On birthmonths – Common knowledge

In most cultures the celebration of birth is done on the last day of the month, usually along other religious or local festivities. Among imperial nobility it is customary for theses who were born during the month to receive gifts.

Last day of Early spring / Mercy 782 ADM – Eternal Empire – Modona’s upper district – Merentah mansion

Ulysse had barely regained his calm after a good cry from being freed and reunited with his family, that they all started trying to rip him apart.

Figuratively of course.

Some wanted him to tell them everything, others said he needed some time, grandma and the Olians were fuming to run after the army and give them hell. None of them thought of asking his opinion of course, it was almost tradition among the Merentahs to have explosive disagreements. Incidentally he learned his father was quite good at the familial art of explosive disagreeing, and could shout much louder than some of his relatives.

His parent's opinion having won the ‘polite’ argument, he was deemed too shaken to allow him to talk, then he found himself imprisoned in his own bedroom for the last half-hour, not even able to get a word out. Maybe he should have trained at explosive art of disagreeing.

Now he still had a solution, he could sneak out by the window, but he knew it would only make things worse.

Still as time went on, he started seriously considering it, he really didn’t like being cooped in a closed room, it felt like they had left him there for hours.

Then, two small knocks rang on his door which was promptly opened before he could answer. He knew who it was without looking.

“Ma,” He ran and hugged her, “I don’t want to be locked here!”

“It’s okay sweaty, we are going out.”

His mother, Odette, looked very tired, and wore a simple black dress, which was unusual for her. She returned the hug patting his back.

“I'm glad you are back baby, I was so worried about you.”

“It wasn’t that bad Ma, they even returned my gifts, all will be back to normal right?”

“Soon. There is just one last thing we need you to do Ulysse. The family heads are talking downstairs about what we should do, they want you to tell them what happened, do you think you can do that?”

“Can I tell them outside?”

“I’m sorry hon, they want you to join them in the dining room.”

He felt conflicted, on one hand he wanted to help his family, and get revenge on the Kabeys. On the other hand, staying behind closed doors made him fell sick for some reason, and… he still felt angry at his family. In the end his ingrained loyalty made his choice.

“I… I'll do it."

The two of them slowly made their way downstairs, each step of the way Ulysse felt a bit weaker in his legs, would his claims be of any use? He didn’t want to be useless.

The dining room was, as he had feared closed, the oak doors had been locked and not even a muffled voice could be heard through. An Olian knight stood at attention in front of them. Ulysse couldn’t tell who it was since the knight wore his helm.

A man’s voice came muffled through the metal.

“Od’, I see you brought the kid.”

The unnamed knight took a small flat stone and fiddled with it, looking at it intently before returning his gaze to him. He then stepped to the side and put a hand on the handle.

“You can go in Ulysse.”

“Wait, Ma you aren’t coming with me?”

“No baby, but you will be fine, you know everyone behind the doors, ok?”

“Will dad be there?”

“Mog’ is inside, don’t worry.”

With a final nod, Ulysse stepped forward and the knight pushed the door open just long enough for him to enter before quickly closing them.

The Dining room had completely lost its usual atmosphere, instead of smiling faces and happy chatting there was a suffocating silence. He trembled a bit at being inside a fully closed room.

About ten men and woman were seated or standing around the table which had all kinds of documents splayed on it.

Everyone was looking at him. And in turn he looked back, it was as his mother said, he could recognize most of them and had likely seen the others at least once during some family event.

His two grandparents, Silvestre and Kristina, were seated at the center, to their right were their children; his uncle, Damien, his aunt, Kre-Witch, and his father, Mogens.

To their left were the two heads of the family’s branches, Erante Merxau, an old woman with a slightly hunched neck wearing an excessive amount of jewelry, and Valerio Olian, a crippled old man in a wheelchair whose right side was both covered in burn scars, and missing arm and eye. He nevertheless retained a proud posture.

Standing behind the heads of the branches were what he supposed to be other representatives of the branches, he couldn’t remember their name.

And standing behind his grandparents was a mustached man he knew well, Merle the Librarian.

Ulysse gulped.

Then as if by prior agreement some of the assembly sent a look at his father.

“Ul’, I’m glad you came son. We have a lot of question for you, if you feel good enough to answer.”

“Ask away.”

