William was nearly four hundred years old and the last of his kind, or so he thought. The "Gifted," as they were once called, helped humans survive the "dark years," but fear of their powers drove man to betray and murder them. William had escaped the genocide and traveled alone since childhood guided only by an inner desire to uncover the secrets of nature's magic and share them with those he deemed worthy. But he had not tutored a pupil for many years. His body aged again, his powers were fading, and he wandered aimlessly waiting to die. Just as he accepted the inevitability of his death, a...