The Magi
An Extraordinary Gift

The following morning, Elijah woke up absolutelyfreezing. It had snowed during the nightmaking the barracks cold and drafty. Hewalked over to the chest and pulled out an additional blanket before realizingit was time to get up. It was still darkoutside, and his entire body still throbbed from yesterday’s physicaltraining. Elijah gathered his pile ofbooks and read the piece of paper lying on top of his pile, which listed whathe needed to read and discuss for the remainder of term. Most everything was a classic like the Iliad and the Odyssey, various Shakespeare plays, and a textbook with acollection of short stories and poems. There were also books written by old philosophers andmathematicians. Elijah recognized thenames of a few authors, but most he had never heard of.

After a quick breakfast, Elijah walked through the trainingarena and into his classroom. He took aseat in an empty chair at the very center of the room. He definitely didn’t want to draw any moreattention to himself than there already was, being the new student, so hefigured sitting in the middle would be a nice way to remain unnoticed.

There were some students in the classroom already. As the rest of them began to file into theroom, Elijah recognized a few. Adam, theboy who heard him trying to open Kyria’s diaries, walked in and sat down in thevery back of the classroom, near the door. He pulled out a book and began to read it silently. The tall boy who helped Elijah up from thepit of foam also walked in. He sat inthe very front corner and turned so he faced the entire room. He began chatting with a chubby boy next to him.

Then, Elijah saw Hannah Maybury walk into the room. He hadn’t seen her since her family hadwalked with him to visit Arthur during the winter recess. She quickly scanned the room, and Elijahfigured she was looking for her circle of friends to sit with. To his surprise, she looked directly at him,smiled, and walked right over to the seat next to him.

“Can I sit here?” she asked politely.

Elijah blushed.

“Sure.” She sat downand smiled at him in appreciation. Fromher bag, Hannah pulled out a book called TheWritings of Aristotle. Seeing this,Elijah pulled out his copy too and took a few deep breaths. He told himself he was only nervous becauseof the difficult book he was expected to read and discuss, but as he looked atHannah sitting next to him, he knew that wasn’t the only thing making himnervous.

“So how did it go yesterday?” Hannah asked. “I work with my mentor on Mondays, but Iwondered how you were doing your first day.” Elijah’s eyes widened in shock. She thought of him? His handsbegan to get sweaty again as he tried to calm himself down so his voice didn’tshake when he answered her.

“I’m not sure I did so well,” Elijah admitted, his voiceshaking. “I had a hard time getting outof that foam pit.”

“It’s so embarrassing isn’t it?” Hannah said sympathetically. “The first day we did that last term, all ofus in our first year got stuck in that pit. It was like a sea of drowning swimmers! There’s still some who can’t do it in my group.”

Elijah felt immediately better. He hadn’t noticed anyone in his group thatcouldn’t get up, but some did struggle more than others.

“So you had physical training yesterday,” continuedHannah. “I have that on Saturdays. You’re working with the older group then.”

“Really?” asked Elijah. “Why would they put me with the older group?”

“Oh, they mix everyone up for physical training. Paul’s in that group, I think.” Hannah pointed to the tall boy who helpedElijah up out of the pit. “So isAndrew.” She pointed to a small pale boywith red hair sitting behind Paul talking to the chubbier boy next to Paul. “They are both in their preliminary yeartoo. It’s just that most of the kids in your group are older, and most in mine are younger.” Elijah paused for a moment, gathering enough courage to ask about her.

“How was your day with your mentor?”

“It was okay,” she said brushing her brown hair out of hereyes. “Mostly, we just talked aboutthings my parents have told me already, but I had some time to work on movingthe elements.”

“Any luck?” asked Elijah curiously. He was trying to be polite and carry on theconversation, but Elijah was also curious to replace out what his own day with his mentor would be like. He had to wait until Saturday to replaceeverything out.

“No,” she said. “Ithought for a minute I made some ripples in a pond, but it was just the wind.”

“Maybe you made the wind then,” Elijah said, immediatelyfeeling like his joke was stupid.

Hannah smiled at him and looked like she was about torespond, but at that moment a middle-aged woman with dark hair and wrinklesaround her mouth walked into the room, and Hannah straightened up in her seat,signaling to Elijah it was time to quit talking. He felt much better after his shortconversation with her. It almost made upfor the embarrassment he suffered the first time they met. Immediately following the instructor, Samuelcharged into the room out of breath. Hetook the seat next to Adam by the door.

