Benjamin Silverose
I awoke to the sound of Liza’s flat voice calling my name as she stood at my bedside.
“I’m confused as to why you begged your parents to give you that alarm construct if I still have to wake you every morning.”
Blinking a few times and sitting up, I responded with a question.
“I have an hour, right?”
I already knew the answer, Liza was more predictable than me having the same dream every night. After a brief nod from her, I promised I would go get ready, but it wasn’t until I walked into my washing quarters and closed the door that she finally left the room.
Liza seemed to have noticed how tired I’d been lately and didn’t seem keen on allowing me to get any extra sleep.
“It’s not like I want to stay up all night,” I grumbled to the empty room as I pulled the sleeping bag out of my sink cabinet.
About three weeks prior, I had woken up with a need to learn more about magic. Though new compulsions weren’t overly rare, it had been months since the last one, and they were anything but specific.
At first, I hoped the bits and pieces about magic covered in my classes would be enough, but as the feeling quickly became stronger, I realized that wouldn’t be the case. I considered talking to my parents or Sofia, but quickly discarded the idea. They had always been apprehensive when I asked for anything relating to magic.
It would be even worse if I told them the reason. “I need it to make the aching stop,” sounded like a great way to erase the already limited freedom I had.
With the unwanted urge getting more annoying by the day, I decided my best option was to sneak books out of the library. Understudy had multiple libraries, but I’d only spent any significant amount of time in the one closest to my room. Unlike some others, this library held only books surrounding general knowledge and entertainment, mainly for the less involved Understudy staff, such as cooks and cleaners.
Though rare, I had checked out the occasional book or two for a class with the professor or just general amusement. Ms.Helga, the librarian, knew this, so unless I did anything overly suspicious she wouldn’t ask any questions. After I decided where to get the books I needed, the next question I needed to answer was how.
While I hadn’t been told so, I was confident my parents would know I checked out a book relating to magic. If Ms.Helga would even let me take them. When I actually went to the library, I realized there was a rather easy solution to this problem. My first thought had been to stay in the library and read, but I decided against it since my chances of being caught were too high. The second option came to me when I realized many of the children's books had paper coverings. I spent another ten minutes reading through the stacks of books before realizing if I wanted to find books that actually fit the requirements, it would take a few days.
It took about three hours in as many days to locate removable covers that were both appropriately sized, something I could unsuspiciously take with me, and at a height my three-and-a-half-foot body could reach.
On the third day, I walked in, greeted Ms.Helga as usual, switched a few covers around, and checked out three books. My heart hammered in my chest as the librarian wrote down the titles for the books. One thick tome on the history of the United Republic of Lisan, a thin looking journal contained a fairy tale called Juandi: The Amarillo King, and one medium-sized book on the advanced grammar of the Eunoian Language. She didn’t make a move to look inside any of them and I realized, somehow, in all my planning, the idea that she would, had never occurred to me as a possibility. Arriving back in my room, I sat on my bed to review my spoils. The tome was actually a book titled The History and Practical Uses of Magic, 80th Edition. The second was an informational pamphlet type book named Your Core and More, and the last, a work on the different types of mages called Deviant or Variant, How Special am I?
The one on the history of magic seemed like it would be enough to satiate my need for knowledge on the topic, so the others were picked mainly out of curiosity. I figured Ms. Helga would notice the missing magic studies books, but there was nothing I could do about that. If I replaced them with the children's books, it would be more obvious who had done it than if the slots were left empty. Instead, I hid the actual children's books, the ones I'd left behind, below the shelves.
This was why I’d asked my parents for the timed sound construct. It allowed me to wake up in the middle of the night. I told them I wanted to try to wake myself in the mornings, which was the cause for Liza’s earlier complaint. I didn’t know how, but my body seemed to tell me when I had read enough, and it averaged out to about two hours a night. Though it normally took longer, since only the time I actively spent reading or better trying to understand the material was counted. Since I didn’t have the ability to actually perform magic outside the cube, I didn’t see the point to this, but it was the only way I could make the annoying headache stop, so I went with it.
‘Life’s hard,’ I mused to myself, whilst waking up from my extra few minutes of sleep. Six hours a night was not enough for my growing four-year-old body.
