Conversing with a King

Vex's tail lashed with irritation as he threw on his clothes, wanting to find his father as soon as possible. He wanted to know who the silver furred Faelyn was, he wanted to meet her, to find out how she was so much stronger than him already. He had the best teachers, he was one of the most talented of the princes when it came to magic, he did not understand how he could be surpassed by a Faelyn so obviously untrained that she did not yet know how to locate a Ghostwalker using magic.

He took a breath at his last thought, admonishing himself. He had received praise for weeks on end the moment he had learned to detect a Ghostwalking Faelyn. Most adults, even the magically gifted ones, could never get the hang of it. Magic shifted so much naturally, always moving even if there was nothing to disturb it.

Ghostwalking shifted the magic around the person, but only minimally. It took a keen eye to spot the minute difference in the movement of magic that was left behind. If she had been able to spot him, considering those his own age were only generally beginning to learn Ghostwalking, he would have either been incredibly suspicious of her or worshipped the ground she walked on. He had the opportunity to learn because he was surrounded by many of the most gifted magic users among the Faelyn, the members of the capital's guard and the heads of the various guilds of the capital.

Guilds had spread from the capital to the settlements somewhat, but most settlements were rather small. They did not need guilds, or their guild masters, to organize what needed to be done to keep the city running and safe. If someone needed something built in a small settlement, they merely found the nearest woodworker. In the capital, they put in their request and general budget with the guild so a suitable woodworker could be found. The guild masters were there to keep things fair and make sure everyone had work, master, or apprentice.

He forced himself to pause at the mirror and go over a mental checklist, better to spend an extra minute or two in his room than to be escorted back by some official or other peeved over a crooked shirt or an improperly groomed tail.

His golden ears were fine, their fur as smooth as it could be with his current state of mind. He took a moment to brush the deep black fur of his tail's tuft. Like his father, his appearance was often compared to that of a lion, up to and including his unruly short golden hair with black intermixed into it. In his opinion the deep colored fur looked better on his father, whose fur was deep crimson, he would have preferred his fur to have been golden throughout.

He checked that his clothes were properly tucked in, belt on correctly, and a few other minor details before his ruby colored eyes took stock once more of himself as a whole just to make sure. Finding everything to be good enough as far as he was concerned, he made his way to his father's study. He would be busy with paperwork, but generally had a moment or two to spare if one of his children had a concern.

Vex hoped it would be no different to usual as he knocked firmly, but not so loudly as to be considered rude.

His father's deep voice grumbled in response to the knock, "Come in, whoever you are."

It was already a bad sign; his father was normally in tune enough to recognize each of his children's individual knocks. Vex sighed and entered anyway, committed now that he had knocked. His father glanced up, his expression at first exasperated, but softening somewhat when he saw it was one of his children.

"Vexallus," his father spoke his full first name, "What is it you need, son?"

"If you are busy," Vex said simply, "I can return later, father. It is nothing of such importance that it must be attended to now."

King Zantaris shook his head, "Magic guild's been after me all week. As you know, their guild master Mystari, one of our strongest Mystics, is making her yearly rounds. They want constant updates as to her location and they've gotten on her nerves, so she's stopped responding to them," he let out a deep sigh, "I sent her a message through the messaging stone this morning though, hopefully she understands that I have no desire to be her personal messenger and will return to contacting them herself. I also told them off for constantly contacting her. Messaging stones take a lot of magic to use. If they keep contacting her every few hours, she will run dry of magic and take much longer to complete her journey, not to mention the danger it could put her in," he put his paperwork aside and stretched a bit as he stood, moving towards one of the seats away from his desk, "It was about time I take a break anyway. What troubles you, Vexallus?"

"I'm not-" Vex began, but his father merely motioned towards his tail, which was bristling and lashing with his emotions as if he had not yet learned how to keep it under control. Joining his father at a seat, he sighed, "Do we keep records of the Faelyn that show high magical aptitude, father?"

"They are not open to the public, so as far as you are concerned, no," he answered simply, "But tell me what you wish to look for anyway. Depending on what it is, I may be inclined to find the answer."

"There's a Faelyn girl my age. I saw her while Dreamwalking. I want to meet her," he said everything quickly, to not be stopped and questioned on every sentence he said.

