Porte Ille
The next night was clear and crisp, the perfect weather for teaching a novice magician about the powers he had, how to use and control them. This would be a chore on its own and has been throughout history. It’s one thing to teach a young child how to walk and eventually speak. But it is a more complicated task is to teach an impatient and arrogant teenager how to use his special gifts without losing his temper, thus upsetting his abilities to the point of possible overload and widespread destruction.
Inside the castle the air was a bit musty with smoke from a backyard bonfire drifting in through the open windows and open back door. The air was cold and would bite like it had teeth, but Kayleb fancied the cold air, having had the damp underground earth for his second womb for so many months. It was something he was accustomed to and the closer he was to the earth physically, the safer he felt.
Arayah paced the floor in the living room waiting for her son to awaken. The sun had been asleep for over an hour and she was getting worried that something had happened. Something like…Well, like what, she wasn’t sure exactly. Maybe he was angry with her for the beast he was. She could not be certain. All she did know was that the low rumbling behind her briefly shook her from her paranoia.
“Did you sleep well?” Arayah asked Kayleb, startled as he walked out of a secret passage in the floor by the bookcase. She admired the way he dressed in sleek black pants, with a white cotton dress shirt and black silk vest. His hair was long, dark, and wavy, spilling loosely over his strong shoulders.
He gazed up at the spirit who seemed to have a more solid form than before. “Yes, I did. Thank you,” he answered with a slightly groggy voice, continuing to ogle his mother with unyielding curiosity. She loomed in the middle of the room, her shiny auburn hair was securely pinned up with a few loose strands hanging down and she was bathed in brightly dyed linens of silk and satin. Jewelry decorated her from head to toe, covering her ankles, wrists, neck and ears, as the scent of roses emanated from her.
“I know why you are staring at me so, and yes, I have a human body now. I was granted this for my long term stay in guiding you.” Happy, yet ashamed for having told another fib, she walked over to her vivacious student.
Kayleb, still stagnate, searched for the trigger mechanism to close the heavy stone door and conceal the way to his daytime resting place. “I do not understand. What caused the Higher Beings to allow this?”
“Well,” she said pondering on whether or not to tell him the truth. “I will explain it to you but not right now. Later, after Grix has begun your lessons.”
“Who is Grix?” he asked, as Arayah wrapped her arm in his.
They walked out into the forest to a location only a short distance from the castle’s sturdy walls. There, a fire was burning brightly like it was, by some means, sucking the Earth’s life force from the depths below and using it as its own.
“He is one of my dearest friends and the best wizard in the land. He has guided many people in their lives and helped them to accomplish their dreams,” she explained, acting cheerful toward her son, so he may not suspect that she felt torn apart, pulled in two opposing directions. One side of her loved her son more than she could express, yet his evil inhumanity repulsed her and made her sick.
“What are all of these things dancing around the fire?” Kayleb beseeched, scouting out the short, scraggly looking people as he approached them.
Arayah grinned at her son and let go of his arm as a group of lively fairies handed her a blanket for her and Kayleb to sit on. She spread it out far enough away from the fire to where they could still feel the heat and not catch fire. “These ‘things’ are your helpers and hopefully you will be able to know them well enough to make them your friends.”
