Chapter Two: A New Face at the Bakery

Nine months passed after that morning with Mikael. He offered me a job at his shop cleaning, and selling bread from the front counter. It was actually the most fun I've had in a very long time. It was hard work too, and I got plenty of chances to use my gift in the oven room. Every once in a while the flame would get too intense, and Mikael needed me to extinguish the flame. I would raise my hands, and allow the darkness to pour out of my fingertips. It would flow out onto the floor and spread out quickly like a flame on oil. It would envelop the entire room in a flash, and everything was draped in a veil of dark like nothing seen in the world. What was weird though was that I could see in the darkness that I created. It wasn't an amazing sight by any stretch of the imagination, but I could see the outline of shapes. I made it a funny game to jump out at mikael sometimes while I extinguished the flames. I got a few good laughs out of it. Mikael even taught me how to make bread! Granted I was nowhere near the level of Mikael, and I lacked the gift of his air, but it was very interesting seeing how bread was made.

Suddenly there was a knocking at the front door of thee bakery, and in entered a man wearing a long black cloak.

"Good morning, Mikael." said the man as he stretched out a hand towards mikael, he took it and exchanged a firm shake. "How has the bakery been doing?" he asked. His voice was slightly high pitched, and is how I would expect a father to speak to his child. Kind and sincere, and every word dripping in honey.

"It's doing very well Markus. Everyone goes wild for the flaky bread I make with my air gift. My assistant here helps me get a lot more work done too. Recently I've been making and selling so much bread that I've had to go to the market to buy two times as many ingredIents as before to keep up. Oh where are my manners, Markus, this is Tenebris."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tenebris. I'm Markus. I'm a battle mage for his majesties military." He said extending a hand to me as well. At first I was in shock at the gesture. But before I could think about it too much I took his hand and shook it.

"Mister Markus, if you don't mind me asking what is your ability?" When the words came out I was embarrassed by the question.

"Please just call me Markus. There is no need for formality." He said with a smile. "In the military though we call 'abilities' we are born with 'births'. In the Academy we learn how to control our births, and use them for combat as well as everyday use. My birth is light. In the military I specialize in gathering intelligence. I use my light birth to bend the light around my body to make myself invisible." He said raising a hand that shimmered and glowed like the moon on a river.

"It's part of the reason I'm an officer at the moment. Would you like to see?" he asked with a kind and warm smile.

"Of course!" I said without a moments hesitation. "But Markus my birth is opposite of yours. I control darkness. Would it hurt me if you use your light birth?" I asked, frightened at the thought of his light destroying me. Markus looked at me with calm eyes, and smiled trying to hide back a laugh.

"Your birth will only hurt others should you choose to hurt others. If you want it to be harmless, it shall be. Should you want to destroy an enemy, it will be destroyed. With time you will be able to control your birth as if it was an extension of your arm." Markus said as beams of light shone from the tips of his fingers.

"Watch this." he said, as he took a breath, and his whole body began to shimmer and glisten. Then suddenly he was gone. Markus was no longer in the bakery.

"By bending the light around my body like this I turn one hundred percent invisible to the eye. The only way to see me is by the footprints I leave behind, and even then it will be hard since I don't usually leave any traces of myself." said Markus' voice. It sounded like it was right in front of me, but it was a strange experience to hear voices come from nowhere.

"This is amazing" I said, completely bewildered at the thought I might be able to control my power like this one day. "I'm not very good at controlling my birth. I can only really use it at night. If I try during the day it sizzles and disappears."I said half hearted with a bit of embarrassment at my lack of control.

"Don't cut yourself short, boy." said Mikael from behind the counter. you've grown in the short time you've worked in my bakery. Go on show Markus what you can do."

Markus began shimmering again, and then he really in front of me as a shower of warm golden light.

"You sure?" i asked timidly.

"Yes boy go on!" said Mikael.

Okay then." i said shrugging my shoulders. I raised my open right hand and then my left, and then i took a deep breath as my eyes closed. I felt something flow over my fingers the way a waterfall flows over a rocky cliff. I didn't know why, but somehow i felt something tugging at the back of my hand. It felt like a rope holding something back. I took another breathe and reached out. Then out of nowhere my muscles began to tense, and my open hand slowly closed. I could feel fatigue setting in, but I felt I was so close to something. So then I forced my eyes open, and then moved my right hand in a circle. I looked around the room that was completely filled with darkness, and the shapes of mikael and markus were both just standing there. My right hand was still going in circles, and then I began to move with my left. I grabbed out into the darkness with both hands, and then ripped the darkness in two. Light returned to the room, and I was staring in the curious face of markus, and the smiling face of mikael.

"See, I told you boy. How did that feel?" he asked still beaming at me.

" It felt so weird. I felt the dark surround me like I jumped into a pool of water. Then out of nowhere I just felt like I could make it do what I wanted.

"That's called Locomotum. It's the first step of being able to make your birth do whatever you want. Its odd for someone so young, but for your age what you just displayed is very impressive. How old did you say you were again?"

"I'm twelve." Isaid. " I turn thirteen in three months."

"Mikael may I speak to you privately?" Markus said.

"Of course. Just step into the back. " Mikael said, pointing to the back door covered in a cloth.

"Tenebris, clean up the frontnt. We should be having customers soon." Mikael said, as he moved behind the cloth with Marcus. I waited for ages trying my best to listen to the hushed tones coming from back there. I had swept the entire store, and washed all the tables when they finally emerged "What's going on?" I asked nervously.

"Tenebris I have a question for you." Markus said, as he got down to one knee, and was level with my eyes. "Would you like to train with me? I think you could be special, and I want to see how strong you could end up being." It took me a while to come to grips with what was happening. This man in the kings military wants to train me? I couldn't believe it. I'm a nobody. I was forgotten in an orphanage. Without even realizing what I was getting myself into I said

"Yes."

"Good we can start right away." Markus said standing up.

"Wait, wait, wait, markus. The boy still needs to do his chores, and his job around here.

"Of course, Mikael. Relax yourself. i'll have the boy until noon every day, and you'll I'llhave him the rest of the day."

"That'll be fine for me. What about you boy?" Mikael asked me.

"That's fine with me too." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

That arrangement went like that for what literally felt like an eternity. I was worked ragged by those two for two and a half years. It finally ended two weeks before my fifteenth birthday when Mikael told me it was to rest my body for the tournament. On my fifteenth birthday the tournament for a place in His Majesty's Academy would begin, and it was finally time to show the world whatv i was capable of.