Finally the day had come. For months Gathran's master had announced to go away on some kind of errand he had not even bothered to tell his apprentice about. Thinking quite frankly, Gathran more and more had come to the conclusion that the old man wasn't putting full trust into him. An abscence that should not last for more than a few days really couldn't be something so important, could it ? So why had his master refused to tell him if it wasn't for a rather strong belief in his inability ?

However and in spite of the ubiquitous presence of magic, people actually blessed with the ability to control it were seldomly born. It maybe was the primary reason for Gathran's firm hopes that his apprenticeship would actually come to a successful conclusion and not something else after all. His master was someone he considered rude and beyond being somewhat strict, but he probably couldn't afford to lose anybody who still could become a worthy successor.

And of course him being away was a near perfect opportunity to try things Gathran wouldn't have dared to do otherwise...

It had become late evening, the sun was hovering low above the horizon and the lower parts of the mage's tower were already cut off from any direct light and merely illumated by that portion that had been scattered. Not surprising, given that the thing was standing in the middle of a dense forest with no village to come for at least two miles. Gathran didn't know if the pond next to it had been there forever or was an artificial creation, but it didn't matter to him anyway. There was a spell to be cast, an -- at least for him -- rather complicated procedure that would last for the next couple of hours.

It was his silent hope that the ingredients dumped into the water would not have any lasting effect. After all Gathran didn't plan on a returning master quickly discovering what his apprentice had done and how he had, let's say 'diverted', some of the supplies given to him for practicing. The immensely broad-shouldered man dared to use his wooden staff for stiring. Why wouldn't the water's damn surface turn ? Could it really be [i]that[/i] complicated to create a large mirror ? Those in the tower were all rather small and some of them even of dubious quality if not simply degraded by years of decay. Gathran just wanted something that was even bigger than he himself was, but so far success had eluded him.

Or had it ? In fact something was happening, but it wasn't visible at first and then quite the opposite of the intended. Instead of reflecting light, the water was starting to become even more susceptible for it. Not only the water was transparent, but also those parts of the dimensional barriers in the volume occupied by it. The pond had turned pitch black and left Gathran to believe that he had simply messed up and polluted it, but in fact it was light going ways it wasn't supposed to go and ending up at places he wasn't supposed to know about.