“I don’t get why you went first.” I finally stopped only a few steps away from the baker’s. “We both knew you should go second. It was obvious he was looking for magical abilities.”

“You saw what happened. It wouldn’t have made a difference. He knocked aside my best like it was nothing.” Sarah rolled her eyes at me, but I didn’t budge.

“What? Do you want me to say I had some grand plan? I didn’t Rook. Now get over it.”

“No. I want to know. Why? That isn’t like you to just pull that.”

“Fine, Rook, you want to know? It’s because I thought you were hiding it.”

“Hiding it? What’s it?”

“I was sure this entire time you were hiding that you actually had inherited your mother’s Kin magic. I thought by going first, I would let you figure out what you needed to ensure at least you could leave home.”

I stared at my friend for several seconds, unsure what to say.

“I… I didn’t really think you had no magic whatsoever.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” I finally sighed. At the very least, it was nice to hear that her reasoning was one born of genuine sincerity. “But why do you think I wouldn’t tell you?”

“I… I thought maybe you were trying to make me feel better.”

“Me? Make you feel better? Sixteen, and you’re capable of drawing on all five forms of wild magic. And you think you’re the one who needs to be made to feel better?”

“Yeah.” Sarah said with a shrug. “We go through the same sword training, and yet I can barely swing a blade without almost taking out someone’s eye.”

“Some would argue that’s a good thing.”

“Not the time for jokes Rook. I’m serious. Other than magic, what do I have over you?”

“You say that like I’m some genius, Sarah. Other than swordplay, what do I have over you? Hmm?”

“Well, you come from a powerful family.”

“Sure, according to my mother. The Baster family, magic users who could fry a person's brain without ever harming a hair on their head. Except, once again, I don’t have that magic, and second, I’ve never met any of my family aside from my mother. So what good does it do me?”

“I mean-”

“Sarah don’t overthink it. It doesn’t matter my lineage, nor does it matter yours. I’m still magicless, and you’re a full access wild magic-user. Can’t be any more cut and drier than that.”

“I guess,” Sarah looked off to the side for a moment, face an unreadable expression before she shook it off, looking once more like my annoying friend of over ten years. “Well, what better way to shake off post-failure blues than with a bite to eat?”

“Now that’s the attitude.” I laughed, looking away as I found my own expression softening, unable to hold the façade up much longer.

The bastard of the Baster family can’t even use the one thing gained from his family, our Kin magic.

“You coming Rook?”

“Yeah, right behind you.” I turned back to look at her, no sign of my mental struggles on my face. “I’m starving after getting knocked down so easily.”

---------------------------

“Alright, well I’ll see you tomorrow ok?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow Sarah.” I waved as I began to walk the opposite direction from where my friend was headed, back home to help her father out with some of his customers.

Alright. Jorgsin… Jorgsin… Where does Jorgsin live again?

My mother had instructed me to track the man down while I was in town, he owed her money for something she had helped with several weeks back that he had yet to make good on. It was well understood to not cross my mother, but the man he decided rather than make an ordeal out of it he would simply avoid her.

I swear, it’s like he thinks that if he is out of sight she will forget about it.

I wandered aimlessly through the small village for some time, in truth while I needed to find him I was also simply enjoying the day out. Normally I would spend most of my day back home, swinging my training sword through hundreds of different exercises.

“It’s fine if you can’t use our magic. Most people in the world can’t use magic Rook.”

“But I want to! I want to be like you and go on adventures!”

“Honey, I was younger back then. It’s not as great as it sounds.”

“But I want to…”

My mother sighed at kid me before picking me up and placing me on her knee.

“Rook. If that is how you feel now, and when you’re older then I won’t try to convince you out of it. My father used to try to make me change my mind on things, and it never worked. So instead, if you really, really mean it, the only way you can do it, is by dedicating yourself to it fully. A half-hearted dream is just that, a dream. And I know a thing or two about what goes on in the head.” She had bent over then, tickling me as I tossed around on her lap like a flopping fish, giggling the entire time.

I stopped, the fond memory fading away. I had been five at the time, ten years ago. It was shortly after when I had begun picking up random sticks and swinging them around, eventually moving on to wooden toy swords that the local carpenter made for me, it was how I had first met Sarah. The years would pass, my mind and opinion on things would change, but one thing that never did change, was the hours I spent outside, swinging a sword.

