child

When the High Lord of the Callificars came, I stood ready.

As my mother before me, the sky opened at my command. The earth trembled. The oceans rose.

But now I commanded such things astride my warhorse wielding the same armor, sword, and shield the high lord did.

The callificars would not hurt my family.

I would bury them all first.

I learned to become a man from a callificar I called father.

We shared no blood, but he was a father to me in every other way.

He taught me to say my prayers. To ride. To wield a sword and shield.

He loved me. Protected me. Guided me.

He was my father.

When my first half-brother was born, I expected the man I called father to turn from me.

He now had a child of his own.

He seemed to understand as he put my brother in my arms. “You’re my son, as he is, and I hope you will be good brothers.”

I did not know how to be a good brother, but I would try.

My worry for my mother ended the night I saw my new father sitting on the porch swing with her.

She had been healing most of the day and fallen asleep beside him.

He had his head leaned against hers as he stared at the sky. “Architect,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I did to deserve her, but please, never let me stop doing it.”

He would do anything for her, and I wished again I was his son by blood.

My mother married Knight Corliss.

I had never seen her happier.

She worried for me, but she didn’t need to.

I was glad she had found happiness.

Even if I was worried it was with a callificar.

It wasn’t long after we came to stay with the callificar, that he put a sword and shield in my hand.

I blinked at him. My magic had manifested very early, though I kept it hidden.

“You need to learn to protect your mother. In case something happens to me and I’m not here to do it.”

I stared at the strange weapons, then at the man who had once jailed mages.

He knew, and he was offering me a path. One few mages would ever get.

I took it.