Community Service

 The entire world was on fire. The halls of the Academy were collapsing in the inferno. Samuel shielded his face from the blaze and felt his hand suffering burns. The smoke was burning his lungs and made him cough. He tried to escape but there was no exit in sight. Then he heard the screams of his friends. Arianwen, Madoc, Yorath and others were trapped inside a lecture hall. He tried to use his magic to put the fire out, but any attempt sizzled away in failure. I need more power.

A large falling stone crushed his arm and he screamed with pain. He looked down and both of his arms were just ghostly apparitions. There was a way to get them back. If only he was a more powerful wizard. Or sorcerer. Looking up he saw a colossus made of fire. The great being filled him with awe and instinctively he knew that his own powers came from that being. It was one of the Nefara.

Samuel woke up drenched with sweat and panting. Another nightmare. Somehow, their frequency had increased lately. Even when he was captured in the wasteland they were not so vivid. As strange as they had appeared, there was a grain of truth to them. If he were to be able to protect both himself and the people that he had started considering as friends, he needed more power. At the end of each day, if I haven’t used up all my energy for magic, I should just use it up in a spell. Even without getting his hands on a more powerful artefact, repeated use should adapt his body to be able to use more magic, even if the power of each spell was limited.

Hunting for magical beasts became just another part of the routine. It happened about once or twice a week with randomly assigned pairings of students, so Samuel was able to get to know people he had barely spoken to so far in the academic year.

“Hey you two,” Samuel said to Yorath and Arianwen as they were about to finish with dinner. “Have either of you been experiencing strange dreams?”

“No,” Arianwen said. “Why do you ask? Are you having trouble sleeping?”

“You could say that,” Samuel said. He looked at Yorath, who looked thoughtful and hadn’t responded.

“Dreams of power calling to you? Showing you disasters that might happen in the future due to your weakness?” Yorath said after a while.

Samuel’s eyes went wide. “Exactly. So, it’s happened to you as well.” Yorath nodded.

“Weird. I haven’t felt anything like that,” Arianwen said.

“It has started happening a couple of nights ago. Maybe even earlier than that. I usually don’t remember my dreams but lately they have become more vivid.”

“Huh,” Arianwen said. “Maybe you two should talk to someone about that. You know, just in case.”

Yorath smiled at that. “I have. I talked to Carys about it. She told me it’s something that many wizards go through. According to her it’s completely natural and you just have to get used to it. Apparently it goes away for some wizards, but not all.”

“I see,” Samuel said. “I’ll also have to ask Madoc later if he is having the same problem.”

“Good idea. He’s been growing a bit distant again lately and I’m pretty sure he was covered in blood again a couple of days ago,” Arianwen said. “Did Carys mention what is the cause of this.”

“She said they don’t fully understand it. Her opinion is that the new power affects the user’s mental state. Some kind of traumatic response. I’m not sure I understood her well. It’s a psychological thing,” Yorath said.

Their next assignment was a little different. They walked along a horse-drawn wagon out of the city. This time a larger group of students was supposed to work together. There was little excitement among them, in fact many grumbled about the irrelevant nature of their mission. There would be no action or glory won that day.

Their arrival at the village was announced by a bell and people began trickling from the fields, their houses and the workshops towards the academic procession. Some of them stayed with the wagon and began handing out bags of seed, fertilizer, tools and other necessities, while the others spread out across t he village. They were approached by some of the villagers and asked to help in a variety of ways.

Samuel and two other students were asked to drag a stuck cart out of the swamp. At first they tried to simply pull it out or lift it. Even with their combined magical power, it was too heavy and didn’t budge. The other two soon gave up on the matter and moved away. Samuel took a moment think, then had some of the observing villagers use a long plank as a lever to get one of the back wheels out of the muck. Then he froze the wet mud and had them lower the wagon. After all the wheels were free, they were able to drag it out, combining Samuel’s magic and their own strength.

Samuel sat down to rest with a grunt when they were done. Yorath and Arianwen walked past him and a bunch of old shattered bricks were levitating next to them.

“Nice work,” Arianwen smiled and waved. Yorath grunted, though he didn’t look displeased.

They visited a handful of villages that day, doing everything from repairing roofs, carts and tools, helping set up the irrigation channels and wells. A group of them even went out to hunt beasts that had been harassing the people.

Still, in every village there was a handful of people, who didn’t join in. Samuel could sometimes see them peeking from behind closed shutters. On one occasion a farmer spat in front of his feet before going away, while cursing. Samuel had apparently brought him double misfortune as he wasn’t only an accursed wizard but also a blasted foreigner. I wonder if the missing hand also contributes. It caused tension between the wizardry students and the locals but thankfully didn’t escalate. Samuel shared the displeasure of his classmates but could also understand the other side. If some random people who could easily kill me without a second thought came to my home, how would I react? Perhaps showing hostility was not the smartest course of action, yet if the dissatisfaction was noted by the kingdom and its dignitaries, it could affect their political choices in the future.

“This is so much better,” Arianwen sighed with relief.

“Huh?” Samuel asked.

“This mission. Even if most of the others found it boring, I thought it was nice. I can’t say I really enjoy hunting magical animals. I mean don’t get me wrong, I will do it. It just doesn’t feel as good.”

“I think I know what you mean. Still, as long as we get even stronger, I’m on board with it,” Samuel said.

“I won’t argue with that,” Arianwen said and Yorath grumbled in agreement.

Samuel left the pair and found Madoc. He still hadn’t really talked to him in a while and felt somewhat guilty about it.

“Hey Madoc. What are you up to? You seem a little distracted lately.”

Madoc shook his head and it was clear enough that he had only noticed Samuel part way through his words. “Oh yes. Fine.” It didn’t look like he was about to elaborate.

“Right. Is something on your mind?”

“Nothing special,” he said with a grimace. “I’ve been looking into something. I don’t have anything to show for it but I’ll tell you more later.”

“All right. Tell me if you need any help with it.”

“Right, thanks.”

Samuel wasn’t satisfied by it, yet he didn’t know how to approach Madoc in a better way. He had tried being a little more pushy and that tended to result in making the situation even worse. He had noticed that Madoc had been distracted during the mission and performed poorly. When trying to help with an old barn, he had used excessive force and had nearly collapsed the entire structure. Something needs to change. I hope he doesn’t start doing something strange. He thought about the project that seemed to preoccupy Madoc. What was that about? Maybe I could try and get closer to it.