“Hey guys, look, Elinor is trying to do magic again.” A large boy said to his miniature gang of kids.

“My name is Eligor.” Said a quiet voice. It came from a small boy sitting on the ground staring at a log.

“He can’t even do the most basic magic. He has no power.” The large boy went on. He was a few years older than the boy sitting on the ground and also happened to be Eligor’s neighbor. Neither of these facts had never stopped the bullying before.

“I’ve had my magic since I was two years old, you are just a weakling.” The bully spat on the sitting boy.

“Jona, you do know that the older you are when you get your power, the more powerful it is, right? Getting it when you have barely seen your first summer is nothing to brag about.” That rare support for the smaller boy came from Casiel, a girl just a few months older than Eli.

She was well liked, and the only one in the town that ever stood up to the older Jona. Her father was head of the watch, but even that wasn’t enough as Jona’s own father was the leader of Stathen, the small village they all lived in.

“Yeah, whatever, Cass. C’mon, he’s… what, fifteen years old now? And still doesn’t have any magic? There’s no way he’s ever getting it.” Jona replied in an angry voice, evidently not used to being corrected in anything.

“I told you not to call me Cass. And who knows? If he does get his power now, he’d be by far the strongest of us. As it is, I hold the record in this town, having gotten it just after my seventh birthday. You might do well to remember that fact, Jona.” She replied, never getting rid of the smirk on her face.

“I’m sixteen now.” Said a small voice.

“What?” Casiel and Jona said, echoing each other before giving the other a dirty look.

“I said I’m sixteen now. My birthday was ten days ago.” It was Eli speaking.

“Psh. Still think he’s gonna get his magic, Casiel?” He said smirking, though it didn’t go unnoticed by the younger girl that he used her real name this time.

“Who knows, but if he does, he could be stronger than the king himself.”

“Don’t insult the king. He’s nothing like this failure, Zuriel is a good man and a better king.” Jona said, the anger breaking his voice.

“Tell that to the thousands of people dying of hunger in the country, even in the capital.” Casiel quickly responded.

“Is that treason, Casiel? My dad says the kingdom is much better off with Zuriel then it was with the old Raving fool.”

“Whatever, Jona.” She turned to Eli. “Eli, c’mon let’s go. I see you’ve still got the bruises from last time Jona spoke to you.” She said, sending a hard look at Jona. “Come eat with my family for dinner.”

“I have to stay here and get my magic.” He replied.

“Eli, you know that’s just not how it works. If you get your magic, you will know, and you won’t have to test it.”

“Yeah like he’ll ever get his magic. No one’s ever gotten it after turning fiftee-” Jona suddenly had his mouth covered by pocket of water.

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“That’s better.” Casiel said, holding her hand up directly at Jona. People immediately began whispering.

“Did she just cast with her element without using words?”

“How old is she?”

“Has she had any official training yet? No, she’s only sixteen and no academy lets in students under eighteen.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to have dinner with us, Eli? You know my parents are always happy to have you.” Casiel said, turning once again to the boy sitting on the ground, making sure to keep holding the water up to Jona’s mouth even as he furiously tried to push it off with his weak wind magic. His arms were flailing around almost comically

“Thank you, Casiel.” He said, face turning slightly red, “But I think I should go back to the farm. I’m going to be in trouble enough as is.”

“Okay. And you know you can call me Cass, right? Only this big oaf is barred from that.” She said, smiling and pointing briefly at the still muted Jona who had given up fighting the water and was just staring angrily at the girl.

And with that, she walked away, dropping the water from Jona’s mouth as she left.

“Oh, you are so dead, Elinor. You are so incredibly dead.” The crowd that had a second ago been siding with Casiel had quickly switched back to Jona.

Eli knew what was coming next, and he thought about just taking it. But he was tired of that. Instead, he yelled “My name is Eligor!” and sprinted away at his fastest, right at the forest.

Eli was small and agile, a body accustomed to running away. However, Jona, who was about to reach manhood at eighteen summers, had several years to aid him. Within a minute, Jona was catching up to Eli.

They were so incredibly close to the forest. If Eli could just get there he could lose the older boy in the rough foliage. But there was no way, Jona was gaining ground too fast.

Suddenly, just as Eli was about to have his shirt caught by Jona’s outstretched hand, he got a burst of speed. Maybe it was adrenaline, maybe he was just faster than he thought. But he suddenly began to regain ground and more space opened between himself and Jona. Still, he was running increasingly quickly. In the cold autumn day, it almost looked like he was steaming as he sprinted, faster than he ever had before, straight into the forest.

He quickly took a turn and jumped into some branches. He felt incredibly strong and agile, silently thinking he should run more often instead of taking so many beatings. He was fast.

He was jumping from branch to branch, seeming to instinctively know which ones could hold his weight. Maybe he was part monkey, just like Jona had said years ago trying to taunt him to get down from a tree he was hiding in.

After a few minutes of running and jumping he found a tall tree, one he had been to many times before, and quickly started climbing.

He knew the handholds by heart, climbing up the tree at a nearly inhuman rate, reaching the top in just a minute and a half.

Looking around, Eli was able to see the entire world from here, or at least his entire world. Stathen looked eerie in the darkening dusk. He saw Jona exit the forest, seeming to have given up the search.

It was time to head back to the farm, not that he was much better off there than he was in the hands of Jona. His ‘parents’ took every chance possible to remind him that he was adopted and not blood family. His other brother, Zion, was the only thing good about that house, and he was drafted into the military when he turned 16.

Before that point, Eli was always treated worse by his parents than his brother was. But Eli never hated his brother. Zion would often bring some of his food to Eli whenever their parents decided he had done something that deserved his missing of dinner as punishment.

Yet everything got even worse when Zion left a year earlier. It’s like they blamed Eli for the draft and his brother’s leaving. Since that point they would often just ‘forget’ to feed him. In fact, at this point, he had taught himself how to hunt in this forest with a bow he made over the course of a month.

And it was back to that stupid farm that he was about to head back to now. Hopefully they will give me some food. I’m starving from that run and I’m not sure if I can hunt. I’m too tired, he thought. But he suddenly questioned why he was so overwhelmingly exhausted. He had done that track many times in the past. Was it that extreme pace he had set? It didn’t seem that hard at the time.

But even as he was thinking about it he felt something else. He felt like he was getting more awake, as if his exhaustion was fading by the second. He felt like it was being replaced by something else. A warmth that penetrated him down to his bones.

He had time to wonder what in Althesia was going on before he suddenly fell out of the tree, asleep before he even hit the ground.