“First you need to understand the core basics of your Magic abilities……” Petra stared at me for a while as I sat attentively in my baby chair—I’m glad no one in my previous life could see me now—and looked over her shoulder to see Grandall, who had the same expression on his face and I knew what that look meant.

How on earth were they supposed to teach a baby the fundamentals of magic?

Clearly they don’t know I understand every word they say. It’s quite fun to watch them this frustrated actually, they should take it as payback for all the unwarranted hugging and constant playing they keep playing with me, like I’m some human toy.

“I don’t know how to do this?” Petra whispered to Grandall.

“You’ve taught a lot of kids back in the day. You’ve got this.”

“Our son is only one year old, those kids were five! How am I supposed to teach a baby such complicated stuff. He won’t get one bit. He’s a dumb baby.”

Now that’s insulting.

“He certainly don’t act like one. Not with that face.” Grandall pointed at and I didn’t even notice the look I was giving them. “I think he understands what we’re saying.”

“That’s impossible!”

“Just teach. And let’s see what happens.”

She sighed and turned back to me. “I guess we’re doing this. First of all you need to understand the way your magic works. Every individual in this world is born with magic in them some more than other.”

Finally….

“With every individual falling under a caste system.”

She picked chalk from a van sitting near by on her desk and started drawing a chart stick men figures on the blackboard she had pulled out for this lecture. At the top of the chart was one stickman with a large crown on his head and a large circle around him and as the chart went down the circles around the stick men figures underneath began to decrease until there was an stick me with just a dot on his forehead.

“People born with powerful magical abilities are normally royalty. It is said the heavenly principles—the force responsible for the magical abilities we possess—shares more of the blessing towards those born of kings and queens.” She pointed to the stick man at the top. “Then we have the nobles, these are those born as relatives to people with true royal blood, these would be the brothers, sisters and cousins of the present king or queen who don’t ascend the throne or will never have a claim to the throne.”

Interesting. So your place in society is determined the moment you’re born. I looked at Grandall and Petra. That would mean we would be…..

“As for the class we fall under is the normal borns. Our magic abilities are average at best and won’t ever compare to those born of noble blood.”

Well that sucks.

“So naturally the spells we’re able to cast are can help us get through normal tasks and in most cases not suitable for combat, not all cases. Like your father, his magic is handy in a fight although not by much.”

I wonder how true that statement is. It’s only a fool that thinks certain things can’t be a weapon or is useless in combat. We were taught that everyday in the sanctuary. Even the air you breathe, used in a certain way, can kill a person, so that logic is flawed.

“Then we have the non-responsive.” She pointed at the stick man at the bottom of the chart. “They are people with magic but cannot draw on its abilities these people are very rare.”

Imagine coming to a life where magic is a casual norm and being the lowest of the lowest, a truly pitiful existence. Everything is making more sense now but I have a few questions to ask that doesn’t make any sense to me.

1. Why does the royal family have more magic than the rest of us?

2. If someone not born of royal blood ascend the throne will their magic multiply?

3. Is there a limit to how strong a person can be?

These questions ran circles in my mind but I decided to ask them another time. She’s getting to the important part—how to use magic.

She paused for a moment and turned to Grandall who muttered the words You’re doing great to her and she continued.

“To tap into magic we use spells, ancient words passed down from the first days of magic down to future generations to this days. Although some spells have been revised to be more compatible with the casters as the revised versions come with little to mo draw backs but before that you have to learn how to control your aura.”

Aura? Alistar mentioned it. He says my aura would start spilling out. I wondered what he meant by that.

Petra walked up to me and gently took my tiny hands into hers.

“I don’t know if you’re understanding me but if you feel a tingling feeling on your palms I want you to say so to blink once okay?”

She closed her eyes and I felt a surge of energy rush into my bones soon accompanied by that strange feeling I felt on my birthday. I looked at Petra and now noticed white waves of energy, cloaking and radiating off her body, I looked at my palms and I could see the same this radiating off me but it was different from hers. I had a multitude of colors all around me.

So this is aura

“I feel it.”

Her eyes snapped open and she looked puzzled. “Already???”

I nodded.

“Look at that. He does understand me.”

“Told you so!”

“Shut up!!”

Grandall pouted and drooped.

“Tell me, can you see anything on mommy? Like a light?”

Ah… smart woman. I’ve never called them mother or father since the day I was born. They were hoping the first words I ever spoke would be either mommy or daddy. Both of them bickered over it a lot of times but the first thing I every said was “stupid” yup I called them stupid.

I nodded and she smiled.

“This will probably be easier that I thought it’d. Let’s have a look at yours…..” she took one glance at me and raised her brows. “Hm…. It seems you might be developing fast but when it comes to magic your just about the same as any other baby.”

“How so?” Grandall asked.

Yeah. How so?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Take a look at his aura. It hasn’t settled on a color yet.”

Grandall took a long stare and me and nodded. “That’s true.”

What does that mean? I looked the their faces waiting for a response.

“I guess fire isn’t your magic.”

It isn’t?

“It isn’t?”

“Well it could be or it could be a fluke, that happens a lot in developing children. The colour and intensity of our auras can help us determine what type of magic we settle with. Mine is white because I can control my aura to heal myself or the people around me. Your fathers magic is wind. Hence the green aura you see around him. Although it’s dangerous to assume a person’s ability from the colour of their aura as different abilities could have the same coloured auras.”

Interesting.

“So what is my magic?” I asked.

Petra chuckled and booped my nose. “So curious. Lets find out shall we.” She got to her feet and picked a book from her desk and flipped through until she stopped at the page she was looking for. “Here we go. As someone with the ability of manipulating auras I can help you quicken the selection process.”

She’s became more chipper now that she knows I understand her. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.

“H-Honey. Isn’t that dangerous!”

