“That can’t be right Seles, his eyes are brown. They always have been.” Said Marcose
“I’m not wrong, look.” Seles then turned Myrddin from her face showing Marcose his face. For a moment Marcose stared at him analyzing his face, making sure to get a good look at him and there plain as day were his eyes a light red-orange color. The same as the flame which he touched, evidently his few strands of hair that he had grown were also the shade. But this was too strange too believe, Myrddin’s eyes had always been a dark brown along with his hair. It was impossible to suddenly change your eye color.
Marcose pondered this for a moment searching in his mind for an answer to this occurrence. In this world eye color was like a finger print which told what element of magic one had an affinity for. His eyes were dark reddish-purple making his affinities Fire, and possibly poison. Maybe even death magic since his eyes were really dark, but he had only ever trained in fire and didn’t have the knowledge to do the other two. His wife Seles had light blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with a bit of silver. He had always loved those eyes. They obviously showed water magic but also a slight affinity for hard minerals such as steal, iron, or silver and gold. She could control water to some extent, making it stop and flow to some extent but she had never trained seriously in it so she couldn’t conjure the water herself never mind metal she couldn’t do anything with it. It was possible to learn a magic that you didn’t have an affinity for but it was extremely difficult and if you didn’t study it for years you might not be able to do anything. Sort of like their maid Wren. She had studied healing magic for a couple years even though she had no affinity with brown eyes. And the fruit of her research was the same as headache medication.
However his son didn’t have either of these eye colors since birth. They were just a dark shade of brown. It could have meant earth magic, but more often than not it meant that a person had no talent for magic whatsoever. This was a normal occurrence actually, even in families with great magicians and magic swordsmen, some children just didn’t have any of the affinities their parents had. Sometimes in extreme cases like in royal families children would lose their right to inheritance because of it. Marcose though, didn’t care about this, they were just a lower class noble family with not much land anyway. He was going to teach Myrddin everything he knew about sword combat, archery, and all the military secrets he knew. His son was already considered a genius now that he could speak some words so he may be a brilliant tactician someday in the future.
But For his eyes to change color to red, the color of fire, was unheard of. He was secretly happy in the back of his mind that his son might have inherited his eyes however odd it had been. Then after wracking his brain some more he turned to the candle.
“Seles? This happened when he touched the candle right?” There had been no other cause that he could think of so he looked at the candle curiously whilst asking the question.
“Well, yes honey.” She said, still looking at Myrddin who had started sucking on the thumb that had touched the flame. Calmer now but still a little shaken.
“But if that caused his eyes to change color through some strange inborn magic trait than why aren’t his eyes….blue?” He asked now looking at the water jug Wren carried which had doused the child’s hands in water.
“I don’t know maybe this is all he can do. But I’ve never heard of anything like this. Do you think something might be wrong with him?” Seles now had just a little bit of anxiety maybe he had some kind of disease or health defect. Her motherly instincts were terrified that something could be wrong.
“Stop that Seles nothing’s wrong with him he’s just a little special is all.” He puta hand on her shoulder and kissed her to try and take her mind off it. “Just calm down and think. Has Myrddin ever touched anything magical or maybe an element that has to do with magic?”
“No. Has he?” So far Seles had never been away from Myrddin. She left the room only once so that Marcose had to change him alone as punishment for pinching him. Even then she was just outside the door. And to her memory the only things that he had ever touched were herself, food items, wooden utensils like a spoon, some bed sheets and some toys also made of wood or cloth and water. Everything in the house was man made. But fire is just a natural phenomenon. Not so much created as discovered and used. Seles could only think of its place in nature as a forest fire created by lightning. The wood was from trees but it was dead and hand carved into something not really resembling nature.
“Has the water been purified from the well?” Seles asked Wren
“Umm, yes milady it was boiled and put through a strainer to get rid of parasites.” Wren replied a bit confused at the sudden question. Then a lightbulb hit Seles.
