Melki, Apprentice Mage from Celestial Outpost 229
Character Sketch #1 for the MG fantasy series, The Initiation of Isho Ben Terres
Through the summer months…
I’ll not post to Aden’s Library and instead be working to finish Book 1 of the middle grade fantasy series I’ve been writing (off-and-on since the pandemic!) and which I’ve recently retitled The Initiation of Isho Ben Terres. The series is an imaginative retelling of the whole of the story of Jesus in a single year, i.e., the year Isho turns thirteen. In other words, what happens to Isho in his year of initiation prefigures all that lies before him as an adult.
I’ll leave you to guess at the plot and, in the meantime, invite you into the backstories of the twelve lead characters. Each of these characters takes a turn in the series telling the next instalment of the unfolding story from their perspective.
My hope is that each character earns their keep in the narrative by enticing you to stay alert for the publication of Book I, Isho and the First Light, if all goes to plan, later this fall.
- TLW
Character Sketch #1, Melki:
Melki is a native of the Eastern Reach, one of the four Earthland regions currently under the control of Magnus, High King of the Turquoise Empire.
Melki’s mother has a foreboding dream about her fourth daughter and her parents decide to turn her over to the school for magi at Celestial Outpost 229 on the eve of her sixth birthday. All the other students marvel at Melki’s courageous farewell to parents she’ll never see again. Melki doesn’t chase after them. She doesn’t cry. She just stands without moving and watches them cross the compound and walk out the school gates. Before being chased back into alchemy class, Melki’s classmates declare her the bravest mage in their year.
Only Gasper, the school’s old war horse hitched to a rail nearby, knows the real truth when he overhears Melki say in the direction of her parents, “I was sure you’d change your mind. I’d have run into your arms. I’d have clung to your necks. I’d have never let go.” Melki’s voice trails off and Gapser doesn’t here the end. He doesn’t have to. The horse with a great scar across his face like a comet across the night sky already knows how the story ends: Her parents don’t turn back. Not even for one last wave. The school is her family now.
For the next six years Melki works hard to keep up her reputation as the most courageous mage in school. She doesn’t dare fail. If her classmates abandon her she’ll have no one. Each act of daring adds a protective layer to the shield around her lonely heart.
At twelve Melki wins a school competition to be the apprentice to accompany the Master Mage, Balta Tazar, on a year-long mission. It’s the first time some of her classmates laugh at her. They say dropping out of school to follow an alignment of stars in search of some child king of an obscure prophecy is like throwing your future away. Melki wonders if they are right. Maybe it is the wimpiest thing she’s ever done.
What Melki doesn’t know is that to succeed at this top secret mission she’ll have to give up the gig of being courageous for her own sake and learn what it means to be courageous for the sake of a story much larger than her own.