***Hyperion Empire***

***Soltain City***

---Six Months Later---

~~~Skylar Soltain POV~~~

“Do you have enough clothes? We won’t see you until winter so you may have to buy some more at the capital. Be sure to be careful over there. Nobles are crawling all over the place.”

“I don’t need to bring that much clothing, you know as well as I do that I will be provided with a few sets of uniforms. As for the nobles issue, I hate to burst your bubble Dad but I am pretty sure we're nobles.”

“That’s technically true my dear but we are far different from that rabble. Your father is just reminding you to watch your back, you will be on your own now. We’ll have some guards ride with you to the capital and a squad of griffin knights overhead. Once they see you enter the Academy gates, they will depart.” My mother reminded and I turned to see a large brown hair brown bearded man in silver armor bearing the Soltain insignia. I recognized him from training and expeditions with my Grandfather.

My grandfather walked up beside the man and introduced him, “Girl, this is Knight Captain Winston, he will be escorting you on the ground and we’ll have a few men in the air as well. He’s one of my best so I know you’ll be fine.”

I nodded and bowed, “I appreciate the assistance Captain.”

“It is no trouble milady, if we leave now we should be in the capital by the end of the month giving you plenty of time to prepare for your tenure at the Academy.”

I assented. I said my goodbyes to my family and mounted my horse. It was going to be a long trip, I would have preferred to just fly there on a griffin, but my family said it would be best to travel the path from Soltain to the capital at least once from the ground. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to ride on my partner for a couples years anyway, with him being so young and all. I looked back inside my satchel to check on him, Idos remained resting alongside all my other traveling gear. Grandpa told me he would be doing a lot of sleeping and eating in his first few years, but would grow rapidly. Growing griffins also require plenty of food, and I was relieved to learn that my mother contacted the Queen to arrange for my partner to remain fed during my stay at the capital.

Mom left a few words for me before we started moving, “Be sure to make friends during your time at the Academy, some of the people you meet will no doubt end up very influential and useful in the future.”

---Three Months Later---

~~~Jacob Soltain POV~~~

Reading over the recent lumber reports brought in by the province this quarter, I was glad to see that we were over our desired goal and have extra lumber to spare. I signed a paper requesting for this quarters additional lumber to be used for expansion of the Merchant sector in the city. We were also in the prime of fishing season, and the villages on the coasts were already seeing the fruits of their labors. Although fishing season also means the higher possibility of raids from the Barbarian Isles in the north, so I assigned my father to lead a contingent of the Sky Corps to patrol the coast and keep the people safe.

Placing my last piece of paperwork away, I finally got a chance to stand up and stretch my arms. With Skylar at the Academy and an overall productive summer for the province, I have been far less stressed.

“Daa~ Daa~!!” I looked down to see my crawling son asking to be picked up. So I bent down and lifted him into my arms. Usually while I am working, Max spends most of his time with his mother, but today Sophia handed our son to me and has been in her “study” all day. I put emphasis on her “study” because it is more of a giant garden than anything else, and takes up most of the space atop the castle. As a rather excellent alchemist and herbalist, she grows various kinds of fauna and flora on the roof. The problem with her garden is it’s not the safest place in the world, and I specifically remember one instance where her plants tried to devour my arm right off my body.

Looking down, I recognize how my son has grown much like his own sister. He has become a very energetic child and always wants something to keep him distracted, we’ve also noticed he has gotten quite proficient in voicing his desires.

“Maama~.”

Yes, his intentions were quite clear. Though it was still only the afternoon and she was sure to be in that garden of hers for at least a few more hours.

“I don’t think that is a good idea Max. She is no place a child should be seen at, you know, with the man eating plants and all.” I shuddered at the thought, I’ve only been in their twice and have been attacked both times. Clearly her plants did not want me in the area, and I happily obliged.

Max started to whine but I repeated myself knowing he would get the message. “No Max. Your mother is busy right now, you will see her tonight.” He processed my words and scrunched up his face, leaving the waterworks to follow.

I have to distract him. If Mary walks in and tells Sophia I’ll be sleeping by myself indefinitely. I would just give him to dad, considering he always knows how to keep Max entertained. But the man isn’t here, and I am running out of options. Then, it hit me.

