A much taller and now ten years old Ezekiel was sitting at a desk in his room above his mother’s shop. He was studying a book he had borrowed from the Alkena’s after his last visit to their manor the previous day. A long since burned out candle laid beside him, and streaks of sunlight streamed through his window. He finished reading the page he was on before closing the book and leaning back with a sigh as he looked around his room. Marveling at the amount of space he now had.
After making enough money to expand their home and shop, the building was now three stories tall, with the previous living space on the first floor converted to more space for the shop, whilst the second and third floor were now the sole living spaces for the Luminance family.
Ezekiel’s room was also much larger, no longer having just a bed and toy box like it did five years ago. It now contained a slightly larger bed, as well as a desk and small bookshelf, upon which there were several tomes regarding study of several Ancient temples and ruins from both the Golden Era and prior. Depictions of the Ancients and their symbols were emblazoned on the front.
Several scrolls detailing different meditation techniques were also laid out haphazardly around the room. None of which were more complex than the publicly available techniques provided by the church, but they had helped him greatly in his endeavors. Although, he was still annoyed at how long it was taking him to make any progress with his studies and mana accumulation.
Due to the inherent danger of his unique meditations, Ezekiel never did decide that he could tell his parents what he had figured out. If he did, he was certain they would forbid him from ever practicing, not willing to let him risk his life for the power he so dearly needed.
Even now, after five years, he had only managed to get up to eighty-two motes of Void nama within his core. Close, but still not enough to attempt to open his first Chakra, the gates that one must pass through to increase their Tier and become official mages.
Most kids his age had already become Tier one mages. Even Shari, the only person he was really friends with, had opened her first Chakra a few years ago.
Luckily, this wasn’t too much of a concern for him, as he knew that the moment he managed to break through to the Tier one level he’d become the talk of the town, as he’d long since discovered that never before had a Void mage broken through without the use of a Pure mana stone. Which, as it was pure solidified mana, was almost impossible for him to get without getting sponsorship and support to one of the Greater Noble families. One with at least a Tier four Hunter or Mage within their ranks.
Knock knock knock
The knock at his door pulled him out of his thoughts as he turned to the side.
“Come in.” He said as he stood up to clean up some of the scrolls laying around his room.
Opening the door, Evelyn walked through just a bit, taking in the scene of her son cleaning up, a small frown marred her otherwise beautiful face. Reya was still draping herself over Evelyn’s shoulders as she always did.
Hi mom, how are you?” Ezekiel said as he finished putting away the last scroll on its shelf.
“I should be asking you that.” Evelyn said as she approached her son, a disappointed look crossing her face as she took in the dark circles under Ezekiel’s eyes. “You stayed up all night again reading your books, didn’t you?”
Ezekiel had a guilty look on his face, unable to meet her eyes as his mother spoke. He stayed quiet however, as he didn’t want to lie to her when they both knew it was true.
“Honey, you know you can hold onto that book for at least another day.” She said as she reached for Ezekiel’s face and turned his head to look at her. “You’re already tutoring children your own age. There’s no need for you to keep studying so hard right now.”
For the past five years, Evelyn’s worries had changed substantially as her son grew older. He had always been mature, but it seemed like he had matured much more quickly than she could have ever imagined. He seemingly aged twice as fast after the incident with Aldor that first time he had visited the Alena manor.
Since that day, Ezekiel had begun to ask for books and what money they could spare to buy or borrow books from shops or the city library. Luckily, there were no bans on who could and couldn’t enter the library, and with a writ from his father he was even able to borrow some books that he usually wouldn’t be able to.
The Alkena’s were helpful as well, having the desire to make up for their son’s cruelty. Sherra had managed to get her brother, Scotty, to take in Aldor as a ward and trainee in his mercenary company. It took a month, but Aldor eventually met up and left with the Firebird Mercenaries as they escorted a caravan of Alena Auction House goods to one of the neighboring towns. Aldor ended up staying with them and was forced to work as they left.
