While the three Erebus children had shown tremendous promise in their studies of magic, the youngest son Anthony continued to show no progress at all. Aside from First Circle magic which masters the power in inner strength, when he came of age to be taught by Master Orion, he appeared to show major progress in the first circle of magic, as naturally as fish to water but no progress in the second circle, to manifest an element.
His mother insisted that Master Orion flaw was spending less of his time training her son, and more time training Helena whom he considered his personal protege outside in the manor’s backyard. To ease her worries he allowed Anthony to watch Helen train with balls of fire that spread out like banners of red, yellow and gold sparks throughout the yard, hoping it would inspire his progress. When his master felt she was ready, he took to teaching her more advanced abilities in the 3rd Circle, the power of lightning. While he trained her, young Anthony watched quietly, instructed not to interfere with his sister’s training. From the sidelines of the training grounds outside the manor he watched and mimicked his sister’s moves getting scolded until one day he got so over excited he started making a racket that attracted master Orion's attention.
“Would you be quiet, young master!” He scolded him in a stern and furious tone. “Miss Helena is doing delicate training. She needs the utmost concentration.”
“I’m sorry.” The 5 year old boy bowed his head and quietly sat down on the ground to watch his sister train.
“Now, where was I...” Master Orion turned back to Helena who was standing near a practice dummy like a well obedient student. “...lightning magic is holy fire, you have to channel it from heaven and guide it down the earth. Your body is just a conduit, guiding it in the precise direction, think of it like an arrow that you hold with one hand and release with the other.”
She tried it again as she had done hundreds of times before, starting with holding the right hand back and behind her head and holding the left one out as if aiming with her thumb and index finger. On the palm of the right hand a fireball formed, a perfect sphere as brilliant as miniature sun. Instead of releasing it and slowly closing her palm around it, the ball got smaller and denser, shrinking to the size of marble glowing with a brilliant shade of blue. With her thumb, ring and little finger she closed her palm around the blue sphere while lowering her index finger in a pointing gesture. With the little blue marble of light in hand she rotated her wrist and while transferring the small spark of fire to her thumb and aligned her thumb and index finger like a projectile weapon. The spark still in hand aimed at the practice dummy in front of and then placed her hand on her index finger in a cold and mechanical fashion.
The instant her thumb met the knuckle of her index finger, a spark of lightning ran down her finger to the point of her intention, an area just below the dummies head and a flash of lightning shot from her finger tip with such force that it nearly knocked her off her feet. Master Orion grabbed her tiny body to brace her from completely falling as the lightning bolt left her finger and struck the piece of lumber and straw with so much energy that it split the wood in half and left the straw on fire from the aftershock.
“Excellent, Miss Helena, excellent!” He praised the student patting her shoulders.
“I did good, Master?” Helena’s face lit up with fervent enthusiasm.
“I’ve seen many students enter the 3rd Circle of Lightning Magic, but never one in her 8th year.” He smiled with pride as bright as the noon sun that was rising. “Child you have a bright future ahead, unlike...” He glared at Anthony who was watching in utter shock and awe at his sister’s accomplishment. “...I must not speak. I’ll inform you father right away, just continue training while I do.”
“Yes, Master.” She politely bowed as he watched her master walk toward the manor.
The moment that Master Orion had left the training grounds, young Anthony practically jumped off the floor with excitement and cheer.
“Wow, that was so great, Elly!” He walked over to his sister’s side. “You were like froom.” He imitated the sound of fire, ”Then when you like bzzt.” He imitated the sound of electrified buzzing. “Then zap, boom, crash!” He pantomimed his elder sister's firing of a lightning bolt and the training dummy falling into pieces. “I can’t wait until I start learning lightning magic.”
Helena had been busy training her breathing and stance, completely ignoring her brother’s actions, until he mentioned the notion of him throwing lightning like her. For that brief moment she completely stopped in her tracks and turned around to address her like an adult instead of a childhood peer.
“Master Orion says you can’t learn lightning, until you learn fire magic.”
“I know, mom says I just gotta keep working and I’ll be able to do it someday.”
“You better learn before you’re too old to even learn. Otherwise you’ll have to attend normal school instead of magic school like me and our big sisters.”
“That’ll never happen.” He protested. “You’ll see, I’m just as good as you and everyone, I just gotta figure out how to make it start.”
“...You know there is a way you can do that.” She smirked with the manner of a cat across her youthful face.
“Really? What is it, what is it?”
“If you wanna learn fire magic, you gotta understand what fire is?”
“How do I do that?”
