Daily Write - Balance on Windmill Hills - Part 5

The early morning sun was starting to rise, pushing away the dark blues and greys of the night; making the sky a brilliant shade of pink that spilled onto the ocean. The view from Windmill Hills was quite spectacular during these early hours. The only sounds were the striking of water on the sand and the sea birds gliding through the gentle breeze coming off the water. Coming up the winding path to the hills, Ariya rubbed her eyes and let out a rather large and noisy yawn that she didn't try to stifle. Ariya didn't mind mornings, but this was just too early to be awake and outside. She had not even bothered to do her hair. Instead, she had lazily put it up in a messy bun and covered her head with a dark green colored scarf. Next to her, the tubby Professor Cohen walked alongside, staff in hand, as she puffed her way up the hill. As she always did, Professor Cohen wore her light colored air wizard robes and her blonde bob was neatly combed.

“After walking up this hill for the third week in a row, you would think that this little hike would get easier. You either need to read your books a little faster, Ariya or I need to lay off of the sweet cakes from the pastry shop.”

“Why did we have to come up here so early?”

Professor Cohen could hear the unpleasant demeanor that tinged the words coming from Ariya’s mouth.

“If you had been attending your Earth magic classes like you are supposed to, you would be used to waking up this early. It has come to my attention that you haven’t been going for quite some time now.”

Ariya’s violet orbs slid sideways at the air wizard. “I doubt that Earth class starts this early. Most people are only rolling out of bed this time of morning. Am I to guess that this is punishment for me skipping? It’s not like I don't know what’s happening in class. I get my notes from people who were there that day and I study them. That class is one big history course anyway. I really don't have to be there to hear what the professor has to say. Just remember all the important dates for the exam, pass the class and move on to next.”

“Ariya, did you ever think that perhaps there is a reason that we want you to know all those things about Earth magic before you use it?” Professor Cohen asked. The sound of her staff made a very distant thunking noise against the path they were traveling.

Ariya took a deep, noisy breath. If there was anything more agitating than being asked these aggravating questions, it was being asked these aggravating questions early in the morning. 

“Magic is dangerous. Some elements are dangerous just by nature, fire being the prime example. Other elements are dangerous when not used correctly, earth being the prime example. By looking at where others got it wrong, we can see what went wrong and how not to do it again. I’m not as thick as everyone makes me out to be.”

The large windmills began to come into view as the two continued on the path in silence. They stood like mammoth old giants that had gone dormant along the hillside. Now nothing but fixtures worn by time and the elements, these ‘giants’ still stood as imposing as ever, dominating the landscape. As they came close to the windmills, Professor Cohen began to speak again.

 “Ariya, why do you make it so difficult for professors to get close to you? To try and understand you? To teach you?”

“Because all the professors are the same," Ariya replied, "They think the same thing about me when I walk into their classrooms. I am the one that will not bend to them. I am the one who will not believe their theory unless they have proof what they are saying is right. To question the doctrine of the Collegium is to be branded a troublemaker. So why should I try and prove them wrong? I am going to use my energy in order to become a good elementalist and in the end become an air wizard. In the end, it doesn't matter if the professors are close to me or not. They can think that I'm trouble, thick skulled, or just too stupid to understand the complexity of magic if they wish. It won’t change anything about me or what I'm going to do.”

“You think the professors in the Collegium are judging you?”

By now, the two had reached the top of the hills. The ocean breeze buffeted against Professor Cohen’s blonde bob and caused Ariya’s scarf to flap against her head. Her eyes had gone cold as she stared out at the ocean in front of her. What was Professor Cohen after with these questions?

“Isn't that why we have been doing this, Professor? You brought me out here because the other  professors are talking about me. They believe that I am a problem that needs to be fixed and you are here to do the job. Yes, I believe that they all judge me.”

“Do you believe that I judge you?”

Ariya loosely folded her arms over her chest. How could Ariya possibly answer that?

“It is a fair question,” Professor Cohen replied, “I may not be one of the higher, more prestigious professors but I am a professor. So, do you think that I judge you?”

“You aren’t like the others. It’s different with you.”

“I believe that you are the one that is doing all the judging, Ariya.” Professor Cohen replied in a soft yet stern tone, “You assume that every single professor in the enter institution is out gunning for you when really you are walking in class and putting a large target on your back. You set yourself up for confrontation.”

Ariya pursed her lips slightly. She just wasn’t in the mood to hear any of what Professor Cohen was trying to say to her. “So are we going to finish talk about Tempest wizards or not?”

Professor Cohen decided to go ahead and drop the subject for now.

“Well did you finish the book you were reading before?”

“Yes, I did. It just stopped. No ending, no stating how things went. It was just over. I went to see if maybe Milstein had written something else, but I didn't find anything. So now that I know what a Tempest wizard is. I don't know why you had me research it in the first place.”

Professor Cohen tossed her staff between her two hands as she turned to her lanky, pale skinned student. “Did you find out why there aren't hundreds of Tempest wizards wandering about today?”

“Something went wrong. The country’s military heads were ordering increases in the number of Tempests wizards left and right and then one day they started to be decommissioned. The training ended, the whole fighting style came to a grinding halt in the middle of the night. But no matter what book I looked at there were never any specifics on what happened. I would think with how powerful the Tempest wizards were that they would have been around for years.”

A strong gust of wind blue, making Ariya’s scarf flutter as Professor spoke,“That which is not respected is bound to be abused.”

Ariya looked at Professor Cohen quizzically as the professor uttered that statement into the air. “I am guessing that you know what happened?”

