It started out in innocence, like most experiments gone wrong...
We had wanted to do some magic tricks to celebrate Alim's name day. Alim is six years old but has more talent than many senior apprentices. One night, I overheard one of the enchanters say that the elf could well be the strongest mage the Tower had produced in decades. I feel sorry for the little carrot top; he shouldn't have to carry such a responsibility on his tiny shoulders.
They all forget that Alim's so little, way too young to understand the consequences of using magic.
Jowan had found an empty storeroom in the Tower basement for us to practice in, as junior apprentices were not allowed to do magic without the supervision of a senior apprentice. At least, it was supposed to have been empty.
"Oh! Look Anders! What do you think those are?" Jowan pointed at the stacks of boxes piled high at the end of the room.
"I thought this room was supposed to be empty. What do you think we should do now? Should we go and find another somewhere else?"
Jowan always reminds me of an overgrown puppy, excitable and bouncy and not so bright. I'm the eldest so should be the leader, but it is always Jowan who comes up with pranks and tricks for us to play.
"I don't know and I don't think we should touch them. Anyways, we were supposed to be here to practice magic tricks, not gawk at possibly-magical-but-probably-just-plain-ordinary boxes. Come here then, Alim. I'll show you how to make lightning!"
Alim squealed with delight as I made lightning dance along my fingers and jump onto Jowan's arm, which made him jump.
"Oi! Don't do that! It's not nice!"
Jowan's such a crybaby sometimes - he's already nine and still afraid of things like lightning!
"More? Please, Anders? I wanna learn fire next!"
Alim learns everything fast - he only needs to be shown something once, maybe twice, and he can repeat whatever was shown to him pitch perfect.
"Alright, alright - take a breath," I had to laugh at his eagerness. "Tell you what, let Jowan show you what he can do while I take a break."
I shouldn't have said that! I should've just taught him myself, then maybe things wouldn't have gone wrong.
I don't like fire magic all that much. For me, lightning is a lot more fun and less destructive. But Jowan leaped at the chance to show off something Alim didn't already know. His best trick was juggling with conjured balls of fire. As always, the little devil mastered it in no time.
I am supposed to be responsible one; I should have supervised them better!
For a little while, we had such fun. Alim ran around the room chasing fireballs that Jowan sent his way, giggling all the while. I in turn teased him with little shots of lightning just out of his reach so that he had to jump to try and catch them. After a while Alim's face was as red as his hair from all the running and jumping about and he was a bit hysterical too. Jowan showed Alim how to shoot fireballs at a target; I'd painted a circle on the wall with some chalk when one of the fireballs went off in the wrong direction.
It wasn't really their fault; they haven't been taught how to control their magic yet.
The stray spell hit the boxes on the far wall and one burst into flame. Alim screamed and Jowan - bless him, he really has no head in a crisis - just stood there with his mouth hanging open. I ran to put out the flame with an ice spell, it looked like it worked.
"We have to get out of here! If the senior enchanters find us we'll be in so much trouble!"
I ushered the boys out of the room. Just as I turned to close the door behind me, I saw a flicker of flame in the corner of the room. I hadn't succeeded in putting out the fire after all! I wasn't sure what to do now... I didn't have enough magic to put out the fire again and there was no water nearby.
Alim started to cry and Jowan knelt on the floor next to him to comfort him while I tried hard to come up with something, anything we could do. Before I could think of anything that would put out the fire, there were heavy footsteps in the corridor and Ser Erik came around the corner. He stopped short at the sight of us huddled by the wall, the burning boxes visible from the doorway.
"What is the meaning of this? I was called to investigate the use of unauthorised magic coming from this basement. Now, explain yourselves! Which one of you set the room on fire?" He shouted, his voice booming in the silence of the corridor before he rushed in the room and threw some blankets on the fire to smother it.
He turned to us, his eyes narrowed in anger. He frightened us, Alim especially, who hung onto Jowan for dear life and Jowan looked at me with those huge eyes of his and he was close to tears too. I knew I had to act before they panicked.
"I'm sorry Ser... it was me... I was just... I wanted to show them the new spell I learned and it went all wrong... I didn't mean anything to catch fire, I promise. It was an accident!"
What was I to do? Alim isn't even supposed to know elemental magic yet, if they found out it was him they would have punished him!
Ser Erik was angry, I could tell by the way he was frowning and how he clenched his gauntleted fists that if it wasn't for the little ones, he would have struck me. The older apprentices had warned me when I arrived not to be left alone with him, or I would end up taken to the healers.
"You should know better, apprentice, than to use your filthy curse like this! I will see to it that you will get your due punishment for destroying Tower property."
Now I was scared, too. I'd only been in the Tower a few months - what if they sent me away? Where would I go? Not home, my father had disowned me when he found out about my magic.
He grabbed my wrist in his huge hand, the metal gauntlet was sharp and it hurt, even through the robe.
"Right then, you are coming with me to see Senior Enchanter Amell. You two, piss off before I report you too."
Jowan scrambled to his feet, lifted Alim up and carried him up the stairs, poor Alim still sobbing into Jowan's shoulder. I was dragged behind Ser Erik along the corridor and up all the stairs to the Enchanters' office. He left me standing some way outside the door as he went in the room to speak to the Senior Enchanter. I was so nervous, I would have run away but there was nowhere to go.
"Come in, Anders. Thank you, Ser Erik - you can go now. From here on, this is mage business."
My legs shook as I stepped into the office; I had never been there before. As Ser Erik closed the door behind him, Senior Enchanter Amell turned to me and his face was serious.
"You understand, don't you Anders, that what you did was very reckless and could have been very dangerous for all of you? I am very disappointed in you, showing off your magic like that. Magic is not a child's plaything; it is dangerous and must be taken seriously. And in addition to this, Tower property has been damaged. I must ask you this: did the other two apprentices take part in this vandalism? Think carefully now, lying is a sin in the eyes of the Maker."
I thought about little Alim crying, about Jowan looking at me with those huge eyes and I knew he was scared.They look up to me; it's my job to protect them.
"No, Senior Enchanter, they didn't. They are too small to use elemental magic, after all Alim is only six - he's not allowed proper magic anyway yet. I just wanted to show them what I'd learned. That's all."
He was silent for what felt like an eternity and I thought he'd never speak again when he sighed.
"Fine. Taking into account your age and the fact that you are still new in the Tower, I am inclined to be lenient. You will go directly to your dormitory from here. Without supper. Your roommates will sleep elsewhere tonight and you will spend the rest of the evening alone, contemplating how you should have behaved. I will escort you down myself."
The look on Senior Enchanter Amell's face when he escorted me back to the dormitory was... disappointed. It was as though he had expected me to do something different.
Once back in my dormitory, I sat down on the edge of my bunk and picked up the pillow. Clutching it to my chest, I buried my face in it and breathed in the smell of spindleweed still lingering in it. It is the only thing I have that reminds me of Mother. My eyes started to water and there was a lump in my throat. I wanted to cry but I bit back the sobs - I am twelve and not a baby anymore!
It was so lonely and a little scary too without Jowan and Alim. But I did the right thing, I'm sure of it. I could not let the little ones suffer.