The Veil grants power beyond imagining, but it comes at a price. It drains you, body and mind, like a muscle forced to lift what it was never meant to bear.
You must never let it take hold of you.
—Galath Areias, The First
Drefyr Asharim
Only two weeks had passed since Renric agreed to train with me and my nephew.
I had never expected this degree of growth, however.
Not only was Renric progressing at an astounding rate, one almost eclipsing the prodigal boy known as Cadyr, but Cadyr had also begun to improve at an incredible pace. He always had immense control and precision, being able to forge lightning through the combination of wind and fire at only nine years old; but the sense of camaraderie he felt with the boy only two months his junior had gone on to fuel his connection to the Veil.
The boys worked together, fighting the pair of earth golems I had summoned. The golems stood nearly twelve feet tall, formed from jagged, rocky boulders. Their arms floated at their joints, connected only by my invisible stream of magic. The torso of each golem formed the shape of a triangle, shoulders spiking upwards like horns. Its short, sharp, pointed legs dug into the ground, leaving footprints whenever it landed in the soft snow below its feet.
I took in our surroundings, the same clearing in the Wildmarch where the boys had fought four Cindraks, Cadyr had told me. It was now covered in a light layer of snow, a sea of white, similar to the dimension of light I had shown to Renric two weeks prior.
Four Cindraks, I remembered. An impossibility. The beasts were incredibly territorial and hunted in mating pairs for life. Four working together on a common goal was like a King and a farmer tilling the same land, shoulder to shoulder. If not for Renric vouching for him, I would've laughed in the boy's face.
I wiped the thoughts from my mind, instead focusing on the two golems I had created a few feet away.
"Ren, over here!" Cadyr called out.
Renric, the mysterious common blood boy, leapt into the air, channeling the winds as he did. He reached a death-defying height before creating a storm of water magic, raining jets of high-pressure moisture down on my two creations, given a basic form of sentience through my advanced nature magic.
The golems reacted on their own, matching the attack—spears of rock flew forth, slamming into the liquid. They canceled each other out, rock splitting into fragments, and water breaking apart into a gentle sprinkle down below.
My nephew acted quickly, taking advantage of the momentary distraction from above. Already, a blade of electricity had formed within his hand. It seemed he favored the advanced lightning magic, taking full advantage of his natural wind attunement.
The blade shone brighter and with a more intense aura than it had in the past—A clear expression of his growth as a walker. He dashed forwards, willing the winds to enhance his speeds. The golem slammed a heavy fist into the ground, but to no avail. Cadyr dodged smoothly, slicing through the leg of the golem on his left in a smooth motion. My creation fell to the ground, no longer functional. I diverted the nature magic to the remaining golem, strengthening the connection.
My student had overestimated his speed, however, as he careened into the body of water in front of him.
"Watch where you're going m'lord!" Renric taunted, still falling from the air. He had not quite grasped flight, a lesson for another day, perhaps.
Cadyr surfaced from the body of water, arms flapping as he sputtered loudly. "I would watch where you're going, commoner!"
Cadyr's warning was wise. The second golem was reaching out its right hand, ready to grasp the boy in its powerful grip. But Renric was too fast, allowing his feet to land in the palm of the golem's hand. He spun away, lacing winds throughout his movements before the fingers of the golem could fully interlock.
Cadyr rose from the lake, floating above its surface and willing the water around him to form into a large, human-like fist.
From the other side of the golem, Renric landed on the ground softly, forging a lance of pure flame. It burned bright against the snowy landscape.
This time it was the boy who charged forward, meanwhile, my nephew sent the fist of liquid hurtling forward at the golem's torso. The creature borne from stone, unsure of how to react to the pincer attack, turned to Renric—perhaps thinking it could deal with the grounded boy easily.
It was a fatal mistake.
The fist was closer to the golem than Renric, and so it landed first—sending the golem hurtling towards the still running boy. He leapt, fire lance in hand, slicing the golem's head off in one clean motion.
The two boys gathered, smiles wide as they stared over at me. I slowly brought my hands together, clapping with admiration. They were a far cry from the power I myself wielded, or even the power of a third-year student at Darrowmere Academy, but they were growing quickly.
