"I have something to say" Chaim announced the morning after we turned Joe off. "The lessons will not continue as usual until we solve two mysteries. The first one is how to get rid of the curse in Oliver's blood. If we wait any longer, it will start affecting him. The second one is more philosophical and it's harder to understand. We might never find out the truth, but it's still worth to do some research on the matter. Basically, all the legends who talk about the Lion Stone are very clear in the fact that it cannot be stolen - people have disappeared because of that. However, Oliver has stolen it from the Blooms and nothing bad has happened to him. I mean, he lost his memory but not completely and he was restored by a simple potion. We have to find out why, if we can".
"Why do we have to?" Jimmy complained. "Let's just be happy that the Stone belongs to us now. It is one of a kind and it's also the ingredient of many cool potions, like the one we used to clear Joe".
"We have to because it's fishy" Vits explained. "And, in magic, when something that shouldn't be happening happens it's the proof that there's something wrong and dark involved". His voice got sad. "And you always pay for the dark things that you do".
Thea was looking at me with something that resembled disappointment in her eyes. I knew what she was thinking. She had no family left in the world and I was the person that she cherished the most. However, she feared he was going to lose me because my reckless behavior was either going to cost me my life or get me in trouble with dark magic.
I spoke up. "I know you are all asking yourselves why I had to steal the Stone and risk my life, when I could have simply asked for it. The reason is that I knew that the Blooms wouldn't give it to me and I didn't want to let anyone down".
"You could have disappeared. You should listen to what Chaim tells you to do. If you couldn't retrieve it, we would have thought of something else" Thea snapped back.
"It's my fault" Chaim said. "I should have known that Oliver is too reckless to be trusted with a mission like that. Many other wizards have tried to steal it during the centuries because they didn't fully believe in the legends. And they were trained, not just apprentices".
"The reason that I knew that I could take it" I explained, "was that I had suddenly remembered that I used to play with it when I was a child. So, if it didn't erase my memory then, why should it now?"
"That's even stranger" Vits said. "Besides, only you could play with the Lion Stone and get away with it! Nevermind, there must be some kind of explanation...maybe it didn't count as stealing it from the Blooms, as long as you lived with them".
Thea raised her hand, eager to solve the case. "You said that the former owner can decide to give it to someone as a gift. What if, knowing that they were left without heirs, they didn't know who should be worthy of keeping it. So, they found a way, perhaps through a spell, to give it to the next skilled magician who would touch it. That would explain why the Blooms weren't the owners, as they are not skilled in magic".
"That's tricky" Chaim said. "What if the next magician who took it was a dark wizard? Not that long ago, it used to belong to one of the greatest dark wizards who ever lived. He used its power to reign over the other sorcerers, filling the Kingdoms with terror".
"Maybe he was the last owner" Thea said. "And that's why he didn't care whether the wizard who found it would be a good one or not".
"That's unlikely" Vits said. "That wizard would not let fate decide who should inherit his possessions. The Stone has probably had many other owners in the last few years. Maybe one of them was very naive and they lost it, dropping it somewhere. Perhaps that's why Oliver could take it, even though I guess that the ownership would still have some kind of value over an artifact like that".
"What if the person who inherited it didn't want it?" I said. I was thinking about the dark wizard. If the Stone was so powerful that it could destroy so many lives, I wasn't sure I wanted it.
"That's interesting" Chaim said. "Perhaps they would have given it to somebody else, somebody who doesn't know how magic worked and wouldn't try to use it. The Blooms".
"But then, if the Blooms are the owners, Oliver stole it and we need to think it through all over again" Saba complained.
"Thea may be right about the fact that the Blooms are not sorcerers, so they don't count as owners" Vits said. "The Lion Stone is called like that because, according to the legends, it was gifted to the first magicians of our people from the lion of the forest Ilai. Since it was a gift for people who practiced magic, maybe those who don't are not meant to own the Stone".
"So Oliver is the new owner?" Jimmy asked. "You are very lucky, considering that all the other people who stole it have disappeared".
"I guess that he is", Chaim conceded. "However, this doesn't explain why the Stone caused him a temporary memory loss. While it's true that what has happened to Oliver is nowhere near as dangerous as what has happened to others in the past, the reason behind the spell is still not very clear".
"I remember that you told me that the Stone might still carry fragments of the last spell that it was used for" I said. "So, perhaps, that was the reason why I lost my memory when I touched it".