“That’s it! It’s not like it originally was. It’s been tampered with!” She was now excited at her discovery and quickly stood up. “Let’s go outside.” She immediately went to the door and found her coat. She then wrapped Myrddin in a thick blanket and went outside with Marcose following closely still not understanding Seles’s idea.
Once they got outside Myrddin smiled happily at the new surroundings. The snow was still piled high since they lived further up north I the continent still another month or too until spring would greet them. This was the first time he had been taken outside. What greeted him was a small path leading away from the house to a snow covered fountain with the depictions of a nondescript bird standing proudly with its wings folded. Looking into the distance where the road parted the circle of spruce trees that surrounded the log mansion. It both welcomed and warned guests coming into the house to be respectful of its masters.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Come on Myrddin, touch the snow for mommy okay?” Seles was now crouching down showing the untouched snow that was off to the side of the path. He looked at her curiously not fully understanding what she wanted from him. He then just smiled and touched her giddy face that was still excited.
“Ah! Haha, that tickles. No Myrddin the snow, look sweaty.” She then touched the snow with her own hand hoping he would parrot her. Now understanding what she wanted he leaned over and touched it too. It wasn’t very cold since he was still warm and it melted a bit on contact but it was still fun to touch something new for the first time.
“There it is. Yes! Look honey look at his eyes and hair.” Then with a happy expression Seles stood up and showed Marcose and Wren who had been standing by curiously. And when they looked they saw that indeed his eyes had changed to blue.
After that Revelation they ran around frantically only stopping to change and feed Myrddin. They made him touch the earth that they dug out of the snow and his eyes turned brown again. The trees made his eyes turn green. Then when they asked Wren to perform some healing magic on him it turned his eyes a cute cotton candy pink. Past that they couldn’t get any more colors. Seles refused to put him into the cold winds and the sun didn’t make his eyes yellow and putting him in the dark didn’t turn his eyes black. This made them a bit more puzzled but not unperturbed. At the end of the day they had given up on other colors and luckily since they could turn his eyes back to brown, his little gift could remain a secret for now. Seles had wanted to keep the pink color but Marcose had insistently rejected it so she eventually caved in.
After the day was over they were all pretty tired. Once they how the boy’s eyes worked they decided to leave it at that and continue thinking about it later. So Seles and Marcose snuggled back up in bed with Myrddin in between them and fell asleep.
The next morning Marcose thought for a bit and decided this was a bit of a problem, as far as he knew, no one had this kind of ability and maybe no one even knew it what to do with it. He was sure Myrddin would be a great mage but as far as to what kind of mage and how to raise him as such, was beyond him. So he sent a letter to one of his colleagues from the military. A mage named Darth that was assigned to his squad during the last war that boasted three elements of master Fire, Earth and Nature magic. He was a good person generally and Marcose had become great friends with him over the course of the war. He had told Marcose many things about magic and the ways to use it and had been told that he was now a professor at Phalnor Academy the best magic institute in the country. Surely if anyone could discern what was going on it would be him. The contents of the letter was described as such.
Dear: Darth,
I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch as of late. I know you are a busy man and I didn’t want to bother you too much but I have great news that I would like to share. My wife Seles and I have been blessed with a wonderful child that we named Myrddin. He is only 3 months old, but amazingly, can speak some simple words. But that is not the worrying thing that has forced me to write this letter.
He has also exhibit a very peculiar trait. His eyes, being originally brown, can change color when he comes into contact with certain materials. I know it may sound odd and strange but please believe me and understand that we are very worried about his well-being and we do not know what’s going on or what might be happening to him.
We now urgently seek your council in this matter and would appreciate any sort of knowledge you can provide.
PS: Secrecy would be very much obliged thank you.
Sincerely: Your Friend and Comrade Marcose Kanda.
One week later the family got a reply. Happy at the swift response Marcose quickly opened the letter. But all it had was the return address and two words written on it.
“I’m coming” it said. Then there was a knock on the door.
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AN- Next time i'll definately have a better picture of the country and maps so sorry if i didn't say any any names of countries in this this chapter. Look forward to more world building in the next.