The Inspection

Unlike her usual reserved self, Damon's mother rushed over to the old man and gave him a warm embrace.

"Teacher!" she exclaimed.

"It's been years since you studied at the tower, child, no need to call me master." The old man chuckled.

"You'll always be my teacher, but more importantly, why are you here?" asked Ariel.

Aside from the King, almost everyone else in the room seemed shocked at the relationship between the Queen and this old man. Damon knew a little of his mother's history and knew that she had studied at the Central Academy.

Perhaps this man was teacher there?

The old man gestured towards Damon and his father. "Well, it's rare that I get to meet two of my students in one place."

At this, a buzz went through the crowd and even Kerron seemed baffled. Damon's father had gone to the Academy, but he was a warrior whereas Damon's mother was a mage. A warrior and mage having the same teacher was odd.

"And I hear we may have a potential great mage here, so I decided to do the inspection myself. My tower could always use new seeds." Continued the old man.

Tower?

Inspections were usually conducted by one of the mages who belonged to the kingdom, but based on the way the old man spoke, he had come from a magic tower.

There were eight magic towers that existed throughout the continent. Seven of them were aligned to each of the mana attributes – Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Light, Dark and Lightning. These towers were essentially independent research and training institutes. They had no allegiance to any kingdom, instead operating through treaties and contracts. Once a treaty was formed, most kingdoms would send their mages to apprentice and study at those towers and as such, the towers had strong political influence as many mages throughout the continent had ties with them.

The final tower was known as the 'Central Tower'. It served as a mediating body for the seven towers and mostly focused on research and not much training.

Although it was rare for mages to be trained within the Central Tower, it was, however linked to the continent's 'Central Academy' which took in the greatest talents throughout the continent and produced some of the most powerful individuals. Aside from the Academy, the Central Tower was perhaps the more influential entity on the continent.

Damon had been well read in his previous life, and knew of the various towers, but it was rare to see a high-ranking tower mage and he had never met any in person.

King Kane turned Damon towards the old man and introduced him.

"This is Master Zereth, he is a very important mage who once taught your mother and I, and he is here today to conduct your inspection."

The name did not ring any bells to Damon, and judging by the increasing confusion of Kerron, this man was not widely known.

"Good afternoon, Master Zereth." Said Damon, still wondering which tower this man belonged to.

"Good afternoon child, how are you?" Asked Zereth.

"I'm doing well thank you, but I am a bit confused. I thought father was a warrior, so how come he had a mage as a teacher?" Asked Damon.

He was still thrown off by his father introducing this man as his teacher. As far as Damon knew, his father was not a mage and had no mana at all. The reason why this inspection was even happening was because his father was not a mage.

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The Aristum house had a long and powerful history, and the Kingdom of Aristia was one of the powerhouses on the continent. Their founding King, the first patriarch of the house, Lionel Aristum had been both a high level mage and warrior. Succeeding Kings had leaned more on the side of magic, and house Aristum was established as a house of mages.

Whilst it was difficult to train a mage, even a mediocre mage had versatility, and, more importantly, could be affiliated with the Magic Towers. Affiliation to the Magic Towers meant that contracts to hire mages could be negotiated, and programs to send mages from the Kingdom to the tower's could be agreed upon. Throughout the continent, rulers who were warriors and could not interact with the Magic Towers on equal ground would see their Kingdoms weakened.

It was difficult to attract foreign mages and retain home-grown mages without an affiliated Magic Tower, and Magic Towers would charge ridiculous prices to non-mage rulers for contracts with their Tower. In this way, the Magic Towers maintained their power and influence as they encouraged Kingdoms to prioritize mages as their rulers.

When Damon's father had awakened as a warrior, the peace of Aristia was shaken and small conflicts broke out against surrounding powers who were testing the waters. This grew worse with time as he remained an only child and it became clearer and clearer that he would become the next King.

However, even though he had no talent as a mage, Kane had erupted as a legendary swordsman, and had climbed the ranks to become known as the strongest man in the world. The current internal stability of the Kingdom despite the constant wars was due to his prowess – opposing nations would skirmish and provoke, but no one would risk all-out war.

Despite this, the Kingdom was eager to see a King who could use magic, as re-establishing a link with the Magic towers would see the Kingdom rise again.

Eventually, the Kingdom had taken to testing the mana veins and mana pools of all the nobles at a young age. This would help them divert resources to those who were more promising, and in turn, help stabilize the Kingdom, as a generation of young talents who were tied to the noble houses could form various affiliations with the Magic Towers.

This was another factor to why the first Queen had so much influence, as her son had shown the potential for great talent as a mage during his inspection.

It was also why the Kingdom was so excited about Damon's intelligence. Considering that his mother was a talented mage, if Damon showed even mediocre talent, then her guidance and his intelligence would allow him to become a strong supporter of his older brother, and maybe even an envoy to a magic tower on behalf of the Kingdom.

Kane raised his eyebrow at his son at the question but did not prod as to where his curiosity came from.

"He taught me how to deal with magic and fight mages, not how to use magic." Said Kane.

Damon could only nod his head at this answer, but it left him with more questions. He wondered how their arrangement had even come to be. Most Magic Towers were quite averse to warriors, and it was unlikely that they would teach a warrior how to deal with their fellow mages – even if said warrior was a King.

"You are very well spoken for your age; you must have a very good tutor." Said the old man, interrupting the conversation between father and son as he looked at Damon, his eyes shining.

"I read a lot, and my mother teaches me very well." Said Damon.

"I can tell, you speak very clearly. So, are you ready to begin?" Asked Zereth, his eyes shining even brighter.

Damon felt a sinking feeling at this old man's interest. Whilst mana sensitivity and one's mana level where big indicators of talent as a mage, this natural talent could only take one so far. Intelligence was also a strong deciding factor in how far a mage could go.

Normally, hard work could bridge minor gaps in intelligence, especially as going up in levels would improve memory and brain function. However, if someone was exceptionally intelligent as a child, this intelligence would exponentially increase as they grew and leveled up. Some of the greatest mages were extremely intelligent as children.

The intelligence that Damon had shown in learning how to read and write at only three years old, and developing his vocabulary, comprehension, and speech to such an extent were all signs that he had high natural talent as a mage.

The problem was that this old man's eyes were sparkling way too brightly. If Damon wasn't careful with this examination there was a good chance that he would end up being forced to follow him to his tower. Especially considering that both of his parent's had a good relationship with the old man.

"Yes, we can start." Said Damon.

"Excellent, we will first test your mana sensitivity, and then I'll try to stimulate your mana veins." Said Zereth.

"Would you be dear and escort us to a private room for testing? It's not quite appropriate to carry it out standing here by the entrance." Zereth asked Ariel.

"Of course, teacher, please follow me to the study." She said.

Like that, the group of them made their way to the study. Ariel and Alan lead the way, followed by Zereth who was flanked by Damon and the King. Behind them came William and Lucy, and Kerron and Beren brought up the group at the back.