Larsen Taylor

Larsen Taylor had always been very distant to his family. His two eldest son’s strived for his acceptance and fatherly love. A thing that did not exist like they imagined it. His work for the crown was more important to him. In line of duty he wanted to increase the influence of house Taylor. And he had done so. Wealth, influence and powerful friends. All these were at his disposal, the rise of his family was imminent. Which lead to the fact that he had to deal with the question of who would inherit the family household. Larsen Taylor had four children.

Two of which were mediocre. One an aspiring merchant gaining as much money as he lost as well as a military officer, whose fighting skills were as advanced as his tactical thinking. Which meant not existent.

So far his daughter Liljana had been the most promising in battle strategy and intelligence. She understood economics, math and law quicker than anyone he had ever seen. Too bad she was his youngest child. It would take too much time now, and he was unsure if he could teach her enough now. He definitely would try. She deserved that much for all these years of neglecting her care. So far she was the only choice he would love to make.

His third son however did surprise him. After he heard that his son had been drafted for the royal military academy he was furious. How could they dare to try and take one of his sons for the academy? Hundreds of normal citizens with magic talent went there, a place unfit for a noble talent. The proper etiquette would have required for the archmages to grovel to his feet, begging for his sons raw talent and then he would have allowed them to visit to educate the boy.

These old fools! He would have crushed them if they did not tell him what all this had been about. He nearly had not believed his own ears. Apparently the magic talent of his youngest son had destroyed the inspecting orb that belonged to the investigating mage. They were so intrigued by this coincidence that they sent Archmage Dardon himself. But even his six times bigger orb crashed after holding the orb towards the proximity of the Taylor estate. And no one else was magically talented. They had dropped the draft letter minutes later and had hoped that that would be the end of it.

Of course that had not been the case. Larsen Taylor made sure the guild responsible for the draft letter punished the mage in question for this insulting behavior. But now he really had to talk to his son. There was an opportunity arising and his youngest could prove his worth. He got up from his desk, shoving aside all the papers of law and spy reports that piled up on his desk and ordered them at the edge of the table. After a couple of moments it actually looked clean-ish. Then he proceeded to sit down and called for his servant. “Edward.”

A young man immediately opened the door and stepped in. “Yes, Sir?”

“Please, send for my son. Uhm... Jonathan.” It was so hard remembering their names. They grew up so quickly.

Hardly a couple minutes later his son knocked on the door and entered. Calm and collected he entered without waiting for a “Come in.” he approached the desk, sat down on the chair and looked at his father calmly.

Had his youngest son always been this frighteningly calm? Whenever Larsen invited his older sons to talk they always were scared, nervous or stuttering. Maybe before long his youngest would be the same.

“You know why I wanted to talk to you?”

Jonathan nodded. “Yes, Sir. It’s about the royal draft.” Not a single sign of fright. Emotionless, calm.

“Good. I did not plan for you to spend your time studying with… peasants. But seemingly your natural talent for healing is beyond anything they normally meet.”

Jon's attitude changed. He grew more interested but in no way frightened. “In what way beyond anything they normally meet?”

Larsen raised an eyebrow. “In the way that you are seemingly more talented than any person in the last 472 years. Too bad it is healing ability and not an elemental affinity. The last sorcerer with your grade of talent was the legendary General Magus Kain. Fire affinity.”

“The legendary general that subdued the western rebellion single handedly?”

“Yes. However…”, Larsen paused a second and glared at his youngest. “no one has ever seen a healing talent beyond that of rank 20. You are the first that theoretically could reach way beyond that. I need you to be on top of your game. Do you understand?”

His son only nodded, no less excited. “Yes, Sir. May I ask why-”

“Why you have to go study at the royal academy? Because they have a lot of influence and they really want you. You will try your hardest to be exceptional. I want you to rise high.”

Jonathan tilted his head lightly. “Would that not put me at risk? The more attention I focus on myself, the more I am noticed?”

Larsen smiled. His son was not an idiot. At least he was not calm because he was too stupid to realise what was going on. “Yes. You are a member of House Taylor. One of the most loyal houses to the crown and we stand firmly against the free guilds. I expect you to-”

“To infiltrate and report back. And once I gain a high position of influence I am to sway them towards integration into the royal military.”

Larsen was speechless. Seemingly his youngest son was the most promising and he had only two stupid knuckleheads. His sister Liljana would still put him to shame though. The girl already knew more about the law than his average intern and while studying battle tactics and military strategy she now wanted to be trained with an actual sword.

A lot to the displeasure of her mother. His wife had always wanted to marry the girl to someone, but he disapproved of that. Since he noticed her talent he had sworn not to let that-

“Sir?”

Larsen had deviated from his father son talk. “Yes? I’m sorry, I was just thinking of something.”

“I asked if I was right?”

“Ah, yes. I will send orders, you go and impress the guilds.” His son got up and walked towards the door. “Jonathan.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Keep contact with your sister. The girl will miss you. That will be all.”

The boy bowed to him. “Of course, Sir.”

