THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE

id your master proud, young man," King Tynis added. "He has taught you well." I bowed in acknowledgment of his compliment, holding it a little longer than I might have before th

and shape it, but rather, theirs is the blood-borne right to call upon it and have it answer in measure beyond that which any Wizard could raise. Magic called by Royal right cannot be shaped or predicted, except in the most limited ways, but neither can it be blocked or warded or altered, except by the will of another Royal's call. How those conflicting calls are resolved is something the philosophers have long argued over. The same philosophers who argue whether a king is mighty because the magic responds with great strength for them, or whether the magic responds with great strength for them because they are mighty. The entire field of knowledge is englobed in an infinity of circular arguments. It has been proved by history that lesser kings can become great kings, and great kings can fall into a lesser state, and the same histories show that their magic has waxed and waned along with them. To be royal means to be tied to the magic irrevocably, but to not control it. One can only call, and hope it answers. Wizards and Kings; titled and important men for sure, not just in the power they wield or in whose name they rule, but Wizards and Kings are bound and binding others. Not just in their titles of wizard and king, but as men to whom others are bound, and these men tend to hold each other close. Every king needs a wizard who can shape the force intelligently, and a good wizard, caught in the rising tide of the magic as it responds to a King's summons, that Wizard can rise above himself and become something greater. A King in the fullness of his power is glorious. A Wizard in the fullness of his is fierce and terrible. In the coming days, I knew I would have to leave 'fierce and terrible' to my master. I could hope at least to manage to muster a decent level of 'fierce', but in the end, I would settle for my master's calling me competent. While Wizard's could and often did work well together, for Royals to do so required very special circumstances. Firstly, a Royal rarely was able to work in concert with other Royals who were not of their blood. A Royal, working within the first degree of blood, his sons and daughters or his wife, who was first degree once the proper ceremonies and rituals had been observed, and even more so when she had bo