Sophia and Tia’s fight was almost impressive. Both of them had a Soul of water, so watching them duel was interesting. Every time I had launched a spell at Restivus, he would either misdirect or change it, completely taking it out of my control. Any water that he used was out of my reach. However, The two girls on the platform seemed to be evenly matched. The fight quickly turned into a simple back and forth. Sophia would launch a spell at Tia, typically a simple wave or something that would push her opponent back, and the other girl would take control of that spell and return it. Sophia would then do the same, causing the fight to become fairly monotonous.

My eyes quickly drifted away from them, focusing on the woman that had approached me earlier. Kella was standing in line with all the other Mages, her face impassive and hair flowing gently when the force of one of the girl's spells pushed against her. However, unlike every other Mage, who’s eyes were on the duel, Kella was focused on me. I shifted slightly, a bit nervous under her gaze, but her eyes followed me.

Eventually, Sophia proved to be just slightly stronger, pushing Tia off the platform with a wave of water. “Yes,” I heard Graham cheer quietly as Sophia bowed to the Mages and walked off the platform.

“Lady Tia will be upset about that,” I teased, smirking at Graham’s wide grin, “Though Sophia might be happy.”

Graham laughed my words off. “And I am sure Lady Grace and Lady Tellerman will be quite upset that you’ve already forgotten their family names.” I sighed, frustrated that he was right. “Relax,” he continued, placing his hand on my shoulder, “Take my advice, Lord Sean. Learn the Houses and their insignias. It would be rude for you not to. Others are not so kind as to turn their noses away from that kind of thing. They may take offense and look poorly on you, or on House Phell.”

I involuntarily scoffed, causing Graham to look frustrated, but I quickly apologized. “Sorry, Graham. It’s just… I don’t have much care for how House Phell is viewed. However, I’ll take your advice. It hasn’t been easy wandering around all day, not knowing anything about anyone.”

Graham smiled. “Good. I wish you luck with that. I would like to speak with you more, but I have responsibilities.” Graham’s eyes swept the room, landing on Sophia for a moment, but continued shortly afterwards. “Ah, where is he? Sorry Sean, I have to go.”

“Oh? Sorry fo–” I tried to say, but Graham had already run off.

He seemed to be searching for something, his pace quick and his head on a swivel. I lost him in the crowd fairly quickly. I let him be, taking a spot at the back of the room near the Master Sorcerer who seemed to be napping in the corner. Besides Kella and the other Mages, he was probably the only person worth talking to. Not that I had hated Graham.The young Lord of House Rediff had been much more pleasant to talk to than any other noble so far. However, I wasn’t interested in nobles. I was interested in magic, and this man was a master on that subject.

I stared at him for a second, taking notice of the four rings on his hand. Two were silver, and two were gold. I tried to find any other distinguishing features, but there were none on him. His aloofness reminded me of Restivus, but my old master would at least talk to me in the past. This Master Averitt didn’t seem to care about anything. “Hello there,” I said.

The Master Sorcerer didn’t even bother opening his eyes. I spoke again, this time a bit more forceful, but he still said nothing. After a few more attempts, I gave up. Instead, I focused on the water that was starting to pool near my leg. The ice prosthetic was melting. I planted my cane on the ground, supporting myself, then opened my Soul to Nex. I tried to form the prosthetic again, but I stopped myself. I had done a lot during my duel with Graham, and my Soul was exhausted. I released the flow of Nex and slowly slid down to the floor, taking pressure off my leg.

I looked back over to the Master Sorcerer. He wasn’t sleeping anymore. Instead, his eyes were open. They still looked lazy, half lidded and uninterested, but they had the same intensity Kella’s did. “Strange child,” he muttered, then went back to sleep.

“In what way?” I asked, wondering if he’d felt the same thing about my Soul Nayu had.

The Master didn’t answer, his body as still as a stone statue. That made me decide I didn’t want to sit next to him anymore. If he wasn’t going to speak, even when presented with the oddity of my Soul, then I was never going to get anything out of him. Besides, he was the strange one, not me.

I stood, walking over to the line of young Lords and Ladies that were waiting to show off their magic. Isla was near the end of it, tears in her eyes. I got worried for a moment, but then I realized she wasn’t blinking. She was watching the people on the platform so hard that she started to tear up. I turned back to the platform, excited for what might have captivated her.

I sighed at what I saw. It was another young Lord, perhaps a bit older than us, who used fire. He was sending small bursts of flame all around the platform, trying to show off his skill. Like me, none of the Mages seemed impressed. Isla still stared at the magic in awe, though. I shrugged, then walked away, not wanting to bother her.

The fights grew more boring as time went on and barely half of the nobles had shown off their magic. Many people had come up to me already, Tia coming up three separate times, once to ask more about my magic, another time to ask me personal questions, and a third time to flirt. All the other young nobles did similar things, but each of them quickly left when I refused to tell them anything except for the fact that I was Titus’s grandson. A fact that I was still struggling to accept.

