It was a quiet Sunday morning with clear skies in the city of Patros, the temperature was pleasant, though the air was a bit dry. The city was large, with a population at several hundred thousand people, and was situated in the centre of the Kingdom of Alamar. A young boy was sitting on the edge of a small balcony, enjoying the breeze while concentrating on rubbing his hands against a wool rug. The boy had short light blond hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion, mostly a result of heritage from his mother. His name was Alexander Moltus, though he preferred being called Alan for short, which seemed both confusing and amusing to his parents. His mother, Naida Moltus, was a commoner from a merchant family by the name of Malli, who immigrated to Patros from the colder lands in the north. His father, Alexar Moltus, was from a minor noble family which had a long history in Patros, but had lost most of its once grand status through generations of few and minor achievements. The family lived in the wealthy west hillside of the city, but their house was a rather small two story building compared to many of the larger villas in the vicinity.

Alan was concentrating hard on his hands as he rubbed them relentlessly against the wool rug. The previous few weeks of education at school had been about the illustrious magic resource of this world, called mana, and its many uses and forms. It was apparently a bloodline thing, which the lecturer had rather enthusiastically explained to the children. “Magic isn’t available to just any common man, oh no”, Sir Rodes had explained. “It is a trait inherited through the bloodlines of the nobles. That is more or less the reason the noble houses exist in the first place, but I am sure you knew that already, considering that you learned about the history of the kingdom last year. Now, since you are all from noble families, I am expecting most if not all of you to have some small capabilities of mana usage, but sadly, few of you will become full fledged mages. This is because mana very rarely manifests in large quantities, and thus there is little it can be used for outside of personal body enhancement, which is what knights like me use our mana for. You have a question Alan?”

“Sir, how do I know if I have mana? How can I test it? How can I use it? And how do I know how much I have? How much do I need to become a mage? Why can-”

“Now, Alan, one question at a time, please. Let’s start with the first one. You don’t really know if you have mana until you start trying to use it. This is the first step on the journey towards mastering your magic, and widely considered the most difficult part of it. Most people go for trying to change the body temperature in their hands consciously, as this is one of the simplest forms of body enhancement magic available, but it usually takes years of practice with such techniques before you have enough mana to pass the acolyte test, which is creating and feeding a candle like flame for a full minute. Most noble houses also have some sort of secret technique to discover and develop their mana, but it is usually no point in starting to work on it before your teenage years, as your mana capacity grows with your age, and is usually way too low to get much out of training at your current age. As to your last question, about how much mana is needed to become a mage, that is actually strictly defined. Any graduate from the magical academies are considered mages, and in order to graduate the bare minimum of magic capacity is being able to heat 1000 liters of water from room temperature to boiling in less than ten seconds. Well, there are other requirements as well, but that is the mana requirement at least. But as I stated earlier, few of you will ever have the capacity for something like that, but you can still become acolytes, scribes, knights, squires and priests with less mana capacity than a mage, though there are other requirements for all of these as well.”

Sir Rodes had gone on to explain the origin of magic, and it had apparently existed for longer than the world itself, though Alan didn’t really understand how anybody could know that, and it all seemed a tad religious to him. Though religion was nothing to scoff at, in this society, as the church had a central place in the power structure, considering they were the only ones capable of any healing. A secret which they guarded closely, it seemed to Alan, although in their terms they were simply the only ones entrusted by the gods with the powerful healing magic.

The lecturer had also made attempts at answering what mana actually was, though Alan felt no wiser for it. The best description Alan had reached so far was that mana was the capacity to affect and alter the natural laws in one's vicinity, though many mages apparently simply viewed it as fuel for their fire spells, which were widely considered the most powerful school of magic. Understandably so, as throwing around exploding fireballs seemed unmatched by the traditional swords, shields, spears and bows that made up the brunt of weapons available to the common soldier. There were other schools of magic too, prominent among them were earth and water magic, though they paled in importance to the school of fire. Among knights, which had considerably less mana available, body enhancements were more or less the only school of interest. There was a variety of things one could affect through body enhancements, though most knights focused on enhancing strength and perception. Scribes used another kind of body enhancements, focusing mostly on improving memory, though Alan had difficulty understanding anything about those processes. Luckily, he had several years to choose a school of focus, and the entire thing still relied on him actually “awakening” to his magic, as his parents described it.