“Well, go find a fire and just stare at it until you do. That’s how I learned.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, in fact since it’s almost lunch time, I bet the maids are already getting one started near the kitchen. Why don’t you go over there and watch.”
“Alright, thank you, Elly.”
“What are big sister’s for?”
Anthony ran off in great enthusiasm off toward the kitchen area, leaving Helena to train in peace. When she saw that her brother was out of sight, she let out a burst of laughter and joy.
“Well, that ought to keep him busy for a while.” She regained her composure then resumed her training, gathering fire and one hand and trying to compress it into lightning again and again.
Meanwhile, Anthony had made it to the backyard of the kitchen where all the manual laboring magic was performed. Servants were prohibited from performing magic in domestic households unless instructed, so many of their tasks were done in an area to perform their arts. Anthony watched behind a nearby bush as the four maids exit from their entrance of the manor and stepped into the backyard.
There were four maids attending to the tasks for lunch, Anthony knew them well by the way their hair always reminded him of various objects in the house. Eau, a water mage, had hair that was pale and curly like sheep’s wool that spent most of her time washing clothes, washing around the house, even gardening to keep the plants fresh and dewy. Chloe, an earth mage, had long and thick black hair like horses mane, during spring time helped out in the family garden building vegetable beds keeping track of the pantry making sure all the food was well stored. Briar, a wind mage, had spiky brown hair that reminded him of wild thorn bush that was often seen around the house, for her ability to regulate cool and natural breeze to keep everyone comfortable around the house. Then there was Delia, a fire mage and unofficial head of the house staff, with short hair as wavy as a torch that was in charge of fires, whether it was in the house or in the kitchen. Although they were rarely seen together, he witnessed their coordination as they went about their tasks as they had been doing hundreds of times before but he had never seen before.
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They followed each other single file before breaking off into smaller groups, Eau and Chloe moved to a nearby water well and Briar and Delia moved to the outdoor stove. While Eau drew water from the well Chloe prepared and a nearby pitcher, Briar gathered the fire wood, while Delia grabbed a metal pan on a wooden handle placed by the fireplace. Then together they performed their task as if they had done them many times before.
First Eau placed a bucket of water and placed it between her and Chloe, then with the wave of her hand lifted the water up in the air and started turning it in circle motion. At the same time, Chloe reached up with her hand and reached toward the water and pulled it back as if trying to pull something from its form. Slowly but surely, a small speck of dust was forming in front of her as the water continued to turn. Meanwhile, Briar had gathered the firewood and waited while Delia held the pan in one hand and snapped her fingers at the makeshift fire. The fire erupted into a small spark that lit the kindling underneath. When the fire reached the large kindling Briar pushed her hands forward and back, which made the fire grow hotter and more fierce with each stroke. Anthony witnessed this breathtaking display of choreography so intensively that he did not notice a tall figure approaching him from behind him.
“Well, well...” A voice whispered in his ears.
“Yaaa!” Anthony screamed from utter surprise crashing the bush and startling the woman amidst their work.
Eau nearly dropped the water she was holding before catching it before it hit the ground. Chloe completely dropped the dirt she collected and let it hit the ground with a small dust cloud. Briar pushed hard enough to cause the fire to go nearly out of control before Delia reached out her hand and caught the flames in a vice-like grip to keep it under control. When the chaos was controlled, all eyes turned to young Anthony and his mother standing over him with a smile on her face.
“Sorry ladies, it looks like we got ourselves an ant in the garden.” She smiled playfully with a light chuckle.
All the maids started laughing heartily and joyously the moment the lady of the house started laughing.
“It’s okay, madam, we’ll help you deal with the pest problem.” The fiery haired Delia laughed.
“You want me to brush and sweep him out with the laundry?” Briar playfully taunted.
“I’m up for dusting myself.” Chloe said, patting the dirt off all her clothes.
“Thank goodness I at least saved the water.” Eau said with her hands in the air, hold up the remaining water she caught.
“Oh, really?” Chloe waved her hand up instead of down to the ground, that it lifted dust that had settled on the floor, flying into the air once more and ruffled against Eau's nose.
“Achoo!” She sneezed, grabbing her nose to stop any more dust from coming near her.
The water splashed fiercely into a nearby bucket and spread covered her legs and shoes, as Chloe and the other maids laughed at their expense.
“That’s enough fun ladies, I’m sure the madam can deal with this bug.” Delia regained her composure as lead mage of the household help.
“By all means, please go about your business as usual.” Orsa smiled with a polite bow of her hand.
“Yes, madam.” Then they said in unison with small curtsey under their black dresses.
While the maids helped each other clean up the mess and get back to their duties, Orsa picked up Anthony from the ground, then summoned a tiny light at the top of her fingertips. She started inspecting every part of his body to make sure he was safe and unharmed.
