupid about a 'unsafe workplace.' But now that she had the mission of investigating the warlocks she would be allowed to bring one with her. She looked down at the young, nervous looking girl in front of her and her smile widened. She had a lot of work to do.

"Well Maxine you wanna be my apprentice huh? Let's see what you got!" With that the mage walked over to her front lawn and pointed to a area six feet away from were she was standing. "Go there, and use your best spells on me."

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max was surprised by the sudden command. She nodded quickly. "Alright!" She only know one actually useful spell for defense, but she wasn't even supposed to know it per se. Taking a deep breath, she pointed her palm at the master. "Duratus eam!" With a blast, a shot of ice encased the woman's legs. It was a weaker spell, made more effective by the magic the girl had behind her. The rest of her spells were all beginner, simple things, so it did no use to show them to the woman. "That's the only unique thing I know. The rest is all spells the council taught me. They're much weaker than the one I just used."

The girl suddenly felt utterly worthless. This master would almost certainly send her away. This woman was a genius among magicians. The councilmen had been sure to tell her that before stating the woman was absolutely batshit insane. She was going after the warlocks, though... Did that mean Max was just bait? The young girl pulled her bag closer to her. Yes, she had packed a change of clothes. However, only having the basic spells spoke of huge trouble against a group as powerful as the warlocks.

 

[Crono]

Kylm studied her Max's every move carefully. When the ice incased her legs there was a nod, fallowed by a snap of the fingers releasing a high- pitched noise that shattered the ice in a instant. The wizard walked over to her apprentice and placed her hand on her shoulder. A grin. "We work up from there."

Kylm began towards her home and gestured for Max to do the same. "I hope you don't mind the mess, we won't be staying here long. Tomorrow evening we are leaving for the mission I have been given of investigating the warlocks' whereabouts which is good because I learned everything I know on the road." While she spoke it was clear that 'mess' was a understatement.

Tall piles of strange objects turned the rooms of the first floor into a narrow maze. Glowing crystals grew naturally on large rocks in one corner, suits of armor that shook with nervousness when you walked by them in another. Potions bubbled on scales and dragon eggs were aflame in glass cases. Eventually they found the stairs leading to the much less cluttered second floor. There were three rooms marked by black letters on the doors: The Bedroom, The Guest Room, and The Study."That's were you'll be training today, go visit the Guest Room before you do though, it's enchanted to look however you like."

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max hesitated before following her new master quickly. The mess was a huge understatement, but Max wouldn't have it any other way. Everything in the house was new and exciting. She was glad to be far away from the cleanliness and orderliness of the council. This was the perfect change of pace to help her learn more magics. Her master didn't seem too mean or strict. In fact, she seemed nice.

When they reached the guest room, Max looked to Kylm before nodding. "Yes, Ma'am. I won't be long." She opened the door quickly, slipping inside the mysterious room. Purple instantly greeted her eyes. Everything held shades of the color, her absolute favorite. Smiling, the girl set her things down before running and jumping onto the small, yet cozy, bed in the corner. It was perfect, not too firm yet not too soft. Shelves stood ready to be filled with books on spells and different magical artifacts. Not wanting to settle in too much, she headed to the room her master-oh how she loved saying that word!-asked her to go for some training.

 

[Crono]

The Study door for a moment refused to move, but after a few seconds it was unlocked and opened. A creature composed of swirling shadows in ragged clothes and a beaten top hat stood before her, the yellow glow that was its eyes looked at her coldly. "Cool it Raggs, she's my new apprentice." Kylm stood behind Max, a old silver staff in her hand. The shade gave Max one last haunting glare before moving out of her way. "He's the housekeeper, guy's cold to everyone. I tell him that's why he doesn't have a girlfriend but he never listens."

Desoto Staff

Passed down for generations ever since it was won in a cheated game of cards.

The Study was a large room with four segments. One segment had a small table with two chairs standing before a large chalkboard covered in complex equations and symbols. In another segment targets and training dummies stood with glowing blue runes engraved on them. A crate that would shake violently every few minuets or so stood in the corner, chained to the ground. The other two sections consisted of shelves containing magical tomes, potion and spell components, as well as the occasional cookie jar.

"Do me a favor and gather all the blue books you can from the shelves over there, grab me the bag labeled salvent powder as well. Bring them to the table, sit down, and we will begin." Kylm spoke as she began to clear the blackboard.