“You worry too much. It’ll only cause a little fatigue that’s all.” She stretched her right hand out at me and I watched her aura flare up but before words could escape her lips Grandall stepped in the way.

“Maybe we should slow down a bit. He might act all mature for his age but he’s still a baby. We don’t know how much fatigue it would induce on him and what it might do to him.”

“Hm…. You’re right. I got carried away there for a bit. It’s easy to forget he’s just a baby.” She chuckled and scratched the back of her head.

No he’s wrong. Do it already!

I watched her drop the grimoire on the table beside me and I caught a glimpse of the spell. Sure enough this one was in words I could understand.

Would it work if I tried it in myself? I wondered and read out the spell in my mind but saw no change in my aura. I forgot I didn’t know how to cast spells. I guess only someone like Petra can do this anyways. So I’m going to have to pull this card. It’s embarrassing—I know—but my curiosity overwhelmed the feeling of shame.

“Hmph!” I poured and crossed my arms. Sure enough that grabbed their attention.

“……”

They both looked at me, confused.

“Do it.”

“He wants us to do it?!”

“Sweetie we don’t know what will happen if we do. So it’s out of the question.”

I kicked and banged everything around me—yes I would stoop so low as to throwing a tantrum—it didn’t take long before they eventually gave in.

“Okay okay!” They stopped me. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

Grandall particularly had a smile on his face. He was having a normal baby and that made him happy. Hopefully they give me what I want.

“I won’t perform the spell on you but we can try something else.” She rushed upstairs and came down with a green grimoire clutched to her chest as she skipped down the stairs.

“Hey that’s mine!” Grandall exclaimed pointing at the book.

“Yup. Sometimes magical abilities are passed down from parent to child. During this phase in a child’s life it’s possible for them to develop abilities their parents have. So let’s test to see if he has any of our abilities.”

“Makes sense. Looks like it’s my turn to teach him.” He snatched his grimoire off Petra’s hands. “Let’s take this lesson outside wind magic can get pretty rowdy.”

He grabbed me with one hand and slung me over his shoulder and walked out the door with Petra following behind.

The fresh scent of corn was the first this I noticed as we walked into the fields. I hardly had any chance to come outside into the fields to play, I usually watched through the windows as Grandall worked.

He found a chopped down log under a large orange tree to sit me down—I guess the fruits in this world are still the same—Petra came to sit beside me.

“So you see son. Wind magic is somewhat complex as it requires you to have absolute control over your aura. So you might not get it in one go like you did that flame spell. I’ll show you.”

He took a few steps ahead of me and closed his eyes, letting out a sharp breath. I watched his aura—as scanty as it normally is—slowly refine, it’s flow was like that of a raging storm in the sea but now it was like a peaceful lake.

“Most wind spells don’t require words. It’s usually all about how well you can tune in with nature.” He exhaled again and a gentle breeze brushed past us and I watched as a dried up leaf float in my direction and land on my laps. That feeling came back to me. A tingling sensation starting at the core of my chest and spreading all over my body

Magic. A construct in this world that defies all logic pertaining to nature and the human limits itself. If anyone had told me a year ago I would one day see magic with my very own eyes I would have called them stupid. Right now all that was in my mind was total fascination.

“Wind magic is also in tune with your emotions. So it good to keep your mind clear when performing it. As it’s an auto activate ability. Anger, malice, hatred. Are all strong emotions that can affect the intensity of your spells. So you should—”

The gentle breeze surrounding is hastened and morphed into a violent gale, sending pieces of earth and sand up the air. Petra grabbed me and used herself as a shield from the debris flying all around and Grandall dived and covered us from the debris flying in the air.

He had lost control of his magic? Or so I thought.

I looked down at my hands to see my aura had taken the same colour as Grandall’s then I realized, I was the one doing this.

The gale stopped instantly the moment I realized I was the one causing it. I had used magic again without even meaning to.

“Is everyone okay?” Grandall asked getting to his feet and brushing the dust off his clothes.

“Yeah, we’re fine.” Petra replied grabbing my cheeks in her hands. “Ard is okay.”

“I’m sorry guys. I didn’t know things would get out of hand so quickly. I—”

“Honey…. Look at Ard.”

Grandall’s confused expressions quickly turned shock and he slowly walked up to us.

“T-that was him!”

“I-I think so. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make winds that strong. You can tell when you use your magic don’t you? Look at his aura.”

“You don’t say…..”

“That means he took something from you. He’s a wind mage.”

They both looked at me in awe and Grandall looked particularly happy about this but their expressions quickly faded to one of confusion all over again.

I looked down at my palms and my aura had shifted back to the phasing between a plethora of colours.

“Another fluke?” Grandall asked, scratching the back of his head.

“I don’t know. I’m confused as well.”

Make that the three of us. Why won’t I settle on a single aura.”

“But I have a theory.” Petra has a cut on her face from a sharp flying rock that got thrown in the chaos just now and she placed her finger on it and I watched it slowly heal.

I watched my aura morph into the and white colour as hers.

“Touch mommy’s wound now.” She stretched out her hand to me where she had another small cut. I hesitated as the mood between us suddenly became grim. I looked at her face and she had worry in her eyes, something was wrong. I touched her wound and it healed up.

The looks on their faces dropped and Grandall fell to his knees.

What’s going on?

It was as if my actions sucked all joy from them and worry filled their eyes. Petra grabbed me into a hug as she broke down into tears.

I was so confused. Did I do something bad? Was I frustrating?

“Did I

“It can’t be. He can’t be that.” Grandall said as he crawled towards us and grabbed both of us into a big hug. He also broke down into tears.

“What do we do?” Petra asked in between sobs.

“We can’t let anyone find out. No one must know that our son is a spectre.”

A spectre…..