Bright green. The color of sharp blades of grass twisting in the wind. The sun casts a golden tint across the grasslands as it rises from beyond the horizon. The 50 metre tall trees cast long creeping shadows across the meadows, invading the bright gold of the sun.
The chirping of birds ensues along with the groans of children being woken up by their parents. The city at the edge of the country soon grows lively and the day goes on as usual.
Further towards the centre of the giant land mass, merchants put up shop, hoping to catch the eyes of the rich. Chatter filled the streets as vendors advertised their products and customers bargained the prices down.
The country of Zodia stood alone in the vast world, surrounded by mountains that shielded it from the roaring waves of the never-ending ocean. Dense forests sprinkled all over the land boasted a variety of unique flora and fauna. Dark, unforgiving cave systems vined through the ground below the feet of the citizens, rarely explored even by the strongest.
The vast stretch of land was divided into 12 states, each ruled by a different royal family. The disparity in the living conditions of these families and the rest of the country could not have been more obvious. While most of them lived quiet lives in their mansions, there were a few who went out of their way to help the citizens like their original purpose intended. The Vilhorm family, unfortunately, was not one of those.
The onset of magical powers gave rise to a new era, the Galilian era. These powers originally encompassed simple control over natural processes. Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, and many more formed the foundation of what the future of magic could hold. Each person was born with an affinity towards only one specific element or process which allowed a vast number of unique mages to arise. Due to the frequent occurrence of people born with control over one of the four basic elements, the amount of research done for those elements was far greater than the rest. This meant that rising to higher ranks was easier for these people since they had a vast library of techniques to utilise.
But it didn't matter whether or not one type of magic was more researched than others, because at its core, the user's emotions were what controlled their power. If one was in a furious state of mind, with no control over their emotions, then their use of magic would be haphazard and wasteful, causing them to quickly drain their energy and lose even the simplest of bouts.
The onset of the Galilian era inevitably brought along various adversities for the citizens. It was obvious that many people would use their magic for their own benefit, even if it meant harming others. As time passed on, more people became aware of the extent to which they could use their powers, and crime rates flew off the charts. This is where the 12 families came into the picture. Using their powers they made an effort to end all crimes and convert Zodia into an ideal country.
It became clear to the citizens that the people who defended them needed to be held at a higher pedestal and thus the 12 families were given a royal status. As crime rates dropped and the country became more peaceful, the royal families were no longer needed. Many attempted to abolish them, but their grip over the country and its resources had stretched too far. There was no way the families could be stripped of their title anymore.
Decades went by as the royal families spent their resources in researching their individual elements, collecting a plethora of knowledge that they never intended to share with the commoners. Any child born into the royal families would instantly have years worth of techniques at their disposal., giving them an unfair advantage over others their age. The whole system had been corrupted and nobody worked their way up to anything. It was all handed over to them.
This new attitude of many of the royal families heavily clashed the original reason for their establishment. The once peace loving warriors, were now reduced to corrupt power hungry politicians.
The Vilhorm family was one of the 12 royal families. They specialised in the wind element and were known for the bright green hair that sat atop their heads. The 618th Galilian year marked the birth of possibly the next successor of the family, Ray Vilhorm. Ray was a passionate, outgoing child with an energetic personality that easily infected those around him. His charismatic nature instantly brought everyone over to his side, no matter what the argument.
But none of this mattered because Ray had been born into a family that held their own well-being over those they were meant to help. He was thrown into training since the day his magic manifested. His entire life before that point felt like a dream as the rest of his years were spent learning under different teachers. The once outgoing, mesmerising child had now been shaped into a dull machine-like teenager.
Ray had no reason to walk the path his parents had laid out for him. He had every opportunity to run away and live life the way he wanted. But he didn't. This choice wasn't because of any idealistic notion. No. He made this choice because he knew nothing of the real world. He had spent years learning about the various ways he could use his wind magic for defense and offense, but never in his life had he ever visited the ice-capped mountains that protected Zodia. Never in his life had he visited the beautiful glistening lakes filled with more fish than he could fathom. Never in his life had this boy stepped out of his prison-like mansion.
The times when he would interact with others had long been forgotten. All memories of his lively young days had been erased. He was now a husk of his former self. He was nothing.
But the vast emptiness inside him was not the kind that could not be filled. It would take a few years until Ray would find others he could trust or rely on, but even then it would be too late. The emptiness inside him would consume him before anyone would be able to fill it up.
Born to a pair of servants working at the Vilhorm mansion only a year after Ray, Wolfe was a nobody compared to the once vibrant outgoing Ray. While Ray would spend his early days playing in the gardens of the mansion, Wolfe would stay behind and clean the floors and occasionally wash clothes. As seen in many other servants of the Vilhorm family, patches of white invaded Wolfe's pitch black hair due to severe malnutrition. The initial months wherein the body manifested its magical powers would require increased caloric consumption to maintain normal functioning during the drastic changes caused to the body. The whitening of Wolfe's hair, in a way, signified the onset of his control over the forces of nature as his lacking nutrition was not enough to put out the raging fire that had begun manifesting within him.
Bound by his heritage as a servant, Wolfe would never receive any professional training to improve the use of his abilities like Ray did. Instead he would use the measly flames to light fires at the fireplace, or to light a fire while cooking.
It was a shame that he would never surpass his peers.
It was a shame that his future was shackled by his birth.