I Want To Be A Wizard

Tony Wyzek was a totally normal guy. He had friends, a wonderful family, and pretty much a great life. He was involved in a gang on New York's upper West side, the Jets. Today however, his life will change forever. He was waiting on his friends in the secondhand bookstore and he got bored, so we started browsing. He ended up in the children's section in the back room and while looking around in it, he found the So You Want To Be A...section of books. They included books like So You Want To Be A Doctor, So You Want To Be A Scientist, A Veterinarian, et cetera. Tony ran his hands along the shelves until something caught his finger. It was a loose thread on one of the books. Tony took closer look at it and saw that unlike the others this one had a rather strange title. It was called So You Want To Be A Wizard.

A wizard? This has to be a joke, Tony thought. This can't be real. There are no such things as wizards. All the same, Tony had nothing else to do, so he took a closer look at the book. Normally Tony was fast reader and he would have quickly finished a page with only a few lines on it; but what was on the contents page slowed him down a lot.

"Preliminary Determinations: a Question of Aptitude." "Wizardly Preoccupations and Predilections." "Basic Equipment and Milieus." "Introduction to Spells, Bindings, and Geasa." "Familiars and Helpmates: Advice to the Initiate." "Psychotropic Spelling."

Psychowhat? Tony turned to the page listed, and looked at the boldface paragraph beneath its title.

WARNING

Spells of power sufficient to make temporary changes in the human mind are always subject to sudden and unpredictable backlash on the user. The practitioner is cautioned to make sure that his/her motives are benevolent before attempting spelling aimed at...

This is crazy, Tony thought. If it was a joke, it was a pretty darn good one. If not...No, don't be silly, he told himself. He began to read more, completely tuning out the noises in the store. The first couple of pages were a foreword.

Wizardry is one of the most ancient and misunderstood of arts. Its public image for centuries has been one of a mysterious pursuit, practiced in occult surroundings, and usually used at the peril of one's soul. The modern wizard, who works with tools more advanced than bat's blood and beings more complex than medieval demons, knows how far from the truth that image is. Wizardry, though exciting and interesting, is not a glamorous business, especially these days, when a wizard must work quietly so as not to attract undue attention.

For those willing to assume the Art's responsibilities and do the work, though, wizardry has many rewards. The sight of a formerly twisted growing thing now growing straight, of a snarled motivation untangled, the satisfaction of hearing what a plant is thinking or a dog is saying, of talking to a stone or a star, is thought by most to be well worth the labor.

Not everyone is suited to be a wizard. Those without enough of the necessary personality traits will never see this manual for what it is. That you have found it at all says a great deal for your potential.

The reader is invited to examine the next few chapters and determine his/her wizardly potential in detail-to become familiar with the scope of the Art-and finally to decide whether to become a wizard.

Good luck!

Tony still thought it was a joke, but he still turned to the next chapter, too fascinated to put it down. He turned to the next chapter.

PRELIMINARY DETERMINATIONS

An aptitude for wizardry requires more than just the desire to practice the art. There are certain inborn tendencies, and some acquired ones, that enable a person to become a wizard. This chapter will list some of the better documented of wizardly characteristics. Please bear in mind that it isn't necessary to possess all the qualities listed, or even most of them. Some of the greatest wizards have been lacking in the qualities possessed by almost all others and have still achieved startling competence levels...

Slowly at first, then more excitedly, Tony began working his way through the assessment chapter, pausing only to get a pen and paper from his pocket to make notes on his aptitude. He was brought up short by the footnote to one page-

Where ratings are not assigned, as in rural areas, the area of greatest population density will usually produce the most wizards, due to the thinning of worldwalls with increased population concentration...

"Thinning of worldwalls"-are they saying that there are other worlds, other dimensions, and that things can get through? Things, or people? Tony wondered. Could the old fairytales about people traveling to other worlds be true? he mused. Aw, who'd believe someone who told a story like that, even if they had pictures? Tony thought, still in doubt. He turned his attention back to the book and went on reading, though skeptically-the whole thing still felt like a game. But abruptly it stopped being a game, with one paragraph:

Wizards love words. Most of them read a great deal, and indeed one strong sign of a potential wizard is the inability to get to sleep without reading something first. But their love for and fluency with words is what makes wizards a force to be reckoned with. Their ability to convince a piece of the world- a tree, say, or a stone - that it's not what it thinks it is, that it's something else, is the very heart of wizardry. Words skillfully used, the persuasive voice, the persuading mind, are the wizard's most basic tools. With them a wizard can stop a tidal wave, talk a tree out of growing or into it - freeze fire, burn rain - even slow down the death of the Universe.

That last, of course, is the reason there are wizards. See the next chapter.

