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CHAPTER START---
"Something smells good, like… Sausages?" Oberon asks as they approach their house.
His dad sniffs the air and nods in agreement. "Well, I guess that settles it. Alright, let's check on the girls and get breakfast. We can deal with cutting this up later."
With that, he rests the tree down in their backyard and follows his son inside.
"We're back!" Oberon announces as they enter, taking off his snow covered boots at the door and wearing his slippers.
"Did you knock the snow off your boots before you came in?" is the first thing his mom asks as he follows his nose into the kitchen.
"Uh..."
She shakes her head and is about to speak when his dad enters.
"I did it for him," his day says. "Now let's just enjoy the food."
Oberon's mom was a plain-looking woman with long brown hair, a slender face, and a pair of glasses.
She was already wearing her coat atop her usual work clothes while setting the table.
At the table was his little sister, 6 years old, only two years younger than him.
She was too busy eating to care for any conversation at the moment.
As he and his dad take their seats, his mom quickly sets out their food, and takes the chance to ruffle his hair.
"So what new spell kept you awake all night, huh?" she asks. "You probably would still be practicing if you dad didn't have to get some water and notice you."
"Not a new spell, just some new exercise to focus."
"So weird how that's something you wizards actually have to practice. I've never seen your dad meditate."
His dad fake coughs. "Well, in my defense, I've never really put my back into practicing Magic. Not like I've ever had a reason to. I had you head over heels for me without even showing off any Magic."
His mom rolls her eyes at that. "Yeah yeah, but I married the only mage in our village, so who really won?"
"Both of us," his dad says. "And why are you already dressed for work? Did you eat?"
"Yeah, I had something to eat earlier." She takes a seat for a moment. "Apparently there's a problem with managing the warehouse, so I need to go sort that out before they bring up any more iron from the mine today. I'm just waiting for my mom to get here so she can watch the kids."
"I guess it can't be helped. Is your mom getting here soon? I need to head down to the mine before anyone else goes in. It's kind of my only job," his dad says.
"She—"
Oberon cuts off his mom. "I'm old enough to take care of myself, you know. I don't need grandma to watch me."
"The fact that you think that means you certainly aren't old enough to take care of yourself," his dad says. "Plus, she's mostly here for your little sister, so don't take it personally."
"If your Magic was childcare, I'd consider it," his mom says. "But nope, you burn things, blow things up, and shake things apart, so that's not happening for a few years."
"Mmm," Oberon grumbles and just continues eating.
A few minutes later, there is a knock on the door, and a familiar voice calls out from the hallway before entering the kitchen.
And in walks an old woman, as if she were an aged-up version of his mom with grey hair.
"So this is how I get you to stop practicing Magic all the time," his grandma says as she passes by and ruffles his hair, moving to sit beside his mom. "Just put food in front of you."
"Normally it doesn't work," his mom says. "The trick is to cook things he needs both hands to eat."
Oberon swallows his food and looks up at his grandma. "Eventually, I won't need to move to use my Magic."
"Well, until then I'll make you all kinds of things that need your hands for. It's nice to see you being all cute for a change, like your sister."
"I'm not cute," his sister says before going back to eating.
All the adults snicker at that.
"Well, this is nice but I need to head to the warehouse, because apparently they can't stack boxes without me there to tell them what goes where," his mom grumbles as she gets up, giving his dad and sister a kiss before moving to him.
He leans away, and she grabs his head and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "No big spells in the house!" she yells back while leaving the room.
"I know, mom!" he yells out before the front door closes, then he sighs and deflates.
"So, what do you kids want for lunch today?" his grandma asks.
Moments later, his dad gets up and leaves the table, so caught up in their breakfast conversation that he was actually a bit late.
His job wasn't all that important, until something went wrong. Then having a mage on standby was very important.
And for that reason, being near the mine to constantly check the enchantments preventing tunnel collapses was very useful.
Even if he'd not once had to actually do anything.
At least that was until Oberon, who was now done with breakfast and reading at the kitchen table, ignoring his grandma entertaining his little sister, felt a surge of primal fear.
His head snapped down, sensing it through the table, through the earth below them and deep within the mines.
Even with this much material between them, he could sense it, as if he were holding it in his hand.
His head then snapped up toward where the entrance to the mine was, where the administration office for the village was, where his mom was.
Without thinking he gets up from the table and rushes toward the door, all while his grandma and little sister were still recovering from the surprise.
Because the sensation he felt was so powerful that even Non-Wizards felt it, and they still felt it as a constant pressure in the air.
As he's rushing out the door, he feels hands pick him up and put him back into the house.
"Oh no, you stay here," his dad says.
