Wielder's Rising Read Online Free PDF

frustration.  “I don’t have any magic.  This is reality, not some legend from one of your old scrolls.”
    “Oh, then maybe you can answer a few questions for me,” the philosopher began.  “How did you save the princess from that monstrous serpent?  How did you open the golden chest when no one else could?  How in the world did you get your sword back after it had fallen into the depths of the ocean?”
    He opened his mouth to respond but realized that he didn’t have answers for any of the questions.  He supposed they all had to do with the might stones somehow, but he couldn’t prove it.
    “See, you don’t know, do you?  Now light that lamp!”
    Traven let out a frustrated sigh.  Studell wasn’t going to give up.  He decided that he might as well try and prove the philosopher wrong.  It had nothing to do with him.  It was the might stones.  He glanced at the hilt of his sword and then stared at the lamp.  When nothing happened, Studell began to mutter under his breath impatiently.
    “Well, what did you expect?” Traven asked.
    “I expected you to light that lamp!” exclaimed the philosopher.
    Traven turned back to the lamp, frustrated.  He focused on it and wondered how it would feel to use magic.  Slowly the lamp began to fill his vision, and Studell’s mumbling and the rocking of the ship faded away.  The air around the wick of the lamp seemed to be thickening.  He could almost see a flame.  He shook his head and stared back at the lamp.  He couldn’t really see it, but he felt that it was there.  The thickened air slowly began to swirl inside of the lamp, gaining speed as it moved around the wick.  There was a flame there!  He could feel it even though he still couldn’t see it.  He could feel it with his mind.  The flame felt like it was just beyond sight.  He concentrated on the flame and pulled on it.  The flame burst into sight, lighting the lamp, and Traven blacked out.
    He came to as Philosopher Studell excitedly shook him awake.  He sat up groggily with a splitting headache.  He watched silently as the philosopher kept looking between him and the lighted lamp with a silly expression on his face.  What had just occurred slowly came back to him as the fuzziness left his head.  The last thing he remembered was the flame suddenly appearing.  Had he really created it?
    “How long was I out?” he mumbled.
    “Only a few moments.  I saw the lamp burst to life!  When I turned to congratulate you, you were slumped down on the bed, so I shook you awake.  This is amazing!”
    Traven looked back at the lamp.  Had it really happened?  He wanted to deny it, but Studell had witnessed it as well.  He had somehow lit the lamp without physically touching it.  He had somehow used the ambience.  That in itself troubled and confused him.  What worried him even more was what had happened to him as a result.  He had blacked out and now had a splitting headache.  It appeared that it was dangerous to tamper with magic.  He wondered if it would be bad enough to do permanent damage or even kill him if he meddled in things that he didn’t understand.  He slumped back onto the bed, with his head in his hands and his eyes closed.
    “Do it again,” Studell said excitedly as he blew out the lamp.
    “No,” Traven mumbled from the bed with his eyes still closed and his head still reeling.
    “What do you mean no?” Studell demanded.  “You can’t just do something as amazing as that and then stop.  Light the lamp again!”
    “It’s too dangerous,” Traven replied.  “You saw what just happened.  I blacked out after lighting the candle.  And if I really did somehow use the ambience in the cave as you suggested, it left me almost dead.  I shouldn’t be tampering with something I don’t even understand.”
    “Well, you’ll never learn to control your power if you don’t practice it.  Besides,” countered the philosopher, “I have never read anything about the