A Few Colored Beads

It was long in the day, over four months since Vereor Magus had passed the trial and entered the Wizards’ Tower. Now he sat in the library, along with five other pupils who were new to the Tower. They were learning Basic Magic, which had little to do with spells and much to do with the kingdoms, peoples, and magical items of Gielinor. As they were only Novices, they wore only the bright blue robes of the Wizards’s Tower. The pointed, strange looking hats were reserved for Apprentices and above.

The Daccis, the Novice Tutor, paced across the classroom, glaring at each student under his thick, dark eyebrows. Each student was hard at work studying from a huge book titled ’’Gielinor Glossary, IV, Letter I’’. Each student, except for Vereor. Vereor leaned back in his chair, his gaze down at the floor. Though there were three tables lined up in a column, where two students could sit comfortably, he had a table to himself. None of the other students liked his cold, prideful manner.

Daccis stopped at Vereor’s table, Vereor’s book wasn’t even open.

“Vereor Magus. I assume you already know today’s lesson?” Daccis said, eyes flashing dangerously. None of the other students dared to mess around, Daccis was prone to giving long, repeating speeches and inflicting horrible punishments. Daccis glared at Vereor’s unkempt medium-length white hair, he could never live with such unorderly manner.

Vereor looked up after a moment, a moment in which Daccis’s sour mood turned even worse. “Yes… master,” Verus said, mockingly emphasizing the word master. One of the other students gasped, Daccis had been rumored to have had a student tortured for mocking him.

Today, however, Daccis decided to make an example of Vereor. “Very well then! If you would be so kind, tell me the habitats of the Imps, along with the name of the Elven Forest on the westernmost edge of known Gielinor.” Daccis sneered down at Vereor, who responded with a quiet glare.

Vereor then stood up, blue robes rustling. All of the students in the room turned and started at Vereor. Any of the other students would have died of embarrassment right then and there.

Vereor spoke, sneering the entire time. “The Imps can be found in and around Falador, north of Yanille, in and around Varrock, at the Volcano in Karamja, and at the Monastery, to name a few. But there has been a recent outbreak of Imps south of Draynor Village. And the name of the Elven Forest is Isafdar.”

The room went quiet. Daccis’s face grew bright red. “That was…very.. very.. Impressive.” The way he said impressive may have been either a compliment or a curse. “Congratulations.. You have graduated from Basic Magic. Your Master shall be Grayzag, report to him tomorrow morning.”

All of the novices in the room gasped. Grayzag was a terror for the novices. Each novice dreaded being assigned as the apprentice of Grayzag, for he almost always tortured them and then sent them back to start Basic Magic all over again. This was Daccis’s ultimate punishment.

Vereor only nodded and sneered at Daccis, “Yes, Master Daccis.”

Vereor climbed up the final steps of the long high staircase, his breath coming in hard gulps. He stopped a moment before entering the door, attempting to gather his strength so that he wouldn’t look like a wretch when he came in to meet his new, and supposedly dark, Master.

After finally regaining his breath, he opened the door with one skeletal, white hand. The door opened, revealing a barely lit hallway. There was one window on the opposite side of the hallway, the southern side. The eastern side of the hall was decorated with symbols of Saradomin, with one door and a large golden Saradomin Symbol. The western side was decorated with mysterious symbols on red walls. The door was darker than the other door, with the same mysterious symbol. The darker side must be Grayzag’s, Vereor thought.

Vereor strode confidently across the stone floor, and put one hand on the doorknob. When he did, the door launched open, and Vereor was roughly grabbed and thrown inside. The room was completely dark, the door only illuminating a few dark-grey stones on the floor. Then the door shut and Vereor was in complete darkness.

Vereor gripped his staff harder with his left hand, splinters digging into his hand. He reached with his right into his right pocket, gripping his Wind Strike runes. From the darkness, a whispering, echoing voice called out, “Vereor Magus? Correct?”

Vereor’s hands whitened as he squeezed his staff and his runes, “Yes. I am Vereor Magus.” He couldn’t tell where the voice came from, it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

The voice whispered once again, “The Master is in the next room.” Then, the room grew bright, so bright that Vereor was forced to shield his eyes for a few minutes. When he was able to see, Vereor looked around the room, it was filled with various spell components on long wooden tables. Staffs were on a rack in one corner, a heap of runes were stacked in another, and rows upon rows of potions were scattered around the room. A single bookshelf, upon which many red spellbooks rested, was in a shadowy corner of the room.

There were two doors, but one was shadowy, with darkness actually seeping from under the door. Vereor shuddered a moment, considering what may be inside, and then opted for the other door. It opened with a touch, but this time not flying open and thrusting him forward.

Inside, Grayzag, dressed in red and black robes with a black wizard‘s hat resting on his long black hair, sat reading a book to himself. The room was large, but half of the room was filled with a great steel cage. The room was plain, with one table and two chairs, one occupied by Grayzag, and a huge iron cell in which a Lesser Demon roared in anger. It was amazing that Vereor had heard nothing from the other room.

The room was lit by a few candles on Grayzag’s side and a flaming torch on the Demon’s side, there were no windows. Grayzag mumbled the words from the book, apparently going over the words to himself. He did not even act as if he noticed Vereor as Vereor walked across the room, leaned his staff against the wall, and sat in the other chair, staring down at Grayzag’s book.