I had no magic, but I was dead set on leaving this life behind.

Just not this year I guess…

Mood souring, I began searching in earnest through town, until I reached the far side from where my home was located. As luck would have it, I was about to turn back around when I noticed someone.

“Jorgsin?” I called out, startling the man.

“What, whose th- oh it’s you, Rook. Shh, come here.” He waved me over frantically, all while shushing me. Curious, I walked towards him where he was peeking out from behind a corner of a house, at what exactly I wasn’t sure.

“Jorgsin my mom wan-”

“Her money, I know. Shh. Look around this corner and tell me what you see, will you?”

Curious I did as I was told. Jorgsin wasn’t known for being the nosy type, so for him to be acting this way had caught my attention.

“What is it- who are they?”

“Right? I don’t know either.” Jorgsin whispered from next to me.

Around the corner of the house and towards the back alley, if one could call the shoddy dirt path an alley, three figures in robes were standing about.

“… you sure about that?”

“Yeah. You heard what she said.”

“Readings like that don’t just show up for no reason.”

“Here though? In this town of nothing? Why here?”

“How would I know?”

I looked over at Jorgsin, who had the same confused expression as I did.

“What are they talking about?” I mouthed at him, suddenly afraid of being heard even whispering as we had been.

“No idea. I only noticed them a bit before you showed up.”

“Who are they?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

The strangers, were, well, strange, but I had better things to be doing than watching them. Beginning to take a step away, I stopped when Jorgsin grabbed my wrist, pointing at me to pay attention once more.

“…sage here?”

“Wait, what did you say their name was?”

“Let me check the list… Something, something of the… right. The Witch of the Phantasmal Flames. Wait, she is here?”

“The names match, don’t they?”

“But do you think she is the one?”

“Even if she isn’t, you know they will want her anyway. Can’t believe this has been where she has been hiding out all these years.”

My heart felt as if it were about to beat straight out of my chest.

My mother. While I couldn’t make sense of everything they had said, it was obvious that at the very least, they were after my mother. Without thinking about it, I found myself backpedaling, until my foot gently backed into a small rock, sending it quietly clacking against the wooden wall of the house.

“Wait, did you hear that?”

Jorgsin and I shared a love of frozen panic, but I saw as the gears within his mind rapidly spun. Settling on something, the man shoved me back and out of the way, while he stepped directly forward, catching the attention of the strangers.

“Hello there.” Jorgsin waved at the three, doing his best to act natural as I watched silently from where they wouldn’t notice me. “I noticed you three here. Is something wrong?”

I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen.

“Captain?” One of the cloaked figures looked towards who must have been their leader.

“Screw it. Burn it all down. Maybe we can draw her out like that.”

Before I had time to react, Jorgsin staggered back, a spike of earth had erupted from the ground and through his chest, skewering him in place.

“Oh, and don’t let the kid run off either.”

My eyes widened, I felt like a cornered mouse, they had realized I was here the entire time.

“Run!” Jorgsin coughed out as loudly as he could, voice wet as blood stained the ground before him.

Run!

I felt my legs move from under me, arms pumping as I began to sprint away with all the speed I could muster, a single thought on my mind.

I have to get to mom!

She could do something about this. This was out of most of our scope to deal with, the fact that they had shown off magic meant only either an exceptionally skilled swordsman or another magic-user could have any chance of fighting back.

If only I had my sword with me.

I shook my head as I ran. No, even if I had my sword it made no difference. I had faith in my ability as a sword fighter but against a trained mage? I doubted my odds, much less three of them.

Wait, the guards from Theronhold!

I had seen at least one of them capable of defending themselves against magic. If I could reach them, I wouldn’t have to involve my mom.

Just have to- Woah!

I barely skipped to the side as one of the houses I ran by exploded in a shower of stone splinters and flaming logs. I was keenly aware of other debris exploding out from it as well, debris of the much more… organic variety, but I had to keep my eyes away from it.

Don’t think about it.

Still running, I suddenly slammed into someone, dropping to the ground in a sprawl.

“Ouch, watch it as- Rook?”

“Yeera! Are the guards from Theronhold still here?”