“Looks like you had quite a scare, but it doesn’t seem you scraped anything vital.” She saw her son weeping even though he had no visible injuries. “What’s wrong, Ant?”
“They called me bug and pest.” He whined as if they meant to intentionally hurt his feelings.
“It’s all in good humor, Ant, don’t take it to heart. Just brush it off like the leaves in your hair.”
Anthony noticed there was some bush stuck in his hair, which he quickly brushed off with his tiny hands. Then he took his mothers hand, wiped away his tears and headed over to a nearby bench in the backyard where the servants sat when their feet were too tired. She sat with her son, adjusting his hair to proper state while he sat with his mother and watched the maids continue to work.
“I saw you watching, I thought this might be a better view. Why are you over here, this early for lunch?”
“I want to know what fire is.”
“I thought you knew what fire is.”
“I do, but I wanna understand it?”
“Understand it?”
“Yeah, sister said I need to understand fire to make my own fire.”
“Did she now?” She shook her head at the frustrations of her youngest daughter's attempts to get rid of her brother’s attention. “You know I know about fire pretty well, maybe you can ask if there’s something else you don’t understand.”
“Why is Lulu helping Lolo, and Bebe helping Dede.” This is what he’d known his name by since he was old enough to speak, and the maids didn’t mind because they, like her mother, adored the young master.
“That’s because Lulu needs Lolo to help with the water, and Bebe needs Dede to help with the fire.”
“Why?”
“Well, because they’re all Mages, but they need each other to finish their chores?”
“Why?”
“How can I put this in?” She put her fingers on her chin to think of a way. “You see how Lulu spins the water? That’s because the water is from a well and is used mostly for washing and cleaning. Do you like the water we use at lunch and dinner?”
“Yeah, it’s sweet.”
“That’s because Lolo takes out all the dirt that makes the water clean and fresh, instead of dirty and yucky.”
“Ewww!” He laughed with his mom.
“What about Bebe and Dede?”
“Well, Dede can make small fires, but not very big ones, so she needs Bebe to make the fire bigger. You see how she’s waving her hands up and down? That’s the power of wind rushing up the fire to create more heat. Then the wood is nice and burned, she takes the best coals and puts them in the fire jar so that she can create both heat and flavor without leaving a lot of smoke in the house.”
“Woooow.” His eyes grew as big as saucers. “Sisters can make a big fire, why don't they help?”
“Well, your sisters are busy with their studies to help with the cooking and your father likes to keep them very busy.”
“Are you busy?”
“In a way, yes, but never too busy for my little Ant. I just like to spend my time helping the staff with some of the household chores and looking after you and your sisters.”
“Why?”
“Because mommy used to do that all the time when I was in school, before mommy met daddy. I guess you could say it makes me feel more at home than your father and his friends.”
“Maybe you can invite daddy and his friends out here with you, then you could all be friends.”
She paused for a moment to consider his words, in a child mind there was no such things as status or association. The very notion of prominent families hanging out with the helpers was considered blasphemous among society. When she had joined the Erebus clan, she had all but abandoned her family ties. In reality, these maids were as close to her family that she had left, but she did not show this to her son.
“...That would be wonderful, Ant.” She smiled and rubbed his head again.
“Dinner will be ready soon ma’am!” Delia held the pan while Briar was shoveling hot coals with a tiny stove shovel into the pan. “How’s that water coming, Eau?”
“Crystal clear!” She poured the water in the pitcher that Chloe was holding.
“Hot stuff coming through!” Briar closed the lid on the iron pan then helped Delia with the heavy load.
With tremendous strength the two women took the charcoal into the house and toward the kitchen, while Eau and Chloe followed close behind them.
“We still have some time before lunch. Why don’t we walk a little around the garden and I’ll tell you some more things about the elements, Ant.”
“Okay!” Anthony took his mother by the hand.
They spend nearly an hour walking around together, discussing things like fire, water, earth, and wind magic, not just how they work but how they can work well together. While all this knowledge might have been unable to grasp for someone at such a tender age, it did leave a spark in the young Anthony’s mind. Maybe his talent wouldn’t awaken by simply following his elder sister around. Perhaps he needed to find out more about fire to learn his own way, the next day he spent most of his time in the family studying.
Although he could barely read, he made his best efforts to learn how until his mother found him in the study. When she saw his enthusiasm for books about Elemental Magic, she began to read it to him. Along the way, he began learning how to read and write under his mother’s tutelage. By his 7th year, he had learned to read on his own, which led to an unexpected revelation.