A year and some months had passed since Reese leaned, he was gateless. His father had moved back in not long after he had left. Things were awkward for a while, but for the most part, his life returned to the way it was and remained as it was.

Except now he had two new little sisters, having never had the chance to be a big brother, he was excited at the prospect of it. At the very least, he hoped he’d be better than Nemi was to him. Meerlet was born of his mother Lilith in early Cutiola or the eleventh month, she was a quiet ball of curiosity who seemed to watch everything.

Mabel was his other slightly younger sister and was born a month later in the middle of Deciamon, not far from his own birthday. Reese had bearly seen her since she was born. He kind of felt bad about that, but at the same time things had returned to normal in his house. Crossing lines should be avoided, for now. There would be a time in the future when they would meet, he was sure of it.

Family aside, it was summer once again with it’s warm and long days. The perfect opportunity to try out more spell casting. Despite the seemingly hopeless nature of it all, he had to keep trying. On one positive note though, Reese had found the perfect spot to test his casting. There was a nice sized hill not far behind his house that overlooked the local lake. It wasn’t secluded, but it was far enough away from people that there was no risk of a spell going wild, or more likely being embarrassed when it didn’t.

He had given up the traditional methods of spell casting, there was no way to make spell spoke work. But, that left invoking and runic casting as hopeful possibilies. It was just a matter of figuring out how to actually do them. The fact that you could enchant random items meant there had to be a way to use magic without the spoken spell craft.

'There just had to be.' Reese would insist to himself.

Recently, there had been some fire dragon sightings to the west. Not uncommon for this time of year, and they rarely came close to the village. But it gave Reese something to think and daydream about. It was a reason to learn magic so that he could defend the village against them! Should they attack.

It was a silly thought, the thought of a child not an adult. Though, to be fair, he was physically a child.

A light breeze blew on the hill. As he held his hand out, he couldn’t help but picture a rather large and fearsome dragon in front of him, it's breath rustling the tree and grass, as he went over the incantation in his head once more. He accompanied these with subtle movements and shifts, far more than would otherwise be needed “Streams of water, that fill the air. Come forth into and out of my hand. Water surge and water toil, bubble, bubble boil and strike! Water Bolt!”

Nothing happened, again. What was the saying about insanity? He knew invoking could require or be aided by body movements, but it was all just guess work what those were.

From a distance, one might see the child and presume he was playing “mage". To a degree that might have been accurate, but in Reese’s eyes, he wasn’t playing. This was a spell, a rather simple spell, though perhaps not the simplest. There were several ways to cast water bolt, he chose the most straight forward spell he could find as base. He knew his stance was good, his hand movements almost perfect as he traced the runes from the glyph in the air and spoke the words, things you shouldn't have even needed to do. He tried again, and again, till his body and mind grew tired, nothing.

It should have worked; something should have worked.

He swore could feel something with this spell, it was just too weak to form anything. It’s why he kept trying after learning he was gateless. Those subtle sensations had to mean something was happening! It actually gave him a path forward, if could just use the mana around him instead of inside him, maybe it would work. Only problem, he still had no control over the mana around him. There was the feeling of it moving, more like shifting, when he moved right, but it was too subtle and not enough. His head heavy with thoughts fell forward as he sat down on the ground and sighed.

Maybe he was just trying to convince himself it wasn’t hopeless. It wasn’t like he needed to be magically adept merchants, scribes, and other mundanes could get away without needing it. Though, the idea of a life spent copying books and texts by hand was not appealing.

Being gateless sucked.

Taking a break, he looked around at his home village, the place he may end up spending his life. His hill wasn’t too tall. He couldn’t see over the old keep, but he could make out most buildings near the center of town. It was a decent sized village for this world. A sign outside the mayor’s house said something like 730 people. The village was large enough to have multiple market buildings and even an open-air market that would occasionally hold a traveling merchant or two in route one of the surrounding cities or other villages. They would stop there, usually on their way up to or from Paved Road, aptly named for the fact that it was one of the few paved with stone.

Thinking about roads, Old Keep Road was the road that went past the Keep and his house. Mountain Pass, went up past the mountains in the far distance to the west, which is also where the fire dragons tended to nest. It also passed through the center of town. Bridge road was the road that led up to a bridge and then connected to Paved Road. Reese had noticed a pattern, and a lack of creativity in street names. At least they made sense.

