Kaeltar rose from his seat. “Come on. This isn’t the place for an examination.”

Kaylath retrieved his new shirt before they began towards the corner room. They passed a few inert metalworking machines covered with dust and old papers, but Kaylath wasn’t familiar with their function. The corner room wasn’t a room; it was a staircase with a teleportation circle at the bottom. The room on the other side was easily twice the size of the four-chimney building. It had the basic staples of a living space, but most of the surface area was covered with notes, bottles filled with various liquids and materials, and unfamiliar tools. Kaeltar led Kaylath to the most buried section of the room and pulled a heap of garbage onto the ground, exposing a dusty medical bed.

“Sorry for the mess. I didn’t expect you…” Said Kaeltar.

“It’s no problem. I’ve seen worse, sir,” said Kaylath, taking a seat on the bed.

“Right.” Said Kaeltar, unconvinced. “I want to know a little bit more before we start. I saw the scars…Do you know what they did?”

“I don’t remember. The operations happened when I was little, but my father says they attempted to revitalize my magic flow. It was after they noticed I wasn’t absorbing magic passively.”

“Why would they open you up for that?” said Poretan, standing off to the side.

“They feared I had a blight organ.”

Kaeltar froze, turning to face Kaylath. “You were exposed to curses?”

“My mother fought in the twelfth Breach War early in her pregnancy, so they figured it was possible. They didn’t find anything.”

Kaeltar pursed his lips, returning to the bed beside Kaylath. “So they gave up?”

“They didn’t fix me.” Said Kaylath, failing to fully conceal a bitter tone. “They did some regular progress exams, but I never improved. Eventually, it wasn’t worth the money spent.”

“Lay down.” Said Kaeltar before turning to Poretan. “My tools are in here somewhere. Can you look around?”

“Will do.” Said Poretan, walking over to a table-shaped pile of debris.

Kaeltar turned back to Kaylath, extending a hand over his torso. “They weren’t wrong. There’s nothing…You’ve been channeling regularly?”

“Every month. I received my allotment yesterday.”

“What was your progress?

“The crystal voids immediately.”

Kaeltar nodded. “I’m assuming a higher quality didn’t help.”

“The same outcome. Still no internal activity.”

Kaletar pulled a crystal out of a nearby cabinet, handing it to Kaylath. It glowed a brighter white than the Grade 2 crystal he usually received. He couldn’t sense the magic inside, but the crystal hummed with energy. Kaylath fought the urge to return it to Kaeltar, uncomfortable holding the high-grade crystal. Considering the weapons in the main house, this was likely nothing to the forger.

Kaylath attempted to pull from the crystal, searching for a connection through his palm. The absence of any real feedback was familiar. He’d never been able to sense magic, so it was trial and error until the connection happened. Once connected, the crystal’s glow vanished, losing its translucence as it fragmented into smaller white rocks.

Kaeltar kept his hand over Kaylath’s stomach while he channeled, silent and still as he watched the crystal fall apart. “Strange. The energy just disappears when you absorb it. At this rate, there aren’t enough magic crystals on Thytal to get you to 2nd Mark.”

“Do you think you can help me?”

“That depends. I’ve been working on something, but it may not be what you wanted.” Said Kaeltar, grabbing some papers from the corner of the room. “Do you know what your mark is?”

“Of course…” Said Kaylath, confused by the ridiculous question.

“What is it then?”

“It’s the manifestation of my family's magic. The same mark my father has.”

“That’s right. Do you know where it came from?”

“It’s passed down at birth.” Kaylath cocked his head slightly to the side. “Where are you going with this?”

Kaeltar sighed. “Have you been outside of Thytal?”

“Of course not! That would be suicide.” Said Kaylath. “My father is an imperial general, and I can’t defend myself.”

“Is that what your father told you?” Said Poretan, returning with a large leatherbound box and placing it beside Kaeltar. “If you were such an obvious target, wouldn’t someone in this district have grabbed you?”

Kaylath opened his mouth to respond, but couldn’t find the words. He just realized he’d never considered the possibility that his father was lying to him. He’d been to the outer districts several times, and no one had ever bothered him.

“The other kingdoms don’t use marks. It’s a system exclusive to Thytal.” Said Kaeltar, pulling various instruments from the box at his feet and placing them on the table beside the bed.

“I know that. We’ve fought the Black Hands for centuries.”