Refusing to answer was better than lying, according to Titus. Apparently the first thing Lords and Ladies learn is how to sniff out a lie, and how to steer a conversation to be beneficial for them. I didn’t really get it, but I remembered how Blair acted during the Frost Feast. He was always reserved and quiet. So, once again, I was forced to do what Titus had told me. Not only that, but I was relying on my experience with Blair as well. Two people I hated more than anyone, and yet I had to listen to them.

I could hear birds chirping outside in the garden, the mid afternoon sun gently shining into the open barn doors I was sitting next to. I stood, walking with my cane now that the prosthetic had fully melted away, and walked out of the Apprentice Hall. Many others had made their way out of the hall as well. It was terribly hot inside with so many people, even though a scrawny air mage on the platform had been doing his best to vent out all the hot air. A few of them stood outside the door talking to one another, none of their conversations catching my attention, and some had even ventured into the garden.

I passed all of them, making my way further into the fields of flowers, trees, and other plants to try and find somewhere quiet. It really was a beautiful place, which made me wonder how the palace’s other gardens looked if this was the least of them. Finally, I made my way down a path that led to the shore of the lake. There, on a small grassy hill that looked more just like a small bump in the earth, was a lone tree, its roots traveling from the grass and into the sand. In my vision I could see a thin, muscular man with black hair and a nasty attitude. He sipped on a flask, smiling down at it, then shut his eyes. I walked over and laid under the tree.

I just stared for a long while, my eyes fixed on the massive tower in the middle of the lake. It rose so high that, with me being this close to it, I couldn't see the top. “One day,” I muttered, but all that did was make me think of all the things I had to go through to get here, and what else I would have to do to move forward.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

My Father, Morrison, Blair, Mother, Isla, they all popped into my head. Then Titus came, or I guess we came to him, and all their heads seemed to go away. I had trusted my mother that coming down here would be for the best. It’s what she needed, and I wasn’t going to stop her. Leaving Dousin was something I needed too. However, the last six months have been Hell. Titus made it clear to me just how terrible he was the first day we met, and I had no desire to be a Lord or his puppet.

I resented Mother these last few months because of that, something I’m not proud of. I wanted to apologize, but Titus rarely let us see one another. Then, there was Isla. I saw her more often than Mother, but I felt horrible when I did. I had brought her into this, essentially forcing her to become some noble lady. I breathed a heavy sigh. I wanted things to go back to how they were; back to the simple days of training with Restivus and hunting with Father, but even those memories were tainted now. Blair was in those memories.

My thoughts were interrupted by something hot on my nose. It didn’t hurt or burn, but it was an intense heat that stung my nerves. I opened my eyes to see nothing but red. A flame was sprouting from my nose, its shape strange and flickering larger, then smaller. Eventually, the flame died out, but I saw more of them falling down from within the tree's canopy. A dozen flowers, some small, some large, gently floated down to me. Their fiery petals flickered, licking at the air as they grew in size and intensity. Each time one landed on me it would shrink and slowly disappear.

They were a marvel. Fire that had been manipulated and controlled in the same way I manipulated water. This wasn’t a spell to be used in a duel or even one to be shown off as something powerful. It was just something someone had done for the fun of it, just like the things I made out of water. This was magic, and it fascinated me.

I saw something shift in the canopy as another red flower appeared. Above it was a hand, and I heard a giggle when my eyes fixed on it. Out of the fresh green leaves, a head poked out. It was covered with strands of hair that danced like the flames they were creating. It was auburn, the red color of fire mixing with a sleek brown. It was messy and disheveled, and I heard them try to blow it out of their face. Not long after, a pale hand came out and moved the hair out of the way, revealing skin dotted with freckles.

Underneath were eyes like two rubies. Red gemstones bore into me, looking me up and down like I was a book being read, and one that needed to be studied. This made me frown. After Titus, Kella, Graham, and the Master Sorcerer, I was tired of people giving me that look. However, the eyes shifted soon after, squinting and filling with some kind of shining light. I looked down to see the person was smiling widely. That’s when I saw their full figure in the canopy clinging onto some branches. They were a girl, the same age as everyone else who’d come to the Mages event, and they wore a dark purple dress that was just as poofy as Isla’s. Yet, she’d somehow climbed a tree while wearing it.

“I wasn’t expecting to see that kind of look in your eyes,” she called down, another laugh coming soon after.

I reached up to touch my cheek just under my eyes. “What do you mean?” I asked, too confused to say anything else.

“They’re shining. I guess you liked my flowers.”

“Yeah… I did.” My words seemed to cause her grin to grow wider. She started to make her way down the tree, not even seeming to struggle. I stood, struggling to get up on my cane after it ached from walking over here. “What are you even doing up there?” I asked.

