Chapter 5

Interlude

Eighteen years ago

The boy, Lachlan Quinn, had lived in his new foster home for two years. Two years of sixteen-hour days. From the first day, he found that Mr. MacLeish, as the boy called the stern remote man who was his new father, had specific ideas of how a young boy should be educated. Ideas that came more from the German Apprenticeship Model rather than old Horace Mann’s ideas of primary and secondary schooling for children.

The boy had tutors that over the years eventually included half the magic crafters of Emory. He found working and learning from them fascinating and frustrating. Try as he might, he could never seem to approach the level of perfection that they achieved with the products/art they produced.

He found them confusing as well. When Mr. MacLeish brought him around, almost all of them gave him a warm welcome (contrary to the welcome he received from the witch-crafters). After they saw he was a serious boy, hardworking and polite, most were eager to show him their craft. They encouraged his endless questions—unless they were in their magic-induced Flow State—then their personality change was profound and radical. They went from warm to remote; he learned early on that a boy who interrupted for any reason during Flow State was quickly banished from the shop.