On the 1st of November, the citizens of Guilm would hold a festival that often kicked off at dusk. However, it wasn't solely in Guilm that this would be celebrated. In fact, this festival was popular throughout the entire Kingdom of Liyonne and maybe even beyond.
The Gathering of the Leaves was a common tradition, where people would gather together and celebrate community. The definition of community was very loose and would often be blurred to simply mean the general community. In addition, in some parts, the festival would also commemorate death, remembering those who died, who were close to them.
One could see little children watching the wonders of magic, enjoying the spectacle. Adults would try to tell their stories to teenagers who were too busy trying to become adults, to listen. The dark sky would often bring people closer.
Under this dark sky, in a barely lit, out-of-the-way tavern, two men sat in front of one another, speaking. A third man stood, looking outside, through the blinds in the windows. Their features were barely discernible, with even their height appearing strange. Depending on what angle you looked at the two sitting men, their height would shift dramatically ranging from a 5cm(2 in)difference in height between dwarves, to a 80cm(31.5 in)difference in height between giants.
A gruff voice rose from one of the men sitting. "You've told me what you plan to do but not how you plan to do it or when. Do you consider me to be an idiot who believes in promises?"
An even deeper fruity voice replied. "I trust you to free me, why don't you trust me to follow through?" It appeared as if the speaker had shrugged but it was impossible to tell with the bizarreness of the tavern. Rather than the speakers being distorted, it seemed to be the small bit of light that could only barely illuminate the place, that had been twisted, instead.
The gruff voice sighed in annoyance. "For the same reason you're not truly here. For the same reason you're locked away."
The deeper voice tried to interject but the gruff voice spoke over him. "Even if you were my brother, I wouldn't trust you to tell me the truth."
"Of course you wouldn't", the deep voice spoke matter-of-factly before it began to chuckle as if one of them had told a joke. "Of course you wouldn't trust your brother, Regis." His laughter despite its low frequencies, still felt vibrant.
After half a minute more of chuckling, the fruity voice stopped, now serious. "You must consider me an idiot if you think I'll tell you anything beyond what you need to know at the moment. You are not alone in your mad dash for power. Do not act like you are. That being said, fully prepared, it should take a couple years, 2 maybe 3."
Regis stayed quiet for several seconds longer than usual before responding. "That works. In fact, it would be perfect."
Almost immediately after Regis finished his words though, the other man spoke, now clearly rushed. "Good. I have a bit of an issue that just popped up. I'll reach you when I want to. Empre willing, and goodbye."
Without giving Regis an opportunity to respond, the man burst into nothingness as the tavern returned to normal lighting, revealing the remaining men's true features.
Regis' blue eyes fixed upon the chair of which his conversant had been sitting on. Then he got up, shrugging, before walking to the man at the windows.
He sneered before snorting. "Empre willing? Let's go, Sercien."
The man at the windows did not respond but walked a few steps to the door opening it. The two men, then, walked out of the tavern and suddenly disappeared.
A few days later
Emelie Manour, now 24, sat down at a beautiful oak desk. The room she sat in was actually surprisingly small, seeming to be about the size of an office room of some sorts. Across from her sat a balding man wearing a suit, who happened to be an inch or two shorter than her.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"We have much to discuss about your child, Lady Cazenarch." The man said, speaking through a particularly bushy mustache.
If Lucas was here, he would've gotten hit with a huge sense of deja vu from the magical words that signaled bad news.
The man continued. "He is incredibly intelligent, showing merit in most of his subjects. His speech, writing, and reading are near perfect. His mathematic skills are also wildly advanced for his age."
A slight smile of pride appeared on Emelie's face but despite the positive words, the man's face did not lighten up, getting even worse.
"However, he shows a complete lack of willingness to learn, and a lack of basic respect. We are talking about a child with the potential to become a great mind of this generation. However, he barely shows the focus required to tie his shoelaces nor the self-control required to bow to his elders. Miss Reine and I suspect this to be the reason behind his lack of ability to perform magic, despite being so brilliant."
Emelie frowned. She'd wanted to know Lucas' affinity earlier but hadn't heard a word about it. She'd chalked it up to a more conservative teaching method playing to Lucas' strengths in traditional subjects. However, a lack of focus?
Of course, she trusted Lucas' tutors and she saw no reason for Clement, the man in front of her, to lie. However, she still worried that the relatively immense amount of mana going into him prenatally had caused some damage that made Lucas unable to perform magic.
She would've shared these thoughts but the door to the room opened, revealing a little boy about 1.1 meters(3.6 feet)tall. The bangs, of his medium level dark brown hair, nearly covered his eyebrows, while his hazel eyes lit up upon seeing his mother. The light smattering of freckles on his nose only complemented his eyes.
"Hi, mom", he said, walking over and giving her a hug before sitting down in the seat next to her.
A vein rose up in Clement's forehead but he ignored it. Not only was he not supposed to address his mother so casually in front of strangers, but he didn't even bother addressing one of his tutors. This was truly disrespectful.
Clement simply looked at Emelie hoping that she would address this. He'd been helping the Manours for decades now, before Emelie had even been born. He knew that she was incredibly proper, and mindful of etiquette. What he didn't know is that all flew out the window when her child was involved.
Smiling at her child, she reached over to rub his head. "I heard that you've been having trouble focusing and learning magic. What's that all about?"
"Well, I can focus. It's just that when I try to use magic, it doesn't come out, no matter what. I don't know why." Lucas replied. While he often feigned ignorance. this wasn't an occasion of that. He was truly confused on this. The strangest part was that-
"His mana sense is pinpoint accurate and he can mess around with mana fairly easily but when it comes to expressing that mana as magic, he suffers tremendously." Clement finished the thought for him.
Lucas could hear the disappointed teacher in his voice. It reminded him of several parent teacher conferences from his time on Earth.
Emelie was going to bring the issue of Lucas' strange prenatal mana absorption but she was stopped again. This time, it was Clement. "I know you may have your worries about his condition. I heard about the oddity in your pregnancy but I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with his body. Lucas, circulate your mana."
Lucas obliged, using mana sense to focus on the mana swirling throughout his body, and began to move it around, circulating it until he could feel the mana in each body part, from his hair to his toes. He also felt Clement and Emelie focus on him, examining him.
"Remarkable", Clement said. Lucas had taken only a second or two to do it, showing a great deal of physical self awareness. It was too bad he wasn't as socially self aware. "Now condense some of that mana into your hands."
Lucas obliged once more, condensing the mana in his hands, his fingers actually getting a tiny bit brighter.
This last part was the tricky part. You were now supposed to fire that mana out, visualizing it as how you wanted it to be expressed. Of course, it was difficult to get the mana out in elements you were not attuned to.
Lucas pushed the mana out of his hand while moving his hand as if to slap someone. He utilized the air from his hand to aid him in producing at least a whiff of air, magically. Still, it was pointless.
He tried this with the other 3 elements still to no avail. The only thing that happened was a harmless little burst of mana coming out of his hands.
This made it impossible to even guess his affinity. Normally, even when one isn't attuned to an element, they'd still be able to produce it, at least minuscule little pops of it. However, Lucas produced absolutely nothing.
He looked up to see Clement's disappointed gaze. By now, he'd already seen it dozens of times yet it still infuriated him.
Cooling himself off, he looked at his mother who only looked at him, pensive and a bit lost, as if she was contemplating something. However, she quickly nodded before looking back at Clement. "And you think this is due to a lack of focus or a lack of willingness to perform magic?"
Clement nodded, about to express his concerns, when Emelie raised her hand to stop him. "Then it's perfect that he'll go to live with his father's family."