Michael

Michael dodged backward, the wooded sword only slightly missing his head. Theodore grinned at him as he followed him to keep the pressure on.

They were fighting without any mana and Michael was reeling from the physical disadvantage, but this was exactly what he wanted. He was forced to block the follow-up strike and his arms shook under the impact.

He let the sword slide of his own to the left and used the opening to aim at Theodore’s neck, his strike was slowed by his exhaustion. The taller boy blocked it with visible difficulty but still grabbed his arm with his free hand - needing only one to block his strike - and tossed him over to the side.

Michael crashed onto the ground and immediately got up to defend himself, but he was too slow, and Theodore’s sword found its way onto his torso, lightly tapping it.

“I win,” Theodore said while breathing heavily, “Finally.” Michael nodded out of breath and put his hands on his hips while he also took deep breaths.

It had been two weeks since the incident with the monsters and House Rowan’s stay in the capital was coming to an end today.

“I will never understand why boys want to spend their last day together with fighting,” Luciel said from the sidelines where she was sitting with Lira and Miranne. They had all become friends over the last weeks as Mira, Zen, and Theodore had spent most of their days with Michael where they met his sisters.

“I like watching them fight, they look so concentrated and excited,” Mira said with a smile.

“That was good,” Geron stepped closer to them, “Theodore you used your advantages very well and Michael, you avoided him for a long time, but you need to find an opening earlier. You fought for too long and when you finally tried to exploit something you were already too tired to make it work.”

Both of them nodded at the knight. “Let’s take a break while you guys recuperate, and we can talk a little about risks in combat.”

Luciel and Mira came over to them with waterskins and they accepted them with gratitude. They had only a few hours left before they would embark, the servants were currently packing the carriages and it was planned that they would leave around noon.

That is why the boys had met here early to get a last practice session, and the girls had joined them a little later.

As the three of them sat there listening to Geron talk another figure entered the small training yard. It was Commander Gavin Strom, he was dressed in normal clothes and approached them.

Geron interrupted his explanation and greeted the older knight with much respect.

“My apologies that we have to do this on the last day, cramped into the morning but I still hope I can help a little bit,” he said with a smile to Michael.

Michael smiled back excitedly; he had been sad when he never heard anything from the Kingsguard commander but didn’t want to be a bother.

“We can move over if you don’t want to listen,” the commander said to the others, but they shook their heads. “A lesson by Sir Gavin Strom? There is no way I am missing that,” Zen said, and Theodore agreed.

“Alright,” Sir Strom said, “What do you want to know?”

"Well, I never met any augmenter with an affinity, and I wondered why that is?" Michael had thought about it the last couple of weeks and had come up with one or two theories, but he had neither proof nor experience to support any.

"Hmm," the knight replied and sat down cross-legged, Michael followed suit right after. "That comes down to two points I believe, first would be that there just aren't many people that awaken an affinity, I don't have any clear numbers but no more than let's say one in a thousand. The second problem any awakened faces is the church. If he has a light affinity, then he is most likely shipped off to the holy mountain to either become a member of the order of purity or the temple knights and if he has a darkness affinity he is simply burned at the stake."

He shifted his weight into a more comfortable position and looked at Michael. "So that cuts out two out of every seven awakened. The real problem now is that once you have an affinity you can do magic, so the church will watch you. As you might imagine most choose to just keep their awakening secret and live their life like it never happened."

Michael scoffed, "They are afraid to be followed, framed, and burned, you mean." Commander Strom gave Michael a weird stare which prompted him to quickly add, "I-I am not implying that the church is wrong."

The knight suddenly laughed at Michael's panicked expression, "Don't worry kid, I won't tell on you. You are not wrong when you think that the church is handling this badly but there is little, we can do about it."

"Couldn't the king forbid the inquisition from hunting mages in the kingdom," Michael asked with a frown, looking over to Zen as well who looked troubled by the subject, Commander Strom simply shrugged. "He could but that would put him at odds with the church and that is just not worth it. Getting on the bad side of the church is already bad enough but the Inquisition is the most proficient in hunting the actually evil mages as well."

Michael made an unsatisfied expression, but he didn’t have the time to have a lengthy discussion on the topic, there were more important things to learn right now.

“So, what is the difference between a normal augmenter and an affinity augmenter,” Michael changed the topic, this was what he originally wanted to learn.

“I guessed as much,” the older man said and thought for a moment. “The main difference is that normal augmenters can enhance everything on the same efficiency, they need the same amount of mana to double their reaction speed as for example their strength. An augmenter with an affinity or an arcane mana type will have areas of the body that he will find easier or harder to strengthen. I will take myself as an example, I have a lightning affinity it is way easier for me to augment my reaction speed and overall speed of movement, but I have a very hard time strengthening my skin and bones to become hardier, this is not everything lightning does, but you get the point. Every type of mana has its advantages or disadvantages in augmenting.”

Michael nodded understanding but Theodore looked a little lost, it was not too surprising that he hadn’t gotten much of an education in augmenting with his small mana well.

“So, what is the effect light mana has?”

