Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

Raising his eyes then his head, the magician straightened out his shoulders, looking the carpenter square in the face. “Because. Your child is dangerous.”

Aunty Bakerswife lifted her head, turning to look back with renewed strength, yet she did not speak.

“How do you figure that?” the carpenter replied, waiting with a glance towards his wife.

“Because your child performed several kinds of magic earlier this month without a proper magic spell. In fact, your midwife tells me that he used a very powerful summoning spell just earlier today,” the magician said. “Do you deny it?”

Pausing just a moment, looking into the eyes of all the family watching him and his children and wife, the carpenter said, “I do not.”

They drew in a gasp together. Already the whispers rumbled in the yard. Scandalous. Terrible. Dangerous. But those at the fence merely whispered and waited.

“The child must be killed,” the magician said. He waved over to the doctor, beckoning him to bring the baby over. “It must be killed now before it is too late.”

“No!” the carpenter’s wife jumped at once, reaching out for her baby.

Their four children also sprang from their seats, but they did not move much farther.

The doctor did not need anyone to stop him. He merely blinked then looked back at the carpenter. “Is this true? Your newborn can perform magic?”

The carpenter inspected the doctor’s face for a moment then slowly nodded his head. “I saw it myself.”

“And no spell, since he is only a newborn,” the doctor murmured aloud.

“Give it to me,” the magician said again.

“I don’t think so.” The doctor affectionately cradled the child in his arms, inspecting his face. “No, I don’t think so at all. This child is special.”

The carpenter’s wife burst into tears, leaning with relief against her husband’s shoulder. The children grinned at one another in the yard, looking more pleased to accept their new brother into their family.

But the magician stomped over the dirt yard, reaching out for the child. “You have to kill it. It is a demon.”

The doctor pulled back, blocking the magician with his own body. “No. This child is a wizard.”

Everyone paused.

“A what?” the carpenter asked, pushing his own way between the magician and the doctor, leading his wife close under his arm.

Grinning, the doctor nodded and then gazed over at the people. He lifted up the baby and declared, “Attention people of Lumen Village! A wizard of Jatte has been born!”

The commotion at the naming ceremony was not over when the doctor had made his declaration. The magician still demanded that the carpenter’s child should die, though he stopped claiming it was demon. In the end, while their extended family feasted in celebration of a new and extra special child being born to their clan, the carpenter and his wife had to take their newborn son to the village elders, leaving their other children behind to wait on their family.

The doctor and the magician continued to bicker all the way down the road to the governing hall about the issue, and they bickered even louder inside the hall, but it really was a lost cause. The doctor had better rapport with the village elders than the magician had.

“So he is a wizard?” the oldest of the elders said, reaching out to hold the baby himself.

His mother reluctantly gave him up, knowing she and her husband were waiting on the good graces of these men for her child’s safety.

“That is correct, your eminence,” the doctor said with a nod.

The other elderly men reached out to touch the baby, their wrinkled and splotchy hands caressing the innocent’s soft looking skin, and peering into his wide dark eyes. Many of them smiled.

“But wizard children can be dangerous,” the magician said, practically stamping his foot.

They barely even looked at him, still cooing over the baby, tickling his toes and trying to see if they could make the boy smile. He had a couple times, reaching out for their beards. Wisps of the hair on their faces pulled towards him, and they laughed when they realized that it was magic that was doing it.

“You can’t seriously be considering letting a thing like that live,” the magician persisted.

One of them turned to him with a cold eye. “A thing? It is a baby. For that matter, it is the first wizard I have seen in over twenty years.”

“I saw one in Jattereen City,” one of the elders offered, making faces at the baby by waggling his tongue from his open mouth. “Quite an amiable fellow.”

They did not pay attention to the magician’s growing frown. His lips dug down deeper into his jaw like it would fix there permanently, a garish walking gargoyle not yet quite propped on the roof as he should have been.

“Are you going to do nothing about this?” he at last asked.

The carpenter and his wife both looked at the magician, pulling close together as they realized the degree this man truly disliked their newborn son.

“Besides give him our blessing? No. And neither should you,” the oldest if the elders said. He lifted the baby up with a laugh and added. “A wizard is a boon that will help our community, as long as he is raised properly.”

“And you think that carpenter can accomplish this?” the magician asked, casting the carpenter a disdainful glare.

