Chapter 1: All Hail Duke Patton!

Side note: Slashes represent what the MC Jase, wants to say, but does not. Will be used later on in the story. _________________________________

"Buy some light orbs! Buy some light orbs!" It was another day of selling my sister's light orbs, and so far, only some mothers who felt bad for me had bought any. The sun was setting, and I decided to settle for the day. I returned home to where my older sister, Daliah, was making some simple rice and spam for dinner. "Hey Jase! How many did you sell today?" She always asked this and always knew I could barely earn enough for our measly meals, let alone our clothes. "About eight pence." I replied. Anyways, the only reason we had the clothes, was because occasionally the Duke Patton of Highchester, would come by, and he was kind enough to buy enough for us to afford some clothing for the year. As Daliah set the table I went and put 1 pence in the savings jar we had, and the rest in Daliah's wallet. As I sat down for dinner, I noticed that she was noticably happier than usual. "Something happen?" I asked. "Well, I was going to tell you later, but I got a job at the factory in midtown!" She looked so excited, but I was concerned. "It's a long walk, are you going to be okay?" I was concerned, because Highchester had some dangerous criminals, and not a large criminal protection force. "Of course I will be! I can fly you know." I was still very concerned. "Are you sure you are going to be okay?" I asked. "Yes I will be fine." She replied. After that I went to bed, she kissed me good night, and slowly but softly, I fell asleep. A loud drumming sound and horns, woke me up from my sleep. I looked out my window and it turns out I had overslept! I ran downstairs, and on the kitchen counter, there was a note that said, 'Dear Jase, Today is my first day at work and I cannot afford to be late. I filled up the light orb basket, and since the duke is arriving today, it would be a good time so sell the orbs at the market. Remember, two pence each, otherwise we will go broke.' I quickly put on my sandals, and ran out to the market, with a small coin pouch, and the basket of orbs. "Light orbs! Light orbs for sale!" I shouted. Today, since the crowd at the market was bigger, I was able to get 8 pence in the first hour. I spotted the duke comming towards the general area of me, and I quickly acted normal. Oh boy, I sure earned a lot of money that day. It was late, and the sun had just set in the sky, so I started to head home. Once I was home, I saw that my sister was already there, and that dinner was ready. "I made another tray of light orbs, since I presume today was busy." She said. I showed her the twenty pence I got, along with the two gold crowns, equal to five pence each! "Impressive!" Deliah said. "Here. you can keep the last light orb on your tray. Activate it, and you can go play outside." I was so happy! "Thank you so much!" I quickly activated it, and ran outside to play. Outside, there was a nice breeze, and the air was cool. I started kicking the small ball I had made the other day, out of some old clothes, and I filled it with some grasses, and other scraps of fabric, and other miscelanious things. Because of that, I had a good weight, and I could play with it. "Hey! You there!" Someone shouted. "Whatcha doing? Playing with your sad little ball?" I could hear two other people laugh in response. "Who is this?" I replied. "You don't know who I am? My name Is Johnathan patten, Son of Duke Patton." I decided to try and teach him a lesson, which I should have known would have not ended well. "Oh! You mean the small stain on your father's legacy?" I replied. His two goons started laughing, but he cut them off. I could see that his face was now red, and he looked ready to explode. "Aww Is the little spoiled brat mad?" I said, and now he was a living tomato. 'BAM!' I slammed against a wall, as Sir Jonathan Patten Used air magic to throw me against a wall. "Ouch!" Pain surged through my back, and I'm pretty sure I broke a rib or two. "Not feeling so mighty now, are are you?" Johnathan said with a smug look on his face. "oHh LoOk aT mE i'M SoO MigHTy" He mocked. Apperantly to his two goons, who I personally thing look like a doug and a sonny, think that everything he says is funny. They started breaking out in hystarical laughter, and the look on his face just showed how spoiled he was. "Man, I haven't had much fun in a while." Sir jonathan commented "I guess I'll have to make the best of you." I started getting punched in the nose, some weird clear ghost birds started pecking at me, and I was so scratched up. Finally, after some time, he left. I walked home with a bloody nose, and a black eye, and when my sister saw me, she freaked out! She picked me up, and rushed me to my room. Since she specialized in light magic, she started to try and heal me. She quickly got some water from the well outside, and then she cleared up my wounds. I eventually fell asleep and was able to rest. 'DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG' The midday bell rung, and I found out that I had slept in. I went down to the kitchen, and looked at my reflection in the pool of water. I had pretty much healed, so I went to the orb closet, where my sister stored all of the light orbs. I headed to the market and started my daily routine again. By three, my bones started hurting so I headed home, halfway home, I saw a class for magic, which was really cheap. Only one pence. Since I wanted to help my sister more, I quickly rushed home, got a pence from my savings, and headed back. I paid the fee and entered. "Why, a boy wants to learn magic? I thought they were usually taught by their mothers." said a mysterious voice. "My mother is halfway across the world, and she cannot afford to send us money, that is why." I replied. A lady appeared from behind the curtain and invited me in. "Well I see you are here to learn magic, do you have any prior knowlege? This is an art that mainly the gifted exell in, so It would be better if you already knew some things." I replied to her and said, "All I can do is create small sparks, so that I can start a fire." She seemed to think deeply for a second, and then replied "Well that is not a lot to work with, however I think we will be able to do something with it. We will try to hone it into fire-casting." She motioned for me to follow her, and she got out a bag filled with wood shavings, the kind used to start fires, and put some in the bowl on the table next to us. "Please, Light it for me, Will you?" I started snapping my fingers, and eventually, one of the sparks lit the wood on fire. It burned for a little, and then simmered out. "I know it's not very good, but it's all I can do." I said, hoping she wouldn't turn me away and call me a lost cause. "No, no, no. We can work with this." She pulled out another bag, bigger than the last one and put some thin rods on the bowl. I recognized them as long burning rods, which with two together, could burn for about ten hours. "Please, spark this for me?" I lit it on fire after three tries, and the pile started to burn. "We will try to first control the fire, before making it in your hand, that way you can get a better grasp, and not burn my place down." I started to try and pull on the fire, and it slightly leaned, by the slightest degree, but not much. "I'm trying as hard as I can, but it's barely budging" I complained. "Well keep practicing, pretend the fire is something you want, and you must pull hard, but gently, that way if you pull too hard, the fire will only graze the table, and will not burn anything." I started to pull on the fire, and about five minutes later, I had started to get the hang of it. I slowly but steadily was able to do more and more. When I looked out the window, I noticed the sun was setting, I had to get home before Deliah got worried. "I'm sorry, but I must go, otherwise my sister will be worried!" I said, in quite a rushed manner, I should probably have been more polite. "It is okay, I hope I will see you tommorow. Remember practice makes perfect." I rushed home and Deliah was at the doorway. "Where were you Jase?" I quickly explained to her that I was practicing magic, and that I had earned 10 pence, from the short time I was in the market. I headed inside, and Deliah set the table put down dinner, and we all ate, till the sun fully set. Deliah activated a light orb, went upstairs tucked me in, and said goodnight. The lights turned off, and everything seemed fine, but a creak, and a flash of light sounded, and he could feel the heat of something, coming towards me.

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