Soren stared at the little green leaf in his hand. It had been an hour, and nothing had happened. Since the first day of his practical training, Master Alred had been bringing him to this secluded little clearing and giving him these simple tasks to work on. His first task had been to pluck a healthy green leaf and make it turn brown and dry. It had been difficult at first, but after two days he had figured out how to draw all of the moisture from the leaf until it was dead and crisp. His next task had also included a leaf. He’d been told to make the leaf fly across the clearing and then come back to him without touching the ground. That one had been considerably more difficult. Once he’d figured out how to manipulate the air around the leaf and make it move, it had taken him several days’ hard concentration to learn how to control the movement of the air so that it carried the leaf exactly where he wanted it to go. Master Alred had told him that it wasn’t perfect, and that he should continue to practice that particular skill, but he gave him another task anyway. This time, he was given yet another leaf and was told to make it burst into flame and burn to ashes in his hand, without burning his skin.
Soren wanted to learn more impressive tricks, like making the leaf grow roots and flowers, or turning a plant into a rock, or making water flow up instead of down. He’d seen some of the more accomplished Covenant-bound do things like that, and he was eager to learn those things, and more, but the master had told him to have patience. “Children learn to crawl before they learn to run,” he had said in that disapproving tone that he always used whenever Soren got impatient with his lessons.
So there he sat, with a little leaf slowly wilting in his hand as he tried to think about all of the theories and concepts that he had learned over the years concerning fire. The leaf wasn’t even getting warm. The master had left him alone in the small clearing and had gone back to take care of his regular duties.
According to Master Alred, every high-ranking Covenant-bound had their own personal space, away from the main camp, where they went to practice new skills, to meditate on whatever problems they faced, to clear their minds of the day’s worries, and to train their apprentices. This quiet little spot in the middle of the forest was one such place, and belonged to Master Alred. And Soren was getting very weary of seeing it every day. Many nights he had even slept here, too tired from the day’s work to make the trek back to the master’s tent.
Not that he could sleep soundly, even in his own bed. Ever since his Binding, Soren had been having strange dreams about the boy from the Paters’ garden. At first, he had thought that he was simply dreaming about that night in the garden, perhaps because of his guilt over lying to the master or maybe because he worried so much about how the curse would manifest. But then he began to notice that the dreams differed greatly from his memory. In his dreams, he watched as the boy crept around the Paters’ camp, climbed trees in the garden, talked to the horses in the stables. Sometimes he saw the boy talking to other people, going into buildings that Soren had never seen before, saying words that Soren didn’t know, like fraternary and sanctum. It was strange and unsettling, and he wished that he could talk to someone about it, but the only person he could think to tell was Master Alred, and he was too afraid of what the master might think if he mentioned it to him.
And it wasn’t just the dreams. When he was awake, Soren felt constantly distracted and out-of-place. He often got the feeling that he was forgetting something, or that he had left something behind, but when he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what he might be missing. He had so much trouble concentrating, that sometimes when Master Alred spoke to him, Soren couldn’t even remember afterward what the master had said.
But when he’d told the master about how distracted and displaced he’d been feeling, Master Alred had given a very simple explanation. “Everyone has some trouble adjusting after a Binding,” he had said, “And everyone reacts to it differently. But don’t worry, Soren. It will soon pass. Just try not to let it interfere with your studies.”
But that was the problem. It was interfering with his studies. He could never get enough sleep because those dreams wouldn’t let him rest, and he couldn’t concentrate on these little tasks with the leaves because he was constantly feeling uneasy.
Soren looked back down at the leaf in his hand. How long had he been thinking about all of this? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Fire. Heat. Light. Friction. Energy. Burning. Consuming. Flame. Spark. He opened his eyes. Did the leaf feel a little warmer? He couldn’t tell.
Suddenly he felt like he was supposed to be somewhere else. He thought about it. Had the master told him to meet him somewhere? Had he been given some other task to perform today? Perhaps he had been distracted and was only just now remembering. Where was he supposed to go? And when was he expected to be there? Soren frowned as he struggled to remember. No. He distinctly remembered Master Alred telling him to stay in the clearing until he mastered this skill. So why did he feel like he was in the wrong place? Soren grumbled at himself and shook his head, trying to clear the strange feeling away. It was just more of that same foggy-headedness that he’d had ever since his Binding.
Perhaps all of this was only the beginning. Perhaps he was just noticing the first few signs of the curse changing him. Perhaps the curse was slowly making him lose his sanity. Perhaps, eventually, he would be no more than a witless, raving lunatic– a burden to his people.
No, he wouldn’t think about that. If indeed, that were the case, then he didn’t want to know. Soren looked down at the leaf in his hand again. It was still cold. Frustrated, he let out a shout and sent it blowing across the clearing. He glared at it angrily as he watched it flutter around until, just before it landed, the tiny leaf burst into flame and dropped to the ground as a pinch of smoking ashes.
He was excited for just a moment, until he realized that he would still have to figure out how he had done it, so he could duplicate the trick for Master Alred. Sighing, he plucked yet another leaf and sat down to concentrate again.
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