Cronia

My mother did not reply she remained silent. Why was she silent? This whole thing was her idea. Is she not saying anything so that the maids and guards don't hear about my abilities or is it because she is reluctant to ask for help from her father. As someone who had a bad relationship with my father I understood her position. I guess I have to step up.

"It was my fault. I accidentally caused a fire in our house which led to us having to relocate.", I said to my grandfather.

"Huh. How did he cause a fire?", grandfather asked.

"He was trying to light a fire using stones in his room.", my father replied.

"You both should discipline your children more.",grandfather said to my parents.

After we had lunch my mother spoke to our aunt about allowing me to have a meeting with grandfather. My aunt later told me to visit grandfather at his study in the evening.

As the sun set, I went to grandfather's study and found him writing something.

"Come in Damian.",he said.

"I came to tell you that father lied during lunch."

"About what?"

"About why we came here and how I set fire to the house."

"How did you set fire to the house?"

"I thought of fire and rubbed my hands and I assume that caused a fire."

"Are you joking?"

"No. I think it was some sort of alchemy even though I did not use a transmutation circle."

"Wait. This is a lot to take in. Let me go get some books."

He woke up from his chair and went into the nearby bookshelf in his room and carefully took an old, dusty book.

"I will need you to show me proof of this power of yours."

"Sure. But we need to go outside.",I said.

We went it to the meadows and when I saw a tree that stood faraway on its own, I rubbed my hands and thought of fire while looking at the tree and it burst into flames. My grandfather witnessing this was dumbfounded. After a couple of minutes he said,"Let's head back."

As we reached the library, I said," What I find weird is why I am able to use this alchemy when no one else in my family can."

"That is not the weirdest part. You not needing a transmutation circle is the weirdest part. ", my grandfather said.

"Wait isn't alchemy hereditary."

"Yes it is. I believe the alchemy you possess is flame alchemy. This alchemy is a very rare one and was used only by one person long ago before you and that person was from our family."

"Who was it?"

"You must have probably heard of Damian Brightburn, the famous founder of our family who was a commoner. But the one who might not have heard about is Cronia."

"Cronia is the duchy you rule right?"

"Yes. But when Damian created his kingdom, he wanted to give it a new name so he named it after his wife Cronia. Even the surname he gave himself and to his wife was Brightburn which alludes to her power. Cronia could use flame alchemy and this is a secret that has been tightly guarded secret for more than a century."

"But why?"

"Because flame alchemy is incredibly rare and extremely powerful. Just imagine there is almost nothing that can withstand the heat of fire not even steel. You can kill almost anyone if you know how to use the power well. Because of this, if the Empress were to find out she would capture everyone in our bloodline and experiment on them and make them undergo breeding programs to birth a child with flame alchemy."

"But it seems one has been born without the need of these experiments.",I said.

"True. But still it is dangerous to reveal your power. There is no telling of what the Empress could do especially because you don't need a transmutation circle and that is an anomaly never seen before in alchemy."

"I see. So what do you propose I must do."

"Train. You need to master your powerful ability."

"But how?"

"You must learn to control the flames. I could give you some information about the working of this power through the diary left behind by Cronia almost a century ago. Basically she thinks this power is alchemy because alchemy requires transmutaion of one material into another like how metal alchemists can create steel out of various metals or how bio-alchemists create chimeras out of existing animals. The fire in your flame alchemy appears to be created from nothing but she believed that air isn't nothing and it was air that was being converted into flames."

She was almost correct and it was impressive for a woman living in the medieval era to figure out that fire requires air to undergo combustion or much more specifically oxygen.

"Fine. I will learn and master this skill. But I am curious about what happened to Cronia and Damian. Why did Damian decide to keep Cronia's power a secret? I mean he lived much before the Empress came into power so why keep her powers hidden then?"

"Well Cronia's story is one of tragedy. But it is not a story that a six year old can handle. So you must wait many more years to hear her story. In the mean time you can join with your cousins. They will show you around. I think you are the youngest child in our family. All your five cousins are older than you."

I decided that I must try to master flame alchemy while also studying more about this world and its history as that would be very important for surviving here.