The sound of wood being chopped resounded through the otherwise quiet outskirts of the Daim Village. A young boy, no more than sixteen years of age, was hard at work as he swung the axe repeatedly with practiced precision. The sweat running down his face and an impressive stack of logs behind him showed that he had been at this for hours now.

As he was about to take yet another swing of his axe, a middle-aged woman interrupted him with a shout. “Art, that’s more than enough. You’ll be late for your induction,” she shouted worriedly.

“Maaaa.” The boy complained as he dropped his axe and walked over to his mother. “I’ve told you countless times it’s A-R-T-H-U-R, not Art. I’m no longer five,” the young man berated his own mother.

“You silly young man,” she scuffled his hair and embraced him. “You’ll always be my little Art,” she replied with an apparent care in her voice.

They stood like that for at least a dozen seconds until Arthur broke the silence. “Mom, are you sure you’ll be okay?” He stuttered. “I can stay if you want me to.”

She scuffled his hair once more before reprimanding him. “I’ve lived twice as long as you and more, you silly young man. I’ll be just fine,” she pushed him away. “Now go, before you are late.”

Arthur looked back at his mother as he was pushed away. “But you never been alone; you always had fa—“ he was interrupted before he could finish.

“Hush, look around,” she pointed to a massive pile of wood that was leaning on the side of the shed. “You’ve done more than enough. It’s summer for Sol’s sake and you will only be gone for three moons.”

“B-ut, you will still be.”

Arthur was interrupted once again. This time, no words were said, as his mother just pressed a finger on her lips and raised her chin together with her hard eyes, telling more than any reprimand would. Neither of them knew that it would take much longer to see each other than the three months they thought.

***

Six days have passed since the village chief got banished. In the manor courtyard, you could see Josh bullying a poor bird bound by mana to not escape; otherwise, his frail attempts at blinding the creature would yield no results.

As Josh was about to blind the poor Skylight Pigeon for the umpteenth time, Elaria put down the book she was reading and spoke out.

“That’s enough,” she sighed. “The emotion you are using to cast your magic is not strong enough, or you don’t believe in it. Tell me, Ward Josh, what you are afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” he quickly spat out.

“Are you? Tell me then what emotion you are using that takes a minute to blind a poor bird,” she replied, not believing in him. “You do know we are supposed to be learning magic here and not torturing this poor creature?” Sarcastically, she asked him while pointing towards the bird still bound to ground by her magic.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Josh laughed off his mentor's provocation. “You asked what I’m afraid of?” he paused to catch his breath. “Well, you see, if I was afraid of something, then my magic would be spectacular since I’m using fear as the base to cast my magic.”

“Fear of what?”

Josh hesitated for a moment, his bravery faltering. “Failure,” he muttered. “I fear to fail; that’s what I’m using to cast my magic.”

She scoffs at his response. “And you are telling me, with your mana sense rating of six and tutelage of a magus, that’s the best you can do after all this practicing?” she stepped closer. “I should congratulate you; not many novice mages are able to cast spells with emotion that they don’t actually feel. Bravo, my pupil,” she slowly clapped, her eyes piercing through Josh as she continued. “You fear not the act itself of failing but how failing would portray you, Don’t you?” she sighed before laying I tout “After all, if you never gave your best, is it truly failing?”

“You don’t know me…” he quietly whispered.

Elaria didn’t let him continue. “You are entirely correct, I do not know you. What I do know, though, is that if you keep thinking that, you truly fear failure. You will become a failure of a Mage,” she slowly stepped away, sat down, and opened her book. “Now let’s stop wasting our time, and do it properly, shall we?”

Josh simply nodded in response, not having any words in his mouth.

Fucking bitch, acting like she knows me.

Not letting his resentment go away, he used it to channel the dark mana motes to blind the poor bird. He immediately noticed that the dark motes gathered much quicker towards him, and the spell itself was at least twice the size as it flew toward the bird at the speed of a horse running.

The bird even squirmed as it was blinded this time, not used to the new strength of the spell. Josh stood dumbfounded, not believing that the usual minute it took him to cast the spell had been lowered to barely ten seconds.

She does know me…

Fuck I’ve been acting like such a child.

He turned around and was about to thank Elaria for the guidance when he noticed Leo cautiously approaching them.

About a damn time, he recovered; after what he has done, he’s about to get worked to the bone.

“Milord, Lady Elaria,” the old steward bowed after approaching them.

While Elaria refused even to raise her gaze and acknowledge the old butler’s existence, Josh had different ideas.

“About damn time,” Josh gleefully greeted the butler. “How are you feeling, Leo?” he inquired.

“B-better,” Leo muttered, throwing uneasy glances at Elaria before catching his composure and shouting out. “Better, Milord!”

Josh winced in response. “Easy, my man, we are not deaf here,” he sighed, then turned towards his mentor. “Lady Elaria, could you leave me and Leo alone for a moment?” Josh asked.

She shut her book off, stood up, and dusted herself off then waved her hand to free the poor bird and replied,“ I guess that last spell was acceptable to end our lessons here.”

Josh nodded in gratitude.

As Elaria was about to leave, she scoffed. “Beware of the fleas after dealing with him, Young Josh.”

Her last comment left both Josh and Leo dumbfounded, but the poor skylight pigeon was delightful as it flapped away; once it got a dozen feet away, it even squirmed in joy as the blind spell faded. Sadly, tomorrow, the same fate awaited it.

Leo was the first to break the awkward silence left by Elaria. “My deepest apologies, Milord,” Leo spoke the words of apology, yet his eyes seemed to avoid Josh’s eyes. “I merely was doing what I thought was for the best and I sti-”

I see how this goes.

Josh raised his hand to stop Leo’s apology.

Time, to play my own song of ice and fire.

“You don’t have to apologize, Leo.” Josh spoke out with confidence. “I respect you more then ever for what you’ve done there.”