Evening quickly overtook us as we talked.

Calbern escorted me back to my bedroom, where we parted ways for the evening.

As I watched the magical threads unweave, my attention returned to something I'd been putting off. Just before Perth had dragged my soul into this world, he'd awoken his magic.

And now that power was mine. Waiting until Calbern finished closing the blinds and bade me a final goodnight was more challenging than I'd expected. But finally I was left alone, nothing but me and the burning curiosity.

Holding out my hand, I played through Perth's memories one more time. But there was nothing about casting without a spell, which I hadn’t scribed any of yet.

Still, there were common triggers for using spells.

Focus my Will.

I stared at my palm, letting the concerns of the day fall away.

Draw the power forth.

I searched through my body, and found the new sensation, the one hadn’t felt for most of our lives. It was… well, it was unlike anything I’d felt before. It shared some similarities to when I hit the funny bone on my elbow, except more pleasant. Drawing it to my palm wasn’t particularly hard, unless I thought about it too hard. The moment I did that, my energy returned to its normal flow.

With the power there, all I had to do was shift my Will and…

Let the Mana coalesce.

It was different from Perth's memory. For him, the energy had been as familiar and simple as the beating of his heart. For me… I could feel it tracing down my arm, with a tingling just like when I fell asleep on my arm. That tingle continued up to the tip of my fingers even as I urged my mana to coalesce. And slowly, it did, casting off the faintest of light in the otherwise dark bedchamber.

Magic.

I had done it.

Sure, it was barely the faintest glow, not even as bright as my old cell phone screen, never mind the actual flashlight function. But still…

Magic.

Unable to help myself, I started dragging my finger through the air, still channelling the pittance of mana, the movements leaving tiny motes of soft white light behind. It was a good thing I'd waited. I'd have completely missed the effects if I'd attempted it during the daylight hours. I might've been able to detect the glow on my finger, but it certainly wouldn't have felt as… magical.

Even as I continued playing with the motes, my thoughts drifted to what I'd do next. Perth knew most of the basic theory for the first two layers of advancement and had studied several spells he'd intended to add to his grimoire.

An excellent start, but if I was being flung to the far corners of the known world, I'd need more. My plans extended beyond simply stepping from Mage-soul to Astral-soul. Even the third step, Pegasus-soul, was barely enough. Then again, if I had my way, I'd blow past Pegasus and Hydra-soul straight to Djinn. And at that point, why not keep going until I was Dragon-souled.

“Keeping it humble,” I scoffed to myself, still watching the motes of mana drifting in the air.

Even my father's library wouldn't be able to help me figure out how to reach Dragon-soul. That was the sort of knowledge Perth's father would kill for.

Besides I was getting ahead of myself. My first task needed to be inscribing my first spells in my grimoire. I wouldn't be able to advance my soul without expressing my magic. Which, for the advancement to Astral-soul, meant holding spell impressions inside my soul. And doing that without having them in my grimoire was next to impossible with the tiny pool of mana I'd inherited from Perth.

Even as I lay in bed contemplating the future, and all the magic I intended to wield, sleep snuck over me. My dreams that night were a weird mix. I was where I’d spent more of my time after my old man had passed, at the garage I’d been raised in. Except this time, instead of pulling apart an old Honda to scrap out, I was carving magic into the side of a scooter. It was supposed to make it shoot out cinnamon flavored bubble gum.

Like I said, weird.

I’ve never liked cinnamon gum.

Once more, I woke to a wrinkled face staring down at me. To my surprise, the dream stayed with me. And there hadn't been any of my usual nightmares. Or any nightmares at all. Seemed the new world was good for me.

I dutifully followed Calbern's instructions once more as he dressed me for the day, once more unable to hide a smile at the way my clothes shifted to fit themselves to me perfectly.

"Another bit of excitement awaits you, young master," Calbern said, brushing my sleeves as though even a hint of a wrinkle personally offended him. As though the clothes didn’t remove the wrinkles themselves. "It is time to test your affinities."