His tactic did not work and his father leaned in slightly, clearly interested in the topic, "A girl, you say," unlike his elder brothers, many of whom had developed crushes around his age if not slightly younger, Vex had showed no such interest, "Tell me about her."

"She has silver fur, black tufted ears, violet eyes, a fluffy tail, but not extremely fluffy," he gave descriptors that might help find her quickly if the information they kept was detailed enough, "And she has more raw magical strength than I do right now despite being the same age, if not a small bit younger."

Having gotten his hopes up during the first sentence of descriptions, his father just barely kept himself from sighing deeply as they were all dashed apart in the very next sentence. As always, Vex lived up to his name, being as vexing as possible. He cared almost exclusively about honing his magic and, having stumbled into another Faelyn that could help, nothing had changed.

"Still," the king thought to himself, "Perhaps things could change after they meet. It would be good to see Vex acting as a normal young boy his age."

"I will see what I can do," he answered out loud, "But I will not have your answer for weeks, if not months, son."

"Why?" Vex asked, ears perking with curiosity, "Are our records so poorly kept?"

"You were tested early, Vex, being one of the princes of our people," Zantaris explained, "Mystari is testing those around your age right now. Unless the Faelyn in question was among the first to be tested, we have no way of knowing her identity right now. Even when we do learn it, it will take another week or so to arrange for guards for your journey then several more for you to arrive there. I will do everything in my power to make sure the two of you meet, however. Who knows, it may do you some good to spend some time with a Faelyn around your age."

Vex's expression turned to one of distaste at his father's last sentence, "I think it would do my siblings some good to spend time studying instead of chasing the tail of whatever prospective love interest has caught their eye," he said, his words all but dripping with venom, "Perhaps if they spent more time on their own magic, I would not be the strongest among us magically. Instead, they just use flowery language, saying I have all the aptitude and they inherited none of it. Several of them have full affinities with one element, the same as many of the greatest Mystics of our people. They look to me, with full affinities in two elements and high affinities in the others and use me as an excuse to slack off."

Zantaris nodded slightly, not entirely disagreeing with his son's assessment of the situation. His siblings, though, were not as interested in magic as he was and though Zantaris made certain they had all the skills they needed, he did not generally force his children down any strict paths. Though he was one of the youngest princes, and it had not been mentioned to him yet, Vexallus was just as much in the running for the crown as his other siblings were including his sisters. Zantarus would cede the crown to the one most suited for the role of leadership, not the eldest as many other kingdoms did.

Vex, though, was not particularly suited for the crown with his current somewhat harsh personality. His elemental affinities reflected strongly in his personality. He had a fiery passion for magic, and his distaste for those that did not try to better themselves was just as scalding. He was also prone to withdrawing into his thoughts, dwelling alone as if he was a shadow. Darkness and Fire were his two full affinities, though he had over fifty percent affinity in every other element.

The Darkness affinity had worried the king. There was a guild, one that operated outside of the governing power of all the kingdoms, that tended to scoop up children with extremely high affinity for Dark magic. He made sure his son was always guarded to keep him from such a fate until he was strong enough the guild of Ravens would leave him alone.

Darkness affinity and Light affinity were the two main affinities that had to be carefully guarded. Though most kingdoms were more than willing to hand their children over to the White-feathered Hawk's Guild, a guild of those with high Light affinity that was dedicated to healing the sick and caring for the wounded regardless of nationality or standing, he preferred to keep his own people close. The Raven's Guild and the White-Feathered Hawk's Guild were both powers he thought all nations should be wary of. It just was not wise to let so much power be consolidated into one place, especially not the kind of power that came with Light and Dark affinities.

Of all the affinities, Light and Dark were the only two that were more specialized than the others. Light affinity provided the only healing magic the world had access to, as well as magics that inherently strengthen the body as a whole and increased the potential of those they were used on. Dark magic was used to muffle sounds, cloak movement in the night, and curse people to sap their strength. Due to the overwhelming majority of people with Dark affinity being taken by the Raven's Guild, that guild was known as one that could topple entire kingdoms and all without a trace left behind as concrete evidence it was their handiwork.