The Sorcerer's New Apprentice
 

Aelin Meadows, sat with her arms wrapped around herself, in the corner of her jail cell. She was bored out of her mind after spending yesterday evening and night, and now this morning in the tiny dank cell of the jail in Mithril. She she shivered a little involuntarily and hated to admit that she was also becoming a little scared. She could hear men speaking quietly outside of her cell about her, and that it was her time to head to court. They were speaking low where human ears would not be able to detect their voices, but Aelin was not a human. Well not a full human anyways, she was only half human and also half elf and one of the perks of that was that she was able to hear much better than normal humans could.


Fourteen year old Aelin still could not believe she had wound up in jail. She had been orphaned at a very young age, and had been stealing and living on her own ever since and she had never, NEVER, been caught before, not even once. Oh she had been close to being caught many times before, but she always had been able to somehow sneak away at the last moment, almost as if she could vanish out of thin air. Sometimes she didn't sneak though she simply ran, she was fast, but somehow whenever she really needed it she got even faster. Never for long, but always for just long enough for her to get away. Without thinking about it she began to play with her platinum blond hair as she tried to think about what had happened for her to get caught this time. There was no explanation for it except for the man who caught her this time, trying to steal some trinkets from a market stall that she would later sell for food or whatever she needed. Somehow for the first time ever none of her tricks had worked like they always had before.


Aelin heard the men approaching now, and stood nervously as they arrived at her cell door.

The door swung open to reveal two large men wearing full plate armor, the symbol of the stern god Hedrada on their chestplates. One of them held a strange pair of shackles that contained mitten-like gloves separated by a heavy chain. On the gloves one could see inscribed magical phrases that glowed when brought near the girl. These shackles made spellcasting very difficult, not that she would have known that.

"Aelin Meadows." Said the man who was not holding the shackles, his voice echoing in his armor. "It is time for your hearing. In the name of Hedrada I order you to come quietly. Put your hands behind your back. Failure to comply will result in further charges."

Aelin's gold colored eyes widened as two extremely large men entered her cell. They wore full battle armor, and carried the strangest pair of shackles she had ever seen. Aelin laughed quietly and shook her head. Apparently the house of Hedrada took security very seriously to send two massive warrior fully armed with some kind of ridiculous shackles just to walk her to the courtroom. If she didn't know better she would of thought they were afraid of her, but that idea was ridiculous. She would not of been able to take down one of these men without any armor if she had wanted to. No the only danger she posed was running, and that armor would slow the fools down so that they would never catch her if she managed to get away from them.


Unfortunately the men were still massive and the cell was still tiny and Aelin could see no chance of escape and she had no desire for the additional charges they began to threaten her with. Aelin did the only sensible thing she could and turned around and put her hands behind her back as instructed. She waited still as they slid the strange mitt shackles over her hands. Immediately, she jerked a little as something suddenly felt very not right. It was almost like she felt sick, but at the same time she felt completely normal. The feeling quickly passed, but still something minor just seemed off to Aelin. "Do you treat all prisoners this way or just ferocious little elf girls," Aelin scoffed as she turned back around to follow the men to the court.

The two guards said nothing as they each grabbed one of her arms. However as she was walked out of the cell Aelin could see that there were other guards wearing the same armor, all armed and looking stern as their god. The church of Hedrada had a thing for heavy armor.

The half-elf was led through several torch-lit corridors, until they came to a heavy iron door. One of her guards produced a ring of keys and unlocked it.
Behind the door was a large courtroom, with more guards stationed at each door and a judge wearing black robes sitting high on the bench. And next to him stood the same man she had tried to pickpocket. He looked to be in his 30's, and unlike the others he had the symbol of Corean on his chest and wore lose clothing instead of armor.

"Aelin Meadows." The judge began. "You are hereby charged with theft from a city official, vagrancy, resisting arrest, and fleeing from law enforcement."

"Easy you brutes!," Aelin cried out as the large men grabbed her roughly by the arms. "I can walk on my own, thank you very much," but of course she received no reply and was not released. She scoffed as she realized that there were other guards around them and they were all dressed in ridiculously heavy armor. There seemed to be no point in speaking so she remained quiet as they continued to drag her through the hall to the courtroom. The iron door that separated the hallway of the jail to the courtroom was quite intimidating, as were her shackles, and all the men in heavy armor of course, and it took every bit of willpower Aelin had to not show all of the fear she felt as she was dragged inside.


Aelin quickly spotted the man that had arrested her, and then quickly looked averted her eyes when she saw him looking at her. She still wondered how he had caught her. Slowly she looked up at the judge as he called her name, and listened quietly as he read the charges. Unfortunately it seemed that her target had been a city official and Aelin immediately knew that would make things worse for her and she winced. She looked at the man again and shook her head. She had been run down by a city official, and it was even one of the kind that wore robes? Didn't that make him like an administrator or something? If she survived whatever punishment they planned for her, her credibility as a thief was really going to take a hit.