That seemed to be the signal for the others to start talking as they asked Ulysse questions after questions. Valerio seemed to want to know everything about what laid inside their domain, number of guards, patrols, what kind of gear they had, and the more the man asked questions the more was stumped, he hadn't seen much of the Kabeys after all.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The others, in kind asked him questions of all sorts until they had no more, a few of them wore frustrated expressions given how little they had learned. However, Ulysse thought they hadn’t really asked the right questions.

“Son, I believe you have told us everything, why don’t you…”

“I haven’t. There is a topic you didn’t even mention, magic.”

Outraged cries came from all around along with shocked expressions. His dad's shout was directed at grandpa.

“Sil', I though you wouldn’t involve him until much later.”

“I swear I didn’t, Mer’ has given him the book, but no one told him.”

“It’s the Kabey who told me.”

“How much did they tell you?” sighed his grandfather.

“We are mages, I guessed where we came from, but Vic' told me I needed to say we came from the frontier.”

“He is too young, we should wipe his memory Sil', or do you want him to tell on us!” Came Valerio's voice.

“We will do no such thing cousin, he is my blood and smart enough not to tell!” Grandma snapped.

“I won't tell! And wait I have more, I know what the Kabeys will ask of you tomorrow.”

Ulysse was about to be cut off by Valerio once again when the old Merxau spoke for the first time in the meeting, her voice was that of a wise old person.

“Let the child speak Val', He is not like your idiot sons that needs you to hold their hand.”

Unlike Valerio, many in the assembly were intrigued by what he had learned, they watched him with rapt attention.

“Thanks miss Erante, as I was saying,” he sent a small glare towards Valerio, whose own gaze made Ulysse flinch a little, “When the Kabeys captured me they made sit with Osen in a coach. I think they were trying to get me on their side, but in doing so my abductor spoke of their goals. They really want to enter an alliance, they are afraid of us, and he said that they didn’t have much knowledge of magic, and that they wanted to learn from us.”

His grandpa nodded and the assembly spent some time in thoughts before he spoke. It almost looked like they were having a discussion with only their gaze and expressions.

“These are heavy claims you make here Ul'. We will be discussing them to see if we incorporate these in our plans. If that is all you had to say?”

“I want to have an explanation about all this.”

“I will not speak of those before you are older, this is final. Consider the things you learned to be the same as the book you were given, you must not speak of it, not even to us. Not until we judge otherwise, then you will have your explanation. Otherwise I’m afraid we shall have to follow Val's proposition,” He paused, “Go now child, get some fresh air, play, it’s still your birthmonth isn’t it?”

***

Half an hour later – On a bench

Ulysse had gone back outside, not without difficulty as a few relatives had approached him to share reassuring words. At first, he disliked it, but in time it got better, it made him feel secure in the domain, knowing there were peoples who cared about him.

What truly cheered him up however was when his sister found him. The two of them sat on a bench overlooking the servants who were making the final preparations for the party. Alice hadn't been that stressed apparently, she was convinced he would be fine, and had held up much better than some of the grown-ups. He had told her everything that wasn’t a secret, and was now narrating in details the events that led to his capture, no bragging involved whatsoever, she was mesmerized.

“…and so I slashed at the stone, cutting it in half, the guy made a shocked face and I attacked him. He made a wall of stone to block me but I had seen it coming.”

“What then!? What happened!?”

“I had feinted, so I dodged the wall, and was about to kill him when the evil Veless came with a huge saber, he parried for Osen and we went on a furious exchange of blows. I could handle the two of them alone, but then eight thugs joined in and…”

Ulysse yelped as he was suddenly lifted in the air by strong calloused hands. The man who had appeared from nowhere wore slim black cloth with straps of leather, his hair was brown and so were his eyes, with an addition of black splotches. He screamed of danger.

“Uncle Ro'!” yelled Alice.

“Haha! Still easy to spook.”

Ulysse was still held up, feet kicking up in the air.

“Put me down Ro’.”

“Fine, Fine.”

He put him down gently before smirking.

“I hear you almost bet ten grown men to a fight Ulysse, someone's gotten bold in their lies.”

“I might have slightly improved my fight, but the part about the mage was true!”

“Wait it's not all true?” Alice said with sarcasm.

“Of course not!”

“Anyways kiddos, I’m afraid I can’t be here for long, just passing by to hand something to my favorite kids in the world.”