The rest of the class was spent discussing the use of theirfive senses to discover more about the world. Elijah was completely lost the entire time, but thankfully he was nevercalled on. So, he spent the daylistening to everyone else talk about Aristotle, the philosopher, and readingfrom an act of Shakespeare’s JuliusCaesar. Some of the students seemedto have a lot to say about each topic, but most of them were quite content tolet the teacher, a very boring, long-winded woman named Mrs. White, talk formost of the class time.

Elijah enjoyed the time they were given between discussionsto visit with one another, even though he really didn’t know anyone. He learned from the others his discussionclasses would always be done with students in his year. Other than physical training, which neverchanges curriculum regardless of age, all of his training would be with thosesame students. During the breaks, Elijahmet almost everyone in the class—informally of course. There were fifteen of them, and they were allvery curious about Elijah and Samuel.

“Why are the Maliphists after you?”

“Where did you come from?”

“What was it like living outside of Savenridge?”

“Who is Stan Hawk?”

“When did you learn about us?”

“How did you learnabout us?”

Elijah tried to entertain each question and answer themseriously, but he began to grow tired of the attention after a while.

At lunch, Elijah found Samuel and sat next to him, butbefore he knew it, two other boys joined them. Elijah recognized Paul, the tall boy who helped him out of the pit, andhe also recognized the other as the chubby boy who sat next to Paul duringclass discussions, but he didn’t know his name.

“So did you close your eyes?” Paul asked Elijah, referringto the foam pit as he sat down across from him.

“I didn’t get a chance to go again,” Elijah answeredshrugging his shoulders, pretending his failure didn’t bother him in theslightest. Paul chuckled.

“Try it next time. Remember, you’re training your body to get stronger. The stronger it gets, the easier it will beto get out of there. Technique has a bitto do with it, but it’s more about strength. Zempke’s totally loony, but he has a method to his madness. Before you know it, you’ll be flying out ofthere. Isn’t that right, Isaac?” Paul slapped the boy sitting next to him onthe back in a playful way.

“Hey, if you can even pullyourself out, you’re doing better than me,” said Isaac. Elijah and Samuel laughed, but Elijah wasn’tsure if Isaac was joking or not.

“I’m Paul Hetfield, by the way, and this is IsaacRogers. I don’t think we’ve actuallyintroduced ourselves.”

“I’m Elijah Hawk, and this is Samuel Moore.”

Paul and Isaac were almost exact opposites. Paul was tall and lean, butstrong-looking. He had dark brown hairand icy blue eyes that were hard not to notice when walking by. Elijah wasn’t sure if he even liked Paul, buthe enjoyed being around him. He radiateda charismatic confidence that was easy to be drawn to.

Isaac was not tall or thin. He had an average height and was a tad on the pudgy side. His hair and eyes were dark brown. As the four boys talked about their newexperiences in training and living in Savenridge, Elijah could tell Isaac was ahappy person. He smiled even when therewasn’t anything obvious to smile about. He paid attention to each person that talked by looking at them directlyand, of course, grinned as they talked, as though they were in the middle of ajoke and he was anxiously awaiting the punch line. Elijah liked Isaac immediately.

It was clear Isaac struggled with training because every sooften, Paul would make a wisecrack about Isaac’s shortcomings, almost in ataunting way. True to form, Isaac wouldroll with the punches and laugh about his struggles. Elijah wondered if deep down Isaac wasbothered by the playful banter, or if he really, truly was that lightheartedand carefree about his faults.

After the class discussions were over for the day, the fourboys, Elijah, Samuel, Paul, and Isaac, decided to take a walk outside thetraining quarters and get some fresh air after being cooped up in a classroomall day. Paul led the quartet into ameadow covered with snow. One of therunoffs of the river cut right through the middle of the meadow. They found a spot close to the tree line thathad a few large rocks and patches of earth peeking out through the snow, sothey stopped there to relax for a few minutes, watching their cold breath steamout in front of them.

“So tell me, Elijah,” Paul said with authority. “Word is you’ve got something the Maliphistswant. Is that true?” Elijah cocked his head sideways and gave Paula curious look, not having a clue what he was talking about. His question seemed almost accusatory.

“I have no idea what the Maliphists want with me,” Elijahsaid.

“Is it true they have your uncle?” Isaac asked without hisusual smile. Elijah dropped his head andkicked at the dirt under his boot.

“Yes.” All four boyswere silent for a few moments. Paullooked around, his long arms resting on his hips.

“So you have no family here, then? No blood relatives?” asked Paul.

“No,” Elijah answered. “I was brought here from Saint Phillip’s Academy.”

“So you know Felix Pennington,” Isaac said merrily, changingthe mood and, Elijah hoped, the subject as well.