The knight rubbed his neck and said, “Let me see if I can get that, light augmenters are the most common as they are the most common overt affinity user in total. The light element doesn’t change the augmenting too much, but it heightens the reaction speed and is good at resisting curses if you want to count that toward its effect on augmenting. For the negatives, it is bad at raising your toughness if I remember correctly.”

"What is a curse," Zen asked with interest.

"It is like artificing for people," Michael started to explain, "It is really difficult, and I have only learned a little in theory but basically it is a way of using magic to inscribe an effect on a person. There are two ways, a curse, and a blessing. The curse of course being forceful and harmful, and the blessings being supportive and beneficial."

"And what do they do? I thought magic was only controlling the elements," Theodore said while scratching his head in confusion. Michael nodded, "It basically is, but curses and blessings are just changing the point from where it starts, let me explain. What a curse does is give your mana an intent and forcefully place it on a person, the intent might be a spell, like having the person catch fire under certain circumstances, or it might be more like an augment, in that the mana weakens or blocks some part of your body, making them, for example, weaker or letting them go blind. With a blessing, those things would be reversed like a positive spell effect and boosting some part of their body."

Stolen story; please report.

Michael then turned back to the knight and said, "But I don't understand how my mana can make me resistant to curses."

"I am no expert, you would need to talk to your teacher about that but as far as I know when you place a curse, your mana needs to overwhelm the victim’s mana and light mana seems to be strong at protecting you, the same as darkness mana being strong in afflicting people with curses."

"So, they are my exact opposite," Michael mumbled as he remembered his first lesson on magic with Sola. He made a mental note to ask her to teach him more about the specific different types of mana and what properties they have before he continued. "Isn't it important to know if someone has an affinity and what it is when fighting them? For example, knowing you have a lightning affinity will tell me that you will probably focus on speed and are not as durable, right? So, everyone should try to hide it to have an advantage in a fight."

The man smiled and said, "You learn fast; that is indeed true, but it is not as easy to hide your mana affinity as you think. You might never have noticed because you are still small and don't use that much mana to strengthen yourself, but using mana with an affinity on a high level will show."

Michael frowned and said, "Like with my mana sense or what do you mean with it will show?"

Suddenly the air got a weird feeling to it, it tickled and picked at him, and then small lightning bolts jumped from Commander Strom's skin crackling in the air for a moment before dissipating a moment later. Michael was captured by the flashes of light and stared at them. "I am using a lot of mana right now to show an obvious effect so normally it won't be this drastic." The lightning vanished and the feeling in the air dissipated with them.

"How are you wearing armor with that much lightning, I thought they are attracted by metal and would heat it up," Michael spluttered out recalling his lessons with Solon about the weather and lightning.

Commander Strom now looked really intrigued, "You are right, I wore leather armor my whole life and so do most lightning augmenters I have encountered. When I became the Commander of King Merland's Kingsguard he ordered me to find someone to make me a plate armor that could withstand my lightning. He said I needed to look the part if I were to stand at his side all the time. So, I found a dwarven artificer that made me that armor." Michael nodded in awe and the commander continued.

"Lightning is one of the most overt in terms of an effect for augmenting, while light is the least overt. You will just glow and strengthen other light sources around you, but with your amount of mana you probably never really noticed. Every affinity mana has its own signs. A fire mage will make the air drier and might start smoking, while a water mage will make the air more humid and might start sweating more."

"What is darkness," Zen jumped in. Sir Strom stroked his chin as he answered, "Darkness is pretty overt as well, that's the reason most of them get caught pretty fast. They will dim all lights around themselves and their shadows grow ever darker the more mana they use, it is quite obvious and frightening for normal people. The only way to not get caught as a darkness awakened is to never use more than a tiny bit of mana."

Michael frowned at the explanation as a memory appeared in his head. "I have an odd question, Commander Strom." The knight waved him off and said, "Sir Strom or just Gavin is enough for me."

"Okay, Sir Strom. Has there been a drought in the last ten years?" The knight looked at him strangely and replied, "Uhh, yes three years ago we had a big one and I think eight years ago there was a small one. Why do you ask?"

"You have known my father for a long time haven't you," Michael asked, ignoring his question. The man nodded with a frown, "Yes, I do."

"How does he stand on mages, that are not of the light element?"

"Like everyone else I guess, if they are criminals, he hunts them and if not, he is wary of them. Where is this going, Michael?"

"I am sorry," Michael said as he jumped up, "There is something I have to take care of. I am very grateful for your insights and knowledge, but I have to go." Michael bowed to the knight and then turned around running into the palace. The others were just staring at him like he had suddenly gone mad, but Geron and Eydis quickly shook it off and followed him.

He made his way through the now familiar hallways looking for his father. He quickly found him in the courtyard, overseeing the loading of the carriages. There were dozens of crates being loaded on new carts that they had bought, filled with goods from the capital, that they couldn't easily obtain in the South. Michael knew that under them was a crate belonging to him, filled with books and other things Michael had acquired in his stay here.

