Erlem

The group of orphans followed there headmistress very slowily, some were hanging onto the back of her cloak and occasionally one of the children would step on her heels.

The group stopped once they were through the gate, the new lobby was also built from carved white marble, but it was shined to such a degree the room was lit with just a few candle wracks. Dark mahogany desks lined the pathway to the door at the end of the pathway.

A thin mage dressed in blue robes carrying a writing slate and a quill stood up from a nearby messy desk, " headmistress! Nice to see you, i see you brought the whole orphanage! " the two exchanged pleasantries while the children looked in awe at the statues and artwork around the lobby.

" Headmistress I have been told to take Erlem to the grand magestrate when he came." The mage said, then directed the headmistress to the registration department.

The group left Erlem behind with the mage and headed out of lobby, some of the kids waved goodbye to him, Erlem didnt feel any better about his meeting. Honestly he didnt see what the big deal was, he didnt need a daemon soul anyway, maybe he wasnt even a true Autumn witch, maybe he was something else entirely.

"Hello Erlem, I am Magester Huxley, its my duty to take you to the Grand Magester, are you ready?" Huxley could see the small boy, though he was talented, was still just a small child and was terrified. "Look kiddo, theres nothing to be afraid of, the Grand Magester just wants to make sure there isnt anything wrong, if there is we can help." Huxley smiled, he had to be in his late 70's though his body looked to be in its early 40's. He was still rather on the young side, he had a long graying beard and short graying hair. He had a neon green visor, and his robes had what seemed like endless pockets full of pens

The exited the hallway and entered a dimly lit room, this place wasnt the white marbel, instead is was more like the black obsidian of the second level. The room had a large black desk with a large leather chair, and various cabinets and shelves holding old dusty books and random nick knacks. Seated in the chair behind the desk was a very old looking mage. He wore red and gold robes, and a red pointy wizards cap. He was clean shaven, and even though he was old you could tell he was much more than an old mage. " Elrem my boy! So nice to see you again!" Elrem smiled meekly, the Grand Magester had been taking a personal interest in Erlem since he could remember, often it was the Grand Magester who would insist on Erlem spending his free time in the classroom.

"Thank you Grand Magester, its good to see you again too." Erlem said politely, the Grand Magester was the most powerful mage in Autumnveil, and could punish Erlem in ways the Headmistress wouldnt dare.

Erlem once enchanted the old Magesters chair to pull itself out from under the old mage. Erlems punishment came in the form of an enchantment that made ice cream taste like broccoli. The man was simply diabolical.

"So your headmistress tells me you still havnt managed to get your daemon?" Erlem embarrassed replied with a huffy "yeeeeess" .

" no worries my boy, you are an Autumn witch and every Autumn Witch to ever exist has had a daemon. Though, no one has ever had it take so long." The Grand Magester stood up out of his chair, moving at a snail like pace towards Erlem.

" im going to do some tests. I have a theory and i believe it will explain whats happening."

The old mage moved past Erlem to a cabinet with what had to be a thousand little gold knobs. The Grand Magestrate began pulling and twisting the knobs until a clicking sound came from inside. Then five the knobs in the middle of the cabinet disappeared and a drawer opened.

The Grand Magestrate pulled out a green velvet bag with a golden draw string and shut the drawer. The knobs reappeared and the drawer itself faded away. He slowily walked back to his desk, the contents of the bag made a sound like marbles clacking together as he walked.

He sat back down in his big chair and untied the draw strings, the light glistened as the candle next to it shined off the bits of gold inlayed in the drawstring.

Erlem noticed the candle wasnt melting either, it had been enchanted, and he was sure it was more interesting than what ever the old fart was about to do.

The grand magestrate pour led the contents of the green bag onto his desk. Ten or fifteen marble sized emeralds sat in front of him. The emeralds were a much darker green than the emeralds Erlem had seen on the hands of the rich women on the second level who frequented the clothing and jewelry shops.

