Ciaran lay on his bed with his legs crossed and his arm in the air. The boy was spinning something around, a hat. It didn’t take long before the hat went flying into the wall and Ciaran had to look over and weigh whether he should go get it or not. Ciaran did, but reluctantly so.

Ciaran’s father was officially a Baron now, but long before then they had the wealth for such an action. It might not seem all that rich a move, but Ciaran’s disregard for such a hat was a true flex. A hat like the one he had was a luxury that could be passed down for a solid few generations, but so too could most of the clothes he wore.

This wasn’t to say Ciaran knew nothing of money, his father was a well acclaimed merchant, and a shrewd one at that. Although Ciaran had restarted lessons a few years ago after seeing Solas’s enthusiasm, that wasn’t the only way Alexander taught his children.

Though I guess knowing the value of something won’t stop a bored child from doing what they want. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, but boredom sure as hell did.

Ciaran didn’t have any lessons today at Mr Burtons, no one needed anything fixed or made. Ciaran was free for the entire afternoon, but that was the problem. It had been a solid few months since he was last free, he had no idea what to do.

It wasn’t a lack of options, but rather too many options that stumped him. he could go down and play by the river, or he could hang out with Caitiff, he could… he could… he could.

So many damn things to do, but such little time.

Ciaran held the hat in his hands and looked to the door of his room.

“Nah, I might as well just study.”

Ciaran had recently learnt that he would soon get his first circle engraved. This news was quite the shock to the boy as he had gotten it into his head somewhere along the line that such a thing only happened when you graduated. Nope, apparently the children got circles halfway through.

Ciaran picked up a book and got halfway to his desk, but he looked out the window. Big mistake.

There happened to be a tree that looked, REALLY climbable, and now Ciaran was up it.

It wasn’t like Ciaran wouldn’t get the blood if he failed any tests, so it should be fine. There was also the fact Ciaran thought he wouldn’t fail the tests whether he studied or not, but his father had drilled quite a few words about hubris into him… not like that mattered much.

On the downside Ciaran was doing something possibly dangerous to both his body and his future. on the upside, the view was absolutely stunning.

The sun shone from behind a great monolith of natural stone and washed over the forests. A vast ocean of light that enveloped everything in a warm haze. So many descriptors came t mind, but even the best of words failed to capture the image, it was better to just… enjoy.

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As the boy basked in the sun, an idea popped into his head and a smirk played on his lips. With a flourish Ciaran popped down from the tree and rushed back inside.

Ciaran entered the manor and went racing up to his brother’s room. with a BANG the door flew open, and the butler looked in awe at the end of the corridor. When Ciaran entered the room and left the butlers sight he muttered under breath.

“I swear, they are as bad as each other, maybe being single was a good thing after all.”

The man’s comment aside, Ciaran had successfully gotten Solas’s attention with his entrance. The boy was sitting with rock in his lap, the rock was dark grey in colour with veins of red peaking through.

The closer Ciaran moved to Solas, the more interested he became in the rock. The red veins were bright, strangely so, and it looked like some of the red was leaking out. Confused, Ciaran took off his monocle and the red dimmed.

This was the first time Ciaran had seen Aether in a rock. The boy had seen aether in the gems used for demonstrations, but this was different. Ciaran had managed to get himself sidetracked once again.

“Hey, Solas, what’s that?”

“It’s a cool rock; I found it on the ground!”

Indeed, it was a cool rock, Ciaran wasn’t going to question that. Where Solas found it was worth investigating though, but perhaps later.

“You wanna see something cooler?”

“Sure.”

As soon as Solas agreed he shot up and walked over to Ciaran. How readily Solas accepted was definitely a concern, but it wasn’t Ciaran’s problem, and so they set out.

Solas remembered something and posed a question as soon as they left the room.

“If it’s something cool, then shouldn’t we bring Nivia with us?”

“Good point, let’s ask mother.”

The two shot next door and surprisingly enough Aerecura agreed, she of course had to be the one carrying Nivia, but that was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was their mother’s suggestion to bring along their father. Without any objections Ciaran had managed to collect the entire family and lead them on a journey to… somewhere.

Now standing before the tree Ciaran pointed at it and proudly declared.

“it’s up there, the sky looks really cool!”

Ciaran’s father placed his hands on his hips and gave a light sigh mixed with a laugh, his mother on the other hand gave a bright chuckle.

Ciaran didn’t pay them much heed and instead readied himself to climb the tree again, but he found his mother’s hand on his back stopping him.

“come on now, we can’t all just climb up the poor tree.”

Before Ciaran could respond she looked to Alexander and with a smirk she spoke.

“If you would my dear.”

“of course, my love.”

Without warning the ground began to shift, the green grass turning into roots that slowly slithered upwards like snakes. Before long the ground was replaced with these roots and the family were being lifted to the sky on a platform of thriving nature.

The two children were left in awe while the third didn’t really care. Ciaran had seen magic before, he had even seen magic to do with plants before. Most of what he saw came from the school trip, but he had never seen one person use it on such a scale.

Their awe caused their father to finally break a chuckle and ask the boys.

“What? Did you think your old man wasn’t a mage?”

The two sounded back in tandem a resounding.

“NO!”

Their mother chimed in at their adamant refusal that they could have underestimated their parents.

“that’s good, because so am I”

When they turned to look at the woman they found that she had an arm outstretched and from it fell snow.

With the boys thoroughly shocked their father moved in and clasped her hand, the platform still moving upwards. a warm light came from his hands and melted away the snow that hadn’t yet escaped.

“that’s enough my dear, you wouldn’t want to catch a chill now, would you?”

“Of course not, now get over here.”

As their mother leaned into their father the platform arrived at its destination above the treetops. There in the sea of light Ciaran lamented.

“Aww, it’s gone down a bit, it was WAY cooler before.”

Despite his complaint, no more words were said as the group basked in the view. Solas was mightily tempted to say something, but looking down knocked that idea right out of his head.