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max nodded eagerly as she rushed to do as Kylm asked. It took her a few trips even with a simple levitation spell to bring all of the blue books she could find. Next was the powder. The room was disheveled, but Max was determined not to disappoint her new master. She would prove the other students wrong! Finding the bag, the young girl brought it over to the table Kylm asked her to bring them to. This all was so interesting and new! It definitely captured her attention way more than the lessons the council had made the newly found magicians take.
Settling into her seat, Max tapped her foot nervously. What was Kylm going to do? Max wasn't entirely sure what the powder was for, nor what the books contained. However, she sought not to disappoint. She would be a great apprentice, she would make sure of it!

 

[Crono]

Once blackboard was fully erased, Kylm turned and saw her new apprentice eagerly awaiting her words with everything she had asked for. She was like Raggs but less creepy. Speaking of Raggs he was currently sitting on the shaking crate, giving the back of Max's head that poisonous look of his. She rolled her eyes ",glad you could find everything. I swear I have to put some sort of sorting charm on this place on of these days."

Kylm grabbed a wicker pipe and the bag of powder, poured some in, and lit it with a sparking snap of her fingers. For a little while all she did was smoke and lean on a wall, the rings she blew from the pipe traveling into the air slowly as well as drunkenly changing colors. Finally she set pipe down and approached the chalkboard. "From what I can tell you have a certain skill with ice magic. I assume this from your performance outside, using a spell not taught in the academies. Am I correct?"

 

[The Writing Owl]

Ooh this was so exciting! Max shifted nervously as Kylm smoked some of her pipe, however she tried not to rush her new master. After all, patience was necessary to learn more complicated magic! She was a bit surprised by the woman asking about her skill with ice magic. The young one was glad she didn't comment on how she learned something not taught by the council, but that could be a story for another time.

"Yes ma'am." She nodded, smiling. "I learn ice magic a lot quicker than I do most other magic. I can still do the other magic, but ice comes to me better than most of the others." Did this mean that Kylm was going to teach her more ice spells? That nearly made the girl squeal in delight. This was going to be so amazing! Finally she was going to learn real magic from a master magician!

 

[Crono]

Kylm nodded. "As I thought. Now pay attention." She tilted her head to the blackboard as two pieces of chalk floated up and began to create some form of tree. "We will work off of the spell you used earlier today, which will branch off into different ice spells, witch will lead to other elements with similar spells, then we will get to more complex magic, and finally we will reach the element Arcana, raw magic with extreme power. Would you believe that I started off using Arcana? It's a very rare occurrence. My brother did to..." At the mention of her brother Kylm seemed to drift off for a second or two, but she shook her head and continued talking to Max. "Excuse me, find the book that has the words Duratus Eam on it."

 

[The Writing Owl]

Really? The woman had started with Arcana? She must have been powerful to start with such magic. Max suddenly felt unworthy of learning from the talented woman. She nodded at the instructions and looked through the books before grabbing the one asked for. "You started with Arcana magic?" The girl asked, completely awed and shocked. However, realizing her sudden outburst was quite inappropriate, Max blushed. "I'm sorry, ma'am. What would you like me to do with the book, ma'am?" The council had always told her to treat your master with respect. Always call them by their title or ma'am, never casually. Despite her blunder, Max couldn't help but wonder just who Kylm's brother was. She seemed to get a bit of a melancholy look when her brother was mentioned. Did he die? Where was he? There were so many questions, but Max couldn't ask them. It wasn't the time or the place.

 

[Crono]

Kylm smiled, "please, call me Kylm. If we're going to be spending so much time together we should call each other by name. It's a good question however, one that the answer I'm still not too sure about. I believe it has something to do with us being born on the Runic Isles." The Runic Isles were a set of islands that for unknown reasons, massive amounts of magical energy was drawn to. Only a few years ago, the islands had begun to rise and float in the air.

The wizard pulled up a chair and sat next to her apprentice, she took the book and opened it up to a page titled 'Frost Spikes.' "If you remember correctly Duratus and Eam were the spell words for your freeze spell. That means frozen ground. Now for a different spell you add another word, in this case Ika for spikes, and modify the gesture slightly, in this case a quick upward moment of the hand." She leaned back on her seat like a disruptive student. "And that's how new spells are learned, I often find myself saying that magic is half knowing what your doing and half random luck. Go ahead and give it a shot on one of the training dummies, don't expect to get it right on your first try though, learning the steps is easy, putting them into practice is much harder."