Oberon turns around to see the man in his white and green rune knight uniform. But instead of the traditionally thin robes, he had a thick set of pants and a coat, along with much sturdier boots.
"But—"
"No," his dad cuts him off. "You stay here while I go check, and if anything bad comes this way, use your Magic to protect your sister. Stay here," his dad says before rushing off.
Oberon just watches helplessly as the man leaves, sprinting off toward danger.
And eventually his grandma has to come and close the door, and bring him back into the kitchen.
"Your dad trained for this. He'll be fine, and he'll bring her back too," she reassures him.
His sister cries quietly, sensing the Magic pouring out of whatever was causing it like a constant but low stream.
Nothing compared to the first overwhelming wave of Magic.
But as a Mage, while Oberon should feel it much more intensely, he couldn't sense any magic at all. No matter how much he focused over the years, he was always blind to Magic.
But the primal fear still wracked his body, especially knowing his parents were there with it.
All he could do was sit at the table and stare down at his new book, unable to focus enough to read a single word.
Eventually, his sister cries herself to sleep, and his grandma shakes him out of his trance.
"Hmm," he looks up at the concerned woman.
"It's been half an hour and they haven't come back, and there isn't a ruckus in the village. That means it's probably just some old magic sword or something they dug up. Nothing to worry about, just go practice you magic for now, alright?"
"Yeah, alright," and for the first time since... Ever, he didn't sound excited to go practice his Magic and ignore everyone else in the world.
Walking into the backyard, he once again had his boots and coat on, but all he could do for a while was stare out at the ocean in the distance.
They were at the westernmost mountain range in Fiore, so if his eyes were good enough, and if the world was flat, he knew he'd be able to see all the way to the Western continent.
All the way to Alakitasia, all the way to Alvarez.
But instead, all he saw was the edge of this plateau and the vast ocean ahead.
While some unknown force was constantly grating against his senses, gnawing at the back of his mind from within his village.
Taking a deep breath, he furrows his brows and grabs his dad's axe.
Intent on distracting himself, he walks up to the tree they'd cut down earlier and gets to work.
Focusing on his own Magic, doing his very best to ignore the foreign Magic, he draws upon the Light Element.
"Regulus," was all he said, and unlike his dad, who always had to do the full chant, his Magic Circle appeared below his feet.
A collection of runes appearing as if the cosmos painted them, then the axe glows golden as the Magic Circle disappears.
Piece by piece, he gets to work cutting up the tree.
First, by tripping the branches.
Then making my smaller logs.
And after a few minutes, he deactivates the Magic.
He looks at the 30 logs that he has to split multiple times and decides to try something new.
Standing one upright using his Gravity Magic, with a wave of his hand he easily manipulates it atop the large stone slab they had in their backyard.
Then he takes a deep breath and focuses on his Gravity Magic.
A Magic Circle appears below his feet, seemingly identical to the previous one.
And as he brings the axe down onto the log, it glows brightly for just a moment.
The axe accelerates quickly toward the wood and slams into it, but the sudden increase in weight threw him off.
It clunkily hit the wood and bounced to the side.
Trying it a second, this time instead of making the axe itself heavier, he closed his eyes and focused.
Condensing the Magic Energy toward the edge of the blade, forming a thin coat along the edge.
"That would probably break the blade, but if I do this..."
He removes the Gravity Magic from the edge of the blade itself and forms a thin thread hovering a millimeter above it.
It was invisible, but he knew it was there.
He could feel it ripping Magic Energy away from him by the second.
So instead of admiring it, he moved the axe, and instantly felt the energy cost increase with every movement as it remains the same distance from the blade.
It almost appeared attached.
"I can't keep this up much longer," he says before quickly bringing the axe down and easily cleaves through the tough wood.
The Gravity Magic doesn't cut, instead it rips and pushes apart anything it touches.
Which is exactly why the axe also got buried handle deep into the stone slab below the wood.
"Oh no," he lets go of the handle and the axe doesn't even move, taking a step back and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Taking deep breaths, he looks at the damage. "Okay, I can fix this. Yeah, just take the axe out."
Using his Gravity Magic he makes the axe lighter so he can more easily remove it.
Then he grabs onto the axe and pulls with all his might, only for it to be pulled out and for him to fall back.
Lying on his back, he spots the axe soaring into the sky, with no gravity to bring it back down.
The consequence of him losing his grip after making it near weightless.
"Okay, this is a serious problem," he says, then smiles deviously, "for anyone else."
He raises his hand to the sky and the axe instantly stops flying away, freezing where it is before slowly descending.
And by the times it's all the way back to him, he's on his feet dusting off the snow.
Seeing it hovering beside him, he grabs it out of the air and cancels his Magic.
"Ok, cool new trick, but I need to figure exactly what I just did..."
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]