I was ready for my life on the wall. I had nothing to pack, ive read every book on every topic I could get my hands on, and was fantasizing about my life. For the first three days I imagined that I would be shipped any minute.

A week past and still nothing. I had nothing to do, I couldn't use mana the guards didn't like it when I did. All I could do was eat , shit , stretch ? read ... Bored . I am so bored. what are they waiting for, ill go there my self , give me a map and ill take care of the rest.

Bureaucracy doesn't work like that. First they had to send the decision to the Aura temple in the capital, that's at least a weak ride away, they have to review it and that takes time, then they send a decision back. Im still a minor and have six months to majority so I cant go to the wall before then, and I cant be kept in a normal dungeon, so im still here. Im going stir crazy.

Eric is no longer in the mansion, shame I thought we could become friends. Raymond and Lady whatever haven't visited. all my info came from a Clerk that had to send everything to the temple. And who the guard bugged ,when I in turn bugged them.

The same clerk handed me a Iron card with my name and the mage guild association Sigel carved on it. This was my mage card , it even registered my mana. it had other functions but the main one it served was identity. The clerk didn't elaborate and waved my questions off , the asshole.

Its been Two weeks , and I was getting clusterphobic. they finally let me out in a courtyard were I can run and breath more. I had to wear a bracelet and I could see more of those squiggly lines that had something to with magic.

After a while I was allowed to move, I could not take the bracelet off , couldn't leave this court yard or the wing I was stationed at but I had more room to breathe , and a room of my own.

ive never had a room just for me. I mean technically the cell in the dungeon was just for me but this felt different. I took a bath , preparing my own water no need to call any one , a bit more than a month ago and i would have been one the people to call. I was given new clothes, and served food to my own room. Nobel people food, with fruits even though its winter , cream and freshly baked bread. I devoured it all, im still growing and i cant afford to waste anything . I eat the full serving I was given. always. they might treat me like a Nobel but I would never leave food uneaten , even if the staff usually finished what the guests left. I couldn't do that.

And just like that , Two more weeks went by . People were leaving everyday. I was alone on one the third floor east wings, so i saw less people already , but now I couldn't find a soul unless I walked for a while. No maids came by, noonw except me and the occasional guard. I would spend my days reading , or practising a bit of magic , floating all I can. I was very familiar with library by now and except for the occasional useful book, I found most to be stupid poems that make no sense or better yet a dry history book about the empire. and what happened.

i read a few books that where helpful though. I learned that there five races , well four and dragons. dragons were the first and oldest race. they were also the least in quantity. elves came after , the masters of forest, they lived long lives compared to the rest , not including the immortal dragon's, and were also comparably few. The built the villages in forests and lived with nature. They breathed magic and where the first inscriptionsits. that's the squiggly lines I saw a few times. dwarves came after and lived in or on top of mountains. The smelted metals and crafted golems to do there bidding. Demons are the last before us, derogatory called beastmen, they had great physique and a child could crush an adult human. then the last came us. and boy were we a downgrade. compared to the rest we had nothing going for us , we had a weaker version of every race specialty but otherwise nada. sometimes a Named would spawn among us. a great mage that would change the course of our civilization but otherwise we were weaker. for the longest time we lived with other races depending on them. our short lives, and fragile body's couldn't keep up. and we had no safe place to call home , until we concurred half of what was then the new continent . propaganda at its finest , who know how it was , but every book on the subject is very proud.

I also learned the the Wall is a misnomer and there actually Five walls. the first stands alone and is manned by new mages and soldiers. the second and third are close to each other creating a kill zone between. the fourth and fifth like wise. the wall are set as more of a funnel instead of an actual divider. the design seemed complicated and more work than necessary, but hey if you can grow a building out of thin air , why not ?

Finally I was handed off on a sunny day to a company of soldiers heading to the wall. I was there I would be sent to a training camp for the remaining duration of my final year of childhood. the trip two weeks , the soldiers never really manged to figure out how to treat me. On one hand I was a mage, on the other a convicted felon. They must of not fought much of me. I was not guarded by anyone , I had a wagon to ride with other mages instead on foot like the rest. I didn't need to cook, set a tent or wash a dich. I nearly ran away just to kill the boredom. I missed the days were I would just zone out. at the end I finally manged to find something to occupy my mind . mainly the squiggly things on my card. I tried understanding how they work and after days of experiments , I got nothing. pushing mana on to them did nothing. writing the same squiggly lines on anything else and pushing mana did nothing. I experimented a lot and then just gave up. Instead I tried to figure out how my own magic worked.

So far all I did to use mage was sort ask my mana to do something, and it did. that's it. the request has to be precise , or more importantly the less precise the more mana it used. the instructions on how to achieve the effect I want in relation to physics has to be known by me. That part depended on johns amateur knowledge on physics. they were also given in a sequence. so far ive always done this mostly subconsciously . Editing the physics of the world as easily as breathing. my favourite trick of throwing pebbles was simply imparting the kinetic force of a bullet to the object I wanted to fire. somewhere along the way i added any force of resistance on the object to its acceleration. and all of that was done in my half addled brain.

I kept trying many things , until the captain asked me stop. They didn't appreciate the sounds of explosions I was making every day we stopped. I reluctantly agreed and kept to the most taming experiments. ... I still couldn't fly, I could float by cancelling gravity a bit and then push my self this or that direction, but I couldn't fly.

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its start and if I get good enough at it one day I would stop looking like im stuck mid-air.

