Spirit Speaker

"There are hundreds of different types of magic users." I said, sitting in the pavilion with the princess. 

She sat across from me, quill in hand. 

I shook my head. "No, Anna, put the quill down. We won't be going over every single one. Just the major ones."

She put the quill down, closed her book and grinned. 

"Each kind of magic user is named after the way they interact with spirits. We are spiritspeakers, the most common kind. Most mages are spiritspeakers."

Her face fell. "We're common?"

I laughed. "Afraid so, princess. About one in four mages are spiritspeakers. But, considering the fact that only about ten percent of the global population has the potential for magic, we're still exceptionally rare."

"How did you know I was one of them?"

Quite by accident last time.

In my previous life, the princess was always restless, constantly moving, constantly shifting. She couldn't sit still, no matter how hard she tried. 

She would disappear into intense daydreams, and lose track of time.

All the telltale signs were there, it just took me a few months to see them. 

But she was nowhere near as powerful in the other timeline as she is in this one. 

"The king told me." I lied glibly. "He told me you were restless, and you'd often stare off into the distance. He told me how you were having incredible dreams of bright flashing lights, and sometimes you knew what other people were thinking."

"So?"

"Those are the signs of a magic user," I replied. "It's the spirits reaching out to you, and your body's way of interpreting what they're saying."

"Oh, okay, so from that you gathered that I had magical potential."

I nodded. "That, and the fact that your grandmother was a powerful witch, and her grandmother was a decent enchantress. There's always been a touch of magic in your bloodline, highness."

"Salea, the bard you met a few months ago, she's what we call a soulsinger. They are rare. Very rare. In fact, there's been no record of one in the past five hundred years or so."

"I liked her."

"Me too." I said, thinking back fondly to the time I spent with her. 

"Anyway, then you get what we at the Academy call godbotherers. This is the second most common one, one in seven magic users is a godbotherer."

She laughed. "That can't be their real name." 

"No, but it is common practice at the Academy to hold anyone, or anything, that is involved with the gods in the highest level of contempt."

"Why? I'm a believer, and so are you, why do they hate the gods?"

"Jealousy, mostly. Godboth- sorry, deists, can become very powerful very quickly. The stronger their god is, the more power they have. They tend to become priests."

"So then that would mean that the priests of the Pale Queen are the strongest?"

I nodded. "Yes, followed by the Protector, the Seeker, The Keeper, and then the Crafter."

 She gripped her magical focus, looking at it protectively. "Where does the Weaver come into this?"

"She's at the bottom. She doesn't have very many worshippers." I explained, resting my hand on the amulet that hung underneath my clothing. 

"Why? She's so…"

"Wonderful? Beautiful? Powerful?" 

"Yes. And kind. She's so kind. She gave me my focus, and she was so warm."

"Kindness doesn't attract worshippers as much as the draw of power, strength, knowledge." 

"Well, it should." The princess said firmly. "When I'm queen, I'll make sure she's the number one goddess in The Kingdom."

I shook my head. "She'd hate that highness. The most important thing to a god is that their followers choose them willingly. A willing soul gives more power than a coerced one."

"It also doesn't help that her symbol's a spider." The princess muttered. 

I sighed, feeling the same outrage the princess did. If they knew the Weaver as I did, she would own the world. 

My mind flashed back to the goddess, her cheeks wet with golden tears. 

"Another type of mage is an Artificer. These mages shape spirit tools, like Ilargia, or your focus, and hand them to the Enchanters to seal a spirit into them."

"And then you have druids, grovekeepers, who have a firm connection with nature spirits, and can speak with animals. You get the necromancers, or deathspeakers, who can communicate with the spirits of the dead."

"And they're the bad ones." The princess guessed, batting off a spirit that appeared in front of her. 

"No, no, necromancers are good. They help catch murderers, and they comfort families, and they often help a soul on their way to the golden halls. 

"The bad ones are called black magicians, or spiritbreakers. This is a special class, no one is born a spiritbreaker. They are the result of mages seeking a fast route to power. The worst spiritbreakers are fallen spiritspeakers, like you and me."

"Why? What makes them so bad?"