“Just a little bit. He filled in for Master Roddick for a short while. I was only at the academy for a few months,”Elijah answered.

“Pennington was my brother’s mentor,” Isaac said. “At least when he wasn’t teaching at SaintPhillip’s Academy. He taught me a couplethings here and there when he was mentoring my brother.”

“A lot of good it did,” Paul joked sarcastically.

“Hey, I’m doing better than when I started,” Isaacsaid. “I can almost run a full lapwithout assistance.” The boyslaughed. “And, yesterday, I made it tomental training on time.” Isaac saidthis with mock pride, and he held his head up high.

“You’re right. Youcertainly are training hard to be mental,” Paul said, and Isaac took a playfulswing at him as Paul danced out of the way.

“So what exactly does a mentor do?” Samuel asked, finallyfeeling comfortable enough to contribute to the conversation.

“Mostly, they work with you controlling the elements, butthey also run your element training program,” Paul answered. “They meet with you once a week to see howeverything’s going. To see if you’re onthe right track and help you if you’re not. As you can see, Isaac’s mentor’s got his hands full.” Isaac shook his head and rolled hiseyes.

Elijah thought about Saturday when he was supposed to meethis mentor. He wondered what he would belike. There were other questions hewanted to ask Paul and Isaac, but he decided to wait until another day. It was getting much colder outside, andElijah had some reading to do to catch up for Thursday’s class.

Mental training, both his accelerated session and his normalsession, was not nearly as hard as Elijah thought it would be. In fact, he found it to be quite easy. The trainer had him spend the day focusingand concentrating on various things. Hehad to repeat what another student said while the other students were talkingto him at the same time. He had to standon one foot without moving a single muscle for as long as he could remainstationary. Elijah found this to bephysically demanding too, but it mostly took concentration to remainstill. He lasted twenty-one minutes,which was the longest time for any student in their preliminary year. He also had to build puzzles from memory andstack items blindfolded. Mental trainingstarted out fun, but after six hours, Elijah became easily agitated as the workbecame more tedious.

One exercise, however, had the entire school in a buzz aboutElijah when it was over. This exercisewas done blindfolded inside a quiet classroom. The instructor, Master Ismai, a short, stocky man, blindfolded onestudent and lined the rest in front of that student. A frail-looking girl with white-blonde hair,named Rachel, was first to go. Ismaiblindfolded her, stood her about ten feet in front of the other students andthen explained the exercise.

“We are going to work our senses during this exercise,”Ismai instructed. “Most of us overuse our sense of sight. In other words, we rely on our sight forpretty much everything. How will youfunction if I take that sense away?” Theclass, still standing in a line shoulder to shoulder, murmured when he saidthis. Rachel, still blindfolded, lookedabsolutely petrified.

“Today’s exercise is not physically difficult,” Ismaicontinued, “but it will require lots of concentration. I will ask a certain number of students tostep forward. Your job, whileblindfolded, will be to simply tell me how many students have steppedforward. You will need to lose yourdependency on your eyes and use whatever instincts you have to give me thecorrect answer. Let’s see how well youdo.”

After demanding absolute silence, Ismai walked behind theline of students, tapping a few at a time on the shoulder, indicating them tostep forward.

“Okay Rachel,” Ismai said when he was finished, “how manystudents stepped forward?” Rachel took amoment to think.

“Four?” she answered feebly.

“Take off your blindfold,” Ismai instructed. Rachel took off her blindfold and lookedaround. Seven students stood in front ofher. She looked mortified, but Ismaiencouraged her to keep going. After fivetries, she correctly guessed the number of students standing forward. At her success, she was told she could standwith the rest of the students, which she did gratefully.

Most everyone performed about as well as Rachel. Some did much worse. Many were not able to get the right answer atall without major help from Ismai. Onestudent named Gabriel got the first one right, so Ismai gave him another fewchances to exercise his focus. It turnedout, Gabriel took a lucky guess the first time, and he missed the next sixtries.

After almost the entire class had gone, including Samuel whogot zero correct, Elijah finally got his turn. He felt unusually confident in his ability to use his other senses, andsince everyone before him didn’t do well, there was little pressure onhim. The room was completely silent, buthe strained his ears to hear just the slightest sound or movement. The feeling he had was very strange. He couldn’t hear anyone, but he could almostfeel the presence of three students getting closer to him. He even felt like he knew who they were.

“Okay, Elijah,” Master Ismai said. “How many students have stepped forward?”

