Patria

The rest of my week consisted of recovering my mana and loafing around at home until Tess came around to pick me up for Patria. The Mage Games were less than three days away and I felt confidence like never before. Sirius had bestowed upon me a power that only the strongest were capable of.

I thought about what exactly he said to me 3 nights ago. It was a little too surreal for my liking and I can't wrap my head around why he was so much older than me, but I now had an objective. An objective that I didn't know from which angle to approach.

All he told me to do was get stronger and become influential. I assume that means that I need to get my hands on classified information or travel to places where civilians aren't allowed to go? He seemed to be someone well known himself so his work is probably available to the public? Hopefully Patrias' libraries are open on the weekends.

Tess arrived in her military carriage in the early morning. I said my goodbyes to Ray and Violet who couldn't stop bothering me about staying safe, eating enough and being respectful towards the city goers and nobles. Ray was especially adamant that I try and make a friend or two at the games, and that the proper etiquette could score me extra points when in the presence of nobles and other mages.

"Dad, you guys haven't taught me anything about etiquette yet."

"We know, that's what Tess is for though."

I could almost feel Tess's anger radiate from behind me. "Yep, nothing to worry about Kenny."

She said with a fake chuckle.

-''I'm so screwed…"-

We set off for patria and Tess immediately started teaching me the proper ways of talking to the nobles, how and when to talk to them and how to introduce yourself. It was pretty straight forward, you had to talk in a gentle and clear manner, always refer to them by their title and when introducing yourself you were to present your full name, where you're from and show what elements, you are capable of using.

The trip would be a long one so I decided to sleep as much as possible, which was troublesome since it was still morning but I wasn't looking forward to half a day in Tess's face. Neither of us had forgotten about the slap so it was a little awkward between us, so I did something incredibly smart. I used all the mana I had and forcefully induced myself into a coma.

Upon waking up, I found myself at the gates of Patria. A large city surrounded by a chasm which acted as a mote, guard points set up at various points which I assumed were all around the circular city. The carriage pulled up to one of the guard posts where 3 guards were stationed. Two of them had the same white pants and navy jacket uniform as Tess, their faces covered by the same mannequin-like navy masks that Tess's friend wore. The third guard I assume was a mage, since he didn't carry any weapons on his person. Upon further inspection I could see the two mannequin guards had a deep orange core, and the mage had a bright yellow core. Tess's core caught my attention next. I had expected her to have yellow core like the mage, but she harbored a bright green light in her belly.

The mage at the post had conjured a bridge of rock for us to get into Patria. No questions were asked about who we were due to Tess's carriage. Mages, nobles and the military had 24/7 access in and out of the city, while civilians had to have a permit.

Actually being inside the city gave me a much better scale as to how big it really was. Most of the buildings on the outer edge were at least two stories' high and as you got deeper into the center, the bigger the buildings would get. The streets were full of activity with vendors, markets, inns, bars and all sorts of people running around.

"I never expected the city to be this big and for it to be so busy either."

"It's only this part of town. Most of the markets and scammers are situated near the entrance to attract first time visitors and tourists. It's much calmer near the center, trust me." Tess said with a reassuring smile.

Once again, I activated 'mana sense', the ability Michael gave me, to scan the area. I mostly saw orbs of orange and the occasional yellow, as well as a new color, a singular dark blue light somewhere in the crowd. I couldn't figure out which colors were more advanced than others and hoped that Sirius' books would give me some clues. They were my only option.

"Does patria have any Libraries, Tess?"

"Of course, we do, should I rent you some books about fire magic?"

"That won't be necessary, I just wanna take a look at what they have."

"Sure thing. We can go have a look tomorrow if that's alright?"

We arrived at Tess's house. She lived about halfway between the center and the edge of the city on the Northern side, her house was slightly bigger than mine back in the village. The three-story brick house was surrounded by pavement, a gravel path outlined with small flower beds indicated a path from the sidewalk to the front door. The entire building was a stale brown color, aside from the red roof tiles.

Tess lived on the second floor and her apartment was minimalist to say the least. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, which also served as a living room, and a bathroom. Unlike my old p*ss pot and wooden tub, they had a functioning sewage and water system. On top of that, all the rooms had some sort of lighting mechanism and a device that could control the rooms' temperature.

"Make yourself at home Kenny. We won't be doing anything today so feel free to go explore. Take this amulet incase you need to find your way back or if you get in trouble."

Tess threw something akin to a locket plated with gold in my hands.

"Press that switch on the back and send some pure mana into it."