“Did you know your mark is just a tool to focus magic into spells?”

“Like a wand.” Said Kaylath, remembering the wooden sticks he saw in the military museum.

“Exactly! Mages don’t use external catalysts like wands anymore, but that isn’t because they don’t need catalysts. Humans found ways to integrate the catalyst with the body to remove the possibility of losing it. In Thytal, it’s the imperial mark, but there’s no set form.”

“Do you have another catalyst?” Said Kaylath.

“It isn’t as simple as giving you a new catalyst. The engraving happens at birth because the body can’t identify and reject foreign magic. Your natural defenses increase as you age.”

“Then why are we talking about this?” Said Kaylath, frustrated by the runaround.

“Patience, Kaylath. I don’t want to trick you into a decision you don’t understand.”

“I understand that I’m a fucking cripple!” Said Kaylath, jumping off the medical bed. “Do you know when the average kid breaks through to 2nd mark? ... Six years old! I’ve been less valuable than most six year olds for my whole life!”

Kaylath took some deep breaths, subduing the fiery rage building in his chest. “If you can fix me, I don’t care what you do.”

“What if you’re exiled?” said Kaeltar.

Kaylath locked eyes with Kaeltar, jaw set and eyes solemn. “If I demonstrate my value, my father won’t allow it.”

“But you’re willing to take that risk?”

“Yes.”

Kaeltar beckoned Poretan while cleansing himself with a spell. “Prep him.”

Poretan turned to Kaylath and guided him back to the bed. “This could take time. Will anyone come looking for you?”

“No.”

Poretan nodded. “We’ll need you to strip down to your underwear.”

Kaylath undressed again, getting cleansed by Poretan before lying on the bed. Both men donned aprons and masks, inspecting various medical instruments with sharp edges and pointy ends. He fought the urge to laugh as he considered the possibility that they were two random lunatics. He knew no one would buy his organs, and he doubted he tasted any good, but he didn’t consider the possibility until they were ready to cut him up. Not that it mattered. If he couldn’t be fixed, what was the point?

Kaeltar held what looked like a two-prong fork on a string above Kaylath’s stomach, moving around until satisfied.

“We’ll need to open you up to see what the others did. I think that something inside you is the cause.” Said Kaeltar from behind his mask. “Do you accept an access vow?”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I allow Kaeltar and Poretan full access to my body and magic for mending and building.” A coolness enveloped Kaylath as the vow settled.

“I’m putting you to sleep. See you when you wake up.” Said Poretan as he cast a sleep spell.

Kaylath thought about his sister, happy with their last conversation. He attempted the same sentiments for his father, but their last words didn’t have the same resonance, not that it bothered him. Father never was very sentimental.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaylath woke to roaring pain throughout his body. He reflexively reached for his face, but his arm wouldn’t move. A fresh wave of pain surged through his arm as it flexed against the restraints on his wrists. The lights in the room were blinding, and all sounds washed together into an indecipherable wave of different tones. Someone blocked out the lights, and the nearby sound was recognizable as speech he couldn’t understand. He tried to respond, but any attempt resulted in a coughing fit.

They shut off all the lights, and the sound changed to a dull hum. Kaylath laid still for a few minutes, letting any remaining sound fade away. When he opened his eyes, the room was washed in a gray hue. Kaeltar stood in the kitchen, preparing something in a pot. The bearded man noticed Kaylath and made his way toward the bed, stopping short and picking up a board. He held up the board for Kaylath. It read: The operation was a success, but your senses are adjusting. We have a device to help your mind filter the sound. Focus on dampening the clicks.

Kaeltar grabbed a small box from a nearby table, fiddling with it before placing it beside the bed. Kaylath reached for it before remembering he was restrained. After a moment, a sharp click rang out in the silence, echoing in his ears. The clicks continued at a set tempo. The sound was deafening for the first few, but he felt his ears adjusting to the volume over time. Beyond passive regulation, the intensity was now controllable, allowing him to increase the volume of the click or deafen it completely.

He could also speak without coughing. He couldn’t hear it, but the motions weren’t impossible. After turning some of the lights back on, Kaeltar came back from the kitchen carrying a bowl of noodles. His sense of smell was heightened like the rest, but the aromas released as Kaeltar cooked weren’t nearly as disorienting. While certainly stronger than before, his baseline senses were now at a manageable level. Kaeltar raised a hand, releasing the silence spell. Kaylath braced himself for a flood of sounds, but the box worked. After undoing the restraints, Kaeltar handed him the bowl, which he devoured.