I looked at her for a few moments, debating whether she was ready to hear this. 

Then I held my hand palm up. And soon the pavilion's spirit hovered above it, floating gently. 

"How do we command spirits?" I asked, watching as the spirit danced around energetically. 

"We talk to them, and ask them to do things."

"And why do they listen to us?"

She shrugged. 

I tapped my heart. "Because of our goodness. Most spirits are pure, gentle creatures, that respond to positive emotions, like joy, and love."

"That is why many spiritspeakers become exceptionally kind, jovial people."

I twisted my palm into a claw. 

"But there are other ways to command a spirit." I said, dismissing the spirit. "We convince spirits to do what we want, but spiritbreakers force them."

I closed my eyes, and held my hand out again, flat, and the pavilion spirit resumed floating above it.

"You hear us, spirit." I said. "You know what I'm talking about."

The spirit bobbed up and down, in assent.

"Will you show her?"

The spirit bobbed up and down again. And began to spin, and shake. Its light grew dimmer, and dimmer, until it went out entirely, and a black orb bobbed between us. We watched as it grew sharp teeth and lunge itself at Anna. 

"That's enough." I said, pulling it back. 

The spirit resumed shining again. "Just an illusion, princess," I explained and dismissed the spirit.

"Spiritbreakers flood the spirit with negative emotions, hate, anger, lust, until it's all the spirit knows. And then the spiritbreaker commands it by showing it a small fraction of love. Or joy. And the spirit will do anything to feel it again."

"And when the spirit is spent, and all its power is used up, the spiritbreaker will discard it, like a broken toy."

I watched the princess's face turn from curiosity to anger, to fury, as I explained this to her.

"What happens to the spirit?" she asked quietly.

"If it is left in that state, it will fall into despair, and begin to hate everything around it. Twisting all nearby life into something ugly, and cruel. And they begin to do the same thing to the spirits around them, who in turn corrupt the spirits around them, and so on and so on, until entire homes, villages, cities become twisted mockeries of themselves."

I looked smiled at her, she looked so fierce. Now more than ever did she remind me of my queen. Spirits popped around her, stroking her face, kissing her hair, trying to comfort her. 

I smiled. "That's where the next kind of mage comes in. Spirithealers. Another special class, as any mage can be a spirithealer. They go out and return these spirits to their original state."

"Think about it princess. If a spirit is corrupted by hate, what does a spirithealer need to purify it?"

"Love?"

"Love. The spirithealer overwhelms the spirit with love. Powerful happy memories, that the spirit feeds on, and begins to regain strength. It sometimes takes days, weeks even, but even the most broken spirits can't resist the sheer outpouring of love that comes from a spirithealer."

"Have you ever healed a spirit?" Anna asked, her face turning from anger to sadness, to hope. 

I nodded. "Just the other day."

"How?" 

I smiled. "I told it I loved it. And then overwhelmed it with happy memories."

The princess jumped from her seat and wrapped her arms around me, and rested her face against my shoulder. 

I smiled. "Do you want to see what I showed it?" 

The princess nodded against me. 

And I pulled her arms from around me and put her hands in both of mine. 

"Close your eyes, princess."

She did. 

And I showed her. 

The sun filtered through the massive canopy of my clan's main city. I sat on clan chief Ereld's shoulders, who held me by my legs so that I didn't fall off. 

The chief had never forgiven himself for what he did to me under the orders of the previous clan chief. 

But, as the new clan chief, he was determined to make up for it. 

And he more than did so. 

He allowed my father and mother to live in the clan freely. He even gave my mother and me full elven status. 

There was even talk of claiming all the clan's other half-elves and bringing them home.

He was a powerful elf, broad-shouldered, and broad-chested. Unusual for an elf, but not unheard of. I had taken to him immediately. 

"Where are we going?" I asked as he ducked and dashed. I felt like I was flying. 

"There is someone at the Hall today, who is testing all the children."

"Me too?"

"You too, little elf."

He dashed through the town streets, dodging laughing elven women, who greeted us warmly as we passed. 

Months earlier, those smiles had been sneers. 

He dashed up the steps, ducked so that I didn't hit my head on the door, and then let me down. 