I did as she prompted and the locket opened. Pure mana started flowing out of the locket and hovered above my palm, moving spontaneously until Tess opened her locket. It was almost like a hologram from sci-fi movies back on earth, clearly projecting Tess's face from the neck up.

"Wow this is incredible. How Is the mana able to know what image to project?"

"Beats me kid, but this is how we communicate with each other here in Patria. I want that back before you leave here next week. Anyway, I have an errand to run real quick, the city is safe but if you go looking for trouble you're obviously going to find it. I'll be back soon with food and then we can discuss our plans for the Magi Games."

"Yes ma'am."

-"Is she really going to leave a 4-year old all alone? I pray for her future offspring."-

Tess left and I had to decide between going to look for a library, or replenish my lost mana.

-"Why not do both at the same time? And how have I never thought about this before?"-

People either meditate to absorb mana from the atmosphere or they just let nature run its course and absorb mana naturally. I had wasted a lot of time in training from just having to replenish my mana and the thought of absorbing mana while using it never occurred to me.

-"Never mind, the library can wait. What if this is something only people with mana sense can do? Michael, I hope you're watching, I'm about to invent the metaphorical wheel!"-

I started by meditating, trying to really get a feel for what I was experiencing, then I pictured my own body, imagining mana coming in from the earth through my butt, and the mana leaving my palms in the form of fire magic. I figured that if I could pull this trick off with fire magic, it would be a breeze to do with earth magic.

I could clearly feel mana tingling my tail and legs while the plasma in my right hand caused a light visible through my eyelids, I was definitely doing what I intended but was unsure if it was actually working. Managing to hold the fire while absorbing mana manually had been easy, so I decided to try and walk around while doing it. This was also easy but required a bit more focus before I could do it without even thinking about it.

I paced around Tess's apartment until she returned home, never ceasing the fireball and mana absorption.

"Kenny, I'm back. you home yet?"

"Yes, I'm in the bathroom."

"Oh, my bad. When you're done be sure to flush. Just press the big blue button."

My bowels started bothering me but I continued my training. Still holding the flame, I came out of the bathroom and Tess looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Kid, you know my house has lighting, right?"

"Yeah, I know, I was just… Testing something with my fire."

"Alright, just don't burn the house down." Tess opened one of the cabinets in the small kitchen and took out two wooden bowls. "Here you go kid, eat up. You're probably starving. I'm quickly gonna go clean myself up."

Dinner consisted of stale potatoes and meatballs drenched in too much gravy, but my hunger overwhelmed my need for good food. By the time I finished, Tess came out of the bathroom. Her military uniform did a good job of hiding all her curves, because I was not expecting such a beauty to walk out of the bathroom. Except for the chest area, she looked good in all the right places, she seemed to be especially proud of her long legs since she was strutting around in shorts.

-"If I were teenager my hormones would be going bonkers right now."-

Trying to get myself to stop thinking about what's underneath Tess's garments, she sat across from me with a sigh.

"Kenny, I have good news and bad news. What do you wanna hear first?"

"Bad news, I guess." I said reluctantly

"Alright, bad news is that we won't be going to the library tomorrow. Good news though, the Magi Games start tomorrow which means we'll be done a day earlier."

"Oh, I was expecting worse. Does this mean we can go to the library after the games?"

"I'll see if it fits in my schedule, so no promises. Some things popped up suddenly so I might be super busy after the games."

"I see, in that case I'm going to bed, before my nerves keep me up all night. Goodnight."

I laid in the king-sized bed pondering about how to approach tomorrows' games. I actually wasn't all that excited, I only wanted to see how helpful mana sense could be in a fight.

-"Oh right, my mana reserves."-

After trying to hold the flame whilst absorbing mana, I assumed that half my remaining mana would've been consumed, but to my surprise I had more in my tank than I started with. My idea had actually worked and albeit a small step, it was one in the right direction none the less. If I had more time, I would've tried doing it while completing tasks that required more of my focus…

***

I found myself back at that damned cliff, the crescent moon peeking out from a frail cloud away from the thunderous carpet above me. It wasn't hailing, but the rain poured with wrath against my skin. The skin on my earthly body.

This was another dream of my past, but I was spectating myself from high above the few trees. My and Michael's backs were pressed against the edge of the cliff, 7 men approached us slowly with someone behind them getting into the car they used to bring us out here. The man, the only one wearing a red coat, took something out of the passenger seat, but before I could make out what it was, my attention shifted to the chasm.

