Several months had passed since Weasley's birthday banquet and he had grown at an astonishing pace that could only be described as that of a god chosen prodigy!
Or at least that was what he would've liked to think.
In reality, he was still a scrawny baby who had to be breastfeeded regularly and would sleep like a pig for the most part of the day.
Not much had changed there.
However, not all was bad. Due to his hard work in displaying his superior intelligence by speaking whenever possible, his parents had promptly furnished him with tutors who educated him in a variety of subjects.
It may have had been due to the expertise of these professional tutors or simply Weasley's diligence and cheat-like intelligence, but at a tender age of one and a half years old, Weasley was already able to handle conversation and cultivate magic power.
When his mother realised this fact when she came in to breastfeed him one morning and was met with a frank rejection from her baby who said that he was no longer a child that needed her milk, she fainted and Weasley had to wail to alert the nearby servants who then took the First Lady away to recuperate.
Eventually, Weasley's parents and everyone in the manor got used to it and seeing the young master waddle around the manor became a usual and welcome sight.
" Darling? Where are you going?" Sylvia asked as she saw Weasley hurriedly squirm off his chair after breakfast. The food stains around his mouth hadn't yet been wiped properly and it stood out striking against his pale complexion.
" Miss Henner is waiting for me mom! I can't be late for her class!"
Sylvia frowned and gave her son a unsatisfied pout. While she was happy that her son was so talented, it also meant that she wouldn't able to spend as much time with him as mothers would with their children when they were young.
The two had initially spent alot of time together but that had been when Weasley was still too young to speak. And now, when Sylvia could finally talk to him, she had been sidelined due to Weasley's studies taking priority!
Naturally, Sylvia was pissed. This was not what she had expected motherhood to be like.
' Kids his age would still be clowning around and having fun yet my son already has is days full with studies and work. I don't know if I should be happy or worried.'
Sylvia heaved a sign before taking a napkin and walking over to wipe her son's mouth.
" Promise mommy you won't overdo it alright? And also make sure to spend some time with mommy once your class finishes."
" Un"
" Promise?"
"Promise!"
Sylvia smiled and made a shooing gesture and Weasley shot her a smile back before running as best he can for the door.
" Come on old man we're going to be late!"
Madel signed as he stood up from the table and walked out after the young master to open the door for him, a half eaten drumstick still in his hand. The knob was still too high for the one year old to reach afterall.
A few moments later, the duo arrived in front of a black metal door on the third floor of the manor. A forbidding looking lock held the door shut and fine engravings could be observed on the door.
Weasley raised his hand and was poised to knock when a piercing voice rang out from inside the room.
" Come in."
The lock opened with a clack and the door swung inwards.
Weasley bowed slightly before he and Madel entered the room.
The room was well lit by the rays of the morning sun that shone through the windows and a series of dimly glowing stones that lined the walls. It was relatively clean and uncluttered and there were tubes of different chemicals and rocks that sat neatly on shelves.
Squatting the middle of the room was a young looking middle aged woman who wore a loose fitting orange shirt that settled comfortably on her lean shoulders. She was making the finishing touches to a magic circle which she drew with practiced mastery.
Being the mature and cultured person that he was, Weasley couldn't help but notice how her chest was rather modest but it well complemented her slim figure and tight hip, around which a pair of blue shorts hung.
The woman looked up disapprovingly at her student who immediately tore his gaze away from her womanly assets. She admonished lightly.
" Finally you're here! I understand that you're a growing boy, but next time don't make me wait so long got it?"
Weasley smiled sheepishly before assuring his teacher that he would make an effort to do so.
The woman nodded in affirmation and pointed to the magic circle that she had just finished drawing,,
" Now that that is out of the way, go sit over there."
Weasley looked over to where she was pointing. The formation looked insanely complex and from his past lessons with her, he knew that the slightest mistake or damage in it would render its spell unusable.
Very carefully, Weasley tiptoed on the black spaces between the lines of the formations and made its way to the centre.
Seeing that her student had done as she'd asked, Weasley's magic teacher, Miss Henner briefly explained the contents of their lesson.
" Today, we're going to be testing for your magic affinity."
Weasley's face instantly lit up when he heard her words.
In the world of Beriad, magic came in the form of different affinities that would allow one to manipulate different elements. These included the primordial elements of Fire,Water, Earth and Wind along with Secondary elements which were Darkness, Light, Lightning and ice.
The reason why these elements mattered was because one could only use magic which belonged to elements that one had an affinity to. If one tried to do otherwise, the magic within one's body would automatically reject the input on a fundamental level and potentially go berserk. The results of which were gory and explosive.
