She did not speak, just listened and watched Lord Dakon with obvious restrained curiosity. The magician might have noticed this, as he began to ask her direct questions.
“If there is anything any of you wish to know,” he said as the meal ended, “be it about magic or magicians or apprenticeship, please ask. I will do my best to answer.”
The healer and his family exchanged glances. Veran opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and looked at Tessia.
“I think my daughter’s questions should come first, since she is the one who is to learn magic.”
Tessia smiled faintly at her father, then frowned as she gathered her thoughts.
“Where does the body generate magic?” she asked. “Is it stored in the brain or the heart?”
Dakon chuckled. “Ah, that is a question asked often and never properly answered. I believe the source is the brain, but there are some who are convinced it comes from the heart. Since the brain generates thoughts, and the heart emotions, it makes more sense that magic comes from the brain. Magic responds to our mental command and control. We have little control of what we feel – though we can control how we act in response to our feelings. If magic responded to emotion we’d have no control of it at all.”
Tessia leaned forward. “So... how does the body generate magic?”
“An even greater mystery,” Dakon told her. “Some believe that it is the result of friction caused by all the rhythms in the body: blood pulsing through pulse paths, breath through the lungs.”
Tessia frowned. “Does that mean people with magical ability have a faster pulse and breathing rate?”
“No,” Veran answered for Dakon. “But since some substances create friction more easily than others, perhaps a magician’s blood is different somehow and more able to create friction.” He shrugged. “It is a strange idea, and one my father didn’t think much of.”
“Nor of the theory of the stars,” Dakon said, smiling. “
Even less so,” Veran agreed, chuckling. “Which almost lost him his membership of the Healers’ Guild.”
“How so?” Jayan asked, noticing that everyone wore the same knowing smile. Either losing membership of the Healers’ Guild wasn’t as grave a downfall as he’d thought, or there was more to this story.
Dakon looked at Jayan. “Healer Berin declared that the timing of the stars and seasons had no bearing on health, illness and death, but was only useful as an excuse for healers to fall back on when incompetent.”
“I can see how that might upset a few people,” Jayan said.
“It did, and a few of them made life so difficult for Berin that when my father offered him a position here he was happy to take it.”
“It also helped that they were friends,” Veran added.
Lasia cleared her throat. “There is something I’d like to know.” Dakon turned to regard her. “What is that?”
“Is there any difference between a natural magician and a normal one?”
“Other than the natural’s power developing spontaneously, and that it is usually stronger than the average magician’s, there is no difference. Most magicians’ ability is discovered when they are tested at a young age, then developed with the help of another magician. If any of those magicians are naturals, we’d never know because their power never gets the chance to develop without assistance. For magical ability to surface with no intervention, it must be strong, but ultimately that strength will not matter much. Higher magic adds to a magician’s natural ability, so in the end it’s how many apprentices a magician has taken power from, and how many times, that dictates his strength, not his natural ability.”
“So you don’t usually know a person has magical ability until you test them?” Veran asked.
Dakon shook his head. “And magic does not favour rich or poor, powerful or humble. Anybody you pass on the road could be a latent magician.”
“So why don’t you teach them?” Lasia asked. “Surely having more magicians would make Kyralia better able to defend itself.”
“Who would teach them? There aren’t enough magicians to teach all the latent magicians among the rich, let alone commoners as well.”
“You might not want to teach all of them, anyway,” Veran added, his expression thoughtful. “I’m sure you consider character when you select an apprentice, even if he or she is from a powerful family.” He glanced at Tessia. “When you have a choice, of course.”
Dakon smiled. “You are right. Fortunately Tessia is of excellent character and I’m sure will be a pleasure to teach.”
Everyone looked at Tessia. Jayan saw her face flush and she dropped her gaze.
“I’m sure she will be,” Lasia said. “She has been a great help to her father.” She looked at Dakon. “What does being a source for a magician involve?”
Watching Dakon, Jayan saw the humour in the magician’s eyes vanish, though he remained smiling.
“I can’t give you details, of course, as higher magic is a secret shared only between magicians. I can tell you it is a quick, cooperative ritual. Magic is transferred from apprentice to magician, and stored by the magician.”
“This giving of power is the only payment Tessia makes in exchange for apprenticeship?”
“Yes, and as you can imagine it is more than payment enough. By the time an apprentice is ready to become a magician, he or she will have made their master many hundreds of times stronger than he would be without their help. Of course, we aren’t usually hundreds of times stronger by then, because we will have used that power in the meantime, but it does allow us to do many things.”
“Why don’t magicians have several apprentices?” Tessia asked.
“Then they would have even more power.”
“Because it would take even longer to train each of them,” Dakon replied. “One magician has only so much time to spend teaching, and we have an obligation to instruct our apprentices well and thoroughly. Remember, most of our apprentices come from powerful families who can influence whether or not we are given well-paid work to do, or remain the lords of our leys. We don’t usually want to annoy them.” He paused and grimaced. “And I think having several apprentices, no matter how well I taught them, would make me feel too much like a Sachakan magician, with a crowd of slaves to abuse.” He looked at Jayan. “No, I much prefer the Kyralian method of mutual respect and benefits.”
The others nodded in agreement. Dakon looked at each of them in turn. “Any more questions?”
Tessia shifted in her seat, attracting his attention.
“Yes?” he asked.
She looked at her father, then flushed again. “Can magic be used to heal?”
Dakon gave her a knowing smile. “Only by helping in the physical tasks of healing work. It can move, hold, warm or sear. It can provide constriction in place of a pulse binder and I’ve even heard of it being used to jolt a heart into beating after it stopped. But it cannot assist the body to actually heal. The body must do that itself.”
Tessia nodded, and Jayan thought he detected disappointment in her eyes.
“On the other hand, it might be possible and we just haven’t discovered how yet,” Dakon added. Tessia looked at him, her expression thoughtful. “I don’t think we should ever stop trying.”
Jayan looked at Dakon in surprise.
As he watched, Tessia’s shoulders relaxed and she gave Dakon a smile of gratitude. It occurred to Jayan then that Dakon might only be making the transition easier for her by holding out the promise of something familiar in the strange new world she was entering. Something to interest her.
But surely he didn’t have to. Surely she was as excited to be learning magic as any new apprentice. The thought that she might not be sent a thin ripple of anger through him.
