Five years later, a few weeks after Talos fifth birthday, he is taken to a church to be examined by a mana pathway specialist. Although his magic capacity had advanced to that of someone twice his age, he had yet to show any signs of being able to preform even the simplest of training spells on his own. The regular spell circles on paper or wooden pendants for training kids always seem to fizzle out or fall apart in a flash of smoke without working. After having gone through a mountain of training aids without any positive results, Talos’ parents decided it would be best to see a specialist and have him examined. Despite Richard’s insistence to try the stronger metal pendants and more advanced spell circles despite less safety measures, believing that Talos was to strong for a basic training aid. Eleanor absolutely refuses, due to the possible backlash that can happen if something goes wrong. After several weeks of arguing back and forth on the subject, Richard finally gives in and they agree to talk to a specialist of mana manipulation and mana pathways, in a town two days travel from there own. The specialist being a compromise since Eleanor would rather have her grandfather check on Talos instead. The specialist having settled down in a small town working out of the church, had agreed in his responding letter to see Talos. Only after having determined it impossible to diagnose Talos without seeing him in person. However, he refused to leave the church and required for them to bring Talos to him. Richard despite his stubborn reluctance to ask for help in the first place, he agreed to make the trip. His main reasons being to verify this specialist actually knows what he is doing. Two weeks after their first talks with the specialist, they arrive in front of the church. Being on a tight schedule due to Richard having many meetings and responsibilities due to the gala he planned. The gala being an excuse for him to invite higher rank nobles and try making higher connections, with the official reason being to celebrate Talos officially starting his mana training. He took time to be there himself, which also caused the delay of the trip in the first place. Richard steps out of the carriage first, eyeing the small, well maintained church as the town’s residents watch from a distance. Eleanor steps out behind him with a 2 year old girl in her arms, before helping Talos down to stand beside her. Talos looks around with excitement with the border of the beast-people country, Reighlace, only a few days more travel away, he is looking forward to seeing more beast-people than normal. As they walk closer to the church Talos spots a nun working in the flower bed close to the steps, his smile widens when he sees a wolf like tail slowly swaying back and forth. He hesitantly steps closer causing her wolf ears on top of her head to twitch towards him. Talos startles for a second when the nun looks his way, before relaxing when she gives him a warm smile and wave. As Talos waves back enthusiastically, Richard clears his throat causing Talos to freeze, “I think it’s best if you stay away from the beast boy.” Talos looks over toward Richard to see him scowling at the woman. She rolls her eyes at him before focusing back on the garden, causing his face to turn a shade of red. Eleanor annoyed by Richard’s prejudice, pats Talos on the shoulder, “It would be rude not to introduce yourself to the nice lady, why don’t you go say hi?” Talos looks up to his mom seeing her smiling then glances to his dad seeing him glaring at Eleanor. Before he can make up his mind on what to do, Eleanor gently pushes him in front of the woman. The beast-woman looks up to him before glancing over his shoulder looking at both his parents, seeing Eleanor wink to her. She smirks having an idea of what’s going on and looks back down to Talos. “Hello, I’m Talos Greyfort, it’s nice to meet you. You have done a lovely job with the flower bed.”
“Nice to meet you, Talos, my name is Monica, and thank you for such kind words.” Monica gives him a warm smile. Richard glaring at Eleanor with a vein visible on his forehead, opens his mouth to speak before being cut off by Eleanor with a smile. “Monica is such a lovely name and my son is right you have done an excellent job with the flowers. I’m Eleanor Greyfort and this little lady in my arms is Maya Greyfort.” Monica slightly bows her head with a smile, “It is a pleasure to meet you all and thank you for the compliments ma’am. The flowers are called radiant blossoms imported from Reighlace by the specialist to help in his research. Under the full moon the flowers give off a bright, coloerful glow. When the flowers are made into a powder and mixed with makeup, it is said to make any woman look radiant under the full moons glow.”
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Eleanor leans down with Talos’ two year old sister, Maya, and smiles at him. “Make sure to never treat anyone different for how they look or for what they were born with. The measure of a person is not defined by their possessions, position in life, or who they were born as, but how they choose to act and treat those around them. Anyone can have their life affected by outside circumstances good or bad that will affect how people see them, but it’s their action that define who they are. Always remember that so that you see a person for themselves.”
Talos gives a small smile while nodding with his tension bleeding away. The family makes their way inside informing a young boy waiting by the door about their appointment. The boy runs off in search of the specialist for them as they make themselves comfortable. After another few minutes the specialist walks in, “Thank you for your patience, I’m finally ready to see the young master Greyfort. You described that Talos has been showing difficulties practicing magic.”
Richard nods and begins speaking before the man can even introduce himself. “He hasn’t been able to show even the slightest hint of magic talent, no matter the technique and all the spell circles he tries either fizzles out or goes up in smoke. Is there a way to fix him?”
Talos drops his head in embarrassment, while Eleanor narrows her eyes, but before she can say anything the man kneels down. “Let’s so what might be causing his magical block.”
After preforming a few spells, with the specialist frowning more with each spell. He pulls out a spell circle instructing Talos to pour magic into it. The spell circle instantly flashes with smoke then crumbles into dust. The healer stands with a frown and turns towards the parents. “I’ve heard of this before and from what I can see of his mana pathways, he has a disease know as the Crystal Path. It is where his natural mana pathways form into a crystal tube that prevent him from being able to project his mana. He also will find it more difficult to be able to reinforce his body as strongly as others.”
Richard tightens his fist until his knuckles turn white before taking a deep breath, “What do we need to repair his pathways?”
“I’m afraid there is nothing that can be done, there is no damage to repair. He will either have to do without magic or the spell circles he use with have to be prohibitively expensive.”
“I do not want any damn spell circles! If he can not use magic, he does not even deserve to even use the Greyfort name!”
Suddenly there is a burst of air through the room followed by a crashing boom. The healer looks over to find Eleanor pinning Richard to the wall by the throat. She looks at Richard with barely contained rage. “Demean my son again and I will tear you to pieces, one limb at a time.” Maya begins crying out from Eleanor’s other arm before she can make good on her threat. As she rocks and comforts Maya, she looks to check on Talos, he is looking down with tears streaming down his face. “I’m sorry.” He barely gets the words out before his mother flashes across the room wrapping him in a hug and focuses on comforting him. “It’s going to be alright, you have nothing to apologize for.” She makes Talos look her in the eyes, before smiling. “I will always be proud of you and no matter what you are my son. I will help you in everyway that I can. My only wish for you, is that you try to do your best to live a life that makes you happy. We will figure everything else out together.”