The seven men seemed terrified at the two pillars of light coming from beyond the cliffs edge. Or did it come from the heavens above?

I was dumbfounded at the scene. I couldn't hear a thing from my point of view, only see the men scurry towards the vehicle and drive off. I could've sworn I saw two bodies ascend out of the chasm when I got struck by lightning.

As if I was actually at the cliff a second ago in the pouring rain, I woke up drenched in sweat and urine. Tears streamed down my face and for a moment I waited for Violet to come running. Realizing I was far away from home, from violets warm embrace and Rays' reassuring aura, I felt vulnerable. For the first time in my new life, I wept real tears. I feared being alone, I cursed at Michael for leaving me, I wanted to drink coffee again, eat junk food, laugh at children falling and getting hurt on the internet, play my favorite video game and talk sh*t about random people on the street. I wanted to go back to how things used to be.

-"How things used to be? What am I even saying? I don't wanna go back to my dad. My dad…"- as if a lost cog got put back into the mechanism in my head, I remembered my dad and his shady business. I recalled the man in the red coat being his brother, my uncle, and how he targeted Michael for meddling with plans that he had for the family business. We worked as a delivery company of sorts for pharmaceutics, but my uncle got the idea of using that as a cover to smuggle drugs and other illegal substances.

No one in the family knew about it, but the extra funds and tacky clothing my uncle suddenly acquired raised a few eyebrows. After school, I started working with him on the weekends to learn the ropes and that's also how I met Michael, who was a new employee at the time. It was a simple job, requiring us to go to wholesalers, pick up a few packages and then transport it to either hospitals or clinics.

Things were ordinary until I got employed full time. I started working alone and got my own van for transporting goods and started receiving odd packages. Some of them were poorly disguised as generic painkillers while others were just plain boxes or unlabeled packages.

I didn't think much of it until Michael told me about one of his shifts. He was told to deliver to a hospital. He picked up his cargo from the wholesaler, no strange packages were given to him. He arrived at the hospital and drove to the drop off area where another delivery van was present. After he dropped off the cargo he was confronted by a man and asked about a package.

"I'm sorry sir, I only received cargo for MediClinics' painkillers. I don't have any other jobs listed on my schedule today." Michael said politely, turning away from the man.

Cold steel pressed against his lower back. The man snarled "You better watch your back kid, if your old man screws up again, its tickets for you."

After that encounter, one week prior to his death, Michael quit his job.

The sun rays peeked through the window and I decided to clean up before Tess sees me in this deplorable state. The sheets were soaked and before getting out of bed I mistakenly activated mana sense. For a moment I could see the blue particles of mana sticking to the bed sheets. This was odd to me since the water on the bed was highlighted, but the glass of water on the night stand wasn't.

Before I could investigate further, I heard Tess come out of her room. I panicked since I did not want her to see that I wet myself, so I threw the sheets out of the window and threw the glass of water on the bed to hide the urine stain.

Tess entered the room. "Oh my goodness Kenny I'm so sorry! I completely forgot to check if you had a blanket for the night. Weren't you cold?"

"I was a-okay! I'm a bit cold now though, since I accidentally spilled water on myself." I could feel myself get hot from telling such a dumb lie.

"That's okay. You can go wash up while I prepare breakfast."

She ruffled my hair as I waddled past her.

***

I was finally enroute to the games and had to divert Tess's attention away from the bedsheet laying outside the building. The administration building was within walking distance and people were already forming lines. I sighed at the sight but Tess dragged me to the side, pulling me through one of the 'staff only' doors.

"Are we allowed through here? Some of the people in line didn't seem too happy."

"Of course we are. The staff just doesn't know it yet." She winked.

We walked through a long, dark hallway. Pipes of different sizes and colors jutted out at random points and ran along the walls and ceiling. Thicker pipes seemed to transport water and upon further inspection the thinner pipes were loaded with mana. Loud booms could be heard from the other side of the hall and grew louder as we approached a metal door. I activated mana sense and saw a constellation of different colored orbs of light. They were mostly bright orange with a few green and blue ones scattered among them along with a new color. I spotted a singular purple orb floating next to two dark cyan orbs.

Tess opened the metal door and before me stood two kids in front of a crowd, beyond them I spotted two important looking figures, the dark cyan cores. To the right of the two women stood a figure in an all-navy uniform, his hands covered by white gloves and his face wore a marble mask that resembled a scowling, thick lipped man with a bulbous nose. That person was the bearer of the violet core.

