(Journal entries made in 1163 A.D.)
September 17th: [i]While teaching me my letters, Mathias encouraged me to start a personal journal. He said it would help me improve my writing. It would also help me remember my experiences when I’m older. I did not really take him seriously at the time. But now, after these last few days, it seems like good advice. So here I am. I will try to catch up on what happened lately.
At the beginning of the month, Master Octavius sent for me. Mathias walked me to his home. It is not in the village, it is in the forest. We followed a path that I had never seen. We walked a little while. It led to a clearing in the forest. In the center of the clearing was a dead tree, with not many branches on it. The shape of it was like the letter “T”. It reminded me of the flag that flies above the village.
Around the clearing, there were large houses between the trees. Mathias led me to one, where Master Octavius lives. This is where I live now. I have a room for me alone. It has a bed, a chest for clothing, a stool and a small table. Such luxury!
But then, Master Octavius is a wizard. And I am his apprentice now. He told me I will be a wizard like him one day, if I survive my apprenticeship.[/i]
September 23rd: [i]I met the other wizards again. Albertus, he is equal to Octavius. Both are masters. Master Albertus is tall, with dark hair. He looks severe and cruel, like a noble. Octavius say he is an important man. The other wizard is Caprasia. She is very strange and looks like a witch. Octavius say she is a tyro – a journeyman wizard – less powerful than him and Albertus.
I cannot get out of the house alone. I think Master Octavius put a spell on me to prevent me from leaving.[/i]
October 12th: [i]I could not write for a while. I was in the laboratory of Master Octavius. He says he is opening my “gift” for magic. He led me inside a circle engraved on the floor and told me to stay there. He lit candles and incense around me. Then he goes around the circle for hours, muttering words. Strange feelings I felt, at times hot or cold, or dizzy. I fainted a few times, or fell asleep.
Other times he had me read strange words over and over while in the circle. I said them wrong, but he corrected me again and again. He had me light candles, smell different kinds of incense. Draw symbols on the ground, on pieces of slate, or even on my skin.
He also had me do my tricks, like slipping from one door to another and unlocking doors. He had me doing them often, frowning all the time. At times I could not do it.
This went on for days. Sometimes he left me to sleep in the circle. Others I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I got back to my room.[/i]
October 30th: The shaping of my Gift goes well, according to Master Octavius. It is slow and often painful, but I will make him proud. He said I had to unlearn bad habits from doing things myself. It is not the proper way to work magic. I don’t understand why he says that. But he is the Master and I am just the apprentice. To become a great wizard like him I have to listen and obey.
OOC Note: When Octavius opened Peter to the Hermetic Arts, he had to force his Gift and reshape it so that he could impose the Mercurian Magic tradition on the boy. This damaged his innate abilities to transport himself through doorways and manipulate objects at a distance. After Octavius was done, all that remained of those innate abilities were the affinities in Rego and Terram magic, as well as a Minor Magical Focus with Portals. That was despite repeated attempts by Octavius to force a Magical Focus in healing on the boy’s Gift. The failure left Octavius frustrated, for he had wanted his apprentice to be much like himself.