Michael

Michael had slept through most of the following day, being drained of all mana was an unpleasant experience. He had also been questioned about what happened and why he had used so much mana. To his relief, Geron had covered for him, with an excuse that they had used a lot of mana in training and that Michael must have used the last of it when training magic.

That was enough to convince his mother and siblings but the suspicious look from his father when talking to Michael showed clearly that he didn't believe a single word, but he didn't press the issue. As always, he expected his children to come to him themselves if it was something that required his attention.

Now they were finally near the end of their journey with Lionsgate coming into view. The city was indeed huge. Tall walls surrounded large parts of the city but there were many houses also in front of them, giving the city a sprawling feeling to it. As they closed in on the gates Michael could see hundreds of people also heading for it, loaded with goods, and drawing carts behind them. He was sure they were coming for the festival that was about to start tomorrow. The people all made way for their caravan, and they quickly reached the gate, which they passed through without stopping. Michael could see the city watch, in black tabards with red lions on them push people out of the way for the carriages.

Michael was still bothered by what happened in the village, but he chose to not think about it, so he pushed open the wooden window and took in the city. As they drove through the streets Michael was overtaken by the number of people around, the streets were filled to the brim with them but somehow, they still managed to make way for their carriages, they had to slow down considerably even with this.

His attention was dragged to the many shops lining the main road as they became fancier the closer, they moved to the palace, he saw smithies, fletchers, elegant tailors, and even a jeweler. All buildings were decorated for the upcoming festival and the stands were filled with fresh food.

On a crossing he could see a large plaza in the distance, he was sure he heard animal sounds coming from there, but the streets were way too noisy to comfortably enhance his hearing. He chose to be satisfied with watching the shops that were moving past him until a bell dragged his focus on the large church of Idas in the distance.

It was a large structure with a singular tower rising from its center, adorned with statues of ancient heroes and sun symbols, so many in fact that Michael thought that they had overdone it. The sight of the church gave him mixed feelings, he was impressed by the building and wanted to see it from close up but on the other hand, he was still on the fence about the church lately with their refusal to help slaves and their active hunt on mages.

He was beginning to fall back into his dark thoughts when the crown jewel of Lionsgate came into sight, the royal palace. The first thing he saw were the bright walls surrounding it, they were not quite white, but they were definitely brighter than the outer walls. Next, he saw the gate, adorned with banners, and flanking the entrance stood two intricate lion statues, the Silvermane Lion, a magical creature and the signet beast of the royal family. The palace guards stopped them at the gate, checking their invitations and every carriage, they were wearing the personal heraldic of the royal family on their coats of arms, the head of a Silvermane Lion on a golden field.

After they had crossed the gates, the true beauty of the palace was revealed, a long road connected the gate and the palace buildings, it was flanked by multiple gardens, with flowers of colors that Michael didn't think were possible in plants.

He could see dozens of people stroll through them, simply enjoying the spring flowers. On the right side of the road was a small lake that split the gardens in two, with a small island in the middle. The large palace buildings supplemented the organized flower beds with clean edges and tall towers, Michael could see the reflection of glass windows from the distance and a single thought flew through his head. How much did this place cost? The glass alone must have been exceedingly expensive, and to use it for windows, this thought made Michael's purse hurt.

The caravan finally stopped next to a white fountain in front of the large stone buildings, which was also adorned with lions. Michael made his way out of the carriage first followed by his sisters and his mother. They were greeted by a line of knights in the Merland tabard, led by a man in a silver set of plate armor. This was the first time he had ever seen a set of plate armor; Solon had told him that the dwarves liked to use them, but humans generally didn't know how to make any. The knight was probably in his late forties or early fifties but had an aura of cold proficiency that rivaled Lord Rowan's.

When they had all exited their carriage the silver knight stepped forward and greeted them with a respectful nod. Lord Rowan stepped over to him and grabbed his forearm with a smile, "It is good to see you, Gavin." The knight smiled back, "It has been too long already, old friend." After a moment of silence, he added now back to his polite manner, "The king could not step away from his duties to greet you, but he will meet with you soon."

Lord Rowan nodded at this like he expected it and said with a lowered voice, "Do you have any idea why he called for me so suddenly?"

Gavin shook his head, "You will need to ask the king about it."

Lord Rowan shrugged and turned around, "For those of you who haven't met him yet, this is Sir Gavin Strom, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and the strongest knight in the kingdom."

