It was their second year at the Elite Academy. Eon still was trying to distance himself from Rielen, but he no longer locked her out of his life, or their position in the Rose Faction. It was so called because many of the members were Noble families that had females currently running them, like a matriarchy.
It was not a particularly powerful faction. However, one could not ignore them altogether. They took a keen interest in the only female mage of the Elite Academy. Very few, if any, female mages made it to the Elite Academy. The last being the mage named Charla many years ago.
It meant that a change may be blowing into the Autra Kingdom. Ever since the last King took the throne, he had suppressed female mages, as if he had some kind of grudge against the gender altogether. He had even ignored the tradition of taking on an official wife as Queen.
The King's only child had been born from a concubine, who was kept under lock and key in the deepest part of the Palace. The child had been trained exclusively by the top mages of the Kingdom, and was currently in the same year as Eon and Rielen. His name was Daichi Silverstone.
Not much was known about the Royal Family, or exactly how many children the King actually had. Of course, the only one he had officially announced was Daichi. There were rumors that the King had sired a great many girls. It was actually one of the objectives of the Rose Faction to discern this, and where the King had been keeping the reputed daughters.
The Rose Faction largely consisted of the older generations of female mages, their families, and former commoner men who had grown up outside the Nobility. The current trend of Noble sons was to treat female mages as second class. This was largely due to the King suppressing the entrance of female mages into the Elite Kingdom.
The leader of the Rose Faction was the Duke Family of Elrose, current head Rita Elrose. Normally, they waited until students were well into the second year of Elite Academy to approach them officially as a faction, but she was surprised when a young mage named Eon approached her within a few weeks of his first year.
He explained how he knew about her, and why he wanted to join the Rose Faction. He could not bear to see the actions of the young Nobles he had met in the Academy and wanted to be a part of a Faction that he could use to protect his childhood friend.
Rita had agreed to let him in, on the condition that he take the secret oath of the "true" faction members. He had agreed readily, and joined the Rose Faction secretly, as you could not officially join until the second or third year in the Elite Academy. It was the policy of the Elite Academy to allow all candidates equal opportunities to see all factions before they chose their alignment.
This encouragement also cut down on the numerous fights that would break out among the candidates from different factions. Especially those in factions directly opposed to views from each other. The direct opposing faction of the Rose Faction was the Silver Faction, led by the current King.
Since the King could not directly defy a Ducal Family, who had earned the greatest achievements in the Kingdom of Autra for generations, he used his faction members to develop a following. After all, he had come from a former Barony. The relationship remained as balanced as possible, because a fight could tear apart the Kingdom itself, due to the influence of either side.
There were other factions as well, such as the Sovereign Faction. The Sovereign Faction were basically the ones who enforced the candidate system, and supported whoever was chosen by the Spirits to rule the Kingdom. If it wasn't for this faction, the King himself would have done away with the very system that had put him in power.
He strongly believed the Silverstone Family should stay as the ruling family forever; such was his goal. The King often ignored the signs from the Spirits. Year after year he communed with them less, greatly angering them. Thus, many, many catastrophes had fallen on the kingdom.
With every year, they became angrier as more useless candidates were brought before them. The anger they felt caused them to give fewer gifts to those born with potential. The general attitude of the majority of the humans even caused some Spirits to leave the Kingdom altogether.
One Spirit sat watching over the capital with a frown. It was this Spirit that had traveled to a small village, which had grown in a forest he had tended to for years. He had not left because the taint had not quite reached his forest. It was here he made a plan. The first gift he gave was to a young boy, born with potential that had been passed down from his family, but was hidden for generations.
The second gift, he gave to a child who loved the forest he had planted. The Spirit watched them grow up, and enjoyed the days they would play together. The relationship of the two was rare to see in this day and age, so the Spirit decided he would help it last. He used an ability that had been passed down from the Spirits before him to strengthen their relationship.
He had been amused when the girl had tapped into this ability at the Academy, and made the decision to watch over her from the awful city the humans used. It was here that he noticed changes that the Spirit did not expect between the two he had binded long ago.
Since then, many Spirits that had not given up on the humans had banded together to watch the two that the golden spirit had gifted. Hope of a candidate they could trust swelled in their hearts. You see, Spirits would die away without humans. The Spirits influenced nature, weather, and the world around humans. It was an equally beneficial relationship, for one cannot live without the other.