An Apprentice's (many) Attempts at the Arcane

The cauldron bubbled in the crowded room as the two bumbled about the room, grabbing ingredients from all sorts of containers and jars and adding it in.

As each ingredient dropped in, the mixture convulsed and spat up a rainbow of smoke.

The witch, a beautiful plump woman with a gorgeous plume of curling purple hair, plopped a chopped radish into the cauldron and smiled as it popped and bloomed into a rosy pink hue.

“And that should be about it,” she said, her voice warm as she placed her hands on her hips. She looked to her apprentice and gave him a pointed look when he met her gaze, a vial of carrot extract nearly fumbled out of his grasp.

The apprentice’s bunny-like ears folded back and his nose twitched as he began to rapidly look everywhere but at his master.

“St-Stella!” he coughed, and glanced the vial he had in his grasp before meeting her gaze again. “I-I just thought, maybe, we could make it stronger with some extract of carrot, from one of the wild carrots I gathered. Y’know, just, opens the drinker’s eyes, to really, really love-”

“Annnd I’ve told you, many times, that carrot extract will contradict the other ingredients within the potion,” Stella said. “Instead of opening the drinker’s eyes wider, like it normally would in perhaps a vision enhancing potion, it will cause an explosive reaction instead.”

“But have you tried-”

“No, Nico, I haven’t in this specific potion. But I know how it reacts in other similar potions that have more explosive effects,” Stella sighed..

“But maybe, y’know, because there’s the strawberry seeds it would-” Nico continued, stepping closer towards the cauldron and Stella with the vial.

Stella held a hand up, “No, Nico, stop-”

“But we could-” Nico interrupted, just as a stray book on the ground caught his foot and he pitched forward.

The vial flung from his hands, clipping the lip of the cauldron then flipped forward and sinking into the potion.

Stella gasped, reaching a hand out just as the potion began to froth and boil orange. A loud bang echoed through the space as the potion sprayed up like a geyser.

Nico, safely on the ground, was spared from the worst of the explosive potion, but Stella was not so fortunate.

Once it quieted, and the only sound was the remaining pops of residual bubbles, Nico lifted his head and saw Stella absolutely soaked through with the orange potion. Her hair was sizzling, and when she ran a hand through the locks, the strands began to dissolve between her fingers.

Her face reddened, and tears began to gather in her eyes before she clenched her fist and glared down at Nico.

“I-I’m sorry Stella, I’m so, so sorry, I wasn’t even going to add it, I tripped and-”

“Out,” Stella got out through gritted teeth.

“O-okay, okay, um, do I get to come back or-”

“Get out!” she shrieked, and Nico scrambled up. He fell against the cauldron and sloshed some more of the orange liquid onto the floor.

“Sorry!” he squeaked, righting it as best as he could as he scurried out the door. Just as he left, he caught the broom and knocked it down and he went sprawling out into the living room. “Sorry, sorry!”

Nico raced through the house and into the spare bedroom he had been put up in and began shoving what little he owned into his canvas backpack.

He just about had all of his stuff packed when a sobbing scream ripped through the house. Nico threw the bag onto his back and scooped up a worn blanket and notebook into his arms as he raced out of his room.

When he emerged, Stella was stepping out, the knocked over broom in her grasp as half of the hair on her head was gone.

“I-I think bald is a good look?” Nico stammered, and Stella’s face twisted.

“Get out!” she shrieked, swinging her broom as she darted after him.

Nico slammed the front door open and nearly went spilling out onto the clover covered lawn.

“And don’t ever, ever, come back Nico, I swear to the Gods!” Stella screamed, face completely red and tears gushing down her face.

“I-I promise! I’ll make it up to you Stella, I super super-” Nico pleaded, standing up and gathering the blanket back over his arms. The notebook fell onto the lawn and opened to a page marked with tallies.

“Good bye, Nico,” she sniffled, and slammed the door.

Nico’s ears drooped as he stared at the door. Then, he knelt and picked up his journal, keeping it open on the same page.

He fished out a piece of charcoal from his bag and marked off Stella’s name from the book. His eyes crawled over all the different names of the masters he’s had, all the different schools he’s tried to succeed at.

His eyes fell back down to the line on the list and sighed when he saw that all it had were question marks. He flipped the notebook closed and shoved both it and the charcoal piece into his bag.

