In the weeks following Marvick’s promotion, life already started to turn for the better. Though the rise in pay wasn’t enough to raise them out of poverty, it did allow Marvick to take a day off every once in a while.
Today was one of those days off. Maverick saved up 6 weeks of his pay to take his family to the City Market.
The City Market is an enormous place of commerce that has shops for almost anything you could possibly imagine. Hundreds of hallways and thousands of shops permeate throughout the network of buildings and plazas that make up the market in an ant colony-like way. One can easily imagine getting lost in a place like that.
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On the train to the Market Ruen couldn’t even begin to hide his excitement. He bounced around in his seat with a glimmering shine in his eyes and a wide smile only a child could have. He had been like this ever since his father told him they were going to visit the market.
“I can’t wait till we get to the market!” Ruen said loudly, netting him a mixture of nasty looks from disgruntled passengers and warm looks from passengers that had children of their own.
Marvick quickly made some apologetic gestures and Elina gave Ruen a quick but harsh poke in his back, but Ruen didn’t even notice nor did he care. His tiny fist was clenched tightly around his magical train toy. He could feel the warmth and humming of the tiny steam engine. ‘I want to get more of these toys’ was all he could think.
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After what felt like an eternity to the young boy, the train finally stopped at its final destination. Already sensing Ruen’s excitement would explode the moment the doors opened, Marvick quickly grabbed Ruen by his arm. “Hold my hand” he hissed. Ruen begrudgingly held his father’s hand.
As they were walking through the sprawling hallways of the Market, Ruen was completely awestruck. Never in his short life had he seen so much magic in one place. His parents were both low-born and didn’t possess any magic themselves, so Ruen barely had any contact with magic in his daily life.
But right now the world around him was filled to the brim with all kinds of magic and magical devices. To the left of him stood a large stall full of magical tools, ranging from hammers to saws. To his right stood a stall that had magical engines on display. Ruen looked at the marvelous magisteel beasts that hummed softly whilst the Artificers explained every last detail to whoever would listen. He was completely taken aback by the complexity and beauty of these magic machines.
He looked at the engines and then glanced at his toy train. The engine in his toy was smaller and less complicated, but of equal beauty to Ruen. He wondered if someday he would be able to build such an engine.
Whilst Ruen was staring at the magic engines another stall caught Marvick’s and Elina’s eyes. For them, this might be the most interesting stall of them all. Elina grabbed Ruen by his arm and lead him towards the stall. Ruen resisted his mom, but ultimately failed and just went along with it. He was mad that his mom dragged him away from the engine stall. To him, this other stall looked boring.
And who could blame him? The stall didn’t have anything on display. it had no windows and the sign didn’t look all that flashy and exciting. For a toddler like Ruen that only liked toys and flashy magic, the stall was of no interest at all.
But it was precisely the boring sign that piqued his parent's interest. ‘Magical Aptitude Test, Free of Charge’ it read. Magic was the key to climbing the social ladder in this city, and having magical aptitude would almost surely result in a comfortable life free of worry.
Now taking an aptitude test didn’t mean you had any aptitude, the chances of a low-born like Ruen having aptitude were about one in ten thousand. But since the test was free of charge Marvick and Elina figured they might as well have Ruen take the test.