Chapter One

For two weeks straight Noah exercised his body and studied locations of known various Elementals in between things since Bran had little in terms of entertainment. Noah was also tasked with any and all chores but those didn’t take too long either. Soon enough though Bran had decided Noah was ready to start learning more advanced stuff.

After his routine exercise and cleaning up, Bran sat with Noah in the study to talk to him. “The first and most important rule of all magic is it takes energy and focus,” Bran said.

“Now to control the Elements like we do we can draw the energy from two sources, within ourselves or from the energy naturally flowing around us constantly. It’s best to draw the energy from around us as much as possible. Do you know why?”

“I think so,” Noah said considering his thoughts. “It’s because we would run out of energy faster if we draw it from within ourselves right?”

Bran smiled and said, “Smart boy that is precisely it. Now some people may have naturally massive stores of energy inside them and you can build up your energy too, that is why I have you running around and working your muscles so much is to build your natural energy. And to make you stronger, you can fling magic all around as much as you want, but if your opponent or you gets too close then you don’t have enough time to concentrate on casting a spell on them, that’s when it gets down to fighting with your body not your magic.

“It’s a rare thing to happen but I will teach you some defense techniques without using magic later on in case that event may come. Now then moving on when drawing energy from your environment keep in mind you may be limited to what kind of energy you can gather and what you will have a much harder time acquiring.

“What I mean by this is say you are in a desert, now it would be easiest to gather either wind or stone energies because you’re surrounded by sand and gusts of wind and that’s the types of energy flowing around in a dessert most commonly. It would be hardest to gather nature or water energies in that environment though because those are far outside a dessert but not gone all together. At that point if you wanted to cast a water spell, or summon a water Elemental it would be easier and less straining on you to use your own natural energy. Do you understand Noah?”

“I believe so sir, yes.”

“Good, now this next lesson is more complex. It’s the same principal as before except only few magicians are talented enough to pull it off; the ability to gather any energy from around and convert it into one of your choosing.

“Now what I mean by this is simple, if your gathering heated energy from say, a fire if you have the talent you can transform that energy into one of your specific choosing like gravity or nature; whatever appeals to you. It’s not a talent that everyone can learn even after years of hard practice day in and out, either you have the talent in you or you don’t. Believe me I tried.” Bran finished his sentence with a bit of remorse.

Noah was excited to start these new lessons right after they ate, but Bran had a different lesson for him that night; it was to clear his head. No Magician with a head filled with useless thoughts ever made it far. So Noah cleared his head best he could so he could sleep easier for tomorrow they would begin his real lessons.

The next day after the typical morning routines Noah met with Bran outside. Bran’s first instructions was for Noah to clear his mind which he could tell from one look at him was stuffed with crazy ideas about mastering spells his first try. “Take your time,” Bran told him. “You have all the time you need to clear your head.”

After several minutes of quite breathing Noah finally cleared his head enough to begin. “Good now look down,” Bran said. “And tell me what you see.”

Noah did and said, “I see some grass, but mostly dirt and rocks.” Noah said.

“Yes, and what is grass, what is dirt and rocks?”

After some thought Noah said, “Grass is a plant, its nature. And dirt and rocks are associated with stone.”

“Precisely. And that breeze do you feel it?”

It was thin but there was in fact a breeze outside today. Noah nodded in confirmation.

“Good and the sun beaming on your face, all these things around you bring you energy. Even the sun beaming on your face, the small moisture in the air and even the pull of gravity keeping you from flying off into outer space, there is many types of energy around you at all times but it is up to you to draw it in.

“Now before we begin right now what would you say is the strongest source of energy in this area? And what is the weakest? Remember feel don’t think, feel the energy around you.”

And so Noah did, took in all the energy around him gently trying to feel out the strongest source. His first instinct was to lightning, but he didn’t fully know why, there wasn’t any electricity crackling through the air at least not as much as anything else.

He felt out for the energies around him once more to get more of an idea of which one was strongest in this area. Bran waited patient, unmoving like a silent statue.

Finally Noah said, “Gravity, that’s the strongest force of energy right now is gravity. And the weakest, it’s very faint almost nonexistent but it is thunder. I can sense a very tiny amount of electrical energy through the air.”

Bran starred at Noah in silence thinking things over when he said, “Perhaps you are right. I would have said stone but I don’t think you are lying to me at all. Bran turned and pointed out to the west. “Do you see that out there way off in the distance to the west where it looks like the air is distorted?”