“Hmm? No, they left about ten or so minutes ago from what I heard. Why?”

“We, there, bad guys!”

“Bad guys? Slow down a moment, you aren’t making sense Rook.” Yeera stood up, helping me up as she did.

“Bad guys! Back there, they blew up a house, and-”

My words were cut short, as a wall of light suddenly appeared before my eyes, a living column of writhing orange flames.

“Watch out!” Yeera shouted, and without being able to do anything she threw me to the side, and in the process, was caught by the whirling flame column.

“Yeera!” I shouted, my throat suddenly feeling hoarse.

The fire dissipated, and with it gone, what remained of Yeera was an unrecognizable skeleton, charred to the bone, her sword, a family heirloom as she had once told me, untouched several feet away.

“See this? Was enchanted to be immune to fire, or so I’ve heard. Not like I’ve wanted to test myself. My great grandfather won it in a duel against some arrogant wizard.”

Yeera was dead.

Yeera was dead.

“So this is where you ran off to.”

I spun around, expecting to see one of the cloaked figures, but was instead greeted by a shambling mound of dirt that vaguely resembled a person.

“Can’t have you running off to explain what is going on. Stand still and this won’t hurt, ok?”

The mud golem began to reach out towards me, as it did I saw its hand begin to harden into savage-looking spikes. Before it could grab me, I slipped out of the way, mind on autopilot I scrambled towards the fallen sword, picking it up and holding it before me. It was thinner and lighter than the sword I was used to training with, but it was better than nothing.

“Alright. I tried to be nice, but we don’t have time for this.”

The mud golem lunged at me, disturbingly quick for a construct made of earth, but I avoided the strike, its fist smashing through the wall of another house, muffled yells of surprise from inside as the occupants were surprised with a fist of mud smashing through their wall.

“Damn kid.”

I backed up a step, putting some more distance between myself and the golem.

Will it even matter if I attack it?

I was beginning to have more and more doubts, but I put them at the back of my mind.

“Remember. Doubts are normal, but in a fight, a doubt will only slow you down.”

It was my turn to go on the offensive as the mud golem missed me by the hair’s breadth. Stepping forward I dipped in its guard, thrusting the sword forward into the mud golem. The sword struck true, not exactly difficult given the size of the thing, but if it were phased it showed no outward sign. Swinging at me once more I was forced to jump back, scurrying out of the way of its heavy stone claws that had sprouted from its muddy fist.

Think. Obviously, it’s not actually alive.

I had been on the lookout for any more fire columns, but it was only the golem that I’d had to deal with.

I get it. The realization hit me at once. The golem and the fire aren’t from the same person.

The fire was likely an automatic response, some sort of trigger that summoned it forth.

What was it then? The trigger?

I dodged, rather awkwardly, out of the way of another charge by the golem as it smashed completely through a nearby home.

Magic. That’s it.

It was obviously magic that called the fire forth, but not in the obvious sense. When I had collided with Yeera, she had likely reflexively drawn on her Inner magic, weak as hers was, to reinforce herself.

If that’s the case…

Holding the sword, Yeera’s sword, flat in front of me I began to pull at the low humming buzz within me.

I hadn’t been lying to Sarah when I had told her I really couldn’t use any magic, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t channel it. It was just, for whatever reason, I had never had a way to direct it. Our family Kin magic had skipped a generation with me it was looking like, I didn’t have an affinity for wild magic, and I have never picked up Inner magic.

But I still could feel the buzz of magic within me, part of what drove me so hard, the frustration that it was there but still out of reach.

“Screw you.” Pouring out as much magic as I could with my feeble reserves, I lunged forward once more, utilizing first style to slip past its attacks as I stabbed the sword into its chest.

Nothing happened, at least not from me. Knowing what to expect, I felt it a moment before it happened, a sudden swell of energy fixed on my current location. Using every bit of strength I had I threw myself far away as I could, as a column of fire burst into existence, swallowing up where I had just been standing.

And with it, the mud golem. So intense was the heat that I could see as the wet earth making up the golem dried all but instantly. Several more seconds passed until at last, the flame column disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

The mud golem had been turned into a clay statue, on the verge of collapsing as cracks formed all over it, I heard it speak to me with the voice of one of the cloaked figures once more.

