The Young Magician by Michael Foster

Author:Michael Foster
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Magic, Fantasy, samuel, legacy, magician
Publisher: Dragonfall Press
Published: 2011-07-26T22:00:00+00:00

Neighbours began calling and talking, poking around for a clue to anything new that Simpson might be doing with his stock but, as usual, he mostly just sat on his rock talking with the new hand.

‘What did you do to Branner’s sheep?’ one fellow asked one night as he called in to their home for tanabil tea.

‘What do you mean?’ Simpson asked.

A tiny smile started on Samuel’s lips as he scribbled some notes, listening in.

‘Branner says that the other day about ten of them came filing into his house and, all at once, lifted their tails and sh—I mean, deposited their leavings on the floor, and then all went out again. Him and his missus were dumbstruck. And he says that since then, they don’t come anywhere near here any more.’

‘Why that’s strange behaviour, to be sure,’ Simpson said, drawing on his pipe and looking at Samuel, ‘but I can’t say why sheep would do such a thing, sheep being sheep, that is. I’ve never really cared for sheep.’

Samuel’s skills were improving steadily and one day, as he sat next to Simpson, he decided to test his newfound ability on a human subject. He was fully confident of his capacity and so he turned his attention to the old man beside him.

At first, Samuel’s efforts went without fruition, but with each attempt he found his way deeper through the maze of complex energies of the man’s mind until he began at last to feel the strange sensation of foreign thoughts. He could sense a rhythmical pulsing that changed in speed and intensity seemingly randomly. Then, he began to hear a cascade of tones, rising and falling in sequence. It was a song. Samuel realised that old Simpson was humming it in his head. As Samuel delved inwards, he found Simpson’s mind to be a complex and shifting weave of memories and events, far beyond what he had experienced before. The energy around him was overwhelming, like massive hives of delicate lacework. He decided it would be very difficult to do anything in such a sophisticated place. It might even be dangerous for them both.

Another time, as Samuel sat and listened to the old man whistle merrily to himself, Samuel had an idea for a simple experiment. He began humming quietly in his mind. Carefully, he felt out for the energies of old Simpson. He let the two vibrations overlap, so that his own tune was mingled with Simpson’s. It was very difficult work. He had to concentrate on maintaining his own tune, feeling for Simpson's and then keep them bound together all at once.

After only a short time, Simpson took up Samuel’s tune as his own. Samuel smiled to himself smugly, for it confirmed his theory: two things did not even need to be touching to affect each other. All things were connected by the ether, whether it was obvious or not, and vibrations could travel between them easily enough. Damn himself for being so stupid! Of course, it was what his teachers had always told him; but, until now, he had never fully understood the notion.

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