Chapter 1 – The Abjuration Test
Andor was only barely nervous about his test. His mentor, Karlan, stood next to the door. The shorter, balder man was giving Andor what was obviously meant to be an encouraging smile. The gesture was noticeably foreign to the man, but it did make Andor feel slightly better. Karlan, at least, had some idea of what Andor was about to go through.
"If you are where you need to be," said the only other man in the room, "this test won't be a problem." He shifted his red robes slightly and stepped toward the door.
Andor looked down at his own robes. He was the only person in the room not wearing red. He hadn't worn red all his life, but he was now at the point that he could almost feel those red robes hanging from his shoulders. It was almost time.
The door in front of him slid open and Andor walked through it. The room he entered was just like the one he'd left. The walls were barren, the ceiling and floors spotless. There was nothing in the room except for another red-robed man.
"Andor?" the man asked.
"Yes, sir."
"This should be a fairly easy test. I'm going to cast spells at you. It's your job to prevent me from doing anything to you. I won't be pulling any punches. If you die during this test, it will only be proof that you came here unprepared and thus deserve to die for wasting out time. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"You are allowed to cast whatever spells you would like before the test begins. Feel free to do so now."
Andor nodded and thought for a second before making a few quick hand gestures and saying just the right words to cast a shield spell. He sensed the invisible disk hovering in front of him, making him harder to hit and protecting him incase the wizard decided to try a magic missile against him. That out of the way, Andor readied himself to defend against anything.
After a pause, the red-robed mage spoke again. "Are you ready?" When Andor nodded, he began to go through his own hand gestures, muttering his own arcane words.
Andor at once realized the wizard was trying an acid splash on him. Without thought, he began casting his own acid splash to counterspell and the two spells cancelled each other out.
The next spell the wizard began casting was more difficult, but Andor realized just in time that it was a charm person. This was a spell Andor wasn't able to cast himself, and so he had to try a more desperate measure. Moments after the wizard began to cast, Andor began casting his own spell. As the charm lashed out at him, he lashed out at it with a dispel magic, but missed.
Why had he been trying to dispel this guy's spell? Surely such a nice guy would never try to hurt him, so any spell he cast would obviously be helpful. He knew he must have identified the other man's spell wrong, and it was probably a good thing he'd missed with that dispel.
Out of nowhere, the red-robed wizard pulled a throwing dagger and flung it at Andor. He blinked as it rushed toward him, but luckily it was deflected by the invisible disk hovering protectively around him. How could he have ever thought this man was friendly? He knew he'd been charmed and it cut to the bone that he'd allowed himself to be so weak-willed.
Before he had time for much self-disappointment, the wizard began casting another spell. Instantly, Andor saw that it was Melf's acid arrow. Such a useful spell was nearly always in his repertoire, so Andor simply cast his own arrow and once again both spells fizzled each other out.
He barely had time to realize his victory over the last spell, however, before the red wizard began anew. As the realization of what spell the man was working on hit Andor, his mouth dropped. Not only could that spell quite possibly kill both of them at this range, Andor couldn't even cast it himself. He didn't have time for a Resist Fire spell, so he'd have to try and counter it with another Dispel Magic. He wasted no time in casting and struck out at the energy building up in the other mage's fireball.
He was lucky this time. The fireball failed ever to fly from the mage's hand. Immediately, without taking to congratulate himself, he kept up his guard. If the man had been willing to try that, there was no way to tell what he might try next.
But the man merely said "Congratulations, Andor, you've passed," and rushed from the room as though he was late for something more important. Karlan walked up behind his apprentice and grabbed him around the shoulder, causing Andor to flinch out of his grasp and back away. Karlan just smiled at this and nodded toward the room Andor had been in before. "You've only one test left, Andor, before you gain your robes. You shall be a Red Wizard in no time."