Wiz - 1.04 - training huf and wiz

Wiz - 1.04 - training huf and wiz

I had the lowest place.  I emptied the pots and the buckets of night soil in the morning.  I emptied the buckets and pots of night soil from those of low place in the castle.  The wizards, and the students, and the servants of higher status had their night soil pots emptied by servants of higher place.  The servants of higher place emptied their buckets of night soil into the pots that I carried away.

I also cleaned the fireplaces in the morning.  I swept the ash and carried away the baskets of ash.

I had heard that the Wizards were concerned.  My master, as he later became, did not learn well.  He did not understand what it was that they wanted him to do.  He had many questions, but the questions he asked very often had words that they did not know.  Eventually he did start the simple exercises that they set to beginning students.  He began to be able to move small objects.  He easily learned the spells, but the spells were not very effective for him.  He was not able to use the spells to make magic function in the same way the others did.

Apparently he did better with the elementals.  He did not seem to have a natural affinity for them.  He did get them to work for him though.  Slowly, very slowly, he began to learn what they wanted him to do.

I began to see him as I was conducting my work in the halls.  He was smaller than most in stature. His hair was white and he looked, in that way, as if he were an old man.  His skin though was smooth.  He had not the look of health or strength and always appeared to be tired.  His belly bulged but he had not the look of wealth of those who adorn themselves with gold and jewels.  In fact he made no attempt to adorn himself at all. When others suggested things that he could do to improve the appearance of his hair or his clothes, he nodded thoughtfully and thanked them.  And then did nothing.

I would see him as I want between rooms and out of the castle carrying buckets of night soil and baskets of ashes.  One morning he stopped and watched me.  I was carrying pots and buckets of night soil from the rooms of some of the lower servants.  I took the buckets to the privies on the outside of the castle.  I would then dump the night soil into the holes of the privies.  He asked what else I did.  I told him that later I would go and collect the night soil from the areas under the previous, outside the walls of the castle.  I would then take the night soil to the piles where the field servants would spread them on the fields.  He asked about the ash.  I told him that I carried the baskets of ash out of the castle and to the same piles.

The next day, he came with a large leather tube.  It was not an even tube: one end was slightly smaller than the other.  The larger end had an opening slightly larger than the openings of the privies.  He showed me the tube and asked if I had any place that I could store it that no one would worry about it.  I told him that I had such a place.  He told me that, after I had poured the night soil down the privy, I should put the tube in place in the privy, with the smaller end downward, and then bring the ashes from the fireplaces and pour them down the tube.  He said that that way I would not have to make multiple trips with the ash and I would save time for myself.  He also said that when I went to move the night soil from the area below the privies, it would be easier to handle.

I had never heard of such a thing.  No one had ever told me of this.  I tried it, and he was correct.  I was finished with the night soil and the ashes much more quickly than usual because I did not have to make multiple trips all the way out to the fields with the baskets of ash.  When I went to deal with the night soil and to move it out to the pile in the fields I found that the night soil was much less liquid than it had been before.  When I shoveled it into the wheelbarrow it held together much better, and did not slop and stain on my clothes as it usually did.  I made sure that I kept the tube safe.  I made sure I was careful and asking others what they did with the night soil and the ash.  No one else mentioned such a tube.  I realized that my Master had given me a gift, even though I did not understand it.

My Master gave similar gifts to others.  The others did not accept the gifts.  In the kitchens he told the cook that it seemed odd that meat on a spit should have to be taken out of the fireplace, repositioned, and then placed back into the fireplace with a different section of meat pointing towards the fire.  He suggested that attaching a longer handle to the spit and then having it turned slowly would work better.  The cook told him to leave this kitchen and never to come back into it.  He told a field servant that if a water trench was dug across the curve of a hill, then water could be poured into it at one end and it would flow all the way to the other.  The field servant told him that if he wanted to help he could bring more buckets of night soil and ash.

As he started to learn to do what the Wizards wanted him to do, he proposed gifts to them as well.  I heard him with a senior wizard one day as the two of them were walking down a corridor as I was collecting up fireplace ashes.  He asked the senior wizard why it was that great effort was put into creating a spell which would give you an advantageous power but then once the power had been created it was allowed to dissipate, when a second, much simpler spell would allow you to keep it in place for use at a later time.  The senior wizard said that it was lazy of him to try and avoid re-creating the powers when they were needed.

On these and other occasions he thanked the ones who had rejected his gifts.  He looked thoughtful and nodded at their insults and said that he was grateful for their explanations.