"It'd be rather amusing if it turned out I had a strong nature affinity at this point. Not much use for a Gardener in the Frigid Peaks," I chuckled, shifting my shoulders. For some reason the jacket he'd chosen for the day felt tight. It wasn't nearly as forgiving as the robes he'd chosen the day before.

"A strong nature affinity would be most appropriate, I'd say. It also has many uses in the healing arts, if you would merely apply yourself. After all, that's what most of your family has done with their talents," Calbern replied, with considerably less humor.

"Not Nexxa though. She always liked to be different," I noted as I followed him out the door.

"Yes, though as I understand it, it took your sister a great deal of effort to shift her affinity to lightning."

"Not like she could raid father's library for impressions to build off of."

"I suppose that's why she accepted your father's proposal."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"What proposal?"

"Why, to change her calling, master Perth. Did I not mention that she'll be serving as one of Althon's new Magus Dominus?" The subtle twitch of his lips gave away that Calbern hadn't forgot a damn thing.

"Guess we're not leaving all the family behind then," I grumbled. Perth hadn't much liked Nexxa, having always felt that she'd been looking down on him. My annoyance was grounded in an entirely different concern.

She was the only person in the family who actually cared about Perth. And other than Calbern, the most likely to see through me.

More worryingly, she was an accomplished mage, managing to elevate herself to Astral-soul in less than a year. Something many had assured us was impossible. Especially since she’d chosen to wipe away most of her nature affinity in order to boost her lightning affinity. A very complicated and painfull process.

All told, Nexxa was a veritable prodigy.

"Perhaps you will be neighbors. It will be good to have an ally close at hand," Calbern noted as he held open the door for the carriage.

"Allies, huh?" He had a point. I… didn't really know anything about politics. Or governing folk, really. Hell, I'd never even made it into high school, never mind graduated.

What I did know, was machines. The old man had beat that into my head with a wrench. Sometimes literally. And from what I could glean from Perth’s memories, that’d serve me well in my efforts to master magic.

I also knew how to throw down and how to walk away. Much as I hated the old man and his methods, he’d taught me how to survive too.

And one thing that helped survive more than anything was to have someone you could go to when everything went to shit at home. Much as it might put me at risk of discovery, having someone I could run to would be good if things went pear-shaped, even if I was banking on her affection for Perth.

Which meant Nexxa being on the same side of the continent was a good thing. Mostly.

We remained quiet as the carriage left the estate, my attention reviewing Perth's memories of his half-sister. Like him, she'd been the only child of her mother, their father's second wife, though Nexxa's mother was still alive. Perth even had some halfway fond memories of Nexxa's mother.

Not so much for Nexxa herself. Three years his senior, she'd taken her role as big sister rather seriously. Which had caused Perth all manner of headaches. It was rather similar to Calbern, in a way. They'd both expressed affection in ways Perth didn't understand or appreciate. He’d had good times with Nexxa, even if he hadn’t seen it.

I was drawn out of my thoughts as the carriage passed through the outer walls of the compound by the ambient mana plummeting. It was most noticeable in the way my core almost seemed to relax, as though it was no longer being constantly assaulted and compressed.

As I looked back, it occurred to me how perfectly mundane the estate seemed from the outside. It was the height of wealth, but the trappings of magic were all functional, and hidden away inside.

At a glance, it looked like the sort of place I could find on Earth, even if I'd never be able to afford it. The only obvious thing magical about the whole place was the library’s guardains, whose gaze swept continuously across the estate.

As we drove past the burgeoning fields into the nearby city, it was similar. I was sure there was magic, but none of it was visible. Even the city looked mundane, if a little more green than I was used to.

At least it was clean.

Despite the number of horses pulling carriages, when we stepped out at our destination, there was only the faintest aroma of cherry hanging in the air.

The building we'd arrived at was, if I squinted, a wonder of magic, at least. Though one subtly done. The Ministry of the Arcane towered over the rest of the city, a single monolith of wood. And while that had impressed Perth, it wasn't half as tall as the buildings where I'd grown up.

It was made entirely of wood though, so that was impressive. Looking around, I realized so were all the buildings in the town. Cheap material, thanks to all the Gardeners.

