8 – Ministry of Youth Affairs

The Archmage had not arrived by simple teleportation this time.

No.

When they stepped out of the shack, he put two fingers to his lips and whistled at the sky.

“What are you doing?” Ari asked.

“You’ll see,” he said, still staring at the sun. Ari followed his gaze, and at first all she saw was a dot.

But then it grew larger and larger, until her mouth slackened.

The sound of galloping filled the air, followed by the flapping of heavy wings.

Archmage Elric had called down a flying carriage, drawn not by horses, but by magical griffins, with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and talons on its four feet.

Ari had never seen anything like it in all of her life. She stared at the beasts for what felt like hours, breathless in wonder.

Archmage Elric walked up to one of them, stroking its back as it nuzzled at his pockets.

“These are Winged Guardians,” he announced. “Descended from legendary animals once known to belong to the Heavenly Sentinel himself. These beasts can only be owned by Archmages who have mastered the art of taming, by maintaining a steady, persistent Luxa-Massa lattice to continuously read, soothe, and direct them. And it has to remain steady because if the spell fails, or even just falters, they could just as easily turn on you and eat you.”

That earned him horrified stares.

“Not that you have to worry about that with me,” Elric added. “Only five Archmages in history have succeeded at Griffin taming, and I’m one of them. I achieved that in a remarkably short time span. Some might say I have a natural gift.”

“You have something, alright,” Thessa murmured, and Ari followed her mother’s gaze to where the beast dislodged a huge piece of dried rat carcass from the Archmage’s pockets.

Before he could move, it gobbled it up in one swallow.

His face heated, and he cleared his throat. “Perhaps, I utilized a little positive reinforcement along the way.”

Celie laughed.

Ari nodded.

Elric seemed to be waiting for something else to accompany the nod, but when it didn’t happen, he simply gave an awkward laugh and opened the carriage door. “Shall we?”

She nodded and got into the carriage. He got in next to her, and it was a two-seater, but there was more than enough space to fit a third person in.

“Wait.”

Celie’s voice rang out, and Ari thought she might ask to join them.

But she simply walked up to the window and pinned Elric with a hard look.

“If my sister does not return in one piece, Archmage or not, I will find you.”

Elric, rather than being offended at the threat to his far superior person, seemed almost pleased by this reaction. “I would hope you do.”

After that and a brisk nod from her mother, they set off.

Ari’s heart raced as the carriage lifted into the air.

She didn’t know what to do or say as the beast climbed into the sky and the clouds fanned her face, the breeze blowing through her hair. She stared down at everything getting smaller and smaller, the place that had once been her entire world, turning into nothing but a patch of land.

She had a lot of mixed emotions in her chest that she could not comprehend.

“It’s alright,” Elric said. “We’ll be back soon.”

Yes, but after that she would leave for a long time.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

She swallowed because she didn’t know how to answer that question. She felt terrified and excited at the same time.

“I feel fine.” Celie had always taught her that was the appropriate response to a question like that, when you had nothing else to say.

“I remember when I left my home for the first time,” Elric started, staring into space as he spoke. “It was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. Mostly because, up until that point, I’d believed I was mundane like you.”

“Why would you believe that?”

“Because my parents, or the people who I thought were my parents, were mundane,” he said. “My family history is fairly complicated. I’m not sure I want to get into it right now and bore you with the details….”

Ari lifted her shoulders. “You don’t have to.”

“–but essentially,” he exhaled and forged ahead anyway. “My mother was one of my father’s concubines, number five, I believe. And when she got tired of doing that and had an affair, she got tossed out along with me. She didn’t really want a child at that point in her life, so she gave me to the first couple she met, and they raised me into adulthood. And till this day, they’re who I consider my family. Yul and Tonka Harding.”

She nodded.

“They lived in Sedgburry near the Shardling Enclaves. Do you know where that is?”

She nodded. Geography had been one of her favorite subjects in school. She knew where almost everywhere was.

“They had a nice floral shop there,” he continued. “I grew up thinking I would run it. But I awakened and got evaluated, and my true heritage came to light. I then had to attend the academy and bear the last name of a man who’d done nothing to raise me.”

”What happened to your other parents?”

“They’ve both passed on,” he said with a tight look. “Mundane lives are tragically short.”

“I’m sorry,” she said because she knew that was the appropriate response.

“I can’t tell if you truly mean that or not.”

“I think I do,” she answered.

He sighed. “Well, either way, it’s nice for you to say. Now, do you want to talk about stoichiometry?”

“Yes,” Ari said instantly, earning a chuckle from him.

“I thought as much. Let’s start by hearing what you already know.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Without a second of hesitation, Ari began, “Essences are in the world around us. In their raw form, they are unusable, but once processed by EPUQs (Essence Purifiers and Unit Quantifiers), they can then be utilized to create spell equations. These are the core essences and their additions to a spell. Calor +2 Heat, energy, motion–”

“Hold on, are you reciting the elementary manual I gave you?”

“Yes. Is that not what you asked me to do?”

“No,” he laughed. “I think it’s safe to say that you have all that information covered. Just how often have you read the book?”

“Cover to cover? Thirty-two times.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I like to read.”

“Well then, you’ll do well in Professor Valeria’s class,” he mentioned. “Did you read anything outside of what I gave you?”

“No.” She couldn’t find any more stoichiometry books in the Greenhollow public library. She’d checked.

“Okay, so you should know the basics about wands and essence purifiers and isotopes and charges, right?”

She nodded.

“I don’t think the book went into detail on runes and catalysts, did it?”

She shook her head.

“Well, simply put, catalysts are any item that makes your spells go smoother and faster. For example, runes. These are fixed patterns that you can plug into a spell script to stabilize a part of the spell. Usually, they’re used for more complex spells like teleportation or spells that have a high likelihood of breaking down. They also temporarily allow an equation to function despite an imbalance in charge. Some archmages also use them to sustain multiple spells at a time.”

“They sound very useful. Why doesn’t everyone use them in their spells?”

“Because they’re expensive and complicated to make. They’re often irregular shapes and twisted patterns, and the likelihood of botching them is high. The scroll needed to store them is also quite costly. Only Adept mages and above can make runes. Most people just buy them and utilize them whenever they need. The great thing is that they can be reused since their essences don’t actually take part in the spell. But the longer you have them, the more faulty they become, so ideally, you should replace every thirty years or so.”