“Stupid kids.”

Then with a loud crack, the statue shattered, falling apart like broken pottery.

I did it.

I wanted to simultaneously jump for joy and curl up in a small ball at the same time, but I had to keep moving. I’d have a head start on the hostile mages, I knew exactly where my mother would be after all. Dusting myself off I looked around for any more mud golems, but none appeared. Relief filled me for a moment before something else set off alarms in my head.

Smoke. Smoke was rising from all around the village, there was only one thing it could mean.

“Burn it all down.”

My village, while not really my village, was being burnt to the ground. No longer caught up in the action of fighting a mud golem, I began to pick out sounds, yells of terror and screams of panic, even shouts of resistance here and there.

It’s no use.

I may not have been a mage but living with one, I knew at least enough to know that these guys were bad news. Fire attacks that could appear all but instantly, destructive enough to burn a person using Inner magic to the bone, remote earthen constructs.

Gold band at least.

My mother had often told me stories of her adventures in the past, how adventurers would only be allowed access to certain requests or locations with qualifications. They went in the order of zero band, or a complete amateur, Tin, Copper, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Silver, Gold, Nizeium, and finally Ornnax.

“At my prime, I was about gold rank, though I never bothered to actually take the test for it. It was always an annoying process for me, my magic not being at overt as other gold-ranked magic adventurers. You’d see them try to show off with their fancy golems or making a big show of creating localized storms. Useless in my opinion unless you’re up against a horde why waste so much mana with such wide-scale magic?”

Or when you're attacking an entire village at once mom.

The point was, regardless of if they were around silver or gold, they would far outclass anyone within the village in terms of magic. Yeera had been the head of the village guard, and even her caliber of Inner magic had left her a charred remain.

No actually...

There was perhaps one person in the village who had magic enough to not be instantly killed, but that was only if she was quick with her responses.

I was torn. Sarah could fend for herself, but in doing so she would be under constant pressure, her magic used to defend herself calling down more attacks on her. If I got to her I could explain to stop relying on her magic.

But

But my mother was more pressing. It was her they wanted after all.

Doing my best to ignore the sounds all around me, I oriented myself towards home, running along as fast as I could. Occasionally I would encounter one of the mud golems but since I had discovered how to use their own magic against them, I would lure in a firestorm, destroying the golem before running off again.

Why do we have to live just so far away?

I was lucky that I hadn’t run into any of the actual mages yet, but I wasn’t sure how long my luck would hold.

There!

I had made it to the village outskirt, all that was left to do was to run the rest of the way home, but I froze as soon as I looked out at the faint path that would lead the way home.

There, standing not far out, were two of the mages, hands outstretched as they battled a lone figure opposing them.

“Mom!”

Like an orchestra conductor, her hands were moving about, fingers dancing as she matched everything they threw at her. Real flames were pushed back by illusions, mud golems contesting phantasmal soldiers. I wasn’t sure how her illusion magic could hold back the very real flames and solid bodies of the mud golems, but I tried not to question it. All I could see was my mother, straining against their combined force, still wearing her bandana she wore when she baked bread. I wanted to rush out to aid her, but before I could I was cut off, a sword suddenly in my way.

“Sorry kid but can’t have you trying anything funny.”

To my left where I hadn’t noticed, was the third cloaked figure, a man with short blonde curly hair, only in his early thirties at best.

“Unlike my companions here, I’m not exactly fond of needless death, so I’ll give you this warning to back off, but if you get in the way of our mission, I will kill you.”

I glanced helplessly between the sword in my way and my mother, before finally stepping back.

“Smart choice.” The man half-smiled, a look of relief on his face.

That was, until I raised my sword before me, one arm behind my back as I gave him a slight bow.

“One swordsman to another, show a sign of respect. Unlike magic, swordplay has no gimmick. It is a test of skill against skill.”

“I can’t just watch.” I nodded towards my mother locked in battle with the two enemy mages.

The man seeing my stance raised an eyebrow, before raising his own sword before him much as I had, a show of respect.

“You’re going to die for this, but at least I can admire your resolve kid.”

Our short exchange of words over, the next sound to ring out was from the exchange of our blades, the only exchange that mattered in the end.

Just hold on mom. I’m coming.