After walking for half a day through the Path and separating from the other villages' groups, they finally arrived home. As usual, the elders and some family members were waiting for them at the village entrance.
The waiting villagers didn't look much better than the travelers. The poor living conditions and constant abuse made them look more like beggars than workers. From the children that suffered bad nutrition and often get sick, passing through the adults that would be regularly overworked to death, to the elders that bore the marks of decades of abuse and couldn't live longer.
Rainer looked at Karl with eyes filled with tears before giving him a warm hug. Contrary to Kanin's acceptance, she always inspired Karl to dream about the fantastical world of magic. Since childhood, she wanted to be a Mage and escape social slavery. After failing, she projected all her dreams into her son and now she felt guilty because Karl also failed.
Physically, Rainer was somewhat different from the other village's women. She had the common medium stature but had very uncommon white skin. Although her body suffered the same abuses, she looked stronger and healthier than most.
Embracing the broken-hearted Karl, Rainer whispered in his ears:
"It's okay... But, you shouldn't give up on your dream!"
'Mom is always mom… she still doesn't accept her life…'
Karl felt a little wounded and betrayed. He was hopeful after last night's events, but couldn't keep himself from mourning his dream. He forced a bitter smile and said:
"I'm fine, mom!"
Kanin, realizing the mother and son drama, interjected:
"We should be happy that our son can be with us. Remember the Merchants say that people with low affinity will end up as Mage's servants and experiments!"
Rainer spared him a furious glance, promising a good fight if he continued to speak.
Kanin was right. To make a Mage of someone with low affinity would take a lot of investment, they could only dream of being appointed as apprentices. If they end up as a servant of some crazy Mage it would mean a life of hardship and torture. Although Mages could use commoners for experimenting, Candidates had more resistance to magic experiments and bore better results because of their resonance with magic energy.
Kanin was very conservative regarding his family's dreams. He didn't believe that a commoner could become a Mage and he didn't approve of his wife's ambitions for their son. However, he wouldn't put too much effort into changing their views, he knew that they were fated to accept reality.
"Let's go home… Why aren't you working in the magic fields?"
After traveling for two weeks, Kanin didn't want to compromise his family's part in the tribute harvest. The nobles would never accept less than the required tribute and he didn't want to be responsible for villagers being taken to be slaves.
"Hmmph…"
Rainer snorted at her husband's behavior.
Caiset was a farming resource village. So, most of the villagers have to work in the magic fields, while all their output would be collected and shipped to the supervisor city.
The Serion Kingdom is built on a hierarchical system that places commoners as slaves to Mages. The system has four layers that separate the citizens according to their status. At the top and with the most prestigious status, stands the Magic Royalty. The Royal titles are given to the strongest Mages with special affinities and they can enjoy all the luxuries in the Serion Capital of Elements.
Subordinate to the Capital and the Royals, the second layer is occupied by the Magic Nobility. The Nobility is formed by Powerhouses and families that produced the strongest Mages with affinity to the four primary elements. They reside in the four Elemental Capitals, located on the four main cardinal directions of The Capital of Elements.
The other big Mage families can only control the Cities subordinated to one of the four Elemental Capitals. Finally, the bottom of the system is occupied by the commoners, grouped in villages that serve as resource sites for the Cities.
Annually, the villages have to provide the Cities with food and materials. Likewise, the Cities are responsible for providing for the Elemental Capitals and the Elemental Capitals to the Capital of Elements. Each layer of the system exploits the lower layer more, resulting in massive exploitation of commoners.
Disregarding his parents' usual dispute about magic, Karl walked home thinking about what happened last night. When he saw the other kids working in the village fields, he could only feel sad and depressed.
'Mages are amazing, they control everything and don't need to work for food…'
'-- Alchemy can also be very lucrative. In this aspect, it is even better than common magic --' A voice in Karl's mind stated in a very distinct and proud tone.
"Who is talking?" Karl turned around but didn't see anyone close.
'-- I advise you not to shout. We can communicate with your thoughts, there is no need to speak. I am IMT 1 AI, but you can address me as Master AI --'
Karl took sometime panicking and looking around until he was sure that nobody was pranking him. In the end, he decided to go with crazy or magic.
"What a.... "
'I'm sorry, I forgot about the whole talking with thoughts. So, what are you? Are you that glowing light from yesterday?'
'-- For now, we should not discuss what I am. However, you should know my purpose. In the following decades, I will be tutoring you on Alchemy. --'
Karl frowned deeply, he was very confused, but also excited.
'What's Alchemy? Can you teach me magic?'
'-- Boy, do you know nothing of this world? --' Karl smiled bitterly.
He was a curious person and wanted to know everything about the world, especially magic. But how could a commoner from a farm village know much? The little he knew, had come from the stories that his mother told him.
'-- First, everything around you was formed by magic energy. Therefore, there is no such thing as teaching magic --'
Karl was very excited, but he didn't forget to consider everything Master AI said.
