Michael
Michael was awake hours before his morning lessons with Sola, he was just too excited for the day to sleep.
He imagined himself heroically fighting monsters at his father’s side and got even more excited, there was no way that he could ever fall back asleep like this.
He rolled out of bed and slowly made his way through the dark room to the small table that he had requested. It was much more his size than all the other tables in the castle and he appreciated not having to climb around to get on the chair.
Once at the table, he looked for the candles and lit himself a light. He watched the candle flicker; it was as if it was alive.
If I already could use my magic I wouldn't need a candle, he thought. He stared at his hand and imagined a small light popping up, but nothing happened.
He hadn't expected something different. Sola had said, even being able to make a light on purpose at his age would be incredible. It seems that children don't have too much control over their mana if they are not trained and most magic they use comes from emotion and is uncontrolled.
He pondered about how it would feel to use magic and then noticed that he had to redo the symbols he had just written, they were sloppy and not perfect at all. Michael refocused and continued his self-study until the break of dawn.
It was time for breakfast now, so he left his room, in front, he found Geron, “Good morning, sir.” He hadn't talked to the knight yesterday because his mother didn't allow him to leave his bed anymore.
“Milord,” the knight answered with a bow.
“I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday, it means a lot to me.”
“Those who try to help themselves deserve to receive help,” Geron replied with a neutral tone.
Michael was nervously fidgeting as he said, “You didn't have to become my guardian knight though if you don't like children.”
Geron made eye contact with him. “My pledge was a spur-of-the-moment decision; I am ready to admit that, but I regret none of it. Always remember that it was not only me who made an oath on the wall, you swore to never be a victim again, and as long as you keep your oath I will look forward to my service.”
Michael got red in the face; he didn’t know that the knight had heard him. He corrected his posture, suppressed the fidgeting, and slapped his face with both hands, “You are right, I need to grow up.”
Geron laughed at that wholeheartedly. “You have some time for that.”
They made their way to the retainer dining hall for breakfast and on the way, Michael asked, “Today will be our first training, what will we do?”
“As your body probably will need a little more rest, we will start with what I will be teaching you in the future and get started on your augmenting training. Being able to use your mana will greatly improve your healing rate and the time we can spend on each training set before you get tired.”
Michael was already excited but tried to keep a composed exterior as he had seen from the knights and his oldest brother.
He noticed on the way that many servants and guardsmen were seemingly concerned when seeing him, while many knights and nobles he came across were looking at him with open hostility.
When he looked at Geron with questioning eyes, he explained, “Word has already traveled that you beat up the twins, they are spinning the story so that they appear the victims. The rumor that you are a demon child doesn't help either.”
Michael had asked his mother what a demon child was the prior night and after a little digging she had finally budged and explained it to him.
From there on he tried to ignore the looks and greet people he came across with a friendly smile. He wouldn't be pulled down by this. Arriving in the dining hall they sat down at an empty table after Michael had insisted on Geron joining him for the meal.
“Sir Geron, would you mind telling me about yourself, as my guardian knight I would like to know more about you,” Michael asked the knight.
“There is not much to know, milord, I am a lowborn of the County of Emall, your father's second county. I lived my life in a town there on the street, as my parents couldn't feed me. When I was ten, I always hung around the militia, like helping out and cleaning gear for some food,” Geron was stoic even while laying his bleak childhood in front of his lord.
“At fifteen the town came under threat by bandits and the militia couldn't deal with it, so they called for help. Lord Rowan came personally and led the hunt for the bandits. I followed the hunting party, joined the fight, and managed to impress your father. He took me with him, and I became a squire and then a knight and now we are here.”
“I didn't know there were commoner knights.”
“It is not a popular fact, but Lord Rowan wants the best to be his knights and because he himself was a commoner before, he doesn't care about one's birth,” Geron watched Michael's reaction.
Michael thought about it for a while and then concluded, “That is smart, talent doesn't depend on birth, right?” With an approving smile, the knight agreed, and they finished their meals.
After breakfast, they went to Sister Sola's room for his magic training in the morning.
“Good morning,” Sola said when Michael entered her room and sat down at the table. She also greeted Geron before closing the door in his face with a cheeky smile.
“Today we will start putting theory into practice, it is not going to work out right away, but you will need to learn to connect to your mana well. Sir Geron will continue this training later, as it is vital for both augmenting and magic,” Sola explained.
She moved her chair in front of his and looked him in the eyes. “Close your eyes and feel your heartbeat.”
He followed her instruction and breathed deeply.
“Focus on it and now try to focus on the same place but go deeper.”
Deeper? He tried to focus harder but that didn't change anything. “How do I go deeper?”
“Don't talk, just focus on your heartbeat and imagine going deeper into yourself,” Sola whispered.
Michael frowned and listened to his heartbeat.
“Follow the sound. Let your mind wander, it will be drawn to the center, drawn to the light,” her voice so weak that Michael could barely hear her over his own heartbeat. He sat there, breathing, and listening, then he fell.
His world was a heartbeat, in the far distance a light, he felt his body pulsing and he was blind and deaf to everything but his inner workings.