On the last day of the journey as we reached our destination I couldn't keep my mouth shut. it hung open , mine and every over soldier that was new, the veterans looked at us and snickered as we watched the looming 100 meter wall get bigger and bigger as we got closer. Ive seen skyscrapers in my memory I shouldn't be stunned but it was an entirely new experience no matter what I remembered. the wall was Huge, and it full with holes for archers and mages id guess. as we lined up to cross the gate at the bottom, I realized it was also wide, enough to house an army camp inside. I was walking by this point until we reached the stables , the company that was with us vanished midway through , and all that was left was the three mages that were with me and the captain.

we headed to a room, we head to wait outside until we were let in. Inside was an old man with mean eyes , wearing the same chitin black amor the soldiers wore, yet his looked more dignified, he had white shall covering his nick and his desk was filled with papers.

The captain handed the Major papers that he was carrying after saluting .They spoke and the captain left. The Major addressed us directly after leaving us staring at him writing for a while , the room almost Silent if not for the sounds of writing.

" I am Major Dublenshaft i am the head of mage liaison office for the first wall army encampment, it is my honour to congratulate gentlemen and lady's , as of this moment you have been drafted into the army "

"While your are in the army you will have the Rank knight , that is the mage equivalent of a solider, not a lieutenant, not a captain nothing more than a soldier. and soldiers gentlemen do what there told "

" you do not pick were you are assigned , we pick for you , you wake up when we tell you , you eat when we tell you and you stand were we tell you . I don't care who your father is , who your mother knows or who will hear about this. you do as your told and you do not complain , Im. I . clear. ?"

at there nods he asked

" I did not hear an answer when I ask a question I expect an answer followed by sir now im I a clear ?"

""Yes , sir ""

" Good ... , Mark "

a solider opened the door at his call

" take our new knights to the Armory to get supplied and then to there rooms "

I moved with others to follow mark but major serous stopped me.

" Not you Knight Anna "

after everyone left he carried on

"knight Anna and as unbecoming of that title you may as well be, you are still a knight , and a minor and a convict. "

"To top it all up your recommended Rank is a third rank mage , to say your case is complicated is an understatement. I will explain everything to you as I see it. You will be treated as a normal knight while you are here, the anklet you wear will not restrict your movement anywhere between the first and last wall. You are free to move outside duty hours as you please. Keep in mind however that any crime committed will bear the maximum punishment after being stripped of your rank. you had one second chance and you have received it no more will be handed out "

"you will spend 30 years here on top of the ten your draft service requires. That is forty years if you do not advance you rank enough to stand on the third, fourth or fifth wall. should you stand on the third wall your time will be halved, on the fourth halved again , you need only spend five years on the fifth wall to end your service. if you mange to live that is . "

"as you are a minor you will spend the next five months in training here in camp with your fellow new mages. You will not be paid during this duration. ask the treasurer for more details. any questions ? "

"... do you have a library ? .... eh sir "

"Gai save me from moody teenagers ..... where do you think we are Knight Anna ? This is not the academy , this is a fort , so no we do not have a library ... Max .. take miss Anna to the quartermaster and then find her a dorm "

all I asked was if there was a library didn't have to go off on me ...

I followed max, a different max which I thought was weird down again across and then up again, this place was like an ants nest and all the while max spoke

" .. rule of thumb is anything with administration is on the right, dorms on the left. and canteen on the top or very bottom. you will find wash room near to your dorms I would recommend its the first thing you memorise. Wall facing devers is painted white, the other has strips every so often. you will get used. if you get lost carry on until you find someone who can help you .. here we are the Armory ill wait outside... and its Richard , max quit last week and it takes three of us to cover for him now ... "

" Thanks "

I headed inside and was face to face with a tired looking clerk behind a desk.

" Name and Rank "

hello to you too , im ok and you

" Anna and ah third rank I think .. here I have a card "

he looked at me ...

"keep you card we don't have the fancy equipment of mage guild miss Anna ... what is you last name ? .. "

"ah I don't have one ? I don't think I do im an orphan "

he sighed

" orphans have last names to miss Anna let me see the card ... here we go Caldas , I take it that's the town were you grow up , that's how it goes usually. I see you are a new so knight. pay attention to the terms we use , Mage rank is used only the association, Military Rank is for the army they are completely different things , and we are in the army "

ok I officially hate this guy, I gave him my card , he dismissed it ,im obviously new but he asks for a rank anyway. fucking weird fuck.. flipping through his weird book.

" *sigh* here you are, you have been issued standard mage gear and standard solider gear and you have things left hear that were taken at the time of your arrest. You have five months until your first payment. as convict you will receive two tenths of you salary only. please sign hear after checking that everything on the list was received. "

I read the list then stared at the ring and then backup at the clerk ..

"push mana in to it Knight Anna and you will see everything that is in there "

I did and was surprised to know what was there. not like an image I just knew what was in the ring and could call it out. it took very little mana to summon the pillow case I had stuffed with everything when I ran away, I checked inside and found the coins but no ring.

I guess they gave it to the father .... I didn't know what I had when I took it off ...him.

I took my time checked everything and I signed , I left and followed Maxs replacement number 2 in a daze until I reached the dorm he knocked and I went inside. it had two bunkbeds and one looked used but no one was in the room. max left and I just took out the blankets made my bed and dove in. I was tired .. not physically but the day was draining and ive been travelling for a couple of weeks. I wanted the day to end and my mind to stop remembering. I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep , letting the cold pillow I took from my new storage ring cool my head.