A/N:This is my first story so please, be nice.
Disclaimer: I do not own Circle of Magic.
That belongs to Tamora Pierce.A man and woman walked down the aisles of the midsummer festival. They carried themselves with dignity, as befits a couple of their standing. As they browsed the stalls, the woman complained about the quality of the goods to her husband. Just as they were about to leave, two boys walked up to them.
"Mother, Father," said the older boy with dignity. "We would like to go to the story-teller. Do we have your permission?"
The man pondered for a minute. "I do not see why not. Dear," he turned to his wife. "maybe we shall join the boys?"
The woman sighed. "Very well. All of the goods that are sold here overpriced and not worth the money anyway." The nearest stall owner glared at her and muttered something to his partner. The woman ignored the laughter behind her as she strode to where a large crowd was gathering.
"Gather around, gather around" the story teller cried "today I will be telling the story of the circle of magic."
A small child near the front cocked her head in puzzlement. "The Circle of Magic?" she repeated confused "I've never heard that one before."
"That's because it's a new story, originated from Emelan." the story teller replied solemnly. He turned back to the crowd. "Now the circle of magic is a powerful magicical artifact. It is a circle of thread with four bumps in it. Each bump contains magic from the members of the circle.
"Who are the members?" a boy cried.
The story teller smiled. "I will get there in a moment." he promised. "Creating the circle caused strange things to happen to the member's magics. They began to, shall we say, bleed into each other. It caused them to share gifts, such as seeing magic and gave them the ability to speak mind to mind.
"Now there are four members of the circle and believe it or not, they were only about 10 years old when they created it." He cast his eye over the skeptical looks on many faces and smiled to himself. "The first member of the group is a young noble. Her gift is the ability to spin magic like thread. It's said that she can create veils of invisibly and wards powerful enough to keep anything out.
"The second member is a former Trader." A storm of voices broke out. He waited for the muttering to die down before he continued. "Her magic is with smithing. She can create living metal and can walk through forest fires without getting harmed."
"How can you create living metal?" a man scoffed.
The story teller smiled mysteriously. "I do not know sir as I am no mage. But believe me when I say it does exist."
"The third member, and final girl, is from the merchant class. It's said that she can control the weather. The very elements of the earth. When her temper is roused, sparks dance on her hair and clothes. She is rumored to be able to scry the winds."
A mage spoke up. "Impossible! Wind scrying is the one of the rarest gifts of all. There is only one per generation. If that!"
"As I said, that one is only a rumor. Now the last member of the circle, and also the only boy, is a former thief." There were indignant cries from the crowd. The story teller raised his hands, trying to calm them. "His power resides in the plants that grow all around up. I have heard that he once destroyed an ancient stone mansion with his gift."
"Now as they all came from such different walks of life, I bet you are wondering how they came to meet. A powerful seer saw their predicaments and gathered them together. The noble was locked in a storeroom as an epidemic swept the city she was staying in. Her parents died of the fever and her nurse was killed by the mob. The trader was lost at sea after an early storm destroyed her ship. The boy was about to be sentenced for minor theft. And the merchant girl was passed from relative to relative each one keeping her until they got too scared by the things that she can do. After finding each of them, the Seer brought them to an ancient temple. There, they each learned to control their unique gifts.
"That summer, a couple weeks after the midsummer festival, the temple seers began to receive omens about a giant earthquake. Everyone knew that it was inevitable so they prepared for the worst. However, when the earthquake arrived, the four mages spun their magic together and warded off the earthquake. They spared the city and no lives were lost. It was during that that the circle of magic was created." The story teller fell silent.
A child spoke up. "Is that the end?"
He smiled at the boy. "Of that particular tale, yes. Of the saga of the circle of magic? No. I have three more tales to tell."
"Now a few days after the earthquake, the metal-mage spotted a pirate scout ship on the horizon."
A sailor muttered "Pirates always come a-calling when a disaster strikes."
The story teller continued. "Thanks to the warning, the temple was ready when the pirates struck and headed them off. But after that, it was like to pirates knew what the temple was going to do. The pirates succeeded in blockading the harbor and surrounding the temple. Determined to save their home, the four once again banded together to fight the pirates. They looked at the wall of illusions and protective spells and went over it inch by inch until they found an opening. After breaking the spells, they proceeded to wreak damage on the fleet. The stitch-witch, the plant-mage, and the metal-mage took care of the fleet while the weather-witch battled with the chief mage and won."
"And that is the end of the second tale."
"Now the third tale is months after the first two. The four mages are traveling with the noble's great-uncle in the mountains. Now in these mountains a drought had been going on for three years. The saffron crops were failing and the copper mine was running out. There were also forest fires. Now the Lady of the mountains had a mage. He was called 'the fire tamer'. It was said that he could put out everything from forest fires to the fires in just the kitchen. That is how much control he had. Now, stopping fire has its dangers. Fuel builds up on the forest floor and a fire can start to smolder in a dead tree, gaining energy. By the time a fire like that is recognized, it is already too late. The firetamer died trying to stop that sort of fire. Watching him struggle, metal-mage realized that is couldn't be stopped- it had to be redirected. She ran into the heart of the fire and gathered it with her magic. With the help of the rest of the circle, she sent it into a glacier. The fire was quenched instantly but the glacier changed into water. It ran down the mountains into the lake and cured the drought."
"And that's the end of the third tale."
"Now the fourth tale is near the end of winter. Notice how the other three centered on one person in particular? The first tale was the stitch-witch, the second one the weather-witch, and the third one the smith-mage? Well the last tale focuses on the plant mage. His teacher takes medicine to the poor once a month which is an important detail in this story. The plant mage visits her there to say that one of his city friends is ill with a disease that no one has seen before. As plant mages brew medicine and learn about disease this is a serious thing indeed. When the friend was brought in, it turned out that no one had seen anything like this before. The ruler ordered a house to house search to see if more people had the disease. Many people did. Every day more people became ill and many died. The four were put to work fighting the disease. The sitich-witch wove cloth to prevent those tending the patients from getting ill. The metal-mage created warded sample boxes to study the disease with. The weather witch helped the Seer that had brought her there to trace where the disease had started, for it had started with a failed magical experiment being dumped in the sewer. The plant-mage researched a cure along with his teacher. It is rumored that his teacher fell ill and died and that they brought her back to life, but I personally don't believe that one. The four were able help find a cure and it was announced to the city.
" That is the end of the last story."
The couple stayed at the back of the crowd as the story teller was bombarded with questions about the details of the story. As the crowds began to disperse, the man turned to his wife. His face was pale. "Do you think that was…" He paused and forced himself to go on. "…her?"
His wife was taking deep breaths trying to calm down. "It can't be." She snapped nervously. "She was repeatedly tested for magic by the finest in the city." She began to look around for their sons. "Where are the kids?"
They turned around as they heard their youngest child ask, "What are the names of the circle of magic?" The story teller smiled slightly.
"You know, you are the first person to ask me that. Everyone else assumes that they don't really exist, that it was just a story. Well, their names are: Sandraliene Fa Toren who is the noble, Daja Kisubo who is the Trader, Briar Moss who is the plant mage, and" He paused and the couple would swear that, for the briefest moment, his eyes fickered to them, "and Trisana Chandler, who is the merchant." The boys moved on to their other questions but the adults were frozen in shock. The emotions that they felt ranged from sadness to wonder and from pride to regret and a tough of greed.
After a moment Catharine Chandler spoke. "Our daughter's a legend, Valden."
"A legend."
A/N: Please send constructive reviews! No flames please.