The fight between the two kids had just ended as they were bowing to each other, before kneeling towards the two women on the podium among the crowd. While myself and Tess quietly circled around to get to the seats, the crowd fell silent, only the two kids' huffing and a few coughs from the crowd were audible.

I had no idea what was happening, but upon taking my seat next to another kid, a noble, judging by his reaction to a commoner sitting next to him and his tacky red velvet clothing and gold colored tassel's, one of the women spoke. She was a good 30 meters away from me, yet her voice sounded clear as day "Both Rudeus of family Ventul and Marshal of blood Eiros-"

The lady got cut short by the crowds' sudden bickering.

"-what did she-"

"-Blood Eir-"

"-a demi-human-"

The soldier beside the women waved his right hand, a deafening bolt of lightning struck above us. The children present seemed to be completely oblivious, but the murmuring of the adults ceased.

"-As I was saying, both the children will move on to the next round. Rudeus has been awarded 3 mybels for participation and showing fine control over magica. Marshal has been awarded 5 mybels, 4 for participation and showing decent control over magica as well as raw fighting prowess, and an extra point as compensation for the crowds lack of respect." She sneered.

The two boys gave one last bow to the women before leaving the stage. Marshal, a wheat-haired beanpole with a long face, walked past me and sat in the row behind me, alone. He looked and smelled of humble origin, just like me, but I couldn't spot any demi-human qualities on the boy.

I was about to introduce myself since he didn't seem stuck up like brat sitting next to me, until the lady spoke again.

"Lue of family Lumbard and Kenny of family Watkin, please prepare for the next round."

-"What? I just friggin got here why am I already up?"-

I looked at Tess and before speaking a word, I knew all I had to know from the embarrassed grin on her face. "Good luck kid!"

I stood up with a heavy sigh, I had hoped to see at least one fight before my own. As I stood up, so did the noble brat next to me, his lips which were previously curled up in disgust now had a sinister grin. I glanced back at Marshal who gave me a reassuring nod, as if he was telling me to kick this kids' *ss.

Lue was in front of me, strutting confidently onto the platform, halting in the middle of the stage, leaving me slightly off-center.

As Tess taught me, I waited for the women's approval before kneeling and displaying my elemental affinities, earth in my left hand and plasma hovering above the right. It was hard to miss the gasps in the crowd, I could even see the younger one of the two women's eyes widen in surprise. I felt Lue's irritation radiate off my left side, his flame started to flicker as he lost his cool.

The older one of the women explained that I would be fighting against Lue, our skill in fighting, strategy, wits and, most importantly, control over magi, would determine if we pass to the next round or not. We assumed our positions at the opposite ends of the arena, which was compromised of a plot of soil surrounded by a stream of water. A bell clanged, signaling the start of the game.

I activated mana sense and noted that he had a bright orange core and that mana was converging to his right palm, a lot of mana at that. I figured he was planning a large-scale attack so I conjured two stone walls in a V-shape pointed towards myself, small pillars spiked on the left side to form a staircase. This took a good amount of my mana, but I wasn't planning on dragging this out.

Softening my steps as I ascended the earthen staircase, I caught Lue by surprise above him. The air cracked as his fire engulfed the walls. Lue took his time strolling around the wall after the flames ceased, unaware of my presence almost 4 meters above him. He didn't spot me as he rounded the first wall and was more wary going around the second bend, practically clinging to the wall.

I could see Lue lower his guard for a moment as the mana circulating to his hand briefly dimmed and made my first and only offensive move. The ground ensnared Lue's feet, the walls grabbed him by the arms and held him in place while I jumped down, bending the earth to soften my landing, and held a palm of orange light close to his face. A bell clanged, sounding the end of the match.

Unlike the previous match, there was no applause, instead everyone seemed dejected. Everyone but Tess and Marshal.

The walls I conjured turned to dust and Lue got set free. He glared at me for a moment before averting his gaze to face the women. The older lady had an expressionless face while the younger one kept a smile while writing in a notebook, looking up at me and Lue every few seconds. When she finished writing, the older one spoke again.

"Both participants will be advancing to the next round. Lue of Lumbard has been awarded 5 Mybels for participation. Kenny of Watkin has been awarded 4 Mybels for participation, as well as showing excellent control over mana, strategy and wit. One extra point has been awarded due to only using one of his two elemental affinities during the game."

-"Are you kidding me! I got the same number of points as that brat even though I completely over powered him? Un-f*cking-believable."-

I turned to Tess, looking for answers, getting only a sympathetic look in return. We bowed to the women and made our way back to the seats.