‘Wait, I’m not f-’ my thoughts were cut off by Liza’s knocks on the door.
“Prince Benjamin, you have fifteen minutes before class begins.”
‘Like clockwork,’ I thought, rolling up my sleeping bag and packing it into a nearby cabinet. I had asked my parents for the bedroll to simulate camping since I couldn’t leave Understudy, but it had recently shown other uses. I had turned on the shower before I went to sleep to both be unsuspicious and warm up the room. Forgetting the high temperature, I stepped in and let out a yelp before adding more cold water.
It took me twelve minutes to get clean and dressed, leaving the remaining three to get to class. When I opened the door to my room, Liza was already gone. While the girl was almost always by my side, she’d not hesitate to leave me if the alternative was being late. I took the hallway that led into the mass dormitories, my room was separated from the others, before leaving the lodging area entirely and entering the outskirts of the Magic Engineering section of the facility.
Understudy could be separated into four main sections, three of which I passed through on my way to class. The Magic Engineering area, as the workers had described it, focused on the creation of innovative new tools that were useful in all fields of life. I’d only been allowed in the space twice and never saw anything particularly magical other than prototypes of the bracers. As I continued my full sprint through the division's outskirts, while doing my best to dodge everyone close to me, I passed into a section I would have been happy to avoid. Though I didn’t know what exactly was studied in the alchemy department, the seemingly permanent odor had kept my curiosity at bay. Unfortunately, the fastest route to my destination was through there.
After an agonizing half minute or so I finally arrived at the door leading to the Magic Research section. I waved, instantly spotting some familiar faces, though I’d met most, if not all, of the people at the facility, the only ones I really knew were in this section. Since the Magic Researchers mostly focused on theoretical work, as Sofia put it, the space was rather barren save the cube and researcher’s workstations.
Spotting the head researcher near her desk I called out, “Morning Ms.Serian,” as I sped past.
Raising her head, the researcher waived then smiled broadly her green eyes seeming to twinkle. It wasn’t her usual calm smile but more akin to one of pure glee. I continued my run, not having the time to question the situation.
I finally came to a stop when I reached a wall with two corridors leading in opposite directions. The left hallway went towards the final section of Understudy, Weapons Production. I’d spent hours wondering what was beyond the corner of that hall and though my parents forbid entry, the little information I managed to squeeze out of the adults over the years was more than enough to fuel my imagination. In complete contrast to the right was only the boring corner room where I had a class I was almost late for. Beginning the final leg of my sprint I desperately wished, not for the first time, I could use wind magic to aid my movements.
As I turned the last corner I almost ran directly into the Professor’s smiling face.
The professor was a tall man, taller than even my father. He had piercing blue eyes that seemed to hold infinite knowledge and his long blonde hair was always perfectly combed. While often friendly, his teaching persona held an air of authority that was not to be tested. This last point was important as I realized I wasn’t about to be late for class but rather that I already was. Coming to an abrupt halt I greeted the man with a bow as I took in large lungfuls of air.
“Good morning, Professor.”
Bowing was something I only did when I was trying to be overly respectful to the Professor. He was an elf and though Davion held no such culture outside the command structure, in Scate it was customary for one to bow to their elders.
“I see you found fit to join the rest of the class,” Professor Mark said addressing me, his smile unflinching.
The professor walked inside, and I made to follow. Sure enough the twins and both my siblings had already taken their seats. Though everyone was present for this class session, history, they were often in and out of the room throughout the day. Liza stayed for all but two of the classes, and that was only because I was forced to.
I took a seat next to Lisa, her customary red bow affixed to her head as usual. She smiled at me by way of greeting, as the professor began, his arm gesticulating as he spoke.
“So last time we just about finished covering the known information about the time before the humans on Sendant. That means we will be jumping into the early settlements of the Meraki in the original territory of the wood elves, just off the northern border of modern day Lisan. You see it's a common misconception, probably spread by the Empire themselves, that the Wood Elves living on that land at the time were unwelcoming to the...”
***
Once the hour and a half of history was finished, Lisa, Liza, and Silus left the room as Professor Mark began his math lesson. Since the group had already learned the material Emelia and I were currently studying, they were free for the next hour.
