Milestone
A small glass of water, a few pebbles, a metal spoon and a single piece of paper. These objects that wholly contrasted each other had now been placed on the table in front of me.
“Alright Liam, let’s see what you’ve got.” Oliver gleefully commented from his position on my right. I was no longer seated, but instead standing at the edge of the table I could barely even see over, the others were standing close behind me and although I couldn’t see their faces, I felt the intensity of their curious gazes that were now practically stabbing me in the back.
“Liam let's start off by testing out your elemental affinities.” Vreena spoke up from behind me, out of everyone here, she’d been the one closest to me this entire time.
“Affinities? Does that mean I’m a Savant?” I asked with my back still turned to her.
“I can’t say for certain yet, but if you do end up possessing any elemental affinities then you’ll more than likely have two elements at your disposal, in which case you’d be a dualist.” Right after she finished speaking, I felt the strange sensation of her wrinkled hand gripping my shoulder. Despite her supposed fragility there was a surprising amount of strength now being channeled through her grip.
“It goes without saying, but I'm hoping he has an affinity for fire magic, there’s tons of spells I’ve been meaning to pass on to him.”
“And just what kinds of spells did you have in mind Oliver? I’ve seen how destructive your little tricks can get.” Julia interrupted the man's self-serving fantasy; I could clearly envision the conspicuous face she was making right now.
“I meant beginner level stuff of course, it's not anything too dangerous.”
“You mean that ‘ignition gust’ spell, right? Isn't that a beginner level spell?”
“Well....”
For some reason they’d now started a feud over my prospective power and Oliver was already on the losing end of it.
“Already a mage at four years old huh? As expected of my little brother.” I heard Emma’s prideful response echoing from behind me, it hadn’t even been five minutes since I'd offhandedly decided to conform to her strange demands, but she was already running with it.
“Usually, when a savant mage awakens, there’s some clear indication of what element they’re able to exert control over. If it was fire then flames would start enveloping their body, if it was earth then the ground beneath them might crack open or something like that. However, in the case of mages who could use more than one element, there was no obvious change. That’s why it's so hard to tell them apart from radicals.” Vreena gave that brief summary to no one in particular, but it was more than likely an accurate description of my current situation.
“That’s true, I didn’t see any significant changes when I awakened either, so it actually took me quite a while to figure this whole mage thing out.” Oliver nostalgically remarked.
“That niche effect comes about because new mages aren’t very good at controlling their own mana and manifesting two different elements at the same time is impossible, so in that regard it's a lot easier for regular savants to discover their affinities since their mana doesn’t need to manifest in more than one way.”
“So what exactly is he going to do then?” Emma chimed in; she was getting more curious by the second.
“We’re going to do a test.”
“A test...you say?”
“That’s right. It’s called the ‘essence gauge’, an old trick that's been used all around the continent for years in the rare event that a dualist managed to awaken. Liam’s going to release all of his mana and Vreena will use some of her own mana to direct his mana flow. While his mana flow is under control, he’ll pick up each of the objects on the table and we’ll know which elements he can control based on the ones that react to his mana.”
“Ohh if that's what he's going to do then this might even be better than I thought. But wait, why does Elder Vreena need to help him control that ‘mana’ thing? Can’t he do that on his own?” Emma’s enthusiasm and confusion were somehow starting to blend together, the girls' emotions were subject to change at a moment’s notice.
“Well as you’ve heard just now, new mages can’t control their own mana very well, that's why Liam ended up accidentally destroying our house earlier. If he was to do this on his own then the same thing might happen here, that paper might spontaneously combust and start a huge fire or something.”
“Ehhhhhh!?”
“....Pardon?....”
The mother-daughter duo voiced their confusion in unison.
“Wait, wait- That won’t happen, Vreena’s good at directing the mana flow of other people since she’s been doing this for years now so I'm sure it won’t come to that.” Even though Oliver was trying to calm them down right now, the childlike excitement in his voice was still palpable.
“Take it down a notch will you, I’m trying to adjust my mana flow here. Liam are you still trying to suppress it?”
“Mhm, I've been trying to control it this entire time.”
“Alright, good. You’ve got quite a bit of mana so this might get tricky. I’m starting now, when you feel something like a shiver going up your spine, I want you to stop suppressing it alright?”
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
“Alright kid here it comes.”
“Hck!”
Three seconds later, the jittery feeling of Vreena’s foreign magical essence disrupted the crude control I'd been exerting over my own mana, following her directive I immediately released all the mental restraints that had been limiting the output of my core up until now, and the moment my own mana began ramping up its intensity, Vreena used her own power to manipulate that flow, causing the entire thing to blend together in a single harmonious mix that now flowed with a viscous intensity through my mana channels.
The entire thing had lasted only around ten seconds, but that vivid sensation was exaggerated far beyond that by my own inexperience in controlling this power.
“Liam are you alright?” Julia asked, concern was once again starting to surface in her tone.
“Haah...Haah....Haah...I’m....fine mother, that just felt a little strange but....I can do this.”
“Thats my boy.” Oliver was boasting a wholly different attitude towards this situation than his wife, even I could feel the conspicuous glare she was giving him right now.
“Alright Liam, your mana flow...haah..... has stabilized. Try.....picking those items up one by one.” The fact that Vreena was a little out of breath herself meant that this was certainly taxing for us both.
My body was now covered in a dense blue veil of magical energy that cast an azure glow throughout the entire room, shadows grew longer and stretched across the adorned walls, and I began hearing the countless gasps of admiration coming from behind me. Stretching out my now glowing arm, I started off with the glass cup of water, lifting it a few inches off the table only to watch the surface level ripples cascade from end to end in the transparent container.
