Unmotivated Youth

During these five years of growth, Jien had been continuously plagued by visions that he could not fully comprehend. Flashes of a life that he was not fully aware of, but whose reality he could not disprove. The scenes that haunted him were growing clearer by the growing day as he grew and learned. Some images would be lovely, dreams of watching a floating city that seemed like it was lifted atop a layer of misty white clouds, its' peaks and walls a pristine white, unblemished by the rest of the world. Visions of vast planes of tall grass and watching the suns rise and fall in the sky, the moons and stars displaying their pale light. Jien was positive of one thing, this location that he dreamed of was not anywhere near where he currently was.

At first, he took these fuzzy scenes as his overactive imagination. He felt that perhaps he had heard his father tell him one too many fairy tales. However, as time went on and he continued to see these scenes he started thinking of a new possibility. Perhaps he was seeing the viewpoint of another. His mind was finally churning in the right direction. He, however, was not entirely sure what to do with this knowledge. He had never heard of these places that he saw in flashes on a map in the teachings his personal tutor gave him.

Though he had asked his tutor on multiple occasions regarding the things he saw the only response he would ever get were a dismissive sigh and a reminder to focus on the current topic of study at hand. In response to the dismissive nature of his tutor, he had decided to take matters into his own hands. So a youth of only four at the time had made his way down to what would come to be one of his two favorite places in his home, the manor library. As he walked into the large room with walls covered with hardwood shelves, each shelf neatly stacked with numerous leather-bound books of various sizes and colors his eyes glowed with amazement. The smell of well-kept parchment and dried ink invaded his senses, near immediately bringing peace to his mind. He did not understand why he felt this way but he almost felt as if this place was meant for him.

He walked the rows of shelves looking for anything that may be of assistance to him in determining the location of his visions. Most of what he found were books regarding general fields of study from law to philosophy. However, after more than a few hours of browsing the different rows of books, he had finally found what he was looking for, or at least he thought. It was very large tome but not all that thick. The title that was pressed in the firm, black leather of the book was simply "Maps".

And so Jien spent his afternoon and into the evening looking at maps of different kingdoms on the continent of Oslus. Though there were some small island nations off the coast of Oslus ways there was no knowledge of what lay beyond them. This was not for lack of trying. Even though magic did exist it was not infinite and try as the kingdoms of Oslus did they were unable to send voyages further than the small island nations around it. Those that went beyond into the great seas to the east and west never did return, nor were there ever any signs of them that could be found despite many a rescue attempt.

Each map would have a description of the environment around the region that was being shown as well as a general ledger of the last recorded population for the particular version of the book. While a few locations to the west and south of Oslus gave him hope in the form of descriptions of vast plains of tall grass, something felt off to him when he would read the descriptions. Though they would sound similar in terms of description it was almost as if he could feel the warmth of the planes from his visions, almost like her could smell the warm grass and the sweet scent of flowers in the air. When these thoughts came to mind his mind just couldn't connect them with this simplified map.

Thus, what had started so innocently as an attempt to locate the locations in his dreams turned into a drawn-out probing of every book written by travelers that he could get his hands on, hoping that someone else had found the place and written it out someplace. He read through collected journals of travelers that his father had gathered to help build an understanding of different locations and kingdoms. This soon devolved into him reading just about any book he could get his hands on.

While still forced to attend studies with his private tutor Jien had begun to grow more withdrawn. He ignored his tutor the greater portion of the time, only paying enough attention to complete the work assigned to him. He always ate with his family but besides the concept of sleep, eating and his studies the only other activity he would take up was reading books in either the library or his room. At first, his father found this to be excellent, he was proud of his son for putting extra time into his studies and in turn spent what he could to help Jien acquire more books, rarer books, even some books on magic, even though Jien would not be able to use magic until his 7th birthday.

The trouble came when Earl realized that his son did not wish to participate in anything else beyond the now innumerable books that filled the library, piling on the floor because there was no more shelf space. He had abandoned playing outdoors, had refused to train in any weapon though being of age, and though his father did try to force him by cutting off his access to new books Jien would just cycle through the books he had read first as if trying to deepen his understanding. No punishment or reward, carrot or stick would be enough to make him put down the books and do anything physical in nature.

Unable to stop his son eventually he let him do as he wanted. It was clear to him that his son was smart. He had read every book from the library prior to the influx of new reading materials. Everything from history to the Elitrix Empire that Afrem City was a part of to ledgers of Afrem Cities budgets going back generations. He read law, philosophy, alchemy, botany, magic, and more. The problem wasn't his mind the issue was both physical and an issue of priorities. Jien was not active enough, not training in any weapon or martial way despite his fathers' insistence and he was not learning how to run Afrem City.

Lord Losler had hoped to pass the administration of Afrem City to his son after he returned from the required military schooling that all children were required to attend by the Elitrix Empire. This was a mandatory requirement whether you be a prince/princess or an orphan. However, how could he pass administration of a city of tens of thousands to a son who apparently had no interest in the city's affairs? Interestingly despite Jien's decided interest in not helping with the administration of the city, he would often share insights from his studies with his father over their shared meals. Jien was soft-spoken but the knowledge he had gained from his constant reading was profound. At times Lord Losler would purposely bring up administration issues over dinner trying to gain Jien's interest. Unfortunately, though Jien would provide him with unique ideas and examples from what he had read he never did take the bait.

Like this Jien's fifth and sixth birthdays passed, soon reaching his seventh. He, in all this time, was found just as unmotivated as always towards everything that wasn't critical to sustaining his life or books. He was already reading books at this stage that made his fathers' head hurt when he tried to decipher them. However, his father hoped to finally drag his sons' attention away from the endless stacks of books he had accumulated. Tomorrow was his seventh birthday. The tradition of the seventh birthday on the entirety of the Oslus continent and even the small island nations surrounding it was the ceremony allowing one to use magic. Since Jien had collected and read many books regarding magic from philosophies to formulations of spells he hoped to get Jien to put his focus on magic.

At the very least even if he hadn't trained in a weapon he may be able to manage in the military academy as a pure mage depending if he put his time truly studying magic. He just hoped that their trip tomorrow would be fruitful in motivating his very unmotivated son.