Chapter 05
The ceremony for the wedding was different from expected. In the church, where just both our families and the priest were, there was a circle drawn on the floor, above where both my sister and Yule should stand. The priest began to pray and ask for the gods to bless the soul of them, and to unite their souls from now on and other things I didn’t really pay attention to, I never liked to go to church or things like that, so I was there out of politeness, also, I would not dare to make my mother angry by not attending. A while later something dragged my attention, the circle began to glow a golden light, and golden chains began to form around them. As soon as it began it faded away, but instinctively I knew that the chains hadn’t disappeared, they were just not visible anymore.
-Both your souls are now united and blessed by the gods, shall you live a happy life for all of the eternity - the priest said and made a signal. Mother must have told sister about the ritual, because as the priest said that, she and Yule kissed without she resisting. For a 12 year old girl that has just met her husband to do that, I would say she is strong willed.
After the ceremony ended we went for the main square, on a personal cabin right in front of the band. The place was now crowded, everyone was partying. Lord Housh then got up and, asking for the band to stop playing, everyone looked in this direction.
-Good evening, people of Rambery! As you well know, today my son is marrying…
I stopped paying attention, I hate boring speeches, the only thing interesting about it was the magic he used to amplify his voice, the same the band has been using for the whole afternoon. When the time comes I will want to learn it.
-Father, can I go for a walk? - I asked him after a while.
-Sure, just don’t go betting again, and don’t get in trouble - he smirked.
-How did you… - I didn’t end the phrase, he knew and I didn’t get in trouble, so I guess it was fine.
He came closer, he stopped to give a fast look behind his shoulder to see if mom was in a safe distance. - I would give you money for this little walk, but I heard you already have enough, so I just ask that you don’t become an addicted in betting, and… Maybe when you grow a little we can go and bet together at the capital?
What? I totally didn’t expect this development, is father an addicted gambler? Do mother knows? No, probably not, father is still alive. I try to not overthink it and go for a walk, one of father guards follow me from a little distance to keep me safe, I try not to mind them, but custom from my past like urges me to try to outwit him.
-Hello Loqi - I greet the child when I meet him. He is at a tent helping an adult at selling some potions. This contributes to the idea I had of him being of a merchant family.
-Hey! - He seemed surprised to see me there, and immediately uses his hands to cover his pockets in a defensive stance.
The man seeing me looks to the child next to him and smile - So you made a new friend Loqi, that's good, why don’t you go play with him, I can take care of things here alone. - He pushes Loqi to my side and wave him good bye.
-So, is he your father? - I try to start a conversation.
-Yeah, he is an alchemist as you can see.
Alchemists are very respected people in our kingdom. That’s because their effects can sometimes surpass that of potions, and who knows a good recipe will stay quiet about it. The ones for sale were probably to restore stamina, as the party was long, it’s the like of an energy drink in my old world, only better.
After that we went to a few tents to play some games. Some of them were childish, but others were rather cool, no betting this time. One of them was like basket, and it annoyed me that my aim sucked, I wasn’t expecting that since I've always been an expert at shooting, but apparently it didn’t matter.
-You are a nice guy - I told Loqi, he seemed confused.
-What, why? I was just standing here quiet!
-Exactly - I whispered to myself, he still didn’t understand me, but I liked quiet, every time I would be talked to by an adult, they would talk to me like to a child, I understand why, but it doesn’t mean that I like. When in company of other children, they would be screaming or be talking every time about idiot stuff, which also annoyed me, so quiet was good.
The travel back home was awkward, sister was not coming back, and would live with another family from now on. We all knew this day would eventually come, but I think it was a little too soon.
A week after we came back to the capital, mother with her high sensitivity towards mana sensed that my mana core was awakening, and today was the day we would be paying a visit to church to find out about my potential and affinity.
