Belamere (2)

The bowls were filled with a brothy liquid each poured out from a huge cauldron tended by a huge lady, her face plumped and her wart covered nose sniffing the food hungrily as she pottered along the kitchen. There were eight children huddled around the long table each one eating in silence, none of them particularly liked the other, but they were a family nonetheless. The matron clapped her hands excitedly as she did every day staring at the blank faces.

"SO! What did you all do today?"

One of the younger children piped up with the same type of remark as every day, something like we went up the hill, or we looked at the river, then the oldest talked about his schooling. Belamere always envied him, he talked so passionately about the magic and the literature he studied. The world of knowledge seemed so grand. Lastly the blonde girl spoke up, her name was Elsie, her parents had been from the west and had traveled years to bring her to this city, only to be murdered by orcs leaving a small baby on the road. She was the closest one to belamere, and the closest one to a family… The man who found her was a knight captain and looked after her. All the others envied that.

"Bel awakened his magic."

Everyone stopped eating, they stared at belamere, his eyes stared straight down at his bowl in shock.

"Oh really?" the oldest slapped Bel on the back. "What is your magic?"

"I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure, it's supposed to be instinctive, like breathing,"

"Well… there is light, only light."

"So light?"

"He healed a dead plant." Elsie talked again, her blunt words cutting through belamere, the boy feeling like he was being driven into a darker deeper hole.

"So boy, you will be joining the crusade?"

"I suppose, I wished to be a scholar matron, like my older brother."

"But you are an orphan, it would take a once in a generation intellect to become a scholar from your position,"

"I suppose, then I will join the crusade."

"Good boy. We should all stay where we are, reaching for higher places only lets us fall."

"Bel can be a scholar, he's a genius. Just like I will be a knight."

"You?? A knight? These children, all in fantasy worlds."

Before he could leave, or say one of the thousand things he wanted to say to the matron a huge cry flew through the city, and then, from the small windows, the dark night sky turned red.