“Three,” Elijah said swiftly. Ismai didn’t give Elijah the chance to seethe students. He moved quickly to thenext try. After a moment, the questionwas posed to Elijah again. Thenagain. Then again.

“Six. None. Four. Er—twelve?” After close to tentimes of guessing, Ismai stopped and instructed Elijah to take off hisblindfold. Elijah was confused andembarrassed. The other students wereonly asked to guess five or six times at most. Why was he asked to do it so many more? He didn’t even know how well he did. It was as if he was made to show his failure over and over and over infront of everyone. Elijah felt his faceblush with shame as he took off his blindfold. In front of him stood the entire class of fifteen students whose eyeswere as wide as dinner plates. Not aword was spoken for several moments, but the students looked around at eachother incredulously. Elijah sunk intohis place in line completely humiliated.

“Let’s have another,” Ismai said, quickly breaking theawkward silence.

A different atmosphere permeated the remainder of theclass. It was much quieter—almosteerie. After everyone had gone and Ismaigave final words of instruction to work on for the future, the class wasdismissed, but Elijah was asked to stay afterward. Elijah wondered if he had exposed somethingabout himself making it obvious he wasn’t cut out for the Magi after all. Maybe he had been so far off everyone knew hedidn’t have the potential Roddick once thought he had. He sat down before he was asked to. Ismai sat down next to him.

“Elijah Hawk, is it?” he began. Elijah nodded his head, staring at theground. “Can you describe what it is youwere able to hear when you were asked to guess the number of students?” Elijah was not expecting this question, buteven when he thought about it, he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m—I’m not sure I heard anything,” Elijah said. “Why? Did I get any right?”

“Every single one,” said Master Ismai. “You didn’t miss any. I’ve never seen anything like what you didtoday—not even from an older student. Ieven tried to trick you at the end and made students step forward and then stepback. You still got it right.”

Ismai paused as if he expected Elijah to enlighten him onhis ability, but Elijah was still speechless. He felt a little better knowing he didn’t make a fool of himself, but atthe same time, he felt uncomfortable, as if he did too well on the exercise. Ismai smiled at him.

“Not to worry. Infact, I think it’s obvious you have an extraordinary gift. I’m excited to see what you can do withit.” Master Ismai thought for a momentbefore he spoke again. “If you don’tmind, I think I will speak with Mr. Button about this. You’re not in trouble—” he said, noticingElijah’s eyes looking up in concern. “—Ithink we just need to make sure you get the proper training for yourability. Possibly give you a mentor thatwould be more suited to teach someone like you.” Elijah felt like a big bull’s eye wastattooed across his forehead. Someone like you sounded like he was fromanother planet.

When Elijah was dismissed, he went straight up to his roomand locked himself inside. He didn’twant to be stared at, but even through all of the attention, there was a smallpart of him that was impressed with his performance during class. He felt special, but whether that was good orbad, he didn’t yet know.

The rest of the week was not as bad as Elijah feared. He noticed a few stares and some quietgossip, but overall, the students didn’t treat him any differently. Friday’s physical training was very differentthan Monday’s. He thought it was goingto be another day where he abused his body, but it was actually quite fun. Most of the day was spent with the obstaclecourses, using his focus and mental strength in conjunction with his physicalstrength to complete.

Finally, Saturday arrived. It was the perfect scheduled day for element training, he thought. It was at the end of the week, so he was ableto look forward to it, and he had a day off right after, so he could visit withthe Roddicks and tell them all about it. Or, better yet, he could ask for advice if he didn’t do well during thetraining.

All the students who had elemental training on Saturday weretold to report outside the front doors and wait for their mentor to meetthem. The anticipation of this traininghad been growing as the week wore on. Hewaited outside with the others, watching the adult mentors gather theirstudents one by one and walk out into the forests and meadows and fields untilonly he stood alone.

Elijah began to wonder if he had been forgotten. He remembered Master Ismai saying somethingabout needing to replace him a different mentor, but what if he forgot? What if all the other students received theirtraining today and he didn’t? What if noone wanted him because they were afraid of his ‘gift’?

Elijah was about to go in and ask if he had the wrong daywhen he heard a noise behind him. Aroundthe side of the building, Elijah saw an old woman he recognized. She carried a bag around her shoulder andslowly making her way through the snow. It was Olivia Rose, the woman who spoke for Savenridge, telling theMaliphist rider with the yellow eyes they would not give Elijah up—the womanwhose husband was with Elijah’s uncle in the depths of the Maliphistprison. She walked up to Elijah and handedhim the bag she carried.

“I’m sorry I’m late, young man. Would you mind carrying this for me?”