Page 2 of Legends of Sorcery
“Coming, sir,” he yelled up.
Zallon had lunch waiting when Arion arrived. As they ate, a courier arrived from the King with a scroll of the utmost importance. Zallon accepted it and thanked the young man. A concerned look crossed the old man’s face as he unrolled and read it.
“What is it?” Arion asked.
“Probably nothing. The princess has disappeared. I’ve been summoned to do a tracking spell once again. Someday that girl will grow up and realize how much of my time she continues to waste,” he said. “Finish your meal and I want you to clean up the conservatory while I’m gone.”
Arion groaned in disappointment causing Zallon to give him a stern look.
“Yes, sir,” he said with a sigh.
Days like that made him feel like little more than a maid to the wizard.
After lunch, Arion quickly washed his dishes and set them out to dry while he went to the conservatory to begin his chores.
The conservatory held many priceless relics of the realm and various magical objects that Zallon always preached the importance of. The most important of these was nothing more than a hunk of purple rock on display. It was thought that all magic for the Kingdom came from that one stone.
To Arion it looked like nothing more than a rock on a pedestal. No different than any other amethyst he’d ever seen. Sometimes he thought Zallon invented “magical” things just to make it look like a more important place than it was.
Sure, Arion knew magic truly existed. He’d been able to do basic spells himself for years, but the supposed magical artifacts in the conservatory didn’t make sense to him. As far as he was concerned, they were just hunks of dust collectors left for him to clean.
Arion went to the closet and opened it to pull out a broom, mop, bucket, and feather duster, then headed for the room to begin his chores. As he started sweeping, it wasn’t long before a song filled his head as he danced around, first sweeping, then mopping the floors as he sang and danced throughout the room.
Not paying attention, which was a common problem for Arion, he slipped on the wet floor and fell into one of the shelves. He watched in slow motion as the amethyst waivered, swaying back and forth until it fell off the shelf.
“Nooooo!” he yelled as he dove towards it trying to catch it as it fell until it crashed onto the floor. The glass case encapsulating it shattered into a million pieces.
Arion looked around to confirm Zallon hadn’t returned.
“No, no, no, no!” he said, swearing under his breath.
He jumped up and grabbed the broom to clean up the mess before Zallon noticed. There was nothing Arion could do about the glass enclosure that had protected the rock, but maybe the old man wouldn’t even notice. Aside from the glass it didn’t look like there was any damage.
Arion quickly picked up the rock. It heated and began to glow from his touch. He had never seen it glow before and said a quick prayer that he hadn’t just somehow destroyed all magic in Gavalon or something equally sinister.
Racking his brain as he cleaned up the mess, Arion tried to remember everything he could about the stone. It wasn’t much he quickly realized. Aside from being said that it was the source of all magic in the kingdom, he knew nothing about the rock.
Carefully he picked up the amethyst and grabbed the base it sat on. He set it back on the shelf, mesmerized by the glowing shades of purple that flowed through the stone. Zallon would definitely notice the rock suddenly glowing.
Arion feared the trouble he’d get into this time. This was arguably the worst thing he’d ever done, even if it was just an accident. Bile rose up into the back of his throat as he thought of the consequences he’d face.
When he heard a noise outside, he quickly snapped out of it and got back to work. The room was otherwise spotless when Zallon returned, and much to Arion’s relief the rock stopped glowing.
“That girl may be the death of us all if she doesn’t grow up soon. Always running off seeking some new adventure. One of these days trouble will find her for real and the rest of us won’t be rushing in to save her thinking she was just being ornery again,” he grumbled.
Arion had never personally met Princess Valaria, but he had heard plenty of stories over the years of the trouble she seemed to easily find.
“What was it this time?” he asked.
Zallon huffed. “She found a unicorn and decided to go for a ride. I tracked her to the Lake of Sacrifice. She knew better than to go there, but that girl doesn’t have a lick of sense in her pretty little head.”
“Isn’t that where her mother’s death ceremony was?” Arion asked. The Queen had passed away less than a year prior. It was a blow to the entire Kingdom. “Maybe she just wanted to somehow feel closer to her,” he suggested.
Zallon sighed, softening at the thought. “Perhaps. She did seem quite upset when we found her, but uninjured.”
He looked around the conservatory finding nothing strange, nodded his head, and walked back into his laboratory.
“Well done, Arion,” he complimented, making him cringe in guilt.