“Back to square one, then,” Nico sighed. He readjusted his bag, and fixed the blanket on his arm before he turned and began to walk towards the heart of town.

~~~

Another day, another explosion. This time though, Nico wasn’t even able to settle.

“Ya know, I’m honestly impressed ye caused an explosion here of all places,” his soon to be ex-mentor, Algar, sighed. “This is a wood shop. We make wands. How did ye cause an explosion?”

Nico kicked the ground with his worn shoes.

“I uh…tried using one of the wands,” he started.

“And what did ye try to cast?” Algar asked, pinching out a fire from his mustache as he rubbed his belly.

“I thought it was going to be a simple flotation spell,” Nico mumbled.

“Magic takes the form of whatever ye want it to take,” Algar started and crossed his arms. “Wands help people channel the aether around us to exact the result they want. That,” and he pointed towards the smoldering heap of wands in front of them, “Was not the will of a flotation spell.”

“I thought that maybe the wand would be able to focus my thoughts, and let me cast magic,” Nico said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Ye have to do the focusing yourself, the wand don’t do it for ye,” Algar said.

There’s a pause, as they continued to stare.

“So do I get to keep-”

“No, get yer stuff and get outta here.”

Nico sighed, and hung his head as he stepped around Algar to leave.

Under his breath, he mumbled, “Back to square one.”

~~~

“You know, I think you are focused too much on the destination and not on the journey,” Priscilla said, looking down at Nico who was splayed out across the grass.

He could not meet her gaze behind her round glasses and he furrowed his brow.

“I need results to bring back home, Priscilla, you know that,” Nico sat up as Priscilla backed up and puffed her chest out at him. “And I need to cast magic and be a master of-of something! Some magical craft!”

“And you’ve tried potions, wand making, spell scrolls, straight up casting magic, yadda yadda, but I don’t think you’re really absorbing what you’re trying to learn,” Priscilla said, and she crossed her arms. Her mouse-like ears flicked and she twirled a straight strand of silvery hair between her fingers. “I think you might need to find yourself first before you try to find a way to use magic. Some kind of self discovery mission or something.”

“I don’t have time for that,” Nico huffed and brought his knees to his chest.

“But, you have the time to keep failing from rushing into things?” Priscilla asked.

Nico couldn’t really say anything, so he planted his chin onto his knees and pouted. A breeze rolled through and carried with it the tune of a bard from the local tavern. 

It had been some time since they last saw each other, with him traveling and her busy with her fancy job, but Nico wasn’t quite happy with the meet up so far.

“You know I’m right,” Priscilla said softly, as she smoothed out her poofy skirt and plopped down next to Nico. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a little rub, staring off with him.

“I don’t know where to start,” Nico mumbled. “I don’t have the natural knack for it that you do, or-or the mind to learn and master it like my siblings. I just…want to get it done, now.”

“I think,” Priscilla started, and she brought up her hand and willed a mote of light to lift from her palm. “You need to start from square one. But really start from square one. Not square five or ten or what have you, where you bounce from mentor to mentor, but a true, square one.”

She lifted the mote up and let it catch the wind, drifting towards the forest.

“What’s square one?” Nico asked, watching the mote dance away.

“Finding yourself,” Priscilla said, and knocked her shoulder into his. “Who are you? What do you enjoy doing?”

Nico sighed, and started picking at the grass.

“I do like magic,” he began and tilted his head to look down at the grass. “I like making things from nothing and the way you can just…change and mix things to make even cooler things and effects! It’s…magic.”

“And? What would you use magic for?” Priscilla asked.

Nico opened his mouth immediately, but he could not think of anything to say.

“I think that’s your square one. Figure out what you would use magic for.”

“I don’t need to use it for much, I just need to master it to make my family-”

“Your family doesn’t need you to use magic, they’ve got magic. What do you want to use magic for?” Priscilla interrupted.

“How do I figure that out?”

Priscilla hummed, before she looked at him with a knowing smile. “Why don’t you help me gather some materials? I need it for my research.”

Nico perked up at that. “What research are you doing?”

“I will tell you as soon as you go get the materials for me. I would do it myself, but I don’t quite have the time, and there’s no shop around for me to purchase them myself,” Priscilla said.

Nico hopped up and tapped his foot to the ground, itching to get moving.

“So, what do I need to grab? Do you know where I need to go or-or at least a general location? I’m pretty good at figuring out where to get things, I’ve spent a lot of time-”

“Here’s the list,” Priscilla interrupted, and snapped her finger to conjure a scroll of paper with her scrawl across the surface. “Whenever you can get it for me would be great, but don’t worry about speed. It’s more of a side project for me to work on.”

Nico took it, scanned it, and his nose scrunched. Priscilla was about to ask what the issue was, but Nico had scooped up his bag and was stuffing the paper inside.