Trying to discover his magic was exactly what Alan was working on at the balcony that Sunday morning, as he had been doing most of the Saturday as well. He hadn't been able to make any sort of progress trying to increase the temperature in his hands yet, and was now warming them up on the rug to try decreasing the temperature instead. Naida had seemed slightly concerned when it seemed her 10 year old son would rather stay home and repeat the same exercises day in and day out without anything to show for it yet, instead of going out to play with the other children in the neighbourhood.

“Alexander! Marissa is here, won't you go join her and the other kids to the arena games today? I'm sure it'll be lots of fun, and good practice as well.”

Naida had been pressuring him on the subject for the last couple of days, and Alan had refused every time the issue came up because he had his ‘training’ that needed to be done.

“Naida, I’m sure they’ll be fine without me. I’m not all that interested in the arena games anyways, they aren’t exactly the most intellectually stimulating shows I’ve been to.” Alan answered, hoping she would finally let the subject go.

“Not the most intellectually stimulating, he says.. I swear, sometimes you speak like an old scribe who can’t put away his latest book. Are you sure you’re not an archmage who happens to have invented time travelling?” Naida scowled at him, eliciting a small sigh from Alan as he again realised his vocabulary was not on par with most 10 year olds. He really needed to choose his words more carefully.

“You’re not actually gonna tell me that rubbing that rug is more intellectually stimulating than going to see the shows with your friends? Besides, Marissa is waiting for you, and you shouldn’t keep a girl waiting. So get up and accompany her down to the arena, you can come back to pet the rug in the evening.”

Another sigh escaped Alan as he finally got up and started heading out to meet his friends from school. “You win, Naida, I’ll go to the stupid arena games. Just don’t start complaining once the aptitude tests show that I have zero magical talent because I wasn’t given enough time to practice beforehand.”

“See, there you go again. I should be the one looking towards your future with worry, not you. Those tests are years away, and they are aptitude tests, not the final exams of the mage academy. You’ll be fine. Go and have some fun for once.”

Alan found Marissa waiting in the small entrance hall. Bristling with energy, as she usually was outside of school, she looked up at him with a frown covering most of her freckled face.

“Finally! Come on, Alan, we’re gonna miss it!” Marissa grabbed his hand just as he entered her range, and practically dragged him out the door. He could probably resist if he tried, considering that he was a bit ahead in terms of growth, but he found himself content being pulled along for the moment. The little redhead reminded him so much of his own children, especially the energy and curiosity she showed for absolutely anything new, not including school subjects. He really did not feel like a ten year old, and had not exactly fit in with the other children when he started going to school. Marissa had been the first to break into his personal bubble, and drag him out of it. He really didn’t understand her motivations for dragging him around everywhere, but did he really need to? No, Alan mused, he did not. Life had thrown a lot of strange things his way, and just as usual, he went with it and tried to make the best out of any situation.

The arena games were held in an old colosseum, or at least that was what it reminded Alan of. The architecture was different, but it served the same purpose. The spectator stands were quite full, as the games were only held once a year, and the fee to enter was low enough that most traders and merchants could easily afford it. Marissa managed to snake her way through the crowd with Alan in tow, to find their little group of friends, mostly Marissa’s friends, close to the rails with a good view of the arena. Jack and Elianna were the only ones to greet the newcomers, while the others were far too busy watching the show, which had apparently started.

