The Warlock and the Pupil

One day, many years ago, I met a warlock I admired greatly. His knowledge of the world and the people in it greatly exceeded my own and I was determined to learn from him. Luckily, he was very generous and spoke with me at length about magic and how it works.

But when he told me about a curse he had thrown and how he put his victim in the hospital with it, I interrupted him. "Aren't you afraid that will come back on you?" I asked. "Don't bad deeds come back to haunt you?"

He sneered at me as if I had insulted him and said, "Dear son, if you are ever to practice magic you must learn one thing and learn it now. That good and evil are just like right and wrong, they're ideas that are as individual as fingerprints. Hardly a deed done in the world has been evil because the doer has always thought it just. Never throw a curse you believe to be unjust and it will never come back to haunt you."

With that he turned and walked away.

Many years passed, I grew older and wiser. I went to college and even got engaged to a wonderful woman. However, a blonde girl with too much energy and too little brains kept trying to come between my love and me. Even after subtle and not-so-subtle hints she continued to pursue me with greater and more irritating vigor.
One day, she wouldn't leave me alone and wouldn't even listen to what I had to say. I stormed home, remembered the warlock's advice and threw my curse. I threw it without remorse, regret or caution for I was in the right and there was no room for such things.

The next day, the girl fell ill with a mysterious lung ailment and was forced to miss most of the rest of the semester. She found herself very far behind and failed most of her courses. Rumor spread that she was even thinking about dropping out.

Soon thereafter I saw the warlock again. He somehow remembered me and asked me how I was doing. I told him, "I threw a curse just as you said. Because of it, a beautiful, friendly and sociable girl fell ill, missed class and may have to drop out of college. But I was within my right, I knew it then and I know it now. It has not come back to haunt me and I don't fear it will."

The warlock smiled and said, "My son, you are well on your way." With that, he turned and walked away from me, never to speak to me again.

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5 Responses to The Warlock and the Pupil

  1. Cloud_9 says:

    This story was very difficult for me to grasp. First of all, I wanted to know more about this warlock, I had a hard time understanding that the speaker learned all about black magic (so much infact that he was able to practice it himself) in as little as what seemed like one conversation and also that the warlock was so willing to speak about it. I DID like the "moral" as you may call it, that you shouldn't cast curses that are unjust and doing so protects it from coming back on you. But then the story just veers off in college somewhere and you really get pulled from the warlock thing. It all just happens way to quickly and maybe if you would have given more imagery and sensory details to make things more real and "in your face" it would have held more of an interest. The sequence of the events also seemed to cause a problem for this story. Please take no offense to this but if i might suggest a different sequence for the story it would be to start right from the beginning of the main characters engagement and introduce the pesky pain in the butt girl. Then maybe the warlock could have been his room mate and he could ask for help from him. Also, I wanted to know WHAT things the girl was doing that was being a bother to him and his fiance. This story really has the potential to be very good not that it isnt already a very good idea. I just think you needed to put more time in it and extend it. The main conflict in the story was unclear too. I know that it was the pesky chick but that conflict was resolved so easily and with very few complications. Dialogue is always a plus and this story really benefit from some more. Keep writing!

  2. Bran. says:

    This was the very first story I've ever read when I first stumbled onto your site so many years ago. At the time, I was in a huge puzzle about curses and supersitions concerning those curses. Your story at least helped me get out of that maze, and I fell in love… With how you wrote in such simple, clear sentences to convey a deeper meaning if one knew how to read between the lines in such stories. The point is … I still fell in love and am a Warlock fan!

  3. Britt says:

    This was the third story that I had read and I wnjoyed reading it. It had a great moral as you would say and I liked how the main point was the guy trying to figure things out mostly for himself. Given some good advice from the warlock. And I like how the story was not stuck on just the warlock but we could of used a little more info. about him.

  4. Devils child says:

    That was a cool story and you sould have explaned the worlock more then you did but i liked that story keep wrighting things.
    Dark blissings

  5. Giovanni Garcia says:

    It was an alright story. However, that short was inadequate on elaboration. Keep on trying….

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