Ezekiel and his family hadn’t heard anything about him since, and they were perfectly fine with that. Except for Warren, who wanted to lock Aldor up in the city dungeons for a night so he could see what it was like to actually be punished for his actions but was forced to accept that Sherra and Allon’s decision was the right one.
“The fact that you’re going to the Alkena’s today should’ve been enough reason for you to not spend the entire night reading.” Evelyn continued to berate her son’s behavior. Ezekiel just looked back down at his feet again.
“But I ‘ve already had the book for a couple of days. I was hoping that, since I would be going back today, that I could return it while I was there.” Ezekiel explained as he tried to defend his actions.
“And how are you supposed to help Shari with her studies if you’re dead on your feet, hmm?” Evelyn asked as she spared no mercy on her son. She knew that, even if that was his thought process, he knew better than to pull all nighters like he had.“You know how much she and her parents appreciate you helping her study. The fact that you’re already more learned than most Magic Academy students is something we have always been impressed by, but it’s stunts like this that make me wonder if you cheated on those tests we got you.”
That was another thing that had happened. After Aldor had left with the Firebirds, Ezekiel and Evelyn had once more gone to the Alkena’s, but this time it was just Ezekiel and Shari, and by this point Shari had started at general school.
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Some of the guards had changed as well after Sherra had taken over and began taking things more seriously. The contracts had also been changed, causing more than a few to be arrested and thrown out as they were found to be spies that were either actively working against the Alkena’s, or were providing information to outside parties.
That didn’t matter to Ezekiel and Shari, however, as it was soon discovered that Ezekiel already knew everything that Shari was learning in school, and upon learning of this fact, Allon and Sherra asked if Ezekiel would be willing to tutor Shari, and in exchange they would allow him to look at most, if not all, of the books that they had in their possession. The exception being their family’s private tomes, and books that had been ordered or reserved by other parties.
The book he had spent all of the previous night reading was one such book. Technically, it hadn’t been bought yet, but it was a first edition that Allon had acquired from one of the teams that had returned from an excursion into the Desolate territories a couple weeks ago.
“You know I didn’t cheat on that test. I worked really hard on that!” Ezekiel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could his own mother even joke about him cheating like this. She was there when he took the test. She saw him answer every single question with nothing but the pen in his hand.
“Of course, I know that, but when I compare the you who passed a test for thirteen year olds who had studied at the general school when he was eight, to the you right now who doesn’t even understand the basic need for sleep, you can understand why I might think there’s some discrepancy.” Evelyn explained in exasperation. She still loved her little boy, but really, he was like a dog with a bone sometimes. When he found something interesting, he just wouldn’t let it go until he decided he was done with it.
“Regardless,” Evelyn continued, “I need you to help me wake your sisters as I get breakfast ready. You can head over to the Alkena’s afterwards.”
Ezekiel gave out a big yawn as he stretched before following his mother out of his room. It’s not like he needed to change right at this moment. He could change quickly before he left. Whilst he wanted to go over and see Shari as soon as possible, he wasn’t bound to a set time, so he didn’t need to rush.
He and Shari had become great friends over the years. He was actually the one to encourage her to speak more with her peers, eventually leading to her making more friends. She had also lost friends when they had learned that she was friends with a Void mage like Ezekiel, but the ones who stuck around were the only ones she cared about, so it wasn’t a big deal.
“Alright. I’ll go wake up the little monkeys.” Ezekiel said with a mutter as he left his room to go up the stairs to the third floor. Whilst the house had been expanded, they still only had two floors to live in. The top floor had his mother, father, and sister’s rooms, whilst he had a room on the main floor where there was also the kitchen and den area.
Reaching the top of the stairwell, he entered into the door on his left, leading into a room with a bunkbed, and invention of his own design, which he had introduced to his parents when it was revealed that his mother was having twins.
Not that it mattered that much, as his sisters had both decided to curl up and sleep on the same bed. So, after giving off a sigh, Ezekiel climbed up the ladder to the top bunk, leaning over to rip off the blanket covering his little sisters.
“WAKEY WAKEY GIRLS! Come on Wendy! Come on Ellen! Time to get up!” Ezekiel shouted as he threw the blanket onto the bottom bunk.