I shifted all his weight to my left arm and held up my right. Proceeding to channel a low-level ‘light flare’ for him to look at. My son almost immediately ceased his crying and stared at the spell. His ocean blue eyes showing the reflection of the golden light emitting from my hand. He reached his arm out to grab it, which should be fine considering how this spell is non-lethal and really only meant as an aid. He covered the light with his little fist seemingly try to steal it, but when he moved his arm back towards himself, he noticed the spell remained atop of my hand.

Max was undoubtedly confused, and tried again, only to be met with the same result. My little flare never moved from my palm and remained emitting a low but consistent light.

I don’t know if it was from pure ingenuity or pure luck, but what my son did next left me gaping. He opened his palm which started glowing a light very similar to mine, if not a bit brighter. I instinctively canceled my spell and almost dropped him too. I saved myself by catching him mid fall but my brain remained racing.

“Holy shit! You’ve got to be fu-” My thoughts caught up to me and I quickly closed my mouth.

How in the Gods is that fucking possible?! He is barely nine months and channeling ‘light flares’! I didn’t perfect that fucking spell till I was six!

I started to panic. My children were going to be the death of me, first Skylar and her pushing the limits of everything that crosses her path, and now a crazy magic prodigal son. When should we start training him? I wonder what his elemental affinity is? We shouldn’t start to early and have to stop ourselves from giving him more than he can handle. Perhaps I should call dad back to discuss this.

“You know, maybe we should go see your mother.”

Still holding a ‘light flare’ in his hand, Max began clapping and yelled, “Maama~!”

---Two Weeks Later---

~~~Sophia Soltain POV~~~

While there are days that I spend all my time up in the gardens working on one project or another, today I decided to assist my husband with his Lordly duties and all. With the large amount of paperwork on his desk and mine beside it, I am sure he is grateful.

Little Max is moving all over the room and I can tell he is still trying to use mana. Ever since we learned he can channel light magic at the age of nine months, I made the decision it would be best if we block that for now. The mana inhibiting band wrapped around his wrist is proof of that. Perhaps when he can form cohesive sentences and we know he’ll be safe enough not to hurt himself, we’ll take it off.

I took a break from my paperwork, leaned back into the chair, and observed Max as he continued to struggle. Activating my ‘Mind’s Eyes’, I examined how he was in fact channeling mana, most likely instinctively, and a lot for a boy who wasn’t even a year yet. Luckily, the inhibitor was doing it’s job, and blocking him from manifesting that mana into any physical forms he can recognize. After repeated failures, I can only assume he chose to move his attention to something else.

He placed his feet flat under him and attempted to stand up. I recognized his goal and immediately got out of my chair. Kneeling down beside my desk, I gestured for him to walk to me, “Come here Max, come to your mother.”

Now looking towards me and wobbling around, he carefully approached my direction. Blue eyes flashing from the floor to me, and then back to the floor, Max successfully walked all the way before me until he tripped and fell into my embrace.

His first steps! It feel’s like it was Skylar learning to walk just yesterday!

I hugged him tighter, “Great job Max! That was fantastic, you even got it your first try!”

My husband got up and crouched beside us, “Now that is what I would expect from a nine month old, I was under the impression he was going to master light manipulation before he could even run. Good going Max.” ruffling his still thin dirty blond hair.

Max jumped out of our embrace and continued to practice walking until we heard a knock on the door. Our red-headed maid Mary walked in carrying a letter.

“Milord, milady, we just received a missive from a messenger hawk coming from the direction of the capital. It appears to be from the Imperial Family.”

I stood up and took the letter from Mary. She bowed and closed the door behind her. Opening the letter, I realized it was from Ariel.

“The Queen, you think it has something to do with Skylar?” Jacob asked while looking over my shoulder.

I opened the letter and proceeded to read the contents aloud:

Sophia,

I sent this letter to you as soon as I heard the news but there appears to have been several assassination attempts on the new heirs of all the Houses. So far we’ve heard that Thanatos caught two perpetrators and have their heads on spikes, but rumors show they weren’t the only ones attacked. One of the twins of Rinehart was apparently killed in his sleep and the culprits badly injured the other. They appear to be now calling in a favor from Ryzalon for phoenix blood to save their other son. Rinehart is also trying to keep the attack secret as to not besmirch their honor. Someone wants our children dead, and is willing to use the Assassin’s Guild for it. The targets appear to be the new heirs but I’ll ask my husband to double security around the capital for Skylar.

Stay safe,

Ariel

Jacob bolted out the door and start screaming towards his subordinates. I looked back down at my son and pulled him to me mid stride.

My eyes flashed a dangerous gleam, “You’ll be sleeping in the bed with us for a while. I’m very interested to learn who would dare attempt to hurt my baby boy.”

I walked out the study and noticed Jacob had the guards in a frenzy, apparently he had also sent word to have the griffin knights circling the area to be doubled at night. Him being one to get stressed easily, he will no doubt take numerous precautions to ensure Max’s safety. No point in stopping him, I agree we need to be safe rather than sorry in this situation.

Walking up and pulling our head maid aside, I whispered, “Mary I need you to have one of our fastest sky knight’s sent to my sister. Apparently someone has put an assassination contract on our children and she needs to know.”

“Right away milady.”

I nodded and began my own precautions. Enchanting the doors and windows with fire spells in case of forced entry was rather tedious, especially considering I was only proficient enough to have the enchantments last the night. But it would be well worth the work if were were to stop or even catch these bastards.

---Midnight---

***Satele Province***

