Changing Fate

The psychic jolt made Maddison jump and quickly glanced accusingly at her father's stern, war scarred face, before returning to her spell book and the complicated fireball spell she was attempting to master. As she puzzled over her hieroglyphic symbols his eerie voice came from deep within her subconscious."Where?" she queried, arching one eyebrow, a confused expression clouding her beautiful, delicate features.

"To the temple," answered a voice deep within her mind. Maddison gasped as her father telepathically told her the message. "Yuri and Vershkova are waiting for you."  Even though her father occasionally sent her messages this way it always found away to surprise her. And that wasn't the only reason. She was going to learn the way of the mage. Mages were masters of the elements.

Maddison didn't think she could bear it anymore, but a question arose from deep within her subconscious. "Why me?" the voice whined, it's voice reminded her of a pathetic whining child. First of all you had to learn magic and weapons, including the trickiest spell of all time, "mirror force." Just that often took years of back breaking labour and mind bending concentration which she knew she just could not muster. Then you had to prove your worth against many dangerous beasts such as cyclopes, dragons, and the most feared, pseudo-drakes. And then just to top it off there was a 1 in 40 chance of seeing your family again. But when her father, who was nearly killed by a ghost as a young "temples apprentice", as the locals referred to it, made up his mind, it wouldn't change until he got another cocky idea stuck in his thick, bald skull.

Maddison had been in the forest many times before, and as she always did, gazed around her, feeling the sheer exhilaration of seeing the beauty and abundance of wild life around her. Magnificent golden deer frolicked in the luscious, green grass. Luminous fish lit up the dark water like stars in the night sky. Fairies darted through the forest, pausing to smell flowers every now and again. This took her mind off the confusingly long walk as she tripped over tree roots and precariously tangled in low hanging vines. Suddenly, they spotted the temple through the tree full of leaves. It was a lot less grand than she had expected. Her father led her to the main entrance and ushered her inside.

Maddison barely managed to stop from falling over in shock. The temple was magically bigger on the inside than it was on the out side. It was now as massive as a palace, the envy of kings. Even gargantuan couldn't describe how big it was. In the centre of the temple sat Yuri and Vershkova, on chairs that looked more like thrones. They were separated by the solid gold statue of a majestic phoenix. Her astonished words were stuck in her throat. She could do nothing but stand and stare in silence, awed by the magnificence before her. Her father had never described the temple in detail.

"Maddison, please step forward" a male voice boomed across the temple. She only had time to wonder if it was magically projected before 20 pairs of eyes were staring at her. Maddison walked up to the pair, watched by all the mages who were training in the temple. She knelt on one knee, and waited.Yuri lifted up his hand and a blue orb of light gradually formed. Maddison gazed in wonder as the orb began to spin, slowly at first, but getting faster all the time. Maddison had just began to think about what he might do with it when it exploded, filling the temple with a blinding blue light. When Maddison's eyes focused again in his hand was magical sword of blue light, lowering it to each Maddisons shoulders.

to be continued...