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Chapter 5 – Enter the Prince

*** Eleanor Cazador ***

I smiled looking down at the person I looked up to the most, he was my fiancé Leo Cazador, I was adopted into his family and promised to him. He never treated me badly, he was a kind person, and strong too. He practiced regularly out in the yard with the squires of the castle knights though they were older. He often showed abilities that were greater than what anyone would expect of him. To me he represents a happy future, mother Gianna said I would one day be queen of these lands and he my king.

I was currently in his room as he soundly slept, the ride had taken an entire day to get to the city walls of Odea and the ride had made him really tired. Without a care I threw myself on top of him landing sprawled over his chest. He woke with a grunt.

“I bet that woke you up,” I said gleefully sitting up as my legs straddled his waist. He looked at me with a frown before it turned into a mischievous grin, he sat up quickly wrapping his arms around me then turned me on my back before I could react. His finger came up to my sides and I began to laugh uncontrollably as he tickled my sensitive sides.

“Stop! HAHAHA!” I cried out. “HAHAHA! Stop! HAHAHA!”

I couldn’t take it anymore, I felt like I was about to pee myself from all the laughing and tickling, and then as I ran out of breath he stopped. He knelt over me with that stupid grin still plastered to his face. I pushed him aside, his body complied with my meager force, and then I climbed on his back.

“Now you are going to have to carry me down to breakfast or I’ll choke you,” I said squeezing with all my feeble strength. He gagged and tapped my arms as he conceded defeat.

I happily rode on his back until we got near the kitchen, he let me down as we walked in as regally as possible. Our head servants waited within, the table was already set with our breakfast. We ate quietly before heading out to the waiting carriage that was summoned to take us into the market square.

Once at the market square a procession of twelve knight guards followed us in our exploration of the stalls. There were some game stalls that delivered prizes to winners, I liked those because Leo never failed to win me something, and though they were low quality gifts they were gifts from Leo. Some of the things in the market I did not recognize, Leo would describe those he recognized though I was surprised to find that there were a few things he did not know about. The first time he actually uttered “I don’t know” I couldn’t quite actually believe it and asked him again and again until I realized that there were some things that he did not even know. Instead of thinking negatively of him I thought only of how wide the world could truly be if there were things Leo did not know about.

Eventually as we ventured deeper into the market square our procession encountered another just as large as our own only that the guards wore foreign armor and strange weapons.

*** Adrian McGlothin ***

“There is nothing in this insignificant country that is worth our time,” Nigel, my best friend and court magister, said. He was a young man barely in his twenties as was I.

“Now, now,” I said as I looked through the crowds from my vantage point on the fifth floor of the finest inn the city had to offer. We were under guise to keep from being noticed by the officials of this country as I wanted my presence to be kept very much a secret.

“What could possibly interest you so much that may lie beyond the balcony of this room?” Nigel asked as he came up to my side.

“Look,” I pointed to a curious duo surrounded by a dozen palace guards. “What do you see?”

“The children of two nobles?” he raised a brow, not understanding my question.

“Look closely at the boy,” I said once more.

“I don’t see…I…how is…?” Nigel looked towards me shocked.

“Exactly,” I nodded.

Among the two children the dozen guards followed the boy was a mage but his mana, it shimmered unnaturally, he had no visible core and his mana appeared almost invisible. The only reason I could tell he was a mage was by the force and will he emitted on the mana around him commanding it in ways I could not even begin to understand.

“Let’s go meet him,” I said leaving my mouth gaping friend behind as I left to meet the child. I could hear Nigel rushing towards me calling for the guards to follow us.

*** Leo Cazador ***

As we made our way through yet another vendor our procession nearly collided with another, Eleanor and I came to a halt before two noblemen from the foreign empire.

“Excuse us,” I bowed then motioned to move around their procession taking hold of Eleanor’s hand.

“Wait,” the more regal of the two nobles motioned for us to stop. “Who are you young child?”

“I am just the son of a noble,” I replied vaguely.

“He is heir to Boraia,” I could hear Eleanor announce proudly and clearly behind me before I could drag her away. I had sensed their presence making their way towards us but had no way of convincing Eleanor to avoid them in a discreet manner. This was not an ideal day.

“Quite a feeble prince,” one of the two muttered, the regal one slightly frowned at his comment but said nothing of it.

“Leo is not feeble you low class heathen!” Eleanor practically snarled. I wondered mostly of where she learned such language, it surely was not from me. “You are in our lands, bow before the prince of Boraia!”

“Insolent girl,” the same man now returned a grimace. “You stand before two greater nobles, in the name of peace I could ask your very king to have both of you whipped.”

Eleanor was a child that was surprisingly quick to anger, this confrontation was too much for her and out of impulsive anger she breathed deeply and prepared to unleash a fire spell I had taught her to use only when she needed to kill. With my hand still grabbing ahold of hers I twirled her around bringing her to face me, her face grew flushed as her lips closed tightly to contain the spell. If contained it would roast her from within, I did the only thing I could think of to remedy the situation, I placed my own lips over hers and drained away the mana she concentrated there. I could feel her breath escape through her nose as I disrupted the spell. Her eyes grew clouded as she slumped her head into the crook of my neck after our lips parted.

“For the honor of the lady I ask that you retreat from this encounter,” I spoke icily. My eyes lost their bright almond color to glow a crimson blood red, my fury spoke volumes in the realms conceivable only by the adept magi. “Lest I be forced to restore it by other means.”

The less regal of the two widen his eyes with shock, but the other only closed his eyes in admitted and honorable defeated. He stepped to a side clearing a path for us.

Eleanor was still dazed from the cancellation of her spell so she leaned on me as we walked through the remainder of the market and towards the waiting wagon at its end.

*** Adrian McGlothin ***

“That child…” Nigel said with unfocused eyes.

“Yes,” I nodded solemnly. We were back in our room after the encounter, it had left quite the impression. “I was there as well.”

“He swallowed…her...,” Nigel’s voice became trapped for a moment. “he…her mana…”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“But how is that possible?” Nigel’s expression of disbelief would have been my own if he had not expressed it first. My own mind could barely wrap itself around what it had just witnessed. “He swallowed her mana and breathed it out like steam, it wasn’t constructed mana any more, it…it was wild…natural mana. It was almost invisible if not for some of the impurities. His core is just like that, almost completely invisible, as if it is composed of natural mana.”

I said nothing, he said all that I was thinking, the boy, the way he dispersed the girl’s spell and his core that resembled an equal enigma. What was he? How could he do these things?

“His core too,” Nigel continued after a moment, “It was like it wasn’t there. Like it was just as wild and natural as he turned the girl’s mana into. If the mages of this country can replicate this, if they are all like this…”

He left the comment hanging incomplete but I understood what danger a nation could pose to our empire if they could train an army to harness raw mana of this magnitude.

“No…,” I said after a moment of deep thought. “The boy is unique, his strength is like no other. We must meet him and make amends. I would rather have a nation capable of producing such a child be made an ally not an enemy.”