I followed Calbern into the building, which didn't even have automatic doors. Thanks to Perth's studies, I knew such things were possible, even easy, for an ensouled to create. But I supposed such a thing might be beneath most of them.

There was an attendant dressed in the seven faced god’s colors, the sparkling white on dark blue looking more appropriate for a traditional wizard’s robe than the neat three piece suit they were wearing. I didn’t have to answer any questions, since Calbern had arranged everything ahead of time.

The attendant led me to a private room, closed off by a curtain of the same starry blue cloth.

Behind that curtain, was my first task requiring me to use magic since I’d arrived in this world.

And it felt appropriately magical.

Every surface of the room had faint white runes carved into it. And at the center was the skull of an Arcane-wyvern, embedded with dark gems. From that skull extended a dozen snake like tendrils, each with fangs half as long as my forearm was thick, all of them turning to point in my direction the second I stepped past the curtain. Every other second, the skull would release a pulse of white light, casting everything into stark contrast.

"I shall be waiting for you outside, master Perth," Calbern informed me from outside the curtain, his steps leading him away.

I simply nodded. I knew what to do. All I had to do was step forward and let them… bite me. Each of the smaller heads was taken from a different mana-sensitive creature, the fangs added afterwards to make testing whatever innate affinities Perth had left me easier.

While it was possible to increase one's affinities with dedicated practice, folk's starting affinities made a huge difference. Especially for those without the necessary resources or desire to improve them. Such as someone as lazy as Perth had been.

For me, it wouldn't matter as much what I started with. I intended to be more of an archmage than a specialist, which meant I'd be developing several additional affinities. In fact, I was hoping none of my affinities were too high. If they were, I'd need to put extra effort into the others before I advanced to Astral-soul, to ensure everything was balanced.

Placing my hands on the central skull, I took a deep breath as the tendrils snaked around my wrist, wrapping tighter. Having secured me in place, they descended one after another, each biting into a different part of my arm. Without my direction, my mana started to move, directed by the tendrils towards their tips before sending it back towards the central skull.

Despite expecting it, when the mana contacted the skull, I was still shocked when words projected from its empty sockets.

Soul Path: Mage - Tier 1

Progress: 0/5 First Order Impressions, No Foundational Structure.

Affinities: 13 Worlds, 11 Nature, 3 Storm

The results were better than I'd hoped. While my worlds affinity was a little high for my goal to become an archmage, it was also rare. Rare enough I was already adjusting my plans. Thirteen didn't sound like much, but it was enough that every point of my mana would be worth roughly two and a half of a normal mage's when casting spells like Gate. Besides, without a high enough affinity, I'd need a Catalyst to even cast the relevant order of spells. My affinities meant I’d always have access to healing and dimensional magics, both very powerful, though also very complicated.

Needing Catalysts was one of the reasons most mages carried magical staves, swords and wands, since it was an easy way to expand ones repertoire. It was also the reason they wore cluttered robes or heavily worked magical armor, other than the other practical advantages.

As Calbern had pointed out, my nature affinity would be useful wherever I ended up. Everyone needed to eat and to be healed, even Dragon-souled, and not needing a Catalyst for first or second order healing spells would be a life saver, more often than not.

Even though it was an uncommon affinity, I didn't have as much use for storm. Still, throwing lightning around could have some use, not that my affinity was high enough for it yet.

As I stared at my affinities, I realized I needed to keep quiet about my worlds affinity. Didn't need anyone asking how I'd gained such a high affinity in something so rare when Perth had never left the city he grew up in, never mind passed through a Gate. Guess Perth's little ritual did get him the result he was shooting for, even if I was the one reaping what he'd sown.

Had Perth's brothers told his father what had happened during the ritual? Was that why he’d been trying to send me to the Front?

Shaking my head, I realized it didn't matter. The man was too powerful for me to worry about. Like a storm, all I could do was endure his passing.

Instead, I needed to focus on my new calling, and everything I'd need to survive it.

With my affinities revealed, it was time to peruse the family library.