Code of Rainbow Read online

  ‘Don’t worry; it’s too early just yet.’ Scankeen waved his hands. ‘The first thing to do is to give Soarame a magic test tomorrow and see what exactly he can see. And I suppose you don’t need to bring him to a doctor anymore.’

  ‘That is true, thank you so much!’ Filton was so happy for this. Soarame’s colour counting had been confusing him for years. ‘Our neighbours all think Soarame has an illness, now they need to know that they are totally wrong!’

  ‘Actually, they’d better not.’ Scankeen pondered a bit and came up with this. ‘We don’t want the neighbours to know about Soarame having magic gifts, because we don’t want this to spread about — the magic world can be more dangerous than you think, and Soarame is too little just yet.’

  ‘Oh?’ Filton puzzled. ‘You suggest we keep it secret?’

  ‘Yes. If people know it they will spread the words and cause chaos.’ Scankeen nodded. ‘And I’m even thinking about making a fake name for myself.’

  ‘Would that really be necessary?’ Filton didn’t understand this.

  ‘What if I tell you that I’ve been personally hunting some evil wizards and they hate me? They don’t know I’m here, so we don’t need to worry right now; but I don’t want Soarame to be implicated when he grows up, once he accidentally spelled my name.’ Scankeen crossed his hands, as if he was thinking deeply. ‘But the good thing is that Soarame doesn’t seem to have heard my name, so it’s not too late to fake one.’

  ‘Dear lord, I see.’ Filton was alerted. ‘I’ll certainly keep your real name a secret, but what fake name do you have in mind?’

  ‘Well, first of all, don’t call me “Your Honour” anymore. As for the name…’ Scankeen pondered a bit and came up with this. ‘How about Stunfolk? A variant from the Great Stanfaul Libral’s first name, you know.’

  ‘Err…’ Filton indeed became a stunned folk. Thinking it over quickly, Filton tried to be polite. ‘It’s not bad, but would it be better to make it Swanfolk?’

  ‘You mean more poetic?’ Scankeen muttered. ‘How about Swanflew then?’

  ‘Swanflew? Sure, that’s… that’s good.’ Filton was not sure if the new name was poetic, but at least it was better than Stunfolk. ‘I can tell you that adore the Great Stanfaul Libral. We have all heard his story, but you must know a lot more than us.’

  ‘Yes, he was a great, great man. Won us our freedom, founded the Sunrise Alliance, and did many other things just as profound.’ Scankeen nodded, full of respect. ‘I didn’t just hear about his story; I was there to witness a part of it.’

  ‘Pardon? You met His Honour in person?’ Filton asked, astonished.

  ‘Oh yes, but back when I was just a young man.’ Scankeen smiled. ‘About your age.’

  It had been quite a while since the last time Filton was told something like that; it felt kind of odd to a fifty-year-old. Scankeen instantly realized this. ‘You may not believe this, but I was born in 3425 CC.’

  ‘Oh no, it’s fine… wait… what?’ Filton almost choked upon hearing this. ‘Pardon me? 3425 CC?’

  ‘Yes, older than you thought, I know.’ Scankeen smiled, his hand stroking his long beard.

  When was 3425 CC? Filton calculated in his mind. It’s now 3896 CC, so Scankeen was born more than four hundred years ago? He’s nearly five hundred years old?

  God, is he immortal? Or is it just a joke? Filton felt that these things were beyond his understanding.

  ‘I know it sounds unusual.’ Scankeen was expecting this reaction from Filton. ‘Wizards are able to live much longer by soaking up the energy of the environment and being nourished by the magic elements. The higher the magic power of a wizard is, the longer his lifespan will be. Now you can imagine how many bad guys I’ve been going after in the last five hundred years. So keep in mind, my name is Swanflew from now on.’

  ‘Swanflew? Okay…’ Filton’s eyebrow arched. ‘How about this: let’s make it Mr. Swanflew, and no one will know your first name. What do you think?’

  With that, Mr. Swanflew came into being and stepped into Soarame’s life. Thanks to him, Soarame’s colour counting problem was finally solved and everything looked like it was going to work out perfectly. Luckily, Scankeen didn’t know Soarame’s first impression of his poetic name selection —

  Swineflu? What is that?

  ‘Morning, Mr. Swanflew.’ The next morning, Filton brought Soarame to Scankeen for the magic test.

  ‘Come on in!’