Noah starred out into the west until he finally noticed what bran was talking about; there was a wide area where the air appeared to be a little out of shape.

“Out there is the Thunder Plains, nearly a thousand miles across and the whole place is made of pure electrical energies. Lightning strikes down around at random, a magician recorded an average of the seven-hundred lightning strikes a full day and night to hit those plains.

“It is possibly the largest land anomaly in this entire world. I imagine some of the electrical energy drifts off out of the plains into areas like this, but it would be very weak here given we are sixty miles away from the Thunder plains. You must have some good senses boy.

“Now then let’s move on; why do you think I believed stone has the least amount of energy to draw on?”

Once again Noah thought about it and said, “Because the other energy sources have been building up longer?”

“That is one way to look at it yes. The most common way to see it is that stones or dirt, or even sand carry the least amount of energy inside them. Stone Magicians like me must draw on our natural energies for better results that’s why we must work harder to build up our energies, but any magician can built up their own natural energy. However few do because they are too used to gathering it from around them and lose out on a great source of any energy they want, themselves.”

“But I thought you said not to gather energy from inside yourself if you could gather it from around you?” Noah asked.

“I did, but stone and often lightning as well are limited on its resource around that’s why if you can learn to draw in energy of another element and convert it to your choosing you will go much further than others. Now then as I was saying stone energy can be found in compounds of stone but it’s not much, even when there is an abundance of stone it’s hard for us magicians to draw energy from them.

“However only a rock can beat a rock and stone Elementals, though often slow, are powerful and nearly indestructible. But I’m getting carried away with that element, and the point is if you know where to look you can find energy anywhere.”

When Bran finished talking he turned and started raising his closed fist like he was straining to lift an invisible object. From out of the ground several yards away came out a dozen rough formed humanoid statues. They weren’t pretty and had no defining features to them but they looked incredibly durable.

Bran raised his other hand as a large chunk of dirt came out from the ground by his feet and hardened into a stone. Then with a quick wave of his hand the stone went flying into one of the statues and broke it into pieces. Then bran lowered his hand and raised it again as several clumps of dirt about half the size of the first one came to his hand again and hardened just like before into stones.

He threw his hand out and the stones shot out with incredible speed shattering another two statues into pieces. Next Bran pulled his hand back with force and speed and the shattered remains of the other statues tore apart another one from behind.

Noah kept his eyes deadlocked on Bran excited to see what the magician would do next.

Bran next crouched into a stance with his knees bent and raised his open hands up from his waste slowly with some visible tension. A massive chunk of the ground rose up from in front of him and hardened with his will. He put his hands out in front of the hovering stone chunk and flexed his fingers a few times until the last time he held them in position as they visibly shook.

Not a second later the stone broke off into smaller chunks flying at impossible speeds ripping the remaining statues apart. Until there was nothing but chunks of them scattered around ahead. But Bran wasn’t done yet, he stood back up straight and raised his fist clenching it tighter and half of the statues formed back up evenly apart.

Bran turned to Noah, wiped some of the sweat from his brow and said, “You see every element has its own strengths and weaknesses. For stone it is typically speed, it takes time to cast these spells which you usually don’t get in the heat of battle. So you have to buy time or make up for it, I make up for it by casting spells that are slow to start but shoot out at blinding speeds.

“But any decent magician has some mastery of at least two elements so they are not fully helpless when facing an opponent that can play easily to their weaknesses. For me my second element is fire.”

Bran turned back to the statues and shot out a ball of red flame from his hand which hit a statue and exploded it on impact. Next he held out both hands and a stream of fire that lasted a few seconds melted another statue.

When Bran was done four statues remained and he looked exhausted and was covered with sweat even more so than their morning workout routines. He took a moment to catch some of his breath and said, “You see Noah casting spells can be taxing on you and even when drawing energy from around you there is still some strain on you one way or another.

“And that is why we fight with the Elementals in pillar battles. They require sometimes more and sometimes less amounts of energy than casting spells, but they are much more durable and stronger, however they have little consciousness and must be directed by our commands before they do much.

“For today you will be drawing on the energy inside yourself. Clear your mind first empty all thoughts and when you have done this speak out loud the very first element that comes to your mind.”

Noah closed his eyes and began clearing out his head as instructed. Finally when his excitement dulled away and his head was clear, he thought about the elements and immediately a lightning bolt flashed through his mind and he said in a quite tone that Bran strained to hear him, “Lightning.”

