Spurred by the idea, Gen shouted, “Mister! Mister! Sir!” Gen shouted from the top of his lungs at the poor man who probably just wanted to be left alone. Gen continued for several seconds until the man slowly turned his head around with a confused look, then he locked his eyes with Gen’s focused and excited stare. The man upon the beast slowly came to a halt, and before the man could pose his question Gen shouted, “What’s that!” as he pointed to the large beast—completely forgetting his manners.

Tulia interrupted with a slight chuckle, “pardon my son, I believe he’s lost all of his manners in his excitement,” she said with a nudge.

“Ah, apologies. My name is Gen Wyn, and I’m very curious about the beast you’re sitting on.” Gen shyly said.

The giant white luminescent panther with fiery red eyes gave him a displeasing ‘grr’ and the man chuckled as he said, “my friend here does not like to be referred to as a ‘beast’. She is a moonsaber, a proud and noble race that normally resides within Three Peaks. My name is Sylus Buch.”

“May I pet her?” Gen shameless asked.

The man let out a hearty laugh, “You aren’t afraid of getting your hands bitten off?”

Startled at the question, “should I be?” Gen replied meekly, some of his enthusiasm waned.

“Well, if you want to pet her, you’ll have to ask her directly,” the man said with a smile.

Not fazed about having to ask a moonsaber permission, Gen looked pleadingly at the beast and said, “May I pet you?”

“Hmm. She says ‘no’. Haha, don’t be discouraged boy, Lei’ai here takes a bit of time to warm up to,” the man said.

Gaius interrupted, “Sir, do you mean to tell me that you two can communicate?”

The man looked at the lad as if he was daft and bellowed, “Of course! Can’t very well bind a moonsaber without being able to talk to it, can you?”

The two boys were still confused but at the same time astonished. To clarify, Tulia chimed in, “What Sir Buch is saying . . .”

“Please Miss, Sylus is fine,” he interrupted.

“What Sylus is saying is that he practices the Aspect of the Beast, which enables him to communicate to his companion here.”

Just like that, the two boys realized how big the world was outside of their small countryside village. With a nod and a smile, Sylus bade them farewell and a safe journey as he trotted forward.

“Wow! Mom, do you think I can get a moonsaber like his? Her fur looked sooooooooooooooo soft and shiny!” Gen said.

“Haha, maybe not a moonsaber. Even in the Three Peaks they are fairly rare. But if you condense the Aspect of the Beast, you might be able to,” Tulia suggested. “Aren’t you going to take up after your mother? And condense the Aspect of the Shield?” she asked curiously.

Embarrassed by his indecision Gen bowed his head deep in thought and whispered, “Hmm. Since I also practice a Heavenly Aspect like you, that means I can only condense one Earthly Aspect, right?”

Tulia smiled and nodded at her son. She was cherishing every moment his child-like face was concentrated in thought she said, “Haha, it’s okay son. If you want to condense the Aspect of the Beast, then it is your choosing. I was only teasing you before. But, you should study all of the other Aspects out there before you make your decision. Who knows, perhaps you’ll find something more enticing than the Aspect of the Beast.”

Excitement gleamed within his eyes as he could not possibly think of anything more exciting than riding on a majestic steed. The talk of condensing an Aspect, which always bogged Gaius down, now filled him with anticipated.

“I wonder what an antimage actually does. Dad said that they are best suited to fight other mages, but outside of that what can they do? I don’t want to fight mages for the rest of my life,” he thinks to himself. “Ah, guess I can only wait for Uncle Viktor to tell me.”

For the rest of the trip to the city walls, Gaius and Gen were fascinated by all the things around them. Behind them, their father and the two elderly couple smiled warmly at the genuine curiosity and pure innocence of the two boys as the world unfolded before them.

“Mom! Mom! Why does that carriage have a thingy on top of it?” Gaius and Gen both shouted.

Several meters behind them was a horseless carriage. The odd thing about this carriage however was that it had a sail attached to the top.

“The thing attached to the top of the carriage is called a sail. It catches wind and allows the carriage to propel forward. There’s probably a strong mage inside that practices the Aspect of the Wind, or several weaker mages that take turns condensing wind.”

The two boys’ face was filled with awe and their eyes widen to their limits trying to absorb everything in their sights, as if too afraid to blink and miss something spectacular.

Gaius looked to the side of the road and saw a man with a booth selling something, “Mom, what is that man selling?”

“Water,” Tulia answered easily.

“But . . .” Gaius was flabbergasted, “isn’t 1 square coin for a cup of water too expensive?” Gaius asked.

It should be noted that metal coins are the standard form of currency where 10 copper coins were worth 1 bronze coins, 10 bronze coins were worth 1 silver, and 10 silver coins were worth 1 gold. But each coin also had a shaped hole in its center. The copper coin had a circular hole taken out of its center, the bronze coin had a square-shaped hole, and the silver coin had a triangle-shaped hole cut out from its center, and the gold coin was a pure whole coin. The more sides the hole in the center had, the less valuable it is. Because of this, coins were often referred to by the layman by their shaped hole.

“It is, there are free fountains within the city and at some farmsteads. But out here on the road where water is a necessity and a luxury at once, what do you do when you run out? Would you rather remain thirsty than pay a bronze coin?” Tulia instructed.

