When Whittle came home that night he was not pleased to see my most recent manifestation.

The wizard’s face grew hard and he slammed the door behind him. “Where did you learn this? Was it from the forbidden texts, boy?”

“I thought of it on my own!”

“Experimentation is worse. You could start a fire or summon something you couldn’t put down-” Whittle stopped and eyed me suspiciously, his hand drifting to his staff. “Where did we meet? What is your most valued posession? What was your father’s name? Answer immediately.”

I didn’t understand why I was being interrogated and answered sullenly. “We met here, in your house, I was trying to steal that stupid statue. My most valued posession is the cracked inkwell that I broke when I first used magic. My father’s name is Jacov, he’s a farmer.”

Whittle relaxed slightly. “You bear watching but your potential is too great to be wasted. If you betray me though, I will bleed every word you’ve ever heard out of your head and leave you in the woods a drooling idiot.”