Chapter 3 The Broken Promise

Zabani was still staring silently at the animals; a dog, a cat, a horse, and a mini dragon, when a voice from her past filled her lab and brought all those old memories rushing back.

"It's been a long time, my dear Zabani-Chan." The voice said, sending a shiver through her body. That voice wasn't the same as it had been the last time she'd heard it; it now had an icy, almost unfeeling edge to it. She immediately got a very bad feeling about it. But she forgot all about that as the hopefulness rose in her when she remembered Anthony's promise to her years ago. Could he possibly know how to fix the mistake he'd made as an apprentice mage?

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It had been about 12 years ago when Zabani had been young and foolish and had just begun to explore the endless possibilities of magic. She had moved into the woods and had been taking a walk in the forest when she somehow made her way through the magical dome and into that hidden world. She knew enough about magic to figure out what was going on, so she decided that while she was there she might as well explore a little.

As if by fate, which of course she believed in; she soon met Anthony, the mage-in-training, and became very close to him. Time passed much more slowly there than where she came from. So she was only gone for about 3 weeks, but she actually lived in that magical world for half a year. She was soon dating Anthony and becoming good friends with his cousin, Timothy, commonly known as Tim.

In fact it was one of her good friends there who ended up going steady and being engaged to Tim years later. If she hadn't been there they never would have met. (Quite ironic, huh?)

Anthony's master was a great teacher, but Anthony, commonly known as Tony, believed that his master wasn't letting him do enough advanced stuff that he was so sure he was ready for. So he snuck into his master's personal library and 'borrowed' some books on more advanced techniques and skimmed through them until he found one spell he was dying to try: mind control. But he needed someone to try it on and he had to make sure his master never found out about his disobedience, of course.

Surprisingly, Zabani offered to let him test out the spell on her. As long as he didn't make her do anything wrong or embarrassing and if he promised to undo the spell right away when he was done. She knew how much it meant to him to try this.

Unfortunately, he really wasn't ready for that high level of magic. He never even fully completed the spell binding before something went wrong and he realized he was losing control of his magic. He saw it was hurting Zabani and so he tried to just dismantle the spell right there, but before he could the magic whipped back at him and threw him down to the floor. His head smacked into the concrete and he blacked out with the sound of Zabani's screams echoing in his head.

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He woke up in his bed with his master hovering over him wanting an explanation. Anthony quickly squeezed his eyes shut while he tried to come up with a believable excuse for all this.

"I know you're awake and I know you are trying to come up with some sort of elaborate excuse, but you know I can always see through your lies. So just tell me the truth and make this easier for both of us.'

"Before I say anything though, may I ask what happened to Zabani?" Tony asked humbly.

"No. Until you explain yourself to me you will just have to wait and wonder." Anthony regretfully told his master of every sorry thing he'd done.

"Hmph, I cannot believe this behavior, Anthony" He said, sighing. "But now do you understand that you are nowhere near ready for that kind of spell?"

Anthony slightly nodded his head while he stared at the ground, unable to even look at his master.

"I knew you were a foolish child, but I never imagined you could be this foolish. You could have killed yourself or that young woman that you supposedly care so much about!" Anthony's head hung even lower at the mention of Zabani.

"Look at me, Anthony." His master said much more calmly. Anthony slowly looked up and gazed hopefully at his master. "Don't worry; I'm not going to expel you." His master said sounding somewhat amused.

"But why not, Master? Why be so kind to me when I have wronged you so?"

"Because I can see that you do understand your mistake and have already learned from it. And I also see how you care about that young woman and how much this hurts you. But I only keep you as a student if you promise to study hard and become an apprentice I can trust."

"I can do all that, Master, I know I can." Anthony said quickly.

"That's not all you must do. You don't only owe me for this; think of what you've done to that poor girl. You must beg her forgiveness for now and once you are advanced enough in your studies you can learn how to undo that spell you tried to put on her and you can cure her of the damage that was done to her by the out of control magic." Anthony just stared in shock as he started to think about what could have happened to Zabani.

"You will accept this responsibility, will you not?"

"Yes, of course I will... but what if she won't let me try to cure her, what if she-"

"Stop your whining. I don't want to hear you whining ever again. You must learn to be strong now in order to accomplish this task, Anthony." His master said sternly, cutting him off before he could end up sounding ungrateful or anything.

"Yes, of course Master. I must try to be strong, like you."

His master raised his eyebrows and looked questioningly at him.

"I don't want you to be a suck-up either." His master said with laughter in his voice.

"Yes Master." Anthony said trying to hide a grin. He suddenly slid back into his depression as he realized, 'I'm here laughing and having fun when who knows what Zabani's going through!'