Gaius pondered about this conundrum.

Tulia continued, “Only those who train in the Aspect of Water are able to conjure water. And I assume that peddler can barely condense enough to sell a cup an hour. It is very difficult to condense deluges without training and time.”

“Why don’t most spend their time training in the Aspects? Won’t it make their lives easier?” Gaius astutely asked.

“That’s quite a loaded question son,” Tulia smiled and continued, “The first problem is that it requires a lot of knowledge and time, and you need an affinity for it. The second problem. . . Well, perhaps we can asks our guests to clarify this one?”

The chatter within the wagon stopped and the two elderly couple looked up at the questioning gaze of Gaius. The old man smiled at him. “Kind sir,” Tulia began, “to which Aspect do you practice?”

“Hmm, let’s see ‘ere. Hmm, I don’t quite remember, honey do you remember what Aspect I use to practice?” he asked his wife.

“Earth, dear. At least I think so, it’s been so long,” she replied.

“May I ask how come you have stopped practicing it?” Tulia asked.

“Was never any good at it, and it takes too much time to get it right. ‘sides if I spent all of my time trying to make the ground shake or what-not, who’s going to work the fields?” he answered.

“That son, is the essence of it. People must work to feed themselves and live. They cannot spend the time required to focus on their training,” Tulia said with a calm face.

The old man nodded as he approved of her methods. “Hope the boys will value the chance they have to learn the Aspects, Mother knew I wanted to when I was younger,” the old man somberly thought to himself.

Gaius thought hard about what he had heard and before he knew it, they were at the gates of South Calet. He still could not help but gawk at the massive stone gate looming all around him, and Gaius suddenly noticed a sign posted on the side of the gate reading: “By Imperial Order, all must pay a tax upon entry”. Now that he realized the sign he also noted that the wagon he was on was currently stopped to one side while the left side of the road had freely flowing pedestrians. “Why are we stopped mom?”

“The line we’re currently in is for merchants to sell their wares, the other line is for everyone else,” she absentmindedly replied.

Gaius was a bit confused and decided to look back into the wagon and noticed at the back were leftover crates of their vials, then understanding dawned.

A rotund man wearing the black colors of the city guard came towards their wagon. Even though it was early morning he swaggered over with a sweaty face with an abacus. As he approached the wagon he called out in a tired voice, “What are you all selling?”

“Alchemical supplies,” Duncan hollered from the back.

The old man also said, “And crops.”

“Ah, Reed! Come ‘ere, some alchemy shit for you to appraise,” the rotund man yelled to the side. He continued on to the old couple’s baskets and scoffed at the paltry sum, and without inspecting it he said, “3 square coins.”

Surprised at the cost the old man replied, “But sir, my crops are not worth that much! 3 square coins is a 50% tax! We won’t have enough money.”

The rotund man winced, “Father curse them. Their crops aren’t even worth more than 6 square coins?” the man thought to himself. The rotund man turned around and glared at the old couple and finally relented. He approached them and inspected their goods and true to their words, their crops were probably ONLY worth 6 square coins. “2 circle coins for entry,” he said sternly as he stretches out his hand. Though he may be extremely lazy in his duties, he wasn’t a bad person.

The old man paid and thanked the man profusely. At this time another man approached while the rotund one went to the next merchant. The old man said, “We thank you for the ride and company. If you ever find yourself east of the city and near my farm, you’re welcome anytime.” With that the old couple disembarked and went about their day.

The man presumed to be Reed walked up to the wagon and began to inspect the 2 crates. One of which was filled with rich dark red vials and the other with clear blue vials. He randomly pulled out a vial from each crate and studied the color, and after a bit opened the stopper and smelled the aroma. His tired indifferent eyes opened up in shock as he quickly closed the stopper trying not to let the aroma escape. He looked at the vials in his hands and quickly placed his fingers upon his abacus, and they danced. His fingers moved quickly and methodically, and soon he stopped and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

“50 gold pieces for entry,” was the only thing the man said as he looked at these bumpkins before him.

“Ah, I almost forgot. Here,” Duncan said as he handed the man a token of some kind.

Reed’s eyes widen and nodded in understanding and returned the token before saying, “You are exempt from taxes.” The man quickly scurried back into the room built within the gate—most likely a guard post.

The wagon began to roll through the gate and before Gaius could ask about what his father just did, Tulia spoke up, “You know, they’re going to make you work for lost time, we should have just paid the 50 gold.”

“Haha, yeah. But I also want to register Gaius into the guild,” Duncan replied with a smile.

“Brother? What guild is brother going to join, dad?” Gen asked by the side.

“The Alchemists Guild of course, just like your old man! You may have taken after your mother’s Aspect, but your brother has taken after me, and he’s a lot more promising than I was at his age,” Duncan beamed.

Gen smiled for his brother and then frowned as he heard his father’s praise, “Why can’t mother praise me the way dad praises brother, it’s so unfair,” Gen thought to himself, “ah, I shouldn’t think that. Brother can’t condense an Aspect.” Gen perked up after his gloomy thoughts as his mind drifted to the possibility of him being able to tame a majestic steed.