Mia being only three years older allowed me to catch up with her studies, though it hadn’t been easy. My parents had decided that the majority of the children's academic studies would be consolidated with the professor, so I had begun taking classes with him before the rest to catch up with the work Mia’s original teacher had taught her. Silus was still ahead of us in all studies, but father forced him to take a few classes with us since the professor was more knowledgeable than many of the other teachers. The situation was similar for the twins though all the classes they took were voluntary.
After the hour of mathematics passed, it was Mia’s turn to leave. Lisa and Liza rejoined as the professor began the lesson on conversational Eunoian, an optional class. When Lisa found out the professor spoke the language, she asked my mother to set it up. Liza had seemed interested when Lisa brought it up to her but didn’t agree to participate until I said that I would. Liza had done a lot for me, and I felt like it would give her the extra push she needed to join, plus I knew both my parents spoke multiple languages, so it seemed cool.
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Eunoian was the language spoken by the demi-humans of Eunoia and though it had roots in the languages spoken by the people of Davion and Meraki, it had become vastly different over the millennia. While I wasn’t sure the reason for the twins' interest in the foreign language, the classes were interesting, and I figured the skill would be useful at some point, if I ever got out of this place.
As the professor was wrapping up the class and assigning us a short story to write for homework, there was an unexpected knock on the door. Rather than the annoyed reaction I expected, the professor began to smile, something I’d never seen him do when his lesson was interrupted. I turned towards the door, wondering who could have caused the teacher's odd reaction, a smile forming on my face as well when I saw the pair standing in the doorway. They had been extremely busy lately, and I hadn’t seen them for almost a week.
“Didn’t think we’d forget your birthday, did you Ben,” my father asked, a wide grin on his face.
My mother brought me into a hug, shortly followed by one from my father before he began to speak again.
“Well, if you think this is a good surprise, wait till you see your gifts.”
We walked out of the classroom and to the cafeteria. Since this was often the most crowded part of Understudy it was an odd site to see the room empty. This was my third year of celebrating my birthday in the area, and I’d never understood why we needed the entire space for less than ten people.
The guest list consisted of my family along with Lisa, Liza, Tabatha, and Winston. Normally Sofia would have joined us, but I figured she was probably busy. Thinking about her absence reminded me of her odd reaction this morning but seeing Winston and Tabatha for the first time in over half a year pushed the thought out of my mind. A few months after I was moved to Understudy it had been decided that I no longer required the pair.
Tabatha had been made Chief Analyst of the Royal Magicians and Winston returned to his post of guarding my father, though I had seen him a few times during my appointments with Sofia. We spent an hour talking and eating before my dad called for silence and began to bring out the gifts. I was excited, my father had always been a bit over the top sometimes, so if he thought the gifts were good, they were definitely amazing.
The first present was a conjoined gift from Silus and Emelia. Inside a silver and red wrapped box was a game that had come out a year or so ago. It consisted of a black and gold checkered board with thirty-two pieces in which two players would battle. Using sixteen pieces each, they would attack and defend with the goal of trapping the opponent’s leader or Sha. I had first learned about it six months ago from my father. An anonymous designer created it in Lisan and the Republic’s Prime minister had been distributing the game among the aristocratic circles. When I heard my father talking about the game, I knew I wanted it.
I hugged each of them in turn before doing the same to my parents, it was obvious who had actually gotten the gift. Sitting back at the table, Emelia asked me to teach her how to play and Silus vowed to beat me as soon as he learned.
The next gift was from Winston. The object came in a long green box with a gold ribbon. As I unwrapped the present, Winston began to speak.
“You might not remember this, but when you were younger, you’d watch Lisa and I spar. Your eyes used to be so wide and now that you’re big enough to hold a weapon, this seemed like the perfect gift. Plus, with your other gifts, it seemed like time for you to begin learning at least the basics.”
His tone was nonchalant as he feigned ignorance to my excitement at the gift. I did remember when Winston and Lisa used to spar and though I’d gotten better at being a “normal child'' I didn't know what he actually believed. I wasn’t sure how a Shagi board would have anything to do with me learning swordsmanship, but I was grateful, nonetheless. I ran around the table and gave him a hug before returning to my seat.
“You see, a child is supposed to get their first weapon from their parents, but after seeing their gift I don’t think they will mind,” he said, then in a stage whisper adding. “Plus, they can still give you a real one in a few years.”