The universe was running down, all the energy in it was slowly being used up; Tony knew that from books he'd read. "Entropy,"the process was called. But he'd never heard anyone talk about slowing it down before. He shook his head in amazement and went on to the "correlation"section at the end of that chapter, where all the factors involved in the makeup of a potential wizard were listed. Tony found that he had a lot of them -enough to be a wizard, if he wanted to.

In rising excitement he turned to the next chapter. "Theory and Implications of Wizardry,"its heading said. "History, Philosophy, and the Wizards'Oath."

Fifty or sixty eons ago, when life brought itself about, it also brought about to accompany it many Powers and Potentialities to manage the business of creation. One of the greatest of these Powers held aloof for a long time, watching its companions work, not wishing to enter into Creation until it could contribute something unlike anything the other Powers had made, something completely new and original. Finally the Lone Power found what it was looking for. Others had invented planets, light, gravity, space. The Lone Power invented death, and bound it irrevocably into the worlds. Shortly thereafter the other Powers joined forces and cast the Lone One out.

Many versions of this story are related among the many worlds, assigning blame or praise to one party or another. However, none of the stories change the fact that entropy and its symptom, death, are here now. To attempt to halt or remove them is as futile as attempting to ignore them.

Therefore there are wizards - to handle them.

A wizard's business is to conserve energy - to keep it from being wasted. On the simplest level this includes such unmagical-looking actions as paying one's bills on time, turning off the lights when you go out, and supporting the people around you in getting their lives to work. It also includes a great deal more.

Because wizardly people tend to be good with language, they can also become skillful with the Speech, the magical tongue in which objects and living creatures can be described with more accuracy than in any human language. And what can be so accurately described can also be preserved- or freed to become yet greater. A wizard can cause an inanimate object or animate creature to grow, or stop growing-to be what it is, or something else. A wizard, using the Speech, can cause death to slow down, or go somewhere else and come back later-just as the Lone Power caused it to come about in the first place. Creation, preservation, destruction, transformation-all are a matter of causing the fabric of being to do what you want it to. And the Speech is the key.

Tony stopped to think this over for a moment. It sounded like, if you knew what something is, truly knew, you didn't have any trouble working with it. have that kind of control over-over everything-live things, the world, even...he took a deep breath and looked back at the book, beginning to get an idea of what kind of power was implied there.

The power conferred by use of the Speech has, of course, one insurmountable limitation: the existence of death itself. As one renowned Senior Wizard has remarked, "Entropy has us outnumbered. " No matter how much preserving we do, the Universe will eventually die. But it will last longer because of our efforts-and since no one knows for sure whether another Universe will be born from the ashes of this one, the effort seems worthwhile.

No one should take the Wizards' Oath who is not committed to making wizardry a lifelong pursuit. The energy invested in a beginning wizard is too precious to be thrown away. Yet there are no penalties for withdrawal from the Art, except the knowledge that the Universe will die a little faster because of energy lost. On the other hand, there are no prizes for the service of Life-except life itself. The wizard gets the delight of working in a specialized area-magic-and gets a good look at the foundations of the Universe, the way things really work. It should be stated here that there are people who consider the latter more of a curse than a blessing. Such wizards usually lose their art. Magic does not live in the unwilling soul.

Should you decide to go ahead and take the Oath, be warned that an ordeal of sorts will follow, a test of aptitude. If you pass, wizardry will ensue...

But what if you don't pass? Tony wondered. Just then, he became aware of the time and that his friends might be wondering about him. So he headed toward the front of the store with the book. His friends weren't there yet, but they came in just as he finished paying for his book and slipped it in his bag. Tony and the boys went ahead with their plan for the day, and later that afternoon, Tony headed home. He laid the book on the bed and started to clean his room up, looking for his skateboard, planning to take it with him tomorrow. It was completely useless. The book lay there on his bed and stared at him, daring him to do something childlike, something silly, something absolutely ridiculous. Tony stopped cleaning up, picked up the book, and stared back at it.

"All right, "he said under his breath. "All right."He opened the book at random. And on the page to which he opened, there was the Oath. It was not decorated in any way. It stood there, a plain block of type all by itself in the middle of the page, looking serious and important. Tony read the Oath to himself first, to make sure of the words. Then, quickly, before he could start to feel silly, he read it out loud.

"'In Life's name, and for Life's sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life. I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; and I will change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will put aside fear for courage, and death for life, when it is right to do so-till Universe's end.'"

The words seemed to echo slightly, as if the room were larger than it really was. Tony sat very still, wondering what the ordeal would be like, wondering what would happen now. Only the wind spoke softly in the leaves of the trees outside the bedroom window; nothing else seemed to stir anywhere. Tony sat there, and slowly the tension began to drain out of him as she realized that he hadn't been hit by lightning, nor had anything strange at all happened to him. Now he felt silly for being nervous and realized that he was hungry. Just then, his mom called up to tell him dinner was ready. Tony went downstairs, ate dinner, then came back upstairs and looked for his skateboard a little more before heading for bed.

