Request

Several more months went by. Most days followed the same pattern, although I was allowed a day of rest and there. 

My physical prowess improved, as did my sword technique. Rath taught me a few lessons, but most were still overseen by Freia who, at least I thought, was warming to me a bit. I had less prods and slaps these days.

"You are doing well for your age little one," Rath said, one day. "But from what I can tell, I don't think you have the natural talent to be a Weapon Master."

"I know mother, I'm sorry."

She laughed and waved her hand. "No, no. We each have our specialties. I am fairly sure, if you keep practicing, you will be good enough to take on most fighters at least. Now, let's try that last move again…"

I continued my lessons with Gisel too, and both my 'Beast talk' as I'd found many people called it, and her human speech were coming along nicely. I was amazed how well I picked it up, to be honest. Maybe it's because I was still young. Youngsters tended to learn these kinds of things quite naturally.

I also took to practicing more of my powerful spells up there too, after we had done with the language, and finally began to be able to moderate the mana better. Still, the area around our little glade was looking pretty beaten up.

Gisel asked if I could teach her some spells, and I managed to get her casting some low level incantations, which pleased her no end. It did show my lack of knowledge though, when she asked about the different kinds of magic. I only knew how to use some of the elemental ones. I still had no information about mind, spirit, void and soul magic, and only a very little of the transposition type. 

Apparently void and soul would be the hardest to find out about, as Lissa had informed me they were banned forms, and refused to say anything else, which only made me want to learn about them all the more of course.

As the months went by, and summer started to fade, both Lissa and Rath began talking about returning to the academy. 

This, I decided, would be a problem for me. Apart from access to more books, a good thing, it would mean that I would be restricted in my magical practice, a bad one. It would also mean my language lessons, which I had come to enjoy, would have to stop. So, I made a decision. Quite a hard decision actually, harder than I thought it would be.

One day, after dinner with Lissa, Rath and Freia, I stood up and faced my mothers.

"Hello?" Lissa said, sensing something was about to happen.

"Mother," I said to Lissa. "Mother," I said to Rath. "I have a request to make. Please hear me out."

Rath put her mug down and frowned. "Go on little one." 

Freia raised an eyebrow.

"Firstly," I said. "When would I be able to start training at the academy?"

Lissa made a puzzled face, but replied. "Usually you would have started at four," she said. "However, that is to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Frankly, you don't need those, as you're already good enough at them."

"What about magical and combat training?" I asked.

"Magic training, for those who show talent, can start at five, but usually six, for those that show promise. Combat training usually only starts in all seriousness at six, at the earliest, although there are classes in basic techniques, which, frankly, you've probably already done." She looked at Rath, who nodded.

"Very well, it is as I thought."

"What's this about sweetie?" asked Lissa.

"When will we come back here again?" I asked.

"Now you're old enough to travel, we'll be back next summer break. Less than a year actually, as we've had extended holiday this time."

"In that case, I want to request…" I took a deep breath. "I would like to stay here until then."

"What? Why?" asked Lissa.

This was going to be the hard part. I had no idea how they would react.

"I can't practice my magic in the school. At least, I don't want to yet."

"What? What magic?" Rath frowned. "I know you're always reading those books, but casting magic is…" She stopped.

I was standing, in the middle of the dining area, holding my hand out, with a small ball of fire floating over my palm.

It had taken a lot of practice to do this without me worrying about blowing the house up, but it had been worth it.

"Wh…" Lissa jumped up, whilst Rath and Freia just gasped. 

"You didn't even do an incantation!" Lissa screeched.

Shit, I knew I would forget something.

"It's only a low level spell."

"Oh my." Lissa sank down on to her chair.

I waited for the explosion. It came, but not how I expected it.

"Our son's going to be an archmagi!" screamed Lissa, shaking Rath excitedly with both hands.

"He certainly seems to have the talent," Rath said, more calmly, enduring Lissa's assault.

"But… wait. If he's that powerful, shouldn't you have detected his mana flow?" Freia asked Lissa, reasonably.

"Ah yes," I said, dispelling my fireball. "About that…"