Maleki:
Kallen didn’t seem to understand my question and responded with disbelief. “Come on, be serious now. You just tussled with a kaliber two maji like it was a normal day’s work. There’s no way you don’t know about majik.” He laughed at himself and took a drink of water that was brought over to us. “I could believe you didn’t know who that was; living under a rock would be enough to explain that. There’s not a rock you could live under that would be enough of a reason to have never seen or heard of majik.”
Miko and I had dead expressions with lifeless eyes. My brother spoke this time, “I have two questions as well. What’s a kaliber, and who and what is this prophecy about?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Kallen laughed, waiting for a reply. “Wait….You’re both completely serious, aren’t you?” Kallen said with an exhausted tone.
“Completely serious,” We said simultaneously. We were raised on a farm with only four consistent people in our lives, so it’s possible something well-known could have been hidden from us. I had seen other people, but our interactions were always limited.
“Fine, but you better not be playing with me, though! I don’t mind fighting a no-armed little brat.”
“Try it, Kal,” Miko said with squinted eyes.
“Fine! I’ll try and keep it simple and leave the more complex stuff out. There are two types of blood in the body; the red kind you see after a cut and the majikal kind. Majikal blood allows you to manipulate elements, but only if you have an affinity towards them.” Kallen placed his forearm on the table, then took his left hand and pulled his sleeve to above his elbow; one thick black line wrapped around his arm right below the wrist and at the start of his forearm.
Miko noticed this and babbled, “You have the same marking as our family!”
Kallen laughed. “No, this marking denotes the Kaliber of the individual. I am an upper first Kaliber, and my father is a lower third. The thickness of the line shows how capable you are at materializing your majik.”
This new information aggravated me. Miko was right about our Grandparents ignoring the difficult conversations. “Why didn’t our family explain this to us?” I demanded in frustration.
“The real question is, why did they hide all of this from us?” Miko said.
Kallen’s tone lost its humour. “Neither of you have the kaliber lines, right?”
We both shook our heads and looked down at our wrists.
“Then — if I had to guess — your parents are most likely unnatural majis.”
“Unnatural? What’s that supposed to mean?” My brother asked before correcting himself. “Sorry, it’s not your fault; this is all just a little confusing.”
“Do you want me to continue?” Kallen said as he scratched his head.
Miko nodded his head eagerly like he was diving into a new book.
“Well, there are four natural elements; Areos, Aerth, Aqua, and Agni. Those represent physical elements, Agni being fire, Aqua — water, Aerth or the ground, and Aeros — the air.”
“So, how many elements are there? You mentioned unnatural ones as well.” Miko asked, his eyes wide.
“Six base elements. Four natural and two unnatural. The unnatural elements are called end and life. Your parents were most likely majis of one of both of these elements.”
Miko seemed to be taking the information much quicker than I was, as he was already prepped with a response. “You’re saying our parents had elements that opposed each other, and that’s why we don’t have the black lines?”
“It’s difficult to know for sure, but that has always been the consensus. End and life majis are rare as it is, so them having a kid, especially two, is incredibly rare. However, you two don’t have the black lines because you don’t have any majikal blood.” Kallen responded.
I’m pretty sure I understood what he was saying, but I still need time to process all this. We surely had lived long enough to witness some use of majik, but nothing immediately caught my mind before today. “You’re saying they cancel each other out? Wouldn’t that be the case for any opposing element?”
“Yes, that would be the expected outcome, but the natural elements seem to enhance each other. On rare occasions, the opposite happens when a child is born with an aberrant element. You two are rare! Just on the unlucky side of rare….”
“Tell us more about the prophecy!” Miko demanded eagerly.
“Ah, that. Most people are aware of it to some extent. Some story passed down by our grandparent’s generation, maybe well before that, but I don’t know it off the top of my head. Something about untold power and the prevention of another war. You know — the usual. I can tell you that if there was a prophecy, though, it was meant for those two you saw earlier; if you believe in that stuff, that is.”