" While I had initially planned to conduct the test later, you have done well to temper your magic circuits so quickly. If nothing else, you're quite eager." Henner said with a smirk.
Weasley sat fidgeting in anticipation. He was waiting for this! What affinity would be nice I wonder? It was like he was at the helm of a RPG game, pondering what to choose as his class.
'Fire? Flaming swords of destruction and blazing fireballs sounds cool! But water was pretty good too though….'
Henner quickly noticed her student's dreamy face and laughed out loud.
" Kid, your affinity is decided by the gods. Thinking about which one you want isn't going to make a difference" she said wheezingly.
Weasley shot his teacher a look that said" would it hurt you to let a kid daydream?".
Just as he opened his mouth to complain, a serious expression came over Henner's face.
" Ok, let's begin" she said as she tied her curly brown hair back into a short bun and raised her hands to begin the chant.
Weasley immediately got serious and started focusing on channeling his magic through his magic circuits.
He had been practicing this very skill for the past few weeks so it came easily to him.
Power flowed through Weasley, filling him up with a sense of warmth and strength as he indistinctly heard his teacher chanting in the back ground.
"By the elements and unseen forces, I seek the truth that courses."
"From fire's blaze to water's flow, reveal the magic I shall know."
"Through whispers of wind and earth's embrace, unveil the power in my space."
"With open heart and mind entwined, let my true affinity find."
"By this chant's mystical decree, reveal my magic, aligned with me."
As she uttered the last word, the magic circle around Weasley shone with a blinding light.
Weasley shut his eyes and continued to maintain his magic circulation. He couldn't let himself be distracted! However his mind had been on something else completely.
' Fire please. Fire please. God please answer my prayer. Come on. Come on. Come on.' Weasley religiously chanted as if he was pulling on a Gacha.
Eventually, the white light died down and went out completely. As Weasley opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that the circle around him was glowing in a faint neon green light.
Weasley looked at his master in anticipation.
" Looks like your affinity is wind."
Weasley groaned in dismay. Wind? Wind? Seriously out of all the elements it just had to be wind? How was he going to fight anyone with this useless affinity? Blow until he gave them a cold?
Henner noticed Weasley's distressed expression and snorted.
"Looks like you took after your mother. She has a wind affinity too."
Weasley didn't know what to say. The words barely even registered with him.His world was still shattered from his immense disappointment.
Seeing this, Henner signed in exasperation and dragged Weasley by his hand out of the room.
Confused, Weasley asked as he unwillingly followed along.
" Miss Henner, where are we going?"
"To see your mother"
"Eh!? Why?"
"To change a few misconceptions you have."
He was even more confused now. What misconceptions? What was she talking about? However, he felt like he was going to get the answers soon enough so he decided to just play along.
Eventually, they reached his mother's study and entered after knocking on the door.
Sylvia was buried in the usual mound of paperwork when they entered. She had a stressed out expression on her youthful face as she looked at them.
From what she knew, Weasley's lesson should still be going on for another hour before his break. Why was her son here, with his teacher no less?
Henner gave Sylvia a respectful bow before explaining the purpose of the visit. When Henner reached the part where Weasley's affinity was wind, Sylvia was thrilled! That meant that she could spend more time with Weasley and coach him personally! Lucky!
However as she continued listening on, her expression darkened.
If glares could kill, the one that she gave Weasley certainly would have.
Her son thinks he pulled the short straw? Like hell she would let that stand!
" Darling….. is all that true?"
Weasley knew better than to lie to his mother right now.
" Sorry mom…."
Then, Henner raised a suggestion.
" In that case, how about we give the Young master a demonstration of what wind magic can do? I'm sure he would be more inclined to believe us if we showed rather than told him."
Weasley's ears perked up at the idea of being able to witness magic first hand and he shook his head vigorously in agreement
Sylvia pondered the suggestion for awhile.
'I needed a break right now anyway so might was well go to vent some stress. Besides, I get to see my baby be impressed for his mommy!!"
Filled with newfound motivation, Sylvia quickly agreed.
" In that case, let us make our way to the training grounds. There are practice dummies there that would serve as good targets " Henner said as she turned around to leave the room.
Weasley was just about to follow when his mom's voice rang in his ears.
" No need."
Henner and Weasley both looked at her in confusion as she turned to put a paperweight on the papers on her table before turning around again to face them.
" Then how would we.." Weasley began, when suddenly he could feel his body floating and leaving the ground.
A strong gust swirled around the room and the many sheets of parchment in the room flapped violently in the wind.