He opened his eyes again and Bran asked him, “Have you seen much lightning around Rasoras boy?”

Noah shook his head and said, “No. I have heard thunderstorms from time to time but because of the rain all the orphans were forced to play inside and I couldn’t see anything from the windows but rain.”

Bran took in a deep breath, exhaled and put his hands close together and began to concentrate. Soon electricity began crackling and jumping around between the palms of his hands and then he shot it out in a bolt that shattered the statue. He raised the same statue up again and said, “Aye, Lightning is a hard to control element you will have a tough time mastering it, but the greater the challenge the greater the one who overcomes it.”

He started to rub his beard in thought while watching Noah who patiently waited to hear his next instructions. He had never worked with lightning before and his first apprentice ever happened to be a lightning magician. It could be worse he could be a gravity magician, no harder element to master than gravity.

He needed time to think about how to go about this so Bran called it a day, told Noah he gave him a lot to think about for that day and he needed time to finish processing it all. Then he had Noah set up their meal while he went to bathe off the sweat he accumulated.

During his bathe and even his meal Bran thought about how to go about teaching Noah how to master lightning. Finally before sleep, the answer came to him and the next day he would know how to go about teaching Noah how to work with Lightning magic.

And so the next day came around and after their morning routine Bran and Noah went back outside to where the last stone statue stood, all the broken parts of the other ones lay scattered where they were.

“Now for today I want you to start gathering the energy inside of yourself and convert it into lightning between your hands.” Bran said. “Then do your best to keep the lightning between your hands; and after that keep up the stream of lightning until you are out of energy to draw upon. Then you will know exactly what your limits are for drawing on your own personal energy.”

It took Noah minutes just to generate some spark of electricity and then fritz out right away so he kept at it again and before long it was lunch. He got some time to relax before going back outside and trying it again where he made very little progress that day before it was dark and time to quit for the day.

The next day Noah was trying the same thing with no progress at all, but now he was growing frustrated. He shouted to the sky and sometimes at Bran, which he quickly apologized for but Bran forgave him right away for he was man of great patience. It wasn’t until the end of the week that Noah was able to keep up a small crackle of lightning.

Noah thought he was making horrible progress, but Bran knew the young man was doing a good job for someone who had no former practice. And as the weeks passed by fall came with its strong winds and increase of rain. But rain or shine Bran took Noah outside to practice more. He ended up erecting a stone ceiling with walls that he shifted when it rained to block the rain and the wind.

Finally after a few months Noah was able to keep a steady stream of lightning, but he couldn’t contain it between his palms it zipped around everywhere until it hit Bran. After that Bran kept a good distance from Noah while he watched him practice.

When winter came around Noah finally managed to keep the lightning in a central area between his palms. It still danced around as was its nature, but now it never jumped out of his invisible walled off area without him willing it to do so. Bran took Noah back to Rasoras with him to get him some winter clothes. The next day bran kept Noah inside to begin his next phase of training which was to gather the energy around him and use it as he saw fit.

His first test was to see if Noah could convert one type of energy into another. Bran started a small fire in the kitchen and had Noah draw energy from it and conjure a flame of his own. After a couple hours of trying he did so, it was a simple matter. Next Brann had Noah try to convert the fire into electricity; all the happened was the fire died out shortly after he stopped feeding energy into it.

He had no luck that entire day, and so he tried the next day; once again the same result. And for a few weeks Noah kept at this, trying again and again to transform the flame into lightning. Bran told him to give it up but Noah said he could do it and focused everything on the flame and kept picturing it transforming into lightning again and again in his head.

And right as the flame was about to die out again it burst into life and exploded into blue sparks of electricity which made Noah and Bran jump back a little. He did it, at the very last second he managed to convert the fire into electricity. Both of them shouted in excitement, as he was capable of transforming any energy form into one of his choosing.

Now over the weeks Noah practiced nothing else but converting heat energy or fire into lightning. Winter passed and spring was here, Noah turned 14 but paid no care to his birthday. Now that it was warm enough to go outside more frequently Noah practiced converting other types of energy into lightning, like wind or nature. He still had a ways to go but it was something he would be able to practice on his continued lessons.

One spring morning though Noah woke up ready to start his day as usual when he got out of bed to see Bran had made them breakfast and had two bags with a sleeping bag rolled up and tied to the top of each one. “Is something the matter,” Noah asked.

“No,” Bran said. “Eat your breakfast, afterwards we are going to the city of Rozak, its time you learned how the Pillar of elements is played.”