"Well at least you didn't get me mixed up with some murderer, I didn't know it took so many shackles and so much armor to keep you all safe from a little pickpocket," she snapped. Aelin was very afraid and lashing out was the only thing she could do to keep herself from crying, so she forced herself to continue before she lost her nerve. "I dont really know what vagrancy is, but I won't deny I tried to steal from that man or that I ran when I was arrested. A girl has to eat after all." Aelin saw no reason in dragging this out, she knew they were going to do whatever they wished with her and she just hoped it wouldn't end with her death or imprisonment for the rest of her life. Slowly she looked up at the man she had tried to pickpocket. "It wasn't personal you know, you just looked like you had money you could spare." It wasn't exactly an apology and she wasn't exactly remorseful but she thought the man should know that. She also hoped it would be enough to get him to answer her question. If she was going to die she just had to know how he had been able to catch her when no one else had been able to before. "How did you do it anyway? Your really just a city official?"

"I am Gale, knight of the gold order." The dark-haired man said.

Everyone knew that Corean had four orders of knights serving him. First were the iron order, who trained to master forging weapons and armor as much as they did for battle. To them, working at the forge was worship.

Next was the silver order, which traveled the world fighting evil with holy steel and divine magics.

After them was the mithril order, who protected Corean's sacred city of Mithril and the surrounding areas.

And finally were the gold order, who combined skill at arms with arcane magic. They were somewhat controversial, as arcane magic (that is, magic that did not come from the gods but instead came from within as a sorcerer or from magic words and books as a wizard) was often seen as the power of the titans.

The judge regarded her sternly. "You are hereby found guilty. However, in light of your age I will not send you back to jail." He looked to Gale. "Instead you are hereby released into the custody of Sir Gale here, as his new apprentice. He will have full legal custody of you, and may discipline you as he sees fit, until your 18th birthday."

Aelin's golden eyes widened as the man answered. A knight of the golden order was no mere city official, even a street orphan like Aelin knew that much. This man had magic, she should of known! At least she felt better about him being able to catch her now. Despite her best efforts to hide it, fear was evident on Aelin's face as the judge pronounced her guilty. She was quite surprised however when the man announced that she wasn't even going to jail as he considered her age. She looked even more shocked however when the judge instead sentenced her to nearly four years of custody with the man she had tried to steal from, and announced that he could discipline her as he saw fit. Aelin honestly didn't know if that was going to be better than jail or not though as she sized the dark haired man up.


Aelin did not resist as her guards hauled her before the man who was about to take her into custody. She looked slowly and sheepishly up at him. "I don't understand Sir. He said I was supposed to be taken into your custody but he also said I was to be your apprentice. You said you were a knight of the gold order? How can I be your apprentice? Is that a nice way of saying I'm going to be your slave for four years?," she questioned quietly.

"Do you ever consider how you were able to steal so effectively?" Gale asked her as the guards removed her shackles. "You are like me, a sorcerer. Your power could be dangerous if you are left untrained, so from now on I will be teaching you."

He let that settle in for a moment, seeing how she would react. "I understand this must be quite a shock. I discovered my powers when I was older than you are, maybe it will be easier for you to accept."

Aelin simply shrugged her slight shoulders as the man asked her if she knew how she had been so effective as a thief. She had never really thought about it as it had always just come naturally to her. Her ears twitched noticeably and her mouth dropped when Gale told her that she was a sorceress and was like him. She shook her head in disbelief. In the back of head she realized it kind of made sense, but she had never heard or magic that could make one faster before. "I....no....you are......," Aelin trailed off as she tried to think about if she really believed the man. Was there any other way to explain so many of her close calls where she had escaped so many times. Looking back she suddenly realized there was no other way to explain how she had made some of her previous escapes.


Aelin took a few more moments to gather her wits and tried speaking more coherently, though it was still difficult in her current state of shock. "So your saying I can like disappear and stuff? Is that why they have so many of these guards and these fancy chains on me? If I had magic how did you catch me then? Are you going to teach me how to do that? Do I have to fight? What else can I do? Can magic make me run faster? Sometimes I run faster then I think I should be able to its kind of weird?" For a moment Aelin forgot the gravity of the situation she was in and just couldn't help but ask every question that popped into her mind as she began to get excited about the prospect of being able to use magic then. If she could use magic she could certainly survive after all, and probably do much more than just survive once she learned how to really use it.

"Woah woah woah, slow down." The man told her. "There will be plenty of time for questions later. First I'm sure you'd like to get out of her and get something to eat." The guards moved aside to let them through as he led the girl out of the courtroom.

"You are very lucky I found you." Gale told her. "Some say that all sorcerers are servants of the titans and should be killed. It can be dangerous to go out alone as a known sorcerer."

He led her out of the building, until they stood before the gigantic mithril golem. But they were only outside for a moment as he led her to a building near the golem's legs, the temple of Corean.