InsaneJournal

Current mood:	excited
Entry tags:	in my time of dying, katashi kubo, max, nano, the old ways

Section 4 (Installment 2)
Word count: 1 942

Max woke up slowly, as if he didn't want to. Which was rare, since he never had problems with getting up at all, even if it was very cold and all he had to look forward was another day of roaming through the streets, nothing special to look forward to. But his eyes felt gummy and there was a bad taste in his mouth and his whole body was hurting--

-- and he was way warmer than he'd been used to for a long time --

-- and it wasn't morning at all.

There was the crackling of a fire, the smell of burning wood. That was good and nice, and the warmth, even though none of that was quite familiar at first. Or the chair he was curled up in (No! ... no. It wasn't green. It was brown, he could make out that it wasn't that green even in the light of fire and candles, but the sudden panic managed to make him raise his head and that in turn made him ouch as his neck was sore). He felt like he was beat up only worse, not just on spots like bruises or cuts, but all over the body instead. Only he couldn't recall being beat up either...

Slowly ... it came back to him. Running, and then being held and then stopping that man and the small Asian man--

"Ah. You are awake. That is good."

Max looked around to the source of the voice, and there he was. Tried to sit up and that hurt, but he forced himself to. It was respectful to sit properly when there was somebody older in the room, especially when that somebody had saved your life, wasn't it? So he straightened in the chair, though his body protested a lot, and then he blinked. "I'm... sorry, is this your chair?" The man was standing upright. And, truth be told, he wasn't thinking too clearly, exactly. "Should I get up?" Maybe there was a bit of 'I hope not, right now' in his voice.

"No, no, sit, sit. I have many chairs." The old man moved, then pressed a cup in his hands. "Drink this. You'll feel better."

"How d'you know I don't feel well?"

There was a small smile and the uplifted eyes glittered in the firelight. "Nobody as small as you feels very good after they try to stop such a big man, with muscle or with magic. What you did was good, even if it maybe would not have been enough." He moved to sit on a mat on the floor, and it looked way more comfortable than sitting on the floor should - then again, a good soft armchair wasn't comfortable enough for the boy right that moment.

He sipped from the cup and almost managed to burn his tongue, but the warmth and astringency of the drink - tea, he decided, and wrinkled his nose, since didn't like tea - actually helped. Another sip. Well. Maybe tea wasn't that bad, after all? And then he blinked and straightened up suddenly, only barely not spilling the rest of the cup.

"What do you mean, magic? Magic.. isn't real, is it?"

The smile warmed the shadowed face again. "Ah, but it is, Parker Max. You did it yourself. I have done it and can do it to show you. Do you need me to?" Max blinked. "Or is how tired you feel enough to persuade you to think it may be possible?"

"I... don't know."

"It is real."

Max took a bit more of the hot beverage, and swallowed slowly. It sounded like a fairy tale. But it had been him who'd stopped that man with the knife, and he knew it. And he couldn't even remember the actual name of this man here, and that made him uncomfortable.

As if reading his thoughts, the man straightened, his face became more serious and his voice became deeper. "I will start this agian, for you were frightened and tired, and you probably still are, but less so than when we were walking here. My name is Katashi Kubo. I am a wizard, and I am a Warden of the White Council." He put his palms quietly at his sides, and bowed slightly. "I think that you, Parker Max, have a gift of magic. No, I know you have a gift of magic, that I saw clearly in the light. I think you have a gift great enough so that one day, you might be a member of the White Council too. An honored member." Max uttered a startled 'huh', but the older man went on.

"It is very rare that in such a situation as you were, somebody does what you did. You didn't try to hurt him. You didn't try to control his mind. You just put something between you and him, made the air thicker, so he couldn't get at you. There are rules to follow, you must know, that the White Council has ordered. And most young people who have a gift like you do and have no-body to instruct them, they end up breaking those rules, and that is bad. But you didn't break the rules." A small pause. "If you choose to do as I ask, Parker Max, I can teach you how to use your gift. It will not be as easy as you may think," which got Max to frown, his body aching did not suggest there was going to be much 'easy', but the word choose had gotten him to sit up and listen really hard, and then the word teach had resonated almost as favorably. "It will not be easy at all, but when it is working, it will feel better than just about anything else. And you can do much. You can go far. Everybody with the gift could."