Suddenly a touch dragged him back into reality and he nearly jumped off his chair. Sola was sitting in front of him with her hand on his arm.
“Why did you do that, it was working ... I think,” Michael complained.
“You were sitting there like that for half an hour,” Sola said with a knowing smile.
“What?” Michael had felt like it had been a minute or two.
“Actively trying to find your mana well before you do it on instinct is hard work and the mind loses itself in the depth of your undeveloped astral body, but don't worry it is not dangerous and your mind would find its way out. That said, it is beneficial to leave this state of meditation regularly to reflect on the progress and put the goal back in mind.”
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That sensation of peace and quiet still hanging in the back of his mind, he nodded. He could imagine himself staying in that state for hours and forgetting to progress.
“It is normal that you don't find much on your first try, your mana well is probably still small and dim, so give it time,” Sola added when she noticed Michael being distracted.
Michael blinked himself out of his thoughts and said, “I saw a light.”
Sola frowned and tilted her head to the side, “Are you sure?”
Michael nodded this time with more vigor.
“That is odd, normally for a child your age, your mana well should be so small that it is hard to find.” Sola seemed lost in thought. “So, either you have an extraordinarily large mana well for your age, you are a protegee in finding it on your first try, or you got really lucky.”
Michael quietly sat there and listened to his teacher think out loud. She then stood up and began looking around, taking a book, and skimming over it before putting it down and taking the next.
Michael used that time to look around, he had been in here often in the last few weeks, but he never had the time to properly look around.
The room was simple, a bed, a wardrobe, and two tables, the big one he was currently sitting on and a small one where Sola was keeping her collection of books.
The book collection was rather small in comparison to Father Albion's, comprising only six books but the biggest was probably more expensive than most of the ones that Albion had.
Sola had told him in one of his first lessons that the biggest of the books was a magical grimoire, that she had copied by hand in her time back at her order. It comprised proven magical rituals and magical phrases, that are used by the mages of the church. The others were smaller books of varying topics.
She came back to the table. “Well, I have no definite answer but let's just continue for now, we will probably find out sooner or later.”
They continued their training, but he couldn't get closer to his mana well, no matter how much he tried.
At noon they concluded their lesson and Michael met with Geron in the training court for martial training. The knight had put down his armor and prepared a training dummy and wooden weapons.
Michael wore a simple shirt and pants, that he had ordered from the servants. He felt way more comfortable in these than in the fancy clothes his mother made him wear.
“Good. You are here,” Geron said while resting the wooden sword on its tip. “First of all when we are at training you will not be my superior, I am your teacher and you will do as I say, or we can stop right now.”
“Understood,” Michael replied with fervor.
“Alright, you seem to be motivated. Sister Sola told me that you would start your actual mana manipulation training today.”
Michael nodded.
Geron cleared his throat he seemed kind of unsure of what to say. “This training will be split into two parts, weapons training, and augmenter training. We will start with the sword as this is the preferred weapon of the house, but we will cover axes, bows, lances, spears, maces, and many more that you might need to know. I will also teach you some principles of unarmed combat but most of the practical training will wait until I find an opponent that is more in your capabilities.”
Michael nodded along dutifully.
“The second part of augmenting will at first be the same as Sister Sola's training, we can't proceed as long as you can't reach your mana well. After that, we will use the resting periods between physical training for you to train moving mana through your body to teach you more control over it. Also, we will work on your astral body itself to allow you to move higher quantities of mana at greater speeds, this will be important for you to break through to the second stage of augmenting.”
He inspected his ward and asked, “Any questions?”
“No,” Michael quickly said while shaking his head.
Geron then gave him the wooden sword, “There are many different kinds of swords this one is called a long sword, ...”
They continued for the next hour with Geron explaining in great detail the differences and uses of the several sword types. After that, he showed Michael the basic starting stance, followed by mana training.
After four hours Michael was pretty beaten, his body had not been strained a lot today, but his mind was being taxed by the information and mana training.
The last stop of the day would be Sister Sola's general education lessons. He was trying hard to keep his concentration while Sola let him memorize the heraldic of important houses of the Kingdom, but he failed miserably.
“House Markon,” Sola quizzed him.
“Two horses on a green field,” Michael said, sounding more like a question than a statement.
“That is House Tyr,” Sola closed the heraldic book that she had borrowed from the castle. “Let us do something else you are not able to concentrate at the moment”.
“I can do it,” Michael protested firmly. He would show everyone what he could do, he had promised to not be weak.
“Michael, you need to get used to this training regime and it doesn't help us anything to continue with this, so we will do history, where you can just listen,” Sola shut down his protests.
“Can you tell me the story of the rebellion then,” Michael budged.
“Puh, alright let's see,” Sola leaned back on her chair and tried to remember the story.
“It was 16 years ago that the king of the former Twin Mountain Kingdom that ruled these parts died. He was a good king with terrible sons and so he named his daughter his heir,” Sola looked lost in thought.