'-- For us, is impossible to truly understand the Origin. However, we know that the Origin has endless energy, also known as magic energy. For unknown reasons, the magic energy that emanated from the Origin developed characteristics and formed our world. The Laws, Rules, and all things came, originally, from the manifestation of the magic energy. The differences and particularities that we see came from further interaction since immemorial times --'
'-- Furthermore, since everything was once magic energy, it is plausible that magic energy can also change everything in our world. There are countless ways of using magic energy to change reality. Since ancient times, sentient beings have been developing techniques to use magic energy, establishing magic systems with different ways to use magic energy. --'
'-- I will only tutor you in the most powerful magic category, Alchemy. --'
Karl was in awe. He couldn't believe he was supposed to learn something so powerful. But after some thought, he was confused at how he never heard of this so-called most powerful magic. His mother's stories, only talked about Elementalists and Sorcerers, never Alchemists.
'-- I understand and acknowledge your doubts. This type of magic was lost to your civilization thousands of years ago. Only some artifices remain. Now, answering your first question, Alchemy is an approach to use magic energy through a medium to execute magic tasks. --'
Karl was fairly smart, but he was lost in regards to what medium and magic tasks meant.
'-- The medium can be a magic Array or Rune, we will explore it later. The magic tasks are anything specific that you want to change in reality. --'
Something in Master Al's explanation made Karl's mind explode in countless possibilities. After he recovered, he asked:
'So, can I use Alchemy to do anything? If so, I would be the most powerful Mage...'
'-- Theoretically, yes. However, it is not as easy as just wanting to do something. Alchemy needs design, materials and ability. For every different thing you want to do, you will need a specific design, materials and ability. --'
Karl knew enough about the world to understand that nothing as powerful as magic would come without hard work, but now he had a chance to learn magic. That's all he could ask for, a chance.
......
Far away from Caiset Village, in Wind Castle City, a boy wearing a shabby grey tunic was running through dark corridors trying to get out of Howland Maynor.
Only five days ago, he was booming with happiness in his registration ceremony. For all his life, his father would risk himself to get a piece of low quality (LQ) meat for him to eat, hoping that he would develop magic affinity.
On his registration ceremony, his father's efforts paid off when the Magic Association identified his affinity. He was the only one in his village and one of the few in the eastern villages. Since his father had come to the ceremony, they quickly signed a contract of apprenticeship with the Howland family.
With the prospect of working as an apprentice, he would live a better life and even send some good things to his family, everything was working great for him. Unfortunately, as soon as he entered Howland Maynor he was sent to be Mage Howland's experimental subject.
"Your impudent slave! How do you dare to run from this Mage? We paid such a good sum to your family and now you don't want to attend to your obligations, come right back!"
'Why did I end up here? I thought I would be learning magic… My father spent so much to get me this opportunity... I have to escape... '
After stumbling over a table, the frightened boy sprinted towards the main entrance. When he was a couple of steps from the metal door, an abnormal air current shut it closed. The boy let a pitiful scream and tried changing directions before another air current slammed his body against the wall.
"You should learn your place, slave! Thinking you could run from this Mage… Muahahahaha!"
"Please Master Howland, I can't take it, it's too painful."
"You should be grateful, having the honor of helping me find a method to create a wind core... Humph... Now that I found a subject with a similar body structure as my worthless son, don't dream about running... Muahahaha!"
Mage Howland dragged the boy to his experimental room and used a rusty chain to tie him to a stone platform, circled by many greyish crystals. Ignoring the wails, the Mage put his hands over the boy and took his time achieving concentration.
A couple of minutes later, Mage Howland started to chant something under his breath. Sweat appeared over the Mage's forehead while more than half of his spiritual energy was spent.
Air disturbances appeared all over the boy's body forming a small vortex in the middle of his chest. The crystals dimmed as their energy drained. The boy screamed, lumps appearing over his skin, moving like it was separating the skin from his body.
Sometime later, Mage Howland gave a sigh looking over the fainted boy.
' Hmm... It's not right yet... Next time I have to increase the concentration of wind energy over his organs while avoiding his brain. It would be better if he could collaborate on controlling the flow inside his body, but the pain is getting in the way... '
......
That night, a group of mounted messengers arrived at the Second Eastern Guard Tower.
The group was very proud and disdained the lowly Guards, not even giving them greetings. The one with the noblest demeanor signaled to the mounted man on his left, who dismounted and took a scroll with a golden seal before proclaiming:
"This is the Royal Edict to be passed to all resource villages. This one represents the Wind Castle Lord, to order you to transmit it to all of the Second Section's villages! "
Horacios quickly kneeled and said:
"This lowly one accepts the Royal Edict and obeys Wind Castle Lord's order! "
The mounted group didn't pay any more attention to the Second Eastern Guard Captain and left.
'We should avoid sharing the air with these lowly peasants… Lord father really exaggerates, sending me to pass the orders! Even if I'm not talented like brother, I'm still his noble son.'