" hold out your hands Erlem" Erlem moved closer to the desk, almost leaning over it, Erlem was so small he could barely see over it and had to tiptoe so he could reach the Magestrate. Six of the emeralds were placed into Erlems cupped hands. One of the stones began to glow softly, then another, then another, a couple of seconds later they were all glowing bright green. A few seconds later one started to blink, followed by the rest. They began to blink rythmatically, then there became a pattern forming.

The old mage watched intensely as he scratched his chin, Erlem was much more interested now than he was a few moments ago. The rocks slowily stopped their blinking and finally became just emeralds again.

The grand magestrate took the stones back and placed them back in their bag, retied the string and sat the bag on the desk. He stared at Erlem for so long that Erlem began to feel like the silence would suffocate him. What had he done?

"This cant be right. I have to be reading this wrong" Grand Magester Rajhin had never seen the stones act that way before, when he learned how to read the autumn stones he was told the stones would tell you how long an autumn witch had until their daemons would manifest if the child daemon hadnt shown by their birthday. Usually that indicated a strong daemon, stronger classed daemon souls would take longer to appear. These stones said the boy wouldnt have a daemon for another two years. The year he would join the citadel. " This cant be right, that would mean his daemon would be the strongest recorded when it manifested" Rahjin cleared his throat, he'd never seen or even read of an Autumn Witch taking two extra years to develope a daemon. " Grand magestrate, sir, did i do something wrong?"

Rahjin smiled, his eyes brightened back up, fear had washed over him for a second, imagine an Autumn witch prodigy with a daemon so strong it would take two extra years to be able to manifest.

"Not at all my boy, in fact you may be the most interesting child in the whole kingdom." Erlem smiled, he loved a little stroking to his tiny ego, he may have been magically superior to his peers, but he was physically smaller and weaker than the other boys and often he would get ganged up on.

Erlem may have been a bit spirited but he never bullied the other children. He may play a prank or two on Mistress Pinelope or Jasmine but he never used his magic to be a bully.

Thats why Stanley was his best friend, Stanley was the biggest boy Erlems age, when they were small an older boy had began taking Erlems meals and even set his shoes on fire so he had to walk barefoot in the snow. Stanley found Erlem sitting on the steps with bright blue feet in tears. Erlem told Stanley what had happened and who had done it. A few minutes later Stanley had hit the boy with large stick and began to beat him until the stick broke. The boy had several broken ribs, a broken wrist, and a large gash in his hairline. Ever since, Erlem and Stanley had been best friends and that boy had refused to even look at Erlem.

"It seems your daemon will take 2 more years to appear, i'm certain your daemon will be an exceptional daemon." Erlem was happy to hear his daemon would be really strong but he was disappointed, he had wanted his daemon now.

Then it occurred to him that he would be in his first year of school at the citadel at that time.

"Will I still be able to go to the citadel?" Erlem asked, a little afraid he'd get a no from the Grand Mage.

Erlem didnt really want to do more studying, but students at the citadel got to travel around Thre'a and were given freedoms he did not get to enjoy at the orphanage. Erlem would even be given pocket money, the orphanage was well funded but not well enough to give the children pocket money, most treats were given for special occasions or as rewards.

" of course Erlem, having a daemon is synonymous to Autumn witches, you dont need a daemon to do magic, and your magical ability is very advanced, i'm afraid you couldnt get out of going to the citadel even if you tried my boy!" Rahjin laughed " now you go and try not to give poor Penelope a heart attack." "Erlem one more thing." Rahjin got out of his chair and creeped over to Erlem, placed his hand on his shoulder " dont tell the headmistress but I had the water-steed removed from the lake and left just the ponies, I rather enjoyed riding them myself when I was a boy." Erlem smiled as they made their way to the archegate, it opened and Erlem left the Grand magestrates office to be met in the hallway by Huxley, still holding his slate and quill but this time he had left his viser behind.

"Follow me Erlem, im to take you back to the home, your group was told they could go home head of you." Erlem smiled but was disappointed sligtly, he had hoped to get to ride the ponies one more time before he went home.