“How are you feeling?” Said Kaeltar.

“My body is still burning,” said Kaylath, wiping off his face.

He sounded like he’d drunk a bottle of lava, barely managing to get the words out as airy rasps.

“It’s going to take a moment for your body to adjust.”

“Did you figure out what was wrong?”

“Your body was heavily modified when you were a child, but they couldn’t reconnect your mana pool to your catalyst. Any function the Mark on your chest had was due to residual magic flow through the human body, " said Kaeltar, handing Kaylath a pile of capture papers.

There were various pictures of exposed bones, organs, and other connective tissues all covered in densely packed lines of runes. Looking at his insides was nauseating, but the work was so bizarre it was hard to look away. He wasn’t familiar with this type of operation and couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that he was filled with runes. It felt like there was a parasite inside him.

“What do these runes do?”

“Mana flow and absorption augmentations, various muscular and skeletal enhancements, nervous system augmentation, passive and non-passive regeneration and replication…..” Said Kaeltar. “A full suite of upgrades to create the evolved human.”

Kaylath felt a shiver down his spine at the prospect. This was his reward for the years of humiliation, fear, and loneliness. “How long until I can start using them?”

Kaeltar froze mid musing, turning back to Kaylath. “I don’t know. You will have to grow the catalyst runes to connect them. Until then, most will be dormant.”

“Then why are my senses enhanced?”

“That’s a function of the catalyst running along your spine. It concentrates at the base of your skull, linking to your brain.”

“What about my mark?” Said Kaylath, feeling its location on his chest.

“I linked it back to your mana pool, but it was never supposed to be your catalyst. Eventually, you’ll be able to alter its appearance, but it has no function beyond interfacing with its external systems.” Said Kaeltar, grinning. “I figured you still wanted access to your room.”

“Thank you.” Said Kaylath, realizing he hadn’t considered that.

“Well, I couldn't let them sit there thinking that I’m some hack… A bunch of butchers!” Kaeltar spat on the floor. “That’s all they are!”

Kaeltar turned to Kaylath, gesturing erratically. “Your operation didn’t work because they got greedy! They wanted my upgrades with their catalysts, but that’s not how it works. You can’t just mix and match these things! You're lucky they were too stupid to recognize the actual catalyst. I don’t know if I could’ve helped if they didn’t include it when they hacked you apart.”

Kaylath watched Kaeltar, confused. “This is your work?”

The question pulled Kaeltar back to reason. “It’s……something I attempted years ago, but it didn’t work. The subjects all perished. I theorized that it was a result of the mature body’s rejection of foreign magic, making children better candidates, but I ended the project.” Kaeltar turned back to Kaylath. “I’ve crossed many lines with my work, but experimenting with children wasn’t something I could bring myself to do.”

Kaeltar handed some papers to Kaylath. “I didn’t share my reasoning for shutting the project down, so someone must’ve found my work.”

They must have been the failed experiments. People strapped to chairs, bodies so swollen they were barely recognizable as humans. The skin stretched until it tore, with reddish yellow liquid leaking from the open wounds.

“We only worked on criminals, but I guess they didn’t have that option when picking children.” Kaylath winced at the grotesque display, thinking again about the runes covering his insides.

“Could this happen to me?” Said Kaylath, looking at Kaeltar.

Kaeltar shook his head. “Your body accepted the runes years ago. They’re as much a part of you as the flesh they’re engraved on.”

Kaylath returned the pictures, not entirely convinced. He felt an unfamiliar distortion in the space near the teleportation circle. Turning his head, he watched Poretan walk in carrying a box.

“Excellent. Looks like your sensory magic is functioning.” Said Kaeltar, grabbing a piece of capture paper. “Try this.”

Kaylath looked at the paper, focusing on the movement of mana around him. There was feedback in the area surrounding him. It was like a sound, but it wasn’t audible. As he focused, the feedback allowed him to triangulate the movement of his mana, acting as a second sight. It was like a cloud surrounding him, with a tendril slowly reaching toward the paper. The tendril moved when he focused on it, responding like a third arm. When it reached the paper, the image in his vision appeared on the page. Kaylath beamed. It was a simple task, something most children could do, but this was the first time he'd ever done it in his whole life.