“BIG BRO!” his sisters screamed as they were exposed to the cool morning air. Dressed in their pajamas, both had looks of fury on their faces that reminded Ezekiel of a pair of pouting kittens. Too adorable to take seriously. “Why’d you do that? We were sleeping.” They said in sync.
That was something that tended to weird him out at first, but he had slowly gotten used to his sisters talking in tandem. The fact that they quickly became drowsy again and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes in sync as well just made them all the more adorable.
Reaching forwards, Ezekiel gently pinched his sisters’ cheeks, pulling slightly as he spoke.
“Now, now. Mom sent me up here to wake you both up for breakfast. Can’t have you sleeping through the first meal of the day, can we?” He said with a smile on his face that belayed the tiredness he felt.
“Mmmph.” Wendy and Ellen grunted in unison as they made their way to the ladder so they could climb down. Ezekiel quickly dropped to make room for his sisters.
Helping them down the ladder in their tired state, Ezekiel brought them to the washroom and helped them wash and wake up before leaving them to get changed. The three headed downstairs, following the smell of freshly cooked breakfast with hungry stomachs growling.
“Good morning!” Ezekiel and his sister said in unison as they greeted their mother.
“Smells good mom!” Ezekiel said as he helped set the table while his sisters sat down at the table. Evelyn finished putting food on serving plates and moved to place them on the table.
“Indeed, it does.” A voice from the stairs called out. “Good morning girls, Ezekiel.”
Warren walked down the stairs dressed in his full guard uniform as he approached the table. Awkwardly sitting down, he served himself as much food as he could before eating.
“Dad! You’re still home? I thought you’d have left a while ago?” Ezekiel said as he looked at his father in surprise and confusion. He usually saw his father in the evenings. It was very rare that he saw him in the mornings, as he was usually the first one in his team getting things ready for patrols and going through paperwork for their district. Sometimes his father even stayed up later than he did if things went bad in the taverns and required the help of a higher-level mage.
“Merri and Trisk were willing to take the morning shift today, so I was able to sleep in a bit. I figured I’d walk with you to the Alkena’s. Say hi to Sherra and Allon while I was at it.” Warren explained as they all sat and ate their food.
Wendy and Ellen ate quietly, as they were still tired, and would likely take a little while longer before they started playing with Reya. They preferred playing with Theo, as he would let them dress him up, but Reya put up more of a chase, requiring that they catch her in order to put her into anything. Sometimes Ezekiel would help, but that just made Reya play harder. He couldn’t complain though, as it was these little games that they played that helped him survive his first life and death situation with magic.
The meal didn’t last long, and soon enough, Wendy and Ellen were chasing Reya around the room to try and put her in a dress. Theo sat at attention at the door to the house. Waiting for his partner and Ezekiel to be ready to leave.
“I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. I need to clean up and get ready to go.” Ezekiel said as he rushed to the washroom on this floor. He quickly entered the stall, turning on the water and activating the runic arrays that would heat it to just the right temperature.
Washing quickly, Ezekiel headed out with his hair still wet to get dressed. His clothing stitched with enchantments that his mother had ever so painstakingly stitched to keep her baby boy safe.
With that all finished, Ezekiel packed up a couple of books, copies the Alkena’s had given him of the general studies books and a few old editions of the first year Magic Academy books that they had managed to get their hands on. As well as the book he had spent the previous night reading.
Getting to the bottom of the stairs, Ezekiel saw his mother giving his father a goodbye kiss as his sisters chased Reya in the background. He paused for second, taking in the sight as he felt a love for his family that he never wanted to give up.
“Ready to go dad!” He said with a smile as Warren pulled away from his wife, a big smile on his face. Walking to the door with long strides, Warren ruffled Ezekiel’s still slightly damp hair as they left the house. Theo jumped up onto Warren’s shoulder as they walked down the final set of stairs that led to the ground floor.
“Well then. Let’s get the day stated, shall we.” Warren said as father and son walked off into the city they called home.