I stopped and turned to face him, holding the door open. “Yes?”
“Sleep well while you can. Tomorrow, you have to get up early and sweep the entire cave.”
----
Before that day, I never knew Master Stradus had a pupil before me, but I suppose it was natural. He had lived for a millennium, or close to it, and I never fully realized all the things he must have gone through. He must have had some great adventures, yet he also must have witnessed many tragic events.
Coming to the White Mountain, I had thought I was only going to learn to control my powers so I wouldn't hurt anyone again. But as I mastered it, I found I enjoyed using my gift of magic. I no longer thought of it as a curse.
I understood the basics of magic and what it could do, but I had never thought of the pain it could bring. Not just in hurting someone, but in not being able to do something. Master Stradus's lesson taught me that. No matter how much power I had, it might not be enough. I might also live longer than those I cared about, powerless to do anything except watch them grow old and die. Being a wizard was a far grander undertaking than I originally thought, but also far more daunting. And there was still that prophecy about me, which he never gave me any more details about.
After my mishap with the maleika, I read more about other types of beings who existed in the Netherrealm, or at least I tried to. The very few books Master Stradus had were either vague, or a bunch of dry theories on how, what, or why. After sifting through a lot of information, I realized that all the books came to the same conclusion: if you wanted to know about other worlds and beings from those worlds, you’d have to summon a creature from there, which might be very hard to control, and might kill you—or worse. Or you could cross over yourself—if you were able to, and lucky enough to make it back; or find a rare crosswalker, who could go into the Netherrealm with ease. In the end, I gave up. I had no plans to go over into the Netherrealm. However, if I ever saw that one-eyed monster again, I was going to finish what my master started.
----
Another year passed. A side consequence of my becoming a wizard was that my appetite for meat soon vanished, until I could no longer eat it. Master Stradus told me it was a consequence of being able to access mana.
I learned more magic and read a lot more. I studied more of the plants that were in the garden. Master Stradus was true to his word, and we regularly checked what happened in Sedah by using maleika. I wished my mother could have seen me or that I could have talked to her. Not even magic could help with that. I also got to practice other rituals.
As much as I enjoyed being around Master Stradus and Cynder and performing magic, there was something missing. No matter how many times I summoned a maleika or went outside the caves, I still felt confined. Every day, the walls and ceiling moved an inch closer. If that wasn't bad enough, the books I read, along with Master Stradus and Cynder regaling me with stories, made me wish I was outside of the White Mountain to experience all the things they had. I often thought about leaving, even though my training wasn’t complete.
Just to make sure, I asked both Master Stradus and Cynder about how my skills were progressing. Master Stradus was pleased with my progress, while Cynder thought I was merely adequate. I knew I still had a lot to learn from them, but being cooped up in the mountain wasn't going to help. All of my lessons suggested that people learned from the situations they encountered, not from being in a classroom. Even back when there was a wizard's school, students were deliberately put into dangerous and stressful situations. There was nothing like that here. I didn't know if Master Stradus designed it that way on purpose, or to shield me.
It had been centuries since Master Stradus last took on an apprentice. While his last pupil hadn’t come to as tragic an end as Tara, things went sour. Maybe he just wasn’t good with apprentices.
These questions and thoughts filled my head for months. I tried to weigh the cost of staying versus the cost of going. As I had found out the hard way when I first used my powers, it was a perilous world out there. Like poison, the doubt and introspection seeped their way into my everyday tasks, until they were all I could think about. Unfortunately, my lessons and studying were affected. I couldn't even talk to Cynder because he wouldn't understand. Being here was his honorable duty. He was our master’s guardian, and, because of conditions amongst his own people, he had nowhere else to go.
I tried to overlook these things. I tried to remind myself I could still be killed if I left without the proper training. But little by little, those sensible thoughts were drowned out until they no longer mattered.
And then, I had a vision.