He produced two square gifts, a bit bigger than his hands and wrapped in rough brown paper.

“I know it’s a bit early in the day but surely Ulysse won’t blame me for skipping the religious stuff, will you Alice?”

“Not if you give me mine first.”

“Well, I don’t see why not,” He handed the gifts one after the other, “Alice, wait a bit before opening. Why don’t you two try to guess what’s inside?”

“But Ulysse is better at that game.”

“Too bad.”

“Skinny nerd.”

“Ugly, and dumb.”

“Ha, you both have a point,” Robert chuckled.

The two kids sent annoyed looks to Robert before finally turning their attention to the wrapped gifts. Alice gave it a customary shake to try and hear movement inside, Ulysse frowned, had his gift moved?

“Don’t shake it like that, I felt mine move by itself, it might be a pet.”

“Shit, sorry.”

Robert meanwhile had an amused expression.

Ulysse turned the gift around, trying to guess what hides beneath the wraps, it felt quite heavy in his hands so couldn’t have been a book. His pet theory might have held some sway except the thing could barely fit a mouse inside, and Robert surely wouldn’t give them that.

“I feel it moving too Ulysse, it’s like it wants to turn.”

That made his brain tilt, He had felt it moving when Alice shook it and now, she felt it turning when he had turned his. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the gift. He had learned long ago to interact with the basic enchantments that were scattered around home without using hands, like with his magic lamp. His mind grasped at the thing he was sur to be there and he connected to it, instantly he felt it’s single function, a sort of link whose other end was so close he could feel it too.

“Wow, linked stones. Thank you uncle Ro’.”

He gave him a small hug of thanks. Meanwhile his sister stomped the ground and grumbled in frustration.

“See, he always wins theses.”

“Balances out our spars.”

The two of them unwrapped their presents under their smiling uncle’s amused gaze. The linked stones were smoothly polished grey slates whose edges were engraved with runes, the two were in fact exact copies of each other, all the way to the ink on their surface which read in rough handwriting;

Happy Birthmonth

Love from your favorite uncle

PS: Stop calling me Ro

“But we like Ro’!” The two of them protested.

“Yeah, it’s still weird to call peoples by their first syllable, you could call me Rob, Roby, or something.”

“Nope. And it’s not weird calling peoples line that, everyone does it.”

“Sure, everyone in your dad’s side of the family, and you don’t just say Ro, you say Ro' with that strange intonation.”

“You’re just jealous the Kleites don’t use cool nicknames.”

“Fine, you win, call me whatever.”

Robert shrugged.

“Hey Ul', give me your stone,” Alice snatched it before he could answer.

“Hey!”

With a smirk she threw her brother’s gift back to their uncle.

“Uncle, I have a better idea. You keep that one, and we share mine. I see him enough every day so I don’t need it, but that way we cant talk to you.”

Ulysse was about to object, but, it made sense, he already saw her all day long, and he really liked his uncle.

“Wow, you said something smart for once sis.”

“Enough bickering,” Robert interrupted Alice before she could start, “I guess if you two want to I can do that, but I wont always be free.”

Not long after he said theses words, Robert declared he had to go, apparently his obligations to the Kleites were quite restraining. After saying his goodbyes his eyes took on a dark glow and he disappeared from their vision.

Still, his passage, and the talk with his sister had righted that awful start of a day, the rest went much better.

As the day went on, guests had arrived, but not as many as expected. Either they had been scared of or they were better friends with the Kabeys. The celebration had a strangely tense atmosphere because of that, especially after the family’s heads came out of their reunion with deep frowns.

On the plus side, Ulysse wasn’t forced to come inside the church to celebrate the end of Mercy, something he wouldn’t have been able to do anyways as his life long issue with religions coupled with his newfound anxiety in closed spaces left him trembling at the mere thought of going.

After that the actual party began and he gave a few gifts; the sword was by far his best, and Alice was ecstatic. Then he gave a piece of jewelry to Erante, the kind old Merxau who always wore shiny things. His least appreciated gift was for a newborn among the Olians, well for their parents really, somehow the book on parenting had greatly offended them.

On the other hand he had been given a dozen cool looking books by his relatives, and some lame toys by theses who didn’t know him well. None were as cool to him as Robert’s gift.

He went to bed early, tired from the day.

His thoughts roamed for some time before he fell asleep.

Should I try to learn magic since I can’t channel?