Choices

Lunas smiled at them excitedly, leaping from his bed already fully dressed. 

"Let's go!" He exclaimed, rushing to fill his pockets with his meager belongings.

'*Charcoal, journal, identity plaque, and penknife! Everything just where it needs to be.*'

Bai'el's group hadn't been cheap when giving him what he needed, sending him off with a small leatherbound journal, a fake identification they had forged for him, and an oddly ornate knife that fit in his sleeve perfectly.

"He's this excited, we can't keep him waiting much longer," Enora whispered to Bai'el.

"No, we can't. It's already been too long."

At a motion of his hand, Enora moved back from the door to let him lead the way as Lunas followed closely behind them. 

He admired the canvas paintings strewn across the walls, depicting strange patterns and otherworldly designs. The rug beneath him was silent against his sandals, only the occasional dragged step making a sound.

Eventually, they reached a corned they rounded to come face face with a large iron door. There was no visible handle or even marks on the door, but Bai'el just held his hand up and pressed it against it.

Red blood flowed from the top of his hand to his fingers before spreading to the door, forming strange sigils across it. After it sunk into the iron a grinding echoed through the chamber, and the door cracked enough for Enora to push it open.

Bai'el motioned for Lunas to go first, followed by he and Enora. Much to his surprise, the door opened to a bustling city, with plenty of two and three story buildings lining the streets. He saw storefronts advertising plenty of things; fruit, meat, clothing, hide blankets, and even fried monkey ovaries.

He felt shocked at first by the vast row of shops in front of him and the beautiful windows lining the stories above the storefronts, but Bai'el's hand on his back pushed him towards a horse-drawn cart he had been to caught up in the scenery to notice.

"To Wingfall please," Bai'el said to the driver when they entered.

"Sixteen col for a round trip." The driver, identified by a plaque on the front of the cart as Joraan, spat the words out like he was angered by the length of the trip.

Bai'el took the glove off of his hand, and tapped his knee with a gentle lilac glow emanating from it for a short moment. 

"Twelve col will do the trick, thank you very much." Bai'el replied with a light smile on his face. He handed twelve small copper coins with a branch engraved on one side and a crow on the other to the man.

The cart jolted into motion, rumbling across the cobblestone street with each bump sending a spark of discomfort to it's riders. They reached a crossroads with a fountain in the center, turning right down a street which seemed to go on much longer than the other one.

Lunas drifted in his mind, leaning against the side of the cart peacefully despite the jostles, letting it wander to the door from earlier. 'The way the blood flowed from his hand, it moved like mine. Could I do things like that?'

He tried to envision the sigils Bai'el's hand had, but they were fleeting memories at best. Instead, he thought about the day ahead. He didn't know everything they had to do, but he knew Wingfall was the small federal district on the eastern side of the city.

He considered pricking his finger to practice a bit, but he didn't want the people to think he was stealing their secrets. He didn't want to anyways, he just wanted to do the strange things they could.

At Wingfall's entrance, the driver dropped them off and settled the horses on a nearby post. He laid back in his cart, and they made their way into the main building. He didn't pay much attention to the process, as most of it flew over his head like much of his father's conversations, and just waited for one of them to address him.

Half way through, he was only asked his name and his age, to which he had said simply 'Lunas', and age seven.

"Alright, the boy has a few options. You've both already expressed your wish to stay together, and you will. But, you're too young to be thrust into the workforce with no prior training or experience. You will go to school, perhaps an academy if you show any aptitude for magic, but you must go to 'a' school regardless. The city has trade schools for anything you could come up with, and of course, primary schools."

Lunas tugged on Bai'el's cloak beside him, pointing towards the paper that had a beautiful white flower printed beneath the words.

"What of the Dahlia Academy?" Bai'el asked for Lunas.

He had felt a subtle draw towards the emblem, and upon the clerks words he knew he was right.

"The Dahlia Academy specializes in magic and, one could say less mainstream ether abilities. Should the boy pass the exam, I'm confident he'll be accepted." 

Bai'el and the man looked to Lunas, and the clerk asked, "Well, Lunas, would you like to give it a try?"

Lunas glanced towards Bai'el before responding, receiving a nod of approval from Bai'el. 

"I'll do it!"