Morning finally came.
Kayne would've stayed up all night if he wasn't a 5 year old.
Magic existed.
The thought of what he could do with it still made him giddy.
But he needed a few questions answered first. Number one among them being,
Why was magic not widespread?
He got up from his bed and landed on the wooden floor with a small thud.
Kayne felt a little homesick. For years he had lived within these walls, but 'he' had only been here three weeks.
These walls felt strange. They felt both safe and foreign. They made him feel peace--but a strange peace he wasn't sure he wanted.
"That's irrelevant right now." he said as he shook his head. He had a greater priority.
Opening his room door he arrived in the living room. "Yeah it's a small space." He said to console himself. In the corner of the room his mother sat down, carving lines on finished glassware.
His father was still asleep, as his shift started late. His father's spear, however, stayed mounted over his doorway.
Moving to his mother's side, he relaxed upon seeing her loving smile.
"How's my little one today?"
"Fine, Mama... Mama, I have a question."
"Another? Why not. You only ever have questions these days. Ask away, my child."
Her manner of speech always seemed odd to him, but that would be a question for later.
"Can people do magic?"
A silence followed. She looked at her child for several seconds, her once kind expression replaced by a frightening calm.
She dropped her glassware, and stared at him.
"How have you learned of the arcane?" She asked, but even Kayne could see she was maintaining her calm.
He hadn't been told any tales in his youth. And the locals had yet to speak of it...Well he was five. He could tell the truth this one time...just not all of it.
"Someone did some in front of me!" he said excitedly, hoping to relieve the tension.
She looked at him for a while, then directed her gaze to the flames and sighed.
"...There is magic." She said quietly.
Yes! Progress!
"It is a wondrous thing....It has many, many uses...but I don't even know a third of them." she said quietly. "Only the nobility knows the true secrets of the arcane."
Kayne gritted his teeth. The nobility probably kept it to themselves. The scumbags-
"We commoners cannot understand the texts that are used to study it."
....Oh. An education issue. Not something he could easily fix. The higher class still benefitted, but unless he could, as a peasant, create a system to educate the common class en masse, then there was no way to spread magic everywhere.
Heck, he couldn't read or write the language that he's been speaking for 5 years!
"Oh. That's okay." He said to his mother, having light shined on the situation.
He couldn't create a magic gang. But....
He could learn it!
It would give him a powerful advantage in future endeavors. But one question remained.
"Mama!" he said with childish determination. "Where can I learn to read!"
His mom, startled by his outburst, chuckled a bit. She sighed once more before she brought out a slab.
"In one month a merchant will be arriving at my shop. They run a shop in the central distrinct." She told him. "You could be his apprentice. I'll ask your father when he awakens. For now, you'll need practice in a craft. Want to learn glass making with Mama?"
Kayne thought about this proposition, but knew that he wouldn't get proficient enough. Instead he remembered his first mother.
The way she spent hours on a table to get a customers order ready. How she carefully oversaw every aspect of her creations.
How he helped her maintain the shop when she reached old age. The talent runs in the family she always said.
"I want to make clothing." He said firmly. His mother looked confused, but sighed. She stood up and walked over to a basket, where she brought out a needle and thread, along with some cloth.
She sat down on the floor beside her son and dropped the items. As she was about to explain what each did, he grabbed the needle and began sowing.
She watched silently, as he created a piece of embroidery, unlike anything she had seen before.
By the time he was done, she couldn't help but marvel at one of the most beautiful designs she had ever seen. And it was on her kitchen rag.
She cuddled the boy and whispered into his ear. "You are gifted."
Kayne meanwhile was in panic throughout the whole ordeal.
He had taken the cloth in haste because he was nervous as hell!
He hastily crafted an embroidery from his youth, one of the first his mama thought his to make. And all he remembered was the shouting each time he got it wrong.
A mexican woman truly made hell when angry.
"Yes Mama." He said as he quietly pushed down his PTSD.
"I'll create a workspace at the shop. Your father will have to say yes when he sees this!" she said excitedly, picking up the kitchen napkin and standing up, before abruptly halting. "Where did you learn to sow..."
"The orphanage. A boy showed me." Bullshit mode activated.
"You picked it up in one day?"
"He only showed me the basics."
"Then how did you make this..."
"I just felt like making it."
"..."
"..."
"My son is blessed and he doesn't even know it." she whispered to herself as she walked towards his father's room.
As he sat there, he quietly cursed. Looking at the needle, he calmed himself as he remembered his old life. Twirling the thread around his fingers, he smiled.
"The meeting is tomorrow. With this I'll have a viable side business to hide my funding. Judging by her reaction, my work is good enough to be sold to the higher class." he thought to himself. "I'll be a tailor in the light and a dealer in the night. Not too shabby, Kayne."
"Now let's prepare the dealer side."