“Should I just give up?” He said to no one. It seemed useless to continue. A year after learning he was gateless, and there was obviously no serious progress. He could try and work on those other projects he had in mind. He had yet to see a mechanical clock anywhere, maybe that was something he could do instead.

‘Reese the clock maker!’ The title mused in his head. It would need work.

Foosh.

The sound of a rather large fire bolt could be heard in the not-too-distant distance. A light flew into the sky and dispersed. He had seen that same thing before, about a month ago. It’s what led him to come out to the hill in the first place, curiosity. Clearly it wasn’t a dragon, they would have targeted the buildings and people, not the sky.

Foosh.

Another one. Tracing the angle, he could see roughly where it came from. An area just across Mountain Pass Road, next to the currently empty school house. There appeared to be a small girl just sitting in the vacant school yard, casting spells to the sky.

This was something worth investigating. Gathering his makeshift notebook, he headed off to meet this young mage.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

As he grew closer her features became apparent. She was small, like him, so either she truly was a child or a dwarf. The former seemed most likely. Her hair was braided in something like a French Braid and was almost black but had a deep purple hue to it. That probably meant she was part elf, maybe? He still wasn’t sure how genetics worked in this world. Her skin color meant she was human or elf of the planes, basically a Caucasian like him.

FOOSH!

He could feel the heat off that one.

The young girl sighed as she watched the fire ball coast into the sky and evaporate. Someone would be by soon to tell her to stop, that’s how it always was. Or at least, how it usually was.

“Hi!”

With a start the young girl ducked. Clearly, she was half expecting him to yell and the other half expecting him to hit her. But neither of those happened.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Reese.” He held his hand out, either to help her up or just to shake it. In truth, he still wasn’t quite sure what the normal greetings were, but this seemed friendly enough.

She looked at the hand and then the small boy, and back at the hand. Her own arm extended out in uncertainty, shaking slightly as she met his. “I’m Emilie. Are you here to ask me to stop?”

Reese looked into her hazel colored eyes, he couldn't help think how alike they looked to his. Something about her, reminded him of himself, like a part of her was struggling with something deep.

“No! I saw your casts. They’re amazing! I’ve never seen anyone cast spells that big. I’ve been trying to learn, but, well I have some issues.” He found it hard to contain his excitement. There were only a handful of people in the village who could really cast spells. None could cast them as large as Emilie could, and none were around his own age so were less willing to even talk to him.

“Oh” She didn’t know what to make of him. Normally people were scared of her. No child should be able to cast fire bolts as large as hers. No child should be able to create a flood just by saying a word. No child should associate with a freak like her. At least, that’s what she thought.

For a few moments the two stood together, neither quite sure what to say or do next.

Taking some more initiative, Reese started the conversation “Ummm. So, how do you do that?”

“Hmm, you mean the fire bolt?” she thought for a minute about how to explain it. She was born with a massive and very well-ordered gate, spell casting was just natural to her. “I just, do.” Shrugging, she wasn’t sure how else to explain it. Adults were always asking that question too and she didn't know how to answer them either. It wasn’t worth thinking about too much, since he was probably going to get mad at her and leave.

Instead of leaving, Reese opened his book and turned to a mostly blank page, save for one magic glyph on it. He turned it around to show Emile, “Do you see something like this in your head when you cast?”

She took the bindings, and realized how hazardous it was. It felt like it was homemade as a few pages already started slipping out. “Umm, I think so.” She studied the image; it looked like the one in her mother's book. In fact, it was almost identical. “Yeah. This is the same drawing that was in my mom's book. I saw it when I was younger. Any time I thought about it, my hands would get warm.” She wanted to look through the rest of his book or more accurately papers, but thought it would be rude, so she gave it back to him.

“I remember later my mother was in our back field with it and said some words and he started a fire. When I tried to copy them, I ended up lighting the whole field on fire.” Emile looked deeply regretful for that and began to cry a bit but did not sob.

'Why was he still there?' She wondered.

