Fire Mage Read Online Free PDF Page A

around, splashes of sunlight warming portraits of long gone masters, finally to the top level of the Order. Down the marble corridor he marched, the City of Naru flickering through windows, the glare blinding him temporarily until his eyes adjusted to the light.
    “In here,” Master Viridian whispered. Talis’s eyes were blind to the dark now, and he could barely see his Master or the room he was in. He bumbled his way forward, and bumping into the door frame gave him enough time for his eyes to adjust to the candle-filled chamber and Master Viridian levitating, legs crossed, in meditation, his black and silver beard forked in two, each beard tip tied with a gold sun-medallion. The Master’s pale grey eyes looked even more washed out, and Talis thought it was because the Master spent too much time staring at the sun, absorbing its power.
    “Close the door and find a place to meditate.” Master Viridian gestured at the silk pillows scattered on a rug embroidered with an ornate illustration of the sun.  
    Talis obeyed and found a gold pillow, and sat crossing his legs. In the dim light Talis swore he saw faces staring at them from each of the four, misty corners of the room.  
    The walls had disappeared, and in their place, a grey fog expanded out into nothingness.
    “Don’t pay attention to the room…pay attention to what’s inside your mind. Close your eyes or close your mind to the room, find the brilliant speck of light that is the sun.”
    Soon the sunlight roared in Talis’s mind and he relished in the feeling of its warm glow on his face. He knew he was now inside the world of dreams. This was a familiar exercise for Talis, find the sun, find the wind, find the lightning and thunder, find the rain and the cool mountain spring, feel the earth…your hands plunged into wet, loamy soil. The core pathways leading to elemental magic.
    “Now raise your hands to the sun and let the rays burn your palms until they are black, charred, smoking, angry… Feel the fire pulsing and radiating from your palms until the flames lap out, hungry, thirsty, parched, needing wind and substance to devour.”
    Talis did as his Master commanded and his palms burned and pain shot down his arms, but he resisted the desire to recoil his hands and instead kept them steady. In a matter of seconds flame tendrils danced out from his palms like the many intertwining arms of Kaleria, The Laughing God, who makes light of all mortal ambition and power.
    “Be careful, contain the flames lest they burn you up inside…balance between the wind outside and the heat inside. Push enough of the flames outside to keep yourself from overheating…that path is death.”
    Images of charred wizards after past battles flashed in Talis’s mind. He knew well the rules of magic and the high costs of ignoring its limits. That was the main reason he feared Fire Magic, and he thought, was probably why he had failed to produce it.
    But despite his fears he managed to control himself and he continued to allow the flames to flow from his hands. It was easier here, inside the world of dreams, to cast magic.  
    “Excellent…I salute your progress. Now see me, see the grey fog, see this room, bring the flames here, to me, the fog is wind, use its latent power to fuel the flame’s anger, and burn me up. The flames will not hurt me.”
    Talis found his eyes flared open and the room seemed instantly smaller. Something sputtered from his hands and tiny puffs of smoke filled his nostrils. He grimaced, knowing he’d failed yet again at Fire Magic.
    “That was a reasonably good attempt, I suppose.” Master Viridian’s face twitched, and his eyes looked disappointed. “I still sense fear in you, fear of fire, fear of yourself, even…”
    Master Viridian sighed and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, then stared at his fingers like he’d found ink spilled on his knuckles. “Let me ask you a question. How did you manage to overcome your fear of fighting