  ‘Dear lord, what is this?’ Filton and Soarame were both dumbfounded to see this completely new world in Scankeen’s bedroom. One second ago they’d seen Scankeen holding a big, crystal-like gem, and the next second they were somehow teleported to this new world — standing in the middle of a big yard. Filton could see an ancient-style castle not too far away, and, strangely, there was some vague roaring from inside the castle.

  ‘What is that?’ Filton was worried about the abnormal noise.

  ‘Don’t worry, this place is very safe and no one will get hurt here. We are inside a palatorium — a magic space within the gem you just saw. From now on, I’ll teach Soarame magic here.’ Scankeen smiled and turned to Soarame. ‘Soarame, you can call me master from now on. Do you like this place?’

  ‘Yes, master!’ Soarame couldn’t wait. ‘Is Richie here too?’

  ‘He’s not right now, but he can be here when the time comes.’ Scankeen winked at Soarame. ‘Remember our agreement?’

  ‘Yes!’ Soarame exclaimed. ‘I want to learn magic right now!’

  ‘Hmmm…’ Scankeen was happy to see this. ‘Good, but can you tell me what magic is?’

  ‘Magic is to summon Richie!’ Soarame came up with this, eyes twinkling.

  ‘Well… yes and no. Richie is a magic-gifted animal, which is usually shortened to magimal. But magic is not just for summoning a magimal.’ Scankeen stroke his beard, amused. ‘However, you do need to be a wizard in order to make friends with magimals like Richie, and hence be able to summon them.’

  ‘Master, I don’t understand!’ Soarame grabbed Scankeen’s gown and tugged it. ‘Can I summon Richie after I learn magic, or not?’

  ‘Soarame, remember the magic carpet?’ Filton cut in. ‘If you can fly, why do you want to ride a horse?’

  ‘Richie is not just a horse!’ Soarame protested. ‘He’s my friend!’

  ‘It’s good to hear that. Wizards and magimals ought to be friends.’ Scankeen went on. ‘But magimals like Richie only make friends with wizards, so you need to learn magic well first. In particular, you need to develop enough mind power.’

  ‘Mind power?’ Soarame asked. ‘What is that?’

  ‘Well, good question.’ Scankeen patted Soarame’s shoulder and started his lecture. ‘In order to understand mind power, you’ll need to first understand magic elements...’

  It didn’t take Soarame long to accept the knowledge of magic elements. Scankeen was happy to see a fresh mind absorbing new ideas much faster than grown-ups, so he carried on to talk about mind power —

  ‘The basic idea of how to perform magic is to use your mind to summon magic elements, bringing them under your control. Remember how your beat the boys with grey? That’s exactly what happened — your fear helped you summon Wind elements. Remember exactly how you beat them?’

  ‘I blew them away!’ Soarame’s eyes brightened. ‘It was Wind!’

  ‘It certainly was.’ Scankeen nodded. ‘So, you can see, as a wizard you have a special power to control magic elements. This power is called mind power. It’s one of the most important things to a wizard.’

  ‘Mind power is consumed as the magic is being performed — like how, when a pot of water boils, it vaporises.’ Seeing Soarame totally soaked into the lesson, Scankeen was pleased. ‘Now try to recall, after you blew them away, what did you feel?’

  ‘I felt tired.’ Soarame answered aloud. ‘Because I lost mind power?’

  ‘You didn’t lose it; you used it. It will come back after you take a good rest.’ Scankeen
ruffled Soarame’s hair and continued. ‘Usually, a wizard’s mind power is large, so instead of a pot of water, it’s actually an ocean, called the mind ocean; and the water in the mind ocean is mind power itself. The mind ocean is the core part of a wizard’s mind — it’s not material, but does reside inside the brain in a special form.’

  ‘Master, I don’t understand!’

  ‘It’s okay. It’s hard to understand at first.’ Scankeen was not expecting the boy to understand this on the spot. ‘When you are able to sense your own mind ocean, you are ready to become a wizard.’

  ‘Right now, your mind ocean hasn’t fully developed, so the instinctive Wind trick was not a proper spell and you are not a wizard yet.’ Scankeen tried to make sense of it all. ‘When you learn how to spell, you become a Novice wizard. A wizard’s rank is according to his magic power: from a Novice, to an Adept, then to an Expert wizard, and finally a Master. Each level demands a larger and denser mind ocean to qualify.’

  ‘Denser?’ Soarame asked.

