I found myself wondering, which elements will become my friends? Can I be the type of person that lots of different elements will respect? What will they respect, anyway?
David startled me when he started to speak. "There are always people who want power. There are always some who want lots of different types of elements to obey them, instead of just a small group." When he said that, I started guiltily. He didn't seem to notice though. There was a distance in his speech. He seemed to be thinking about something long ago, and far away. "For those people, there is another route to power."
"They become witches, don't they?"
David nodded. "They know one simple thing. They know that all of the elements value life. So they start making threats. They're usually small threats at first--'do what I want, or I'll shoot this cat.' Something like that. The problem with threats is, if you don't actually carry them out every now and then, nobody believes that you're serious. So they start killing. And when they do, they find that for a little while, every nearby element is at their beck and call. That's when the real trouble starts."
"They get addicted to the power, and to the killing, and . . ." my voice trailed off.
"Yeah, exactly. They get addicted to the power, and to the killing, and so pretty soon they start trying to do more things, and bigger things. When they do, the elements start to resist. See, when they're asking something small, the elements say, 'it's just a little thing. This little life is far more important than that little thing that he's asking us to do.'"
I saw it in my mind, then, the ever escalating quest for more power, and the ever-increasing lust for blood that accompanied it. I saw how a witch would begin torturing his victims to make their deaths more horrific to the elements. I saw how he might start killing multiple victims, sometimes even hundreds or thousands in a quest to gain power. I saw all of those things, but I also saw that this was the way to true power. None of the elements would disobey. In essence, if a man was willing to kill, the universe was his to command. A thousand questors would not be able to stand against a single powerful witch.
Once again, David's voice startled me. "There's a problem with this power, though. It's the same thing that every dictator has to deal with. Treachery. I don't know why we look down on traitors so. I mean, if a ruler is truly evil and corrupt, why do we look down on those who betray that ruler? Aren't they committing a crime that benefits mankind? And if something benefits mankind, is it really a crime? Anyway, most witches die because the elements that they're trying to command betray them. Those who live by the sword die by the sword."
I nodded, still thinking about the immense power that some of the great witches must have had.
"You know, the really sad thing about witchcraft is that it takes the very best."
"What do you mean?"
"Witchcraft destroys your life. Everything that you love, everything that makes you happy becomes a tool for gaining more power. Your life is consumed by a continuous quest for power. Where I come from, everybody knows that. Everybody's seen someone, or knows someone who's become a witch, and they've seen what happened to those people. That's probably the biggest deterrent for most people. They may want the power, but they're not willing to destroy their own life to get it."
"That makes sense. "
David smiled sadly. "Yeah. See, most of the time, the only ones who are willing to sacrifice that much to gain power are the ones who have tasted real power before. They're the very best questors, but they feel that they're limited by the fact that only some of the elements respect them. They want to continue to progress, and they convince themselves that the only way they can is to start down the path of witchcraft. It doesn't take long for them to lose any of the respect that the elements had for them. Once they start down that path, there's no turning back."
It was getting late. The day had passed quickly. We had made a lot of progress. My thoughts were racing. So much to think about. So much to wonder about. But I still had one question. "David?"
I must have startled him, because he jumped a little when I spoke. "What's up?"
"Why would . . . Hmm. OK. If someone started to learn magic, and had everything that he needed to be great, why would he choose to leave that path?"
He stopped in his tracks and just stood there for a while. "I don't think he would. But I think that as he walked his own path, he might find that magic had left his path instead of the other way around."