Gold, It is the color that is seen most in the eyes of a young boy named Mathias Farley. It is to be expected when you are the prince of a kingdom. Mathias enjoys spending his time sitting in his chair in his room reading books. His short and tidy white hair sits mostly in place save for a few locks in front that refuse to listen as his silver eyes look down at whatever book he may be holding.
Despite being only 12 years old, Mathias shows an incredible maturity. Fiction, Poetry, Management, Ruling. No matter the genre of book, Mathias will happily read it. But Mathias has a secret. One that must be known by no one. His favorite book to read, is one about magic. Why? This is a question that one might ask when hearing this if they do not understand the nature in which magic is treated. The Academy of Arcane Arts may sound like just a school but it is so much more. It is an organization hell bent on information control about one subject matter in particular. Magic.
How do they do this? Through power and influence. Magicians are powerful beings capable of doing many things considered to be beyond human. The strongest among them can even reshape the landscape of a country through magic alone. Of course, the amount of magicians with that level of power are few and rare. Even today only a single one remains alive and he remains in his office at the peak of the Academy of Arcane Arts as its High Scholar. Their power makes them respected people but it also means they are widely feared as well. This allows their word, at least in regards to magic, to be akin to law.
Children must have their magic potential tested at the age of 10. Children are only allowed to learn magic at the Academy of Arcane Arts. Children can only attend the academy if they meet the minimum threshold for magic potential. Students can only be taught simple and basic magic by general magic teachers at the academy. Each Student can only have one master in their life. Each master can only accept one student. Books on the subject of magic are to strictly be read within the academy and not to leave the grounds. Books on magic that are found must be brought to the academy to be turned in. To the academy, knowledge is power. They hold a lot of it and refuse to share too much of it. After all, they do not wish to lose the power they wield. This is why no one must know Mathias's greatest secret. The small silver book he keeps hidden beneath his mattress.
Silver. It is a color that is much compared to gold and can be considered closely tied to it. The highest currency is gold. Right below it is silver. Gold is a material that is used by royals. Silver is widely used by nobles. Both are considered signs of status and wealth. However, while most consider gold to be worth more than silver, magicians do not. This was something that young Mathias learned from his secret magic book. Looking up at the gold plated ceiling, he remembers the words that stuck in his mind the most from his secret book.
Silver is the color of magic. The material itself is conductive to magic while gold is not. When a powerful magician wields magic, Silver flowing strands of arcane energy can be seen moving through the air. The color is a sign of status among magicians with only the most powerful being allowed to adorn it. Mathias had the fortunate and unfortunate fate to be born with silver eyes. Coupled with his white hair, his eyes made his father King Arthrus Farley believe that he had a wonderful talent for magic. He was right.
What he failed to consider however, is the greed in which magicians hoard knowledge and power. Upon being tested at the age of 10 like all other children, The magician doing the testing immediately recognized Mathias' potential for magic. A talent and potential far greater than any ever recorded before. He knew young Mathias would one day become the strongest magician alive if not in history if allowed to enter the academy. It was for that very reason that Mathias was rejected. King Arthrus was told that Mathias had very little talent for magic and does not meet the requirements for entering the academy. This news changed the way the man viewed his son. Mathias went from being the most favored and pampered prince to the most disliked. A forever reminder to Arthrus of his disappointment in Mathias' apparent lack of talent in magic.
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In the two years since, Mathias has been mostly holed up in his gold adorned bedroom. Spending most of his day reading books. It was during these two years that he discovered his secret. He knows not where it came from or how it appeared. Only that one day, it was lying on his pillow. Small white text inscribed upon silver leather. It was during these two years that Mathias discovered his fascination with magic. It was in these two years, that Mathias discovered his great dislike for gold.
He learned many secrets of magic within the covers of his little secret book. Although Mathias does not know them to be secrets even magicians would kill to discover. He learned the basics of magic as well. What is magic? What can magic do? How can you guide magic to do it? That was one aspect that the little book stressed. You do not use magic. you do not wield it. You guide it. Magic does not obey you and it does not do your bidding. What Mathias has read in the book has lead him to ask a very critical question. Why? Magic can do so much so why do the ones who can wield it seem so limited?
Of the magicians that Mathias has seen, they mostly conjure elements with magic. Even the stories he has read about the more powerful magicians have them doing similar thing but just on a bigger scale. When he sees or reads about magicians, what they are doing seem more like... brute force? There are so many intricacies in magic. This is something Mathias has noticed based on the words he has read in his secret book. And yet the magicians he knows only do so much with the power they have.
Why? Why do they mostly rely on conjuring and manipulating elements? Why not try to do other things? Can you find a way to store knowledge and information with magic? if so can this information then be carried on ones person and passed onto another to be received? Books are lovely but they are fragile. They are easily damaged and expensive to make. especially on a large scale. Letters and Messages take a long time to be delivered. Can magic help expedite that process? if so then how?
Another thing that is fragile is the human body. Can magic help strengthen it? Make a person run faster or hit harder? While most magicians rely on elements other magics like healing magic do exist but they are extremally rare and very few practice them. This is mostly because those who do are shunned and considered abnormal for not just simply sticking to the basic elements. Can magic think? if so, can it think faster than a person can? Can it make decisions and act upon them according to a magicians wishes?
These questions and countless others find their way into young Mathias' mind on a daily basis as he continues to read his little secret book that never seems to end despite its small size. Only at night, when he knows no one will enter his room to disturb him can he read this book. Other times he reads other books on mathematics and related subjects. He has discovered that magic can be very logical unlike the wildness in which he has seen magicians wield it before. While he himself has not yet attempted to call on his magic. He has felt it within himself and in the air around him when he walks outside. But never inside.
This is how he discovered his dislike for gold. It isolates and suppresses magic in a way that no other material can. The complete opposite of silver. Mathias speculates that this is why the magician who tested his potential is not worried that Mathias will accomplish anything. After all, what can a magician who is surrounded by gold on a daily basis do? Nothing. That is what he can do. It is because of the constant presence of gold that Mathias cannot try any of what he has learned within his secret book.
But while the gold is a detriment to those wishing to release the magic within themselves to cast spells. It has also kept Mathias' magic trapped within his body. Rarely getting to slowly leak out on his short walks through the palace gardens. It has allowed his magic to grow without anything impeding it. If Mathias were more active as a child and went out of the palace a lot, he would not have so much magic within himself. His recluse nature and in more recent times, the treatment of his father not wanting him to be seen in public due to embarrassment, has helped facilitate the growth of his magic even further. He can feel his magic calling him to guide it out, to let it dance in play in a myriad of ways. But he cannot.
What young Mathias does not know is that soon his chance to flourish with his magic will come. Soon, on his coming of age ceremony on his thirteenth birthday, his entire life will change and nothing will be the same.