To give me time to think, I got up and stretched. My back was sore from stooping and helping the knight prepare the wolves.

  He must have seen a glint off my dagger because he asked, “May I see your weapon?”

  “Certainly,” I said and passed it to him, handle first with the blade pointing away from my palm as I had been taught as a young boy.

  He accepted the blade and examined it.

  “This is magical and has a holy gem in its hilt.” He remarked as he handed it back. “Where did you come by it?”

  “I made it,” I said simply.

  He stared at me. “You made it?”

  “Well, I was given the silver dagger as a gift, but I did the enchantments and worked with the gem. I’m unsure if ‘making’ is the correct term.” I admitted.

  “You enchanted the gem to this effect?” He asked.

  “I can call upon gemstone properties so that the effects of gems in sockets are no longer random.”

  He nodded his head. “This is a talent I had never heard of before. Can you do this even after gems have been in a blade for some time?”

  “Yes. It does not have to be in a weapon; it can be any object with sockets.”

  He hesitated and asked, “Would you be willing to look at something I carry?”

  “Certainly,” I replied again.

  He reached under his armor and pulled out a white cloth. As he unwrapped it cautiously, I saw that a necklace was preserved in its folds. It had seven sockets, a very, very rare effect for a necklace. Most jewelry only possessed a single socket, and three sockets tended to be the typical upper limit achieved by modern masters. Finding a necklace with seven was pretty much unheard of, suggesting significant age and potent magical preparations.

  He did not hand the necklace to me or allow it to touch his own skin. He kept it in the folds of his white cloth but pointed out that it had six white diamonds in six of the seven sockets and a black spinel resting in the center, bottom socket.

  “A master of corruption had stolen this holy heirloom and destroyed one of the diamonds. He then replaced it with one of his vile necromantic spinel gems. I was on my way to seek one who might be able to remove the cursed gem and replace it with a diamond.” He explained.

  I didn’t want to give up my magical gem, but it didn’t seem to be a coincidence that I was here and he needed it. So I replied, “The gem came to me as a gift, and I can easily gift it to another. If you hold the necklace close, I can command the gem to come loose and replace it with the one in the dagger’s hilt.”

  “You would do this?” He asked.

  I smiled. “Yes. Would that help?”

  “It would mean a great deal.” He said.

  “Then let’s move over to that large, flat rock and away from this grass. When it falls out, we’d have difficulty finding it here.” I observed.

  We moved over to the rock. He carefully placed the white cloth on the flat stone, ensuring he did not touch the necklace or gems. “It bears a curse, and I fear touching it could harm you.” He warned.

  I thought about it for a minute. “If I called up the Holy Light from the dagger, and it surrounded us, could that help protect us, do you think?”

  He nodded. “Perhaps. I will also pray for you. But make your actions quick.” He urged.

  I knelt before the stone and lifted the dagger, summoning its Holy Light. A faint tingling ran through me, and I realized that his prayer was more than protective words. It was much like a ward that enchanters and other mages used. The effect of his prayer would improve my chances of reducing damaging attacks or hostile spell effects. I was learning all sorts of things today.

  I set the dagger back down near the necklace, the blade pointing away from me and the knight. After pausing to inspect the necklace at a distance, I carefully reached out and touched the spinel, exerting a casting point to force it out of the socket. I felt conflicting spells at work. My will commanded the gem to withdraw, and another voice, cold and oily, commanded that harm come to me for touching it.

  Ultimately, my will prevailed, and the gemstone popped out of the necklace without my taking any damage. In a movement as fast as the blink of my eyes, the knight struck the spinel gemstone with the pommel of his sword. The gem cracked but was not smashed. Still, a blackness oozed out of it and boiled away in the Holy Light surrounding us.

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  The AL whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns a spell or skill point to be placed as desired for completing the Servant of Light Challenge quest. Spell and skill points must be reclaimed at a guild hall or sanctuary. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  The knight looked at me in deep concern as I appeared to stare off into space. “Are you well?” He asked.

  I took a quick inventory. I somehow knew that my prodigy skill prevented the gem effects from striking me with a powerful Harm Other spell, which had been its magical effect. The spell and I had struggled with neither of our wills giving up. It was not until I exerted a second casting point and willed that the magical gemstone changed its power from a curse to a spell storage-only effect that I won out.

  The situation had been touch and go. Had someone other than me touched the stone or necklace, the curse would have inflicted five points of necromantic damage every ten seconds until the target died or was able to remove the curse on the gem. It was a nasty spell and one that should have exceeded the ability of a mere 7pt spinel gem to contain.

  “I am fine. The spell is broken.” I said. “It was more potent than I had expected, and it should not have been able to be contained in a weak gem like that.

  He reached out and grasped my shoulder and squeezed it. “Thank you, Shepherd. How may I repay you?”

