Apprentice, an excerpt

Cali sat at the table outside the coffee shop. Max sat across from her looking anxious. She sipped calmly at an espresso as she watched the traffic from the street speed by in either direction. She didn’t have to be anxious, she wasn’t the one being insulted and neglected. Max was a good wizard. He had exceptional control and poise. He had the experience necessary to do his job effectively, if only his ward would let him.

                “Madame, please!” he almost shouted.

                She turned an innocent eye on him, “I really don’t see what you want me to do, Maximus.” She set down her little cup of liquid acid. He was really taking the whole thing too personally. The family was simply concerned for the safety of their child.

                “Madame they defy me at every turn, they refuse to let me do my work. Whenever I try to train the child they interfere, there is nothing I can do with their constant interruption.”

                He was really being quite childish. The young girl whom was in his care was really just as frightened as her over protective family was, it wasn’t necessarily that he was doing poorly it was just that they were unfamiliar with his ways. “I still don’t see how that has anything to do with me.”

                He shifted under his nervous anguish, “Madame I wish for you to suppress the family.”

                Suppress? He wished for her to do the unthinkable. There was no situation so extreme as to need her to take away powers.

                “You ask too much Maximus, I will not do this thing you ask.” There was simply no reason. Max tried to cut in but she stifled him with the weight of her gaze. “Perhaps you should look more closely at yourself Maximus. What in your past might make a family terrified for their venerable child? What happened to your last ward, hmm Max?” That was hardly fair, it hadn’t necessarily been his fault. But he had already been shamed into silence. He dropped his head in defeat. “Perhaps you should try and see the situation from their point of view, before you wish to suppress them.”

                Cali took up her tiny cup and sipped down the last of her espresso. She set down the cup and was gone. Max watched the seat hoping she might return, but he was alone on the busy street.

                Max stood up and made his way down the empty sidewalk. The sky was turning dark and threatening. All who did not know better hid away from what seemed to be an impending storm. Max knew well that there would be no rain, he could see it in the clouds.