"Good work you two, you fight well together."
"Of course, we are best of friends after all."
Renric frowned, perplexity showing on his face."I've known you for less than three weeks."
"Best friends." Cadyr said simply, his smile never wavering.
I laughed, then continued speaking. "I think it's about time. You have firm control over the basics Renric. Now, I believe we should be able to test for your attunement." From my shoulder, I unclasped a bag, allowing it to fall to the ground beside me. "I will first conduct a practical test; prepare yourself." And without further warning, I began.
The way a Walker uses magic is a telltale sign of their attunement. Every Veil Walker had at least one primal element they were most aligned with, an alignment willed forth by the Veil itself. In rare cases, Walkers could be attuned to more than one element at once, allowing for a greater array of advanced magical combinations. For some, all four primal magics—but such an occurrence was only known to have happened twice throughout Karousian history.
The first was the ancestor. The first human in known history to ever awaken to the Veil. He was rumored to be able to wield all primal magics at an equally advanced level, accessing every advanced form known to mankind. Galath Areias.
I was the second.
A wall of burning, dark crimson flames were careening towards Renric, moving so fast that I knew that he would only have moments to react.
A fire attuned Walker would either repel or shape the flames themselves. I thought to myself.
Renric's expression morphed to shock, but he quickly snapped into action. He elected to send out a gust of wind, creating a shield between himself and the flames. The fire flowed around the pressurized air, harmlessly fading away behind him.
I wasted no time preparing the next attack. They had to be fast and in rapid succession, in order to truly test a Walker's instinctual habits. I raised a huge, hulking slab of earth directly behind the boy, letting it tilt dangerously towards where he stood.
Renric acted immediately, as if fueled entirely by instinct, but rather than break apart the earth like one would expect from an earth attuned Walker, he leapt forward, distancing himself from the tipping point of the slab of rock. Water flowed from his hands, engulfing the soft soil—it deformed, almost melting, like snow in the harsh sun of spring.
Perhaps this next one, I thought, before lifting the boy effortlessly into the air with wind magic. He rose like a leaf caught in a gust, yelping in surprise.
"Are you trying to kill him?!" Cadyr shouted, genuine panic rising in his voice.
"I can only kill him if he dies."
Cadyr stared skyward, stunned. Renric had become just a speck in the clouds.
Then, I let him go.
He fell. Fast. Limbs flailing. No wind caught.
No shift in gravity.
Maybe he's not air-attuned after all, I mused. Unfortunate.
But then, mid-plummet, he stopped falling.
No, not quite. The air shimmered around him. Heatwaves distorted the sky as sudden bursts of fire exploded from his hands and feet—not wild, but controlled, like miniature flames from a drakes jaw.
His descent slowed. He rotated in the air, then bent his knees and pushed downward with two focused flame bursts. A blast of heated pressure met the ground moments before he did, turning a deadly impact into a smoky, controlled landing.
He stumbled to the ground, singed and sweating, but alive.
I could barely hide the shock on my face.
"That was insane!" Cadyr yelped, celebrating as if he had just witnessed a miracle.
Only one element left, I declared with finality.
Arrows of water shimmered into existence, circling the boy like a school of ghostly fish. He turned, eyes darting, tension in every limb, but focused.
I let loose a small volley, not wanting to harm the boy.
A water-attuned Walker could deal with this in dozens of ways. Absorb the projectiles into a greater mass, redirect the flow, form an aquatic shield, maybe even condense vapor into armor. I was prepared for any of them.
And then—
My thoughts screeched to a halt.
He wasn't countering.
He wasn't shielding.
He was… sitting.
Inside what could only be described as a hut of stone. Three crudely stacked walls. A pebble roof. One sad, leaning support beam. It looked like a child's sandcastle that had been ransacked.
"…Did he just build a house?" Cadyr whispered beside me.
"I… I think he did," I replied, voice flat.
One water arrow splashed harmlessly against the hut's side. Another ricocheted, narrowly missing Cadyr.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Inside the hut, Renric sat cross-legged, humming to himself.
"I call it the Stone Utopian Capital of Karouse." He joked, voice muffled through the rock.
I stared in silence. The arrows floated, unlaunched.