"Through there, Lukas." He said, pointing to an open door. 

I thanked him and headed through the doors. 

One of the elven children, Delto, waved me over. 

It was the first time I'd ever seen a dwarf. He was stocky, with broad shoulders, and a long, bushy black beard that he tied around his waist so it didn't drag on the floor. 

He was only about a foot or so taller than me. 

"Okay, now I want you to look in the stone." He said and handed the stone to another of the elven children. 

"What's he doing?" I whispered to Dalto.

"He's testing for magic." Dalto replied. 

"Magic! Really?" 

Dalto nodded and put his finger to his lips. 

"Do you see anything?" He asked the elf, who shook her head. 

The dwarf smiled warmly. "Okay, little one. Thank you for trying, go to the lady in the robes over there, and she'll give you a gift!"

The elven girl nodded, smiled at the dwarf, who tousled her hair, and hopped off the podium. 

The same scene repeated all afternoon. No one saw anything in the crystal. 

Soon it was just me and the dwarf, who was beginning to look a little dejected. 

He called me up. 

"Come, lad. It's your turn." He said, with a broad smile. "Let's have a look. Do you see anything in this crystal?"

It was a blue crystal, clear. I studied the crystal, and in the middle, I saw…

"White balls." I said. "Little white balls."

"Good work!" The dwarf said, relieved. 

"How many do you see?"

I stared harder. "One, two, three..eleven…sixteen?"

The dwarf nodded. "Sixteen eh? Very good. Now, I want you to do something for me, it'll be a little strange, but I think you can do it. Can you do it?"

I nodded. 

He looked at me. "Are you sure? Are you my man?" 

I nodded again. "Let me do it!" I said impatiently. 

The dwarf chuckled, and pulled out a thick white rod, with a glowing stone tucked into the top of it. 

He handed it to me. "Now be careful, Ilargia, he's just a child."

- I will.

I almost dropped the staff.

The dwarf noticed my reaction. "You heard that huh?" He said, his smile getting wider. 

I nodded. 

"It's the staff. He's going to start to warm up. Just tell me when it gets too hot for you."

Ilargia's stone began to glow. He started at a dull red, and slowly transitioned to orange, then yellow, then white. 

I held on tightly. It burned like hell, but I wasn't about to let go. Not if this dwarf was going to teach me magic. 

Ilargia turned from white to blue, and my hands felt like they were going to turn to ash. 

"Alright Ilargia, that's enough. Can't you see the lad's in pain?"

Ilarigia returned to his normal colour. 

- Sorry. He said, his voice brushing against my mind. 

The dwarf took him from me, and put him in a holster on his back, so that the stone peeked out over his shoulder. 

"You're either very brave, or very stupid." The dwarf said, stroking his beard. "Or both."

I looked at my hands, expecting the flesh to be burned beyond recognition, only to see normal, slightly dirty skin. 

"Either way, you'll be perfect as my apprentice. Because I'm brave and stupid too." 

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. "I can be your apprentice?" 

The dwarf nodded. "Let's just talk to your chief, and then your parents, and we'll be off."

I jumped up excitedly and rushed at the dwarf, putting my arms as far around him as I could. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." 

The dwarf put his hand on my head and laughed. "You might not be thanking me in a few months."

I shook my head. "No, I will. Thank you."

I took my hands off the princess's. 

"What do you think?" I said. "Do you think that was enough to show a spirit that there is goodness in the world?"

The princess looked up at me, eyes wide. "Is that how you were found?"

I nodded.

"Your home is beautiful."

"Thank you, princess. I was actually hoping to take you there as a birthday present."

The princess's eyes widened.

"What?" 

"Yeah, it's your birthday soon, right? After the celebrations are over, I'm going to take you to my village to meet some forest spirits."

"And father agreed?"

I nodded. "He's been trying to get you out from underfoot for months. He tried to get me to take you to the desert kingdoms a few months ago."

"What about mother? What did she say?"

"She was fine with it too."

She shut her eyes and squealed with excitement. "I'm gonna go pack."

"We only leave in two weeks princess!" I called after her quickly retreating figure. 

She vanished from view, and I chuckled to myself.