The gift, the talent, magic...these are words that circulate throughout society every day, but more so when one is approaching a certain age.
A special talent that is bestowed to each person at the age of 18, sort of like a coming-of-age ceremony but on a much grander scale. Each major house that currently resides in our country has a specific array of talents like the Glassion's who are talented in water magic, the Fawn's who are talented in earth magic or Rossi's who are talented with fire magic.
Yeah, they got really creative with those names.
As for me, my 18th birthday approaches just like any other noble and while I am excited, I am not expecting any spectacle since I am from a lesser family. Our magic is a byproduct of one of the more primordial forms, just like ice stems from water and metal stems from earth. My family are the Lumaria's sect, the Lucis and we wield light magic, well as lesser form of it at least. We are illusionists and can perform small gimmicks like casting a minute long glamour over something or someone.
My family makes its earnings by entertaining the Lumarias which is how we keep ourselves in the sect entirely. So essentially, we are jesters and that is why no one takes this family seriously. For the past 18 years I have studied and practiced every single trick in the family book (and yes, we do actually have a book of tricks) to make me prepared for tomorrow but the truth is I'm scared.
The ceremony is all fun and games until I have to actually be bestowed with a talent. If I happen to be like my grand aunt, then that would be an absolute disaster. Or at least that's how I should feel, but there is a small part of me that wishes to be like her. I never met her because she was exiled before I was born, but sitting looking at these photos and reading this entry, she looks so free, and her smile is so bright.
Not once in all my years of training did my family care to ask if this is what I really wanted, and not once did I dare to say it wasn't, because this was my birthright. This is what was expected of every Lucis and it is exactly what I would do, like all the others before me.
"Charlie!" A small whisper pulls me out of the corners of my mind. I look up from daze as my fingers continue to glaze over the photos of my dead ancestor. It takes a while for me to realize that the voice is from little sister with whom I was supposed to be teaching our ancestral history.
I was so lost in thought that I had long forgotten the bright-eyed little girl sitting next to me, patiently waiting for me to continue the story. It was no stellar, out of this world story but rather the history of how our family was diluted and became lesser than.
I cleared my throat and continued, "Right, so...many people disagreed with the fact that sects were breaking because at that time we were one. The initially stated that it was because our different talents complimented each other and made living easier together, but secretly a lot of them just did not want one sect to be stronger than the next. They were also concerned that there would be discrimination within their own sects as some of the people only had a 'lesser' form of primordial magic."
"You mean like us?" Sophie inquired, to which I nodded my head in response.
"So, then Charlie?"
"Yes, Sophie."
"Does that mean that someday we can live together with all the other sects if they were to be united again?" I saw the hope lying beneath those eyes with that question. But how could I shatter the little girls dreams by telling her that is a plan long forgotten as the sects can barely get along with their own members.
Instead, I simply patted her on the head and told her that everything would work out just as it should as long as she tried her best. This wasn't a lie, it would really work out as it should, as is nature. But I could not bring myself to tell her that the nature she hopes for may never exist again.
I looked down to see her smiling contentedly as if she were ready to take on every great test and issue this world was facing. I could never bear to see her loose that smile or the innocence that comes with it. So, while she runs off to make plans of changing the world, a steely resolve forms in my heart, imploring me to see her dreams come true. And deep down I know this was also once my childhood dream, but that was before I stripped of the pleasure of dreaming and faced with reality.
With a sigh I head back to my room, ready to turn it in and just read for the rest of the day as tomorrow will be particularly challenging and hectic. Before long, night falls while I was completed engrossed in my books again. These were my guilty pleasure, reading about things that had absolutely nothing to do with illusionary tricks, but rather finding out how to manage and efficiently run a community. Living cost's, business, ways of life and for a tabooer topic, how to live without magic.
My parents have tried to burn this book at least three times and every time I've had to sacrifice another of my beautiful books to disguise having this thrown away. Hence, why I can only read it from the comfort of my room.
A sigh leaves my lips as I try to figure out why anyone would call this masterpiece "garbage" and "a waste of time" when there were so many efficient ways to get things done outside of our reliance on our talents.
Lying in bed, I take a deep breath and let the thoughts run circles in my mind as I try to relax. Tomorrow is my 18th birthday, and I don't know what will happen at that ceremony, but it will probably be as boring as the other's same old illusionist magic. Even now though as my eyes begin to droop, I small hope burn in my chest that it will be just a little bit different.