Grayzag, still ignoring Vereor, got to his feet and unceremoniously launched a wave of fire at the Lesser Demon, killing it in one blow. Grayzag then raised one strong fist, and the demon glowed. In seconds, it was back on its feet without a single wound.

Then, with Vereor back on his feet and completely awed, Grayzag, with his terrible burning black eyes, turned to him. Grayzag looked Vereor up and down, assessing his physical and magical abilities. Vereor looked frail, and by his stance was not a powerful mage. Vereor looked evil; deep red eyes and terrible white hair. Grayzag considered this a good thing, usually those like that were out to prove themselves and did much better than others.

Grayzag then turned once again, depositing the book on the table. “Welcome to my Experimenting Room. If you pass my test, you will spend a great deal of time in here when we are in the Wizards‘ Tower. I do not enjoy apprentices, teaching you pathetic slime bores me. If you pass the test, we won’t be hanging around here while you slowly attempt to learn magic with books. We will be traveling around, doing my errands, fighting dangerous foes.”

Grayzag paused, wanting to know what effect his speech had. Vereor only glared at Grayzag in defiance before nodding.

Grayzag himself nodded. “Very well. I have one test for you.” Grayzag waved his hand, a wand appearing in his hand magically. “As you must know, there is a large number of Imps that have just appeared north of the Wizards’ Tower. They are mine, on a errand, that have gone rogue. I sent them to… get some magical beads. They were on the way back to give them to me, when they suddenly turned rogue, as Imps do, and rushed off north of the Wizards’ Tower. Go out, kill them, and bring me back the Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, and White beads.”

Vereor was just about to nod, when Grayzag waved his wand. Vereor suddenly appeared at the front entrance to the Wizards’ Tower. Vereor shook his head in anger at the dismissal, and then turned and stomped down the bridge.

The noon sun beat down on Vereor’s pale neck. He realized he hadn’t been outside since he joined the Wizards’ Tower. He wiped his head with one now-sweaty sleeve as he searched among the trees for perhaps the hundredth time.

The Imps were tricksters. When Vereor found them, they lead him on a terrible run through the forest, and when they were cornered, they simply disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Vereor promised himself that wouldn’t happen this time.

He crept quietly around a tree, his staff ready for when he saw the imp, for by the sounds reaching Vereor’s ears from around the trunk, it was hiding right behind it. He came around the tree, and the Imp bolted, running the other way.

Vereor snarled and launched a Wind Strike, which hit the Imp in the back so hard that it flew forward another ten feet and was turned into ashes. It all blew away, except for a red bead that fell down to the ground. Vereor snatched it up, placing it deep into his pocket, next to the yellow, black, and red ones he had gotten earlier in the day.

Vereor, hearing a rustle behind him, quickly turned around, the runes for the Wind Strike spell in his hand. An Imp rushed by, smiling in glee as it ran for cover in the bushes. But Vereor blasted him, knocking him flipping through the air before he faded to ashes. This Imp dropped no bead.

Vereor shook his head, he was unable to find the Blue bead, anywhere. He had at least seen the Red bead before he managed to kill the imp that held it. Shaking his head, resolved to find the Blue bead, he returned to his tracking and killing.

The moon starting to get higher in the sky, the horrible heat of the day had changed in favor of a horrible chill that Vereor’s robes did little to stop. Vereor ignored it though, as he killed his hundredth Imp, coming up, once again, with no beads.

Vereor’s face took on horrible look of rage. He still had been unable to find the Blue bead. His chest fell, his rage passed. He looked around, at his darkening surroundings. It would be foolish to attempt to catch the imps now, they would just disappear into the shadows, their superior eyes finding paths that humans couldn’t see.

Then, just as Vereor was about to go back and report his failure to Grayzag, a figure stepped out of the shadows. The figure was dressed head to toe in black robes, with a black, concealing hood. “You… trying to complete Grayzag’s Test?”

Vereor glared at the figure, “Yes.”

“Well then. I have, over my time, collected every type of bead. Name what you are missing, and I can give it to you.”

“What do you want for it?”

“I want only for you to remember that you owe me, so that when you someday become a great mage, you may do me some small service.”

Vereor thought to himself for a moment, leaning exhaustedly on his staff. “No. I will not take your bead.”

The figure nodded. “Very well.” Then the figure disappeared up into the sky as he teleported.

Vereor shook his head once again, he had probably just given up his chance to become an apprentice, all because his pride demanded that he collect the bead himself.

Vereor walked into Grayzag’s room, the and the door closed itself behind him. Grayzag stood opposite him in the room, looking dark and terrible in the small light provided by a few small candles.

Grayzag glared at Vereor, Vereor met his glare, and asked, “Do you have all of the beads?”

Vereor shook his head, but did not let go of his glare. He reached into his pocket, and grabbed out his four beads. He held them out for Grayzag to inspect.

Grayzag shook his head, “You realize that you do not have the Blue bead?”

Vereor nodded. “The Imp in possession of it must have hidden himself very well.”

Grayzag’s eyes flashed. “Then you know what this means?”

Vereor nodded once again.

Grayzag’s eyes softened just a little bit, but still held their dangerous edge. “You have passed the test. The Blue bead doesn’t exist. I’ve made a new room for you at the southern end.”