Four hours later, just outside the barracks of the Château de L’Enfer…

Here, soldiers in service to the Count of Eldia and his estate went about their day, now that lunch had been served and eaten with adequate rest, and now that the afternoon sun was high up in the sky to warm the frozen earth. Most were dressed in simple tunics and others in light mail, engaged with all manner of physical exercises upon the snow, or with swords and maces upon training dummies made sturdy with straw and wood.

Elena stuck close to her brother and held his hand as tightly as she could, glancing around her surroundings nervously as she took the sights and smells of this place so close to home, yet unvisited until now. Her pretty and frilly gown and jewelled slippers had been changed out for a rather coarse tunic, trousers, and leather boots cuffed just below her knees with soles that felt strange and tight upon her little feet. Now, a part of her wished she had kept her big mouth shut back at the pavilion, when she had so brazenly spoken of her desire to walk in her brother’s footsteps. Especially so, if said footsteps meant walking in such strange shoes.

“Brother…?”

Grinnaux turned to look at Elena, who frowned at him before looking down towards the snow beneath her booted feet.

“Yeah?”

“This isn’t what I had in mind at all, when you said…”

“Well, we gotta start somewhere, no?” Grinnaux stated enthusiastically. “Being an Archmage ain’t all about hiding in some stuffy room, reading and studying all day long. Unless, of course… you wanna be a Conjurer?”

Elena furrowed her brow.

“Conjurer?”

“Y’know… those stuffy old men and women at the Capital who do nothing but talk politics to the Emperor!” Grinnaux answered, as he looked his little sister in the eye. “You did say you want to go out there and fight bad guys, no?”

Elena gave her brother’s words some thought, before she nodded in reply. Surely, the idea of being a Conjurer far up north in the Capital was not as bad as her brother was trying to make it out to be. After all, being a Conjurer meant living in the Capital, in the very heart and soul of the Alyssian Empire where Eldia was merely a small part of its vast holdings. And they were close to the Emperor, too. Surely, even if she had yet to see any of it for herself, the Emperor would not keep fools and sycophants by his side. Even if Grinnaux seemed to view it that way.

“Magic ain’t so simple, y’know?” Grinnaux added, as a group of soldiers jogged by in close formation. “Sure, you might think it’s just about doing whatever strikes your fancy, but…”

He paused for a moment and smiled at Elena, who looked up towards him in silent wonderment as he quickly considered the best way to phrase his point to his little sister, still uninitiated in the arcane art of sorcery unlike himself.

“Magic is the act of willing forth a miracle into the world, Elena. Making something that ain’t supposed to ever happen under normal circumstances, become reality.”

Elena opened her mouth to say something, only to remain in silent awe as tears of blood trickled down her brother’s face. Briefly, she feared for him, thinking for a moment that he was in pain, but the steadiness and focus in his bleeding eyes quickly quelled such concerns.

“My hand, Elena. Look.”

Quietly, with a hand over her mouth, Elena watched as a glow, crimson like his eyes and hers, formed itself upon Grinnaux’s palm, like blood manifest into light. Slowly, this crimson light broke apart into lines that zagged around and across each other quickly and decisively, forming the symbol of a bloody crown.

“This, Elena… is a sigil. It’s a reflection of our soul, of our image upon the world.”

“Colourful…” Elena uttered, her crimson eyes wide and open. “So pretty…”

Suddenly, the sigil ignited itself into a roaring blaze confined within Grinnaux’s grasp. And then, just as quickly, the red flames turned into white and blue lightning that crackled within his palm, before taking on a deep purple hue that simmered with power.

“Fire, lightning, arcane magic… anything’s possible. Our sigils allow us to focus upon the magical incantations we know by heart into our minds, to bring them to bear…”

“Wow…”

Grinnaux then cupped his hand into a fist. His crimson sigil shattered into a thousand multitudes of crimson-hued sparks, that quickly faded away into the cold air.

“That’s what it means to be a sorcerer, Elena. Strength, of both mind and body.”

Elena nodded. Mimicking her brother’s actions as best she could, she stuck out her palm and focused her thoughts as hard as she could until her body began to tremble from the pressure. She envisioned within her mind, endless storms of fire and arcane magic, emulating the sounds of those elements as best she could. Alas, much to her dismay, there was no blood flowing from her eyes, and nothing had formed upon her hand.