"I don't know" Vits said, "you told us that you used to play with the Stone when you were little, so why has it never happened to you before? Unless it has. Do you remember anything about it?"
"This might sound strange" I replied, "but, at this point in my life, what doesn't? I seem to remember that whenever I carried around the Stone I would forget little things about my every day life, but when I didn't have it with me, it was even harder to remember about its existence. That's why I have never told you about it before Chaim showed it to me in a book".
"It's got to have something to do with the fragments of the last spell it was used for", Saba said, "because now that we have used it to get rid of Oliver's cursed blood in Joe, the effects on Oliver are not the same".
It was true, now I could touch it without forgetting anything and I could think about it without causing my memories to blur in my head.
"Okay" Vits said. "Let's solve the first mystery by saying that for some strange reason Oliver is now the new owner of the Stone. I wish that it made more sense, but maybe it will, one day".
"Let's concentrate our energies on finding a way to get rid of the course in Oliver's blood" Chaim agreed, even though I could tell that he was more bothered than he let on by the fact that we couldn't find out why I was supposedly the owner of the Stone.
"Do you remember the book where I found the potion to restore Joe back to normal?" Saba asked. "It said something about how to clear someone's blood from a curse. I can bring it here and read the important bits to you".
"Sure" Chaim agreed.
Saba went to the library and came back with the book. She started reading:
If your blood has been cursed, you should try to remove the curse as soon as you can. Please follow this procedure only if you are certain that your blood has been really cursed. If you are, read the steps below.
STEP ONE - Find out who did it.
Only very powerful sorcerers who practice dark magic are strong and deviated enough to be able to curse somebody else's blood. Since luckily there are not many of them in the world, you should be able to find out whoever did this to you by asking yourself simple questions: do you personally know any dark magician? Is there a specific reason why one would want to hurt you? If you don't, is it possible that one of your enemies sought out a dark magician and paid him to curse your blood?
The easiest way to get rid of a curse like this is to kill the person who put the spell on you. Once a sorcerer dies, a lot of his spells die with him, including curses.
If you cannot find out who did it, proceed to step two.
STEP TWO - Purify yourself.
You will need to start a journey of healing and you will need to be pure along the way.
He then proceeded to list some activities that I shouldn't be doing, like using addictive substances.
STEP THREE - Learn the spells.
Every day for six months, draw your blood with a syringe. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. Learn the words of the spell that you can find below and say it out loud. Keep the blood that you took in a vial.
On the Saturdays, do not repeat the procedure. Use a sterile syringe and inject your blood back in.
Saba stopped reading. "I think that's it!" she said excitedly.
"Wow, compared to what I thought it was going to be, this sounds like a piece of cake!" Thea said.
"Really?" I muttered. "Six months of drawing my blood out and pumping it back in?"
She had the decency to blush. "I meant, I thought it was going to be more academically challenging".
"Oliver is right, it's not going to be easy" said Chaim. "Especially with his tendency to break the rules. That's why I want to be there each time he's supposed to take the blood out or put it back in, so he can't forget it or play any joke on us".
"That's hardly fair", I muttered. "I don't even have the relief of addictive substances to get me through".
"I think it's nice that we know what we have to do" Thea said shyly. "I can't wait until your blood is clear again".
James looked thoughtful. "Am I the only one who's wondering why Oliver's blood is cursed? I mean, he has no sworn enemy that we know of, especially not dark sorcerers or anybody related to them".
"Maybe the cure can make us figure out more things" Vits said. "Sometimes, when a spell falls apart, you begin to be able to tell how it was put together in the first place".
"Great job guys!" Chaim said. "You almost solved two mysteries today. You should get a reward and I have an idea - would you like to go out and get something to eat? We haven't been to town in a while".
We were all very happy, especially because we loved going out, which was something not so ordinary for us.
I couldn't help but look at Chaim, though. He looked tired and concerned, even though he was trying to hide it.
Vits was looking at me in a strange way and I thought I knew why.
The two mysteries that we had tried to solve today had one thing in common and it was me.
I was just a rebellious boy who had been working in a bakery for most of his life and who used to live with people who knew absolutely nothing of magic.
I wasn't the smartest or the most gifted of their students by far.
I was only the one who always managed to attract the most attention.
But I was pretty normal, all things considered, and I always had been.
Or so I thought.