  ‘Yes, a higher level of magic demands a higher quality of mind ocean as its support, as well as more of it.’ Scankeen was pleased to see that Soarame was indeed paying attention. ‘It may sound confusing, but think about it this way: in order to float a boat on the ocean, the size of the ocean doesn’t help, but the density does.’

  ‘Err…’ Soarame was totally lost.

  ‘Don’t worry about it for now; this has been too much information for today.’ Scankeen didn’t want to rush. ‘Now, let’s do something more interesting, to test what I taught you today.’

  ‘Soarame, put your hand on this crystal ball and concentrate. Imagine you are in danger, and ask all the magic elements you can see to help you.’ With that, Scankeen flipped his hand and there appeared a crystal ball. ‘Try to feel your mind power, and with it drive the magic elements into the crystal ball.’

  Soarame took the crystal ball and did as Scankeen instructed. Soon enough, the crystal ball began to light up, with different colours shining outward.

  Good! Although prepared to see this, Scankeen was still excited — the multi-coloured crystal ball was solid proof that Soarame could perform more than one lineage of magic. The crystal ball was specially made to show the existence of the magic elements to everyone — one did not need to be a wizard. Even for senior wizards like Scankeen, it was easier to observe magic elements from the crystal ball; so all wizards used it for testing purposes.

  ‘Oh my! These are magic elements?’ Filton marvelled at seeing the different colours. ‘They are beautiful!’

  ‘Yes, the world is beautiful thanks to them.’ Scankeen had believed that Soarame was most gifted in Wind, so the dominant colour should be grey. However, it turned out to be — purple!

  Soarame was certainly doing a great job; the purple dots became denser and denser. Checking again, Scankeen noticed other colourful dots there too, but they were fewer than the purple ones and hence not as remarkable. But still, it could be seen that there were a decent amount of grey dots, a reasonable amount of blue dots, and a small number of yellow and white dots.

  ‘No wonder Soarame was counting them everywhere.’ Filton’s eyes were wide. ‘I see Wind elements as the grey ones, but what about the rest?’

  ‘Purple for Lightning, blue for Water. These two are sufficient that Soarame will be able to practice them.’ Scankeen measured carefully and reached his conclusion. ‘Yellow for Earth and white for Light, but as you can see those are few, which means Soarame is not as good at them as the first three.’

  ‘So there are five types of magic elements in total?’ Filton asked.

  ‘Actually there are seven. Fire and Darkness don’t show up, but that’s completely normal because no one is supposed to have gifts in all seven lineages.’ Scankeen frowned, as if he was thinking about something. ‘The abnormal thing is that he is most gifted in Lightning… that’s strange.’

  ‘What’s wrong with that?’ Filton asked.

  ‘Nothing, but it’s very rare. Lightning elements are the most unbridled ones and thus very few can control them.’ Scankeen was staring at the crystal ball to make sure he did see purple as the most dominant colour. ‘Soarame, did you ever use purple on the boys? I hope not!’

  ‘No, purple only came to me for the boar.’ Soarame answered. ‘Then the boar ran away!’

  ‘What boar?’ Scankeen looked puzzled.

  ‘Oh dear, that’s what it was?’ Filton was thunderstruck. ‘Your Lightning scared off that beast?’

  ‘Yes! And it’s yellow!’ Soarame claimed. ‘Now I know it’s Earth magic!’

  ‘What?!’ Scankeen sounded anxious all of a sudden. ‘Soarame, did you say you saw a boar with Earth elements?’

  ‘I suppose that’s what he meant.’ Filton quickly told the story, and Soarame nodded in agreement.

  Scankeen seemed nervous after hearing the story. He took a deep breath. ‘That was a wild magimal! You were lucky to both survive!’

  ‘Magimal?’ Both Filton and Soarame were surprised. ‘That monster was a magimal too?’

  ‘A magimal is an animal with magic gifts. It could be smaller than Richie, or larger than that boar-like beast.’ Scankeen looked serious. ‘Plus, it can be either a friendly one that you can rely on, or an aggressive one that you have to fight against. That boar would be a wild, aggressive magimal with Earth magic gifts, so it must be very muscular, with a very tough body.’

  ‘Yes, it was.’ Filton recalled that his axe couldn’t even cut into its neck, despite giving it his best shot as an experienced tree feller.

