Free The First Life of Tanan by Andrew Riley Page A

Soama.
    More gently, Soama said, “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t change what happened.  Please listen to what I am saying to you.”
    Tanan nodded, “Sorry, Soama.”
    Soama continued, “It is rare for a person to be able to harness and use magic.  There are five known branches of the magical arts.  For someone to be able to do more than one kind of magic with any proficiency is extremely rare.”
    “The first is what we call Environmental Manipulation, which is the ability to manipulate the elements.  The hot and cold tricks that you learned fall under this category.”
    “Then there is Healing Magic, which is what your father, grandfather and I can do to varying degrees.  When you were working in the garden, you learned a chant that eased the pain in your back, proving that you are able to  perform healing magic.”
    “The third kind of magic is Protective Magic.  What you did yesterday, without fully understanding it, was Protective Magic.”
    “The fourth kind of magic is Temporal Manipulation, or the ability to effect the flow of time.  I know very little about that kind of magic, but I have a suspicion that you might have some ability in that one as well.”
    “The final branch is, of course, Offensive Magic.  Throughout history there have been very few Abbots who had any talent with it.  I don’t think it should be considered a proper branch of magic.”
    “Tanan, you have shown that you have the ability to perform three kinds of magic.  If my suspicion about your ability to perform temporal manipulation is correct, you will be the first person that we know of who has shown talent in all four of the main branches.”
    Tanan stood up from the table.  “I don’t think I want to be able to do any of it if it means I’m going to hurt people.”
    “You have no choice in the matter.  You can’t wish it away any more than you can wish away the color of your eyes. What you can do, is learn to understand your abilities and control them so that what happened yesterday never happens again.”
    “But why me?” asked Tanan.  “Why me?”
    “I don’t know, Tanan.  The Brotherhood of Abbots have studied magic for a thousand years and we still know very little about why anyone has the gift.  Magical ability can be passed from parent to child, but not always.  Sometimes, parents with no magical ability have a child with extraordinary abilities.  Like many things in life, it is a mystery.”
    Tanan crossed his arms in front of him.  “The King’s men are going to kill me when they find me.  I killed the Constable, and I’m a Lataki anyway.  Maybe that’s why I killed him.”
    Soama sighed, “Sit down, Tanan.”
    Tanan sat.
    “Despite what you’ve heard about the Lataki, they are not mindless killers.  The difference between the Komisani and the Lataki is that the Lataki live a nomadic life and the Komisani have developed a somewhat more advanced civilization.  The truth of the matter is that the Komisani have killed many Lataki to prevent them from coming too close to Komisan.  The Lataki fight amongst themselves, but even if they had the desire to come to Komisan, they have no organization, and inferior weapons.  They would stand no chance against the King’s Legion.”
    “How do you know that?” asked Tanan.
    “The island of Komisan is part of a much larger world.  The Brotherhood of Abbots is part of that larger world, as you will soon see.  You were right to say that the King’s men will kill you if they find you.  But we’re not going to let them find you.  When your grandfather arrives, we will leave Komisan and travel to a place where you will be able to learn to use your magic properly.”
    A fluffy grey cat walked into the kitchen and jumped up onto the table in front of Soama.  The Abbot removed a narrow leather collar from the animal, who meowed once, jumped down from the table and walked back out of the door it had come in.
    “Was that the cat that’s