Commander Strom laughed at this introduction, "I am sure Duke Torras, and you could give me a good run for that spot, I am getting old you know." Michael closely inspected the knight that his father deemed his better.

He was smaller than one would expect and had grey hair with a clean shave. His movements seemed sluggishly slow, but Michael knew from stories about the man that this was just a facade.

Lord Rowan said nothing to that and Commander Strom first greeted Lady Rowan with respect before he turned to the children. Luciel was first, "How you have grown from the little girl I saw last time, you look so much like your mother." Luciel looked like she was going to cry at the mention of her looking like her mother and thanked the man with a huge smile.

He next moved over to the twins, "The last time I saw you boys you were just babies, you will become great knights, judging the speed that you are growing." They smiled and nudged each other.

"Now you two I haven't met yet, but you must be Lira and you Michael, right?"

They nodded in unison and the man continued, "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"And an honor to meet you", they answered. Michael followed it up with a question, "Is it true that you have a lightning affinity?"

Commander Strom looked at him with an interested expression, "Yes, that is true, why do you ask?"

"If it is not too much of an inconvenience, I would like to request a lesson on how an affinity can change one's augmenting and how to utilize that, as you are the first augmenter with an affinity that I have seen."

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Lady Rowan interjected, "Come on Michael, the commander is a busy man, I am sure he has no time for this." Commander Strom smiled and raised his hand, "It is alright milady." He said before turning back to Michael, "We affinity augmenters are pretty rare in these lands. I will see if I can make some time but as your mother said, there are a lot of duties I have to attend to so I can't promise anything."

Michael nodded and thanked the man. He inspected Michael for a moment longer until Lord Rowan said, "Come on, Gavin, let's catch up."

They walked away and shortly after a fancy-looking servant came over to them and bowed. "I will escort you to your quarters, please follow me."

He led them into the building, and it was as luxurious on the inside as it was on the outside, filled with art, tapestries of epic battles, and large glass windows. After a couple of minutes of walking through the hallways, Michael's curiosity got the better of him and he halted, inspecting the windows closely. He wondered how such a fragile material could withstand being so thin and in such a large piece without shattering. He decided that he had to find out where the royal family got these windows from and maybe go there to ask.

When he turned back to his family they were gone, he looked around confused but couldn't find them. With an annoyed sigh he made his way back to the carriages, he figured it would be easier to find the way back out than to find his family in this huge palace. He quickly learned that he hadn't paid enough attention to which path they had taken so he nearly instantly chose a wrong turn.

After the third dead end, he found himself in he finally resolved to ask for directions. He walked back to the last hallway junction when he heard the clashing of wood on wood and yelling down the hall. The curiosity that had brought him into this situation took the reins again and he followed the sounds, ignoring his former goal of finding the way out.

He found the source of the clashing when he walked through a door into a small training yard. There were six boys, aged around ten years old, two of them currently in a spar with wooden swords while the rest cheered them on. On the opposite side of the ring stood a knight in the same silver armor that Commander Strom had worn before.

The first boy that was fighting was somewhat small for his age and had black hair while the other was tall with brown hair. They looked relatively evenly matched concerning swordsmanship, and both were most certainly trained. The taller boy was trying to leverage his superior strength against the black-haired boy by continuously attacking him while the black-haired boy tried to prevent having to block the heavy strikes of his opponent by being quick on his feet and dodging.

This was working well for a time, but the tall boy was speeding up his attacks, Michael frowned at the still-slow attacks and sensed the mana for a moment to find that they weren't strengthening themselves, which made this kind of speed more reasonable.

The black-haired boy had to block attacks now from time to time and it was obvious that every blocked strike shook him to his core. If this fight were to drag on, then it would be a clear victory for the tall boy.

He made a heavy two-handed swing over the head which the black-haired boy deflected to his left. There was an opening and he lunged at his enemy; his wooden sword aimed at the tall boy's chest.

If the tall boy manages to block or dodge the attack he wins, Michael thought and the moment the thought passed, the tall boy started moving backward but stopped immediately after, getting hit as a consequence. Michael frowned and the spectators cheered at the conclusion of the fight.

The tall boy scratched his head and said, "Well fought your Highness. I was so sure that I had you."

The black-haired boy laughed and patted the other's shoulder, "You nearly did."