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max studied the page carefully, looking over each and every part of the spell before nodding and skittering over to the practice dummies. She glanced back at Kylm before turning back to the dummies. "Alright..." It was just a spell. She didn't have to get it right on the first try... She would be fine. It was going to be fine. Carefully, the apprentice held her hand. Channeling her magic energy, she exclaimed, "Duratus Eam Ika!" Raising her hand up the ice shot up quickly, piercing many of the dummies. The spikes were larger and much more far ranged than the girl had expected, causing her to stumble back in shock. A few stray spikes had started inching their way toward the other things in the room, but stopped just short. Most of the dummies were torn to shreds, now useless since the ice spikes had ruined them all.

Quickly scrambling up, Max turned to Kylm with wide eyes. "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-I'm sorry, K-Kylm!" Pulling stunts just like this had gotten her in trouble with the council and other masters before. They said she had the control of a newborn. Most beginner spells burned out and backfired on Max because of her huge amounts of magic she channeled into the spells. The young girl hoped and prayed that her new master wouldn't send her back because of the mishap.

 

[Crono]

Mr. Raggs had been pretending he was uninterested until the massive ice spikes jutted from the ground around him. He quickly hefted the box up and scrambled away from danger. Kylm's calm look disappeared and her eye widened, "hey hey hey! Stop stop!" She yelled this when the spikes neared the rest of her stuff before turning with a angry look to Max. Kylm didn't like to be brash, but some discipline was needed. "What was that? Do you have any control over your spells? I would ask you to try a flare in attempt to melt it but you could blow the roof off this place!"

With that Kylm did the same sonic sound spell which shattered the ice, told Raggs to sweep it up, and grabbed Max's arm. "Looks like we're going to have to go outside." She growled, dragging her apprentice back down the stairs and out of her house, but instead of going towards the road, she went to the backyard. A simple tree with some large as well as small stones scattered about and a small pile of firewood was as the decoration it needed. Kylm set Max standing and told her to stay put before she went and collected some pebbles and a log. She placed the log upright and set the pebbles in a tight circle around it. Runes were placed on each of the objects. "The log won't break if the pebbles are moved in any way. I want you to focus on just the log and make a ice spike to puncture it. We will stay here until you can do so. Remember, place all your focus on your target, nothing else." Without another word she sat down on a bolder and prepared to snap her fingers, a action that would reset the placement of the items.

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max nearly felt like crying. She screwed it up. Her master berated her, grabbing her arm to start dragging her outside. Fear started to pump through the brunette's heart. Outside? What did that-oh. The woman set up a small area for her to practice. Max bit her lip, listening to Kylm's instructions before nodding. Just puncture the log. It couldn't be too hard? It wasn't like she messed up her other spells, Oh wait. She did just that. It took her forever to perfect that ice spell she used earlier that day so it didn't freeze everything in sight, who knew how long this would take? However, she had to prove herself. No matter how the apprentice wanted to curl up and cry, she needed to do this right if only to save her fragile pride.

Taking a deep breath, Max started the spell. "Duratus Eam Ika!" It was much more controlled than with the dummies, but it still messed the pebbles. After Kylm reset the area, Max tried again... and again... and again... and again. She nearly burst into tears as she messed up once more before shaking her head. She wasn't going to give up! Focusing while dialing back her flow of magic, she tried once more. "Duratus Eam Ika!" She swore her voice was starting to grow hoarse. A singular, large spike struck through the log. Panting, the blue eyed girl blinked. No, this had to be a fluke. Did she do it? She had to try a few more times to be sure, but the log was cracking under the ice spike. Max didn't dare look at Kylm, staring intensely at the single spike.

 

[Crono]

The sun was beginning to lower from its tall perch in the sky and Kylm hid the grumble of her stomach. Just when she was about to call a break for lunch she saw the single spike lance forth from the ground and impale the log. She blinked, then smiled. The wizard came up behind her apprentice and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Well done. I knew you could do it. Trust me, starting off wasn't easy for me either." Her hand rose and was clapped together with its brother. "Now, who's hungry?"

 

[The Writing Owl]

Max jumped and spun toward her master. She relaxed as she received praise for successfully hitting the log. At the question, max immediately brightened up. "I can help make some food!" She offered, ready to chow down on something after a long day's worth of practice. The small victory felt light in Max's chest. Maybe, just maybe, she could be great enough to rival Kylm herself! The young girl doubted that, however. She had learned how to hone her magic on just one target, sure, but she still had a long, long ways to go before she tried anything on Kylm's level.

 

[Crono]

A nervous smile crossed Kylm's face at the words 'make some food.' She hated to admit it, but dispite her skill in potion mixing her cooking was at best still inanimate. The last time she had tried to make a meal, the house nearly burnt down. "Ah, er... I forgot to buy any food. Come on, the local tavern has very good food and drink." She turned and began to make her way down the road. "How old are you exactly?"