Isaac was beyond a child prodigy. He developed magic powers even younger than most sorcerers in Cheliax (and there are many) and was zipping objects around the room by the time he could walk. He was enrolled in a small magic academy at age ten. He was tested and shown to have an amazing amount of raw magical power, in terms of pure magical battery his power was second to none even among his significantly older seniors. However, he never progressed. Two years passed before he was expelled from the academy. The cantrips he did to make his parents laugh at six were as much as he could power through at age twelve. His parents, not precisely nobles but people with ride and some small social standing, refused to take him back as a disgraced dropout from a magical academy in a country where tracking with fiends is the way to the top so he was on his own.
He was working his tricks in the street for breadcrumbs, but had the boy was frustrated. He could feel the power flow when he launched a stone a hundred feet in the air and knew there was something more. Cheliax is not a kind country to vagrants, but he was clever. He performed in many stoops and when it rained he slept in doorways before the guards came and kicked him awake and sent him scurrying.
Suddenly everything stood still. Dogs stopped barking, water froze in the air from puddles as wagons driving by stopped. A woman in a grey cloak stood with her back to the boy. The back of her hood had a small mask insignia stitched on it.
"I know how you can grow stronger, boy," she said "I know why the Chelaxians can't teach you. There is more than devils and shadows teach about magic, a fact often forgotten by people here. I can show you." She tapped a doorframe three times on the top and once on each side and gestured for the boy to follow. The world grew dark and words rapidly flew by.
"Your powers come from portals" "The planes are made of walls and doors" "Magical power flows like water, where there is a breach in the walls that guide it, it will flow."
Suddenly the boy awoke, stronger than ever, ten years older and with a mysterious orb and instructions from The Goddess of Doors. He feels stronger, speaks new languages (he learned a little Infernal at a magic academy in Cheliax but not much) and vaguely remembers things he was taught but it's hard to pull it back together now.
