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Anwar’s face, but it was gone just as quickly.
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Well then, you have two tasks to work on. In these next six weeks you will master the enchantments so that you can cast them perfectly, and you will study the introduction of battle spells and we will practice those. I believe that it may be some time after the creation of this great gift you are creating before you’re ready to practice magic. You will most likely be spending most of your time studying new spells before we are able to practice any. As for today, here is a blank spell book. Go copy down this scroll, and then study that book in your hand and tomorrow we will begin practicing your first battle spells.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    Anwar bowed slightly and headed back to his room.
    The first thing he did was copy the spell from the scroll into his book. As an apprentice he was allowed access into the wizards’ library and he had found the two other enchantments he intended to cast on Mariah’s coat, and copied those into his new spell book. It was his spell book. When he was finished he spent the rest of the morning memorizing the first enchantment, and then he went to meet Mariah for the midday meal. After that he studied his book on combat magic until Mariah came to get him for their daily training session. As Anwar and Mariah walked into the training ground, they saw two of the older students already there. They walked up to Mariah and Anwar and asked if they would like to spar. They were both in the Wizards’ guild school and Anwar knew neither had much aptitude for magic, but they were both pretty big. One was nearly as big as he was, and the other was a couple of inches taller and nearly as broad. These two never trained in the training grounds. They only trained with the guild guards, and Anwar had heard a number of the students over the last few weeks saying they would like to see a match between these two pairs. It seemed these students had taken that as a challenge.
    Anwar smiled. Pride can get you into trouble, he thought. They took up their positions in the ring opposite each other. Anwar saw that a crowd was already beginning to form. The two pairs spent fifteen minutes sparring; each pair scored numerous hits but Anwar and Mariah were getting the better of their opponents. After fifteen minutes, the larger of the two looked right at Anwar and said, “So, would you two like to make this a duel.” Anwar looked at Mariah who just smiled up at him. He shrugged his shoulders.
    “Sounds like fun.”
    They took their appropriate positions across from each other. The other pair came in hard, the big one coming in with a high and wide swing at Anwar’s head. The smaller of the two came in low at Mariah’s legs. It was an effective attack, if predictable. Anwar pushed his staff out in front of him sending the attack high and away, as Mariah jumped over the swing and kicked her opponent in the stomach before she came down perfectly balanced. And then they were fighting. Anwar and Mariah parried and defended in perfect unison. If one went to block a low swing the other was already blocking the high. They left nearly no openings. After a couple minutes of blocking and parrying, the opponents were fighting as fast and hard as they could. Anwar knocked a sword thrust high. Spun around Mariah who leveled a sword thrust into Anwar’s neck. His hands were still high and he could not get them down to defend. Mariah’s opponent thought he had her with a slash toward her neck. It never landed. Anwar’s came down on the top of his head. Both opponents had suffered what would have been killing blows. The big one stood, arms out, with Mariah’s sword at his neck and the other lay on the ground trying to collect his vision and wiping tears from his eyes.
    Mariah smiled at the big one and said, “That was fun! We would be delighted if you came back again.”
    As she turned to walk to her water, the big one swung angrily at her back.