The boys talked excitedly with each other until the tall boy saw Michael and said loudly, "Hello, who are you?"

Michael was happy that he had decided to wear good clothes today as he walked over to the boys and bowed in front of the black-haired boy. With him being called 'Your Highness' he was probably a member of the royal family, and the other boys were most certainly nobles as well and he didn't know the hierarchy except that the black-haired one seemed to be on top. "My name is Michael Rowan, son of Count Cedric Rowan. My apologies for watching the spar without introducing myself but I didn't want to interrupt.”

An expression of surprise mixed with interest appeared on the black-haired boy as he asked, "Cedric Rowan, you said?"

Michael nodded politely. "Interesting," the boy replied before introducing himself, "My name is Zenial Merland, son of King Johann Merland. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." The moment the name fell, Michael realized that he was not just a member of the royal family but the crown prince of the kingdom. He quickly bowed again and said, "It is an honor, your Highness."

The prince nodded at this and after a few moments where he didn't say anything else the tall boy introduced himself. "My name is Theodore Gretten, son of Count Uther Gretten. It's a pleasure." After those the other four boys introduced themselves one by one, they were all sons of various counts of the kingdom.

After they had all introduced themselves the prince spoke again, "So you watched our spar, do you have anything to say about it, you probably have some of the talents of your father and can give us some advice, eh? Oh, maybe I should ask first if you already started your martial education."

"I have indeed started my education already and you both seem to be well-trained," Michael said carefully. He decided not to mention that Theodore threw the fight on purpose.

The prince seemed to sense his reluctance though and followed it up, "I want your full and honest opinion, whatever it might be."

Michael was quiet while he pondered what he should say. He didn't know what kind of a royal the prince was, so he needed to be careful not to offend him. In the end, he chose to just say what he thought, as lying to a royal was probably a bad idea.

"You are both trained and showed good basics. Personally, I would have waited for a better opportunity to strike and not bet everything on it like you did because you would have lost if Theodore didn't stop his dodge and let you win." He put on a stern expression and made sure that his words didn't sound mocking or judging in any way.

Zenial frowned and looked at Theodore, "You let me win?" The latter froze in place, you could virtually see his brain working on whether he should come clean or lie. It took him so long that he realistically only could come clean without looking like a fool, so he sighed and said, "It is true, your Highness. I fought with my all the whole fight but at that moment I heard my father's voice in my head and hesitated." He lowered his voice to imitate his father and said, "Don't you do anything to embarrass His Highness, not ever."

Zenial laughed and said with a hint of frustration in his voice, "Dammit Theodore, how am I supposed to improve if you let me win."

Theodore bowed, "I am sorry, your Highness. It will never happen again."

"Alright alright, as long as we are clear," the prince waved him off and turned back to Michael. "I wish you were a little older, I would be interested in how good you are." Michael thought for a second and then grinned, "I would be fine with giving it a try, your Highness. I fight my brothers from time to time and they are around your age."

"Isn't that kind of unfair with the height and strength advantage," Theodore said with a raised eyebrow.

"We normally go at it with augmenting and because I have a larger mana well, it evens out most of the time," Michael explained with a smile, remembering the multiple times he had beaten up his brothers.

Prince Zenial thought for a moment about how they should do it and then said, "How about you use mana to reduce the advantage I have but not more?"

"That would be too difficult to balance mid-fight for me, I am afraid. I would probably swing between too much augmenting and too little and it would invalidate the meaning of this duel. So, let's just both use our mana as much as we want." He would be at more of a disadvantage if he was distracted by balancing his mana on such a defined ruling than if he just fought without any.

"Alright, but let's try not to hurt each other," the prince agreed.

Michael nodded and then remembered something, "Oh I am also a light mage, but I won't use it in this fight."

"I heard about that", he said while moving a couple of meters away.

Theodore handed Michael his wooded sword and Michael said, "Sorry for telling on you." He actually felt bad about it, he could have just left out the part about letting him win but he didn't. Theodore shook his head with a friendly smile, "Ah don't worry, I deserved that, the prince doesn't hold a grudge about something like that, should have just said something myself. Now good luck and do your best." Michael smiled back at the boy with appreciation.

The prince looked at Michael with a grin, "Let's have a chat after the fight but first I want to see how much your good heritage is worth."

Michael grinned back and said, "The heritage will have nothing to do with it after I have beaten you."