So why was I the owner of one of the most powerful magical objects in our world, one of a kind? And why was my blood cursed, from the spell of a powerful dark magician that nobody knew anything about?
I really wished I knew the answers to these questions. I would have told Chaim and Vits the truth straightaway. But I didn't.
We were eating steaks and french fries in Groundfort, James' hometown, when I told Chaim.
"You know that I don't know anything about my past, right? If I knew the answers to what you're looking for, I would tell you. I'm not that much of a troublemaker".
"I know that, Oliver" he reassured me. He was about to say something else, perhaps some comforting words, but he had been distracted by something. Or someone.
Vits, who had excused himself to go to the restroom, had suddenly come back and he seemed to be in very high spirits, shouting the whole Golem story for whoever wanted to listen.
"I don't really think..." Chaim muttered to himself. Then he resolved to go to Vits himself.
"I don't think we should be telling anybody" he said, loud enough for Vits to hear.
"Okay, of course" Vits sobered up. "It's just that some sorcerers we know are here and, since we never have anything interesting to share..."
"How many times do I have to tell you? We have always many interesting things to share, but we don't share them because we don't like bragging" Chaim replied, louder this time. I guessed he wanted their friends to hear that.
When Chaim and Vits went back to our table, Vits had a puzzled look on his face.
"Oh dear" he said, after a minute. "I just drank one can of beer but I feel sick. I guess that's what it does to you when you're not used to it. I guess I need to go to the restroom again. Perhaps I need to get it out of my system. Oh my, I think I'm going to puke" he announced, as he bolted to the restroom.
"I think somebody needs to check on him" Jimmy suggested.
Just when Chaim was about to stand up, I stopped him.
"I'd like to go" I said. "You have always been there for me when I was a mess. I actually owe Vits a couple of favors".
I went to the restroom and I found Vits there, sitting on the floor with his head between his hands.
"What happened to puking?" I asked.
"I don't feel that way anymore. However, would you like to stay here and hold my hand for a while? I think it would make me feel better".
I didn't know how it was supposed to work, exactly, but I did.
That's when I found myself daydreaming about something, or so I thought. It took me a while to understand that I was trapped in somebody else's memories and that I needed them to play out for me before I could get out.
My mind reading thing was acting up again. I guess it worked extremely well when I was touching another person, even just a hand, and one of us had let down their defenses. Last time I had been able to see a glimpse of my friends' past because I was unconscious and so my mind had set no boundaries that they couldn't cross. And this time it was Vits' turn. He was drunk enough to doze off and that had started the mind reading reaction inside of me.
I was trapped inside Vits' memories.
He was a young apprentice and he was thinking of ways to avoid doing his homework. Why? Well, there were multiple reasons. First of all, he didn't want to please other people, especially his teacher. And, well, he had no desire to learn. As he was flipping through the pages of the black tome, he couldn't help but shudder - that stuff was messed up but it was interesting. He guessed that he would have loved to study it, if only it didn't make him feel as bad. He would have traded it for any other form of magic. He hadn't been much interested in magic before, especially since he didn't want to believe in the prophecy that had been told about him the day he was born. But he couldn't help feeling a little interest now - first of all, magic wasn't fake, that much he knew. He had seen enough weird stuff happening to know that he should believe in it. And he had met that boy, Saleh Simenon's apprentice. He had a beautiful name, unlike his own, and he got a beautiful prophecy on his birth, even though he had said that it weighted much on his conscience all the same. He couldn't stop thinking about that boy, about his smile, his black hair and black eyes.
He couldn't stop thinking of how he had treated him, like he was worth something.
The truth was, he still didn't care much for magic. But he would have studied it, if only he could have been studying it with him.
There was only a subject in his courses that he really liked and it was shapeshifting. His teacher had told him that he was very gifted in it and that was plain to see ever since he was born: he had been always changing, even if the changes were so small that most people didn't notice them.
Not the boy.
When Vits had gotten angry over something, his eyes had shifted to a greener shade. The boy had looked at him, perplexed, and said "I thought your eyes were blue".
His regular eyes were grey, truthfully and, even when they changed, it wasn't really noticeable. When you met somebody that noticed, you met somebody who payed attention to you.
His thoughts went back to reality fast enough, when he felt somebody hit him. It was his teacher.
"I know you don't want to learn any of the dark arts, but I'm gonna make sure you remember something" he said.
"No, please, Mister Tunks..." he pleaded.