“A woman ascending the throne didn't bode so well with his sons and many nobles and as one would expect a bloody civil war erupted. The daughter and two sons proclaimed themselves king of the large kingdom and they went about their business in a brutal fashion,” she stopped for a second.
Michael used this pause to ask excitedly, “And Father fought for one of them?”
She shook her head and continued, “The civil war was already raging for one year with not much progress and mostly raiding and destruction.”
“King Johann Merland, a duke back then, rallied the nobles of our part of the realm as a fourth faction to gain independence from the Twin Mountain Kingdom. Your father was a friend of Lord Johann back then as far as I know and his personal guard, he was granted peerage and his two counties for his contribution.”
“Father must have been a great warrior,” Michael grinned.
“He even got a nickname since back then, the beast of Lionsgate.”
“Woah, what did he do for that, I want a cool nickname too,” Michael was in awe and sitting on the edge of his chair.
“Hahaha, you will have to ask him yourself for that story I wasn't there either,” Sola seemed to be back to her joyful self.
“What happened to the rest of the Twin Mountain Kingdom,” Michael inquired.
Sola's face was shrouded back into sadness. “They continued to murder each other for five more years after King Johann's formation of the Kingdom of Telios. In the end, it was senseless, and the Twin Mountain Kingdom broke apart into many small kingdoms.”
“Why are you so sad,” Michael was concerned about his mentor.
“Many died back then and that is sad,” she smiled at him and hid her emotions better.
They continued their lesson, skimming over different historical events until their time was over.
In the evening Michael went to the great hall for a family dinner.
The hall had a large fireplace on the wall that filled the room with warmth. The rest of the walls were filled with several trophies, some heads, some parts of beasts, and other broken shields or ripped banners.
In the center of the room was a long dining table, made from dark wood lined by sturdy-looking chairs.
Michael seemed to be the second to last to arrive, Lord Rowan being the only one nowhere to be seen. He made sure to stay away from his twin brothers and joined Matthias, Luciel, and Lira.
“Hey there, little brother,” Lira said with a smirk. “Heard you whooped some ass yesterday.”
“Lira,” Luciel admonished her little sister with a frown. “Those are not very ladylike words, are they?”
“Oh, my apologies,” Lira replied overly dramatically. “My fair ears have picked up a rumor of the honorable duel, where you, good sir, heroically whooped some ass.”
Even Luciel couldn't keep in a little chuckle as the brothers grinned widely. “Lira is probably the least ladylike of all four of us,” Matthias pointed out while laughing.
He then gave Michael a pat on the shoulder. “Harlov should be thankful, I think his nose now is actually an improvement, good job.”
"Can't get beaten up forever, can I,” Michael was delighted by the support of his favorite siblings.
“And next time you can just blast them with light magic,” Matthias added. “I am so jealous.”
Michael got a little self-conscious, “I just started my training so I can't do anything yet.”
“All in its due time, I heard only good things about your effort from Sister Sola,” Luciel smiled warmly. “She is a sweet person.”
At that moment Lord Rowan entered the room and everyone began to move to their seats. Food was served shortly after, the dinner was venison, potato, and some vegetable stew with bread and wine or beer.
It was delicious, Michael had eaten in the servants' hall for the last few weeks, so he hadn't been able to get this kind of food for a while, so he enjoyed every bite.
Father had begun asking his children one by one what they were up to the last couple of weeks. That was probably the main reason he insisted on these dinners from time to time.
Toward the end of the meal, he finally got to Michael. “So? How was your first day of training?”
“Exhausting, but I learned much, I can already see the light of my mana well, even though I can't reach it yet,” Michael reported with excitement.
Lord Rowan nodded, he looked surprised. “Already? Very good, keep it up and you will be a mighty knight one day.”
A warm feeling of pride flowed through Michael, strengthened by the fact that Oska and Harlov looked upset.
After all the children had made their report, they finished their meal in silence.
Father then leaned back his expression serious. “The times are changing,” the ominous words guaranteeing the attention of everyone.
“A couple of days ago word came from the holy mountain, the church’s scholars agree, that the mana levels have started rising again.“
Mana was in everything, even the air but it isn’t always the same strength, Michael remembered the lesson on the cycle. The mana cycle was like the seasons, like summer and winter, Mana could be very high in the air or really low, and spring and autumn would be the times when mana rises or falls.
These seasons in the mana cycle could span hundreds of years, which made it a more momentous occasion than the normal seasons once one ends.
Lord Rowan continued his report, “In the next days this knowledge will be made public, so there might be some unrest in the population.”
“Why is that,” Oska asked.
“Higher mana levels mean more monster spawns and higher-level monsters spawning, also there will probably be more mage activity.” Lord Rowan leaned forward. “These are things we must protect the population from, and because of those reasons I will lead a hunt for monsters starting tomorrow and try to clear out as many as possible. Matthias you will accompany me.”
“We will also come,” Harlov said determined. “Let us fight on your side.”
Lord Rowan shook his head. “You are way too young to fight, you will stay here and protect the family.”
Harlov's eyes focused on Michael he said, “Yes, Father, we will.”