"Father," he said as he came to a halt next to him and the servant standing with his father took a step back looking slightly annoyed at being interrupted like this. The man looked over to his child and said with a raised eyebrow, "What can I help you with, Michael?"

"My apologies for interrupting," he said with an apologetic smile at the servant, who smiled back placated, and left them with a bow. Michael then signaled Geron and Eydis to leave them before he turned back to his father and said, "How is your position on mages that are neither light nor darkness affinity?"

"Is that what you came to ask for? Can't this wait until later when we are on the road?" His father didn't look annoyed, he was more interested in the reason for the question as he knew Michael had always some reason.

"It is important," Michael insisted but didn't give more information. Lord Rowan sighed and relented, "They are just like everyone else, there are good ones and there are bad ones. I fought alongside some in my time as an adventurer and hunted down a number of them myself."

"Do you accept them in your land?"

"As long as they follow the laws I do not care."

"Would you allow me to employ one? And protect him from unreasonable persecution by the Inquisition," Michael pressed on.

"Who are you talking about?" His father looked at Michael with a suspicious gaze, but he stayed stalwart. "I won't disclose an identity before I have the promise and he accepts. I don't want the blood on my hands."

"Why do you need a mage? You have Sola as a teacher."

"I learned from Eydis and Geron that having teachers with different perspectives can be helpful, having someone that is not bound by the dogma of the church to teach me about something that the church generally condemns, can only be an advantage in my book." Michael held eye contact with his father as he thought about his argument. "Alright, I promise to protect him as long as he adheres to the law, and I want to meet him. We can do that in private."

Michael exhaled, the tension he hadn't noticed, fell off his shoulders, then some of Geron's words came to mind. "Father, why did you allow Eydis to be free and stay in your land? Even though my uncle killed her whole family, and she could seek revenge? Geron said it was strange and that everyone advised against it, so why did you?"

If the question surprised his father, then he didn't show it, he just shrugged and said, "It would have been your mistake to make. I kept an eye on it for a while when she first got here and instructed Geron to keep you safe. I concluded a while ago that she would have at least tried to harm you or even escape but she didn't. So, I wasn't too concerned anymore, and I was confirmed in my opinion in the monster incident when she saved you when she could have easily let you and the crown prince die. There would have been little more revenge than that, that she could ever achieve."

Michael nodded slowly, it made sense, and he was right, but Michael couldn't help but feel a flash of disappointment at the cold lack of concern his father showed, he couldn't have been sure that Michael would be safe. He told himself that he had looked over him and made sure that Eydis wasn't a danger but a small part of him didn't believe it. He buried that part into a deep part of his consciousness and quickly changed the subject.

"I will need horses for Eydis, Geron, and me to get there and talk to him, and will continue back home from there if you allow it." Michael knew that they wouldn't take the same way back as they had come because his father intended to visit Duke Wallsten, his direct liege on the way back home.

"I will have two horses prepared, you are too small to ride on your own for so long, so say your goodbyes and make ready. Duke Wallsten will be disappointed in not getting to meet you but that serves the old geezer right for pestering me about you," Lord Rowan said, with no hint of humor in his voice.

Michael didn't want to take up more of his time as he got what he wanted and excused himself, returning to the training yard, he explained what they were going to do to his bodyguards on the way back. When they arrived at the training yard they found the others still there, Theodore and Zen dueling each other under the watchful eyes of Sir Strom.

They stopped the moment that Michael got back into the yard and looked at him with curious eyes, the girls also rose from their spot in the shadows and joined them.

"So, what was that about," Zen was the first to ask.

“Sorry about that, I had to discuss something with my father, and it seems our time together will end now,” Michael said with a sad smile.

“What are we leaving early,” Lira said confused, and folded her arms in front of her chest.

Michael shook his head and explained, “I will not be traveling with you, I have something to take care of so we will see each other back at Reen.”

They all stood there in silence until Zen spoke, “I am going to miss you. I know we have only met two weeks ago but I feel like we have known each other for years already.” Michael grabbed the hand that the prince was offering him with a wide smile. “I know what you mean, you guys are my first friends who are not family or in my service, and I appreciate every one of you.”

Theodore gave him his hand as well, “I am glad to have met you.”

“Me too, my friend.”

Mira was the last to step forward, she looked like she was about to cry as she looked at him. He smiled at her while saying, “I will miss our dancing sessions.”

She moved forward and hugged him while speaking, “You have to write many letters and come back soon, okay?” Michael returned the hug and said, “I will write as often as possible and try to visit. I hope guys will visit me too, I would love to show you my home and introduce you to my other mentors and the rest of my family.”

Mira nodded with tears in her eyes as they separated. He proceeded to bid farewell to his siblings and Sir Strom before he went back to his room to change into more appropriate clothing for travel on horseback.

After he was ready, he made his way back to the courtyard where two saddled horses waited for them. Lord Rowan said they should go before his mother got here or he might not be able to get going before they did. Michael knew it wouldn’t sit well with her, but he told his father to relay a message for him and left with Geron and Eydis.

It would be the first time for him to be out in the country without his family, but his thoughts were already on his destination and how he would convince the man to join him.