Winston finished the statement with a wink and I sat down looking at my parents with great anticipation. My mother just cleared her throat and glared at Winston. Apparently, he had been overheard. Tabatha stepped up next and handed me a small, green, velvet lined box. It housed a thin silver B on a gold chain. It was similar to the one she wore, though the lettering and chain were different. While Tabatha had been transferred as soon as I was moved to Understudy, she had always made sure to visit when she could. During one of those visits, I had seen her necklace, a gift from her grandmother before she left home, and told her how much I liked it, apparently she hadn’t taken the comment idly.
Immediately I tried to put it on, something Tabatha ended up having to help me with. I gave her a hug, knowing that they would now be expected by everyone, and waited for the next gift. Lisa handed me a set of clothes that looked similar to the coveralls I used in the Beta Environment, but with many more customizations.
“They’re training clothes for when you’re learning to fight, and any other training purposes,” the second part added on as if an afterthought. “I’m looking forward to when we can spar,” she said, flashing a devilish grin, and I knew the dagger wielder wasn’t going to hold back whenever that time came.
After showing my appreciation along with no small amount of confusion, I sat back down to receive my second to last gift.
I looked at Liza who walked over with an unwrapped book called Magic is Everywhere. A brief inspection showed me the book was an introduction to magecraft; like the ones I had “borrowed” from the library.
She looked at me and I thought I saw the briefest hint of a smile cross her brown skin as I looked back. Bewildered my mind quickly spiraled as I considered what was happening. Her handing me the books didn’t mean Liza knew about the ones I had in my possession. The smile could have just been from my assuredly amusing expression. However, it did mean my parents had allowed Liza to give me the book. This along with the combination of the sword and training equipment… I smiled at Liza as I regained a bit of my composure and sat back down, she had never been one for hugs.
I stopped my brain from diving back into that line of thought as it had only led to disappointment before, plus I was about to find out. Looking up, I made eye contact with my mother as she approached.
“I know these last few years have not been easy on you. With all the research and false promises, we are proud to finally give you these.”
She took out a small white box and handed it to me. I wanted to act like I wasn’t sure what it was but from her words, I knew. My hands began to shake as I almost failed to untie the simple knot of the ribbon at the top. Inside were four thin purplish-black bracers riddled with runic text. Looking over them, I knew that though similar in color they weren't the void bracers, I had long ago memorized their runes. At that moment, as if rehearsed, Sofia walked into the room curly hair bouncing and a wide smile on her face.
“Well, why are you sitting there just staring at them, we have to try them out.”
***
Not thirty minutes later I was back in the chamber I’d spent much of my life, but now donning new training gear and a huge grin on my face. I followed the instructions to the letter and answered every question I was asked. Excited for what my life would be like from now on.
‘I’ll be able to go outside whenever I want soon,’ I thought to myself again, tears welling up in my eyes.
It wasn't as if I’d never left Understudy, but when just a foot out the entrance would cause my body to absorb so much mana that I’d pass out within seconds, the trips were a rare occurrence.
The easiest way had been the void bracers. They were first developed almost three years prior when a way to effectively miniaturize the runes that lined the wall of Understudy had been discovered. At first, I had been ecstatic, similar to now, the possibility of no longer being confined to this space was amazing, but the side effects could be awful. The bracers worked by absorbing the mana of the person, and if necessary ambient mana, to power itself. At first glance it might seem like the perfect tool for my condition since the more mana that was adsorbed, the stronger the band’s suppressing power would be. There was no way for the bands to release the mana back into the air automatically, but they could be manually vented, though no amount of mana had been able to overwhelm the bands.
While this specific feature was great, the problem lied in my age. The adsorption could be awful for anyone who had yet to form a core. As Sofia and my books had explained it, a core allowed a person to consolidate the magic in their body. The change caused by the bracers was likely to alter the natural processes of mana core formation so much they could lose the ability to make one altogether. It was all theory, but I didn’t want to take the risk and decided to stay in Understudy rather than lose my chance to become a mage.
The method that had been used the most, though even that was only three times was a pseudo carriage. My parents had a special box made that allowed for me to leave Understudy though I’d never actually be outside. It looked like a normal horse driven carriage but if anyone saw the runic script that filled every inch of the stone structure’s interior, I doubt they would think of it as such. The carriage was so heavy even the best load carrying beast needed enchanted gear to move it.
