The morning was very chaotic as my mother was trying to get extra prayers in for the ceremony to go well for me. That alone almost made us miss the carriage that would be carrying us to the city. 

 

“Now listen Silas this event is important and reflects the entire family on how you behave. So I want you to behave like you were a young adult.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“This event is not only to tell you the attribute you have but also serve as a scouting from prospective mentors. As you are young but observant we are not exactly wealthy nor have much social standing. Your behavior can destroy our family if a noble takes offense.”

 

“I don’t really understand why would a noble take offense if they are there for their children testing also?”

 

“You will see for yourself as we are closing in on the gates of the city.”

 

The carriage approached a large wall made of stones with some kind of gray stuff in between. The gates were large pieces of wooden stakes pointing down with metal going across seeming to hold the position and reinforce the strength.

 

The carriage continued in a line until our turn was up and a burly man with what seemed like swirling marks on his face walked up and asked for identification. The carriage driver pulled out a pouch with a small silver tag and my mother pulled out two of them. The man reached his hand out and his hand started to glow and his eyes seemed to gloss over for a split second. 

 

“Tarchi haymeis age 56 cleared for entry. Prisith Scoshrina age 32 cleared for entry. Silas Scoshrina age 6 cleared for entry. You may enter please enjoy your stay.”

 

“How did that man know my name and age mother?”

 

“When anyone is born they are registered a id card and it states their name, age, and past crimes if any. After today it will also register your magic attribute. Although they won’t read it out loud.”

 

“So him making his hand glow was a magic that let him read the tags?”

 

“Yes and no the id are special as as long as one is capable of emitting mana they could read the tag as long as the owner allows it. So someone could not just read everyone walking down the street.”

 

The carriage handler that has not spoken much all the way just laughed and remarked that even if they could read everyone on a street their brain would overload from the info dump into their brain.

 

Crossing through the gate we have entered into Khara. My eyes went big in surprise at all the new sights and sounds. That my mind just went blank and stopped processing anything. I just kept watching over the side of the carriage.

 

 The carriage suddenly stopped in front of a building with people wearing robes and holding a book. Mother nudged me and told me we have arrived and we should hurry inside. The carriage driver said he would be returning to the village in the afternoon and if we wanted a ride back meet by the entrance. With a small wave he was gone.

 

Welcome to khara’s church I assume you are here for the ceremony. My mother nodded yes and a young woman escorted us inside to a large room with many other children and their parents already waiting.

 

“Why must I be made to wait with such dirty looking people? Do they not know who I am! I am the son of count Aconite.”

 

There was some child lashing out for some reason. He also looked a bit older than the rest of the children here. He was taller than me and very thin. I saw many adults trying to calm him down. I now knew what my mother meant about being behaved. The other parents were quietly frowning at this young boy and his remarks.

 

After a few more minutes of people filing in an elderly looking man entered through the back of the room wearing a hat. With him was two younger adult carrying an orb on a pillow that they set on a table. The man cleared his throat and spoke in a very booming voice that seemed to echo in my ears. 

 

“I apologize for the delay but as you know we are a smaller city and there is a limited number of mana testing orbs. The last group ran over from some surprises in the testing. So now I will go over how this will work. I will call your number and the a parent may walk up with the child and have them touched the orb. It will reveal the mana type and you may exit the room after that. So let us begin!”

 

My number was apparently number 26. With my young mind I watched as children walked up and touched the orb and wanted to see what happened. First there was a young girl with similar marking to the guard but they were different. So I nudge mother and asked. The answer was she was part of the air oni race. They are the race that founded the empire of Grumore in the south.

 

Apparently the city and village I live in belongs on the border of Grumore and Laedegon. Laedegon is the Empire that was built upon a race called blessed vampires. My mother didn’t explain anymore. So I just left it at that.

 

Listening to her explain that I missed what happened with the orb. It was apparently already at number 3 with a young boy with a tan and pointy ears walk up. I tried asking what race he was and was met with silence. The orb turned black with purple lightning running through it. The Elderly man exclaimed that the boy has the abyss attribute an advanced category for darkness. A few adults in the room gasped at that proclamation. The young boy looked very scared at all the adults murmuring amongst themselves and ran back to his parents. They simply hugged him and smiled. As time passed it was finally my turn. 

 

When it was my turn my mother walked up with me as I was a bit to short to reach the orb on my own. I reached out and touched the orb and felt a bit of a warm feeling in the core of my chest. The orb lit up with a cloudy looking light only peeking out in spots. 

 

The elderly man said light magic. Everyone began gossiping like they did with the pointy ear boy. My mother had tears coming out of her eyes as she looked very thrilled. So I asked if that was good and she nodded. After that we walked out into the lobby and waited for the rest of the people. After a while the noble kid that was making a scene came out very irritated. It seems he had the wind attribute. IT was not what he wanted I think he kept saying the orb must be broken for him to have the wind attribute.

 

After about an hour everyone was done and the man walked out and gave parting words. He had high hopes for all the children toda and that within in the next few weeks we would be receiving offer letters from schools and mentors. We are to pick one and begin taking general lessons to gain understanding of the world till we reach the age of 12 and journey to our mentors or schools to begin learning about our magic. It seems that we can only learn what attribute but it will still take some time for our body to develop the magic system to output it.

 

The elderly man turned to go back inside but I caught a side eye from him when he went back in.

 

“That child will make history, I am sure of it.” The elderly man whispered to himself.

 

So the trip back to the village was in high spirits apparently the carriage driver meeting went well also. He was silent because he was apparently worried about how it would go.

 

Just as the head priest man said a few letters did arrive for me. As I did not understand what they meant it seems to be more of a ad for parents to decide for the child. Inside one of the letters was a letter with a wax seal with a S with a slash through it. My mother opened it and nearly fainted on the spot. She then smiled and explained to me that this is a once in a life time offer. As I didn’t quite get it but I nodded that if it is that good I would like that one. She smiled and said she was sorry for forcing a decision like this but she didn’t want to pass up the chance for me.

 

 My mother pulled a favor from her old friend that traveled to other countries to educate me on the outside world. I felt really excited to learn about the world outside this village.