First outing into the city

Today is the day after my sixth birthday and for once I have been waiting for this day more than my birthday. That is not to say that you didn’t have fun celebrating my brother’s and my birthday yesterday. It was fun. Mother finally took us outside the palace walls and into the city. We visited the main market square together, accompanied by a large group of royal guards. That made us stand out easily and people bowed wherever we wanted. It was amusing at first but soon became slightly annoying. Tiana was left back in the palace with the servants. She was inconsolable when she found out we were going into the city without her. All our mother’s efforts to calm her down were in vain until I promised my little sister that I would bring something tasty for her. That made her mood turn completely and she was smiling brightly at you. My mother sighed, shook her head and smiled at the scene.

The marketplace was huge. It had several hundred booths selling different kinds of merchandise. Our mother allowed Arti and me to choose one thing we wanted, other than food. There was no restriction on food. Arti went straight to the book merchant and started browsing their selection. Since we started our tutoring, we were finally allowed to enter the library. My excitement at that paled in comparison to how Arti felt. He was waiting for the moment we could step into the library. When he finally did, he went all out. From the moment he woke up in the morning, he would be at the library in the next 30 minutes. That is very impressive since he somehow manages to cram washing up and eating in that time. He would stay at the library till it was dark outside. I often had to come and drag him out of there at the behest of our mother.

For his present, he chose a huge tome on the poetry of all the nations on the continent. As for me, I chose a finely crafted ivory chess set. It was much cheaper than Arti’s present, but I wanted a chess set that I could call my own. We had chess sets at the palace but none of them were mine even though I could easily ask for one to be given to me.

With our presents chosen and purchased, we started wandering around with our mother right behind us trying all the food the market had to offer. There was what seemed like an immeasurable number of different types of food and cuisines. There were cuisines of different nations, even the Empire’s. There were sweets, fruits, vegetables, stews, grilled food. Basically, anything a person can imagine. Even some things that I could not even imagine being called food. Fried insects, for one. Or a vendor selling what looked like bat wings coated in some brown sauce on a stick. None of us were brave enough to try that. Shop owners of the food that we did buy tried to give it to us for free, but our mother refused with a kind smile and paid for the goods. I was starting to feel awkward from all the vendors trying to give us stuff for free and I noticed Mother becoming tired from having to refuse getting things for free. I offered to go back to the palace since it was getting close to the evening. I don’t like seeing Mother tired. Arti was a bit upset but agreed, so we went back to the palace. Tiana ran up to me and hugged me when we came back.

“Did you bring me something, big brother?” she asked, looking at you from below with her big blue pleading eyes.

“Of course I did. I promised, didn’t I?” I replied patting her on the head.

One of the servants who accompanied us handed me candies that I picked for Tiana. They were chocolates with jelly of different fruity flavors inside. She beamed at the packages, opened one and quickly put a chocolate in her mouth.

“Shish ish sho goop,” she says with a mouth full of chocolate.

I pinched her cheek. “Finish eating before talking.”

So, yeah. Our sixth birthday was fun. But now let me explain why the day after the birthday was even more significant than the birthday itself this year. You see, it has something to do with a ceremony to reveal if a child has magic. On the day that a child turns six, their magic power consolidates within their bodies and are able to finally be revealed, if they have it. Having magic is a huge deal. Being able to do magic without the help of the mana essence is invaluable to the strength of the kingdom. Magic users can make a huge difference. From military strength to urban projects. Being a magic user is especially prestigious since it is so rare to be one. A rule of thumb indicates that approximately 1 in 5000 children awaken magic powers when they turn six. Among the population of one million people, there will only be around 200 magic users. Quite rare indeed. Some children do not survive to the age of six to be able to manifest mana for various reasons, like war, illnesses or poverty. Simply, misfortune. The ceremony takes place in the grand cathedral every three months for ordinary people. The children of nobility can skip the waiting time and perform the ceremony as soon as they reach their sixth birthday. Both the Invian Church and Shavian Church have the same ceremony, it must be said.

Having one of both parents who have innate mana increases the chances of the child inheriting the ability to use innate mana, but not by much. The fact is that it does, nonetheless, which makes marrying magic users so attractive to people, especially to the nobility. Noble families seek out people who can use magic. If they are lowborn, they are offered positions in the noble families. Some become concubines, squires or servants. One of their main duties is to help produce a child with their lord or lady. If a person is from a noble family, their value as a political tool skyrockets. It is common for such individuals to get married to the most influential families across the continent. That was true regarding the marriage of our mother to our father the king. Mother is from a Dukes family in Roredenia. Having the status of a child of a Duke and a magic user made it clear early on that she would be married to one of the royals on the continent. Many negotiations later and the king of Astria was chosen to become her spouse. This is how my siblings and I came to be, so I am not complaining, though it is unfortunate to see that my mother is not happy in the marriage.

Also, the fact that my mother has a high affinity for two elements, water and dark, makes her especially rare. It is common to only awaken a low affinity in one element. Rarer to awaken a high affinity in one element. Even rare to awaken affinities in more than one element. To have two elements of high affinity is very rare. There are not a lot of people with more than one element with high affinity. The more elements a person can use and with higher affinities, the greater the chance that their children will also be able to awaken magic powers due to their parents having a bigger mana capacity than average magic users. It also must be mentioned that children can awaken magic even though their parents cannot use magic. There are even instances of people being from lowborn families and awakening being able to use several elements with high affinity. In those rare cases, people like that are usually elevated to higher ranks, sometimes even to nobility, after performing great feats for their respective nations.