Without even a look to the carpenter, the elder lowered the boy then swept him up again. His mother reached out, her anxiety growing as she watched her boy’s eyes grow wide as he went higher.

“Of course.” The village elder swept the baby up once more only this time he heard a small burp. He lowered the baby down just in time before it spat up on the sleeve of his robes. Reacting with a disgusted face, he handed the child at last to his mother who cradled him close to her checking to make sure her boy hadn’t gotten sick. “Everyone knows the carpenter is a competent father. All four of his children are well behaved.”

The carpenter humbly bowed his head, taking a small step back. “Thank you, sirs.”

The village elders smiled warmly. Each one bowed his head, patting the baby’s fuzzy top one last time before settling with more decorum into their seats again. The eldest nodded to the carpenter and his wife waving towards the door. “You are free to go.”

“Just don’t forget to register him when he is eight,” one of the elders said. “We all expect to be invited to his childhood ceremony.”

“And to his budding ceremony,” another added, grinning at the baby and wiggling a finger like a doting grandfather.

“And to his adulthood ceremony,” yet another said.

All of them beamed proudly as if it were because of them such a unique child had been born into their world. The magician could not mask his disgust, glancing at the village doctor who at least smiled at his own success and not at a presumed one. The magician looked hard at the parents then drew in a breath before exhaling with resignation.

“Fine,” The magician said. “But beware. Once trouble starts, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He did not stay to explain what he meant. Tossing about his head with a sanctimonious air, he stalked away. All who watched him felt somewhat sick, wondering if it was a spell that he had cast or merely his self-righteous personality that had done it.

“He may be trouble.” The doctor at last broke his silence. 

The carpenter nodded in agreement. One knew not to meddle with a magician. Almost every town had one or at least had one that lived near by. They were useful when dealing with drought or demons or the occasional natural disaster, often handy at finding things that were lost, repairing things that could not be thrown out without paying a large cost, and skilled in book learning that surpassed most common folk. However, they were also famous for prideful tempers and contempt for dabbling common folk. The difference between a magician and a wizard was plain. A magician learned magic as part of his livelihood. It was his career. However, a wizard was just born that way; his career usually chose him.

That was something the carpenter pondered as he and his wife walked back down to their home to join in the festivities where they rightfully deserved to be. Was this son destined not to follow in his footsteps? Would only three of his sons take after him in his trade? He had hoped for more sons, in fact, several Carpentersons to take up his trade to leave a lasting legacy. He was his father’s second and lastborn son, and he often heard his father bemoan his lack of virility in bearing sons. If he were alive that day he would have been proud to see his son’s posterity. Still, the carpenter could hear his father’s voice say in his mind: three is good; four would have been better.

“A wizard,” his wife murmured.

Glancing at her and then his newborn son as she cradled him to her chest, the baby’s eyes already closed, his mouth smacking as if seeking to suck. The carpenter looked again at her face.

“I knew he was special, but a wizard?” she said again.

“Indeed.”

His wife looked up at him. “I don’t want him raised as a wizard.”

A weak smile came onto his lips as he said, “That will not be a problem, since I am no wizard. I can only teach him to be a carpenter.”

To that, she smiled. “Yes, do. I like that.”

They walked near the end of the lane already reaching the fence where their friends and family greeted them. Alania set down her food tray and ran over to join them. Her brothers did the same, dropping what they had been eating though the youngest carried his food with him. They gazed up with growing smiles of awe when they saw that their parents had returned still holding their new brother who remained quite well and alive.

By the time the stars had come out and the oil in the lanterns had long since been used up, the carpenter’s family settled for bed, bidding their parents a good night. Husband now with wife in their room again, new baby in the finely crafted cradle at the side with the cooing newborn rocked by a gentle hand, they greeted each child and pecked them on the cheek. However, none of them left the room, still peering at their new family member with some awe. They all seemed to have the same question. Dalance nudged Kinnerlin to ask. Kinnerlin had all the appearance of innocence that the others lacked.

“Daddy? What is a wizard?”

The carpenter chuckled, nodding as he reached out to his children. “That is a question many have asked. I don’t know exactly myself.”

“Is it just that he can do magic?” Alania asked, climbing onto the edge of their parents’ bed.

Shaking his head slightly, the carpenter said, “Some say a wizard is a person who can reach out into the air and make the air do things for them. Others say they can touch the earth and command it to move for them.”

“Really?” Dalance said, also climbing