~~~Joan Satele POV~~~

I woke with a start. Specifically the loud explosion coming from the other side of the room. Shaking William awake I quickly got off the bed, only to see a bloody broken corpse scattered across the floor. Still in a slight daze, I activated my eyes and started examining my surroundings. Noticing a figure dressed in black standing in our bedroom doorway I yelled, “William! Assassins! Keep him alive!” Lifting his sleeve his partner Odur shot out and started rapidly growing as it approached the doorway. They both hurried out the door after the intruder. I cared very little about the assassin, no, I needed to check on Arthur.

I sprinted to the crib on the other side of the room, ignoring the blood and stench ramming my senses. Looking inside, I noticed the various enchantments placed by my husband were still flashing red and my partner Katris coiled atop my son’s belly clearly alert and ready to attack.

Picking him up, Katris wrapped herself around my neck and I checked if my son was unharmed. He looked fine, and I soon realized that he was still asleep, completely undisturbed from the explosion emanating from inside his own crib.

*Sigh* “Of course. Nothing stops nap time for you, does it Arthur?”

Did you do that? I asked Katris, gesturing to the body parts scattered around the room.

No, I can only assume this is the handiwork of your husband. If the assassin were to somehow avoid that enchantment I would have incapacitated him.

William soon returned with the massive Odur in tow, completely filling up the doorway and with a pair of bloody legs hanging out of his mouth.

“I thought I told you to capture him, not to feed him to Odur.”

“We had him trapped. I guess he realized he was fucked and decided to kill himself. I am no expert, but my guess would be implanted poison, with his veins turning black and what have you.”

“If that's the case is it really good idea to let Odur eat him then? I realize he is a basilisk and all but that surely can’t be good for him.”

William looked back at Odur an shrugged. “He offered to eat him and that would be one less body to clean up anyway.”

I looked down my nightgown and at my feet, both stained with blood.

“Ugh. Whatever. I am going to be holding Arthur for the rest of the night and need a bath. Can you have someone clean this mess up, and replace the carpeting?”

“Uh… sure. Can I join you two after? There’s blood all over the place.”

I nodded. Odur swallowed the rest of the body in his mouth and shrunk down to be carried by my husband. We walked out into the hallway only to be approached by two of our guards carrying a letter.

“Milord, milady, a Sky Knight from House Soltain has just arrived carrying a missive from Lady Soltain.”

I open the letter and began reading.

Sister,

Someone has hired out high-level members of the Assassin’s Guild to eliminate our children. Please be careful and stay safe.

Love,

Sophia

“Well she’s a little late, but I do appreciate the sentiment. Guards, makes sure the Knight who arrived is housed and fed for the rest of the evening, griffin too.”

“Yes milady.” They bowed and proceeding back down the corridor.

I lifted my son back up and looked at him in his closed eyes, “Ok time for a bath, isn’t that right Arty?”

My son’s response was a cute little sneeze in William’s direction.

“Such a good boy.”