"Uh, Master," he said quietly, "Can you now, please, tell me what happened to Zabani?"

"Yes, I suppose it's time you knew." Anthony stared at his master with wide eyes.

"She isn't much physically hurt-only some cuts and bruises- but she has really been mentally injured." The master said solemnly.

"Wha..."

"Don't interrupt if you want to know; just calm down. I will explain." "Come, walk with me; I'll explain on the way."

"Way? Way to what?"

"Don't ask questions, just listen." There was silence for a few seconds, and then the master continued;

"We are going to that young woman." He said simply. Anthony's head shot up at that, but then it slowly lowered back down in shame.

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They walked through the winding hallways in silence and then stopped outside a far room. Anthony looked expectantly at his master.

"The damage isn't that great right now, but it will keep growing the longer it is untended to." His master said solemnly.

"What exactly is the damage, Master?"

"The best way to explain it is as a mental handicap that will make her spacey and somewhat crazy. As time goes by she will lose more and more of her sanity and eventually might lose control of her body and possibly hurt someone." This news hit Anthony like a ton of bricks and was so very difficult for him to accept.

"The faster you train, the sooner we can avoid that." The master said simply. Anthony couldn't believe how his master was acting like this was nothing. He knew he would be in trouble for this but he couldn't take this anymore; he just exploded.

"How can you be so calm about this!? Don't you care in the slightest bit! How can you pass this off like nothing and just go on and on about training!" There was an awkward silence that followed and then his master spoke with annoyance in his voice.

"Are you quite finished? Did that make you feel better? What gives you the right to say such things to me? You don't know everything that's happened in my life. Why do you take your anger out on me? It won't fix anything by trying to lay the blame on me. You did this all on your own; so if you want to yell at someone yell at yourself and leave me out of it. And, for your information, I do care about what has happened to that poor girl, but I'm not the one who has wronged her and I'm not the one who has to learn from this disaster and hope she could ever forgive me. Now, go speak with her and once you are less immature come and see me." With that the master turned and stalked off to his office leaving Anthony in shock at his master's outrage.

Once he was released from his shock he turned to look at the door in front of him. For, what seemed like forever to him, he stared at the intricate design on the wooden door; afraid to go in, afraid of what his future would be like after this. He shook his head to try to shake out his doubts; took a few deep breaths and slowly inched toward the door handle. He slowly opened the door and tiptoed into the dark, little room.

'Maybe I can slip in, take a good look at her and slip out; without having to speak to her.' But unfortunately for him Zabani has very good hearing and was able to hear the door's slow creaks as it inched open and sprang up from her little corner. She sped across the little space and enveloped him in a tight hug. 'Aw crap...! Well that ruins that idea.'

"Um, h-hi..." he stammered out.

"What happened? Are you ok? I've been so worried about!"

Tony flinched and stiffened up at her concern.

'Why is he stiffening up like this? What's wrong with him? He really must have hurt his head!'

After minutes of clinging to him she finally released him and took a step back. She looked up at him quizzically while he fidgeted and tried to figure out where to start. Luckily for him Zabani couldn't take the silence anymore and just burst.

"What happened?! All I remember is you falling and slamming into the floor. I tried to get to you but I couldn't move and then your master came running in, took one look at us and shook his head and did something that put a barrier around us and floated us toward him, then once we left the room he sealed it after us and took me to this room and told me to wait until you came to me. Then he just left with you and I was so worried and confused and alone! Actually, I still am. So what exactly happened?" She finally stopped to take a breath while Tony was speechless at her outburst.

'Oh God..., I am so dead when she finds out what I did.'

"You seem kinda out of it, you really must have hurt your head."

"Um, well, not really..."

"Not really? Whadda mean, not really?"

She looked him directly in the eye with a look that he knew could see right through him. He tried to scramble for any scrap of a lie he could but his mind was frozen solid in her gaze.

"Um, well..., um."

She crossed her arms and leaned on her left hip as she raised her eyebrows, waiting impatiently. He became very interested in the floor as he shuffled his feet.

"Well...?" She said drawing the word out to put more pressure on him.

"Cinq..."

'Oh crap', He knew that was French; Zabani had taken a few years of French, but only used it with him when she was mad or teasing. But he knew she was totally mad now.

"Quatre..."

He figured she was counting down and even though he didn't know the numbers, he knew they were very close to zero.

"Toi..."

'Crap, crap, crap; what an I gonna say! What am I gonna do!'

"Deux.."

'Um, um, um, um, um..."

"Un.."

He instantly dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together as he sputtered out as many "I'm sorrys" as he could.

"Well that's a start." She muttered.