The day after our sixth birthday

I woke up the day after my sixth birthday with great anticipation. Even though I know that statistically it is unlikely that I will have magic, I feel it in my bones that I will. I throw off the covers and get out of bed, swiftly making my way to the window to open up the curtains. I am hit with the bright light of the morning sun. The beautiful wooden clock standing next to the wall behind me the wall tells me that it is currently 8 am. The ceremony should take place in four hours. My brother wakes up on the other side of the room from the bright light. Our mother said that we could have our own rooms, but we decided to share one, nonetheless. I love my brother after all, and I like spending time with him. Call it a twin intuition, but I know he feels the same even though he is a bit shy about saying it out loud.

On the matter of being twins. While we are twins, we are not identical. I have black messy hair, while Arti has dark blond hair. My hair clearly came from my mother, but she told Arti that his hair was from our father’s father, the previous king and our grandfather. He passed from the outbreak five years before we were born. From what our mother told us, he was a deeply respected king, who was loved by his people. He was also a great king, making our kingdom as strong as it is today. I’ll say, our father has big shoes to fill. Other than our hair, I look more like our father but without a crooked nose which makes me extremely handsome according to my mother and the palace servants. Arti has the soft features of our mother and her deep blue eyes. My eyes are a mix of my parents with a grey-blue color. My build is also naturally a bit bigger than my brother’s and I am higher than him.

Arti sits up in his bed and looks at me. “What time is it? We didn’t miss it, did we?” he asks.

I chuckle at his grogginess. “We didn’t, don’t worry. Someone would have come and woken us up if we did. Magic revelation ceremonies for princes of the kingdom are a big deal after all.”

Arti throws off his covers and stands up from the bed. “Ah, that’s good. I was worried there for a second.”

We both start getting ready for the day. While we are dressing up, Arti asks you in a low voice. “Do you think we will have magic?”

“I think we will. I am not sure how I know it, but I think we will.” I smile at him.

Hearing me say that cheers him up. “Okay, I’ll trust you.”

We go about beginning our day. After we finish washing up, we hear a knock on the door.

“Princes, have you woken up?” I hear the voice of Sabrina, one of our mother’s servants.

“We have,” I reply. “Come in.”

The door opens and in walks Sabrina. She looks exactly as she looked the first time I saw her when she was looking after me after I was born. She still has her brown curly hair, but she grew it out a bit and started putting it in a ponytail. She is slim and quite short. Even though she recently turned 20, I am sure I will outgrow her in the next five years or so. She has green eyes with specks of brown in them. Her face is round, and her cheeks always have a tinge of pink on them. She is beautiful and I freely admit to having a bit of a crush on her. However, when I told Arti about my crush on Sabrina, he didn’t understand what I meant.

“Good morning, young princes.” She bows slightly.

“Good morning to you too, Sabrina.” I smile back. Arti is still in the bathroom.

“Breakfast is prepared and ready for you,” she says.

“Thank you. We will be there shortly.” I answer.

She bows again and leaves. Arti and I leave soon after and arrive at the dining hall. It is a large room with a high ceiling. The furniture and decorations are luxurious as is everything in the palace. This is not the biggest dining hall in the palace, but the biggest one is reserved for banquets and balls.

Our mother is already sitting at the head of the table waiting for us. Our father never eats with us. In fact, you can count on the one hand the number of times in which he had addressed me and my brother directly. I can only assume that he is not that interested in watching us grow up. He would rather delegate that responsibility completely to our mother. Perhaps he is waiting for us to grow up more before he starts taking an active interest in our lives. One can only hope.

Mother looks regal, yet kind and gentle, sitting at the head of the table. Her dark bluish hair looks like fine woven silk falling over her shoulders and behind her back. At 25, she looks the same as the first time I saw her after my birth. Her smile grows wider when she sees us arrive and we smile back at her.

During our past year of tutoring, Arti and I learned a lot of things. The one thing that stuck out the most was the revelation of another side effect of ‘the Blessing’. It turns out that the mana that the Blessing imprinted on every single person not only supplied some with the ability to perform magic but made every single person healthier. Before the Blessing, the average expectancy of people was around 70 years. It was higher for the elves by about 30 years and by 10 years for dwarves and beast folk. The illnesses were more widespread as well during that time. After the Blessing, the life expectancy of humans, dwarves and beast folk rose to 140 years. Elves lived naturally longer lives already, so it didn’t affect them that much. On average, an elf’s lifespan is around 200 years. They also appear more youthful during their lives despite their age.

All people became slightly healthier and less prone to getting sick. However, illnesses are still unavoidable, even with the field of medicine making steady progress. A year and a half ago, for example, I was struck by a very bad fever that lasted several weeks before finally going away. My mother was worried sick and stayed by my side as much as she could. With life expectancy doubling, people had to adapt to the new reality that their lives would be much longer now. One such thing was to raise the age of adulthood. Before the Blessing, people were deemed adults at the age of 14. For nobility, it was common to get engaged even sooner. Life was short so people had to grow up faster. Since this is not the issue anymore, the age of adulthood was raised to 24. If people wished so, they could get married from the age of 18, but it was common to wait and focus on growing up instead. My mother was an exception, however. She entered a political marriage with the king of Astria when she was 18 and gave birth to Arti and me when she was 19. Only last year had she officially adulthood. One more thing, with life expectancy being so long, people age slower. They age until they are between the ages of 18 and 20 like they used to before the Blessing occurred, according to researchers and historians. The ageing slows down after they turn 18. A person in their 50s looks closer to how a 30-year-old used to look before the Blessing. My father, for example, shows signs of greying in his hair as I noticed but he still looks quite young when he is, in fact, 61 years old.

Being a king must be stressful.