“Two?” Miko asked.
“The dude your brother squared off against was Kaelum, a renowned child of a royal family in Korvast who has a direct connection to the throne. He is hot-headed apparently, or well, I guess not apparently, since we witnessed it firsthand. Based on his heritage, he’s next in line to be one of strongest aeros maji on this whole continent.” He paused and took another sip of water, clearly not used to this much discussion. “However, the other one you saw, his name is Valour. No royalty ties. Not even an ancestor to cling to for recognition. There’s no doubt there, in a few years, he’ll be able to give even the strongest Aerth maji alive a run for their money. Kaelum and Valour are from two separate kingdoms who have opposed each other for who knows how long, but for some reason, they’re always spotted together. Pursuing the prophecy or on a new quest altogether. Who knows? Count yourself lucky you didn’t piss off Valour and that he didn’t seem interested in participating for the fun of it.”
I laughed a little after taking a drink of my water, “To be fair, it was Miko who bumped into him.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Miko’s eyes darted to the side, almost nonchalant in fashion. “Thanks for stepping in…” he muttered.
Kallen laughed to himself before speaking again. “Have either of you heard about the castle of Glimfell?”
We both shook our heads again.
“You haven’t, huh? There’s a castle there, or a door, rather. I’ve never seen it, but apparently, they opened it for the first time in hundreds of years. Anyway! Story for another time; you’ve got enough to digest already, and for now, I only want to open my jaw again if food is going in it.”
We didn’t want to waste much more daylight after our discussion, so we returned to our journey through the city. This place is so big it feels like it would take days to walk across. Visiting the museum was still on our list, but we decided to go to the northern part of the city so we could safely browse around, and Miko promised to watch where he was going. Plus, causing a ruckus near an important area and sticking around is an excellent way to catch unwanted eyes, like those of the guards we saw at the front of the city.
We walked against the edge of the city so that we could see the coastline for the entire duration of our walk. It was blurry from here, but the water out there carried dark blue tints underneath the smokey gray clouds that stormed amid the seas. Even though I had felt what happened when those storms traveled inward, there was still beauty to it all, at least from this safe vantage point.
Our walk around this side of the city was pretty uneventful. We passed many people who didn’t second-guess three boys walking around aimlessly. I’m surprised we didn’t look more out of place than we did since we were gawking at every building as if we were discovering a new animal every time.
Miko was in charge of pointing out anything that caught his eye, but I was trying my best to keep my eye out as well. I didn’t even know where to start, to be honest, and it was a little discouraging since the first thing you think isn’t going to be correct, considering this should be hidden and not accidentally discovered. I wanted to point out interesting buildings that could be important, but what would we be looking for even if we decided to look in them? We didn’t even know majik existed until today, so there’s a good chance we are operating without a lot of valuable info. This is like playing hide and seek, except you don’t set the bounds of play. Although, I guess the riddle did say “between the kings and sound,” so there’s kind of a boundary. That’s assuming we are even in the right place. I trust Miko, though; he is much better at thinking and figuring things out.
Up ahead was a statue of a man holding a large bowl three or four times my height. As we got closer to it, I could see the bowl was holding a small fire that blazed a soft bronze colour that was a similar hue to the bowl. A boy sat at the foot of the pedestal, playing softly and slowly on a bent-up instrument. He looked around our age, older than Miko but younger than me. Dirty and torn clothes covered him, although he did not look thin in the face. It was to be expected in big cities like this; those with and those without is how Father always split it up. After watching a few people pass by him without noticing, someone tossed a coin at the ground before him and walked away without much more consideration. Feeling sorry for the boy, I followed in their stead and placed a coin at his feet. He took no notice of my action and continued to pluck away at his instrument. Blindness did not seem to affect him, but he could be deaf, mute, or just without energy from not eating, so I didn’t take offense to his lack of observation.
We walked to the north corner of the wall and found some buildings that Miko inspected while Kallen and I rested on a bench.