After a while, night was not night any more; that was what brought Tony to the window, much later. He leaned on the sill and gazed out in calm wonder at his backyard, which didn't look quite the same as usual. A blaze of undying morning lay over everything, bushes and trees cast light instead of shadow, and he could see the wind. Standing in the ivy under her window, he turned his eyes up to the silver-glowing sky to get used to the brilliance. How about that, he said. The backyard's here too. Next to him, the lesser brilliance that gazed up at that same sky shrugged slightly. Of course, it said. This is Timeheart, after all. Yes, Tony said anxiously as they passed across the yard and out into the bright shadow of the steel and crystal towers, but did I do right? His companion shrugged again. Go find out, it said, and glanced up again. Tony wasn't sure he wanted to follow the glance. Once he had looked up and seen-I dreamed you were gone, he said suddenly. The magic stayed, but you went away. He hurt inside, enough to cry, but his companion flickered with laughter. No one ever goes away forever, it said. Especially not here. Tony looked up, then, into the bright morning and the brighter shadows. The day went on and on and would not end, the sky blazed now like molten silver...

The Sun on his face woke Tony up as usual. He turned over slowly, stiff but not too badly, and felt the hardness under his pillow. Tony sat up and pulled the book out. The book fell open in his hand at the listing for the wizards in the New York metropolitan area, which Tony had glanced at the afternoon before. Now he looked down the columns of names, and his breath caught.

WYZEK, Anton A., 114 Woodhaven Blvd., Manhattan, NY 11575

(212)555-8924. (novice, pre-rating)

His mouth fell open. He shut it. I'm going to be a wizard! he thought. Tony got up and got dressed in a hurry. Tony was so excited that he forgot all about meeting his friends and went down to a quiet space in his basement to read more in the book. Soon he found himself not just reading, but studying, cramming facts into his head the way he used to when preparing for a test. The things the book was telling him now were not vague and abstract, as the initial discussion of theory had been, but straightforward as the repair manual for a new car, and nearly as complex. There were tables and lists of needed resources for working spells. There were formulas and equations and rules. There was a syllabary and pronunciation guide for the 418 symbols used in the wizardry Speech to describe relationships and effects that other human languages had no specific words for.

The information went on and on-the book was printed small, and there seemed no end to the things Tony was going to have to know about. He read about the hierarchy of practicing wizards-his book listed only those practicing in the U.S. and Canada, though wizards were working everywhere in the world-and he scanned down the listing for the New York area, noticing the presence of Advisory wizards, Area Supervisors, Senior wizards. He read through a list of the "otherworlds"closest to his own, alternate earths where the capital of the United States was named Huictilopochtli or Lafayette City or Hrafnkell or New Washington, and where the people still called themselves Americans, though they didn't match Tony's ideas about the term.

He learned the Horseman's Word, which got the attention of any member of the genus Equus, even the zebras; and the two forms of the Mason's Word, which gave stone the appearance of life for short periods. One chapter told him about the magical creatures living in cities, whose presence even the nonwizardly people suspected sometimes-creatures like the steambreathing fireworms, packratty little lizards that creep through cracks in building walls to steal treasures and trash for their lair-hoards under the streets. Tony thought about all the steam he had seen coming up from manhole covers in Manhattan and smiled, for now he knew what was causing it.

He read on, finding out how to bridle the Nightmare and learning what questions to ask the Transcendent Pig, should he meet him. He read about the Trees'Battle-who fought in it, and who won it, and why. He read about the forty basic classes of spells and their subclasses. He read about Timeheart, the unreal and eternal realm where the places and things people remember affectionately are preserved as they remember them, forever. In the middle of the description of things preserved in their fullest beauty forever, and still growing, Tony found himself feeling a faint tingle of unease. He was also getting tired. He dropped the book in his lap with an annoyed sigh, for there was just too much to absorb at one sitting, and he had no clear idea of where to begin. Tony picked the manual up again and leafed through it to the section labeled "Preliminary Exercises."The first one was set in a small block of type in the middle of an otherwise blank page.

To change something, you must first describe it. To describe something, you must first see it. Hold still in one place for as long as it takes to see something.

Tony felt puzzled and slightly annoyed. This didn't sound much like magic. But obediently he put the book down, settled herself more comfortably against the garage wall, trying to think of something to picture-his dad's garden hose? Nah, that looked boring. The lawnmower? Too complex. (Why don't you try that rusty pipe over there? Your father's been trying to remove the rust from it for weeks,) a voice said. "Who said that?"Tony asked, startled. (I'm here, next to you. Keep looking,) the voice said. Tony looked around for the source, but all he saw was his father's old car, the one that didn't work anymore. (Ah, now you see me,) said the voice. Tony's jaw dropped. Was the car actually talking to him?! Surely not. (Of course I'm talking to you,) the voice said again. (Don't you believe your senses?) "How can this be? Cars don't talk,"Tony said in astonishment. (Of course we talk. You just didn't know how to hear us before,) the car said.

