My son is growing into a problem. He is a prodigy, a real prodigy. I grew up under the impression that I was a prodigy, but my son puts that into a whole new perspective. I learned both fire and wind magic considerably faster than my peers. It took me one week at three years old to use a 1st circle spell. I remember the first spell I've ever used was Flame Circle which was the precursor to Ring of Fire, a higher-tiered 3rd circle spell. My father was so proud of me at that time it almost brought him to tears. I had advantages growing up, I learned quickly, but there were problems living in a noble house. There were spies.
Three days after I cast the Flame Circle spell successfully, an assassin tried to kill me. It was the maid who always took care of me. If she had chosen to stab me I would be dead right now, but she made the poor choice of trying to strangle me.
I couldn't understand what I had done wrong. Why was Ceciliana hurting me? Why was the kind maid I had always known looking at me with such hate-filled eyes? I can't breathe. It hurts! My thoughts grew cloudy, my eyes were dimming, and fear took over, before the darkness could take me, I cast Flame Circle without an incantation. It burst in her face taking all the mana my three-year-old body could contain. The spell melted her eyes and scorched her face. She stopped strangling me and fell to the ground screaming. "Arghghghghgh!!!" I still remember her scream. It sounded like a banshee or some kind of beast both loud and horrifying. I was gasping for air when the knights outside of my room came rushing in. I wasn't able to speak and had trouble breathing so the knights thought I had hurt her without provocation.
They helped her and brought her to a healer while my parents were called. When my parents arrived they were angry with me yelling before they even entered the room. However, it didn’t take long to see my bruised neck or notice that I couldn’t utter a word at all even when I tried. My mother held me as I soundlessly cried.
It took me a long time to get over that incident and start learning magic again. I didn’t start learning again until I was ten years old. My renewed interest came from seeing a demonstration at the Royal Ball held twice a year. I saw Darien do a magic demonstration, seeing him beautifully manipulate fire the way he did was the reason I decided to learn again.
I didn’t meet him again until I was in my late 20s, during a battle with Argon. I was a court mage at the time and saved his life when he got separated from a knight battalion. I was one of the mages chosen to be part of the rescue team to save the Red Tower master. Due to politics, we were sent out when the situation already seemed hopeless. The stupidity of the nobles throwing away a Tower Master to gain more power amongst themselves baffles me.
I was far faster than the Royal Court imagined and was able to reach Darien before all of his mana was exhausted. A long dogfight started, and we broke free from the encirclement, fought off assassins, and escaped a full-blown pursuit. Darien confessed to me the moment we made it to safety.
He was the first to fall in love. "So I heard you like to eat." That was how he had asked me out. I wasn't interested, and he wasn't deterred, Darien came after me relentlessly writing letter after letter until I eventually said yes. At the time I was more interested in climbing up the ranks of court mages, he was an annoying distraction. I was the youngest appointed court mage in the history of Elion and was far more interested in my work than going out with him. Darien was already the Red Tower master at the time. If he wanted to he could have forced a marriage.
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I eventually went on a date with him because I couldn’t take the harassment anymore, but he was much more nervous and sweaty than I thought he would be. The image of the all-powerful, army destroying Grand Mage was broken. I started laughing at him, he was a little cute. I don’t remember how or why but I decided to go on just one more date with him.
Two years after having dinner I was the youngest 4th circle mage in Elion's 200 years of history and was also pregnant with Darius. I never imagined myself as a mother, but the moment Darius was born I fell in love with him. I didn't want any maid or servant to be near him at all. No servants or maids could be completely alone with Darius. Even Rhea whom I trust with my life is never completely alone with him. There is always a knight or guard nearby, and the door to his room is never completely shut. I remembered, not to be too trusting.
Recently, I've stopped helping my husband with the Red Tower. It makes Darien's life a little harder but one of us needs to be around. Darius just can't be trusted on his own.
We found out early on that he was both as talented as he was feral. He said his first words at 4 months and could speak fluently by 6 months. He couldn’t sit still. By 6 months the brat was running around everywhere trying to escape any chance he got or asking to learn magic. We thought it was a little too dangerous for him to learn so we waited.
That was until he broke into my husband's study and began teaching himself! We didn’t even know he could read let alone teach himself magic. That’s when my husband started teaching him. Darien can't teach him all the time so I teach him for the most part. Darien can only have lessons with him for a few hours a day. I've taken over his lessons while Darien's gone.
Darien has currently been called away on a dangerous mission. The capital is in turmoil so I was forced to take Darius away for a bit. Teaching Darius has been a good distraction, the friction we have with Argon is developing too quickly, and war has been inevitable for decades already.
Watching Darius shock the knights over and over again has also been entertaining. The only problem is, he shocks me too! I thought I was used to it but when I saw the brat shooting through the sky I almost lost my soul. I was always watching him closely but now I have to keep even more attention on him.
I'm close to beating that boy. He refused to move on to a new spell after seeing me use Wind Steps because he wanted to master it like me, so I gave him two days to master it to my level or we’d move on. The challenge only got him excited. He's been trying the spell a hundred different ways, always trying to force the wind to respond to him. He's too stubborn to listen to my advice so I stopped giving any.
Today was different; we would play tag together and he would run while using the spell and I would catch him. He was giggling and laughing as I caught him every time. In the last chase though I sped up to catch him when the air around him changed. I felt goosebumps crawl up my legs. He crouched like a cat and cast wind steps two times by adding another magic circle under an already active spell. He pseudo multicasted wind steps. That wasn't the problem, he cast the second spell with so much force it was almost at the level of 3rd circle magic. If I cast the 3rd circle version of Wind Steps I wouldn't have traveled as far as he did or as fast. I was terrified. If he hit a tree or rock at that speed... he would have died instantly! I immediately used Phoenix Wings and Wings of Wind together to catch up to him.
I've never been so angry with him. I scolded him until I noticed he was asleep. In some ways, he really resembles his father. Caspian and Linda were also terrified when they saw him leap through the sky like a damned ballista. I have to teach him self-control. If he starts casting spells that I can't catch up to... I don't want to imagine that. I'll beat some sense into him otherwise I won't have a son to teach at all.