Potential is how much mana one has, this is decided the moment one is born, and it grows bigger as one ages. Affinity is what kind of magic can you use best. Humans can naturally use all of the elements, elfs cannot use fire and shadow, and demons can only use wind and shadow. Affinity is something more, even if humans can naturally use all the elements, if you have low affinity with one, you need to burn more mana to use simple spells, while if your affinity is high, it comes easily for you and you can use it efficiently.
Arriving at the church mother asked one of the priests for a magical test, and paid a small fee, then I was taken by him inside. We went through a small corridor and stopped in front of an old wooden door, the priest took me inside, where there was a crystal ball on top of a table in the middle of the room,
-All you need to do is put your hands on top of it, the crystal will then draw your magical energy and glow - the priest said, with one hand on top of my shoulder.
I took his hands off me and did as told quickly, priests in my world didn’t have a good reputation about relationships with children, and that hand was too close.
I put my hands on top of the crystal, and I can sense something being drained out of me, something that I so far didn’t even pay attention to, is that mana? The crystal then starts glowing.
-That’s a little above average - the priest comments while looking at the ball, he cannot see the way my mother is staring to him, as if it would somehow change the result.
As the glow stops, the crystal starts losing its transparency and starts to get a blueish dim color. The blue get’s clearer and brighter until it almost becomes white, just before it starts to change its color once more. The crystal then becomes black, and starts glowing in a way that almost pushes the light out of the room.
This pattern continues and the crystal turns red, a milky gray, brown, and yellow. Each time it changes its color the crystal loses some of it’s brightness, until the moment it becomes an ugly tone of yellow.
-The child has average affinity with water and shadow, regular affinity with fire, and no affinity with wind, earth and light. - The priest seems surprised, but shows professionalism - people with no affinity to an element are rare, but if he focuses on what he can do, i’m sure he can overcome it.
My mother tries to hide, but she is clearly disappointed at me, she and father had hopes that I would have as much potential as my brother.
-Let’s go - is all she says.
Hey, is that what a mother says to a 6 year old son in a situation like this? Shouldn’t she be saying things like: ‘Congratulations’, or something like that instead of crushing my self esteem?
-Sure mom - is all I manage to speak in my incredibility.
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A child was seated on the floor of some foreign room. The past few weeks have been spent on grieving for the loss of his parents and doing what his uncle have told him. At the beginning he hated his uncle, but now he started to like him. Uncle was always there for him, and has promised that if he trained hard enough, he would be able to kill who have killed his parents.
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The door opens, and the child looks scared as some person is kicked inside and falls to the floor. Known faces walk in right after, one of them is the uncle of the child.
The man on the floor tries to stand, but some men kick him down.
-I got you a present today Richard - Uncle George says with a grin in his face, then he walks closer to the one in the floor, grabs the man by his hair and makes the man to look at the child.
-Tell me Richard, do you recognize this face?
The boy is filled with anger, the moment he sees the man he recognizes the face that has been haunting his dreams ever since he saw the video of his parents death.
George let go of the man and calmly walks to the bed where the child is seated, then he seats by his side. He takes his moment as he sees the child is having an internal struggle between all kinds of emotions, then he takes a gun and hands it to the child.
-He is the man that killed your parents, what will you do with him?
The child gets up and without thinking he starts shooting at the man in front of him. The weapon is heavy for such a kid, and the recoil of each shoot is too much for him, so half the shoots are missed even from such short distance.
The man tries to get away, but he is already weak from being beaten up. He can only feel the bullets piercing him as he dies.
Richard was crying by his knees. Part of him was happy that he could avenge his parents death, part of him was scared of what has just happened, part of him had feelings he couldn’t recognize.
-You did great today Richard, your parents would have been proud of you! - His uncle gave him a hug. By now the other men were cleaning the room.
The child just keeps crying, he tries to stop, but his emotions are too strong, they won’t let him stop.
-I will train you Richard - his uncle whispers - and one day you be so strong that no one will dare hurt those close to you.
George let his nephew be and walks out of the room, he knew that this child would have a great future if he could be manipulated since early. He walks through the corridor when he listen’s a voice.