Something about the voice with that made Max wonder if there was something more to that.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you, Parker Max?"

Max nodded quietly, then after another moment of dark eyes focused on him, said quietly, "yes, I do."

"You have questions?"

"Yeah... a lot."

"Ask then."

"Um." Not easy to start, so many of them. "Could you... could you just call me Max?" And then, quickly added, "please?"

That got him a small smile, almost not there, and he only saw it because he was looking for it. It made him relax just a little bit. "I will do that, Max."

"Thanks." A small pause, and then questions came tumbling out, quickly, without order. "What are the rules? What happens when somebody breaks them? What's a Warden? Who are the White Council? You say you're going to teach me, and what do I have to do in return?" A breath, and then, "and if I choose not to learn? What happens then?"

Each of the questions was important. There were like a million more, but these were the ones that had just had to be answered now. So that he could choose.

The old man nodded, and Max had the feeling that he'd heard all of the questions. "I will answer these, but you may not fully understand what all the answers mean. You don't have to choose immediately, but you ought to, soon. And you can ask questions if you must, while I'm answering."

He then told Max about the seven laws of magic, not killing, not changing, not invading the mind, ot enthralling others; not reaching to call on dead people, not playing with time, and not reaching outside certain boundaries (this bit went a bit past Max's head... a big bit). That the White Council were the organization of wizards who set up the rules and made sure that they were followed by the magic users. That the Wardens were the wizards who made sure that the rules were followed, and those who would follow the rules would be protected in case somebody broke them.

"You mean... all of those things? You can do them with magic?"

"You can do with magic just about anything that you can imagine."

"But isn't that... impossible?"

"Very few things are impossible, Max."

"Huh. So what happens to whoever break those rules?"

"There's only one punishment for those who break the laws, young friend. It is death. Usually by beheading."

There was a silence for a bit, a silent flinch and huddling around himself a bit as though he had become cold all of a sudden, before the boy managed to swallow and take a breath and go on, around the connection he had made, too easily. "Is that what'd happen if I don't choose to study with you?"

"Oh, no, not unless you break the laws. You can try to learn on your own, which would be harder even and slower, or you can even choose to not use any of your power, and if you do that, it will die down in time. It would not be easy either, and you would be just like anybody else. Only if you disobey, will the punishment be upon your head."

"Oh." Max's voice was very small as relief washed over him, letting his body relax again, a little. "So... it is my choice." Not just somebody playing with words, and not a choice that was just... do-this-or-die.

Not that the choice wasn't an obvious one, for him. There was no way, after all this time alone and out and neglecting certain ways of learning, to refuse the offer of instruction, not easily. "So if I should stick around and you teach me, what'd I do in return?" There was no way already that he would assume something like that just would be granted. Every choice has its consequences. He knew that. Everything you got had its price.

At not yet eleven years of age, Max knew that too.

"Well, for one thing, I'll expect you to learn well. I have not taken apprentice in a very long time, and it would be good if you'd not shame me." A small nod by the boy, but he knew it wasn't over. "Then you'll need to learn to obey me when I tell you things. You'll learn what I mean by that soon, it's not about wanting to control - you will need to develop reflexes for certain things, and you might not love learning those too much." A slightly more confused nod, but the boy did get the principle of that. "And then, you'll be helping me. Around with spells and things I need to do. It might be simple, it might not. An apprentice is usually also an assistant, and that means helping out." That, Max could understand. And he nodded again, carefully. "Do you understand?"

"Yeah. I..." Max took a deep breath, then nodded. "I wanna learn. I want to learn. Not so that I can use the... gift or power or whatever. But so that I'll know."

The dark, uplifted at the corners eyes focused on him for a while, and the voice was careful with the question, "are you certain, Max?"

Firm nod. "Yeah. I'm certain."

"That is... good. I am glad." There was just a little bit of something in that voice - acceptance? Approval, that got Max to stand up straighter and smile.

"Uh... does that mean I get to teach you that thing you said out there? Seen-- Sen--"

"Sensei. Yes. It means 'teacher'.

"Sensei." Max worked the word through his lips a few times, then nodded. "I'll do that."

And so it was that Katashi Sensei started teaching him.

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