" Zephyr's embrace"
Weasley was completely flying now and so was Henner who was staring wide eyed at what was happening.
The Spell 'Zephyr's embrace' was a true mage level spell. While it was a rather staple spell in the arsenal of many wind mages, most mages could only summon gusts strong enough to carry themselves. Yet currently, the First Lady was effortlessly carrying three people at the same time!
Henner herself was a Grandmage but even she had to be impressed by this show of mastery and strength.
' Looks like she isn't just a pretty girl' Henner thought.
The three of them then proceeded to fly through the open window towards the first floor of the manor where the training grounds was located.
Weasley was almost disappointed when they arrived. His mother had taken him flying a few times before but every time was just as thrilling as the last.
However, he wasn't about to be convinced that having a wind affinity was a good thing from just from something like that.
Sylvia was standing in the middle of the field. She was still dressed in the red coloured frilled dress that she wore for work and it was proving to be rather restrictive when it came to allowing her to move about.
After tying her hair up so that it didn't restrict her vision, Sylvia assumed a combat stance as the magic formation a hundred yards away began spawning wooden dummies to serve as targets.
" Wind blade!"
As soon as Sylvia said the words, three needle like projectiles materialised out of thin air above her head.
Each was at least three feet long and as thick as an industrial lamppost. They hovered above Sylvia's head momentarily before shooting towards the targets in the distance at insane speeds.
Weasley had barely enough time to comprehend what had taken place before three targets exploded in a shower of wooden splinters and shards.
However, Sylvia was far from finished.
" Gather and decimate my foes! Wind lance!"
This time, only a single projectile materialised. However, its very existence put the concept of having strength in numbers to shame.
Sylvia drew her hand back into a throwing position and carefully took aim at the most densely populated target space.
Sylvia's feet shifted forward as she turned her torso to be parallel with projectile. Her hand was now outstretched and the tip of giant spiral above her head dipped to her eye level.
Sylvia's torso twisted violently as she leaned into the throw, multiplying the force of the Wind Lance several fold as it shot out of her hands and screamed towards its target.
The lance pierced straight through the wooden dummies, seemingly unstoppable and leaving devastation in its wake.
Weasley could only watch on in amazement. His face was an open book that showed his newfound respect for his mother and the magic she wielded.
Naturally, Sylvia did not let this go unnoticed.
Her enthusiasm instantly soared and she beamed in pride.
'Good job me!'
In the heat of the moment, Sylvia completely forgot about how this supposed to be a casual demonstration. She threw caution to the wind as she cranked the trial difficulty up to max and released her battle aura.
'Time to vent some stress!'
A roar unbefitting of a dignified noble lady escaped her lips as she went all out against the poor dummies whose only fates were to be completely trampled underfoot.
While the dummies were no pushovers, having graduated from the frail scarecrows they once were to imposing magic puppets made of hardened steel, their efforts were all but futile in the face of Sylvia's strength.
Sylvia twirled and swirled, her dress fluttering madly in the wind as she casted spell after spell in all directions and unleashed absolute havoc on the puppets that were unfortunate enough to get in her way.
Soon enough, the field had become an execution ground, strewn with broken puppet parts what were slowly disintegrating into light particles.
Eventually, the strain on the magic formation had become too much and it entered a cooldown, prompting a stop to the waves of targets that came Sylvia's way.
As the last practice dummy exploded into dust, Sylvia raised her head and whooped in contentment.
' Now THAT is what you call a workout! '
As she looked around, her gaze eventually found Weasley's who was staring at her with a stupefied expression on his face.
A mana shield encompassed him inside along with his teacher. Several small indents could be seen on the shield but they were recovering at a fast pace.
Sylvia instantly realised what had happened and almost died of embarrassment and shame. She had gotten so caught up in her "demonstration" that she had almost hit her baby!
Sylvia immediately rushed to Weasley's side.
Seeing that her employer had finished having her fun, Henner lowered the mana shield that she had cast just in time for a mortified Sylvia to scoop Weasley into her arms.
" Oh my god mommy is so sorry!! Darling are you hurt anywhere? Please tell me you're ok?"
Weasley nodded absentmindedly before assuring his mother.
" Don't worry mom, I'm fine. That aside, how did you do that?! It was amazing!" Weasley asked.
Sylvia became a little embarrassed at hearing her son's praise.
" Well you know, it was a lot of practice. I had a good teacher and also your father helped me a lot. It's a long story really." She rambled on sheepishly but Weasley was only half listening.
His mind was already elsewhere.
' Wind huh? Not bad…. Not bad at all!"