‘But now I’d actually get to walk outside on my own two feet.’
“We’re going to start at a five and go up at three-minute intervals from there,” Sofia called out.
I did a brief nod as the countdown began, and I felt the mana rush into my body. I wasn’t supposed to try to manipulate any mana, not for this test at least. As I took the Average Ambient Mana Aptitude Test or AAMAT, just AMAT for values higher than the level of naturally occurring mana, I waited almost painfully as the timer ticked down. My previous record had been near eighty percent though that had only been for less than a minute. As the timer neared the end of the seventy percent section, I could feel my pulse speeding up, the blood pumping in my ears. I was so concentrated on the timer that Sofia’s announcement nearly made me fall out of my chair.
“Five percent intervals at four minutes until eighty-five.”
Recovering from the announcement I took a deep breath. This would be the highest ambient mana I’d intaken purposely, and it would only go up from there. The mechanical whirring was the only evidence that anything had changed as Sofia increased the percentage. I was expecting to black out, the idea of me and mana not meshing well having been ingrained in me basically since birth, but that was when I realized it. Whenever I had taken the AAMAT there had always been a slight pressure as if I was wearing weights. It was always easy to ignore because, you know, magic, but the absence of the pressure was much more evident.
The progress to eighty-five percent went smoothly, the nerves never truly leaving me but having subsided drastically after my earlier realization.
“Okay Ben,” Sofia called out. “This is the final stretch to get ready. One percent at two-minute intervals.
Eight minutes later the anxiety returned but this time much more subdued. This was mainly due to the knowledge that even if the test did fail, progress had been made, the end was in sight. Soon I would be able to leave this place.
“Ninety percent,” Sofia called out.
“Ninety-Three percent.”
“Ninety-Seven percent.”
“One Hundred percent, full ambient status achieved initial test is a success,”
This announcement elicited a chorus of cheers from her side of the glass and the hammering of my heart began to slow down. Tears formed in my eyes as I realized I felt fine.
‘I’m in a net average ambient mana environment and I feel fine.’ I thought to myself.
Then I realized that wasn’t quite true, I felt amazing. My body felt lighter, and it seemed like I could... sense better? Not as if one of my senses specifically had changed, but rather that all of them had been upgraded. Attempting to get a better feel for these changes I brought myself to my feet only to instantly fall flat on my face though this time I hadn’t blacked out. I just laid in the dirt half laughing half crying as I heard everyone asking what happened from their side of the cube.
These tests, and one’s similar went, on for hours as Sofia squeezed as much data from me as possible. During one of the breaks between testing I asked Sofia about the difference between the Void Bracers and the newly made Stable or Balance Bracers.
“So you know the tech behind the voids, right?” I nodded, and she continued. “Well, it's similar. I mean, they’re based on the same theory, but the stables are much more complex. Me from three years ago wouldn’t believe the leaps in theoretical runology we’ve made since then, I mean the runes are only the framework of the bracers, anyway I digress. Your body, like most everything else in this world, naturally absorbs ambient mana to create some sort of balance, the higher the ambient mana the more your body absorbs. While one of the goals was to figure out what this rate of balance is based on, we still have no idea; what we do and have known for a long time is that your body absorbs a higher amount of ambient mana and reaches its balance at a much later point than the average person. The technology behind the bracers allows them to intake all the mana your body can’t handle, but still tries to absorb, which is currently an average of sixty percent, at least in Vander, but that’s just the beginning. You might have felt slightly uncomfortable during the beginning of the test.”
I nodded before responding, “But I’m pretty sure that was just because I was nervous.”
Sofia looked at me, a wry grin on her face.
“That was actually due to the bracers attempting to sync with your mana inputs and outputs. So not only do the bracers stop your body from overloading on mana it aims to actively expel some mana naturally. I mean, think about it rather than…”
Sofia then launched into a full explanation covering the theoretical and revolutionary practical uses for the technology, little of which I followed.
We resumed testing after the head researcher's rant had finally stopped half an hour later. I still wouldn’t be allowed to leave Understudy for another three weeks, but I knew life would be much more interesting from now on.