“Drink this. It’ll help your throat.” Sad Poretan, handing Kaylath a small bottle from the box. Kaylath downed the green liquid, feeling it soothe his throat as it went down.

“Let’s get you started!” Said Kaeltar, pulling more bottles from the box. “No physical training, but we can work on your combat magic.”

Kaylath frowned. “No crystals?”

“Won’t help you. Crystal channeling is the perk of the Imperial Mark. Repetition will be your method,” Said Kaeltar, handing Kaylath one of the blue potions to Kaylath. “Deplete your mana pool, refill with a potion, repeat.”

“He doesn’t know any spells.” Said Poretan.

“Right…What is your family’s specialization?” Said Kaeltar.

“We use teleportation magic, with fire, lightning, or wind affinities.”

Kaeltar paused for a moment before responding. “Teleportation…very rare. I’m not sure I can help you with that, but I know the elemental magics.”

Poretan put a hand on Kaeltar’s shoulder. “I can take over now, sir. You should get some sleep.”

Kaeltar opened his mouth to protest, but decided against it, nodding in agreement. “Poretan will take over from here.”

After Kaeltar left, Poretan turned to Kaylath. “I know you’re eager to jump into training, so let's get this done.”

Poretan raised his arm and cast lightning. Short bolts shot out from his arm before fizzling out in the air.

“Do what you did with the capture paper!” Said Poretan, shouting over the crackling electricity as he held the arm towards Kaylath.

Kaylath extended the mana arm until it caught a stray bolt. The contact sent a tremor through Kaylath’s body, tensing his muscles. The air felt blurry, and his mouth tasted of metal. When the tremor ended, he opened his eyes. Aside from some reinvigorated soreness in his still-healing body, nothing felt different. “What happened?”

“Congratulations. You have a lightning affinity.” Said Poretan, face deadpan. “Next.”

Poretan repeated the cycle with fire and wind, with Kaylath having affinities for each. Both times left Kaylath rattled and increasingly tired despite the exciting news. Something he attributed, in part, to Poretan’s lack of enthusiasm..

Poretan assembled a mannequin target roughly 10 feet from the edge of the bed. “Your goal is to hit this target until you run out of mana. Drink the potion, then do it again with a different element. Repeat the cycle until there are no more potions. If you don’t have elemental mana production, which you don’t, you’ll have to use converted neutral mana. Think about the sensation from a second ago when casting.”

Poretan exited through the circle, leaving Kaylath alone in the partially lit room. He watched a small bug pick at some debris in the dark corner across the room. If he focused, he could zoom in on the creature, making out each of its dozens of eyes and small hairs.

The bug also created a distortion similar to when Poretan walked in but was much smaller. The feedback he’d felt while using the capture paper was everywhere, but the quantities were barely enough to get a mental image of the room. He remembered his sister talking about trace amounts of mana in all things. This must’ve been what she meant.

Kaylath decided to start with lightning, the element his father and sister used. The static feeling wasn’t difficult to conjure up, and Kaylath visualized a bolt of lightning leaping from his hand into the mannequin. Instead, a thin line of electric discharge floated from his hand before fizzling out. Kaylath grinned, unsurprised by the failure. He continued casting his lesser lightning, getting progressively closer to the target, but it wasn’t something he could defend himself with.

The process continued until he began feeling faint. After squeezing out a few more attempts, he drank one of the blue potions Poretan brought in. A surge of energy accompanied the blue liquid, clearing away the fog that hung in Kaylath’s brain from the mana fatigue. He looked back at the mannequin, sitting unscathed after the first round.

Undeterred, Kaylath focused on his other elements. Using three elements was uncharted territory. Even the emperor could only use one. The rounds that followed weren’t any better than the first, with wind proving to be especially difficult.

After a third full cycle of each element, he dreaded drinking the potion. There was no taste, but he started feeling nauseous after the 7th bottle. Fortunately, the repetitions were bearing fruit, with all three elements at a point where he could just about hit the mannequin. It felt like he was clearing blockage from a drain with each attempt, and the progress from one element was roughly transferring to the others now that he was familiar with the casting pattern for each.

After another full cycle, the nausea gave way to a throbbing pain. He probably shouldn’t have done the last round, but he had to finish the full cycle. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been practicing, but he’d struggled to keep his eyes open on the last few attempts. Exhausted, he fell asleep nearly instantaneously despite the pain in his stomach.