“Hi Marissa! Oh, and hello Alan, I didn’t think you would show up today,” Jack said with a surprised expression. “You’re late, they already started the first match! The Maulers are up against Unity, but they’re having a bad time”. Jack was informed on almost everyone expected to fight in the games, mostly because of his slight obsession with a certain Black Knight Jack and his team Ignos. Jack had rarely been speaking of anything the past few weeks, save how his team would definitely pick up the trophy once again this year and thoroughly trunce all competition. His sister, Elianna, didn’t show the same interest for the games, and probably only came because Marissa would be there. The two quickly started chatting and mostly ignoring the games, making Alan wonder why Marissa had made it sound so horrible to miss some of the games by being late.

After squeezing in next to the group, Alan focused on the ongoing fight. The Maulers were probably the team to the right, three men mostly equipped with large maces, running about with little formation as far as Alan could see. They were fighting against Unity, a team clearly connected to the church, although apparently not in any official capacity, if Jack was to be believed. They wore long covering robes, which probably hid armor underneath, because they didn’t seem to be too bothered when the maulers managed to get hits in. They also fought in a tight formation, with shields and something that looked like morningstars, though the spikes were stubbed. Probably so they can avoid killing their opponents, Alan thought, though they don’t show much mercy to anyone who can’t fight back. One of the Maulers was down, and being continuously bludgeoned while the rest of his teammates left him to the wolves. The judge of the match was slow to respond to the slight overstep of the rules, but the guy was still moving when Unity was finally forced away from him.

Although the rules of engagement clearly stated that a contestant lying unarmed on the ground was defeated, and thus no more harm should come to him, the judges were usually lax with their punishment of anyone breaking those rules. Deaths happened from time to time, but the loosing party mostly got away with bad beatings rather than life threatening wounds.

After Unity’s rather clean victory, considering they took little visible damage during the fight, two other groups took to the stage. On the left Alan could see the Illustrious Sisters, as they called themselves. They were a balanced group consisting of a mage, a ranger and a knight, and were brand new to the games this year. They were very popular among the female spectators, and had been doing fairly well so far, winning their two earlier matches with good combinations of support magic, distracting arrows, and a solid frontliner. Marissa was ecstatic at their arrival, and was very vocal in her support of the Sisters, which finally made it clear to Alan that she hadn’t come just to chat with Elianna. The frown on Jack’s face when his team entered on the opposite side had Alan confused.

“I thought you’d be happier to see your team fighting. Something wrong?” Alan almost had to shout to be heard through the roar from the spectator stands welcoming the two teams.

Ignos was apparently just as popular as the Sisters, though it seemed most of their fanbase were men, Alan judged by the deeper voices rooting for them. Jack turned briefly towards Alan, with a complicated expression, before looking at Marissa. He seemed conflicted, glancing between her and her favorite team. It took a while until Alan remembered some of the more vivid explanations Jack had gone into while retelling the greatest victories of Ignos, but once he did, fear started growing in the back of his mind.

Meanwhile, the fight had barely started before a small firestorm surrounded the white clad Sisters, one of the signature spells of Devon the Red, as he called himself, if Alan remembered correctly. Any group who didn’t have a counter to it would hopefully just surrender before the match began, so he was not very surprised when the fire was suppressed by water, and arrows started flying towards Ignos from within the fog.

“Yes, shoot them down! You got this, Sisters!” Marissa shouted, while leaning dangerously far out over the railing. Several of the arrows hit their mark, a feat in itself with the very limited visibility around the Sisters, but Ignos had gathered in a small group with Black Knight Jack at the front, and his armor and heavy shield intercepted any arrow coming close enough to be trouble.

Ignos had their own ranger, a certain Savage Steve, as he came to be known from his less honorable tricks. Once he started firing back, the fight opened up for more individual competition. Both frontliners met just about halfway between the teams, trying to find an opening in the other’s stand while at the same time intercepting projectiles with their shields. The rangers on both teams skillfully repositioned around the two fighters looking for angles, while the mages kept trading spells, with Devon on the offensive and Elise increasingly defensive.