Where did that boy take his calm and collected composure from? His wife sure as hell did not raise him by military standards and that was the first real eye to eye talk they ever had. Very strange. Strange indeed...

Jonathan Taylor

While Jonathan was putting on his Imperial Military Uniform he was thinking about his older brothers. He did not understand why they insisted on his father being intimidating. He was straight forwards, said what he wanted of Jon and was not bothering him to be more emotional. Well, he told him to keep contact with his sister, but nobody can be perfect. And Jonathan would have done that anyway. The backlash of not writing letters to his sister and mother were far too great after all. It was a hassle really.

The dark brown military uniform was a firm fit, tight but not in a bad way. He kept his sword at his right side, since he was faster drawing it with his left for some reason. Oddly enough his left was useless in fine motoric actions. Maybe the academy would let him switch the sword to something more brute-ish later on? Using a shield instead of an offensive weapon would be alright too, if he really had such healing potential he would need to stay alive.

Jonathan decided to just leave. His sister already said goodbye to him when he got the draft notice and his mother would most likely not notice that he was gone anyway. At first he had thought it strange that she reacted that way. After all he had some time to spare since he was drafted for next year, but his father made it clear to him that infiltrating the academy was essential now. Looks like his sister had thought ahead again. Jonathan did not mind going earlier, after all lying and faking his emotions were things he always had to do and he was curious to how big his healing talent really could grow.

On the way downstairs his father's servant Edward caught up to him. “Young master, wait. Just a second.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Your father told me to deliver these to you. Power shards with healing affinity.” Edward held a small leather bag that he quickly gave to Jon.

“Thank you, Edward.” Interesting. Maybe he could experiment with these to find out how strong he really was?

“Young master, take care that these are not stolen. Very valuable. And please take care of yourself.” The young servant had taken care of Jonathan and Liljana for over three years now, paying them more attention than any other person in this world. Jon knew he should be emotionally attached to the man and maybe say something nice. Then again, he did not really know how, his sister had always treated Edward like the servant he was. Everyone had.

“Thank you. Tell my father I will report within the week.”

The simple thank you should have done it. Jonathan even smiled, that was more than he granted people normally for no apparent reason. Then he left the estate and walked down the street. The noble district his home lied in was located right next to the royal palace, while the royal military academy had been built further down the large city hill.

Here the normal everyday life collided with a highly structured military base. Nine hundred years ago this base had been outside of the capital city. Soon it got devoured by the ever growing beast Kaeron was. Over a thousand years after its founding the city had grown to hold over a million souls. No one knew how many people lived here, hundreds died and were born every single day. Impossible to count.

The academy district walls were one thousand meters long on each side, forming a pentagon. With forty meter high walls and five meter high watchtowers every fifty meters on top, the district was one of the most fortified places within the city gates. Jonathan had read books about the structure and the fortification but it just did not come close to his imagination. At twenty and thirty meters height countless small windows allowed for archers to shoot down with precision, the towers were armed with large ballista or spear throwers for long ranged artillery defense.

Not to mention the countless magic talented defense strategies that could be taken. Fireballs flying down more than forty meters alongside thunder, frozen water spikes and countless other projectiles made the gateways the only point of attack that could work. Earth mages had their own say in this matter though. But no one would ever know how a siege would go down. Other countries had no standing magical military and the great city of Kaeron had not been attacked in over eight hundred years. Some theorists even claimed the city was way too defenseless and unprepared due to the lack of exercise.

Jonathan came to the gateway, that was just barely big enough to allow carts and horses through. Easy to defend, the entrance would be quickly blocked and traps could be laid out around it. Here he was a young man standing in front of this huge monstrosity of a bastion.

A guard, barely older than himself stepped forward, blocking his path. “Papers please.”

The recruit most likely assumed that Jonathan was a member of the school already since he was wearing the uniform. He reached for the draft letter and gave it to the guard. “Here you go.”

The guard was really not very good at his job. Focusing way too much on his draft papers, paying way too little attention to actually guarding him. If this was a less guarded gate he could be dead on the ground before he noticed what happened.

“This says you are drafted for next year? Why are you here? Barely two days after you received this?”

Jonathan decided to copy one of his older brothers. He always had a thing for talking high and mighty to those lower in standing. First he glared at the guard with annoying demeanor and then he spoke to him with a very cold and direct voice: “Yes. Now go and get these to your superior. Tell them Jonathan Taylor has arrived early.”

The guard was confused and a little taken off guard from his tone. “Taylor?”

Obviously this guy was a student with peasant background. “The Taylor household. A noble family. Now go, or else…”

Now panic was showing on the recruit. “Yes… I mean yes, Sir.” Half stumbling he ran to get the information to his superiors.

In the distance beyond the gate Jon was able to see the academy. Countless buildings and evergreen gardens promised a calming and interesting school area. They were not as big as the walls might let one think. The biggest building he saw was the famous bibliothek. All the wisdom in the whole empire was stored here. Jon was really curious what he would find there on healing magic.

How strong could he become?

How powerful a healer would he be?