“I'm sorry Emile. I didn't mean to make you cry, I just…” Reese paused, the only big fire he could remember was over three years ago. His father got the whole guard unit on a water brigade. If she was the same age then her first spell cast would have been around age three? “How old are you, Emile?”

“I was six last fall, I'll be seven this.”

Amazing. This girl truly had to be a prodigy. Even the most capable magicians don't start spell casting till much later than that. “That's amazing!” he couldn't help but shout at the surprised girl.

“Eh?” Again she recoiled from him. This boy's excitement didn't make any sense to her.

“You know most normal people don't cast their first spell till they’re 10 years old or later? Even the most successful magicians don't start casting until they're like 7. There’s only one story I know if that's earlier than that and that guy was like 5. You’re absolutely amazing! You have to teach me.”

He knew she probably couldn't teach him, at least not directly. But maybe if he watched her, he might better understand what made her so much more powerful, and ultimately give him insights into his own disorder and ways around it. Magic had a well-ordered structure to it, all his books showed that. It was less ‘magical’, and more like another set of rules this universe used. He just needed to figure out how it all worked.

Being close to the solstice, the afternoon was one of the longest of the summer, yet it felt like no time at all. Reese was right Emilie was beyond amazing, and she found him interesting too, he seemed to know more about what she was actually doing than she did. His notebook had ten new pages full of notes and ‘scribbles’ as he watched her cast several more spells.

“You said your hands got hot when you think about this glyph too?” He held up a new glyph, one he drew from memory a few minutes ago.

“Mhm. Not hot, but yeah warm. Once…” She paused, still unsure if she should continue. “Once, I made a fire without saying any words. It just came out.”

‘No words’. He thought about it for a movement. Certainly, his books had mentioned voiceless and even 'castless' spell casting. The theories and descriptions were all over the place though. Each book seemed to have a different way and explanation to get there. All of them required a foundation too that often didn't overlap. It's like no one fully knew and were all just guessing based on what worked. It was also the area that invoking seemed to exist in, so Reese was particularly invested in her answers.

“Were you able to do that with any other spells”

Emilie paused, “Well, the water spells I know leave my hands wet when I think about them. Also, once I cast something really big with just one word.”

Focusing on that point, he encouraged her to try casting a few small water bolt spells. Each time, Reese could almost feel what was described in the books. That sensation of mana moving around him, but not through him. Like something was flicking at his skin but just couldn't go deeper, it was very subtle. Like it ignored him and didn't want to interact, which it probably did.

“So, how does it feel when you say the words. Does the spell just come out?”

“No. When I cast the spell, I can feel the mana running up my body and into my arm. Each word feels stronger, until I reach the end.”

“What happens if you stop halfway.”

“Nothing. Sometimes my hand gets wet if I’d doing a water bolt, but it’s not a water bolt.”

“And when you say it different, it’s just less strong, most times?”

She nodded. “Sometimes it doesn’t work.”

He continued to jot down notes in his journal. It didn’t quite make sense yet, but a picture was emerging. Reese knew Emilie had a gate, a large and organized one at that. It was like the spell was activating it, causing it to move mana around like she wanted, but inside of her. Maybe the words weren’t what mattered, and it was the sounds. He pondered that idea more.

The gate seemed more like a skeleton key that opened up different sized doors to mana. The key could be configured and shaped by feelings and thoughts, which meant accessing different types of mana. Then, something else would happen. He wasn’t quite sure how, but something controlled how it left the body, that control, that shape seemed to give mana its power as a spell.

Of course, that didn’t explain how people could ‘store’ mana, or a host of other questions, some of which he hadn’t even thought of.

He opened his ever-growing notebook and flipped between two labeled pages titled “Spell Invoking” and “Silent Casting”. It all referenced training your gate, except for the very first example he saw.

“Can I control the shape of mana without a gate?” He jotted the note on paper and began sketching ideas below it.

The end of day bell rang in the distance, it signaled the normal time markets closed, and people would go home for the day. Time-wise, that made it 6PM. Off in the distance, a woman called to Emilie. Reese vaguely recognized them as one of the shopkeeper from the marketplace when his mother took him.

“I have to go.” She paused before walking away. “I’m usually out here casting spells by myself. If you want to come by again?”

Reese closed his notebook and with the biggest smile he could manage nodded “Yeah!”