[Interim Errantry 2.30] • On Ordeal · Ronan Nolan Jnr

A wizard's Ordeal is intensely personal, and sometimes intensely dangerous... or not. Each Ordeal is tailored to the wizard who may pass it -- or fail to pass. Each one is in some ways diagnostic of the innermost nature of the wizard who embraces the challenge offered them by the Powers that Be.

This is the Ordeal of Ronan Nolan, who'd always felt himself both the odd man out, the one who couldn’t figure out where he fit in — and the one who didn’t stand out, who got lost in the crowd, who was never going to be anything unusual. He was starting to feel as if there wasn’t any particular point in life, because he was never going to make that much of a difference to anyone or anything.

Then Life took an interest.

Without warning Ronan was about to find himself the crux of an argument between forces older than Earth itself… and the recipient of an unfolding challenge that would change many more worlds than just one.

On Ordeal: Ronan Nolan Jnr. is a 53,000-word canonical work in the Young Wizards universe. It's one of the triptych of Ordeal tales appearing in Interim Errantry 2: On Ordeal.