Marissa was a bundle of energy, as usual, shouting encouragement and directions the Sisters would never hear nor follow, hopefully, but the apparent stalemate between the teams had Alan’s fear growing. Jack had mentioned that Devon was cold and calculated, which led to most of the boring victories that weren’t worth describing, and that the more exciting matches only happened when he was evenly or entirely matched by another mage. Exciting wasn’t the word Alan would have used to describe those fights.

The match had kept going for a while, with neither side having a clear advantage, when Elise was struck by a stray arrow passing through a small gap in her knight’s defense. The rules stated that arrows should be blunted, and that no arrowheads of any kind were allowed. Yet the arrow from Ignos’ ranger was clearly left standing out of the sisters arm, eliciting small gasps and screams from their supporters. The judge, however, had little time to react before a lance of fire found its way through Elise’s flickering watershield as a result of the distraction, and pierced her leg as well. A violent explosion followed shortly after, and a charred body was all that was left behind once the fire and smoke cleared.

Marissa was completely still, not a trace of her energetic attitude remaining, while she stared vacantly at her idol. Alan spun her around and hugged her head to his chest. “Don’t look Marissa, you don’t want to see this.”

The judge quickly ended the match, though Alan didn’t pay attention to the proceedings down in the arena.

“Come on, Marissa, we’re leaving”. All Alan got in response was a muted nod and a hand clutching his as he led the shaking girl through the jungle of people at the stands. He heard screaming and crying among some of the audience, which tore him up, but it was the cheering and laughing among some of the tougher groups that really hit him. It was nauseating how people could find situations like this entertaining, and he wanted away from it all as fast as possible, but more importantly, he wanted Emily away from... Alan winced as he remembered the child he was pulling out of the stands was not his daughter.

It doesn’t matter, Marissa shouldn’t be watching these games either. No children should, honestly, if it was up to me, no adults either. But it isn’t really up to me, is it…

Alan knew violence had been a source of entertainment throughout history on Earth as well, and that he’d been spared a lot of it by living in an age where most violent incidents where fictional. There were no movies or TV shows around here though, no Hollywood to cater to the endless hunger for death and destruction among the masses. It wasn’t completely incomprehensible that the arena games were so popular even when fights resulted in deaths, but it sure wasn’t anything he would ever enjoy.

Marissa didn’t speak much on the way back, which was a stark difference to her normal behaviour. She was probably in shock, and though Alan had participated in a few disaster-relief courses back in his professor career, he found he hadn’t the slightest idea what to do now that the knowledge would have actually been useful. Well, there was one thing he remembered, ironically from movies rather than the courses, and he quickly removed his jacket and donned it over Marissa’s shoulder. She didn’t seem to notice at first, but her free hand unconsciously pulled the jacket tighter against her, when Alan resumed pulling her along.

Alan walked Marissa all the way to her family’s front door, knocking a few times before turning to his silent companion. Her previously empty gaze had finally gotten a little brighter, possibly from the familiarity around her.

“She’s gonna be okay, right?” Marissa looked up to her friend supposedly of the same age, but who acted nothing like other ten year old boys. The hope in her eyes faded when Alan couldn’t answer positively, but at least her eyes moistened instead of going back to that same vacant stare, which gave Alan some relief. Before he could bring up any comforting words, the door opened up behind him.

Sara Crow stood in the entryway, and smiled to Alan before he stepped aside to let Marissa into view. “She’s just seen something traumatizing, and needs comfort and support, and preferably something warm to drink if you have anything” Alan managed to say, finally remembering a few more details from his courses.

“Aw, come here my sweet little girl, what’s gotten you so upset?” Sara said in a warm and soothing voice, enveloping her daughter in a tight hug. Alan took that as his cue to leave, but managed a small explanation about the matches not going well for Marissa’s team before leaving.