“Enjoying the afternoon,” she responded, her voice slightly strained as she climbed down.

“I… see.”

She jumped from a branch, landing gently on the ground, her feet making hardly any noise. When she walked up to me, I realized she was even shorter than Isla. I wondered if she was possibly the youngest girl here. I looked over to where her insignia should be, but found none there. It didn’t really matter, since I probably wouldn’t have recognized it anyway, but I found it weird. She walked up close, her eyes darting from my cane, then back to my face. She didn’t say anything about it, instead producing another flower made of fire in her hands. “Cool, right? I’ve been working on them for a long time, and I think I’ve finally perfected it.”

The flower flicked as she poked at the middle with one of her fingers, laughing at it. “Does it not burn?” I asked.

“No. I can control what the heat transfers into. As long as I concentrate, I, or anyone else, won’t get burned from touching it. Though,” she paused for a moment, “It has happened a few times.”

I nodded along. I knew next to nothing about fire magic, so I enjoyed hearing how people controlled it. It only made sense that she would have a high level of control if she could make a detailed structure like this. It reminded me of how difficult I found it to make a simple bird back when I was first learning from Restivus. That thought gave me an idea. I manipulated some of the water from the lake and brought it over to my hand. I started shaping it, trying to copy the flower in her hands.

She watched intently as I worked. Eventually, I had a crude version of her flower. She smiled. “Very nice,” she said. “Though I think mine is cuter”

I laughed. “Yeah, it definitely is. Don’t worry, I’ll work on it.”

“Good. I expect impressive results.” She stayed quiet for a while, her eyes on the flower in my hand. They shifted back to the one in her hands, the shine in her eyes seeming to dull slightly. “Red and blue. If only we could mix them together.”

“I don’t think that would work the way you want it to,” I told her.

“Yeah, I know. As you can probably tell,” she gestured to her dress, “I kind of like purple. Some Mages can change the color of their fire, but I haven’t been able to figure out how. I asked my father if he could find me something that would help me as a gift for my birthday, but I doubt he will.”

“I see. I’m sorry about that.”

Her face brightened again. “About what? That my father isn’t getting me something for my birthday? Or do you just like apologizing to cute girls for no reason?” she teased.

“Uh… no. I just felt like it was the right thing to say to you.”

“Oh? So you do think I’m cute then?”

I took a step back, both physically and mentally. “What?” I asked, dumbfounded.

The girl giggled like anyone her age would, the laugh coming out so hard she grabbed her stomach and bent over. I stared, confused for a long moment, but her laughter was infectious. Soon, I found myself chuckling along with her, all of my other thoughts pushed aside as us two strangers laughed at almost nothing.

When we finally calmed down, I wiped a tear from my eye. The girl was straightening her hair now, picking out a leaf that must’ve gotten stuck there when she was in the tree. “I haven’t seen you perform for the Mages yet,” I realized. “Shouldn’t you be in line?”

“Oh, I’m not here for the event. My brother is. I’m just supposed to support and cheer for him. One of us showing off is more than enough for my family.”

“And who exactly is your family?” I ask, looking at her missing insignia again.

She followed my eyes, then looked back up to my face with a smirk. “So you really don’t know?” she said, confirming something.

That was the second time someone had said something like that today, and it got on my nerves. “No,” I said firmly. “Why should I be expected to? Plus, you don’t even have an insignia.”

“Woah, calm down,” she said, her smile growing again. “Relax. You don’t have to know my family. It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

The insignia on my chest seemed to itch, even though it was stitched onto the outside of my clothes. “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

“So, boy from a House I definitely don’t know, what’s your name?” she asked, her head tilting to one side.

“Ah,” I stuttered, “It’s Sean. I’m Sean.”

As I said my name, a yell came from up the path into the garden. I couldn’t make it out, but the girl’s entire demeanor seemed to change. Her smile fell, the girl’s entire face now neutral. The dullness I had glimpsed in her eyes returned, but it was much more noticeable now. All of that passed onto her face in an instant, then it disappeared when she looked back over to me.

“I’m sorry, but I need to leave,” she said, lifting her poofy skirts. “It really was a pleasure talking to you, Sean. And,” Her smile quirked up into a smirk, "I expect great things from your flower the next time we meet. It wouldn’t hurt if you called me cute again, too.”

With that, she ran off before I could even respond. Her feet were fast and light, hurrying up the path and into the garden. “Wait!” I called out to her, hoping she could hear me. “What's your name?”

She turned just before she was out of my view and gave me a cheery wave. Her mouth didn’t move, giving me no response. Then, she was gone. I sighed, feeling my shoulders slump as I walked back over to the tree and layed down against it again. My nose felt hot like it had before, but I didn’t know why. I pulled out more water from the lake and started shaping it. If I was to meet her again, I wanted this flower to be perfect.