“No good huh....next Liam.” Vreena quietly issued that command from behind me, her breathing still sounded ragged, so I assumed she wanted me to get this over with as soon as possible. Next was the stack of pebbles, I lifted a handful of the pint-sized rocks off the table only to watch them roll down on each other, stopping dead in the center of my palm.
“Next....”
I reached for the blank piece of paper lying on the table, the moment I touched the thin sheet, the area around my fingers instantly turned black, and less than a second later an orange glow enveloped the entire thing, it started burning with a vicious intensity, but something strange happened right before the paper was completely reduced to ashes. The orange flame that had consumed the majority of the paper in my hand suddenly took on a different hue at the opposite edge of the paper. Instead of a bright orange color, it had instead started to burn with an intense dark purple color.
“For real!?” I heard Oliver’s dumbfounded shout echo from behind me.
“Haah...well it looks like you were right Oliver, he ended up being a fire mage after all.” Julia offhandedly commented.
“N-no that’s not it.... look, those purple flames at the edge of the paper....isn’t that plasma...” It was the first time I’d ever heard such a stuttery voice come from Oliver when he was talking about magic of all things, hearing him too stunned to even speak had somehow left me filled with a sense of pride.
“Now that you mention it, that does look like plasma...but isn’t plasma supposed to be blue?”
“Yeah......that’s definitely plasma but as for the color-”
“We’re not done yet, right?” I asked with my vision still locked on the charred piece of paper now crumbling to ashes in my hand.
“Oh, there’s still the spoon left but lightning magic of all things.... wouldn’t that be a shocker.” Oliver laughed dryly at his own comment.
“Pick it up Liam, I don’t know if I’ll be able to match your mana reserves like this anytime soon, so we might as well get it out of the way.” Vreena responded from behind me, her once vigorous grip was now loosening its dominant hold on my shoulder.
“Alright, here goes.”
Extending my hand, I reached for the metal spoon on the other side of the table, but just before my fingers could wrap around it, the object suddenly sprung up of its own volition, sticking to my palm in an impressive display of telekinetic obstinance. However, in this particular case it hadn’t been telekinesis at all, but rather -
“Lightning magic....”
The room was surprisingly silent after Oliver unconsciously uttered those words. Soon after, Vreena completely released her grip in that moment and in the next instant, I felt a collage of bodies suddenly rush over to embrace me.
“Good work Liam! You’re even more amazing than I originally thought!”
“Congratulations, now you finally get to be like your dad.” Julia was now earnestly smiling at me, seeing that proud look in her eyes must have meant that I’d reached quite the milestone.
“Well done little brother of mine.” Curling her arm around my neck, Emma pulled my body closer to her for yet another ‘hug’.
“Haah...Hah...”
Those gasping cries immediately caught their attention. It was Vreena, she was now slumped to the floor and breathing heavily with moisture now dripping off her forehead.
“You druids certainly have some absurd mana reserves....I had to use almost all of my mana just to match his output. If he’s got that much mana at four years old, then it's no wonder he’s not very good at controlling it. Julia what exactly are you going to do when he manifests his ‘Korin’?”
“Well that's...”
As I awaited her reply, my legs suddenly gave out under me, I fell to one knee, barely managing to retain my own consciousness admits the lethargy that was now creeping in.
“W-what's wrong Liam?” Emma crouched down beside me looking even more worried than Julia.
“Heh...I’m fine Emma...I just feel a little tired.”
“You decide to smile now of all times?”
“Playing the tough guy, are we? After releasing almost all of your mana just now I know exactly how tired you must be feeling.” Vreena slyly cut off my smug response with a smirk of her own, I suppose it only made sense for her to see right through me since neither of us was in the best condition right now.
“I think we’re just about done here, both Liam and Vreena need to rest for a bit.” Julia extended her hand towards me, and the moment I took hold of it she slowly began pulling my back to my feet.
“If that’s the case then I’d like to have a little celebration here if it's alright with everyone. I think it’ll be a good way to ease some of the tension that's been building up.” To my surprise, it was actually Beatrice who had just made that generous offer.
~GROWLLL~
Before anyone could even process it though, my stomach had once again unleashed that bellowing sound. The laughter that ensued in its wake seemed to have been more than enough of a response in its own right.
“That sounds nice, I mean; this does perfectly fit the bill for a joyous occasion, no?” Oliver accepted her offer with a beaming smile on his face.
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped then. I'll help you prepare whatever you have in mind.”
“And I’ll get the utensils, wait right here Liam, you’re about to experience the true power of the Ashwell-style cuisine real soon.” Leaving those words behind, Emma immediately darted off in some arbitrary direction, her pattering footsteps soon started echoing from the wooden floor above my head.
“Fufu...I suppose we should get started as well Beatrice.”
“You’re right, I don’t know much about druid cuisine, but I’ll try to put on a show tonight, it's the least I can do.”
“I’ll look forward to it then.”
“Wait up, I’m tagging along.”
“Vreena? I thought you hated cooking?” Julia stopped to give the old woman a perplexed stare.
“I need a change of pace after all that effort just now, so I’ll humor you.” Only seconds later, the three women would also disappear into the winding halls of the Ashwell home.
And then....
Oliver’s large hand suddenly landed on my head, weighing down my now angled neck to the point where I was almost being forced to look straight ahead. I didn’t even see when exactly he positioned himself to rustle my hair like this, but I’ve experienced this feeling one too many times to ever mistake it.
“Good work son, you’ve really made me proud today.”
“Thanks dad.....”
For the next two weeks, my daily life continued to follow its usual regimen inside the Ashwell home. Excluding things like my newfound ability to use magic, and venturing into the town alongside Emma, Julia and Beatrice, nothing perilous enough to disrupt that rhythmic cycle ever occurred. That was all set to change in the coming days, after finally taking the first step into the world of mages, it was now time for me to make my move.
