First light

The ride back to the territory of Luce was an awkward one. Inside of Atlas' carriage were him, his parents,his sisters, Master Orion, and Lady Yuliana. On one side, his parents and sisters sat and on the other, Orion sat on the edge, Atlas in the center, and Yuliana on the other edge. Atlas and Yuliana's shoulders rubbed up against each other the entire way to the territory. Yuliana remembered her father, Baron Zeke Veretasia, wished to have a positive relationship with Baron Luce because of both his daughters' awakenings being grand and great. He asked her to become great friends with Atlas. Most likely hoping to marry her off to him.

She glanced over at Atlas and noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. Atlas also glanced over at her a few seconds after and their eyes met. Atlas and Yuli both look away very quickly. This scene continues on for the rest of the long and bumpy ride before they finally reach the Luce's territory.

With the castle being on the further side of the town, it took a few more minutes to reach it. Yuli glanced out of the window at all of the people walking about the town. Several soldiers marched about the territory, stopping drunken brawls, shooing off vagrants, and standing watch in several posts. Yuli is awed by the sheer amount of soldiers marching through the territory. It's way more than what her own family has. While she's here, she feels a sense of security. However, she also gets a bad feeling as she looks into some of the alleys they pass by.

As they reach the castle, Master Orion finally talks for the first time since they got on the carriage,

"So, which room am I getting?"

Heath motions for him to wait for a minute and calls the servant nearby,

"Prepare one large guest room and one small one."

As the servant jogs off, Heath turns to Orion,

"After dinner, you can ask a servant to lead you to your quarters."

Orion smiles lightly and nods his head before turning to Atlas and Yuliana.

"Alright you two lovebirds, you'll have to wake up at first light for your lessons. If you're late, I'll have you run two laps around the entire castle!"

Atlas nods his head, not paying much mind to it. His father already wakes him up very early to train physically so that shouldn't be hard for him.

Yuliana, on the other hand, has never done physical work in her life. Her parents and grandparents were all mages, with her just being a specialized mage class. She is used to waking up at 8 AM, and taking a nap in the middle of the day. Which is rather usual for noble children.

Tomorrow morning, Atlas awakes at 4 AM and goes out into the training field behind his house. As he arrives, he sees that Master Orion hasn't arrived yet. So, he takes the initiative and starts out with his usual morning work-out. He starts off doing around 100 push-ups, then does 120 squats, and lastly, 50 pull-ups. After this, he jogs around the yard ten times. (Which would be equal to about a mile and a half.)

While he's working out, two people are watching him.

Master Orion wakes up about thirty minutes after Atlas starts his exercise. As he walks by a window on his way out, he catches Atlas out of the corner of his eye, doing pull-ups. He blinks a few times, knocking the remaining sleep from his eyes.

"I'll be damned, most kids stay up long as they can and sleep long as they can. This lad has some serious work ethic!"

Instead of interrupting the boy's work, he chooses to stay at the window and see the rest of his exercise, appraising it and coming up with a new one for his younger body.

The other person… Was none other than Yuliana. She woke up just a little later than Orion. As she looked out her window from the comfy bed, she saw that the sun was just over the horizon. She scrambles to get ready, knowing that her father considered early to be any time while the sun is touching the horizon. As she finishes getting dressed, she catches the end of Atlas' regular training. As she is a 2nd circle magician, she has far better eyesight than regular people. She sees Atlas' sweaty form as he flips his still-wet hair up out of his face. He rests slightly on a fence post beside the field.

She blushes as she remembers what her father told her, and the connotations he left in his words.

"Remember Yuliana, we want you to have a VERY good relationship with Atlas."

She ducks down behind the window as Atlas slowly looks toward her bedroom window.

As he looks at the glass window, he sees a light glistening out of it.

"They should be out any time, I guess I should do the actual work."

Atlas walks over to the small balcony at the side of the field. He grabs a wooden stick with a weighted wooden halberd head at the end. He takes a stance in front of a hay training dummy, with a piece of armor that has holes punched in it, on it.

Orion is confused by this.

"The boy's a mage, why would he need a weapon? Is this for weight training?"

However, as if to scoff at his words, Atlas takes a stance.

He stands shoulder-width apart, left hand behind, right hand forward. The head of the halberd is lowered, a few inches off the ground. His back is bent slightly.

Atlas closes his eyes, concentrating for about a minute.

Orion and Yuli look at him inquisitively.

"Hmm… Maybe I should include weapon training in my own regimen."

Yuli looks at him with amazement, her heart pounding itself forward, threatening to jump from her chest. Atlas' mom spots her from the garden near the field. She sees the girl with starts in her eyes and smiles lightly,

"Isn't that just precious?"

She leans down and pets the large white-furred dog next to her as she thinks for a while.

"Hmm, her family won't benefit us… Well, so long as Atlas likes her, I approve."

She pets the dog, whose name is Barney, on the head as he leans into her hand.

After a few seconds, Atlas starts to gather energy to the head of the weapon. Orion notices this immediately and slams his hands onto the window sill out of shock.

"B-but, he's a mage!"

Atlas' father pats his back from behind. Orion turns around to see Heath give him a knowing nod.

"Indeed he is. This boy has given me so much shock that I feel ten years older."

Atlas opens his eyes suddenly and steps forward, lunging with the weapon. The energy leaves his weapon with a *pop* as splinters shoot from where the head was previously. The green light rushes forward, punching through the worn armor on the dummy in front of him, and leaving out the back. It punches into the stone wall behind it and dissipates, leaving a small scratch on the surface.

Atlas then takes his stance again, sweating even more profusely than before.

Orion looks at Atlas' father with his mouth wide open, staring at him completely shocked.

"What kind of monster are you raising?!"

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AN: Holy shit this chapter kicked my ass. I completely blanked on it for nearly two weeks straight. Not too happy with this one. I'll probably rewrite it later.