When I woke up, I was in my bed. I got up, in order to eat my breakfast and inquire about what had happened last night.
I found my friends in the library. Chaim and Vits were in the garden and I didn't want to face them just yet.
"What happened last night?" I asked, right after I greeted them.
"You and Vits were both sleeping on the bathroom floor" Thea said. "So we all had to carry you home. Honestly, it was such a nice scene. However, I can't help but wonder why you never get anything done".
She was grinning, which meant that she was joking and she wasn't really mad at me. Still, I couldn't play along. I had more important things to tell them.
"Guys" I said. "Do you remember the diary we have read? It wasn't Chaim's. It was Vits'".
I told them the whole story.
Before I could hear their opinions about it, however, Chaim ran in the library.
"Oliver, you have mail! And the postman said it was urgent".
"Who could be writing to me?" I said. The last time I had received mail, it had been from my uncle, who had tried to kill me and was now dead.
"Read it and we'll find out" Jimmy replied.
I opened the envelope and started reading the letter.
Dear Oliver,
I have heard about your adventure with your Golem, Joe. I for one think it's very impressive that a young apprentice such as yourself could create a functioning Golem. I think that you should deserve more praise for your talent. Let me tell you about me. I am an old and powerful sorcerer whose name is Amos. I have been looking for apprentices, but since I am old and often tired, I never found one, for I cannot spend much time with them and they are not able to learn the trade on their own.
You, however, are extremely gifted and you showed promise on the Golem task, a task which you have embarked on on your own.
You may wonder how I have heard about you. Last night, when one of your teachers told everybody your story, I couldn't help but eavesdrop. Well, it wasn't that hard, really.
I have written to you this letter and I hope it finds you as quickly as possible (I told the postman to hurry because it was very urgent) because in two days I have to travel back to my home, which is very far away and I would like to ask you to join me and become my student.
If you are wondering how come I found out your address, I happen to know where two sorcerers as powerful as Chaim and Vits live.
I hope you won't think it's weird, but I'd like to tell you that, thanks to my powers, I know that you are looking for some answers and I believe that I can either give them to you if I happen to know them, or we can find out together.
I hope that you seriously consider joining me as my student in the land of Bashan.
Yours truly,
Amos
"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard" Jimmy said.
I was a little offended, after all that sorcerer had praised my talent.
"Oliver, would you like to be his student?" Chaim asked me.
"Of course he wouldn't" Thea replied. "He doesn't know anything about that guy and what about all the lessons he would be missing here? What about all the friends he would be leaving?"
She teared up a little on the last question.
While I could see where she was coming from, a part of me couldn't help but think of what the sorcerer had promised me in the letter. Freedom, praise, adventure and all the answers to my questions.
But then again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't.
I would stay here, where I belonged, of course. But some things needed to change and since I had been getting much better and much more interesting lately, I figured Chaim and Vits wouldn't want to lose me to some other sorcerer.
So I had leverage.
"I will stay here with you" I told Chaim. "But I have two conditions".
Thea looked at me reproachfully like she couldn't understand what more could I want, since I already had friends, magical powers and people who were fighting over me.
But curiosity was my special trait, like Chaim had told me.
I needed answers.
"The first condition is this -- from now on, you and Vits will tell us everything you think we should know about the War and the role you played in it, including if you knew any of our parents and what happened to them. The second condition is, I have already made my choice. But still, I want to know what I'm missing out on. So, I want to go to the land of Bashan. But I want all of you to come with me. We can learn new things along the way and meet this sorcerer in person. Maybe he really has the answers to some questions and, if he does, I want to know them".
Chaim smiled. "I think you are right about this, Oliver. It's past time that Vits and I tell you everything you should know. We will, starting from today. As for the journey to Bashan, it's going to be a very long and difficult one. But we will all make it, we will learn a great deal from it".
"Wow, Oliver" Thea told me grinning. "That was clever".
"I try to learn from the best" I replied.
"I better go to Vits and fill him in" Chaim said. "I think he'd like to know, especially since Oliver has just organized a long journey for all of us".
I decided that I would tell Vits about my vision. Normally, I never know if people should know. I mean, I try to respect their privacy. But in this case, it was different. He had studied the dark arts and, even though I knew he wasn't a fan, I needed to hear his side of the story. That was too much hanging in the balance.
After all, a dark wizard very close to me had cursed my blood.
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