"Should I… attack again?" I asked.
"No," Cadyr muttered. "Let him have this."
And we stood there, watching as the boy, chosen by the Veil, sat humbly within his rock igloo.
"Well. That was eye-opening." I stated, letting the arrows of water fall onto the snow below.
Renric surfaced from his cave, panting heavily, "Well, which attunement am I?"
"Tell me it's Earth, please." Cadyr pleaded, still eyeing Renric's stone utopia, as he had so aptly named it.
"That wasn't the real test," I explained.
"What!?" Both boys shouted in unison.
"So you almost killed me for no reason?" Renric protested.
"Wait, how about me!?" Cadyr cut in, "You never tested me any other way! How do I even know if I'm wind attuned?" He accused, pointing a finger.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as… someone, must've said, somewhere. As for you," I said, turning to Cadyr, "you were tested when you awakened as an infant. You probably just forgot."
Channeling my wind magic, I floated the four relics from the bag still lying beside my feet into the air, allowing them to gather in a diamond shape around Renric.
They were miniature statues, each molded and infused with primal magic. One held the shape of a mountain, another, a bright, burning flame. The last two consisted of a wave of crashing water and a gust of wind, swift and powerful.
"Sit, Renric," I commanded, now serious. "This is the true test."
The boy regarded the relics individually, as if imagining the power they represented as he turned. He paused on the last relic, the relic of wind, before finally sitting, cross-legged in the snow.
Finally, the Veil flashed emotion in my mind, almost exasperated. I hadn't allowed it to cloud my thoughts for some time now, it's call like a distant memory to me.
"Close your eyes. Focus on the Veil. Let it speak—feel its will, not as sound, but as instinct. The element of your attunement will illuminate, like a Cindrak in the snow."
I had my suspicions already, the earlier test having not been entirely a farce.
Yet still, the sight before me was nothing less than a complete subversion of everything I thought possible.
All four relics glowed, floating slowly into the air, signifying attunement to all four primal magics… no, to the Veil itself.
"Just like you." Cadyr said in awe, his voice quivering ever so slightly, but with an air of determination.
Renric opened his eyes, straining his neck to see all four relics. His eyes widened, but it did not seem as if he was particularly shocked. Of course, he was likely not privy to the history of the Veil and its powers in the same way that I or Cadyr was.
"Congratulations, boy, you are the third Walker in history to awaken attuned to not just one, or even two, but all four primal magics."
"T- The third? But who," His eyes widened even further than before, "You, and… the King?" He wondered. A fair enough assumption.
"You are correct, I, like you, am attuned to the Veil itself, but the third is not my half brother, no, he only has two attunements himself. The third is the first Walker, Galath Areias."
Renric's gaze fell, deep in thought, before suddenly being interrupted by the young prince at my side.
"Move," he commanded, voice hard, the way it only got when he meant it.
"What are you doing—" but before the sentence could fully escape my lips, Renric shuffled out of the way—now it was Cadyr who sat between the still and dark relics. "My nephew, I understand how you may feel, but you have been tested already. Attunements never change after the Veil has made its will known."
"Let him, I have a… feeling," Renric said, his voice somehow carrying an air of wisdom.
"Fine." I sighed, crossing my arms.
Cadyr concentrated, eyes closed. For a beat, nothing happened; only the sound of wind blowing the snow past my ears could be heard. Then, a single relic illuminated, floating into the air. The relic of wind.
"You see, it cannot—" But again, my sentence was cut off.
"Let him focus."
Cadyr closed his eyes even tighter, as if he could egg on the remaining relics through sheer force of will. However, even as my thoughts spurred on in doubt, the impossible occurred.
A flash.
And then a bright light illuminates against the white backdrop.
Fire.
The relic of flames rose, glowing along with the still-floating wind relic.
How. I thought simply.
You know less than you think, the voice screeched through my consciousness, louder than it had ever been before. It's once familiar call now like a dull headache that never quite went away.
Cadyr's eyes fluttered open as if he had been asleep.
Then they widened.
Then he jumped into the air, yelling in excitement.
Renric smiled deeply, sharing genuine happiness with the boy he had only met a few weeks prior.
A boy, born with everything, yet still surprising me at every turn.