-Wow, that was too much even for you! Sending one of you men to kill your brother and then letting his son kill him so that you can manipulate him into a puppet, all that for you to get control over the inheritor of your brother’s fortune - a man walks out of the shadows.
George looks at him then smiles - I have no idea what you are talking about, but you have the hell of an imagination! Good night Fill.
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From that day onwards Vokier would face a hellish training; His father expected him to be as good with a sword as his older brother, who spent almost the whole day training with it, his mother spent a few hours at the end of each day teaching him water magic, in her mind, if he were not to have great potential, at least he would work as hard as possible to try and overcome it.
-Not bad, you have good reaction - an old man, whose face was covered with scars spoke. Lord Sinchar was a retired trainer for the soldiers of this country, having been in that position for a couple decades.
Lord Sinchar was asked a couple of years ago by his best student to train his first son. When he trained Harod, Lord Sinchar was impressed by the boy’s talent, that could surpass even his father’s, that's why when Lord Ashex asked him a couple of days ago to teach his other son, Lord Sinchar had no hesitation in accepting, that family was full of pleasant surprises. He didn’t know, however, how big of a surprise he would find.
Vokier woke up early that morning, his father had promised the night before that today he would be going to take Vokier to the castle for training purposes.
-You seem to be excited today, son - his father was still sleepy as they walked to the castle.
-Of course I am! It’s the first time I will be sparring in a long time!
His father was still sleepy, so he didn’t mind to correct his son that he has never sparred before.
As we walked to the palace I could noticed that people treated my father with respect, soldiers saluted us as we walked past the gates, and everyone would open a path for us to walk by. As we closed to the training grounds I could hear the sound of wood being hitten, getting closer I could see about 200 people training there.
-So this is your son, Vokier you say? - I saw father turning to greet the owner of that voice, an old man full of scars.
-Lord Sinchar, how are you? - Father greeted him, they then begun to speak a little about old times.
-Son, this is Lord Sinchar, he will be teaching you from today onward. You do everything that he says, you hear me? - I could sense some pressure from my father as he said those words.
-Sure.
Father then said his goodbyes and told us that he was needed inside the castle. Lord Sinchar then ordered me to run around the training grounds non stop until I tired. By looks I would say that this distance would be around 1500 feet.
Two laps later and I was tired, fallen to the ground.
-We need to work on your resistance - Lord Sinchar stated looking at me - rest for ten minutes, then we start the basic with the sword.
When we begun the training with a sword I felt a strange sensation. I was used to knives in my old world, I was a professional at knives actually, so the balance and length I was used to were all wrong.
I was then presented to a wooden target and made to hit it, while I was hitting it my new master said that he was going to have breakfast, and that I should practice until he returns.
During the next years my daily schedule was like this: get up, physical training until noon, then I would start learning general subjects, like a school, but with Nad as my teacher, all of this with as little pauses as possible for resting until the middle of the afternoon, and until late in the night magical training with mother and Nad.
What got me excited the most were the magical trainings. Sure, I was terrible by this world standards.But still, being able to control mana with your mind and ordering it to do things without you touching it, that’s just amazing.
I was now ten years old. I haven’t shown much progress with swords, which made father disappointed. He always wanted his second son to show the same results as the first one, in my first years of life he thought I would even surpass him, but by now he had lost all hope for me to be a fighter.
And that was my plan. By the time I would spar I would always lose on purpose, when I was left to train by my own, I would always forget about the sword and practice my old world’s techniques with a dagger. Being a soldier I would have three paths to choose on life: Being a soldier, someone’s personal guard or an adventurer and fight strong creatures forever, something I never wanted, my plans for this life were big, I have already started to study the possibilities, and knowing some assassination skills for self defense was as far as I would be needing regarding fighting skills.
Infusing mana into the weapon for extra damage was something amazing I have been taught. In front of others I would not know how to use it to avoid any chance of being called to join the army, but in secrecy I trained it, as well as infusing mana into my body to enhance it.