The World Walkers: Siaral: Jason: Wish Magic (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

That was the same, Jason believed, for everyone with the ability to grant wishes. When you heard the pain of some people when they were whispering or screaming their wishes it was hard to make the decision not to grant it, but it was often for the best. No one made wishes at time when they felt they were able to cope with everything that was happening to them – they made wishes at times when their ability to cope with everything life tossed at them had failed and they wanted things to be easier. Learning to make informed decisions even when other people were hurting so badly was something they were all taught at the beginning of their studies, before they even had a mentor, as it was the most important thing for them to learn, although it wasn’t something that all wish mages could cope with. Some wished for their magic to be taken away and those wishes were only granted after a long time spent being counselled by one of more of the other mages.

Jason had been a counsellor more than once. They liked to have a counsellor of the age of the mage who wanted their magic removed as well as a couple of older mages, as it made things easier. He remembered talking more than once about the choices he had made himself, unable to believe he might be able to convince someone to keep their magic, but he had a couple of times. Once that had happened he worked with them both for a few moons, getting them used to the choice that they’d made, and often they found themselves writing more records than they did granting wishes. No one had a problem with that, though, as it was useful having wish mages there who were willing to do that.

Like others with unusual magics they didn’t trust people who weren’t wish mages. They knew that if the fae found out about them the most dangerous race in the Web, even though they were mostly magicless, would do everything they could to eradicate something they would have believed was truly dangerous. Wish magic wasn’t dangerous though. It was the people who could wield it that might be, although that wasn’t something the fae would have taken into consideration, the same way they hadn’t when they decided that the natural Walkers were too dangerous to exist. All that matter to the fae was that the ability was dangerous. Some people had misused it. Those who hadn’t misused it were, unfortunately, tarred with the same brush as those who had, so they ended up having no choice but to leave Athare behind.

During that time the wish mages had been very busy. Jason had read about it in the journals, as the older mages were certain that a time of change was coming, and everyone had learnt to listen to them when they said things like that. If they believed it was coming then it probably was, although they wouldn’t say what sort of changes were coming. That might be because they didn’t know or because they didn’t want to scare people. Certain wishes were being granted that normally wouldn’t be. Others that would have been weren’t. Every decision that was being made was based on a future that might not be coming and that could end up being a mistake, although it never had been before.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.