Wizard (The Key to Magic) Read Online Free PDF Page B

me?"
    "A few important things. You know that you're in the deep past relative to your starting point?"
    "I'd guessed that, yes."
    "In our terms, this is 3211 Before the Founding of the Empire. To put a number to it, you're four thousand eight hundred and fifty-six years in your past. When I saw to when your unguided journey had brought you, I was sorely tempted, in spite of all that I have experienced to the contrary, to believe in fate."
    "Why is that?"
    "You -- we -- are from here. You didn't know that, did you? This is our time. Just two years ago, we were born on this continent not very far from here."
    Mar shook his head. "I was born in Khalar. I was a trash baby. I don't remember much of the old woman that took care of me when I was small, but I remember her telling the story of where she found me more than once. My mother had to have been a harlot."
    "You were found in the trash, true, but you -- again, we -- were born here in this time and sent -- apparently by pure chance, as hard as that is to believe -- through time and space to Khalar by magics that are as far in advance of my own wizardry as wizardry is of simple enchantment."
    Old Mar paused. "I can see that you don't believe me. It doesn't matter. Just remember one thing -- you must resist the temptation to change your own past. If you succeed, which is not guaranteed, you will destroy everything that you know and become as I am, a homeless vagabond adrift in uncaring time."
    "You changed your past?"
    "I changed my future . All of it. I created my own fate. I saved the world from destruction, defeated the Phaelle'n, and nurtured magicians so that a new age of magic came to be. It took several normal lifetimes, but I did it."
    "But you don't like what you've done."
    "Exactly. I want to make sure that you entirely erase the future that I created."
    "Why?"
    "A purely selfish reason. My future is one in which I am forgotten. Because I spent the entirety of my life as a steward of my own vision, I had no time for anything else and I neglected living . The family promised to me by the Moon Pool never came to be. A year after I leapt into undertime, Telriy despaired of my return, left Mhajhkaei with our daughter, and never returned. I thought of seeking them out many times, but never did. My future is a place where I know no one and none know me. For all of its vitality and magic, it's a lonely and desolate place."
    Mar pointed out the obvious. "Our paths have been and are different and therefore my fate must be different from yours. The future should already be changed."
    "Not until you actually change it. No potential future comes into being until the events that create it are accomplished. Should you die --"
    "So you can't see what happens to me?"
    "Wizardry doesn't work that way. I'd have to follow you through time, significant moment by significant moment and I frankly don't have life enough left for that. For all of its power, magic cannot make a man live forever. Even the old man -- no, forget that. You know that the world is a dangerous place and that life is fragile. Travel through undertime is a thousand times as dangerous. You and I aren't the only versions of us who have learned wizardry. I saw three others die in very uninspiring ways. One of them I could have saved but did not, since in my opinion he was a stupid and very selfish man. As far as I can tell, all of the other culls were failed experiments. They made flawed choices and paid for their errors. I'd like you not to do the same. I want to see a better future, not one just as depressing as my own."
    Mar did not hesitate. "As soon as I escape this dungeon, I'm going to search for magic that will help the Mhajhkaeirii defeat the Phaelle'n and when I find it, I'm going to make my way back to my own time."
    Old Mar nodded in approval, but showed no expression. "You'll find everything that you need in this time."
    "No specifics? Wouldn't it be easier just to tell me what I should do?"
    "No. On too many