Drake Axis pointed his wand at the fence post and said the fire word. He wanted a small flame to prove he could join the mages' tournament. Instead a burst of heat shot sideways and scorched a black streak across the cabin wall. He was the shortest apprentice in Cowswamp, and he had taught himself every spell from borrowed books. Every book left out the parts that mattered. He tried again. Sparks spat from the wand tip and died. The problem was always the same. He had no teacher. Nobody in this swamp town would waste time on a self-taught man barely taller than his own broom. Without guidance, his magic kept twisting into something dangerous. He walked to the far corner of the property, where the garden held a patch of glowing fire melons. Their skins pulsed with warm light, seams cracked like living flame. He aimed his wand and whispered the same fire word. This time the spell curved back at him. Heat washed his face. One melon split open with a wet pop and a gout of flame. "Stop." The voice came from behind the fence. A woman in black and green high mage robes stepped through the gate. Her purple eyes moved from the smoking melon to the burn on the wall. She was Serena Willowbend, the finest mage for three towns, and she never taught anyone who came begging. Drake had watched her cast from a distance for weeks, copying the shapes of her hands. She was beautiful, mysterious even. I instantly felt a spark with her. I kept it to myself He lowered the wand and felt his face go hot for a new reason. "You point with your wrist," she said. "Power leaks out the side. That's why it turns on you." She raised her own hand, flat and steady. "Push from the shoulder. The wand is a door, not a hammer." Drake copied her. He set his shoulder, pointed at the cracked melon, and said the word once more. A clean flame bloomed at the wand tip and held. It did not curve. It did not spit. It simply burned where he told it to. He stared at the small steady fire. Weeks of misfires, gone in one correction. "Who taught you to want the tournament?" Serena asked. A faint smile touched her mouth when she looked at him. "Nobody," Drake said. "That's the point." She studied him a long moment. "Come to the basement lab tomorrow. Dawn. I'll test what you actually know." She turned toward the gate, then stopped. "But I warn you. The other apprentices I train have years on you. They will not be gentle when they learn you've joined us." Drake nodded. He had a teacher now. He also had rivals who already knew his name. He looked at the burn on the cabin wall and the flame still steady on his wand. For the first time the fire obeyed. Tomorrow he would learn how much he had been doing wrong.