Incredulous, Priscilla asked, “Where are you going? Weren’t we-”

“I gotta get going now, sorry Priscilla, but one of the things you need only blooms around noon and if I don’t get it now I’ll have to wait and-” Nico babbled as he was already running off, Priscilla smiling as she watched him go.

~~~

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and then the months turned into half of the year that Nico spent with his childhood friend, Priscilla, and assisting with her side research projects.

It was a fulfilling job, but quite frankly, she was working him to the bone to where he couldn’t begin to think about what he wanted to do with magic.

Nico opened the door to their shared residence and slumped against it with a long sigh.

He was exhausted and sweaty, having spent the past couple of days gathering mushrooms, herbs, and various wood logs that Priscilla had recently requested for her latest project.

Priscilla, seated at the table, glanced up at him curiously over her glasses. She placed a ribbon bookmark into the tome she was translating, and stood with a stretch.

“I was worried I would have needed to call the town guard to come get your body,” she said as she crossed the room to greet him.

Nico waved his hand, “Eh I-I just got distracted, there was this patch of moonlight grass that I had found and well, the moon wasn’t full till last night and-”

“Did you grab what I need at least?” Priscilla sighed and Nico nodded his head. He swung his bag around, careful to not break the containers inside, and opened it up to show that it was packed full of various materials.

Priscilla grinned at him and said, “Perfect. Now, let’s take some of this-”

“Downstairs to distill? You mentioned that we were going to make a special oil to slather on a wand right?” Nico interrupted and he jumped up, already carrying his pack towards the basement. “I figured it had to be to distill, there’s a lot of stuff here that give the best oil essences and-”

He was already past the threshold despite him continuing on with his theories about what they were going to do.

Priscilla smiled and followed him.

~~~

“So next we’re going to grind up the rosemary you picked, and then-”

“We add it to the distilled essence of the mushroom mixture we did earlier,” Nico said, already working on grinding the herb into dust. He reached over and brought the vial that held the mushroom oil, and carefully poured the crushed rosemary in.

“And then we heat it up, but not too much, so that the oil evaporates a little bit and-” 

Priscilla let him continue on as she observed her friend work.

She didn’t understand how he had kept causing explosions at each of his other places of mentorship, but perhaps all he needed was time to watch a master at work and to truly get to know the materials he was using.

As he finished the oil, she procured a piece of amberwood that she had had him gather for her. Then, taking a whittling knife, she set it on the table and pushed it towards Nico.

Without missing a beat, Nico set the finalized oil to cool on the side, and began to whittle away at the wood, chattering all the while about the cuts he was making.

“Not too thick, not too thin, slight grooves to allow the oils to seep in,” he muttered. As he worked, Priscilla left him to go and grab a brush to help dress the wand he was carving.

She also picked up the book she had been translating and quietly went to work, making some notes here and there while Nico whittled away in the background.

Soon enough, he was finished, and had a well balanced wand sitting between them on the work table. Priscilla examined it, and nodded as she handed over the brush.

Nico, then, carefully dipped it in the salve, and then brought it along the wand. He carefully coated it, until the wand’s surface was evenly dressed. Then, once it was finished, they both appraised their handiwork.

Nico looked up at Priscilla excitedly.

“And it’s done?” he asked. She nodded her head and picked up the wand, practicing a few flicks of her wrist. Satisfied, she then held it towards Nico.

“And now we test it. Go on, try to float some of the wood scraps,” she said, and Nico excitedly took the wand. He experimentally whipped the wand like Priscilla had, face contorted in concentration. The veins of the wand lit up, a beautiful seafoam green like Nico’s eyes, and an arcane bolt shot out.

Instead of gently caressing the wood shavings to lift them aloft, it struck them violently and set off a small explosion.

Nico yelped, and threw the wand on the table and went to dab at the fire with a cloth.

Priscilla hummed, and picked up the wand, twisting it and willing some vials to float gently above them. Distracted, Nico watched and let out an exasperated sigh, finally putting out the fire with one last pat.

“I-I’m sorry Priscilla, it always ends up like this, let me just, go and-”

“What are you talking about? You’ve been an excellent protege all of these past months,” Priscilla said.

“Protege?”

“That’s what you became when I had you grab those materials for me all those months ago,” she said, and pushed the wand towards him again. “You kept rushing into things, and your other mentors did not let you make mistakes.”

She smiled, “Go on, try again.”

Nico tentatively took the wand and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. Steeling himself, he opened his eyes and purposefully flicked his wrist towards the ashy remains of the wood chips.

The wand lit up once more, though this time, the magic splashed forward, sweeping up the ash into the air.

Astonished, Nico flicked his wrist and watched with delight as the dust formed shapes and swirled in the air around them.

“It’s obvious, but I just…never thought to really study the process. I was so obsessed with just knowing the magic, and not learning the magic,” Nico said, and beamed at Priscilla. “I want to learn all I can about magic, and truly, truly learn it, even if I mess up at every step!”

Priscilla smiled back.

“Now, you’ve definitely gone past square one,” she said, and they watched as the ash danced around them.