It wasn’t before he was well on his way home that he remember that he should have been equally caring about the other friends who had gone with them to the arena. They were mostly the same age, and should not have witnessed such things, but it was a bit late to go back and look for them now. Alan realised that he wasn’t as worried about the rest of the gang of friends, though he really should have been. It felt strange, almost like a violation of his role as a father, to not immediately run to the aid of kids who might need it, but he just couldn’t help everyone, he justified to himself. Besides, he wasn’t a father anymore. Or he was, but he’d never see his family again. Except if he was somehow transported back to Earth, which hadn’t seemed likely so far. But there might be a way. If there was, he’d take it in an instant, no question about it. But how would he ever find it? His train of thoughts had been effectively derailed from his immediate surroundings, and before he knew it, he was back home again. His new home, not his old one, with his new family, and not his wife and children. A deep sigh escaped him as he entered.

Naida was making dinner, but instead of helping her as he usually would, Alan sat down in deep thoughts by the dinner table. He usually managed to keep his feelings at bay, and his thoughts far away from how much he actually missed his real home, but not today. All he could think about was how Emily handled suddenly not having a father anymore. He realised he’d become so fond of Marissa because of the resemblance to Emily, and it did bring him happiness most of the time, like a sort of substitute. But it couldn’t be healthy, for either of them. He needed to let go of the past, and Marissa needed friends that acted her age, friends with playful energy she could grow together with. Not another parent, as her own parents were probably doing a great job already. Perhaps Alan could be something like a big brother to her, which might not be too bad a role, but it wouldn’t really help him, would it?

For the first time in his life, Alan found that he would really have liked to visit a shrink. He’d made fun of them and their “pseudo science” as a professor, but right now he just felt like he needed to confess all his problems to a neutral third party, who would keep all his issues confidential, and potentially even offer solutions or paths to follow. There were no shrinks in Patros though. He hadn’t really gone looking for an alternative either, though there were bound to be someone he could talk to somewhere.

“The arena games were that bad, huh?”

The question startled Alan, and it took a second for him to remember what Naida was talking about.

“The ‘arena games’... more like gladiator fights. They’re not for children Naida, why would you encourage us to go there?” Alan said, surprising himself with the judgemental tone in his voice.

“Gladi-what now? Alexander, I know you don’t like the violent competition, but it’s mostly harmless exercises, with a few accidents here and there. You’ll have to grow some backbone if you want to become a knight, it’s not just parades and training you know. And if you think that aiming for the mage academy will help, the only position not involving violent situations would be as a scribe, and even then you would be called to all sorts of crime scenes to record evidence and such. Life is a struggle for survival, and you have to make sure you are ready for anything that might be thrown your way.”

“You’re from a merchant family, Naida. How can you describe life as struggle for survival as a merchant’s daughter?”

“Oh, so you think merchants in the north are soft and inexperienced, huh?” Naida asked, with a tinge of anger in her voice. “Well, so does every thief and brigand as well, and there are a lot fewer guard patrols up north than down here in the south. I can handle myself with both bow and short sword, and I’ve seen my fair share of battles travelling between isolated villages. And trust my word when I tell you that there is no hiding from violence in this life. It will find you, one way or another. The streets of the larger cities seem safe, sure, but wander into the wrong neighbourhood at night, and trouble will find you quick enough. Not to mention the threat of war from the west, or rebellions, or rogue mages and their dark magic. Anything could happen at any-”

“Now now, my dear Naida, there’s no need to scare the kid senseless,” Alan’s father stated from the entrance, clearly having overheard some of the conversation. “Sure, the world might be a violent place, but he’s safe here and now, and hopefully won’t have to confront any of these threats for years to come”. Alexar walked in to hug Naida from the back, having just come home from his shift. Naida relaxed into his arms, and seemed to slump backwards as she let go of her stress and worries. Alan hadn’t noticed how tense the conversation had made her, and he immediately wanted to apologize for bringing up such a sore subject for his mother. But remembering Marissa’s vacant expression, he just couldn’t force himself to utter a word of apology. The world might be dangerous, but that didn’t make it okay to traumatize children just to acclimatize them early in life. He decided to let the discussion lie for now, and found his way back out on the balcony and resumed his ‘magic training regime’ of rubbing the rug.