“Aww…”

“It’s what you’d call an acquired ability, Elena…” Grinnaux teased, smiling gently at his little sister as a servant attended to the bloodstains on his face. “Don’t worry it about too much yet. If it were that simple, we’d have sorcerers everywhere! It’d be a cataclysm, the likes of which we’d hope to never see!”

“If it’s an acquired ability, I’d like to start acquiring it right now!” Elena declared enthusiastically, the discomfort of her new clothes and her unfamiliar surroundings all but forgotten. “I want to be an Archmage!”

Grinnaux nodded at Elena.

“That’s why we’re here, silly girl! First, you’ve gotta train to be tough, and we’ll be doing it here, every day. It’s the only way to get it done!”

“But I’m not very tough at all…” Elena whined. “I’m still…”

“Yeah,” Grinnaux answered, as he reached for Elena’s neck. “But bad guys don’t care about that! In fact…”

“Hey, what are you…”

“They’ll do this! Yoink!”

“Hey!”

Elena reached for her neck in a bid to defend her necklace, but she was far too slow and all that remained was the empty space where the ruby held by white gold chains had once been. Now, all of it remained firmly in her brother’s grasp.

“Give that back!”

“Nuh uh!” Grinnaux declared, before breaking off into a sprint on the snowy track that the soldiers had been jogging on. “C’mon! If, you want it back…”

“Get back here!”

Elena charged forward, taking off upon the snow in hot pursuit of her brother. She sprinted as fast as her little legs could past the jogging soldiers, her breath and her heartbeat quickening and growing hotter with every passing moment as she quickly closed the distance. Eventually, she rushed at him with all her might, tackling him towards the snow. It would have worked, were she a lot bigger and a lot stronger, but her weight alone could only push him off the path, and he had easily regained his footing as she swiped the necklace out of his grasp.

“Nicely done, Elena!” Grinnaux exclaimed, with a big smile upon his face. “You’re really fast!”

Proudly, he leaned in to pat his little sister upon her head. She pushed him away.

“Elena…?”

“I hate you!” Elena shouted, clutching tightly at her ruby necklace as tears formed in her crimson eyes. “I can’t believe you’d do that! I can’t believe…”

The soldiers training nearby had stopped to stare. Grinnaux ignored them, and looked Elena in the eye as she wept noisily, in between tearful gasps for air.

“I’m so sorry, Elena… I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. Really! I just wanted to show you were capable of… I swear!”

Tearfully, Elena looked up at her older brother.

“Really…?”

Grinnaux nodded.

“Yeah! Have a look behind us real quick, won’t ya?”

Slowly, Elena looked behind her, blinking the tears out of her eyes as she did. Now, the Château and the barracks seemed so far away. The path itself would loop back to the same spot where they had started, but for now, they had both run a long way, and for a long time.

“You’re one tough little sorcerer,” Grinnaux said, squeezing Elena’s shoulders as he looked his little sister in the eye, smiling at her until she too, smiled as well. “First day on the job, and already so big and strong and tough…”

Elena nodded. It was true. Maybe. Possibly. Her breath was still a little warm, and her legs ached a little, but she felt good. Very good, actually. The air felt cleaner, warmer, and she liked it very much. And as she looked towards the barracks, once again, she was sure she could go even faster, and catch up with her brother even earlier. At a much faster pace, too! Without her necklace taken from her, preferably.

“I suppose that’s that, then!” Grinnaux declared, slapping Elena gently upon her shoulder before sauntering towards the barracks. “Now, we’ll take five, and then we’ll really get started!”

“Started?” Elena asked worriedly, as she followed him. “I thought we just…”

Without breaking his stride, Grinnaux laughed a hearty laugh.

“That’s just a warmup! After this little break, the real training begins! Then maybe, after dinner, we’ll work on some arcane formulae together. How about that?”

Elena smiled, and followed with a skip in her step. Perhaps it was a little weird, but now, her little feet felt good in her boots. It was good enough for what lay ahead, as she walked in the footsteps of the biggest, greatest, and most awesome sorcerer in Melodia she had ever known.