  ‘Again, you were really lucky.’ Scankeen said. ‘For one thing, that magimal seemed to not really aim at people; it was just misbehaving itself for some reason. Second, the danger made Soarame summon Lightning elements and scare it off; again that was instinctive — Wind for less dangerous objects such as the boys, Lightning for fatal threats such as the boar, because Lightning spells are fatal too — the boar could tell that, so it fled!’

  ‘Holy god!’ Filton looked at Soarame and felt cold sweat all over his back. ‘It was really him? This boy saved me and everyone?’

  ‘Looks like it.’ Scankeen cracked a bitter smile when he noticed a flattered Soarame. ‘Boy, don’t you try it ever again, instinct may not always work!’

  ‘What shall I do then?’ Soarame didn’t seem to be quite convinced. ‘The boar destroyed people’s houses!’

  ‘Leave it to me, at least for now.’ Scankeen patted Soarame’s shoulder. ‘After you become an expert wizard, you will have your wizard trial, where you can encounter as many boars as you want!’

  ‘So, that’s why the neighbourhood houses were all broken?’ Scankeen then turned to Filton. ‘I’m here because your house is the first intact one that I found… what a coincidence!’

  ‘Well, should I thank the boar for this?’ Filton was surprised to learn all this. ‘So you want to visit the woods for… magimals?’

  ‘Well, I’m not supposed to say anything on this, if it wasn’t for Soarame.’ Scankeen nodded. ‘The Sunrise Alliance observed a migration of wild magimals towards this area, so here I am. As far as I know, there were no magimals here before, am I correct?’

  ‘I believe so. At least not in my forty years living here, I’ve never seen or heard of any abnormal animals, until that boar showed up.’ Filton sensed the tense air in the room. ‘Are you saying danger is coming?’

  ‘It may not be that bad, so don’t worry too much.’ Scankeen tried to comfort Filton. ‘As you already witnessed, the boar-like magimal didn’t really target people. But of course, I’ll take precautions and try to keep those visitors out of town.’

  ‘Thanks so much, Scan… Mr. Swanflew.’ Filton was so grateful to hear that. ‘No wonder people didn’t know about the existence of wizards; Your Honours kept the danger out of people’s sight.’

  ‘When we are able to do so. But not always.’ Scankeen nodded. He then realized that Soarame was still trying something with the crystal ball in his h
and. The boy’s face was red from trying too hard. ‘Enough, Soarame, you got them.’

  ‘They don’t listen to me!’ Soarame was breathing heavily. ‘The red and black don’t listen to me, but I can see them!’

  ‘It’s okay. Soarame, take a break.’ Scankeen didn’t want the boy to be exhausted. ‘You can practice Lightning, Wind, and Water magic! That’s enough to summon Richie.’

  ‘Filton, just out of curiosity, where are Soarame’s parents?’ Scankeen suddenly asked. ‘He said you are his uncle?’

  ‘Yes, his parents are not here.’ Filton hesitated a bit. ‘May I ask why you want to know?’

  ‘Nothing, it’s just that Lightning gift is very rare, as I mentioned.’ Scankeen was sizing Soarame up. ‘If possible I’d like to talk to his parents, to see if there’s anything special about them.’

  ‘Filton, where’s dad and mom?’ Soarame also asked. ‘Why do they call me the drift?’ Due to the annoying nickname, Soarame had been wondering about his parents. However, his uncle never talked about it — every time Soarame asked, Filton would distract him with a funny story or a toy and get done with the topic.

  ‘Well, it’s complicated.’ Filton pondered for a while. With the eager look from Soarame and suspicious look from Scankeen, Filton finally decide to tell the story —

  THE HISTORY

  ‘Go, hurry!’ A number of tree fellers were running out of the forest. ‘It’s going to rain, don’t stay under trees!’

  ‘Clang!’ Suddenly, luminous lightning split the sky and the whole cloudy atmosphere glowed purple. Soon enough, a huge rumble of thunder burst out.

  ‘How strong the lightning is!’ Everyone had to look up. The man in the lead yelled. ‘Run faster! I don’t want to get hit and die here!’

  ‘Boom!’ After another fierce bolt of lightning, the deafening booms came one after another, totally terrifying the tree fellers. The clouded sky was dim, with only the bright lightning flashes providing any sort of contrast, and vanishing instantly after illuminating the heavens. The peals of thunder roared one after another, growing fiercer and fiercer. Any of them could randomly hit a tree and snuff out all the lives around it.