Golden Era

  Chapter 8- The observatory

  The observatory had been here since he was born. Sitting atop the top of the island at it's highest peak, looking at the stars from below and looking down on the world from above.

  Beast had neve looked through it's giant lenses. Never seen the stars or looked at the suns.

  The door opened with touch.

  Beast walked through the large halls of white marble with wide eyes. This was the place he was going to be learning Magyk, he thought with a look around.

  The gold trim on the walls, the large runes painting the floor, and the large open ceiling above with a telescope lodged between its windows.

  It was a grand sight, he thought. Using the word majestic tentatively in his mind due to its lack of use. All the time spent on the island and never had he seen anything he would consider that before.

  This was an exception.

  He continued on from the large open space and continued walking straight, until he found a large oak door.

  He gave the door two sharp knocks and waited for a second when he heard the voice ring loudly on the other side.

  "Come in!!"

  He opened the door.

  His mother sat cross legged upon a large cushion. Her eyes glowed and a ring of gold in her eyes twisted like the gears of a clock.

  Around her books floated and papers stood on their sides and waddled from one direction to the next. Small tendrils of red and green latched unto the objects and had them move to and fro. Like a puppeteer of paper.

  Best watched as the piles of papers and books began to walk themselves to thier respective bookshelves and the papers face themselves a staple, before settling on the desk.

  The room finally lay still and his mother's eyes fell back to their normal brown. She stood up with one smooth motion and was across the room wrapping the boy in a hug.

  "Beast. My boy. You've finally visited your mother at work. I'm so glad. " She retreated and looked down with a gaze of pride.

  "You've finally made it through the barrier. That is good. It means you are ready. "

  Beast nodded. His mind remembering the barrier she had left outside. The reason he had turned seven before steeping unto the marble halls.

  The damn barrier.

  (----

  Beast had sat underneath the damn barrier for half a year before being able to enter. Even with his newfound ability to see haze, he realized he had a drastic weakness.

  He wasn't very smart.

  He had thought himself so, when his mother had begun to teach him letters and digits.

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  But when he encountered the barrier his mother had deemed to be simple, he had been stumped.

  The barrier in question seemed simple enough. He had walked toward it's start, A small slip of paper atop a tree, when it had all began.

  He had walked past the tree, his eyes of haze open and his sense prepared for any funny business. None had happened though and yet just when the observatory was in sight, he had ended up back in front of the tree.

  He scratched his head and started anew. This time dropping small pebbles he found in the ground to keep his way. The result was ending up at a tree on the other side of the island.

  Beast had thrown his head back and looked for a Slayer saying for his situation and settled with Slayers never give up before beginning again.

  So on and so on the days went by. Until he had exhausted every possible out come that he could think of. He had sat at the tree, his sense of direction broken beyond belief and wrestled with the feeling of giving up, before deciding to take a different approach.

  He sat and began to recall the paths he went, every turn and every twist. With his eyed closed he sat, rolling every memory in his haze induced brain. It was then he began to see a pattern. As he picked up memories and layed them atop each other he began to see something odd.

  The paths didn't match. One crossed there and one didn't there. One made a turn that the other didn't abide by. Small things that he would normally miss, but now with his mind fully upon them seemed to make sense.

  He lined up the paths in his mind again. One by one hovering a path atop the other. Taking one path and then searching his mind for the other.

  There he thought, and like a riddle being solved merged the paths together, a new way opening up.

  It was luck that out of the rough hundred or so paths he had taken that some of the first had lined up, but he had a feeling the next few wouldn't be so easy.

  So he took upon a mental feat.

  With all hundred paths hovering in his mind, now 99 due to the first merge, he began numbering them and slowly twisting them together.

  It was slow work finding a path that matched. Very slow work, that found him having to go home and rest before trying again the next day.

  Yet he had finished. Six months later.

  With all that in mind.

  The boy looked up at his mother, the exhaustion of remembering turning and clicking the paths still in his mind as she looked down at him her face beaming with pride.

  "It means you are ready. " She spoke.

  Beast scratched his head. He wasn't too sure about that

  (++++

  Beast mother laughed at his expression.

  "Magyk is hard is it not. " She asked.

  The boy nodded his head a grave look on his face.

  "It's hard. " He said solemnly.

  Anna looked upon her son and stifled a laugh. The first phase of Magyk was indeed difficult and she had chosen the more tiring pieces of Magyk to get him accustomed to.

  The path of a hundred wrong ways was an excellent choice to test a young mage on their mental balance and aptitude as well as their brains elasticity and fortitude.

  Many young mages struggled with it still, even with years of training, never achieving thier foundation.

  Yet Her son had solved it in only six months a feat that left her overcome with joy. Like mother like son she thought.

  She coughed and brought herself back from remembrance.

  Consoling her son with a pat on the head.

  "What you solved." She began. "Was a piece of Magyk called foundation. It is one of the hardest branches of Magyk that can be taught and it is a prerequisite for many of the more advanced branches.

  Beast rose his hand.

  She nodded.

  "Pre- requiset. " He questioned.

  "A requirement. " She answered explaining the word.

  "It is a prerequisite to nearly all advanced Magyk or even most learned Magyk as well. This is because Magyk for the most part can't be taught with words or pictures. " She began to gather her haze together. Gold haze pouring off her body and filling the room.

  "It must be shown. "

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