“Where do you think this journey will take you?” He asked while fiddling with a small but multicolored rock.
“That’s up to Miko; if he can figure out the path, I’ll forge ahead.”
“Forgive me for prying, but what will you do if he can’t get better?” Kallen asked with concern.
“I don’t know — I try not to think like that, Kallen. You’re a son, and I’m a brother. Your father needs you, and Miko needs me. We play the roles given to us.”
There was barely a second before he responded, “…and when my father passes? Maybe not today, but on some solemn afternoon years from now. Will I still be just a son? Or, can I change — become something more.”
I watched Miko as he read strange runes on buildings and paced around, talking to himself out loud. “Our roles don’t change so easily. Just because a fruit withers doesn’t mean it’s any less a fruit.”
“You misunderstand my point, Maleki. What about a farmer who doesn’t yield a single crop for several seasons? When does he reconsider his role or decide his role is no longer that of a farmer?”
“Then he will die a farmer. What are you getting at?” What he was attempting was more than I was ready to dissect today; I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that majik exists.
“What do you want? Have you ever thought of that?” He asked.
“Well, I want Miko to get better.”
“No, that’s what you want for Miko. What do you want for you?”
“I don’t know, Kallen. If I think like that, for even a second, I’m afraid of what it will do to me.”
“Well, what if he does get better? Then what?”
“I’ve never thought that far ahead, Kallen. This thing with Miko, his sickness, it’s been affecting him for so long that I’m not sure I can even imagine what it would be like if it was gone.”
“If you want to keep up the facade of being an optimist, you should at least have some optimistic goals for your future.” He punched me in the side of the bicep and walked a laugh off with his hands behind his head, and elbows pointed to the sky. I was left to think of what he wanted out of this conversation. Not an answer, since I didn’t provide one, but he seemed content with his questions — signaling to me his true intentions were for me to dissolve this information all on my own.
Miko muttered the riddle repeatedly in different tones, pronouncing certain parts with more emphasis to meet his theories. He tossed a book on the ground with some intricate mechanism of movements in his limited state and then flipped through the pages with his boot. My brother can be quite innovative in this state; I guess he has to be to make living more livable. After watching him for a little while, Kallen went over and closed the book and kept pulling it further and further away to knock him out of his trance.
“Come on, Kallen! I lost my train of thought. I was this close to figuring it out!” Miko groaned.
“The only thing you were close to was a stroke. Even geniuses need to rest like us thin brains.” Kallen winked with a soft smile.
Miko grumbled, leaning forward as if to put his hands on his stomach. “Fine, you’re right. I am getting pretty hungry, too.”
We returned to the tavern and bought some apples and pears from a fruit stand run by a family who looked like they needed the coin. When we got back, I fell asleep almost immediately, but Miko and Kallen sat on the inside of our door frames, listening to the chatter of the lively folk enjoying their drink a little too much. I needed to rest after all of today’s walking, life-shattering realizations, and altercations with random strangers, so I left them to their own devices.
We returned to the tavern and bought some apples and pears from a fruit stand run by a family who looked like they needed the coin. When we got back, I fell asleep almost immediately, but Miko and Kallen sat on the inside of our door frames, listening to the chatter of the lively folk enjoying their drink a little too much. I needed to rest after all of today’s walking, life-shattering realizations, and altercations with random strangers, so I left them to their own devices.
When we awoke, we brought the wagon, and I tugged Miko to the northwest part of the city to inspect more architecture and spots of interest that Kallen thought might be worth visiting. We would be looking at these objects and places through the lens of mystery that most people wouldn’t, so there might be something that others had missed out on when just enjoying the visual aspect. Writing and statues could have more meaning than the base layer of what they appear if there is some grand design to point us in the right direction. I was leaving all that to Miko, of course, but I can pull a wagon pretty well, so I just let him point and inspect, and then I would drag him over to his intended destination. Maybe that is why Kallen and I get along; we are both chauffeurs — at least he gets paid.