[masterofweirdness]

The following day I was, as the Kirin Tor put it, “tested.” What they meant was I spent half of the day telling someone what I knew, and he told them what I didn’t and the other half was spent trying to understand the very basic concept of what magic is and what I needed to do to master it. In short I was told that I was a failure and should leave Dalaran right there and then. However, since I didn’t, they told me I was to become a mage. They gave me some money for an inn and told me to return to the council room the next day.

I returned to the Kirin Tor and they assigned me, along with about eight other humans to various masters, of whom there was only one human. My master was the mage Yrven, an elf who, as I was told, focused in ice magic. When we left the council chambers he turned to me and said, “Well my young apprentice, tomorrow we shall embark upon a journey of discovery and power! As for today I will assign your textbooks that should have read and understood by the end of the month.”

“What if I cannot duplicate the work in them, master?” I asked.

“That is irrelevant, right now you don’t need to even be doing magic, just make sure you understand the concepts themselves, and maybe in two or three months I’ll have you doing some basic spells,” Yrven said in return.

Two or three months! I thought, “are you sure it will take so long, master?”

“No. But I have trained many students in my time, both elf and human, and it takes many of them a long time to understand and repeat the concepts of basic arcane magic, which is the simplest magic of all.”

We began to walk to his shop, which I understood sold enchanted objects. As we walked I asked, “There is more than one kind of magic?”

Yrven chuckled slightly, “Of course. You don’t think the orcs used the arcane arts to destroy the elven forests, no they used warlock magic, and to some extent the necromantic arts.”

“What is the difference between these kinds of magic?”

“Well, mainly magic depends on where and how you draw your power. Power drawn from, let us say, a demon, is warlock magic, necromancy is similar to arcane magic but instead it is used to summon the dead from the grave, this, in effect makes it a very different power. Also, when using warlock magic, you weave different spells, you create demonfire and such. Arcane magic creates different things, such as the simple element of water.”

I nodded my head as he said these things, and after I had thought about it, then asked, “Now, these kinds of magic, they are forbidden, yes?”

“Not exactly, the Kirin Tor hates such magic and young mages are not encouraged to spend much time in learning them. But forbidden is probably a bit to strong. It would be more accurate to say they are discouraged, highly discouraged.” Yrven replied.

“Why is this master?” I asked.

He looked at me, and then said, “It is a simple matter, warlock magic, attracts the demonic, and should demons come to this land they would destroy it. However, necromancy I am not as sure about, but I suppose that it has much to do with the defiling of the dead.”

“But, what if, let us say, for arguments sake, a man should wish to be raised from the grave?”

“Unfortunately I cannot answer that question. I have never given much thought to the “dark” arts of magic, so I would suggest you ask my friend Kang. He is my associate in our shop keeping venture and knows much more of such things.”

“Very well,” I replied.

We continued down the streets of Dalaran. It was truly an amazing city, humans, elves, and a few gnomes were all over the city, selling, buying, trading, and talking. The most amazing thing was what the merchants were selling, from basic wizard staffs to, as they put it, “ancient and powerful healing potions of great value.”

“Amazing isn’t it?” Yrven said.

“What? Sorry, master, what did you say?” I asked.

“The, city, the people, everything! Dalaran is amazing, without a doubt it is probably the greatest city in all of Azeroth!” Yrven said to his young apprentice.

I chuckled slightly, “Yes, I suppose it is.”

By then we had reached the Yrven’s shop. As they entered the store I looked about it was a smallish sort of room, not big, but not small either, a counter appeared about three fourths of the way in and behind it sat an elderly looking human with a prominent belly who was talking to a very pretty elven woman.

“Come back if you need anything, and just remember Kang’s always here to help!” The human said.

The elf smiled and left with a parcel under her arm.

“Ah! Yrven, you come now with our new apprentice, I presume?” Kang said in what I would call a boisterous sort of voice, the kind that would be used by a man who had drank to much wine.

“Kang my friend! How was business? And do not tell me that was your only customer,” Yrven replied.

“Only! Only, ha! Very funny my friend, no of course not, you have been gone most of the day, you left before the sun had risen, and now, look already it is sunset! The shop was full of them, I’m glad we have an apprentice now, we’ll need him to tend to the shop!” Kang replied.

Yrven smiled, “no, that is your job, he will be taught the skill of magic by me, I will help here if I can, but I think I will be much preoccupied,” then he said turning to me, “but enough of this business talk! Come, let us show you our humble home and show you were you shall sleep.”

We left the shop and entered the back of the building. The first room was, as Yrven told me, Kang’s. It was a small room, a bed on one side, a stove on the other and some bookshelves in between.

The next room was Yrven’s. It was the biggest, with a large bookshelf and a small table as well as his desk and bed. Finally the third room was the attic. This was, Yrven told me, to be my room. It had a straw cot and a cheap looking desk, as well as a variety of potions on one side.

We left the attic and as we went into Yrven’s room I smelled fresh bread. Kang, it would appear and summoned the stuff out of thin air! And so we sat down to a simple meal of cheese, bread and ale. After we had done so Kang went into his room leaving me and Yrven to talk about my studies.

“Now, as I understand it your father is dead and by now your brother had disowned you, correct?” He said as soon as Kang was away.

“Yes, you are right master,” I replied.

“Well then, in that case your studies are all up to you,” the elf began, “I will give you the books and ask that you spend three hours a day studying them. As for the rest of your time, it would be beneficial to your education that you aid Kang in shop keeping, as well and try and ask us any questions you would have about magic. Anything at all, even if it is a stupid question we will do our best to answer it,” he said. After moments paused he then added, with a smile, “Though try not to ask many stupid questions.”