  I looked surprised. “I was just helping. You don’t owe me anything.”

  Based on my actions and response, he seemed to have made a decision. He said, “You are young, but soon no longer an apprentice. Is this not correct?”

  “True, I will sit for journeyman trials in a month,” I replied.

  He nodded. “And you will travel on your own or in a small group for some years, far from your guild hall and safety, before returning to face your master trials. Is this not also correct?”

  “That is often what happens, and it is what some friends of mine are planning. We would travel the realm, trying to help people and learn as much as possible before returning.”

  “Then, in your travels, you will need to defend yourself. I will teach you a lesson to give you some skill with a blade.”

  I pointed to my dagger. “This blade?”

  He smiled. “No, not your dagger. A sword. Anyone can teach you the basics of the dagger. I will teach you a forgotten sword art that few other than the Servants of Light use today.”

  “Then I am honored,” I replied. “How long will it take?” I asked, seeing some villagers coming up the hill toward us.

  “The first steps upon the path of Shu Ha Ri will take as long as it takes. But I suspect no longer than an hour or two. I am an accomplished teacher.”

  He began folding the cloth when I held up my hand and said, “Wait, I still need to give you the diamond.”

  I focused on it and applied another casting point. It popped out into my hand.

  I handed it to him. “If you place it in the socket, it will function once per day as a Holy Light spell, but not until tomorrow since we already used it. It also has five of my casting points inside it that can be used to cast spells if you have that ability.”

  “I do, and I thank you.” He said. “That is a significant gift of magic for an apprentice yet to face his trials to give to a stranger so freely.”

  I shrugged, not sure how to take the compliment.

  He did not say more, either. We moved back to the tree and greeted the villagers as they arrived. There were several dozen of them. Thankfully, a number went over to the wolves and continued the work we had begun.

  The knight spoke with the villagers, who welcomed us warmly but gave us space. They were unsure how to behave around a mage or a knight; today, they had both. After a few minutes, the knight, whose name I had not learned or thought to ask, said, “Please excuse us. We have a lesson to conduct and will need to be uninterrupted for some time.”

  An elderly woman spoke up from where she was standing nearby, directing others to place various baskets of food. Given her confident bearing, I presumed she was one of their elders. “None shall intrude on you, sir knight. Take what time you need. With your permission, we shall prepare the feast and fetch water and more fresh grass for your horse.”

  “I am thankful for your hospitality.” He said.

  “You are our honored guests. It is our duty and our pleasure.” She replied with a respectful bow of her head.

  We moved to an area where the grass was pressed down, and the ground was harder. The knight said, “The sheep often gather here. It is a fitting place for the lesson.”

  And the lesson began.

  He spent half an hour getting me to stand and breathe the way he wanted and focused on a single pose. He referred to it as the First Position. The second half-hour was spent learning to attack and defend from that single position.

  I expected the lesson to be more varied with more sparring, but he focused entirely on teaching me to assume the position immediately, perfectly, and naturally.

  “There are many other positions you can learn in time. But from this one, all others are formed. Our order discovered this technique centuries ago, and we teach it to those who follow.”

  He shared several mysterious little sayings like that throughout our practice.

  When we were done, the AL whispered into my ear. Congratulations, enchanter Gwydion, you successfully acquired the One-Handed Slashing Weapon Mastery skill and bonus skill of First Position. You have opened the paladin pathway. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  I had no idea what either the bonus skill or a paladin pathway meant, but I was a mage, and I just learned how to fight effectively with a sword. I grinned from ear to ear as we walked back.

  I sat beneath the tree, thankful for its shade. I was sweaty, thirsty, and hungry. The feast didn’t help me with my tiredness and sweatiness, but it took care of everything else.

  An hour later, the knight bade everyone farewell. I was given three large bundles of clean and treated dire wolf hides, which I was able to slide into my magical backpack. Many marveled at the magic as the large hides disappeared into the backpack. I gave them all something else to talk about as I waved to them and walked into the tree and back out onto the red plush carpet of the Gallery hallway. I departed their field, but not their memories and stories for years to come.

  I walked down the long hallway and exited near the security guard, who asked me, “How did it go, lad?”

  “Amazing,” I said. “Simply amazing.”

  He chuckled, said something to himself, and returned to reading a book in his chair.

  The AL whispered into my ear, Congratulations, enchanter Gwydion, you successfully completed the orientation and are now being returned to your regularly scheduled entrance into Alluvion.

  I knew that seven crucial moments of my backstory were coming next. To enter the game more fully prepared, I had to survive all their challenges, whatever they might be.

  As the transition began, I felt unbalanced and could not help it as I began to first lean and then fall rapidly forward. I reached out my hand to brace myself against the rushing ground while my mind became cloudy and my vision narrowed.

  This is not the start I had in mind…