"So how do I fix the pipe?"Tony asked. (Try looking up the words needed to describe the components in the rust: iron and oxygen, and convince them to separate. That should cause the rust to dissipate,) the car instructed him. So Tony did as the car instructed and the rust disappeared from the pipe as a rush of air came off the pipe. Tony couldn't believe it. The pipe was completely rust-free! Then the car directed Tony's attention to its broken off antenna lying around the basement, and told him to keep it as a gift. Tony accepted it, but wondered what he was supposed to do with it. He took it inside, cleaned it up, and put it in his room for the moment. He continued reading the book and noticed some wizardries in the book that could be done with metal, to remind it of the different forces it felt when it was being made. He did a couple of them, partly for practice, partly because the book had mentioned forces that sounded dangerous and he was afraid there might be trouble.

Then Tony went off to meet his friends, and along the way, the rocks started talking to him and telling him anything and everything. He tried to pay attention to his friends, but he kept getting input from the rocks around him, as well as every passing car, driving him crazy. Finally the day's activity was over and Tony eagerly headed home to work on his wizardry some more. The next day, Tony was heading uptown on the subway to visit his local Advisory wizards whose names and addresses he'd seen in the directory, when suddenly the subway car he was in plunged into total blackness!! (What's happening? Where am I?) Tony asked in the inward unspoken form of the Speech, trying to get a feel for what was going on. Finally he used a spell he'd read about the previous day, one that would create a wizard's light. As soon as he said it, he started feeling somewhat winded, but a small pinpoint of light appeared in front of him, lighting his way. At that point, Tony began to realize this wasn't the New York he knew.

For one thing, he didn't remember there being a barrier covered with some sort of red fluid that looked suspiciously like blood being there before. Also, the walls were covered with something Tony seemed to recall the manual calling firefungus, luminous fungus that formed in damp places and gave off a phosphorescent glow. With some aid from his wizard's light, Tony finally found his way out and gasped at what he saw. The first thing he noticed was the lack of people. No pedestrians on the sidewalks, no people in the shops. Where was he? Then Tony noticed a terrifying sight. In the middle of the square, where the statue of the Duke of York normally was, there was a statue of a man on a horse with a cruel expression on his face carrying a bloody head!! Tony shivered in terror and focused on trying to get out of there.

He quickly realized he was in another world and figured that this was a situation like the manual had described. He had slipped through a place where the walls between worlds were so thin that you could almost walk from world to world. He hoped that perhaps the next subway stop might hold a way back home, but he knew better than to try the tracks, as that would result in a nasty collision with an oncoming train. So he headed toward the station, being mauled by a rather nasty live Checker cab and nearly getting eaten by a creature that looked like a cross between a helicopter and a praying mantis on the way.

Finally he made it to the subway stop and from there stepped through the thin worldwall back to his home world. After that Tony decided he would ride the bus home afterwards, as the memory of that cab was all too vivid. The Advisories, Tom Swale and Carl Romeo, managed to advise Tony on how to deal with the thinning worldwall, but Tony did the actual wizardry closing the place up and effectively sealing that way to the other world off for good. Tony went home after that and when mentioning the subway incident, merely told his parents that the subway had had a little mechanical trouble, and that the cut on his arm had come from running into a sharp object in the station. He knew no one would believe the truth. That night as he lay sleeping, he heard a voice saying he'd passed, a voice that sounded like a spirit or god. Tony couldn't wait till tomorrow.

Tony had many more adventures as a wizard. He helped find lost things for people, helped rescue a pod of dolphins at the beach in New Jersey, even helped one of the local gating teams (Rhiow, Urruah, and Saash) operate on a malfunctioning worldgate. He went off-planet, out of the country, even to the Moon!! Once, he even participated in a wizardly exchange program. Unfortunately, the species was aquatic. Tony ran into Urruah again while there, and both of them were able to understand how the other felt. Both felt they'd never be dry again when they got back. Tony certainly did have a hard time trying to concoct a story to explain where he'd been, why he was so wet, and why they'd had such a hard time reaching him. Finally he remembered his species'choice in regards to wizardry, hide it or "spill it", so he just told them the truth. Even though they found it hard to understand, they thought it was amazing all the things he could do, all the places he'd been, all the things he'd seen. They were accepting of his being a wizard, so Tony left Riff in charge of the Jets and remained a wizard the rest of his life, even when he got a job finally. Unfortunately, he did still have to explain to his boss why he sometimes talked to cats, dogs, and other non-human creatures from time-to-time, as well as some of the other strange things that seemed to happen around him. Oh well, that was life for a wizard. Dai'stiho.