“When a person says ‘magic’ it gives the feeling that a wizard can do anything. That we operate outside the rules of the universe and wield an infinite amount of power that has no consequential strings attached to it. However, nothing can be farther from the truth. As elementalists, we don’t tell the elements to do anything. We only bend them temporarily. Milstein had a profound and deep respect for the elements he wielded. Those he worked for however did not.”

Ariya started play with the strands from her scarf,” I read that those trained in magic were no longer picking the wizard candidates. How did they know who was able to balance the two elements well and who wasn’t?”

“Balance at that time was not a big issue. The issue was, could the person do it. And if you could, could you learn to do it better, bigger, and faster than the person standing next to you. It was Varro’s trump card and the military was going to play it to the fullest. However, things went terribly wrong. Have you studied the Crimson Plague yet?”

Ariya nodded, “The Crimson Plague was first seen in a desert city in the lands of the South. A number of nomadic gypsies brought in their sick with a strange illness that they could not cure. It affected a number of similar nomadic tribes. It was traced back to their cultural uses of fire magic during rituals. The misuse of magic was making their tribesman ill.”

“Very good. Now, imagine the Crimson Plague, increase the symptoms by a hundred fold and multiply that by the number Tempest troops Varro had at the height of their fame.”

Ariya’s eyes widened as she stared at Professor Cohen, “A hundred fold?! How is that even possible? That could kill a person.”

Professor Cohen’s eyes met Ariya’s as she continued, “Soldiers talked about how the tortured screams of the wizards echoed through the hulls of the ships that carried them. Pain of the likes that none had ever been seen before. Those who did not die within hours prayed to the fates that they would die. The more reckless the wizard had been, the worse the sickness was. The Tempest wizard fleets were renamed Blood ships for the number of wizards that died on them. Those who lived were never the same, in constant pain; their contorted bodies lost the ability to use magic.  At first it was a rare case here and there. But as the numbers began to increase, it became quite obvious that Varro had made a huge mistake.”

Ariya just stared in disbelief. Was this what Milstein had been talking about in the last part of his journals? Was this the mistake he had wished to avoid? The smear that was going to stain his legacy?

“But certainly Milstein knew that could happen.”

Professor Cohen nodded, “Of course he knew. And he trained his battalion well so that none of them would succumb to the Crimson Plague. However others did not listen to him. Balance to them was not as important as power and cunning. It was nothing more than an after thought.”

Another gust of sea breeze wound its way around the Professor and Ariya. Silence fell around the two as both stared out at the ocean in front of them.

“So that is why you wanted me to find out what a Tempest was? So that I know how important the Balance is?”

Professor Cohen nodded, “No, you already know how important the Balance is to elemental magic. I want to show you why you must learn Balance first before you learn how to use your own element. Your thought of “learning your own element first and then learning how to the Balance incorporates your element with the others” is not a bad thought. There have been many who have thought just like that. How can you fully understand the Balance if you don't fully understand you own element, right?”

Ariya nodded her head at the professor.

“It is just that elements are not linear and magic isn't simple. So when your professor answer “Because you have to” it is the right answer. It is just not a very well explained right answer. Bending one element will affect the rest, even if we can't see the effects with our own eyes. Logically that doesn't make any sense of course, but you just have to know that it does. For many students, it probably wouldn’t matter which way they learned it. But for students like you, it is going to make a world of difference.”

Ariya shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “What do you mean by that?”

“I can already see it in you, Ariya Vant. You are the type of person who isn’t going to settle for what is simply in front of you. The air magic that you are going to learn within the walls of the Collegium is not going to be enough for you. Columns of air, shields of air, missiles of air, one day it is all going to become too simple. You are going to  want to push the limits even farther. You are going to want to see how far you can bend the elements to your will. You don't see magic as having walls, just hurdles that you have to climb over.”

“I don’t understand why you think that I…”

Professor Cohen chuckled.

“You are only sixteen and already you question the philosophy of the professors. Not because you think they are wrong, but because you want to know why they are right. You are hunting for answers on a higher level than the majority. You are the type of student who is going to leave this place and find there is more to elemental magic that what we are teaching you. You are going to bend rules and find that there are very few absolutes in what we do. For someone like you, learning the Balance first is absolutely essential.”

Again there was silence. The morning sun had finally come all the way up. Its pale yellow rays gently crept over the white capped waves that pounded along the sand of the coast line. The gentle breeze embraced both the professor and Ariya, buffeting the robes that they were clad in. Both stared out into the distance, gazes fixed on the climbing orange orb of the sun. The pinks were giving way to the light morning blue of the sky.

Ariya stood there, pondering what she had just heard. Her pale skin made her look statuesque amid the tall grasses of the hillside. Her tall, thin frame covered in the dark colors of her robe. Staring out at the landscape, Ariya was totally lost in her own thoughts. Would she really push the limits? Would she actually seek things that were beyond what was in front of her? It all sounded daunting and mysterious, as if Professor Cohen believed that there was something special about her. Or perhaps something beyond special.

“What do you mean bend the rules, Professor?”

Professor Cohen wagged her finger at Ariya with a large grin on her round face, “Learn the rules first, Ms. Vant. Make the Circle of Elements your foundation, learn how each coexists. Then we can talk about bending the rules of elemental magic.”

Ariya’s eyes shimmered slightly as a playful smile slowly made its way across her lips. It was the first sincere grin that she had ever seen Ariya make towards her.

“Oh c’mon, Professor. What would be the fun in that?”


                                                                                   - The End-